Tag Archives: book reviews

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Posted by melydia on December 8, 2009 None comments

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell: Spent much of the book having absolutely no idea what’s going on. But that’s okay. Basically it’s a series of interconnected stories that go through the diary of an American man in Australia in the 1850s, a British musician in the 1930s, a mystery-solving American journalist in the 1970s, an elderly British publisher in the present day, a clone on trial in nearish-future Korea, a goat herder in post-apocalyptic Hawaii, and back again. I’d hoped there would be a little more connection between the stories – more on the comet-shaped birthmark, for example – but that was not to be. It also got a little preachy in places. My favorite was probably the elderly British publisher who gets committed to an old folks’ home against his will. All in all it’s a decent read, but far too long for the amount of interest it held for me. Which sounds about like how I felt about the other Mitchell book I’ve read, Ghostwritten: great characters, probably could use a reread, but if you prefer less convoluted tales, you might want to skip this one.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire

Posted by melydia on December 3, 2009 3 comments

The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire: While I was reading this, I was really enjoying it, but now that I look back, I can’t quite figure out what it was trying to do. There’s a lot of humor and a fair bit of tragedy, but not a whole lot of story. A woman goes mad when she gets clonked on the head by a statue of the Virgin Mary. A trio of gay men befriend a gaggle of elderly nuns. A teenage girl is self-righteously angry but also rather hilariously dumb. A man with HIV gets ill. People mistreat each other. A man is hopelessly obsessed with his married ex. But when the story ends, nothing’s really all that different from when we started. I guess you can assume that everybody gets over their issues and and turns over a new leaf, but who can tell?

On the bright side, Maguire doesn’t trot out the thesaurus quite so often as he does in his fairy tale retellings (Wicked, et al), which made for a less frustrating read. All in all, it’s not bad for a free book, but not something I’d want to read again. I like books that tell a story, and I felt like one wasn’t really told here. I can deal with the open-endedness, but I finished this feeling more like the plot was simply set up and then left as an exercise for the reader.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Fire by Katherine Neville

Posted by melydia on November 25, 2009 None comments

The Fire by Katherine Neville: The long-awaited sequel to Neville’s excellent debut novel, The Eight, and it’s pretty meh. I admit I probably did not come into this in the best mindset: The Eight is just so good, it’s hard not to expect The Fire to be just as engrossing. Then again, it didn’t help that one of my favorite characters was killed off in the freaking prologue either. Anyway, the gist of this story is that The Game has been restarted thirty years after the events in The Eight – both in the present (Alexandria, daughter of Cat and Solarin) and past (Mirielle’s son Charlot) timelines. There’s a lot of random people involved, a lot of talk about Original Instructions which may or may not refer to sexual intercourse, loads of obscure chess references that don’t make a whole lot of sense, and very few loose ends tied up. I was quite clear on the purpose of the Montglane Service at the end of The Eight; now I have no idea. The inevitable love story between the narrator and the mysterious foreigner was all too predictable. The twist ending left me with a bad taste in my mouth, it was so contrived. All in all, just not a very good book. I kept reading, hoping things would pick up, but they never did. Alas.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

Posted by melydia on November 17, 2009 1 comments

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman: A diary of a 13-year-old British girl in 1290. Absolutely delightful. Birdy’s commentary is loads of fun: earthy, funny, and brutally honest. Things just get better when she obtains a book of saints and marks whose feast day it is, often with hilarious commentary. I wonder how many of them are real. (Probably most, given the level of Christian superstition during those days.) Definitely recommended for anyone – children and adults alike – looking for an interesting and entertaining sample of medieval life (pay particular attention to the food – eww!). I don’t know why I didn’t read this years ago.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

Posted by melydia on November 6, 2009 None comments

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (unabridged audiobook read by Ilyana Kadushin and Matt Walters): This final book of the Twilight series opens with Bella and Edward’s wedding and subsequent honeymoon, and covers the first six months or so of their life together. There’s a bit of drama here and there, but by and large it’s not nearly as suspenseful as the earlier books – and those were pretty tame. As I’d expected, imprinting was used as a convenient solution to the love triangle. The idea is that when a werewolf meets his soulmate, he “imprints” on them and suddenly has eyes for no one else. Bella can’t be with Edward without breaking Jacob’s heart? Simple: Jacob imprints on somebody else and ceases being interested in Bella all together. Problem solved. Pretty cheap, if you ask me, but hardly unexpected. It’s not like I ever thought Jacob ever had a chance with Bella, even when Edward was out of the picture in New Moon.

And you know, I was okay with the invulnerability to sunlight and the extra-sensory powers and even the sparkling, but vampire pregnancy is something I can’t quite wrap my head around. I mean, they’re supposed to be physically dead – or at least permanently unchanging – right? Your body – male and female alike – has to be doing something inside there if you’re going to be able to make babies. That said, I still have to give props to Meyer for the hilarious dichotomy between the teen romance and the graphic horror. I just could not stop laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. I also enjoyed Jacob as a temporary narrator; even when he’s being angstful he’s amusing. Oh, and for the record: Renesmee is a terrible name, and Nessie is a really unintuitive nickname.

