Books I've Read
Oct. 15th, 2018 10:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mafiefI will apologize early and say some of these are spoiler-y since I want to talk about the plot. Because of that reason, I’ve put my opinions of five books I’ve finished behind a cut.
Also, I've met my reading challenge for the year. It was only 12 books, but I'll still be happy I met one of my yearly goals. :)
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
Christopher, a 15-year-old boy, is writing a novel and Siobhan, the paraprofessional and mentor at his school, offers suggestions. He writes about his adventure and how he sees the world.
I liked how stylized the book was. The chapters numbers were a great detail. The science lessons throughout the book were interesting and experiencing how Christopher sees the world was neat. “This will not be a funny book” made me laugh out loud. The references to Sherlock Holmes was, of course, nice.
You can read between the lines and feel the pain and stress of the parents. The mom abandons her kid. The dad hits him. These parts made me uncomfortable, so the author hit the right emotion there. I dislike that Christopher ran away. I get why he thought he had to, but that there was no consideration of his dad was something I couldn’t get through. But, I realize that Christopher is unable to do that. There is also a lot of swearing, which I found disconcerting coming from the perspective of a 15-year-old.
I’m on the fence about this book. I liked it right up until he left to go to London. From there on, I just couldn’t get back into the story.
A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
This is the book I wish came with AO3 tags. So, I’ll add them here (they aren’t in order of what happened in the book, if you still want to be surprised):
Grief and grieving, mourning, attempted suicide, suicide fixation, detailed suicide attempts, suicide ideation, multiple suicide attempts, suicidal thoughts, main character death, child loss, accident, house fire
Still want to read the book?
The book starts out with Ove trying to buy an OPad (IPad). It is so cringe worthy that I feel bad for the sales associate and Ove over this whole interaction. Ove is a grumpy old man who is extremely capable, consistent in his ways, and has only owned and driven a Saab. The book goes back and forth through present day where Ove is forced to retire and is grieving over his wife to his past and you see why he things and does the things he does. He interacts with the people on the street, and Parvaneh is my favorite. And there is a beaten up old cat who becomes buddies with Ove.
Ove reminds me of my dad and brother. They are both overly logical men who have their own entrenched way of doing things. My dad once bought six pairs of the exact same sneaker. That statement by itself seems crazy. His rational was that he liked the fit, only buys one brand of shoes, and the store he always bought shoes from was going out of business. Both men married women who bring color to their lives. They have passions and excitement and get both men do things out of their normal patterns. My dad, who was just about a recluse and preferred to hide away from his three sisters, willingly came out of his room and stayed out of his room for far longer than anyone anticipated when my mom visited his home with a traveling vacation bible school. With Ove, like my dad and brother, I have a special fondness for him in short doses and I know he would drive me nuts for prolonged periods of time if I was married to that type of man.
For writing style, I found this book repetitious. The multiple suicide attempts were starting to get annoying. Many of his descriptions of what the characters are doing include “he looks as if”, “the cat looks like”, etc. These were great for adding humor and used in the light, humorous aspects of the book. Yet, they also became repetitious since this style was frequently used. Despite all of this, I did enjoy the book. Backman did a wonderful job at weaving humor in with serious topics.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
I’m just going to immediately state that I really liked this book and would read it again.
Aristotle (Ari) is 15-year-old boy who is Mexican and prefers to be alone. He not good at feelings, trying to figure out himself, not good at expressing or comfortable with love, and is miserable. His dad was sent to Vietnam. The war followed the dad back home, so he is very withdrawn and doesn’t talk. He has other much older siblings and one of them is in jail. Ari meets Dante and Dante teaches him to swim. Dante is sort of a loner and is also Mexican (even though he is trying to decide what being a real Mexican means). Dante’s dad is a university literature prof and his mom is a psychologist. The boys hang out with each other during the summer, do some stupid boy things (throwing shoes, etc), and Dante introduces him to poetry and literature. Dante is more expressive with his emotions and feelings and expressing it. Ari likes Dante but is not sure how to take this, feels uncomfortable with it, and sort of buries it the feelings.
