Book Review–An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A great book I really enjoyed. I love Ishiguro’s writing–always beautiful and elegant. This is a tale of a painter named Ono looking back on his life right before and during the second world war while also trying to arrange a marriage for his second daughter. Ono is another unreliable narrator, just like the narrator in Ishiguro’s first book, and it’s interesting to read his thoughts and views, always wondering how accurate they really are. Highly recommend. I’m looking forward to reading “The Remains of the Day” next. I read in an interview with Ishiguro that it is a more complete version of his first two books–“A Pale View of the Hills” and “An Artist of the Floating World”.

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Book Review–A Pale View of the Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro

A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Beautifully written novel about a woman named Etsuko who looks back on her early life in Japan after her eldest daughter has committed suicide. I loved the way the story came together in the end. I read a few interviews with Ishiguro concerning this novel before I read it, so I knew how it would end, which wasn’t such a bad thing because I might have been a bit confused otherwise. If you like Ishiguro, this is definitely worth reading.

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Book Review–Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another wonderfully written novel by Ian McEwan. I had the pleasure of meeting McEwan about a week after I started reading it. He talked about how he came up with the idea and then did a reading and book signing. Knowing his reasoning and having heard him read passages made it all the more enjoyable to read.

I liked Serena, from whose point of view the story is told. She is likable and easy to relate to. I also enjoyed her love affairs with Tony and Tom. The ending was left somewhat open. Most of the loose ends were tied up, but we never really find out what happens with Serena and Tom. Yet there is enough information that the reader can draw their own conclusions and not be let hanging, wishing the author had just finished the story.

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Book Review–Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I couldn’t decide whether to give this book three or four stars. The story is told from the point of view of Camille Preaker, a journalist who travels back to her hometown to cover the story of two young girls that were murdered. None of the characters in this book were likeable, including Camille. It would have been nice for at least one character to have some redeeming value, but I found that lacking in all the characters, even the murdered girls. And while the two girls didn’t deserve to die, I didn’t think their deaths would be any real loss to society. The story left me feeling depressed the whole time I was reading it (quite honestly, I was glad when I finished it), yet I could not seem to put it down. The story pulled me through, it was well-written, and I liked the ending, which is why I ended up giving it four stars. I also liked it enough to purchase her other two books even though I’ve read she has a predilection for writing despicable characters.

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Book Review–Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well-written, sad yet enjoyable story. It held my interest right from the start and got me to think (always a good thing). This was the first book I read by this author and will definitely be reading more of his work.

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Where did the time go?

It’s been quite a while since my last post. Truth is, I completely forgot about my blog. I’ve been busy editing my novel and I was also training for a half marathon. I ran (and finished) the half marathon on Dec. 15th. Now that I’ve recovered a bit from that, I’m trying to get back on more of a schedule to make time for everything. I’m still editing my novel and I’m in the process of switching it to the first person POV. It started off in first, then I switched it to third, now I’m switching it back to first. I like the voice better in first and it just seems to work better with the subject.

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. Happy New Year! Until next time.

Book Review: Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was nothing like I thought it would be. From the description on the inside cover flap, it talked about two women being brought together after a tragic accident. I thought that accident was going to involve a death but that wasn’t the case.

The story is told from two different points of view–Tessa, the wife of a surgeon and mother to two children, and Valerie, a single mother to a six year old. The tragic accident happens when Valerie’s son suffers severe burns to his hand and face. Dr. Nick Russo, Tessa’s husband, is the surgeon who helps Valerie’s son and so begins their slow moving relationship which eventually turns into an affair. That was the extent of the book, a man cheating on his wife and the aftermath. It was a very slow moving book, yet easy to read because most of the chapters were really short. A book about an affair and nothing more is really not enough to hold my attention. I found myself wishing the book would just end and the last 68 pages seemed to drag on forever. I did read “Something Borrowed” by this author which I did enjoy and it was why I picked this book up (well that, and it was a bargain book at Barnes & Noble), but I think this will be the last book I read by Giffin.

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Book Review: My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really liked the idea of this story. Anna, a thirteen year old girl conceived to be a genetic match to her sister Kate who suffers from a rare form of Leukemia, is suing her parents for medical emancipation. Eldest brother, Jesse, was tested and found not to be a match which haunts him throughout most of the story. The parents, Brian and Sara, put the well-being of Kate above all else, including their other two children.

