2009 (July-December): Books
Jan. 1st, 2010 08:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stillonmystringReviews for the first half of the year are here. You probably should go away if you do not want to be spoiled on any of these.
26. The New Girl - Emily Perkins ★★
Good Lord, this book was boring; I really had to struggle to make it through the whole thing. It's not even that the writing was particularly bad, it was just that nothing happened. It meandered on and on aimlessly and then at the end, it was like the author realized no one and nothing had changed and had to scramble to throw in a bunch of random (still boring) plot twists. The saddest thing is that this could've actually been really interesting if the plot had been more developed (or there at all) and the characters had actually been likable. All of the characters annoyed me; I couldn't see the appeal of Miranda - she just seemed like a huge bitch to me - and I found Julia more whiny and annoying than relatable... and clingy, which I guess was the point: Miranda was a huge bitch but Julia was just a hanger-on who was so desperate for attention from someone "cooler" and older than her that she didn't even notice the obvious. Anyway, it does get a few points for the flashback scene near the end when the reason behind Miranda's arrival to the small town is finally explained; that was the only part of the book I found truly compelling and it only lasted a few pages. This could've been so much better if it was based around her whole story - how she basically became the ultimate ice queen because she was betrayed and humiliated by the ultimate ice queen she had looked up to at Julia's age - but alas, that wasn't the case so it was mostly pretty disposable apart from that and a couple other brief glimmers of promise.
27. Collected Stories - Carson McCullers ★★★★★
Between this and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, I've quickly come to the conclusion that Carson McCullers was brilliant and she will now forever be considered among my favorite authors and I can't wait to read the rest of her work. Even when I wasn't particularly interested in the subject matter, these stories were just so lovely to read. She's great at fleshing out her characters more through their actions and words than through actually describing how they look, think, feel, etc. She's also got a flair for turning seemingly meaningless, everyday moments into these grand, magical events. In this aspect, she reminds me of J.D. Salinger, whose stories also often revolve around the mundane and routine but weave them into something spectacular. Her prose voice is simple and clear - she isn't either too minimalistic or too fanciful and sometimes she'll just blow you away with some sudden jaw-droppingly gorgeous line; something like "The sky burned brightly - blue jet flames. Choking and murderous to air" (from "Breath from the Sky"). It's such a simple, unfussy observation but so stunning at the same time. Anyway, my favorite story is probably a three-way tie between "Untitled Piece", "The Haunted Boy", and "Who Has Seen the Wind?" That last one, along with "Instant of the Hour After" and "A Domestic Dilemma" were especially richly-detailed and intimate glimpses at marriages unraveling, perhaps so affecting because they're the most autobiographical pieces here. I also enjoyed "Breath from the Sky", "Court in the West Eighties" - hell, they were all pretty good. There were a few stories that didn't really do anything for me on an emotional level but, hey, that's to be expected. And the good ones, along with the novella, The Member of the Wedding, were amazing enough to warrant five stars. One thing that she is very good at is giving children/teens a really believable voice in her works; I find myself most drawn to her younger characters like those in "Sucker" and "The Haunted Boy" in this collection and Mick in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and Frankie in the aforementioned The Member of the Wedding - they're all really well-developed and grow a lot over the course of each story and McCullers writes that mental transition from kid to young adult that happens to all of them perfectly.
28. Less Than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis ★★★★★
I read this in a few hours - partly because it was so addicting and partly because it was just a really easy, simple, and short book. I knew that I would love it and I was right though I'm worried I may be over-exaggerating my love just a little bit because I wanted to like it so much. I don't think I am though. The book didn't have much of a plot but, for me, if the characters are interesting enough, I don't really care about the plot and will be content reading about what they ate for breakfast or something, and the characters here were like that. I really loved them... well, maybe not loved, but I was very intrigued by their lifestyles. It kind of frightens me that my favorite kind of people to read about are rich, lazy, entitled assholes and it's because I sort of want to be them - I'm simultaneously repulsed by and attracted to the way they live. Is it weird to be drawn to these characters who are actually rather unlikable by most people's standards? Does it mean that I'm really an asshole and don't realize it? I don't know. I just find characters like that extremely entertaining and gripping, probably because it's just the complete opposite of my life. By the end of the book, just like Clay, I found myself being utterly disappointed in how low everyone ended up sinking just because they could but I still couldn't hate them. My favorite character was Julian which is predictable because I always love the most tragic, fragile, depressing characters and I felt so sorry for him and wanted to give him a big hug even though everything that happened to him was his own fault. Anyway, this book was also pretty funny, laugh-out-loud hilarious in a few parts. I especially got a kick out of the conversation about who was fucking whom near the beginning: I realize for an instant that I might have slept with Didi Hellman. I also realize that I might have slept with Warren also... I open my menu and pretend to read it, wondering if I slept with Raoul. "Raoul is black, isn't he?" I haven't slept with Raoul. Oh my God. I was dying. Basically, if I had to compare this book to another one, it's like The Perks of Being a Wallflower: College Edition or something; the whole time reading I was really reminded of that book, what with the general plotlessness and the downward spiral into drugs and alcohol and partying and all that. Now I want to read all of his other books right away. There is also a sequel to this planned for release next year which is exciting.
29. The Blindfold - Siri Hustvedt ★★★★
This almost deserved five stars but not quite; I found the characters really intriguing and the story very gripping for the most part but there were also times when I thought it could be a bit more interesting and intense. It was just missing this tiny certain something that would've made me love it completely. But, mostly, I enjoyed it a lot. The writing and the quirkiness of the characters and situations made me think of Aimee Bender, with a little more realism and a little less weirdness. Basically, I'm trying to say I really enjoyed her writing style. I liked the characters too but by the end I didn't feel like I really, truly knew any of them; it was never clear why anyone did what they did and went from being kind to suddenly being unforgivably cruel (PARIS, MY FAVORITE UNTIL YOU TURNED INTO A CREEP AT THE END, I AM TALKING ABOUT YOU). I guess this is sort of the point though because Iris doesn't truly know any of them for who they really are either even if she thinks she does. This caused me to not become as interested in them as I could've had they been explained a little bit more. Also, the story wasn't resolved very well; it seemed like Iris never learned anything and the last sentence didn't really indicate that she had changed - in fact, it seemed to say just the opposite, that she was going back to her old ways yet again. I don't really have a problem with that but it just ended so abruptly and vaguely. Anyway, don't be thrown off by all the complaints; I had my problems with it but I still loved it a lot, especially the entire final part (and the second part, to a lesser extent).
30. The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan ★★★½
I wanted to love this. I almost did. But the writing was a little on the bland side and it felt like nothing really happened; the story just kind of meandered along aimlessly until the last two chapters or so when it reached its climax and its ending almost simultaneously - all of the drama was really sudden which was extremely jarring after the rest of the book's slowness. Those last couple of chapters were really good though. And I wanted to cry at the end. The only reason I didn't was because I finished it while waiting for Neko to start and I would have felt embarrassed to cry in public - especially considering it would have been all-out sobbing; it took a lot of effort for me to hold it back. Which is weird because I didn't feel particularly invested in the characters or their fates beforehand. But those last few sentences were just so beautifully hopeless and tragic. Guh. They really got to me. What a tense ending.
31. Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh ★★★
This was amusing and well-written but I just never got as invested in the characters as I did in the other books of his I've read. And the plot wasn't exactly my cup of tea either. I mostly read this because it and Vile Bodies are kinda sorta companion pieces so I wanted to read the two of them together. In the end, there were only a few instances in the latter that were better understood by being familiar with the former. Still, it was an enjoyable enough experience. Though the best part was getting to read Vile Bodies again. What a delicious book. And with that being said, I think I am taking a break from him for awhile. Maybe I will read more of his novels in the future but there aren't any more that are really catching my attention right now.
32. The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger ★★★★★
Re-read. Still perfect. There's not much to say beyond that. I know a lot of people hate Holden but there's no denying how well written a character he is; his voice is so distinctive. Often, when I read books written in the first person, it's hard for me to truly accept that it's the character speaking and not just the author trying to be the character but that's not the case at all here. And, as far as hating him goes, wouldn't you rather hate a character than have no reaction at all to one? And isn't it more interesting for a character to be annoying or obnoxious than for one to be perfect with absolutely no negative qualities? That's what I think anyway. Usually, I find characters that you shouldn't really like in real life the most entertaining to read about.
33. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Mildred D. Taylor
This was a purely nostalgic read. From about fourth grade until sixth grade, this was my absolute favorite book and I read it many times over in those couple of years. I thought I had managed to misplace it somehow since then but a couple weeks ago, I randomly found it in a drawer I hadn't looked through in awhile - bent and tattered and taped together but still readable - and I suddenly felt like reading it to see how it held up so many years later. I was kind of expecting it to be totally cringeworthy but it wasn't. I mean, it wasn't nearly as epic and heart-pounding as it seemed to be when I was younger but I still found it interesting and it's pretty well-written and complex for a novel written for children. At any rate, I definitely shouldn't feel embarrassed that it used to be my favorite; I could've loved far worse.
