Two Dorks, One Book: The Bear by Claire Cameron – A Publisher ARC
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Posted on February 3, 2014 by

Ah, shit. This one’s gonna be all nature-y and survivalish. Totally not my kind of book at all, except FREE****, so there’s that.

I KNOW everyone on the internet (weird, since this is a pre-release but many have already read it) seems to love this book after they’ve finished. And maybe it’s just me being contrary (which is sort of likely to happen, actually), but I don’t think I liked it at all. I’d tell my students that if they have a strong reaction either way, a book has done its job because it made them think, but even I know that is a load of crap, so… forgive me for the all-caps screaminess to come. This one makes me feel a little RANTY.

the bear

First off, the attack scene is pretty disturbing since we know that the main characters going through this are kids. I decided not to read this at bedtime since I have some kids, like some kids, and don’t generally want to hear stories about horrors happening to kids. It’s definitely a daytime book.

Here are my big issues with The Bear (SPOILERS AHEAD): Continue reading →

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The Bear – Claire Cameron
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Posted on February 3, 2014 by

two dorks one bookThe Bear will be released on February 11, 2014 by Little, Brown and Company. This book was received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

So…I finished The Bear a few days ago, and I’m STILL not sure whether I liked it or not. Well, I did enjoy it, but I guess I’m wondering if I can classify it as A Great Book. I’m leaning toward yes, because I can’t really find many faults with it.

First of all, the first 40 pages or so show the bear attack. Everyone in our book club, including me, had a hard time with this section. Emails were flying around to the effect of “I can’t do this anymore, it’s too scary, I quit this book.” It was rough. It really wasn’t graphic at all, but just the thought of two young children being in that situation gives me the shivers, and it’s really difficult to hear it from the POV of a kid who really doesn’t understand what’s happening. I know that I personally kept imagining my littlest nephew and what he would do in that situation. But, if you can get past that section (my mother couldn’t, she stopped about 7 pages in), it does get really good and interesting and stops scaring the shit out of you. Mostly.

the bear by claire cameronThe interesting thing about The Bear is that not too much actually happened in the story, after the initial bear attack. BUT, I think that the story being pretty uneventful worked because of the child’s POV. If the book had been about an adult who’d fled the island after the attack, he’d be using his cell to call for help and then lying on the rocks getting a tan and listening to his Ipod, and that would be the end of the story. With a kid being the POV character, you get the heart-in-your-throat feeling every time she does anything at all: “Don’t eat the berries, you don’t EVER eat berries!!” “Where’s the little boy, what if he fell in the water and drowned???” Etc.

I do think that the child’s POV was well done. Of course, the downside to having a kid POV is that sometimes it’s very difficult to understand the setting and what’s happening because its described by a little girl who often goes off into tangents about Barbies. It made it difficult in some places to understand what was happening in some places. I think that’s also why this extremely short book took me 2 days to finish. I really had to analyze and reread some sections to figure out what the hell was going on.

Whatever it’s faults, though, this book definitely makes me want to discuss it really really badly (geez, book club is still almost a month away!!), so maybe that answers my original questions about whether it’s A Great Book. I’m going to wrap up this super long review with just a couple of thoughts I have that I can’t wait till book club to get out:

****SPOILERS BELOW****

I don’t understand exactly what happened during the bear attack that first night. Obviously the mother was attacked first, and her neck was broken. But she didn’t seem to be all that mangled (except possibly she was missing a leg). So…if not eating the mother, what was the bear doing while the father had time to run and get the kids and put them in the cooler? And after THAT, Anna heard her father talking, having a quiet conversation. And then…it was daylight. When exactly did the father get eaten and his leg ripped off, and why didn’t Anna hear him screaming? Did she just block it out (plausible since we find out later that she seems to have blocked out that she knew that the father was “in two pieces”)? Michelle has a really interesting theory about this, that the father was actually the bear, and was the one to kill the mother. I will let her explain that to you, but I will just say that I think it completely fits, EXCEPT that the father GOT HIS LEG RIPPED OFF and you just can’t get around that.

