Her Fearful Symmetry

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Audrey Niffenegger writes so eloquently of the lonliness of missing someone you love, of how much characters long to be together yet for some reason can't, that it brings me to tears every time. It is refreshing for characters who ache to be together, rather than look for ways to escape their relationships.

Niffenegger does a great job introducing us to 2 sets of twins; Elspeth, one of the eldest twins has died and she has bequethed her estate to her twin neices. Elspeth slowly realizes she is a ghost and begins to try to communicate with her neices. Niffenegger does a brilliant job fleshing out these quirky characters. Elspeth's progression as she learns of her powers as a ghost are organic and realistic. The tone of the book, set in and around Highgate Cemetary is both appropriately dark and hopeful. And the plot, with it's secrets is original without being overwrought.

But then 3/4 through the book, it's like she had to wrap things up for a deadline. After the climax, things seemed hurried and too neatly wrapped up.

My favorite part is the side story of Martin, the neighbor with OCD, who slowly takes back control of his life in order to reclaim his wife whom he loves so much.



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Waiting to Exhale

Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


We are introduced to four black women in the early '90's in Phoenix. They are in various stages of their life: Bernie just found out her wealthy husband is divorcing her to be with a white woman; Savannah is moving from Denver to Phoenix to further her career and change her scenery; Gloria is a single mom who comforts herself with food instead of lust; and Robin is a single girl who will sleep with any fine man she finds in hopes of finding Mr. Right.

And then the book meanders through their lives. They meet men. Mostly they are jerks. They break up. They meet more men. They are new, different jerks. They are part of a Black Women's Organization that is explained in way too much detail, that then does nothing. But then nothing really happens in the book. They just complain about how boring their lives are. That makes for a pretty boring book--realistic, maybe, but boring.



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Trail of Crumbs

Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home by Kim Sunée

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I feel like memoirs are tricky to critique. These are memories of a person's life--would I make the same decisions as them? Is the story of their life interesting? Do I like the person telling the story?

I will say that Sunee is a good, solid writer--full of imagry, concrete details, good dialouge. I found her story interesting and exotic--a Korean orphan abandoned in the marketplace when she is three and haunted by that abandonment ever since. She travels abroad, meets a wealthy stranger and falls in love, and becomes mistress of his house in Provence and step-mother to his daughter. They travel and eat, and she includes delicious-sounding, if esoteric recipes (most would require a trip to a gourmet grocery store).

But then she decides she isn't happy and leaves in search of happiness. Here, the book gets a little tedious with her list of men, her back and forth with her wealthy ex, her sessions with a psychiatrist. Then it neatly wraps up in one page during a trip to the jungle, where she is finally able to "forgive herself" and look forward. Why? How? But I did want to keep reading to find out what happened next.







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stuart: a life backwards

Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I think I was expecting a different type of book. Or maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but I could never fully get into the life of Stuart, a homeless man in England. Masters writes Stuart's life backwards as a sort of mystery to figure out how Sturart ended up on the streets. That was actually Stuart's idea, and the best idea of the whole book. The rest seems sort of rambling, too much about Masters trying to write the book, and in the end, what makes Stuart homeless is pretty much what you'd expect: abuse, mental problems, drugs. No great mystery.



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The Help

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


One of the best books I have read this year, and certainly one of the best books about the civil rights movement ever. Stockett alternates between 3 voices: Skeeter, a white woman graduated from college trying to become a writer and find her own voice in a town where the girls are expected to behave properly and marry well; Aibileen, a black maid that has raised countless white children and lived through the unjust death of her own son; and Minnie, another black maid that has a fiery temper and sharp tongue. Together, they unite to write a book about what it is like to be the help in Missippi during the 1960's--the good and the bad.

It is touching, funny, suspenseful. Stockett does an amazing job of writing each character as a complete person and completely believeable.

I loved, loved, loved this book.



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The Family Man

The Family Man by Elinor Lipman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Perfect summer light read. The main characters are a delight, the plot was fun, and everything wrapped up nicely.

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High Fidelity

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Top 5 reasons I loved this book:

1) It made me smile every other page and at least every 5 pages made me laugh out loud. In public.
2)It shows that given the right author, you can write about pop culture of the day and still be timeless.
3)It gave me hope that something actually goes on in the male brain. When all the boys and men in my life answer "Nothing" to the question "What are you thinking?" you begin to believe it is true. At least something is going on in the mind of Nick Hornby's Rob Flemming, and it is eerily similar to the stuff that goes on in my brain.
4)It seconds the fact that the best music happened in the '80's.
5)The movie version stars John Cusack and anything remotely connected to John Cusack is cool.


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