books #7-22 (2007)

I haven't been doing too well at keeping up with the book posts this year. I also haven't been reading as much as last year, though. This is a pretty pathetic post, since I didn't write many of the entries close to when I read the books. You'll have to click the links to find any actual description, too. I'm just sick of having this draft sitting around, so I'm posting it. I'll try to do a better job on the next one.

7. Hell by Kathryn Davis ****. I wish I'd written a description of this when I first started this post, months ago. It was an intriguing and creepy book.

8. The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery ***. A commenter recommended this one to Katie and since I could identify with the post that incited the suggestion (and because I love the Anne of Green Gables books, though not some others of LMM), I requested it from the library. It was delightful. Katie, you should definitely read it, if you haven't already. It didn't really make me believe that I would get the fairy tale ending that Valancy got, but it was a sweet and happy book.

9. On Beauty by Zadie Smith ***1/2. I liked this a lot more than I liked White Teeth, but the ending was one of those ones where I turned the page and was surprised to see just blank paper.
10. Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier ***. I read a very favourable review of this trilogy somewhere, but I didn't like it that much. The story is split between Sydney and New York City, which could have been interesting, but I found the gratuitous use of slang to distinguish the American and Australian characters annoying, especially because the characters were all so dumb. One of the Australians had the excuse of living in small towns her whole life and never getting to know anyone but her mother, but are there really Americans who wouldn't understand "my grandmother and I don't get on", for example? Maybe if I hadn't been so irritated I would have liked the book better... I didn't dislike it enough to not read the rest of the trilogy, though, especially since it's YA and therefore easy to read quickly.

11. The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian ****. The book follows the people who are in a children's hospital through the storm that turns it into an ark, as they try to figure out what's going on, whether they'll ever get to land again and how all the uncertainty affects the way they live. SuperGradStudent read this book and didn't like how it kind of changed halfway through, but I think I did, because it was a result of circumstances changing in the hospital. It reminded me a little of Children of Men, which I thought was pretty crap; this was more like how I wanted the movie to be.

12. The Statue Within by François Jacob **1/2. My advisor gave me this book for Winter Holiday of Your Choice, so I felt obliged to read it. When he (finally) got around to describing his actual scientific work, the book was pretty interesting (he was getting started around the time they were just figuring out that DNA transmitted genetic information). Unfortunately, the majority of the book was about his childhood and experiences in WWII and I found his reminiscing style fairly pretentious and annoying. Even in the later part of the book, he'd occasionally lapse into the same style when talking about his family.

13. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby ****1/2. This was a great book to read after the never-ending Statue Within. It was light and funny and I got a bunch of book recommendations.

14. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon ***1/2. Nick Hornby wrote about this book, although that isn't why I read it. His criticism did stick with me, though, which is probably unfortunate, since it was such a small point. Now this sounds unfairly negative. I liked it, I think I'm just sick of writing descriptions of books I read ages ago.

15. This Shape We're In by Jonathan Lethem ***1/2. Jeremy offered this book as a counterexample when I became suspicious that his dislike of the endings of The Boy Detective Fails and Special Topics in Calamity Physics were indicative of a general trend. It does have a very good ending, but I didn't love the whole as much as some books with imperfect endings.

16. Magic Lessons by Justine Larbalestier. This was the second book in the trilogy and was fairly similar to the first, but I have to finish the trilogy now.

17. A Boy of Good Breeding by Miriam Toews ***. I got this book because of how much I loved a single sentence from the previous book I read by the same author ("I was reminded that I was, at that very moment, not bleeding from my face. And those are powerful words of hope, really."). Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that I didn't love the rest of the book as much as that sentence and this one was similar. It was nice enough, but not great.

18. The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success by Nick Lore ***. I added this to my request list when I was wondering if I really belong in grad school. I think I'll have more to say about it later. I thought it had some good things to say about goal-setting in general, even if you're not interested in changing careers.

18. The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon. I've only read a chapter of this. Reading it reminded me of how terrible I felt last year, so I'm not sure I want to read more...

19. Shyness and Society: The Illusion of Competence by Susie Scott. This was pretty interesting. The principal difference between shy and unshy people, as she sees it, is that unshy people trust others to help them keep face, if they make a mistake, whereas shy people think other people will just point and laugh.

20. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens ***1/2. Nick Hornby loved this, and I'm still having trouble browsing for books at the library, so I borrowed this. I feel kind of uncultured only giving it 3.5 stars, but meh. My George Eliot-loving housemate was horrified that I wouldn't class this as one of my favourite books, since "it's so funny". Amusing and entertaining, perhaps, but I wouldn't call it a funny book. The young female characters irritated me, too; they were all so devoted to their fathers (the fact that one married her father-figure was creepy).

21. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster ***1/2. Perhaps the Boy Themes were the reason I didn't love it entirely, but I did enjoy it. It was going to be 4 stars after the first book in the trilogy, but by the time I got to the end, I had the feeling that I didn't quite get it, which reduced my enjoyment a little. Jeremy's more enthusiastic post about it, kind of added to that impression. Maybe I just don't like books to twiddle with my brain.

22. The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter ***1/2. This was probably more like book #15, but I forgot about it until now, which is also why it's getting 3.5 stars. I enjoyed it, but clearly not enough to remember anything specific about it. Actually, in finding the link, I read some review snippets and now I'm tempted to give it 4 stars. It was good.

There are too many 3.5 star books in this list (although that might be more due to my boredom with rating books, than the books themselves). I need to find a book I really love sometime soon...
(wolfa, Benighted is up next; I hope you haven't raised my expectations unreasonably :) )