Fervent Reader

Plot summary (from the publisher): Fifteen-year-old Lynn Marie Sugrue is doing her best to make it through a difficult summer. Her mother works long hours as a nurse, and Lynn suspects that her mother’s pill-popping boyfriend has enlisted her in his petty criminal enterprises. Lynn finds refuge in online flirtations, eventually meeting up with a troubled young soldier, Logan Loy, and inviting him home. When he’s forced to stay over in a storage space accessible through her closet, and the Army subsequently lists him as AWOL, she realizes that he’s the one thing in her life that she can control. Meanwhile, her mother’s boyfriend is on the receiving end of a series of increasingly violent threats, which places Lynn squarely in the cross-hairs.

Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• This book started off well. I couldn’t wait to see what kind of trouble Lynn and Dani would get into with their Internet chat room “game”. There seemed to be a million different possibilities there.
• Lynn was an okay narrator — at least at first. At the beginning of the novel, I thought she was going to be the one sane, grounded character in a cast full of delinquents, losers, and oddballs. That would have fit with her “voice”, so I wish the author had gone with that approach.

Disliked:

• OMG, I hated EVERYTHING about the Logan Loy storyline! A 25-year-old soldier falls for a 15-year-old girl and has sex with her? NASTY!!! And then SHE turns out to be the psycho one who keeps him locked up as a sex slave in the storage space off her closet? What-the-fuck-ever.
• Speaking of being locked up, what kind of mental deficiency did Logan have that made him willingly sit there day after day as Lynn’s prisoner? Give me a fucking break! No one in his right mind would go along with that, yet Zimmerman never bothered explaining wtf (if anything ) was wrong with Logan. Sure, there were hints of PTSD, but would that alone make Logan submit to being a imprisoned by a 15-year-old girl in such awful conditions?
• I thought everything about Hayes was dumb and boring. That character brought nothing to the novel except a way to bring the Logan plot to a completely implausible end.
• What happened to Dani? At the beginning of the book, she and Lynn were inseparable. Then she pretty much just drops out of the story, with the weak explanation that she’s grounded or something. You’d think she’d have gone to Lynn’s house every single day to check on the “prisoner” situation.
• The end was just crap. The big, bad drug dealers were laughable, and Logan’s involvement in that “showdown” seemed forced and unbelievable. Then Logan conveniently dies in the fire, leaving Lynn with ZERO consequences for holding the guy against his will. I guess you could call her pregnancy a consequence, but I don’t. Since the author literally chose to end the book on that “reveal”, it felt way too much like a soap opera and not like a logical conclusion.

Rating:

I’m not sure why Caring is Creepy by David Zimmerman is described as a coming-of-age novel. Lynn doesn’t change from the beginning to the end. There’s no character arc there, no growth or maturity. She remains selfish and manipulative through each implausible situation in which she becomes entangled. The lack of believability and all too convenient ending just adds to the book’s problems. I give this one 2 stars out of 5.

The music industry parallels the publishing industry in a few ways — especially when it comes to independent artists getting their work out there. Just as writers no longer need to hook up with a big-time New York publisher to see their book in print, musicians no longer have to rent out expensive studio time to lay down professional sounding tracks. All they need is great protools 10 software.

With Pro Tools 10, anyone can record, compose, mix, and edit music right in their own home. The software comes with an incredible list of standard features, as well as the sort of extras you’d expect from a trusted name like Pro Tools.

To me, this sounds like the Final Draft of the music world. In other words, it’s the industry standard that no serious musician can do without.

Summary (from the publisher): Award-winning author Claire Tomalin sets the standard for sophisticated and popular biography, having written lives of Jane Austen, Samuel Pepys, and Thomas Hardy, among others. Here she tackles the best recognized and loved man of nineteenth-century England, Charles Dickens; a literary leviathan whose own difficult path to greatness inspired the creation of classic novels such as Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and Hard Times.

