Overseas - Beatriz Williams (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2011)
Very early on in reading this novel, I described it as Fifty Shades of Grey meets The Time Traveler's Wife. Except then I realized that I haven't read Fifty Shades, and besides I wasn't talked about the kinky sex parts. I meant the deal with the superhot bazillionaire who is head-over-heels for a girl who sees herself as totally average. So perhaps the better comparison is Twilight meets Time Traveler's Wife. Okay.
That's it. End of review.
Except I guess I should flesh it out so that I can argue for why you should consider reading it. First of all, it's set mostly in 2008, on Wall Street. So you have a fun look at that world from the standpoint of junior analyst, both before and during the crash. (Well, during the crash she's living with her bazillionaire, so her perspective there is a little different.) And then when it's not in 2008, it's back in 1916, in France during the First World War. Kate ends up back there because she needs to stop the man she loves from .... well, it's complicated.
Time travel stories can create fun conundrums (conundra?) but this one does a pretty good job of dancing around how the characters' actions could change history, even if the characters act almost blindly in that regard. On the other hand, that meant that I sort of saw the shape of the story pretty early on. But that's okay, because what makes for a beautiful love story often isn't the plot twist.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Stereotypes are weird
Bad Girls Don't - Cathie Linz (Berkley Sensation, 2006)
Bad girls don't fall in love. And they don't go for authority figures. They do like yoga, belly dancing, and being totally loving and friendly. Or something.
This is the follow-up to Good Girls Do, where proper librarian Julia falls for a guy on a motorcycle. Here, Julia's half-sister Skye runs up against a cop. Sparks fly. And the phrase "wicked awesome" drops once or twice a page. (Skye grew up mostly on the West Coast, which explains her Bostonesque slang. Really, the more appropriate phrase would have been "hella cool.")
I'm really not sure why this charming little book didn't do more for me. I'm sure it deserves a nicer write-up than this one.
Bad girls don't fall in love. And they don't go for authority figures. They do like yoga, belly dancing, and being totally loving and friendly. Or something.
This is the follow-up to Good Girls Do, where proper librarian Julia falls for a guy on a motorcycle. Here, Julia's half-sister Skye runs up against a cop. Sparks fly. And the phrase "wicked awesome" drops once or twice a page. (Skye grew up mostly on the West Coast, which explains her Bostonesque slang. Really, the more appropriate phrase would have been "hella cool.")
I'm really not sure why this charming little book didn't do more for me. I'm sure it deserves a nicer write-up than this one.
Friday, January 11, 2013
What happens when the story takes over
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon, trans. Lucia Graves (Penguin Books, 2004)
The word that keeps coming to mind is "virtuoso" - this novel is pretty stunningly crafted. It's got plenty of melodrama, plot twists, hints of something just shy of magical realism. It's the sort of thing where you sort of think to yourself: well, of course it was written in Spanish. Whatever I mean by that.
There is a boy, Daniel. He is the son of a bookseller. He gets captivated by a book. But the book has enemies - someone is trying to destroy every book written by the author. And as he grows older, what seems like a cascade of sinister events start occurring, and they all seem caught up in the uncertain fate of the novel's author, Julian Carax. And as Daniel and a cast of other characters interact, each bringing together some threads of the story, you start to wonder if Daniel is actually living out Julian's fate. And if so, that is bad bad news for them both.
If that's a poor synopsis, that is at least in part because this isn't the kind of work that lends itself to synopsis. The beauty is in the lushness of the details and the longing in the voices of the characters.
As much as anything, this portrait of postwar Barcelona made me want to revisit the films of Pedro Almodovar and Julio Medem. Perhaps another project for one of these days...
The word that keeps coming to mind is "virtuoso" - this novel is pretty stunningly crafted. It's got plenty of melodrama, plot twists, hints of something just shy of magical realism. It's the sort of thing where you sort of think to yourself: well, of course it was written in Spanish. Whatever I mean by that.
There is a boy, Daniel. He is the son of a bookseller. He gets captivated by a book. But the book has enemies - someone is trying to destroy every book written by the author. And as he grows older, what seems like a cascade of sinister events start occurring, and they all seem caught up in the uncertain fate of the novel's author, Julian Carax. And as Daniel and a cast of other characters interact, each bringing together some threads of the story, you start to wonder if Daniel is actually living out Julian's fate. And if so, that is bad bad news for them both.
If that's a poor synopsis, that is at least in part because this isn't the kind of work that lends itself to synopsis. The beauty is in the lushness of the details and the longing in the voices of the characters.
As much as anything, this portrait of postwar Barcelona made me want to revisit the films of Pedro Almodovar and Julio Medem. Perhaps another project for one of these days...
Wednesday, January 02, 2013
2012 Reading in Review
As promised, a quick look back at what I read in 2012, based on what this blog seems to say, as well as my own memories.
Books read: 50 (not bad)
Of those, how many were:
*Romance novels: approx. 11, depending on your definitions (hmmm...)
*Owned by me: 19 (!!!!! This constitutes balance for me, since usually my borrowed percentage is much higher)
*Written by female authors: 35 (i.e. 70% - wow)
Books on my "ready to give to a new home" shelf: 9 (time for someone to have a book swap party!)
Fave reads:
The Night Circus (probably my all-out favorite of the year)
Queen Margot
Sarah's Key
We Need to Talk about Kevin (probably the book I've thought about the most since finishing)
A Visit From the Goon Squad
Enchantments
The Other Guy's Bride (the one that made me smile the most)
The Count of Monte Cristo
Which is to say, I liked a lot of books written by women plus a couple by Dumas.
Goals for 2013: I'm not really sure. I'm going to keep plugging away at my bookshelf and my "to read" lists. I'm also going to make more of an effort at non-fiction - let's aim for 10 NF books, and at least two of them history. I miss you, history. (Thank goodness for historical fiction!)
Books read: 50 (not bad)
Of those, how many were:
*Romance novels: approx. 11, depending on your definitions (hmmm...)
*Owned by me: 19 (!!!!! This constitutes balance for me, since usually my borrowed percentage is much higher)
*Written by female authors: 35 (i.e. 70% - wow)
*Non-fiction: 8 (perhaps a little low, but I clearly prefer fiction)
Books still on my "to read" bookshelf next to my bed: somewhere around 50 (improvement)
Books on my "ready to give to a new home" shelf: 9 (time for someone to have a book swap party!)
Fave reads:
The Night Circus (probably my all-out favorite of the year)
Queen Margot
Sarah's Key
We Need to Talk about Kevin (probably the book I've thought about the most since finishing)
A Visit From the Goon Squad
Enchantments
The Other Guy's Bride (the one that made me smile the most)
The Count of Monte Cristo
Which is to say, I liked a lot of books written by women plus a couple by Dumas.
Goals for 2013: I'm not really sure. I'm going to keep plugging away at my bookshelf and my "to read" lists. I'm also going to make more of an effort at non-fiction - let's aim for 10 NF books, and at least two of them history. I miss you, history. (Thank goodness for historical fiction!)
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