“Holidays on Ice” by David Sedaris
I like David Sedaris. This marks the 5th book of his that I've read and, up until this point, I've always felt like with each book his writing becomes more and more enjoyable. I've had Holidays on Ice since Christmas last year but waited until the holidays came back around again before deciding to read it.
If you're not familiar with David Sedaris, he's a writer of memoirs. And he's a good writer of memoirs. Most of his stories are either about his childhood/dysfunctional family in North Carolina or about his time living with his boyfriend in France. Regardless of the subject matter, they're usually always funny. Some moreso than others, but in general he's a pretty funny writer.
This book...was different. And by different I mean it was a disappointment. Just like the rest of the books, this one consisted of several short stories - each chapter a different story. The main difference being that some of the stories in this book were outright fiction, and I learned fairly early on that I'm not a fan of Sedaris' fiction writing. It just...tried too hard to be funny. Or something. For example, there was one very long story about a family whose holidays were interrupted after the husband's long-lost illegitimate, non-English speaking daughter shows up dressed like a prostitute on their doorstep, begins dating her brother and then kills the couple's grandson by washing and drying the kid all because she misunderstood "watch the baby" for "wash the baby." Oh, and did I mention that this story was told through the mother as she writes her "Christmas newsletter" that she sends out to friends and family? Then there was the story about the competitive neighbors who did everything they possibly could to out-do each other every Christmas that it came down to who could give the most organs to help needy sick people. It just...I don't know, his fiction writing is just not for me.
The other disappointment I had with this book is that a couple of the stories had actually appeared in other books of his. To this I say...lazy, much? If you don't have enough new material to make up a whole book, then either don't publish the book, or make it really short if you have to - but don't recycle material. I pay good money for these books - I don't need 4 different books that contain the same stories in different order.
On a good note - there were several stories that I really enjoyed and I laughed out loud while reading. My favorite being the story "Six to Eight Black Men" where he tells the story of a cab driver in Amsterdam telling him all about the Dutch "Santa Claus" who turns out to be a former Bishop of Turkey who now resides in Spain, but shows up by boat every December 5 with six to eight black men who help him deliver presents to the good boys and girls. And unlike Santa Claus, the bad boys and girls don't receive coal - instead they are thrown into a sack and taken back to Spain where God only knows what happens to them. Merry Christmas, boys and girls!
That story and a few of the others really did keep me laughing and entertained, but overall Holidays on Ice was a bit of a letdown.
Book Rating: C-
“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins
So. I was hesitant. A TEEN series…that’s super popular…and everyone is reading…all this pretty much screams “DO NOT READ” to me. It’s the same way I felt about Harry Potter. It’s the same way I feel (and always will feel) about Twilight. Alas, I caved. I went home to Alabama last weekend for a friend’s wedding and finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy on the plane there, and right before we left, my friend Brie said “go get The Hunger Games. It’s so good.” So…I did. I went out and bought it. And…….I loved it.
I don’t know why this ranks as a teen book. Because it’s about a teenager? It’s a pretty violent book at times. So if this is for teenagers, it’s not for the young’uns.
The Hunger Games is book 1 in a series of 3, about Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old girl who lives in District 12 of Panem, the country that used to be North America. She finds herself taking part in The Hunger Games, a game created by The Capitol, aka the very strict government of Panem whose sole reason for having The Hunger Games is to remind the citizens of Panem of the hold that The Capitol has on each and every person. Every year, 24 tributes aged 12-18, one boy and one girl from each of the 12 Districts of Panem, are chosen randomly at a ceremony called The Reaping. It’s a dreaded event, because families know that they could go home less one child. For those chosen, they are transported to The Capitol, transformed by a team of stylists, trained, interviewed and then thrown into an arena where they compete literally to the death – all on live television with the entire country of Panem watching. Think – The Truman Show, except the tributes know there are people watching. Whichever tribute is left alive at the end is crowned the victor, given fame and fortune, a house to live in, and money for their District.
And that’s kind of all I’m going to say. I don’t want to say too much and give away anything for those of you interested in reading the book. So I will leave you with this: It’s a great book. It’s not just for teenagers (although I don’t know how many grown men would like it) and I liked it SO much that I finished it last night and ran out and bought books 2 and 3 at lunch today.
