More mini-reviews! #3

 

A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving

SHOULD I WRITE LIKE THIS NOW? Ok, ok, cheap trick, but after having read this book, who can resist? Owen Meany was fussed about a lot among book bloggers in spring and I got curious. Read the book, thought "meh" - it is a very decent book, but what is all the fuss about? Months later, I still can't get the characters out of my head - it's that kind of a book.

4/5

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Well of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde

The crazy literary nerdy adventures of Thursday Next continue in The Well of Lost Plots. This book features one of my favourite secondary characters in this series so far - ibb and obb (aka Lola and Randolph). Seriously, how does Fforde come up with this stuff? At times it feels that there is too much going on and it's really hard to force myself to slow down to inhale all the geeky details. I am happy I have two next books of this series waiting on the shelf.

5/5

 

 

 

Ship of Magic, Robin Hobb

Back when I started reading Robin Hobb with Assassin's Apprentice, I was really not sold. By now, I am totally sold - her works have improved for me, book after book. Ship of Magic doesn't have the full-on feel of fantasy; in fact, about the most fantastical thing about this series so far is liveships, but what a concept! In the first book of this trilogy I feel like we have only just scratched the surface of what might come out of the world where certain ships are alive. Also, I am usually borderline phlegmatic kind of reader, meaning I don't easily get overwhelming positive or negative emotions when reading, but in this book, one of the characters... maaan... I just wanted to punch him SO HARD! One of the most unlikeable characters I've encountered lately, who is definitely not two-dimensional, there are reasons for his actions, even though incomprehensible for me, but still... my fists just clenched every time he stepped into my field of vision.

5/5

 

 

 

The Universe Versus Alex Woods, Gavin Extence

What a precious book. A likeable main character, a likeable friendship, very likable secondary characters, focus on a very controversial topic that I personally feel very strong about. It is a very easy read text wise, but never for a moment is it dull. Parts of me sympathise with Gavin Extence (in case he is planning to publish more books) because really, after such debut, how high are the expectations and how does an author meet them?

5/5

Mini-reviews #2

Basically my whole summer has been a big blogging slump (in addition to reading slump that I suffered from in the beginning of the summer), so to start from kind of a clean sheet in the beginning of autumn, I'm going to simply mark down all the books I read in summer but did not write about (except for Classics Club ones, since I want to talk about them longer).

 

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde - there is nothing I did not love about this book, except that I only managed to find a copy with this horrible cover. Covers by Hodder are wonderful and I managed to find four other books out of the first five with these covers (although I had to order them from different sources), but not the second one. Bummer. It's always going to stare at me from the bookshelf yelling "I'M THIS DIFFERENT COVER AND IT'S EVEN MORE ANNOYING 'COS I'M AWESOME AND YOU KNOW THAT".

Anyway, the wonderfully literary-witty-hilarious adventurers of Thursday Next continue in this sequel, which I maybe liked even a tiny bit more than book number one.

 

5/5 on Goodreads.

 

 

Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin - a well-crafted and -flowing book on a sensitive subject of intersex people. Multiple POVs were well done, characters were able to draw my sympathy, there was no sugar-coating and many events happening in the book felt very life-like, instead of fairytale-ish.

Despite its very accessible writing, the book has potential to make you ponder over all kinds of deep and existentialist matters, such as staying true to yourself (trust me, in the light of the subject discussed in the book, it doesn't come off as cheesy as it may sound).

 

4/5 on Goodreads.

 

 

 

May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes - how can I even begin to think anything remotely objective about this book, having read it after it became announced as winner of this year's Women's Prize? It was a very different book and it made me curious about the author's other works (apparently she has quite a lot of published texts out!) This was not your smoothly following narrative, no; this book was dry, and snarky, and sarcastic; it dared to make fun of its own heros and the world in general. I can't remember a single descriptive scene from May We Be Forgiven! And that is exactly what I appreciated about this book. Although it did not sway my (undying?) love for Life After Life, I gave May We Be Forgiven a solid

 

4/5 on Goodreads.

