About an hour of the time reading this book I spent in a very hot bath and I highly recommend you do the same, at least for a little while. I've read About an hour of the time reading this book I spent in a very hot bath and I highly recommend you do the same, at least for a little while. I've read a lot of books in the bath but I'm not sure one has ever felt so perfect for the setting, the kind of book to read when I want to relax and take a little time to be luxurious with myself. Reading this book was the same kind of experience, it's a hot bath of a book.
I have started my share of books about fictional Hollywood stars and I often find myself abandoning them quickly because they seem to expect me to automatically feel enthralled by someone simply because they are famous in a fictional world. It's hard to get someone to buy into a fictional character's indescribable charisma just on trust. You have to actually create that charisma in the character, and this is what Reid does best with Evelyn Hugo. From the beginning, she is larger than life, she is powerful, she is unapologetic, she is enigmatic. We can trust that she is beautiful, but we get to experience her magnetism first hand.
In this book, the aging movie star Hugo tells her life story to an unlikely magazine writer that she has specifically requested be the one person to tell her story. The framing device is great structurally to break things up and add some suspense to the narrative, though there are times when it's clunky. Evelyn's story also reaches a point where it loses energy, which is a bit of a downer since there is so much momentum to this book otherwise. I read it in less than 24 hours picking it up at every spare moment. But it makes up for it with a mostly satisfactory (if excessively tidy) conclusion, which is often hard to come by in this kind of book.
This book excels at being exactly what it is. It is not a gritty look at real Hollywood life (Evelyn's exploits are almost entirely romantic, it doesn't appear she's ever seen a drug) and there isn't a deep feminist core to it about objectification or how women are treated in the film industry. This is a book for the person in you who stares longingly at Elizabeth Taylor and wonders how she could exist in the world when she was so beautiful. As a reader, you need to bring your cinematic romanticism to this book to make sure you meet it on its own terms. It lays out rather clearly what it needs those terms to be, thankfully.
I don't like to say much about plot points but this was certainly not one of the books I expected to read this year that has a diverse set of characters with regards to race and sexual orientation, but happily it is. That said, because this is a romanticized version of reality, there is also a lot of romanticization brought to these characters. Don't expect to learn anything about what it means to be a person of color or a queer person from this book, but I want more diverse characters in ALL my books, not just the deep and important ones, so I'm still happy about it....more
I don't have a good excuse for waiting so long to read MARLENA. I mean, I have an excuse but it's not good. I tend to run hot and cold on books with iI don't have a good excuse for waiting so long to read MARLENA. I mean, I have an excuse but it's not good. I tend to run hot and cold on books with intense female friendships, largely because I've never actually *had* that kind of relationship. And while women's stories are still not as common as they should be in literary fiction, there are certainly a lot of them about the female friendship, particularly the teenage version. But with all that said, even a plot or concept I'm tired of can be magical and new in the right hands and this book is one of those times.
Marlena isn't just about a complex friendship, there's also a real sense of place in Silver Lake, Michigan. There's issues of class, poverty, and addiction that feel organic and vital instead of tacked on. There's a real sense of reflection in the narration, of a woman looking not just at this formative period of her life, but at her life as it is. And there's that nostalgia around teenage life that felt deeply to me even though Cat and I don't have much in common, writing teenagers well as an adult is hard, and understanding how adults reexamine their teenage selves simultaneously is am impressive line to walk.
It took me a little while to get into this book, at first the rhythm didn't quite grab me and I was feeling like maybe this was a story I already knew that wouldn't feel fresh. I'm glad I stuck around....more
I think this may actually be my *least* favorite Patrick Melrose novel so far, which was unexpected. (Especially since I didn't really connect with thI think this may actually be my *least* favorite Patrick Melrose novel so far, which was unexpected. (Especially since I didn't really connect with the drug-binge of book 2, but at least I respected it.) I admit I struggle with books that involve overly precocious children or that get the details of ages/milestones wrong. It's a pet peeve that shouldn't bother me that much, but this book kept triggering it over and over again. 5-year-olds that talk like adults, toddlers that talk like 10-year-olds, babies doing things that they definitely do not do at that age. I tried to set it aside, but it didn't help that Patrick himself has moved from the epiphany of book 3 to a first rate middle-aged rut.
