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by Charlaine Harris
This post will most definitely contain spoilers for the rest of the Sookie Stackhouse books. Please do not read if you have yet to read the series!
I had been eagerly awaiting reading this book for so long, I can’t believe it’s over. Of course, my shock after finishing this book is nothing compared to how I’ll be feeling at the end of the next, revealed to be entitled Dead Ever After, which marks the conclusion of the Sookie Stackhouse series. If this book is any indication of how the series will conclude, I’m optimistic about the ending.
This book was definitely like a “last hurrah” for Sookie. Both minor and major characters make their re-appearances. The story definitely felt like it was winding down with this book, and while the ending of Deadlocked hinted at what Sookie’s fate would ultimately be, I’m sure there will be enough surprises in the next book to make reading it worthwhile.
The story continues following Sookie, the telepathic waitress in her small town in Louisiana. In this book, Eric and Sookie get in a fight about a skanky girl, the girl ends up dead on the lawn, and once again, the police begin asking Sookie questions. As if that experience weren’t dramatic enough, Freyda emerges to stake (no pun intended) her claim on Eric, and something fishy is going on with the fairies. The story kept me interested and engaged not only with the mysterious circumstances (the big reveal was very interesting, by the way), but also with trying to figure out how the series would end.
You should see my book journal. For around three pages, I did nothing but ponder what would happen to Sookie when the final book came. Who would she end up with? What would happen to the rest of her friends and family? Would she even live? And what would be done with the cluviel dor?!
The cluviel dor, revealed in the last book, played a central role to Deadlocked. From feeling the threat of potentially having it stolen to pondering the question of how to use it, it was mentioned quite frequently. I myself found myself asking what its use could be and what implications it would have for the rest of the series.
There are so many ways that Charlaine Harris could have taken the plot with the cluviel dor, but in the end, I felt its ultimate use was rather bland. The implications were shocking, but the action was not.
It had the mystery, action, and suspense that drew me to the series, minus the raunchy vampire sex scenes. Altogether, I found Deadlocked to be one of the most interesting books in the series, and I am both looking forward and dreading Dead Ever After.
5/5
Discussion (and Spoilers)
What do you guys think Sookie should have / could have done with the cluviel dor? I was hoping she would use it to turn Eric into a human so they could live happily (and normally) ever after. I was also thinking that she could have used it to turn herself into a fairy and gone off to live with that side of the family in their world.
Was anyone shocked by the ending? I had a pretty good feeling who she’d end up with in the end - all my notes seemed to point in the right direction - but I was still shocked to see it actually happen.
I’d love to hear everyone else’s opinions!
**Update. I just finished reading a ton of blog posts from other readers about Deadlocked. No one seems happy that Sookie ended up with Sam. To me, it was fairly obvious, considering all that Harris has said about the series: one, that Sookie would not become a vampire; two, that vampires cannot become human again (despite the supposed magic the cluviel dor contains?); three, that “Sookie will live a normal human life in every respect”; and four, ”I’ve always known how the series would end and that’s how it’s going to end. I know I can’t make everybody happy. That’s why I’m going to go on vacation when the last book comes out!” She knew the ending from the beginning. And what was most important to Sookie in the beginning? Her friendship with Sam. Yes, a lot of people are pissed-off that she seems to have chosen the nice guy next door who has always been a friend and supporter throughout the years. A lot of people would rather see her with Eric, who has continually drawn her in and exploited her talents for all of his vampire shit, or Bill, who was a total ass to her. Well, that’s great. Yes, they’re sexy and exciting, but a lot of women are happy with men who are steady and safe. What really convinced me that she’d end up with Sam was the novella from the Companion book, when Sookie and Sam go to his brother’s wedding. I thought that was definitely foreshadowing.
Anyway, that’s my two cents. I hope that we all get a major plot twist in the end to make us all go “huh,” and to placify the many readers who were angered with this ending. Personally, I’m betting that Sookie dies in the next book, and her choice in men is a moot point.
Happy Birthday to… my blog! One year ago today, I started this project when faced with a long, lonesome summer with no job, no friends, and no way to occupy my time. 72 books later, it’s still going strong. I celebrated the special occasion by baking cupcakes and settling down with a good book. :) Thanks to everyone who has followed and supported me! I’m so grateful for all my Tumblr friends!
by Janet Evanovich
You might be wondering why I decided to read this book after being less than enthusiastic about the last one. To be honest, there were several reasons.