Dante leaves when his dad goes on sabbatical, but they eventually come back. During that time Dante figures out he prefers kissing boys and only one boy. Ari doesn’t know what to do with it and hides that feeling. There is an intense homophobic episode involving Dante and a homophobic group of boys.
The book was cathartic. The author takes care of his characters in a sweet and tender way while they are working through their internal struggles. It was refreshing to read about parents (especially the moms) who are supportive, loving, and caring and you can actually see it in their actions in the book. In the book, Ari and his family grow and work through some of the problems they were having in their family (lack of communication being one of the issues). The end was beautiful and heart-warming, and I listened to it multiple times. I am wicked excited that the author is working on a sequel.
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
AO3 tags: rape, bestiality, incest, massacres, death, mourning, magical realism, child neglect, child death
It’s an epic with so much depth. I am already sure that I’ve missed some important themes or trends. There is extensive world building which allows the author to show patterns, trends, contrasts, etc. Because of the depth, I was very appreciative that the author would forshadow and reference something in the past to help you understand why this is important. The writer has no wasted words. You zone for a second and you’re lost. The audiobook reader, John Lee, must have had way too much coffee before reading, because he read extremely fast. There was no doing complicated recipes and listening to this book. To keep track of what I was reading, I had to refer to the genealogy often and also read along with Sparknotes. All of that to help figure out which Aureliano was doing what with whom and where. And there was a Sherlock Holmes reference!
The book follows the Buendía family for seven generations. They found the ficticious town of Macondo. Most of them are named José Arcadio or Aureliano, which makes the book difficult to follow. There are wars, deaths, uprising, society development, magic, etc. and the narrative goes forward and backwards in time. Yah, sparknotes helped!
On Tumblr I found this quote which is relevant to how I’m processing this book:
socialjusticewargames
It’s okay to have fictional characters do problematic stuff. Really, it is. Fictional characters are there to tell a story; not to be perfect paragons of virtue.
“Yeah!” some people will say. “It’s fine as long as you show that it’s problematic!”
And I’ll say: No. You don’t need to always do that either. We can’t expect writers to point out every moral misstep a character makes.
It’s okay to have characters do something problematic, and it’s okay to assume that the readers can see why it’s problematic on their own.
So yes, many of these characters are far from the paragon of virtue. Some didn’t see that their actions were problematic. I can’t say I liked any of the specific characters or the family (if you consider the family as a whole a character). The men seriously need to keep their dick in their pants and stop being overcome with desire for their relatives or beasts. I hate hate hate that baby Aureliano is abandoned shortly after birth by his father because he is grief stricken over his wife dying in childbirth. The child subsequently died and was devoured by ants. Like, this is your link to your dead wife, why would you abandon it? Arg…
Another vivid scene for me is when José Arcadio (second generation) is mysteriously shot and the blood trail travels to his mother.
The Vanishing Season – Joanna Schaffhausen
Ellery Hathaway was the last victim of a serial killer. She has changed herself and gone into police training. She is an officer in Woodbury, MA and the town has experience three disappearances. Throughout the story, she wrestles with what happened to her in a believable way, and as the story unfolds you learn more about what happened to her in more detail.
Mystery thriller that is well plotted and thought out. The characters are well thought out and believable. It’s set in western MA (Woodbury), and the scenes and thinkings were familiar (aka. You must mention red socks and dunkin donuts). The characters visit Maynard, and it was fun to say ‘hey! I’ve been there and there is really nothing to write home about regarding that place’. I tried hard not to figure out who the killer was in advance and just enjoy the ride, but was partially unsuccessful. There was also a reference to Sherlock Holmes, which I think may be obligatory in this genera. While I enjoyed it, I don’t think I’d read it again because I know how it’s going to end. I think that might be a downfall of this genera.
