The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Part I: The Pox Party

Book:  The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Part 1:  The Pox Party
Author:  M.T. Anderson
Like/Don't Like:  this was kind of mind-blowing

I had no idea what this book was about when I picked it up at the library.  I just saw the cover and thought it looked interesting.  I didn't even read the inside flap. So when I started reading it I was immediately blown away because I just didn't have a clue what I was in for. It surprised me from the very first page.  I was not prepared for how gripping it would be. To tell you the premise would mean giving away most of the story so I'll just say that it's part historical novel (set in Boston just before the Revolutionary War began), part coming of age tale (Octavian is a teenager through most of the book - it's a YA novel in case you decide to look for it), and part vocabulary lesson (you're going to need a dictionary). It was not an easy book to read because of the subject matter but I flew right through it because it was such a great story.  Loved it.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Book:  The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Author:  Neil Gaiman
Like/Don't Like:  I loved it.

I have very few childhood memories.  There is an overarching feeling of love and well being - I know it was a good childhood and that I was a happy child - but when specific memories come to mind they are often dark. Writhing in pain in the back seat of the van as I'm being driven to the hospital; seeing on the news that someone had escaped from the prison a few miles away; being chased by some teenage boys on my walk home from school. This story deals with the scarier side of childhood, how it can be confusing and uncertain and dark.  How could it not be? When you're small your world consists of very few things so the alteration of any one of them amounts to a tragedy. And any out of the ordinary occurrence (in this case, an unexpected death) can rip a hole in your world, exposing you to new and sometimes terrifying things.

As usual, Neil Gaiman shows that he gets being a kid, like those feelings of finding joy in the simplest things, being powerless against adults, not really understanding all that is going on but desperately wanting to.  He shows that sometimes bad things happen when you let go of some one's hand.  And sometimes you have to let go in order to be brave. 

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Book:  The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Author:  Jacqueline Kelly
Like/Don't Like:  Enchanting

You know how much I love a plucky young heroine.  Someone who breaks against the norms and is figuring out how to stand out in the world.  Calpurnia fits the bill.

Calpurnia Tate, or Callie Vee as everyone calls her, is the middle child of seven and the only girl. It is the summer of 1899 and she discovers 1. that her grandfather isn't as intimidating as she always imagined and 2. she has the mind of a scientist.  A little reminiscent of Girl of the Limberlost.

There isn't that much of a story, it's mostly little vignettes from a few months of her life that show her relationship with her family and how she deals with the expectations put on young girls at that time - knitting and cooking and such - even though all she really wants to do is look at plants and bugs with her grandpa.  The real joy of this book is that the voices are so, so clear.  Each character is distinct and real.  Each scene could have happened exactly as it was written.  Because there wasn't a story to follow I would put it down for a few days without thinking about it.  But each time I would pick it back up I would be sucked in.  It's just one of those really pleasurable books to read because you like everyone and everything about it.

I'm putting it into the category of books I wish had been around when I was a young girl. 

The River Between Us

Book:  The River Between Us
Author:  Richard Peck
Like/Don't Like:  I hugged it at the end so you know I loved it.

This is exactly the type of book that I love the most.  A great story, beautifully told, simple and thoughtful, not too long, and it very much carries you away.

It's about Tilly, a girl from southern Illinois, who meets two mysterious women from New Orleans just as her brother is about to leave for the Civil War. Ugh, war books, am I right?  But no, give this a chance.  Because it's so lovely.

Anyone who has read Richard Peck (A Year Down Yonder, A Long Way to Chicago) will know what a powerful writer he is without being show-offy.  He's not grand in anyway, but his words and phrases and pacing have such a way of putting your right there.  There were many times while reading that I forgot that it wasn't real. This book is meant for people who love to read.

Bitterblue

Book:  Bitterblue
Author:  Kristen Cashore
Like/Don't Like:  Liked.  A pretty fitting end.

This is the last of the Graceling series and it finished pretty well.  Although not as strong as Fire, it fit with the series perfectly.