- I’m behind on my 2012 book challenge on Goodreads, and these books read really fast.
- I picked up the hardcover copies of the 15th and 17th books in the series at a yard sale for cheap, and I need to read them all in order.
- A non-fiction book by Janet Evanovich caught my eye in the bookstore (How I Write), and I didn’t think it was fair to want to read that without finishing her big series.
- I just got “One for the Money” from Netflix and was in the mood.
- My friend Stephanie, an avid reader and huge fan of the series, assured me that she had the same qualms about Stephanie Plum after book 3, but things get better.
I believed her. And things got better.
So, the basic storyline is the same: Stephanie Plum, lingerie-saleswoman-turned-bounty-hunter, has been given a tough case, which turns out to be a mystery that takes a whole team of mismatched characters to solve. This case in particular revolves around a dead-beat couple: Kuntz and Maxine. When they get in a fight and Maxine runs off with Kuntz’s car, she gets picked up on an auto theft charge and skips her court date. It seems like a pretty open and shut case: she has a house, a job at a diner nearby, and family in the area, so she wouldn’t run, right? As with all Stephanie Plum’s adventures, this case turns out to be bigger than she could have ever imagined.
The new sidekick for this book is Sally Sweet, a cross-dressing drag queen. As you can imagine, his addition takes the characters to a new level of hilarity. If the image of Stephanie, in her signature look of spandex shorts, sports jersey, and frizzed up hair, Lula, a 200lbs black prostitute, Grandma Mazur, a sweet old lady packing heat, and Sally, an over 6-foot tall hairy man dressed in platform heels, a Monroe wig, and a corset, driving around in a ’53 powder blue Buick doesn’t make you laugh, then this book isn’t for you.
This book was livelier than the last. The characters were more dynamic, the mystery was more action-packed, and the way things fit in together at the end was more interesting than in the last two. Stephanie seems to be advancing as a character, and her relationship with Joe is getting better. Altogether, I felt like the last 2 books sort of stalled, and the fourth installment in the series propelled the story forward.
Altogether, not bad. I’ll continue reading.
3/5
by Sophie Kinsella
I have been a big fan of Sophie Kinsella for years. I’ve read almost all of her books, minus some of the later Shopaholic ones (I simply can’t; when I read the book, I spend so much money, thinking, “If Rebecca Bloomwood drops thousands on a dress, spending $100 on this purse is no big deal!”), and a few of hers written under her real name, Madeleine Wickham. My favorite, up to this point, has been Remember Me? The book, which centers on a woman who wakes up from a coma and can’t remember the past several years of her life, has the most amazing sunflower scene that is perhaps the sweetest thing I’ve ever read.
Remember Me? Is great, but I’ve Got Your Number might have it beat. Poppy is a sort of physical therapist (I’m not good with the medical stuff, but she helps rehabilitate people with injuries) who is getting married to a rich, handsome, highly intelligent man in a few days. He has given her the family ring, a gorgeous antique treasure covered in emeralds, and she’s, well, lost it. It’s not her fault, really: she was passing it around the dinner table to her friends when a fire alarm was pulled, and it got lost in the bustle. Unfortunately, Poppy already feels like her in-laws disapprove of her, and seeing the priceless heirloom missing from her ring finger when they come to visit in a few days is not going to improve their relationship. To make matters worse, after handing out her number to all the waitresses and the cleaners at the fancy hotel she was dining at, she steps outside to check her messages and her phone gets stolen right out of her hands. Her night seems doomed… until she finds a phone just laying in a trash bin. No one’s around. It appears to have been deliberately thrown away. So, she does the only thing she can think of: she takes it.
And that’s how Sam Roxton comes into her life. A high-up business executive who thinks he’s too important for common civility with anyone who ranks below him, Sam has unsurprisingly just lost his new PA, who chucks her company phone in the bin on her way out the door. When Poppy answers the phone instead of his PA, questions arise, a deal is made, and hilarity ensues.
Like Kinsella’s other books, this is a light-hearted, fun summer read with a few cringe-worthy moments and a lot of laughs. The main character, like most of her other protagonists, is endearing but a bit of a pushover who needs to learn to assert herself. In the end, though, Poppy comes into her own and gets her happy ending.
