2011 book 199

Jennifer Donnelly's The Winter Rose
The sequel to The Tea Rose picks up a few years after the last one left off--it's now 1900 in London and we're back in the thick of things with Fiona Finnegan and her family (though a likable lady doctor and a Jewish nurse and her relatives have been added to the mix). At times, these books are frustrating to read--Donnelly keeps adding all these artificial obstacles to various people getting together and dragging it out--it's like a bad romantic comedy half the time with everyone falling in love at first sight but then beset by miscommunications and bad timing. I mean, this book is 720 pages long, and it's a lot to slog through to get to the inevitable happy ending. Still, I loved the characters (except for the ones who were assholes) and really did want to know what would happen to them--and Donnelly threw in a few surprises toward the end (as a reward for her diligent readers?). I'm off to read the third one now, b/c dammit, I need to see how things end up. B/B+.

2011 book 198

Jennifer Donnelly's The Tea Rose
I've enjoyed Donnelly's YA books, but somehow her historical adult trilogy had completely escaped my attention. The first, The Tea Rose, centers on a young girl in London at the time of Jack the Ripper. She dreams of starting a shop with her love interest, but of course things are never that simple, or else this book would be a lot shorter. Despite patently unbelievable plot points, incorrect history, and a whole lot of sometimes unnecessary drama, I found this story to be entirely engrossing. Donnelly populates her world with likable (ok, not all likable) and realistic characters, and really brings the late 1800s to life. A-/B+.

2011 book 197

Nicole Peeler's Eye of the Tempest
More fantasy fighting and shenanigans as Peeler spends most of this book setting things up for whatever will happen in the next one--and once again, interrupting the protagonist every time she's about to get with her love interest. Peeler's narrative is firmly tongue-in-cheek most of the time, which makes reading such a silly book work. B.

2011 book 196

Patricia Wrede's Across the Great Barrier
The sequel to The Thirteenth Child features more magical alternate-Wild-West adventures. The protagonist is very likable, but the story just wasn't that exciting this time around. B.

2011 book 195

Emily Arsenault's In Search of the Rose Notes
Arsenault's The Broken Teaglass was one of my favorites of 2009, so I was eager to read her second novel-slash-mystery. Rose Notes is slightly more traditional but no less compelling, centering on Nora, and her childhood best friend getting back in touch because a body has been discovered--their babysitter, who went missing sixteen years earlier. Nora returns to her hometown to see her friend and talk about the missing Rose, but gets sucked into some investigations amidst flashing back to the fall when Rose disappeared, when the younger girls were obsessed with books about paranormal activity. Anyway, really interesting characters (I won't say "likable"--Nora's friend, in particular, is a super major brat) and I found the resolution satisfying. A/A-.

2011 book 194

Dana Reinhardt's The Summer I Learned to Fly
The life of a thirteen-year-old girl changes one summer when her widowed mother opens a cheese shop and when she meets a new boy with the help of her pet rat. Reinhardt has written a few other solid YA books and this was no exception--the cast of characters was really likable, especially a Vespa-riding surfer who works in the shop and an Irish busker. A-.

2011 book 193

Shirley Jackon's We Have Always Lived in the Castle
This is one of those classic books that somehow I'd never read, and of course there's a reason it's a classic. Maybe a few too many shades of "The Lottery" but excellent atmosphere and characters.

2011 book 192

Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus
When a book gets as much buzz as this one has for months before it comes out (and it doesn't even come out till September), I'm always a little leery--how can it possibly live up to the hype? Well, it turns out people are buzzing so much about it because it's just THAT GOOD. Seriously. It's the story of a mysterious night-time circus full of wonders--but really it's the story of two rival magicians (actual magic, not just stage magicians) who each train a student to defeat the other's in a mysterious contest--and how the circus ties into that. And there's romance, and beauty, and a hint of creepiness. Also, there are lots of kittens.

Morgenstern's writing is nearly impeccable and completely draws you in--I started this during dinner and planned to finish it tomorrow, but couldn't wait that long to see what would happen. Morgenstern didn't disappoint. A+.

__
An e-galley was provided by the publisher.

2011 book 191

Hillary Jordan's When She Woke
So this book is basically The Scarlet Letter meets The Handmaid's Tale. Hannah lives in a near-future dystopia where, after having an abortion, she's arrested and dyed red (criminals are dyed different colors; red = murder). Then some other stuff happens to her--she makes a friend, she falls in with a mysterious group, she's ostracized from society, and through it all, she's still in love with the man who knocked her up. Jordan is occasionally heavy-handed with her world-building (I completely agree with what clearly are her political views, but this book isn't going to convince anyone who doesn't) but the story is engrossing and moves quickly (I read it all in one sitting) and Hannah's struggles with religion make her even more sympathetic. A-.


__
A galley was provided by the publisher.

2011 book 190

Amor Towles' Rules of Civility
I'm just going to flat-out say it: this is going to be on my best of the year list. Doesn't matter about all the awesome books by great writers coming out this fall. This is tops.

I read a review that summarized it as "Mad Men in the 1930s" and that's accurate enough; our protagonist, Katey, is a young secretary with a madcap best friend whose world changes thanks to a chance encounter on New Year's Eve 1938. Towles nails a variety of New York cultures and populates the city with a myriad of believable and likable characters. And the writing is impeccable and beautiful. Great, great story--completely absorbing. A+.

2011 book 189

Randy Russell's Dead Rules
A teenage girl dies and ends up in Dead School, a sort of weird purgatory boarding school afterlife. With the requisite cute bad boy ghost, of course. But she's still madly in love with her boyfriend and wants to figure out how they can be together forever. Russell doles out information to the reader so that s/he's all antsy waiting for the protagonist to figure everything out, but in a good way. A-.

2011 book 188

Sara Zarr's Sweethearts
Another solid-but-kind-of-a-downer from Zarr, this one centers on a former outcast who's reshaped her life--and how things change when her childhood sweetheart--who she thought was dead--comes back into her life. A-.

2011 book 187

Sara Zarr's Story of a Girl
Zarr is one of those YA authors people always rave about, so I figured I'd give her a shot. And this is a really solid story, about a girl who got involved with an older guy when she was only 13, and has spent her teenage years trying to live her bad reputation down--and trying to deal with her dysfunctional family. It's kind of a downer but a really good read. A-.

