Challenge: 50 Books discussion
2010
>
Heather's Reading Rampage
date
newest »
newest »
31. The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofino- 3*sBased on all literary standards and my own common sense, I know I should give this book less than 3*s. The dialogue is total trash, the plot is shallow, and the characters aren't even mildly believable. Yet that je ne sais quoi about literature compels me to give it some recognition, because, I somewhat shamefully admit, I couldn't put this book down.
The story is somewhere between chick lit and a crime novel, taking the female experience of self revelation to an extreme level and sending the character through endless cat-and-mouse hoops, all determined by her feeble attempts to understand her 26-year-old self. The author, clearly a man by his character-study, grasps at the experience of recognizing who you are as a person, and listening to that little voice inside of you, even when it makes no sense at all. The story would be wonderful, were the emotions not so cliche and shallow. So what made me keep reading?
First, despite the inconsistencies and flawed characters, Cristofino is actually a great writer. This is his first novel, so I would expect that the next one, with the help of a better editor, would show a lot more development and could be truly brilliant. Many of the woes of this book, as with most, can be blamed on bad editing, not necessarily bad writing. Second, the plot is a REALLY good idea. The intention was there, but the execution fell short. Third, and most importantly, the book reads like a movie. The author even compares his characters to actors so you can envision what they look like, and his scene descriptions are spot and rich in detail. I would love to see this turned into a movie and match up the actors as the author suggests (Kiera Knightley as the lead).
I recommend this for a good summer beach read, and would recommend to keep an eye out for his next book.
32. The With of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare- 3*sI have a guilty pleasure for children's literature and am gradually making my way through all Newbury winners, which compelled me to read this book. It's obvious why it wont he Newbury: a history lesson woven into a moral lesson with pinches of American identity to boot. The writing isn't particularly skillful, and feels a bit forced at times. I admit that as much as I enjoy children's lit, I'm biased with it more so than other novels because I have been tainted by the perfection of Lois Lowry. Every Newbury winner I compare to the plot of the Giver or the prose of Number the Stars. Nobody beats Lois!
33. Thin is the New Happy by Valeria Frankel- 5*sOne lesson learned from this crazy quest to read 50 books in a year is discovering my preferred genre. "Thin is the New Happy" is a quintessentially Heather book: out-loud-funny, socially observant, an incredibly personal story that magically speaks to millions. I haven't read any other of Frankel's books, but based on TITNH, I'd put her up there with Anne Lamott and Elizabeth Gilbert (although I'm not a huge fan of the latter, she seems to be the current leader of this genre).
I laughed out loud at least twenty times reading these 250 pages. That says something....
33. Thin is the New Happy by Valeria Frankel- 5*sOne lesson learned from this crazy quest to read 50 books in a year is discovering my preferred genre. "Thin is the New Happy" is a quintessentially Heather book: out-loud-funny, socially observant, an incredibly personal story that magically speaks to millions. I haven't read any other of Frankel's books, but based on TITNH, I'd put her up there with Anne Lamott and Elizabeth Gilbert (although I'm not a huge fan of the latter, she seems to be the current leader of this genre).
I laughed out loud at least twenty times reading these 250 pages. That says something....
34. The Big Short by Michael Lewis- 4*sPrior to the last 50 pages, I was expecting to give this book either 2 or 3 stars. The last chapter alone redeemed it and as a stand-alone would be worthy of 5*s. But as a whole, I'd give it 3 and a half, but rounded up since I just closed the cover and it got me in a tizzy.
This book should come with a dictionary. Lewis succeeds in using simple language to explain extremely complex Wall Street machinations, but there is an assumed basic understanding of securities and derivatives. I admit, I had to Wikipedia about a dozen of the terms he used and re-read a couple chapters. Unless you're already familiar with the stock market, be prepared for this to take longer than you expect.
Also be prepared to get really really really angry. Lewis's conclusion isn't really a conclusion at all. A couple times in the book he asks the question but never really answers it: "How could this happen?!" The 2008 housing crisis was entirely predictable and should have been foreseen so far in advance that it could have been mitigated, if not prevented entirely. The tentative answer to "How could this happen?" is two-fold: greed and tunnel-vision, which may be the same thing depending on where you fall on the capitalist scale.
