Sunday, July 29, 2012

The Truth About Butterflies by Nancy Stephan

So I've already confessed my morbid interest in books about school shootings.  I may have reached a new level of morbidity with my latest book choice, The Truth About Butterflies: it is a memoir about a mother's loss of her only daughter.

The thing is, it isn't just about that.  The author, Nancy Stephan, also describes her struggles with losing her own mother, being put into foster care, and dealing with the racism that comes from being interracial.  Of course, the majority focuses on the loss of her daughter, Nicole, who was diagnosed with diabetes at an early age and had medical troubles for years after.  She details the battles they faced in the hospitals with dialysis and then later when Nicole was put on a ventilator.  The book slips in and out of chronological order so you are never really bogged down with the sad, medical stuff or Nicole's death.

I think Nancy wrote with just enough emotion - it wasn't overly sentimental, it wasn't depressing, it was matter-of-fact, detailed, interesting, and yet, you definitely feel the sadness and the bond between this mother and her daughter.

If you don't mind such heavy topics, I do recommend the book.  It's a free read on Kindle, so there's an added bonus!

Monday, July 23, 2012

The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner

The Bachelorette has become one of my guilty pleasures.  I blame it on the combination of Jesse always working late on Monday nights, leaving me home alone and bored, and the numerous #Bachelorette tweets on my feed.  I was to weak to resist.
One particular set of tweets were retweets from someone who followed Jennifer Weiner, a successful author who is just as widely known for her live tweets of the Bachelor and Bachelorette.  The tweets were hilarious, so I started following her myself.  As the season progressed, when Jennifer wasn't tweeting about the show, she tweeted about the release of her new book, "The Next Best Thing."  Although I thought she obviously had a great sense of humor, her self-promotion (although necessary) annoyed me, so I wasn't too curious to buy the book.
Then one of her short stories (Swim) popped up as a free read from Amazon.  I read it and really liked it, and, as it turned out, her novel was based on the main character from the short story (nice job, Amazon).  So of course, I wanted to know what had happened to Ruth, the girl who's face was severely scarred from a car accident that killed her parents.  This girl, this insecure yet witty girl who swam as an escape and who struggled with life in LA after heartbreak and rejection.  I had to know - did she find her happy ending?

So I purchased and read "The Next Best Thing"... and, at the end, left thinking I should have stuck with the tweets and short stories of Jennifer Weiner's.  Although the storyline was unique and interesting, and I applaud Jennifer for having a nontraditional hero (which she states is one of her main reasons for choosing to continue Ruth's story), I just didn't care for the book overall.

Ruth writes a sitcom which gets picked up by a network.  The process of being chosen to being on air was interesting, and probably realistic since the author has experience writing a television show, and that kept me reading.  But the descriptions were overdone (remember, I enjoy Fitzgerald's concise characters and details), causing me to flip and skim more than read.  For example, when Ruth enters the main office of what later becomes her mentors, it is described as, "I shook my head, looking around as Dave helped himself to a Fresca and the little dog - Pocket - crunched up her treat, licked her lips, then began chewing on a cylinder of red rubber.  The office, up on the eighth floor overlooking Alameda Avenue, was large and sunny, with big windows that let in plenty of light.  It was equipped with couches and chairs and beigey-gray carpet that had most likely come from some office supply warehouse........."  It keeps going and going.  I'm sure some readers enjoy this - they get a clear picture of the setting and the characters.  It just isn't for me.

My only other complaint with the book is there were two sex scenes that seemed completely random and out of place.  The book just didn't feel like "that kind of book" and it totally threw me when those scenes began.  It didn't seem necessary.

Regardless, as I stated earlier, Jennifer Weiner is to be applauded for choosing characters that are more "real" (Ruth isn't the only one - the love interest in a man in a wheelchair).  It's refreshing to see that.  And her storyline is unique and intriguing.

However, I don't know that I'd recommend her.

Well, unless you like the Bachelorette.  Then by all means, follow her on Twitter.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

A friend of mine, Holly Wooten, recently posted a Facebook status that read: "If you would like to read a book this summer that does not involve vampires, teenagers fighting for their lives, or a shade of grey, try Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan. Great read."  

Well, with the exception of the "teenagers fighting for their lives" part, I felt as if Holly was speaking directly to my soul.  She knows me well, because just a few days later, she was pulling in my drive to deliver Maine, confident that I would enjoy it.  She was right.

Maine is not a book you read for the plot - there were no twists and turns, no detective work or real suspense.  It is a book you read for the characters.  This particular book focuses on four different characters: the elderly mother, Alice, who has wrestled with demons from her childhood her entire life, who is sarcastic and sometimes hateful and yet, lovable; her daughter, Kathleen, a recovering alcoholic who lives in California on a "worm farm" and who really doesn't like her mother much; her daughter-in-law, Ann Marie, the perfect stay-at-home mother who decorates doll houses, cooks everything from scratch, and wants desperately to find peace; and her granddaughter, Kathleen's daughter, Maggie, a twenty-something who finds herself pregnant, single, and confused.

