A Bad Trip to the Library

Seriously. It was a bad trip to the library. I am going to talk about six books and I liked NONE OF THEM.  The boy kept telling me if I disliked the books so much, maybe I shouldn't have checked them out. I was a bit defensive (how was I supposed to know these books would make me so irate?!), but now I see his point. From now on, I'm going to keep rereading the same books over and over again that I know and love. No new books. At least until I go to the library again, I guess.

Maybe this trip was a payback for the last time when I read all kinds of books I loved.  So if it's a vicious cycle, it means that the five books I just took out from the library should be brilliant. Please let them be brilliant. 

The Idiot Girls' Action Adventure Club by Laurie Notaro and Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A. S. King - At first, you might think these books have nothing in common.  Notaro writes an autobiography and King writes a fiction piece.  Notaro writes a strange combo of memoir/chick lit and King writes a teen lit tale of woe and sorrow.  But, here's the kicker.  Both of these books involve young women doing stupid things that make me feel stupid for reading it.

Look, I'm going to admit it. I'm a bit of a teetotaler.  We still have a bottle of champagne sitting on our kitchen counter from our wedding three years ago.  We have wine in our house, but only to be used for cooking.  There's a bottle of potato vodka in our freezer given to my husband  before he met me that has never been opened.  We just don't drink spirits is what I'm saying. I never have.

I don't care if you drink a class of wine with your dinner or a beer while you're watching the football game. I really don't care.  But I see no reason to read books about girls putting their lives and other people's lives in danger while getting drunk.  Period.  I didn't even finish Notaro's book. I was unamused and pissed off. I finished the King book, but I was very disturbed by this book. I wanted Vera to grow up, stop drinking, and stop being completely irresponsible. I kind of hated her. I know she was grieving, but that's no excuse for putting other people's lives at risk.  For the entire book.  From the very first page.  I know that a lot of the criticisms of these books has more to do with me than with the books, but I am not going to celebrate this irresponsible behavior (other forms of irresponsible behavior on the other hand may have potential free passes).  

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey - This is a classic of the mystery genre, I know.  But I gave up about half way through and have no regrets. I just couldn't even finish the boringness and the nothingeverhappeningness. 

Little Bee by Chris Cleave - This was not what I expected. It was a perfectly acceptable read, but totally not worth the glowing reviews from all over. 

Drought by Pam Bachorz and Delirium by Lauren Oliver - I feel like I read this line from someone else, so I'm copying here, but I am just over dystopian young adult novels.  Honestly, while I enjoyed The Hunger Games, I was pretty over it by the time Mockingjay came out.  As far as I can tell, it's a lose-lose situation to write the endings to these types of books. Either it's total destruction or some fake save and either way I'm pissed off. I'm not entirely sure how I want the books to end.  Maybe the authors should do a Choose Your Adventure-style ending.  Choose Path A if you want an unrealistic, happy ending.  Choose Path B if you want to know how things would turn out if it were the real world.  Choose Path C if you want to know what lame ass way the author originally intended to end this book. 

Whatever.  The world is already a dystopia.  I don't see why I need to read about sad places in my fiction.  The next time I see "imagined world" or "near future" or some such nonsense, I'm going to leave it right on the shelf where it belongs.