Prior to reading the Big Short I was of the opinion the mortgage crisis could be blamed on Americans who bit off more than they could chew and were simply ignorant of their financial responsibilities. My objectivist tendencies, bred from a love of Ayn Rand, told me not to blame Wall Street. Obviously Lewis is telling a story from an admittedly biased perspective, but... he makes a pretty strong case that Wall Street is designed to "f*ck the average American," (a phrase regularly found in the Big Short), and even people with years of experience, millions of dollars in bonuses, and really big brains for this stuff were fooled by the web of intricacies, lies, and facades built around the subprime mortgage market. Blaming the collapse on average Americans would be like blaming average Americans for the invasion of Iraq: it was something beyond their control, and no amount of insider information or reading of the fine print could have prevented either catastrophe.
Big Short is slow going at times, despite the easy flowing prose and mere 250 pages, and I wanted to give up on it at least a half dozen times. But reading that last chapter really makes it all worth it and is the perfect ending to the story. I feel better educated, though slightly more enraged, having read this book. Surely that's worth of 4*s.
35. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood- 4*sShort book does not always equal a short review, but in this case it's pretty cut and dry. Beautiful writing, playful tone and tale, insightful yet witty, the only bad thing about it was that it was too short and I wanted at least another 150 pages. Oh Margaret, why isn't there more of you to go around?
36. Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot- 1*Another failed attempt with chick lit. I admit I was partially attracted to this one by the title: it sounded quirky, fun, and I'm always intrigued by an atypical heroine comfortable in her own (size 12) skin. Epic fail.
I know quite a few people who like Meg Cabot, author of the Princess Diaries series, so may give her another try, but the Heather Wells series did not go over well with me. It read like a script from The Hills. No, really. As I read it I mentally added hair twirls, empty stares, and that clicking noise Kristen C. makes when she rolls her eyes and judges someone. It's too bad, because Heather Wells actually has the makings of a great heroine. Too bad Meg Cabot didn't have the makings of a good author.
37. Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh- 5*sThis was the last of my top five favorite books to re-read. It keeps the 5*s, but I don't know if it stays in the top five. The message is almost identical to Rilke's, but for a female audience. It's like a big hug and a pick me up and words of encouragement to go out and take on the world.
I would love love love to read this for a book club, and if anyone has read it for a book club I'd be interested in feedback. I wonder how many of Lindbergh's conclusions are as true today as they were fifty years ago, and how much my generation relates to the struggles of our mothers and grandmothers to balance relationships, to edit the massive amounts of information and opportunities at our disposal, and to find our place on the spectrum between isolation, solitude, and competition.
38. The Devil We Know by Robert Baer- 2*sI read this at the same time as the Ayatollah Begs to Differ (see below), so inevitably I ended up comparing the two. Baer is a much more concise and analytical writer than Majd, however his conclusions are rather shallow and the book is too partisan and politically biased for my tastes. And, of course, I come down on the other side of the debate.
39. The Ayatollah Begs to Differ by Hamoon Majd- 4*sAn Iranian friend recommended this book to me, which I took to be a credit to it's authenticity. Having never been to Iran, I can only take her word for it that Majd paints an accurate and rich picture of Iranian culture and politics. Majd deftly describes and navigates the soap opera of political players and dramatic twists to leave the reader with a much clearer image of a country defined by its contradictions. The writing is a bit stutter-stepped at times, and I can't for the life of me grasp the methodology behind the sequence of the chapters, but each chapter could serve as a stand-alone essay with independent nuggets, like wiping away circles on a foggy window to gradually get a fuller picture- there are still some opaque patches, but for the most part you get a better glimpse of a closed and enigmatic culture. Absolutely recommend!
43. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius- 2*sBased on the first 25 pages of this book I would wholeheartedly give it 5 stars and suggest it be mandatory reading for every philosophy/political science/psychology major, and possibly even 10th grade English class. It's a fresh outlook on life and the world, which is ironic considering its age, but Aurelius's observations are just as true today as they were then. This slim manifesto is personal both to the reader and to author, and I like to imagine him reading it to aloud to a group of friends over dinner over a couple glasses of wine. I really like to imagine such a dinner party consisting of Rilke, Ayn Rand, and Anne Lamott- I would gladly cook up a pot roast for those people. Doesn't that sounds lovely? Yes, I enjoyed the first 25 pages very much.
