February Wrap Up

Lincoln in the Bardo -George Saunders     2017/Historical Fiction

I did not care for this book at all. I was drawn to the concept and format but it proved to be annoying and unnecessary. The book comes out of the real event of Abraham Lincoln’s young son dying and then it takes a fictional turn when the boy is placed in a purgatory or “bardo”. Still, what a cool concept. But the construction of the narrative is exhausting and annoying. The book is an ongoing conversation with the boy and the numerous souls also in the bardo. There are so many coming and going you cannot keep them straight. But more than that, you cannot make an emotional connection to any of them. It is just talking. And talking that you don’t really care about. I really wish the novel was written in a more conventional format, it would have been easier to make those connections needed to truly invest in a novel. Bummer, I really liked the concept.    2/5

Things Fall Apart -Chinua Achebe     1959/Fiction

Written nearly 50 years ago, Things Fall Apart, is truly timeless. The book tells of a world that many people do not get to experience or only experience through the eyes of a Westerner. Achebe makes us feel a part of the Nigerian tribe that the main character is a member of; this “primitive” tribe of people. Except that when you are reading it, you no longer feel like an outsider looking in and judging, you are with them. The book takes you to another place when “we” show up. When the westerners show up and complicate and essentially ruin their way of life. The book is a disturbing look at what can happen when European missionaries attempt to “civilize” man.  3.5/5

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine -Gail Honeyman     2017/Fiction

This story is so interesting, playful and yet very intense. Eleanor is a damaged and isolated person who is so painfully socially awkward, and yet doesn’t know that she is, which only adds to more awkwardness. As her backstory unfolds, she is initially forced out of her bubble to interact with other people. Once that interaction  happens, she finds herself not committed to other interactions which force her to make some adjustments to her once very routine lifestyle. As she adjusts we begin to see her work trough her past trauma and begin a new life. It is an excellent read about isolation and the power of connections with people who really care.  4.5/5

American War -Omar El Akkad      2017/Fiction

This dystopian tale take place in 2074, the time of the Second American Civil War. The start of the book and the end have a very different feel, almost as though the author started and finished the book many years apart, with many years of personal and professional growth in between. The start of the book has a YA feel to it, and the ending very much does not. It is a grim story, much like all dystopian novels, that is about war, personal pain and power, defeat, revenge and for the next generation, hope. Looking back I would have really loved the book had it felt like the ending throughout. The ending saved the book.  4/5

Educated -Tara Westover     2018/Nonfiction, Memoir

If this book was fiction you would say it was far fetched. The life that Tara was born into, lived, survived and eventually escaped was incredible. Her parents hunkered down in the mountains of Idaho, lived off the grid, and planned for the end of days. Tara, the youngest child, like her old siblings was the target of abuse both directly and indirectly. It is a truly incredible journey of self determination in the face of every obstacle. She say education as her ticket out of her life and into a new life that she was unprepared for. Amazing. Truly amazing and powerful. 5/5

January Wrap Up

Ok. So. I have realized that I cannot do a book review after each individual book, it is too time consuming with all the other parts of my life and I don’t want to write a crappy book review. So instead I am going to do a monthly reading wrap up. Since I am a garbage person at this site, I am doing January and February both today!

Gilead -Marilynne Robinson     2004/Fiction

Gilead tells the story of three generations of fathers and sons, with the focus on the impending death of John Ames and how he reconciles that reality.  The book is a “letter” to his young son that will grow up not really knowing his deceased father. Those are the parts that really struck me. The parts where he embraces the simple moments with this son, trying to hold on to them into eternity. It was beautiful. The novel is beautiful. Gilead is by far one of the best books that I’ve ever read. It felt like every line was poetry. It is a story that is to be savored, do not read this book quickly or distracted, you will miss the subtle beauty of reach line. 5/5

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian -Sherman Alexie     2007/YA Fiction

I picked this book up in an ongoing effort to read more YA in order to better connect with my students and offer them more options to read. The novel is a fictionalized account of Alexie’s own experiences growing up on an Indian Reservation or “the rez”. The book offers a unique look into a life that most people know very little about. It is funny and heartbreaking, often in the same scene. I did feel like it was a little too juvenile to give it a higher rating, but I would recommend it to my students. The best part of the book was the basketball tournament with the rich school. 3.5/5

The Shell Collector -Anthony Doerr     2002/Fiction, Short Stories

After reading Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, All the Light We Cannot See, I picked up his collection of short stories that he wrote before All the Light.. It was an excellent collection. Each story had depth and instantly made you connect with the characters. A well written short story can be difficult to pull off, but Doerr is a master. 4/5

