Book Reviews Archive - Page 52 of 79

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani: Book Review

Ave Maria (Please don't call her Ava) Mulligan has lived all her life in Big Stone Gap in the mountains of Virginia. Yet she's still seen as a "furriner" by everyone else because her mother was from Italy. Ave is sort of a "pillar of the community"; she's the town pharmacist, she makes house calls, she directs the town's outdoor summer drama, she's one of two volunteers for the rescue squad--you name, she's in it. But after her mother's recent death, Ave learns some surprising news about herself that leads her to question the direction her life is taking and make some big changes. Probably the most important thing to me about this book is that I was either smiling or laughing most of the way through it, and at the end I was definitely left with a satisfied smile on my face. It was a sweet, yet funny story full of lovable, quirky characters. And two very viable male leads to think about! :-) I just finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society recently, and I think fans of that book will enjoy this one. Not that there's anything really similar between the two. But they both left me smiling, and those books are always fun to find. I'll continue reading the rest of this series. Reviewed February 2009 Read an excerpt. Find author Adriana Trigiani on her website, Facebook, and Twitter. Buy Big Stone Gap at Malaprop’s | Better World Books Friday Flashback Reviews are a weekly feature here on The Introverted Reader. These are old reviews I wrote on GoodReads. Thanks to Angieville and her Retro Friday Reviews for the inspiration and encouragement!I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will…

The Richest Man in Babylonby George S. Clason: Book Review

A co-worker insisted on lending me this book. It doesn't sound like my kind of thing, but I didn't know how to tell her I wasn't interested. We'll see how this goes... Written in a format that leaves me wondering whether to classify this as fiction or non-fiction, The Richest Man in Babylon uses the framework of established Babylonian men telling stories about how they gained their hard-won financial wisdom. The book is short and surprisingly readable for someone who doesn't understand much about Finance. I understand budgeting and saving, but that's as far as I go with that. The advice in the book seems sound to me, at least the parts that I understand. It boils down to: 1. Live on 70% of your income. 2. Save 10% of your income. 3. Use the remaining 20% to pay off your debts. Sound financial advice. Then it tries to get into investing. I just don't get it. The story in the book is about a man giving a shield-maker money for his business and the shield-maker pays him back with interest. I can't translate that into modern times. Oh, I know it's something about investing, but I'm so vague about how that works that I'm just left scratching my head, wondering where I can find an honest shield-maker. The format worked well for me. I was getting a little bit of a story along with my Financial Advice, so that made it easier. "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down" kind of thing. I did get tired of all the "Thee" and "Thou." Maybe I'm wrong, but that's just King James English, right? I don't really think that's how ancient Babylonians talked. Just write "your" and be done with it. I guess it was supposed to give this…

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See: Book Review

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is the story of two girls from very different backgrounds in 1800s China and the deep friendship they share. I picked this up after reading three Holocaust novels in a row. I needed some “fluff” and, not really knowing what it was about, I thought this might work. Instead I found myself reading the horrible details of foot binding. I knew it was bad, but I didn’t realize it was that bad. *Shudder* That aside, this was pretty good. I found it hard to relate to either Lily or Snow Flower, but I did appreciate the deep friendship they shared. In a time of arranged marriages, a friendship was the truest love most women experienced. I think we’ve lost some of that today, but we can still relate to the love, regret, and misunderstandings that arise between friends. A big part of the book centers around the secret women’s writing that the women in this area of China had. I just love the whole idea of a hidden writing system invented for women by women. I’ve come across this idea before in The Secrets of Jin-shei by Alma Alexander. That novel’s set in an imaginary country that is obviously based on China. Readers of one of these books should like the other. I think women who enjoy reading about friendships between women will enjoy this one. Reviewed August 12, 2009 Read an excerpt. Find author Lisa See on her website, Facebook, and Twitter. Buy Snow Flower and the Secret Fan at Malaprop’s | Better World Books Friday Flashback Reviews are a weekly feature here on The Introverted Reader. These are old reviews I wrote on GoodReads. Thanks to Angieville and her Retro Friday Reviews for the inspiration and encouragement! I have an affiliate relationship…

