Shelfari 50 Book Challenge discussion
JimY's 2017 Book Challenge
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2) Zero K by Don DeLilloOh boy, this is going to be a bad review. I had many issues with this book. The primary one is that it wasn't very engaging. There is not much plot or character development going on. When characters interact, their dialogue often feels as if it is going out of its way to sound deep as opposed to sounding natural. It's hard to enjoy a book if all I'm getting is fancy prose. Maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to enjoy his prose. Anyway, not for me.
Mod
Oh boy, this is going to be a bad review. I had many issues with this book. The primary one is that it wasn't very engaging. There is not much plot or character development..."
bummer!
I know! We're usually on the same wavelength so I was excited to give this a try.
3) Pet Sematary by Stephen KingSlowly trying to go through his older books and this one was a disappointment. It wasn't much of a thrill ride and the characters weren't that interesting. At one point, the main character starts acting in a way that didn't match his personality up to that point. He knows the resurrection process is faulty and that nothing good comes from it. And yet, he thinks he'll be able to do it the right way without the resurrected person being a mess. The story mentioned some dark forces but they were too peripheral to really impact my feelings for the book. Perhaps if they were more prominent, I would accept that they were pushing him and others to act differently. It was very disappointing.
4) Landline by Rainbow RowellIn this book, Georgie and Neal are a married couple with a couple of kids. Georgie is a tv show writer on the verge of getting a new show green lit. Neal is a stay at home husband who has decided that he and their kids have always taken a back seat to Georgie's ambitions and he's had enough of it. A planned trip to his family for Christmas is abandoned by Georgie and she expects Neal and her kids to stay with her but they don't.
Later, Georgie goes to her Mom's house and finds out that her landline can call Neal in the past and she realizes things.
So I was a bit disappointed with this book. It was very mediocre. It had flashes of fun but my biggest problem is that I never accepted/believed that Neal was as great a boyfriend/husband as Georgie made him out to be. I found him to be a bit of a downer. Even if I didn't accept their great marriage gone awry, the phone to the past gimmick didn't have much of a purpose.
5) Eligible by Curtis SittenfeldWhen I read Prep, I liked it so much that Sittenfeld became a writer I wanted to keep an eye out for. Her next book was badly received so I skipped it. Then there was the Laura Bush book that automatically turned me off. Sisterland flew under my radar. I eventually read American Wife but every time her husband came into the story, I just had W in my head and it was hard to like it.
Eligible - So I saw Pride and Prejudice but never read it and it's been long enough that I have only a vague recollection of how the story goes. At first, these characters were just so unpleasant! But it was like reading a soap opera. I couldn't stop staring at the wreck. It's humorous and a bit of a breezy read. Enjoyable for what it was.
6) The Underground Railroad by Colson WhiteheadThere were some parts that were a bit slow but with each chapter, I stopped to think about the book and can't deny it's magnitude and impact on me. It starts with a woman being taken as a slave from Africa. Her daughter has a daughter as a slave and we follow her (Cora) story growing up and escaping.
The story chapters are broken up into states where she lives. First, on the plantation to show her life as a slave, then onto two different states where she escapes to. Both of these states have a culture that is horrifying and the characters are memorable. There are slavers, turncoats, and people trying to do good. The worst are the people who should be helping the slaves but turn on them instead. Highly recommended book.
Mod
There were some parts that were a bit slow but with each chapter, I stopped to think about the book and can't deny it's magnitude and impact on me. ..."
I have started this 4 or 5 times ... Here's hoping I can finish it someday
I would say it's worth the effort to get through it. Once you get through the first couple of chapters, it gets much better. The chapter getting up to the book's present day is a bit slow but once she starts making her way north, it gets much better. I appreciated the difficulties she encountered in seemingly free states.
7) The Fortunes by Peter Ho DaviesThis book is separated into 4 sections, each a separate story about life in America for Chinese people. The first revolves around a boy who was sold into servitude but eventually becomes a manservant to a railroad magnate. The second is about the first Chinese movie star in America. The third is about a Chinese American in the 80's who was killed during a period of negative sentiment against Japan and he was mistaken for being Japanese. In the last section, it takes place in the present and a man of a mixed marriage goes to China to adopt a child.
There is a lot of racism against all of the characters. As the timeline moves forward with each story, the racism becomes slightly less overt but is always there. The Chinese actress can never be a full blown star because she wasn't allowed to play love interest roles because of miscegenation laws. When she goes to China, people there dislike her because all the roles show Chinese people in a negative light. And of course, there are all the positive Chinese roles that go to whites.
In addition, there are the negative roles that Chinese women are given. In the first section in the 1800's, the majority of the women in the US are prostitutes and most of them are sold into this role because Chinese society doesn't value them. In the present day story, due to the one child policy, girls are discarded by the parents so there is a surplus of girls up for adoption.
It's hard to say I enjoyed this book because it was so dark but it was good to know more. There were some parts that were slow and dragged the story down. Between this and Underground Railroad, two dark books in a row. I need a lighter book next.
