Tag Archives: book reviews

How I Write by Janet Evanovich and Ina Yalof

Posted by melydia on March 4, 2007 None comments

How I Write by Janet Evanovich and Ina Yalof (unabridged audiobook, multiple readers): I am not very familiar with Evanovich’s work. I read One for the Money and thought it was cute but felt no special desire to read anything else by her. However, I am always curious to hear what bestselling authors have to say about writing since obviously something they are doing is working. I was pleasantly surprised with this one. Evanovich takes us from character development all the way through book tours in a light, funny question-and-answer format. She is realistic about the publication process (she collected rejection slips for ten years before publishing her first book) while remaining optimistic and upbeat about the entire journey. It’s also quite thorough: since the questions come from ten years of reader emails, even minutia like webpage design, paper quality for manuscripts, and transitions are covered, and in the back there is a list of references. This is one of the few books I would recommend all aspiring authors to keep on hand. I borrowed it from the library but I plan on getting my own copy soon. That’s high praise from someone who almost never rereads books.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

Posted by melydia on March 2, 2007 1 comments

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (unabridged audiobook read by Ralph Cosham): I was pleased to learn that this brief book is almost nothing like the 2002 movie, since that was horrible. Rather, this is the story of a man simply referred to as The Time Traveller, a native of Victorian England who spends the bulk of the story telling of his adventures in the year 802,701 and beyond. The reader hears things more or less secondhand and after the fact, as opposed to the more suspenseful (and much more common) everything-as-it-happens mode. Despite the extra step of disconnect from the action, this style actually adds to the realism, truly showing the future through the eyes and impressions of the Time Traveller, who can share many theories but few concrete facts. I was fascinated by the description of the world many hundreds of thousands of years hence, and even felt inspired to write my own time travel story, just for fun. Highly recommended.

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

Posted by melydia on February 27, 2007 None comments

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie: This is a very strange story that took me a very long time to read. In a nutshell, it is about Gibreel Farishta, a famous Indian movie star who may or may not be turning into the archangel Gabriel, and Saladin Chamcha, an Indian voice actor living in London who may or may not be turning into Satan. Much of the book is also devoted to the story-within-a-story of Gibreel’s dreams, which take place in numerous locations and time periods. The story begins with Gibreel and Saladin falling through the air after the airplane they were on was blown up by terrorists.

I have pretty mixed feelings about this one. I think I would have gotten a lot more out of it were I more familiar with the Koran and Indian society. It was also a bit difficult to get into because of the writing style: Rushdie displayed a fondness for overly long, run-on sentences and a disdain for paragraph breaks, especially where dialogue is concerned. The primary reason I finished this book is because I read somewhere that it is one of the most commonly started-but-not-finished books of all time (though how that is measured is beyond me). This isn’t a very good reason to read a book, especially one you know you are not fully understanding. I wouldn’t say it was a waste of time – I enjoyed some of the characters, especially the maddening Gibreel – but I do believe there are other books I would have enjoyed more during the month it took me to finish reading this one.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Pompeii by Robert Harris

Posted by melydia on February 22, 2007 None comments

Pompeii by Robert Harris (unabridged audiobook read by John Lee): I’m not usually much for historical fiction, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It is the well-known story of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, but told from a slightly different perspective: the engineer of the aqueduct, dealing with a drought, a pipe blockage, and strange smells of sulfur in the water. In addition to the science (which I found fascinating – Roman technology was amazing), there is plenty of personal and political intrigue to keep the plot rolling along. This fun little book made me want to learn more about Pompeii and the Roman Empire, which says a lot, considering I’d never given them much thought outside the occasional History Channel documentary. Definitely recommended if you’re in the mood for some good historical fiction.

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Posted by melydia on February 2, 2007 None comments

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (unabridged audiobook read by Grover Gardner): This is on several “OMG you must read these books before you die” lists so I decided to try it. I was not prepared for now remarkably difficult it is to follow. It is divided into four sections, the first three narrated in (unreliable) first person and the fourth in third person omniscient. The first section is narrated by Benjy, a man with severe mental retardation; next is Quentin, a neurotic with a tendency to interrupt himself midsentence; and finally we have Jason, an evil man with an apparent distaste for proper nouns, often going entire scenes talking about “her” without letting the reader know who “she” is. The fourth section would be a breath of fresh air, tying everything together, except it’s so strangled with purple prose it’s almost unbearable. To be fair, this should never have been an audiobook. Gardner is an excellent narrator, but with no way to obviously set apart the italicized sections from the rest it all becomes one big jumble, jumping back and forth through time without any indication to the reader of what’s happening when. (Multiple characters sharing the same name doesn’t help either.) Not that I think I would have liked this book had I experienced it in print first. The characters are despicable. The mother especially got under my skin, with her self-centered mewling about what a martyr she is. Now, just because I didn’t like it doesn’t mean you won’t. I can see how this book would appeal to people who enjoy an extra challenge in their reading, who define “classics” as books that require multiple reads to fully understand. I actually gave some thought to rereading it, but I didn’t really want to spend any more time with the Compsons than strictly necessary. In short, if you’re just looking for a good story the first time around, I would strongly suggest skipping this one – or at least having a study guide close at hand while you read.

