NancyEWhite Reads in 2015

This year's reads:

1. The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert - 4 Stars
2. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel - 4 Stars
3. Blue Horses by Mary Oliver - 4 Stars
4. Victorian Dark: Risen by Elizabeth Watasin - 3.5 Stars
5. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole - 3 Stars
6. How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran - 5 Stars
7. The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison - 3.5 Stars
8. Confessions of a Sociopath by M.E. Thomas - 3.5 Stars
9. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell - 4.5 Stars
10. Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill - 4 Stars
11. Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey - 3.5 Stars
12. You: A Novel by Carolyn Kepnes - 4 Stars
13. Ms. Marvel: No Normal - 4 Stars
14. My Real Children by Jo Walton - 3.5 Stars
15. Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace by Anne Lamott - 4 Stars
16. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hopkins - 3.5 Stars
17. Without You There is No Us by Suki Kim - 3.5 Stars
18. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo - 4 Stars
19. The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Heather O'Neill - 4 Stars
20. The Room: A Novel by Jonas Karlsson - 4 Stars
21. The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood - 3.5 Stars
22. Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin - 3.5 Stars
23. Finders Keepers by Stephen King - 4 Stars
24. Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer - 5 stars
25. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber - 4 Stars
26. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi - 4.5 Stars
27. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee - 2.5 Stars
28. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler - 3.5 Stars
29. Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson - 4 Stars
30. Very Good Lives by J.K. Rowling - 4 Stars
31. Cinderland: A Memoir by Amy Jo Burns - 4.5 Stars
32. A Fair Maiden by Joyce Carol Oates - 4 Stars
33. The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore - 4 Stars
34. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehishi Coates - 5 Stars
35. Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf - 4.5 Stars
36. Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll - 3 Stars
37. Primates of Park Avenue by Wednesday Martin - 3.5 Stars
38. The Book of Vice by Peter Sagal - 2.5 Stars
39. The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny - 4 Stars
40. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - 3 Stars
41. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff - 5 Stars
42. Christine Falls by Benjamin Black - 3.5 Stars
43. Gods and Beasts by Denise Mina - 3 Stars
44. In Big Trouble by Laura Lippman - 3.5 Stars
45. The Gaslight Effect by Robin Stern - 4 Stars
46. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie - 5 Stars
47. Children of the Revolution by Peter Robinson - 3.5 Stars
48. The Last Policeman by Ben Winters - 4 Stars
49. A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths - 3.5 Stars
50. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier - 5 Stars
51. Bird Box by Josh Malerman - 4 Stars
52. The Mare by Mary Gaitskill - 4.5 Stars
53. In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware - 2.5 Stars
54. Countdown City by Ben Winters - 4 Stars
55. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters - 4.5 Stars
56. Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood - 5 Stars
57. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford - 4 Stars
58. Ms. Marvel 2 by G. Willow Wilson - 4 Stars
59. Trust No One: A Thriller by Paul Cleave - 4.5 Stars
60. The Door by Magda Szabo - 4.5 Stars
61. Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith - 4 Stars

1. The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert - 4 Stars

I enjoyed this sprawling novel that spans the entire life of a 19th Century female botanist more than expected. Alma is a compelling character - curious, smart and interesting. What really stood out for me and will likely be what I remember most is Gilbert's writing about the moss that makes Alma's career. I often read things that are darker than this. It was a nice way to begin a new year.

Welcome over Nancy. The Signature of All Things sounds like a nice first book. It is on my wishlist...although I don't recall what inspired me to put it there.

The Signature of All Things wound up being one of my favorites for 2014. I was surprised by that.

>3 dchaikin: I believe I was inspired by citizenjoyce's review of it.

It's good to see you here, Nancy! I'm glad that you liked The Signature of All Things, as I intend to read it this year.

Welcome, Nancy! The Signature of All Things is also on my to-reads for this year. I hated (HATED) Gilbert's Eat Pray Love (didn't finish it; don't even want to touchstone it here!) but I think it was auntmarge who did the impossible and made me give her another chance.

Add me to the people with The Signature of All Things on the TBR pile. I bought it for my kindle last year and haven't gotten to it yet, even after hearing nothing but positive reviews.

>7 detailmuse: I knew I would hate Eat Pray Love. I'm pretty sure if I'd read it, I wouldn't have been able to read The Signature of All Things

2. Station Eleven by Hilary St. John Mandel - 4 Stars

This is the first non-YA dystopia I've read in a while which made it a refreshing change. It vividly describes the time immediately before, after and a couple of decades past the annihilation of most of the earth's population from a virus. It jumps back and forth in time and among a set of characters. As it progresses, it becomes clearer how and why these people are connected. Many of the characters didn't completely come to life for me, but the combination of each of their experiences brought the emotion and experience of a viral apocalypse and its aftermath into vivid focus.

