101 Books to Read Before You Die discussion
What are you reading?
Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vancehttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Vance mines his own experience for an understanding of the problems faced by and attitudes held by poor small-town white Americans. Vance grew up in the Rust Belt, a small town in southern Ohio highly populated by transplants from the hills of Appalachia. Despite being employed at a good salary as a nurse, his mother became addicted to drugs, had a revolving door of romantic partners and created a very unstable home life for her two children. His grandparents, stereotypic gun-toting, crude-language-spouting, poorly-educated hillbillies became his refuge, stability and encouragement to succeed. He eventually earns a law degree from Yale and goes on to a good career and happy marriage (at least so far since he is still young). His conclusions are that a sense of learned helplessness, a dearth of personal responsibility, an accompanying break down of the family unit and a sense that the culture and values that defined their people is being supplanted by more liberal values and various minority groups who are gaining social clout are at the root of the economic and social problems in these communities. These are not issues that can be fixed by government funded programs. This book left me with more questions than answers, but it is the type of book that can and should spark great conversation.
Finished
by Ayobami Adebayo-- 3.5 StarsNeed to think some more on this one... weirdly satisfying?
My Review:
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Finished
by Willa Cather-- 4 Stars.I think I have a new favorite female protagonist!
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantelhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
In this second in her historical fiction series about Cromwell, Mantel focuses on the political machinations that ended in the beheading of Anne Boleyn. I found this volume much easier to follow than Wolf Hall and the figure of Thomas Cromwell more in keeping with my prior perception of him. Mantel brings to life the tension in a court where fortunes are constantly being made and unmade at the whim of a less than virtuous monarch. Cromwell, in particular, is portrayed with subtle complexity.
Finished
by Pam Jenoff-- 3 StarsWWII historical fiction and a circus-- oh my!
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
O Pioneers by Willa Catherhttps://www.bookshare.org/cms/
I am blown over by the ability Cather has to bring to life the demanding, generous land of the American plains and the strong, demanding, hope-filled European immigrants who settled that land.
Just started White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America. Still not sure what I think of it. Also in the middle of re-reading The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement. I enjoyed it the first time, but it's tougher going on the re-read. I feel like I'm being lectured to, which isn't what I am up for at the moment.
Beartown by Fredrick Backmanhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A dying Scandinavian factory town is the setting and a championship youth hockey league is the context for Backman to explore a number of social questions. What is the impact on individuals, families and a community when hope is compressed under great pressure into a pin point slice of life? What is the impact when the weight of that hope is placed on the shoulders of boys just about to become adults? What is the impact when certain individuals are so crucial to that hope that they are viewed as too big to sanction? What is the impact when the majority are denied access to this sliver of hope because of talent, temperament or family resources? What does integrity look like? How and when do virtues such as loyalty become destructive, evil? This book is filled with a vast cast of characters, yet all are fleshed out with such clarity that I felt they were real people that I had spent time with. Despite jumping rapidly between scenes, one home to the next, one group of school kids to another, from hockey rink to bar to woods, it was performed with such skill that I was never disoriented or alienated from the story line. Backman is proving to be a versatile and consistently strong author.
Don’t You Cry, A Gripping Psychological Thriller by Mary Kubicahttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
One November morning, Quinn wakes up to discover that her roommate is missing, having climbed out their Chicago apartment fire escape and vanishing. The same day, in a small town further along Lake Michigan, Alex notices a strange woman in his small town diner and is immediately obsessed with her. This novel is told in alternating chapters narrated by Quinn and Alex. I disagree with the subtitle of this novel; I found nothing gripping about this book. I did not find the actions and reactions of the characters believable. Although Quinn voiced alarm, I never felt the tension. Quinn and Alex drew conclusions about their mystery women that were not consistent with the revealed information. When an author uses duel narrators, I demand unique voices for each. But Quinn and Alex did not possess such individuality. But my greatest complaint with this book was its repetition. We were given the same information a dozen or more times: Alex’s mother abandoned him as a child and his father is an alcoholic, Quinn does not pay her fair share of the rent and utilities, The strange woman appears to be about 10 years older than Alex, etc. Did the author presume that her reader was too stupid or inattentive to hold onto these irrelevant details for more than 3 pages or was she simply trying to turn a novella into a novel? I have heard good things about Kubica, but I was not impressed.
Finished
by Erik Larson-- 3 StarsIn the middle on this one.
