What I Read: January 2016

Do you remember when I  said I read a lot of books in December?  Well, as it turns out, I also read a lot of books in January.

I think it's because I still don't really know anyone here in Pennsylvania, so my weekends are spent reading instead of going to see 80s tribute bands or thrifting with Alex or day drinking with Jodi or watching my sweet, giant nephews play basketball.  As much as I enjoy reading, I definitely miss my weekends with friends and family.

But, they're not here and books are, so without further ado, here's what I read in January.


America Pacifica, by Anna North

I hate to categorize someone's time and effort as hot garbage, but, man this book is pretty much deserving of that categorization.  I read it on a whim because it should have been right up my alley.  It's dystopian literature with what seemed like an interesting twist: the world ends due to a new Ice Age.  The freezing of the mainland forces people to flee to tropical islands where they immediately overburden the native ecosystem with too many people and industries better suited to the old world instead of the new world.

Oh, dear, I'm afraid I'm making this book sound interesting.  It's not.  It's terrible.  The author is not a very good writer at all and I can't help but think that this book was only published because of the popularity of The Hunger Games and other YA dys-lit.  But, unlike Katniss, Darcy is hateful and whiny and you spend most of the book hating her even when bad things happen to her.  Seriously, don't read this book.



The Heart Goes Last, by Margaret Atwood

If Margaret Atwood writes a new novel, I will read it.  And, in this case, as always, I am so happy I did.  Oh, make no mistake, this is a weird one.  And things are often hinted at rather than fully explained, but done in that Atwood-way that makes you think instead of just frustrating you.

The novel does take place in the future, like many of her novels do, but it's interesting because at first it seems like a less severe future than, say, The Handmaid's Tale or Oryx and Crake.  (Two of my all-time favorites, btw).  But, don't be fooled by the Utopian community in this dystopian future.  Nothing is what it seems, even  with the main characters from whose point of view the tale is told.  Especially Charmaine.  You're gonna wanna keep your eye on Charmaine.



Revival, by Stephen King

As I said in my Goodreads review, I used to read a lot of Stephen King.  I mean, a lot.  And then, after The Dark Tower series finished, I stopped because the way that series finished was so perfect, but so frustrating, but so very right, that I couldn't stand it.

But, I found a copy of Revival in my local Goodwill and figured I'd give King another shot.  And he's still probably the best at pacing that I've ever read.  And he's still smart and terrifying and I might need to read more Stephen King in the very near future.



Shanghai Girls, by Lisa See

I liked this book well enough, but I didn't love it because it also frustrated me.  It's about Pearl and May Chin, thoroughly modern Shanghainese women who have their lives absolutely turned upside down.  I thought the author did a great job with the historical stuff, especially in how the Chinese Exclusion Act impacted Chinese immigrating to the United States.  That part was fascinating.

The two sisters themselves though, were less fascinating and more frustrating.  I basically didn't like either one of them, thought they acted foolish more often than not and couldn't get invested in their relationship at all.  So, to recap, good historical stuff, bad relational stuff.



The House at Midnight, by Lucie Whitehouse

This book, while better than the hot mess that is America Pacifica, is also pretty bad.  The story is supposed to be a modern Gothic story, I think.  I mean, I'm pretty sure that the premise is that the house that one of the characters inherited is supposed to have a malevolent nature and drive its inhabitants to violence and horniness, but it just doesn't read that way.  Basically, one character is an asshole and has too much influence on another character and stuff goes awry and I can't see how the house has any impact whatsoever.
Really, the only thing that saves this book is that Whitehouse is a pretty good writer.  But, she wrote a pretty terrible book.



The Library at Mount Char, by Scott Hawkins

I'm not sure how I even heard about this book, but I basically loved it.  I mean really loved it; I think it might even be one of my favorite books ever.  I'm not saying it's the best book ever, but damn it if I didn't love it.  It's a bit hard to get into because the author forgoes any world building to just throw the reader in.  And that's confusing.  It is.  But it's so worth sticking with.

Seriously, this book is weird and wonderful and funny and sad and wonderful again.  It's also the inspiration for my LitSty look for this month, so I'll share more about it next week.