2011 book 186

Rosie Alison's The Very Thought of You
A novel involving the lives of various British ppl during WWII--a child evacuated to a fancy old Yorkshire manor-turned-school; her mother, relishing freedom; the unhappily married couple who own the estate; and friends of the couple who work at the embassy in Warsaw (by far the most interesting characters--and it turns out they're real). Anyway, it starts off strong but bogs down badly in the second half, when it just turns depressing. B.

2011 book 185

William Goldman's The Princess Bride
This was one of my favorite books when I was a kid, so I was psyched to look it up on Amazon and see that the Kindle version was 5 bucks. Unfortunately, the Kindle version is the 30th anniversary edition, whcih features TWO nearly impenetrable forewords discussing the very realistic but fictional Florin, the also fictional Goldman family, and all sorts of Hollywood namedropping. The only redeeming parts are the bits involving Andre the Giant (and at least some of those are fictional too). Then, at the end, is another impenetrable afterword featuring more of the same (plus Stephen King) as well as the first chapter of the fictional and/or unfinished sequel (which is terrible). So the first 8 percent and last 15 percent of this version aren't worth reading (believe me, I really tried). Too bad, because the original novel is a clever masterpiece.

2011 book 184

Cristina Garcia's Dreams of Significant Girls
Three girls--an Iranian math genius, a rebellious German-Canadian girl, and a Jewish Cuban girl who loves books and desserts--spend three summers together at a ritzy Swiss boarding school. This book is pretty likable, though a twist at the end involving two of the girls' fathers pissed me off, and I found the epilogue to be mostly unsatisfactory. B.

2011 book 183

Jenny Wingfield's The Homecoming of Samuel Lake
I can't figure out why this book isn't being super buzzed about, b/c it is damn excellent. Maybe Once Upon a River is cornering the market on grim near-historical tales? (Though this is not nearly as grim for most of the time.) Anyway, this is the story of what happens in 1950s Arkansas when a preacher isn't assigned a church, and his family goes to live with his mother-in-law and all her complicated relatives (great characters, all), and what happens when his daughter Swan (yes, one of our main characters is named Swan Lake) befriends a troubled neighbor boy. Now, this book wasn't perfect--the villain was perhaps over the top (he abuses his family, horses, and kills kittens for fun) but was absolutely terrifying nonetheless (Wingfield really captures his family's fear). And parts of it are just dreadful to read--I cried several times, though to be fair, one of those times I cried from happiness. Any book that makes me cry from happiness gets an automatic A.

2011 book 182

Meg Cabot's Overbite
The sequel to Insatiable is perfect pool reading. It's got even more vampire and vampire hunting action! B.

2011 book 181

Meg Cabot's Insatiable
I enjoyed those other books by Cabot that I read recently, so figured I'd check out her non-YA vampire series, whcih focuses on a woman who writes for a soap opera called Insatiable. She's not just a writer, though, she's got a psychic power that lets her see how people will die. Then of course she meets a vampire, who's not just any vampire, but the PRINCE OF VAMPIRES!! And even though the character constantly rails against the whole vampire trend and its lame heroines, she does fall into some of the tropes herself--like Cabot has them fall in love instantly--but she's at least more interesting than most chicks from paranormal romances, with a great dog, an entertaining best friend, and an unemployed but likable brother. There's also an interesting vampire hunter character with his own job-related drama and some very funny writing, so I do think it's worth a read. B+.

2011 book 180

Alissa Grosso's Popular
Five girls are in a group called the clique and they're the most popular girls in school. But they all sort of hate each other and some are actively plotting against their queen bee. And then like 2/3rds of the way in, it turns into a completely different book, which I had some mixed feelings about. B.

2011 book 179

Michael Northrup's Trapped
I frequently have the discussion about current YA books vs. the YA books we had growing up in the '80s and '90s, and how today's tend to be meatier/deeper. This book is a good example of that--one of my favorite books when I was a kid was No Time for Rabbits, about a few kids and a teacher trapped in a school during a blizzard. And Trapped is the modern version of that, but it's much more harrowing and there really isn't much humor. Which, frankly, is more realistic. Anyway, great story--some of the characters aren't well-developed and the end is a bit abrupt, but it managed to give me the chills on a day with record-breaking heat, so. A-/B+.

2011 book 178

Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
I don't think I've read this since we covered it in middle school (my childhood copy has marginal notes and doodles in pink pen) and it holds up really well--I guess it's a classic for a reason. The only thing I really remembered was Aunt Sissy, so it was a really nice rediscovery and a great exploration of pre-WWI New York immigrant culture (very interesting discussions of Jews, too).

2011 book 177

Cecilia Galante's The Sweetness of Salt
When her estranged older sister invites an overachieving valedictorian to visit her in Vermont, family secrets emerge and also other cheesy things happen. This book was totally overwritten--no subtlety at all--and very predictable. C.

2011 book 176

Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice
I haven't read this book in years--not since I started this blog in 2004, anyway--but it's always been one of my favorites (and that didn't change this time around). I've read it several times but only ever remember the first quarter of it well--because really it's a stunning story (in that it leaves you feeling stunned). For those who have never read it, it's the story of one Jean Paget--one of the bravest, cleverest, and funniest women in literature--and her experiences as one of a group of women and children on a forced march by the Japanese during WWII (based on the experiences of a similar group in Sumatra). That's only the first part though--what happens to her afterward, as narrated by her somewhat elderly and very British lawyer, is somehow just as compelling. And surprisingly romantic.

__
I feel I should mention that this book was written in 1950 and thus contains some fairly racist/colonial terminology. It doesn't make the story any less great, but makes for some slightly uncomfortable moments for the modern reader.

2011 book 175

Helen Grant's The Glass Demon
Grant--author of The Vanishing of Katharina Linden--is back with another tale of possible supernatural shenanigans in small-town Germany. Lin's dad is a professor at Oxford or someplace and he's all obsessed with these lost medieval stained glass windows that are supposedly infested with a demon, so he drags the family to a forest in Germany to research/search for them. Things get melodramatic pretty quickly (the end is completely ridiculous) and Lin is exceptionally moronic at times. I don't know why I even finished this, except to find out what embarrassing thing "Lin" was short for. C.