The ending is happy, of course, and thorough to the point of absurdity. Everyone finds love, peace, and joy, untainted by regret or danger or even, in most cases, mortality. It’s also a fanfiction gold mine: loads of new characters (and creatures) introduced with only the barest of backstories. A talented fanfic writer could really go to town here. As for me, I felt a profound and somewhat embarrassing sense of freedom as I finished this book. The Twilight universe has devoured my brain for the past few months, but now it’s done, and I am free at last. It’s a very sudden, very weird sensation. I don’t even feel a desire to reread any of the books. I’ll see the movies, though I’m not in any particular hurry anymore. I enjoyed the story, laughed more than was probably appropriate (oh come on, these books are silly), and now I’m on to the next one. Rock on.

When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

Posted by melydia on November 2, 2009 1 comments

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris (unabridged audiobook read by the author): One thing I really appreciate about Sedaris is not only does he share the often unflattering foibles of everyone around him, he never spares himself. Indeed, he often paints himself as the one with the worst intentions and habits. I laughed particularly hard at “In the Waiting Room” and “What I Learned”. The final and longest essay, “The Smoking Section,” goes through his first few months after quitting smoking. It’s made more interesting by the stay in Japan during this time. These essays are sometimes poignant, often funny, and always unexpected. All in all, this is one of Sedaris’s better collections. It doesn’t beat out Me Talk Pretty One Day as my favorite, but it’s probably in second place.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paterniti

Posted by melydia on November 1, 2009 None comments

Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein’s Brain by Michael Paterniti: When Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey autopsied Albert Einstein in 1955, he removed the great scientist’s brain, though whether he had the family’s permission to do so remains in doubt. Either way, he kept the brain in his house, in a couple of cookie jars. When Paterniti learned of this, he sought out the elusive pathologist. When Harvey mentions his intentions of giving part of the brain to Einstein’s niece Evelyn in California, Paterniti offers to drive him. Not quite as much of a romp as I’d hoped. I found myself a little nauseated every time he described the brain itself, which was in pieces, floating in formaldehyde. It doesn’t help that Paterniti seems to want to present the brain as a sort of religious relic, but often falls short. The main draw for me was the opportunity for a vicarious cross-country road trip. Unfortunately, Paterniti and Harvey don’t make for very interesting company.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Silverstein and Me by Marv Gold

Posted by melydia on October 21, 2009 None comments

Silverstein and Me by Marv Gold: The poetry of Shel Silverstein is a big part of my childhood, so it was with trepidation that I began reading this memoir by a lifelong friend. Sometimes I just don’t want to know about people’s dark sides. (And, admittedly, sometimes I do.) But this wasn’t an expose. Rather, it was a pleasant collection of memories of a guy who was undeniably memorable. Like many people, I was most familiar with Silverstein’s children’s books, but this tale focuses more on his beginnings, from childhood through college and the start of his 40-year career with Playboy. I enjoyed the little illustrations (Gold was a fellow artist, after all) and anecdotes. Though I wish Silverstein’s cartoons, poetry, and lyrics could have been reprinted here when they were referenced, all in all I found this to be a sweet tribute to a talented and unusual man.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman

Posted by melydia on October 20, 2009 None comments

My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman: 16-year-old Frederica Hatch lives in a tiny on-campus apartment with her professor parents who double as dorm-parents at a small women’s college near Boston. As the daughter of a sociologist and a psychologist, both die-hard unionists, not to mention being raised around hundreds of college girls, Frederica is a little different from most girls her age. Things start to get interesting when melodramatic Rockette-wannabe Laura Lee French shows up as dorm mother for another building. She is not only eccentric but also the first wife of Frederica’s father, a woman Frederica didn’t even know existed mere weeks before. I was reminded a bit of Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl, but I suspect that has more to do with the protagonist being the daughter of a college professor than anything else. The story is funny and a little silly. I got a kick out of it. I particularly enjoyed the bitter and sarcastic Marietta.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

Posted by melydia on October 18, 2009 None comments

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (unabridged audiobook read by the author): Haunting and atmospheric as usual; whenever I read any of Gaiman’s stories I immediately wish I could visit whatever location he describes. No matter how desolate or bland, he always manages to fill it with a sense of wonder and beauty. I wasn’t, however, quite so impressed with the story-poems, which struck me more like prose with awkwardly placed line breaks. I also wish I’d known so many of the stories would be from collections devoted to authors I’ve never read, such as H.P. Lovecraft. But that’s okay. Maybe someday, after I’ve read some of those stories, I’ll come back and reread these. Speaking of rereading, the final two stories, “Murder Mysteries” and “Snow, Glass, Apples”, I’d heard before on Two Plays for Voices. They’re much easier to follow in prose form. All in all, I think I prefer the other Gaiman I’ve read.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

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