The last time we saw Bitterblue she was a kid hiding from her murderous father in Graceling.  In the 9 years between then and this book she has been crowned the queen and is trying to come to terms with what that means - a very common theme throughout the series.  Each of the women in the three books have unique positions and powers and are fearful of using them to their full capacity because they are all easily abused.  I loved this idea of emboldening young women to be conscientious of their powers and to use them.  I think that's what the series is so strong. 

But as a finale I thought Bitterblue could have been stronger.  It carried over the theme beautifully and most of my favorite characters were back but the story kind of plodded along at times.  There were a lot of extra characters that you didn't know what they were there for until the very end so they seemed to get in the way.  But the end did clear everything up nicely.  And I love these characters and places a lot.  I think I would love it a second time around.

Fire

Book:  Fire
Author:  Kristen Cashore
Like/Don't Like:  Wow! Loved!

This is the second book in the Graceling series, even though it has very little to do with Graceling.  It's more of a companion piece than a sequel.  It's set in a different land with different people (except for one carry-over character) but it has the same feel.  Mostly because, I'm pretty sure that Kristen Cashore is a genius. There is something about her writing style that I really appreciate and respond to. She tells a great story without a lot of fluff.  And she thinks you're smart.  I've read too many books where the author thinks you're an idiot and you won't pick up on anything so they tell you everything.  Cashore does not do that.  She expects you to go along for the ride and I love that about her.

First, a brief synopsis. Fire is a human monster, the last of her kind in a land that is filled with other monsters.  So there are humans and human monsters, and mice and mice monsters, etc.  Her monster powers include having really awesome hair and the ability to connect to other creature's minds. She can reach out and read other's thoughts and insert thoughts of her own.  Handy.  But it she sees the potential for abuse and tries very hard to not let anyone use it for evil, including herself. She has to come to understand what it means to be a monster and a human, and you know, help save the kingdom.  It was a fantastic story.

I was really struck by how womanly it was.  Fire isn't just a monster she is also a young woman with all the emotions (she's a big crier.  I loved her for it.), problems (periods, cramps, leering eyes), and power (motherhood, sisterhood, intuition, nurturing) that comes with being a woman. I didn't really even pick up on it until about halfway through so it's not so in your face about it.  But it deals with being a woman in a very refreshing and honest way.

And Fire is just really great. She's seems like such a real character; she thinks and acts like an 18 year old woman probably would, even with her supernatural abilities.

The story takes a lot of twists and turns and there's a lot of coming and going but it's well worth the effort of keeping up.

Graceling

Book:  Graceling
Author:  Kristin Cashore
Like/Don't Like:  Loved!  I couldn't put it down.  Hooray!

This was what I needed.  It's been a lackluster year of reading for me.  I just haven't been taken with a book in a long time.  So this book was the perfect thing to read at the end of the year to leave me with the Blue Bird of Happiness in my literary heart.

Katsa lives in a land where a small percentage of the people are born with special talents or skills - graced.  Hers happens to be that she can kill people.  She doesn't relish in it. In the course of the book she meets another graceling who helps her understand her skill better and they go off and save a few people.  The writing is fantastic.  It zips along and keeps you wanting more. The characters seem believable enough - especially for a fantasy novel, which I often times find hard to stomach. And it was a great story told well, which all I ever want from a book.

Gone With The Wind

Book:  Gone With The Wind
Author:  Margaret Mitchell
Like/Don't Like:  Like.  Although I would have liked it more if were half the length.

Much like Sherman's march to Atlanta, reading this book was a long slog. But it in the end it was mostly worth it. There's always something rewarding in reading a grand and epic novel.  Because it's so vast I'm going to need a list to capture most of my opinions:

1.)  Scarlett O'Hara is a moron.  And I spent 900 pages wishing she would just shut it because every time she opened her mouth she said something dumb.  She was selfish and conniving and dumb as a box of nails.  She was also spirited and brave and quick, which saved her a bit in my eyes.  I wish that she had evolved a little throughout but she stayed the same almost the whole way through. It wasn't until the very end that I started feeling sympathy for her and that still wasn't enough to make me wish for a different ending.  She got what she deserved.