While sleeping in the “tent” she made, that first night alone, I don’t think she saw the bear. I think the growling she heard was her brother’s snoring, and the “bear” she saw was the tree stumps. This shows that she’s even more of an unreliable narrator than we already knew, considering that she’s a child.

Michelle’s review of The Bear

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Two Dorks, One Book: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – A Kindle notes review
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Posted on January 31, 2014 by

 

two dorks one bookIt’s been a long time since we’ve done a Two Dorks, One Book review although we have read a few of the same things of late. Anyway, Kelley and I read this for book club recently and I’m going to TRY to be really vague and not give spoilers here because you’ll want to read this book, although it is hard for me not to give it away.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I think narrator husband Nick is a smarmy, icky individual. However, I spent much of the first half of the book annoyed because it seemed that the book was deliberately forcing me to believe that he was his wife’s killer. I admit I felt a little strong-armed by it, and so my feelings about the book for the first half (per my Kindle notes) went a little like this:

I’m not really supposed to believe from this head shape thing that this is that significant. That would mean the book is over, no whodunit, we’re done, right?
He can’t be that stupid. Nobody is that stupid.
He wouldn’t really have done that, would he? The staged crime scene must surely be a red herring, right?
Such an unreliable narrator!
It’s bad when the person closest to you says you’d lie, cheat, or steal to make people like you. I hate books that tell me how to think about characters!
Why isn’t this fool with his wife on his anniversary and why is he sitting in this bar?
Why would he choose to kill Amy? What am I missing?
Nick is a real greaseball. Ugh.
Hmm, why the hell is the shape of his wife’s head so important to him? Again.
Oh shit, and she was rich…please, please, please, book, don’t be all obviousy like that!
Ok, so this dude is a liar, prone to violence and anger, and just a total tool. But is he a killer?

Anyway, I kept questioning the text along these lines and wondering WHEN a twist was going to come along.

And now, SHE’s an unreliable narrator.

This girl seems more than a little f-ed up… but now that seems forced too.

Why does she keep worrying he is going to kill her? Is she clairvoyant?

Ugh. I am really not going to like how this one ends…

Now that’s just gross. Who DOES that?

When the twist(s) did come, I certainly didn’t expect them to play out as they did. That, I guess, is the part of this book that is awesome. Even after feeling deliberately frogmarched through many of the plot points and feeling resentful of the author for that, I can now accept it because the second half was so darn good! Sigh…I guess the forcefeeding of clues works to keep us guessing. (Although based on some of my notes, maybe I should have seen at least some of it coming).

The other thing that needs discussion is the ending, which I didn’t really like. It felt unsatisfying, although I personally can’t think of how it could have wrapped up otherwise! I guess it’s supposed to be unsatisfying. After all, how ELSE could this relationship end?

Anyway, although I felt that deliberately laying the case against Nick for much of the book felt a little cheaty, I’m glad I didn’t quit reading. I think parts of the story got a little far-fetched (but that’s… psychopaths?… sociopaths? — our book club couldn’t decide — for you). Anyway, my recommendation: Read Gone Girl…it’ll keep you guessing 🙂

Kelley’s review of Gone Girl

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Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
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Posted on January 29, 2014 by

Yep, it’s dark all right.

Stephen King’s most recent (I think?) short story collection Full Dark, No Stars was a return for me to “classic” Stephen King. And I have to say, I enjoyed it, although I’m not sure I’m jumping headlong back into that pool o’ crazy just yet.

full dark no stars

I mean, I stopped reading Stephen King for good reasons. I grew weary of the gore and found it was no longer as shocking to me as it once had been and that was worrisome. I also found that as I got older I didn’t need my fiction to feel so dark and dire all the time. Finally, it just seemed that the last few of his novels that I read really didn’t resonate with me. These were Dolores Claiborne, Rose Madder, Insomnia, and a bit later, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. These felt formulaic to me, even “phoned-in,” and the formula just wasn’t working anymore. So I gave away all of my copies of his novels (shocking!) and really didn’t pick up another for good decade or so.