3. Blue Horses by Mary Oliver - 4 Stars

I think of Mary Oliver (and Billy Collins) as starter poetry. This is because I can read and understand these two more than most others and is no reflection on them as poets. I have a desire to read more poetry this year, and decided to start with Oliver. As always, there are close-up looks at the natural world. This time I was taken with the verses about aging, illness and falling in love. It is delightful to read her writing about her new Beloved.

My favorite in the collection is "To Be Human is to Sing Your Own Song" about being the antithesis of her parents.

Everything I can think of that my parents
thought or did I don't think and I don't do.
I opened windows, they shut them. I pulled
open the curtains, they shut them. If you
get my drift.

She ends that poem with

In the song sparrow’s nest the nestlings,
those who would sing eventually, must listen
carefully to the father bird as he sings
and make their own song in imitation of his.
I don’t know if any other bird does this (in
nature’s way has to do this). But I know a
child doesn’t have to. Doesn’t have to.
Doesn’t have to. And I didn’t.

Perhaps soon I will move onto new poets, but for now Oliver satisfies.

4. Victorian Dark: Rising by Elizabeth Watasin - 3.5 Stars

I read this for the Steampunk Category Challenge. A lesbian Victorian steampunk supernatural murder mystery. The two detectives are a reanimated ghost and a skull who were brought back to life to be a part of a supernatural detective unit. It is silly and light but short enough to be pleasing.

Just catching your Mary Oliver review. Very nice. I like those quotes.

Victorian Dark is outside my mental context. : ) but sounds fun.

More poetry is always a good goal! I really recommend Carl Sandburg, particularly his collection Honey and Salt. He is wonderful, but also very down to earth, a real poet of the people. I've got a big collection works of Edna St. Vincent Millay I'm working on, reading a couple poems every night before bed, and in the morning when I'm unwilling to get out from under the covers.

Found this and want it where I can get to it:

http://lesbrary.com/
http://sohopress.com/soho-crime/
http://www.feministpress.org/

I'm picking at The Best American Essays 2014. I'm going to track them here so I remember my feelings on them when I'm done.

1. A Matter of Life and Death- Timothy Aubry: A very dreary portrait of a marriage and proposal for what marriage is.

"Maybe the greatest gift marriage give us is the chance to fantasize, to imagine that there's more to life than there actually is, and it accomplishes this by assuming responsibility for all the misery and dullness that we would otherwise equate with life itself."

I don't need upbeat and light, but this feels unnecessarily cynical to me. I don't like the "us" here. I've been with my partner for nearly 20 years and feel no such thing.

2. Strange Beads - Wendy Brenner: A woman becomes infatuated with a bizarre collection of objects and costume jewelry from a single eBay seller. She eventually contacts the person and learns the story of how these things are obtained.

I liked this.

3. The Final Day in Rome - John H. Culver - The mundane details his wife dying in Rome. Very accurately captures the numbness and weird awareness of everything around us when someone we love is dying. What is on the TV in the ER waiting room, the bathroom cleanliness etc.

Very good.

4. Letters from Williamsburg - Kristin Dombek - Hmm. Dombek describes moving from religious believer to non-believer even after having the experience of feeling God's presence. She describes depression. She describes aspects of her sex-life particularly threesomes. It was disjointed but in the way that life is kind of disjointed.

Interesting

5. The Man at the River - Dave Eggers - On being a white man who wants to sit on a river bank but being put in a position where it isn't possible to refuse crossing to the other side. In three pages, this captures the awkward awfulness of becoming very troublesome despite a desire to be no trouble at all and layers it with being a white foreigner in Sudan.

Very good.

6. At Sixty-Five - Emma Fox Gordon - A woman describes how aging impacts her in ways she did not expect nor predict.

Very good.

I have read quite a few of the Best American Essays series but have not gotten to the ones for the last three or four years. It seems as thought there are always one or two standout essays but depending on the subject matter, the rest are good but not memorable — for me at least. I am appreciating your comments!

5. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole - 3 Stars

I read this for the Horror category challenge. Written in 1764, this is widely considered to be the book that spawned the Gothic novel. Hidden passages, supernatural elements, strangers, women in peril are all covered. But mostly every character is VERY! VERY! DRAMATIC! For its time I believe this was a wildly imaginitive book. I may have abandoned it were it not for this thread where lyzard tutors Squeaky_Chu. It changed my entire experience of the book. So, I'd recommend this book widely as long as you follow along with the tutoring thread.

>10 nancyewhite:, Station Eleven sounds fun - I am always in the mood for a good dystopia. If this is a genre that you especially enjoy, I'd suggest checking out the Apocalypse Triptych - The End is Nigh, The End is Now, and (forthcoming) The End Has Come, which is an edited series of short stories with each anthology focusing on the lead-up, the apocalypse, and the aftermath. What's particularly cool about this anthology is that the editors convinced most of the contributors to write a story in the same universe for each volume, so you kind of get to track the story over time. Like all anthologies, there are stories that are more and less successful, but overall I have found the two that have been released so far to be quite entertaining. They can be read without reference to the related story in the preceding volume, but I'm looking forward to when the third volume is released and I can read all the related stories in a group.