34. Fall - Colin McAdam ★★★★★
This book is so good. So good. I don't remember exactly how I came across it (I spend far too much time looking for new book recommendations in way too many places) but I knew the minute I read the summary at Amazon that I would love it; it's exactly the kind of thing I'm into right now. In fact, it reminded me a lot of The Secret History albeit not quite as good. It's got that rich-kids-at-an-elite-school setting - though here it's high school - and though there isn't a murder, there is a missing person (whose death does end up likely being caused by someone else, though accidental) and as a result, an investigation and search (the part with the police questionings and all reminded me most of TSH). And, also similarly, a character is revealed to be not quite so sane as they might have appeared at the beginning. And the writing in Noel's chapters just has a similar tone to me. Basically, it's real good, even if I'm exaggerating the similarities.
I read almost all of the reviews at Amazon before buying this to be certain I would like it (because it just came out a few months ago and still costs a lot; I spent seventeen damn dollars on this baby - I haven't spent that much on one book in at least a year) and there seemed to be two main complaints, both about the structure of the novel. The first was that the chapters in Julius' point of view were more of an annoyance than anything else but I have to strongly disagree. Though the simplicity and primitiveness of his thoughts was frustrating at times, I think it was supposed to be. The whole point of his narrative was to capture what's going on inside the head of a teenager whose only worry in life is when he's next going to be able to have sex with his girlfriend and once you realize this, you realize how perfectly-written it is. Not to mention, between all the statements in the "My hair looks good" and "I'm barfing" vein, his chapters contain some of the book's most oddly poetic lines: "Half an hour of lips and silk in the front and back and her cheeks are like peaches like peaches like peaches." "This blood is new and my father's house is huge." "There's a million mysteries and the ground's electric I swear." They might not make much sense but they just sound beautiful. And ending the book with him feeling so carefree and happy before all of the terribleness happened? Guh. So sad.
The other complaint is that the chapters written from the point of view of William, a driver who works for Julius' father, are unnecessary and jarring. At first, I didn't quite understand why he suddenly showed up as a narrator in the middle of the book when he had only been a background character previously but then it made sense. Through his eyes, we catch a small glimpse of Julius as an adult. We see Noel as a teenager and adult simultaneously because he is telling the story of what happened in high school many years later. But Julius' chapters only show us what he was like as a teen so someone else needs to come in and give us a few details about what his life might be like now. That's where William comes in.
Anyway, sign of me loving this book? I'm going on and on about it. While I was reading, I wanted to finish it all at once and make it last forever at the same time. Obviously, the first choice won out but now that I'm done, I kind of just want to start it all over again.
35. Running with Scissors - Augusten Burroughs ★★★
Ugh... I guess I liked this book but I also had a lot of issues with it. First of all, the idea of memoirs doesn't really appeal to me much. I just really have problems reading them without wondering in the back of my mind which parts are true, which parts are dramatized and which parts are totally fabricated; this constant doubting really keeps me from truly becoming invested in a book. Also, I had a really hard time buying how young Augusten was when all of this stuff started happening to him. I mean, he was, what, twelve, thirteen for the majority of the book?!? I'm not saying I don't believe him but the way he portrayed himself at that age just seemed way too mature and adult. I guess, considering his circumstances, it makes sense but it was still hard to wrap my head around. Third, and maybe the biggest thing that kept me from really loving this, is that I just don't think I enjoy his writing style all that much. And I can't put my finger on exactly why. I mean, I could say it was too simplistic or too casual but a lot of authors I really enjoy could also be called that so I can't really consider those flaws. There's just something about his writing specifically that I don't like. All that being said, I did finish this rather quickly because I was simultaneously repulsed and intrigued by all of the goings-on and wanted to know more right away so I did enjoy it. I just didn't love it. It was way better than A Wolf at the Table but, still, I don't really care to read any of his other stuff right now. I'm slightly interested in seeing how his writing translates to a work of fiction though (as far as I know, he's only got one). Maybe I'd like it better if I'm not trying to convince myself everything he's writing about is all actually 100% true.
36. The Book of Other People - Various Authors (edited by Zadie Smith) ★★½
This was an extremely hit or miss collection, extremely, as in I-only-truly-liked-about-eight-of-these-twenty-three-stories extremely. I'd only read three of the contributing authors previously - Nick Hornby, Jonathan Safran Foer and Miranda July. Of those three, only the MJ story truly impressed me (but I am a little biased when it comes to her); JSF's was alright but didn't really go anywhere and even though I've enjoyed if not totally gotten into what I've read of him previously, NH's story was utterly pointless and stupid. So with the other twenty being written by authors I'd never read anything by before sadly only three made me extremely eager to check out more of their work and these were the stories by A.L. Kennedy, George Saunders (who has actually been on my to-read list for awhile), and Jonathan Lethem. I sort of liked stories by a few more authors but not enough to make me want to investigate them further right this moment. And, besides the Nick Hornby, I downright loathed both of the comics (I'll admit, I'm not really that into comics but I tried to give these a fair chance and they just seemed strange and made little sense to me) and Zadie Smith's story, which was possibly the biggest disappointment because I've been wanting to read her for awhile and it was so bland and boring that it completely put me off that idea. So, yeah, I didn't really feel like this collection was much worth my time for the most part. I will be checking out those few authors I mentioned being impressed by as soon as possible though so it wasn't a total waste.
37. No One Belongs Here More Than You - Miranda July ★★★★★
I've already praised this book to the high heavens multiple times so I don't think much more needs to be said. It's just perfect. It's one of those rare books I like more every time I read it. And every time, a story that never quite stood out to me before suddenly grabs me and tells me, "Hey! I deserve to be noticed too!" It also never fails to leave me wanting more. The thing I love most about her stories - and her work in general - is that one second they've got you laughing out loud and the next you're caught off-guard by something so devastatingly beautiful and heartfelt and profound. She's very good at turning her characters' flaws into something that makes them lovable and getting you to fall for these bizarre people stuck in these even more bizarre situations no matter how unsettling and just plain weird they might be. The only thing, in my opinion, to complain about in regards to her is that it is impossible for her to be anything but Miranda July. And by this I mean that she has such a distinctive storytelling voice and sense of humor that even these characters who are on the surface so unlike herself end up sounding exactly like her. I can't even read a male character's dialogue in an actual guy's voice in my head; I always hear it as her imitating a guy instead. I can see how this inability to shed herself completely in her stories might turn some people off but for me it actually makes them even more charming. Anyway. I said there was nothing much to say and I ended up writing a lot so I'll stop now before I write an entire book of praise.
38. The Stranger - Albert Camus ★★★★
I didn't totally love this but it was good and a really quick read. Mostly, I was just left thinking how totally different it was to the idea of it I had in my head. For some reason, I had this impression that it would be really boring and stuffy and dated. Maybe it's just my bias against really old books because, for some other reason, I thought this book was actually much older than it really is. So, yeah, I was pretty surprised by it. But it's not a favorite. I tend to be let down by books that are considered "classics" though just because they've been so hyped up, it becomes really difficult to be truly blown away.
39. Atonement - Ian McEwan ★★★★★
Why did I wait so long to read this?!? I put it off forever because I had convinced myself that I probably wouldn't like it. However, I loved it. Lately, I've been more into dialogue than long stretches of description and inner thoughts and that kind of stuff tends to bore me really quickly sometimes. I didn't have that problem with this book, though, because it was all just so beautifully-written and interesting even in the dullest moments. I also don't usually really love books that center around war because reading about wars does not interest me at all. And while I did get a bit restless during part two, where Robbie is trying to escape from France during World War II, I adored part three where Briony is working as a nurse to injured soldiers and overall, it was much more enjoyable to me than a lot of books I've read that take place in war. I'm not sure yet how I feel about the ending though. On one hand, it's a pretty interesting way to wrap up a novel. On the other hand, I feel like it kind of weakens the impact of the ending of part three. Briony's final meeting with Cecilia and Robbie becomes less touching when we find out that it never actually happened. But still. It was good regardless.
