Vacation Reading Book Reviews

I will be ranking these on a scale from one to five palm trees, because I cannot find the star symbol on blogger.

The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult JJ
A teenager says she gets raped and then there's some intrigue and her dad writes comic books and she runs away to Alaska. My least favorite of her books that I've read. 1. Nobody cares about cutters in 2008. Shut it. 2. Sorry to some selected readers, but I don't really understand graphic novels. This book gets one palm tree because I like Jodi Picoult's other books and another because I really do like stuff with Inuit history and legends. (Related: Read And She Was.) But she is sliding by on a technicality okay?

Beautiful Boy by David Sheff JJ
A memoir from a guy whose son is addicted to meth. I was super-excited to read this and then my mom brought it and yay, right? I really like junkie bios and thought this might be harrowing and hit a few chords from some personal experiences. But really it was just kind of eh. In fact, it was so forgettable that I didn't actually include it when I first did this entry because I didn't remember that I'd read it. Maybe I'm just numb from too many Interventions.

Old Books, Rare Friends by Madeline Stern and Leona Rostenberg JJJ
Nonfiction memoir by two old ladies who grew up in the teens and 20s in NYC and ran a rare books shop. I thought I would break with tradition and actually read one of the books my dad gave me. It was interesting reading about the women going to school and living in New York and traveling. And one of them discovered Louisa May Alcott's secret pulp writings, so that was interesting.

The Bookman's Wake by John Dunning :(
A Denver ex-cop and rare book salesman is hired to track down a previously-unknown copy of The Raven that's gone missing, along with a bail-jumper named Eleanor Rigby. I put it down because I couldn't make it through the pages and pages of background on the printing press that put out the book's copy of The Raven. Sorry, dude. This is the beach. I successfully finished this one once, so if you're curious about the series, start there?

Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich JJJ
A bounty hunter can only bring home her target by playing matchmaker for five freakazoids. I actually enjoyed this book and even laughed out loud at one part but I'm so embarrassed I even read it (we'll get to why in a moment) that I can only give it three palms. Three tiny palms, since the huge print (SO EMBARRASSING) means this is a tiny book.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini JJJJ
A guy remembers his glory days before the fall of Afghanistan to Russia and then the Taliban. Yeah okay this book was a quick read but you know why? Because it's Mystic River/The Prince of Tides/Peyton Place but I guess since it's set in Afghanistan liberals feel all intelligent for reading it. Guess what, liberals? I'm on to you! Wanna borrow my Plum Lovin'?

Web of Evil by J.A. Jance JJ
This lady becomes the prime suspect when her soon-to-be-ex-husband is murdered in the back of a trunk left on the railroad and then his knocked-up gf's mom gets killed. Okay look it was fine I'm not proud but a brief memo to the state of Florida, if I may: WTF?! I went into like 5 drugstores and supermarkets and the ratio of gross romance novels to mindless thrillers was like 99.5:1. So Web of Evil was that one. Man. Rough times. And I'll just say it: I don't like books where the heroine's mom gets kidnapped. Makes me uneasy.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro J
Kids in England attend an exclusive boarding school and come to realize the meaning of their shared secret. I suppose I should have done a little more research before I bought this. I'd eyed it when it first came out and went ahead and spoilered it by reading the library of congress keywords. (Spoiler alert: They're clones.) I also bought it because I decided I'd like to write* a melodramatic thriller called Never Let Me Down Again, and this sounded kind of similar. Thing is, I don't really like science fiction, and I definitely don't like things that remind me of my horrible grade and middle school years. So thumbs down. It can have one palm because it turns out it's sort of about a hospice nurse. But also, clones are boring it turns out.

*aka read