From his sensational public appearances to the obsessive love affair that led him to betray, deceive, and break with those closest to him, Charles Dickens: A Life is a triumph of the biographer’s craft, a comedy that turns to tragedy in a story worthy of Dickens’ own pen.

Reaction:

Although Charles Dickens is one of my favorite authors, I’d never read a true biography of him until now. I’d read historical fiction that covered some of his life events, so I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with what was presented here, but this was my first in-depth venture into the man behind the famous works. For the most part, it was an interesting journey.

The first thing that struck me about this book is that Tomalin seems to have been a very careful and conscientious researcher. She cites her sources and often reminds the reader that certain aspects of Dickens’ life may only be inferred or speculated upon because of lack of hard evidence. She makes her own speculations clear, so there’s never any confusion on that point. Not all biographers take the trouble to do this.

Second, this biography is rather thorough. It’s a long book that touches on Dickens’ childhood of poverty and labor, two themes that he would address again and again in his future works. Then Tomalin carries the reader through Dickens’ early career, which was launched via his Sketches by Boz; his marriage to Catherine Hogarth; their family life; and all subsequent stages of his writing career and personal affairs.

I found most of the book to be highly engrossing. I especially liked the analyses of Dickens’ books and how some of the characters, events, or overarching themes were lifted directly from his life. I also loved reading about some of the contemporary reaction to his fiction — not all of which was positive. And of course the whole Nelly Ternan affair was riveting. I only knew bits and pieces about Nelly before picking up Tomalin’s book, but now have a much clearer picture than ever of what really went on.

The final chapter was a great touch as well. It provided a nice bit of closure by telling the reader what ultimately became of some of the major players in Dickens’ life, including his children, Nelly, Catherine, and dear friend (and official biographer) John Forster.

If I had to pick something to dislike about Tomalin’s book, I’d say that she has a tendency to focus on mundane things for long stretches. Dickens’ household accounts or constant worry about earning enough money to support all those dependent on him might be interesting to some folks, but bored me to tears. In fact, I ended up putting this book aside for several weeks after getting bogged down around the halfway point. Once I started up again, I was ready to plow through to the end, but it did take some effort.

Rating:

Before rendering my rating for Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin, I feel I should point out that I’m not a Dickens scholar and am not familiar with any other biographies about him. I’m sure there are better ones out there, just as I’m sure there are worse. My rating is based solely on how I, as a casual reader, responded to this book as an isolated work. As I stated above, Tomalin was thorough, conscientious, and mostly interesting. I thought she lost her way now and again, but that’s nothing new with lengthy biographies. I give this one 4 stars out of 5.

Description (from the publisher):

Warning from publisher to reader:

At HarperCollins, we are committed to customer satisfaction. Before proceeding with your purchase, please take the following questionnaire to determine your likelihood of enjoying this book:

1. Which of the following do you appreciate?

(a) Women with somewhat horse-ish facial features.
(b) Women who, while not super Jew-y, are more identifiably Jewish than, say, Natalie Portman.
(c) Frequent discussion of unwanted body hair.
2. Are you offended by the following behavior?

(a) Instructing one’s grandmother to place baked goods in her rectal cavity.
(b) Stripping naked in public—eleven times in a row.
(c) Stabbing one’s boss in the head with a writing implement.
3. The best way to treat an emotionally fragile young girl is:

(a) Murder the main course of her Thanksgiving dinner before her very eyes.
(b) Tell her that her older sister is prettier than she, and then immediately die.
(c) Prevent her suicide by recommending she stay away from open windows.

If you read the above questions without getting nauseous or forming a hate Web site, you are ready to buy this book! Please proceed to the cashier.

Reaction:

I wouldn’t consider myself a huge Sarah Silverman fan. In fact, I know about her from only two performances: her turn as easily obsessed fan Marci Maven on Monk and her “I’m F***ing Matt Damon” video. Other than those two things, I’ve never seen any of her shows or stand-up routines — which means I’m probably not the target audience.