4/5
by Ellen Feldman
Fun fact: I got up this morning to write about Next to Love, and at the top of my dashboard was a post from Friday Reads, saying that it’s their giveaway this week. What impeccable timing.
I originally saw this book as a giveaway on Good Reads, and though I did not win it, I couldn’t get the description out of my head. “Sometimes the most interesting war stories are not about the soldiers themselves but about the loved ones they leave behind.” I waited a month or two to get it from my library, but I was not disappointed. I had heard it likened to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and true, the story does cover WWII and its impact back home, as well as the years following, but the two aren’t very similar at all. Guernsey is about flourishing; a woman finding her way in the world in a turbulent time. Next to Love is about resilience; three best friends learn how to move on, when every fiber of their being is screaming that it cannot be done.
The book covers the time before the war, during the war, and after the war, divided into different books, grouped together with consecutive years. Within these books, the story shifts perspectives between Babe, Millie, and Grace, along with a few more minor characters, to give a very detailed, very well-rounded account of the war and its impact on the people back home.
“War… next to love, has most captured the world’s imagination.” - Eric Partridge, 1914
This quotation in the first few pages grabbed me before I even started reading the book. I am always curious as to how books get their titles, and to find the answer in such a poignant quotation was moving for me. As I turned to the prologue two pages later, my attention was grabbed by Babe Higgins, the young woman who is in charge of sending out telegrams from the War Office to the devastated families in her small town and feels a sick sense of pleasure, being the first to know when tragedy has struck. Babe, a young woman bursting with ambition and ideas, is a strong woman for that time, questioning policies and pushing the envelope whenever she can. Her two childhood best friends, Millie and Grace, are more content to sit back and become housewives. All three, however, have their lives turned upside down when their lovers are drafted in WWII.
This book was incredibly, incredibly dramatic, emotional, and moving. I cannot say how many times I had to set the book down and take a step back because of how heavy the mood got. I was impressed by how wholly I felt the pain of these characters; the raw pain, the desperate hope, the slap of prejudice, the heartbreak of lost love, the sting of betrayal, the idolization of someone you barely knew and will never get back… All of it was so incredibly well-written. I also like the way Feldman wrote each of the three girls; they all deal with their grief in different ways, and no one seems to understand each others’ processes, but they remain friends through it all. This isn’t a book about friendship, though: it’s a book about keeping calm and carrying on. Each of the women has their own pain, their own loss, and their own road to recovery that the reader experiences close-up.
The ending is content, not overly happy, but realistic. Altogether, I was very impressed by the book, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Help.
4.5/5
by Lauren Willig
Like Diana, I have been reading Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series for quite awhile. Also like Diana, I was disappointed by this book. Unlike Diana, I feel like the last few books have all been rather disappointing, but I think we’re in agreement that this last one was not very good. Usually I can dive right into Lauren Willig’s novels, but with this, I found myself really having to work to stay interested. Neither the frame story nor the one inside could capture my attention.
Like the 8 preceding books in the series, The Garden Intrigue consisted of the Eloise/Colin frame story (a Cambridge academic writing her dissertation in England and living with her beau, Colin, a rich British hunk) and the continuation of the Pink Carnation’s daring espionage in Napoleonic France. This book focused on the love story between Augustus Whittlesby, the poet-posing-spy, and Emma Delagardie, an American socialite living in Paris. Augustus has been a pretty consistent figure in past books, and finally, in the 9th book in the series, he gets his own story. While I was glad he was finally recognized, I was disappointed that his book wasn’t more interesting.
Emma and Augustus are corralled into writing a play together, and over the course of their work, they end up becoming very close friends. Augustus has the hots for another girl, and widowed Emma is, well, not really looking for anyone. Eventually, though, they realize that they love each other in the most convincing of ways.
The characters were very dull and uncaptivating. There is nothing in Emma to arouse any interest; she’s just a society girl who is completely content with her frivolous life. Augustus, meanwhile, has the most tiresome dialogue, continually speaking in enough rhymes and alliterations to drive a reader mad. This book also featured a close-up look at the Bonapartes, and even they seemed to be lacking. Eloise and Colin, meanwhile, are in an uncomfortable situation, and their resolution at the end of the book was really unbelievable. Altogether, this book was awkward and boring. There wasn’t even a good action scene! Or any pulse-quickening romantic ones!
Altogether, this was the worst book in the series. Lauren Willig, pull yourself together!
