| People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading. - Logan Pearsall Smith |
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| Exquisite Corpse |
[May. 28th, 2007|03:47 am] |
Poppy Z. Brite
8.5/10
I don't know why I put off reading this book for so long. Yes, it was gross. Yes, it was a bit sick, but I liked it. I liked it quite a bit. I thought it was well-written and it kept my interest throughout.
I thought the first main character, Andrew, was really interesting. The way he faked his death to get out of prison was quite suspenseful, I thought. He's a deranged serial killer, but I wanted him to escape from prison. Jay, who is sort of like Andrew's parallel, was also interesting, but not as much. Jay was actually the creepiest of the characters. Luke is an angry guy with AIDS, but I was still pulling for him too. Tran...poor Tran. I really wanted him to make it, but you can't get everything you want from a story, apparently. I wanted him to get back together with Luke.
There is quite a bit of gruesome-ness in this story. It's about serial killers, who not only kill, but cut up, have sex with, wallow in, and sometimes eat their victims. It was disgusting, but nothing really new. The worst part was when Jay was eating Tran's insides while he was still alive. All the main characters are gay, and most of them have AIDS. Naturally, sex scenes plague the story. Not really. I read past page 100 and still didn't hit a sex scene. I kept thinking there was going to be a sex scene, but it would end abruptly. I didn't actually want to read sex scenes, but I'd read reviews that talked a lot about them. When they finally did come, there was lots of buildup and then nothing. The most cringe-worthy event during the sex scenes was the screwdriver. That was really the first thing that bothered me.
Some things were a little bit hard to believe, but then again, maybe not because this is a fucked up world. The ending didn't go quite how I would have liked, as I said, but it was okay. I was mostly happy with it. I would recommend this book if you're interested in serial killers and things of that nature. If not, forget about it. |
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| Vanishing Acts |
[Mar. 5th, 2007|02:33 am] |
Jodi Picoult
7.8/10
I've said before that Jodi Picoult books annoy me, and this one did as well. She still had to include the Indians even when you think there's no way an Indian could be put into this story. And of course, we simply cannot have a Jodi Picoult book without courtroom drama!
This book was good. It was. I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened next. It annoyed me at times, yes, but I must admit I kind of liked it. Most of it was pretty predictable. There was one shock, actually, at the end. But the rest you could pretty much see coming from a mile away. So why did I like the book? I don't know, really. I guess I kind of liked the characters.
I didn't care for the jail parts though. It seemed like they were only included to show off Picoult's knowledge of what can happen in jail and prison. That's why her inclusion of Indians annoys me.
But...something about her books just draws me in! |
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| Candy |
[Jan. 21st, 2007|04:59 pm] |
Luke Davies
2.0/10
This book is about heroin addiction.
The story is told from the point of view of Dan [?], a heroin addict who falls in love with Candy and gets her addicted to heroin as well.
It sounds interesting, but it's completely annoying to read about two weak-willed people who try to quit, but not really. They say they're going to quit and sometimes actually do it for a little while, but then they say, "Just this once" and get hooked again. Dan even lets/makes Candy become a prostitute so they can buy more heroin.
It's disgusting. I stopped caring about the characters only a few pages into the book. Honestly, I skipped the whole middle of the book and picked up toward the end just to see if one of them dies.
I just found out this has been made into a movie starring Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish. I might like to watch it, just to see what it's like, but I'm pretty sure it will annoy me as much as the book did. |
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| The Gun Seller |
[Nov. 4th, 2006|10:39 pm] |
Hugh Laurie
7.6/10
This book was not an easy read. It wasn't. That's probably because it was a story about guns and hitmen and terrorists and crime and I can hardly ever understand those for some reason. But I wanted to read it because Hugh Laurie wrote it, and from what I read, it was supposed to be funny.
Well, it was quite funny. Even though I don't know what really happened, and even though I couldn't keep some of the characters straight, I enjoyed the book. I loved the main character, Thomas Lang. He was just...funny. His views on the situation are very...unconventional, I think. He just had his own way of looking at things...especially for someone who almost died several times during the story. I just liked him a lot. He was strong enough to make the whole thing worthwhile.
I really wanted to write down some quotes from the book, so I may just have to buy it.