2.)  Rhett Butler is the best kind of anti-hero.  Confident, unapologetic, roguish, handsome, mustachioed.  If he weren't such a cad he'd be a dream.

3.)  I thought the writing was effortless.  Margaret Mitchell knew this world perfectly and it was fascinating to read about a time and place from such a insider point of view.  I never got tired of reading about it, which is saying something. I especially loved how she treated her characters.  She never blamed nor excused her characters flaws. Because of that she had some truly profound insights into human nature. 

4.)  Oh, those Yankees.  Always coming around to burn something down.  Like all wars, the Civil War was much more complicated than we think it was.  So I appreciated getting the South's side of the story.  However, the most tedious part of the book was all the history thrown in.  It kind of got in the way of the story.

5.)  I had to keep reminding myself that this was a book written by a southerner in the 1930s about the Civil War from a southerner's point of view.  So I had to kind of gloss over the INCREDIBLY OFFENSIVE ideas about blacks and women.  I cringed a lot.

6.)  As far as an epic goes, this was a good one.  When things were winding down I could think back to the glorious early days at Tara with fondness and see how far all the characters had come.  It was a satisfying read.

Fahrenheit 451

Book:  Fahrenheit 451
Author:  Ray Bradbury
Like/Don't like:  It was kind of eerie.  In a good way.

When Ray Bradbury died in June I found myself feeling nostalgic.  Which is weird because (shameful admission forthcoming) I have only read one of his books.  And it was not this book.  It was Something Wicked This Way Come and it was maybe 25 years ago. But he's one of those writers that I admire.  The stuff he says about his life of writing is inspiring.  Not just because he was a writer but because he was happy about it.  Writers are notorious for complaining about how hard their lot is.  He always struck me as being so cheery about it.  So I felt a little sad that he was gone and decided that I needed to start working my way through his stuff.

When I tell people that I've never read this book they aways look a little bewildered.  Because it's weird right, that I've never read this?  I mean, it's a book about books.  And it's a classic that nearly everyone read in high school.  But I didn't.  I read Moby Dick, which, I learned while reading the obituary on his website, Ray Bradbury wrote the screen adaptation for. Do you see how books are the circle of life?

In a way, I'm glad that I didn't read it until now, because it is eerily telling of the world we live in.  I'm not too worried about us burning books, but Bradbury got it right about everyone walking around with ear buds embedded, and giant TVs taking up our living spaces, and war happening and people just kind of shrugging their shoulders about it.  There is always some truth in dystopic literature but this was really spooky how close he came to describing us.  To say that I enjoyed it would be strange, but it definitley struck a chord.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Book:  The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Author:  Aimee Bender
Like/Don't Like:  Mmmm...lemon cake.  Oh, wait, yes.  I liked it.

It took me a bit to form a solid enough opinion on this novel before writing anything and I've decided that I liked it.  Even though I felt uncomfortable through the whole thing. 

Rose is about 9 when she realizes that she can taste emotions in the food that people cook for her.  It starts with her mother's despair and her brothers confusion.  And this starts a lifetime of trying to avoid anything but food that is made in a factory because she can't process all the bad emotions that others struggle with and hide.  It was a pretty interesting premise.  But her family was so awkward.  I cringed every time they would have a conversation because they just had no idea how to communicate.  So the whole time I was reading it I just wanted to yell, "Will someone just give this girl a hug!"

The bulk of the blame goes to the author for this very drawn out style of writing.  A conversation of just a few sentences could last pages and pages because she kept interrupting with thoughts.  And that's a fine technique but it felt overplayed at times.  Also, it felt a little sloppy at places, like time had no meaning.  But I cannot deny that the story lingered with me long after I finished.  I think she captured the confusion and fear in Rose nicely.  Overall it was a good read.