2/5
by Gigi Levangie Grazer
I bought this book five years ago, thinking that the story looked interesting, the cover was cute, and that I’d read it and immediately Netflix the TV show right after, since I had a “thing” for Debra Messing ever since I first watched Will & Grace.
Long story short, I never read it. It was one of those books that I always intended to read; I toted it around with me to school and back home for three semesters in a row, but I never got around to actually reading it. On my recent trip to New York City, I pulled it out from the book-ridden depths of my under-the-bed disaster zone, and I wondered what could have ever possessed me to buy it. As a young, blissfully unattached woman, what could I ever have in common with a mid-life washed-up Hollywood divorcee? And why the hell did I buy a book written by a woman named Gigi?
Of course, I ended up eating my words. At first, this book was kind of hard to get into, especially considering how little I have in common with the protagonist. About a quarter of the way through, though, I found myself laughing at Gracie’s ballsy attitude and her funny little internal dialogues. She goes from a rich, privileged “Wife Of” to a woman who has nothing to lose, and that’s something I found myself really admiring.
The story follows Gracie, fifty-something mother-of-one, wife of Kenny Pollock, big-time Hollywood producer, as she deals with a quite unexpected divorce. After a brief and static-y phone call break-up, her whole life comes crashing down around her, and she’s left to pick up the pieces. The very start is depressing, with its descriptions of her loneliness and desperation, but it picks up quite quickly, and the rest of the book follows her as she gets back into the swing of life, finding the love and happiness she would have never experienced if Kenny hadn’t given her the boot. She’s got a funny group of friends who are willing to go to any lengths to take her mind off the impending divorce and a handsome stranger to fantasize about in the meantime. Altogether, it was an enjoyable read.
It had highs, lows, laughs, and a happy ending. The book did seem quite dated, though (a quick Google check tells me it’s about 7 years old), with its continued mentioning of Britney Spears. Quite honestly, I thought it was written before 2005; Britney was on her downward cycle in 2005, right? Anyway, that was my only slight irritation. If you’re going to write about a celebrity, you might as well make it a good one.
3.5/5
by Elizabeth Aston
Finally! Sorry for my long absence, but I’ve been procrastinating and then cramming in a lot of work for my final school paper, and at last, it is finally done! Of course, I procrastinated the awful way, watching loads of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and not actually doing any reading, but I was able to finish this audiobook between all my commuting to and from work.
Firstly, the narrator is pretty freaking awesome. I was a little wary about Julia Whelan when I first heard her, an American woman trying to sound British through a large portion of the book. I was really impressed by her ability to switch from character to character and make each one sound unique. With plenty of British, American, Polish, and Russian characters, and plenty of male and female ones, I was impressed to hear her differentiate between them in a believable way.
While I immediately warmed to the narrator, no matter how hard I tried, I could not like the protagonist. Georgina Jackson is an American scholar whose first book received modest critical success and has suddenly found herself roped in to finishing a long-lost novel by Jane Austen by her pushy publisher and agent. The only problem? She’s never read a Jane Austen novel in her life, and she doesn’t intend to. She’s the most awful sort of woman, signing a contract to finish the book, accepting payment for it, and then skirting around, avoiding her agent, and refusing to write anything having to do with Jane Austen, who she sees as a silly, fanciful romance author whose writing skills are much less developed than her own. Approximately half the book consists of Georgina complaining about Austen, until she finally sucks it up and reads her books, and the rest of the book consists of her being an unbelievable fan, insisting she is unable to compete with Austen’s brilliance and continuing to refuse to write the book. It’s exhausting.
While I did not particularly care for the characters, I did like the idea behind the book. Of course, the execution was rather horrible. Not only does Georgina complain the whole book, but she also has a horrible work ethic and spends 90% of the book procrastinating. I shouldn’t be one to talk, of course, considering how long I procrastinated on that last paper of mine, but it’s one thing to procrastinate yourself, and it’s quite another to have to sit and listen to someone else do it.
It felt like the book was going in too many directions. It was trying to be a coming-of-age story but also a romance and a mystery with a few magical elements to it. It was a weird combination that didn’t come across well.
The ending was rushed, with 7.5 discs dedicated to Georgina whining and running off and not doing her job, leaving half a disc to wrap everything up. A lot of questions were left unanswered, and a lot of characters’ stories weren’t concluded.