Book Rating: A
UPDATE: Since writing this, I've finished both Catching Fire and Mockingjay i.e. books 2 & 3 in this series. Due to not wanting to spoil the books for anyone, I'm not going to do a review on each individual book. I'll just say that the entire series was really great. I finished these books about 3-4 weeks ago and I'm still thinking about them. I still don't think it's a series for men, but I definitely recommend it to the ladies out there.
Series Rating: A
“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy
I picked up this book pretty much because it was on our bookshelf and I was running low on books that I had set aside to read. My husband read this book a couple of years ago, before the film version came out, and has since ranked it at the top of his favorite books list.
Having seen the film myself, let me say, up front, that the book is so much better. The Road is a story about the end of days, after what you can only assume to be some sort of meteor crash or other catastrophe that has burned up the Earth and wiped out the majority of its inhabitants, and a father and son’s journey, struggling to survive on an otherwise defunct planet. This is one of the most beautiful love stories I’ve ever read. Beautiful and tragic, at the same time. You have a scared father, who loves his son so much that he’s willing to do absolutely anything to protect him…and you have a scared boy, who struggles with losing his childhood innocence in a world so darkened by despair.
The one part of this novel that really struck a chord with me was a moment fairly early on the father, who by the way is never given a name (nor is the son), is forced to kill a man to protect the boy. The boy, who was a little too close for comfort, is covered in the man’s blood and tissue, and the father takes him to a stream to clean him. While doing this, the father is saying to himself “you are my child. This is what I do. It is my job to protect you. Because you are my child, I will clean another man’s blood off of you.” I think this is the real essence of this story. The relationship between this father and son, who are literally the only thing in the world to the other. The film really does not do this aspect of it justice.
I recommend this book to everyone, especially if you are a parent. I’m not a parent myself, but I imagine all the parents who read it will understand.
Book Rating: A
“GHOST WORLD” BY DANIEL CLOWES
Ghost World was given to me as a secret santa gift at work last year (see also my Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs post.) I'm not usually a big comic book reader - or graphic novel or whatever you want to call it. The only other graphic novel I've read was Watchmen, which I never would've read if my husband hadn't raved about it for months on end. So I probably never would've picked up this graphic novel either if it hadn't been given as a gift. Is this considered a graphic novel or a comic? I don't really understand what the difference is, to be honest.
The story is about 2 teenage girls named Enid and Becky who are in that awkward period of a girl's life that comes between graduating high school and figuring out what to do with the rest of their lives. I've gotta be honest...these characters were written so annoyingly accurate that they were almost too irritating to read. Having been an annoying teenage girl myself once upon a time, it was very easy to relate my 18 year old self to their 18 year old selves but at the same time be SO THANKFUL to not be a teenager anymore. And these girls are your typical teenagers - spending their days making fun of people, making fun of each other, competing for boys' attentions, *insert any other annoying teenage behavior here,* and so on and so forth. The beautiful thing about this story is that you also these girls move from adolescence into adulthood, which includes realizing that life isn't going to stay the same...and friendships aren't always going to stay the same.
I had seen the movie with Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson prior to reading this. I think the characters in the book (graphic novel? comic?) are actually more annoying but probably truer to life than the girls in the film. My God are these girls pretentious little brats. But I really enjoyed reading this one and it as a very quick, easy read. Piece of advice though - this one is not for the kiddos.
Book Rating: B+
“A Long Way Down” by Nick Hornby
This is my second time reading this one. I really loved it the first time. Really loved it. And I’ve raved about it to everyone and I do mean EVERYONE, so when I finished with Stephen King, which was such a loooooooong one, I just saw this one on the shelf and decided I wanted to re-read it just so I could come here and write about it.
A Long Way Down is about 4 people – 4 of the most mismatched people you could possibly ever imagine – who all decide individually on New Year’s Eve that they’re going to throw themselves off the top of a building in London that’s known for its high rate of people throwing themselves off the top. These 4 people, Martin – a morning TV talk show host who has spent the last couple of years in prison after having sex with a 15 year old girl; JJ – an American living in London who has just lost his band, his best friend and his girlfriend; Maureen – a 51 year old woman who has no life at all due to having a 19 year old disabled son; and Jess – an 18 year old spoiled brat who wants to kill herself just because she’s a spoiled brat who wants attention, all end up on the top of Topper’s House at the same time and form this strange relationship that includes moments like trying to convince the world that an angel who looks like Matt Damon had talked them into not killing themselves.
