I grabbed this out of a Little Free Library because I was looking for books I could read and leave while on vacation. It wasn't a good match. The dramI grabbed this out of a Little Free Library because I was looking for books I could read and leave while on vacation. It wasn't a good match. The drama was turned up too high for my taste and this book was centered in anti-fat bias. Plus a gastroenterologist who used the term "girl parts" and wasn't sure where another character's inner organs were because the person was "so fat" at 195 pounds. Also there was some really standout marginalizing of a mother living with bipolar disorder. Not for me, thanks....more
Yeesh. This book went on for much too long. I mean sure, Addie has been alive for 300+ years, but the pacing is such that we seem to be experiencing eYeesh. This book went on for much too long. I mean sure, Addie has been alive for 300+ years, but the pacing is such that we seem to be experiencing each year. When I finally sloshed to the end, I found an unsatisfying conclusion. And thanks to the e-reader, I know that's eight hours of my life I won't get back....more
I think I put this down four times to read other books. I probably would not have finished it, but I kept running out of books I wanted to be reading.I think I put this down four times to read other books. I probably would not have finished it, but I kept running out of books I wanted to be reading.
Things it's got going for it: Chicago right before the great fire is an interesting setting; the social climbing aspect is interesting, as is one character's navigation of being both the servant and the best friend of another character.
Unfortunately, this book suffers from a lopsided love triangle--there was no reason for me to believe that the choice was impossible and all the drama associated with the dithering was just dumb. Plus, all the characters made repeated idiotic choices and the ending was completely unbelievable....more
When I set down a book mid-read for a different book, it's not a great sign. When I read that new book twice in a row, itRead for Librarian Book Group
When I set down a book mid-read for a different book, it's not a great sign. When I read that new book twice in a row, it's a very bad sign.
Nothing really worked for me with this book. The pacing was off. It took until mid-book for things to really get going and I was 10 pages out from the ending wondering how in the heck things were going to wrap up.
I never really believed the world. You can put a rambling myth at the beginning of a story, but that doesn't mean I will believe it.
Things developed in ways that were not at all surprising and I could tell the parts in the book where I was supposed to feel tense, but my feelings never moved past boredom....more
The layout. There is an intermittent poem (?) that appears on certain leRead for Librarian Book Group
Nope!
This book had a ton of things wrong with it.
The layout. There is an intermittent poem (?) that appears on certain left-hand pages. It always ended with a comma and I was always confused by that comma. Halfway through I poked around to see if it's appearance would ever end with a period. The answer was no. What was that interlude? I should not be asking that question.
The text is awkward and didn't flow well. There was context that was missing that confused me. I was not aware that Sojourner Truth was a slave in New York state before slavery was made illegal there and thus I had some dissonance reconciling "slavery" and "New York." The information could have been introduced more smoothly.
Read for Librarian Book Group This was a hate read for me, for a variety of reasons.
**I thought rape culture was explored more thoroughly and from a nuRead for Librarian Book Group This was a hate read for me, for a variety of reasons.
