Sunday, October 16, 2016
Two reviews - one dud and one winner, and I share what I'm currently reading:
I'll cover the dud first. Innocent Little Crimes by C.S. Lakin sounded somewhat promising. A wealthy, wildly successful comedienne calls together her college drama group for a weekend reunion at her palatial home on an island in the Pacific Northwest. Of course, all isn't as it seems and the reader quickly finds out that Lila has several motivations for inviting the specific guests to her revenge-driven event. I just couldn't get into the mean-spiritedness of so many of the characters. I didn't really want to root for any of them, as they raced through the island's forests and beaches on a quest to not be killed during the "game" Lila devised. Even the epilogue was just "meh." Skip this one.
Donna Gephart's young adult novel Lily and Dunkin is important because it addresses issues that impact young people today; these concerns influenced young adults in the 50s too, but they certainly weren't ever talked about: one character is transgender and the other has bi-polar disorder. At the heart of the novel is how alone and scared teens feel when they know they are different from the majority of their peers. Gephart handles the content confidently (her son is bi-polar) and with sensitivity, and she steals your heart as you come to know Lily (formerly Tim) and Dunkin (formerly Norbert), as well as their many supportive and non-supportive family members. I think what I liked best about this book is that it strips away all of the labels I've mentioned above and allows you to see Lily and Dunkin for who they are, while also showing how much pain they are in, even as they outwardly appear to ably navigate life. This book touches on several other mental health issues, but I won't go into detail because I don't want give anything away. It is quick read, told in alternating voices. Don't think you would enjoy reading anything about transgender people? This book will surprise you, and you probably should keep a box of tissues nearby as the ending wraps up.
Currently reading: The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson. Ignore the cheesy book cover, and strap yourself in for a ride reminiscent of Gone Girl.
Lily Kintner is an intelligent, attractive, and compelling female character. When she was a pre-teen, the male houseguest who came to stay in her bohemian parents' home that summer left one day, without saying goodbye. Or did he? Lily is cool, collected, analytical and does have a sense of right and wrong, especially when it comes to people who deserve punishment. She may have met her match in the beautiful, enigmatic Miranda, who has her own motivations for building a luxurious mansion on the Maine coast, while working extremely closely with the contractor Brad (her husband Ted continues to grow their wealth back home in Boston). How do these stories connect? Check out the book - so far it has been hard to stop listening, and I'm having a tough time predicting the ending!
I'll cover the dud first. Innocent Little Crimes by C.S. Lakin sounded somewhat promising. A wealthy, wildly successful comedienne calls together her college drama group for a weekend reunion at her palatial home on an island in the Pacific Northwest. Of course, all isn't as it seems and the reader quickly finds out that Lila has several motivations for inviting the specific guests to her revenge-driven event. I just couldn't get into the mean-spiritedness of so many of the characters. I didn't really want to root for any of them, as they raced through the island's forests and beaches on a quest to not be killed during the "game" Lila devised. Even the epilogue was just "meh." Skip this one.
Donna Gephart's young adult novel Lily and Dunkin is important because it addresses issues that impact young people today; these concerns influenced young adults in the 50s too, but they certainly weren't ever talked about: one character is transgender and the other has bi-polar disorder. At the heart of the novel is how alone and scared teens feel when they know they are different from the majority of their peers. Gephart handles the content confidently (her son is bi-polar) and with sensitivity, and she steals your heart as you come to know Lily (formerly Tim) and Dunkin (formerly Norbert), as well as their many supportive and non-supportive family members. I think what I liked best about this book is that it strips away all of the labels I've mentioned above and allows you to see Lily and Dunkin for who they are, while also showing how much pain they are in, even as they outwardly appear to ably navigate life. This book touches on several other mental health issues, but I won't go into detail because I don't want give anything away. It is quick read, told in alternating voices. Don't think you would enjoy reading anything about transgender people? This book will surprise you, and you probably should keep a box of tissues nearby as the ending wraps up.
Currently reading: The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson. Ignore the cheesy book cover, and strap yourself in for a ride reminiscent of Gone Girl.
Lily Kintner is an intelligent, attractive, and compelling female character. When she was a pre-teen, the male houseguest who came to stay in her bohemian parents' home that summer left one day, without saying goodbye. Or did he? Lily is cool, collected, analytical and does have a sense of right and wrong, especially when it comes to people who deserve punishment. She may have met her match in the beautiful, enigmatic Miranda, who has her own motivations for building a luxurious mansion on the Maine coast, while working extremely closely with the contractor Brad (her husband Ted continues to grow their wealth back home in Boston). How do these stories connect? Check out the book - so far it has been hard to stop listening, and I'm having a tough time predicting the ending!
Monday, October 3, 2016
Here's a quick review of two books that couldn't be more different. One is sure to please and the other will definitely elicit negative opinions, even as it stands on literary merit.