Altogether, I liked the premise, but everything else fell flat.
2/5
by John Green
Am I the last person on Tumblr to read this book? It’s been all over my dashboard for the past few months. As someone who is rather new to Young Adult literature (is it just me, or is it a really recent genre? I remember loving books as a kid but getting kind of stuck when I hit my young teenage years, trying to figure out an age-appropriate book I’d enjoy), I was a bit skeptical, as I am with any YA book. I mean, I was a teenager not too long ago. I was hormonal and moody and not exactly pleasant to be around, and I always end up looking at YA books and thinking, “Is this going to resemble my annoying adolescent whining or be something I can appreciate as an adult?”
With the overwhelming response to this book, I decided that it would be worth a shot. I knew the basic run-down (sad book with romance and cancer) which made me even more wary of it, as the last cancer book I’d read was My Sister’s Keeper, and that was sad enough to keep me away from fiction about the disease for the past two years. Anyway, I read it, and it was a pretty good, quick read.
Hazel is a young woman whose terminal cancer makes her feel like a burden to those closest to her. As a result, she tries to limit her time around people, spending almost all of it with her parents, watching reality TV and taking a few community college classes to keep her mind engaged. At her parents’ insistence, Hazel begrudgingly begins to go to cancer support group meetings, where she meets the boy who will change her life forever.
Essentially, it is a tragic love story. As much as I hated to know how it would end, Hazel’s cancer is described from the get-go as terminal and there is really no happy ending with a diagnosis like that. While it was really emotional and I ended up beginning my pathetic crying about halfway through the book, it was also paired with wry humor that made me really appreciate the protagonist. Yes, she has cancer, and yes, she’s a hormonal teenager, but she is so well-written, I found myself relating to her in a way I haven’t been able to with a lot of fictional characters I’ve read about recently.
I don’t know how John Green did it, but he really made Hazel into a girl. I hope he had some assistance and we aren’t that transparent, but everything, from her feelings about her over-protective parents to her analysis of “America’s Next Top Model,” was completely relate-able to me. I had to keep reminding myself, “This was written by a guy.” I just became more and more impressed. I also really appreciated the fact that Hazel is a reader. Far too often, characters in books aren’t readers, and it’s a crying shame. Obviously I can relate to characters who read, as I am reading a book. Take advantage of that more often, authors!
I think Jodi Picoult’s analysis on the back of the book sums it up the best: “An electric portrait of young people who learn to live life with one foot in the grave. Filled with staccato bursts of humor and tragedy, The Fault in Our Stars takes a spin on universal themes - Will I be loved? Will I be remembered? Will I leave a mark on the world? - by dramatically raising the stakes for the characters who are asking.
Really good, huh? I guess that’s why she’s a world-renown author.
4/5
by Celia Rivenbark
Did I ever mention why I started this blog? Besides being cripplingly depressed after a year of unemployment and a summer with nothing else to do? I wanted to keep track of the books I read because, to be honest, I’ve inherited my mother’s absent mind and can never seem to remember anything, especially plots and characters but even going so far as to forget titles. I’m mentioning this now because I bought this book thinking, “Hmm… this sounds familiar,” but with the idea that it had just been on one of my loose-leaf ‘to read’ lists scattered around in various purses, desk drawers, and under my bed. In fact, I’d read it before, about five years ago when my good friend Kimmy recommended it to me. Kimmy and I had recently moved from London to America’s South, and it was both relevant and hilarious.
Reading it again five years later, I felt the same. I had forgotten how funny it was. Celia Rivenbark’s book consists of short little stories and articles on Southern phrases, witticisms, and traditions, and quite a few opinions on today’s society from the perspective of a Southern woman. You could practically picture her sitting down right across from you at a little small-town diner and telling you these stories over a slice of blueberry pie. Rivenbark’s personality shines through in a heartwarming Southern way. She comes across as a sassy friend, a proud mother, and an old Southern gentlewoman all at once. I loved her way of writing, her opinions, and her obsession with pop culture.
To be perfectly honest, the first few chapters are kind of bland. The rest, though, thoroughly make up for them. I’ve dog-eared (don’t shoot me, it was a bumped-around used book that I got at a used book store with K. a few weeks ago) quite a few of her funniest passages, and I can’t help but share one or two.