**I thought rape culture was explored more thoroughly and from a nuanced perspective in Female of the Species. **This takes place in 2015, in Ireland. I don't buy that all of the main character's friends (save two) and seemingly every single member of the community blamed the victim. It may be that Ireland is far behind the US's baby-steps conversations about gang rape and it's aftermath, but I hope not. **This is one of those books where many character's names are thrown at one all at once, few characters are fleshed out so when the characters are mentioned later, it's confusing as to who the person is. **By the end, I was on board with the character's feeling that she would be better off killing herself. Pushing the story further down the line to the slightest glimmer of hope would have made this book bearable....more
I enjoyed hating this book which was truly horrible. And very long. Props to Roth for going the Joss Whedon path with main characters. But other than I enjoyed hating this book which was truly horrible. And very long. Props to Roth for going the Joss Whedon path with main characters. But other than that? What author can successfully change everything we know about the world in the third book? Not this one, that's for sure. I think they get one big reveal. That's it. Not the baker's dozen that came with this plot. And really? Were the cameras and audio feed really that good and the community never figured it out? Really? I could go on. But I won't....more
Recommended by my friend Maureen with the caveat that this book breaks the "series rule" (The first book in a series must be a complete story on its oRecommended by my friend Maureen with the caveat that this book breaks the "series rule" (The first book in a series must be a complete story on its own; the second book should be a happy surprise, not a given) I read this in a day. Despite my compulsitivity, this book was awful. The writing was bad (though did not approach Twilight-esqe levels) and I feel like Coben's approach to writing a "teen" book was to read about seven of them and then take every cliche possible and shove it in his book. Let's count them up. We have: 1)The essentially orphaned, and mostly unsupervised main character, 2)The loud, eccentric best friend who might as well be wearing a jester hat, lest you not get that he's supposed to be the comic relief 3)The prickly fat girl who wears a defensive shell a mile thick, but is hiding a heart of gold and has a secret 4)much plot development action involving cell phones and 5)a large population of adults who "just don't get it" 6)Teachers who are all apparently very angry former drill sargents.
You know what else this book set in the present day had? Nazis. Really? Yes really! Because there is no better antagonist than WWII era Germany. But wait, there's more! A Strip Club. Prostitution. Mysterious White Van. Strange Tattoos. Stranger Tattoo Artists. Thinking over all of these elements put together I feel a building rage at the pure stupidity of this book. One or two of these elements in the hands of someone who can write would have resulted in something worth my time. But at this point, all I can do is warn you away. Go ask a librarian for a good YA book and leave Harlan Coben to the airport-novel-reading adults.
Also? Incredibly dumb character name. Mickey Bolitar! He was born in the mid-90s, for god's sake, not the mid-50s. In fact, I just checked Wolfram Alpha and the graph of the Mickey distribution shows a dip down to pretty much zero in the mid-90s when this character would have been born. It's rank is beyond 1000 currently. Mickey Boliter! Stay away! Far away....more
Read for Kenton Book Club The nice thing about book club is that I'm forced to think more deeply about why I don't like books. In the normal order of tRead for Kenton Book Club The nice thing about book club is that I'm forced to think more deeply about why I don't like books. In the normal order of things, I would have set this book down, bored and frustrated around page 50 and it would have been returned to the library eventually. Because we were discussing it for book group, I wanted to finish it, even though I didn't like it. First off, finishing it for book group sometimes pays off as with Inez of my Soul where there was a twist at the end that (mostly) made the book worth reading. This book, alas, had no such thing. But as it was such a long book (417 pages) I spent a very long time analyzing what I didn't like. And here is my list.
1) I think when this was written there wasn't really magical realism in literature and so it was this new crazy thing that everyone was quite astounded by. However, now that magical realism is everywhere, this book is just a so-so entry. 2)I was not a fan of the very fluid timeline. Several times I found myself wondering how old a character was, which took me out of the book. 3)The characters having the same names? Very confusing. And not in a good way. 4)The writing style (or translation) was not something that drew me in. I found it very flat. 5)I didn't really like any of the characters. And spending 417 pages with a bunch of people with the same name that you don't really like is not very fun. 6)I did, however, perfect the talent of falling asleep while balancing the book on my chest while reading this book.
Interestingly, the book club members didn't really like it either. Reactions ranged from "Well, I'm glad I have read it, though I didn't enjoy the reading" to "I absolutely loved this 25 years ago and spent this rereading wondering what I liked so much" to "I could have done with 50 years of solitude, but one hundred years was a bit much."