A Man Called Ove: A Novel (Frederik Backman) was simply a delight to listen to, and my friends and family who have read the print version enjoyed it just as much. Covering the present and past of Ove (pronounced ooh vuh), the book peels back the main character's layers to help you understand why he's such an irascible old bastard who seemingly hates everyone. Set in Sweden, the author both tells and shows how Ove evolved into his cranky old man persona. I found myself tearing up during certain chapters because I might just know an Ove or two in my own life. Ove likes his house, car (a Saab, of course, because everything else is crap) and neighborhood to be "just right" and goes to great lengths to make sure the proper rules of life are enforced at all times. This is a wonderful story about love, both conditional and unconditional, and it has redemptive qualities that make you feel hopeful about our world, especially now with so much pervasive violence surrounding us. It is also quite funny! There is also a film adaptation of the novel.
Feeling like reading a shocker of a novel, one that might even make you feel the need to take a bracing shower to get the story's creepiness off of you? Check out All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel by Brynn Greenwood (from just down the road in Lawrence, KS). Take a white-trash family who runs a ramshackle meth lab in rural Oklahoma, throw in an extremely bright daughter who rarely speaks or eats, and mix in a helpless little brother and you have the backbone for this strange love story. At age eight, Wavonna (Wavy) manages to mother her little brother Donal and to lay low when her parents are fighting, making up in the bedroom, tweaking on meth, or all three. One of the lab workers, a hulking, tattooed 20-something, notices Wavy's situation and takes an interest in her and her brother. Kellen doesn't seem very bright to anyone and he's an ex-con, but Wavy takes to him right away and he works hard to make sure she stays in school and isn't harmed by her parents. A few years pass and Wavy decides she wants to be with Kellen the rest of her life. All sorts of hell breaks loose once the only responsible adult in the family, Wavy's aunt Brenda, learns that Wavy and Kellen have a "thing" going on.
This story is unseemly on many levels, yet you will find that you can't stop reading it, and not just because of the startling relationship between Wavy and Kellen. You'll appreciate your nice clean sheets, hots meals on a table during meal time, parents who are genuinely invested in their children, and a host of myriad other everyday niceties after you immerse yourself in Wavy's sad, bleak life. I kept wondering how this story would end and have to say that it definitely wrapped up differently than I'd predicted.
Warning: this story depicts graphic sexual behavior between an adult man and a barely 14-year-old girl. It is disturbing. The book, however, is beautifully written and extremely compelling. You'll be thinking about Wavy and her warped world for quite some time after the story ends.
A Man Called Ove: A Novel (Frederik Backman) was simply a delight to listen to, and my friends and family who have read the print version enjoyed it just as much. Covering the present and past of Ove (pronounced ooh vuh), the book peels back the main character's layers to help you understand why he's such an irascible old bastard who seemingly hates everyone. Set in Sweden, the author both tells and shows how Ove evolved into his cranky old man persona. I found myself tearing up during certain chapters because I might just know an Ove or two in my own life. Ove likes his house, car (a Saab, of course, because everything else is crap) and neighborhood to be "just right" and goes to great lengths to make sure the proper rules of life are enforced at all times. This is a wonderful story about love, both conditional and unconditional, and it has redemptive qualities that make you feel hopeful about our world, especially now with so much pervasive violence surrounding us. It is also quite funny! There is also a film adaptation of the novel.
Feeling like reading a shocker of a novel, one that might even make you feel the need to take a bracing shower to get the story's creepiness off of you? Check out All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel by Brynn Greenwood (from just down the road in Lawrence, KS). Take a white-trash family who runs a ramshackle meth lab in rural Oklahoma, throw in an extremely bright daughter who rarely speaks or eats, and mix in a helpless little brother and you have the backbone for this strange love story. At age eight, Wavonna (Wavy) manages to mother her little brother Donal and to lay low when her parents are fighting, making up in the bedroom, tweaking on meth, or all three. One of the lab workers, a hulking, tattooed 20-something, notices Wavy's situation and takes an interest in her and her brother. Kellen doesn't seem very bright to anyone and he's an ex-con, but Wavy takes to him right away and he works hard to make sure she stays in school and isn't harmed by her parents. A few years pass and Wavy decides she wants to be with Kellen the rest of her life. All sorts of hell breaks loose once the only responsible adult in the family, Wavy's aunt Brenda, learns that Wavy and Kellen have a "thing" going on.
This story is unseemly on many levels, yet you will find that you can't stop reading it, and not just because of the startling relationship between Wavy and Kellen. You'll appreciate your nice clean sheets, hots meals on a table during meal time, parents who are genuinely invested in their children, and a host of myriad other everyday niceties after you immerse yourself in Wavy's sad, bleak life. I kept wondering how this story would end and have to say that it definitely wrapped up differently than I'd predicted.
Warning: this story depicts graphic sexual behavior between an adult man and a barely 14-year-old girl. It is disturbing. The book, however, is beautifully written and extremely compelling. You'll be thinking about Wavy and her warped world for quite some time after the story ends.
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