Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins

I enjoyed this final installment more than a lot of people did, I think. But all I really expected out of it was to know what was going to happen, and it delivered on that. I was pretty satisfied with the way it ended. I liked the twists of the solution to the horrible Capitol not being an ideal solution. I liked what Katniss chose as far as her relationships go... but it was pretty set up for the way it went. I think I could have been happy with the other options there, too.

Overall, a pretty exciting series. I know it won't stick with me the way Narnia or Harry Potter did. These books just aren't nearly as good. But very entertaining, and I'd recommend them.

Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins

I haven't read a book in two days in... well, I did it earlier this week, and I did it again. Catching Fire captivated me just as much as The Hunger Games. I was initially a little disappointed with the repetition (both with the relationships, and the plot), but the author ultimately did a fine job keeping it fresh for me. I do wish that the author would be a little more bold with taking risks with some of the characters, but overall, I'm loving this saga.

The end of this book confirmed a prediction I had made pretty early on in the first book. Normally, I criticize predictability, but, really, there are only so many roads a book in this genre can take (so, also for that reason, I'm not taking too much credit for my prediction). I'm excited to read the third and see how this all ends!

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

It's been a long time since I've read a book in two days, probably since the great Harry Potter feast of 2007 when I devoured seven books in two weeks. This book had me hooked from about page four, and I was resenting anything that took me away from it.

It is an Orwell/Bradbury-esque tale in a postapocolyptic United States where the government is firmly in control. There was definitely a lot of commentary on pop culture, especially television. It was also surprisingly gruesome for a young adults novel. But they kept it very clean with the romance. I always find that very interesting - that brutal, bloody gore is more acceptable than romance.

The characters in this book have a lot of depth. The main character, Katniss, is cool, hard and calculating... yet very likeable. You really get a feel in very short order for what makes the other contestants in the Games tick. The drunken mentor is a GREAT character. Peeta's character unfolds at a perfect pace.

I'm just not going to say any more about this book. I think you should read it. Best to read it on a plane or on vacation where you won't be forced to constantly set it down. If you do choose to read it while going about your normal day, please look ahead of you every now and then so you don't walk into any streetlights.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski

I loved this book... until I didn't. And the didn't happened about 2/3 of the way through. This book might have the WORST ending of any book I've ever read.

The book takes place on a farm with a dog kennel in rural Wisconsin in the 1970s. The interactions with the family and the dogs as they are breeding and training them are wonderful. The relationships are sweet and believable. The writing and description of every scene is beautiful. This author is quite the wordsmith. The author sets up all kinds of interesting mysteries and character traits that leave you wanting to learn more.

But you never get more. You know what they say about there being a gun on the wall in the first act? There were about a dozen guns on the wall in this book that never get spoken of again, let alone fired. I don't want to say too much for fear of spoilers, but I'm going to point out a few: what's the truth behind the original Forte story? Edgar is certain that what he's told isn't true, but then the story never returns. Where does the new Forte ever go? He keeps popping up, and you think he has a purpose, but, then..... nothing. Why was Claude in prison? What's the backstory of the brothers? We're told that someday Edgar will learn the story of his parents - what a lie that is! What about the voluminous number of pages dealing with the history of the breeding and the ancestors' debates? Were those just little stories that didn't actually have ANYTHING to do with the book? I guess so.

I don't require a particular type of ending to love a book. Happy, sad, ambiguous... all are fine with me if it is the right ending for that book. This was not. This talented author butchered an otherwise lovely book. What a shame.

P.s. I'm told that this book is modeled after Shakespeare. I wouldn't know, being an avid Shakespeare hater. But, if this author was being Shakespearean, it reinforces my hatred of said author.

Crossing California, by Adam Langer

California Avenue, that is. This book takes place in the West Rodgers Park neighborhood of Chicago in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The precise timeframe of the book is the 444 days of the Iran hostage crisis, but the book is not about the crisis. The book follows around several characters, mostly children, in their lives. It is a socio-economic character study, with California Avenue representing the dividing line between the classes. And is masterfully done.

I loved Langer's no-nonsense presentation of his characters. There was a total sense of detachment between the narrator and the characters. It was almost like I had to love them to compensate for the narrator's apathy toward them. There was real love in this book. Not fireworks-inducing, passionate, romantic love. But love that's about grinding along, living in harmony, and not being able to live without each other. I so identified with Jill Wasserstrom (I was always that kid that wanted to take the controversial side of the debate), but I envied her for her focus and ability to completely be her own person without caring what others thought. Everybody was really funny. I had a couple laugh-out-loud moments. The Rovners marriage was hysterical, as was their son, Larry's, quest for love. Everything about Michelle Wasserstrom, particularly the "Sterndick" plot, was hilarious. But most of all, I loved Muley Wills. He could never be a real person; he was just too consistent and principled, especially for a 13-year-old. But he's the person everyone should aspire to be.