Despite our dislike, our discussion was rich and interesting....more
If someone today had written this story and submitted it for publication it would have been summarily rejected. I mean really! Shakespeare pulls all sIf someone today had written this story and submitted it for publication it would have been summarily rejected. I mean really! Shakespeare pulls all sort of "oh this just happened to happen at just the right moment" moments and the end was a massive coming together of several random ends. I will never forget in Act 5 when Posthumus falls asleep and is visited by his dead father, mother and even the god Jupiter. Really? Interestingly, that scene was done well in the production I saw, with no dialogue, Posthumus asleep on stage, Johnny Cash singing U2's song "One" and various reunions happening on stage. Sometimes it is best to cut the Bard's text. ...more
The review I mentally wrote while halfway through this novel was much more scathing than the review I am writing now that I have finished the book. I The review I mentally wrote while halfway through this novel was much more scathing than the review I am writing now that I have finished the book. I enjoyed rejoining the Bennet family twenty years later, but I thought the characterizations of Mr. Darcy were too harsh and I found the main plot to be entirely preposterous. McCullough manages to tie things up rather neatly, even for Miss Caroline Bingly, but the fact that I sputtered through most of the story doesn't really bode well for this book....more
**spoiler alert** Read this for the 2010 Mock Printz, spoilers are included.
Hated this book. HATED IT! I think this might mean to be a fable or allego**spoiler alert** Read this for the 2010 Mock Printz, spoilers are included.
Hated this book. HATED IT! I think this might mean to be a fable or allegory or something like that, but I found it very unlikable. First off, a seventh grader climbs into a tree because he decides nothing has meaning. He throws plums at his classmates and shouts his new-found beliefs. I can see this happening for an hour or two, or even a day, but that kid stays up there yelling for months. Does he climb down at night? Where does he go to the bathroom?
His classmates, instead of ignoring him, decide to prove him wrong. So they start collecting things with meaning. First they ask the townspeople to give up something meaningful and collect quite a pile. Then they begin to give up their own meaningful things in turn. What starts out as sacrificing really cute sandals grows by degree until the Muslim child gives up his prayer mat and is severely beaten by his parents, a pious child steals a large statue of Jesus from the church, a girl gives up her virginity, the children dig up a dead baby brother from a church yard and, just when you think it can't get any worse, they kill a dog. At that point, I had to skip ahead five pages so I could bypass the dog killing.
Their pile of meaning is found out, pronounced art, bought by the MoMa for 3.5 million dollars, the children turn on each other, end up beating the plum-throwing, life-has-no-meaning child to death and burning down the sawmill that houses the pile of meaning. The whole thing is a nihilistic mess and I can only be glad that it was a short book and I have now finished reading it....more
I liked the writing style of this book but I did not like this book. Frank Lloyd Wright: unlikeable. Mistress #1: not really likable. Mistress/Wife #2I liked the writing style of this book but I did not like this book. Frank Lloyd Wright: unlikeable. Mistress #1: not really likable. Mistress/Wife #2: extremely unlikable. Mistress/Wife #3: likable. The story of Wright's women is told in reverse order, so once likable wife #3 exits the scene, the last half of the book is filled with women I wasn't quite so fond of. Also, intrigued to see what Taliesin, his home in Wisconsin, looked like I looked it up on Wikipedia and discovered the great tragedy associated with Wright that I was not aware of. Had I not read about that, this book probably would have had more dramatic tension, as Boyle presents that part of the story last.
