(Never Just) Me, (Reading For) Myself, and I (Am Annoyed)

When I had a baby everyone said that would be the end of reading for pleasure. Nope. Feeding with a kindle and all through nap time - It. Was. Awesome. Having an infant led to my best reading year yet. 

But now that infant is six, and has learned to read, and all my reading time has become his reading time.  It is delightful. And awful.  I try to fit in some personal reading before bed, I average about 42 seconds. However, I have read a lot of Cleary, and Dahl, and found Fortunately The Milk to be a most delightful treasure (but could I ask that the mother be the fun one just once. Please.)

I also decided to join a bookclub, and I must say I'm fortunate that they are a pretty laid back group of ladies, but enough with the craptastic romances. I'm the kind of person who feels like if I'm going to be there I have to read the book no matter how painful, and thus the majority of my minority's free reading is being sucked up by things I know I'm going to hate before I even start.  This is a serious self-induced mojo wrecker.  And what kills me is that there are great romances out there but this group tends to like stuff on the cheap.  On the cheap lit isn't really my thing apparently.

So where have I been?  Here. Always here. But decidedly uninspired and not self-directed in my reading selections, and thus not writing. Which is just a big pile of ugh.

Ummm

“I’m the kind of person who would rather get my hopes up really high and watch them get dashed to pieces than wisely keep my expectations at bay and hope they are exceeded.” Truth.

16.14 Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

I am not a big fan of memoirs, - and if I do give you my reading time you better have done something pretty nasty to the Nazis – in general I’m not big on non-fiction, but this is why I joined a book club - forced expanding of my horizons.

I was excited for this book, it has been a long, hot summer and I was looking forward to some laughs. Unfortunately, I didn’t find them. While I’m truly trying to expand, I am a bit of a stickler about one thing in my reading: It should have purpose. Simply put, I didn’t find any here. There was barely a structure. A few of the essays were cute and might have gone somewhere but most seemed like starts without ends, and honestly seemed a bit like first drafts.

Mindy is most famous for her work on The Office, a show I enjoy, yet all that I learned from her writing of her experience was that she liked her co-writers and stole office supplies from set - these seem like no brainers as opposed to revelations to me. I don't work in show business, nor am I a comedy writer, so maybe the insight was lost on me... And as for the rest, I think I may just be too old.  In high school I worried what people were doing without me as well, but 20 years after the fact, not so much.

Summer Reading

“What a thing to go through life without books.”  Truth

What is it about summer?  You think there is nothing to do but be hot and thus lounge by the pool and read, right?  That is what I thought I was in store for this summer, but no… I had to move, and visit family, and socialize.  Not much reading going on, and so I have managed to finish a whooping six books this summer.  Of course, it doesn’t help that the last two were kind of stinkers and so I was left wanting to do anything other than reading.

21.13 Etiquette & Espionage

Great Cover! Great Title! Great Blurb!  Not such a great book. 

This YA should have sucked me in and lasted about two days - a perfect summer read – instead it became a total chore for two weeks.  It reminded me of summer reading for school, at times honestly doing nothing was more entertaining than reading some of that dredge.  The main character is interesting and the school seems wonderful but I felt like I should have cared much more about it all by the end of book one.  We will just have to see how the series progresses.

20.13 Ratlines

This was a dude book disguised as historical fiction.  There was far too little history, and far too many fisticuffs and too much torture and killing.  Blah.  Not good.

As I said, it was a sad summer reading season, but right now I am going to pick up a book based on the Luther series, and on September 3^rd BBC will start showing Series Three.  So summer be damned! Bring on fall, Luther, and, let’s not forget, Alice.  Yippee!!!

Feeling Old

"A senior moment."

"You can't remember your own birthday?"
"No," said Gabriel, punching in the code. "I just cant believe it was that long ago."  Truth.

16.13 The Fallen Angel

We just moved – again – and I have never felt so old.  One day of moving boxes was followed by one day on the couch with a knee swollen to the size of a grapefruit. One trip to Home Depot was followed by three others because I can’t remember everything I need.  One goodbye to a neighbor was followed by hysterical crying because I never thought this would happen again, and now I have my heckles up anticipating what will come next.  Needless to say, I am a mess… but I finally made it through a book and it only took 4 1/2 weeks. Grrrrr.