A solid A, and a definite recommend.

The Lucky One, by Nicholas Sparks

The charge ran out on my Kindle while I was on vacation, and I had forgotten my charger. The rental home we were in had this book on the shelf, and I thought it would be an easy beach read. It was. The plot was perfectly entertaining for a lazy day at the beach. I enjoyed it just fine. But what a poorly written wreck of a book! Either Sparks is a moron or he thinks I am. I rolled my eyes right off the bat when there was a mystery woman known to the main character only as "E," and then a character popped up shortly thereafter named "Beth." He could have put a *little* more mystery into that one! Even reversing it would have been trickier (i.e. a mystery woman named "B" and a character named Elizabeth).

This was my first Sparks book I've ever read, and I'd like to say it was my last. But who knows when else I might get stranded on a beach without a Kindle.

City of Thieves, by David Benioff

This book tells the story of what appears to be (based on the first chapter) the author's grandfather in St. Petersburg during the 900-day German siege on Russia in WWII. This book is a positively fantastic adventure. The writer's voice is absolutely perfect. It is set amidst horrible, tragic events, but the story is told without the slightest hint of melodrama. Benioff reminds you of how awful things were, but in creative ways that are relevant to the story line without ramming it down your throat. For example, he reminds us of Lev's starvation-thinness by his fear of falling down while running because of his heightened risk of a broken bone.

While the book is highly plot-driven, it is really about the relationship between the two main characters, Lev and Kolya, who get sent on a near-impossible mission together by a Russian army official. Lev is a naive boy; Kolya is a conceited playboy with very few reservations. The character of Kolya opens up beautifully throughout the book, though, and he is instrumental in Lev's coming of age. I cared about these characters deeply.

I was incredibly curious about how much of the book is real. I tried doing some research on the main Nazi in the book, but couldn't find anything, leading me to believe names were changed. But then I did some more research and found out, from a Benioff interview, that the book is entirely fictional. Benioff's grandparents were born in the United States. That doesn't change how I feel about the book, though. A good book is a good book.

My only complaint about this book was that it was too short. I loved it. I'm sure we'll see a movie soon, since the author is a main-stream screenwriter.

Little Bee, by Chris Cleave

What a wonderfully written, moving book. I could not put it down. The book is about a teenage Nigerian refugee girl, and a British family with which she is intertwined. Such heavy issues in the book, but told in a light way. As the refugee girl tells us, she smiles when things are terrible because they would be even worse if she did not. I found myself smirking at her ideas for suicide -- that's just wrong, isn't it?!?

This was the perfect combination of present story and flashbacks, told from the voices of the refugee girl and the mother in the British family. I was always 100% engaged with the story being told at any given moment. The book was tremendously sad and powerful. Definitely recommend.

In The Woods, by Tana French

Well, so much for me not liking mystery thrillers. This was a fun, exciting book. It was about two detectives (Cassie and Rob) investigating a child murder in a small Irish town where one of the detectives was from and had experienced childhood trauma. The characters were interesting and believable. Their relationship was complex and did not take the turns that I necessarily expected. The crime itself was a bit predictable - the author could have deleted about 3 sentences of over-foreshadowing from her book. The end of the book was satisfying in its unsatisfying way. Not everything is neat and tidy. It did make me wonder if the author intends to reprise these characters, though. I wouldn't mind; she is a very good writer.

The Blood of Flowers, by Anita Amirrezvani

This book is about a girl from a small village in 17th century Iran that moves to the city. She is a carpet maker, which provides imagery throughout the book as the story is "weaved."

I loved this book. People are touting it as the female counterpart to The Kite Runner. I compeltely disagree; that comparison does not do this book justice. The Kite Runner was an enjoyable, but mediocre, tale with far too many neat coincidences. This book is far more real. The protaganist makes some very controversial (for her time and place) decisions, which come with very real consequences, both good and bad. There is no neat, pretty ending, although I found the ending to be very satisfying and beautiful. The plot was always exciting; this was definitely a page turner.

The relationships were so wonderfully complicated in this book. Her cautious love for her friend, and her friend's conditional love for her. Her mother's unconditional but sometimes reserved love for her. The feuding relationship with her caretaker aunt. Her strong desire and equally strong repugnance for the male character. And, my favorite, her relationship with her teacher uncle, which I can't quite describe in a little fragmented sentence.