8) The Impossible Fortress by Jason RekulakThis book is described as a love letter to the 80's and pop culture. I was hoping it would hit that sweet spot for me but I thought it straddled the line between YA and adult fiction.
It takes place in the late 80's when Playboy published nude pictures of Vanna White. That is the springboard for three middle school boys to try to buy one, then steal one. The main character is a poor student who has an affinity for coding on his Commodore 64. During an attempt to buy the Playboy from a store, he meets a girl who is also coding and they strike up a relationship.
My biggest problem with this book is that the boys just don't have a moral center. The main character moves forward with his actions even when he knows it's wrong. When he gets spurned by the girl, he suddenly starts spewing angry thoughts against her. I just didn't like the characters enough to care. The girl has a secret and when they reveal it, they give some backstory but it all felt too superficial. I wanted more insight about them and their motivations.
Not great but not the worst. Middling.
9) George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay JonesI'm inclined to be in interested in this biography of George Lucas. It had a lot of information and insider type bits but I got the impression that since this was an unauthorized biography, a lot of the book was pulled from other sources. The author's acknowledgement said as much regarding getting people to agree to interviews. Even if this is a lot of compilation, I found it very interesting. Lucas has a very negative view of movie studios so he basically takes it upon himself to be independent of them.
10) Kinder Than Solitude by Yiyun LiThis was a slog to get through. The story takes place in the past, around the late 80's when there were protest in China) and the present. In the past, a girl moves into a village and she causes some change in a group of friends' dynamic. The new girl is written in a way that she is just so boring. Every line is frustrating. It made me think of a robot, completely charmless. Then in the present, the kids all seem to have become lifeless adults. I didn't care for any of them or the mystery that surrounded them.
11) Loving by Henry GreenI read a glowing review of this older book and it sounded really good. As a reading experience though, it was a bit lacking. It takes place during WW2 in an Irish castle where the servants are mostly British. At first, the characters seemed to fit into the Downton Abbey mold but there isn't much plot. It's mostly little interactions and minor events and then the book just ends. We don't get to delve into the characters' motivations or thinking so I was left without knowing the true impetus of many actions.
I didn't love it as much as I was hoping to love it.
12) Pachinko by Min Jin LeeThis is easily my favorite book of the year so far.
It starts in the early 20th century in Korea as a boy born with some physical deformities doesn't expect to be married but a family with multiple daughters wants them to be married and deem him to be a good person. The couple eventually have a daughter named Sunja and the book revolves around her, her mother and her family as it goes through the century. Korea has become a colony of Japan and eventually, the family make their way to Japan.
There are very emotional scenes in the book and I couldn't help rooting for the best outcome for many characters even if it ultimately didn't turn out that way.
4 out of 5 stars and I will definitely read the author's first book soon.
13) The Twenty-Seventh City by Jonathan FranzenI picked this up on a friend's recommendation. The first half was a slog to get through and when I mentioned this to my friend, he said it picks up a lot in the second half. With that in mind, I gave it an extra effort and the book never pulled me in. I was unsure of why characters were doing things and there were a lot of characters who weren't very well defined. They come in and out of the story and I am indifferent to them.
Can't recommend this one and the worst part of it all is how long it took. It is a long book at over 500 pages.
14) A Man Called Ove by Fredrik BackmanThis was given to me by a friend who loved it. After coming off the heavy and unsatisfactory Franzen book, I needed something light to read and this fit the bill. It was the equivalent of reading a light rom-com. It wasn't challenging to read and most of the conflict was resolved in a pat manner. This isn't a detraction against the book. It's a light read and doesn't try to be anything else. It was enjoyable although I thought the lead character was a bit too ornery and I am suspicious that this character wouldn't be as lenient in reality as he was in the book. There were certain scenes where I thought the character would do one thing but the author had him do something else to make him more likeable.
15) Ancillary Justice by Ann LeckieThis is the first book in a trilogy and it is marketed as space opera. I want to read more SF but I am often turned off by the writing style or lack of character development. This book was interesting enough that I would read the next installment.
Taking place in a world where ships have sentient AI and the AI have a crew of ancillaries (previously human bodies which the AI now controls) in addition to the human crew. For a good part of the book, it is split into two narratives. One in the past and one in the future where we follow one of the characters from the first narrative but we don't know how they got to that point yet. There is some political intrigue but I enjoyed the interaction between the ancillaries and their human counterparts.
I liked the mix of SF concepts and adventure in this book. It wasn't too heavy in hard SF and it had a good amount of character development.
16) Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King and Richard ChizmarBy Stephen King standards, this is a very short story. What is missing from most King stories is character development and solid character interaction where we get to know and be invested in the characters. Things happen in quick order and then we move on to the next event and before you know it, story is done.
I would describe this as an outline of a King novel even though he's said he doesn't like to work off of outlines.