Speaking of LitSty, the link party will be live on Tuesday, February 9th and I hope to see you there!


Happy Wednesday, All!

Gracey

What I Read: May's Books

Hello, Reader Friends!  The first Tuesday of the month is next Tuesday and that means it's time again for another post about possible inspiration for next week's Literary Styling's Link Party.

So, without further ado, here is what I read and how I felt about it.

True Sisters, by Sandra Dallas

I am a big Sandra Dallas fan and have read most of her books.  The Diary of Mattie Spenser is my favorite book of hers, but really, I've pretty much loved them all.  With the exception of True Sisters.  It was good, but it wasn't great. At least not for me.  I think the subject matter was interesting; it's about a Mormon handcart company and their trials and tribulations as they try to walk to the Salt Lake Valley from Iowa City.  Unfortunately, instead of writing about one or two characters, Dallas tries to cover several women and their families and it all sort of falls apart.  Like the handcarts themselves (spoiler!).


The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood

Full disclosure; I actually read The Year of the Flood previously and I loved it.  I just wanted to re-read it before starting on the final book of the MaddAddam trilogy, MaddAddam, because I like to binge-read the previous books in a series before starting a new book.  I figure it's like binge-watching old shows before a new season.  Does anyone else binge-read?  So, anyway, I read it again and I loved it again.  I've mentioned before than I'm a fan of dys-lit and Atwood's brand of intelligent, inventive dys-lit is some of my favorite.


MaddAddam, by Margaret Atwood

This is the third and final book in the MaddAddam trilogy and it was definitely worth the wait.  It was a wonderful read and managed to serve as both a prequel to Oryx and Crake (the first in the series) as well as the sequel to The Year of the Flood.  It provides a satisfactory ending to the series, but doesn't tie everything up in a neat little bow because Atwood understands that it couldn't possibly.  Basically, Margaret Atwood is a bad-ass and remains one of my all-time favorite authors.  I highly recommend this series, especially if you like dys-lit.


The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green

Okay, so I'm about to say something very unpopular about this book; it wasn't that great.  At least not for me.  It started off really well, making me laugh out loud several times, but then it was just, average, I guess.  I don't think it's a bad book, I'm just not sure it's a great book.  But, then again, it may be.  I think it may have suffered from being over-hyped.  I expected to need a box of tissues to make it through the second half of the book, but I didn't.  I barely teared up.  Of course, that could be because I'm an insensitive jerk, but it could also be that the book was over-hyped.  I don't know.  I'm sorry.


The Lonely Polygamist, by Brady Udall

This book is great.  It's funny and strange and interesting and sad and really quite wonderful.  It's unlike anything I've ever read before and it makes me want to read everything else Brady Udall has ever written.  It's very weird and very clever all at once, which means it combines two of my favorite things in one place and it does it very well.  On the surface, it's about a man suffering from a midlife crisis.  But, we're talking about a man with four wives, 28 children and monumental social, familial and religious responsibilities.  Basically, it's great and I definitely recommend it.

Per usual, I have no idea what book I'm going to use for my inspiration, but hopefully I'll come up with something!

Happy Wednesday, All!  Also, please don't yell at me about TFiOS; I said I'm sorry!

Gracey

Literary Stylings #10: Divergent Erudite

I decided to base this month's Literary Stylings outfit on the Divergent series, by Veronica Roth:

It really should have been a more obvious choice than it was.  Clothing plays a very big role in these books as the five different Factions are all identified, in part, by their clothing which helps demonstrate their cultivated virtue.

The main character, Beatrice/Tris, was born into the Abnegation Faction.  Members of Abnegation wear head to toe gray to demonstrate, in part, that they don't care about their looks because that would be selfish and their virtue is selflessness.  The other Factions include the Amity; their colors are orange, red and yellow and their virtue is peacefulness.  There are also the Dauntless; their virtue is bravery and their color is black.  The Erudite have the virtue of intelligence and their color is blue.  And the Candor have the virtue of honesty and their colors are black and white.

I think I resisted using these books because I like to think I wouldn't belong in any of these factions because they all have their flaws (yes, even the peaceful Amity).  But, the more I thought about it, the more I think that if I had to choose a faction, it would be the Erudite and I would wear blue.