40. The Rules of Attraction - Bret Easton Ellis ★★★★½
I didn't enjoy this quite as much as Less Than Zero, hence the slightly lower rating, but I think a lot of that is just the fact that Less Than Zero was the first book of his I read so, along with my enjoyment of the novel itself, it holds an additional importance that The Rules of Attraction doesn't for me. In actuality, the characters in this book are much better-developed than those in his first. Less Than Zero's characters seemed more like sketches than actual people; they do a lot of crazy things but we never really learn about their feelings or who they truly are as people - they all seem almost interchangeable because they're so alike, except for perhaps Clay, the narrator, which makes sense since his is the only point-of-view we see things from. In this book, on the other hand, there are three main narrators and several others who get one or two chapters but are less vital to the story; they're all still rather shallow and spend most of their time thinking about drugs and sex but they also seem a lot more fleshed-out and realistic than their counterparts in Less Than Zero. They seem to actually do things for a reason and regret their actions and maybe even change as people throughout the course of the novel. My favorite thing about this book is how utterly delusional everyone is about the relationships they're in. Paul claims that he and Sean are madly in love with each other but Sean never mentions a romantic or sexual relationship with Paul which means we're never quite sure whether Paul is just fantasizing based on a string of extreme miscommunications or whether Sean is just denying it because he feels uncomfortable about being involved with another man. Meanwhile, Sean is receiving love letters that he is convinced come from Lauren, which leads to their tumultuous relationship, but in the end, they're from some random freshman who ends up committing suicide because he never acknowledges her presence. And Lauren spends the whole novel pining after her "true love" Victor who is in Europe but when he comes back, he seems to not even know who she is. These situations not only prove extremely humorous but they also demonstrate very well just how confusing and convoluted love can be. My second favorite thing is all the references to other characters like Clay from Less Than Zero and Patrick Bateman. And also, The Secret History references! Win. Overall, a very entertaining read.
41. Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk ★★★★½
This book is the literary equivalent to crack. Seriously. I'm still not sure I totally loved it but, damn, it was the most addictive thing I've ever read. I read it pretty much all at once because it was that difficult to put down.
42. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde ★★★★★
If you require a story that sticks to the point, moves along relatively quickly, and doesn't get lost in diversions and descriptions, this isn't the book for you. If you can deal with all of that and enjoy expertly drawn characters, beautiful prose, and innumerable witticisms, you'll probably love it. I was slightly disappointed at first because, from the summary and introduction to the book, I expected it to be full of MAYHEM and EVIL and CRIME all the way through and, well, that's not the case at all; in fact, most of the naughtiness happens in the last few chapters. But in the end I loved it because if I hadn't been misled in the first place, I wouldn't have had anything to complain about. And I sort of adored Dorian even though he becomes pretty much the root of all evil. But he is so prettily evil, no?
43. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee ★★★
Maybe it's because I've taken so long to read it and therefore had years to build it up in my head as a literary masterpiece... but I was highly let down by this book. Though I couldn't really tell you the exact reason why. Just something about it really rubbed me the wrong way and I could never get truly invested in the characters or their lives. It got a bit better once more dramatic things started happening, around the time of the big trial, but still... I wouldn't say I loved it. And I almost quit reading it altogether because the first few chapters of the book felt like such a chore to get through to me. Ugh. I don't want to feel this way but I do.
44. Like Life - Lorrie Moore ★★★★
I liked this as a collection far more than Birds of America but that book has "People Like That Are the Only People Here" which blows every story in this one out of the water. So that makes them kind of even. But I'm still rating this a bit higher as it's more consistent overall.
45. Geek Love - Katherine Dunn ★★★★★
I loved this. It was completely disturbing, totally fucked up, often extremely unrealistic, and painfully intense - all of which are awesome things in my book. And poor Chick. Poor, poor little Chicky. I felt worse for him than all of the other characters combined; everyone else had sides to them that I despised and but he seemed purely good, just too young to know any better than to do the terrible things he was told to. I cried for him and then I cried some more at the end. Is it wrong that sometimes my measure of how good a book is depends a lot on how depressed it makes me?? I guess I am just really impressed when I get invested enough in something to be totally emotionally ripped apart by it.
46. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald ★★½
Alright, I've seen a lot of hate for this book but I figured it was mostly because it's considered a classic and a lot of people hate any books with that label by default. But I finally read it and I... really did not enjoy it at all. And believe me, I wanted to. I thought I would. But it seemed so pointless. And the ending was so anti-climatic to me. And I think this was simply because I did not care about the characters at all. None of them. One bit. I felt like they were shells of characters. I knew them superficially but on a deeper level, I had no clue what kind of people they were. Therefore, I had zero investment in whatever happened to them. I just didn't care. And this is worse than totally hating a character or book for me. I'd rather despise something than be totally indifferent toward it. Overall, a big huge meh.
47. Lunar Park - Bret Easton Ellis ★★★★★+
I would give this book a hundred stars if I could. Because five stars just doesn't seem enough. I rated Less Than Zero five stars and, though they're completely different books on multiple levels and should not really be compared at all, this is so much better. This book is phenomenal, truly phenomenal. I skipped over his middle novels for the time being, going from his first two to this, his most recent, so it was very interesting to see just how much the writing has developed in such a drastic way. Yet it is still very much the same. It still has that simplistic, unadorned honesty but comes across as much more mature and wise. This book is also very emotional and intense which is a pretty big change compared to the detached, cold, shallow tone of those earlier works. I'll admit, I was a bit concerned after finishing the first chapter, which came across as very autobiography/memoir-ish to me and that's not really my thing, but once all of that back story was out of the way, it picked up immediately. And I just find this approach to autobiographical writing, using reality as a base for a fictional story, blurring the line between truth and fantasy until you don't know what's real and what's not, so much more interesting and creative than straight-up non-fiction; another book I can think of in the same vein is Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated which, though a very different approach, employs the same angle. Though there were many unresolved issues left at the end of Lunar Park and that usually annoys me, it actually made sense considering how absurd and crazy and impossibly twisted the entire story was - it would seem unnatural for all that totally unexplainable stuff to be explained in the end. I just took it as: this is simply a story I'm telling as is, it's not supposed to make sense because it didn't make sense to me, I'm only describing the events exactly as they happened. So I wasn't too bothered by the details left hanging.
I'll leave you with this, one of the best single sentences of writing I've read in an extremely long time, which made me tear up. And then after I recovered from that, the final paragraph made me completely lose it. Heartwrenching stuff.
"From those of us who are left behind: you will be remembered, you were the one I needed, I loved you in my dreams."
48. The Little Friend - Donna Tartt ★★★★
Now, listen, I'll get the inevitable out of the way and say this first: this book is in no way, shape, or form better than The Secret History, in my opinion. However, it was still very good. I wasn't sure it would turn out to be at first because it took so damn long to get to the real meat of the story (seriously, about half of the book) but then I kept remembering that I wasn't completely invested in TSH at first either so I kept trucking along. And then it did start to get really good - and weird and twisty and complicated just like TSH. But there were several reasons why I didn't like it nearly as much. First of all, the characters - though all of the characters in TLF are extremely well-developed and three-dimensional, I just didn't find them as intriguing or easy to connect to as those in TSH. Second, it reminded me a lot of To Kill a Mockingbird - and I don't think it was just the Southern setting and the main character being a child - and I didn't totally love that book either. Third, I could actually believe all of the crazy stuff that happened in TSH but some of this, especially near the end, seemed a little far-fetched to me. Fourth, what the fuck was that ending?!? Maybe I was totally spoiled by TSH and the fact that, more or less, the characters' stories get completely wrapped up but my mouth kind of hung open in shock when I got to the end. It was just so abrupt and odd and nothing was really resolved. It was weird. Anyway, despite all that, I did enjoy the book rather a lot and, just as with TSH, once it really got going, there were certain spots where I didn't want to put it down. But overall, I don't think I'll be reading this over and over again and all it really made me want to do is read The Secret History for the fourth or fifth time. Because, damn, that's an awesome book.
49. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ★★★★★
What a lovely, sweet little book. That's all I can really say about it, because it's so short, but it was refreshing after reading two 500+ page books in a row and I really loved the simplicity and pureness of it. And all of the drawings too!
50. The Informers - Bret Easton Ellis ★★★
This wasn't a terrible waste of time or anything - because I love the way he writes regardless of the content, really - but it was just okay and by far my least favorite of his material that I've read so far. Which is now everything but Glamorama (which I have) and American Psycho (which I also have... but in Spanish because I am a fucking moron who doesn't read product descriptions very thoroughly before purchasing... so that one's going to be awhile still). Anyway, this is a collection of short stories that are kind of loosely connected; a main character of one will be mentioned in passing in another or a supporting character will be given a leading role later on. The thing is... they aren't really about anything. Stuff just happens but it doesn't seem very important or worth thinking too deeply about. I guess you can kind of pose the same argument for Less Than Zero but, at least, with that being a novel, you get a chance to know the characters; in these, you never really get that opportunity, which makes them seem completely pointless. I did highly enjoy the more gruesome stories though - I can't remember titles right now but the ones about a kidnapped kid and vampires in LA were especially entertaining. Is it wrong that I am so entertained by gore and corruption and the like? I guess that bodes well for my enjoyment of American Psycho at least.