Each chapter ends with a folk tale. I really liked the stories, but sometimes I rushed through them because I was so anxious to get back to the plot. My favorites were the one about chopping down the rosebush and the last one (about the bird). The author in the notes says that she made up two of the tales (the first and last) and the rest were Iranian folklore. I'm not sure if the rosebush one was first; it might have been. In which case, I obviously like her stories best - her two tales and the substantive novel itself, of course.

I definitely recommend this book.

The Black Tower, by Louis Bayard

This is a historical fiction book set in 19th century Paris after Napoleon has been ousted and the Bourbans have been restored to power. The book is a mystery novel about the lost Dauphin of France, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's son. I think there really was mystery about the Dauphin's death, but different than the mystery or location of the Dauphin in the book... I think in real life the Dauphin was supposedly killed by revolutionaries.

I was going to say that I was lukewarm on this book, but that's not quite right. I was hot and cold on this book. I would get bored with it from time to time, would start reading really quickly and poorly, then BAM something would happen and I wouldn't know how it got there. It definitely happened twice, with me saying: "What? He's holding someone's wound as the person dies?" I didn't know who it was that was dying or what the events were leading up to the wound. I gleaned later on that the character was killed. And: "What? His house is on fire?" Not sure how that happened either.

But there were exciting parts too. Most of the end was quite exciting, from the fire onward. Until the very end, which I thought was unsatisfying. The best part of the book was the writing style - lovely imagery. I think my biggest problem with this book is that it's a Sherlock Holmes style murder mystery, a genre that is just not me. I do enjoy a mystery or thriller every now and then (see The Girl Who... series here, and here, and here), but not often.

Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen

I think I liked this more than The Corrections, which was a book I liked very much. But I don't remember much about The Corrections, and I think this plot and these characters will stick with me a little better. Just like The Corrections, Freedom is about a lovely dysfunctional family (well, of course, who would write about a nondysfunctional family?). The parents are Patty and Walter, the kids are Jessica and Joey. Franzen does such a good job of feeding you little anecdotes that really make you understand what makes these characters tick. The timing of the anecdotes was, however, sometimes frustrating. He'd leave me, for example, with a stupendous cliffhanger about Joey for a tangent about Walter's childhood to explain why nature was so important to Walter. Grrrrrrrrrr! I know that he's trying to leave the reader hungry, but the effect on me was to read the tangent way more quickly than it deserved. He also gave wonderful physical descriptions of the characters (except Jessica). The best was Richard Katz, who he simply described as looking like Muammar Gaddafi. Franzen had no way of knowing when he wrote the book how familiar all of America would be with the face of Gaddafi at this particular moment in time!

Plot-wise, this book absolutely did it for me. Loved it. I cared about everything that was going on. He weaved in so many issues into his plot (e.g. mountaintop removal mining, overpopulation, Iraq defense contracting, etc. etc. etc.), it was fascinating. I loved the characters too. There were so many things about these people that I could relate to myself or someone close to me. In fact, there were parts that evoked a little too much self reflection for my liking! Oh, and speaking of self reflection, I guess I could complain that Franzen made his characters a little TOO self-aware to be realistic. No one understands himself quite that well! But it was a great tool for us readers to understand the characters.

The only thing I didn't absolutely love was the amount of sexual description. I'm not totally a prude, but I am a little bit of one. This just got too much for me about 75% of the way through. Early on, I thought he dealt with sex really well. But it just got too in my face as the book went on. It was an important part of the book and I don't want to eliminate it; I just could have gone for some editing there.

Overall, an A from me. Definitely recommend.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

This is the first non-fiction I have read in, well, forever. It was alright - I did like it, at least. It was extremely interesting. It's all about HeLa cells, which are some of the first human cells that were able to grow outside of the body and thus lead to some really amazing research. The cells were originally taken from a black woman at Johns Hopkins without her consent. So, the book was about the woman, her death from cancer, and her family over the years as the notoriety of these cells grew. Pretty fascinating stuff. And the book presented the medical information in a way that didn't bore me to tears (which could definitely happen with that type of stuff ordinarily). But I missed the escape that reading a novel brings. The falling in love with characters. The excitement of the unknowns in a fictional plot. It reminded me why I only read fiction. But, I think my medically/sciency type frieds will like it.

Winners never quit...

But I did quit reading The Brothers Karamzov. And I think by doing so, I won. Blech. I know people love this book. Just not for me.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson

I read this book alarmingly fast. I couldn't put it down. I loved how each of the investigating good guys put together a piece of the conspiracy puzzle. I loved how the puzzle just kept coming steadily together throughout the entire book --- no over-dramatized setbacks. I loved all of the characters within the police, good and bad. I even wound up loving Berger's subplots with the job issue and the stalker (which at first I worried were going to be distracting). And I loved Annika's great cross examination. From a lawyer perspective, I thought it was interesting how the Swedish criminal trial proceeded, and it left me wondering how accurate it was. Lots of arguing by the attorneys amidst witness testimony.

