Quick Hits for May

Read 5/6/13- This One is Mine, by Maria Semple- Not really sure why I liked this so much... All of the characters are deplorable for the majority of the book. But here I am two days later and I'm already done with it. Really well written and a quick and addictive read for sure. I'm still trying to decide between a 4 and a 5. I liked Bernadette better, but Bernadette was easily one of my favorite books in recent memory. Maria Semple impressed me again with this one. 4.5/5

Read 5/11/13- The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green- I don't have a lot to say on this one, but that’s not because I didn’t like it. It was really well done, but also sad, as you'd expect from a book about teenage cancer patients. Glad I read it for sure though, and I’d definitely recommend it. 4/5

Read 5/18/13- The All of It, by Jeannette Haien- I did not care for this book, our May book club selection. Not sure in general how it won so many awards, as it was essentially a 150 page conversation. And not a particularly interesting one. Lots of potential, and I think if it was told differently I would have enjoyed it more, but all of the suspense promised was gone after about 20 pages, and after that it was a tedious read. 2/5

Quick Hits for March

Read 3/3/13- Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn- OMG. What is the matter with Gillian Flynn that makes her come up with this stuff? Holy crap. Disturbing but riveting. I think I still liked Gone Girl better, but this one was good enough to make me want to check out Sharp Objects. 4/5

Read 3/4/13- The Bungalow, by Sarah Jio- Predictable and somewhat repetitive, but maybe that was more obvious because I listened to this instead of reading it. The plot was decent until it tried to be too much and I saw the ending coming. Disappointing. 2/5

Read 3/5/13- Spin, by Catherine McKenzie- Flew through this one. Quick and entertaining read that reminded me somewhat of Rachel's Holiday, which could be why I enjoyed it so much! 4/5

Read 3/10/13- Genghis: Bones of the Hills, by Conn Iggulden- Third in the series of novels about Genghis Kahn, this one is similar to #2. A good read, definitely interesting, and I wonder how much is true and what is embellished. As with #2, I wish this had fewer battles and more politics. In particular, the relationships between Genghis' sons were well written and engrossing; I could read another few books about them, and will. Worthwhile read, but the first one is still by far the best. 3/5

Read 3/28/13- Spring Fever, by Mary Kay Andrews- Listened to this one and enjoyed it... pretty decent chick lit and I will definitely check out more Mary Kay Andrews books! 3/5

The Hangman’s Daughter- Oliver Pötzsh

The Hangman’s Daughter, a highly reviewed and marketed English translation from its native German, has been talked about quite a bit on Amazon and Goodreads. I expected it to be this blockbuster of a historical fiction thriller. I was greatly disappointed.

Set in Germany, The Hangman’s Daughter is about Jakob Kuisl, town hangman, charged with the torture and so called trial of a supposed witch, accused of killing several children in the village. Jakob, his daughter, and the town’s doctor become absorbed in the case, and discover that not everything is what it seems.

About ¾ of the way through the book, I was still waiting for it to get interesting. In the end, I skimmed through the last 50 or so pages, just to see who the culprit was. Where was the thrill? I can’t even describe how disappointing the book was. I’m not sure if it’s the translation or what, but instead of being edge of your seat suspenseful, it came off boring and overly detailed.

Initially on Goodreads I gave this a 3, thinking that I really hadn’t minded reading it, and it was ok. But a few weeks removed, when all I can think to talk about is the bad parts of it, I have to drop it to a 2. So disappointing.

The Appeal- John Grisham

When I read a cheap thriller, or a legal thriller, as this one is marketed, I expect to be entertained, ultimately pleased with the book and the plot, but know that it’s not great literature. My expectations for thrillers and chick books are the same: Entertain me. The Appeal started out well, but by the end had completely tanked, and I am not very pleased that I spent my time listening to it.

First of all, the book has too many characters and too many cases. Way too many. Most of the book centers around one case, but in a way that allows it to meander about, going through elections, political corruption, small cases that affect none of the book's events, etc. All of the characters that I cared about got very little time focused on them, and there were too many corrupt jerks to keep track of. And isn’t this called the appeal? Shouldn’t the main focus be on, I don’t know, an appeal? Not the corruption of big business and buying a supreme court seat. I mean don’t get me wrong, it was interesting enough, but not at all what I was expecting, and could have and should have been better.

