2013
Just read quite a few escapist books which I don't even need to post here. Fractured by author Karin Slaughter is worth mentioning just because I liked one of the main characters, a man with dyslexia that he manages to hide. Anyway, I don't read enough detective stories to say for sure, but I suspect that this has become the fashion... Your detective needs something to set him/her apart from the crowd. In fact I just heard a review on NPR of another detective story in which the detective has the same disease that the author has in real life, a form of turrets (which I don't know how to spell). So, I was drawn into the story by this character, but I'm not raving about this to anyone who actually reads the genre regularly and would probably find it much less "new" than I did.
Oh, I finally finished Putas Asesinas by BolaNo. My hubby had raved about it and I had read the first two stories and been pretty underwhelmed. This time I hated the first story (again) but liked the second and kept reading and realized that I had been judging it all this time without having ever read it. So, I liked it a lot more. The first story and the story for which the collection was names were the weakest. I assigned the football story to L to practice his Spanish, and only after I had assigned it did I remember that the protagonist regularly visits whores at the beginning of the story. Sigh. I have said this before, but I do worry about my youngest son; sometimes I think he has a fairly misogynist world view which has been strengthened by our open-minded approach to the movies he can watch. (oops, I'm wandering). This story wasn't misogynist so much as it was just one more bit of evidence (for L.) that men visit whores (read: most men, real men).
Sept. 2011
Duncan the Wonder Dog... Weird - there is no author name on this graphic novel. Anyway, three brief comments about this. 1) I recommend it. 100% thought provoking. 2) It received good reviews and the first printing sold out quickly. My husband kept his eye out until they finally printed a second "batch." So, kudos to the mystery author. 3) I'm sorry - I knowa real book reviewer would never make this comment - but I had to use a magnifying glass to read it unless I had great light. So... at times I was almost mad at the author for wasting so much space in the book. I know it's all about art, but give a poor old lady a break. Jeesh...
August 30, 2011
Read the second half of The Magicians (called The Magician King). I'm going to check out other peoples' reviews, but - in my opinion - this was a better book.
Why? The first book was uneven, as I said - combined some really fun or compelling sections with others that didn't feel as vital or necessary. It had a chronological structure that, I think, at times created a feel of... filler. I won't repeat myself about the overly melodramatic pages toward the end. Darn! Just repeated myself.
The Magician King is still sort of chronological because it's following a story line, BUT it also interweaves the back story of one of the characters. Because the author doesn't give us this part in such a logical order (it's more a holistic approach) and he doesn't really cover everything - it makes me wonder why we had to get the first book (the story of Quentin) the way we did.
The chronology in this second book also works better because it isn't trying to cover 7 or 8 years of somebody's life, including the slow parts (like the first book did)... Anyway, in spite of any faults I point out, I wouldn't recommend reading the second book without the first. Getting deep into this universe was worth the extra pages - and even with some slow parts, the characters grow up/develop in a real way.
I will not make this a spoiler. I will say that I personally liked the conclusion of this two part series.
It must be really hard to end this sort of epic work. I've read more than a few books like this where the ending takes away from the book. (Jonathan Strange...) So, I'm interested to see what others think of the conclusion.
August 3, 2011
The Magicians First I didn't like it, then I did (a lot). In fact I think I mentioned this book in a post here in this blog. After reading one of my favorite sections, I got all profound about... well, me... & human nature?? In the end, however, I have to rate this book a little lower. It's a 7 at most. The good parts are very good (and the adventure has some fantastic moments). The author is creative and his universe is thought provoking. I like it that he raises difficult questions about how his characters find meaning in life: these are people who can use magic to get what they want, and many of them don't deal well with existential struggles. What, for me, keeps this good book from being more is that parts of it feel like the author had an outline and he's writing every section; some of them aren't as important or compelling, but they still have to be in there. Most guilty is the very last section for me... The hero decides to renounce magic (and this is one of the points in which the universe which the author creates is not as coherent to me). Through his magic contacts he gets a plush job which he shows up for every day, but does nothing... The entire section felt a little false to me, a little melodramatic, a little unnecessary. Very last page, three old friends show up outside his window inviting him to come along on a magic adventure. Stay tuned for book two (and, yes, I will look for it and read the it).
............................................................................