I find this author interesting. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find other scientists writing fiction. Some I know and others I don’t. This author has her doctorate in neuroscience and was an editor for Cell (one of top tier science journals that scientists want to publish in). She lives near Boston, which is unsurprising since it’s a major biotechnology hub. She got her start writing fanfiction for X-files. I’m not in that fandom, but rather tempted to read some of her works.
Also, I've met my reading challenge for the year. It was only 12 books, but I'll still be happy I met one of my yearly goals. :)
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
Christopher, a 15-year-old boy, is writing a novel and Siobhan, the paraprofessional and mentor at his school, offers suggestions. He writes about his adventure and how he sees the world.
I liked how stylized the book was. The chapters numbers were a great detail. The science lessons throughout the book were interesting and experiencing how Christopher sees the world was neat. “This will not be a funny book” made me laugh out loud. The references to Sherlock Holmes was, of course, nice.
You can read between the lines and feel the pain and stress of the parents. The mom abandons her kid. The dad hits him. These parts made me uncomfortable, so the author hit the right emotion there. I dislike that Christopher ran away. I get why he thought he had to, but that there was no consideration of his dad was something I couldn’t get through. But, I realize that Christopher is unable to do that. There is also a lot of swearing, which I found disconcerting coming from the perspective of a 15-year-old.
I’m on the fence about this book. I liked it right up until he left to go to London. From there on, I just couldn’t get back into the story.
A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
This is the book I wish came with AO3 tags. So, I’ll add them here (they aren’t in order of what happened in the book, if you still want to be surprised):
Grief and grieving, mourning, attempted suicide, suicide fixation, detailed suicide attempts, suicide ideation, multiple suicide attempts, suicidal thoughts, main character death, child loss, accident, house fire
Still want to read the book?
The book starts out with Ove trying to buy an OPad (IPad). It is so cringe worthy that I feel bad for the sales associate and Ove over this whole interaction. Ove is a grumpy old man who is extremely capable, consistent in his ways, and has only owned and driven a Saab. The book goes back and forth through present day where Ove is forced to retire and is grieving over his wife to his past and you see why he things and does the things he does. He interacts with the people on the street, and Parvaneh is my favorite. And there is a beaten up old cat who becomes buddies with Ove.
Ove reminds me of my dad and brother. They are both overly logical men who have their own entrenched way of doing things. My dad once bought six pairs of the exact same sneaker. That statement by itself seems crazy. His rational was that he liked the fit, only buys one brand of shoes, and the store he always bought shoes from was going out of business. Both men married women who bring color to their lives. They have passions and excitement and get both men do things out of their normal patterns. My dad, who was just about a recluse and preferred to hide away from his three sisters, willingly came out of his room and stayed out of his room for far longer than anyone anticipated when my mom visited his home with a traveling vacation bible school. With Ove, like my dad and brother, I have a special fondness for him in short doses and I know he would drive me nuts for prolonged periods of time if I was married to that type of man.
For writing style, I found this book repetitious. The multiple suicide attempts were starting to get annoying. Many of his descriptions of what the characters are doing include “he looks as if”, “the cat looks like”, etc. These were great for adding humor and used in the light, humorous aspects of the book. Yet, they also became repetitious since this style was frequently used. Despite all of this, I did enjoy the book. Backman did a wonderful job at weaving humor in with serious topics.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
I’m just going to immediately state that I really liked this book and would read it again.
Aristotle (Ari) is 15-year-old boy who is Mexican and prefers to be alone. He not good at feelings, trying to figure out himself, not good at expressing or comfortable with love, and is miserable. His dad was sent to Vietnam. The war followed the dad back home, so he is very withdrawn and doesn’t talk. He has other much older siblings and one of them is in jail. Ari meets Dante and Dante teaches him to swim. Dante is sort of a loner and is also Mexican (even though he is trying to decide what being a real Mexican means). Dante’s dad is a university literature prof and his mom is a psychologist. The boys hang out with each other during the summer, do some stupid boy things (throwing shoes, etc), and Dante introduces him to poetry and literature. Dante is more expressive with his emotions and feelings and expressing it. Ari likes Dante but is not sure how to take this, feels uncomfortable with it, and sort of buries it the feelings.