I think you can enjoy this book even if you don't usually like this kind of story, especially if you can understand it better than I did. |
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| The Bitch Posse |
[Nov. 4th, 2006|10:33 pm] |
Martha O'Connor
7.7/10
This is the story of three best friends: Amy, Rennie, and Cherry, who grow up and apart after a tragedy occurs between them. The story alternates points-of-view between the three characters and between time periods of the present and back when they were best friends. Each girl has grown up into a woman, not much different from the girl she used to be. The three characters are different from each other, but something keeps pulling them together.
The reader doesn't know what the big event was, but it starts becoming pretty clear toward the end of the book. I was very interested in finding out, but it was a little bit lackluster when all was said and done. I didn't really like how it ended. I did like the characters though, and I think each one could have her own book written only about her. It seemed like there was a lot to the characters, but not enough space for everything to be told. I would have liked to know what happened to them after the book ended.
It was good, but a little disappointing. |
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| Confessions of a Shopaholic |
[Nov. 4th, 2006|10:25 pm] |
Sophie Kinsella
7.9/10
Confessions of a Shopaholic is the first in a series of books about Becky Bloomwood, a young woman who is addicted to shopping. This has caused her lots of financial stress.
This book was a quick, easy read. It was just interesting enough to keep me going, but it didn’t blow me away or anything. It had a few very funny moments, but not as many as Can You Keep a Secret?
The problem with the book is that it’s a bit predictable. Every one of Kinsella’s books that I’ve read has a young woman who lies or pretends to be something she’s not. There are usually two main possible “love interests,” and you can just guess which one she’s going to be with.
I did like it though, and I’d like to read the other books in the series. |
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| Earthly Possessions |
[Sep. 2nd, 2006|09:44 pm] |
7.0/10
Earthly Possessions is one of my favorite movies of all time. I can't say how much I love it: the story, the characters, everything. It's just great, so of course I was very excited to read the book. The book starts out very much the same way the movie starts, so I only became more excited.
That's where the sameness pretty much ended. Okay, not exactly, but kind of...
Charlotte Emory goes to the bank in her small town of Clarion, where she is taken hostage by a young bank robber. He runs and drags her along with him...adventure ensues.
I think the movie character of Jake is very much true to the book. The movie, however, focuses on Jake and Charlotte's relationship [one of my favorite aspects of the movie], which is practically nonexistent in the book. The book tells a great deal more about Charlotte, practically her life story, and has a lot more characters than the movie. Some aspects of Charlotte's life are changed in the movie, or just left out completely.
In the movie, Charlotte talks a lot, and the dialogue between her and Jake can be quite hilarious at times. She said hardly anything to Jake in the book. A lot of what she said in the movie was stated in the book, but not in dialogue, only in her thoughts.
Mindy [in the movie], Jake's pregnant girlfriend, is also very true to the character in the book. I don't see how Charlotte got so messed up. I guess because the filmmakers needed certain things to happen for the film, which I understand. It certainly makes the story a lot better!
Several scenes from the movie were just made up. They never happened in the book, which is too bad, because they were great scenes. It rarely happens that a movie is better than the book, but this is definitely the case here. The book lacked the humor, the connections between the characters, and even the interest. |
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| A Home at the End of the World |
[Aug. 19th, 2006|12:40 am] |
Michael Cunningham
6.4/10
I watched the movie a year or two ago, and I liked it. I didn't even know it was a book at that point. But...I just read the book. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I kept picturing the actors, and I think Dallas Roberts, who plays Jonathan, was perfect (from my memory). Colin Farrell, who plays Bobby, was also perfect (although possibly not so "below par" like the Bobby in the book is made out to be). Robin Wright Penn plays Clare, and she doesn't seem to fit. I guess she's the right age, but she just doesn't seem as old as the Clare in the book sounds. But I definitely did not see Sissy Spacek as Alice.
I liked the character of Alice a lot at first. Later, not so much. I think there was too much time skipped between the times we "saw" her.
I didn't like Jonathan so much. He kind of bored me. Too much talking.
Clare was okay, but, like Jonathan, too much talking.
I loved Bobby. He just seemed so...loveable. Like a poor little puppy out in the rain or something. It's hard to imagine a man being that way, but I'm sure they exist. I like that he was content to just be and do and love. And he truly loved his people. His family. He never ran off, like...EVERYONE ELSE AROUND HIM. Everyone in his life, everyone he loved so much left him at one point or another. That's sad.