It seems that life is catching up with Gabriel Allon as well, even though the formula of the books remain the same.  Now everyone knows his name and his face.  They know he is an art restorer and a spy.  They know who he works for and with.  And they know all about his friends in high places.  And maybe I know too much as well, because usually I fly through these books dying to know how it will end but this time I just didn’t care.  I don’t know if it wasn’t as exciting because it wasn’t so undercover, or because I just didn’t have the energy to make anything exciting.  I love Gabriel and I love reading my yearly Silva, but this one just didn’t do it for me.  However, that certainly doesn’t mean I won’t be back for the next one though.

Time Suck

So yeah… Still can’t read.  Not even Gabriel Allon can seem to rescue me - so obviously something tragic is going on but I am trying to not give it too much energy and let it resolve itself.

So what, pray tell, have I been doing with my time – I have become a cross-stitching fiend!  Finishing off projects that have been set aside for years, buying more projects than I can ever hope to complete, and even reading(!) a bit about the craft.

“Domestic arts were equated with virtue because they insured the woman remain at home and refrain from book learning.”  Ha Ha – I can’t even…

The Subversive Stitch

I am not going to pretend like I read this whole thing.  It is basically a PhD thesis on embroidery and feminism and if I can’t get my mind to focus on a Gabriel adventure then I sure as hell can’t get into this.  But the bits and pieces I did get through were interesting:  How stitching was considered a hobby of the rich and well mannered, and then became a kind of trade for the lower class; then the push back against the idea that the “craft” is for the idle or pious woman, or as I hear a lot “women’s work.” How the designs have changed from a young woman’s “casket” of work to show off to possible suitors, to the more modern subversive designs that try to break down barriers.  Speaking of…

The project I am working on now is from a book called Twisted Stitches.  I was originally drawn to it because it is written by a man who very unapologetically thanks a family friend for teaching him to stitch but also laments the fact that each finished piece is sent to live out its days in the bottom of a drawer somewhere like many of my past projects.  I love the Sugar Skull pattern but admit that the gun shot wounds, road kill, and voluptuous female vampire patterns lost my attention.  I have to think there is a way to be off the beaten track without beating that track to a pulp with your irreverence.  If only I was creative enough to come up with my own designs.  

Changes

“We can’t be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don’t have something better.”  I really hope this is the Truth.

The past few months have been crazy in my life and thus I have not been reading or blogging.  While planning a ten day vacation to Germany, my husband got a phone call asking him to come back to the job he left almost seven years ago and it threw us for a huge loop.  We took our trip, the following weekend he flew down to interview for the job, last weekend we drive down and put an offer on a house, and this weekend we have started to pack up our house here.  I am pretty devastated to be leaving Oregon and never imagined raising my son in Nevada, but it is happening no matter how much I push back against it.  But honestly, I am scared and sad.  So my mind isn’t in a great space and while I wish I could read I probably should just give up because even the reading I have done hasn’t been done well.

15.13 A Death in Vienna

This audio book was an absolute lifesaver on the 8 hour drive to Nevada one day and the 7 hour drive back two days later.  I have read all of Silva’s books but my husband just won’t try them out (probably because I say he should) but we both enjoyed this and it made the time fly.  Plus, Gabriel is truly the best.

16.13 The End of the Wasp Season

This is the second Mina I have read, both featuring DCI Marrow, and while I like her character and find her intriguing, the format of shifting between the investigators and the criminals just kills the mystery for me.  Since we know everything and everyone as it happens I just can’t get invested in watching Marrow solve it.

17.13 The Twelve

I started this on the plane to Germany and was so excited to really tuck into it on the ten hour flight – but oh my god! You now have your own TV on those flights and it has been years since I watched an adult movie of my own choosing so instead of reading I watched: Anna Karenina, Jack Reecher, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Hitchcock, The Help, Twilight – somethingridiculous, and The Hobbit.  Do I feel guilty?  Kind of, but such is life.  Honestly, I haven’t even finished this one but I do plan to, I just figure I won’t be very qualified to write a review by then so I am including it here.

