High Fidelity, Nick Hornsby

What I love about Nick Hornsby is that his books make me laugh out loud. They are escapist yet still meaningful and make you think. High Fidelity is his most famous book about a thirty something guy working at a "going nowhere" record store with "going nowhere" friends. The story picks up with when his girlfriend leaves him and he reflects on women in the past, women in the future, and where he is going with his life. It's thoughtful and hilarious and I enjoyed it down to the last drop. It had a great ending which some may not like, but the sort that makes my day.

On Beauty, Zadie Smith

What a perfectly delicious book! Scrumptious down to the last word. This is a story about two families with professors as their heads of household living in Boston in a college centered middle class community. The Kippses and Belseys are long time rivals due to their divergent views on Rembrant's work. But that really is just background static. The book is mostly about the dynamics of the Belsey family and how they interact with one another and with the Kippses. I love this book because the characters are so vivid and there were at least five times that I said out loud, "yes this is the feeling- exactly". She just has a knack about explaining what you feel though she wrote about something so completely different. What I really liked was that the characters were likeable and their lives though dreary at times still had that realistic under current of having highs and lows much like any other regular family. Some stories like this take themselves too seriously and you finish wanting to weep for days, their stories haunting you to peices. But this isn't like that. It deals with harsh issues but in a manner that you read, absorb, but move on from still loving most of them anyways. It's a great book. I recommend it.

Kite Runner, by Khalid Husseini

I hestitated buying this book. And then I stuck it in on the bookshelf and would try to avoid eye contact with it as I walked by. I knew I wanted to read it, but I knew it would be a tough and emotional read and I was afraid. I am so grateful that I ended up picking it up and reading it. It starts of slightly slow but it picks up its pace through the first half of the story. I loved his character descriptons. I could see Ali and his wife and young child. I could see the father of the potaganist so clearly that the images months later are still fresh in my mind. I think that made the book. I also appreciated the insight they provided to life in Afghanistan before the times of the troubles. It is good for the public to know that Afghanistan had modernity and colleges, etc. once upon a time. They are a victim of their geographic location, and their political problems. The people who suffer are the innocents. The book is an interesting perspective on the lives of the people of Afghanistan both living there, and the refugees as well.

There is a scene **warning spoiler to follow* where the protagnoist returns to Afghanistan after many years and as he eats at the home of a villager he sees the children staring fixed at what he thinks is his watch. He removes it and gives it to them as a gift. They seem polite about this gift yet uninterested. It is only later he learns that the host in an effort to be gracious fed them all the food they had for the entire family and the children were staring at the food from pangs of hunger and not at his watch. It was a powerful point in the book for me about perspective.

I loved this book and I consider it one of my favorite books of all time.

Muhammad, by: Karen Armstrong

This is a good book that explains the life of Prophet Muhammad and also traces the hatred and the prejudice over the years after the passing of the Prophet. She also traces fanaticism over religion through history as well. You can tell her book is an attempt to both portray a historical image of the Prophet and also to dispel popular misconceptions about him as well. Those who are Islamaphobic will think she is being too sympathetic or too kind about the Prophet. But to answer that you must read her book "The spiral staircase" Where she says to understand the religion of another you must learn it from their perspective which is not harsh and criticising. She does just that and provides a very balanced perspective. There are things in the book that hurt me, and Im not happy with but I I dont know if its inaccuracy or the truth of a time long ago that I simply can't grasp. (i.e. ghazu/raids of traveling caravans)

The book jumps around quite a bit but if you make it through to the end you will be glad you did.

the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, by: mark haddon

What a delightful book! This is a story told from the point of view of an autistic child. That is a very difficult feat to accomplish, and to accomplish well but Mark Haddon did just that. It's got great dialogue and the plot of the dead dog does not overpower the more important point of the story, the relationship of this child with the people in his life. The book is a delicious read that you are sorry to see end because it is such a joy. I also liked that the book had a resolution. There are a lot of books I read these days that are considered deep and all but they have no conclusions. This is not right. The reader deserves some sort of resolution and this book had a good one. It didnt wrap up the story in a bow, but it did provide some resolution and closure.