Little Fires Everywhere -Celeste Ng     2017/Fiction

A intertwining tale of motherhood, class, security, secrets and relationships of all kinds. Ng created a totally engrossing novel that explores the complicated relationships between mother and child, specifically daughter. But that isn’t all of it, the novel masterfully intertwines these relationships with class struggles and identity. Wonderful. read this. 4.5/5

Sing, Unburied, Sing -Jesmyn Ward     2017/Fiction

Heartbreaking. A truly heartbreaking tale of a familial bonds, cycle of poverty, broken and complicated relationships. It is simultaneously sad and beautiful. The uneasiness that the main character Jojo feels, we feel too. At times the book is difficult to read because you are so concerned about what will happen next. The only reason it did not get a higher rating was because at times it read more like a YA than not. But still truly excellent.  4/5

Seven Days of Us -Francesca Hornak

I wanted to love this book more. I really love a good family drama. The idea of having a family quarantined together during the holidays makes me rub my hands together in anticipation of what ugliness is bound to surface. I love a good awkward situation, I love reading a good and cringing at how uncomfortable the scene is.

This book had the potential for that, but it did not deliver.

Seven Days of Us has the entire Birch family, mother, father, and two sister who are polar opposite from each other, and a surprise family member home for Christmas and under quarantine because of a potential disease breakout.

Again, the set up has great potential, but as the book proceeds it is very predictable and I did’t really feel an investment in the characters. The feelings and attachment to them are really only surface feelings, I had a passing interest in them solely because I was reading. They didn’t stay with me and the plot was very predictable when it had the opportunity to be surprising.

It kept my interest and was only $3 on Amazon Kindle.

2.5/5

4321 -Paul Auster

This one was a doozy. 880 pages.

The concept of the book is really interesting and ambitious. Paul Auster wrote a fictional novel about the life of Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the only child born of Rose and Stanley Ferguson. The story(ies) of Archie was written in four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. One chapter is of a certain time period in his life that takes four different paths. And this continues throughout the lives of each Archie.

Some of the paths intersect and relationships that he had with people are also found in another path. But in other instances the relationships are completely different. In the end of the novel there is a bit a clarity and results in a twist. It is a twist that makes me want to go back an re-read the book with that knowledge, but I won’t because the book was so long.

I really loved the characters, but then when I starting having an attachment to them, that path would end and another would start again. Each time that happened I would have to reacquaint myself with this new pathway. That got old after awhile, it was still enjoyable because Auster writes so well, but it was a bummer of sorts.

This is also not a book that you can put down and restart after a few days, or at least not for me. I didn’t find time to read for a few days and then started it back up and I was confused a bit.

Overall, I really liked the book because the characters were so well written, and I really appreciated the ambitiousness of the novel concept, but I think that I would have rather had one story of Archie. One beautifully written Paul Auster story. I’m glad that a read it, but it was such an undertaking that it ate up so much other book time.

4/5

Dear Fahrenheit 451 -Annie Spence

Is there anything more meta than reading a book about a person talking about books? It is another realm of reading and being a nerd who hearts books (see what I did there?)

Annie Spence is a local Michigan librarian, Saint Clair Shores to be exact, and her book is a memoir of letters written to notable books in her life. Some she loves, like The Virgin Suicides, and others she either dislikes or just plain does not understand how they were published.

The book is a very quick read, I believe meant to be read on and off, in between reading other books. I kept mine on my night stand and read a few selections each night before going to bed. The best part of the book was Spence’s wit and humor. Reading made it seem like you were in the same room as a friend just talking about books and life.

I really enjoyed the parts where she talked about her interaction with books and readers as a librarian; I would really love for her to write a book about her experiences in that job. Some might consider a book about a librarian to be dull, but not the way Spence writes.

At the end of the book, Spence offers a list of various lists of books that she recommends. Great. Another thousand books to add to my TBR list.

I am tempted to visit Spence at the library where she works, but that seems really creepy. But I really love books too and I think she would understand.

4.5/5

The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day was a book club selection, and one that I would normally not have picked up otherwise, but I’m glad that I did.

The main character, Stevens, is an aging, proper English butler that served one of the most prominent and infamous men during WWII, Lord Darlington. In present day, Stevens is traveling through England to see a former coworker in order to try an convince her to return to the house that is currently under new ownership. The trip itself is actually quite uneventful, but the trip is not the important part of the book.

The road trip provides Stevens with something he has never really had before, time to himself. During this time he is now faced with time to focus on something other than his daily tasks of work, which causes him to face perhaps the hard truth of how he has spent his life as well as the life and legacy of the prominent man that he once served.

When starting a book, I usually do not read more about it than the description provided on the back cover, but for this book I found it helpful to know more about the historical context and time period. I must say that the book has a very slow and frankly boring start. It was because of this that I looked at sparknotes for some context. Once I realized that the book was about England in post WWI and leading up to WWII, which just so happened to be the time period I was teaching in my US History class, I was on board.

