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jodiwilldare's reviews
1523 reviews
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
3.0
Had my Rock & Roll Bookclub not chosen The Lathe of Heaven as its May book I would have never read it. Science Fiction, or as the cool kids call it, Speculative Fiction has never been my thing. Aliens, dragons, spaceships, wizards, knights — none of it appeals to me in the least, not even when I was a kid.
So I approached The Lathe of Heaven with a little bit of trepidation. I did not protest it’s nomination for May book, because when I asked the R&R Bookclubbers what books they remember loving as a kid it was the first title to pop out of Wolfdogg’s mouth. Plus, you know, it’s only like 186 pages.
I have a new reason for disliking Science Fiction after reading this book. It hurts my brain. Seriously, Ursula K. LeGuin’s novel about dreams and reality messed me up, and it was kind of awesome. I like when a book infects your entire life because it makes you think all the time.
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So I approached The Lathe of Heaven with a little bit of trepidation. I did not protest it’s nomination for May book, because when I asked the R&R Bookclubbers what books they remember loving as a kid it was the first title to pop out of Wolfdogg’s mouth. Plus, you know, it’s only like 186 pages.
I have a new reason for disliking Science Fiction after reading this book. It hurts my brain. Seriously, Ursula K. LeGuin’s novel about dreams and reality messed me up, and it was kind of awesome. I like when a book infects your entire life because it makes you think all the time.
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The Nobody by Jeff Lemire
2.0
The Nobody is Jeff Lemire’s take on the classic H.G. Wells tale of The Invisible Man.
In Lemire’s tale the invisible man arrives in Large Mouth (population 754) sporting mummyesque bandages and a troubled past. Of course he captures the attention of Vickie, a bored teen who works in her dad’s diner, and the rest of the town. They don’t cotton to mysterious strangers in Large Mouth.
John Griffen lands in the small town because he’s fleeing the death of his wife and some weird chemistry accident that has rendered him invisible. He spends his time cooped up in a Large Mouth motel trying to forget and come up with an antidote. Vickie brings him food all the time and tries to become his friend. There’s all sorts of weirdness in this tale and when a woman goes missing things get even worse for our invisible man.
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In Lemire’s tale the invisible man arrives in Large Mouth (population 754) sporting mummyesque bandages and a troubled past. Of course he captures the attention of Vickie, a bored teen who works in her dad’s diner, and the rest of the town. They don’t cotton to mysterious strangers in Large Mouth.
John Griffen lands in the small town because he’s fleeing the death of his wife and some weird chemistry accident that has rendered him invisible. He spends his time cooped up in a Large Mouth motel trying to forget and come up with an antidote. Vickie brings him food all the time and tries to become his friend. There’s all sorts of weirdness in this tale and when a woman goes missing things get even worse for our invisible man.
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Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder by Travis Nichols
3.0
To be frank, Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder by Travis Nichols was one of those books that alternately charmed the hell out of me and annoyed the crap out of me.
The story is told through a series of letters written to a Polish woman named Luddie. The letter-writer is an unnamed young man who is taking his girlfriend, Bernadette, and his grandfather, the Bombardier, on a pilgrimage to Poland in search of Luddie. She’s the woman who helped the Bombardier survive after his plane crashed near her village in WWII.
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The story is told through a series of letters written to a Polish woman named Luddie. The letter-writer is an unnamed young man who is taking his girlfriend, Bernadette, and his grandfather, the Bombardier, on a pilgrimage to Poland in search of Luddie. She’s the woman who helped the Bombardier survive after his plane crashed near her village in WWII.
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All Rivers Flow to the Sea by Alison McGhee
4.0
You know how sometimes you sit down with a sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mints with the intent of only having a few (and who knows why your brought the whole sleeve with you, but you did) and then a few hours later you seem to wake from a mint-cookie induced reverie to discover you’ve eaten the whole sleeve?
That’s kind of what it’s like reading Alison McGhee’s All Rivers Flow to the Sea. Except, when your wake from this reverie to realize you’re halfway through the book there’s no guilt or stomachache, which makes it way better than the cookies.
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That’s kind of what it’s like reading Alison McGhee’s All Rivers Flow to the Sea. Except, when your wake from this reverie to realize you’re halfway through the book there’s no guilt or stomachache, which makes it way better than the cookies.
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The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
3.0
Usually when I discover books based on the author’s Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay, it’s something about the music he or she choose that captures my attention. Or, most likely, the author picks music that I really like and I figure since they have good taste in music they must be able to write a decent book (this is not always true).