The book is a bit unconventional in its writing style. Almost written in a diary format from the child. So if you don't mind the different writing style and the perspective that you have to read a little bit into to understand, this is a great book and why I call it a 5/5. I simply can't find anything to put down.

The End, by Lemony Snicket

This is the conclusion to the "Series of Unfortunate Event" saga. I feel duped. Royally duped. I read the first 12 as the drama built and I couldn't wait for book 13. And it just stank like a dead fish.

****Warning: Spoilers follow*****

I understand that everything would not be wrapped up nicely in a bow with this story. It is after all, a miserable story of children met with obstacles and tragedy every step of their way. But absolutely nothing was resolved. The sugarbowl that we followed for three books? Nothing. The twins that were kidnapped? Nothing. Most of the mysteries that we followed through and salivated for were left open. I guess the Olaf stuff was dealt with and you sort of empathise with the villain. You understand a bit more about the parents of the siblings. But not much more. And the only thing David Handler could tell us is that you can't tie things up in a bow because life does not work like that. Yes, David you can't tie things up in a bow because life does not work like that but this is a fictional fantastical story and you are a writer and you owe your readers some conclusion. I think he may be planning sequels to the saga to explain some of these mysteries but I for one won't be contributing to any more of his sales. I'd hate to encourage this sort of irresponsible storytelling.

The Spiral Staircase, by: Karen Armstrong

What an incredible breathtaking book. She writes honestly and eloquently on her life after leaving the convent. She talks about battling depression, an undiagnosed epilepsy that everyone maddeningly insisted was all in her head, working for a doctorate degree with disastorous results, and trying to find herself in a world that had changed drastically while she had remained in convent life. It's not necessarily what happens to her but how she writes it, how she reflects upon it, and how she learns from it.

At least for me she echoed many of the fears and pain that I myself have experienced in life. For example, there is a point where she attends a get together after leaving the convent and as she stands there in the lights and watches the dancing and drinking she says For a second, I felt a pang of envy, I would have loved to be able to do that, to be so wild uninhibited and free. These students were living fully and intensely in a way that I could not.. It must be a marvelous feeling. But it has never been possible. At a very impressionable age, my body was schooled in quite other rhythms, and it has for better or worse, taken the print. I had found to my considerable sorrow that even though I no longer belonged in the convent, I did not belong out here either. In her completely different experience I could find and relate to her feelings of being the odd one out, wanting desperately to fit in, and knowing it would never be possible.

She is a gifted historian and explains how she came to be a writer on religious history, but her prose and descriptive talents are also brilliant. I hope one day she writes fiction, I know she would write well.

Bird By Bird, by Ann Lamott

This is a book with advice by analogy on the art of writing. Her stories were okay and she does a decent job helping a writer who is still at the stage of not being able to write because of their self doubt on their ability. It helped me in this area as she reminds us to push out those voices when we are first drafting. She empathises we must write for ourselves and says that you can find joy without being published. This is true but she overstates this point in my opinion and provides scant advice on how to publish. Her analogies are how her agent liked her books, but if she's writing to people who are scared to put even pen to paper, why is she giving advice on how to negotiate with your agent before giving advice on how to get an agent in the first place?? I also was not amused by her attempts at humor and advice which resorted to being a bigot against Islam and Muslims. She made a lot of jabs and it was so unnecessary because it was a book about writing and her analogies came out of nowhere. I did not appreciate that and I lost respect for her as a person for having to resort to that.

My advice would be if you are seeking a book on writing that writes to the novice writer but also provides you with excellent advice on publishing would be to read Stephen King's book "On Writing" that is absolutely superb.

Eats Shoots and Leaves, by Lynne Truss

A humorous book on punctuation. You have to be a good writer to acheive that oxymoron! This is a book on the rules of punctuations such as commas, semicolons, and periods. How they work, where they go, when to use them and when not to use them but told with many stories and analagoies that make you laugh out loud and smile. If you're looking to brush up on your punctuation, or get really annoyed by punctuation errors in our daily lives, you will love this book!

