Book Review: Freedom

Title: Freedom (Daemon #2)
Author: Daniel Suarez
Genre: Commercial Fiction (Urban Science Fiction/Technological Thriller)
Rating: A+

140-Character Summary: The Daemon is a more powerful force than ever but the battle of good versus evil is happening both inside and outside of the darknet.

First 140 Characters of the Book: "An elderly man emerged from the crowd and aimed a revolver straight at Anthony Hollis's face. As the old worker's thick index finger squeezed..." (p. 3).

140-Character Review: It was Daemon on speed. Same great characters from Daemon (but worse or better than before) and some new characters. Over the top climax.

140-Character Recommendation/Market Placement/Entry Point: If you liked the first book in the series (and how could you not?) you owe it to yourself to read this.

Book Review: Home to Holly Springs

Title Home to Holly Springs, Father Tim Novel #1
Author Jan Karon
Genre Commercial Fiction
Category Religious Fiction
Rating C+

Summary Father Tim Kavanaugh receives an enigmatic note urging him to, "Come Home." So Father Tim returns to Holly Springs, after a 38-year absence, and starts to investigate the strings that have been pulling him back to the place of his birth. (This is a spin-off from Karon's wildly successful Mitford Christian Fiction series.)

Review I enjoyed this book more than I expected to when it was selected by my book club. I hadn't read anything in the Mitford series, and don't routinely read Christian fiction, but I was able to pick this up and read without too much being lost. The hardest hurdle to overcome was the dialect. Set in the South, Karon writes the dialogue the way it would sound to the ear.

The other thing that made this book hard to read is that it was, in a word, boring. Karon used a combination of flashbacks and present-day happenenings to tell the story. For the first half of the story the present-day happenings were boring (because there wasn't much happening), and the flashbacks in the second half were bad, in my opinion, because they slowed the pacing of the story just as it was climaxing.

Another issue I had with the climax was related to the characters. I don't know it it's because Tim Kavanaugh is a minister, but his reaction to the events that unfolded in the climax were unbelievable. How Father Tim could hear the news about his past, his family and not have a stronger reaction, not have any anger, was really far-fetched. I get that he's a man of the cloth, but he didn't even really struggle.

None the less, other characters were interesting. Most notably, Father Tim's wife. It makes me want to go back and read the Mitford books that deal with their courtship. I also enjoyed reading about young Timmy Kavanaugh and his mother (and trying to unravel the truth about Tim's dad).

Recommendation Fans of Karon's other books will enjoy this new series.

Book Review: Girls of Riyadh

Title Girls of Riyadh
Author Rajaa Alsanea
Genre Commercial Fiction
Rating B-

Summary Imagine Sex & the City in Riyadh--four friends endure the ups and downs of the single scene in the world of arranged marriages with the reality of irrational love.

First Line "Ladies and Gentlemen: You are invited to join me in one of the most explosive scandals and noisiest, wildest all-night parties around."

Review This book was my book club's May reading selection and, had I not been under social compulsion to read this, it's not something I ever would have selected because I don't read very much chick lit (just by a select number of authors I like). If, by some chance, I had picked it up, I'm not sure I would have completed it, but I'm glad I did.

This peek into Saudi culture through an insider's look at how the business of marriage is changing, was incredibly interesting. I also came to like the characters--some took longer than others, but eventually I came around to all of the four friends. The biggest thing I learned through the experience of reading this book is that I should probably do more international reading.

The two things that brought this down for me were: 1) I think the translation probably could have been better, there were times that the English was stilted or awkward (not really the author's fault); and 2) The reason it took me longer to like some characters was because they kept making the same mistakes until the end--the growth was unnecessarily protracted and caused the plot to lag.

Book Review: Perfect Fifths

Title: Perfect Fifths
Author: Megan McCafferty
Genre: Commercial Fiction
Rating: D+

Abbreviated Summary: This book is the conclusion of the Jessica Darling Series (my review of books one through four is here) and tells of one 18-hour period that occurs three years after Jessica says she won't marry Marcus Flutie (because she's clinically insane... in my opinion) and Marcus writes her a letter that says "whatever" (because he's completely fictional). Jessica and Marcus quite literally run into one another in the airport and then spend the rest of the day talking (and very little else... which I'll get to that as a literary device) and then go back to a hotel for the inevitable coupling (so obviously inevitable).