This book was written by Nick Hornby, who quickly became one of my favorite authors after reading this. Hornsby also wrote About a Boy, High Fidelity, Fever Pitch, etc. so if you liked those books (or films) then you already probably understand what kind of book this is. It is…so funny. So funny. I laughed out loud many a time on my first read through – I. LOVED. IT. This time through…still laughed, although not quite as much. I’ll attribute that to having already read it in the past. On top of being funny, it has a good moral of the story – if you can decipher it beneath the chaos and insanity. And that moral is – s*** happens. Life happens. And you can’t just give up and throw yourself off the top of Topper’s House just because you’ve had a bad day. Or year. Or, in Maureen’s case, a bad 19 years. You let the angel Matt Damon talk you down off that roof and you keep on trucking along.
Love this book. Highly recommend it and pretty much every other Nick Hornby book I’ve read. Big fan of that guy.
Book Rating: Solid A
“Under the Dome” by Stephen King
I grew up with Stephen King books everywhere in my house. In fact, I think it's fair to say that I grew up with every book Stephen King ever wrote stacked all over book shelves...in cabinets...everywhere. My mom is most definitely a super-fan. But even though I have always had the official Stephen King library at my disposal, I've only started reading his books within the last few years. My husband received Under the Dome as a gift and I'd heard good things about it so it became my next read.
The story itself is actually really intriguing. One regular ol' day in October the people in this small New England town called Chesters Mill wake up to find an invisible dome has crashed down around the town limits and, in the process, trapped all the townspeople inside. Nobody knows what it is, where it came from or how to get rid of it. The US military shoots missles at it. Nothing. They try to eat through it with the strongest acid known to man. Still nothing. It is impenetrable. This, of course, leads to panic and chaos...among other things. You see, this story has a villain and this villain's name is Big Jim Rennie, the town's Second Selectman/Used Car Dealer whose main goal in life is to publicly play second fiddle to the main town leaders while secretly running the show from behind the scenes. Think Dick Cheney a la G.W. Bush. With Rennie being so power hungry, he sees the dome as the best thing to ever happen for him and manipulates the situation to suit his needs. He forces panic, starts riots, does whatever he can to scare the town into believing that he and only he can save them. Enter into this story one Dale Barbara, aka Barbie, aka "Baaaaaaaaaaaaarbie" as he'll be called 12,308,392 times throughout the book. Barbie is an ex-military, now-fry cook who ends up on Rennie's bad side before the Dome appeared and dug himself a deeper hole after the President officially put him in charge. It quickly becomes the Barbie vs Rennie show and alliances form and the war begins. Insert a police force full of teenage hoodlums and a jerk with a brain tumor who murders girls and then has sex with their corpses in a kitchen pantry and you have yourself a novel.
As with many Stephen King novels, there is an enormous cast of characters, and so much happens over the 1,000 pages that there's no way for me to really explain it all in one blog post. Here's what I can say - it wasn't my favorite of all the Stephen King books I've read. I heard so many good things about this book from others who had read it and I did think it was entertaining, but I thought it was entirely too predictable and entirely too cliche at times. That said, I'd still recommend it. It's one of those stories where the idea behind it is so fascinating and has so much potential, but I don't think it was executed as well as it could have been. Of his more recent books, I think Cell is a much better read.
Book Rating: B-
“Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen
I had a hard time even picking this one up and convincing myself to read it, simply because Robert Pattinson is on the cover. Not that I have a problem with him, per se, but when I think of him I think of Twilight....and so there you go. As per usual, my mom sent me this book and went on and on about how great it was. This might not have been enough to persuade me to read the Robert-Pattinson-covered-book, except then my grandfather read it, and then HE went on and on about how good it was, so I caved.
