Shelfari 50 Book Challenge discussion
JimY's 2016 Book Challenge
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Nicole wrote: "so glad you are here! I was worried you wouldn't come over. I have this sitting here ... some day."Thanks! I was coming over, but it was just taking some time to get my first book of the year. I started City on Fire before this but gave up after a hundred pages. It was meandering a bit too much for me. I might give it another try at another point but I wasn't getting any enjoyment from it at all.
2) M Train by Patti SmithThis is a book club read for me. I went in hoping it would be good, but the subject matter just didn't interest me. I didn't have much knowledge of Patti Smith and her writing style didn't work for me. Her life covered in this book wasn't that interesting to me and it was very fleeting in terms of what she talked about. I realize that it is poetic/artistic and that is part of the problem for me. It seemed to try so hard to present a life that is poetic/artistic but it starts to get grating. Her life seems to revolve around going to her cafe, drinking coffee and writing. That is a great life but not one that makes for an interesting read.
3) The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen KingThis is a big collection of short stories and unlike previous short story collections I've read from King, these really are short. Usually in the range of 20-40 pages instead of a hundred+.
These were mostly good. There were one or two that were experimenting with form that I didn't really like. There were many that left me wishing he would make it into a full length novel. Some had wonderful twists, some were just good character studies.
So if you're a King fan, this isn't essential but is a fun read.
4) Then We Came To The End by Joshua FerrisThis reminds me of a combination of the Office and Office Space without the ultimate redemptive wins I would want to see in a novel about this subject. It has lots of wacky characters and office politics. There is a bonding among the office workers even when they oppose each other.
What it has to say is that even when the work is ridiculous and soul crushing, it somehow gives a person's life some form of weight. This is the part that I couldn't buy into. Some of the characters eventually leave to find their life's work in other areas and I can live with that. To me, that seems more real (if that makes sense).
I give it three stars for being a fun read. I've read Ferris' most recent book and that book had real weight to it. This one was mostly jocular but it won't stick with me.
5) Between the World and Me by Te-Nehisi CoatesThe author discusses his view of how American society treats the African American community. Prior to reading this, I thought it was pretty bad but after reading this, it is so much worse. He mentions that there is a willingness to ignore what was done to his ancestors and how black lives are valued less. Society allows for them to be killed without repercussions. It is just a stark view of society, laid out in plain sight for everyone to see.
The last part of the book recounts the story of a friend of a friend who went to college, came from a good family and was living a good life but he still wasn't able to avoid being shot by police just because he was black.
It is eye opening and a worthy read for anyone interested in these events.
6) Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCannThis will fall under the category of good book but not as good as I hoped it would be.
Set in New York City in the early 1970's, it follows the lives of a few people whose lives get intermingled. The real life event of a man walking on a tightrope across the Twin Towers is set as a backdrop. The first story is about an Irish man who comes to the US and spread his gospel? The people around him call him a monk or priest but he was more about being good to people and helping. He lives in a bad neighborhood in the Bronx where buildings are burning, people are society is in decline. He helps a group of prostitutes by leaving his apartment door open so they can use his bathroom. He is routinely beaten up by the pimps. He volunteers at an elderly home by taking them out of the home. Other lives are intertwined and their stories are also told.
From the reviews I've read, people like the give and take of decline and renewal that is in the book. People die, people are given second chances. The Twin Towers walk is an act of life that is counterbalanced by the eventual destruction of it. I liked the stories enough but I did not love it. I hoped I would be more impacted by it but they didn't move me. Still, three stars for a interesting read with good writing.
7) Plainsong by Kent HarufI picked up this book after reading some good reviews for it on our group here. The writing is spare but the characters are very well developed and interesting. I would say there are 4 main characters who we are not supposed to like - the high school bully, his parents and the father of Victoria's child. They are really bad and at times, I wondered if they were just written without any redeeming qualities as to make them unrealistic but then I realized that people like these are real and it is what makes the good characters in the book that much better. Some of the praise for the book talk about the decency of the characters and that is the best way to describe it. We may or may not agree with everything they believe, say or do but there is no question about their overall decency and I appreciated that.
