Books of 2012: Part Two

I could have sworn that I'd done more than one book review post this year, but nay. Just the one so far. I'm going to have to expend real energy to remember what all I've read since June, especially because some of the books were in (gasp!) hard copy and I'm obviously not budging from the couch to go hunt them down to see what they were, so it's possible this will be an incomplete list. I'm sure you'll piece your life back together. 

I last left off with Tana French, so that is where I shall begin again:

Faithful Place by Tana French -- I read this right after The Likeness, so there was no hope for it, really. I liked it okay, but it was nowhere near as absorbing as its predecessor. Soon after I read this one, Broken Harbor came out, but by then I needed to take a break from the mystery/thriller genre, because my delicate sensibilities can only take so many Bad Things Happening. 

Summer People by Elin Hilderbrand -- When we were in Nantucket, the house had some beachy reads lying about, so I picked this one up. The writing was so-so, but the plot hit just the right note for a vacation book. Plus, of course, her books all take place on Nantucket (and this one, as a bonus, was about New York people spending the summer on Nantucket -- kind of like us, except those rich bastards owned a beach house there and got to spent the whole summer on the island instead of one paltry week), and I do enjoy reading stories about a place when I'm in that place. It served its purpose well in those respects.

The Red House by Mark Haddon -- I've read Haddon's other books (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and A Spot of Bother) and LOVED both. This one was different. It was a bit...impressionistic and abstract, and I almost stopped reading it within the first few pages because I felt like it was trying too hard. Plus I wondered if I'd inadvertently fallen into a Faulkner novel where you can't tell who's talking or whether they're just thinking instead of talking or whether they are, in fact, a dead person. But I soldiered on, and I ended up really liking it. Not as much as the other two, but a good bit, anyway.

(Seriously, y'all, I have tried on multiple occasions to read Faulkner, and I can't. It is utterly beyond me, and life is too short to spend reading something that makes you go, What in the holy HELL is going on here?)

This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman -- This is about a New York family with a teenager at a tony private school, and the kid has a momentary lapse of judgment involving forwarding an email, and his life kind of caves in as a result. I thought it was reasonably realistic, and the characters were well-drawn; I also liked the New York-ness of it and the fact that the family in it was not a bunch of horrible jerks. My only real beef was that it seemed too short. Almost rushed, in a way. I wanted it to be longer and for the story to have a bit more depth. But on the plus side, it was a quick read, good for summer time.

The Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont -- Continuing on my theme of private school kids, this one takes place in the 1980s at a boarding school in New England. It's got the usual coming-of-age thing going on and involves more than a small amount of tragedy. I wanted it to knock my socks off, but it didn't quite. There were a couple of things that seemed slightly off in the writing and the characters, and there was a subplot that felt misplaced. But I kept reading, and I can still remember passages from it now, so evidently it had an impact. 

Dare Me by Megan Abbott -- This got a glowing review in the Times (a book about cheerleaders is not something I'd expect the NYT to go ape over), so I snapped it up to continue my teenage angst bender; but whoa, I did not like it very much. The pacing was weird, the plot developments abrupt/stilted, and the writing got a bit indulgent for my taste. I just didn't believe it.

Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead -- A debut novel, this takes place on a fictionalized version of Nantucket over the course of a wedding weekend. It's about family, marriage, aging, and inter-generational conflict. I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were some very cringe-worthy parts, in terms of characters doing things you really don't want them to do, but it all rang true and the people in it were vivid and familiar. It should be out in paperback by next summer, just in time for your beach reading. 

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn -- I'm going to duck after saying this: I HATED this book. {duck!} I disliked virtually everything about it. Within the first few pages, I had guessed what the big plot twist was going to be (and I turned out to be right), so that kind of sullied it from the get-go. But beyond that, I found the characters not only to be atrocious and unlikeable, but also completely unbelievable. The narrative voices grated on my nerves, and I didn't think anyone acted like people would act in whatever situation they were in. None of it seemed the tiniest bit plausible to me. Ugh, ugh, ugh. I couldn't wait for it to be over. 

Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos -- If you are looking for a comfy warm blanket of a book, this is it. I've read her other two novels (Love Walked In and Belong to Me), and while they weren't fundamentally life-altering, they were pure pleasure to read. Her work reminds me of Elizabeth Berg: witty and thoughtful, with little shimmery passages tucked away here and there. No showing off, no over-writing or flashy/quirky plots and characters. Just simple stories about realistic people living in the real world, where the simple things are also the most important (but without being all heavy-handed about that message, you know?). 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green -- I avoided reading this for a long time, even though I'd heard so many great things. I was skittish about delving into a possible ugly-cry book on my daily commute, and I worried there might be medical stuff in it that would make me faint-y (also not a good thing on the subway). Allison read it a week or so ahead of me, so she sussed out the sad parts and gave me fair warning. I decided to take the plunge, and oh, man. Everyone was right about this one. It's wonderful.

I know that reading about young people with cancer sounds like about the biggest downer in the universe, but allow me -- a sensitive soul if ever one has existed -- to urge you to PRESS ON. Read this book. It's funny and smart and I MISSED the characters when I was away from the book during my day. The writing hits precisely the right note of being incredibly insightful and having sophisticated ideas, but not being self-aggrandizing or loud about it. I highlighted a zillion things in it. I LOVED IT.