 

 

You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack by Tom Gauld - I won this book full of intelligently funny comic strips from a giveaway, which was perfect since I had almost bought it myself once, earlier. (So I was going to buy it if I didn't win it.) If you haven't visited Tom Gauld's Tumblr page, do your literary slash geeky self a favour and do it - although I did not get all the jokes (which unfortunately lowered my rating because even though it may be my own lacking level of intelligence that stops me from getting references, I think a good comic should attempt to apply very wide audiences), this book and Tom Gauld's works are hilarious. (Oh and did I mention literary? And nerdy? Yes.) And the drawing style is just adorable. 

 

I hope I'm not violating copyright, but here's a strip from Gauld's site that I linked above, the one that inspired the title of the book, and is poignant, and so hilarious:

 

 

 

4/5 on Goodreads.

 

 

Matk naeratuse eest by Adam Bahdaj, Agu Sihvka annab aru by Jaan Rannap and Roostevaba mõõk by Eno Raud - the middle-garde reads that my young self enjoyed (all are re-reads, obviously; some even multiple re-reads). First two books are outright funny - these guys know how to write hilarious characters. The third one is more of adventurery type, focusing on comeraderie and moral values. How can you even begin to give rating to the books that shaped part or your childhood? (And so many books did that for me, and I am willing to give 5/5 to them all, without a blink of an eye.)

 

5/5, 5/5 and 4/5, respectively.

Catching up - a bunch of mini-reviews

Since I am so much behind with my book-reviewing, I decided to just take the easy way out and write only a couple of words of those books I have read in the past months. (Except for the Classics Club ones, of which I want to write longer.)

 

 
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - I loved this book so much. Booknerd's dream. I can't wait to get my hands on the sequels, if what I heard is true, the series will become even better.

 

5/5 on Goodreads.

 

 

 

The Forgotten Queen by D.L. Bogdan - this book is about a less-known Tudor, Queen Margaret of Scotland. Maybe her life has not been covered so much because there was not much to say? This is what I felt when finishing this book. Margaret's character comes out as really annoying by the end (she makes a lot of questionable decisions, especially when it comes to her relations with men, and she seemed to have some serious self-esteem issues). I appreciate all that I learnt from this book, but mediocre plot + nothing-special writing didn't suck me in that much (it took me a long time to finish the book).

 

2/5 on Goodreads (just as a reminder - 2 on GR means "It was okay", so it's not even a negative rating).

 

 

 

The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker - I had problems with this book, partly maybe caused by high expectations (golems? djinn? I am bound to love it, right?) First, the writing just didn't appeal to me that much. I didn't write down a single quote from the book. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't for me. The characters showed a lot of promise, but in the end, I wasn't emotionally invested into any of them. I see what the author was trying to do and say, but for me it just came out kind of lacluster. It's quite a long book and by the end I really just wanted to get finished. Given my slight obsession with the djinn, I was also disappointed because the djinni in the book wasn't humorous or witty at all, he mostly embodied the negative characteristics (selfish, with anger management issues). I don't know, seeing all the praise for this book I was kind of sad it didn't do that much for me. That all being said, the setting of New York in the turn of the century was kind of captivating.

 

3/5 on Goodreads.

 

 

City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte - this book proved how important it is to choose the right story for the right moment. I chose City of Dark Magic to read for the Prague trip, and it worked well, because the novel is set in Prague and it's the kind of easy reading that suits me when I have problems concentrating. I was bound to enjoy it because I was basically wandering around in those same places where characters of the book did. Aside from those subjective feelings, I got a lot of Dan Brown vibe from this book. At some point I had problems with info-dumping. Some of the things didn't make sense. I had no problems with the paranormal element. I will probably read the sequel, just because, you know, Prague.

 

3/5 on Goodreads.