4 stars and I would definitely recommend this book.
8) Werewolves in Their Youth by Michael ChabonI started Michael Chabon with Kavalier and Clay and thought it was one of the best books I've ever read. I've read each of his fiction books he released after this and looked all of them. So I went back and read this short story collection he released earlier. The things I liked about his prose work really well in a novel but in a short story, it doesn't work for me. I don't get into the setup fast enough and by the time I get into it, it is mostly finished. This was a short collection and it took me a long time to get through it. I would say each of them had something good about them but the reading process wasn't enjoyable.
9) The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina BivaldThis is a book club read. At first, it was framed as a book about books so I was excited about it, thinking it would be similar to Balzac and The Little Chinese Seamstress. But it wasn't. If anything, its tone reminded me of movies like Love Actually. The books the main characters reference a lot are Bridget Jones and Jane Austen. It didn't make me want to read these books and the characters are a bit light and unformed. The people who lived in Broken Wheel were mostly interchangeable for a good part of the book. A name would be mentioned and I wouldn't know what their background was and even when I caught who they were, it didn't really matter.
I didn't hate it, but didn't really like it either. It was mostly mediocre. Not recommended.
10) Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset MaughamThrough the first section of this book, I was confused at the praise that this book receives. The main character, Phillip, is orphaned in the first chapter and he goes to live with his uncle and aunt who don't provide a very warm or loving home. The aunt tries her best but she doesn't know how to do it. Phillip goes to school and the uncle wants him to follow him as a religious person. Phillip rebels, wanting to experience life and he goes to Germany for schooling, tries various occupations before eventually settling down.
As I found out in the preface and afterward, this is really two books - one written when Maugham was younger and the second half was written when Maugham had more life experience and was more mature as a person. Even though the book ends when Phillip is 30, it feels as we've followed him through so much - almost an entire life's work. I felt very invested in him and wanted him to do the right thing so badly. When he encounters a woman who is obviously wrong for him but he can't resist, it's just so painful watching the wreckage it makes of his life.
Very highly recommended.
11) Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki MurakamiWhile reading this book, I got the sneaking suspicion that this was a sequel of sorts to a book I hadn't read before but I was so far into it that I didn't want to stop. After finishing it, I research it and it is a sequel/continuation of The Wild Sheep Chase. Oh well.
Taken by itself, it was more of what I expect from a Murakami book. At this point, Murakami reminds me of comfort food. I know what to expect and when he fulfills my expectations, it's pretty wonderful. There are the little oddities that I expect and the little comments on life. Perhaps this wasn't odd enough to make it truly memorable but I liked it well enough. I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars.
12) Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah VowellI expect certain things from a Sarah Vowell book - sarcasm, sharp wit, and a personal connection to the subject matter. This book covers Lafayette's involvement in the American Revolution and gives a summary of key events in the war.
As in previous books, she visits sites connected to the subject matter but whereas in the past, she had many fun stories either with the site or with her friends/family at the site, it wasn't as engaging in this book. I'm not sure if this is a concerted effort on her part to move away from her past style. There is some interesting analysis of the French involvement (such as lingering resentment of the French even when they were helping us), but there were too many passages where it read like a Clif's Notes version of the American Revolution.
I give it 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3. The subject matter was interesting but it could have been better.
13) This Census Taker by China MievilleMy impression of this book is that it was moody. It created an atmosphere that was very weird. The story is told by an adult who appears to be in jail and is writing about an event when he was a child. The memories are muddied because he was a young child so the story is muddied too. He thinks his Mother killed his Father, then reverses himself and says the Father killed the Mother. Was it real or did the Mother just leave him? On top of all this, the world this story takes place in is never firmly set. Are there magical keys?
I enjoyed it for its moodiness and weirdness but I didn't like the uncertainty of things.
14) A Partial History of Lost Causes by Jennifer DuboisThere were parts of this that I really liked but other parts that left me wishing for a better editor. Overall, I would say I enjoyed it and would read another book from this author.
