Category 35, Set in the summer: Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
The main event of the book happens during the summer, I think. Or it could be fall, but it felt like summer when I was reading it. There's also a lot of winter in the book. It's really good. Set in Idaho. Part mystery, part family drama. Very well-written.
Category 36, A book that will make you smarter: Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood by Lisa Damour
Well, I think it made me briefly smarter, anyway. It's hard to remember what I learned from it when confronted with a bratty teenage girl. Not that any of my teenagers are bratty.
Category 37, Bestseller: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
This is a very good book, but it didn't move me like others have. I always wonder how much my response to a book depends on my current place in life -- maybe it would have been more moving and meaningful at a different time. It is worth reading.
Category 38, Reader's choice: My Nam…
Pathetic movie made from a surprisingly good fantasy book. Christopher Paolini was a kid when he wrote it and you can tell. I think he used a word-of-the-day calander while writting it. Every 5 or 10 pages he busts out an obscure word, uses it once, and then moves on the next word-of-the-day. Plot and story points are obviously ripped off from other fantacy and science fiction stories. There is a very clear Obi-wan taking Luke under his wing vibe. Why do so many youth fiction novels deal with orphaned children finding out they are the children of some grand inheritance or some such? Somehow, even with obvious leaning on other authors, Paolini still manages to suck you into the story and cheer for his characters.
ReplyDelete