Book Review Time

I’ve had so many of you express interest whenever I’ve done my sporadic book reviews, that I’ve decided to do a regular Book Review after every five books I read.  I’m afraid if I wait much longer than that, I’ll forget the details of each book (dude, don’t you dare call me old).  If you look over there on the right (and down a bit), you’ll see my “Good Reads” widget, which keeps track of the book I’m currently reading, and the last six books I’ve read.  You can click on any of the books if you want to read more about it too.  I’ve been trying to think of a good name for my reviews, something a bit catchier than “Book Review Time”.  Maybe Beth’s Book Mania! or Books That Don’t Suck and Some That Do!, or possibly Beth’s Amazing Super Fab Book Review for Dummies! (no offense).

I’ll go in order from oldest to newest:

Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt-This novel was one for book club.  Two women, both running away from their lives, collide in a car crash.  One dies, the other gets involved with the family of the dead one.  And darnit, I don’t remember much more about it, except that I didn’t like it very much.  I remember thinking as I read it that the storyline had so many stereoptypes in it…stereotypical characters, plot events, etc.  It was such a neat premise, but it really disappointed me.

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern-  I really like Cecelia Ahern’s novels (she wrote P.S. I Love You which was made into the movie of the same name, though my favorite novel of hers is Rosie Dunne).  Ahern mostly writes “magical realism” novels…books with all of the characteristics of realistic fiction, but with a tiny bit of magic thrown in for fun.  In this case, the main character finds a diary that she realizes is written in her own handwriting, which reveals the details of her very own “tomorrow” to her.  Knowing her future tiny bits at a time, she has the choice of changing those events as they occur.  I really enjoyed this book, though it was probably my least favorite of Ahern’s so far.  Look up Cecelia Ahern in the library.  She’s a very fun author!

If You Were Here by Jen Lancaster-I really really really wanted to like this book.  I absolutely love Jen Lancaster’s memoirs (Bitter is the New Black, Bright Lights, Big A**, Such a Pretty Fat) which made me laugh out loud when I read them, which was unfortunate at night, as my convulsing, silent giggles would invariably wake up Dave, who did not like Jen Lancaster at all as a result.)  If You Were Here was Lancaster’s first (and I hope last) attempt at writing fiction.  The writing was seriously lazy.  Her characters were undeveloped, plot points were undeveloped, there were a bunch of small sideplots that led nowhere and did nothing for keeping the plot moving, the climax of the novel seemed thrown together, like her editor said, “Hey, Jen, we need something exciting to happen instead of just ending the story.  Can you think of something quick before I hand this in to be published?” This book dragged on for me and I couldn’t wait for it to be all over so I could read something that didn’t put me to sleep every night. (Many thanks, however, to my friend Shelley for loaning me her copy.  And she didn’t like it much either.)

Room by Emma Donoghue-About Face!  Since I had been trudging my way through Jen Lancaster’s novel, I deserved a page turner! Besides staying up reading ‘til after midnight (this is a big deal for me, people) I also read it during a two hour ride up to Penn State, a little bit there while waiting around, and two hours back, finishing the book in about a 24 hour time period (Lancaster’s took me two weeks!)  The book tells the fictional story of 5 year old Jack who was born in the shed where his mother was held captive after her kidnapping at age 19 (think Jaycee Dugard), and who grew from baby to boy knowing only that room, his mother, and their captor. It sounds like a tough topic to read, but it really isn’t, as the story is told from Jack’s innocent point-of-view.  Trust me…your plants won’t get watered and your kids will go without lunch and your dinner will burn…because you won’t be able to put this one down!

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese-I absolutely loved this novel, but it is no easy beach read as it is set in Ethiopia in the sixties and seventies, involves a lot of medical terms, and is over 600 pages long.  The first 250 pages were very descriptive, the author giving us a lot of background information (250 pages of character descriptions, an incredibly long birth scene, and a very slow plot = Beth almost giving up) but I persevered, taking about two weeks to read those first 250 pages, because, though slow, the writing was beautiful, and I just love learning about history or geography in the guise of a novel.  Once I hit page 250, I couldn’t put that baby down, and I read the remaining 400 pages over the weekend.  A quick synopsis:  conjoined twins Marion and Shiva are abandoned at birth by the father, a doctor, and their mother, who dies during childbirth.  Two doctors at the hospital raise them during a time of Ethiopia’s struggles for liberation.  Author  Abraham Verghese is a doctor himself (and according to the cover, a professor at Stanford University).  Some of his medical descriptions get a bit too graphic (“it would be all too easy to nick the bowel and spill feces into the abdominal cavity.  He made a midline incision, then deepened it carefully, like a sapper defusing a bomb.  Just when panic was setting in because he was going nowhere, the glistening surface of the peritoneum—that delicate membrane that lined the abdominal cavity—came into view”---EEWWWW!)  However, Verghese also makes medicine beautiful, his use of language was eloquent and vivid, the characters so developed I felt I knew them each personally, almost felt that I was a neighbor of The Missing Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  I learned a lot about Ethiopia and its history, geography and people, and was really so sorry when this novel came to an end.  I’m still thinking about it.  Please give it a try!

Happy Reading!