2011 book 174

Samantha Sotto's Before Ever After
Shelley, a young widow, is astounded when a man comes to her house claiming to be her young dead husband's grandson (with photographic evidence) and that her husband Max is actually alive. As they travel to find him, Shelley tells the story of their courtship--which actually contains the story of her husband's long life. Interesting characters and I especially liked Max as an eccentric tourguide of Europe. But though it had the end it needed to have, it still felt unsatisfying for some reason. B.


__
An ARC was provided by the publisher.

2011 book 173

Megan Abbott's The End of Everything
Why are there so many books about young missing girls? I guess American culture is fascinated by them, judging by the media, but it still seems strange. I will say that this book--about a 13-year-old girl whose best friend goes missing, and who is determined to find her--goes some pretty unexpected places. B+.

2011 books 171 and 172

Maryrose Wood's The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place Book 1: The Mysterious Howling and Book 2: The Hidden Gallery
I love love love these books. I wanted to reread the second one, but of course had to start with the first so it would all be in context! Wood's narrative voice on these is hilarious and I love her plucky heroine and her three raised-by-wolves charges. Lots of mysteries are unfolding and I can't wait for the third one and hope some answers are forthcoming.

2011 book 170

Rae Carson's The Girl of Fire and Thorns
So you know how sometimes you're reading a book and get so absorbed that you look up and some large amount of time has passed? This is one of those books. It's about a young princess and a lot is going on in her life when we meet her--it's her sixteenth birthday and also her sudden wedding day to the king of a nearby land, and oh yeah, she's the one person in a century gifted with a Godstone, a blue stone on her stomach that indicates ties to God and to a future unknown Service (the theology here is really very complex and interesting). But she's a fearful little thing, inexperienced in the courtly life, much more interested in books (especially holy texts and military history)--and pretty soon it's not just the politics of the royal life that she needs to worry about. Great, great stuff here, and unlike most YA fantasies, romance is a factor but not the main event (so refreshing!). It is the first in a trilogy, but don't worry, it wraps up very satisfactorily. If you like books with magic, and where girls learn to accept themselves and their gifts and to become total badasses, this is the book for you (fans of Kristin Cashore, take note). Totally an A.



__
An e-galley was provided by the publisher.

2011 book 169

Chris Moriarty's The Inquisitor's Apprentice
Wait, wait, wait. A book exists that combines alternate histories, Judaism, and magic? And there's interesting subtext involving class struggles? And it's all wrapped up in an entertaining middle-grade package? YES. Yes, it exists, and this is that book! I scoff in the face of that article from a couple years ago claiming there were no really Jewish fantasy novels.

Anyway. This is the story of Sacha, the child of Russian-Jewish immigrants to an alternate New York back in the times of pogroms and factories and horses. But he's not just any Jewish boy--he can see magic. So of course he ends up apprenticed to an Inquisitor, the branch of the police that monitors magic usage. And also of course, his fellow apprentice is the daughter of one of the most prominent and wealthiest New York families. And soon they're embroiled in a case involving a dybbuk, Thomas Edison, and Harry Houdini. And all of it is awesome. I do wish there was a little less lying/secret-keeping (which seems to be a staple of this genre for some reason--seriously, confide in a grownup already), and the illustrations aren't really necessary, but this is a fascinating look at immigrant life in the craziness of old-time New York. With magic. A/A-.

__
An e-galley was provided by the publisher.

2011 book 168

Alice Laplante's Turn of Mind
A surgeon with Alzheimer's is a suspect in the murder of her best friend--but this isn't really a mystery, it's more a portrait of the deteriorating mind. Very well done. A/A-.

2011 book 167

Bonnie Jo Campbell's Once Upon a River
OK, well, this book is definitely worthy of the critical acclaim it's been getting, but the first 2/3rds are not at all an easy read. It's grim stuff--very Winter's Bone, but with more rape. And I don't entirely get the Huck Finn comparisons (I feel like descriptions of the book are like "a girl runs away from some crazy badness and travels down the river to find the mother who left her a year ago" and while that is in some sense accurate, it's not really what this book is about. And frankly for the first chunk of the book my brain was screaming at the protagonist to stop being such an idiot and just falling into these insane situations, none of which have much to do with the river). Of course, I've never actually read Huck Finn, so maybe that is sort of a survivalist book with lots of animals being skinned.

That last paragraph reads really negatively and actually I loved this book, but it is really really hard to read at times. A/A-.

2011 book 166

Lev Grossman's The Magician King
I'll admit that, unlike most people, I didn't love Grossman's The Magicians--of course I was excited to read something billed as "Harry Potter for grownups," but none of the characters were likable. They were mostly all pretentious jerkwads acting too cool for school--and I ask you, who is really too cool for magic school? And protagonist Quentin was just kind of annoying. And why didn't Grossman just make the magical land Narnia when it was so clearly Narnia? (Maybe worried about a lawsuit?) It was all just so . . . disappointing.

I didn't remember most of the details of the first one when I started the sequel, but right away I was enjoying it much more--much of it focuses on Julia, Quentin's high school friend who failed the exam to get into his magic school, and how she managed to become a magician anyway, which is a frankly scary journey at parts. And there's plenty of Quentin adventuring going on, but I liked it much more this time, maybe because he was actually a grownup, or because he wasn't surrounded by his douchey friends. It all manages to be fairly thrilling. I really enjoyed Grossman's characterizations this time around, and the way he weaves fairy tales into the narrative. Plus all the pop culture references. This was much, much better than the first one. A.


__
An e-galley was provided by the publisher.

2011 book 165

Daryl Gregory's Raising Stony Mayhall
OK, I know I solemnly swore to stop reading zombie books after I had some pretty freaky zombie nightmares, but this isn't really a zombie book--or well, it's totally a zombie book, but it's not a horror book. See, what happens is, it's the late 60s and there was a zombie outbreak but it was stopped pretty quickly. And soon afterward, the Mayhall family--a mom and three daughters--find a baby with his dead mother on the side of the road. And he's dead too. But not. Zombie baby!!! So they raise him up and he's not the usual zombie, and his story--and the story of the rest of the Living Dead--turn out to be pretty fascinating. And though this is a zombie book, it is really a book about family. And always having an escape route. A-.