What I didn't like about this book was the very end. I thought the introduction of Salander's accountant/lawyer character was unnecessary. And the wrap-up with the giant was a rushed afterthought. And I wanted more time spent, now that the characters were finally able to converge, reestablishing the relationships that had been severed for 2 whole novels.

A random thought about the translation: they kept calling Berger's cubicle a "glass cage." Characters used this term independently of each other, like it was some kind of expression or term of art. I think the translator should have used the word "fishbowl," which is an expression.

The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson

SO much better than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Less predictable, more exciting. The book jumps between the characters' story lines/perspectives a lot, which I liked. Larsson would get me really excited about what was going on with a character, but he would jump to a different character at the height of the excitement. Frustrating? No... because the new plot line would be just as exciting. So I found myself jumping between characters and stories that all held my interest perfectly. He unwound the mystery of Salander's family and Salander's actions at a perfect pace.

The only thing I did find frustrating about this book was it's publishing ploy. This is not a complete book. The end of the book is not even remotely an end. You HAVE to read the next book to continue the plot. Darn publishers, splitting the book into two to make an extra buck. Because nobody is going to finish this book and then not immediately purchase the finale.

Foul Matter, by Martha Grimes

The book I was stuck on for months during my reader's block, and I forgot to post about it! Not much to say... cute, fun read. Completely improbable plot about hit men going after hit men going after hit men all because of an egotistical author's weird request. But Grimes wasn't going for realistic here and the plot was enjoyably silly. It was like a slamming-doors British farce. I recommend it for anyone who needs a break from too much serious reading. My only complaint was that it had a wholly unsatisfying ending. Oh well.

The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls

This book rocked me. Jeannette Walls upbringing was awful. I don't know how she survived. To me, her father was pretty clearly schizophrenic and her mother was a narcissist to the utmost extreme. During their time in the desert, they were always picking up and moving in the middle of the night. They lived in cars. They starved. The parents were so into their belief that kids should learn for themselves that they did not correct behavior involving fire and guns. When Jeannette was sexually abused, her mother just casually said that such things were crimes of perception and if Jeannette did not feel hurt, then there was no wrong done. The parents stole from their children. They bought booze, art supplies, and chocolate bars (that weren't shared with the kids) rather than have electricity, garbage collection, or food in their hovel of a home. It was unbelievable.

But what rocked me most was that I didn't hate these parents. I even feel that I learned from them. I have joked with friends that I think maybe I should abuse my children just a little bit so that they become as strong and self-reliant as the Walls kids were. The abuse part is truly a joke... but there are things that the parents did that were good. They emphasized reading, exploration, and pushing the learning envelope. They taught their kids to be self confident (standing up to other kids) and to face their fears (e.g. Demon hunting). Jeannette was doing her math homework in binary code, which her father taught her, when she was very young because the schoolwork was otherwise too remedial for her.

But there are many things that I will just never forgive the Wallses for, even if Jeannette has. This family will stick with me for a long time. Great book.

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

This book is set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962-63. It is told from 3 voices: Aibileen and Minny, who are black maids working for elite Jackson families, and Skeeter Phelan, who is a young white woman who is not comfortable with her role within her elite family. Very early on in the book, Skeeter, while visiting her best friend and Aibileen's "white lady," asks Aibileen if she ever wants to change things. Being a highly inappropriate conversation between these two women in this time and place, Aibileen keeps her mouth shut. But not forever.

This book was wonderful. It was emotional and funny. Stockett is a no-nonsense author... she can introduce you to and acquaint you with a character in 3 sentences or less. What I might have liked best of all was that it did not have a neat pretty ending. Not an ugly ending either, but, like the Civil Rights movement itself (which is still a work in progress), the lives of the maids were not suddenly all perfect. But a few of them were on their way. It added such a sense of reality to these characters and the book as a whole that there were no cataclysmic changes in the characters or the reality of the world they lived in. It was just a story of one brick in the wall of change. A story that was brilliantly told, beautifully written, and funny to boot.

Some stuff I liked about some of the characters:
Skeeter: her awkwardness and her relationship with her mother, who would never die for fear that Skeeter may wear the wrong cut of pants without her mother around to correct her wardrobe. And her toilet prank.
Aibileen: her relationship with Mae Mobley. Taking a prompt from Aibileen, I've started telling my own daughters how smart, kind, and important they are on a more regular basis.
Minny: who couldn't love the Terrible, Awful thing she did? SO FUNNY! And I love the progression of her relationship with her new "white lady," Celia Foote.
Celia: her pink dress and her drunken debacle among all the high society ladies.