Review: So I think I've made it clear already by my rating (listed above) and my half-crapped summary that I couldn't even be bothered to copy from BN.com or from the inside jacket copy what I thought of this book that I went out and bought in hardback version during its first week of release and bought. I'll also enter into evidence that (compared to the first four books that I read in about three days), this one took me nearly a week to plug through.

The book dragged, was slow, wasn't a quick read, crawled like a turtle (and 7,000 other examples of being a very boring book). I wanted to try to find the 7,000 other adjectives and write them all here so you'd get an example of what it was like to read Perfect Fifths because she was ridiculously repetitive it wasn't even funny.

Here is the funny thing, though: You'd think she'd have been repetitive during the 80+ page conversation (literally just conversation, nothing else), but she wasn't... that part was seriously fantastic. Great. Wonderful. Awe-inspiring writing. Yeah, you get my point on that. It was a really great plot device because she brought us into this insulated relationship and just let us peer around for 80 pages and read their words (without any [or maybe a few, but I don't remember them] internal monologues). The reason this is so fantastically cool was because for the entirety of Jessica & Marcus' relationship, it's been built on double meanings, and this time we got to play with them ourselves, figure out which things were real and which weren't on our own. We stretched our literary legs and had a good time.

The only (very minor) issue I had with this long section was that sometimes I got a little confused about who was talking (because sometimes it would switch around if somebody didn't respond in turn), but I could usually tease it out with a little re-reading (and from the context). Just (if you're planning on using this plot device in your next novel), I'd recommend throwing in the occasional, "[Insert Character's Name] said," when you're switching up the back-and-forth.

Here is where she drags: Any time she writes from Jessica's POV. It's so bad that I wanted to claw my eyes out. (I didn't though, instead I opted for skimming.) You know, as an author, I think it has to be like a knife to the heart when readers say they skimmed the words that you spent hours, days, months, etc., pouring over. Sorry, Megan... sucks to be you.

You want an example? Here's an example: After Marcus and Jessica go back to the hotel for the oh-so-obvious set-up to their re-coupling, Jessica falls asleep and has a series of dreams that "speak to her" and tell her that Marcus is her true love. Yep, you read that right people, I said a SERIES of dreams. Three in total. I got it after one. If you wanted the imagery of all three, then just weave them together (that's the beauty of dreams, they don't make any sense so you could have had the chick with the brain injury on the beach for the wedding).

Another reason why the dreams were so painful to read is because (in my obviously cynical and humble opinion) it totally jacked up the pacing. On McCafferty's website she did, like, a top 10 of reasons to buy the book (or teasers or something else PR-ish), and number ten was, "Four words: Marcus Flutie shower scene." First things first, I didn't buy the book for the shower scene. Second things second, the shower scene wasn't all lusty, but still his internal angst and dialogue was being cut away from to get to all of Jessica's repetitive dreams, and it was just so very bad because his shower (and not even really that it's "a shower scene") was infinitely better than the dreams because he was having a real epiphany. She messed that up and I say, "BOO!" to her editor(s).

All that to say, if you've read the first four, pick this up (I'd recommend saving money until this shows up on a bargain table or is in paperback or at the 1/2 Price Resale store) and put it in your bathroom and read it in five minute segments. [The D+ signifies that she passed, but just barely. I was sorry to do it, because I loved the character of Marcus, but this series (for me) just did a progressive down-hill slide from the peak at book #1 straight through to the end. Sorry, Megs, I'm sure you worked your butt off, but at least you've got a slightly smaller butt to show for your efforts (and a hefty advance).]

Book Review: Jessica Darling Novels (1-4)

Title: Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings, Charmed Thirds, Fourth Comings
Author: Megan McCafferty
Genre: Commercial Fiction
Rating: B+

Summary: These four books are in a series telling the tale of the relationship between Jessica Darling and Marcus Flutie. There's more to it... he starts off as not a friend, there's a sordid past involving the dead brother (via overdose) of Jessica's best friend Hope who happened to be one of Marcus' best friends, and that the relationship might not have always been developed under the purest of pretenses, but that's pretty much it: the story of a relationship. Book 1 tells of their first meeting and dating (and Jessica discovering the nasty truth about the less-than-pure motivations). Book 2 tells of their reconciling and burgeoning relationship. Book 3 tells of their time in college (and Jessica's not-so-faithful ways). Book 4 covers a one week span of time (in minute detail) where Jessica decides will she or won't she marry Marcus.