Water for Elephants is basically the story of Jacob Jankowski who, at 90 years old....or 93, he can't remember which, tells the story of when, after some unfortunate circumstances, he ran away and ended up on The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth circus train and eventually becomes the show's veterinarian. He falls in love with the very beautiful, but very married, Marlena - a performer whose husband just so happens to be a bona-fide crazy person. And so there's drama....and there's love...and there's, well, everything else...
This one was pretty hard for me. I read with a sick stomach about 80% of the time and a few times thought I was going to have to put it down. I can handle people killing each other all day long, but I simply cannot handle cruelty to animals - and there's a lot of cruel in this book. A lot of senseless cruelty to the animals (one in particular) and you always hear about animal cruelty among circus animals, but it's harder having to read about gory details. Fictional gory details for this one thankfully. Aside from that, I could hardly put it down. The author got the idea for this book after seeing a photo in the Chicago Tribune that accompanied an article about the photographer who had taken the shot, who used to follow traveling circuses around in the 1920's & 1930's. Considering she's a young author who started this book in 2003, I think she captured the feel of the time period pretty well, and I also think she did a good job with the narration - the chapters where Jacob was 93 felt like you were in the company of a 93 year old man, and the chapters where Jacob was 23 felt like you were in the company of a 23 year old man. Of course, I'm neither from the 20's nor male, so what do I know, right?
What I do know is that I enjoyed it, and I think pretty much anyone can enjoy it - men, women, old and (semi) young. I hate that I knew who had been cast in the movie for this, which I have not seen, because I read the whole thing picturing Robert Pattinson as Jacob and Reese Witherspoon as Marlena, which in the end I don't think was horrible casting actually. Although, I will never, EVER be able to look at RP without seeing Edward Whatshisface.
Book Rating: A
“Lean Mean Thirteen” by Janet Evanovich
Ok so here's the deal. I'm going to preface this post by saying that these are my fluff books. My guilty pleasures. Intelligent literature these books are not, which is exactly why I read them when I'm in need of a book that doesn't really make me think.
I'm probably getting ahead of myself. By "these books" I mean the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. They're all numbered. They come out once a year and I think there are something like 17 so far. I've read up through number 13 now and I still like each one just as much as the one before. Basically, you've got Stephanie Plum - a New Jersey native who used to be a lingerie buyer but now works for her bail bondsman uncle, Vinnie, and captures folks who fail to appear for their court hearings. She is the equivalent of a female Dog, The Bounty Hunter. Not coincidentally, this kind of work gets her into a lot of sticky situations. She has an on/off boyfriend named Joe Morelli, a Trenton police officer, and an on/off lover named Ranger, who is as badass as they come. Her right hand woman is a former prostitute named Lula who, by the way, is my second favorite character in the books, losing this title only to Stephanie's grandmother, Grandma Mazur, who is one of the funniest characters I have ever read in a book. Ever.
To even try to explain any further is really all pointless because, like I said, these books are fluff and the paragraph above holds true for every single book. I love them, though. I can't help it. They literally make me laugh out loud. The ONLY downside to these books is that they're now turning the first book into a movie starring Katherine Heigl, which is horrible, horrible casting, but whatever. I still love them. I can't see a single man enjoying them and I can't see a single woman not enjoying them. They are chick books through and through. Not in the Danielle Steel sense (and trust me, I've read a horrid book by her), but in the "this was clearly written BY a woman and FOR a woman" sense. So bottom line, if any of you ladies like funny books, and a series at that - go buy "One for the Money" by Janet Evanovich. You will thank me, I promise.
Booking Rating: A+
“Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro
I decided I wanted to read this book last year after seeing the film adaptation by Mark Romanek starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield & Kiera Knightly. I loved the film. I didn't know much about it going in and walked out feeling both touched and heartbroken at the same time. The same can be said for how I felt after finishing the book.
Never Let Me Go tells the story Kathy, Ruth & Tommy, three orphans who grew up together at Hailsham House. Except "orphans" isn't exactly the proper term because these kids weren't ever given up by their parents. These kids had no parents. These kids were clones. Cloned donors to be exact. They were created for the sole purpose of donating their organs to science once they were old enough. These kids were created in a lab, given names like "Kathy H." or "Suzanne C." and lived at Hailsham, which operated much like a boarding school, until they went off to be carers for the other donors until it was their own time to start donating.