2011 book 164

Carolyn Cooke's Daughters of the Revolution
This is getting great reviews, but I have to say I wasn't really feeling it. It's described as like, how things change when an African-American girl becomes the first girl at a boys' private school, and I suppose that's technically true, but really it's just sort of about . . . change. In general. In the 60s up through the present, sort of. Told mostly from the POV of the old-school head of the boys' school, and the daughter of one of the alumni. I wish there had been more of the first girl in the school, as she's really the only likable character. Maybe the other characters are sort of likable, but we never get to know them; there's no resolution to any parts of their lives as the narrative keeps skipping forward in time. Basically, I didn't get this book at all and have no idea what it was trying to achieve, and there wasn't enough of a plot to keep me interested. B-.

2011 book 163

Myra McEntire's Hourglass
So Emerson is a teenage girl who can see ghosts of the past, and also her parents are dead and she is generally troubled. Her brother hires a dude to help her, and of course he's affiliated w/ a mysterious organization, and of course he's also a hot young guy to be her love interest. Just once I'd like a book about a girl coming into her powers with like the help of her friends (a la Buffy) and not dependent on some dude she's all twitterpated about. Especially since Emerson's best friend is a really interesting and underused character. Now, from all this, things go in a way you might not expect, though at a certain point I realized where it was going was just as stupid as the usual YA paranormal romance cliches. It's all just underwritten, the motivation for all the characters' action is really weak, and the twists McEntire throws in are just silly. I was really disappointed here--the first quarter had a lot of promise and then things just got . . . not great. B-.

2011 book 162

Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides
Sometimes you just have to reread something awesome and today was one of those days. I've always found this book surprisingly lovely. Anyway, Eugenides has a new book coming out this fall and I'm psyched.

2011 book 161

Meg Cabot's Big Boned
Pretty much the same as the last one--you have to suspend a great deal of disbelief, but fun story and very likable characters. I could do without the really really bad fake song lyrics at the start of every chapter, though. B+.

2011 book 160

Meg Cabot's Size 14 Is Not Fat Either
Seriously, what crappy editor let Cabot use these names for this series? WORST TITLES EVER. I mean, for one thing, they don't let you know you're going to be reading a funny mystery series about a former pop star who now works in a residence hall, and for another, they're just embarrassing. Like I don't want to admit reading, let alone liking, books with these titles.

Anyway, this is a fairly satisfactory followup. I mean, the mystery is completely ridiculous and unbelievable (despite what I said about the last one) but the characters are so likable that I didn't really mind. B+.

2011 book 159

Meg Cabot's Size 12 Is Not Fat
I've never read anything by Cabot before--I mean, she wrote those Princess Diaries books, and the title of this is just awful--but everyone always says she's an entertaining writer and I wanted something lighter and more fun after slogging through Doc all week. So this is the story of a former teen pop star who's take a job as the assistant director of a residence hall in New York, and what happens when a freshman girl is found dead at the bottom of an elevator shaft. Conveniently, the love interest/landlord is a PI, which bodes well for this series (b/c how many dorm murders can a former teen pop star realistically--or semi-realistically--solve?). Anyway, this was as entertaining as I'd been told and Cabot's voice is very funny. I'm off to read the sequel now. A-.

2011 book 158

Maria Doria Russell's Doc
Oh man, I have been reading this book ALL WEEK. It was one of the slowest novels I've ever read and I can't figure out why; parts of it are extremely interesting, and of course you really can't go wrong talking about Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. Part of my problem with this was that at times it reads like a history book. I also think Russell's habit of giving elaborate backstories to even the most minor characters made things go on much longer than they needed to. I actually can't figure out why this got such stellar reviews in the press and on Amazon--like I said, parts of it are very good, but it's not at all a compelling read, as in I wasn't at all compelled to keep reading to find out what would happen (and spoilers: it ends before they even get to Tombstone, so the excitement is really at a minimum). Which isn't to say it was a bad book--like I said, there were some really good parts, and I especially liked all the dentistry. But my god, slowest read ever. B.

harry potter, etc

Sorry for the lack of posting--I'm reading a long and kind of slow book, and I'm not going to be done with it tonight either. To tide you over in the meantime, here are some links! (I've posted these on Twitter already, but what the hey, here they are again in case you missed them.)

On the literary merits of Harry Potter.

Speaking of HP, the whole Pottermore thing gets announced tomorrow--but was it leaked?

Literature Map is cool--type in an author's name and it'll pull up similar authors--the closer they are to the original author's name, the more likely someone is to like both of them.

2011 book 157

Jennifer Finney Boylan's Falcon Quinn and the Crimson Vapor
The Falcon Quinn follow-up is pretty good, I guess. B.

2011 book 156

Jennifer Finney Boylan's Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror
A Harry Potter-ish book for the MG set, this book features young Falcon Quinn, who finds himself attending a school for monsters. But just like before, he feels like he doesn't fit in, b/c no one can figure out what kind of monster he is. Though some plot points are easily telegraphed, there are some surprises in store, and the large cast of characters is very likable (I was especially partial to La Chupacabra and a sweet little Frankenstein monster). B+.

2011 book 155

Mary Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Yet another book about a girl with memory problems! (Though this one came out in 2009.) Anyway, teenager Jenna Fox awakens after an accident with all sorts of memory and motor problems, but while we wait for her past to be revealed, we realize we're in some sort of near future and then things take a turn for the more interesting. I wasn't invested in the romantic subplot (the character of her love interest wasn't well-developed) and had some minor issues with the ending, but Jenna herself is a fascinating character. Apparently a sequel is coming out in August and it looks even crazier than this one. B/B+.

2011 book 154

Tracey Porter's Lark
Slight little novel about a girl who is kidnapped and killed, narrated through the voice of her former best friend, a girl she babysat, and her own ghost. Not much else to say besides that. B/B+.

2011 book 153

Cat Patrick's Forgotten
Yet another book about a chick with memory issues! In this one, teen London remembers the future--knows what'll happen years down the line--but at 4:33 every morning, forgets the present completely. She wings it with the help of her mom, best friend, and copious note-taking. But then a cute new boy come to school . . . and she remembers a funeral . . . and there's drama. On the whole, a very entertaining read, though I found the epilogue a bit cheesy. I actually find these memory-related stories very intriguing (though they don't always seem to be very scientifically accurate). A-.

