And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini Great book. Love this author and was thrilled to get another book from him. The worst part of his books is reading them so quickly and trying to slow down but not being able to and then being sad when they are over and done. This story takes us through several generations and literally across the globe. Each section is narrated by a different character and each story weaves into the overall story. We never hear from the same narrator twice but the story continues with each new story teller. The novel centers around an Afghan family and the twists and turns of their lives. As always the author does a great job with taking the reader through the historical aspects of the times the characters are going through. Even though each character narrates only for a piece of the book, the reader easily falls for each character and is invested in the story right from the start. I was nervous about how the book would end, and though it saddened me, it was definitely fitting.
The White by Deborah Larsen A coworker left this book for me to read and I did like it but I'm not sure on the writing style. The story is about a white woman captured by Indians in 1758 and her story of capture and assimilation into their culture while always being different. I liked the way the author portrayed the difficulty in being caught between different worlds and the victim aligning with her kidnappers. I did not like the graphic violence, which may have been why I disliked the writing style. Overall an interesting quick read.
The Time of My Life by Cecilia Ahern Did not like this book. Maybe my expectations for it were too high given how much I liked "P.S. I love you," another of the author's novels. This novel was about a young woman who gets a letter from "life" and has to start meeting with it regularly to work on all the areas in her life that are going wrong or are stuck. The problem for me is that I interpreted this as "life" but it really was life. I kept waiting for the metaphor to turn into something but instead it was too literal and not really explained as to how this can be. Was it a future world or different world where this sort of thing exists? Was it a metaphor? I really have no clue. I got the overall concept of putting all the pieces back together again and sorting through messes that you make in your 20s, but I was disappointed overall. And I disliked the fairly tale aspect of the story which led, in my opinion, to an unrealistic ending of the story. Still like this author in general so I'll try not to hold this book against her.
Still Alice by Lisa Genova This is the story about a Harvard professor and researcher diagnosed with early on set Alzheimer's at a very early age. The book is narrated throughout by the woman so as her illness progresses it is told in a first person account. I loved the style and I loved the concept. I was furious with the main characters husband who seemed to abandon her in her time of need, but I also took a step back and tried to see things from his point of view as well and see how he was working through his loss. I learned quite a bit too about a disease I know some about but not a whole lot. I also liked the first hand account of the difficulty in making medical decisions. I think the importance of the characters role as a Harvard professor who did research was a key element as well.
Shutterbabe by Deborah Copaken Kogan I really love this author and I'm not sure if I knew when I put this book on the list that this was her biography but I definitely forgot by the time I finally got it from the library but was pleasantly surprised to learn so much more about her. I knew she was both a photographer and a writer, two things I admire greatly. Even knowing she had been a photo journalist before writing her novels, I guess I never really understand what that meant. I like too how she shared her personal accounts across the world and related them to her journey of adulthood from relationship to relationship. I really liked how her identity as a feminist shined throughout the story too. I related near the end of the book when she discussed woman's choices. As feminists we feel we have to make certain choices to align with that identity but what she shares is the idea of us making choices based on what is right for us and/or our families. I found her writing on this extremely helpful right now and appreciated her sharing her deeply personal decisions along the way.
The Last Letter from your Lover by Jojo Moyes This was a story split in two time frames with two different narrators. A married woman wakes with amnesia to start the novel and tries to piece together what her life was like before the accident. She starts finding love letters hidden in her home from someone she guesses she was having an affair with. She starts to piece together what happened before the accident and what her life and marriage was like. She struggles with self identity in an interesting way in being able to discover who she used to be and then decide if that's who she still wants to be. The character ends her part of the narration with a cliff hanger. We then flash forward many years to a young woman working at a newspaper who finds one of the letters from the past and starts to trace it's story as she tells her own. Overall I liked the concept of the novel and I liked the writer's style of creating a story. For me it fell flat though because it was too predictable and too unrealistic with the love stories.
Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld I have to start by saying this book ended up thrown on the floor when I finished it. The ending was just so frustrating to me. I love this author and was so excited to see a new book by her. I love her writing style and this book was no exception to that. I also liked the idea of the plot line of the book. Two twin sisters with "senses" or psychic powers. One who embraces them and her eccentricity and the other, the narrator, who does not and settles down into a seemingly quiet family life as a mother of two small children who stays at home while her professor husband teaches at a local university. The story takes place in St Louis where an earthquake occurs early on in the story. The twin who embraces her psychic abilities then predicts another even bigger earthquake will occur and begins to get national media attention. The story explores the way this affects the narrator and the active choice she has made to re determine her life. The story alternates chapters from the twins childhood to adulthood and then the present day with a potential earthquake coming and the media circus that is happening to them because of the prediction. I had no problem with the book, as in I was liking it enough, even if I wasn't loving it, but then the last 60 pages or so became an absolute soap opera that I was not prepared for. I had spent so much time trying to figure out if the author was going to have the earth quake happen or not but the ending was much more complicated then that and not in a good way. Still have respect for this author but really disappointed in this book.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Friday, November 1, 2013
September 6
Suddenly A Knock at the Door by Etgar Keret This book was a collection of short stories or even essays as some were really short. I didn't dislike the authors style of writing but I really didn't understand many of the stories. Maybe they were over my head or I missed the point entirely, I'm not sure. But now only a month later I barely recall any of them which to me is not the sign of a great book. Also many of them were too fantastical and not in a believable way. I'm the type that can accept fantasy only when it's really sold to me. Given how short the stories were it's possible the writer just didn't have a chance to make them believable, at least to me.
The Law of Similars by Chris Bohjalian Love this author. Though I didn't like the ending of this book, I did like it over all. The story is of a man who is a lawyer and a single parent seeing a homeopathic healer who he falls in love with and then gets involved in a situation where one of her patients dies possibly due to her "medical" advice. I liked the unbiased way the author explored homeopathy and learned a thing or two (which I'm sure is accurate given this is a reputable author). Bohjalian always has a way of writing, that at least for me, really gets you involved in the characters lives. It really adds so much more to the story since you get so involved in hoping things will go certain ways for them. I liked the overall unique story line but found the ending to be a bit unrealistic for me. I also acknowledge though that as the book went on, I couldn't figure out how he was going to end it and I myself did not think up any ways that it could end in a way that would work out for all the characters.
Love in the Time of Algorithms by Dan Slater Loved this book. Quite timely non fiction story of the evolution of dating especially in it's move to technology. In this era of Match.com etc, the author takes us from the first computer dating computers created at Harvard (which matched his parents together) to future speculation about what will happen next in the online dating world. I found it fascinating and scary at the same time. Scary because of the instant access to anything anyone wants and the realization that online dating isn't just about finding someone to date or marry. It's not being used for a wide ranger of sexual deviance that can be worrisome too. While I see the benefit (I did meet my soon to be husband online) I also worry about how this changes peoples social skills and the ease for harm to be done. In any case the online dating world is not slowing down anytime soon and the author did a great job of writing about how it came to be and where it is now.
Love or Something Like it by Deidre Shaw This was by no means the best book I've ever read but I found something refreshingly honest in the characters in the book and the way it was written. It's a book about a young woman who is facing a huge bump in her young marriage. We look back into the past history of the main characters dysfunctional family and the messages she got as a child from her parents and her runaway brother who she has limited contact with. What I liked was that rather then waiting around for her husband to decide what he wants she finds a way to start hearing her own voice about what she wants. What I didn't like was some of the unrealistic too romancy pieces of the book. Overall though the author painted a realistic picture of the hard times in love and the choices that we make during those times.
Freeing Keiko by Kenneth Brower Loved this book. As someone who loved grew up loving "Free Willy" and the real life whale, Keiko, reading his story and hearing about his struggle to truly be free was bittersweet. I also realized about halfway through that the ending was not going to be joyous as I had remembered a news story some years ago. From that point it was difficult to keep reading knowing that I was reading more or less to find out how he died rather then a happy fairytale ending that you hope for especially since the main character is real. I learned so much from this author and the care he took to tell the story of killer whale Keiko was amazing. I'm quite glad I finally realized this book was out there and picked it up.