I could probably read a whole book about Bobby. The others...eh. They can just keep running off. |
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| The Girls |
[Aug. 19th, 2006|12:26 am] |
Lori Lansens
5.3/10
I'm not quite sure what score to give this book. It was good, but it was also boring. The Girls is the story of Rose and Ruby, who are conjoined twins. Joined at the head. This is interesting and weird and freakish, so I was immediately interested, but these interesting/remarkable girls had...well, boring lives.
Rose is the twin who walks and carries Ruby. She describes her face and honestly, it sounds scary. I know she can't help it or anything, but neither can I. It was Rose's grand idea to write this book.
Ruby is the small twin with club feet and a "pretty" face (which is hard for me to imagine). She doesn't understand Rose's obsession with the book, and she also doesn't understand why, if this is an autobiography, Rose talks about her aunt and uncle so much. This is something I had an issue with, myself. Frankly, I didn't care to read her aunt and uncle's life story. I did like that Ruby was blatantly honest about everything.
I also found it funny that the girls revealed things about the other that the reader didn't know. I liked that Ruby thought Rose didn't know about something, but Rose knew the whole time. Things like that...you would think that being stuck to someone would remove the possibility of secrets altogether, but apparently not.
I did NOT like the...sex scenes. Seriously. That was just, not something I wanted to imagine.
Overall, I guess the book wasn't bad, but it wasn't really good either. I was happy when it ended, even though I wasn't terribly thrilled with the ending itself. |
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| The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing |
[Jul. 25th, 2006|12:47 am] |
3.5/10
I did not like this book. I didn't care one bit what happened. Sometimes this happens at the beginning of books, but if I keep reading, I start caring. Not here. If anything, the book got worse as it progressed.
Two sections in the book MADE NO SENSE AT ALL.
I don't know what the point of this story was.
It's a quick read, but why waste your time? I got Melissa Bank's other book, The Wonder Spot, and I'm kind of dreading the thought of trying to get through another one of her "books." |
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| The Ninth Life of Louis Drax |
[Jun. 6th, 2006|01:40 am] |
8.9/10
This is a story about the ninth life of a little boy named Louis Drax. I really liked the personality of Louis. He had me laughing from line one with his twisted little mind.
There's a lot going on in this unassuming little book. There are several important characters, and each one's personality stands out. The main plotline is the question, what happened? I spent the whole book trying to put together what happened, and I did manage some of it, but not all of it. It's better if I can't figure out what's going on, but this was okay because I still got to be intrigued.
The ending gave somewhat of a resolution, but left me wanting more from the characters.
I will have to try more Liz Jensen books. |
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| The Tenth Circle |
[May. 1st, 2006|12:45 am] |
7.3/10
My first experiences with Jodi Picoult books were wonderful, so I don't know if my expectations became naturally high for my future reading, or what. The Tenth Circle started out okay, with a comic book artist dad (Daniel), the daughter he's pretty much raised (Trixie), and the cheating wife (Laura). Blah blah blah. Then Trixie is raped by Jason, her first love who has recently dumped her. Daniel is extremely protective of his daughter and has a shady past (big surprise).
The book actually got really suspenseful for a while. A short while, but still, I was really into it. But then it became predictable and I knew "who did it" almost as early as possible.
I have a slight problem with Jodi Picoult's books. Here's an excerpt from my last review from one of her books, Picture Perfect:
I don't really understand the whole Indian part of the story. I skipped parts of it because really...who cares? Picoult repeats herself, I've noticed. Indians dominated Second Glance as well. Court cases were ever-present in The Pact and My Sister's Keeper (and Mercy, I'd imagine, but I didn't get that far). Suicide was a theme present in The Pact and Second Glance.
In The Tenth Circle, we don't have Indians, but we do have Alaskans. We get pieces of culture and language, and again, I skipped parts of this, because I'm trying to read about a family and a crime. I don't care about Alaskan words. I don't care if they look you in the eye. I honestly feel like Picoult is just trying to show off her "knowledge" of these rare cultures. There's no real reasoning for them to be included in all of her stories.
In The Tenth Circle, we don't get a court case, but we were going to! And if the book kept going, we would have gotten another.
Guess what else, we also get the suicide theme, and not just from one character, but two!
With Daniel being a comic book artist, Picoult decided to include pieces of comic book between each chapter. I found this to be stupid and annoying, not to mention boring. I read the first one and skipped the rest. Pointless. I know she was trying to be clever, but it didn't work.
The last third of The Tenth Circle was so slow and boring (Alaska) that I simply scanned several paragraphs, but then the ending was just like BAM, it's over. There was the reveal (which was already predicted) and then a few paragraphs and it was over. Completely anticlimactic.