In the beginning, it alternates between the present where a young woman has been diagnosed with Huntington's disease, which her father had and ultimately left him a different person from the one she knew and the past in the Soviet Union where a young chess prodigy deals with the Communist regime. She doesn't want to let herself disappear from herself and those around her. She's avoided close relations and mostly has resigned herself to a short life. As such, she decides to travel to Russia to ask the former Chess champion how he continues in the face of adversity.
The book alternates between the past and the present until the past catches up to the present. Then the story starts to lose steam as Irina's story starts to flag. When Alexandr becomes a political dissident, his story starts to falter as well. There are parts of the book where it feels like nothing is advancing the story or character development. I like the writer's prose but feel like this could have been a tighter narrative.
I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars.
15) End of Watch by Stephen KingThis is the third book in the Bill Hodges trilogy. The first two books are mostly detective stories with great storytelling by King. When I started reading the third book, it was really great because I was revisiting good characters that I'd gotten familiar with in the first two books.
The one change with the third book is that it introduced a crazy element to it. The first two books were mostly based on reality. In this book, the villain is able to project himself into people and he goads them to commit suicide. Whenever the story talked about this ability, it took me out of it, which is strange because most King books have a supernatural element to it. It is just that this series was realistic and adding this element to it made it a strange mishmash.
Reading about the main characters again is a treat. It's just a weirder read than usual with this series but King's storytelling overcomes it.
16) The Assistants by Camille PerriI'll admit that I didn't know what type of book this is. I saw a review that gave me the impression it was a satirical read or at least a book that had something to say about current society.
It is about an executive assistant to a Robert Murdock type. She's 30, has been in her job for a few years and immersed in student debt. She has to use her personal credit card for a flight for her boss but after she submits for reimbursement, the airline voids the charge because the person over the phone wasn't professional (or more likely, they didn't want to get on the bad side of the exec). The assistant debates the morality of cashing the check for a few pages but ultimately does it. This starts a slide as people find her out and want her to do it again to help them get rid of their own student debt.
After a lot of this, they decide to start up a non-profit where they get people to donate money with the purpose of paying off other people's student debt.
So yes, there is some interesting talk about current society but it is so fluffy. There is almost no conflict of any type. It was an enjoyable read but there were many passages where I couldn't believe what I was reading. One person gets arrested and the other woman thought that she didn't even have time to put on her makeup before getting arrested.
17) The Fireman by Joe HillNOS4A2 was a great read for me so I was hoping for something great with this one too but it wasn't to be. It's good but not as good as his last one. There are many good parts to it but ultimately, it felt middling.
The book's villains are so EVIL!!! I desperately wanted them all to come to a horrible end. When some of them meet their deaths, I was disappointed it wasn't more gruesome. There are bad husbands, religious zealots and people just showing their ugly side. The writeups in the back compare it to Lord of the Flies and I can see it. It also reminded me a bit of the Walking Dead and that's not a good comparison. After a good number of volumes, I gave up on the Walking Dead because it was just unrelenting in it's darkness. The Fireman is not a short book - over 750 pages. There were many instances when I had to stop and think whether or not these characters are realistically bad or if they're comically bad.
The ending - I assume it's not setting it up for a sequel but the book doesn't leave our heroes in a good place. Yes, they are moving forward and if we assume they make it, then it should be better but that's a leap of faith.
18) The Pearl by John SteinbeckThe premise is that a pearl diver finds the mother of all pearls. He has a wife and small child. Prior to finding the pearl, his son had gotten sick and he took the child to the town doctor for an exam but the doctor knew the family had no money so he pretended not to be there and his man sent them away.
After he finds the pearl, people try to rip him off, then steal the pearl and eventually try to kill him. I've read some reviews that complain that the moral of the story is not to try to make a better life for yourself but that's not what I get from it. Like the other Steinbeck stories I've read, it's the people in power who are making it hard for the poor people.
There was one small section that I really loved. Originally, the diver wanted a rifle for himself, a real church wedding for his wife and an education for his son. Later on, he realized what he got. For himself, he had to murder someone, his wife got beaten by himself because she wanted to throw the pearl away and his son got poisoned by the doctor who wanted some of his money. So in this respect, the pearl only brought bad tidings but it really all occurred because the pearl buyers and the doctor tried to swindle him and he refused them.