Single Wife, by: Nina Solomon

This was the most painful book I read in a long while. Fine, maybe I can't write worth diddly squat either but you don't see me in print do you? Nina's book was the sort I read and think I can surely write better than this. As an aspiring writer her book just provoked a lot of hostility that it appears anyone can get a book into print if they presumably know the right people since Nina had to know someone to get this travesty published.

The title was intriguing and the jacket promised an interesting story of a woman whose husband does not come home one day. This is nothing unusual. He frequently disappears unexplained and then just returns home and life resumes as normal. Outside of this issue they have a good mariage. Until one day he leaves and he doesnt return for what seems like forever. The story follows her as she pretends to the world he still lives there and the excuses and issues she must now struggle on, on her own.

Sounds interesting doesn't it? Its a royal shame such an intriguing plot was wasted on such terrible writing and character and plot development. The heroine of the novel is a spineless person and the author does nothing at all to help us understand her thoughts or feelings.

It's a book that could've been a page turner. couldv'e provoked deep thoughts on marriage and being single. But it didn't and for that reason, for the complete waste of potential I give it zero points.

Second Summer of the Traveling Pants

I read the first one earlier and I loved it. I watched the movie and I loved it. I was in absolute eager anticipation to read the second book in the series of four books that I just knew in my heart there was no place to go but down.

The story follows the girls as they are on a new summer with different goals and issues. Tibby is at video camp finding out who she is and whether she will stand up for what she belives or follow the crowd. Her crowd may be different and more "rebel" but she still finds herself a follower and has to deal with the challenes that accompany this. Carmen is at home and seething in anger at her mother's new love (which really does make me want to puke, Carmen, i feel you!). The Lena is still in love with a guy she exchanged two words with in the previous book and spends the entire time in angst and then in a few awkwardly written secnes, and Bridget is visiting her grandmother loosely disguised and learning about her past. Perhaps her story, or at least a few parts annoyed me less than the book in general.

In general this was a terrible book that made me cringe as I read it. Here's the deal. I hate adverbs. You may as well take long fingernails and run them down a chalkboard while I sit immobilized. This is adverbs for me. "She happily sat down as her mother admiringly pulled a light blue sweater gingerly over her head as the car lazily hummed in the driveway" GAG! Not just that but the story was just bad. It was just bad and lazy.

Furthermore I dont know if you've heard of the Kaavya Scandal. She wrote a book and it turned out it was plagiarized but also the rest of it was co-written by Alloy publishing. They basically outlined the story for her and wrote the first four chapters of the story. Well, I was checking the copyright of this book and it was identical to the copyright of Kaavya's book. The writer of this book isn't as original as she claims. A factory book mass produced to keep young girls money rolling in. This is disappointing as there are many writer slike JK Rowling, and Jhumpa Lahiri who are truly gifted, dont use adverbs like a four year old would stickers (though JK's latest is adverb crazy), and write their own stuff.

For these reasons I dont think I'll be getting a third helping of the traveling pants....

A Long Way Down

This book is a snapshot in the lives of four VERY different strangers who found each other on a rooftop on New Years Eve preparing to commit suicide. One is a no name American rocker who went to deliver pizzas and took a detour to the roof. One is a mother of a mentally disabled child who has cared for him for 20 years and now can't take it anymore. The other an 18 year old girl with melodramatic issues who feels jilted and just can't bear to live, and finally Mark who just finished a prison sentence after having been a famous tv talk show host in England until he cheated on his wife with a fifteen year old who lied about his age.

They each go utterly convinced that it is their last night on earth but they all happened to choose the same place to top themselves. Finding each other on the roof top they get distracted, argue, and somehow find themselves off the roof though all of them consider this "coming down the ledge" as merely a temporary thing, infact, they agree to simply wait a little while and then meet again to see if they still want to go through with it.