Gwendy encounters a man in black (always black) who gives her a box which seems to make everything right in her world and those in her close circle. The box has the power for great destruction if the owner chooses and that's a mystery that is hovering over most of the book until the end when it is more or less explained. I think this could have been a much more engrossing read if King went deep with it but it's mostly okay.
17) Lincoln in the Bardo by George SaundersThis book didn't entirely work for me. I really like George Saunders but I felt like it was a bit uneven. I didn't like that the tone of the story changed when certain characters were the focus. I had a hard time figuring out if we were supposed to take them at face value or if they were there for comic relief.
There were many sections that were very good but the parts that were uneven took me out of the book. I also didn't love the structure of the book. Most parts were set up like a play where a character was listed but it wasn't always their dialogue, but their narration/viewpoint of what is happening. Many times, I just read the dialogue and it didn't make a difference which viewpoint we were getting.
18) The Gunslinger (Dark Tower 1) by Stephen KingThe Gunslinger is an interesting book in my reading history. I read it originally when I was a teenager and found it pretty hard to get into. Books 2 and 3 were amazing and solidified my interest in it but then book 4 wasn't out yet and then there was a long gap between I finally got around to reading the rest of it.
Since the movie is coming out, I wanted to reread the first book and it really is strange for me. If I didn't have the knowledge of what is to come, a lot of the foreshadowing and flashbacks would be very obscure. The ending also wasn't very satisfying. It reads a lot like a prequel to the main story.
So, not the best and pretty amazing that the first installment of one of my favorite series doesn't work for me.
19) Free Food For Millionaires by Min Jin LeeI liked this book but not as much as Pachinko. It felt like it sprawled a bit too much. I get that this story is more of a group effort in terms of characters but I really only cared about the main one.
It focuses on the Korean American community in NYC and it's quite interesting. There are the younger characters who want the American Dream and the older parents who are still living a fairly strict Korean lifestyle. I can't say I agreed or understood a lot of the actions of the various characters but I can't say I was ever bored. It is a good book.
20) Dark Money by Jane MayerThis was a very informative book about how a few rich individuals have influenced the right and brought the country to where it currently is. Not exactly a fun read. It boiled down to "I've made a lot of money and I'm going to keep as much of it as possible. Never mind the damage my company has done to the environment or people." I disliked each and every person profiled in this book.
21) An American Tragedy by Theodore DreiserMany years ago, I looked at the Modern Library top 100 American novels and this was one of them and quite high up too. Based on the description, I thought it would be up my alley.
The story is about Clyde Griffiths, a boy raised by street preachers, with little education and little money in the family. He pushes away religion and wants the American dream of class, society and creature comforts that money can give him.
So far so good, but the book spends some 500+ pages showing us how immensely unlikeable he is. To make matters worse, this is 1920's conservative America and all its trappings so there is a lot of worrying about how society will view them.
The last 300+ pages is a court case where I just wanted a guilty verdict to get it over with.
I get what the book was trying to say but it was just poorly written, way too long and so slow.
A bit of a disappointment for me.
22) The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin HamidThis had an interesting narrative structure, where it was one side of a conversation between the narrator and an American in Lahore. The best compliment I can give this book is that it stuck with me after reading it and made me explore why I felt the way I did about the outcome of the book. I really liked it and will try other books by this author.
26) Swing Time by Zadie Smith - I didn't like this as much as I'd hoped. The characters just weren't that interesting. The story flipped between past and present and there was a long part in Africa that just didn't do anything for me. And I didn't really care about her relationship with Aimee.25) Sleeping Beauties by Stephen and Owen King - I think his son bogged this one down because it doesn't feel like a Stephen King book. It was really bloated and the worse thing I can say is that there were so many characters of little worth that they started blending into a large mess.
24) Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie - A very enjoyable trilogy.
23) Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie - A good second part.
27) Saved by Ben Hewitt - This is a non-fiction book about the author's relationship with money, how he tried to downsize, live on less, etc. I was hoping for something more like the Minimalist book so this was a bit of a disappointment. I don't really care about how the monetary system works (although the author says I should). I wanted more stories about how he downsized, learned to live on less, etc. 28) Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami - A short story collection with typical Murakami which means it was very good. If you like him, you won't be disappointed.
This is a fictionalized account of Michael Chabon's grandfather's life. I had high expectations for this book and I was consistently pleased but then the story hit a part where it completely moved me. It was such an amazing, emotional, wonderfully rendered scene.
His Grandmother had come to the US with her daughter (his Mother) when the daughter was very young. His Grandmother lost her family and most of her life. When she came to the US, she brought 4 pictures with her and the Mother had these pictures as a remembrance of her Mother. Fast forward to the present and Michael Chabon asks her about the pictures and his Mother realizes all the pictures have disappeared, potentially lost forever. This moment is very sad, but then Michael asks his mother to describe the 4 missing pictures and this was the scene that totally moved the book to the next level for me.
Highly recommended!