(I actually handwrote this last night, because I wasn’t near a computer and I wanted to get this down IMMEDIATELY)
I am horribly, horribly, horribly, horribly, HORRIBLY disappointed in this book. To hint at something, with the dreams, and everyone’s weird “hallucinations” in the wood, and the very slow recovering of the stupid memories that all seemed to be leading up to something…..all of it was fucking pointless. It was a total waste of my time. I read this as quickly as possible, skimming over the numerous passages detailing Ryan’s total inadequacy as a detective, flipping through page after page, because I wanted to know ONE THING: where are they??
The book hinted that the question would go unanswered, but I though NO! They are just trying to divert you, to confuse you, so where it’s all revealed you’ll be MORE SHOCKED THAN YOU THOUGHT POSSIBLE!!!!!111!!!(one)!!!
Back to Ryan’s incompetence: dude, I did not need you to keep pointing out all the mistakes you made, okay? I totally called them all on my own. You could have saved a hundred or so pages. Also, do not fucking insult my intelligence you alcoholic whack-job! On page 409: “But before you decide to despise me too thoroughly, consider this: she fooled you, too.”
NOT. FOR. A. SECOND.
I knew something was wrong immediately, and I can’t even tell you how. As soon as she spoke, I gave her a quiet, little-girl voice (obviously faked) with a holier-than-thou attitude.
I wonder, was it on purpose? Did your author plan it that way, to make it so obvious to everyone else? Was this supposed to be part of the “plot twists and turns to bamboozle even the most astute reader”? (That was a line from a book review printed on the back jacket.)
Or, did French really think we’d be too distracted by Ryan’s back-story to catch on to the psychopath?
I have a theory about where the bodies could be, by the way: I think they’re in the tower—the one with the broken stairs but the top is still intact. I read through that boring bit of archeological crap rather quickly, so for all I know the book said it was in fact being torn down, or it mentioned, in passing, someone bothering to climb up and have a look, but my short and spotty memory says no, it was never mentioned. And I’m kinda sure they were going to leave the tower, for historical reasons. Ryan’s such a shitty detective it’ll never occur to him to look though, and he’s so mentally weak if he did look and did find them, he’d probably totally lose his shit.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Two Books
Both of these actually belong before Still Alice, but that book required instant blogging. These did not.
Dead as a Doornail, Charlaine Harris
More craziness in the life of Sookie—someone’s trying to kill shapeshifters, every man she comes across throws himself before her and professes true love and demands to marry her, she witnesses some more crazy other world ritual shit. Same old, same old. HOWEVER: at the end she agrees to date a weretiger, which is simply awesome.
Stolen Innocence, Elissa Wall
This is Wall’s account of her life in the FLDS church, her arranged marriage to her cousin, her escape from the church, and her experiences during the trial of Warren Jeffs. I love any book that criticizes cults.
Dead as a Doornail, Charlaine Harris
More craziness in the life of Sookie—someone’s trying to kill shapeshifters, every man she comes across throws himself before her and professes true love and demands to marry her, she witnesses some more crazy other world ritual shit. Same old, same old. HOWEVER: at the end she agrees to date a weretiger, which is simply awesome.
Stolen Innocence, Elissa Wall
This is Wall’s account of her life in the FLDS church, her arranged marriage to her cousin, her escape from the church, and her experiences during the trial of Warren Jeffs. I love any book that criticizes cults.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Still Alice, by Lisa Genova
I'm going out of order here--I've read 2 books now without blogging, but I just finished this 3rd, and it's so damn good I had to write about it immediately.
It's a story about Alzheimer's, told from the point of view of someone suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's dementia. Alice is a Harvard professor, married to a scientist, mother to 3 very smart and successful children. Watching her mind deteriorate is fascinating and heart-breaking. As her version of things gets muddier and muddier, it's almost a puzzle to figure out what's going on.
At the last book club meeting, Wendy asked us to bring in a list of books we'd recommend to our daughters, or mothers, or other significant women in our lives, and I couldn't think of any. I wish I had read this book before then!! Because Alice's relationship with her family changes as her disease progresses, especially with her youngest daughter, and the passage where she not only accepts her daughter's path in life but offers suggestions of how to--not just be more successful, like the old Alice would have cared about--but to enjoy her life and the experience, that passage was just awesome. I think mothers and daughters--shit, everyone--could learn from that. Another reason this book is perfect for recommending to the women in her life? Mom and I were reading it at nearly the same time, and several times today I would stop reading and say "hey, did you read this part? wasn't that sad?!"
I hate that I'm not a better writer, because I feel like I can't do this book justice! I hate just havign to jump from subject to subject because I can never link my thoughts up.