Second of all, worst ending ever. WORST

Third of all, if this is how our justice system works I am concerned for the state of America. The entire thing was disheartening.

All in all, I was really unhappy with this one. The only thing that saves it from being a 1 (or a zero) is that the beginning was decent. I didn’t get disgusted with it until halfway to three quarters of the way through, but the end just ruined it so thoroughly that I can’t justify giving it anything better than a 2. Honestly this is probably a 1.5.

Crossed (Matched #2)- Ally Condie

Crossed, the second book in the Matched dystopian series, picks up where we left off, with Cassia off in search of Ky, Ky’s life in question in the Outer Providences, and with the beginnings of a rebellion against the dictatorial Society.

Like with Shades of Grey, one of the biggest issues is that I don’t buy into the main premise. Why would the Society force these things on people? None of it makes any sense. This shouldn’t surprise me though, because the Society is not the main plotline of the book. That is of course, the love triangle.  As with Matched, Crossed’s biggest focus is on the Ky-Xander-Cassia issue, instead of on the more interesting rebellion against the Society. This rubs me the wrong way, and is my biggest complaint about the series. It’s clearly geared towards the Twilight crowd, but with even less of an outside plot and not very interesting writing (Cassia and Ky love each other SO MUCH! But Cassia might also love Xander! But Ky and Cassia write and recite poems to each other! They love art! The Society doesn’t like it! These seem to be the things that the author most wants us to focus on). 

It is also really irritating how the author constantly refers to things that the reader doesn’t know about.  Instead of keeping me invested, like it does with most other books, it frustrates me. When half of the book keeps referring to “Xander’s secret” like it’s some life changing thing with the stupidest, most obvious explanation being a “big reveal,” I am not interested, I am annoyed.

Yet, here I am, finishing the book in mere days. I don’t understand how this happened.  

2- for some reason I still flew through this book, despite all the complaints. I still want to know where we’re going to end up in this series. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know. I think it’s because I am a sucker for any YA book about a dystopic future.  I’m still not in a hurry to read the next one though.  

Shades of Grey- Jasper Fforde

Set in a future world where people are classified by which (and how much) color they can see, Shades of Grey is a bizarre book about Eddie Russet, Red swatchman’s son and likely future prefect.  In general I didn’t really care for this one.  Throughout listening to the book (although the reader was very entertaining and excellent), thoughts kept popping into my head that prevented me from truly enjoying the story. 

Look, I can suspend reality like a champ. People living in fear of a tyrannical government that makes children fight to the death as a form of keeping rebellions at bay? People classified into factions based on a dominating personality trait? Wizards, witches, gods living among us? Done. For some reason with this one I couldn’t get past classifying people by how color blind they are. Why does that matter at all? Who gives a crap? If that was the only thing I would have had to accept as weird in the entire book, maybe I could have gotten past it. But in combination with things like spoon shortages (really? Is that supposed to be satirical? It makes no sense), colors fixing ailments and getting people high (sorry, what?), and night terrors (because they can’t see colors? Why?)? I just couldn’t. And that bothers me a little, but that’s how this went. Over and over. Instead of enjoying the book for what it was I kept catching myself questioning the author’s choices and not getting involved in the story or escaping into the book. It was all too convoluted and there was too much going on that I needed to just accept.  Maybe that’s the point. But I think what is meant to be satirical and funny only irritates me.

It did finally get me near the end, so not all of it is bad. I still had the same problems accepting a lot of what I was being told, but I did want to know what would happen, which remains the book’s saving grace, and the reason I gave it a two instead of a one. 

Knit Two- Kate Jacobs

This review has spoilers from the end of The Friday Night Knitting Club, so if you don’t want to know, stop reading now.

This one was my latest audiobook, and as it turns out, I missed Georgia Walker a lot more than I thought I would.

I probably should have read Knit Two after I read Friday Night Knitting Club. But I couldn’t bring myself to, I was too annoyed with what seemed to be an unnecessary pull at the heartstrings with Georgia’s death. I’m still not entirely sure that I like the way that Kate Jacobs does things, or maybe I’ve just had misconceptions all along about what kind of writer she is. Knit Two obviously returns to the characters of the first book and Walker and Daughter, Georgia’s knitting shop. We hear how everyone has been dealing with her death, and meet everyone several years after the fact, when Dakota, the daughter of Walker and Daughter, has just returned from her first year in college.