On volunteering at her daughter’s school: “I’m not a typical kindergarten mom. While the others dutifully signed up for volunteer hours (“Bulletin boards are my specialty!” they wrote with little smiley faces), I just scrawled “No crafts” in my best serial-killer handwriting.”
Further kindergarten opinions: “My favorite part? The communication via backpack thing. It’s so efficient. Class pictures or T-shirts or announcements or report cards are sent home in the backpack; payment or comments or signatures are sent back the same way. Sort of like some wonderful Pony Express only with Powerpuff Girl saddlebags.”
On swimsuit shopping: “Once you’ve selected a few swimsuit possibilities, you can go to the dressing room where you will, no doubt, find that the only available cubicle is right beside two giggling fifteen-year-old Brit-nees who weigh approximately ninety-seven pounds apiece. Sooner or later, they will take off their little Barbie clothes and squeal things like “Ohmigod! Can you believe these thunder thighs?” to each other. I’d like to kill ‘em in their sleep.”
Seriously, she’s a funny, funny woman. I had quite a few awkward laugh-out-loud moments while reading this on trains and busses. She’s got one entitled Bless Your Heart, Tramp and another called Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank, both of which are now on my new to-read list. At around 270 pages, it’s a pretty quick read, but easy to pick up and put down, which was great while I was on vacation this past week (New York City and Annapolis, if you’re interested in my rather uneventful personal life).
4/5
(And Other Concerns)
by Mindy Kaling
My friend T. read this book over Christmas break and immediately sent a text to all her closest girlfriends, demanding we read it, too. I had read an excerpt of her “Men and Boys” chapter in some girly magazine (Glamour, probably, I think that’s the main one I get), and it really resounded with me. It’s been a few months, but I’ve finally gotten around to reading it, and I’m so happy I did.
Before I read the book, I just associated her with her character on “The Office,” Kelly. She has 1 - 2 lines an episode, usually, and this little gem that I immediately downloaded from iTunes the first time I heard it. Anyway, I didn’t know much about Mindy Kaling besides her character on “The Office,” and based on her character alone, I wasn’t too inspired to get to know her any better. I mean, she’s certainly not the funniest one on the show. Why should I bother to read her book?
Little did I know, she’s actually one of the main writers on the show in addition to having her own role. She’s been a big fan of comedy since she was a young child, watching Comedy Central in her living room with her best friend and acting out gimmicks they saw on TV. Her book was absolutely HILARIOUS while offering quite a bit of information about her life, career, and “the business.” It’s one of the best books I’ve read this year.
With chapters like “The Day I Stopped Eating Cupcakes,” “In Defense of Chest Hair,” “Why Do Men Put on Their Shoes So Slowly?” and “When You’re Not Skinny, This is What People Want You to Wear,” the book was a comedic collection of Mindy’s opinion on assorted topics. And even if I didn’t agree with her opinion on certain things (I, for one, cannot do any writing in my bed; I have to have an office and a desk and a certain, pre-defined area for work, and a separate area to sleep/watch TV/veg out in my underwear on a Friday night), I still found it funny. She’s a really, really funny woman.
I’ve read a few books by comedians. Not very many, but a few. If I had a personal list of how these books all ranked, in my opinion, with 1 being best, they would be:
1. Anything Chelsea Handler (though my favorite is Are You There Vodka?)
2. Mindy Kaling
3. Cathy Griffin
4. Tina Fey
5. Sarah Silverman
While I think Chelsea Handler is one of the funniest people out there (especially in written word), Mindy Kaling is the one I’d want to be friends with. She talks a lot about her best friends in this book (in a funny, heartwarming way), and it really made me want to give all of mine great big hugs and take them to award shows, too. Her little pockets of insightfulness (including the aforementioned “Men and Boys” chapter) were also great to read. One of my favorites was when she was talking about a friend who went through a messy divorce when her husband left her for another woman after his business, which she invested in, got really successful: “By divorcing her, her husband relieved her of the job of eventually leaving him.” That was a nice way of spinning the story around that I really liked.
Okay, so, I can’t exactly freak out about how funny a book was and not give you a taste of it, so here is a little piece from her chapter about one night stands. Mindy, like me, sees them as really unsafe. Who is this guy? How do you know him? What happens if he’s some serial killer who’s going home with you to kill you off or something? Here she goes:
Excited Sexually Liberated Friend: So he knocked at the door—
Mindy: Wait! Sorry. I’m just realizing, your doorman let him up without ever seeing him before? Doesn’t that disturb you, that your doorman would just let any old person off the street up to your apartment? I would give my doorman a book of photos of accepted guests that he could reference, like a reference book—
Excited Sexually Liberated Friend: I’m doing fine with my doorman.