>16 nancyewhite: and >17 Poquette:, I particularly like the Best American Science and Nature writing series and the Short Stories, but have never tried the Essay series.

>18 nancyewhite: Hi, Nancy! Thank you - I really appreciate that, and I'm glad you found the thread helpful.

Gothic novels generally are VERY! VERY! DRAMATIC!, but that's the fun of them. :)

I'll look for Blue Horses or something else by Mary Oliver. "Starter poetry" sounds right for me, and I do like Billy Collins.

I just read that Marcus Borg has died. I enjoyed his work and am sorry he is gone at the age of 72.

6. How To Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran - 5 Stars

I loved this book. When I say loved, I mean the kind of googly-eyed, walk on the beach, look at sunsets, run off to Paris together kind of love. Mad love that is passionate, exciting and where you annoy all of your friends because you just won't shut up about your big romance.

A teenager who is too poor, too fat, too bookish and too weird for her Thatcher-decimated hometown finds her way out through writing about music. I was a fat, bookish, weird girl who grew up in a rough section of a city (Pittsburgh) that lost most industry when I was a teenager in the mid-80s so I was very moved by how very right Moran gets this story. When the protagonist finally meets someone who genuinely "gets" her, it moved me deeply because I remember that moment in my bones.

My love is a result of more than that the book resonated with my personal experience. There are plenty of coming of age stories set among the working class. Moran happens to be a great writer. The book is full of humor and growth and love and pain and sex and compassion and characters you care about. When you read it, you'll also know why I feel just fine about being a blubbering, enthusiastic, over the top fan-girl in love.

The novel also addresses class and feminist issues. It is refreshing to read a story of these things through the lens of a character's experience rather than from a detached, heavy-handed or overtly political perspective. I particularly liked how she begins to realize that a sexuality driven by the man's desires and needs is not going to lead to a healthy and satisfying sex life. This revelation, like all of the other political observations in the book, is not jarring because they happen within a story that rings completely true. The political as personal. Like real-life.

7. The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison - 3.5 Stars

This was hit or miss for me. I like the concept of essays linked by a theme. I'm passionate about and interested in anything to do with compassion or empathy so it should be in my strike zone. Some of it was. The first essay about being a medical actor who played out scenarios where med students had to use people-skills to understand the situation and reassure the patient was fantastic. As was the one where she detailed the time she spent at a conference for people with Morgellon's Disease and the effort to remain caring and empathetic when you are skeptical of the disease itself. The final essay packs a wallop. In it she turns an eye toward the frustration, dismay and near ridicule directed at women who write about their pain vs. knowing that the pain itself is meaningful and that women are not wrong for feeling or expressing that pain. The pain is real. Women's pain is real. Just because we are ashamed, accused of naval gazing or don't want to be perceived as overly emotional creatures incapable of rational thought in no way changes that the pain is real.

However, there were a few essays that I either disliked or felt ambivalent about. An essay about a literary trip to Mexican cities that have been severely impacted by the violence of the drug cartels left me cold. Another, about the time a stranger punched her in the face and stole her camera, also didn't work for me. Ironically, I found them to be cold or somehow emotionless.

Side note: This is the first that I learned that when women go to the medical world for pain they are far more likely to get anti-anxiety medication while men get actual pain drugs. Ugh.

8. Confessions of a Sociopath by M.E. Thomas - 3.5 Stars

I read this as a counterpoint to The Empathy Exams, and boy was it ever. A sociopath gives us access to her inner life, her behaviors, the way her mind works, her childhood and her exploits (she actually calls people she is manipulating and doesn't care about "exploits"). Unlike the women writers discussed in The Empathy Exams, she can't experience her own pain let alone spill that pain onto the page. This was clear as she references her childhood as "normal" when, in fact, her descriptions show that it was anything but rather was abusive and filled with benign neglect, conditional love, abandonment and beatings.

Perhaps like sociopaths themselves, the memoir is fascinating and frustrating. Obviously, she is a braggard which sometimes leads to finding her very annoying even while remaining interested in what she is saying or the concept she is illustrating. Nonetheless, I liked the book and respect her admittedly stunted attempt at candor. Well perhaps it is candor. It is equally likely that she is lying.

I think it is important to consider the possibility that many people who are making their way through a non-criminal life might be diagnosed sociopaths if tested. If that turns out to be accurate, then we must ask ourselves what, if anything, needs to change about the cultural perception of people with this disorder which has long been linked to violent criminal behavior. There would need to be consideration of the mental health system, capitalism (ha!) and/or raising children who might have the disorder.