I did cry at a few parts, but it was more of a wistful cry, a figuring-out-important-things-about-life cry. A damn this is a good book and I love these people cry. Not an ugly cry, which is borne more of hopeless/helpless feelings. I also got light-headed once, but I think it was more because I had gone for a run and waited too long for breakfast than because of anything in the book (the medical stuff is pretty minimal). 

So now, of course, I want to read everything by John Green, so if anyone has a suggestion of what I should or shouldn't read of his next, please speak up (I HATE when I read someone's Best Work, and then I keep trying to recapture that glory by reading everything else they've written and it's all downhill; so if you think I should quit while I'm ahead, I am open to that -- on the other hand, some of his other books sound quite good and smart and well-written, and he's won a bunch of awards, so I am hopeful that there can be something else for me in his prodigious works). 

What have y'all been reading lately? Anything good? 

Comments

[Elizabeth]

THANK YOU for not liking Gone Girl. I swear I was starting to think it was just me and there was something wrong with me! But the tone of voice was just so awful! I kept wondering if the whole thing was just a joke? A weird nasty joke? I don't know, but it was not for me. Glad to hear I'm not the only one, we can be crazy together :)

[H]

Thank you! I love your book posts. For some insane reason, I decided to make my way through Alice Hoffman's books. I'm surprised at how much I love some and hate others. I loved the Dovekeepers but it took forever to read. I absolutely hated The Probable Future. I'm starting The Red Garden tonight.

[Erin]

I loved Looking for Alaska and I liked An Abundance of Katherines by John Greene. There was another of his, though, that I couldn't even get through!

[Julia]

Looking for Alaska is an excellent book. In some ways, I liked it more than The Fault in our Stars. I enjoyed Katherines but didn't think Papertowns was good at all. I also enjoyed Will Grayson Will Grayson, which he wrote with a childhood friend. Also, if you haven't seen some of his vlogbrothers YouTube videos, you should check them out =)

[Anu]

So this really depends on the person. I've met people who loved and hated every single one of his books - personally, I think they're all worth a read, but Looking for Alaska is the only book that is AS GOOD AS TFIOS. That's not to say that his other books aren't good. They're just not quite AS good.

[Andrea]

I loved Paper Towns, and liked Looking for Alaska. I just finished An Abundance of Katherines and it was just ok compared to the others.

[Jamie]

The only book I've picked up that wasn't something self-helpy for work research (or pregnancy-related) was "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orleans. I put it down *almost* as fast as I picked it up (full disclosure: I gave it 50 pages. That's my limit for books I'm not sure about) I do not recommend.

[Amy K]

I'm probably the last person on Earth to read it, but I finished I Capture the Castle recently and loved it. The Snow Child is beautiful if you enjoy magical realism. The Lock Artist is exciting.

[pseudostoops]

Oh, I loved Looking for Alaska. I've had The Fault in Our Stars on my shelf for months and have been avoiding it due to Crying While Commuting issues, but I will trust you and put it in the bag to start next.

[Jennie]

I also had big issues with Gone Girl. I read it fast, so I can't say it was horrible, but I just found it so unbelievable and implausible.

I go back and read passages from The Fault in Our Stars at times, just to remember how incredible reading that book was the first time through. "I fell in love like you fall asleep, slowly and then all at once." (I read that to Mike and he said, "That's how I fell in love with you.")

[JudithNYC]

While I agree with everything you said about Gone Girl (unbelievable,unplausible, atrocious characters,kinda grating), I have to say I loved the book. What made the difference for me is that I did not anticipate the plot twists. I used to be really good at this but not anymore. One of the many things I love about my brain cells dying due to old age. he, he

I read A LOT and quickly forget, so if I remember a book it's because I found it specially good. Two that come to mind: The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns (don't remember the author) and Trapeze by Simon Mawer, but then I like anything by Simon Mawer.

[Meredith (peacelovemath)]

I haven't yet gotten around to reading anything by John Green, but my sister the youth librarian adores him, and she says TFIOS is his best book. So...try his YouTube channel?

This is exactly how I feel about Faulkner. Exactly.

[Gillian]

Julia Glass! The Whole World Over, I See You Everywhere, really any of them. Three Junes is her first, and prob my fave.

[MLE]

If you haven't read it yet, I recently read (and really enjoyed) The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht. The novel's structure is unusual and the plot is compelling, and I enjoyed reading a story set in a place I don't know much about.

[Gwen]

I've been a John Green fan for years, and it's been fun to see his popularity take off. TFIOS is his best, but I also loved Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska. I'd recommend maybe reading them in the order they were written (LFA, then Paper Towns) because in some ways Paper Town is a response to/further development of certain ideas from LFA. An Abundance of Katherines is good and fun but my least favorite. Will Grayson, Will Grayson is great but the David Levithan co-writing makes it a very different book than if John Green had written it alone, so I don't fully count it.

[Jesabes]

Uh-oh, seems we're not book compatible. I loved Gone Girl and thought The Fault in Our Stars was awful. Formulaic (albeit with an effort to make it 'quirky') and basically just boring and emotionally manipulative (like, I knew when I was supposed to cry, but didn't). I was not a fan.