51. A Gate at the Stairs - Lorrie Moore ★★★★★
Wow, wow, wow. This is such a stunning book I don't even know where to begin with it. The first book I read of hers was Anagrams which I immediately fell in complete love with. After that, I read a couple of her short story collections and, while good, they didn't hold quite the same spark for me (even though I've more often heard people rave about her short stories rather than her novels). I was beginning to worry that I would never like anything of hers nearly as much but the summary of this book appealed to me very much and I was very anxious for its release... then when I went to buy it I noticed that the reviews were pretty mixed which made me a bit nervous to get started on it. But am I ever glad I did. Because it was stunning. And probably even better than Anagrams though I've only had about twenty minutes since finishing to develop that opinion. This book is just such an emotional whirlwind: it's funny, it's heartwarming, it's devastating, it's uplifiting, it's witty, it's poetic and beautiful - it's everything. Even though they are completely different in all other aspects, Lorrie Moore reminds me a lot of Margaret Atwood (who I haven't read nearly enough of, by the way) in the sense that no matter how invested you get in the actual story and characters, they're always such a pleasure to read regardless because literally every sentence they come up with is so perfect and beautiful and breathtaking. They can write about nothing, about what they ate for breakfast, and it'll knock you out with how effortlessly lovely it sounds. This book is so full of clever phrases and alliterations and plays on words and jokey-jokey stuff like that but it's never too much and it also makes the really hard-hitting stuff even more so. Of course it also helps to have a story to get invested in - which definitely happened for me here. I wept, I laughed, I felt everything Tassie felt. And loved every minute of it.
52. The Fundamentals of Play - Caitlin Macy ★★★½
I liked this book but as far as books with a similar structure and common themes go, I've also read much better. I read it in a very short amount of time because I did find it interesting but I wasn't really interested in the characters or how things turned out for them but just in how things turned out in general. That doesn't make much sense. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this was a good story but that was all it was: I didn't feel attached to it on an emotional level at all. And for all of the analyzing George did of Kate and Chat and Harry and Nick and even himself, I still felt like I barely knew who they were by the end. And speaking of that end, I was rather disappointed in it. I mean, I guess if you think about it, it's not dissimilar to life; real life is messy and unpredictable and random and it kind of illustrated that. But, still, I read books to be entertained and enthralled and the ending left me cold. I was also very confused by that point. Though I didn't have a problem with the writing for the most part, I think it started to get blurrier and more convoluted by the last few chapters - I didn't know whether Kate was marrying Harry or Chat or someone else until it turned out to be some random guy in the final chapter. So it was an unsatisfying read and probably something I wouldn't reach for again but it still kept me mildly entertained.
53. Glamorama - Bret Easton Ellis ★★★★★
This book was ridiculous and completely, utterly, entirely insane - and I mean that as the highest form of flattery possible. I thought Lunar Park was confusing and convoluted but this one was even more so; I was literally left with my mouth hanging open on more than one occasion and I'm not sure I entirely grasp what exactly happened at all (and I was hoping to be illuminated by Wikipedia but the summary there is, sadly, only the obvious stuff) - I mean, Jesus, there's just so much to digest and just when you think you have something figured out, you're proven wrong. I love books like that but they also make me feel like my head is going to explode and this was no exception. It was also way more graphic than I was anticipating and though the many very detailed descriptions of torture and gore were probably the most stomach-churning things I've ever read (and my tolerance for that type of thing when it comes to books is pretty high), I was also strangely enthralled by them in a trainwreck sort of way - they were horrible and disgusting but I just couldn't look away. Though the scene that bothered me the most wasn't actually any of the blood and guts but the obsessive-compulsively detailed sex scene that went on for about six pages - I really did not need to read that. I'm not a prude but that made me uncomfortable and I would have taken six more pages of mutilated bodies over that any day. The only other negative thing I can say is that Victor doesn't really become a likable, rootable protagonist until around part three or maybe even part four because up until that point, he doesn't really seem like anything more than a vapid, self-obsessed airhead - but I think that's actually the point. I just found it really hard to get through the first hundred or so pages because it only felt like stupid people talking about stupid things and nothing else; once I got about halfway through the book, though, I absolutely couldn't put it down. So that second half was definitely strong enough to make up for any weaknesses in the first (and they aren't really weaknesses, just personal preferences). Basically, I loved it but I'm not sure I can ever read it again or at least not anytime soon - I know some of the most graphic scenes are going to stick with me for a long time regardless. And I'm kind of torn between wanting to read American Psycho right this instant and letting my mind wander away from all of these violent images for awhile - because I'm sure that one's even more graphic.
And for the record, my current order of favorites for his books is: Lunar Park, Less Than Zero, Glamorama, The Rules of Attraction, The Informers... though I might be convinced to put Glamorama above Less Than Zero someday... I just have a special attachment to that one because it was the first I read.
54. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction - J.D. Salinger ★★★½
55. The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams ★★★★
56. Sputnik Sweetheart - Haruki Murakami ★★★★½
57. An Invisible Sign of My Own - Aimee Bender ★★★★★ (re-read)
58. The Lake of Dead Languages - Carol Goodman ★★★
Sigh. I just finished this so my emotions are still running strong. I really wanted to love this... in fact, I was loving it. Some of the plot twists were ridiculously predictable and it was probably because there were just too many packed in for all of them to be shocking and creative but I was considering that a minor quibble. Because otherwise, it was a well-paced, dark, intriguing thriller. But then the last two chapters. Oh, the last two chapters. I'd like to just forget about them. First, let's discuss that second-to-last chapter, in which the final confrontation between our heroine and crazed homicidal maniac occurs. Not only did I find the confrontation itself a little too melodramatic to be realistic - more like something you'd see in some over-the-top crime show - but I found the portrayal of the villian to be completely unrealistic as well, not to mention out-of-character. All throughout the rest of the book, there had been no signs of her being insane/murderous - sure, she was a little bit nosy, definitely a bitch, maybe a little on the eccentric side - but she was behaving like a relatively normal human being. Now, I know it's possible for a person to keep their criminal activity hidden from those closest to them but I just couldn't buy that a person as crazy and out-of-control as she was in that final scene could act completely sane and not raise any suspicions up until that point. I also didn't buy her reasons for wanting to kill. They were explained but they didn't seem like enough. Especially considering how elaborately-plotted the whole thing was.
However, I was willing to forgive all that because the rest of the book had been much better - with just a few of those previously-mentioned obvious twists and maybe some spotty writing here and there. But then Goodman had to go and stomp on everything great she had managed to accomplish all over again by giving us that absolutely ridiculous last chapter. What could be so horrible as to ruin an entire book? Let me try to tell you. Basically, our heroine turns into any other ol' Mary Sue-type character and happiness gets handed to her on a silver platter. I'm not just talking about the main conflict being over and her going on with her life as normal - oh no, I would've been fine with that. But instead we learn that the whole future of the school is in the hands of her beloved student whom she just saved from death! But not the whole future - the rest of that decision belongs to the man from the past who re-enters her life and is obviously going to become her romantic interest! But wait - that's not even all! We then find out that this decision is actually in our heroine's own hands - because, get this, her grandmother who worked as a servant to the school's founder is actually the real mother of that founder's ill-fated youngest daughter. Then, when that founder met our heroine as a teenager on a scholarship to her school, she was so impressed with this twist of fate that she legally changed the terms of the school's ownership to leave the decision up to Ms. Perfect Protagonist! And when the three collectively decide, of course, to keep the school running, our Mary Sue predictably steals a smooch (with, I'm sure, many more to come) from Mr. Blast-from-the-Past and then is reunited with the daughter she so heroically sent off to live with her father in the beginning! Jesus fucking Christ, I am about to overdose on the amount of sickeningly sweet sugar I just ingested. It's like, you build up this whole moody, dark, intense murder mystery that spans a couple of decades and has all these sneaky, sneaky twists and turns along the way only to have it end like any other pandering-to-the-masses (because we can't feed the general population anything other than enough happiness to suffocate them!) generic piece of crap. UGH. It just really pissed me off. However, I can't discount the fact that I really enjoyed the rest of the book and it was definitely a page-turner. So I'm being nicer with my rating than I should be. And now I will shut up before my head explodes.
NO. WAIT. I forgot one other major thing. This book had so much in common with The Secret History - so much, in fact, that the comparison was actually made in two of the little review blurbs about it, one even printed on the front cover - that it couldn't have been mere coincidence. Which made the disappointment at the end all the more stinging because, as we all know, that is one of my very favorite books ever. And I thought this might be able to spark just a fraction of the emotion in me that that one does until it went and completely jumped the shark. Now that I think about it, this book would've been much better if the whole present-day murder mystery was done away with it and it focused more exclusively on the events from the past that triggered it. Because the flashbacks were definitely the most engaging parts of the book and the present-day stuff, in comparison, just seemed silly and ridiculous. BLARRRRRGH. Okay, now I'm going to shut up.
Well, I had actually made a mental goal last month to make it to sixty books total for the year but I gave up once I realized that I really had no interest in reading any of the books in my to-read pile and needed to buy some more ASAP. So I got to 58, which is still one more than last year, so I consider that a success. Including books I read multiple times, however, that number gets knocked up to 64, two more than '08 counting re-reads. So I guess technically I did reach my goal. Go me? Anyway, I still have at least a dozen books at the moment that I need to read (even if, as stated above, I really don't want to at this moment in time) and I'm also planning to buy a good few more very soon... so I've already got plenty lined up to keep me busy in 2010!