Regardless, I still found many things to enjoy about the audiobook version, read by Sarah herself. The stories of her childhood and struggles with bedwetting (particularly at sleepovers, summer camp, school trips, and the like) were funny and poignant at the same time. If there are any 16-year-old bedwetters out there, hopefully they can take some solace from Sarah’s words.

I also enjoyed Sarah’s fond recollections of trying to break into comedy and her excitement at getting hired as an SNL writer despite not having the Harvard background that so many others in the room possessed. This is a woman who definitely paid her dues over a period of years before making it.

And finally, I appreciated the fact that she freely admits to Googling herself to see what others have said about her various performances, wardrobe, etc. You ALWAYS hear celebrities saying they DON’T do that sort of thing, but I call bullshit on them. I suspect that a lot more of them DO Google themselves — at least from time to time — than abstain completely. At least Sarah has the balls to admit it.

Nevertheless, I wasn’t completely taken with this memoir. The first half was wonderful, but Sarah unfortunately ran out of steam down the homestretch and resorted to talking about politics (of all things). It irks me when Hollywood types spout their political opinions because that’s the last thing fans want to hear about. Sure, they’re entitled to have these opinions; that’s not what bothers me. But I guarantee that NOBODY became a Sarah Silverman fan because she voted for Barack Obama. I mean, come on!

The vignettes in the second half of the book became progressively shorter, and many of them ended abruptly, making me wonder wth the point of the story was. Oh, and there were some completely disgusting tidbits in Sarah’s book (to be expected, I guess), not the least of which was getting some, uh, vaginal transfer, from a friend who’d just performed oral on a woman. talk about NASTY!!!

Rating:

The Bedwetter by Sarah Silverman is a funny enough memoir that will probably provide sufficient entertainment for true fans. However, if you’re not that familiar with Silverman’s type of humor or if you’re easily offended, why put yourself through the torture? I fall in the middle of these extremes and so does my rating. I give the book 3 stars out of 5.

Summary (from the publisher): From the streets of Iraq to the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips in the Indian Ocean, and from the mountaintops of Afghanistan to the third floor of Osama Bin Laden’s compound, operator Mark Owen of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group — commonly known as SEAL Team Six — has been a part of some of the most memorable special operations in history, as well as countless missions that never made headlines.

No Easy Day puts readers alongside Owen and the other handpicked members of the twenty-four-man team as they train for the biggest mission of their lives. The blow-by-blow narrative of the assault, beginning with the helicopter crash that could have ended Owen’s life straight through to the radio call confirming Bin Laden’s death, is an essential piece of modern history.

In No Easy Day, Owen also takes readers onto the field of battle in America’s ongoing War on Terror and details the selection and training process for one of the most elite units in the military. Owen’s story draws on his youth in Alaska and describes the SEALs’ quest to challenge themselves at the highest levels of physical and mental endurance. With boots-on-the-ground detail, Owen describes numerous previously unreported missions that illustrate the life and work of a SEAL and the evolution of the team after the events of September 11. In telling the true story of the SEALs whose talents, skills, experiences, and exceptional sacrifices led to one of the greatest victories in the War on Terror, Mark Owen honors the men who risk everything for our country, and he leaves readers with a deep understanding of the warriors who keep America safe.

Reaction:

Subtitled “The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Bin Laden”, No Easy Day was a great book. It was mostly informative and at times quite suspenseful and exciting (even though readers go into it knowing the outcome). Owen does a good job of sticking to details that readers would be interested in and skipping over the mundane stuff that would likely cause us to tune out.

Although Owen naturally changed the names of those involved and didn’t reveal anything new or classified, it was still fascinating to get a chronological account of the UBL raid from a team member. The story made a lot more sense coming from Owen than it did in the rapid fire, bits and pieces style of modern media (conflicting Twitter “reports”, constant revisions and updates, etc.).