The beauty of this book is that nothing happens. But that is real life, not much happens externally but more often than not it is our thoughts that make us come to terms with things in life and how we perceive them. For Stevens, as he travels alone the only companion he has are this memories and his thoughts and he faces some hard truths of his life what its purpose.

If Stevens has spent his entire life in service of others what does that mean for his own life? If the man he has served for years is now seen in historical context as being at best a man duped by Nazi Germany, then what does that say about the man that faithfully served him for years? What could have been?

And now for Stevens, what is next? He served one of the great manors in all of England and now he serves a young new money American who seems to have collected the proper English manor with all the authentic touches, which includes the proper English butler, Stevens. He is now a prop. A nice touch.

As I was reading the book I wasn’t terribly engaged, but after finishing it and discussing it at book club it has really grown on me and has stayed with me these last few days. I look forward to reading it again soon.

4/5 Next up & still reading: 4321 -Paul Auster

 

Turtles All The Way Down -John Green

Wow.

Really.

As I stated in the previous post, YA is not generally my favorite genre of fiction, and I wasn’t super impressed with Green’s other The Fault In Our Stars, but this book was really well done.

Sixteen year old Aza has a lot of issues, she gets stuck inside her own head, gets caught in the spiral of her own thoughts, her mind “intervenes” as her doctor puts it. She is obsessive compulsive, anxiety ridden, emotionally distant, and at the same time, just trying to be a normal teenager. She is not a very good friend, daughter, significant other, but what can one expect, she isn’t even good to herself. How could she be good to anyone else?

Green is able to get into the mind of Aza, because he is letting us into his own mind. He stated that he struggles with anxiety and obsessive compulsive tendencies and that he was writing about many of his own issues. The glimpse inside of Aza’s mind while she struggles to not give into her ticks is so painful to read. She wants so desperately to not give in, but then later finds herself in the bathroom checking a wound that she knows is not infected…but what if?

The depiction of obsessive compulsive disorder in popular culture can often present very hokey with turning lights on and off repeatedly, ding things in threes, counting, and the like, which has turned this painful disorder into a punchline of sorts. Green’s depiction is real, painful and all without the silliness. When you see Aza’s intrusive thoughts written in italics next to her own healthy thoughts in regular font, you really get a sense of the internal struggle and pain that she is experiencing. I personally do not have obsessive thoughts and I found the book to be very painful to read at points, I can only imagine how one that suffers with this would feel reading these painful sections.

I really enjoyed the ending of the book, it did a wonderful job of providing closure without giving too much away so that the reader could imagine life after the story ends, but also know ultimately what happens to Aza.

I loved it, And I feel like I have a greater understanding of what people who struggle with these issues go through, as much as I possibly can.

4.5/5

Next up: 4321 -Paul Auster

 

The Hate U Give -Angie Thomas

Young Adult fiction is not generally my go to genre but I am trying to build my student library at work and my friend and fellow teacher told me that she builds her library by buying YA books, which is excellent advice.

There has been a lot of buzz surrounding Angie Thomas’ debut novel, The Hate U Give, and it deserves all of it. It is smart, biting, original, real, and well written without being felt talked down to.

The novel follows sixteen year old Starr Carter, a girl who witnesses her unarmed childhood best friend shot by police at a traffic stop and becomes entrenched in the Black Lives Matter movement as a result. The book does an excellent job of discussing the racial injustice by focusing of Khalil’s life with this grandmother and his drug addicted mother. He was a good guy. Khalil’s story is the story of so many other black men killed by police and the subsequent absence of punishment. It is told well and without being contrived.

What I really found intriguing is Starr’s duality of life that she must live each day. She is struggling with her identity in a way that minorities deal with constantly; trying to live two lives in one body.

She lives in the self described “ghetto” but her parents have the means and wherewithal to send her to the private, rich, white school outside of town. There she must temper her “blackness” in order to fit in and not draw too much attention to herself. And at home she is constantly being criticized by her neighborhood peers for not coming around any more and for having white friends, basically, being bougie.

This idea of living “authentically” in the black community is something that I see my high school students struggle with often. Attending a school and or living in a predominately white neighborhood often has my students pick which person they want to be or what group they want to be a part of.

A recent graduate told me that she isn’t trying to be anybody other than herself but by being herself it appears to others that she is making a choice. Hangs out with white friends? She is trying to be white. Get her hair braided? Acting black.

This internally struggle that is defined by other people must be so trying and painful. And The Hate U Give does a really excellent job of exploring this reality of life as a middle class African American. Or at least as much as this white lady thinks that it does.

The Hate U Give: 4 out of 5 stars.