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished
by Leah Weiss-- 4.5 Stars.Oh my! A debut?? WHAT?? Such gritty goodness...
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Uprooted by Naomi Novikhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I only read this book because it was a GR group book pick. There are times when a book group pulls you out of your comfort zone and you discover a treasure. But, often you simply confirm what you already know about your taste in books. This was an example of the later. I don’t like fantasy. I don’t like young adult. I really did not like this book. My rating may not be fair to this novel. Lovers of young adult fantasy may find this a very enjoyable book.
Behold the Dreamers by imbolo Mbuehttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This modern immigrant story explores how the promise of America both empowers and disappoints, holds some fast despite unending hardships and reveals itself as an allusion despite success. This is a story about the tension between the comfort of family and familiarity and the hope of the far off dream. The Cameroonian family at the heart of this novel is not fleeing war, persecution or crushing poverty, but has deliberately violated the terms of their VISA, live in a roach infested N. Y. tenement with less than they had back home, work endless hours just for the right to hold the potential of financial and social advancement in their heart. Against their dreaming is the story of a wealthy N. Y. family who loses, in the bank collapse of 2008, everything for which this immigrant family is striving. My one quibble with this book was the inconsistent use of dialect. Otherwise, I found it engaging and thought-provoking.
Finished
by Cherise Wolas-- 4 Stars.This is a slow burn of a novel...
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I just finished The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin. 3/5 because I liked parts of it but other parts I really disagreed with either the things she wrote or the way she phrased them.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Seboldhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A young teen girl is raped and murdered as this book opens. For the remainder of the novel, she narrates the grief process of her family and friends from a gazebo in “heaven” from which she has unlimited access to the thoughts and feelings of anyone she chooses. Apparently death transforms one into an eternal voyeur. The narrative voice swung between immature and wise beyond her years. The dead can also interact with the living on a limited basis, but the rules for that interaction were never clear to me. I found the image of the afterlife very juvenile, lacking in imagination or theological depth. The articulation of grief felt like caricature. This is not a book I would recommend.
Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
An absent minded professor tries to convince his prickly daughter and
The Little Stranger by Sarah Watershttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is the second book I have read by Waters. Fingersmith my first encounter with her, was so amazing that I may have brought unrealistic expectations to this novel. In the years after the War, a country doctor befriends a formerly wealthy family (a mother and her two adult children) living at their decaying British estate. Injured in the War, the son is crippled by his physical and psychic wounds. But soon, the strange phenomenon the young man claims to experience is reported by other family members. Is this a matter of group hysteria or has some malevolent force invaded the home. The creepy atmosphere that should have built suspense never materialized for me. I thought this book dragged.
Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
According to the book’s introduction, Ehrenreich decided to investigate the claim that white collar, mid-level employees were exploited by their employers and the corporate culture. As she did with entry level work in Nickeled and Dimed, she set out to infiltrate this world as an undercover journalist by getting this type of job. However, with a falsified resume designed to hide her identity, she spends the entire book in the job search process. The tone of this book is not that of an objective journalist, but is snarky, that of an activist mocking her target. She ridicules the haircut of the presenters and the religious language of those at a church-based event, the food and wall art at various venues hosting seminars and the photo of a company founder, the use of personality profile tools by job coaches and the synchronized gum chewing of women at a recruiting booth. In the conclusion of this book, she finds sufficient evidence of this soul-crushing exploitative corporate culture in her inability to land a job in public relations. This is my second book by this so-called journalist and my last. Bait and Switch is the perfect title for this book. I was told I would get an intelligent, critical examination of corporate culture and received a self-serving pile of snark.
Finished
by Fiona Barton - 3.5 Stars.This was so good on audio!
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeryhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This satire of 19th century British society life was extremely long-winded. Originally published in 19 installments, it felt as if the author was simply trying to multiply words to fill pages. It did not help that the social conventions being satirized were far from my experience. This may have been brilliant in its time, but I was extremely bored with the entire volume.
Finished
by Bryn Greenwood -- 4 StarsI Really REALLY wanted to love this one so much more, but I'm conflicted.