Unbroken

Book:  Unbroken
Author:  Laura Hillenbrand
Like/Don't Like:  Like, if only to learn that you should never go to war against the Japanese.

You should read this book, because it's a ridiculously good story told by an amazing writer and you'll be so grateful that you have never 1.) been lost at see for 40+ days, 2.)  been captured by the Japanese and put into a POW camp, 3.) what, you need more to be grateful for than that?

It's the true story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic mile runner and WWII vet whose plane went down in the Pacific, which he and a fellow crewman survived, only for the current to sweep them right into enemy territory.  You will want to shut the book when you get to the part about all the torture they went through in those camps. Those Japanese were hard core when it came to brutality.  There were several times I had to shut the book and  breathe slowly and imagine fields of daisies because it was just so horrific.  But it is a testament to how resilient the human spirit is.

And I have to give it up to the author.  Laura Hillenbrand wrote Seabiscuit and I was floored by how much a story about a horse sucked me in.  So I wasn't surprised by what a gripping story-teller she is.  I generally stay away from non-fiction because all I really care about is a good story told well and most non-fiction writers have the good story but forget that they are not in a lecture hall.  Hillenbrand moves things along and gives you just enough facts and data to keep you feeling like you're actually learning something while being entertained.

And if none of that has piqued your interest you should know that somewhere in the south Pacific, while they're floating along, exhausted and starving, Louis decides to get even with the sharks who have been stalking them the whole time.  So he kills one with his bare hands.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Book:  The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Author:  Alan Bradley
Like/Don't Like:  I was completely taken in

I've been a little annoyed lately with writers who don't trust their readers.  Few things infuriate me more than when an author spends too much time explaining things that should be understandable through context.  Or puts in references simply to look smart.  It makes me feel like they think I'm dumb.  You have to trust that your reader will figure things out on her own.

So here we have Alan Bradley who not only wrote a YA novel, a genre that is fraught with this sort of stuff, but did it without the slightest bit of condescension.  This story is stocked with Latin phrases, chemical compounds, allusions to female chemists, snippets of Shakespeare, and a mystery involving stamp collecting and not a bit of it is spoon fed to you like you're an imbecile.  He does not coddle his readers at all  His heroine, Flavia de Luce, is a smart, no-nonsense, eleven year old budding chemist and member of the British gentry.  She's a heroine I can get behind and not just because she's a girl sleuth.  I love girl sleuths.  With the exception of Nancy Drew who was just too perfect.  Ugh, didn't you just wish Ned would dump her, even if he was a dope? 

Anyway, Flavia finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery and she manages to make her way around the inspectors and the murderer and her two scheming sisters to discover the truth, all while whizzing around the English countryside on her bike.  It is charming and smart and a book I would have devoured if I had gotten my hands on it as an 11 year old.  Ok, so I devoured it as a 36 year old.  It's just that good.

Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Book: Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Author: Jamie Ford
Like/Don't Like: I wouldn't recommend it

This has been on my radar for a long time now. And I keep thinking that loads of people have recommended it to me. But maybe they were just asking if I had read it and what did I think. Maybe that was it.

Well, here's what I think: meh.

I think it must have been just mentioned rather than recommended because it's about the Japanese Internment and I would never have read a book about that subject unless it had come with high praise. There are few things in American history that make me more incensed than the internment camps. I get all sorts of angry over it. But there's more to the story than just that. There's a Chinese boy and a Japanese girl both living in Seattle during World War II and they fall in love and it keeps jumping back to the Chinese kid as an old man reminiscing about those days. Which isn't a bad story. It was just poorly written. Not even badly written. Just sloppy. And kind of lazy. The author seemed to have used up all of his descriptors by about page 30 and then just kept repeating them. The shift bell at Boeing Field, the "I am Chinese" button the kid wore, his father not speaking to him - all of these things and more just kept coming back. And that made all the other weaknesses in his writing - weaknesses that I probably would have overlooked had it been a stronger story - turn into annoyances.