Jodi Picoult does have talent as a writer, I just don't know why she's wasting it with all this triteness. I love the way she portrays her characters (most of the time), and I love how she words things. She uses a lot of metaphors, and I liked the things she made the 'young Trixie' do and say. Sometimes I wonder how she thinks of stuff like that. I don't know if we'll ever get another book from Picoult that is as good as The Pact, but I'm sure I'll keep reading to try and find out. |
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| Prep |
[Apr. 2nd, 2006|01:39 am] |
9.7/10
I loved this book. LOVED it. I loved it so much that it's going in my top 10 (I don't actually have a top 10, but I should make one), and I want to buy two copies of the book; one to highlight amazing quotes and one to read again/let people borrow. I have never before done this (or wanted to) with a book.
Curtis Sittenfeld is a really talented writer. One of my favorite things was how she incorporated things from the past AND future into the moment. She didn't tell everything chronologically because she didn't need to. The readers didn't know about Lee's (the main character) roommate's boyfriend until a year into their dating because it wasn't that important. I, as a writer, worry about how to go about things like that, but Sittenfeld does it effortlessly.
Lee Fiora is probably the most like-me character I have ever read in a novel. That's not to say we're just alike, but so many things hit home that it was insane. So many little things that I think about and/or say were said by Lee. These are things that I really never thought anyone would understand, because it seems weird to me, but it was crazy to see my own thoughts written on so many pages of this book. Since I could relate so well to Lee, I really rooted for her. The poor girl has so many disappointments, I felt terrible for her. I just kept hoping that something would go right for this girl. That, I could really relate to as well. I had to remind myself that not every book has a perfect "Hollywood" ending, and that's good because Hollywood isn't reality. Broken hearts and sadness and disappointments are reality. I wish that weren't true, but it is.
I am so glad that I read this book. I don't even want to return it to the library and start another book. But as I said, I will be buying two copies of Prep, and I'll read it again. If/when I do read it a second time, it will be the first time I've ever read a book twice. I hope Curtis Sittenfeld's future books are as good as this one (although that is a very high expectation). |
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| When Katie Wakes |
[Mar. 10th, 2006|01:37 pm] |
7.2/10
This book made me mad. It was good, but it made me mad. This is Connie May Fowler’s tale of abuse…by her mother and her husband…and is very angering. I can’t imagine how someone could be abused and feel that they deserve it. That mentality is just crazy to someone on the outside. I’m sure it’s different when you’re actually there, but I just can’t see how someone could be beaten, and then want to apologize to the person who beat them!
The book was interesting, and pretty easy to get through, but Connie just kept on making me mad. I was pretty happy with the ending, even though it left off on an extremely sad note. I don’t think I’d want to read it again. |
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| Marley & Me |
[Jan. 19th, 2006|03:44 pm] |
9.3/10
Review soon. |
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| Running with Scissors |
[Jan. 15th, 2006|01:44 am] |
9.1/10
At first, I didn't really like this book. I was definitely interested...it's hard NOT to be interested in the "adventures" in this book, but I could have taken or left it. As I read more, I became more attached to Augusten Burroughs. I kind of felt like he was a friend by the end of the book.
Running with Scissors NEVER gets boring, not even once. It's got funny, sad, happy...everything you could possibly ask for in a story, and then some. I like the way Augusten writes. Every chapter has its own focus, but they all still came together into a cohesive story. I don't really want to say anything about the plot because I don't want to give anything away, but I absolutely recommend this book. I admit, it can be a little gross or perhaps disturbing at times (although I was skeptical about that when someone else said it..), but it all ends up okay. I mean, it's worth it. If you have a problem looking over or getting over certain things, maybe you shouldn't read this.
I am really looking forward to the movie, Running with Scissors. I think even if it sucks, it will be worth watching because I am VERY curious about it.
I have Augusten's book, Dry, which I plan to read fairly soon. |
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| The Memory of Running |
[Oct. 15th, 2005|09:35 pm] |
8.9/10
When I started this book, I almost quit reading it just because it starts kind of slow and it's hard to get into. I didn't really care, so I didn't care to keep going. But I did...and it was well worth it.
The Memory of Running is Ron McLarty's only book, but he really has a talent for writing. He has a style all his own. I found that this book is not a good one to be read aloud. It really needs to be read silently, so the words and thoughts can kind of wash over your brain.
