The Art of Racing in the Rain

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love reading books from an animal's perspective.  Reminded me of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.  I am one of those people that believes, truly believes, that dogs know our thoughts, and especially our hearts.  Because I read this for book club, and we've already discussed it, I am forgetting which thoughts are mine and which are the other girls', so I can't write a proper review.  I think everyone agreed that the ending of this book was perfect to remedy the angst throughout, and combat the sadness that was inevitable.  I loved it.  I have also been much nicer to my dog for the last two days.

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Bossypants

Bossypants by Tina Fey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Don't be confused about a 5 start rating for this book and think it is the same as Gone with the Wind, but it is really great.  If you need a book that will make you laugh and teach you more about a the genius that is Tina Fey, this is your book.

Also, it cures the problem that arises when you cannot think about anything in depth because your mind has turned to mush filled with nightmares of baby blow-outs, baby-napping and missing feedings.  It cures this problem because you can continue to feel good about yourself because you are at least reading a book with words.


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Dracula

Dracula by Bram Stoker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It took me a while to finally finish this book, but I ended up really liking it.  The trouble was I was expecting more detail, and more explanations to why we believe certain vampire lore today, and it ended up not giving me that. This book was scandalous when it came out, and it's a shame I can't transport myself to that time when it would seem scandalous to me, too.  Really, it was like a very watered down version of something you'd read today.  Like trying to make tea with a used teabag.  So much for avoiding desensitization.

The other thing, was the big deal about this woman, Lucy.  The three men avenging her Dracula-induced death were unequivocally in love with her.  There is no explanation why, or even a redeeming quality possessed by this meek little woman, to warrant such gallant behavior out of her three suitors.  I get it that we needed this situation for the story, but we've come a long way in developing female heroines and I'll take today's version of Hermione over Stoker's Mina and Lucy thank you very much.


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the perks of being a wallflower

I really did think the characters were adorable. But realistic? Maybe not. I think a real life wallflower would be super lucky to have friends like Charlie found, and go through high school with such a great mentor as Bill was. And the issues piling on top of one another were almost too much. I wanted more. that's all. but i liked it. Good book club book since I am struggling through Of Human Bondage. Yikes.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Parts of this I found I loved, and parts I did not. I really loved reading about Boston, and the landmarks- also the theme of displacement. We can all relate to that a little bit, right? I loved reading about his trip to New Hampshire with Maxine, which made me homesick for Sunapee and lake bathing.
We will always feel a generation apart from our parents-even embarrassed of them as we grow up- but this book put it in a perspective that was interesting to read about. It's true it wasn't really a story- more like anecdotes tied together about relationships and mundane things. The end was depressing for me, and anticlimactic. Soooo, I would probably take away even more stars from my rating had it not been set in New England.



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The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I really loved this book and don't know why it took me so long to finally read it. Most of the message is consistent to what I already believe, or know, or have heard...but it's always difficult (and expensive, and time consuming) putting what you know about food into your every day eating habits. So here's to a healthy rest of the summer.



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Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


funnier and cuter than i expected! Great little read.
What i kept noticing, was that this book was written in 1999! Crazy! A few internet and cell phone references- as well as the news about Charles and Camilla getting together- made it kind of fun to remember... I could not stop imagining Colin Firth, and that made it even easier to read. love him.



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Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I don't really have anything to say about this except I am recording that I read it on my blog and goodreads. I felt generally creeped out by this book and uninterested in vampires as a result. I think I thought for a second that I should read it because it was pretty popular when it came out, and now you can't turn around without seeing a vampire TV show or new book series. Maybe it was the vampire mothership?

Then I decided to watch the movie afterwards in case it would make me feel better about myself for reading this, since it was a pretty big movie in 1994? I must have been a busy 3rd grader to have missed it. Stephanie Meyer was 100% an Anne Rice fan though. She had to have been, because the descriptions in Twilight and this are too close for comfort.

That's all. Don't read it unless you are a total vampire lover and want to time travel for the movie premier to be undisturbed by the special effects and a blonde Tom Cruise. I want my weekend back.



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Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just wanted to give this book a review really fast, even though I finished it a little while ago...
I read Bastard because it's been sitting on my shelf for about 3 years.  My cousin Amelia was reading it for her AP High School english class, so I thought I'd tag along.  First of all, I can't believe they read this book in high school.  It was such a horrible story. Horrible.  Greg would ask me what was wrong when he caught me reading because my face was always contorted with worry or angst.  It was so well written though, and Allison really conveyed Bone's, (our narrator) fear and that awful feeling of being stuck due to circumstance.  My anger with her mother was palpable.  It reminded me of reading The Glass Castle, and how frustrating it was for these children, born to poor families, who did not really understand there were options beyond the life they were living.  Bone's strength was incredible.  Makes you think, doesn't it?  Makes me feel lucky, that's for sure.