Up next: Turtles All The Way Down -John Green

Let’s Talk About Books or I Like Big Books or other 90s music references about books…

I’ve had this blog for a few years on Blogger, only to abandon it, come back to it, abandon it again a few times over. But this time. THIS time, I am serious about.  In an effort to revamp the blog I have moved it over to the more serious WordPress and provide an update on my recent readings.

I have become a better reader. Moreover, I have made myself a more accountable reader.

First, I have kept a running log of books that I am reading because I can feel my age creeping up and I find myself not being able to remember if I have read a book or not. I missed out on reading All The Light We Cannot See early on because I thought I read it, but I didn’t. It was good. Makes me wish I read it when it came out. I can be one of those annoying people that quietly delight in being someone who “knew about it first”. Sorry.

This year I have regularly attended my local book club and it has kept me on track and has allowed me to read things I would not read or give me the opportunity to read books that I have been putting off. In addition to the book club, I have been working on this Pop Chart Lab 100 Essential Novel scratch off poster. I currently have 21.5 completed. The .5 is from reading 1/2-ish of Gone With the Wind. I could not keep going. I couldn’t. I tried. It beat me.

Here is the link if you are interested in your own. Pop Chart Lab

At this point in 2017 I am currently reading my 19th book, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Below you will find the list of all the books that I have read this year with a rating out of five.

The full reviews will restart when I finish The Hate U Give.

I am really looking forward to writing my reviews and connecting to other book lovers!

 

The list of books read thus far in 2017

My Grandmother Told Me To Tell You She’s Sorry -Fredrik Backman 3.5/5

Commonwealth -Ann Patchett 4/5

The Painted Bird -Jerry Kosinski 2.5/5

The Hillbilly Elegy -J.D. Vance 4/5

White Teeth -Zadie Smith 3/5

The Underground Railroad -Colson Whitehead 2.5/5

Lyndon Johnson & The American Dream -Doris Kerns Goodwin 5/5

American Pastoral -Phillip Roth 4/5

A Really Big Lunch: The Roving Gourmand on Food & Life -Jim Harrison 1/5

Silence -Shusaku Endo 2.5/5

Tinkers -Paul Harding 5/5

Family Furnishings -Alice Munro 4/5

The Sellout -Paul Beatty 4.5/5

Dandelion Wine -Ray Bradbury 5/5

All The Light We Cannot See -Anthony Doerr 5/5

Gone With the Wind -Margaret Mitchell 0/5

What Happened -Hillary Rodham Clinton 4/5

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl -Anne Frank 5/5

 

Go Set a Watchman -Harper Lee

Sigh. The very short review is that Watchman is a draft of the beloved To Kill a Mockingbird, it is not a sequel and it is not very good. But that is not how it should be viewed in its reading.

I will spare you the history of the novel and how it came to be, but one fact needs to be discussed, because it explains how to really view this book. Watchman was written first, submitted to the publisher, rejected and it was advised that Lee focus on Scout’s childhood, thats how TKAM came to be.

If you are going to read Watchman you need to get out of your mind that it is a sequel, it isn’t, it doesn’t even read as one. Characters that we knew from TKAM are introduced for the first time, but not as well done. Henry Clinton, Scout’s “love interest” is new to us but described as her childhood friend.

What we can gain for Watchman is insight into the writer’s craft and the writing process. Lee created these people that we “love” but they didn’t just appear to her like we know them; it takes time to develop characters. And I imagine it takes a helluva amount of time to create someone as wonderful and complex as Atticus Finch. Watchman is her attempt to speak as Atticus, a man that above all else loves the law and the Constitution. He is not perfect and during a certain conversation with Scout he is downright cringe worthy. This is not the Atticus we love. Exactly, he is not. Lee went through what every writer goes through, she wrote, she thought, she reviewed, she cut, she added, she altered. She wrote both versions of Atticus. One is better than the other and that is why she published the one we love and didn’t publish this one for so many years. (Even the events surrounding this publication are, well, kinda icky.)

What did I like? Scout. Or Jean Louise as she is know now. She is really a badass. She isn’t interested in being married/tied down/willing to lose her identity. She fights with her aunt, which is one of the best scenes in the book. She is sweet, smart, sassy, and willing to admit that she has more to learn. She is torn between her old life as little Scout from Maycomb and Jean Louise a young woman making her way in NY. She doesn’t belong anywhere, which is often the case of people moving up in social class; she suffers from ‘gettin’ above her rasin’. The book is even worth the read to see Scout as an adult.

There are also neat flashbacks to her childhood, which you can see as a publisher is the good stuff and clearly the reason why they asked for more of that. You get to see her play with Dill and Jem again and have Cal yell at them when they misbehave.

Overall: read it, but know what you are reading. It is not a sequel. Atticus is not the man you love. But if you love the act of writing, the ability to see character change and growth then read it.