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchetthttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Rose, a young wife in 1968, realizes that she does not want to be married on the same day she learns that she is pregnant. So, she gets into her car and drives across the country to a lovely home for unwed mothers without even a note to her husband. Soon it is clear that she possesses a quiet strength and a gift for cooking that the nuns who run the home, the fatherly handy-man and the other girls come to rely on. But, the quiet strength is a wall behind which to hide who she is. The novel is divided into three sections narrated by Rose, the handyman and Rose’s daughter respectively. This was a nice story populated by broken people trying to be good. I would have preferred a straight narration; only Rose’s voice felt authentic to me. Unfortunately, Patchett got several details wrong which irritated me to distraction. How did the girls do all their shopping on Sunday after Mass in 1968 when Blue Laws seriously limited what could be sold and most merchants did not open? Why would any Catholic nun refer to profession of religious vows as “taking Holy Orders” which refers to priestly ordination? Why would an elderly Catholic nun in the old habit have long hair when hair was cut very short under those heavy veils? This is just a sampling. These are little things but are as incongruous in the setting as a motorcycle in the Colonial period.
Mod
by Willa Cather-- 4 Stars.I think I have a new favorite female protagonist!
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."
Sounds good! I"ll have to move it up my list!
looking forward to your thoughts Alana!
A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Klinewww.goodreads.com/review/show/2111742833
Kline takes the scant information about Christina Olson, the subject of Andrew Wyeth’s painting Christina’s World and fills in the details in this fictional biography. Crippled by a degenerative neurological disorder that limited the use of her legs and hands, Olson spent her life carrying out the domestic chores of a turn-of-the-century farm. I thought this novel was much more even than her earlier one The Orphan Train. However, Olson is a bit too much of a literary cliché, the bright girl thwarted by social and familial limited expectations, the deformed woman who closes in on herself to avoid the pity of others.
Light In August by William Faulknerhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Faulkner captures the speech of the common person with accuracy and turns it into poetry. If I could read him just for the feel of the words in my mouth, it would be pure pleasure. But when I try to follow the story line, I get completely confused. Characters surfaced, plot lines were introduced, focus shifted with no warning and I struggled to figure how it all fit together.
Finished
by Fredrik Backman-- 4 Stars.My second Backman book and looking forward to more...
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Faithful by Alice Hoffmanhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
As a high school senior, Shelby is in a car accident on an icy road that leaves her best friend in a vegetative state and Shelby in a self-injurious depression. Soon she is turning to the high school pot head (who will rapidly morph into smart, financially sound, Prince Charming) for drugs to run from the psychic pain. Despite a depression that turns her in on herself with anger and disregard for everyone except abused animals, she appears to be universally liked and admired, even by the most casual encounter. There was so much in this story that seemed highly implausible. I thought the dialogue was sophomoric. And the emotional life of characters felt as if they lurched from one point to the next with no subtlety. The more I read of this book, the lower my rating. 1.5 stars
Finished
by Louise Penny-- 4 Stars.I'm already ready to go back to Three Pines.
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Shephard Who Didn’t Run by Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fr. Stanley Rothor, a native of Oklahoma, will be beatified on Sept. 23, declared a martyr by Pope Francis. He spent 18 years living among and serving an impoverished indigenous mountainous community in Guatemala. Because of his connection to the poor, he was targeted by the Guatemalan military and killed in 1981. It is possible that he may become the first male born in the United States to be canonized a saint. I became interested in his story because his cousin is a member of my parish. Although I am glad I read this biography, I thought the writing was mediocre, far too much repetition.
Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompsonhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
If you find a week long bender, endless bad acid trips, two grown men acting like complete asses with no concern for who or what they destroy to be funny, then you will laugh your head off with this book. If like me you do not, you will wonder how this ever made a list of 101 books that anyone should read in a lifetime.
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twainhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I did not realize that Twain dabbled in hagiography at the end of his life. Apparently closely adhering to the historical record, this is an account of Joan’s life narrated by a fictional childhood companion. The tone was adoring. I think I like Twain as a humorist better. But I did enjoy learning more about Joan of Arc.
Finished
by Mary Kubica-- 4 Stars.Bravo! What a suspenseful debut--
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Abundance by Amit Majmudarhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
When a woman gets a terminal diagnosis, her married children and young grandchildren make the journey home more frequently to support her. This is not a novel about dying, but about family dynamics. Medical treatments are not discussed and symptoms are glossed over. Instead, using the imminent separation to intensify interactions, this story explores how we can wound when we intend to protect, how confusion or fear can be misconstrued as anger, how our own emotional needs can be so intense that they are incorrectly projected onto those around us. Although I found the woman’s narration of events and reactions credible, for some reason I understood what she was reporting rather than feeling what she was experiencing. This may not have been the fault of the author, but of this reader. 3.5 stars
Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Chevalier creates a fictional identity for the girl portrayed in Vermeer’s painting of this title. Trusting that this was well researched, I enjoyed the historical details much more than this story of a young servant with a natural artistic genius who could identify what needed to be altered in a composition far faster than Vermeer himself.