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff: Book Review

Writer and bibliophile Helene Hanff strikes up a friendship through correspondence with the staff of a used bookshop in London. I think my expectations were too high. I remember other readers telling me, "Oh, if you liked The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, you will absolutely love 84, Charing Cross Road." Well, I absolutely loved Guernsey, so there wasn't really any room for me to like something more. Disappointment was inevitable. Letters were obviously left out, and I found myself wondering what was going on in between the published letters. There would be a reference to "your last letter" and I wondered what had been said in it. I was a little taken aback by how quickly the author took such a familiar tone with the reserved "Brits." I can't imagine writing "WHAT KIND OF A BLACK PROTESTANT BIBLE IS THIS?" in my second letter to a business. Not if I was truly upset, and definitely not in a teasing manner. I thought it got repetitive. "Do you have this book? Why not? What's that in dollars? Glad you liked the food I sent. Maybe I'll get over there someday." That's about it. I don't think I've read, or even heard of, most of the books that the author wants to buy. I appreciate that she's a voracious reader, but we apparently have 0 books in common. It was hard to stir up much interest in that. I did like that books united such far-flung people. I'm sitting here thinking about a quote by Emerson that says something like "I can't be truly alone when I'm surrounded by books." He was using that as an argument to get out in nature, but that can be a comforting thought as well. Not only am I as a reader sharing…

Blankets by Craig Thompson: Book Review

In this autobiographical graphic novel, Craig Thompson describes his first love, his childhood relationship with his brother, and his loss of faith. I think there's something in this graphic novel that everyone can relate to. Whether it's the rush of falling in love for the first time, the bullies at school, or the tangled relationship with a sibling, Craig's experiences, while unique, are also universal. I know that doesn't make sense, but there you go. It was a bit cathartic for me to watch him working them out. Every frame rang true. His fights with his brother over the blankets in the wintertime. His isolation at school. His relief at finding other loners at church camp. The first infatuation and later love. I love the artwork. They show more of what Craig is feeling than the words do. The black and white pictures fit the stark feeling of this story, which mostly takes place in the winter. I know there's more, but I've waited too long to review this book. It's a lovely graphic novel. Just read it. Find author Craig Thompson on his blog and Facebook. I picked this up after reading Aths' awesome review over at Reading on a Rainy Day. Buy Blankets at Malaprop’s | Better World Books I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.

‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King: Book Review

Author Ben Mears has returned to the town of Jerusalem's Lot, Maine, where he spent the best years of his childhood. He had a traumatic, horrifying experience there, and he wants to write it out of his system at last. Around the same time, two other men move into town, R. T. Straker and Kurt Barlow. They buy and move into the local house that has haunted Ben for years. And then people start disappearing... Parts of this felt a little familiar. Little Mark Petrie reminded me of Jake from The Dark Tower series and the kid from The Talisman. Ben reminded me of someone too, I just can't put my finger on who. And then there's the name Susan. I wonder if there's a Susan in King's past. That slight familiarity aside, I did enjoy this. I think part of what gives me the willies when reading King's work is that he doesn't back away from using children in his horror stories. He kills them off when he has to and he turns them into evil little beings too. He uses children to chilling effect in this novel. One of the subplots that I really liked was Father Callahan's struggle with faith. Maybe that's because I did read The Dark Tower series first, but I enjoyed "meeting" Father Callahan and learning more about him. His part in this book comes pretty late, so I'll refrain from discussing him more. I want to re-read his part in The Dark Tower now that I know more about him! I really liked that the vampires in this book were real, true, evil vampires. Granted, this was written in the mid-70s, well before the current vampire love story craze (not knocking it at all), but it's still refreshing to read right now. This…

The Ruins by Scott Smith: Book Review

Two American couples, fresh out of college, decide to go to Cancún for a little R&R before starting grad school in the fall. They end up venturing into the jungle, looking for some Mayan ruins and a fellow traveler's brother. They're completely unprepared for what they find there. I really, really want to give this two stars. That doesn't seem to be quite fair though, when I seriously read most of the book in one sitting, in bed, without even thinking about getting sleepy. The short sections instead of chapters, rotating through the characters' POVs, and the desire to see what happens next all combined to keep me rapidly turning pages. But the characters! Oh, the characters. They shouldn't have even had names. We could have called them Mr. Boy Scout, Miss Moody, Mr. Comedian, Miss Spacy, Outsider #1 and Outsider #2. That's about all the personality they got. What little they got beyond that was just enough to make me dislike them. I'm not sure if I was supposed to be happy when the first character died, but I was. "Yes! No more of THAT one, anyway!" is what I was thinking. Mr. Boy Scout was okay, but I don't think I was supposed to like him. It didn't seem like anyone else did. And the women! Useless, mindless, hand-wringing, complaining, argumentative, and just plain stupid. The guys were bad enough, but the girls were offensive to women everywhere. This next complaint might not make a lot of sense without spoilers, but I'll give it a try. There were some things that had to happen for the plot to play out the way it did, but they were frustrating. I was sitting there (well, lying there) railing, "If you don't want this to happen, why are you doing things…

