These Is My Words

These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a great feel-good book--great for a beach read. Our book club read it, otherwise not sure I would have. I think had she changed the title, it could have been a bigger hit than it was. No one really wants to read a book that starts out with bad grammer. Turner did do a good job with the diary format, writing things that really would be in a diary, using references to things that go unexplained (but not annoyingly so) and skipping months and years when things get busy. Only toward the end, did I feel like it was contrived (she conviently starts up again after 4 years, only to have a major event happen 12 days later). The characters are enjoyable, but kind of one-dimensional, and their attitudes, thoughts, actions, just a little too modern to be believeable. Still, a fun, inspiring love story.



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Catch-22

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is one of those books that I can't believe I haven't read yet. There was an anniversary issue for sale at Costco, so I quickly remedied that. It wasn't what I thought it was...for some reason I thought it was a WWII thriller with spies (no idea where I got that notion)...It is about WWII but falls more into satrical comedy. The first few chapters made me feel completely lost--What are they talking about? and Why is this novel so great? I kept thinking as I read about an air force pilot that was in love with a chaplain? may or may not have a liver condition, had a friend who kept falling on his face, and signed his name as Washington Irving...Fast forward to the middle and the end--loved it. Loved it. Loved it. I loved the tongue in cheek, the exaggeration, the way it was almost monotonously repetitive only to go to the juggular with a quick slice of an airplane's propellar--so that you were as shocked as the characters in the book. I loved how Yossarian gets under your skin and you love him despite his failings. I love how pieces of Snowden's haunting tale are revealed bit by bit. I love how everything in the novel loops around and around (read the first chapters at the end, and it makes perfect sense). The last walk Yossarian takes in Rome is brillantly, shockingly written. I even liked the ending--I loved how despite how desperate it all seems at the end, plodding, apple-cheeked Orr gives them all hope. I admit that I thought some parts were a little too long--Milo's chapters in particular (we get it, big business will do anything for money)and I never did quite get why the opening line " It was love at first sight..The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him" is quoted as a great first line, or what it had to do with the rest of the book. And the edition I had boasted of critical essays and reviews, and I wished they were a little more insightful. Definitely a classic.



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The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a collection of stories and essays about the Vietnam war and about writing. I loved the titular story. I read it in an anthology in college and it has always stuck with me. It is a list of the things soldiers carrry, physically, emotionally, psychologically, yet it tells a story as it goes along. The rest of the war stories elaborate on things alluded to in "The Things They Carried", but somehow by elaborating the stories are not as poignant or shocking as they were when told in passing--except for "Speaking of Courage" which is less about the war and more about the soldier dealing with the aftermath.

Interspersed between these stories are essays about how to write fiction from experience--which was interesting and insightful. Although I couldn't help wanting to know what EXACTLY was truth and what was made up, and the essays only muddied the waters. But that is the whole point..."I want you tho know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth", he says in "Good Form".

Its a great read especially to understand one soldier's point of view, and to understand the writing process and it was a great introduction to Catch-22, which I happened to read next.



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Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


If I were to build a case that the ending can make or break a book, I would put this in the "make" pile (and Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry in the "break" pile). My feelings for this book evolved from, nice story, lots of cliches-- (burly, old drunk man that looks out for him and says things like "Well, well, what have we here?"; beautiful woman married to maniacal boss; virginal youth left orphaned and penniless to make his way in the world, where everything is new and awesome/horrible; sympathetic animal who is smarter than she seems)-- to very satisfied at the end, mainly because the ending was the perfect ending to this circus adventure. There WAS a lot of unneccesary sexual references, esp. at the beginning and Gruen could take some cues from (dare I say this) Myers (!) to create some sexual chemistry because I never quite believed they were soulmates. All in all a fun read.



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Little Bee

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book has all the trappings of a Very Important Book-- a girl from Africa, a morally ambiguous situation, Immigration Reformation, love and marriage, family and career, etc. But from the entreaty on the back cover not to discuss the plot twists, to the just-a-little-too-much analogies and internal dialouges, to the slightly too stereo-typical characters complete with symbolic quirks, this book is just too self-conscious to really be effective. Just like actors who try too hard keep jarring you out of scenes of an otherwise good movie (or perhaps a better analogy would be a director using too many flashy techniques), the descriptions, dialogue, and even parts of the plot keep screaming at you how very impossible this situation is, instead of subtly showing you. Truthfully, the plot twists aren't all THAT surprising--and the ending you can see a mile away. It did provide some good what would you do? conversations with the hubby though, and since the immigration issues in this country are something I get pretty passionate about, I thought it did make some good points. Cleave is a very good writer; he should just stop trying so hard.



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Matched

Matched by Ally Condie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When my book club picked this book, I admit I rolled my eyes. "A Hunger Games copycat" I thought. And reading the first page, my skeptisim grew. It is set in a world where everything is controlled by the Society, it is narrated by a female in first-person present-tense, and there was a preoccupation of what she was wearing to a banquet to find out who her statstically ideal Match will be. But I quickly fell in love with Cassia. Unlike Kat, she feels her life is perfect in the ultra-controlled world and it is only when there is a glitch with her Match, when she begins to question the infallibility of the Society, and some gentle prods from her grandfather, scheduled to pass away later that week, that she begins to wake up and dream of something more.

There are no red-eyed mutants or wilderness survival skills on display here, but perhaps more poignantly, Matched describes the survival of the human will, of the desire to create,of the beauty of the unpredictableness of nature. Is it bad that I cried as much at the loss of a poem or a tree in this book as I did for the death of Rue in Hunger Games? And Condie is a beautiful writer. Yes, Cassia can be naive, but her thoughts run deep and clear and she describes things like a poet would. It was a joy to read. I am only mad that it is another trilogy and I got in early enough I will have to wait to find out what happens to these characters.

On another note, I am curious about the trend of these YA books I've read over the years. It seems as if the boys in YA fantasy novels are always in a reality they don't like--being bullied, not smart, etc. --and then they find out they are wizards, demigods, the Chosen One. While girls tend to be in a hard world and they simply learn to cope with it. It doesn't hurt that usually more than one boy likes them. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with this. I simply wonder if boys tend to dream of being suddenly saved by circumstances that then makes them braver, stronger, smarter than they feel they are. And, alternatively, do girls feel they are already brave, strong, beautiful, only no one recognizes it because of their unfair circumstances? Or would they not believe that they are heros in disguise? And is this a reflection of society or do these tales shape our images of ourselves?



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Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Katniss moves out of the realms of the Games and into the global arena where war is being fought to take control of Panem. She is chosen as the symbol of the revolution, though it is interesting that she does so rather begrudgingly and not all that passionately. Her motives are mostly her own, and she doesn't seem to care much about how the new Panem will be run, as long as Snow is not in charge, and her circle of friends and family are safe. But then, she is what, 19? 20? And are the majority of us really so different?

Katniss also gets hurt a lot, and spends a lot of time in hospital, so the action isn't as nonstop as the other two books. But I liked the ending, and I thought she ended up with who was right for her. These books tell a dark tale about an imperfect hero that is a clever allegory for today's issues. And there is enough hopefulness and sweetness that it is an unlifting, satisfying read.



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