calmTonight, though, I'm on my way to bed soon, but thought I'd get caught up on my books for the
50bookchallenge, since I actually wrote these reviews a couple of days ago. I think I'm ahead of schedule! Go Me! ::grin::There are a few spoilers here, especially some pretty big ones for "The Little Friend," so you might not want to read these if you care about such things. :-)
Jemima J by Jane Green
I liked this book. Liked it much better than Green's Straight Talking. I'm still not entirely in love with Green's writing style - in this book she went back and forth between a first person narrative and a sort of strange third person now and again, and there's something a bit "in your face" about her writing at times that I find just a bit off-putting. But overall, I liked it. It's about an obese woman who meets a guy over the Internet, and when he asks to meet face to face, decides that she is going to lose the weight she wants to lose. That's a very simplistic synopsis, but it gives the gist. I liked Jemima, and several of the other characters. I found the book dryly humorous, but not really "funny." A good, easy read which was satisfying enough to leave me with a good impression. (Library book)
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
Erm. I really disliked this book. It disappointed me on several levels. First, I somehow got the idea that it was a prequel to The Secret History, which I really enjoyed. I was unable to find any connection between the two books, though. But that wasn't my real trouble. My real trouble is that I found the book very difficult to read . . . I had a hard time "bonding" with any of the characters, and I found her writing style to be somewhat dense at times, and hard to follow. I found myself going back and re-reading paragraphs because I felt like I'd missed things the first time through. Even this can be okay, though; after all, I swam through House of Leaves, and loved it. But there were two things that I found really discouraging. First of all, at the very beginning of the book, we discover that the big "issue" in this family is that one of their children had been murdered some ten years in the past. And it starts off with one of his sisters deciding that she's going to solve the mystery. Well, she doesn't. And second, not only does she not solve the mystery, but there is a rather confusing element thrown in right at the end of the book (which I'm not sure whether or not we're meant to take at face value), and then the book just ends. Very abruptly. So, I didn't enjoy reading the book, but struggled through because I was curious enough about the ending . . . only to be very disappointed by said ending. I would not recommend this book. (Library book)
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
This was a lovely book - a very quick read, I read it in only a few hours. Beautifully written, with colourful descriptions. It tells the story (highly fictionalised, I believe) of the young maid who posed for Vermeer's painting of the same title. It felt like wandering around Delft in the 17th century for a bit, and getting a taste of this girl's life, seeing things through her eyes. Touching and beautiful in quiet sort of way. I think I'd like to see the film now, to see what they've done with it. Plus, it has Colin Firth. Always a bonus. ::grin:: (Library book)
Exit to Eden by Anne Rampling (Ann Rice)
This is one of the books that Rice wrote under a pseudonym, presumably because it's considered erotica. It definitely had a storyline, though, and an interesting one (as opposed to being PWP). This was recommended to me by
j_elijah, who said I reminded him of the main character, Lisa, who is, for want of a better description, a very successful dominatrix. I don't know whether or not Josh was kidding about my being like Lisa . . . probably not, actually. And yes, I did see some of myself in her. Mostly something she thought several times early in the book . . . that she had a feeling that something very important was going to come along, and she would, for some reason or another, miss it, and lose the opportunity forever. I can relate very strongly to this - I've felt it a lot over the past few years. It was a good book, and a fairly quick read (which was a pleasure after a monstrosity like The Little Friend ::grin::). There are some interesting thoughts here about S&M and how it fits into society, and I tend to agree with what seems to be Rice's underlying attitude - that things done between consenting adults are always okay, and that if people had "safe" outlets for violence, perhaps there wouldn't be so much real violence and war in the world. I was surprised. I didn't expect to get any sort of "politcal" message out of this book. (I thought it was just going to be kinky). And it was a tiny bit kinky. But after reading even a tiny bit of the HP slash that's out there, well, this was actually very tame. ::grin:: Thanks, Josh. I enjoyed it. ::swishcrack:: ;-) (Library book) 