2012 reading: Catch-up (Part 3)

 In an effort to catch up on my reviewing, I'm doing short reviews of every book I've read this year. I'm so far behind!

Title and author: Discardia - Dinah Sanders

Source: Kindle

Rating: 9 out of 10

I'm on a minimalist kick lately. Many minimalism books/blogs are focused on the major things in life: Minimizing your impact on the planet, minimizing your debt, etc. While Discardia does touch on some of that, Sanders also gives a lot of real, down-to-earth advice for those looking to get rid of the crap in their homes. I have yet to actually celebrate a Discardia, but I've put some of her tips into practice in my home.

Title and author: Miss Minimalist: Inspiration to Downsize, Declutter and Simplify - Francine Jay

Source: Kindle

Rating: 8 out of 10

I really liked this collection of short essays on everything from practical decluttering tips to how much of one thing is too much. Jay has an easy-to-read, conversational style of writing that made this a breeze to get through. I would recommend this to anyone considering a life of simplicity.

Title and author: Guest House - Barbara K. Richardson

Source: Author

Rating: 7 out of 10

This was a nice, easy read. At times, I wasn't a big fan of the way the parents were characterized (I really dislike negligent parents as characters), but I realize it was necessary for the plot to pan out the way it did.

Title and author: The Stranger - Albert Camus
Source: Personal library
Rating: 7 out of 10

First, creepy cover, right? I liked this book well enough, but I didn't love it as much as I loved another Camus work (The Plague), so I think that colored my view of this novel. It was a quick, easy read, even though I didn't care for the protagonist at all. While this is held up as Camus's greatest novel, I think The Plague is much more complex and philosophical.

2012 reading: Catch-up (Part 2)

 In an effort to catch up on my reviewing for this year, I'm writing a series of short review posts for every book I've read this year. I'm so far behind!

Title and author: 1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
Source: Library
Rating: 7 out of 10

Whew! This was a slog, but a good one. I wasn't sure, for most of the book, where the story was going, but I think that can be the mark of a good novel. Murakami certainly is a master of the craft. here was something ephemeral, though, that made this difficult to really get behind. I liked it well enough to finish and say that, generally, I enjoyed this book, but not enough that I would read it again.

Title and author: Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things - Randy Frost
Source: Kindle
Rating: 8 out of 10

I find hoarders equal parts fascinating and disturbing, so I read this book with a mixture of curiosity and horror. I liked that Frost was able to really get into the heads of some of his subjects and pull out the reasons behind their hoarding, yet others remained enigmas. This was an easy, interesting read that I powered through in a few sittings.

Title and author: Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal - Conor Grennan
Source: Publisher for review
Rating: 9 out of 10

I'm not usually one for memoirs, or nonfiction for that matter, but this year has been the year of really good nonfiction, and this book is just one of that group. Grennan has not only a talent for writing, and writing well, but also an obvious love for the children he met while volunteering in an orphanage in Nepal. I found myself wanting to meet each of the children and cheering along with Grennan when he had a small victory in his quest. Highly, highly recommended!

Title and author: The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less - Barry Schwartz
Source: Kindle
Rating: 4 out of 10

I really liked the concept behind this book: That having more choices in our everyday lives actually creates much more stress. Unfortunately, that's about as far as this book went. It seemed to repeat all the ways we have choice (OK, I get it. There are TONS of different products in a grocery store! I don't need a whole chapter listing numbers of brands of breakfast cereals) over and over again without really drawing any useful conclusions. It just seemed to me that someone read an academic article on having too much choice, thought it would make a great book and didn't really look at the finished product.

2012 reading: Catch-up (Part 1)

I have been such a slacker with reviewing books since my son was born ... uh ... more than a year ago. I've actually managed to get a decent amount of reading done so far this year, partially thanks to my Christmas gift of a Kindle (Yes, I finally jumped on the digital train), so I'll try to catch up on reviewing what I've read in a series of short reviews.

Title and author: The Help - Kathryn Stockett
Source: Library
Rating: 7 out of 10

I put off reading this book for a long time because I just tend to not read really popular books, but I decided to read it after seeing the movie. I thought the book was really well-written and had a great concept. It showed a side of pre-civil rights life that not everyone thinks about. That being said, I think I would have liked this book more if I had read it before seeing the movie. I just didn't feel the connection with Skeeter that I felt I should have as she was the main protagonist.