Mindy: I would have established a different procedure.
Excited Sexually Liberated Friend: Great, Mindy. Anyway, then I showed him around the place—
Mindy: The doorman? (off ESL Friend’s annoyed look) The guy! The guy! Yes.
Excited Sexually Liberated Friend: He was into the way I decorated it. Really taking it in.
Mindy: He was casing the joint!
Excited Sexually Liberated Friend: No! He was not casing the joint! He was bieng sexy and sweet and making cute little jokes about family photos. And then he asked if he could see my bedroom—
Mindy: Your bedroom, so he could rape and murder you!
Her opinion on this subject in particular mirrored my own perfectly. In general, I don’t like guys to know where I live. Even with my guy friends, I’m pretty adamant about meeting them somewhere and not ever giving them my address. I guess that’s pretty sexist of me, because all my girlfriends know the apartments I’ve lived at, the roommates I’ve had, where my parents live, etc. I’m just really untrusting, and the fact that Mindy feels the same way just reinforces my paranoia about these things.
Really, read the book. Buy it for your girlfriends. At only 222 pages, it packs in a lot of laugh-out-loud funny moments (really, I laughed out loud at several points in the waiting room of my doctor’s office yesterday, and it made people really uncomfortable).
5/5
by Rae Carson
This was another book recommended by a fellow Tumblr blogger, the lovely serareads. I checked this book out from the library for 2 weeks and ended up getting sidetracked until yesterday, when I signed into my library account and realized that I had 4 days to finish it before it was due back to go to the next person on its extensive reserve list. “It’s huge! How am I going to finish it in ONLY FOUR DAYS?!” I pondered as I glared at it on the other side of my desk.Then I opened it right before bed, realized that there was no way I could put it down, and finished it.
This book was excellent. I am not a big fantasy person, but my goodness, I was impressed.
It follows 16-year-old Elisa, a chubby princess living in a mystical world where she constantly feels inadequate compared to her perfect, smart, beautiful, skinny, blonde older sister. The only thing she has going for her is the fact she was selected by God to carry a mystical “Godstone,” a sort of gem that was spiritually inserted into her navel days after her birth. Only one person in 100 years is selected, and the pulsating gem that connects her to God signifies her duty to carry out His will. His will, unfortunately, and her destiny in life remains to be seen. Meanwhile, she is married off to a handsome prince of a faraway land, and even though his devilishly good looks make her swoon, her size and his lack of bravery ensure the two will never be truly happy. Her faith and her courage are tested over the course of 423 pages as she struggles to fulfill her destiny, whatever that may be.
This book was full of action and intrigue with a little romance thrown in. It had a very religious feel to it, but it was a mystical religion, so as an agnostic, I wasn’t too bothered by it. It seemed like it would be very hard to be offended by the book, even with its highly religious slant. It sounds like an unbelievably fantastical book, but it didn’t register as one while I was reading it. The book was most definitely an adventure story through and through.
For about 3/4 of the book, I was unbelievably impressed and practically giddy with anticipation for what would come next. Then, at the peak of what would surely be an amazing action sequence… nothing. There was nothing. Things got more disappointing from there. The end of the book was rather lackluster, though the author did set it up in a way that a sequel could follow and improve the situation. Apparently the second book will be released mid-September, and while I am interested in reading more of the author’s work and looking forward to an ending that matches the caliber of the rest of the book, I am still a little apprehensive. What if the next book continues its downward slant?
For the majority of the book, I would have given it a 5/5. Unfortunately, with the anti-climactic ending, I must say it is a 4/5 in my opinion.
Spoilers.
I am a fan of love, romance, and happy endings. This book didn’t really have any of those. I thought Elisa’s love interest with Humberto was rushed and unbelievable, while her relationship with her husband was just… awkward. At the end, when he tells her how much he loved his evil mistress who betrayed the entire country, I was about ready to scream. I just wanted to jump into the book and slap him. Between the two of them, the end of this book was surprisingly lonely. I hope Elisa finds some romantic companionship in book 2!
by Taylor M. Polites
This book’s title and description captivated me the first time I saw it at my bookstore (by the way, did I mention I got a side job at my local bookstore?). When I first opened its crisp new pages, I was expecting to be whisked off to one of my favorite places: the Civil War-era South, with rows upon rows of cotton fields and Southern manners and a high society coping with their loss of money, relations, and culture.