False Advertising

“Maybe nobody ever saw themselves completely objectively.  Every self-image needs a flattering mirror or two.” Truth.

12.13 The Devil in Silver

This book is classified as literary horror.  Wrong. I suppose it is Literary because there are words, but there is no horror involved; suspense maybe but no horror.  Instead it is a social commentary on the woes of the mental health system.  In a lot of ways it felt like I was reading a fictionalized version of someone’s college thesis. Are there too many drugs being handed out like candy? Yes. Are there doctors who hands are tied by hospital boards who only care about making money? Yes. Are these huge issues that need to be fixed? Absolutely.  Does this book show us all of this? Yes.  Does it offer any answers? No.  And so I am left wondering what the point was.

Spoilers ahead!

The only answer suggested here is to run away, not to mention the fact that the over riding assumption is that all the patients in the hospital has been put there wrongfully.  So everyone is over drugged and everyone wants out.  One character does manage to escape and while it makes for a bit of a heart-warming moment for the story, I have to wonder what she will do now? She has no money, no job skills, and no network of support.  How can anyone manage that way? At the end of the book the remaining characters prove themselves to be literal savages and yet I am supposed to think that they are the good guys?  And our main characters, I never understood him in the first place.  So many of his actions, after being brought to this hospital under such odd circumstances, made no sense.  Why didn’t he call someone?  Why didn’t he ask the doctors or nurses for help?  Why didn’t he ask any of the visitors to help him?  And why, when he spoke to his family, did he act like he was calling from home?  How could he expect anyone to help him when no one knew anything about his situation?

Again, I have no idea what the point was, and if I hadn’t been reading the book for a group I never would have finished it.

The Mowing. My God, The Mowing.

“‘My chief sin is doubt. I have doubts about everything and for the most part I am in doubt.’” Personal Truth.

63.12 Anna Karenina

Undoubtedly, the worst job in the world would be to run the notes of all these jerks back and forth waiting for any of them to actually do something.

This was my main thought as I sludged through the first 700-some pages of this book.  Honestly, I didn’t like anyone.  It is supposed to be a love story but we never see anything about Vronsky and Anna together.  Plus she says stuff like this: “Her complete ownership of him was a continual joy to her.” What the what???  The only things Anna seems to love are the things she believes someone is trying to take away from her.  Poor Karenin just seems lost in the world somewhere and then there is the cad Oblonsky – I think I liked him best, because at least he was having some fun.  And Levin.  My goodness, Levin.  A lot of sowing, mowing, and reaping for that man on his farm and off.

I dreaded picking the book up but forced myself to just so I could finish.  My mother and I decided to read it together for the sheer need of forcing one another along, and it worked.  Not sure I would have made it on my own…

But curses, just when I think I am out they pull me back in. The final scenes with Anna are the most compelling of the book. Finally there is some insight into how her entire life has been and how her air of confidence is just a screen. It was sad to read and yet exhilarating.  There are all the details about the position of women in society, making Russia in the 1800s feel like a very modern place indeed.  And there are some great comedic looks at what happens when people have specific expectations of how events in life are supposed to go.

The book is far too long and bloated, but looking back I am very glad to have read it and recognize the reasons it is so well respected.  Heavy emphasis on the "have read" part.

Should Have Thrown

“A sympathetic heroine, she finds, is almost as good as a friend of flesh and blood.” Truth.

53.12 the Crimson Petal and the White

 Waste. Of. Time.

I heard about the mini series based on this book so thought I would read it before watching, now I don’t even want to watch it, because this was a horrible book. Boring characters (He is a perfumer, seriously?  Of all the professions...), unoriginal plot (Victorian era wife who is dying of strange illness leaves a man who just needs some love), no development (When you finally get to the end – FINALLY!!! - everyone is still a jerk or dead). And the ending… He literally stopped writing. Honestly, it was a really poor excuse for an author who clearly didn’t know how to make anything meaningful out of this 900-page mess.

I knew early on I should give up on this one, but I never do that. I think I need to start. The reality is that I didn’t when I made this decision to never give up I read much less and now that I read more, and am more aware of what I like, I need to start giving up.  The one thing I took away from this book was the quote, and I love the quote, I just wish it had been true of this book.