2011 book 152

J. Courtney Sullivan's Maine
Sullivan (author of Commencement, which I liked a lot) manages a surprisingly entertaining sophomore effort. I say surprising b/c the description--three generations of women converge in a beach house--might sound kind of cliched and boring, but here, it isn't. Our women are 80-something matriarch Alice, plagued by past secrets and disappointments; her daughter Kathleen, a hippie-slash-recovering alcoholic; daughter-in-law Ann Marie, striving for perfection; and Kathleen's daughter Maggie, who's just discovered she's pregnant but is in a pretty lame relationship. I read a review complaining that Sullivan takes too long to bring the characters together, but I found her narrative effective--lots of backstory on their family dramas, and then things rachet up once they're together. Anyway, I liked the characters a lot, but thought the ending was a bit too abrupt--I'd have liked to see more resolution. I thought there'd be at least another chapter but then suddenly there were the acknowledgments and a reading group guide. A-.

2011 book 151

M.L. Welsh's Mistress of the Storm
Pretty good YA fantasy about a girl and stories and a malevolent wind goddess type. Not particularly interesting but readable enough. Highlights: a pretty cool librarian. I spent the first quarter trying to figure out when this was supposed to be set; the characters all acted and talked like olden times (and were named things like "Verity"), but the protagonist plays field hockey in school. Maybe they were just British? B/B-.

2011 book 150

Ann Brashares' Sisterhood Everlasting
After a couple of fairly lame books, Brashares has decided to return to her bread and butter and revisit the traveling pants girls, only it's ten years later and they're all 29. (And I had to read it, b/c I like those pants books.) Of course, most of them are still involved with (or obsessed with) the same dudes they were with back in high school, which, COME ON. Also, Lena is exactly as annoying and stupid as ever and Carmen is surprisingly boring and somewhat unlikable. I mean, when my favorite character is Bridget, you know something is wrong in the world of the magical pants. Though Bridget is surprisingly compelling in this one. Anyway, after drifting apart, the girls reunite in Greece, but things don't go according to plan (I actually said "What the F@&%" out loud at this plot point). Still, I kind of liked this, even though it's patently unbelievable as well as predictable, and frankly problematic from a feminist perspective (I have a lot to say about this, but as River Song would say, "Spoilers!"). Oh, and let me point out one last thing--each section starts with an epigraph, mostly cliched things from the Great Writers (Waugh, Whitman, White, etc)--but a couple are, randomly, from the Shins. Haha.

I dunno. B?

2011 book 149

S.J. Watson's Before I Go To Sleep
Another much-touted summer read that is definitely worth the hype, this novel is sort of like if 50 First Dates met Memento. OK, no, that makes it sounds kind of cutesy and it's definitely more in the Memento camp. It's about a woman who had an accident years ago and only hazily remembers her past and can't form new memories, so that every night when she goes to sleep, she forgets everything again, and wakes up confused and scared. When a new doctor encourages her to start keeping a journal, she discovers that her husband may be lying to her about a variety of things. The end is a bit drama-rama but I thoroughly enjoyed it anyway. And I'm labeling it as a mystery but it's much more of a literary thriller (and it is full of thrills, for sure). A/A-.

2011 book 148

Tina Fey's Bossypants
I finally read this and it was as awesome and funny as everyone said! Plus, for the first time ever, I used the word-definition-lookup-thingie on my Kindle (I've already forgotten the word--something like "canegeegen"). Anyway, great read, even better than I expected.

2011 book 147

Peter Ferguson and Michael Buckley's The Fairy Tale Detectives
Fairly standard MG novel about two sisters who go to live with their grandmother after their parents disappear and find out they're descended from the Grimm family, blah blah, a town full of fairy tale characters a la Fables, blah. B-.

2011 book 146

Rosamund Lupton's Sister
The actual title of this is Sister: A Novel, but it's one of those novels that straddles the line between literary fiction and mysteries. And let me just say, there's a reason it's been on like every summer reading list--it's excellent. It's about a woman who goes to investigate when her younger sister goes missing, and I'm not saying any more than that, b/c that's all I knew going in and so I was surprised and shocked at every turn. Great characters, great pacing, great atmosphere. A.

2011 book 145

Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower
This is one of those books that was just never on my radar--it came out when I was in college and wasn't reading YA--but this article about the filming of the movie version (starring Emma Watson) made me want to read it. I just love that he made the actors all get O-fries. Unfortunately I wasn't that into the book--the stilted style didn't work for me, and I thought the revelation at the end kind of cheapened things and I'm still not sure it made sense. It did make me nostalgic for Pittsburgh (I was a few years younger than the characters, but my friends and I totally went to Rocky too). And I loved the throwaway references to Penn State and sticky buns. Maybe this is one of those books you have to be a guy to really get. B.

2011 book 144

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Hey, I actually have some new things to say about this one, since it still feels new and exciting to me (I still remember how excited we were for it to come out, and how much fun the midnight release party was!). Anyway, new things I want to say:

--I found out recently that the quote on Harry's parents' gravestone is actually a quote from Corinthians (no surprise that I didn't know this--I'm not at all up on my New Testament), lending more credence to the Harry-is-a-Jesus-figure theory (it makes me nuts that people try and ban these books). I still don't understand the quote though.

--I noticed on this read-through that during Neville's big awesome scene at the end, he breaks free from the Body-Bind curse--a callback to the first book?

--Deathly Hallows pt. 1 was the only HP movie I've liked wholeheartedly (they always leave out the things I think are important!!). I'm a little leery about part 2, but I think as long as they include the Snape-Lily stuff, I'll be ok with added-in exciting battle scenes (I'm guessing there will be extra battle scenes).

2011 book 143

Jean Thompson's The Year We Left Home
Thompson tells the story of a family of Iowans--four siblings and their Vietnam vet cousin--from the 1970s through the early 2000s. Each chapter presents a scene in the life of one of them (mostly Ryan, who escapes Iowa for Chicago) moving up through time (but they're not really self-contained stories or anything). I liked the structure well enough, but some of the characters just didn't come to life for me, and I really wasn't interested in Ryan at all, so having him as a focal point was kind of eh. Not that it's a bad book, I just found my interest waning as it moved on. B.

