Why isn't this a huge bestseller? As good as any popular horror novel, The Good House has great characters, twisty plot, very high creepy factor, greaWhy isn't this a huge bestseller? As good as any popular horror novel, The Good House has great characters, twisty plot, very high creepy factor, great mythology, and stellar writing. I've seen people recommend this book for fans of Stephen King, and I'd agree. I'd also say it's great for people who don't particularly care for King, but who dabble in horror.
This isn't light or breezy, it's very dark, but I absolutely loved it....more
Truth: I read this because Lin-Manuel Miranda does the audiobook, which means there's been a flurry of attention to it and people saying good things. Truth: I read this because Lin-Manuel Miranda does the audiobook, which means there's been a flurry of attention to it and people saying good things. I'd never heard of it before but figured worst case scenario I'd get to spend a few hours with Lin's voice in my head.
NOBODY TOLD ME.
Okay, it's not that you didn't try. If I just scroll down a smidge on the Aristotle & Dante goodreads page, I have 81 friend reviews of this book and most of them are 5 stars. But I usually like to read a book knowing as little as possible and all I knew about this book was it had a Latino author and had some LGBT themes. And that was the right way to go about it.
The thing is, I haven't had a great YA year. Before this I'd read only 5 YA for all of 2016 and quit soooooo many others because I just didn't feel it. I have been skeptical and frustrated with YA of late. So I was not expecting to be won over. I was not expecting to just fall all over myself in sloppy, tear-streaked love for this book.
I never sat and thought to myself, "Is this dialogue realistic?" The thought never occurred to me. The dialogue was true to who these characters were. And I realized that this is the difference between books where I ask this question and books where I don't. If what a character says feels like a manifestation of their actual self, the details become less important. Who they are and what they do becomes the whole thing.
It's true that Aristotle and Dante are growing up in a time I remember and that may have got me on this book's side early on. But the truth is this is not a nostalgia book, unless you mean "total lack of cell phones and the internet" as something nostalgic. It doesn't have that 80's-vibe that has become so popular. Its setting matters mostly because it was different being LGBT back then in a way that is very hard to express for such a short time ago.
On its face this is a total YA plot. The things that actually happen have that kind of feel. The whole premise that a lonely teenager finds a best friend is such lonely-teenager-wish-fulfillment that I should have been over this book within the first few chapters. So how is it a total YA plot and I'm a total YA skeptic and yet I love this book with my whole heart? It all comes down to those indefinable things. Ari's voice is a lot of it. (And Lin's reading didn't hurt either.) Ari is a teenager and he is miserable and bored and frustrated with the things teenagers are. I just felt like I was getting to know Ari. I felt all those teenage emotions again. Ari's willingness to show his emotions to the reader but not to the people around him is such a teenage thing to do. And I loved the parents in this book, I loved how they hurt and protected their kids, I loved how their kids actually loved their parents even when they were angry with them. I loved how these families felt like families.
I also loved how I didn't quite know how this book would end. As much as I knew Ari, I knew that there were pieces of himself he didn't show me because he didn't know them himself. I loved Dante's utter openness, his consistency. But I loved Ari's hesitance, his caution, his skepticism, all of that felt so true to me. Maybe this book hit me so hard because I was a lot like Ari as a teenager. I hadn't finished asking myself the hard questions. I kept so much of myself inside.
If you are reading the audiobook, fair warning, if you pull into work just as it ends you will have to sit in the car for a bit and wait to stop crying before you go inside. Or maybe that's just me....more
I have read almost everything by Megan Abbott and for some reason this particular book had remained unread. I have a vague recollection that some reviI have read almost everything by Megan Abbott and for some reason this particular book had remained unread. I have a vague recollection that some reviews weren't as strong but if this is the case these reviewers are idiots because I think this might possibly be my favorite Megan Abbott book. Which is saying a lot.
It really is perfect, though. Like a solid mystery, she lines up little revelations bit by bit with twists that are both surprising and natural. Because it is a Megan Abbott book it is a fever dream of adolescence, of fear and excitement. It is a visceral inhabiting of a young girl's body, the inbetween body that is and is not a child and a woman. It is the friendships that know everything and yet don't know anything at all.
