Home Sweet Sarah

Back when we last talked books, I said I’d come back again at the end of the year and talk about the other books I’d read. Well hey, it’s the end of the year! Time to talk books.

This Is How You Lose Her, by Junot Diaz
So when I want to find a good book or when I hear of a book but want to vet it, I usually go to Elizabeth’s site, type the book title into the search bar, or type “books I read this month,” and see if Elizabeth has read the book in question or troll her lists for possible books to read. This book came about because (I think? I can’t quite remember now) Elizabeth loved it (Elizabeth, did you love it?) I did not love it. But I also did not hate it! It’s a bunch of little stories of love/sex/relationships/family and while all were compelling, it was confusing to me at times. Like, I couldn’t keep up with all these different stories and situations and I had trouble figuring out who was who sometimes. Also I felt like there was one story that got brought up once and then never got brought again I was like, wait, what happened to that one couple?! I feel like this book is maybe a little autobiographical. I’d totally read his memoir.

The 10th Anniversary, by James Patterson
I’m sure this was like every James Patterson I’ve ever read. I can’t remember.

What Alice Forgot, by Liane Moriarty
Behind Rules Of Civility, this is probably my second-favorite book of the year. Like the title says, Alice forgot some stuff…And then she tries to remember and the whole book is funny and sweet and it has a very nice ending. Boom.

Last Night At Chateau Marmont, by Lauren Weisberger
So this is the same gal who wrote The Devil Wears Prada and I had higher hopes for this book than it turned out because I do remember The Devil Wears Prada as being pretty good. I mean, Meryl Streep was in the damn movie; was the book really that bad?! I still maintain that no, it was not. This book, on the other hand? This book was kind of painful (AND YET I KEPT READING IT). It was about your average Jane whose husband gets a record deal and then all the problems that ensue from that. Mostly what pissed me off was that this woman was supposedly a nutritionist and so the book would describe what she ate and it was always very non-sustainable stuff. Like, half a whole wheat English muffin and a quarter cup of cottage cheese and I’m sorry, that is not enough food for someone who’s supposedly a runner. It’s just not. The best friend in the book was much more compelling. I’d have rather read a book about her.

Title and author withheld
I rarely read books on my Kindle app, but I needed something to read in bed that I didn’t need to turn the light on for and this book was $.99 and the author is the wife of a former California State Senator who randomly started following my (work) twitter one day and then I heard her pimping the book on our local public radio, so I thought I’d give it a go. Words cannot explain how awful it is (which is why I am not giving you the title or author — I’d prefer to not kill my chances of getting a job in this town because you never know, BUT if you want to waste a dollar of your fortune and a few hours of your life, then let me know and I’ll email you the details.) It is truly one of the worst books I’ve ever read in my life and it is way too inside baseball for the average person who is not knee-deep in California politics to read and understand. Instead, it just seems really dumb and unbelievable (even though there are some ripped from the headlines-type stories, they are just not that interesting to anyone who, say, didn’t work for the people involved in those headlines and thus don’t translate well into “fiction.”) Does that make sense? Like, who would ever care about a State Senator (not even a U.S. Senator!) who sleeps with a lobbyist and then talks about it in a committee hearing room (is there a more boring place?!) with his mic on? No one! I barely cared and I lived through it. I think (minus the awful, awful writing — she actually, within the text of the book, explained what the phrase “break a leg” means), the political stuff could have been way more intriguing if she’d exaggerated the stories, made it take place on the Federal level (which people can relate to — who can relate to California politics?) Basically she thinks California politics are more exciting than they are and thought others would agree. Nope, wrong. (This is the most scathing review I’ve ever written! I feel kind of bad, except not.)

The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain
I really disliked this book. It’s about Ernest Hemingway’s first wife and man, she was just a wet blanket. She was sort of meek and boring and I don’t even get the impression she was a muse of his. The best part was the very, very end, but the middle was just sort of painful and it made me mad at her. I did enjoy hearing about all the peripheral characters (the Fitzgeralds, etc.) and that era of “U.S. expat art” taking place in Paris, but yeah. If you want a good book about the wife/significant other of a well-known crazy artist man, then I would suggest Loving Frank. Much better.

Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn
I think this is her first book and I liked it better than her second book (Dark Places), but not as much as her third book (Gone Girl, for those of you living under a rock last summer.) It was short and creepy and intriguing, but didn’t have the big “Gotcha!” twist that Dark Places and especially Gone Girl had. I liked the big twists, but know some people didn’t, but either way, I did like this book.

Now I’m reading Life After Life, which I have heard excellent things about, but it seems rather large and I am not sure I’ll finish it by the end of the year. If I do, I’ll add it to the list.

Poll time! How long do you give a book before you just give up and decide it’s not meant to be? I usually try to give 50 pages, but in some cases I just power through. (Like with Last Night At Chateau Marmont, it was so easy to read, I just finished it, even though it was so lame.) There have been a couple books I’ve given 50 pages to, but could just not get into (Life Of Pi comes to mind) and I don’t feel bad about jumping ship on them. AND THEN, there have been a few that no matter how hard I tried, there was just no way in hell I was ever going to finish. Remember when I tried to read Pride & Prejudice a couple years ago? Also, Interview With The Vampire. Both those books I liked (more so Interview; I more felt obligated to read P&P for whatever reason) but could just not get through. I gave Interview a lot of pages because I did like that book, I really did, but I just couldn’t with the no chapters thing and the fact that I was like a quarter of the way through it and they were STILL talking about the same crap from the beginning, when he wasn’t even a vampire yet. And as for P&P, I know Kathleen Kelly loves the language from that book, but NO. Not for me. 2 hard 2 read. Anyway, what’s your criteria for ditching books you just can’t get into?

