*I'm thinking that not putting an actual rating will mean you'll get more from my reviews. Thoughts? How do you rate books?*
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins This was okay. I feel like I already reviewed it? But looking back at April's post, I can't find it. Again, it was okaaaaay. I wouldn't tell anyone not to read it but I wouldn't insist that anyone read it either. My main complaints were that there were WAY too many characters and it moved too slowly. I liked The Girl on the Train better. ----when people ask why I liked TGOTT so much, I insist it was because I randomly listened to it the week it was released and formed my own opinion before reviews and comparisons to other books started coming out. Ironically, this is why I had such high hopes for Into the Water, because of the reviews.
I Liked My Life by Abby Fabiaschi
This was wonderful. It was sad without being completely, overwhelmingly tragic. But it was hopeful too. I read the description after the last SUYBs link-up (I cannot remember who posted about it) and thought, That's depressing and not something I should be reading in my highly emotional state. But it wasn't tear-inducing. It was descriptive, painted a portrait of the family's life and past really well, and I just loved it. It's a perfect summer fiction read if you've got some time to lounge. I listened to it and the narration was great too, if you're into that.
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon
I really enjoy how RBG came from the humblest of beginnings, has strong beliefs, and can easily see and empathize with both sides of the political spectrum. That's not something many people (not just politicians) are good at these days. She's come through all of these generations and wars and historical events, doing good and showing compassion to all kinds of people, not just those who believe the same thing she does. That was my major takeaway from the book. I didn't expect it to be so middle-of-the-road.
The Faithful Place by Tana French This was boring. I'm questioning the possible decision to continue on with this author now. It wasn't a bad plotline but OMG was it told in the most boring, s-l-o-w, and tedious way. Like, I might find it interesting if I were half asleep and didn't want to wake up to really pay attention to the details. Do the other books get better? This was nearly a DNF but I pushed through to the last hour, realized I didn't care, and returned it to Audible anyway. I didn't even get a credit back for it because it had been a 2 for 1 deal, so I just got a few dollars back and I was willing to accept that. That's how much I wanted it to go away. I am counting it as finished though because I sloughed my way through so much of it. That was not for nothing.
Trailer Trash by Denise Grover Swank
This was good. Any new installment in the Rose Gardner series means that I have it pre-ordered and downloaded long before I actually get around to reading it. This one came out in April. Seeing things from Neely Kate's point of view was interesting. I don't know when the next NK book comes out but there's a new Rose book in July.
A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold
I didn't like the tone in this book. It's hard to develop a clear and consistent voice in a memoir, yes, but she just came off as wanting to make herself seem likable. I don't believe parents are responsible for every decision their children make, but in this case she protests a bit too much.
I don't pretend to know what she's feeling and this is her side of the story, but I didn't love the book and I didn't find it difficult to read the way some have mentioned. I found it really easy to read, actually. She focused more on her own feelings and experience, which she had to do because she didn't know what was going on in her son's head anyway.
I found myself annoyed at parts:
Note: "Zack took it a little further" reads as "Dylan didn't do anything as bad as what Zack did."
I want to say "DUMBASS, they punished your son because he passed the information onto others, not because he opened up a stupid locker or two". Her defensiveness bleeds through the page.
Since when is making reparations for your mistakes not okay?
She and her husband made a lot of excuses for their kids. Especially when the school tried to discipline Dylan; they were arguing against it. He gathered confidential information and passed it on to other people (Eric Harris). It wasn't the gathering of the information, it was the passing on of such information that earned him his punishment. I feel like the school probably told her this and she blocked it out because she didn't want to hear it and didn't mention that detail in her book. (A similar situation happened to my classroom once: it wasn't what the kid did, it was that the kid convinced other kids to partake and was a catalyst.)
Then, Dylan destroyed a locker door for fun and the Klebolds were upset that they had to pay for it. IMAGINE THAT. I got nothing but a side-eyed, passive aggressive feel from Sue as she was talking about anything having to do with the school.
The kicker was that, at the beginning of the book, Sue claims they had no problems as a family and Dylan was a good kid and there were no warning signs....then the whole second half of the book was just a laundry list of excuses and warning signs. And again, I didn't like her tone.
I don't dislike Sue Klebold because of what her son did. I dislike Sue Klebold because of the way she paints the picture of Dylan being a victim in everything leading up to the event.
The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda I had a NetGalley copy of All the Missing Girls last year and I didn't finish it because it was boring and gave me a headache (This is why NetGalley never gives me anything anymore, I'm quite sure. I never follow through.) I wanted to try another book by this author just to be sure it wasn't me being moody or weird when I read that one last year. The Perfect Stranger was almost just as bad and this is why: I don't like the way the author writes. She talks in circles and never really gets to the point. I'm all about having information being held back from the reader as a way to build suspense, but she just uses words that have no meaning in the context and could mean several different things and I just cannot with that. Use words that make sense and I'm likely to understand the narrative. I don't find this writing style to be charming or suspenseful; I find it pretentious. For this reason, I barely pushed through the book. Authors who only use metaphors hit on a special pet peeve of mine. I was in skim-mode so I can't even be sure I know what happened at the end and I'm fine with that.
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TL;DR version: Read I Liked My Life and Notorious RBG, and probably Trailer Trash if you're into the Rose Gardner series. So, I counted up how many books I've read thus far in 2017 and it's at an unimpressive 32. For me, this is disappointing just because I don't know if I'll hit that arbitrary random number goal I set in January (75). ANY reading is better than no reading, no matter who you are, but that number I set is messing with my head. Did you set a goal this year?
Linking up with Jana and Steph!