The Cruelest Month by Louise PennyAnother murder mystery in the idyllic village of Three Pines where any excuse to spend time, even a murder, is something to savor. This one seemed to jump more quickly between scenes than did the previous two. I found it a bit disorienting.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithihttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Kalanithi was a 36 year old resident in neurosurgery with a young wife and a stellar career trajectory when he is diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer. Written during the final year of his life, this is one man’s confrontation with his own mortality. During the first half of the book, he narrates his journey from a literature major to a medical student prompted by philosophical questions about human existence. His interaction with patients ask him to grapple with the fragility of life and human suffering. In the second half, he becomes the patient; what he encountered through others become his personal reality. I was reluctant to open this book, fearing that it would be maudlin. But it was beautifully written. While sad, the goodness of life, no matter how short, dominated the lines.
Nice review Irene, or How Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.
The Lady Vanishes by Ethel Lina Whitehttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I was expecting this classic 1936 missing person novel to be so predictable that it would fail to hold my interest. I was pleasantly surprised. Although the solution to the mystery was telegraphed rather early in the story and I anticipated a happy ending, White created such fantastic atmosphere that despite myself, I was on the edge of my seat reading it. 3.5 stars
The Book of Unknown Americans Cristina Henriquez
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A Mexican couple journeys to the U.S. on a work visa in order to access a special school for their teenaged daughter who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a fall. In their new apartment, they befriend a Panamanian family whose socially awkward, bullied teenaged son develops a crush on the daughter with special needs. When the teen boy decides that his love and adolescent wisdom trumps the rules of his parents and laws of the adult world, serious negative consequences result. The story is told in the now ubiquitous alternating narrators, all of which sounded too similar to me. Interspersed are cameo voices who provide an unrelated migrant story. I assume that the addition of these other biographies was intended to give this particular story the feel of universality. Instead, it gave the novel the feel of a pro-immigrant agenda dressed up as a novel. 3,5 stars
Rediscover Jesus by Matthew KellyThis was more basic than I wanted and more repetitive than I enjoy. But, I did not engage with it as intended, slowly and prayerfully, because I was doing a quick preview in order to evaluate it for parish use.
Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Rooted in extensive research and pastoral work across the country, Weddell argues that the majority of self-identified Catholics have never actually been evangelized, heard and responded to the call to radically follow Christ. This book does an excellent job of laying out the issue but does not adequately develop the solution. Nonetheless, it has my head spinning with thoughts and questions. I see she has a subsequent book. I plan on reading that one to see if some of those questions are answered in it.
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Royhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Absolutely loving The God of Small Things, I could not wait to read her long-anticipated second novel. What a disappointment. Rather than a particular story which revealed the universal, we were given a sprawling story of modern India, its brutal treatment of the people of Kashmir, its disregard for the poor in its cities, its marginalized transgender communities, its ambivalent attitudes toward the role of women, etc., etc., which incorporated specific narrative fictions. Rather than vibrant characters that wormed their way into the reader’s heart, we were given servants of a plot that revealed just enough to serve their function, and a meandering, confusing set of plots that were picked up and set down as the larger political agenda of the author found them useful or not. Rather than prose so lyrical it practically sang off the page, we were given technically sound writing that was more correct than poetic. Using two story lines can be powerful if they mutually inform each other in the unfolding or if they converge in a moment of great insight. But the way the two primary story lines with their numerous tentacles came together was weak. Still, even at her most disappointing, Roy is heads and shoulders above many authors.
Open Season by C.J. Boxhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This was typical of the genre. The body of a murdered man on the wood pile behind the home of a young game warden leads him to an investigation in which he will bring down corrupt politicians and big oil money. Despite being out numbered and facing threats to his livelihood and the safety of his family, he never falters. There is the usual amount of implausible scenarios, including the incredible shoot out. There is enough attention to developing the characters that the story was more interesting than formulaic.
Finished
by L.M. Montgomery-- 4 Stars.Oh how lovely it was to go back to PEI.