 

 

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey - this is a young adult dystopian book that I have seen getting a lot of praise. I am not a young adult reader, so I am always in fear that I am being unfair just because the genre is not my favourite. I think it's actually a decent book. I wouldn't jump on the fangirl/-boy wagon, but it was a decent story. A few things disturbed me - given that the novel was written by several different POVs, there was really nothing except for the plot itself to give any indication that these were different characters, so I don't think the different POV-thing was done well at all. But it was a gripping read and the whole idea of by whom the earth was taken over was kind of new and captivating.

 

3/5 on Goodreads.

 

 

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon - I picked up this detective story after I heard the news that my grandmother has passed away and I knew for sure I won't be able to read anything heavy or actually anything that would require any kind of emotional investment. I think it served its purpose well, although it made me rething whether I want to continue with Leon's Brunetti-series. But I probably will because this being the first book of the series is definitely not the best one. The books are set in Venice, which was a huge pro-factor for me when deciding which contemporary detective series I'd like to start.

 

3/5 on Goodreads.

 

 

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).

 

---

 

563 pages

Reviews (kind of): "Bag of Bones" by Stephen King, "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn

I've been suffering from a writing slump. Probably has to do with overwhelming spring tiredness. It's the middle of the March now, and this morning it is minus 20 degrees of cold outside... just made me want to run into a wall.

 

There are three books I have finished but haven't noted down in the blog - the two mentioned in the title and "Persuasion", which I read for the Classics Club. As for "Bag of Bones" and "Gone Girl", I decided to write down my thoughts in very short form, because neither one really moved me to the core (positively nor negatively).

 

"Bag of Bones" had some good things speaking for it. I like reading about literature-y people, and the main character here is writer Mike Noonan. There are piles of references to different authors and books (including a huge spoiler on du Maurier's "Rebecca" - that was bad, please don't spoil books, or at least stick a warning label on your novel :p), and I really liked reading about intelligent characters. Another thing especially praiseworthy in my book is the portrayal of a 3-year old girl. Because whether it be films or books, I tend to have problems with kids in them. Either they are shown over-intelligent and non-believable, or just total brats, or I don't know. It's just an individual thing I guess, but the kid in King's novel was a-do-rable. Super cute. I liked the way she spoke.

 

But, there is an odd thing that has happened to both two King books I read last. The reading process of "Needful Things" is one of the most shocking ones I ever had. I started reading it, and was soooo badly sucked in, I read it all the time and everywhere. Then, somewhere at 75% through point, there was a total halt. There were too many characters by the time, things got very messy and at the point, which was supposed to be a culmination of the story, I lost interest. The book stayed on my bookshelf for months, before I finally pulled myself together and just forced through it.

 

And the same kind of thing happened this time. Around 3/4 through the book, I lost a great slice of interest. I didn't give it up this time (and overall "Bag of Bones" was a lot better book as well), but I just thought if it's going to become some kind of King-curse for me. Maybe I should try some books that people have praised more, like "Stand" or "It" or "Carrie".

 

"Gone Girl" was kind of an experimental purchase, as I would have never picked up this one without all the buzz and fuzz in other book blogs. I was fairly certain that this is the type of book that I'd finish fast (true) and so it wasn't that huge of an investment (except money-wise, hehe).

 

I can't say it was a bad book. It wasn't. I think it was pretty well written, in its genre. Props to Flynn for knitting such an intricate network of twists and turns throughout all 400+ (or how many there were) pages. There were some quite clever and intelligent passages. It was interesting to observe how my opinion of the characters changed as the book progressed. I didn't like the characters but I liked how they were portrayed. At times I got nauseous (that's not all that bad thing when reading - better than feeling nothing).

 

However, I was right when I kind of started having this hunch that these kinds of books, let's call it "curveball prose", ain't really my thing. So much happens in short period of time that I get bored in the end (and after that 54th surprise, you know, 55th surprise ain't all that "surprising" anymore).