Title and author: Room - Emma Donoghue
Source: Library
Rating: 10 out of 10

This is one of those books you hate to love due to its subject matter. Kidnapping and imprisoning a woman, impregnating her and then keeping her and the child locked in a room for five years isn't exactly a feel-good, happy topic, but Donoghue's choice to tell the story through the eyes of Jack was a brilliant one because he had an innocence about the whole topic so the reader didn't feel beaten over the head by the negative subject. I adored Jack. He is probably on my list of Top 5 Favorite Protagonists Ever. I want a 5-year-old just like him (Minus the fact that he's been locked in one room his whole life). Donoghue manages a feat not often mastered: She employs a young, innocent narrator but his narration is not annoying or difficult to read, and I never felt talked-down-to. Jack is just Jack, and he absolutely makes this story. Highly, highly recommended book!

Title and author: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs
Source: Library
Rating: 8 out of 10

The thing that intrigued me the most about this book was the vintage photographs which inspired the story scattered throughout the text. I kept looking back at the photos! Though I didn't really feel a particular connection to any of the characters (I'm not sure why), I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It had a unique concept, it was well-written and made an easy, fun read.

Title and author: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness in the Fair that Changed America - Erik Larson
Source: Kindle edition
Rating: 8 out of 10

I'm not usually one for non-fiction, but a serial killer during the World's Fair in Chicago? Sign me up! Larson actually helped me to like non-fiction because his writing isn't dry. This book read more like a novel than history. My usual Kindle-reading time is when putting my son to bed at night, and I found myself sitting long after he was asleep, reading this book because I wanted to find out what happened. I would recommend this to anyone who is wary of non-fiction. This may just be a gateway book!

Review: The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory

Note: I read this book in 2011, after the publisher graciously sent me a copy (How could I pass up a free ARC of one of my favorite authors??), but haven't gotten around to blogging about it until now. In honor of today's paperback release, here's my review (Finally!)!


Title: The Lady of the Rivers


Author: Philippa Gregory

Pages: 435 (I have an ARC, so pages in the finished copy may be different)

Source: Publisher

Rating: 8/10

Summary (From front of ARC):


Descended from Melusina, the river goddess, Jacquetta has always had the gift of second sight. As a child visiting her uncle, she met his prisoner, Joan of Arc, and saw her own power reflected in the young woman accused of witchcraft. They shared the mystery of the tarot card of the wheel of fortune before Joan was taken to a horrific death at the hands of the English rulers of France. Jacquetta understands the danger for a woman who dares to dream.

Married to the Duke of Bedford, English regent of France, Jacquetta is introduced by him to a mysterious world of learning and alchemy. Her only friend in the great household is the duke's squire Richard Woodville, who is at her side when the duke's death leaves her a wealthy young widow. The two become lovers and marry in secret, returning to England to serve at the court of the young King Henry VI, where Jacquetta becomes a close and loyal friend to his new queen.

The Woodvilles soon achieve a place at the very heart of the Lancastrian court, though Jacquetta can sense the growing threat from the people of England and the danger of royal rivals. Not even their courage and loyalty can keep the House of Lancaster on the throne. Henry the king slides into a mysterious sleep; Margaret the queen turns to untrustworthy favorites for help; and Richard, Duke of York, threatens to overturn the whole kingdom for his rival dynasty.

Jacquetta fights for her king, her queen, and for her daughter Elizabeth, for whom Jacquetta can sense an extraordinary and unexpected future: a change of fortune, the throne of England, and the white rose of York.

My Two Cents:


I may be biased because I seem to just love anything Philippa Gregory writes (Her Elizabethan-era works especially), but this was another great one from her. It has her hallmark talent for character development and minute period detail.

Jacquetta was a really interesting character. I remember the brief glimpses Gregory gave of her in The White Queen, and was intrigued. I'm not very well-versed in this period in history, so I had no knowledge that Jacquetta existed prior to Gregory's introducing her. Boy, did those small peeks into Jacquetta not at all do her justice. She was strong and funny and fierce. And the fact that she lived with a huge secret, a secret that could have cost her and her family dearly, made her all the more real. I really want to look more into the historical person of Jacquetta and learn more about her.