26. The New Girl - Emily Perkins ★★
Good Lord, this book was boring; I really had to struggle to make it through the whole thing. It's not even that the writing was particularly bad, it was just that nothing happened. It meandered on and on aimlessly and then at the end, it was like the author realized no one and nothing had changed and had to scramble to throw in a bunch of random (still boring) plot twists. The saddest thing is that this could've actually been really interesting if the plot had been more developed (or there at all) and the characters had actually been likable. All of the characters annoyed me; I couldn't see the appeal of Miranda - she just seemed like a huge bitch to me - and I found Julia more whiny and annoying than relatable... and clingy, which I guess was the point: Miranda was a huge bitch but Julia was just a hanger-on who was so desperate for attention from someone "cooler" and older than her that she didn't even notice the obvious. Anyway, it does get a few points for the flashback scene near the end when the reason behind Miranda's arrival to the small town is finally explained; that was the only part of the book I found truly compelling and it only lasted a few pages. This could've been so much better if it was based around her whole story - how she basically became the ultimate ice queen because she was betrayed and humiliated by the ultimate ice queen she had looked up to at Julia's age - but alas, that wasn't the case so it was mostly pretty disposable apart from that and a couple other brief glimmers of promise.
27. Collected Stories - Carson McCullers ★★★★★
Between this and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, I've quickly come to the conclusion that Carson McCullers was brilliant and she will now forever be considered among my favorite authors and I can't wait to read the rest of her work. Even when I wasn't particularly interested in the subject matter, these stories were just so lovely to read. She's great at fleshing out her characters more through their actions and words than through actually describing how they look, think, feel, etc. She's also got a flair for turning seemingly meaningless, everyday moments into these grand, magical events. In this aspect, she reminds me of J.D. Salinger, whose stories also often revolve around the mundane and routine but weave them into something spectacular. Her prose voice is simple and clear - she isn't either too minimalistic or too fanciful and sometimes she'll just blow you away with some sudden jaw-droppingly gorgeous line; something like "The sky burned brightly - blue jet flames. Choking and murderous to air" (from "Breath from the Sky"). It's such a simple, unfussy observation but so stunning at the same time. Anyway, my favorite story is probably a three-way tie between "Untitled Piece", "The Haunted Boy", and "Who Has Seen the Wind?" That last one, along with "Instant of the Hour After" and "A Domestic Dilemma" were especially richly-detailed and intimate glimpses at marriages unraveling, perhaps so affecting because they're the most autobiographical pieces here. I also enjoyed "Breath from the Sky", "Court in the West Eighties" - hell, they were all pretty good. There were a few stories that didn't really do anything for me on an emotional level but, hey, that's to be expected. And the good ones, along with the novella, The Member of the Wedding, were amazing enough to warrant five stars. One thing that she is very good at is giving children/teens a really believable voice in her works; I find myself most drawn to her younger characters like those in "Sucker" and "The Haunted Boy" in this collection and Mick in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and Frankie in the aforementioned The Member of the Wedding - they're all really well-developed and grow a lot over the course of each story and McCullers writes that mental transition from kid to young adult that happens to all of them perfectly.
28. Less Than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis ★★★★★
I read this in a few hours - partly because it was so addicting and partly because it was just a really easy, simple, and short book. I knew that I would love it and I was right though I'm worried I may be over-exaggerating my love just a little bit because I wanted to like it so much. I don't think I am though. The book didn't have much of a plot but, for me, if the characters are interesting enough, I don't really care about the plot and will be content reading about what they ate for breakfast or something, and the characters here were like that. I really loved them... well, maybe not loved, but I was very intrigued by their lifestyles. It kind of frightens me that my favorite kind of people to read about are rich, lazy, entitled assholes and it's because I sort of want to be them - I'm simultaneously repulsed by and attracted to the way they live. Is it weird to be drawn to these characters who are actually rather unlikable by most people's standards? Does it mean that I'm really an asshole and don't realize it? I don't know. I just find characters like that extremely entertaining and gripping, probably because it's just the complete opposite of my life. By the end of the book, just like Clay, I found myself being utterly disappointed in how low everyone ended up sinking just because they could but I still couldn't hate them. My favorite character was Julian which is predictable because I always love the most tragic, fragile, depressing characters and I felt so sorry for him and wanted to give him a big hug even though everything that happened to him was his own fault. Anyway, this book was also pretty funny, laugh-out-loud hilarious in a few parts. I especially got a kick out of the conversation about who was fucking whom near the beginning: I realize for an instant that I might have slept with Didi Hellman. I also realize that I might have slept with Warren also... I open my menu and pretend to read it, wondering if I slept with Raoul. "Raoul is black, isn't he?" I haven't slept with Raoul. Oh my God. I was dying. Basically, if I had to compare this book to another one, it's like The Perks of Being a Wallflower: College Edition or something; the whole time reading I was really reminded of that book, what with the general plotlessness and the downward spiral into drugs and alcohol and partying and all that. Now I want to read all of his other books right away. There is also a sequel to this planned for release next year which is exciting.
29. The Blindfold - Siri Hustvedt ★★★★
This almost deserved five stars but not quite; I found the characters really intriguing and the story very gripping for the most part but there were also times when I thought it could be a bit more interesting and intense. It was just missing this tiny certain something that would've made me love it completely. But, mostly, I enjoyed it a lot. The writing and the quirkiness of the characters and situations made me think of Aimee Bender, with a little more realism and a little less weirdness. Basically, I'm trying to say I really enjoyed her writing style. I liked the characters too but by the end I didn't feel like I really, truly knew any of them; it was never clear why anyone did what they did and went from being kind to suddenly being unforgivably cruel (PARIS, MY FAVORITE UNTIL YOU TURNED INTO A CREEP AT THE END, I AM TALKING ABOUT YOU). I guess this is sort of the point though because Iris doesn't truly know any of them for who they really are either even if she thinks she does. This caused me to not become as interested in them as I could've had they been explained a little bit more. Also, the story wasn't resolved very well; it seemed like Iris never learned anything and the last sentence didn't really indicate that she had changed - in fact, it seemed to say just the opposite, that she was going back to her old ways yet again. I don't really have a problem with that but it just ended so abruptly and vaguely. Anyway, don't be thrown off by all the complaints; I had my problems with it but I still loved it a lot, especially the entire final part (and the second part, to a lesser extent).
30. The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan ★★★½
I wanted to love this. I almost did. But the writing was a little on the bland side and it felt like nothing really happened; the story just kind of meandered along aimlessly until the last two chapters or so when it reached its climax and its ending almost simultaneously - all of the drama was really sudden which was extremely jarring after the rest of the book's slowness. Those last couple of chapters were really good though. And I wanted to cry at the end. The only reason I didn't was because I finished it while waiting for Neko to start and I would have felt embarrassed to cry in public - especially considering it would have been all-out sobbing; it took a lot of effort for me to hold it back. Which is weird because I didn't feel particularly invested in the characters or their fates beforehand. But those last few sentences were just so beautifully hopeless and tragic. Guh. They really got to me. What a tense ending.
31. Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh ★★★
This was amusing and well-written but I just never got as invested in the characters as I did in the other books of his I've read. And the plot wasn't exactly my cup of tea either. I mostly read this because it and Vile Bodies are kinda sorta companion pieces so I wanted to read the two of them together. In the end, there were only a few instances in the latter that were better understood by being familiar with the former. Still, it was an enjoyable enough experience. Though the best part was getting to read Vile Bodies again. What a delicious book. And with that being said, I think I am taking a break from him for awhile. Maybe I will read more of his novels in the future but there aren't any more that are really catching my attention right now.
32. The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger ★★★★★
Re-read. Still perfect. There's not much to say beyond that. I know a lot of people hate Holden but there's no denying how well written a character he is; his voice is so distinctive. Often, when I read books written in the first person, it's hard for me to truly accept that it's the character speaking and not just the author trying to be the character but that's not the case at all here. And, as far as hating him goes, wouldn't you rather hate a character than have no reaction at all to one? And isn't it more interesting for a character to be annoying or obnoxious than for one to be perfect with absolutely no negative qualities? That's what I think anyway. Usually, I find characters that you shouldn't really like in real life the most entertaining to read about.
33. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Mildred D. Taylor
This was a purely nostalgic read. From about fourth grade until sixth grade, this was my absolute favorite book and I read it many times over in those couple of years. I thought I had managed to misplace it somehow since then but a couple weeks ago, I randomly found it in a drawer I hadn't looked through in awhile - bent and tattered and taped together but still readable - and I suddenly felt like reading it to see how it held up so many years later. I was kind of expecting it to be totally cringeworthy but it wasn't. I mean, it wasn't nearly as epic and heart-pounding as it seemed to be when I was younger but I still found it interesting and it's pretty well-written and complex for a novel written for children. At any rate, I definitely shouldn't feel embarrassed that it used to be my favorite; I could've loved far worse.