When I finally did, it was with some reservations. I first tried Under the Dome, which I liked but didn’t love because of the uber-weird alien ending; again, it felt same-old, same-old. But then, I heard about the JFK/time travel plot of 11/22/63 and decided the premise was compelling enough and significantly DIFFERENT enough that I could give it a try. And I was pleasantly surprised. Although a few of my favorite characters made cameo appearances (in Derry even!), it didn’t feel forced or overdone or like it was trying to hard to be the “next great Stephen King Novel.” (Yes, I have to admit, I even referred to it in my head like that!)

Anyway, I digress. Back to THIS book: Full Dark, No Stars is reminiscent of early SK short story collections such as Night Shift and Skeleton Crew, but for the most part, it felt new enough that I could accept it. It wasn’t over the top. It didn’t make me sleep with the lights on. It wasn’t trying too hard…and because of that, it worked.

In “1922,” a farmer kills his wife because of a disagreement of how their land should be used. His son helps. Disaster ensues. No surprises here.

“Big Driver,” though, completely got me. This one had a reasonably predictable plot and no aliens or anything too ridiculous or unreal (yep, I’m looking at you, Tommyknockers). Personally, I think Stephen King is at his absolute best when writing about everyday folks acting really sketchy when confronted with difficult situations. In this one, a writer is raped and left for dead. She survives and decides to get revenge on her own terms. Perfect.

The next in the collection, “Fair Extension,” was a dud to me. It felt a bit like Thinner or Needful Things in that make-a-deal-with-the-devil Faustian way. Thus, it bored me and I felt it had an unsatisfying ending.

“A Good Marriage” was better; a woman discovers that her husband of 20 years has been hiding a TERRIBLE secret. To preserve herself, her sanity, her family structure, and the reputations of her children, she must then decide if she can live with and keep his terrible secret. This one was my favorite. I liked the descriptions of marriage and her accidental discoveries and ponderings about what we really know about those we love. This one had the most vivid imagery as well (check out that protruding neck knob, why dontcha?). It was almost a lights-on kinda night 🙂

The fifth story, which seemed to be added as a bonus (as it was really short, not listed in the Table of Contents, and came after the Afterword), was sort of predictable but still a good read. In “Under the Weather,” a man goes about his daily life at home and at work while his sick wife ails in bed, “rats” die in the closed-up flat next door, and he experiences haunting dreams of something under the bed “chewing.” Lovely.

Enjoyable departure into the familiar (and totally psychotic?) writing of Stephen King. This may have been the palate cleanser I needed to end my reading rut 🙂

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Year of Wonders – Geraldine Brooks
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Posted on January 29, 2014 by

year of wonders by geraldine brooksSo, Anna lives in a tiny and poor English town which was infected with a plague in the 1600s. It’s really interesting to see the way the plague began, spread, and was eventually stopped. There are Puritans and witch hunts. Anna lives a really, really depressing life, losing everything she ever had both before and during the plague. The town makes a pact to quarantine themselves, essentially causing the deaths of most of the town by the end, but also probably saving the lives of a lot more people outside of town by not allowing the plague to spread. That part of the story is true, by the way – the town of Eyam quarantined itself in 1666.

I found myself wondering exactly what type of plague this actually was, and it turns out that I’m dumb and apparently there’s only one type – bubonic plague (and good lord, there are still isolated cases of that popping up throughout the world). Anyway, then I got stuck in a wikipedia loop for hours reading about Typhoid Mary and yellow fever, so I feel like this book educated me a bit.

Year of Wonders was a really great story, though it started to unravel a little in the end…I don’t think that the story really NEEDED a crazy witch woman, or the big reveal about the rector. And the ending was a little odd, but since it wraps up the story nicely for Anna, I’ll forgive it. This was the best book I’ve read all year. Which might not mean too much since my other reads for this year have basically just been YA fantasy, but, still. Next up, I think I’ll read March by the same author – it’s a continuation of Little Women from the father’s point of view. How cool is that!!