I did like the narrator as former Japanese apprentice. That worked for me. But ultimately, this was a big, thick book full of people I could not stand....more
I have always enjoyed Fannie Flagg's books, but this was incredibly saccharine. It was so sweet, I almost didn't finish it. The plot is obvious, the mI have always enjoyed Fannie Flagg's books, but this was incredibly saccharine. It was so sweet, I almost didn't finish it. The plot is obvious, the mystery is haphazard and fleshed out/solved in the last few pages of the book and the characters are annoying. Overall, a disappointing read....more
I really disliked this book. First off, what does every medieval fantasy novel worth its salt have in the front cover? Yes! A map. This is handy for sI really disliked this book. First off, what does every medieval fantasy novel worth its salt have in the front cover? Yes! A map. This is handy for several reasons, but mostly because when I read that Brys and Odosse traveled between Willowfield and some border town in Oakharn I need a visual to understand how far that is and also where everything is in relation to each other. Without that, all those town names are only made-up words on a page. The map makes the narrative real. Other problems? There are too many characters that flit in for two paragraphs and then don't return for 50 pages. When they do return, they appear without reintroduction, which would be fine if they were memorable characters in the first place. Unfortunately, they weren't and I didn't care enough to flip back and find out who they were--and here e-readers with their search function would be very handy in this instance, though I suspect I wouldn't actually use the function-- so I spent substantial portions of the narrative thinking, "who is this?" Also, the author employs the abhorrent Steven King technique of killing off a very nice innocent minor character whose kindness should have been rewarded. Overall, this was an entirely unsatisfying 388 pages and I don't recommend this book in any way, shape or form....more
My initial reaction was enjoyment. This futuristic novel is set in New York City, where massive amounts of freedoms Americans enjoy today have voluntaMy initial reaction was enjoyment. This futuristic novel is set in New York City, where massive amounts of freedoms Americans enjoy today have voluntarily been given up due to "the Horribleness"--an incident that flattened Tupolo. This novel was clearly written to skewer the post-9/11 world we live in. However, as the story dragged on, the life Wally Philco lives left me sad. Near the middle of the book, things look like they would work out for him in some small way, but later I realized I was about two chapters away from the end and this wasn't going to end well. I put down the book for a few days, and eventually returned to find that, indeed, the ending was not what I was looking for. Not only that, I found it to be not believable. Two days later, I'm still thinking, "But wait. If the ending is true, then how did X work?" This is not a good sign for a book. ...more
I have no desire to have children and thus, was at a disadvantage with this book. The main character is obsessed with having a child. The fact that shI have no desire to have children and thus, was at a disadvantage with this book. The main character is obsessed with having a child. The fact that she is in a relationship with a man who wants no children, and shows no signs of changing that view, is one of the conundrums of the plot.
I couldn't relate to the main character. I found the story annoying. I found the writing style in which the author repeatedly uses: Many very short. Sentences like this. Over and over. Again. to be very distracting. The plot point at the end of the book, which is the catalyst for change in the protagonist's life, I found to be entirely unbelievable. Why not just have her win the lottery? And the last chapter? Total cop-out.
There was nothing redeeming about this book and only an incredibly lazy day got me to finish this book. I was too lazy to start a new one. Not recommended....more
Disappointing. Coupland gets all meta on us and both the plot and the writing style are lacking. My favorite Coupland books have characters who care aDisappointing. Coupland gets all meta on us and both the plot and the writing style are lacking. My favorite Coupland books have characters who care about others. They might be whacked out quirky and odd, but their emotions are familiar. This book had neither of these qualities. The author inserting himself into the narrative in a very "heh heh" way did nothing to redeem this story....more
In the second book, I figured out my main problem with this series. I find Meyer's writing style incredibly distracting, but in New Moon I discovered In the second book, I figured out my main problem with this series. I find Meyer's writing style incredibly distracting, but in New Moon I discovered that when Edward is around, her writing style gets worse. Without Edward, her writing style is the annoying drip, drip, drip of a leaky faucet. But when Edward appears the pipe breaks and bad prose gushes onto the page. I also realized that I DON'T LIKE EDWARD CULLEN! He's moody and arrogant and boring. Yay that he is very smart and incredibly good looking etc. etc. etc. Despite those very surface things, he ultimately bugs. I think Meyers still hasn't fleshed him out as a character unlike Bella or (the vastly superior to Edward) Jacob.
It may have to do with temperature preference, but I would choose a hot-blooded werewolf over a cold-marble vampire any day.
Midway through the book I thought, "Dammit, she's got me again. Her interesting plot line has triumphed over her bad prose." But by the end I was so annoyed with the bad prose I had no interest in the rest of the series....more
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