But my biggest problem was that I didn't really believe the characters. They didn't talk like 12 year olds. They talked like a middle aged guy writing like a 12 year old. They talked like a history teacher. So their relationship seemed phony from the start. But I will say that all of the eye-rolling I did helped with taking my mind off of the injustice that went on in the book.

Wonderstruck

Book:  Wonderstruck
Author:  Brian Selznik
Like/Don't Like:  Loved. 

This is by the same author as The Invention of Hugo Cabert and it is done in the same style of prose and pictures.  If you haven't read that one yet you must.  Trust your friend.  I think it's such a beautiful way to tell a story. 

This story was simpler than Hugo's but it still captured my attention from the very beginning.  It follows two children, Ben who is living in Minnesota in the 70s and Rose who lives in New York in the 20s and both end up spending a lot of time at the NY Natural History Museum.  You know that their stories will connect somehow but it's still very nice getting to that point.

I love how simple the stories are. The pictures aren't anything magnificent but he has a gift of putting little details in each one that are delightful.  And I think it's great that he uses real places and events to build a story around. 

I made the mistake of starting this at around 11 at night, thinking that I would read a few pages and finish it the next day.  By 1 (yes, it does move that quickly) I was done and enchanted.

The Night Circus

Book:  The Night Circus
Author:  Erin Morgenstern (no relation to S. Morgenster, I think)
Like/Don't Like:  I didn't dislike it.  So yes.  Like.

What I'm about to say may make it sound as if I didn't enjoy this book.  It's just that I've been particularly sensitive to bad writing lately.  I get annoyed with authors very early on and then give up on a book in a huff.  I don't know what my issue is.  It's not always the case, but I would say for the last 6 months or so I've have low tolerance for lazy writing.  So, to say that this book didn't annoy me is high praise.  In fact, I found it kind of diverting.  It is certainly not highly entertaining or particularly magical (both things I think it would like to be) but on the whole it was an enjoyable enough read.

The story is centered around two magicians who have been brought up to out-magic each other in a competition.  The arena for this competition is a circus that magically appears in cities around the world.  They each create tents of wonder and illusion and try to one-up each other.  But their competition affects more than just themselves and their teachers/magical mentors, it affects everyone who is involved with the circus.

Or, so I'm told.  Because the book's biggest flaw is that it doesn't tell the why very well.  Why the magic they were using affected everyone, or why the circus would fall apart if the two of them stopped.  A lot of the whys could have been answered if the author has stopped worrying about describing the magical tents (so much so that she started to repeat herself) and focus more on the characters and plot.

But, in spite of that, the story was interesting enough and the world that was created was beautiful formed.  And while I could have used more explanation and less adjectives describing the scent of mulled cider in the air I wasn't that bad.

Thornfield Hall

Book:  Thornfield Hall
Author:  Emma Tennant
Like/Don't Like:  Wretched

Someone must have given this to me because in general if I'm going to pick up a knock-off of a classic (particularly of one I know so well as I do Jane Eyre) it has to come highly recommended.  But this has been sitting in my stack of to-be-read books for a very long time and I thought, oh, why not, and dove in.

I'll tell you why not.  It was rubbish. 

I love Jane Eyre.  If I believed in such things it would easily find a spot in my top 10.  So I'm a little biased.  But I think even people who haven't read the book would find this unbearable.  In it we get the point of view of Adele, along with a bit of Mr. Rochester and Mrs. Fairfax.  There were some serious flaws in the writing.  Continuity, for one.  I am a stickler for these sorts of things so I noticed right away when it says it is "nearly full dark outside" and then what is supposed to be a few hours later "turning dusk."  There were things like this riddled throughout.  Then there was the constant saying of names.  Does this bother anyone else?  Adele was always saying, "My mother, the celebrated actress, Celine Varens." like on every other page, even deep into the story, when we KNOW that she was her mother.  And Mrs. Fairfax was always saying, "While working at that magnificent estate, Thornfield Hall under the watchful eye of my master, Mr. Edward Fairfax Rochester."  Yes, we know all of this!  And there was too much use of the old bait and switch.  A revelation would nearly be made but first you have to read through two pages of a flashback before getting to it.  It was frustrating.