Review: Here's a quick note: I read all four of these books in about three days. That good. Also--not perfect. I loved (let me say that again: I loved) Marcus Flutie. So interesting. Unfortunately, Jessica doesn't always love Marcus so we're left to guess sometimes about his interesting habits and interesting motivations. I say they're interesting and that's because they're compared to Jessica (who is completely un-interesting). The only "interesting" thing that Jessica does comes at the end of book 4 (which is enough to get me to read book 5).

The primary reason this series earned a B+ is because the story line is good (thanks to Marcus) and McCafferty actually does a great job in writing--she uses great turns of phrases--but it's lacking in the primary protagonist. Also, the minor characters are beautiful and should have been used more, if nothing else, they should have shoved Jessica around (figuratively) more often to make her more dynamic.

Book Review: Domestic Affairs

Title: Domestic Affairs
Author: Eileen Goudge
Genre: Commercial Fiction
Rating: B-

Summary (from GoodReads.com): "...A moving story in which an unlikely twist of fate has the potential to change the lives of three women in ways they never could have imagined. 'Rosie and Abigail are like family,' Ina Merriweather used to say. That is, until the day Ina abruptly cast out her housekeeper, Rosie, and her fifteen-year-old daughter Abigail. Abigail felt deeply betrayed, especially by Ina's daughter Lila, who was her closest friend. Only Lila's twin brother Vaughn, with whom Abigail had been exploring the joys and heartaches of first love, showed any compassion.

"Now, twenty-five years later, an old score is about to be settled...and an old love rekindled. Abigail is now a self-made woman who has built an empire out of the homemaking skills she learned from her mother. When Lila, who married well and for decades lived the glittering life of a Park Avenue socialite, suffers a tragic reversal of fortune, an opportunity to right an old wrong lands squarely in Abigail's lap. Lila seeks the help of her childhood friend, but learns that the only opening available at the moment is as her housekeeper and Lila has no choice but to accept.

"At the same time, Abigail is coping with the fallout from a fire in her Mexico factory, which took the life of an innocent girl, whose mother, Concepción Morales, now seeks the rich señora she holds responsible for her daughter's death. In a collision of fate, Abigail, Lila, and Concepción are thrown together and must unite to save one another...and themselves."

Review: If that summary above seemed long and convulted, it kind of is because it summarizes the entire plot of the book and leaves essentially no questions unanswered before you've even started reading. (Which, technically, probably isn't the author's fault... blame the copy writer.)

Anyway, I read this book as my book club's March selection and I was thoroughly disappointed. We typically tend to read literary fiction (heavy on the character development, a little lighter on the stereotypical conventions of plot), but this one was commercial fiction to a tee. You had fires, you had affairs, you had suicides (and attempts). But you also had formulaic fiction and you knew exactly where it would end up.

The only thing that kept me reading (other than my obligation to the book club) were a couple of the guys. I wanted to see what happened with Vaughn, Kent, Jesus, and Neal... not Karim, he was a throw-away character in my book, provided only to round out the pairings. Also, the mother-child realationships were "complex," but in a sterotypical way (in my opinion). There really wasn't any meet to dive into with this book.

Also, one thing we can blame on the writer (in addition to the plot and character issues mentioned above): the prose wasn't that interesting, she has a few pet words that she brought into the game too often in my opinion.

We pick books from a guide provided by the Book Club Selections organization, and I now feel compelled to go on their website and see what in God's name made them think this would be a great book to fuel discussion.

Book Review: Younger

Title: Younger
Author: Pamela Redmond Satran
Genre: Commercial Fiction
Rating: C

Abbreviated Summary (from the Back Flap): "Alice has always looked young for her age, even with her graying hair and her dowdy New Jersey housewife style. Make that ex-housewife: Now that her husband's gone and her daughter is grown, Alice is in desperate need of a while new life. So she lets her friend Maggie transform her... on New Year's Eve. Soon, thanks to the wonders of hair dye and tight jeans, Alice looks really young... At midnight, she kisses a boy who was in diapers when she was in high school.

