May Books

Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire - Not his best work. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister was a lot better.

Fat Kid Rules the World by K. L. Going - I couldn't remember a single thing about this book three days later. A perfectly acceptable read, I guess.

Evermore: A Novel of the Darkyn by Lynn Viehl - Seriously, I thought this was Evermore by Alyson Noel. It is NOT.  It is NOT the first book in a series and it makes absolutely no sense to someone coming in to the middle of a series.  So I'm an idiot. I read it, I got the gist, but I'm sure I missed a million subtle points. 

Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy by Albert Marrin - A very superficial look at the Triangle Waist Factory fire and its impact on workers' rights.  I guess I already knew most of the material in this book, so I didn't find it super enlightening, although I guess if you don't even know what the Triangle Fire is, you might.  Interesting factoid that Marrin repeats in the book is that the fire at the Triangle Waist Factory held the record for the deadliest workplace fire in New York until the attacks on the World Trade Center.

A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan - I really just loved this book despite its intense creepiness. As a metaphor for the teenaged years, it really doesn't get better.  I don't see any signs of a sequel for this book, but I really want one!

A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin - This is the third book in the Song of Fire and Ice series. This is an example of each chapter being told from a different character's perspective being done well.  It is just brilliant. That is all.

Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine by George Dohrmann - Top secret information from me to you: here in this town where I live, ESPN Radio comes in a lot more clearly than our local NPR station.  I listen to ESPN radio a lot.  I heard Dohrmann interviewed on the radio and then I read an excerpt from this book in Sports Illustrated and I wanted to know more.  If you want to know how fucked up the state of youth sports, particularly basketball, is in the United States and how it's destroying promising youths, this is the book for you. I found myself really wanting to skim through some of the boring play by play of particular games, but overall, it's a book about ambitious people screwing with lives.  Dohrmann deserves a lot of credit for following these kids for so long and writing a riveting book, a book that is indeed riveting even if you don't care about the game of basketball.

The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes - I am not going to ever say a novel that romanticizes extramarital affairs is something you should read. I was irrationally angry with this stupid book.

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini - I don't know. I thought this read young in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure and read old in terms of issues like sex and mental illness.  Maybe kids these days are growing up faster. I'm sure there is an audience for this book, but it just wasn't for me.

Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress: Tales of Growing Up Groovy and Clueless by Susan Jane Gilman - I dislike memoirs.  The author was annoying when young and annoying as she grew up.  I didn't think it was funny, interesting, or meaningful. I really have to stop reading memoirs.

City of Bones: The Mortal Instruments Book One by Cassandra Clare - I chuckled a lot as I read this book, particularly the exceptionally well written dialogue.  After I finished the book, I saw a quote on the inside of the front cover calling it "among the best of the post-Buffy monster hunter series."  And that's when it hit me that I was feeling the Buffy vibe throughout the whole thing without Buffy's woe-is-me angst.  I put the next book in this series on my list to be read ASAP.

Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan -  MAJOR SPOILER: The dog doesn't die.  This book was super well-written, but depressing as all hell.  Not gonna lie this made me angsty for days afterwards, but it also encouraged me to put a note in the mail to my grandmother.  I give props to O'Nan for the writing, but...this book just wasn't for me.  Or anyone who wants to get through the day without pondering mortality and what happens when you get old.

What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen - Meh.  I don't say that lightly because my Dessen love is strong.  Read Just Listen or dreamland instead for your angsty teen drama.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen - For those of you who say I never give magical realism a chance, here it is. I ADORE this book.  Allen is wonderful.  This is just as good as The Peach Keeper, maybe even better.  I am right now adding all the rest of her books to my list.  Brilliant.  Just brilliant.

Embrace by Jessica Shirvington -  I hated every minute I spent reading this book.

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen - Really, really, really good. I didn't believe the hype, but it proved itself.  A great "issue" book with believable characters and mostly believable dialogue.  You should probably read this book.

Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John -  There was a scene in this book where our main character, who is deaf, can't hear an interview that causes all kinds of repercussions in her life.  She spends a great deal of time and effort attempting to figure out what was said.  I just found that to be a great metaphor for life.  This was a good, solid book.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles - I don't know about this book. I found it almost unreadable for the first two chapters and then...I just kept reading. I didn't really care about the book, but it was compelling enough to slog through it.  I don't want to say you shouldn't read this book, but I don't think you should read this book.

Books that don't count because I didn't finish them:  Full of Wonder by Ann Patchett, Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon, and  Everything on a Waffle by Polly Hovarth.  In each case I made a valiant effort, reading 30 - 40% of the book before giving up.  My new rule is I can give up if I'm less than halfway through.  After that, I must slog through to the end.  I'm sure these are good books for someone who is not me.