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Room by Emma Donoghue

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What a trip. Told entirely in the perspective of a five year old, Room grabbed hold of me for two days and I couldn't get out.
Jack and his mother are locked inside an 11x11 room by a man, 'Old Nick' and the story unravels from there. The story of Jack and Ma's plight was gripping, but the things that kept me reading were all the discoveries and explanations Jack came up with to cope with his living conditions. A story of survival, escape, family and how we call things home.... Great summer read. Or spring read if you are already pretending it's summer vacation.



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Peony in Love by Lisa See

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Well the first thing you should know about reading this book is that it’s a ghost story. You have to really suspend disbelief considering it’s also historical fiction. what?



The scenery was beautiful, and the descriptions of chinese customs, especially marriage and burial ceremonies were so intricate and specific, that I’m glad i’m not a chinese girl back in the 1600s.

1700s?

I don’t know.



I’ll always appreciate some feminist lit though, and you get a little of that as Peony takes you along for the ride as women find their voices and begin to be published as poets and critics... The entire middle was ugly, like insecure jealous-ugly, and you’d think a ghost would be able to have some more perspective instead of ruining some mortal peoples’ lives. spoiler alert.



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Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The thought came to me many times as I was reading that I am too literal for Vonnegut's writing. I wish we had read this in school and I'd had a teacher telling me what everything means, how to think about it, and what to take from Slaughterhouse. What I did decide is the time travel parts were maybe meant to show us earthlings that while we have free will on our planet, there are some things that are inevitable and unavoidable. War and its destructiveness is one of those things. Death is another of those things. Poor Billy Pilgrim's life was so disrupted by both, and yet he remained like little boy the whole time. So it goes.
I cannot believe Dresden happened, but what an interesting way to read about it- in a way that would not, because he could not, describe the horrific experience in a play by play way. Books like this are challenging for me.

I don't know if I have ever read anything by Kurt Vonnegut before this, but I think now I will have to read more..




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Gone with the Wind

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

i'm not qualified to write a review about this books, seeing as there are already so many out there, and it is considered (by some) as one of the best, or the best american novel...
BUT.  i will write my thoughts before i forget and then this book just adds to the lists of books i've read and i'll say when someone asks, "yeah i loved it!"

-i was annoyed with scarlett for a lot of the book.  i think that is the idea, right?  i also admired her, and sympathized with her and cheered for her- especially  when she came back to atlanta and started working her butt off, and making the best of the situation to send money back to Tara.  that is gumption.  but then she married frank, hired convicts at the mill, and resented her children.  there was no line.  that was awful.  there was still something amazing about her attitude, that she could get through any hardship and Margaret Mitchell's interview about this book even stated that she was writing about people with this kind of an attitude- why some could endure tragic things and other people were too broken and could not.  i guess, because of these contradictions, scarlett is that beloved character-one who battled through a war we will never understand- so unique to the time, but also struggled with decisions we all have to make at some point in our lives.  what to compromise: family, work, security, love- which value dims so the other can flourish?

-the scarlett/rhett back and forth was so exciting at first!  i lived for those passages and exchanges between war updates...  but at the end... i know there'd been hardship and horrible things spoken between them, but how she could not have humbled herself, EVER, up to that point- or control her temper to give a little.  it can't be win win win for you all the time.  Also, with scarlett and rhett, the lack of communication and humility resulted in the loss of something that could have been so great.  maybe we are supposed to be optimistic about scarlett getting rhett back again after the novel was through, but he was so broken.  It broke my heard to read through rhett's pain and the loss of bonnie.

-rhett kept saying they were the same, and a perfect match for one another, but he always had perspective!  and scarlett never did.  she could not see herself for what she was, but then appreciated rhett so much because she could be herself in front of him.   Rhett, also demanded honesty from scarlett, but never gave it in return.  she never seemed to know the difference, or know/care to ask for it, but he was above her on so many levels.  yet he chose to indulged her. love is blind.

-the anger scarlett had for melanie was driven by jealousy at first, but how can it take so long to realize she had love for this woman, too?  especially at ashley's surprise birthday party when melanie asks scarlett to receive with her after india wilkes spreads the adultery story. the could have been the grandest gesture of the book- and its significance could not have been lost on scarlett.... but then again, so many things were lost on scarlett.  the world does need more people like melanie.  so naive, but with an inner strength.  she might have been my favorite.

-ashley's character made me too sad.  it was true that he couldn't conform to the new era.  the lack of communication is so frustrating, and i could not for the life of me see what scarlett was holding on to for so long.  a childhood fantasy, really.  just the fact that she thought he loved her was enough for her, but it didn't even occur to her to check if she could really love him back.

i do not even know if this is coherent.  i loved this book and the time invested in reading it was so worth it.  such characters are not found easily and i will always love them now.  ok that's all.


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The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Yep, I liked it. It did not change my life, like Phil said it would on Modern Family, but maybe it should have. When I told my mom about my 3 star review of this book, we talked about the fact that there are lots of books like this- about WWII and children, (Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Summer of My German Soldier, Anne Frank of course) and they are all heartbreaking. She said that even if we are saturated in with novels and movies, we have to remember and learn about these things regardless, because World War II is not fiction at all.

