want books?

The first reviews from the A-Z Challenge. More to come.

B. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Awesome. Loved it. I fell in love with this book, and then it broke my heart. The narrator (Death) tells you the end of the book, so that's not a surprise, but it hurts more than you think it will, for many reasons.

C. Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff. It was a bit dry at the beginning. There are many, many references to people, places, and events, most of them ancient, which took me a while to read and not feel out of the loop. Someone like my husband, who loves reading about ancient civilizations, would no doubt find it second nature to understand, but I struggled. I love the description of her education in Alexandria. It sounds incredibly rigorous and thorough—I'm jealous. I thought it was fascinating how much emphasis was placed on the art of public speaking and rhetoric, two skills almost absent in our school system. I was also a little horrified to realize how often they married, and killed, or both, close family members. There was no perfect world or golden age of the past; people have always been what they are. I am left wanting to know what was in Cleopatra's heart. Did she like being a mom? Would she give it all up? What did she think defined who she was? Excellent insights into this woman who was, from all accounts, a political mastermind, enthralling conversationalist, and quite plain-looking royal. I also learned what a diadem is...who knew all you needed to be royal was a white ribbon?

G. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Two Someones. I really liked it. It starts off with a light tone but has some very serious notes. There is a good humor throughout. I was drawn to the narrator, probably in part because it was a female in her early 30s (like me) and one who loves writing, but she also had an awesome wit and strong spunkiness. I never knew that Germany had occupied English territory during WWII, so I learned some new information. I enjoyed all the little facts that were, I'd bet on it, true stories from the German occupation of this English island. These were both good and bad, the best and worst of humanity. It had an interesting layout, composed entirely of letters, telegrams, and notes between the characters. There were quite a few surprises for the reader. You are led to assume some things and then realize the truth is almost the opposite. I liked it overall but it took a very serious time and topic and portrayed it in what felt like a light-hearted manner.

I. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Took me a while to get through it, but I did. I'm not big on non-fiction but I'm getting better. I particularly liked that this one also told the story of living people and their lives. It was hard for me to not judge them, based on their level of education and income, but more on their desires and misunderstanding of the world in general. The scientific aspects were well-explained and interesting. I'd give it a 7/10. I just never really cared that much, like I felt the author wanted me to, that this woman's cells had been taken from her and were now multiplying by the billions all over the world. Tons of people had cells, tissues, etc. taken from them. Hers kept growing. Should the family, 60 years later, be reimbursed for that? I did like the ethical issues and legal cases presented that related. I felt like the author clearly wanted me to feel one way but never came right out and said it. If anything, however, she accomplished her aim of telling the world who Henrietta Lacks was and what her family is doing today.

L. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. This story was stuck in my head for days! It had a slow start but then started linking lives of various characters into one another's fates and left me caring about each one. I've seen it on quite a few “Must Read” lists, and I don't know if I'd agree with that. But I did enjoy it.

M. The Misadventures of Augie March by Saul Bellows. Terrible. Read 10% and couldn't bear to go one more page. Too much description of boring mean people. Uninspiring main character. Still no plot after 50+ pages. Ugh. Maybe if I'd been stranded on an island with nothing else to do, I'd pick it up to finish, but only after a few weeks had gone by and I was bored of counting sand grains. It must get better, but I have too many other books I want to read.

O. Outliers: the story of success by Malcolm Gladwell. Reminds me of Freakonomics. Browsed through a couple pages and it got me hooked before I actually started to read. Liked it a lot! One particular section stands out to me. He is talking about education, namely in the U.S. and in Asian countries, and gives the actual days in class of students. U.S.: 180. Japan: 243. He also posits that some reasons for our slacking in education, notably math, is inherently linguistic in nature. Our numbers are confusing because of our names for them, while that isn't the case in Chinese. His overall theme is that it takes a remarkable intersection of timing, luck, hard work, and intelligence to be an amazing success, or “outlier” in life. He demonstrates this with the Beatles, Bill Gates, and others. I thought it was fascinating reading.

Y. You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon. Stories (fictional) set around the army base of Fort Hood, Texas, that bring that mini-world to life. The wives left behind, the men in Iraq, the ways war has changed from the common stories we hear of WWII. It was well-written but left me feeling desolate, like one of the women with small children who knew she would be alone for the next twelve months. Is it good writing when I was irritable, depressed, and lonely after reading it? I felt their feelings. There were moments of poignant and tender truths, especially regarding motherhood and marriage. This life and culture came alive for me. I know some people in these circumstances, so I couldn't keep them out of my mind. I also thought a lot about what my own mom went through while we lived on an army base, though the US was not engaged in any war at the time and my dad was never deployed. When I was little, we swam at the Officer's Club pool and did our grocery shopping at the commissary. It was overall sad, heartbreaking—there are many casualties in a war.