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: Book Review

Forget the big, green, shuffling, moaning monster with bolts in his neck that we've all come to associate with Frankenstein. He does not appear in these pages. I wonder what book those old horror movie writers read? It wasn't this one. Frankenstein's monster is big, but the only other physical descriptions I really remember are flowing black hair, watery yellow eyes, and uncanny speed, agility, and tolerance for cold. Oh, and he's more eloquent than I could ever hope to be. Seriously. As for Frankenstein himself--a more self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self-explicatory character I hope to never meet. He was terrible! This was his story: "Oh no! Something bad happened!" *clunk* He falls over in nervous delirium and is bed-ridden for months. He wakes. He moans and groans and just generally doesn't deal. Then one day: "Oh no! Something bad happened! But it wasn't my fault!" *clunk* He falls over in nervous delirium, bed-ridden for months, blah, blah, blah, blah. That really is Frankenstein's story in a nutshell. I do realize that this story was supposed to be more of a warning about our science getting ahead of our morals, pride coming before a fall and all that. On that level, it completely worked. As I read this, the word hubris kept coming to mind, and I haven't thought that word since studying the Greek myths for months on end my sophomore year of high school. That was more years ago than I honestly want to think about. Anyway, Shelley absolutely did what she meant to do and her work is always going to be relevant. But as a reader, I need a character that I can like. I don't think it necessarily has to be the main character, just give me someone, somewhere, to root for. There wasn't one here. Clerval…

Horns by Joe Hill: Book Review

Ignatius Perrish wakes up after a drunken night with honest-to-goodness horns growing out of his head. At first, he thinks he's just going crazy. But as he ventures out into the day, he finds that other people can see them too; they're just too busy telling him their deepest, darkest secrets to really comment on them. Oh, and if they know him, they're telling him exactly what they think of him. That would be bad enough for anyone, but when you've been (falsely) accused of raping and murdering your girlfriend and the whole town thinks your famous father got you off, what people have to say to you gets real vicious real fast. I hate the name Ignatius. Even shortened to Ig or, heaven forbid, Iggy, it's just awful. And then to pair it with Perrish. I couldn't help but think of Iggy Pop. That aside... This was scary but not in a horror-y way. Well, not for the most part. There's the thing with the horns, but the real scare here is how this kind of thing happens every day. Again, not the horns, but the rape/murder of an innocent girl. And we always think it's the significant other who did it. Sure, most of the time it is, but what living hell the innocent ones must go through. Not only have they lost a loved one but they've been accused of doing it as well. *Shudder* Ig shows us exactly how little it feels that life is worth living after that. What makes this so hard to read is that Ig was about to have it all. He and Merrin have a fantastic relationship. They're high school sweethearts who look like they're really going to live the happily ever after. They're both pursuing their career dreams and then…

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff: Book Review

Mackie Doyle doesn't quite fit in with his gloomy, outwardly perfect town. His eyes are just too dark. He has an allergic reaction to iron. And most people don't know this, but consecrated ground blisters his skin. See, the town of Gentry pays a price for its perfection; it pays with its children. And Mackie is just a replacement for one of them. This was actually creepier than I expected it to be. Let's face it, that cover is a lot to live up to. I love it, but it even caught my husband's attention. The book and the cover actually went well together in this case. We kind of learn things as Mackie does, which leaves us with questions that are answered in a way that feels right. This storytelling technique can sometimes backfire horribly for me as a reader and leave me feeling that the author cheated. Not the case here. There's a reason Mackie doesn't know things and there's a reason people don't talk about what's going on. Mackie was feeling a little too sorry for himself throughout the book, and that's the biggest thing that knocked this back a couple of stars. I kind of understand it now (he's really, really not feeling well, and who doesn't feel sorry for themselves then?), but I didn't realize that this was new for him and how bad it was until well into the book, when my opinions were pretty firmly set. If I could have seen him on some good days in some flashbacks or something, I would have had more empathy for him. Tate was a great character. I was confused by her at first, but as things are explained, I understood why she was acting like she did. I loved that she didn't take crap off…