With Heidi W. Durrow’s essay it wasn’t the music she selected, it was the title of the book that caused me to gasp and then clutch at my heart. As soon as I saw the words The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, I developed tunnel vision and my brain convinced me that it was a Chuck Klosterman novel based on that shitty short story he included in Chuck Klosterman IV.
Once my vision cleared and my sanity returned, I figured the least I could do was read Durrow’s novel after lumping it in with Klosterman based on title alone.
I’m happy to report that The Girl Who Fell From the Sky is leagues better than Klosterman’s story about a girl who seemingly fell from the sky.
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With Heidi W. Durrow’s essay it wasn’t the music she selected, it was the title of the book that caused me to gasp and then clutch at my heart. As soon as I saw the words The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, I developed tunnel vision and my brain convinced me that it was a Chuck Klosterman novel based on that shitty short story he included in Chuck Klosterman IV.
Once my vision cleared and my sanity returned, I figured the least I could do was read Durrow’s novel after lumping it in with Klosterman based on title alone.
I’m happy to report that The Girl Who Fell From the Sky is leagues better than Klosterman’s story about a girl who seemingly fell from the sky.
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The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
3.0
Right before her ninth birthday, Rose has a bite of a lemon cake her mom baked. It was a practice cake to make sure the recipe was right for the big occasion, Rose’s birthday. In that bite, Rose is overcome with her mom’s feelings of loneliness and emptiness.
Rose’s magical power — tasting the emotions and background of the people who prepare the food she eats — takes center stage for about half of Aimee Bender’s second novel The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. It’s a fabulous, interesting premise that seems to get lost halfway through the book.
Rose is kind of a lonely, odd-duck herself in a family filled with lonely, odd-ducks. On the surface the Edelstein’s look like American apple pie goodness and all that. Dad’s a lawyer, Mom’s an artist who works at a carpentry co-op, and brother Joe’s a budding scientific genius. But then there’s the cake filled with sadness and regret. It’s our first hint that things aren’t as they seem.
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Rose’s magical power — tasting the emotions and background of the people who prepare the food she eats — takes center stage for about half of Aimee Bender’s second novel The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. It’s a fabulous, interesting premise that seems to get lost halfway through the book.
Rose is kind of a lonely, odd-duck herself in a family filled with lonely, odd-ducks. On the surface the Edelstein’s look like American apple pie goodness and all that. Dad’s a lawyer, Mom’s an artist who works at a carpentry co-op, and brother Joe’s a budding scientific genius. But then there’s the cake filled with sadness and regret. It’s our first hint that things aren’t as they seem.
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Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O’Malley
4.0
I was so excited to read Scott Pilgirm’s Finest Hour, the sixth and final volume in the series, that even though I had ordered it for ridiculously cheap, the moment I got near Big Brain Comics last Tuesday I caved and bought another copy. There was no way in hell I was going to be able to wait another day to find out what happend to Scott, Ramona, and their gang of wry sidekicks.
Volume 6 takes place roughly four months after Volume 5. Ramona’s MIA, Scott’s vegging in an apartment paid for by his parents, and Sex Bob-Omb has broken up. Things are not going well for our favorite Canadian hipster doofus.
Eventually that gang of wry sidekicks rouses Scott from his funk and forces him to face his pathetic life and the seventh evil-ex Gideon Graves. It is the battle we’ve all been waiting for and it’s well worth the wait. If it seems I’m being intentionally vague, it’s because I am. I don’t want to be a spoiler. Bryan Lee O’Malley reveals a lot about where the characters are going, some of it is shocking, some of it’s not. However, I don’t want to ruin any of the delicious surprises Volume 6 has.
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Volume 6 takes place roughly four months after Volume 5. Ramona’s MIA, Scott’s vegging in an apartment paid for by his parents, and Sex Bob-Omb has broken up. Things are not going well for our favorite Canadian hipster doofus.
Eventually that gang of wry sidekicks rouses Scott from his funk and forces him to face his pathetic life and the seventh evil-ex Gideon Graves. It is the battle we’ve all been waiting for and it’s well worth the wait. If it seems I’m being intentionally vague, it’s because I am. I don’t want to be a spoiler. Bryan Lee O’Malley reveals a lot about where the characters are going, some of it is shocking, some of it’s not. However, I don’t want to ruin any of the delicious surprises Volume 6 has.