Not Such a Great Discovery

“Happiness is always louder than sadness.” Truth.

48.12 A Discovery of Witches

This book lost me early on, very early on.

There was the witch who really didn’t want to be a witch but would use magic when she couldn’t be bothered to find a step stool, or turn off the water. There were the many descriptions of the clothes she wore to work versus to exercise versus to sleep versus to whatever, who cares. There was the vampire who practiced yoga - Screeech! What the !?! - Yep, that is where it lost me. The big, bad, dangerous vampire who maybe isn’t so big and bad because he can perform a perfect shavasana. He is a vampire from cripes sake isn’t that the very definition of shavasana??? Jebus, I can’t.

Anyway... The entire book is over bloated with silly details. Do I need to know that you are making two pieces of toast despite the fact the toaster has six slots?  Nope. Do I need to know how different characters carve their jack-o-lanterns? Nope.  The book certainly does not need to be 600 pages. The core story shouldn’t have been more than 300, plus it doesn’t even finish. As I got closer and closer to the last page, with little to none of the plot resolved, I started to get a funny feeling...  Another f-ing trilogy. I have to admit that the set up of the second book seems interesting but it also seems like it will be a story within a story and not get us any closer to a resolution.  It clocks in at about 600 pages as well, so let me guess, there will be movies? Probably six because all the books are so long.  Right, because everything now a days needs to become the next million-dollar machine. Ugh. Stop it.

There were things here I really liked. I loved the idea of looking at the DNA of vampires and witches and trying to find where they began, and I am always down with a hunt for a mysterious antique book, but too little of that was lost in all the toast eating and wine and tea drinking. Not to mention the romance that wasn't really a romance. I hear a lot of people bemoaning the future of publishing in the e-book era, but what of publishing in the absent editor era?

Death of The Darcys

“But the past is too much a part of what I am.”  Truth.

39.12 Death Comes to Pemberley

I am not sure it is ever a good idea for one author to try to write like another, but I am a big fan of experimentation in fiction so I had high hopes for PD James and her take on the characters of Pride and Prejudice.  Problem one, James is no Austen.  Problem two, in this case James isn’t even James.  This is easily the most lack luster mystery I have ever read and if being married has turned Elizabeth and Darcy into the people here then ugh…  Death really has come to Pemberley.

When I imagined a murder mystery with Pemberley as a back drop I envisioned a bit of a Nancy Drew/Elizabeth Bennet cross over, with Darcy valiantly taking on the bad guys as he and his wife put all the clues together, trusting each other implicitly and aware of each others intelligence.  Kind of like Charlotte and Thomas Pitt in Anne Perry’s books.  Instead Elizabeth bustles around making sure of refreshments and bedding, while Darcy broods over his decisions and actions of six years ago!  I mean, come on, like these two didn’t sit down and have a bit of a talk before they got married to hash out the various bad behaviors of their courting.  

There is no whit or humor here.  In fact, the whole thing was rather depressing and lacking in fun, which feels like a real missed opportunity.  The murder takes place, but there is very little mystery around it, and the big reveal at the end, while well plotted, just doesn’t seem very important by the time you actually get there. Overall, this is a well-written book of a not very good story and sadly not a fitting tribute to Austen or even to James.  But it does have a great cover…

Hidden Past

“Of all the times I could ever have used a glass of whiskey.” After the month I have had, this is a big TRUTH.

38.12 Hide Me Among the Graves

The whole time I read this book I felt out of sorts.  Was it because I was trying to process unbelievable things in my personal life?  Because I started it on a plane in a haze of exhaustion and anxiety?  Because I read a few pages here and there before really digging in? Honestly, I still can’t figure it out.  It is well written, with beautifully described atmosphere, but somehow I kept thinking I had missed something early on.  Turns out I did – the first book!  This is a sequel and I had no idea until after I finished it and scanned some other reviews of people saying that you HAD to read the first book first.  Really wish I had known that…

The first book, The Stress of Her Regard, was originally published in 1989 and reprinted in 2008.  Oddly, it is not mentioned on the copy of Hide Me, even though the cover mentions two of his other books and his author bio lists an additional four.  I first heard about this book on NPR and they never mentioned this either, which is odd since our hero is the son of the two main protagonists of the first book.  So, it turns out I had in fact missed something and it effected my reading a lot.  Anyway, back to this book.