My favorite element in the book: Shortly after being diagnosed, Alice starts to realize how much she's already affected. She starts thinking about how much worse it's going to get, about how much of a burden she's going to be on her family. She decides that she needs to stop it before it gets too bad, but she wants to try to enjoy as much as she can while she can, so she comes up with a plan: she sets an alarm on her Blackberry to go off every morning. A message will pop up, asking her 5 questions, and it includes a set of instructions that she is to follow if she can't answer the questions. This is her suicide plan. Up there, where I mentioned having to figure out what was going on through her confusion? You realize when she's already slipped a lot that her husband has discovered her plan, and to witness HIS suffering through her dementia is something I can't even describe. You just HAVE to read this book.
Note: I started reading this book this morning, around 10. I did not read it continuously--we went shopping and ate, and all that, but it's midnight and I'm finished with it already. This book is addicting!
It's a story about Alzheimer's, told from the point of view of someone suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's dementia. Alice is a Harvard professor, married to a scientist, mother to 3 very smart and successful children. Watching her mind deteriorate is fascinating and heart-breaking. As her version of things gets muddier and muddier, it's almost a puzzle to figure out what's going on.
At the last book club meeting, Wendy asked us to bring in a list of books we'd recommend to our daughters, or mothers, or other significant women in our lives, and I couldn't think of any. I wish I had read this book before then!! Because Alice's relationship with her family changes as her disease progresses, especially with her youngest daughter, and the passage where she not only accepts her daughter's path in life but offers suggestions of how to--not just be more successful, like the old Alice would have cared about--but to enjoy her life and the experience, that passage was just awesome. I think mothers and daughters--shit, everyone--could learn from that. Another reason this book is perfect for recommending to the women in her life? Mom and I were reading it at nearly the same time, and several times today I would stop reading and say "hey, did you read this part? wasn't that sad?!"
I hate that I'm not a better writer, because I feel like I can't do this book justice! I hate just havign to jump from subject to subject because I can never link my thoughts up.
My favorite element in the book: Shortly after being diagnosed, Alice starts to realize how much she's already affected. She starts thinking about how much worse it's going to get, about how much of a burden she's going to be on her family. She decides that she needs to stop it before it gets too bad, but she wants to try to enjoy as much as she can while she can, so she comes up with a plan: she sets an alarm on her Blackberry to go off every morning. A message will pop up, asking her 5 questions, and it includes a set of instructions that she is to follow if she can't answer the questions. This is her suicide plan. Up there, where I mentioned having to figure out what was going on through her confusion? You realize when she's already slipped a lot that her husband has discovered her plan, and to witness HIS suffering through her dementia is something I can't even describe. You just HAVE to read this book.
Note: I started reading this book this morning, around 10. I did not read it continuously--we went shopping and ate, and all that, but it's midnight and I'm finished with it already. This book is addicting!
Friday, May 15, 2009
A Crooked Kind of Perfect, By Linda Urban
I picked this book out of one of those scholastic catalogues they send home with schoolkids. There wasn't even a synopsis or ANYTHING, but I just knew from the little picture of the cover that I wanted to read this book.
It was the toe socks! You can look at that cover and you know that this is one of those cute little quirky numbers that's going to make you feel warm and fuzzy, and it is. I didn't buy it, though. I decided I wasn't going to spend money on any books right now. So my nephew went to his classroom library and found it for me--he's a sweetie.
It's about a girl named Zoe Elias. Zoe wants to be a piano player, but when her slightly agoraphobic dad goes to buy a piano, he sees an organ, gets a little excited and nervous, and buys it instead. The dad is a perfect oddball--he will leave the house on occasion, but mostly just gets lost and has to be talked home by a friendly tow truck driver. He also subscribes to one of those take-classes-at-home colleges, and at the start of the book has, like, 26 "diplomas"!
Zoe is disappointed with the organ, but since it comes with 6 months of free lessons she learns to play it anyway. She's actually good at it, and although she still wishes it were a piano, she sticks with it, and I LOVE THAT!
Also there's this kid named "Wheeler" who just decides one day to be her friend, and he ends up being a sort of lifesaver to her family, and the most frustrating thing happens at the end--Zoe asks him about his family, and he says "it's a long story" AND THEN THE STORY ENDS. I'm really really hoping that Urban is, RIGHT NOW, writing the sequel. That would make me happy.
This is a short book, for me, but it'd give a 4th-grader a very nice read, and I would recommend this to anyone. Seriously. It's hella-cute.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
A Gracious Plenty, By Sheri Reynolds
LOVED IT!!
The story is told by Finch. When Finch was little, 4 I think, she was very badly burned—most of her face, her shoulder, and her arm. She’s left with horrible scars, and what you all know will happen, happens: she’s an outcast. Her parents are cemetery caretakers, and the cemetery is basically her front yard. After school, she sticks to home, helping her parents with the caretaking and eventually taking over for them when they pass. When she’s a teenager, Finch discovers something (that I think is WONDERFUL!)—she can hear the Dead. With a little practice, she can see and hear them quite well. Even talk to them! So my favorite parts of the book were reading Reynolds’ idea of the first stage of afterlife. Did you know that the Dead are in charge of pretty much everything? Guess who pushes rivers along! Guess who calls down storms to water the crops and guess who kisses flower buds open! Who greens ivy? Who moves the very air?? Those parts were simply enchanting. For the Dead, when you’re not working, you’re talking. You have to tell your stories. Each story lightens you, until eventually you are nothing—and that’s when you go to the next stage. In the book Finch doesn’t say if there’s a heaven or hell. She just says that they go “up”.