2011 book 142

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
If you're home sick, there are worse things to do than curl up on the couch reading some Harry Potter. Man, do I love these books.

2011 book 141

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
I'm pretty sure that every time I've read this book, I've written here something along the lines of "it's my least favorite HP" but I actually liked it a lot this time. Maybe I've just gotten reconciled to angry Harry in the first half, and everything I wish didn't happen in the second. Plus, I love Neville, Ginny, and Luna.

2011 book 140

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
This is one of my favorites to reread--not just b/c it's so action-packed and adds so much to the world-building, but b/c it's fun to look for the clues to the crazy end. Plus we start to get some of Snape's backstory. I had planned to start some other book entirely, but it's really hard to stop reading at this point in the HP series.

2011 book 139

Christina Shea's Smuggled
It's 1944, and 5-year-old Eva is smuggled across the border from Hungary to Romania to save her from the Holocaust. She's given a new identity and a whole new life, growing to adulthood during the rise and fall of Communism (the book does an excellent job of showing what life in the Eastern Bloc was like) with very complicated feelings about Jews and Judaism. Really great characters and Shea does an especially good job with the atmosphere. A-. Oh, and don't read the Amazon description, it gives the whole end away.

__
An e-galley was provided by the publisher.

2011 book 138

Liane Moriarty's What Alice Forgot
So the titular Alice has an accident one day at the gym, and wakes up knowing she's a 29 year old woman, happily married and pregnant with her first child. Except it turns out she's hit her head and completely forgotten the last ten years of her life, and in actuality she's a 39 year old woman with three kids, and in the midst of an acrimonious divorce. Plus parts are narrated by her older sister and their family friend/honorary grandmother, both of whom are also dealing with various issues. I guess it sounds a little silly and it is something of a beach read (though very well-written), but I read it as fast as I could b/c I couldn't wait to see what'd happen next. A.

2011 book 137

Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan's Spoiled
Soooooo the Fug Girls wrote a YA novel, and I know they're funny and all, but I wasn't expecting much--so this book was a pleasant surprise. Of course it's fairly fluffy and somewhat predictable, and I wished the end had been like 2 chapters longer, but on the whole this was a very entertaining and likable book. It's about Brooke, the semi-neglected daughter of a major Hollywood celeb, and about Molly, an average teenage girl whose mother has just died, and what happens when they find out that Molly and Brooke are half-sisters and Molly moves from Indiana to LA. Both girls are sympathetic (if occasionally stupid) and the drama is pretty outstanding. Great summer read. A-/B+.

2011 book 136

Aric Davis' Nickel Plated
So Nickel isn't a normal kid--in fact, he's pretty much as far from normal as you can get, living on his own, earning money in a variety of illegal ways. When a girl hires him to find her missing sister, we find out just how unusual Nickel is. Now, let me just say that I loved the writing here--there's just a hint of noir in Nickel's personality--but this is kind of a deeply f-ed up book. Not in a bad way. But f-ed up. A-.

2011 book 135

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
I may have run out of things to say about this book, but that doesn't mean I enjoy rereading it over and over any less.

2011 book 134

Maud Hart Lovelace's Carney's House Party and Winona's Pony Cart
Did you know that Lovelace wrote other books set in the world of Betsy-Tacy? Neither did I, till the last ALA I went to, where I scored copies of both (actually, three, but this is two stories in one volume and one is short, so I'm just counting it as one book). These stories revisit friends of Betsy's (though she appears in both)--in the first, we find Carney on a summer visit home from college, and in the second, we go back to the characters at 8 as irrepressible Winona asks for a pony for her birthday. Both excellent additions to the series, and the Carney one picks up a plot point that the main series hints at quite a bit, which I've always wondered about.

Glory days!

P5280225, a photo by wordnerdy on Flickr.

So tongiht was the Audubon Park CD release show--loved hearing the new songs and some old favorites (Blasted Heath and Register especially!) but of course the highlight of the night was Aimee Argote (Des Ark) joining the AP boys (and Bob Wall) (and some other special guests) on stage to perform Springsteen's Born in the USA in its entirety. Sheer genius.

Lots more crappy photos at Flickr.

2011 book 133

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
I have like 20 sample chapters on my Kindle, but none were appealing, so of course I read a Harry Potter book instead. And you know what I wonder? Did Harry lose his ability to speak Parseltongue after the events of the last book? It seems like he would have.

2011 book 132

Jennifer Bradley's Wrapped
It's the 1800s, and a young woman--who knows a bunch of languages and loves Jane Austen--gets caught up in a mystery involving mummies and Napoleon. Plus there's a little romance. Fun story, though really overwritten at times (a lone tear trailing down a cheek, way too much talking-not-showing re: romantic feelings). Still, entertaining, and I liked the end a lot. B/B+.

2011 book 130

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Whenever ABC Family does a Harry Potter Weekend, it makes me want to reread the books (b/c they are so superior to the movies! And b/c they are awesome!). So I've been reading this one in little chunks for the past few days (and I still love it, every time I read it, and still get teary when Neville gets his points at the end). During this read, a small part of me wished for a happier story, where Snape saw that Harry was a lonely little boy and told him stories about his mother. Of course, that completely negates the actual narrative arcs as written, but I wished it anyway.

2011 book 129

Alison Pick's Far to Go
This is one of those books where the backstory (see an interview with the author here) is almost more interesting than the novel itself. After finding out that her grandparents were actually Jewish (they emigrated to Canada in 1939 and decided to live as Christians b/c they were afraid), Pick was inspired to write a story about some other Czech Jews in the 1930s. Narrated mostly by the family nanny Marta, the story is at times riveting and at times very frustrating (I wanted to give several of the characters a shake on more than one occasion). I also thought the ending was kind of a narrative cop-out after the serious drama that came before, but otherwise the writing was solid--Pick moves back in time between the past and the present very effectively, adding an extra layer to the proceedings. B/B+.