Hope a Tragedy by Shalom Auslander Did not like this book. I found this author while browsing at the book store and added him to the list. All his books on the shelf looked so interesting to me but I just didn't get what he was trying to convey and it had such a cool concept that I maybe set the bar too high in my mind. This was a story about a man who discovers a well known historical figure living in his attic. Right from the start with such a concept the author needed to sell me on this idea, and he just didn't. I think overall the book was about the main characters trying to find his place in his family as things changed as he aged. There was a lot of cultural references to Judaism and while I always find that interesting, overall the author failed to deliver a plot line that went anywhere.
The Law of Similars by Chris Bohjalian Love this author. Though I didn't like the ending of this book, I did like it over all. The story is of a man who is a lawyer and a single parent seeing a homeopathic healer who he falls in love with and then gets involved in a situation where one of her patients dies possibly due to her "medical" advice. I liked the unbiased way the author explored homeopathy and learned a thing or two (which I'm sure is accurate given this is a reputable author). Bohjalian always has a way of writing, that at least for me, really gets you involved in the characters lives. It really adds so much more to the story since you get so involved in hoping things will go certain ways for them. I liked the overall unique story line but found the ending to be a bit unrealistic for me. I also acknowledge though that as the book went on, I couldn't figure out how he was going to end it and I myself did not think up any ways that it could end in a way that would work out for all the characters.
Love in the Time of Algorithms by Dan Slater Loved this book. Quite timely non fiction story of the evolution of dating especially in it's move to technology. In this era of Match.com etc, the author takes us from the first computer dating computers created at Harvard (which matched his parents together) to future speculation about what will happen next in the online dating world. I found it fascinating and scary at the same time. Scary because of the instant access to anything anyone wants and the realization that online dating isn't just about finding someone to date or marry. It's not being used for a wide ranger of sexual deviance that can be worrisome too. While I see the benefit (I did meet my soon to be husband online) I also worry about how this changes peoples social skills and the ease for harm to be done. In any case the online dating world is not slowing down anytime soon and the author did a great job of writing about how it came to be and where it is now.
Love or Something Like it by Deidre Shaw This was by no means the best book I've ever read but I found something refreshingly honest in the characters in the book and the way it was written. It's a book about a young woman who is facing a huge bump in her young marriage. We look back into the past history of the main characters dysfunctional family and the messages she got as a child from her parents and her runaway brother who she has limited contact with. What I liked was that rather then waiting around for her husband to decide what he wants she finds a way to start hearing her own voice about what she wants. What I didn't like was some of the unrealistic too romancy pieces of the book. Overall though the author painted a realistic picture of the hard times in love and the choices that we make during those times.
Freeing Keiko by Kenneth Brower Loved this book. As someone who loved grew up loving "Free Willy" and the real life whale, Keiko, reading his story and hearing about his struggle to truly be free was bittersweet. I also realized about halfway through that the ending was not going to be joyous as I had remembered a news story some years ago. From that point it was difficult to keep reading knowing that I was reading more or less to find out how he died rather then a happy fairytale ending that you hope for especially since the main character is real. I learned so much from this author and the care he took to tell the story of killer whale Keiko was amazing. I'm quite glad I finally realized this book was out there and picked it up.
Hope a Tragedy by Shalom Auslander Did not like this book. I found this author while browsing at the book store and added him to the list. All his books on the shelf looked so interesting to me but I just didn't get what he was trying to convey and it had such a cool concept that I maybe set the bar too high in my mind. This was a story about a man who discovers a well known historical figure living in his attic. Right from the start with such a concept the author needed to sell me on this idea, and he just didn't. I think overall the book was about the main characters trying to find his place in his family as things changed as he aged. There was a lot of cultural references to Judaism and while I always find that interesting, overall the author failed to deliver a plot line that went anywhere.
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