The Dead become her friends. She needs friends, because she’s the town freak. She looks like a monster and she lives in a cemetery—is it wrong that I think that’s funny? She’d be thought odd with just one of those, but with both it’s almost sitcom material.
By the end things have changed. I felt the same sort of sadness as I did at the end of The Graveyard Book—why does it have to end? I know the point of the book is that the character has to grow and change and evolve and blah blah, but why can’t they both learn to live and ALSO still talk to the dead?? Finch learns a lesson, and a few of her kinda sorta enemies learn lessons, and the closest thing she has to a buddy, Leonard, learns a lesson, and everyone lives happily ever after except Finch didn’t even get to say goodbye to her parents. That was the only part I didn’t like.
About Finch: in my opinion, she’s awesome. I like her attitude. I like how she handles young punks who come into her graveyard to litter the place up, and I love how she handles the town busybody—that woman won’t take her vegetables but Finch’ll force her to take her money!
The story is told by Finch. When Finch was little, 4 I think, she was very badly burned—most of her face, her shoulder, and her arm. She’s left with horrible scars, and what you all know will happen, happens: she’s an outcast. Her parents are cemetery caretakers, and the cemetery is basically her front yard. After school, she sticks to home, helping her parents with the caretaking and eventually taking over for them when they pass. When she’s a teenager, Finch discovers something (that I think is WONDERFUL!)—she can hear the Dead. With a little practice, she can see and hear them quite well. Even talk to them! So my favorite parts of the book were reading Reynolds’ idea of the first stage of afterlife. Did you know that the Dead are in charge of pretty much everything? Guess who pushes rivers along! Guess who calls down storms to water the crops and guess who kisses flower buds open! Who greens ivy? Who moves the very air?? Those parts were simply enchanting. For the Dead, when you’re not working, you’re talking. You have to tell your stories. Each story lightens you, until eventually you are nothing—and that’s when you go to the next stage. In the book Finch doesn’t say if there’s a heaven or hell. She just says that they go “up”.
The Dead become her friends. She needs friends, because she’s the town freak. She looks like a monster and she lives in a cemetery—is it wrong that I think that’s funny? She’d be thought odd with just one of those, but with both it’s almost sitcom material.
By the end things have changed. I felt the same sort of sadness as I did at the end of The Graveyard Book—why does it have to end? I know the point of the book is that the character has to grow and change and evolve and blah blah, but why can’t they both learn to live and ALSO still talk to the dead?? Finch learns a lesson, and a few of her kinda sorta enemies learn lessons, and the closest thing she has to a buddy, Leonard, learns a lesson, and everyone lives happily ever after except Finch didn’t even get to say goodbye to her parents. That was the only part I didn’t like.
About Finch: in my opinion, she’s awesome. I like her attitude. I like how she handles young punks who come into her graveyard to litter the place up, and I love how she handles the town busybody—that woman won’t take her vegetables but Finch’ll force her to take her money!
When Katie Wakes, By Connie Mae Fowler
Connie Mae Fowler tells her own story—that of a woman who grew up being abused by her mother and, of course, ends up with an abusive boyfriend. I liked how she acts like she’s telling the story to her ex—she always says “you”, and it puts the reader in his place. I thought that was interesting and different. “Katie” is her dog. I thought it was going to be a big “if it weren’t for my dog, I would never have improved my life” stories, but I’m pretty sure Fowler would have left the man on her own. The dog certainly gave her comfort and affection, though, and that was important to her, so the dog gets title privileges, lol. Another flashback story—Fowler goes back and forth between her drunken mother and her drunken boyfriend, but in this book it wasn’t annoying.
My only gripe with this story was a little passage towards the end where Fowler is debating leaving the bastard, and it’s way too long. Just skim it, it’s really just a “should I? or shouldn’t I” conversation with herself.
My only gripe with this story was a little passage towards the end where Fowler is debating leaving the bastard, and it’s way too long. Just skim it, it’s really just a “should I? or shouldn’t I” conversation with herself.
The Outlander, By Gil Adamson
A young woman, Mary (a.k.a. the Widow) is on the run from her brothers-in-law for murdering her husband. The story is flashback-happy and ignores logic, but the author’s writing style and her descriptions of the landscape the Widow trudges through are great. Certain parts of the story are good, but for the most part you’re bogged down in the Widow’s journey, which gets old pretty quick. The best character in the whole damned thing doesn’t even show up until close to the end: a dwarf whose name I can no longer remember because I read the book weeks ago and kept putting this off. I feel like I said everything I could about this book in book club, so….uh….bye.
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