But I suppose all of those can be chalked up to my own pet peeves.  So how about I give you some highlights of the story since I know you're not going to read it (because you trust me, right)(warning:  these may come as a shock to those who know Jane Eyre):  Adele becomes best friends with Bertha, Mr. Rochester's mad wife up in the attic; she hates Jane; she has a twin brother who was born just minutes before her but who has a different father (they were conceived on the same day but by two different men) but who is only briefly mentioned at the end of the book as an "oh, and by the way"; her mother (the celebrated actress Celine Varens, in case you have forgotten) didn't die but went off to Italy with a musician; and how about this one - Bertha didn't fall from the rooftop in the fire, that was Grace Poole. Mrs. Fairfax killed her much earlier, slipped Adele a mickey in order to convince her that she was the one who killed her, and later told all as she dangled a very pregnant Jane out of a window like she was some sort of Scooby-doo villain.  Then, realizing that the jig was up she lights the place on fire and throws herself out the window.  What the H?!

To top it all off, just three short paragraphs after all of this goes down, the phrase "and they lived happily ever after" is actually used and the book ends with a brief explanation of how Adele went on to become a celebrated actress, like her mother, Celine Varens.

I once caught a glimpse of a show about Anne of Green Gables the Much Later Years where Gilbert had died and Anne was hooking up with some guy named Gene.  It was blaspheme.  This felt the same way.  I could not shake the sour look off of my face for a good half hour after finishing.

Anansi Boys

Book:  Anansi Boys
Author: Neil Gaiman
Like/Don't Like:  It's Neil Gaiman.  Of course I'm going to like it.

Whenever I read Neil Gaiman I am reminded that there are people who tell good stories and then there are people who are good storytellers.  He fits into both categories but it's the second that I really care about.  I can't tell you how many times I have finished a book and said, "That was a good story but it was written by the wrong person."  Mostly, I want every story to be told by Neil Gaiman.  I saw him on a show a little while ago and he was asked to describe his genre and he said, "I like to think I'm just a writer," which made me love him even more. He gets what a lot of writers today don't, that the point isn't just to tell an interesting story, it's to tell an interesting story well, and when it's done well there is no need to categorize it into a specific genre.

Once again this has turned into a Neil Gaiman love-fest.  On to the gist.

Fat Charlie Nancy has just found out that 1.) his father has died in karaoke bar, and 2.) his father was a god, and 3.) he has a brother he didn't know about.  He finally meets his brother and trouble abounds.  The story had a great rhythm to it.  It flowed very nicely from one scene to the next and weaved in bits of old myths into a modern story with ease.  I got sucked right in and felt completely satisfied when it was done.  Yay.

Matched

Book:  Matched
Author:  Ally Condie
Like/Don't Like:  I had a hard time putting it down

I have once again found myself in a reading slump, where nothing holds my interest.  It's a horrible place to be.  So it was very refreshing to read a book that I didn't want to put down. 

This is a love triangle set in a dystopian society that is not the Hunger Games.  (It is also not as nuanced or action packed as the HG but still worthwhile).  Cassia is seventeen and lives in a world where every decision is made for her.  From the clothes she wears to the food she eats to the city she lives in to the job she will have for the rest of her life and the person she will marry.  She happily goes along with the system because it has always worked for her but on the day of her match, when she finds out whom she will marry, an error occurs that makes her question what the Society has been up to all along.  Drama ensues.

It is primarily a love story and if the world that they live in weren't so detailed and defined and the problem they're up against so interesting I would not have been able to tolerate it.  There were a lot of longing gazes followed by averted eyes, and at times I felt like it was holding the more intriguing part of the story back - that being the system that they have been living in.  But I loved how thought out the world she lived in was.  And I did not question how a character could live in such a society because Cassia was very believable.  She goes from trusting in the Society to slowing and methodically seeing it for what it really was.  It was not a sudden change in her and I liked that, because it wouldn't be for most people. 