Stopped by to read your thoughts on the Caitlin Moran. I haven't read this one, but the themes sound very similar to ones covered in How to be a Woman, which is non-fiction. I've been a fan of Moran's column in The Times for ages, and I enjoyed How to be a Woman, and rather than being put off by potential repetition, I'm curious to see how she deals with this material in a novel. How to Build a Girl, here I come...

I like those Mary Oliver lines. I often think I'd like to read more poetry but don't know where to start; looks like she might be a good place.

You sold me on How to Build a Girl, which I've been hesitating about.

Count me as another Club Read-er who you sold on How to Build a Girl. Public library, here I come... :)

9. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell - 4.5 Stars

I didn't like Cloud Atlas. In fact, I abandoned it. This book I loved. It is, of course, hard to describe. He dives deeply into a variety of characters, many unlikable, and slowly connects them together through space and time. There is a supernatural element flowing through the book, but there are also earth-bound revelations about daily life, love and hatred. Mitchell's characters are warty, smart, unpleasant, understandable, fully-formed people. Even the ones who might not be people at all. Mostly, he can just write and plot like a magician. Here is one of a billion phrases, sentences and paragraphs that knocked my socks off, "...full of animal teeth, and metal screams and stone groans..." Sigh. Wonderful.

10. Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill - 4 Stars

When I first started reading this short book, I had no real idea of what it was about. So, when there were all these disjointed seeming unconnected paragraphs, observations, quotes and other random things, I said to myself, "What in the hell is going on here?" Well, it turns out there is plenty going on here. All of it slowly and shiningly connects into a nearly unbearably intimate portrait of courtship, love, mothering and, mostly, marriage. Offill captures what it is like to be an odd, emotional, difficult woman who is in disbelief that a normal midwestern man has fallen for her and wants to be her husband. Even better, is her spot-on description of what it is like to be the mother of an infant, the fear, love, tediousness and endless exhaustion that make up that time. Yep, that's exactly how I remember it. This is a book that a woman wrote and you can tell. I mean that in the best possible way. Give it a try. It's very short so even if you hate it, it will not cost very much of your time.

I'm so glad you liked The Bone Clocks. And I'm coincidentally reading Department of Speculation now, although I'm only a few pages in.

>29 nancyewhite: , >30 nancyewhite:
I have The Bone Clocks on my nightstand - waiting for me to get around to it. I loved Cloud Atlas though - although your reviews makes the two sound similar in concept. Hm... I suspect I really need to get to it.

And thanks for the review of Department of Speculation - it sounds like the type of contemporary novel that I really don't like...

>32 AnnieMod: I think Department of Speculation is a book that many people will not like.

11. Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey - 3.5 Stars

A first person narrative by a woman, Maud, who is sinking further and further into dementia. She jumbles the 1940s when her beloved sister went missing with the current era where she can't find her best friend, Elizabeth. We know that something is wrong, but we don't know what until near the end of the book.

This is maybe the third book I've read in the past few years where the narrator was unreliable because of senile dementia or Alzheimer's. I think I might be a bit over the concept for a while. Within that micro-genre, this was enjoyable.

Catching up and enjoying your reviews. They come across almost as if you are talking. Interesting about Moran. And I would really like to read David Mitchell. Not sure why I haven't.

There's been a lot of dislike for Dept. of Speculation, so I was surprised at how much I loved it. The parts on being a new mother were so evocative. I also liked her longing to be an "art monster" and how life just intervened.

I'm enjoying your reviews. Mitchell is on my list too, I haven't got around to reading The Bone Clocks yet. I read Cloud Atlas a long time back, I don't remember having strong feelings about it. What put you off the book?

12 You: A Novel by Caroline Kepnes - 4 Stars

Written by a stalker and addressed to his obsession as "you". His though processes, rationalizations, delusions and flat out crazy are unrelenting. It is violent and dirty. There are also moments of laughter. There is not a single redeeming character so if you need to like someone, this isn't the book for you.

13. Ms. Marvel: No Normal - 4 Stars

A cute and witty creation story of the new Ms. Marvel. Kamala Khan is Muslim, Dorky, Funny and has the concerns of a teenage girl. Until a chemical reaction gives her super-powers. Now she has to do super-hero stuff under the nose of her strict parents. I liked this a lot.

14. My Real Children by Jo Walton - 3.5 Stars

Imagine my delight when I picked up this book and within a few pages it was describing another woman with Alzheimer's. This theme is done for me for a while. I decided to read further because of dukedom_enough's review of the book.

I'm glad I did. Alzheimer's bookends a very good story when the woman vividly remembers two distinct lives. In one she accepts a man's marriage proposal. In the other she declines.

I really liked the notion of alternate history played out domestically. There are huge differences in the worlds of each version of Patricia. In one there are nuclear aggressions, a different political system in the UK and the US, and atrocities. In the other, there are people living on the moon and JFK survived for a second term. Rather than being the focus, we learn of all of these events through the characters in chapters that alternate between life and the other.