34. Fall - Colin McAdam ★★★★★
This book is so good. So good. I don't remember exactly how I came across it (I spend far too much time looking for new book recommendations in way too many places) but I knew the minute I read the summary at Amazon that I would love it; it's exactly the kind of thing I'm into right now. In fact, it reminded me a lot of The Secret History albeit not quite as good. It's got that rich-kids-at-an-elite-school setting - though here it's high school - and though there isn't a murder, there is a missing person (whose death does end up likely being caused by someone else, though accidental) and as a result, an investigation and search (the part with the police questionings and all reminded me most of TSH). And, also similarly, a character is revealed to be not quite so sane as they might have appeared at the beginning. And the writing in Noel's chapters just has a similar tone to me. Basically, it's real good, even if I'm exaggerating the similarities.
I read almost all of the reviews at Amazon before buying this to be certain I would like it (because it just came out a few months ago and still costs a lot; I spent seventeen damn dollars on this baby - I haven't spent that much on one book in at least a year) and there seemed to be two main complaints, both about the structure of the novel. The first was that the chapters in Julius' point of view were more of an annoyance than anything else but I have to strongly disagree. Though the simplicity and primitiveness of his thoughts was frustrating at times, I think it was supposed to be. The whole point of his narrative was to capture what's going on inside the head of a teenager whose only worry in life is when he's next going to be able to have sex with his girlfriend and once you realize this, you realize how perfectly-written it is. Not to mention, between all the statements in the "My hair looks good" and "I'm barfing" vein, his chapters contain some of the book's most oddly poetic lines: "Half an hour of lips and silk in the front and back and her cheeks are like peaches like peaches like peaches." "This blood is new and my father's house is huge." "There's a million mysteries and the ground's electric I swear." They might not make much sense but they just sound beautiful. And ending the book with him feeling so carefree and happy before all of the terribleness happened? Guh. So sad.
The other complaint is that the chapters written from the point of view of William, a driver who works for Julius' father, are unnecessary and jarring. At first, I didn't quite understand why he suddenly showed up as a narrator in the middle of the book when he had only been a background character previously but then it made sense. Through his eyes, we catch a small glimpse of Julius as an adult. We see Noel as a teenager and adult simultaneously because he is telling the story of what happened in high school many years later. But Julius' chapters only show us what he was like as a teen so someone else needs to come in and give us a few details about what his life might be like now. That's where William comes in.
Anyway, sign of me loving this book? I'm going on and on about it. While I was reading, I wanted to finish it all at once and make it last forever at the same time. Obviously, the first choice won out but now that I'm done, I kind of just want to start it all over again.
35. Running with Scissors - Augusten Burroughs ★★★
Ugh... I guess I liked this book but I also had a lot of issues with it. First of all, the idea of memoirs doesn't really appeal to me much. I just really have problems reading them without wondering in the back of my mind which parts are true, which parts are dramatized and which parts are totally fabricated; this constant doubting really keeps me from truly becoming invested in a book. Also, I had a really hard time buying how young Augusten was when all of this stuff started happening to him. I mean, he was, what, twelve, thirteen for the majority of the book?!? I'm not saying I don't believe him but the way he portrayed himself at that age just seemed way too mature and adult. I guess, considering his circumstances, it makes sense but it was still hard to wrap my head around. Third, and maybe the biggest thing that kept me from really loving this, is that I just don't think I enjoy his writing style all that much. And I can't put my finger on exactly why. I mean, I could say it was too simplistic or too casual but a lot of authors I really enjoy could also be called that so I can't really consider those flaws. There's just something about his writing specifically that I don't like. All that being said, I did finish this rather quickly because I was simultaneously repulsed and intrigued by all of the goings-on and wanted to know more right away so I did enjoy it. I just didn't love it. It was way better than A Wolf at the Table but, still, I don't really care to read any of his other stuff right now. I'm slightly interested in seeing how his writing translates to a work of fiction though (as far as I know, he's only got one). Maybe I'd like it better if I'm not trying to convince myself everything he's writing about is all actually 100% true.
36. The Book of Other People - Various Authors (edited by Zadie Smith) ★★½
This was an extremely hit or miss collection, extremely, as in I-only-truly-liked-about-eight-of-these-twenty-three-stories extremely. I'd only read three of the contributing authors previously - Nick Hornby, Jonathan Safran Foer and Miranda July. Of those three, only the MJ story truly impressed me (but I am a little biased when it comes to her); JSF's was alright but didn't really go anywhere and even though I've enjoyed if not totally gotten into what I've read of him previously, NH's story was utterly pointless and stupid. So with the other twenty being written by authors I'd never read anything by before sadly only three made me extremely eager to check out more of their work and these were the stories by A.L. Kennedy, George Saunders (who has actually been on my to-read list for awhile), and Jonathan Lethem. I sort of liked stories by a few more authors but not enough to make me want to investigate them further right this moment. And, besides the Nick Hornby, I downright loathed both of the comics (I'll admit, I'm not really that into comics but I tried to give these a fair chance and they just seemed strange and made little sense to me) and Zadie Smith's story, which was possibly the biggest disappointment because I've been wanting to read her for awhile and it was so bland and boring that it completely put me off that idea. So, yeah, I didn't really feel like this collection was much worth my time for the most part. I will be checking out those few authors I mentioned being impressed by as soon as possible though so it wasn't a total waste.
37. No One Belongs Here More Than You - Miranda July ★★★★★
I've already praised this book to the high heavens multiple times so I don't think much more needs to be said. It's just perfect. It's one of those rare books I like more every time I read it. And every time, a story that never quite stood out to me before suddenly grabs me and tells me, "Hey! I deserve to be noticed too!" It also never fails to leave me wanting more. The thing I love most about her stories - and her work in general - is that one second they've got you laughing out loud and the next you're caught off-guard by something so devastatingly beautiful and heartfelt and profound. She's very good at turning her characters' flaws into something that makes them lovable and getting you to fall for these bizarre people stuck in these even more bizarre situations no matter how unsettling and just plain weird they might be. The only thing, in my opinion, to complain about in regards to her is that it is impossible for her to be anything but Miranda July. And by this I mean that she has such a distinctive storytelling voice and sense of humor that even these characters who are on the surface so unlike herself end up sounding exactly like her. I can't even read a male character's dialogue in an actual guy's voice in my head; I always hear it as her imitating a guy instead. I can see how this inability to shed herself completely in her stories might turn some people off but for me it actually makes them even more charming. Anyway. I said there was nothing much to say and I ended up writing a lot so I'll stop now before I write an entire book of praise.
38. The Stranger - Albert Camus ★★★★
I didn't totally love this but it was good and a really quick read. Mostly, I was just left thinking how totally different it was to the idea of it I had in my head. For some reason, I had this impression that it would be really boring and stuffy and dated. Maybe it's just my bias against really old books because, for some other reason, I thought this book was actually much older than it really is. So, yeah, I was pretty surprised by it. But it's not a favorite. I tend to be let down by books that are considered "classics" though just because they've been so hyped up, it becomes really difficult to be truly blown away.
39. Atonement - Ian McEwan ★★★★★
Why did I wait so long to read this?!? I put it off forever because I had convinced myself that I probably wouldn't like it. However, I loved it. Lately, I've been more into dialogue than long stretches of description and inner thoughts and that kind of stuff tends to bore me really quickly sometimes. I didn't have that problem with this book, though, because it was all just so beautifully-written and interesting even in the dullest moments. I also don't usually really love books that center around war because reading about wars does not interest me at all. And while I did get a bit restless during part two, where Robbie is trying to escape from France during World War II, I adored part three where Briony is working as a nurse to injured soldiers and overall, it was much more enjoyable to me than a lot of books I've read that take place in war. I'm not sure yet how I feel about the ending though. On one hand, it's a pretty interesting way to wrap up a novel. On the other hand, I feel like it kind of weakens the impact of the ending of part three. Briony's final meeting with Cecilia and Robbie becomes less touching when we find out that it never actually happened. But still. It was good regardless.