Long story short, everyone is struggling with problems in their lives, both personal and professional, all of which are dealt with throughout the book. And I wasn’t as invested as I should have been. Overall this book was fine, but it was missing the center that Georgia brought to the first one. I don’t think I’ll be reading the next sequel, which I believe is Christmas related.

2- as usual, this audiobook was fine. nothing fantastic or horrible about it. just entertaining enough to keep my interest.

If You Were Here- Jen Lancaster

I’ll add my voice to the rest of Jen Lancaster’s fans discussing this book… I really wanted to like it. And to be fair, I think because I had extremely low expectations and thought it was going to be horrifyingly bad, I liked it more than most (which doesn’t say much). I agree with everyone else who says this should have been another memoir rather than a foray into fiction, but I’ll also add that for the most part, this WAS another memoir.

Mia and Mac are buying a new house, and it’s been a hellish ordeal for everyone. I made it through the first half to three quarters of this book by convincing myself that it was just a typical Jen Lancaster memoir, blatantly ignoring all references to Amish zombies, and pretending that Fletch had changed his name. And it did work for awhile. Mia and Mac sound VERY much like Jen and her husband Fletch, which I would imagine is intentional. I didn’t hate it, found it amusing enough (though nowhere near on par with her other books), and easily blew through the first half. Shortly thereafter is where she lost me.

Honestly, I can definitely understand the point of Jen wanting to try fiction: she can take her everyday life and make it even more exaggerated and ridiculous to comic effect. The problem is, the comic effect was lacking. Mia is nowhere near as funny as Jen, and Mac was downright horrible. And at no point did I recognize the writing in the second half as anywhere near as entertaining as Jen’s. Not to mention that the Amish zombies were more prevalent. I can’t say I understood why she thought that would be funny. In fact, I would say that was her biggest misfire for me. Despite thinking that it was ridiculous for her to so blatantly talk about her own life (Mia’s dog is named Daisy, Jen’s is Maisy, Mia’s best friend is Tracy, Jen’s is Stacy), I hung in there. Even as Mia’s book, Buggies are the New Black (as opposed to Bitter is the New Black) caused a massive eyeroll, I did my best to stick with it, because I felt I owed Jen the benefit of the doubt for her first fiction attempt.

If she tries it again, I’m not sure I’ll be able to overlook it. I hope very much that she goes back to memoirs.

2- didn’t like it overall. Jen should stick to being funny about her own life.

10th Anniversary- James Patterson

I’ve really dropped the ball here lately haven’t I? Well, I'm back on track and will be devoting some time this weekend to catching up on writing posts.  I've been reading, just not writing about it.  So here’s to turning over a new leaf, and watch for some new posts this week! I wish I could start with a book that I wasn’t completely disappointed with.

Which leads me to 10th Anniversary. You may recall from my favorite thrillers post that the first book in this series, 1st to Die, is one of my all time favorites. I think it’s for that reason, and that reason alone, that I've stuck with this series. At one point I could tell you that I have enjoyed the character progression of the four main women in this series, but now that we’ve arrived at the 10th book, Lindsay Boxer seems like a pale shadow of herself.

This book was… fine. I mean, it was a passable thriller, but not anywhere near one of the best ones I’ve read, and nothing close to the caliber of the first four books in this series. James Patterson has really disappointed me with this one. The plotline was not even all that exciting, revolving mostly around a court case rather than the serial killer on the loose, and even the secondary plot that is more typical of a Patterson thriller was pretty bad. Usually I burn through books like these in about a day, this one took me three on a vacation with unlimited reading time. I’m not saying it was terrible, but it was just so disappointing. How far the Women’s Murder Club has fallen. It’s sad, really.

2- I didn't care for this particular book, but I'm ok having read it because I know if I hadn't I would wonder about it.  I'll most likely keep reading these books, I like Lindsay and the rest of the group enough to want to know what Patterson ends up doing with all of them, but maybe next time I won’t be in so much of a hurry.