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Swallow Me Whole by Nate Powell
2.0
It’s never a good sign when it takes you months and months to read a book. It’s an even worse sign when that book is a graphic novel. But it took me roughly three months to claw my way through Nate Powell’s Swallow Me Whole.
This book was lauded by most everyone who wrote about it. I learned this only because I had to do some googling to figure out the hell I just read.
The veneration was my first surprise. My second was that the main characters, teenagers Perry and Ruth, are step siblings. That second surprise made me like the book even less than I thought I did.
What we have here is a sort of coming of age of two southern teens, both afflicted with schizophrenia to some degree. I’m not sure if there are varying degrees of schizophrenia, but I’m willing to give Powell a buy on that. I’m not willing to give him a buy on the utter coincidence of the step siblings both having schizophrenia, unless their parents met at some sort of support group. If that’s the case we should know that.
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This book was lauded by most everyone who wrote about it. I learned this only because I had to do some googling to figure out the hell I just read.
The veneration was my first surprise. My second was that the main characters, teenagers Perry and Ruth, are step siblings. That second surprise made me like the book even less than I thought I did.
What we have here is a sort of coming of age of two southern teens, both afflicted with schizophrenia to some degree. I’m not sure if there are varying degrees of schizophrenia, but I’m willing to give Powell a buy on that. I’m not willing to give him a buy on the utter coincidence of the step siblings both having schizophrenia, unless their parents met at some sort of support group. If that’s the case we should know that.
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Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe by Jenny Hollowell
3.0
I’m thinking about joining the ranks of those boring, jackassy literary pundits who warn about the impending death of something: publishing, the novel, the short story, the traditional book, and everything else you love hold dear.
What am I declaring the death of? Story. Or at least good, engaging stories. Off the top of my head I can think of four books I’ve read this year that were well-written but lacked interesting stories or the stories fell apart midway through the book (The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, The Melting Season, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, and The Ask). I can’t tell if it’s me or if it’s them. Is there a dearth of story in this year’s must-read books? Or am I just more demanding than usual?
You can add Jenny Hollowell’s Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe to that list of beautifully-written books that lack an actual story. On the surface the story of Birdie Baker, a thirty-year-old struggling actress seems like it would be fraught with tension, but it’s not. Instead we get a sort of dreamy, wishy-washy portrayal of a woman so far removed from her life it feels like she’s floating through it.
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What am I declaring the death of? Story. Or at least good, engaging stories. Off the top of my head I can think of four books I’ve read this year that were well-written but lacked interesting stories or the stories fell apart midway through the book (The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, The Melting Season, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, and The Ask). I can’t tell if it’s me or if it’s them. Is there a dearth of story in this year’s must-read books? Or am I just more demanding than usual?
You can add Jenny Hollowell’s Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe to that list of beautifully-written books that lack an actual story. On the surface the story of Birdie Baker, a thirty-year-old struggling actress seems like it would be fraught with tension, but it’s not. Instead we get a sort of dreamy, wishy-washy portrayal of a woman so far removed from her life it feels like she’s floating through it.
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Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O’Malley
3.0
Once I chewed through every Scott Pilgrim book currently available, I felt a little bereft. What was I going to do? I couldn’t just jump into another graphic novel. What if it wasn’t funny enough? What if there wasn’t any magical-realismesque video game action? What if, what if it wasn’t any good?
Lucky for me the answer came in the form of a big box of graphic novels from Largehearted boy. In that treasure trove, I unearthed Lost At Sea, Bryan Lee O’Malley’s first book.
It was the perfect balm for my Scott Pilgrim withdrawal.
How so? Because it was the not so bad, not so good way to get over my Scottaholism.
Lost at Sea is a road trip graphic novel about four Canadian teens driving home from California. The star of the book is Raleigh, an intellectually gifted 18-year-old who has no soul. At least she doesn’t think she has a soul, she’s pretty sure a cat stole it when she was younger.
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Lucky for me the answer came in the form of a big box of graphic novels from Largehearted boy. In that treasure trove, I unearthed Lost At Sea, Bryan Lee O’Malley’s first book.
It was the perfect balm for my Scott Pilgrim withdrawal.
How so? Because it was the not so bad, not so good way to get over my Scottaholism.
Lost at Sea is a road trip graphic novel about four Canadian teens driving home from California. The star of the book is Raleigh, an intellectually gifted 18-year-old who has no soul. At least she doesn’t think she has a soul, she’s pretty sure a cat stole it when she was younger.
Read More