Book Review: Dear Life

This book is a compilation of short stories by Alice Munro.  The author describes the book as scenes from where someone's life reaches a tipping point and takes a turn.  But the question is, is the turn for better or for worse?  The reader finds out as each character's plot unfolds.  Although the stories are independent of each other, all of the stories take place in Canada from the 1930's-1970's. 

I enjoyed this book, although I would give it a 3 out of 5 stars.  Some of the stories caught me off guard in how they unfolded (which made for a great story), but some of the stories just left me feeling like there wasn't enough "meat" to the tale.  It was a little frustrating once I realized that all of the stories were completely independent of each other (I wanted them to be intertwined in some fashion), and there wasn't really an overall theme to the book.  If you really dig deep though, you'll realize that the book is about people who aren't proactive about life and just seem to let life happen to them.  Most of the tales are a bit sad in how they end.  So maybe the theme is - don't let life just happen to you.

Book Review: Elegance of the Hedgehog

Again, Elegance of the Hedgehog was a book club selection.  The author is French and the book was translated from French.  The book is about 300 pages, and the first 100 were pretty boring.  The author takes FOREVER to convey personality quirks in her characters.  There are chapters and chapters (albeit they are 2-3 page chapters) where the main character just babbles on and on about one thought process or another.  I actually couldn't finish this book in time for the book club meeting, partly because I got so bored with it, I started reading something else.  I didn't bother to finish reading it since I had so much more to go, but it did start getting good half-way through.

If you read this, I would recommend skimming the first half of the book unless you like this kind of writing.

Book Review: Tinkers

Tinkers is a book I read for my book club.  It was a short read, which was good because I didn't find it that interesting.  The most interesting part is when the book talks about the main character's father who was a peddler with a wagon.  The author attempts to culminate the last chapter with what is supposed to be kind of an ironic ending, but it fails in that it wasn't quite the buildup it was probably supposed to be.

Book Review: Paddle Your Own Canoe

I love the TV show “Parks and Recreation” so I was intrigued to read a book by the actor who plays one of my favorite characters.  For every chapter in the book, Nick has a “post-chapter” (I don’t know what else to call it) at the end of the chapter.  The main chapters chronicle Nick’s life to date.  In the post-chapters, he expounds upon a different subject, usually a topic where he feels the need to state his opinion to the populace.  While the regular chapters were somewhat interesting, I found the post-chapters to be the funnier parts of the book. 

Something that did throw me was the way Nick writes.  It’s not really his writing style that got me, it was the amount of “$1000-dollar words” that he uses.  I am very glad I read this book on my e-reader, because I had to look up a word at least every 3 pages (and I consider myself fairly well-read).  It wasn’t necessarily that I didn’t know what the word meant, it was just that I didn’t understand why Nick was using it the way he was.  In a lot of cases, he was using words incorrectly.  I’m not sure how his editors didn’t question this.  He used words in such “creative” ways that he really does alienate himself from his readers; I can’t tell if he’s writing like this to amuse himself or to make himself look smart to his readers.  If it’s the latter, then he fails miserably and looks both like a fool for using words incorrectly and arrogant for trying too hard to impress his readers. 

I will give this book 3 stars, because it was interesting, but the writing style wasn’t great.

Book Review: NW

I only read this book for a book club.  The plot was a bit confusing.  The writer does not do a very good job describing the characters.  It took a few chapters before I realized what race the main character was (she was a different race than those around her).  The writer tries to set up the book with plot twists that are supposed to leave you gasping, but they just leave you scratching your head.  The twists are so obscure, you have to sit there and think for a few minutes before you realize what the twists were supposed to have expressed to you. 

Book Review: The Dovekeepers

I feel silly writing this, but I can only sum up this book in one way: this is a beautiful story.  I read this book a couple of years ago, but it was excellent.  The Dovekeepers follows the lives of a handful of different women in the time period around 40-30 BCE.  As each woman gets into the book’s spotlight, her backstory is slowly revealed.  Many times, the backstory shows an unusual (and beautiful) past and may also show how one woman’s story entertwines with another.  They all end up in the same location and live together in one area.  As you read the book, you see outside events invading that area and interfering with the women’s lives as well as everyone around them.  The book culminates into an unexpected ending that leaves you stunned.  (Sorry, I can’t be more explicit, but I don’t want to give the ending away).  Once you read the book, you will probably realize what historical event the book leads up to. 

This is an incredible book.  I wish I had a copy of this to re-read at will.

Book Review: Still Foolin’ Em

Billy Crystal came out with this autobiography in 2013.  It has been a very popular book; I was on the waitlist at my library for at least a couple of months.  This book is many things at once: funny, poignant, nostalgic and at times, even a tear-jerker (especially the last chapter).  Billy takes a chapter to go over each decade of his life.  In between, he throws in some chapters with some very funny bits.  In one hilarious chapter he describes what texting should be like for senior citizens.  Instead of LOL (for Laugh Out Loud), there should be a WAI (Where Am I?).  Too funny!  This book is a must-read.  You will LOL when reading it, that is for sure.