Dante leaves when his dad goes on sabbatical, but they eventually come back. During that time Dante figures out he prefers kissing boys and only one boy. Ari doesn’t know what to do with it and hides that feeling. There is an intense homophobic episode involving Dante and a homophobic group of boys.
The book was cathartic. The author takes care of his characters in a sweet and tender way while they are working through their internal struggles. It was refreshing to read about parents (especially the moms) who are supportive, loving, and caring and you can actually see it in their actions in the book. In the book, Ari and his family grow and work through some of the problems they were having in their family (lack of communication being one of the issues). The end was beautiful and heart-warming, and I listened to it multiple times. I am wicked excited that the author is working on a sequel.
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
AO3 tags: rape, bestiality, incest, massacres, death, mourning, magical realism, child neglect, child death
It’s an epic with so much depth. I am already sure that I’ve missed some important themes or trends. There is extensive world building which allows the author to show patterns, trends, contrasts, etc. Because of the depth, I was very appreciative that the author would forshadow and reference something in the past to help you understand why this is important. The writer has no wasted words. You zone for a second and you’re lost. The audiobook reader, John Lee, must have had way too much coffee before reading, because he read extremely fast. There was no doing complicated recipes and listening to this book. To keep track of what I was reading, I had to refer to the genealogy often and also read along with Sparknotes. All of that to help figure out which Aureliano was doing what with whom and where. And there was a Sherlock Holmes reference!
The book follows the Buendía family for seven generations. They found the ficticious town of Macondo. Most of them are named José Arcadio or Aureliano, which makes the book difficult to follow. There are wars, deaths, uprising, society development, magic, etc. and the narrative goes forward and backwards in time. Yah, sparknotes helped!
On Tumblr I found this quote which is relevant to how I’m processing this book:
socialjusticewargames
It’s okay to have fictional characters do problematic stuff. Really, it is. Fictional characters are there to tell a story; not to be perfect paragons of virtue.
“Yeah!” some people will say. “It’s fine as long as you show that it’s problematic!”
And I’ll say: No. You don’t need to always do that either. We can’t expect writers to point out every moral misstep a character makes.
It’s okay to have characters do something problematic, and it’s okay to assume that the readers can see why it’s problematic on their own.
So yes, many of these characters are far from the paragon of virtue. Some didn’t see that their actions were problematic. I can’t say I liked any of the specific characters or the family (if you consider the family as a whole a character). The men seriously need to keep their dick in their pants and stop being overcome with desire for their relatives or beasts. I hate hate hate that baby Aureliano is abandoned shortly after birth by his father because he is grief stricken over his wife dying in childbirth. The child subsequently died and was devoured by ants. Like, this is your link to your dead wife, why would you abandon it? Arg…
Another vivid scene for me is when José Arcadio (second generation) is mysteriously shot and the blood trail travels to his mother.
The Vanishing Season – Joanna Schaffhausen
Ellery Hathaway was the last victim of a serial killer. She has changed herself and gone into police training. She is an officer in Woodbury, MA and the town has experience three disappearances. Throughout the story, she wrestles with what happened to her in a believable way, and as the story unfolds you learn more about what happened to her in more detail.
Mystery thriller that is well plotted and thought out. The characters are well thought out and believable. It’s set in western MA (Woodbury), and the scenes and thinkings were familiar (aka. You must mention red socks and dunkin donuts). The characters visit Maynard, and it was fun to say ‘hey! I’ve been there and there is really nothing to write home about regarding that place’. I tried hard not to figure out who the killer was in advance and just enjoy the ride, but was partially unsuccessful. There was also a reference to Sherlock Holmes, which I think may be obligatory in this genera. While I enjoyed it, I don’t think I’d read it again because I know how it’s going to end. I think that might be a downfall of this genera.