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Mist of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradleyhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The author uses the Arthurian legends as a backdrop for a soap box to proclaim the glories of free love, to evangelize for neo-paganism, to condemn Christianity and all values associated with western cultures and to promote female power. Enduring repeated treatises on the rightness of sex in any form: heterosexual and homosexual, in marriage and adulterous, incestuous and with a stranger, mutually agreed on and forced by the woman in power, went from annoying to disgusting when I learned that she never refuted the allegations that she permitted her second husband to molest her daughter. I felt like I should have been reading this novel in a haze of hashish smoke, wearing love beads. Maybe if I had, the endless repetitions of various details and the mediocre writing would not have bothered me so much. 1.5 stars
Finished
by Elena Ferrante-- 1 star.I did not enjoy this one, the real question is-- should I give the second book a chance? Or bypass the rest of this series?
My Review:
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Finished
by J. Courtney Sullivan-- 4.5 Stars.Such a great book- I was highly impressed!
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeymanhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Eleanor is a troubled 30 year old: socially awkward, isolated, and drinks far too much. As the story unfolds, the extent and the source of her troubles will be revealed, and so will the support and inner resources she has to address them. Honeyman creates a fantastically vivid character in Eleanor. She is able to portray the emotional complexity of a character that has suppressed her emotional life. She gives us a figure so broken and odd that most of us would find her difficult to interact with in real life and she makes us care about her. Eleanor addresses us with such consistency that she is completely believable. And so are all the supporting characters, even if apart from this story, from the pen of a lesser writer, they might seem too good to be true
Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved By Beauty by Kate Hennessey
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is an insider biography of Dorothy Day, a relational memoir of the mother-daughter relationship between the activist Day and her only living child, Tamar. Kate Hennessey, Day’s youngest granddaughter, explores the legacy of Day, not as the 20th century prophet, the social activist, the prolific writer who gave life to numerous communities of radical Gospel hospitality, simplicity and prayer, but as the single mother of a daughter who she never understood and often left feeling neglected, betrayed and diminished. Day is one of my personal heroes. I often wondered about her daughter, growing up in the shadow of such a formidable, uncompromising figure, in the midst of the chaos of the nascent Catholic Worker. This book gave me a very different picture of Day: flawed, domineering, able to be sensitive to the needs of broken strangers but dismissive of the needs of her own child, yet loved and loving despite that. This was a 4 star read for me because I was very interested in the central figures. Without that extreme interest, I think this would be a 3 star read.
The Cider House Rules by John Irvinghttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is the story of an obstetrician administering a small orphanage in rural Maine while delivering babies and performing illegal abortions and an orphan who becomes his protégée. This was a thinly veiled pro-abortion celebration with all characters opposing it portrayed as unlikable, hypocrites lacking in any hint of compassion for another human being and those providing the abortions as sympathetic, selfless, compassionate and genuine. Many of the details in this novel did not feel remotely realistic, giving this the air of a fable, a moral tale to persuade or condemn the anti-abortion set.
Finished
by Tracy Chevalier -- 3 Stars.Good, but fell a little flat for me.
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter by Lenore Skomalhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Ida Lewis became famous for her maritime rescues off the Rhode Island coast in the later half of the 19th century. The best thing about this book is that it is very short, less than 150 pages. Even at such brevity, it repeated the same details numerous times. It was filled with irrelevant information that appeared to have no purpose other than to pad the word count. Elements of the story were blatantly contradictory; one page we were told that Ida lived in obscurity and a few pages later we were told that she was so famous that people came from all over just to be able to shake her hand. We were told that Ida Lewis was unique only in her fame. Other female light house keepers rescued more sailors, performed rescues at a more advanced age, kept far more lights burning simultaneously under more treacherous conditions. But we were never told why this particular woman was chosen for the subject of this book; we can only presume that it was because she was the easiest to research. My local book group picked this as our November title because the author is local. 1.5 stars.
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
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This is the story of a farming family in the second half of the 20th century, a domineering, abusive patriarch and his three adult daughters. When the father unexpectedly decides to sign over the farm to his daughters and son-in-laws, he kicks over the first domino in a chain of events which will shatter the daughters’ coping mechanisms and topple the precarious family structure. This is brilliantly written, each character so finely painted, the interactions so nuanced, individual motivations revealed in all their complexities. Smiley has a magnificent ability to understand frail people and broken families and to convey their pain with unflinching realism and sensitivity.
101 Books to Read Before You Die
Books mentioned in this topic
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Jane Austen (other topics)Madeline Miller (other topics)
Sarah Henning (other topics)
Sarah McCoy (other topics)
Sarah Pekkanen (other topics)
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I thought I knew... but I had NO idea...
My Review:
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