Bookish Thoughts

I was hoping for something a little lighter after All the Light We Cannot See , so I picked up this book about a woman who keeps living her life over and over, trying to get it right. Little did I know that I was diving into another depressing WWII novel, One that proved to be even more frustrating. The frustration comes from the fact that it's not clear how much Ursula remembers from her previous lives, or how much control she really has. Sometimes the changes that allow her to live a little longer are entirely out of her control - a man rescues her from drowning or the power comes back on before she freezes. Other times she seems to be architect of her own destiny, trying over and over to avoid catching influenza until she finally hits upon a solution. As her lives go on, she seems to remember more and that helps her make better decisions. But it can also be frustrating how much she doesn't remember, how little she learns from life to life. She always makes new mistakes, ...

I can't decide whether or not I like this book. It is true that it was beautifully written and amazingly constructed. It bounces between two lives, running nearly parallel to each other before and during World War II. Those lives affect each other in myriad unexpected ways, though they only intersect once, for a few brief hours. Marie-Laure, a blind, French girl, is intelligent and resilient, lending her talents to the resistence after her father is arrested. Werner Pfennig is a Nazi, so enthralled with math and radios that he is willing to do just about anything to pursue them further, including follow orders that he knows he probably shouldn't. Part of my problem with this book is that it asks me to sympathize with Pfennig. And there are times when he is sympathetic. But he's also a coward. His resistance comes too late and is arguably too little. He saves one girl, but it's mostly because he failed to save another one. And this all would have been okay, and I ...

I can't figure out why I disliked this book so much the first time I read it. Well, based on the book mark that got left in it, I can understand why I might have been a little angry at the world and unable to really engage with this book at the time. But that's really no excuse. Or it could be that I can see just how pivotal this book is in the Discworld  series, now that I know everything that comes after it. There are a lot of firsts here. The clacks system begins the industrialization of Ankh-Morpork. There are tentative diplomatic relations with the dwarves and vampires of Uberwald. Pratchett infuses dwarf culture with an incredible richness and begins to explore themes of modernization and how new generations accept or reject traditions. Plus there's a perfectly vile villain. Really, though, this is one of the most solid books in the series. It caught me by surprise how every little side plot managed to tie back to the central theme. Plus it's another Sam Vimes...

When this book first came out, everyone was raving about it. Well, everyone on the corners of the internet I frequent, which happen to include the author's blog. Still, the premise was interesting. A boarding school for kids who'd been whisked away to various fairy lands and then sent home and weren't sure how to deal with that. I'd been meaning to pick it up for a while, so when Tor offered a free download last month (to celebrate the release of the sequel), I jumped at it. It wasn't entirely what I expected. Instead of teenagers learning to deal with childhood trauma and finding a community of other outsiders, McGuire presents a murder mystery. Which I should have seen coming from her. It's an interesting mystery (with a culprit so obvious that I was second-guessing myself), but I felt like it left some of the characters short-changed. Instead of watching the kids die off, I would have liked to get to know them better. But there will be more books, so perhap...

This was a fun and moving satire about the ridiculous feuds rich people find time for and the lengths to which mothers will go for their children. It was funny and poignant and I really enjoyed reading it. The amazing thing is that there aren't that many likable people in this book. The titular Bernadette is petty and selfish. Her husband is entirely too wrapped up in his work, running away from his problems rather than dealing with them. Their neighbor, Audrey, creates drama everywhere she goes and is sure that nothing is her fault. Her friend is completely delusional. The book works because it is functionally told from the point of view of Bernadette's daughter, Bee, who is innocent in all this. She loves her mother and wants nothing more than to find her after she goes missing. She does this by reconstructing her last few days. The book is mostly told through emails and notes and other artifacts that paint a picture of a life worth fleeing. Ultimately Bernadette and he...

Before I dive into the content of this book, I need to talk about the book itself. Because I have this whole complicated relationship with it outside of the stories it contains. And it's worth bringing up in light of recent political shenanigans. Once upon a time a man got cancer. Treatment worked and he went into remission and went on with his life. But a few years later he got cancer again. A different kind of cancer this time. However, since he'd already had cancer once before, health insurance wouldn't cover him this time around. Pre-existing conditions and all that. So he reached out to his writer friends and asked if they'd be willing to donate stories that he could put together into a book that he could sell to pay for his treatment. His friends came through, the book sold well, the man beat cancer again and didn't have to declare bankruptcy. As plans go it's a better solution than selling meth. Of course, the best solution would be health care that act...

I've been hearing good things about Rainbow Rowell for years. But most of her books have yet to be released in paperback, for reasons I can't quite fathom. And I've never really want to spend $25 on one of her books, especially since they all seem to be quick reads. But I finally saw one at a used book sale, so I snatched it up. I'm glad I did, because it was a really cute, light read. I'm equally glad I only spent a couple of bucks on it, since it really didn't take me long to read and it's not the sort of book I'll be revisiting endlessly in years to come. The story is a romance with a sort of creepy concept. If you can get past it, the book is really enjoyable. Light and fun with interesting characters. But I can understand not being able to get past it. At the turn of the millenium, Lincoln has been hired to read the emails of the employees at a small newspaper and make sure they aren't abusing the email system or using it for things unrelate...

Everyone was talking about this book when it came out. I knew that it was about rich teenagers. I was vaguely aware that there was a twist ending, mostly because no seemed to want to talk about it. There were just a bunch of pleas, everywhere, to read this book because it was so good. Having read it, I get it. It's hard to talk about this book without talking about the ending. The ending re-contextualizes the whole story, making you go back and question everything you read. What I wasn't expecting, and was presently surprised by, was the element of magical realism in this book. Cady describes her emotional reactions as physical manifestations, which both convey how unwieldy both she and her mother find those emotions. Her mother's constant pleas that she just pull herself together and act normal seem almost justified when Cady is talking about melting into a puddle on the floor or her brains spilling out of her ears. Her imagery is so specific and blends so seamlessly...

Terry Pratchett is best known as a fantasy satirist. So I didn't really know what to expect, diving into a non-fiction book with his name on the cover. Even though it's anchored in Discworld  and has two stupendous co-authors, I wasn't expecting this to be quite as science-filled as it turned out to be. It was a pleasant surprise to find such a detailed and accessible pop-science book. But part of that might be because my world view aligns to closely to Pratchett's (which is probably related to the fact that I spent my twenties working my way through his best-known series, but who knows whether the chicken or the egg came first (the egg came first)). Pratchett starts by posing the question: what's the difference between magic and science? He posits that it's roughly the same as the difference between physics and biology, which is to say not that much. And it's hard to figure out when the one becomes the other. Pratchett uses his wizards to examine our worl...