"The white lie that Alice tells Josh gets her thinking that if no one asks her age, she doesn't have to tell. So she applies for a job... and gets it. Meanwhile, Josh is falling head over heels for Alice, who's just way cooler than girls his age..."

Review: There was way more to that summary about her telling her lies and will she get caught? Obviously. You know the climax going in. The only thing you don't know is, Why would I care? I picked this book up as an impulse buy at the store as I was browsing, I was hungry and the cake caught my eye, and I skimmed to the part about when she meets Josh (I thought the 44 year/25 year relationship was far-fetched) and wanted to see how it was written. Not well, but Josh was a nice character, so I picked it up. Josh is what kept me reading. I found I skimmed a lot of the rest of it (Are those the worst words an author can hear?), I didn't care about her daughter, kind of liked her friend (although I knew the outcome of all her baby-wanting before it even happened).

It was really formulaic and Alice was fine, but the pitch was just so-so for me. Maybe I wasn't in the target demographic. Being 30, I'm too old for the stuff about partying younger people, and too young for the stuff about the older generation. Maybe other people might like it, it just wasn't for me. (Plus, the oft-repeated references to how women in their 40's are at their sexual peak seemed like over-compensating to me.)

There was an interview with the author at the back of the version I bought that I read part of, and she said she'd been kicking the idea for this book around in several different forms. One of which was, "I saw Alice as a rich shallow woman on the brink of killing herself who decides to spend her last hour of life reading Vogue--and therin discovers a miracle-working plastic surgeon whom she gets to transform her into someone who looks young." Sure, it's surreal, but it actually sounds more innovative than this story was.

I've read worse, but I've read better... that gets you a C.

Reading Round-Up

I've been doing a ton of reading that isn't very valuable (on the surface), but here's a quick round-up of five books I've read in the past month with a rationalization for why the book was necessary reading.

Doing It by Melvin Burgess - I picked this book up at Barnes & Noble. This guy, a British fellow, gets a lot of critical acclaim for his writing--it's honest and believable stuff about young adults (plus, this particular book was spawned into a short-lived series by the geniuses that brought up the other great short-lived series Freaks and Geeks). I decided to buy and read this book because, in my writing, I'm wondering if I got the teenage male voice right... not ever having been a teenage male, I wasn't sure that what I thought they were thinking about lust and love and what-not was really accurate. Seeing as how Burgess used to be a teenage male, I wanted to hear what he had to say. The book was very funny and parts were really moving and the range of emotions that young guys go through deserves more attention.

Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle - I originally checked this book out from the library because I wanted to do some holiday reading and figured I'd double up with doing more research about reading other good (i.e., well-received) YA authors. I ended up really liking this book which is three short stories that interweave to tell three different stories of holiday romance. The only drawback was that by the third story you already know what's going to happen, it's set up in the first story, which was a bummer... Myracle got the short-end of the stick on this one. Anyway, I liked the book and ended up buying it for myself for my birthday; I think I'll probably come back to this each Christmas season to get that Christmas-y feeling.

Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky - I bought this book at the 1/2 Price bookstore because on the day after Thanksgiving I got a $5 coupon and it was the only thing in the store that I could find (while fighting with the other 1 million people who were in the store) that seemed to be any good in the YA section. [I've been doing the YA reading thing to work more on getting the "voice" of teenagers for my writing so it doesn't come across as a 30-year-old talking like a teenager.] Anyway, the idea of this book was cute, but the anatomy thing got to be a little old in my opinion--she kept describing things in graphic detail (I did this, I touched that, it moved like this, it looked like that) and it lost some of the emotion that a lot of good YA romances have because of the technical nature of the book.

When It Happens by Susane Colasanti - I bought this book, again as research, because it was written in alternating viewpoints between a guy and a girl, and I wanted to see about this (it's something I've been monkeying with in my book and I wanted to see how she transitioned... different fonts and chapter titles). Anyway, the book was super quick to read (I read it in 1/2 a day) and it was a much-appreciated change from Anatomy of a Boyfriend, which I'd just finished reading the day before... it didn't have the technical sex jargon, it was much more about feelings and illusions to romantic acts. All around, much more enjoyable than the previous book. I'd actually recommend this book, it was cute and did a great spin on the lovers from different worlds story (plus, it makes the jocks look like jerks, which I love).

