Little Bee

Little Bee (Chris Cleave) Kindle Version -- 2009 -- 9

Little be isn't a faint book; while not long, it is heavy. Many novels dealing with charged subject matter and high-faluting morality can also be ponderous, and full of unlikeable idiots who are supposed to be all to real. This is just not the case with Little Bee.

I downloaded Little Bee because I'd seen some positive reviews but (as is my habit), hadn't much read the synopsis. After reading the first few lines, I'd decided to put it off for a few days and start something lighter. After dragging myself through a horrendous excuse for a horror novel, I came back to Little Bee. By the time the book switched to the second narrator at chapter 2, I was fully enthralled, and Little Bee barely let me up for air.

I hate spoilers, and I wouldn't want to spoil Little Bee for anyone, there's too much that happens that you don't need to know a thing about until it happens. But I do want potential readers to know that Little Bee is a whirlwind, hugely accomplished, and a story that works on so many levels. More than anything I appreciated how much I came to love the characters, and to empathize with them.

My only problem really was with the ending. It took quite a while to get around to with too many things happening to quickly, and then ended rather abrubptly. I don't know that I have a better answer to what to do with these people; but I did click the last page feeling slightly abandoned.

If you love stories, if you love the written word -- even if you've read a synopsis of Little Bee and though, "maybe not my kind of thing," I'd just urge you to think twice. I'm really super glad I did.

8 Books a Month

My stupid new years resolution at the end of 2008 was to read 100 books in 2009. Why 100? It's a nice round number, but besides that, I didn't think it through too much. It sounded low to me, actually. Then I did the math (not ever my strong suit) and it turns out that comes to about 2 books a week, or 8 per month. Do-able, but with little room for falling behind.

Of course, by February, my resolution had lost meaning, just as every other resolution I and most other humans have made. It was a fun thought, but without meaningful accounting (and once my tv shows started up after their winter break) it had little to do with real day to day life.

Then, Kindle came, and reinvigorated my reading life.

So, in short, I decided to start writing this "blog" as a personal accounting. I have no intention of being thorough, precise or eloquent. My only intention is to make a record of what I'm reading that I hope will fix it in a place and time for me that gives it more meaning. Whether I'll meet my 100 books in 2009 goal or not, I don't know. I'm not sure I care either.

Here are my ground rules for myself:
For each book, I'll post at least one time. I plan to use a scale of 1-10 to rate each book, because I think that's fun. I won't summarize plots unless it seems necessary to meaningful criticism. I'll try to read 1 nonfiction book for ever 2 novels. I'll also note the version of the book that I read.

Here are the books I've read so far this year, that won't get a fair review in this "blog":

Something Rotten (Jasper Fforde) -- Hardcover (2004) -- 8
This is Thursday Next #4. Quite excellent, of course, but #3 will always be my favorite (unless we get a #6? ahhem. . .)

First Among Sequels (Jasper Fforde) -- Paperback (2008) -- 8
The last Thursday Next so far (#5). I want more.

The Doctor's Plague (Sherwin Nuland) -- Hardcover (2003) -- 5
Narrative History of Childbed Fever. Interesting, but nothing terribly special about the writing

Odd Hours (Dean Koontz) -- Paperback (2008) -- 6
Koontz just doesn't write like he used to. I'm so not impressed by these 300-400 page chase scenes. You can't not love Odd, but still. . .plot, anyone?

By The Sword (F. Paul Wilson) -- Kindle Edition (2008) -- 7
The impressive Repairman Jack series continues to heat up as we get towards Year Zero. F. Paul Wilson continues to be the most interesting writer of "supermarket thrillers" for my money. And that's by a long shot.

Jack: Secret Histories (F. Paul Wilson) -- Kindle Edition (2008) -- 8
F. Paul Wilson gives us Repairman Jack as a teenager in this unanticipated young adult series. There's certainly a sense of backtracking as Wilson finds ways to create Jack's past in ways that make it meet his evolving ideas of the present -- but this is so much fun. It's fun watching Jack begin to develop his "fix it" skills as a teen.

The Professor and the Madman -- (Simon Winchester) -- Kindle Edition (2005) -- 8
An interesting, if forgettable, narrative history of the partnership between the creators of the OED and a madman.

Beautiful Boy -- (David Sheff) -- Kindle Edition (2008) -- 10
An incredible memoir of a father's experience of his son's drug addiction. It's so much more than a story about drugs and disability. It read, to me, as a story about humanity, and life, and change and development, and so much more that I can't communicate. It stays with me.

Drood -- (Dan Simmons) -- Kindle Edition (2009) -- 9
A brilliant, complex narrative that is part historical fiction, part horror. Simmons has that rare ability. It's not about how horrible an event or apparition is, but how the horror of the moment is communicated. Drood constantly puts you into that horrific moment. The whole thing's a monster!