I think my favorite part of this novel was the relationship and love between Jacquetta and Richard. Love stories are everywhere in literature, many of which tend toward the unrealistic when seen in the light of day. Not Jacquetta and Richard. Over the many years covered in the novel, they have their ups and downs and, though they don't spend a ton of time in the same place, run into some of the same day-to-day slog that all couples hit. Yet, they manage to maintain the spark and stay interesting and dynamic as a couple the entire time.

This is another great book in Gregory's Cousins' War series. A must-read for any Gregory or historical fiction fan.

Review: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Title: The Kite Runner

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Pages: 400

Source: Personal library

Rating: 8/10

Summary (From Amazon):

 Hosseini's stunning debut novel starts as an eloquent Afghan version of the American immigrant experience in the late 20th century, but betrayal and redemption come to the forefront when the narrator, a writer, returns to his ravaged homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy's parents are shot during the Taliban takeover in the mid '90s. Amir, the son of a well-to-do Kabul merchant, is the first-person narrator, who marries, moves to California and becomes a successful novelist. But he remains haunted by a childhood incident in which he betrayed the trust of his best friend, a Hazara boy named Hassan, who receives a brutal beating from some local bullies. After establishing himself in America, Amir learns that the Taliban have murdered Hassan and his wife, raising questions about the fate of his son, Sohrab. Spurred on by childhood guilt, Amir makes the difficult journey to Kabul, only to learn the boy has been enslaved by a former childhood bully who has become a prominent Taliban official. The price Amir must pay to recover the boy is just one of several brilliant, startling plot twists that make this book memorable both as a political chronicle and a deeply personal tale about how childhood choices affect our adult lives. The character studies alone would make this a noteworthy debut, from the portrait of the sensitive, insecure Amir to the multilayered development of his father, Baba, whose sacrifices and scandalous behavior are fully revealed only when Amir returns to Afghanistan and learns the true nature of his relationship to Hassan. Add an incisive, perceptive examination of recent Afghan history and its ramifications in both America and the Middle East, and the result is a complete work of literature that succeeds in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation that has become a pivot point in the global politics of the new millennium.

My Two Cents:

Note: I read this all the way back in May, just before my son was born, so my thoughts aren't as immediate and full as they normally are.

This was one powerful novel. I have heard all the buzz about this over the years, and stayed away from it for a while as a result (I don't like reading a book just because it's the latest thing). I almost didn't read it, but I'm glad I chose to.

I had a hard time figuring out how I felt about Amir. I disliked him early on as a result of his attitude toward Hassan. He was privileged, standoffish and snobby. But I had to remind myself that he was just a child and, let's face it, a lot of children are the same way. As the novel went on and we saw more of the adult Amir and his quest to return to Afghanistan, I liked him much more. Sure, his future actions did not excuse his childhood problems, but it turned him into a well-rounded, real, somewhat sympathetic character.

I have not read a whole lot of Middle Eastern fiction, and honestly I know very little about the region, so Hosseini's ability to open up the customs and everyday life of Afghanistan in the 1970s helped me a lot. His descriptions of the city and the lives of its people prior to the Taliban's takeover made the contrast when Amir returns even more stark. It's difficult to imagine that people could survive in conditions such as Amir encountered, but Hosseini's ability to paint a picture for his reader makes even the most unpalatable of situations believable.

This is a well-written, affecting novel that is not for the faint of heart due to some graphic scenes. 

Review: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

Title: Cold Mountain

Author: Charles Frazier

Pages: 449

Source: Personal library

Rating: 8/10

Summary (From back of book):

Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, Inman, a Confederate soldier, decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains and to Ada, the woman he loved there years before. His trek across the disintegrating South brings him into intimate and sometimes lethal converse with slaves and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and malign. At the same time, Ada is trying to revive her father's derelict farm and learn to survive in a world where the old certainties have been swept away.

My Two Cents:

I really like fiction set during the Civil War. In school, studying the 1860s always was one of my favorite things in history classes, so it would make sense that I enjoy fiction set during that era, even though I haven't read a lot of fiction set during this period.

One of my favorite things about this book was how the narration flips between the experiences of Inman as he attempts to return home from the war and Ada, who is trying to care for her father's failing farm. The dual narrative gave both perspectives of the war (Even though we hardly had any actual battle narration), so it wasn't all war and it wasn't all the struggle to survive. I liked that we got to see both sides of the experience.