I liked the concept and the narrative. I did not enjoy very much of the dialogue. It was stilted and didn't feel like the way people actually speak. Occasionally it was jarring enough to throw me out of being immersed in both worlds.

Still, I'd recommend this book.

15. Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace by Anne Lamott - 4.5 Stars

I devoured this book of essays. I love how honest Lamott is, how she creates a path to being frazzled, impatient and broken while still living in love, joy and, yes, grace. Lamott can write beautifully and adeptly describes her relationships to other people and to God. This book is Christian if you can't bear reading that. I am not, but I love what she has to say. Her very left-wing politics offset the occasional paragraphs about loving Jesus.

Of course as I near the end of my reading year I regret not keeping this thread up to date with my thoughts on the books I've read. I also realize I won't remember my feelings about the books if I don't note something. So, I'm going to try to catch up insomuch as that is possible.

16. The Girl On the Train by Paula Hawkins - 3.5 Stars

I'm a fan of novels with an unreliable narrator so I enjoyed this book. Rachel with her drinking problems and misbehavior intrigued me. I also liked the concept of a murder seen from afar. The writing was not great, and I'm not so sure I liked the ending. Worth the read but, popularity notwithstanding, only okay.

17. Without You There Is No Us by Suki Kim - 3.5 Stars

Kim details her time teaching the elite sons of North Korea. Even for these boys, life is very circumscribed and information is quite controlled. In addition, she describes what it feels like to have every move she made monitored and how she was interfered with if she appeared not to toe the line. I've read quite a few books about North Korea and this was a perspective on a group about which I'd heard very little. The problem is I just didn't like Kim. Her personal narrative felt as though it was invading the story rather than enhancing it. If you have read other things about North Korea and the subject matter interests you, by all means read this. However, if you haven't delved into anything about the horror show that this country is, please begin with Nothing to Envy which is vastly better.

18. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo - 4 Stars

I remember three things from this book that I find useful:

1. Cull your belongings by groups of items rather than by rooms. So, for example, get all of your clothes from everywhere you have them stored, put them on a bed and go through them item by item touching each as you make decisions. Do not move on to books, yarn shoes etc. until you've handled the entire group and put everything where it belongs.

2. The main criteria as you consider each item is whether or not it brings you joy.

3. Do not keep anything in the hope that you will make use of it later. Instead, thank the item for its service and set it free to fulfill its purpose with the person who needs it now.

I actually learned more than this, but these are the most important. I liked it and found it to be very useful and a way of organizing that I'd never read about or seen.

19. The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Heather O'Neill - 4 Stars

A beautifully written gritty novel of a young woman's coming of age on the streets of Montreal. I've typed three different sentences her trying to summarize the story and have found myself unable to do so. Let's say the story explores celebrity, twin-ship, sex and sexuality, narcissism, poverty, Canadian politics and the pain of having parents. It seems as though folks either like O'Neill's story-telling or they don't. I do. This one was good. Lullabies for Little Criminals is even better.

20. The Room: A Novel by Jonas Karlsson - 4.5 Stars

Oh how I enjoyed this. A novella about an office setting where the protagonist enjoys hanging out in an unused room next to the elevators. The problem is no one else sees a room there. Or are they gaslighting him? Funny, intriguing, an unreliable narrator, office politics and just the right length. I may need to give this another half star.

21. The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood - 3.5 Stars

Two women who as young adults killed a small child are thrown together again by murder at an amusement park. Absurd plot, but the handling of the childhood killing was well done.

Hi Nancy. Glad you're back and catching up.

22. Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin - 3.5 Stars

I found two things in this book to be useful in trying to establish new and healthier habits. They are:

1. I am a person who does best with external accountability and validation. Even the reward and goal system of an app works better than attempting to change using sheer will.

2. Put your new habits into a calendar. For example, actually schedule time for meditation. Then you get reminders and have a visual of the habit you are trying to establish.

I found the author's voice to be too smug and self-satisfied to entirely enjoy. There is also the question of her unacknowledged privilege - gym memberships and treadmill work stations are not available to everyone.

Still, finding out which type of personality you are in relation to life changes can be very helpful as it was for me.

23. Finders Keepers by Stephen King - 4 Stars

A tense thriller/mystery with a compelling kid in peril plot. King can keep so many balls in the air that it seems effortless until you read other writers trying such multi-stranded plotting. This is the second in the Bill Hodges trilogy following Mr. Mercedes. I enjoyed Bill Hodges and the assorted secondary characters in the first one, but liked them even more in this one. It's fun to watch Kind play with the world-weary detective trope. I feel like he got his footing on the first and is dancing in this one.

24. Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer - 5 Stars

Krakauer uses Missoula as a microcosm of the college rape epidemic. This book is a devastating look into how young women are failed at every level when victimized by student rapists. It's particularly hard to read the details of how the university works actively against justice for the victims. Although, of course, if the volume of rapes was known, fewer women would enroll which would mean less money, angry alumni and frightened parents. The lip service given to student safety only makes the entire thing uglier and more callous. The justice system is even worse - the victim-blaming exposed is sickening as is the 'boys will be boys' sentiment. Feminism has fought so hard against the shaming of women who were raped by known assailants as sluts or drunks or liars and to some degree we've been unsuccessful in protecting young women from sexual assault or getting them justice when they've been raped. Ugh. I've developed real affinity for Krakauer. This book validates that. Mandatory reading.

25. The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber - 4 Stars

I suck at describing fiction generally and science fiction specifically so this will likely be a less than articulate review. A missionary is selected by an unnamed but all-powerful corporation to go to a different planet and minister to the horrifically ugly (to human eyes) alien creatures who've been displaced by human colonization. Over time he becomes more and more absorbed in their culture and less and less concerned with human things. This includes his beloved wife who is sending increasingly upsetting emails about Earth moving closer and closer to apocalypse. Eventually, he learns the alien's devastating secret. This is a beautiful and compassionate book that I still think about months after finishing it.

26. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - 4.5 Stars

A young woman emigrates to the US from Nigeria, goes to college, meets a nice guy and blogs about her experience as an African woman in America. The young woman returns to Nigeria, finds that she has changed, gets a job, and gets reacquainted with the friends, family and lover that she left behind. That's an accurate synopsis that is an inaccurate representation of this wonderful book. The book is insightful, beautiful, romantic, sad and sharply observed. I fell in love with Adichie when I read Half of a Yellow Sun which was amazing. She has matured and is a better writer now than she was then which I would not have believed possible. Wonderful. Read it.

27. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee - 2.5 Stars

This book needs an editor. Oh, wait! It had one. He suggested that Harper Lee do a full re-write focusing on the childhood memories that jumped from the pages of this book. I'm pretty sure that worked out well.

When this was written, it was brave of Ms. Lee to write an adult Scout returning from a life in New York City to discover that her beloved and respected father, Atticus, along with pretty much everyone else in the town is an ugly racist who attends KKK meetings and is terrified about Civil Rights. I had no real issue with the fact that this Atticus is different from the Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird since they are both characters representing what Lee needs them to in order to tell the story of virulent Southern racism in very different novels.

There is a scene that makes this worth the price of admission. In it, adult Scout visits her adored maternal childhood nanny, Calpurnia. The meeting between the two is written with such emotional accuracy that it made my neck hair stand up. It surprises me that this scene isn't written about more in reviews. I suspect it would be if there wasn't such uproar about the "new" version of Atticus.

It is also interesting to see the development of Lee as a writer between the two books. She evolves to a surety and deftness between them. In this way, the fact that this book cries for editing is less off-putting.

If you love To Kill a Mockingbird but won't be devastated by the difference between the two Atticuses (Atteci?), this is worth the read. Look out for the scene with Calpurnia.

28. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler - 3.5 Stars

I didn't love this. I'm a long-time reader, and as I age I greatly enjoy books that are about older folks. And yet. The story is populated with fairly typical Tyler eccentrics. These particular eccentrics live house built, but not always owned, by the previous generation. This is also the story of that house. There is a son that doesn't fit in and becomes estranged from the family. There is dementia, dysfunction and secrets. And yet. It never gelled for me. It was meh. It gets an extra star because of my love of Tyler's narrative voice, but unless you are a completist, I'd skip it.

29. Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson - 4 Stars

DCI Banks goes to Estonia! This is way up there in my raking of favorite mystery series. In this, a police officer's very odd death leads Banks to Talinn to solve the murder. Robinson keeps this series consistently good and interesting with great characters who continually change over time. Start at the beginning in order to really enjoy these.

30. Very Good Lives by J. K. Rowling - 4 Stars

A transcript of an inspirational commencement speech Rowling gave in 2008. Just as you'd expect.

31. Cinderland by Amy Jo Burns - 4.5 Stars

This memoir is set in a small Western Pennsylvania town that has been decimated by the collapse of the steel industry. Since I was born, raised and make my home in Pittsburgh, PA, that was the first point of interest for me to read this book. Burns handles the time and place beautifully. It really captures what it is like to live in one of those towns that unlike Pittsburgh has never recovered from the demise of its primary purpose.

In this small town, everyone struggles to retain their pride even as they lose the battle to remain economically stable. When a group of girls accuse a local piano teacher of molestation, the whole town responds. Most of the response is negative and, for the most part, the girls are disbelieved while the teacher is supported.

Amy Jo was one of those girls. Except she wasn't, because when she was asked if the teacher had assaulted her, she lied and said he hadn't. This memoir details what it is like to have lived with that lie. I'd like this book no matter what, but I've never seen or read anything with this precise story of sexual abuse and its horrific ramifications. She is honest in a way that is emotionally resonant and she writes beautifully.