Well, I have read some decent fiction since writing the blurb about The Beggar Maid... But, I guess it hasn't been very memorable. Still, finally, I've finished something worth recommending. Once again, it's an old book. I was at the library the day after the library book sale, and they were begging us to take home tons of books. I picked some things at random.
Just read quite a few escapist books which I don't even need to post here. Fractured by author Karin Slaughter is worth mentioning just because I liked one of the main characters, a man with dyslexia that he manages to hide. Anyway, I don't read enough detective stories to say for sure, but I suspect that this has become the fashion... Your detective needs something to set him/her apart from the crowd. In fact I just heard a review on NPR of another detective story in which the detective has the same disease that the author has in real life, a form of turrets (which I don't know how to spell). So, I was drawn into the story by this character, but I'm not raving about this to anyone who actually reads the genre regularly and would probably find it much less "new" than I did.
Oh, I finally finished Putas Asesinas by BolaNo. My hubby had raved about it and I had read the first two stories and been pretty underwhelmed. This time I hated the first story (again) but liked the second and kept reading and realized that I had been judging it all this time without having ever read it. So, I liked it a lot more. The first story and the story for which the collection was names were the weakest. I assigned the football story to L to practice his Spanish, and only after I had assigned it did I remember that the protagonist regularly visits whores at the beginning of the story. Sigh. I have said this before, but I do worry about my youngest son; sometimes I think he has a fairly misogynist world view which has been strengthened by our open-minded approach to the movies he can watch. (oops, I'm wandering). This story wasn't misogynist so much as it was just one more bit of evidence (for L.) that men visit whores (read: most men, real men).
Sept. 2011
Duncan the Wonder Dog... Weird - there is no author name on this graphic novel. Anyway, three brief comments about this. 1) I recommend it. 100% thought provoking. 2) It received good reviews and the first printing sold out quickly. My husband kept his eye out until they finally printed a second "batch." So, kudos to the mystery author. 3) I'm sorry - I knowa real book reviewer would never make this comment - but I had to use a magnifying glass to read it unless I had great light. So... at times I was almost mad at the author for wasting so much space in the book. I know it's all about art, but give a poor old lady a break. Jeesh...
August 30, 2011
Read the second half of The Magicians (called The Magician King). I'm going to check out other peoples' reviews, but - in my opinion - this was a better book.
Why? The first book was uneven, as I said - combined some really fun or compelling sections with others that didn't feel as vital or necessary. It had a chronological structure that, I think, at times created a feel of... filler. I won't repeat myself about the overly melodramatic pages toward the end. Darn! Just repeated myself.
The Magician King is still sort of chronological because it's following a story line, BUT it also interweaves the back story of one of the characters. Because the author doesn't give us this part in such a logical order (it's more a holistic approach) and he doesn't really cover everything - it makes me wonder why we had to get the first book (the story of Quentin) the way we did.
The chronology in this second book also works better because it isn't trying to cover 7 or 8 years of somebody's life, including the slow parts (like the first book did)... Anyway, in spite of any faults I point out, I wouldn't recommend reading the second book without the first. Getting deep into this universe was worth the extra pages - and even with some slow parts, the characters grow up/develop in a real way.
I will not make this a spoiler. I will say that I personally liked the conclusion of this two part series.
It must be really hard to end this sort of epic work. I've read more than a few books like this where the ending takes away from the book. (Jonathan Strange...) So, I'm interested to see what others think of the conclusion.
August 3, 2011
The Magicians First I didn't like it, then I did (a lot). In fact I think I mentioned this book in a post here in this blog. After reading one of my favorite sections, I got all profound about... well, me... & human nature?? In the end, however, I have to rate this book a little lower. It's a 7 at most. The good parts are very good (and the adventure has some fantastic moments). The author is creative and his universe is thought provoking. I like it that he raises difficult questions about how his characters find meaning in life: these are people who can use magic to get what they want, and many of them don't deal well with existential struggles. What, for me, keeps this good book from being more is that parts of it feel like the author had an outline and he's writing every section; some of them aren't as important or compelling, but they still have to be in there. Most guilty is the very last section for me... The hero decides to renounce magic (and this is one of the points in which the universe which the author creates is not as coherent to me). Through his magic contacts he gets a plush job which he shows up for every day, but does nothing... The entire section felt a little false to me, a little melodramatic, a little unnecessary. Very last page, three old friends show up outside his window inviting him to come along on a magic adventure. Stay tuned for book two (and, yes, I will look for it and read the it).