It was my goal last year to read 12 books, which I just about did and so this year, my goal was pretty much the same. Imagine my surprise, then, to find that I have already read 12 books and it’s only a little more than halfway through the year. GO ME. (Although I must credit the library, this previously-imagined mythical place where they just give you books for free. That place is amazing.)

Here’s what I’ve read so far this year. I’ll do another update at the end of the year, as well.

13 Steps Down, by Ruth Rendell
This book came from my dad years ago and I never got around to it, but then I started reading it at the end of last year and finished at the beginning of this year. It’s a good murder mystery-type book and I enjoyed it. It was a little silly and ridiculous in some parts (the main character is just NOT VERY BRIGHT), but I’d read more books by her.

Rockabye, by Rebecca Woolf
Holly gave me this book to read and I enjoyed it. I love Rebecca’s blog and I thought her book was just an extension of that. It didn’t feel contrived or over-edited, like other blogs-to-books I’ve read and I always appreciate her honesty. I get the impression from reading her blog now, though, that she is pretty embarrassed about the book, which is too bad. When the book finishes, her son is about the age LG is now, and I could relate to a lot of what she wrote about, so props to her! No embarrassment needed.

Wild Fire, by Nelson DeMille
This was another book I randomly found on our bookshelf (I love when that happens!) I also love Nelson DeMille and his character, John Corey, so this book wasn’t a stretch for me. It’s your typical DeMille: Good plot, good dialogue, enjoyable characters, satisfying ending. I’ve yet to find a DeMille I didn’t like, so there you go. That being said, I did try to start Spencerville, which I found on my parents’ bookshelf and I just couldn’t get into it. The antagonist is just too much for me and it was making me mad. It’s still on my nightstand, though, so I’ll probably give it another go.

Alex Cross’s Trial, by James Patterson
This is your typical James Patterson: Short chapters, which make you feel really accomplished as you breeze through the book, and a good story. This was a little different than his usual Alex Cross books, as it was written as though Alex Cross was writing it (telling a story from early-1900s Mississippi), but it basically read the same as all James Patterson’s books do.

Dedication, by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
This was my first library book and that is a good thing. This book was good, not great, but an entertaining chicklit-type read nonetheless. It switched back and forth between high school and then present day for our main character and that was kind of fun. The ending was also satisfying, which I like. Nothing like getting all the way to the end and being pissed off.

Rules Of Civility, by Amor Towles
This is (so far) my favorite book of the year. It made me want to be a young working gal in 1930s Manhattan, drinking too much gin and chain-smoking cigarettes. I’m sort of dying for the author to write something else (I think this was his first book), so suffice it to say: Highly recommend.

Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
I read this at the recommendation of everyone and their mother and I did love it. First, I always love a local story, where I have either been to the places the author is talking about or at least know of them. Also, there is a map at the beginning and MAN do I love maps or family trees or whatever at the beginning of a book. That’s a guaranteed read for me. Anyway, I think the book worked well. If it was just, “Here’s what happened while I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail,” I might not have liked it as much, but with the flashbacks, it worked.

Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn
I enjoyed this, as much as one can enjoy a book that is still affecting them so much they cannot get up to pee in the middle of the night anymore, but I am sure that’ll pass. But no, it was good, I enjoy Gillian Flynn’s dark mind and this was an entertaining read with a nice little twist at the end. I have Sharp Objects, so I’ll be reading that soon, as well.

Drinking & Tweeting, by Brandi Glanville
This is a Real Housewife’s book and it is GOOD. Lots of dirt talked about LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian and I know it’s Brandi’s book and all, but let me show my allegiance now: Team Brandi. Anyway, this was entertaining and honest and I loved the part where she was taking her kids to visit her parents in Sacramento and they asked if they were flying on a private plane and she was like, “No! We’re flying Southwest!” I mean, it is the most efficient was to go from LAX to SMF. (With the exception of a private plane.)

Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld
I liked this fine, not as much as American Wife, but okay. Maybe because I never went to prep school/I’m not from the east coast/etc., so I have no frame of reference for anything she’s talking about. BUT, Curtis Sittenfeld can weave just the very best analogies ever, I’ll give her that. I appreciate an author who makes me go, “Yes! That is exactly it!” so hey, I guess she made me relate more to prep schools/the east coast/etc. than I would have thought. The ending was very meh, though.

The 9th Judgment, by James Patterson
Do I even need to review this? No. It was his usual ridiculousness and of course the 10th book is now on hold for me at the library.

The Island, by Elin Hilderbrand
This was a nice summer read. It follows the lives of four women (a mom and her two daughters, as well as her sister) and each chapter (although there were no real chapter) followed one of the women. There was no mystery or anything, but it was entertaining and the ending was good. It made me want to go to Nantucket and also had me Googling that show Wings, from the ’90s, and who is Tom Nevers, anyway?

That’s what I’ve read so far this year! Anything good you’ve read lately?