Water for Elephants

Author: Sara Gruen

This plot-driven novel classifies as one of those you can't put down. Fortunately, it's also a quick read, so it shouldn't take up more than a weekend of your time. And, while it is plot-driven, the characters and setting are nothing to sneeze at, either.

The main thread of the novel involves the protagonist's adventures in a traveling circus, but is framed within the protagonist's current entombment in a nursing home. I'm not generally a fan of this type of device, but it works very well here, and the two threads are sewn together by the end of the novel.

My only gripe is that the author takes the tactic of revealing one plot point in the prologue. Since this plot point is a scene from the climax of the novel, the author is deliberately misleading, and it just seemed a little like cheating.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Reading Hemingway is almost always an exercise in masochism for the feminist reader, and For Whom the Bell Tolls is no exception, although this effect is somewhat lessened by the appearance of a female guerrilla leader. (Incidentally, I am just now noticing for the first time the guerr- root of guerrilla. Huh.)

Misogynism set aside, I found this an engrossing, but slow, read. I was fascinated with Hemingway's transliteration of Spanish speech patterns: "I obscenity in the milk of thy mother" being a recurrent, memorable example. It gives the book a dreamlike quality which helps reconcile the reader towards the characters' inexorable march towards disaster. At least, it did for me.

Beware the Bargain Bin

I've been prone to paying full price for novels in airports lately. In an effort to be more frugal, I stopped at a Borders on the way to my most recent flight and picked up several books from the bargain section. I will never, ever do this again ...


Mad House

Author: Clea Simon

I picked up this one because I have a weird love of first- or second-person accounts of schizophrenia. Coherent ones are a bit hard to come by, so I was excited to see this book purportedly about growing up with schizophrenic siblings. It was disappointing to find out that it was mostly about the author's own psychological issues instead.

I didn't rate it, though, because I imagine it could be quite useful to its intended audience, i.e., someone in a similar situation.



The Memory of Water

Author: Karen White

This book is about two sisters who fall out after the somewhat mysterious death of their mother. It's not really that mysterious. You'll figure it out, just as you will all the other supposed plot twists. What's a little harder to keep straight is who's currently narrating. Both sisters, the main love interest, and the cute kid all have very similar narration voices.

The author is also convinced similes are a marker of good writing, so expect lots of them. White is markedly less concerned with consistency, however. She brings up several times that the main character lost interest in sailing after her mother died at age 12. At other points in the book, she is mentioned as having sailed in high school. There are a few other, less significant, inconsistencies, but that was the most irritating.


MVP

Author: James Boice

A book about a sports star with a terrible personality, who does terrible things, and the terrible family that is implied to have driven him to it. I only got about a hundred pages in. It's utterly unrewarding.

Lisey's Story

Author: Stephen King

I haven't read much Stephen King, and I'm not sure why. His works that I have read have been really, really good: Different Season, Dolores Claiborne. Lisey's Story continues this streak of very good-ness.

One of the reasons I like it so much is that it persuades me to suspend my disbelief so easily. Although it begins, seemingly, in this universe and only later progresses into fantasyland, at no point did I hesitate to follow said progression.

If I had any complaint about the book, it would be about the characters. They're all right, but I find them a bit colorless. And this despite the fact that King said he was "a fool for Lisey; I kind of fell in love with her," in this interview. Odd.

Haunted

Author: Chuck Palahniuk

After Rant, this was rather disappointing. And disgusting. Palahniuk has a penchant for the really gross and disturbing, which works pretty well as part of a story. When it forms the basis of an entire book, it's kind of wearing.

I'd try to explain the plot, but it's really just easier to point you to the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_(novel).

The Known World

Author: Edward P. Jones

I decided not to give this book a star rating because I just could not get through it. It follows a bunch of characters who are connected to each other in various ways through the pre-civil war era, with an emphasis on exploring the relationships that arise in the institution of slavery.

It's also narrated in a very nonlinear fashion, with the author throwing random spoilers out there, like, "She would indeed see her sister again, twenty years later, in New York." (Not an actual quote from the book, as I got rid of it.) At first, you think Jones is going to explore these little asides, but he doesn't.

So, I read about a third of it. Nothing really happens, nothing seems to be in the works for happening, and I was just really, really bored.

The Handmaid's Tale

Author: Margaret Atwood

I did not realize, until after I had read it, that this book was over twenty years old. Atwood's concerns about the rise of religious fundamentalism and the decay of feminism in America are still applicable today. It is, in my opinion, the most convincing fictional dystopia I've encountered.

The Road

Author: Cormac McCarthy

If some afternoon you're sitting around thinking to yourself, "I'm feeling cheerful and optimistic today. What can I possibly do to relieve myself of these pleasant emotions?" then this book is for you.

It's set in a nuclear winter landscape, in an environment devoid of light, life, and apostrophes. It follows the journey of a father and son to the coast, detailing their attempts to not starve or be cannibalized. Holnists, move over; we've got newer, meaner, quasi-Reaver survivalist baddies. Enjoy.

Watership Down

Author: Richard Adams

I just re-read this book, which tells you I like it enough to own it. I have not, however, figured out what genre it is? Fantasy? Speculative fiction?

It's rather misogynistic, and a tool for the political indoctrination of children less subtly than The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a tool for religious indoctrination. I also feel the the author wastes time inventing a rabbit language, but the plot is good and it's fun to read about bunnies.