In fact, I think this book is the perfect companion piece to the film Zero Dark Thirty. While the film focused mostly on the intelligence gathering leading up to the raid, Owen’s book mostly focuses on the raid. When taken together, they yield about as complete a picture as civilians can expect to get.

Another thing I really liked about Owen’s book is how frequently he gave credit to fellow SEALs and team members. He freely acknowledged numerous times that he wasn’t any better than any of the other guys. They’re all interchangeable, like a professional sports team. If one guy goes down or isn’t available, the next one steps up and the team proceeds as usual. Owen just happened to be in the right place when the call came down.

One area that I thought could have been improved was the aftermath of the UBL raid. While Owen did address things such as the media leaks and meeting the president, he didn’t give his opinions about some important issues. For example, what did he think of the U.S. opting NOT to release any confirmation photos of the UBL killing? What did he think of the lightning fast burial at sea and the ensuing fallout (specifically, people not willing to believe it was UBL because there was no body)?

As much as I would have liked to know the answers to these questions, not getting them didn’t detract from the reading experience too much.

Rating:

No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Bin Laden is an excellent book that is well worth reading. Despite a few flaws and some unanswered questions, the book is coherent, on topic, and satisfying. I give it 4 stars out of 5.

Plot summary (from the publisher): Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived–and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her.

The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details–proof they hope may free Ben–Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club . . . and maybe she’ll admit her testimony wasn’t so solid after all.

As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby’s doomed family members–including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started–on the run from a killer.

Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• Judging from many other reviews, I’m in the minority here, but I still have to say it: I liked Libby. She was by far the best of the three main narrators (her mother Patty and brother Ben being the other two), and the scenes told from her POV were the most interesting. No, she wasn’t perfect and she did irritate me at times, but that’s what made her seem more realistic to me.
• It was refreshing to see Libby acknowledge her mercenary intentions without any qualms whatsoever. She needed money, so she sold what she had: connections and memorabilia to the fateful night when her family was killed. Sure, the motivation was grim and macabre. Then again, this wasn’t called “Shiny, Happy Places”, was it?
• I liked that some people were simply unwilling to talk to Libby. I hate it when non-official “investigators” in books and TV shows start interviewing witnesses in a murder case and get nothing less than full cooperation. It makes no sense. I would NOT talk to anyone that didn’t have a badge. Would you? So it was good to see people like Trey and Diondra be less than cooperative (even though Diondra had good reason for that).
• The descriptions of the Day family’s poverty was stark and depressing. And Flynn hammered this point home enough times that when it was revealed that Patty orchestrated her own “murder” (committed by the so-called “Angel of Death”) so her kids would get the insurance money and be able to keep the farm, the scenario was almost believable. Almost.

Disliked:

• The shifting points-of-view were annoying as hell. The idea of telling the story from the past and present simultaneously so that the events eventually converge sounds good in theory, but the execution was tedious. I didn’t like it at all, particularly Ben’s narrative. It was boring and took away from the rest of the novel.
• Speaking of Ben, I did not understand his relationship with Diondra at all. What did she see in him? Why would she and Trey even want Ben around? He was a poor, weird, foul-smelling janitor who brought absolutely nothing to their little group. I figured those two were setting Ben up to be a patsy of some sort, but that never happened. So again, WHY were Diondra and Ben even a couple? And then later, when he became an adult, why was Ben still in love with/protecting Diondra after the shitty way she treated him? For the sake of the baby he never knew? I doubt it. None of that made sense.
• I wish Runner had been the killer, just because he was the single most annoying character in a book chock-full of annoying characters. Ugh. I could not stand him at all — and not in that good, love-to-hate kind of way, either.
• Crystal’s (Diondra/Ben’s daughter) attack on Libby came out of the blue and didn’t sit well with me. The author tried to justify it by saying Crystal and Diondra were “best friends” and that Crystal knew all about Diondra murdering one of Ben’s sisters because the girl knew she was pregnant, but that wasn’t enough. Crystal was, what, 24-25 years old when Libby tracked them down? That seemed too old for the “don’t take my mommy away” defense.
• The Angel of Death’s chapter about what went down that fateful night was odd, abrupt, and out of place. The guy went there to kill Patty, but was discovered in the act by one of the other daughters and had to kill her too? The girl was about 11 years old or something, right? Couldn’t he have just run away? What were the chances of the kid identifying him? She would have been far too traumatized to remember much, wouldn’t she? And why didn’t he take the simple precaution of wearing a mask or otherwise disguising himself for the mission? Yes, Patty knew he was coming so he didn’t have to hide from her. But he was going to a house occupied by FOUR OTHER PEOPLE. So much for being a “pro”.