The book follows them as crazy but perfectly believable series of events happen and we watch. It's told in the first person with each person getting a chapter a time to explain things from their perspectiv. I like that, it's pretty neat because there are times you will be reading through one character's eyes and completely loath another character. Then the next chapter is the character you despise, and the chapter helps you understand why they are they way they are a little bit better.

My only hesitation with the book is that I feel its trying TOO hard to be "non-cliche" and though I normally adore Nick Hornby's writing this book was a little too... vernacular? for me. For example there is a lot of "yeah you probably think this will be a happy ending but its not" and other sorts of dialogue. I feel nick hornby is trying so hard to not be be cheesy and trite such injections sound defensive and not contributing towards the feel of the book.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

A cute story about friends apart for a summer and bonded through jeans they wear from a week subject to self created rules and then mail off to the next friend as they share their summer stories.

I watched the movie and decided to read the book and I loved it. Infact I'm going to buy the second one tomorrow for my trip to Brazil. But one thing concerns me. Y'all know about the Kaavya Scandal? Well you can read about it here. But apparently the ppl that helped her do what she did are the ones who are on the copyright for this book too. For example, Harry potter the copyright says only Rowlings name. Interpreater of MAladies? only Jhumpa Lahiri, but Kaavya's book had Alloy publishing next to her name....and so does this one. This concerns me because it makes me wonder if this is an authentic book or if its just a formula novel? that troubles me.

The Amateur Marriage- Anne Tyler

I finished this book four days ago but the characters and the story still haunts my unguarded thoughts. What an amazing writer. I have not read a book so well written in a very very long time. For me a good writer is one, that when you're reading, you dont even realize it. You are experiencing what she writes, seeing what she sees and most importantly feeling what she feels. This story did just that for me. The story follows Michael and Pauline who meet by happenstance, have a hurried wartime wedding and proceed to spend thirty years loving one another, raising a family, and arguing. Arguing a whole lot. Ordinarily I do not like such stories of a family as it goes through life but like I said the writing is what sets this book apart. Here are just a few thoughts I had one some of the characters in the book...



***warning: Spoilers***

1. Why did Lindy get to come back and no one confronted her?! I was so furious with her when she came back again and I just didn't understand why even George who felt frustration said nothing. She knew where PAGAN WAS and didn't come for him! How did she account for that? She was sobered up for a while!

2. The love that Michael felt for Lindy choked me up because it was so real. How we want to love our children and think theyr'e special and will desperately hold on to our hopes tha tthey are more good than bad. Even when Pagan was found dirty, filthy and abandoned he tried to find signs that he was cared for.

3. I liked how they didnt even talk about changing his name. I think I might have done that if my kid's name was PAGAN but they didn't do that from him as he had very little identity as it was when they found him. Showed their humanity.

4. I was very sad for Paulline that she was all alone at the end. Actually thi sbook really really gave me a new perspective on aging and growing old. I see older people differently now and it makes me afraid of growing older. She was so alone in the end. Unable to even fix her water heater and stifled in so many other ways.

5. The way Lindy turned out gave me fear. How can you guaruntee that your children will end up being good and stable people when they grow up. how much control do you have? I do think they argued so much and were, as Karen said "such a couple" perhaps they didn't make child rasiing as active a priroity as they should have?

Wifey- by Judy Blume

I walked past the sales rack at my school bookstore and in my usual rummage for a cheap diamond in the rough I came across Wifey. I grew up loving Judy Blume books and so the child in me could not resist purchasing a book for the grown up I now was. Hmm... The book was okay. Sandy is an average stay at home wife in the 60's married to a man who is not bad by any standard but wants the traditional gender roles enforced to a tee. He brings home the "bacon" she raises the kids. In this rut she begins to day dream and fantasize and soon acting upon her fantasies. The book is very dialogue driven if that is up your alley and at times you feel you are with her experiencing what she is experiencing. Personally it was a bit too explicit for my liking and the writing was fine, just not the best I'd ever read.

Book Reviews

I love books and I figured I should have a seperate blog that updates the books I read for pleasure. If you'd like to support me in my book reading adventures please feel free to check out my wishlist!