2011 book 128

Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy's Wedding
I love the picture of a new marriage in this book--Betsy trying valiantly to learn to cook, while they both try and get their writing careers going. There's romance and stuff too, but it's a really nice and realistic portrait, I think.

2011 book 127

Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy and the Great World
In the second-to-last Betsy book, Lovelace has skipped ahead a few years--Betsy is now in her early 20s, and about to embark on a tour of Europe (to gain material for her writing, of course). And it's funny, if you asked when any of the Betsy books were set I'd just say, you know, the olden days--but this one is emphatically set in 1914. And now, time for the series' grand finale!

2011 book 126

Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy and Joe
I've always found it interesting that in a series of mostly-autobiographically-based novels, the author inserted a character (the titular Joe) based on her husband into her high school years (when she didn't meet him until later in real life). Who cares, I love them together. Betsy and Joe forever!

2011 book 125

Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy Was a Junior
This isn't my favorite Betsy book--too much random frivolity--but I still love the relationships b/w Betsy and her family, and b/w Betsy, Tacy, and Tib.

2011 book 124

Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy in Spite of Herself
One of the reasons I liked the Betsy books so much is that, even when Betsy is involved in dramatic romances, that's not the focus of her life--she's still centered on her writing and her future, being true to herself. Plus, there's more Joe Willard in this one! You have to love Joe. He's so Gilbert Blythe-y.

2011 book 123

Maud Hart Lovelace's Heaven to Betsy
The 5th Betsy-Tacy book is an interesting entry in the series--Betsy starts high school and gets interested in boys and expands her social circle, but there's also some interesting stuff on the role religion played in small cities at the time. Plus an introduction by Laura Lippman!

2011 book 122

Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy and Tacy go Downtown
When I was little (and until fairly recently, really), I only owned the first three Betsy-Tacy books and read them over and over. I used to get the others from the library (I distinctly remember where they were shelved in the children's room) but hadn't read them in years and years until they came back into print in like 2006, so rereading this one was a real pleasure--I didn't remember most of the plot points until they started to converge in the last couple of chapters (and there are some great plot points in this one). These books are wholly charming and I'm so glad they're available again.

2011 book 121

Jennifer Haigh's Faith
Haigh's latest--after 2008's The Condition--is going to be on a bunch of best of the year lists, I'm calling it now. It's the story of a family torn apart by a scandal involving a priest and a young boy--but not the story you're thinking, as it's narrated by the priest's sister. And it's beautifully written--not just in terms of language, but in how Haigh lets the story unfold, leaving the reader wanting more and then breaking her (my) heart. Great, great, great. A.

2011 books 119 and 120

Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
This book heavily features a subplot involving Little Syria, a depiction that, as an adult, I have mixed feelings about (on the whole, pretty much non-racist, though Lovelace does emphasize that the Syrians are Christians and really into becoming Americans).

Nova Ren Suma's Imaginary Girls
The story here involves two sisters and moves from somewhat sinister to downright weird in a heartbeat. I still haven't decided what I think about it. B.

2011 book 118

Eleanor Henderson's Ten Thousand Saints
If a book is described as a "sweeping, multi-generational epic"--well, you have a certain idea of what it's going to be like. And this book isn't like that at all--it's mostly about annoying teenagers doing drugs (I hate books about annoying teenagers doing drugs) and then turning into even more annoying straight-edge kids (it takes place in the 80s). Technically it's multi-generational--one set of parents is featured in a minor way--but I'd hesitate before calling it a multi-generational epic. Not to say it's a bad book--I liked the one character who was a girl, and I wanted to know what would happen to her--but it wasn't really my cup of tea. B/B-.

2011 books 116 and 117

Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy and Tib
I love these books and I love having them on my Kindle.

Holly Goldberg Sloan's I'll Be There
Keri texted me last night, all "girl, have you read this book???" and I was like, I didn't even know this book existed which clearly should be remedied. And though some parts are a teensy bit over the top, and suspension of disbelief is definitely required, the story--of a pair of boys living on the road with their actually-crazy father, and what happens when the older one meets a girl--was totally riveting and intense (much more intense than that description makes it sound, but I don't want to try and summarize more of the plot b/c it was a much better book than the official plot synopsis made it sound). A/A-.

P5180052

P5180052, a photo by wordnerdy on Flickr.

Beach!

2011 book 115

Michael Parker's The Watery Part of the World
In this novel, Parker weaves together two true pieces of history--in the early 1800s, Aaron Burr's daughter disappeared while sailing from South Carolina to New York, and in 1970, the last three residents of an NC island finally left. In Parker's version, two of those three are Burr's great-great-etc-granddaughters, living a somewhat eccentric elderly life with only an even more elderly black man as the only other person around. I will admit that I was much more interested in the historical pieces (though a lot of narrative tension didn't pan out for me) and now want to read more about Theodosia Burr. Anyway, it was another appropriate beach read, since a lot of it takes place on Nag's Head. B/B+.

2011 books 113 and 114

Franny Billingsley's Chime
It's the early 20th century (I guess) and a young girl growing up in a small town is giving testimony to something or other, and knows she's totally wicked and is secretly a witch, and is fairly open about both those things (making for a surprisingly likable narrator). Of course things are complicated by her odd twin sister and by the new boy in town. What's interesting about this is that the reader starts to figure out that something about the story is just not right (and probably will figure out the end long before the protagonist, but that's ok too)--so a pretty exciting read full of fantastic elements. B+.

Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy
YESSSSS the Betsy-Tacy books are finally all available for the Kindle!!! Thank you, Harper-Collins! And the illustrations totally look great (I was worried). These new editions feature all sorts of biographical information/photos of the author and her friends. But you don't need any of that to enjoy the story, which never stops being one of my favorites.

2011 book 112

Lish McBride's Hold Me Closer, Necromancer
Very funny and action-packed story about a fast-food clerk who finds out he has the powers of a necromancer, leading him headlong into intense local fantasy creature politics, family secrets, and more. He has a great gang of friends and there's also a pretty cool fairy dog/werewolf hybrid girl who gets into the mix. I assume there's a sequel in the works, since there's one pretty big loose thread left at the end. A-.