............................................................................
Well, I have read some decent fiction since writing the blurb about The Beggar Maid... But, I guess it hasn't been very memorable. Still, finally, I've finished something worth recommending. Once again, it's an old book. I was at the library the day after the library book sale, and they were begging us to take home tons of books. I picked some things at random.
Martin Walker, Bruno, Chief of Police, (2009) Because the mystery/crime of this novel has a historical solution, I enjoyed it more than I might have. Read it by the pool over the course of a couple of mornings that I spent at my son's swim practice. That makes it even better, because it is connected in my mind with a few beautiful summer days. I was in the shade, relaxind, and L was busy getting physically fit in a way that he enjoyed. Ahhh, perfect.
As for the writing, it was good, but not stunning. The author has written a lot of non-fiction history - so I say - more power to him.
Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine, King Solomon's Carpet. (1991). I'm not really a "mystery" or crime novel reader, and I think that is Ruth Rendell's genre. Still, this book goes way beyond the stereotype you might have about ...um... mystery/detective fare - There are real characters, most of them fleshed out enough to feel "right" in their wrongness, and some of them very appealing. I especially liked a young wife who abandons her infant daughter and husband to pursue her dreams of becoming a violinist (the future she gave up when she accidentally got pregnant). But, Rendell has her slowly realizing that she just isn't good enough... And since we only realize in that same way, slowly, we can kind of live the humiliation and frustration. And that isn't her only problem for her... (Spoiler alert - she survives, although not exactly intact). She's only one of the characters, and not the most significant. There are troubles enough to go around.
Thumbs up. July 2011
Thumbs up. July 2011
Alice Munro, The Beggar Maid. Stories of Flo & Rose. (1979).
Alice Munro is a Canadian author who I love. This book is a series of interconnected stand alone stories. You get a sense of a life - but it's not biography. I've seen that in her other book(s)? I specifically remember two stories that overwhelmed me in The Lives of Women and Girls, for example - although I may have gotten that title wrong??? sorry).There is a weird narrator in this book (The Beggar Maid, I mean). I think I'm going to read a few stories again to really understand why I felt it was, somehow, different. The narrator largely tells these stories through Rose's eyes; it's a third person narrator, but we follow Rose, always. Then, every once in a while, we are reminded that this is an omniscient narrator because we'll get a tiny insight on another character which can't have been known to Rose. So, what is this narrator? An omniscient but biased creature? Still, if you think I'm criticizing, no no no.
If I were to criticize, I'd certainly pick at the title; the stories aren’t about Flo (Rose's step-mother). The narrator's approach makes that abundantly clear, Flo is just not at the center of things. Then tonight, lo and behold, when I opened the cover to look for the date published, there was the original Canadian title, Who Do You Think You Are? With its judgmental voice, that is the right name.
I love the way Munro can give us material which more than suffices to pass judgment on Rose, and, yet we don't. The question, "Who do you think you are?" is all about Rose's beginnings in an ignorant and small-minded back-water town where her folks are barely a notch above the abjectly impoverished neighbors. It's a question that the members of Rose's circle ask those who, by some effort or accident, do something which doesn't fit in - something that, by it's nature, might imply criticism of the circle. I want to say that this question is directed more often at girls or women - I want to say it, but I'm not going to write pages to defend it.
So, for me, what's so great about this book? It’s all about Rose; so very perfectly imperfect. There are moments in which we cringe at her, and it's like I react when I remember my own mistakes --not current stupidities which just depress one, but the distant ones.
How is it that Munro gets all of this in a book that isn’t anything? Not a tragedy, comedy, melodrama, saga, mystery, or anything except moments from a life.
OK - I will say that maybe she's not for everybody. Once I had a young 24 year old (or so) guy read two of her stories from The Lives of... These were stories that I found incredibly touching. He hated them, "unoriginal and uninspiring," and had no compunction about lashing into it. Wow. Okay.
P.S. I discovered something really cool in the inside cover of the book; it’s signed “Alice Munro.” H and I spent a Saturday morning not too long ago at a second hand book store.
March 2011
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