He is clearly going through some real stuff. His mother, who was not his abuser but whose negligence enabled the abuse, and whose mothering was far from stellar, is deteriorating. His son is the age he was when his abuse started. Patrick hasn't moved forward confronting his abuse but seems to have pushed it back aside. There's also a rut with his wife, a woman whose attraction was more about her stability than a personality match.
Middle aged rut novels are not really my cup of tea but mostly it was hard to see Patrick work so hard to address and acknowledge the abuse he suffered only to slide backwards like this. I'd hoped for more for him....more
This book started at 3 stars, went to 4 stars, and then the ending took it back to 3 so here we are.
3 star first half: This was my 3rd Liane Moriarty This book started at 3 stars, went to 4 stars, and then the ending took it back to 3 so here we are.
3 star first half: This was my 3rd Liane Moriarty book so it's not like I was surprised that the whole first half of the book involves parallel timelines revolving around an important incident without knowing what it is. I get it. That's her thing. She holds off on the big reveal. But the timing is off and the wait is far too long. I reached the point where 1) I already had a pretty good idea of what the thing was so there wasn't any suspense left; and 2) I was getting ready to rip my hair out if anyone said "the day of the barbecue" one more time. JUST TELL US WHAT HAPPENED ALREADY.
4 star second half: The thing is, after you find out what the thing is it starts getting really good! We get to really dig into the characters. We don't worry about the suspense and instead focus on these 6 people, how they relate to each other, how they feel about each other, etc. And there's some real suspense when it comes to whether these relationships will hold.
3 star ending: But then it all got closed up in a series of chapters that made it too tidy and too messy simultaneously. We don't need any more reveals. We don't need anymore revelations. The day of the barbecue is no longer the thing. And yet that's what the ending is all about, rather than giving us solid closure on the real issues the second half of the book addressed. A bummer for sure.
The second half of this book is my favorite Liane Moriarty. The most sure, the most interesting, and ironically the least stuck in her usual mode. I wish she'd do that more often.
Audiobook was solid, happy to have an Australian narrator who never bothered me even a little....more
It's really a delight to be able to say for the second time about a much-buzzed Young Adult novel by an author of color in 2017 that the hype is real.It's really a delight to be able to say for the second time about a much-buzzed Young Adult novel by an author of color in 2017 that the hype is real. LONG WAY DOWN is a novel that hits hard, and I wish I knew more about boxing so I could see that metaphor through because it deserves to be described with the best of metaphors.
Books about teens in tough circumstances are risky, many examples end up in Afterschool Special territory, trying to teach a lesson in a way that makes the lesson itself unlearnable. Reynolds is able to show us a teen that feels real, a life that feels real, a place that feels real. Whenever it feels like he might be trying to sit us down and have a conversation about the cycle of violence, it turns out he is leading us in another direction entirely.
The novel in verse is not a style I'm partial to, but when it's done well it can be spellbinding. Here, the sparsity of the poetry fits our narrator, a teenage boy suffering unfathomable pain and loss who can't communicate or even acknowledge the depths of his feelings because of what he knows he is supposed to do. The style is both fast and slow, letting us get lost in specific moments, but keeping us moving forward to the ending we want to see but don't know if we can watch.
I do not want to say much about the book itself. I knew only the basic conceit (that most of the book takes place in one elevator ride) and I believe it wouldn't be as affecting an experience if you know more. The ending is the best kind, so good that I have to imagine Reynolds knew he was moving there all along. (If he has said so, I would love to know.)
You can read this in one sitting and I think that's best. There's a rhythm to this book, though not a steady one, the verse allows him to coast and pivot and repeat and change, but when you put it all together it is musical the way an album is. This territory could have gone maudlin, it could have gone cold, but it feels both agile and affecting in a way that I don't know that I've encountered before. ...more
A one-sitting read (honestly you could read it two or three times in one sitting, it's that short) about insecurity in a 2nd marriage. Because it's moA one-sitting read (honestly you could read it two or three times in one sitting, it's that short) about insecurity in a 2nd marriage. Because it's more like a short story than a novel you'll be better off approaching it that way, but you'll still be wanting more because what there is is effective and interesting, particularly since this kind of book often has very little happen and in this one quite a lot ends up happening rather suddenly....more
3.5 stars. I was doing pretty okay for the first third of this book. I did the audio version, which can make a book with a nontraditional structure a 3.5 stars. I was doing pretty okay for the first third of this book. I did the audio version, which can make a book with a nontraditional structure a little more difficult, but I was staying with it and enjoying myself.