I really liked all the main characters, too. It's not often that I like even the unsavory characters, like Stobrod, but even he had his fiddling obsession that kind of endeared him to me. At first, I wasn't sure I was going to like Ada. She seemed like nothing more than a damsel in distress who just kind of said, "Well, I don't know how to do any of this stuff around the farm, and I'm not really going to try." But, when Ruby comes along, Ada changes drastically and I really grew to like her.

My favorite parts of this book were Inman's interactions with various types of people in his travels. No matter what was doled out to him, he didn't become overly vicious or greedy; he simply treated people the way they treated him and he went out of his way to help those who needed the extra assistance. I also thought seeing the imagined experiences of people on the fringes of society added to the richness of the ambiance set out in this book.

I realize I'm probably about the last person on the planet to have read this book (And I haven't seen the movie, either!), but if there's someone out there who likes historical fiction and really interesting narratives who hasn't read this novel yet, give it a try.

Review: Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood

Title: Cat's Eye

Author: Margaret Atwood

Pages: 446

Source: Personal library

Rating: 8/10

Summary (From book flap):

Painter Elaine Risley, pushing fifty, returns from Vancouver to Toronto for a retrospective of her work, which has been much celebrated by the women's movement and much attacked from other quarters.

Toronto is the city she fled many years earlier, hoping to leave behind the tyrannical and obsessive memories of her early life there -- from her post-World War II school days and fifties adolescence, through the avant-garde art scene of the sixties, to the advent of feminism in the early seventies.

Now, as she wanders the streets of the city, which are no longer puritanical and dowdy but resplendent with eighties glitz, Elaine confronts the submerged layers of her past -- her unconventional family, her eccentric and brilliant brother, the self-righteous and dangerous Mrs. Smeath, and the two men Elaine later came to love in diverse and sometimes disastrous ways. But it is the enigmatic Cordelia, once her tormentor, then her best friend, whose elusive yet powerful presence in her life Elaine finally comes to understand.

My Two Cents:

At first, I wasn't sure how I was going to like this novel. It didn't capture me right away like the other two Atwood works I've read, but as I continued reading, it had me hooked.

I really liked Elaine as a main character, although I liked her better in her younger form than as the mature, adult narrator. She had an unconventional childhood, especially for the first eight years of her life. She really, to me, seemed like someone I would have liked to have as a friend as a child. With a lot of her interactions with Cordelia, especially, she spoke to me as having a very typical young girl experience with groups of mean girls. Elaine was just a character who was easy to relate to and to see in myself and a lot of people I know.

While much of this book happens in the past and there really isn't a whole lot of action as far as everything in the book is leading up to this huge climax, I was incredibly interested in where Atwood was going to go. I liked that we saw Elaine as an adult, so we know how she turned out, but we were able to see her evolution and how she became the adult she is.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Margaret Atwood or who just wants an interesting story that will keep you reading much longer than you had planned.

Review: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Title: Gilead

Author: Marilynne Robinson

Pages: 247

Source: Personal library

Rating: 8/10

Summary (From book flap):

In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowa preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He "preached men into the Civil War," then, at age fifty, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle. Reverend Ames writes to his son about the tension between his father -- an ardent pacifist -- and his grandfather, whose pistol and bloody shirts, concealed in an army blanket, may be relics from the fight between the abolitionists and those settlers who wanted to vote Kansas into the Union as a slave state. And he tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his namesake, John Ames Boughton, his best friend's wayward son.

This is also the tale of another remarkable vision -- not a corporeal vision of God by the vision of life as a wondrously strange creation. It tells how wisdom was forged in Ames's soul during his solitary life, and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten.

My Two Cents:

I thought this was a really interesting book. I don't read a whole lot of epistolary fiction, especially epistolary fiction told only by one person. I did start to get a little frustrated (I think part of it was because I was starting in on the latter portion of the 24-hour Read-a-Thon) because, since the book is told through one person's letters and one person's point of view, the plot did not develop in any really linear fashion. As I was reading, I wasn't so fond of that device, but after I had finished the book and reflected on it a bit, I think the device worked better for telling the story than any traditional narrative would have.