So, for today, I did.  Head to toe blue:

Why Erudite?  Well, I love reading and learning new things.  When I was younger, reading was pretty much my favorite past time and I would have rather read then pretty much anything else.  That hasn't changed much since I've gotten older.  I still love reading and I still love learning.  If I were rich, I'd just stay in college indefinitely, learning and getting degree after degree.

So, yes, Erudite would have been my chosen faction if I were to have to choose at age 16 (or even now).  And the wearing of my beloved blue?  That's just a bonus:

Of course, I am not really a member of the Erudite faction, so I went ahead and wore a very Amity red coat as well:

And now my friends, it is your turn.  If you were sartorially inspired by something you read last month, please link up below!


Happy Tuesday, All!

Gracey

October’s Books

Hello, Party Peoples!

This is your better-late-than-never reminder that my always exciting Literary Stylings Link Party is coming up on Tuesday the 5^th.  If you want more information on this rockin' good time, you can find it here.

So, October was a very strange and stressful month for me and I’m afraid I didn’t get around to reading many books.  In fact, I only read two.  But, I figure this will allow me some room to talk more about them. 

Let me start by saying that, happily, this time around I enjoyed both of the books that I read.  More or less. 

Please to allow me to explain that last bit.

The first book I read is The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan:

According to Wikipedia, “a panopticon is a type of institutional building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century. The concept of the design is to allow a watchman to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) inmates of an institution without them being able to tell whether they are being watched or not.  (Wikipedia goes on to say that Bentham thought the panopticon design would be great for all matter of institutions, including daycare facilities!  Seriously.)

If that definition and daycare suggestion doesn't quite help you picture what we're talking about, this is a panopticon:

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about the book.  As I said, I enjoyed this book.  It was heartbreaking at times, but I think that just means the author did a good job.

The novel is about a troubled youth named Anais, who is sent to a panopticon institution.  Anais believes that her life is not really her life but is part of an experiment where she is under constant surveillance by the watchers.  As you can imagine, being sent to an institution designed to keep you under constant surveillance is not easy to handle for someone who already suffers from the sort of paranoia Anais suffers from. 

The author did a good job with this concept and with Anais’ voice.  Really, my only complaint about this novel is that it is written in the Scottish (I think) vernacular and I have the hardest time reading things in vernacular without saying them aloud.  Fagan wasn’t as difficult to read as Irvine Welsh, but I did a LOT of mumbling to myself as I read all the “cannae” and dinnae” statements in this book. 

Also, just as a warning, in case you’re thinking a book about a 15-year old heroine would be a great book for the young reader in your life, this is NOT a YA novel.  At all. 

The other book I read is Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin:

Yes, more Atwood.  What can I say; she’s one of my favorites.  Although, having read both her futuristic fiction (The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood) and her historical fiction (Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin), I think I prefer the futuristic fiction.  Don’t get me wrong, The Blind Assassin is a lovely novel, just as Alias Grace was, but I prefer the others more.

That’s just a personal preference though; The Blind Assassin is really very good.  It’s sort of two books in one and it’s a mystery as well as historical fiction and I highly recommend it.  This was a book that I couldn't stop reading because of how well it was written.  Atwood’s device of setting a novel-within-a-novel added to the mystery and worked very well.

So, why do I prefer the futuristic fiction?  Because I’m afraid of the future.  I don’t mean the future as in tomorrow, or next week or even next year.  No, I mean the future as in 2033 when things get all dystopian and stuff.  And, like anyone else who watches/reads scary stuff, I like that little frisson of fear.   For example, Oryx and Crake?  Just the ChickieNobs Nubbins alone scare the crap out of me.

And don’t get me started on The Handmaid’s Tale; seriously terrifying stuff.  Speaking of which, I guess there is a new cover for it now?  Have you guys seen this?

Isn't that both horrible and perfect for the book? 

Anyway, read The Blind Assassin, it’s good.  And if you like dyslit (dystopian literature), read Atwood’s futuristic fiction; there are frissons galore.

And don’t forget to join in on Tuesday!

Happy Saturday, All!

Gracey