25% of the way in I wondered where this book was going, what could it possibly do from here, because I was expecting it to be like a normal book. I should know better, really. The structure is masterfully done.
I have no excuses for taking this long to get to Octavia Butler. Just glad I'm here now.
Every now and then I'd find myself wondering if maybe the bookI have no excuses for taking this long to get to Octavia Butler. Just glad I'm here now.
Every now and then I'd find myself wondering if maybe the book was just a bit dated, if the racial issues didn't quite have the same punch 40 years later. And then inevitably my concern would fade. It's astonishing how effectively Butler deals with a huge number of moral and ethical dilemmas around slavery (for the slave, the slave owner, the free black, and the abolitionist white) and creates characters that feel real and stories that are constantly compelling. It's a real work of genius and no, it is not dated at all....more
If I had read this book before it won the Pulitzer, I would've thought, "This is the kind of book that should win a Pulitzer." The only reason I don'tIf I had read this book before it won the Pulitzer, I would've thought, "This is the kind of book that should win a Pulitzer." The only reason I don't have it at five stars is that I read it on audio, and it was often playing while I was actively doing things which meant I didn't pay as much attention as I would have liked to. I would love to go back and read it in print, especially because the sentences in this book--God the sentences! The prose is often so spectacular that it makes you stop in your tracks. Nguyen is more than just good with prose, though, the ideas in his book are laid out front and center, not hidden behind themes or archetypes, and it works amazingly well.
Sometimes books that are so well written can be a bit of a slog to get through, but this one is not. The plot moves quickly and I was always happy to start listening to it again.
The reader of the audiobook is excellent, with the trace of an accent that fits the narrator and a reading that fits the subject matter very well....more
Usually I like books that move quickly and have big, tight plots and spare, functional prose. But sometimes I get myself lost in a book that is lyricaUsually I like books that move quickly and have big, tight plots and spare, functional prose. But sometimes I get myself lost in a book that is lyrical and poetic and meandering because it's just too beautiful to ignore. This was one of those books. Even if, like me, you are not the kind of reader who stops to enjoy a sentence, you'll still find yourself doing just that in Edinburgh because it takes a hold of you in a way novels rarely do.
This is a nice compliment to WHAT BELONGS TO YOU, by Garth Greenwell, which offers a different portrait of gay life, but is also sad and lovely and poignant in a similar way. ...more
Dragonfish got on my to-read list nearly a year ago but I never managed to get my hands on a copy. Luckily a friend passed along her galley and I finaDragonfish got on my to-read list nearly a year ago but I never managed to get my hands on a copy. Luckily a friend passed along her galley and I finally sat down to read it this week, only to kick myself for waiting so long. I love neo-Noir and Dragonfish is absolutely Noir in the classic sense. There is a tortured good guy who's not really that good. There is a gangster nemesis. There is a mysterious woman. There is no happy ending and no tidy solutions. But Tran uses the Noir style and structure to tell the story of an immigrant's pain, loss, and identity (or lack thereof).
While Robert the cop is the narrator of the book, it is Suzy, his Vietnamese ex-wife, who is its center. Tran makes an interesting choice of revealing Suzy's history through a series of letters to the reader so that you know much more than Robert does about several of the characters. Even if this detracts a little from understanding just how lost and confused Robert is, it's incredibly valuable to root the story more firmly in Suzy's voice and experience, to show just how futile the men who orbit around her trying to save her are.
It's also full of plot twists and betrayals, a very satisfying and quick read....more
Remember a few years ago when it seemed like EVERYONE was reading Stoner? Well I missed it back then but I was able to catch up with NYRB's new 50th aRemember a few years ago when it seemed like EVERYONE was reading Stoner? Well I missed it back then but I was able to catch up with NYRB's new 50th anniversary edition. If you are someone who enjoys Willa Cather and Kent Haruf, you'll be very much at home here. Williams is an excellent writer, sometimes spare and sometimes probing, moving through 40 years of a man's life with grace and aplomb.