Rating:

Gillian Flynn is a talented writer, but I’m getting the feeling that her plots hinge on the thinnest of threads. Between Dark Places and Gone Girl, I find that I have the hardest time accepting her characters’ motivations and the miraculous coincidences that occur at precisely the right moments. Dark Places seems like it could have gone in a number of other ways that would have made it more interesting to me. As it stands, I didn’t like the nonlinear retelling, the multiple points-of-view, or the unanswered questions about Ben and Diondra. I give this one 2 stars out of 5.

Plot summary (from the publisher): Bellamy Lyston was only 12 years old when her older sister Susan was killed on a stormy Memorial Day. Bellamy’s fear of storms is a legacy of the tornado that destroyed the crime scene along with her memory of what really happened during the day’s most devastating moments.

Now, 18 years later, Bellamy has written a sensational, bestselling novel based on Susan’s murder. Because the book was inspired by the tragic event that still pains her family, she published it under a pseudonym to protect them from unwanted publicity. But when an opportunistic reporter for a tabloid newspaper discovers that the book is based on fact, Bellamy’s identity is exposed along with the family scandal.

Moreover, Bellamy becomes the target of an unnamed assailant who either wants the truth about Susan’s murder to remain unknown or, even more threatening, is determined to get vengeance for a man wrongfully accused and punished.

In order to identify her stalker, Bellamy must confront the ghosts of her past, including Dent Carter, Susan’s wayward and reckless boyfriend — and an original suspect in the murder case. Dent, with this and other stains on his past, is intent on clearing his name, and he needs Bellamy’s sealed memory to do it. But her safeguarded recollections -once unlocked-pose dangers that neither could foresee and puts both their lives in peril.

As Bellamy delves deeper into the mystery surrounding Susan’s slaying, she discovers disturbing elements of the crime which call into question the people she holds most dear. Haunted by partial memories, conflicted over her feelings for Dent, but determined to learn the truth, she won’t stop until she reveals Susan’s killer.

That is, unless Susan’s killer strikes her first…

Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• Thank god Brown didn’t do something stupid like make Bellamy or Dent the killer. There was kind of a “twist” regarding the killer’s identity, as it turned out that Olivia (Bellamy’s stepmother) actually did it. But there were a lot of hints that it might have been either Bellamy or Dent, and I’m just glad those turned out to be red herrings.

Disliked:

• The story moved so damn slowly in so many places that it took forever for me to slog through this book. Brown did very little to create suspense or tension on the pages, so there was nothing compelling me to move forward–except my own desire to finish the damn thing.
• I listened to the audiobook version of Low Pressure, and the reading was godawful–especially for Dent’s dialogue. For some reason, the narrator decided to read all of Dent’s lines in a monotonous deadpan. This made his come on lines to Bellamy sound ridiculous as hell and made me wonder what she ever saw in him. I might have liked Dent if I’d actually read the book and determined his voice/tone for myself. As it was, I couldn’t stand him.
• Another reason I hated Dent is that his advances towards Bellamy came at very inappropriate/inopportune times. Couldn’t he see that there were bigger issues to deal with than whether or not she would sleep with him?
• Ray (the deranged brother of the wrongly accused killer) didn’t sound dangerous, just cartoonish.
• Brown spent way too much time on scenes featuring only minor characters, like the driver from http://www.tampalimotransportation.com/ or wherever. Obviously it’s good to flesh out the secondary characters to some extent, but she went too far, IMO. This is a big reason the book dragged so much.
• Corrupt cops and politicians were behind sending an innocent man to jail. Gee, what an original concept.