The book itself is great. It is a well written, emotional and extremely thought provoking piece. The story behind it is so incredibly disturbing, I find it hard to really put into words. All these kids grow up with this bizarre notion that growing up to be a "donor" is totally normal. Instead of wondering who their parents were, they wonder who they were "modeled" after. They look for their "possibles" in magazines. They talk about death in terms of "completing." And they all seem to maintain this air of innocence about them through most of it, as in they know what lies ahead of them but they're also almost completely oblivious at the same time. They don't question it. They don't try to rebel or run away. It's just an accepted way of life. They're "born," they grow up, they become carers and then they enter into the donation program and after 3 or 4 "donations" they "complete" and that's that. And while they form emotional attachments to each other and to their childhood memories, every single part of their lives and their interactions with each other are just so matter of fact. It is such a strange feeling as a reader to read the book in this way. I want to fight for them, seeing as how they don't fight for themselves. Society regards these kids simply as lab rats and they don't know enough to stand up and fight for their rights as human beings...and this is where the real tragedy lies with this story.
When you really think about it, this notion of creating whole humans for the sole purpose of curing diseases is probably not that far off, is it? Which makes this novel all the more disturbing.
Book Rating: A+
“Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs” by Chuck Klosterman
Quite a while ago, I saw this book on some must-read list. Either that, or I saw a review somewhere for it. Regardless, I decided that I needed to read this book, so I added it to my "Want to Read" list on this site. Cut to this past Christmas when a very clever co-worker, who drew my name in our office Secret Santa drawing, googled my name, found my blog and my "Want to Read" list and picked this book, probably because it's one of the few books on that badly in need of updating list that sounded even remotely enjoyable. And lucky for us all, it was pretty enjoyable.
Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto is nothing more than a collection of essays by a 30-something year old Midwestern man who wants to talk about the things in pop culture that his generation loved/loves. I say "nothing more than" like it's a bad thing. It's not. Each chapter is a new topic, and a new excuse for Klosterman to ramble on about whatever it is that he found interesting, or uninteresting, on whatever day he sat down to write. There's not a lot of rhyme or reason to his topic choices - so I wholeheartedly believe that this book was written based on conversations that would begin "Hey, remember that time when (insert whatever pop culture topic came up at that moment)."
The thing about this book is that it only works if you can relate to the subject matter. Whole chapters are devoted to things like The Sims, internet porn, Klosterman's hatred for soccer, Guns N Roses tribute bands (wtf?), Billy Joel, The Real World, the Lakers vs. the Celtics, the media, the Dixie Chicks, cereal, Pamela Anderson aka today's much sluttier version of Marilyn Monroe, serial killers, The Left Behind series/movie starring everyone's favorite Seaver-Kirk Cameron, why Star Wars is so overrated, how every woman in America is in love with John Cusack in the sense that they believe he is actually Lloyd Dobler and finally, my favorite and yours, Saved by the Bell.
Like I said, this book works if you can relate to the subject matter. I grew up on Saved by the Bell and The Real World (the first few seasons anyway). I love Billy Joel, Lloyd Dobler AND John Cusack and although I haven't played it, I think the idea of The Sims is fascinating. But I really care nothing about Guns N Roses tribute bands. I care nothing about the Lakers vs the Celtics and even less about soccer (which I suppose means that I should've actually really loved that chapter). And I'm not a teenage boy (or a man of any age) so I care not about reading 15 pages on internet porn. So, while the chapters I do relate to were quite enjoyable, I found it harder to stay focused on the chapters based on topics I cared nothing about. That's not to say they were bad, or poorly written...they just...weren't written for me.
That said, Klosterman is a funny dude. There were many, MANY times I laughed out loud. The biggest complaint I have is that I didn't read this book in 2004 when it was released. Most of the events he talks about throughout the book took place circa 2002 or earlier, which makes the subject matter pretty dated when you're reading it in 2011. This is especially troubling when the subject matter is supposed to be socially relevant. And...well...The Real World stopped being socially relevant in 1995.
All in all, it was an enjoyable read and I'd recommend it now as a way to reminisce about things that we, the people born between the years of 1970 & 1985 (which may be an even smaller age gap if I thought about it some more) grew up on. And because Kosterman is just funny.
Book Rating: B