But at a certain point, the conceit of the backwards narration loses its thrill. We start with a woman who certainly seems to be in hiding, though we're not sure from what, and as we gradually fill in the backstory we learn more and more about what she is capable of without actually learning anything more about her. At some point this becomes frustrating. In part because we can more and more easily guess what that backstory is (which is a flaw the backwards narration has that a forwards narration doesn't always share, there are more clues to the backstory when you go backwards) and so the book is less and less capable of surprising us. And when a book's whole purpose seems to be surprise and pulling the rug from under you, it doesn't quite work the way you'd like.
To be fair, if you take out the issue of anticipation, the backwards structure works surprisingly well. I just wish the anticipation wasn't the center of the book. Especially since this book is basically a retelling of THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY. I have had some debate with other readers about sharing this detail. I think it is not a spoiler for a variety of reasons (Ripley really isn't that commonly read anymore, and if you are familiar with it you'll figure it out yourself without me having to tell you) and I'm actually very annoyed that it wasn't on the jacket copy or summary. I wish we knew it going in and I wish Lockhart would have embraced the retelling in a different way. Retellings are popular, heaven knows we've had enough Shakespeare/Austen retellings to last us several lifetimes. And spinning Ripley into a modern young woman is interesting. But I didn't feel like Lockhart did quite enough with the characters. We don't really understand why Jule is so obsessed with Imogen (the backwards narration is another part of the problem with this) and while there's some good stuff around identity, it's sporadic and mostly thrown in at the beginning and the end rather than providing a strong through line in the book. Also there was too much that was on the nose, if you've read both books you know one scene in particular is way too similar in both books. That was the one where I finally pulled up other Goodreads reviews to make sure I wasn't the only one to see it.
I like Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is one of my favorite YA novels but I am getting weary of the twisty stories about privileged characters. I'd love to see her dig deep into a real character-based novel again that keeps that sense of fun and mischief she is so good at....more
In many ways, the 3rd Patrick Melrose book is a return to the form of the first. Once again, we follow the intolerable rich gentry of England through In many ways, the 3rd Patrick Melrose book is a return to the form of the first. Once again, we follow the intolerable rich gentry of England through their preparations for a gathering and into the party itself. Some characters return (Bridget, hooray; Nicholas, ugh) but we do get to actually explore Patrick now that he is sober and trying to figure out what to do with himself when drugs don't fill his days.
This is still a darkly hilarious book, if not quite as packed with witticisms as the first. You dislike virtually everyone in it almost immediately, even the extended cameo from Princess Margaret, who would be absolutely delicious if she didn't think so highly of herself.
But we finally start getting down to it here. There is no active trauma taking place, finally. We can sit for a bit and get a hold of ourselves. In this novel, Patrick finally confesses his father's sexual assault against him as part of a search for catharsis and possibly even forgiveness. He is haunted by his father, his hatred of his father, and of the possibility that his father may have shown some signs of goodness. Patrick is the most likable character in the book in many ways, though there are at least a few you don't utterly despise this time.
I was a bit nervous after the harrowing events of the first book and the extended drug abuse of the second, but I think we may finally be settling down to what St. Aubyn is really about and I'm curious for the rest of the series....more
I get that the brief adventures of a serious drug addict trying to cope with unspeakable emotion is basicGood God there's a lot of drugs in this book.
I get that the brief adventures of a serious drug addict trying to cope with unspeakable emotion is basically a genre in and of itself, but it's never really been my cup of tea. Since I started this book right after NEVER MIND, I began with a lot of sympathy towards Patrick, who's clearly been traumatized for years by his parents and has never learned any kind of coping mechanisms that don't involve substance abuse. But by the end of this book it was getting hard to feel any kind of sympathy for him.
Patrick's detachment is almost complete, his addiction is unspeakably deep. There is virtually nothing else in the book besides his addiction. It was tolerable because St. Aubyn remains a fantastic writer, making this more visceral than most drug novels, and because I assume this is just one piece of the larger story of Patrick's life in the books to come. At least, I hope so....more
A sci-fi satire on class where the uncaring ultra-rich are subbed for uncaring aliens. Ridiculously bleak (I'm a fan of bleak but it was tough). 3 staA sci-fi satire on class where the uncaring ultra-rich are subbed for uncaring aliens. Ridiculously bleak (I'm a fan of bleak but it was tough). 3 stars for me because I couldn't ultimately see what Anderson was going for besides the basic metaphor. I like satire to have an extra layer of bite, and never found it here....more
Lately I've been a little weary of YA, though I don't know exactly why. Sometimes it seems like books try too hard to check boxes off a list or force Lately I've been a little weary of YA, though I don't know exactly why. Sometimes it seems like books try too hard to check boxes off a list or force a romance. Sometimes it seems like a plot point is there because it's a hot topic not because it fits with the characters or the story. And plenty of characters feel like flat stereotypes. There is not enough out there that really seems to get how much of life as a teenager is not really knowing who you are and the struggle of building an identity.