19) Fates and Furies by Lauren GroffThis book is split into two sections and centers around a marriage. The first part focuses on the husband, Lotto. He is born into money but his father dies when he is young and has a bit of a hard time growing up but through some luck becomes quite beloved by all around him. To call him a narcissist would be a tremendous understatement. There are parts where I felt for him, but then he would turn around and do something to remind me that I really don't like him. The worst offense has to be when his younger sister calls him and tells him she's flying in to visit and will need him to pick her up at the airport. He says yes, turns around to tell his wife and then it slips his mind and nobody remembers she is coming. I believe the sister was really young at this part of the story - maybe around 10 years old. She's at the airport waiting for him, crying her eyes out because she doesn't know what to do and a kindly couple helps her out and brings her to his apartment where he is having a party.
The second half is about the wife and we learn a lot more about her. Her story is much more complicated. We learn about her upbringing and it is a crazy story - an R rated Dickensian upbringing of sorts. At times it was so harsh that I had a hard time buying into it. She may or may not have caused the death of her baby brother when she herself was a little girl and the parents disown her. They send her to live with her Grandmother who turns out to be a prostitute. At that age? And when she dies, she gets sent to live with an Uncle who also seems to be involved in illegal activities and has no interest in her at all. He sends her to high school but tells her that if she wants to go to college, she will have to make her own way. So what does she do? She becomes a weekend prostitute for a man in turn for college funding for 4 years. 4 years of debasement.
Many times during this book, I would think to myself that the characters are horrible and I don't like it but then the writing would bring me back. In the end, I have to say I liked it. I would give it 3.5 stars for a very well written story even if the characters are not always likeable.
20) Red Rising by Pierce BrownMy friend read the trilogy and highly recommended it to me but warned me the first book wasn't that great. Holy cow, I did not like this book at all. He said it was a combination of Hunger Games and Game of Thrones. I like Game of Thrones but not really Hunger Games.
There was not much character development and many of the side characters aren't differentiated very well. Part of the problem could be that there are a lot of them and they are mostly superficial in the characteristics.
In the Netflix show Stranger Things, whenever I recognized an homage or a reference, it felt natural and cool. In this book, it was heavy with the eye rolls as it felt cribbed.
So I don't recommend this book but will eventually give the second book in the trilogy a chance since my friend says it is very good. But I have low expectations now.
21) Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. RowlingThis reminded me a lot of my feelings when I saw The Force Awakens - a lot of fond memories. It felt like I was revisiting old friends. It was nice to read about Hermione and Ron because their personalities were mostly the same. Harry had a lot more weighing on him. I found it interesting that Albus is the focus of the story and his other son, James, was mostly pushed to the side. I get that a play couldn't spend the time it would have taken to develop his character (or Rose's) and explain what they're doing but the omissions made it feel like it was missing something. Albus and Scorpio's story and friendship were a very high point to me. The time travel component felt a bit like going through well worn territory (in other stories) and it doesn't really follow normal time travel conventions and that really bothered me but I will overlook it.
22) Trekonomics by Manu SaadiaI heard about this book from an NPR story and it intrigued me. I love Star Trek and this book speculates about the economics of the Star Trek world. The key is apparently the fact that it is a post-scarcity world but it is also clear that the writer is a progressive and talks glowingly about the utopian ideals and how to get there. It's a fun book if you're a Star Trek fan.
23) Rashomon and Other stories by Ryunosuke AkutagawaI saw a list of classic foreign literature and put a hold on a few of them. This was the first that came in. I've seen and love the Rashomon movie which took two of the stories from this collection. I like those two. The other ones are interesting but I felt at times that I was missing something in the translation or that I didn't have enough knowledge about the culture to fully appreciate them.
24) A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. SchwabI wanted to like this. There was good buzz around this series so I hoped it would be something fun and exciting to get through. Instead, I found parts of it to be reminiscent of other books and in the end, I wouldn't say it was bad but it wasn't as good as I hoped it would be.