After finishing this, I read its corresponding Wikipedia entry. Though usually not a fan of spoilers, I wish I’d read this synposis before tackling the actual text. It may have been easier to parse.

Gullible’s Travels by Cash Peters

Posted by melydia on January 24, 2007 None comments

Gullible’s Travels by Cash Peters: Though I’d never heard of Peters, I thoroughly enjoyed this trip through his last months as a radio travel journalist. He’s a cranky Englishman who visits tacky tourist sites, such as the Barbed Wire Museum in Kansas and the General Mills cereal fantasyland within the Mall of America. At the very beginning Peters assures us he is not very interested in pesky facts, so there were several occasions when I wondered how much was embellishment and how much actually happened. But in the end, that doesn’t matter much. The descriptions are brash and witty, and Peters’s frequent asides very amusing, and occasionally even thought-provoking. I was not very convinced by the overarching “plot” of Peters’s decision to leave radio – sure, a change is good after so many years, but I never quite grasped what was so horrible about radio, and what would be so much better about television. However, his concern about the future isn’t as large a part of the book as one would expect. Really, this is a book about a guy visiting places most of us would skip even if we lived nearby. I would not recommend this book to those with a lot of regional pride (he makes several comments on the meanness of Bostonians and the obesity of Minnesotans, for instance), but otherwise this is a fun bit of snark about some of the stranger parts of America.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Cover the Butter by Carrie Kabak

Posted by melydia on January 15, 2007 None comments

Cover the Butter by Carrie Kabak: This is the story of Kate, a doormat. Most of her life is spent under her mother’s thumb in some way or another, and that need for approval from the one person in her life least willing to give it forces Kate into a slew of bad decisions throughout her life. That’s not to say this book is all depressing, though sometimes it was a bit frustrating to see Kate putting up with such poor treatment. There are also parts that are touching, like Kate’s eternally devoted grandparents, and parts that are hilarious, like her lovingly (and brutally) honest friends. Almost all the characters are so detailed I could hear them in my head. In all, it’s a pretty good depiction of how a woman can let her life get so far off track – and, happily, how she can get it back on again.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Posted by melydia on January 8, 2007 None comments

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver: I bought this knowing absolutely nothing about it except that a lot of people really liked it. Sometimes that’s the best way for me to approach a book. After all, if someone had told me it was about a Baptist preacher and his family doing missionary work in the Congo (now Zaire) in 1960, I probably would have passed it by. I’m glad I didn’t, though, because it’s is so much more than that. Told in alternating narratives between the preacher’s wife and their four daughters – snooty Rachel, overeager Leah, cynical Adah, and brutally honest Ruth May – the story unfolds to reveal their individual perceptions and prejudices. Though there is some political discussion (the history of that area is pretty turbulent in places). it is presented in such a way that it comes across as the opinions of the characters, as opposed to leaving the reader feeling badgered by the author. Likewise with the frequent thoughts on religion. In short, this is an extremely well-written and engrossing story and I look forward to reading more by Kingsolver in the future.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Final Storm by Wayne Thomas Batson

Posted by melydia on December 24, 2006 None comments

The Final Storm by Wayne Thomas Batson: This is the third and final book in The Door Within trilogy, in which Aidan and company fight the evil Paragor for the last time. I have mixed feelings. Now, I accept that this trilogy could not have ended with a cop-out like “and then Aiden woke up snug in his bed”, but several of my questions were never answered, such as what happened to the green-eyed/undecided folks. The motives of Paragor’s followers are similarly unclear: he promises them power, and yet they obviously do nothing but serve his whims. Even Robby’s internal struggle, which is by far the most detailed, is pretty unrealistic. The characterization is often unconvincing to an adult, with several one-note personalities, but that is fairly common in children’s books. I would say that this trilogy would be good for Christian kids (since the idea of King Eliam doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless you get the Jesus symbolism), but it’s awfully violent. This book in particular is nearly nonstop fighting and death told in graphic detail. In short, this trilogy was a fine diversion, but not something I would go out of my way to recommend.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Pact by Jodi Picoult

Posted by melydia on December 19, 2006 None comments

The Pact by Jodi Picoult (unabridged audiobook read by George Guidall): The Golds and the Hartes are neighbors and best friends. Their children, Chris Harte and Emily Gold, are raised practically as siblings, and start dating seriously as teenagers. As the story opens, Emily dies from a gunshot wound to the head and Chris claims it was a botched double suicide attempt. Soon after, Chris is on trial for the murder of his girlfriend. There’s some interesting discussion of how well parents can really know their teenage children and some decent drama between the two families, but for the most part it’s pretty unconvincing. The parents are remarkably unwilling to ask obvious questions, and I find it hard to believe that Chris and Emily would have been so tight-lipped for so long. This is one of Picoult’s books I would recommend skipping, especially since several of her other works are so excellent.

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