August Book Review

After my last Book Review, Deb, my self-proclaimed biggest fan, asked me to list my Book Reviews in the sidebar over there to the right, and I was more than happy to oblige.  Now anytime you need a good book or possibly a bad book or maybe just want to use my book reviews as Cliff Notes so you can sound all smart and stuff at cocktail parties, because you totally will sound all smart and stuff, click on the hyperlinks, and they will take you right to my reviews.  Here are my last five books:

We Thought You Would Be Prettier by Laurie Notaro-  Notaro generally writes memoirs, like Jen Lancaster or David Sedaris, each chapter, however, generally stands on its own so the book is a collection of stories, not a novel.  We Thought You Would Be Prettier was a fun, funny, light read, very enjoyable, though not laugh-out-loud funny like Jen Lancaster’s memoirs.

Vaclav & Lena by Haley Tanner-I really loved this one.  Vaclav and Lena are both Russian immigrant children growing up in New York City.  They are in first grade together and best friends outside of school.  But one day, Lena disappears… Vaclav’s mother knows why but won’t tell him, and then the author skips ahead to their late teens when Vaclav and Lena find each other again.  This is a very sweet and tender love story, funny writing at times,with such believable characters and dialogue that I really felt like a fly on the wall.  I highly recommend it to you!

Still Alice by Lisa Genova-Alice, the title character, is a Harvard professor who one day, while out for a run, completely forgets where she is and how to get home.  She’s eventually diagnosed as having early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.  What makes this novel especially interesting is that it is told from Alice’s point of view, so as she is slowly losing her mental abilities, we, the readers, feel what she is feeling and thinking as it is happening to her.  I really loved this book.  Have your tissues ready by then end!

Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married by Marian Keyes-I love Marian Keyes, and my local library system does not have many of her books, so when I found this one at a used book sale, it felt like Christmas!  But then it quickly turned into that Christmas present, beautifully wrapped, much anticipated, which when opened contained itchy awful bumblebee striped socks.  What a disappointment.   It was obvious that this was one of Keyes’ first novels as I knew exactly how it would end by about page 15, I hated the whiny protagonist, and quite honestly, could not wait for this one to be over.  I did quite a bit of skimming to end the  torture as quickly as I could.  (I’m sorry if you read it and liked it…I was mainly just disappointed in Keyes, I think).  Read anything else by Marian Keyes!

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls-This one is a winner! If you’ve read Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, you will know that McCourt wrote about his terrible, poverty-stricken childhood with humor and grace.  Walls does the same thing here with her childhood.  Walls grew up with brilliant but aimless parents.  Her earliest memory, at age 3, was boiling some hot dogsfor herself on the stove and catching fire.  We also hear about how she rolled out of the moving car when the door came unlatched and it took her parents awhile to realize it and come back and get her.  I loved her story of how her very pregnant mother jumped out of the car and ran away from her father in anger, as he chased her down, the children screaming and bracing each other in the back seat as he yelled obscenities at her. (A lot of things happen in the car, as the family is always on the run from bill collectors or  the police).  Okay.  I realize all of that sounds kind of horrible.  But Walls writes it all so well and without an ounce of pity (it said that on the cover…I didn’t come up with that) that her stories come off as poignant and funny.  Read this one, you will love it.