Happily, LITTLE & LION was a real joy of a book. It does not feel like a constructed backdrop but a real world. I was a little wary to read something where mental health is a major plotline but it's managed really well in a way that's natural to the entire world and the people in it.
One of the best things about good YA is that it gives you the opportunity to write about something through the eyes of someone who's just encountering it and trying to make sense of it. You can pick it apart and address it head on. Here we get that first and foremost with bisexual/pansexual/queer identity. The fact that I didn't write just one of those but felt the need to include them all is exactly what I mean. Suzette, our protagonist, struggles with her own sexual identity and doesn't end the book as a person who is now confident and ready to face the world. She's just at the beginning of her journey, but she's able to tackle some of the issues of bisexual stereotypes and erasure that many people encounter. Colbert brings the same delicacy and directness to issues of mental health, chronic illness, race, religion, and more.
If you don't read much YA, I'd still highly recommend that this year you seek out THE HATE U GIVE and LITTLE & LION because you're really missing out otherwise. ...more
My entire reading life is spent chasing a specific kind of thrill, the thrill of being so emotionally involved in a story that it has power over me. IMy entire reading life is spent chasing a specific kind of thrill, the thrill of being so emotionally involved in a story that it has power over me. I look for other thrills too but this is the one that I want most, and sometimes I go for long stretches without feeling it. I was in that kind of stretch recently. I read most of the best books of 2017 very early in the year but then there were many perfectly good books but books that didn't have absolute control over my brain. Until now.
There are two things that make this book work so perfectly. There's the characters themselves, they are drawn warmly and intimately, the three generations presented to us at a time of their greatest joy and greatest vulnerability. Seeing characters in that moment, where there is so much to gain and so much to lose all at once, ties you to them. Secondly, there's this book's structure, which at first glance seems like the kind of simple multigenerational span that is common in fiction these days. The reason it works so well is because of the first thing, that specific emotional moment we have seen in each character. We see them at a moment of promise and then we jump a generation later to immediately get to see how it all panned out.
Sexton is able to do this same thing over and over again, and yet even after the initial realizations of where these characters start and where they end, she continues to tell us these stories of hope and promise, even when we know how they end. We don't get many of the dots inbetween connected, we don't get to see how these characters went from A to B, instead we see just how much people are capable of change. And we see the inevitable rise of hope in each generation as they look at the generation to follow.
As mentioned in the summary, this is absolutely a book about race and the limitations the characters face because of their place in society. But it skips the Civil Rights Era entirely, and doesn't use specific incidents of racism to call our attention to it. Instead, like so often in real life, it is insidious and engages with larger systems, class, and gender in complicated ways.
I was immediately engaged in this book, it took me a few days to read it because even though it's not long, I needed some space with all the emotions it drew out of me. I'm so glad the National Book Award brought this gem to my attention. It's one of the great reading pleasures I had this year and I hope we see many more from Sexton....more
There are still so few books about Muslim characters, that treat them as central and important figures, that Home Fire feels like more of a revelationThere are still so few books about Muslim characters, that treat them as central and important figures, that Home Fire feels like more of a revelation than I wish it did. I could read five books about Isma, the woman whose story opens the novel. I wanted to know everything about her, I wanted to read her entire past and her entire future.
The book begins with Isma's fear about not being able to travel when she needs to, and over time we see all the things in one family's life that are difficult and complex because of their religion and because of their too-close-for-comfort ties to terrorists. Letting them all exist as full characters, this is a book that refuses to accept any motivation as simple.
This is the first novel by Shamsie I read but I was immediately taken with it, her writing is just what I like, prose that illuminates and opens up characters and stories. I wanted more of everything, more time with these characters.
This is a retelling of sorts of Antigone, but it's the best kind. More of an homage, using a couple central plot points but putting the framing in an incredibly relevant modern context. My memories of Antigone are hazy but I wasn't sure how a play about burial rites would work, but Shamsie brings the threads together perfectly. The homage is clear, but this is a story all its own.