Each of the girls has her own problems, her own struggles with life, but more importantly, her own way of expressing how much she loves her family.  Almost any woman can identify with one of the characters in some way (Holly liked Ann Marie, I liked Maggie...  and I wonder if our choices somehow reflect our own personalities or struggles).

Holly put it best.  If you would like a 'great read' without the drama or the sex, pick up Maine.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Road is yet another book I stubbornly refused to read for awhile, even after a glowing recommendation from an intelligent former student.  I listened to him describe it and downloaded it that very night - but after a couple of pages, I grew bored, stopped reading, and forgot all about it.
Then, the book started getting attention in the world of AP English.  I kept hearing the title from other teachers and my curiosity piqued.  I decided to try it again.  Man, am I glad I did.  
But you wanna talk about depressing?  Read this book.  Better yet, watch this movie.  You may not smile for days.  The book is worth it.  The movie? Eh, not as much.  But that review is for someone else to write...

The book is a post-apocalyptic novel focusing on a father and son's journey to the south.  Although it is never revealed what destroyed most of the earth, and killed almost everyone, the setting is described as covered in ash and it seemed to happen over night.  The father and son are two of the only "good guys" left in the world, as most humans have resulted to cannibalism in order to survive.  They are headed south in order to find warmer weather because the father does not think they can survive another winter in their current location.  

Some of the scenes described in this book are so haunting - and the fact that it is 2012 makes the book even more troubling.  Although the entire book is about these two people walking down a road, right when you think you've read too much description, BAM, you are smacked in the face with a horrific even that carries you through the next few pages and makes you desperate for another, simpler paragraph.  

McCarthy's style is very unique.  He pays no attention to proper sentence structure (although the short, incomplete sentences seem to fit right along with the tone).  He does not use any punctuation except commas and periods, and a very occasional colon.  He does not even use quotation marks.  

I watched an interview with McCarthy about this novel and he said it was a love story to his son.  If you do read it, keep that in your mind.  He did not write this book to describe how he envisions the end of the world - he wrote to describe a beautiful relationship between a father and his son.  That is the shining light in this dark novel.

I reread the book this past year when my AP class read it and found an even greater appreciation for it.  I started to notice the frequent use of biblical language, I paid more attention to the changes in the son, and I relished some of the language he uses.  For all the ugliness described, it is a beautiful book.


Along Came a Spider by James Patterson

Maybe I'd asked for a book recommendation.  Maybe I was scanning her bookshelf.  Maybe she just recognized a budding reader in me.  I don't remember.  What I do remember, though, is my junior English teacher, Mrs. Jayne Hogan, giving me a book by Mary Higgins Clark and telling me I should read it.
I did, and I was immediately hooked.
For the next several years, I read every one of her books I could get my hands on.  I loved the thrill of the mystery, trying to figure out "whodunit" before the end of the book.
However, after years of analyzing classic literature in my pursuit of an English degree at Bellarmine, I started to lose my passion for Mary Higgins (and others I'd grown to love such as Iris Johansen).  I forgot the thrill of the mystery, and instead discovered the thrill of symbolism, complex characters, and surprising plots.  
However, I recently asked my dad, an avid reader, if he ever read my blog.  He said, "Yes, but I think you should write about the authors I like!  What's wrong with authors like James Patterson?"

Challenge accepted.

That night, I downloaded the cheapest Patterson book I could find on Amazon - Along Came a Spider (just $3.99!) and I've kept my nose ... to the Kindle.. ever since.  So Dad, this blog is for you, and all you other mystery-lovers out there. (but here is your warning - I cannot write about him with the knowledge of my dad!)

As soon as I started this book, I knew I'd read some of Patterson's before because I remembered his character of Alex Cross.  Cross, a detective/psychologist, is the main character and one of the many narrators in the novel, and I think he appears in several of Patterson's works.  This particular book focuses on one of the most evil villains (Gary Soneji) I've ever read about.  Since he also narrates several chapters, you see just how demented he is - he takes pride in his killings and his intelligence makes him incredibly dangerous.  The book focuses mainly on the investigation behind a kidnapping of two children; although it seems obvious that Soneji is guilty of the kidnapping, it gets much more complicated throughout the story.  With lots of twists and surprises, the book is definitely a page-turner.  Right when you think you've figured it out, and things are about to be resolved, another surprise occurs.  

The storyline is disturbing -- I actually had a nightmare last night in which I killed someone and I blame that entirely on the fact that I fell asleep with my Kindle in my hand - but it keeps you on your toes.  

If you enjoy mysteries, definitely check out some James Patterson.  Or Mary Higgins Clark. She's pretty awesome too.