I appreciated the perspective from a German child's POV, and oh my, the Rudy/Liesel relationship was so heartbreaking. The whole book was sad, but not Life of Pi sad where you realize he's going to make it. Just sad where you can't believe this actually happened.



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Here be Dragons

Here be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

before this it was the Pillars of the Earth with Stephan and Maud, and then lots and lots of Robin Hood readings.  I am stuck in the Richard/John era of Medieval England.  Here be Dragons was a perfect book addition- about Llywelyn, Prince of Wales, and his romance with Joanna- or Joan in other places- natural daughter of King John.  Very interesting history lesson for that period of time- and for Wales, too, which I know nothing about.  Too much loyalty struggle for Joanna between her husband and her evil King dad.  That is this only problem.

funny note- the title is a lie.  there are no dragons, but Mapmakers used to draw out as much as they possible could, and then on the outskirts, or unknown territory would write, "here be dragons".  That is a funny way to think about the unknown.  I'd rather imagine unicorns.

...also,  I love that I can fact-check while I'm reading, because apparently Sharon Kay Penman is meticulous in her research.   Joanna and Llywelyn's romance is not document too much, as far as I could find, but there is a general consensus of Llywelyn's terrible grief at her death.


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The Thirteenth Tale

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The only problem with this book was the fact that one mystery at a time wasn't enough for this author.  It felt like Setterfield was trying to compare Margaret's present day story and struggle with the memoir she was transcribing for Vida Winter.  Vida's story had me perfectly captivated though.  Sad, and haunting.  Good read.
I also learned a lot about the author, Diane Setterfield as I was reading- some as a result of my own interest to see if her life was anything like either of the women she wrote about, but also because the friend who recommended this book, told me she had a pretty crazy past.  I'll read that memoir when it comes out. yessir.


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east of eden

East of Eden by John Steinbeck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Isn't it funny when you re-read a book you were forced to read and you get so much more out of it?  Loving it because you're supposed to is not the same as loving it because you really do.  I love how Steinbeck writes.  He is maybe one of my favorite authors.  Or the favorite.  So many little books that make you feel because he develops the story properly.  And those characters.  oh man!  I admit I had to do some research on Cain and Abel's story again.  I find the concept of repeated story themes so interesting- and learned more about the Biblical story repeats than I was planing on simultaneously.  Is there a book about that?

Go back and fulfill you're 10th grade summer reading list one more time. ok?


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sci-fi for tweens

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I know this is a beloved book, so don't hate me for saying this.
There are some young adult books that I gobble up and pay no attention to the predictability and uninspiring writing.   I got through Twilights 1-3 so that I could have conversations about them with my sisters-in-law and will probably read book 4 when the movie comes out.  I am a die hard Harry Potter lover, and hold all of those books close to my heart.  I have put off reading Hunger Games because I'm sure I will enjoy them, but they'll be more of them same same same.  So.  Even though Ender's Game appeals to my inner Sci-fi dork and fantasy lover, and it was a great young adult story that touches on many conspiracy theory issues-gov't, war, politics, the future of our youth, etc....I have recently been struggling through War and Peace.  My brain couldn't come down two notches to this straightforward story and I think the excitement was lost on me.  I felt like Orson Scott Card explained every situation outright without giving you a chance to draw conclusions from what you know about the nature of each character on your own.  This is frustrating and I know if I'd read this book another time, that I would not have been so hard on it.  Great story and idea.  Bad timing.  I wish i did not have the author's edition either, because in the foreword he addresses all kind of criticisms he has heard about his book.  It was difficult to overlook them while I was reading.
That is all I have to say about that.  Lo siento.


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girl.power.

Jeffrey Zaslow writes for the Wall Street Journal, and a few years ago wrote an article about women's relationships and how women are healthier and happier when they have long-term female friends.  His article generated lots of responses- from women all over the country who wanted to share their own stories.  From these responses he met a woman from Ames, Iowa and decided to write about her and her 11 friends.  This is the story I read:

It was interesting because it made me think of all of my old friends from Boston.  Most of the women of the 11 had known each other since elementary school, and the girls I've kept in touch with most from home, and sisters are like that.  It's like you can't really sneak anything by the people who've known you for that long.  It was fun to try and remember each woman by their stories, but I found myself labeling them as 'the Dr.'s daughter', 'the failed marriage', 'the one who's daughter died', 'the liberal'...etc.  I think there was a lot more to each of them than the book could possibly explain, but overall, a wonderful story showing strengths and struggles from 5- 45 years. cute.

clones

I have been getting in some good summer reading the past couple of months....
First of all, has anyone seen this preview?
It gave me chills and reminded me of Atonement, so I had to read the book.

Plus I am currently on a quick bestseller/classic-lit rotation schedule, and this quickie fit the bill...
Never Let Me Go is a bestseller, I guess: "One of the best books of the decade" says the NYT.
ok yes please.

So I read it, and everything was mysterious.  I just wanted to KNOW.  Ishiguro takes you on a flashback ride.  It was beautifully written, but didn't end how I wanted it to, and made me sadder than I wanted to be.  You'd think in the future they'd have things figured out a little better.