Rating:

I thought Low Pressure would be more mystery/suspense than romance, but boy was I wrong. I guess I should have done my research into Sandra Brown before checking this one out of the library. Though the mystery plot was the driving force here, it mostly played second fiddle to Bellamy and Dent, which was unfortunate since I didn’t feel any chemistry whatsoever between those characters. Add in the glacial pace of the novel as a whole and you get a recipe for disaster. I give this book 1 star out of 5.

Plot summary (from the publisher): In the spring of 1984, high school students Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole fell deeply, irrevocably in love. Though they were from opposite sides of the tracks, their love for one another seemed to defy the realities of life in the small town of Oriental, North Carolina. But as the summer of their senior year came to a close, unforeseen events would tear the young couple apart, setting them on radically divergent paths.

Now, twenty-five years later, Amanda and Dawson are summoned back to Oriental for the funeral of Tuck Hostetler, the mentor who once gave shelter to their high school romance. Neither has lived the life they imagined . . . and neither can forget the passionate first love that forever changed their lives. As Amanda and Dawson carry out the instructions Tuck left behind for them, they realize that everything they thought they knew — about Tuck, about themselves, and about the dreams they held dear — was not as it seemed. Forced to confront painful memories, the two former lovers will discover undeniable truths about the choices they have made. And in the course of a single, searing weekend, they will ask of the living, and the dead: Can love truly rewrite the past?

Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• I liked that Dawson and Amanda didn’t end up together. Even though the ending Sparks chose to use was just as predictable after a certain point, it was better than finding some contrivance that would make Amanda leave her husband to be with Dawson.
• Despite not wanting Dawson and Amanda to be together, I did enjoy the time they spent getting reacquainted and catching up on each other’s lives. Those scenes were probably the most realistic in the entire book.

Disliked:

• I never go out of my way to make predictions about where a story is headed, but I could see both main plot “twists” coming from a mile ahead. First, I knew the shadowy figure Tuck kept seeing was the doctor he accidentally killed in the car accident. As soon as that accident was mentioned, I knew the “man” was actually the doctor’s ghost. Second, as soon as it was revealed that Amanda’s son would need an emergency heart transplant, I knew Dawson would be the donor. Why else would he be set up as having such a lonely, solitary existence with no family, no future, etc.? Too easy.
• We’re supposed to believe that a good-looking guy like Dawson never dated anyone after Amanda??? He essentially lived a celibate life for 25 years because he still felt something for his high school sweetheart (even though she moved on remarried)? I’m sure that looked romantic on paper when Sparks was outlining the book, but gimme a break.
• I hate how Sparks gave Amanda’s husband all kinds of flaws. Why did Frank have to be an alcoholic who barely paid attention to his wife anymore? Why can’t any of Sparks’ characters go on to marry decent, loving, caring people after separating from their first youthful love? I mean, it’s clearly so readers will root for the main couple to get back together, but it’s just so, so, played out.
• Speaking of played out, you’d think Sparks would be tired of trying to come up with all these different hyperbolic ways to describe how singular a couple’s love and devotion was. In every single book he writes, there’s some big speech or internal monologue about what love means. Yeah, that’s his bread and butter, but the sentiment has lost its impact on me.
• The whole subplot with Dawson’s killer cousins was just stupid and annoying — not to mention exceedingly violent and out of place in a book like this.