TL;DR: Seriously excellent book, read it immediately.

Audiobook notes:
Narrator: Geraldine Brooks, the author. She has a very strange voice that I really never got used to. It alternated between being very high and almost squeaky, and low and gravelly and broken, while ALSO somehow sounding like she might fall asleep at any moment. So combine that with her English accent, her (to my American ears) strange pronunciation of some words, and the old-timey words, and I wish I’d read this one on my Kindle instead of as an audiobook.

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Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
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Posted on January 27, 2014 by

Gone Girl by Gillian FlynnOh, man. Man, man, man. Mannnnnnnnnn. I just finished reading Gone Girl and I’m so upset that book club was cancelled this week because of the snow so I have to wait until NEXT TUESDAY to discuss it!!!

So Nick’s wife Amy is missing, and the story is told in the present from Nick’s point of view (he’s being shifty and lying about all sorts of stuff for unknown reasons even in his POVs), and from the past as excerpts from Amy’s diary, explaining how unhappy she is with Nick. It’s all obviously built to make you suspect Nick had something to do with Amy’s disappearance. It’s sooooo obvious, in fact, that it has you wondering what ELSE it could possibly be other than Nick killing her. None of this is spoilers, by the way.

I found it interesting that I kept thinking about how both of our narrators seemed to be super unreliable: Amy’s sections seemed to be really skewed toward her being an awesome wife, and Nick was obviously a lying sack of shit. But then, right at the halfway mark, my opinions of the characters completely changed and then things got GOOD.

The ending was a (shocking and) perfect cap to a really fucked up story. I just…this was a good book.

Also, GO IS NOT A NAME.

two dorks one bookMichelle’s review of Gone Girl

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The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
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Posted on January 22, 2014 by

This was an interesting book, entwining myths of Arabic and Jewish cultures with the lives of new immigrants in turn-of-the-century New York. Chava, a golem girl built from clay to serve her lonely master, and Ahmad, an entrapped genie in a bottle, struggle with their inner natures and to fit in with the flawed humans they meet in the ethnic neighborhoods of working class America. In most stories about these two mythical beings, genies grant wishes when released from their bottles and golems are used to wage wars and destroy shit before they becoming completely uncontrollable, but …that doesn’t really happen with these two. They’re both too principled or too nice or maybe super powerful or super unique or otherwise somewhat remarkable or something. It’s rather unclear.

the golem and the jinni

Painfully slow storytelling and (ok, let’s be honest) quite a few extraneous side characters who didn’t really move the plot along (or help establish the quirks of the immigrant neighborhoods) abound in this one, although I did like how the author intertwined myths of the two disparate cultures into this one narrative.

I felt the middle got a little repetitive and I’d really wished that the earthy solidness of Chava and the fiery nature of Ahmad were explored a bit more. I mean, they kept telling me her legs ached from being still, so I wanted her to find a use for that energy besides baking because that seemed weird. I also really thought the possession stories could have been played up a bit more to help drive Ahmad’s character. After all, he constantly had a glowing face “spark” that most couldn’t see, but when they could, nothing really happened. There is a constant fear that one or both will be discovered for what they truly were, and that does happen, and yet…nothing really comes of it. I also felt Michael Levy should have been more than just a one-sided character of convenience. I also needed Saleh’s background and sacrifice to mean more and just felt like it was dropped too quickly. The end also didn’t seem to wrap up any but the most basic conflicts of Ahmad and Chava’s issues in New York. Finally, the Joseph Schall/ibn Malik connection really should have been a bigger deal.

Anyway, although I’m complaining a lot, I enjoyed The Golem and the Jinni, and the ideas about free will and such presented. It’s true that this book moved a bit too slowly to develop its meetings, conflicts, etc. and then wrapped them up too quickly and unsatisfyingly when it finally meandered to its end, but that didn’t make it unreadable. For all its problems, I almost always love magical realism, I enjoyed Wecker’s unique narrative voice here, and I would say this book was definitely worth a read (but likely not a reread).