Highly recommended and a must read if life in the post-steel Rust Belt interests you.

I enjoyed your excellent review of Cinderland

32. A Fair Maiden by Joyce Carol Oates - 4 Stars

Thank god for JCO. She writes about what lurks around the edges; the shadows that dart away as soon as you turn your head to look. In this one, a young woman with a difficult home life gets a summer job babysitting for a rich family at the Jersey Shore. She is mesmerized by and jealous of the affluence she finds at the beach. When she meets a man who is the richest of the rich people there, that he's in his 60s doesn't matter to her. He is a sophisticated writer, artist and musician. He buys her an inappropriate gift almost immediately and things move forward from there.

The subject matter is obviously repulsive. However, Oates kept me reading. She is insightful about America's class issues. Her characters may behave in appalling ways, but they feel real as they do so. There is real value in shining light into the shadows and many great books do just that. This book illuminates and humanizes the teenager and the old man even as we shudder at their relationship.

>59 baswood:. Thank you! I love it when a book comes out of nowhere and knocks my socks off.

I love Western Pennsylvania and the resilience of those of us that live here. We've turned Pittsburgh into a beautiful medical and technology hub with world class cultural events, a thriving arts scene and a gorgeous revitalized downtown while retaining our working class spirit and decency. Hell, we've just received the honor of being Zagat's restaurant city of the year.

Believe me, from the end of the steel mills to where we are now has been a struggle. A lot of the surrounding area hasn't yet even remotely recovered. Finding a memoir that captured living in one of those town really enhanced my reading year.

33. The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore - 3.5 Stars

It turns out the guy who created Wonder Woman was a polyamorous bondage fetishist who invented the lie detector. Needless to say, he was a tad eccentric. Women's suffrage and Margaret Sanger played a major role in the rise of this comic book as well. This is a great social history. Parts of the story bog down when they could have been excitingly told. That's why it isn't a 4.

This book reminded me about the little bios of heroic women that were in each comic. Those really taught me a lot when I was a little girl. I hope something like that is around for youngsters today.

34. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates - 5 Stars

Devastating. The book is a letter Coates writes to his son about having a black body in white America. If you are an American, you MUST read this book. If you are from anywhere else, you really should read this book.

35. Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf - 4.5 Stars

An elderly woman invites her elderly neighbor to come and share her bed. Although he is startled, he agrees. These are decent and kind people who find a way to restore intimacy and connection to their lonely everyday lives. Of course there are barriers and numbskulls who judge, but really this is a big-hearted and compassionate short novel that lit up my heart.

36. Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll - 2.5 Stars

Um. I finished this in July. It's December. I've just spent 5 minutes reading reviews trying to remember the plot. Basically a young woman has a VERY bad time in high school. She grows up and lives a life where she appears to have it all, but in reality is a hard outer shell with only misery on the inside. There is a 'secret' that is worse than all of the other terrible things which is held until the end in order to shock us all. Meh. A single Stephen King short story can do the same with 20 times more aha, 100 times more finesse and a 1,000 times more pleasure.

>58 nancyewhite: Glad to have the reminder of Cinderland! Great review.

>60 nancyewhite: great review of the JCO book. You've sold it to me! Also looking forward to getting to that Kent Haruf book soon.

It's so cool to have visitors.

Also, I had the same reactions to The Secret History of Wonder Woman. For what it's worth I enjoyed her Book of Ages far more, though I went in with lower expectations than I did with Wonder Woman as well.

37. Primates of Park Avenue by Wednesday Martin - 3 Stars

The writer moves to the ritziest part of Manhattan, claims this move is an anthropological study, writes a book. She describes the bizarro-lives of extremely wealthy families. There is some social commentary. In particular the question of how much actual power these women have without their husbands is worthy of discussion. However, frankly, this is mostly just wealth porn that allows the rest of us a glimpse into the social stratosphere. Martin is hardly an outsider in any real sense of the word. She's just a newbie trying to be accepted by these largely loathsome people. The fact that purchasing a Birkin bag plays a large role and is the thing many people remember most about the book tips you off of the actual purpose of this book.

Nonetheless, there is something exciting about a window into the lives of the 1%. This is also the first book that I've seen that details the daily lives of the women of that class. Martin does have an entertaining voice although she certainly isn't a gifted writer. Therefore, three stars.

>69 mabith: Ohhh. Book of Ages does look good. Onto the Wishlist it goes.

>62 nancyewhite: >69 mabith: I'm a fan of Jill Lepore, who I first read in The New Yorker, especially her New York Burning and The Whites of Their Eyes and to a lesser extent The Mansion of Happiness, but as I said on Meredith's thread, I haven't gotten to The Secret History of Wonder Woman even though it was a gift.