Rating:

Even though I haven’t exactly loved any of the Nicholas Sparks books I’ve read (though I’ve enjoyed several), I keep coming back because he’s so damn popular. It makes me feel as though I’m missing something about the writing or the characters or the plot. What is it that people find so great about these books? I find most of them repetitive, tiresome, and maudlin. I give this one 2 stars out of 5.

Plot summary (from the publisher): James Baldwin’s stunning first novel is now an American classic. With startling realism that brings Harlem and the black experience vividly to life, this is a work that touches the heart with emotion while it stimulates the mind with its narrative style, symbolism, and excoriating vision of racism in America. Moving through time from the rural South to the northern ghetto, starkly contrasting the attitudes of two generations of an embattled family, Go Tell It On The Mountain is an unsurpassed portrayal of human beings caught up in a dramatic struggle and of a society confronting inevitable change.

Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• I could appreciate some of the themes Baldwin tried to address in this book, particularly the struggle with religion. Worldliness vs. godliness is a dilemma a lot of people wrestle with, so one of my favorite passages was the one that focused on John’s thoughts as he wandered through NYC on his way to the movies for his birthday.
• Elizabeth’s backstory was the most interesting for me. I found her character to be the most intriguing, and wanted to know more about her.
• I know I missed out on a lot of biblical allusions, but the ones I managed to catch really enriched the reading experience for me. I can only imagine what this book must have been like for someone more well-versed in religion than I am.

Disliked:

• This book was a bit hard for me to follow–not because I’m dense or anything, but because the flashbacks melded together with current actions without clear enough delineation between the different time periods. It was sort of frustrating trying to figure out if something was happening in the past or right now.
• The beginning was incredibly boring. It took me a very long time to get through John’s initial section because the author didn’t spend any time “setting the scene”. He just launched into a stream-of-consciousness description of John’s day without first giving readers a clue about what was happening.
• It didn’t feel like much happened in this book. Obviously I wasn’t expecting cover to cover action, but I thought something more would occur than John accepting the Lord into his heart or whatever. For instance, I was hoping for a more overt showdown between John and Gabriel. After sitting through an entire novel detailing the source of their tension, I expected something more than a staredown.

Rating:

I know that Go Tell It on the Mountain is considered a classic in American literary canon, but it just wasn’t my kind of story. I had an extremely difficult time connecting to any of the characters and didn’t really care what was happening to them, what they wanted from their individual relationships with God, or how they ended up by the time I turned the last page. I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but this book was mostly just boring to me. I give it 2 stars out of 5.

Summary (from the publisher): Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant-in the blink of an eye-that actually aren’t as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work-in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?

In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of “blink”: the election of Warren Harding; “New Coke”; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police.

Blink reveals that great decision makers aren’t those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of “thin-slicing”-filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

Liked:

• The beginning of the book was quite intriguing. The topic was fun and engrossing, and I was immediately hooked.
• I love Gladwell’s writing style. His prose is smart yet accessible, and he is highly skilled at relating anecdotes.

Disliked:

• Some of the examples Gladwell chose for this book didn’t seem to fit with the concept of thin slicing. The one that stands out the most for me was the Kenna (musician) example. According to Gladwell, Kenna’s music should be popular, but it’s not. To me, this appears to have more to do with personal taste than thin slicing. After all, we listen to songs we like over and over again, so a first split-second reaction to Kenna wouldn’t necessarily translate to long-term popularity.
• Gladwell doesn’t offer much of a conclusion to the book, either from experts or from himself. The overriding premise seems to be that we should trust our snap judgments and not get bogged down with too much information or analysis prior to making big decisions. But the author freely admits that this approach doesn’t work all the time. So…what was his point again?

Rating:

While Blink by Malcolm Gladwell was as readable and entertaining as you’d expect a book from this author to be, it doesn’t pack the same punch as The Tipping Point or even Outliers. Plus, Blink gets bogged down with some uninteresting anecdotes towards the end, which diminshes its overall impact. Still, I give this one 3 stars out of 5.