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Bitterblue – Kristin Cashore (7 Kingdoms #3)
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Posted on January 21, 2014 by

Bitterblue, by Kristin CashoreUgh, super boring. Bitterblue is one of those main characters that I felt like smacking throughout most of the book. You are the QUEEN, girl. Why are you letting everyone lie to you? Fire your shady-ass advisors, quit worrying what your father did because you already KNOW, order your own new clothes, and start telling people what to do. She creeps around through the whole book doing normal everyday things that she for some reason thinks she needs to keep from everyone. Also, quit falling in love with gay guys.

The ending tied in Fire…eh, nicely enough, I guess. By that point I didn’t really care about anything except getting to the end. A disappointing ending to a series that started out promising, with Graceling.

Audiobook notes:
Narrator: Xanthe Elbrick. I didn’t enjoy the narration. I REALLY HATED that Po and Katsa’s accents were…Scottish? It was jarring every time they spoke. Better than that horrible full-cast version of Graceling, though.

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Hmm…just some thoughts.
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Posted on January 16, 2014 by

I was just wondering if anyone else has this problem or if it is just me?

I’m just not enjoying books like I used to. Any books. I even walk in the bookstore (when I have money, or a gift card…and leave without buying anything which has NEVER happened before). I feel like most of the books I encounter are repetitive or lacking in some major way. Even books I once loved (like Flowers in the Attic and Petals on the Wind) now miss the mark. Young adult series books that everyone else is raving about (Divergent, Legend, etc.) fall flat for me because they feel so same-old, same-old. Old classics make me snooze for the first time ever. The specialized nerdy-girl Doctor Who books my son and I have been reading since Christmas feel poorly written and plotted.

I’ve considered that this may be that I spend so much time with students breaking down books into their respective elements (ha, this is just a fraction of my job…I really wish it was more), that I can no longer appreciate the beauty of the wholes. Or maybe it is NaNoWriMo; since I appreciate how hard it is to write a book, I get frustrated when people write and publish such bad ones.

Maybe it’s just this continuing reading rut. I mean, I failed my Goodreads challenge for 2013, which I NEVER expected to happen. I thought I could count on silly reads or some magical realism to slake my reading ennui. Maybe it’s just that I need some new authors or genres to reel me in again. But, for now at least, I’m just not enjoying much of what I’m reading.

What should I read? What’s going to make me love books again? I got two brand new books THAT I ASKED FOR for Christmas in hardcover and don’t even want to open them: The Golem and the Jinni and The Goldfinch. HELP!

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Fire – Kristin Cashore (7 Kingdoms #2)
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Posted on January 9, 2014 by

Fire, by Kristin CashoreFire is about a girl with magic hair, and – yeah that’s right, I said magic hair –  and magic beauty that can make people overcome with desire. There’s also some nonsense about her being able to control people’s minds, except…she can’t, really. We’re told over and over how dangerous she is…and then we’re told over and over how how helpless she is. It makes for a confusing story.

So this is a companion book to Graceling, not a sequel. It takes place maybe…30 years before Graceling? It’s technically set in the same world, but the two areas are separated by mountains and don’t really know about each other. The Graceling half of the world already has something to make it special – why is it that when you cross the mountains there are suddenly no more gracelings, but there are brightly colored mind-controlling animals?

Ridiculous magic people aside, I feel like the part of the world that this story took place in was just too different from the world of Graceling. There is an important overlapping character, and I liked hearing about his younger years, but I feel like the setting of Fire’s world would have made for a better standalone series. One that I wouldn’t have read if it had nothing to do with Graceling. Also, I did NOT like that the important overlapping character I mentioned didn’t really get an ending in the story.

I feel about the same about this book as I did about Graceling – I enjoyed reading it, I look forward to the next in the series, I might even read the series again someday – but I don’t really have much to say about it.

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