The story is told by the main character, Smithy Ide, and it really feels like the reader is inside his head. Smithy is a 43 year old fat single guy who works in a factory putting arms on GI Joe or something like that. I won't give away the story, but Smithy ends up going on a journey across the country on his bicycle and it turns out to be more than he (and the reader) expects. Smithy meets quite a few interesting people on his journey and it's even more interesting how the characters interact with one another.
Smithy is kind of down on himself, and I guess that's to be expected, considering where he is in life, but the way he put himself down made me feel so bad for him. I could tell he really honestly believed what he was saying/thinking. I was also really amazed by the portrayal of Norma's love for him even when he couldn't love himself. It made me want to cry! By the end of the book, I really felt like I knew Smithy and I wouldn't have minded if the book kept going. |
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| The Torn Skirt |
[Sep. 15th, 2005|03:28 pm] |
4.0/10
I wanted to like this book. Two friends told me it was really good, so I felt like I'd disappoint them if I didn't like it. I tried to like it, but I just couldn't make myself. The main character, Sara, was raised by hippies and her mother left the family. Her father leaves too, and I never really understood their relationship. It didn't really seem like a father/daughter relationship, and maybe it wasn't supposed to. Sara's friends are the "burnout boys" and I can't really understand why a girl would want to hang out in the woods with a bunch of guys who smoke pot. Her boyfriend is one of those guys, and he's supposed to be the most popular guy in school. Since when are burnouts popular?
Sara somehow becomes infatuated with a strange girl named Justine, and sets off on a journey, I guess, to find her. Why, I don't know. Sara ends up getting involved with drugs and prostitution. She helps a friend steal a man's wallet, and the man threatens her. Eventually Justine commits a terrible crime against the man and Sara ends up taking the blame. I don't know why she didn't just explain what happened. She was too busy protecting Justine, who had never really seemed to care for her much in the first place.
Another thing I didn't like about Sara was that she really seemed to think she was something. She talked about how big of a "fuck up" she was and all the stuff she'd seen and how she wasn't innocent. Nothing she did really seemed that big of a deal to me. The story was PG at best, aside from the occasional "fuck" and the "crime" at the end.
I don't know what Sara wanted. Did SHE? What was the main conflict of the story? Was it Justine? The crime? Sara herself? I'm not sure, but there was no resolution. The whole thing seemed completely pointless. I had to force myself to keep reading. All the characters seemed really hollow, Sara most of all! She barely mentions anything, and nothing happens, but words cover all the pages. Can anyone explain that? Maybe it just wasn't my thing.
Other things I didn't like:
-The way the author ruined the ending of Go Ask Alice. What kind of author gives away the ending of another book?
-The inclusion of the entire police report. Rebecca Godfrey couldn't write the story...we had to read it in a police report. (Yes, I realize she wrote the police report, but it seems very weak that she couldn't have just told the story.)
-Justine's "life story."
-The exclusion of everything a reader might care about, like what was Sara's deal? What was everyone's deal?
Things I liked:
-The fever thing was an interesting touch.
-The quote "She wasn't shy, she just didn't waste her breath on idiots."
-Some of the wording was very well put together. |
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| The Undomestic Goddess |
[Sep. 15th, 2005|03:18 pm] |
8.2/10
This is the second book of Sophie Kinsella's that I have read. The first was Can You Keep a Secret? and I LOVED it. So I figured this would be good, and it was. The main character, Samantha, is a lawyer up for partnership, but a huge mistake drives her to flee, and she ends up at a house where she's mistaken for a housekeeping job applicant. Naturally, she knows nothing about housekeeping, but things end up keeping her from telling the truth. I love Sophie Kinsella's characters because they're so honest in their flaws. And they're funny about it.
Samantha's first encounters with house cleaning turn disastrous, and while I realize this is meant to be funny, it's not THAT hard to vacuum!!! That was the main thing I didn't like about the book. It wasn't as funny as Can You Keep a Secret? but a couple of moments did make me laugh. Of course Samantha meets a man, and he was a pretty obvious love interest. But I was glad that the FIRST obvious pick did NOT end up the love interest.
I told my boyfriend about the book and he guessed the end (pretty much) and said it sounded cheesy and like a Jennifer Lopez or Julia Roberts movie. Okay, I'll give him that. It does SOUND cheesy and if a movie was made of it, it probably WOULD star Kate Hudson or Jennifer Lopez or one of those, but that's because most books are ruined when they get made into a movie. The book was GOOD. I really liked it. |
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