Mini-thoughts: "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult, "Beautiful Creatures" by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

 

Both these books are way out of my comfort zone. You know how once in a while one gets this urge to try something "else" or "different"... Like stop eating meat, or wear a dress instead of jeans. Or read a Jodi Picoult novel or something called young adult literature.

 

"My Sister's Keeper" sounded like an interesting premise enough to give it a go, a family of four has a child that is really sick, so new child is planned to basically become an organ donor for the older child. Once the new child develops some kind of ability to think for herself, she decides that is not the kind of life she wants for herself and decides to sue the parents.

 

The novel is written from the perspective of multiple narrators, and in this case, there were waaaayyy too many narrators. I couldn't see the need behind some of them at all, they didn't really contribute much anything. I wonder if may really be true in this case that the use of multiple narrations is a sign of lazy writing? So, that kind of started annoying me a lot by the end. I could also sense that this book had the desire to pull a lot of emotion out of a reader, but it just didn't happen for me. Possible "it's me, not you" situation here because I am a cold and cynical person to begin with (sinister laughter), but on the other hand there have been stories, way more subtle and with less shock-prone plots, which have made me have more tender feelings, so I am just not sure... Anyhow, I knew beforehand that there will be "a shocking twist" in the end, and I wasn't really a fan of that, or in this case it left me puzzled whether the twist was just there to add more shock value, or what.

 

On a more positive note, premise as such does make you think of a bunch of moral and ethical questions, and reading parents' thoughts on why they did what they did and what they were thinking was a bit more interesting.

 

End verdict: I got confirmed that such books are not for me. I don't need to be shocked through actions; I'd rather be shocked in a more subtle manner.

 

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500 pages

 

"Beautiful Creatures" was my first attempt to explore the fairly popular young adult sub-genre, and off the bat I want to make it clear that I had the best intentions for this book. So far, there has been nothing pulling me towards young adult novels (and that did not change with this book), but I was curious to see what is this kind of paranormal stuff so many people are talking about.

 

It's a romance, there are paranormal powers presented, and a family of witches, set in a small southern city in America (where nothing ever happens - of course). Writing was nothing special (or actually it was occasionally out-right bad towards the end), and I entertained myself trying to figure out how this kind of "two-people-working-on-same-book" could work. I didn't figure it out. There was awful lot of repetition (thanks, Ethan, we got it during the about first 10+ pages that Lena has black hair, it does not need to be repeated on every page). About half of the cast of characters was fairly stereotypical - the main protagonist who gets involved in odd happenings, his extraordinary and "different" love interest, the popular guys n' girls at school, the funny sidekick-best-friend, overprotective and narrow-minded soccer mums, the list goes on. Lena's bunch was actually more interesting, along with their house, uncle Macon Ravenwood and his dog Boo Radley. (Oh, right, Ethan was also "different" because he had read "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Catcher in the Rye" and probably a few other books - by the way it was described apparently no other people in the town didn't even know what books are). Lena was one of those girls who liked to express her thoughts in poetry, occasionally, and if it was a deliberate move by authors, then they succeeded in this outstandingly - the verses were awful. Which is actually believable, because that's how it tends to be with girls that age (yea I remember those days).

 

So, overall, I was not a happy reader with "Beautiful Creatures", but I would give an extra point for a few characters and especially for Boo Radley (who was truly awesome).

 

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563 pages

Closing the lid of March

We can has some of that? Please???

*punches the writing slump in the face* there...

 

March is almost over, and spring is nowhere to be seen. What gives? I'm so tired all the time that it's not even funny anymore.

 

Just out of curiosity (and possibly in masochistic desire to shock myself) I went through all the Brain Food posts since the beginning of January (added the books I have gotten in the past weeks and have not put into a post yet) to make a little calculation of how many books I have acquired and how many of them I have read.

 

 

Books hoarded - 35 (of which 3 I received for free, 1 is a lent book, and the rest I [or my boyfriend] have paid for).

Books read - 13.

 

I think it could be worse. My Classics Club project includes many of the books that come from my already-earlier-existing library, so I am not reading only the new books. Most books I have bought are classics, plus I am also going through some of the novels longlisted for this year's Women's Prize. It is also noteworthy that the classics I buy are not necessarily meant for reading right away, but they are more like long-time investment.

 

Anyway, back to March.

 

It was surprisingly good reading month, mainly because I managed to balance nicely between the classics and other stuff. I read six books - three classics and three "others":

 

* J. Austen "Persuasion" (for Classics Club)

* G. Flynn "Gone Girl" (from Women's Prize longlist; however, I read it before I knew that it was longlisted)

* E. Hemingway "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (for Classics Club; for Modern March event)

* S. Lewis "Arrowsmith" (for Classics Club; for Classics Spin event)

* J. Picoult "My Sister's Keeper"

* M. Semple "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" (from Women's Prize longlist)

 

Page count - 236+466+490+450+500+321=2463.

 

In April, I will participate in Zoladdiction event. Although I initially planned to go for two Zolas, I have changed my mind by now and will be reading only "Germinal". I would like to dedicate more time to Women's Prize books - I have Kingsolver's "Flight Behavior" and Segal's "The Innocents" at home, plus this week the boyfriend ordered me Atkinson's "Life After Life" (can't wait to stick my claws into that one!) and Shafak's "Honour". I also can't wait to start Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall".

Brain Food, II

I have been reading! Of course. After finishing "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" last week (review coming up hopefully), I had to make some decisions. 

I cheat on books, with other books. I usually have a small pile of "currently reading" next to bed. As a rule, it contains books from different genres, to match different moods, situations and brain energy levels. For example, right now the pile consists of 

• a collection of Chinese short stories (in Estonian);
• a non-fiction book on psychology;
• a non-fiction book on medical condition that I have;
• a sci-fi novel;
• a fantasy novel;
• a 19th century classic novel;
• a contemporary magical realism novel.

The books I am reading actively are George R.R. Martin's latest "A Dance With Dragons", Wilkie Collins's "The Woman in White" and Murakami's "1Q84". In itself, it is a pretty nifty list, leaving aside the fact that all these three are complete chunksters! 1178, 728 and 1156 pages, respectively. That means I should take another book to go aside... a slim one. Something that I would be able to finish in less than 1+ week. *sigh*

Anyhow, on to some books I hoarded since the last brain-food post. 

Left - 

• Orson Scott Card "Ender's Game", "Speaker for the Dead", "Xenocide", "Children of the Mind" - back when I was small, I read "Ender's Game" in Estonian. Of course, this book was hit by the fate as many others of the genre at the time - they only translated first of the series, and that was it. I still remember how I practically gulped it down, and figured it would be nice to do that again, + some extra.

Right, from top to bottom - 

• Jodi Picoult "My Sister's Keeper" - totally out of my usual comfort zone this, but I want to read more female authors, and the plot of this one picqued my interest. I will attack Picoult with great apprehension and carefulness, however. It might not be my cup of coffee at all.
• Erin Morgenstern "The Night Circus" - hmph. Another one of those books I got based on introduction of the story. + allegedly the writing style is to be admired. We shall see.
• Francis Scott Fitzgerald "Tender is the Night" - I have read "The Great Gatsby" twice and was always drawn to the title of this one (it's even better-sounding in Estonian).
• Robin Hobb "Ship of Magic" - I like Robb's soapish style of fantasy, and the (perfect) ending of the Farseer's trilogy made me forgive her all the naiveties, plot holes and stupid twists she might have taken along the way. And made me give her another chance.