Instead, I got the poor man’s version of Gone with the Wind. At 282 pages, it is pretty short, and while it has a lengthy bibliography at the end, it just seemed really… off. Some things were mentioned that didn’t seem to be historically accurate (not that I’m a big history buff, but were lawn mowers around back then?), and the way the protagonist treats her slaves/servants as though they’re almost equals is not typical of the time.
The book takes place a few years after the end of the Civil War. Augusta’s husband dies within the first few pages, and the remainder of the book chronicles her life as she deals with his demise. She doesn’t deal with it in an emotional way - their marriage was not one of love or mutual respect - but she deals with it financially, suddenly finding herself poor. She doesn’t tackle this problem like my favorite Southern heroine, Scarlett O’Hara, who grows food for herself and her family with her own hands, runs her own business, uses her charms to seduce wealthy men into marriage, etc. Augusta is the most spineless and uninspiring of characters who decides to go on a sort of treasure hunt with one of her servants for a bit of cash that her husband was rumored to have had in his possession before his untimely demise. Meanwhile, a horrible illness is sweeping the city and forcing people to flee before a government-ordered quarantine is put in place.
It was all a bit… awkward. The book felt like it was modeled after GWTW in that the protagonist finds herself poor after the war, she marries for money, the old gentry of the South don’t agree with her marriage and shun her, the marriage is loveless but produces a child, she’s still in love with a family friend from her childhood, etc. However, she is not Scarlett O’Hara by any measure. She mildly does what her husband asks of her, she knows that people are stealing from her and insulting her but does not bother to confront them 90% of the time, and she is addicted to a drug called “laundanum”. I know Scarlett had her battle with alcohol, but drugs?! Augusta is a flake.
I guess my main complaint was that I was going into this book thinking it would be a romance. Not the sort of “tender embrace” romances that are actually placed under the “Romance” sign at the bookstore, but at least something that would rouse some sort of emotion in me. With a title like The Rebel Wife, wouldn’t you expect the same? Instead, Polites seemed like she was legitimately trying to make an argument about society during this time period, and she wasn’t concerned with trying to disguise it with a respectable protagonist or plot. In between the many, many references to politics at the time, she makes the argument several times: women during this time period were like slaves. They don’t get the freedom to marry who they want, they don’t get the freedom to vote, they don’t get the freedom to choose to obey their husbands or not (especially when it comes to their bodies), they don’t have the freedom to conduct their own affairs or to manage their own money, and they don’t have the freedom to snub society and do whatever they want.
I get it. And I think it’s an important lesson we’ve learned. However, I would be lying if I said I preferred this social and political piece of work over the charms of Rhett Butler.
I hate to do this, but I’m going to include the book description to give an idea of how far I was mislead:
Brimming with atmosphere and edgy suspense, The Rebel Wife presents a young widow trying to survive in the violent world of Reconstruction Alabama, where the old gentility masks a continuing war fueled by hatred, treachery, and still-powerful secrets.
Augusta Branson was born into antebellum Southern nobility during a time of wealth and prosperity, but now all that is gone, and she is left standing in the ashes of a broken civilization. When her scalawag husband dies suddenly of a mysterious blood plague, she must fend for herself and her young son. Slowly she begins to wake to the reality of her new life: her social standing is stained by her marriage; she is alone and unprotected in a community that is being destroyed by racial prejudice and violence; the fortune she thought she would inherit does not exist; and the deadly blood fever is spreading fast. Nothing is as she believed, everyone she knows is hiding something, and Augusta needs someone to trust. Somehow she must find the truth amid her own illusions about the past and the courage to cross the boundaries of hate, so strong, dangerous, and very close to home. Using the Southern Gothic tradition to explode literary archetypes like the chivalrous Southern gentleman, the good mammy, and the defenseless Southern belle, The Rebel Wife shatters the myths that still cling to the antebellum South and creates an unforgettable heroine for our time.
It sounds exciting and a bit nostalgic, right? Oh, how disappointed I was!
2/5
I can’t wait to stalk all my fellow book bloggers!
(Source: theliteraturelovingteen, via noseinabook)