So what makes the great poets great? Vampirism of course!

This Victorian London is a bit steampunk and real literary figures play many of the characters. While I concede that this may be a new take on a trend, I have recently seen it done better in Anno Dracula and so the whole thing was felt repetitive.  But the most frustrating part was that the bad guys here are easily vanquished and the good guys make it really hard not to hate them for being so stupid.  The build up to action is done well but the end result fizzles.  Our characters include the real life actions of John Polidori, the Rosetti siblings, and Algernon Swineburne, but the only character I cared for was Edward Trelawney.  I kept hoping the story would focused more on him and how he became what he was – but wait, was that in the first book and so I just missed it?  Don’t know, didn't know it existed until I was done with this one, but I am not bitter.

Maybe you really do need to read the first book to understand all the minute of the second or maybe all of those others factors led to me not connecting to the story. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood, but for as long as I have been writing reviews and doing this blog I have never had such a hard time figuring out something to say about a book; I couldn’t even come up with a quote.  It isn’t that I didn’t like it, or that I did, I just didn’t engage with it at all which leaves me feeling even more out of sorts than ever.

Make It Stop

“…she wonders if what she believes to be a love for the written word is really just a fetish for stationary.” Truth.

20.12 One Day

Dex and Em, Em and Dex.  I would like to punch you both in the face.  I am sure your love story is familiar to everyone, because we all remember the worst about ourselves and dwell on it, but that is why it was impossible to root for you.  You were meant to have a one-night stand when you were 20 and now you are 40 and have put a massive amount of unrealistic expectation on one another.  

Dex, you are a drunk, a mean drunk.  And you take on women to try to complete something in you that can’t be fixed.  Em, you are whiney and a push over.  You are mean to all of the men in your life because they are not Dex.  In fact, you ruin everything in the hopes of being with Dex.  How did that work out for ya?

We see you both once a year, and yet not much happens to either one of you.  Neither gets better or worse, neither becomes a worthy companion for the other.  Neither of you are characters I care about or have hopes for.  I know that the Truth in life is that we take those around us for granted and put off adventures and dreams for another day, but I am thinking that reading about you was supposed to inspire me to not do that in my own life and it just didn’t.

Curses!

11.12 The Magician King

I am a bit OCD about things in my life, particularly my reading life.  I buy books at an alarming rate.  In fact, there is simply no way I will read all the books I have in my lifetime, but I get some sense of relief from just owning a book I want to read.  I also NEVER give up on a book. I read to the end every time. Admittedly, I do know of one that I haven’t finished, but I also know exactly where it is and where I left off, so I am destined to pick it up again simply so I don’t have to think about not thinking about it any more.  I have a system of stacks that is silly, and many lists to make it all seemingly more manageable.  If I start a series I finish a series, even if I didn’t really like the first, and I have to read any book I borrow from the library cover to cover and within the check out time.  I never renew, it just seems so rude to the others waiting.

So it is because of my reading OCD that I subjected myself to The Magician King, both second in a series, AND a library loaner. I didn’t love The Magicians but one thing that was left hanging, and that I wanted to know, was what happened to Julia.  She is there for just moments on the book but it is clear that something was happening to her that we weren’t privy to, and we get her story here.  It is all sorts of fucked up.  I think my friend Carol said it best, “He doesn’t really like women.”   In The Magicians, Alice was such an underdeveloped character that it was annoying, and all the other females were just sexual conquests and bitchy, but Julia was out there and undiscovered.  Turns out she is just another sexual conquest in the most horrible of ways and she loses her soul, literally.  So, I got the story of Julia like I wanted but it just wasn’t a story that I wanted to read.  Oddly, in this book, Grossman introduces Poppy, another possibly interesting female character, but again does nothing with her.  Let me guess – book three?