38. The Book of Vice by Peter Sagal - 2.5 Stars

Peter Sagal hosts Wait Wait Don't Tell Me which I've never listened to. In this he writes of people engaged in vices such as lust, gluttony, gambling etc and sort of engages in them himself. I generally like books in which people do weird things like live as if the bible were literal or visit civil war reenactments. This take on that genre was meh at best. It was neither insightful enough nor funny enough. There are plenty of more enjoyable books of this sort.

39. The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny - 4 Stars

This is the most recent in a wonderful mystery series set in the shangri-la like village of Three Pines. In this one, Armand Gamache is retired and trying to decide whether or not he likes it. When a young boy known for fibbing is killed after declaring he saw a monster in the woods, Gamache gets involved in solving the murder.

The mysteries, while great, are not the centerpiece of this series for me. The characters are wonderful as is the village. I recommend you start from the beginning and get to know them all. My favorite is the cantankerous old poet, Ruth and her pet duck. I hope to be just like her when I get old, and in this one she plays a larger than usual role. There's a certain compassion and decency to this series and, in particular, to Gamache that I love. I find that as I get older, finding that warm, beating heart in a novel is what I like best. Even if the novel is dark, or perhaps particularly if it is dark, I want there to be that kind of empathy and understanding in the middle of it all. On the other hand, I despise icky, forced, saccharine sentimentality. This series has heart and while sometimes I fear it is veering into sweetness, it never actually does.

40. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - 2.5 Stars

Alone among my friends, I despised this overlong manipulative book. Very little in it makes sense. The ridiculous privilege is enraging. The book piles on the main character, Jude, to the point of absurdity which also extolling his wonders and success constantly. He does literally nothing to help himself but everyone adores him anyway. I don't know if you've ever had people in your life like Jude who absolutely refuse to take steps to help themselves heal, but believe me, you don't want to adopt or marry them.

For a longer, more articulate review that captures a lot of my feelings please pop over to the review section and read zchat04's rant about this book.

Edited to add: What's this nonsense about an ER doc being so compelled that he becomes Jude's person physician, available at all hours and emotionally invested in Jude's well-being even though Jude is not? I've been to the ER recently, and I could barely get a doctor to look at me let alone take me under their wing. Ridiculous.

41. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff - 5 Stars

Now this is a book that deserves the attention and praise it is getting. What a joy to read after the abysmal A Little Life.

The story of a marriage told from the perspective of the husband and then of the wife. The entire book is nearly perfect. Wonderfully insightful. Wonderfully unexpected. Wonderfully honest. Wonderfully written.

Wonderful.

Our Souls at Night, A Little Life and Fates and Furies are three newish books I seems to have about a lot without knowing much about them. Interested in your reviews. Your review of A Little Life is not the first negative review I have seen. I agree, the idea of an ER doctor spending a lot of time with a patient seems suspect.

42. Christine Falls by Benjamin Black - 3.5 Stars

I was quite looking forward to this mystery set in 1950s Ireland. I knew that it was written by Booker winner John Banville. The subject matter of the Magdalene Laundries (Joni Mitchell song about this topic), where the Catholic Church shamed young pregnant women, stole their babies and sold them to adoptive families is interesting to me and a novel setting for a mystery. However, this book was quite male in perspective and very sad? dark? brooding? The question marks are there because I generally like books that are sad, dark and brooding as long as it is in keeping with the characters and subject matter. I'm just not sure. Perhaps bleak is a better description. Oddly, I'm likely to try one more in the series hoping that the next has a shift in tone. Hope springs eternal.

43. Gods and Beasts by Denise Mina - 3 Stars

This is the third in the Alex Morrow series set in Scotland. The previous two were 4 star reads for me, but this one was just off. Clunky. The mystery heads into politics and organized crime. Given the previous two and her reputation in general, I'm pretty sure this was a fluke or that I just read it at the wrong time. I will certainly read the next one.

44. The Gaslight Effect: How to Spot and Survive the Hidden Manipulation Others Use to Control Your Life by Robin Stern - 4.5 Stars

This one was life-changing for me. Every previous thing I'd read about gaslighting, narcissists, sociopaths etc. ironically focused on them and their behavior. This one did as well, but it also had plenty to say about the gaslightee. It detailed the dance between the two and the personality traits of someone who remains in such a relationship. Somehow seeing myself on the page empowered me. I took action that removed that from my life.

The book isn't solely about romantic relationships either which is good. There are examples of gaslighting behavior by bosses, friends and parents as well.

Finally, I've read some reviews where the reader wasn't happy that there was advice for staying with a gaslighter given here. My position is that for whatever personal reasons they have, some people are going to stay. Given that reality, it is smart and good to give them tools for living as healthily as possible in that situation.

One of the big aha realizations as I read was the notion that when you are being gaslighted, your empathy, which is obviously a wonderful characteristic, is actually being used as a weapon against you. LIGHT BULB MOMENT!

If you or someone you know is involved with a manipulator and is at a loss, this is a great resource.