I was only a couple chapters in to Home Fire when I pulled up the goodreads page and saw that it was a multiple-perspective novel. I was a little surprised because I already felt so completely at home in Isma's chapters. This is a book without many flaws, and the multiple character approach combined with its short length is a weakness. Some characters we really get to stretch out with and others feel more distant, which happens in 99% of books with this structure. Inevitably there are some moments from one perspective where you long to see things from a different character's view. But it's still a device that has more strengths than weaknesses, getting into the heads of the male characters in particular provides a context and contrast that is crucial to the story the novel is trying to tell.
The book ends with a big climax but from the most limited and frustrating perspective, and yet even that feels like a very appropriate way to take this particular gut punch. Even the weaknesses of this book become its strengths....more
Based on my own experience, reading this book when the patriarchy feels particularly oppressive can be surprisingly cathartic. Yes, you know from the Based on my own experience, reading this book when the patriarchy feels particularly oppressive can be surprisingly cathartic. Yes, you know from the beginning that this will not end well. Stories of power never do. Power corrupts. That will never change, regardless of which variation on that particular theme you are in. This will not be a Girl Power Yeah narrative. It is going to be ugly and brutal, people will do awful things in the name of good (and bad).
And yet. There is something cathartic in many of these moments, in watching men have the tables turned on them, in seeing them suddenly in a position where they are the ones who can be the victims of physical and even sexual violence. I think Alderman knows we will read many of these scenes and feel good. Maybe we will feel sated. Maybe we will only at that point realize that actually this one taste has only made us desperately hungry for more. And even as we watch this grow to its inevitable end (the end is clear from the first page in the framing device Alderman uses) as women, readers may find themselves towards between bloodlust and a hope for peace. If it sometimes feels like there is no way to escape patriarchy without violence, this novel won't necessarily disabuse you from that notion.
There is no lesson here, no cautionary tale exactly. The larger than life characters work very well, and this is the kind of thing that is often a sore spot for me. But it is also not an easy read. Any bit of catharsis is shadowed by the knowledge that everything that women make happen is something that has happened to them for thousands of years, and turning the tables doesn't change what has happened before. It's dark and difficult, but I guess catharsis always is. Especially when you haven't yet escaped the thing you are trying to work through.
THE POWER gave me much of what I have been wanting from feminist speculative fiction, and it works in large part because it examines the personal, the religious, the criminal, the media narrative, and the political rather than just one of these lenses. This variety of viewpoints lets you see the small and large scale, lets your imagination fill in the blanks, and creates a scope that feels much more earned. The prose and voice aren't quite a perfect match for me, but the concept, structure, and plot still made it well worth my while....more
The Broken Earth trilogy finishes in fine form. At first, the series seemed more like a feat of worldbuilding and narrative structure. But it turns ouThe Broken Earth trilogy finishes in fine form. At first, the series seemed more like a feat of worldbuilding and narrative structure. But it turns out The Fifth Season was really just setting the stage for a real investment in the characters of Essun and Nassun, the mother and daughter on opposite sides of a planetary battle.
The book suffers a bit for the lack of emphasis on secondary characters (I missed Alabaster in particular) but it's great to finally get some of the originial backstory of Hoa.
I kept wondering if the climax would be worth it and found myself wholly satisfied. It felt earned and inevitable without being expected or pat.
I always give a book a week or so of reading aloud to the kids to see if it'll take. This one started off a little slow, but I never saw any signs thaI always give a book a week or so of reading aloud to the kids to see if it'll take. This one started off a little slow, but I never saw any signs that we should put it aside. It isn't so much that the book takes a while to find its footing, it's more that this is a book that isn't going to follow all the steps along the path of the usual Children's Novel. The plot will not unfurl at a fast and furious pace, but things are always happening. There isn't one long arc with a bunch of side plots along the way, instead characters weave in and out as Roz the robot experiences a year on the island.
This is a great choice for reading aloud, especially when younger siblings get bored. Many of the stories are contained in just a few short chapters. There are also lots of illustrations in the author's unique style. I read this to a 5- and 8-year-old and while one of them paid much more attention than the other, there were less issues with the littler one understanding/keeping up than we usually have. Also, it is just fun to do a robot voice. That alone goes greatly in its favor.
Note: characters do die in this book, usually the types of deaths animals encounter naturally. But it's not just one or two of them....more
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