2011 book 111

Catherynne Valente's Deathless
In this great (but somewhat unsettling) novel, Valente retells some Russian folk tales--specifically, the story of Koschei the Deathless and the warrior woman Marya Morevna--and sets them during the rise of Communism. But this isn't just a simple fairy tale--like I said, at times it's unsettling. And at other times I was wholly caught up in the story--Valente's language is very poetic. OK, back to vacationing. A-.

2011 book 110

Libba Bray's Beauty Queens
OK, I did just read this back in January, but is there a more perfect beach read than a book about a bunch of beauty pageant contestants stranded on a desert island? Plus hilarious corporate satire. It's out next week and was reviewed in this weekend's NYT book review!

2011 book 109

Jeanne Birdsall's The Penderwicks at Point Mouette
In the third Penderwicks book, Birdsall deftly changes the focus to the three younger sisters by sending them on a vacation of their own. And of course, again, things process just as you know they will--but, again, it's entertaining enough not to matter.

Now . . . what should I read on the beach tomorrow?

2011 book 108

Jeanne Birdsall's The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
The second Penderwicks book is just as charming as the first, as the family gets involved in a variety of romantic foibles (with a large number of literary references). The four Penderwick sisters are delightful characters--this book particularly reminded me of Edward Eager's writing--and I giggled in more than one place. Of course it's pretty clear from the get-go what the outcome of everything will be, but that doesn't make the read any less enjoyable. A.

2011 book 107

Jeanne Birdsall's The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy
Very, very cute MG book about a family of four sisters, their father, and their dog, and their three weeks renting a cottage in the summer. The writing has a very old-fashioned/classic feel, though it's set in modern times. I especially appreciated the references to E. Nesbit and Edward Eager. A.

2011 book 106

Sarah Dessen's What Happened to Goodbye
Look, Sarah Dessen always writes satisfying novels, and this one--about a teenage girl who moves with her father from place to place after her parents' scandalous divorce--is no exception. Sometimes it veers a little too close to cheesy/over-explanatory, but Dessen's characters are solid and often hilarious, so it all works out. Plus there's a guest appearance from a couple characters from her previous books, which I generally enjoy. A-.

PS. Great side note: according to this interview, the fried pickles that feature so prominently in this story were inspired by the ones at Tyler's! Man, are those pickles good.

2011 book 105

Amanda Hodgkinson's 22 Brittania Road
It's just after WWII, and a Polish woman and her young son have just arrived in England to be reunited with the husband she hasn't seen in years. And they both have secrets, which are pretty easy to figure out (maybe they're supposed to be), and there's adjustment to modern life, and the story and characters are ok but it's just not super interesting in the end. B.

link roundup!

New Audubon Park song, omg!!! New album is out this month and the release show is the 28th at 506!

Kenyon grads on DFW's 2005 commencement speech there.

This is my favorite part of the pencil-necked/Neil Gaiman kerfuffle.

Similarly, I've been enjoying Jillian Tamaki's (she of the embroidered book covers) webcomic about a school of mutant-powered teens--this one is a highlight.

And also speaking of webcomics: First Second is serializing its upcoming graphic novel Americus--please go read it from the beginning--it's been one of my favorite things for a while now and I need to spread the love more.

2011 book 104

Rainbow Rowell's Attachments
It's 1999, and Lincoln is an IT guy at a newspaper whose job is to monitor the company emails--and who quickly gets engaged in the semi-dramatic lives of Beth and Jennifer (movie critic and copy editor, respectively), one of whom has a musician boyfriend, the other of whom is ambivalent about starting a family. Of course he starts to fall for one of them--but things quickly become more complicated. I'm just going to say that I LOVED this book. OK, maybe it's not always entirely believable, but I didn't even care. The friendship between Beth and Jennifer is especially a highlight. GREAT read. A. Christina, I think you'd like this one!

2011 book 103

Jenna Black's Dark Descendant
Nikki Glass is just your average PI, until she gets involved in a case that reveals she's one of the descendants of the gods. And infighting among those descendants is dangerous and stuff. I really liked the characters here and especially liked the relationship between Nikki and her sister. Totally serviceable urban fantasy and I hope the next book in this series comes out soon. B+.

IMAG0132

IMAG0132, a photo by wordnerdy on Flickr.

THE LOVE LANGUAGE.

That is all.

2011 book 102

Rebecca Rasmussen's The Bird Sisters
Millie and Twiss are a pair of elderly sisters who live together and help rescue injured birds. Most of the book is a series of flashbacks to a pivotal summer in their lives, and the story of how they became a pair of spinster sisters. And that story bummed me out a lot. Not to say this isn't a good book, just man, I wanted a happy ending--even though I knew exactly how it would ultimately end! (The path wasn't entirely what I expected, however.) I dunno, B+.

2011 book 101

Geraldine Brooks' Caleb's Crossing
Here are some of the ways I have started to write this entry: "Geraldine Brooks is one of those writers who reliably writes EXCELLENT books" "This is an early contender for my best-of-the-year list" "Brooks has once again written a completely immersive and engaging historical tale" and damn, I just want to tell you all that this book is GOOD. Brooks was inspired by the hazy historical facts of one Caleb Cheeshateaumauk, a Native American who graduated from Harvard back in the 1660s. She takes a good tack here, I think--she tells the story at a bit of a remove, as it's narrated by the local Puritan minister's daughter, who secretly befriended Caleb when they were children. Plus, this adds the awesome element of a super-smart girl thwarted in her intellectual ambitions because she doesn't have a penis (sorry, was that crass? Who cares, I was filled with righteous fury on narrator Bethia's behalf). And Brooks doesn't take the story where one might expect, which I supposed I should have expected, b/c she knows how to write a story. What else can I say, except that I am all punchy after reading this book. In a good way. Love it. A+.

2011 book 100

Carrie Vaughn's After the Golden Age
Vaughn's latest novel (after Discord's Apple) centers on the estranged daughter of two superheroes, who has disappointed her parents by not having any powers herself. Now she's a forensic accountant, assigned to the case of a supervillain who once kidnapped her. Meanwhile, the city is dealing with a new crime spree, but who's behind it? Vaughn does a great job of making accountant Celia a likable character--who solves mysteries in a pretty cool way, to boot--with a complicated and interesting family dynamic. The answers to the mystery aren't too hard to winnow out, but the story is a funny--and fun--one, and I liked the ending a lot. A.