But then.... the subsequent 150 pages are exactly the same. No, really, I went back and found at least 10 passages or phrases that are verbatim throughout the book. I suppose this is why the book isn't as widely read as it should be. If we were having that conversation over a fire, I would have said, "Marcus, I'm sorry, but you already said that and I'm exhausted. You're preaching to the choir, buddy, so either move along or let's talk about something else. Speaking of which, did you see Donovan's goal?" Thus, it pains me to take away stars because of length, but I'll blame it on the editor, rather than on Marcus.
Heather wrote: "43. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius- 2*sBased on the first 25 pages of this book I would wholeheartedly give it 5 stars and suggest it be mandatory reading for every philosophy/political science/p..."
Things must be changing because back when I was in high school and college, it was required reading. I am getting old...
44. Women, Food, and God by Geneen Roth- 4*sThe title of this book is both misleading and self-defeating. I almost didn't buy the book because of the title alone, but then I saw Anne Lamott recommended it and I took a leap... and 'twas worth it. In terms of books about our relationship with food, this is one of the best I've read. It isn't even necessarily for women, but has much deeper messages about our society and thinking as a whole.
I liked it... to be honest I'm so burnt out of flying through these books I don't have the energy for a full review. Maybe later...
45. Joy School by Elizabeth Berg- 5*s
46. Case of Exploding Mangoes by Hanif- 2*s
47. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf- 2*s
48. George Kennan by John Luckasz- 1*I have a great rant stewing over this book and some epiphanies about the role of the author in any story (fiction or non-fiction). However I'm feeling quite burnt out from reading so am saving up said rant and other reviews until I feel capable of giving them due diligence. Right now I just want to press ahead and maintain momentum....
I'm almost done with #49 (Boy by Roald Dahl, my favorite author), then it's on to the big kahuna, the motherload, the epitomy of Russian literature, my personal white whale: Brothers Karamazov. Let's hope I don't poop out before then.
49. Boy by Roald Dahl- 3*s50. Stoner by John Williams- 5*s
A hidden gem, don't be discouraged by a seemingly bland synopsis, this is a poignant and moving book.
Holy crap, I read 50 books in a year!
Holy crap, the years not over!! WTG Heather.
Challenge: 50 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man's Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand (other topics)Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Jane Green (other topics)Anna Maxted (other topics)
Sophie Kinsella (other topics)
Katie Fforde (other topics)
Elizabeth Young (other topics)
More...
Hold up, this book wasn't all that bad. Three chapters were worthy of five stars: A Vanished Gender: Women, Children, and Taliban Culture; Master or Victim: Pakistan's Afghan War; and the Taliban Resurgent 2000-2009. These chapters were illuminating and full of memorable anecdotes eloquently mixed with political insights that certainly influenced by thinking not only of Afghanistan, but of the region and religion as a whole.
The author is clearly of the Dexter Filkins camp and likes to chasing crazies around, braving tanks and IEDs, but also just being in the right place at the right time (like Kabul when Soviet tanks rolled up in 1979). He falls well short of Filkins in his style and editing, however. There is such a dirth of details that I lost sight of what point he was trying to make: was this meant to be a detailed education where all these names matter? Or is it instead attempting to provide insights into the Taliban movement and their philosophy? I was looking for the latter but fear the author was more interested in providing the former.
I read this for a thematic book club and this month's topic was Af-Pak. The book succeeded in educating me on the relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan and what the US is doing wrong there, and it gave me more information and detail than I really wanted an the Taliban movement. One are where I was pleasantly surprised was Rashid's description of Afghan culture and identity and how diverse it is. I thought I already had a solid foundation on this topic, but he provided a really insightful and concise explanation of how the country operates (rather, why it fails to operate), and the important tradition of reistance. No one has managed to unify or conquer the country, and that is demonstrative of the people and the challenges ahead.