The magic talisman was much too much like the ring from Lord of the Rings. And add to it that Kell and Lila are almost identical to Frodo and Sam (in terms of who will destroy it). Thankfully, it didn't end the same way.
Lila and Kell are the main characters but they could have been fleshed out more. The villains were too one dimensional. What do they want? More power! Ho hum. Lila could have been much more interesting but her story wasn't delved into much.
The multiple Londons/Earths were interesting. I assume more of Grey London and Black London will be discussed in the next book.
25) The Summer Book by Tove JanssonThis is a series of short stories/chapters involving a family in a secluded island in various summers. The family is a young girl, her elderly Grandmother and her Father. The Mother had recently died. At first, I thought this would be a bonding book between the Grandmother and Granddaughter but there is much more to it. There isn't much story - it's a series of events that give an overall feel to their lives. There is a lot of talk about death. Strangely enough, not about the death about the Mother but more about how the Grandmother lives and her relations with other elderly people. There are a few instances when the Grandmother thinks about how she can only remember things that happened in the far past but then realizes that she seems to be forgetting that too.
I wouldn't say I loved this book but it was very good. It deceptively sneaks up on you which was a nice surprise.
26) Things Fall Apart by Chinua AchebeOh boy, did I not like this book. I am so conflicted by my reaction to the book. For the first half of the book, I severely disliked the culture the book was presenting because it was so steeped in superstition and was so patriarchal. The main character was horribly unlikeable. Then in the second half, they introduce missionaries! Now the culture I spent the first half of the book disliking was being destroyed and replaced by an even less likeable culture. So who to root for? I rooted for the end of the book.
27) Stoner by John WilliamsIn a passage early on, a character talks about the university as a place where outsiders and the like fit in, that it's not like the outside (real) world. When the main character finishes his schooling, his advisor/teacher offers him a job as an instructor at the university and his life is set. I read a few reviews for this book and they were all glowing so I had high hopes for it. It was sad in many places but it is a wonderfully captivating read.
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In a passage early on, a character talks about the university as a place where outsiders and the like fit in, that it's not like the outside (real) world. When the main ..."
I really liked this book.
28) The Three-Body Problem by Liu CixinThis SF book is supposed to be very popular in China and it was a big thing when it got translated for the US. I have some nagging issues with the translation but I think a bigger problem was probably with the original writing. The translator tries to keep some of the cultural parts in the book but it made it tough to follow. The character names all started to merge to the point where I had to check the list of names to figure out who was who - this was really exacerbated because the characters didn't have much personality.
It starts during the Cultural Revolution where the daughter of a professor is beaten to death and she is sent to a reeducation camp. She was also an intellectual and they needed her STEM skills so she was taken to a base that was trying to make contact with ETs. Eventually they make contact and the daughter realizes that human civilization is horrible and wants the aliens to come conquer them so she sends out a message saying so. At this point, the story moves along many years, glossing over many things but in the present, there are three factions.
But the crux of my displeasure is that the story doesn't really end. It's the first book of a trilogy and it just ends. Sure, they solve the issue of one of the factions but it fell flat to me.
29) The Story of Your Life and Other Stories by Ted ChiangThis will be a strange review. I saw a trailer for the Arrival and it looked great! I saw it was based on a short story by Ted Chiang and was interested in reading it. When I got this book, I read the Story of Your Life first even though it was in the middle and it was amazing! By itself, I easily give it a great review. I expected the rest of the stories to be SF as well but not all of them were and the ones that were fantasy were really jarring. In one, it was about building the tower of Babylon and the people building it go so high that they've reached a wall in the sky! And then one was about Golems and one was set in a world where angels regularly visit people to impart miracles and disasters. I didn't like these as much because I was expecting SF
The other story I really liked was Understand which read a lot like Limitless.
The writing style is good though which was a surprise in a SF collection.
30) Insomnia by Stephen KingOh man, this book was so tepid. The only reason I read it is because it got a fairly big mention in the Dark Tower series and I wanted to see how it all connected. Whenever it touched on the connections, it was very exciting but it took much too long to get there. There was a lot of meandering and the lead characters were just a bit too mellow for my tastes. The climax was pretty good though and the epilogue was very well done.