This is one of those books that you read and you think, "Yeah, this feels like a classic." It just has that air about it. There's serious ambition here, even if the book is about a "quiet" life. Williams is asking questions about finding fulfillment, about happiness, about work and love and many other things. It's the kind of book that will hit you very differently at 40 than it would at 20 and probably is best saved until you're a little older....more
It took me a long time to read this book. Not because it isn't interesting, or because it's dense, but because I wanted to take it in slowly.
If you hIt took me a long time to read this book. Not because it isn't interesting, or because it's dense, but because I wanted to take it in slowly.
If you have ever thought about writing a memoir, this is necessary reading. Jefferson takes apart the memoir and reconstructs it chapter by chapter, tearing down the fourth wall whenever she feels like it, flouting convention here, following it closely there, treating every section as its own entity to be written in its own way. It's truly astounding.
Race, gender, and class are the central subjects here (outside of Jefferson herself). This book is very specifically about being a well-off black woman of a particular society in a particular time and place. ...more
I kept hearing buzz about this book, but it kind of got lost in my advance-reading. But I'm glad that I read it in audio because I really enjoyed HannI kept hearing buzz about this book, but it kind of got lost in my advance-reading. But I'm glad that I read it in audio because I really enjoyed Hannaham's reading. I want to say first of all that if you do this book in audio you'll hear the first chapter and think, "Why does everyone rate this narrator so highly? It feels really stiff." Just give it another chapter. There's a second narrative voice that works incredibly well and as you go through the juxtaposition of the two narrators will add a lot to the experience.
This book is incredibly ambitious and it takes on a lot of real-life issues in a way that could end up feeling like an after-school special in the wrong hands. Luckily the material here is handled with grace and finesse and while it loses a little momentum in the quarter, it's very satisfying. I love books that I can't compare to any other books, novels that create a unique reading experience. This is absolutely one of them and would have been on my Best of 2015 list had I read it upon or before release....more
I don't read very much nonfiction, but when I do it needs to be something I care deeply about or something with very fast pacing. Traister's new book I don't read very much nonfiction, but when I do it needs to be something I care deeply about or something with very fast pacing. Traister's new book falls into the former category. I heard a bunch of her interviews, read a few excerpts, and just wanted to quote her all the time so I figured it was time to get the book. (Note: I PAID for this book. This is not a thing I do very often.)
As a single woman (and a divorced single parent) there was a lot here that I learned, and plenty where I nodded my head in agreement. You don't have to be single to enjoy this book. It's about single women, but it's also about how the roles of women have changed in society in the last 150 years and what that means for everyone. The historical information is really fascinating, seeing just what has changed and when and how quickly got me through the early chapters very quickly. There are lots of anecdotes of all kinds of women. While there's an effort made to involve women from many backgrounds, there are still too many who are well-off, especially given the book's strong economic case for changes in the workplace. This is a common problem, and Traister does do better than most in sharing more stories and painting a broader picture.
If you're newly single, if you're considering whether you want to be single, this is definitely an insightful read that will give you a lot to think about and a lot of context for your decision. ...more
It took me a long time to read this audiobook. Sometimes, after 10 or 15 minutes, I'd have to turn it off because it was too much. If all you know of It took me a long time to read this audiobook. Sometimes, after 10 or 15 minutes, I'd have to turn it off because it was too much. If all you know of Ferrante is the Neapolitan quartet, this book will surprise you in its relentlessness, but not too much. This is definitely and obviously Ferrante.
I am divorced. And while my divorce had little or no resemblance to Olga's, over and over again I would hear her speaking something that saw so deeply into my soul, something I had never told anyone, that I would get a little short of breath.
What I love most about Ferrante, and it's on display here, is how her characters do not care in the slightest about fitting into a mold of what a woman should be. Olga spends much of the book in a fog, ignoring her children, lost to the world. But she never talks about guilt. She never justifies herself. She never seeks forgiveness. She does not try to portray herself as a good mother. (In fact, I suspect this will make many women so uncomfortable they simply cannot read it.)
This is a dark and challenging book and even if I had to work my way through it slowly, I love that it exists and I wish there was more of this in the world....more
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