40. The Rules of Attraction - Bret Easton Ellis ★★★★½
I didn't enjoy this quite as much as Less Than Zero, hence the slightly lower rating, but I think a lot of that is just the fact that Less Than Zero was the first book of his I read so, along with my enjoyment of the novel itself, it holds an additional importance that The Rules of Attraction doesn't for me. In actuality, the characters in this book are much better-developed than those in his first. Less Than Zero's characters seemed more like sketches than actual people; they do a lot of crazy things but we never really learn about their feelings or who they truly are as people - they all seem almost interchangeable because they're so alike, except for perhaps Clay, the narrator, which makes sense since his is the only point-of-view we see things from. In this book, on the other hand, there are three main narrators and several others who get one or two chapters but are less vital to the story; they're all still rather shallow and spend most of their time thinking about drugs and sex but they also seem a lot more fleshed-out and realistic than their counterparts in Less Than Zero. They seem to actually do things for a reason and regret their actions and maybe even change as people throughout the course of the novel. My favorite thing about this book is how utterly delusional everyone is about the relationships they're in. Paul claims that he and Sean are madly in love with each other but Sean never mentions a romantic or sexual relationship with Paul which means we're never quite sure whether Paul is just fantasizing based on a string of extreme miscommunications or whether Sean is just denying it because he feels uncomfortable about being involved with another man. Meanwhile, Sean is receiving love letters that he is convinced come from Lauren, which leads to their tumultuous relationship, but in the end, they're from some random freshman who ends up committing suicide because he never acknowledges her presence. And Lauren spends the whole novel pining after her "true love" Victor who is in Europe but when he comes back, he seems to not even know who she is. These situations not only prove extremely humorous but they also demonstrate very well just how confusing and convoluted love can be. My second favorite thing is all the references to other characters like Clay from Less Than Zero and Patrick Bateman. And also, The Secret History references! Win. Overall, a very entertaining read.
41. Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk ★★★★½
This book is the literary equivalent to crack. Seriously. I'm still not sure I totally loved it but, damn, it was the most addictive thing I've ever read. I read it pretty much all at once because it was that difficult to put down.
42. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde ★★★★★
If you require a story that sticks to the point, moves along relatively quickly, and doesn't get lost in diversions and descriptions, this isn't the book for you. If you can deal with all of that and enjoy expertly drawn characters, beautiful prose, and innumerable witticisms, you'll probably love it. I was slightly disappointed at first because, from the summary and introduction to the book, I expected it to be full of MAYHEM and EVIL and CRIME all the way through and, well, that's not the case at all; in fact, most of the naughtiness happens in the last few chapters. But in the end I loved it because if I hadn't been misled in the first place, I wouldn't have had anything to complain about. And I sort of adored Dorian even though he becomes pretty much the root of all evil. But he is so prettily evil, no?
43. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee ★★★
Maybe it's because I've taken so long to read it and therefore had years to build it up in my head as a literary masterpiece... but I was highly let down by this book. Though I couldn't really tell you the exact reason why. Just something about it really rubbed me the wrong way and I could never get truly invested in the characters or their lives. It got a bit better once more dramatic things started happening, around the time of the big trial, but still... I wouldn't say I loved it. And I almost quit reading it altogether because the first few chapters of the book felt like such a chore to get through to me. Ugh. I don't want to feel this way but I do.
44. Like Life - Lorrie Moore ★★★★
I liked this as a collection far more than Birds of America but that book has "People Like That Are the Only People Here" which blows every story in this one out of the water. So that makes them kind of even. But I'm still rating this a bit higher as it's more consistent overall.
45. Geek Love - Katherine Dunn ★★★★★
I loved this. It was completely disturbing, totally fucked up, often extremely unrealistic, and painfully intense - all of which are awesome things in my book. And poor Chick. Poor, poor little Chicky. I felt worse for him than all of the other characters combined; everyone else had sides to them that I despised and but he seemed purely good, just too young to know any better than to do the terrible things he was told to. I cried for him and then I cried some more at the end. Is it wrong that sometimes my measure of how good a book is depends a lot on how depressed it makes me?? I guess I am just really impressed when I get invested enough in something to be totally emotionally ripped apart by it.
46. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald ★★½
Alright, I've seen a lot of hate for this book but I figured it was mostly because it's considered a classic and a lot of people hate any books with that label by default. But I finally read it and I... really did not enjoy it at all. And believe me, I wanted to. I thought I would. But it seemed so pointless. And the ending was so anti-climatic to me. And I think this was simply because I did not care about the characters at all. None of them. One bit. I felt like they were shells of characters. I knew them superficially but on a deeper level, I had no clue what kind of people they were. Therefore, I had zero investment in whatever happened to them. I just didn't care. And this is worse than totally hating a character or book for me. I'd rather despise something than be totally indifferent toward it. Overall, a big huge meh.
47. Lunar Park - Bret Easton Ellis ★★★★★+
I would give this book a hundred stars if I could. Because five stars just doesn't seem enough. I rated Less Than Zero five stars and, though they're completely different books on multiple levels and should not really be compared at all, this is so much better. This book is phenomenal, truly phenomenal. I skipped over his middle novels for the time being, going from his first two to this, his most recent, so it was very interesting to see just how much the writing has developed in such a drastic way. Yet it is still very much the same. It still has that simplistic, unadorned honesty but comes across as much more mature and wise. This book is also very emotional and intense which is a pretty big change compared to the detached, cold, shallow tone of those earlier works. I'll admit, I was a bit concerned after finishing the first chapter, which came across as very autobiography/memoir-ish to me and that's not really my thing, but once all of that back story was out of the way, it picked up immediately. And I just find this approach to autobiographical writing, using reality as a base for a fictional story, blurring the line between truth and fantasy until you don't know what's real and what's not, so much more interesting and creative than straight-up non-fiction; another book I can think of in the same vein is Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated which, though a very different approach, employs the same angle. Though there were many unresolved issues left at the end of Lunar Park and that usually annoys me, it actually made sense considering how absurd and crazy and impossibly twisted the entire story was - it would seem unnatural for all that totally unexplainable stuff to be explained in the end. I just took it as: this is simply a story I'm telling as is, it's not supposed to make sense because it didn't make sense to me, I'm only describing the events exactly as they happened. So I wasn't too bothered by the details left hanging.
I'll leave you with this, one of the best single sentences of writing I've read in an extremely long time, which made me tear up. And then after I recovered from that, the final paragraph made me completely lose it. Heartwrenching stuff.
"From those of us who are left behind: you will be remembered, you were the one I needed, I loved you in my dreams."
48. The Little Friend - Donna Tartt ★★★★
Now, listen, I'll get the inevitable out of the way and say this first: this book is in no way, shape, or form better than The Secret History, in my opinion. However, it was still very good. I wasn't sure it would turn out to be at first because it took so damn long to get to the real meat of the story (seriously, about half of the book) but then I kept remembering that I wasn't completely invested in TSH at first either so I kept trucking along. And then it did start to get really good - and weird and twisty and complicated just like TSH. But there were several reasons why I didn't like it nearly as much. First of all, the characters - though all of the characters in TLF are extremely well-developed and three-dimensional, I just didn't find them as intriguing or easy to connect to as those in TSH. Second, it reminded me a lot of To Kill a Mockingbird - and I don't think it was just the Southern setting and the main character being a child - and I didn't totally love that book either. Third, I could actually believe all of the crazy stuff that happened in TSH but some of this, especially near the end, seemed a little far-fetched to me. Fourth, what the fuck was that ending?!? Maybe I was totally spoiled by TSH and the fact that, more or less, the characters' stories get completely wrapped up but my mouth kind of hung open in shock when I got to the end. It was just so abrupt and odd and nothing was really resolved. It was weird. Anyway, despite all that, I did enjoy the book rather a lot and, just as with TSH, once it really got going, there were certain spots where I didn't want to put it down. But overall, I don't think I'll be reading this over and over again and all it really made me want to do is read The Secret History for the fourth or fifth time. Because, damn, that's an awesome book.
49. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ★★★★★
What a lovely, sweet little book. That's all I can really say about it, because it's so short, but it was refreshing after reading two 500+ page books in a row and I really loved the simplicity and pureness of it. And all of the drawings too!
50. The Informers - Bret Easton Ellis ★★★
This wasn't a terrible waste of time or anything - because I love the way he writes regardless of the content, really - but it was just okay and by far my least favorite of his material that I've read so far. Which is now everything but Glamorama (which I have) and American Psycho (which I also have... but in Spanish because I am a fucking moron who doesn't read product descriptions very thoroughly before purchasing... so that one's going to be awhile still). Anyway, this is a collection of short stories that are kind of loosely connected; a main character of one will be mentioned in passing in another or a supporting character will be given a leading role later on. The thing is... they aren't really about anything. Stuff just happens but it doesn't seem very important or worth thinking too deeply about. I guess you can kind of pose the same argument for Less Than Zero but, at least, with that being a novel, you get a chance to know the characters; in these, you never really get that opportunity, which makes them seem completely pointless. I did highly enjoy the more gruesome stories though - I can't remember titles right now but the ones about a kidnapped kid and vampires in LA were especially entertaining. Is it wrong that I am so entertained by gore and corruption and the like? I guess that bodes well for my enjoyment of American Psycho at least.