So overall, it had a few too many slow moments/sections but the connections to the Dark Tower and an exciting end make up for it.
31) The Way of the Runner by Adharanand FinnFinn wrote a running book about his experience training with Kenyans and I thought it was pretty good so when I saw this book about his experience running in Japan, I knew I wanted to give it a read.
Unfortunately, this book was not as good as his previous book. There were some interesting tidbits, but what I got from it is that Japanese runners have the devotion and skill to compete with the world's best but their training and slavish push might be burning out their best runners too early.
The book seemed to be building up to the author running in an eikenden in Japan to experience it for himself. He found an eikenden and his own team and they were traveling to it when a heavy snowstorm cancelled it and it was too late to find another one before he left Japan. The people he profiles in the book could have used some more development, but it seems as if the people weren't open to his questions and also the language/cultural barrier seemed too much for him.
32) Here I Am by Jonathan Safran FoerI am a big Foer fan so I came to this book with big expectations. Sadly, I can't say I loved this book as his previous books. It is extremely good and had some great writing but there were some parts that felt like it tried too hard and it didn't land the mark.
The main story is about a marriage that is falling apart. The husband and wife bicker at each other and from the start, it doesn't sound like it'll last. They seem to have completely contrasting views about everything they are concerned with. They have three boys and they are witty and precocious. I loved the scenes with them in it because they were so funny and so much fun to read.
There are some parts that are simply great, enlightening and smart. They demand to be reread and understood and when I "got" it, it was great. Unfortunately, there are some parts that fell flat and those parts kept the book down.
Even with the small negatives, I enjoyed this book a lot. Get through the slow parts and the good parts will make up for it.
33) Heroes of the Frontier by Dave EggersThis one didn't click for me. A divorced mother takes her two young kids to Alaska as a way to escape the life they were living in Ohio but also to escape her ex-husband who is getting married again and wants his kids to meet his new wife. The mother wasn't very sympathetic or interesting. She bordered on reckless and paranoid for much of the book. The kids were interesting but they didn't get enough to do to offset the mother's story. The book follows the family as they get into one event after another but they are mostly not that exciting and I didn't get anything from their encounters. I would say I was disappointed by it.
34) The People in the Trees by Hanya YanagiharaThis is the first book from the author of A Little Life which was one of my favorite books from a few years ago. I finally got around to reading it because the synopsis didn't grip me but I really liked it. It started slowly but the middle and end were really good.
It follows a doctor who goes on an expedition to a remote island where the residents appear to live really long lives but it comes with a severe price - they appear to lose most of their cognitive abilities. They can live on their own on the island but their memory and social skills are mostly gone.
Part of the book is about how civilization destroys this island but it also follows the life of this doctor and it's a crazy one.
35) Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan LethemLionel Essrog is a fabulously fun character and I enjoyed this book a lot. It revolves around a group of small time mob guys in Brooklyn and covers how they came to be in the employ of their leader. Their leader gets killed in the first chapter and the rest of the book is an investigation into the killers.
36) The Association of Small Bombs by Karan MahajanI'm conflicted on this book. It's a harrowing read but hard to say it was enjoyable. It takes place in southeast Asia and starts with a car bomb set off in a market. Two brothers who were traveling with their friend are killed but the friend survives. The book revolves around the bomber, the bomber's friend, the parents of the murdered boys, the surviving boy, his family and other attached characters. It looks at the motivations of each before and after the bombing. Time progresses and each of these characters move on but never really do.
The part where I'm conflicted is that I am very ambivalent to these characters. Most are very flawed and I can't relate or empathize with them. The surviving boy is the one I can empathize the most because he was so young and his parents reacted to the bombing by overprotecting him and messing up his childhood and making him a flawed person.
It is a very well written book and it is good but I would not say I enjoyed the characters enough.
I was daunted by the length of this book (over 1100 pages in the paperback edition) but it was a good read. This story had some elements to it that were really creepy and gave me a Stephen King vibe. Some things aren't fully explained but I will just accept it as part of the magic/fantasy elements of the alternate world that the story takes place in.