With this Ring, I'm Confused by Kristin Billerbeck - My local Christian book store was having a liquidation sale, so I bought this book which is the third (and final) installment of the Ashley Stockingdale series. I had read the previous two a couple of years back and then gotten off the series because Billerbeck was a little too churchy-preachy for me (granted, I'm a Christian, but rather than you coming right out and telling me what she's struggling with and how she's overcoming it, or not, just let me figure it out on my own). Anyway, I decided it might be good to read how somebody else is writing about virtue and waiting... something that I did not find in hardly any of the afore-mentioned YA novels. Billerbeck's still super preach-y, but Dr. Kevin Novak is a dream, and if you're in to Christian chick lit, you can't get much better than Billerbeck.

There you go, that was a heaping helping of super fast book reviews. Happy Holidays!

Book Review: Chasing Windmills

Title: Chasing Windmills
Author: Catherine Ryan Hyde
Genre: Literary Fiction
Grade: A+

Summary (from Random House.com): The subway doors open and close, and in one moment Sebastian’s and Maria’s lives are changed forever...

Both Sebastian and Maria live in a world ruled by fear. Sebastian, a lonely seventeen-year-old, is suffocating under his dominant father’s control. In the ten years since his mother passed away, his father has kept him “safe” by barely allowing him out of their apartment. Sebastian’s secret late-night subway rides are rare acts of rebellion...

Maria, a young mother of two, is trying to keep peace at home despite her boyfriend’s abuse. When she loses her job, she avoids telling him by riding the subways during her usual late-night shift. She knows her sister, Stella, is right: She needs to “live in the truth” and let the chips fall where they may...

When Sebastian and Maria wind up on the same train, their eyes meet across the subway car, and these two strangers find a connection that neither can explain or ignore. Together they dream of a new future, agreeing to run away and find Sebastian’s grandmother in the Mojave Desert. But Maria doesn’t know Sebastian is only seventeen. And Sebastian doesn’t know Maria has children until the moment they leave. Ultimately, Maria brings one child, her daughter. Can she really leave her little boy behind? And, if not, what will it cost her to face her furious jilted abuser?

Review: I got this book from J. Kaye Oldner because she graciously selected me to help her host next week's Noontime Book Chats over on her fabulous blog. I picked the book up yesterday, hoping to be able to read over the course of the next week or so (in order to be reading it and having it done by the end of the book chats next Friday); however, I could not, I repeat could not put this book down. This book was so riveting, the characters so multi-hued, the writing so beautiful, the struggles so real that you simply had to keep reading.

I originally wanted to help lead the book chats on this book because, judging by the title (which isn't necessarily always the smartest way to pick a book), I thought it would be a modern retelling of Don Quixote... I saw "windmills" and thought, "My, that sounds Quixotic." Later, after agreeing to participate, I actually read the synopsis of the book which said it's supposed to be a modern retelling of West Side Story (the re-telling of Romeo and Juliet).

All that to say that, even though there were numerous references to both WSS and R&J in the book, this book was totally Quixotic. More than their shared romance, which was beautiful and earnest, the reader gets totally wrapped up in each individual's quest for self-understanding and learning how to perceive and think about the world. Both of them have moments where they are a modern-day personification of Don Quixote.

Also, I think it's pert near impossible to have major references to windmills (which Chasing Windmills does) without bearing that refence to Cervantes--that's too put into our modern literary consciousness to be over-looked.

I truly came to love these characters and Hyde, who weaves together two first-person narratives, is an amazing writer who was able to easily put on both sets of skin and bring both Maria and Sebastian to life. When she was Maria, I cringed and wrestled with understanding abusive relationships; when she was Sebastian, I wondered at the difficulties of growing up in an oppressive environment. She was spot-on, 100% able to nail both characters.

I can't possibly think of anything I would have changed about this book (which is really saying something for me, I know). You don't get the ending you thought you were going to get, but neither did Sebastian or Maria; however, you walk away having grown to understand their relationship and their love and their world, and you'll find yourself okay with it all.

This book was sensational. I recommend everyone pick up a copy (and join us next week for the book chats... should be good times)!