51. A Gate at the Stairs - Lorrie Moore ★★★★★
Wow, wow, wow. This is such a stunning book I don't even know where to begin with it. The first book I read of hers was Anagrams which I immediately fell in complete love with. After that, I read a couple of her short story collections and, while good, they didn't hold quite the same spark for me (even though I've more often heard people rave about her short stories rather than her novels). I was beginning to worry that I would never like anything of hers nearly as much but the summary of this book appealed to me very much and I was very anxious for its release... then when I went to buy it I noticed that the reviews were pretty mixed which made me a bit nervous to get started on it. But am I ever glad I did. Because it was stunning. And probably even better than Anagrams though I've only had about twenty minutes since finishing to develop that opinion. This book is just such an emotional whirlwind: it's funny, it's heartwarming, it's devastating, it's uplifiting, it's witty, it's poetic and beautiful - it's everything. Even though they are completely different in all other aspects, Lorrie Moore reminds me a lot of Margaret Atwood (who I haven't read nearly enough of, by the way) in the sense that no matter how invested you get in the actual story and characters, they're always such a pleasure to read regardless because literally every sentence they come up with is so perfect and beautiful and breathtaking. They can write about nothing, about what they ate for breakfast, and it'll knock you out with how effortlessly lovely it sounds. This book is so full of clever phrases and alliterations and plays on words and jokey-jokey stuff like that but it's never too much and it also makes the really hard-hitting stuff even more so. Of course it also helps to have a story to get invested in - which definitely happened for me here. I wept, I laughed, I felt everything Tassie felt. And loved every minute of it.
52. The Fundamentals of Play - Caitlin Macy ★★★½
I liked this book but as far as books with a similar structure and common themes go, I've also read much better. I read it in a very short amount of time because I did find it interesting but I wasn't really interested in the characters or how things turned out for them but just in how things turned out in general. That doesn't make much sense. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this was a good story but that was all it was: I didn't feel attached to it on an emotional level at all. And for all of the analyzing George did of Kate and Chat and Harry and Nick and even himself, I still felt like I barely knew who they were by the end. And speaking of that end, I was rather disappointed in it. I mean, I guess if you think about it, it's not dissimilar to life; real life is messy and unpredictable and random and it kind of illustrated that. But, still, I read books to be entertained and enthralled and the ending left me cold. I was also very confused by that point. Though I didn't have a problem with the writing for the most part, I think it started to get blurrier and more convoluted by the last few chapters - I didn't know whether Kate was marrying Harry or Chat or someone else until it turned out to be some random guy in the final chapter. So it was an unsatisfying read and probably something I wouldn't reach for again but it still kept me mildly entertained.
53. Glamorama - Bret Easton Ellis ★★★★★
This book was ridiculous and completely, utterly, entirely insane - and I mean that as the highest form of flattery possible. I thought Lunar Park was confusing and convoluted but this one was even more so; I was literally left with my mouth hanging open on more than one occasion and I'm not sure I entirely grasp what exactly happened at all (and I was hoping to be illuminated by Wikipedia but the summary there is, sadly, only the obvious stuff) - I mean, Jesus, there's just so much to digest and just when you think you have something figured out, you're proven wrong. I love books like that but they also make me feel like my head is going to explode and this was no exception. It was also way more graphic than I was anticipating and though the many very detailed descriptions of torture and gore were probably the most stomach-churning things I've ever read (and my tolerance for that type of thing when it comes to books is pretty high), I was also strangely enthralled by them in a trainwreck sort of way - they were horrible and disgusting but I just couldn't look away. Though the scene that bothered me the most wasn't actually any of the blood and guts but the obsessive-compulsively detailed sex scene that went on for about six pages - I really did not need to read that. I'm not a prude but that made me uncomfortable and I would have taken six more pages of mutilated bodies over that any day. The only other negative thing I can say is that Victor doesn't really become a likable, rootable protagonist until around part three or maybe even part four because up until that point, he doesn't really seem like anything more than a vapid, self-obsessed airhead - but I think that's actually the point. I just found it really hard to get through the first hundred or so pages because it only felt like stupid people talking about stupid things and nothing else; once I got about halfway through the book, though, I absolutely couldn't put it down. So that second half was definitely strong enough to make up for any weaknesses in the first (and they aren't really weaknesses, just personal preferences). Basically, I loved it but I'm not sure I can ever read it again or at least not anytime soon - I know some of the most graphic scenes are going to stick with me for a long time regardless. And I'm kind of torn between wanting to read American Psycho right this instant and letting my mind wander away from all of these violent images for awhile - because I'm sure that one's even more graphic.
And for the record, my current order of favorites for his books is: Lunar Park, Less Than Zero, Glamorama, The Rules of Attraction, The Informers... though I might be convinced to put Glamorama above Less Than Zero someday... I just have a special attachment to that one because it was the first I read.
54. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction - J.D. Salinger ★★★½
55. The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams ★★★★
56. Sputnik Sweetheart - Haruki Murakami ★★★★½
57. An Invisible Sign of My Own - Aimee Bender ★★★★★ (re-read)
58. The Lake of Dead Languages - Carol Goodman ★★★
Sigh. I just finished this so my emotions are still running strong. I really wanted to love this... in fact, I was loving it. Some of the plot twists were ridiculously predictable and it was probably because there were just too many packed in for all of them to be shocking and creative but I was considering that a minor quibble. Because otherwise, it was a well-paced, dark, intriguing thriller. But then the last two chapters. Oh, the last two chapters. I'd like to just forget about them. First, let's discuss that second-to-last chapter, in which the final confrontation between our heroine and crazed homicidal maniac occurs. Not only did I find the confrontation itself a little too melodramatic to be realistic - more like something you'd see in some over-the-top crime show - but I found the portrayal of the villian to be completely unrealistic as well, not to mention out-of-character. All throughout the rest of the book, there had been no signs of her being insane/murderous - sure, she was a little bit nosy, definitely a bitch, maybe a little on the eccentric side - but she was behaving like a relatively normal human being. Now, I know it's possible for a person to keep their criminal activity hidden from those closest to them but I just couldn't buy that a person as crazy and out-of-control as she was in that final scene could act completely sane and not raise any suspicions up until that point. I also didn't buy her reasons for wanting to kill. They were explained but they didn't seem like enough. Especially considering how elaborately-plotted the whole thing was.
However, I was willing to forgive all that because the rest of the book had been much better - with just a few of those previously-mentioned obvious twists and maybe some spotty writing here and there. But then Goodman had to go and stomp on everything great she had managed to accomplish all over again by giving us that absolutely ridiculous last chapter. What could be so horrible as to ruin an entire book? Let me try to tell you. Basically, our heroine turns into any other ol' Mary Sue-type character and happiness gets handed to her on a silver platter. I'm not just talking about the main conflict being over and her going on with her life as normal - oh no, I would've been fine with that. But instead we learn that the whole future of the school is in the hands of her beloved student whom she just saved from death! But not the whole future - the rest of that decision belongs to the man from the past who re-enters her life and is obviously going to become her romantic interest! But wait - that's not even all! We then find out that this decision is actually in our heroine's own hands - because, get this, her grandmother who worked as a servant to the school's founder is actually the real mother of that founder's ill-fated youngest daughter. Then, when that founder met our heroine as a teenager on a scholarship to her school, she was so impressed with this twist of fate that she legally changed the terms of the school's ownership to leave the decision up to Ms. Perfect Protagonist! And when the three collectively decide, of course, to keep the school running, our Mary Sue predictably steals a smooch (with, I'm sure, many more to come) from Mr. Blast-from-the-Past and then is reunited with the daughter she so heroically sent off to live with her father in the beginning! Jesus fucking Christ, I am about to overdose on the amount of sickeningly sweet sugar I just ingested. It's like, you build up this whole moody, dark, intense murder mystery that spans a couple of decades and has all these sneaky, sneaky twists and turns along the way only to have it end like any other pandering-to-the-masses (because we can't feed the general population anything other than enough happiness to suffocate them!) generic piece of crap. UGH. It just really pissed me off. However, I can't discount the fact that I really enjoyed the rest of the book and it was definitely a page-turner. So I'm being nicer with my rating than I should be. And now I will shut up before my head explodes.
NO. WAIT. I forgot one other major thing. This book had so much in common with The Secret History - so much, in fact, that the comparison was actually made in two of the little review blurbs about it, one even printed on the front cover - that it couldn't have been mere coincidence. Which made the disappointment at the end all the more stinging because, as we all know, that is one of my very favorite books ever. And I thought this might be able to spark just a fraction of the emotion in me that that one does until it went and completely jumped the shark. Now that I think about it, this book would've been much better if the whole present-day murder mystery was done away with it and it focused more exclusively on the events from the past that triggered it. Because the flashbacks were definitely the most engaging parts of the book and the present-day stuff, in comparison, just seemed silly and ridiculous. BLARRRRRGH. Okay, now I'm going to shut up.
Well, I had actually made a mental goal last month to make it to sixty books total for the year but I gave up once I realized that I really had no interest in reading any of the books in my to-read pile and needed to buy some more ASAP. So I got to 58, which is still one more than last year, so I consider that a success. Including books I read multiple times, however, that number gets knocked up to 64, two more than '08 counting re-reads. So I guess technically I did reach my goal. Go me? Anyway, I still have at least a dozen books at the moment that I need to read (even if, as stated above, I really don't want to at this moment in time) and I'm also planning to buy a good few more very soon... so I've already got plenty lined up to keep me busy in 2010!