The main plot of this book follows our cast of characters as they try to rescue the magical land of Fillory, and thus, magic itself.  And this was a big issue for me. The characters love Fillory because they read about it in a series of books as kids.  It was their escape and sanctuary from the real world and while us readers are familiar with that experience we aren’t given any insight into what makes Fillory so special to the characters and so it remains un-special to us. So this book’s plot is all about saving Fillory but I don't care about Fillory, and I still don’t care about the whinny characters. Plus, like in the first book, every plot development is just hinted at instead of really being hashed out. Big things are supposedly happening but it feels to the reader like nothing happens at all.

So please, for my OCD sake, don’t write a third book that I will force myself to be subjected to.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

4.12 Company of Liars

I would say that the biggest liar here is the book itself.  The back flap describes it as, “A retelling of The Canterbury Tales.” Umm, what??? Oh because we are in England, and the Plague is spreading, and people are traveling.  Same thing right?  Ugh…  Why do publishers do that?  Especially a description like that!  As if most readers are searching for another dose of Chaucer like they seem to so desperately need another lovelorn vampire.  My bet is that you lost more readers than you gained with that one folks.  Plus, the readers you did get are annoyed because you lied. 

The Canterbury Tales is full of richly developed characters that are enduring; this book has a collection of characters that are never really hashed out.  They are wet a lot, and mad a lot, and they cook a lot, but I never cared much for any of them.  Is this because they are liars?  No, it is because they are one dimensional and boring.  No one actually changes over the story, just his or her circumstances. I loved the historical information, and the way the author showed the slow dismantling of society when faced with an unbiased terror like the Plague.  To see it spread along with its created prejudice and superstitions was actually fascinating; but that historical information gave way to a murder mystery that I just wanted to be over.  The big twist came too late and with far too little explanation, and the ending was decidedly rushed, although I didn’t hate it.  I am sure a lot of people did but I think by the time I got there the story had nowhere left to go anyway.

SO DONE!

Ok, over the last year or so I have been keeping more of an eye on the publishing world and I find that every three months or so there is a MUST read book.  Some are new works from past winners like The Marriage Plot or Freedom, but many are from brand new authors like: The Tiger’s Wife, Swamplaidia!, and The Night Circus.  It pains me to know that I bought all of the later three in hardback because I just couldn’t stand not having the new “it” book.  The Tiger’s Wife was enjoyable but far from great, I just finished Swamplandia and I feel sick about it, and now I am hearing a lot of push back on The Night Circus.  So I am stating right here, right now, NEVER AGAIN.  I will buy hardback copies of books that I am looking forward to, but no more of these publishing darlings.

52. Swampladia!

 

Fuck you.  Fuck you.  Fuck you.

You cannot have a whimsical cover like this and then torture me with the dreadful existence of these characters.  I know people have it rough and life is hard, but is there not one thing to be hopeful about?  Not one shred of light to keep moving towards?  Because if there is, where was it here?  I have been told not to judge a book by its cover, but come on.

I thought there would be a little fun in this set up:  A family who name themselves Bigtree and live on an island in the Florida Everglades, wrestling alligators and delighting fans at their park, Swamplandia!  Fun, right?  But we missed all that.  All that is over.  What we have now is a crumbling park, a crumbling family, and crumbling psyches.  A father and a son trying to do right but failing miserably while the sisters, and daughters, wander through the very real dangers of the island after being left on their own.  You would think that the worst pain they would feel would be the loss of their mother, but it gets worse.  In an awful and sickening way.  And then it is over.

Is it well written? Yes.  There are some silly plot holes and continuity errors, but overall it is good.  It is original? Setting wise, absolutely, but plot wise not really.  Is there potential for this writer? Yes, but I can see why she started out writing short stories.  Over all, is this a MUST read book? NO!!!  Frankly, I kind of wish I had missed it.

Stuck in the Muck

I remember reading the reviews for Swamplandia! earlier this year, and I was so excited about it I decided I HAD to buy it on its release day. Then it sat. The other day I noticed that the paperback version is now out and I still haven’t read my hardback that I just HAD to have, and that drives me crazy! So, I picked it up last Wednesday and now I am only on page 59. Almost a week and only 59 pages!  I read a 1000 page book the week before. I have read a few paragraphs every day instead of my usual few chapters.