The story is told from the point of view of six different characters, all done in first person (a different font was used for each character, which I found very irritating). Because of this, I never got emotionally attached to any of the characters. I also found it difficult to differentiate each character as they all seemed to speak alike. An angst-ridden, pyromaniac, who uses drugs and speaks in metaphors? That didn’t work for me. In fact, all six characters spoke in metaphors and used the F word inappropriately. None of the characters used any foul language except for the word f!#%–even the thirteen year old girl. It felt out of character for everyone except Jesse. Likewise, Anna felt like the only character who could get away with speaking in metaphors, yet all the characters did it. The first time I put the book down in the middle of a chapter, I had no idea whose viewpoint I was reading when I picked it back up again.

The ending, which was supposed to be sad and maybe even shocking, did nothing for me. I was surprised, yes, but not the least bit sad. By the end I could not have cared less what happened to anyone in the story. I wanted to know more out of curiosity than any emotional attachment to the characters.

With the multiple viewpoints, I never felt like I got to know any of the characters, even though there was back story constantly thrown in, always bringing the story to a halt. Brian’s preoccupation with astronomy was fine at first, but after a while I found myself wishing Picoult would get on with the story.

In the end, I would give this book a 4 1/2 for story but only 1 1/2 for execution.

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Book Review: Atonement by Ian McEwan

Atonement by Ian McEwan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book! I may be a little biased because I saw the movie first and loved the movie but I don’t think that is the case. The story starts off in England, 1935 and revolves around Briony Tallis, her older sister Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the cleaning lady’s son. When Briony is thirteen years old, she witnesses two interactions between Cecilia and Robbie, reads a letter from Robbie meant for Cecilia and without having all the information, she jumps to the conclusion that Robbie is a sex maniac. When her cousin Lola is raped, Briony accuses Robbie of the crime, certain it must have been him, although she didn’t actually see the perpetrator. The story then moves to Robbie’s point of view and his time spent in the second world war (he joined the military in exchange for an early release from prison) before switching back to Briony’s point of view. At eighteen, Briony finally realizes she may have made a mistake in accusing Robbie and tries to make things right.

This was the first book I read by McEwan, but definitely will not be the last. The novel was beautifully written. His descriptions were just enough to allow me to have a vivid picture in my head but not so much that I tuned it out. When there is an overload of description, I tend to tune out the writing and have no clue of what I just read and no clear picture of the story. That did not happen here. Also, I found his descriptions easy to understand and not so caught up in showing off that I have no idea what the author is trying to get across. Highly recommend! I look forward to reading his next book.

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Taking Time Off

I am excited to say I finished the first draft of my second novel! I started writing it in August of 2011 when a voice in my head would not shut up. There were a lot of ups and downs along the way (the burst water pipe that left me in a hotel for three weeks followed by the death of one of my birds), but in the end it got done. I’m psyched to have completed it and can’t wait to edit it and really bring out the story. After taking two weeks off, it only took one more day of writing to finish it. If I had known that before taking the time off, I would have taken a day to do the writing, but hindsight and all that.

Lake Mead

I took the time off because my mom came to visit me for nearly a week on May 7th. She came without her husband so we could spend some time together–just the two of us. The last time that happened was over ten years ago. I had a great time, but my life was sort of put on hold. I did not write, run, or do any social media. Not even any reading (though I did buy four new books when we went to the bookstore). I did not think about my novel at all except to think that I was not writing it.

Needless to say, getting back into the swing of things has not been easy. It took me a week after my mom left to go back to work on my novel. Mainly because I had no idea where I left off in the story. Eventually I had to read the last two scenes I wrote to figure out what was going on.

Running was easy. I got back out on the trail the day after she left.

Getting back into social media has proved far more difficult. I can’t seem to concentrate long enough to write 140 characters on Twitter, much less come up with a blog topic. My new mantra has become: “I’ll do it later”. Only problem is, later never comes.

So this week I’m going to make an effort to schedule in the things I want to do and stop putting them off. I’m going to try to keep up with once a week blog posts and spend more time reading blogs and tweets. (Notice I said “try” not “do”. That’s because even as I write this, I’m not feeling too confident in my success. Maybe my new mantra should be: “I WILL do this now!”)