Robinson's writing is really easy to read, but still very rich and descriptive. I liked how she was able to bring her own narrative style forward while still keeping the voice believable as coming out of Ames's mouth. I never have read a Robinson book before, but I think I will give some others a try.

Review: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Title: Great Expectations

Author: Charles Dickens

Pages: 468

Source: Personal library

Rating: 8/10

Summary (From back of book):

In an overgrown churchyard, a grizzled convict springs upon an orphan boy named Pip. The convict terrifies Pip and threatens to kill him unless Pip helps further his escape. Later, Pip finds himself in the ruined garden where he meets the embittered and crazy Miss Havisham and her foster child Estella, with whom he immediately falls in love. After a secret benefactor gives him a fortune, Pip moves to London, where he cultivates great expectations for a life which would allow him to discard his impoverished beginnings and socialize with the idle upper class. As Pip struggles to become a gentleman and is tormented endlessly by the beautiful Estella, he slowly learns the truth about himself and his illusions.

My Two Cents:

I've always liked Charles Dickens. I think I get that from my grandma, as he was her favorite author when she was younger. There's just something about sitting down with a Dickens novel, snuggled under a blanket, that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, even if the novel is kind of grim.


Pip is just such a poor excuse for a person. I could not like him, nor could I feel sorry for him. Luckily, he started to redeem himself near the end of the book, but I still didn't find him a sympathetic character. When his prospects looked up, he completely turned his back on Joe and Biddy, people who had done nothing but help him. There was no indication that he used his money or new status to help anyone (Outside of helping Herbert advance in business) for any sort of good. And his obsession with Estella. Ugh. I found absolutely zero redeeming qualities in her that would warrant a nearly life-long obsession.

I wish we could have seen more of Joe and Biddy. They were definitely the best characters in this book (Herbert was all right, too). I know that was Dickens' intention: To show how money and a fine upbringing does not always make one a better person. I just wish we could have had more time with them. And I just love how they get their sort of "happily ever after."

Since I've read a few Dickens novels, I shouldn't be surprised by all the coincidence the reader is asked to swallow. I went into this novel knowing there would be some really crazy happenstance, but I still had a hard time dealing with a lot of what I was asked to believe. Really? Every single person in this novel is connected to everyone else, even if it's just by association? That's not how real life is. It certainly makes for some interesting revelations, but I had a difficult time suspending my disbelief after the first few big reveals.

If you're a fan of Dickens and his contemporaries, or you just want a good, large-scale novel, give this book a try.

Review: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories by Washington Irving

Title: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories

Author: Washington Irving

Pages: 190

Source: Personal library

Rating: 8/10

Summary:

Washington Irving is one of the most read and the most unread of authors. In his own day, of course, he was very widely read both in America and England. His writings caught the current fancy for romanticism, for local color, for sentiment, for nostalgia, for humor. In spite of this past popularity, it is doubtful how much of Irving's writing is still read today. Dust-covered sets of Irving's complete works probably appear in the second-hand bookstores as often as do those of Longfellow of Lowell, or any of the other traditional classics of American literature whose reputations have been revised downwards in recent years. Yet a few of Irving's writings, above all "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," are still very widely read. It is a rare general anthology of the short story that does not contain one or both of these stories, but it is an even rarer one that has anything more by Irving. A collection such as this one, which ranges more generously over Irving's whole work, may not only teach us why Irving was once so popular but may suggest that Irving has more to offer a modern reader than just his two most famous stories.

My Two Cents:

I've grown up hearing "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle," but never read them in their entirety. It's very obvious that, in the telling and re-telling, things get a little twisted from the originals.

I liked the two most popular stories well enough, but there are several great stories in this short anthology. Irving wove many different types of tales, from suspenseful thrillers to stories of early American life.

My favorite probably was "The Specter Bridegroom," which tells the story of a young woman's plans to marry a soldier who is engaged in battle on his wedding night. I won't give anything away, but, even though the ending is somewhat expected, it is still a suspenseful and well-written story.

I can see why Irving isn't as widely read as he used to be. His language and writing style certainly are archaic and don't appeal to a very broad modern audience. But, once you're able to get past the fact that he wrote nearly 200 years ago, you will find some enjoyable, original stories from one of the first masters of American literature.