I find this author interesting. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find other scientists writing fiction. Some I know and others I don’t. This author has her doctorate in neuroscience and was an editor for Cell (one of top tier science journals that scientists want to publish in). She lives near Boston, which is unsurprising since it’s a major biotechnology hub. She got her start writing fanfiction for X-files. I’m not in that fandom, but rather tempted to read some of her works.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-15 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-15 05:19 pm (UTC)I’ll likely find some lighter subject books since a lot of them have been on the heavy side. I’m exploring and being omnivorous – I’m reading whatever I think looks interesting (and I can find at the library) to see what appeals to me. Right now, I’m not entirely sure of my preferences. I’ll read just about whatever with fanfiction, and the broad preferences seem to be holding again.
I know that Sherlock Holmes is so well known, but having it show up where it did was surprising. The most surprising was One Hundred Years of Solitude. The sentence references the (stupid) deerstalker, but Holmes’ name is still used!
I’ll do the challenge next year and likely double the number of books I’ll try to read. In the spring semester, I’ll have 1.5 – 2 hr commute M - R and I’ll spend that time listening to audiobooks. I’ve made peace with the library ap on my phone and figured out how to use it. So, I’ve found a way to feed the need for free and I’m happy with this. :)
no subject
Date: 2018-10-16 01:39 pm (UTC)I'm so glad you made it to the end of One Hundred Years of Solitude! Yes, it is dense and the family tree is essential to remembering who is who and how they're related.
But it is, hands down, my favourite book of all time, and there's no way to overstate the impact that it has had on my life. I read it in high school and it blew me a way. I'd never read a book like it and I was completely entranced by Macondo and the world that had produced it. I went off to college and studied Latin American politics and Spanish and spent 4 years wandering around South America, essentially looking for Macondo. I mean, my reaction to it is what told me that I didn't belong where I was born and grew up, that my real home was Out There.
Even translated into English, the language is so powerful. I mean, that beauty and eloquence and tragedy and perversion is what I aspire to. I mean 'the first will be tied to a tree and the last will be carried away by ants' makes me shiver even now. It just magnificent in the quintessential definition of the word. And where I grew up there are huge fire ants hills everywhere and once in a while someone drops their baby in one and so it's always been a delightfully gruesome image.
Anyway, congrats on reaching your book goal! Way to go!
no subject
Date: 2018-10-25 01:51 pm (UTC)Your reaction to the book is amazing and so is your passion towards it. :) I’d love to hear more about your adventures in South America. How far south did you go? I went to Chile and Argentina for a j-term trip.
When I read it, I kept feeling like I’m missing something which is why I was trying to read along with sparknotes. I agree that the imagery is intense, and I’m insanely impressed by his world building.
When I was writing my impression of the book, I hope that I was keeping it semi-neutral. I am not sure if I like this or dislike it. I am sure that there are even more layers to this book that I do not understand. I’m still curious about the book, thus undecided how I feel about it. Down the road, I want to read it again, but slower and with a hard copy instead of audiobook.
The gruesome imagery did bother me, which was the point, so it worked. There are so many tragic characters doing tragic things and getting in their own way. It’s the ‘why are you doing that?’ part that gets to me. I’ve been wondering if I could write a character like that, and I’m not entirely sure that I could allow myself to since I would want to ‘fix’ it. ;)
no subject
Date: 2018-10-25 06:38 pm (UTC)Yeah, I've never listened to it, but I think it might be better to read a hard copy. It's very dense and flipping back and forth is almost required.
I get in my own way a lot so that's not so much of a problem :) But it's cool that you read it and finished it. Yea!