It needs to be said though about the two love interests:  It was hard to not root for the one she will not end up with because he was so good.  I would have liked him to be a little bit less perfect for her.

Dystopian love stories seem to be the new teenage vampire love stories so I don't know how long this trend will be able to sustain itself.  But this was a good one.

Modelland

Book:  Modelland
Author:  Tyra Banks
Like/Don't Like:  Um, well, that's complicated

Where do I begin?  Oh, how about THIS IS THE CRAZIEST, CRAPPIEST BOOK I'VE EVER READ.  And I mean that in the best possible way.  You know how sometimes you watch really horrible movies for the laughs?  Like Spice World?  Well, this was the book version of that.  And let me just tell you, if you don't appreciate Tyra's brand of crazy, this book will be UNREADABLE.  If you don't think that Tyra's funny accents and zany antics and wackadoo jumpsuits and weaves and gimmicks are a special type of hilarious than you would be miserable reading this book.  Because it is baaaaaaaaaaad.

For the plot: we have Tookie de la Creme (for real) as our heroine.  She is overlooked by everyone around her but she somehow makes it into Modelland, a school for would-be models (think Harry Potter meets ANTM) and goes through the rigorous training.  Or at least I think she does.  For a book that is over 500 pages (and, according to the acknowledgements, was originally over 1000) there was very little action.  Everything is description, description, description.  I got the feeling that Tyra's golden rule for writing was More Is More.  If it can be said in 10 words it would be better in 100.  Why just use 1 adjective when the thesaurus is giving 20.  There were so many crazy characters and activities and places that about 100 pages into it I started just skimming through all the descriptions.  I could not help but compare it to Twilight.  Although, to Tyra's credit, Twilight is WAY more insufferable.  We all know that Tyra is crazy.  Stephanie Meyer has no excuse.

So Tyra is a lot of things, but a good writer is not one of them.  Fortunately for all of us she has other talents. 

Talents like:  the excessive use of adjectives and adverbs; the ability to say something in 100 words that a normal person would only say in 5; making up cutesy names for things that already have names; taking those cutesy names and giving them cutesy nicknames, abbreviations or acronyms; creating the most elaborate description of every single item, action, place, person, outfit, food, dance move and modeling technique found in the book; making me simultaneously laugh out loud and pray for death.

Oh, Tyra, what would I do without you.

The House at Riverton

Book:  The House at Riverton
Author:  Kate Morton
Like/Don't Like:  If only I had known I would be so bored with it I would have quit reading

Let's talk about foreshadowing for a sec.  I feel it is a device bested used in small, subtle amounts.  If it's going to be used it needs to be just enough to give the reader an inkling that something is coming without making them try to guess what that something is through the entire story.  One of my least favorite phrases to read in a novel is, "If only we had known what we know now." It gives the entire book away.  Suddenly, I know that there's going to be a twist so I miss out on it because I'm anticipating it. When a twist comes I want to be so surprised that I go back and reread it to catch any hints that might have been there.  What I don't want to do is shrug.  There was a lot of shrugging going on while I was reading.   

So there was a lot of foreshadowing in this book.  And absolutely zero surprises.  Which made reading it a bit of a drag.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  You don't even know what it's about.  This 98 year old woman Grace is recounting her time as a maid in a big fancy English house during and just after World War I.  She is intrigued by and mysteriously drawn to the family she is serving and the story really becomes more about them than her.  There are quite a number of subplots and characters, none of them adding anything to the actual story.  There is a lot of telling and not a lot of doing.  All that foreshadowing felt like a weak substitute for what was happening in the moment - which was very little.  There just wasn't a whole lot of action.  And I could barely muster any feelings for the characters.  They were so underdeveloped, I felt like they were just there to move the story along and get to the big climactic ending - which wasn't nearly as climactic as it could have been.  The whole thing felt really contrived and a lot was sacrificed for an ending that was a let down.