The real issue is that I don't know what it is that is holding me back. It is an original story and it is well written. Truthfully, I think I just can't take any more mothers dying of cancer and leaving their children behind to face the world unguided. I know it happens; chances are good it will happen to me and the realization of that is heart wrenching. It stops my breath and makes my heart ache. Both my son and my husband turned a year older this weekend so maybe I am just super aware and sensitive to time passing and things changing right now, not to mention busy trying to make everyone feel celebrated, to also be reading a book about an entire family’s upheaval. 

Anyway, I feel bogged down by the swamp, but hopefully I will be able to scrape myself out of it and enjoy myself again.

So long Pennywise!

50. It

At some point Pennywise says, “What child doesn’t love a clown?” Umm… Me, and almost every person I know. They are creepy.  Period.

 

As I said before I wanted a scary book to read to get me in the mood for Halloween, and this fit the bill.

The build up of the story is great. I thought the shifts between the action of the characters as kids to the present action as adults was handled very well and also succeeded in pushing the plot along.  Some parts were very over written but this is Stephen King we are talking about.  In fact there were so many long, drawn out chase scenes I was able to skim quite a bit and get my reading over faster.  Because the fact is, I wanted it to be over.  Not because I didn’t like it, but because I didn’t like to read it before I went to sleep. 

The problem I had was that the build up was so good that the ending just could never live up. I thought things got drawn out and then also went to a silly quasi-philosophical place, but ultimately the ending was ruined by a scene that was totally out of character, out of place, and, frankly, out of line. The character of Bev was really ruined by the scene and there was no reason for it.

Long story (literally), short:  It was a fun, scary read, that I would never recommend because it went somewhere it really didn’t need to go.

Will I Ever Learn?

Another YA trilogy, really Karen?  Another book that is just a beginning, like some bad joke.  A lot of interesting introductions to characters and places that seem exciting but are never used in an interesting way.  Why are all of these trilogies instead of just long books?  Because really that is what they should be. When the books are all put together it is one story, not three. 

46. The Magician’s Guild

Let's see if you have heard this one before?

A girl, who’s parents died, lives in the slums and hangs out with thieves.  Then one day she makes something happen but she doesn’t know how.  Turns out there are magicians who know exactly what happened, and now one of the most powerful, male ones wants to find her and help her.  So he brings her to the magic school, and she loves it but is torn between staying or returning to her friends.  But she has to stay because her magic is so strong and she needs to be taught. How strong is she, and why is she important?  We don’t know because that part must come in the other books. 

All this book does is introduce us to the world and the characters but not to the intrigue or the development.  My frustration is that I liked this book, it is a good start, but why does it stop?  I hate that instead of enjoying this book I felt cheated by it.  I don’t think I care enough to read the other two books though.

The YA Conundrum

45. Kindred

This book embodies a lot of the issues I have with YA books.  So many times you read them and just wish the author would go there, that they would push it.  Instead they seem to hold back in an attempt to save the audience from true exposure.  Is this because so many parents are ridiculous enough to ban books, so authors air on the side of caution?  The books are good, the plots are good, but ultimately I read them and I feel robbed of the emotional experience that is so amazing about literature.  And it ticks me off.

Here we have a 26 year-old woman living in 1976 California, who literally disappears and reappears in antebellum Maryland.  She saves a boy from drowning, has a gun pulled on her, and is suddenly back home.  This continues for her, as she becomes this boy's guardian angle of sorts.  I can see this being a great book to use in a 6th or 7th grade class.  The time travel will draw them in and the realities of slavery are well described, but in the end there is no emotional payout - doesn't that sound impossible?  Could there be a better set up for a really gut wrenching read?  I know, and that is why I was disappointed.

The character development is just not there.  Granted there is a lot going on and we also like to think that thick books scare off kids so we don't want to go over 300 pages.  But I don't understand Dana or what drives her.  I don't understand why she loves her husband or why she cares for Rufus.  I understand that she needs to save him, but does that mean she needs to like him?  If I knew and cared about her more the whole book would have been so much more effective.  But it just kind of glances the surface of everything instead of really diving in.  Why???