MARCH 2016 book list

The Martian - by Andy Weir / A / **** / Kindle
Favorite quotes:
“Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped.”   
and
“Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. “Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.” 

I get the hype on this book. It wasn't the best written (the journal format really makes me crazy for some reason), it was a bit repetitive (Bad things happen. Man almost dies. Man comes up with crazy genius way to fix problem. Man survives another day. Repeat like 50 times), and probably a little emotionally unrealistic ( the guy spends like 18 months on Mars ALONE and only loses it like ONCE?). But despite all that, I really really liked it. I liked all the science talk.  I liked the main character. I like how the author explained his crazy science based solutions to insurmountable problems in such a way that I was like, "Ya that would totally work!" even though in reality I HAD NO CLUE WHAT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT.   I plan to watch the movie.  As a total child of the space exploration era, I'm kinda destined to love this classic feel good / survive against all odds story.

Circling the Sun: A novel by Paula McClain / A / **** / Kindle
Favorite quotes:  
“We can only go to the limits of ourselves. Anything more and we give too much away. Then we're not good for anyone.” 
“Searching out something important and going astray look exactly the same for a while, in fact.” 

I loved the book, "The Paris Wife" (the story of Hemingway's marriage to Hadley Richardson) so I was glad to get a chance to read this book about Beryl Markham and colonial British East Africa.  The beginning and end of the story focus on how she became the first woman to fly solo east to west across the Atlantic ocean.  The middle tells about her unusual childhood and upbringing plus her young adult life.  Abandoned by her mother, she is raised by her father on a remote farm near Nairobi.  She spends each hot dusty day with the native children that live nearby. From her father she learns to expertly ride and train racing horses. She is depicted to be wild and untamed, animalistically beautiful, and free.  
The story spends quite a bit of time (too much time I think) following her from one disastrous relationship to another.  The majority of the characters in the book were rich colonials married to one person but having affairs with someone else in the group.  Instead of a love triangle it was a love web.  Oftentimes the author depicted Beryl being disgusted by the loose and free manner of her friends, but when it suited her she was right in the midst of it all.  The author indicates that her true love was Denys Finch Hatton (played by Robert Redford in the 1985 film "Out of Africa" which incidentally I have never seen ).
The book highlighted the struggles that Beryl had as a woman in a man's world, both as she attempted to work professionally training horses and as she experienced the double standards that existed for women of her time in relationships.
I admit I got a little frustrated with the main character. I didn't like how she used her sexuality to gain what she needed. I thought the underlying message of her being a free modern woman was dulled by her willingness to use people to get what she wanted.
I think this book would make a fantastic movie.   I also love how it has inspired me to read other things about other people and places mentioned in the book.  I plan to read "Out of Africa" sometime soon to compare the two, as many of the characters would be the same.


"The Marriage of Opposites" Alice Hoffman / A / **** / Kindle
Favorite quote: "“There are those who say that heaven and hell are not so far apart. They are not at opposite ends of the world beyond ours, only a step away from one another.” 

As I hadn't read anything about this book, I was about halfway through the narrative before I realized it had to be based on true events. 
It tells the story of the extraordinary Rachel, the mother of painter Camille Pissaro (the Father of Impressionism), who was raised on the beautiful island of St. Thomas.  It is always fun for me to read about places I have visited.  The story was beautifully intricate, especially in the description of the people and scenery. It wasn't until after I realized that this was the story of the mother of a famous painter that I appreciated and understood why the author had woven so many bits of light and color into the narrative. The story could never have mentioned Camille and would have still been a great story. It tells of family relationships / binding friendships / religious ties / and racial stigmas all wrapped up with beautiful island mysticism.   
The book did have a jarring arc for the main character, Rachel. It told the story of her childhood, her head strong ways, her strong personality. She fiercely fought for everything that was important to her, going against what society felt was the proper path.  After her son decides he wants to paint rather than work in the family business, she turns her considerable force of will to try and stop him from choosing such an unacceptable profession.  This just didn't make any sense to me and the author couldn't seem to explain it, either.

"Independent Study" (The Testing Trilogy book 2) by Joelle Charbonneau / YA / ** / Kindle
Another dystopian trilogy. It has been touted as a knock off of "The Hunger Games", and I can see why. The author writes an engaging story with a strong female lead but there are just so many flaws and too many neat and tidy solutions.  Despite that, I will read the final book just to see how it ends.

"Monster" by Walter Dean Myers / YA / *** / Kindle
Favorite quotes:
“They take away your shoelaces and your belt so you can’t kill yourself no matter how bad it is. I guess making you live is part of the punishment.” 
and
“We lie to ourselves here. Maybe we are here because we lie to ourselves.” 

Michael L. Printz winner from 2000.
 While in San Francisco last month, we visited Alcatraz Island.  We are a family of museum nerds, and explored every little out of the way structure and exhibit (case in point... the website said to plan 2-3 hours for our visit. We were there five hours).  One of the buildings was the "Industry" building where prisoners learned work skills. Inside this building was an exhibit called, "Prisoners of Age".  It consisted or a series of large wall-sized photographic banners with blurbs from interviews with elderly inmates in the United States and Canada.  The project highlights the various and increasing problems of aging offenders in our correctional system. It was very sobering and powerful.  While I didn't agree with every solution the project suggested, it made me think a lot about the socio-economic causes of crime and delinquency.  (The website for the project is here: http://www.prisonersofage.com/)
On Kindle I searched for Printz award winners, and the novel, "Monster" came up.  It was a quick read and tells the story of a young African-American male on trial for his involvement in the murder of a local shop-keeper during a robbery.  Steve Harmon is young, he misses his family, and he is scared.
It is one of those books that is written so ambiguously that it just screams to be discussed and argued.  For example, as I read the book, I was sure he was innocent and just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But after I was thinking about the book later (and went back and re-read parts) I realized that Steven had definitely lied during his trail.  As a reader, you don't ever really know the truth.  You do know Steven's fears of being in prison and all the bad stuff that happens there.  You are led to understand why he will do anything to not have to stay behind bars. Interesting story.  

"Grasshopper Jungle" by Andrew Smith / YA / **** / Kindle
Favorite quote:  "And that was our day. You know what I mean.”
 I am reading through the Printz Award winners available on Pioneer.Utah.Gov and this is one of the runner-up honorees for 2015.  I could NEVER recommend this book to anyone even though I got the biggest kick out of it.  
I read a LOT of dystopian fiction and even more YA fiction, so I am very familiar with the plots and paths and directions this type of story take.  Well USUALLY take... as this story threw out all the rules.
I don't know how the author did it, but the entire story line and seriously every sentence of dialogue sounds EXACTLY like it was written by a bunch of 17 year old high school boys.   The "F" word was used almost non-stop. The kid was horny about EVERYTHING.  He discusses the bowel movements of Presidents. He used the phrase, "And that was our day. You know what I mean".  It was HYSTERICAL. It was BRILLIANT. I rolled my eyes and snorted through the entire thing. 
My favorite review was this one on Goodreads (and for the record I'm glad to know I'm not the only person who caroused through the whole thing while wondering WHAT IN THE WORLD DID I JUST READ). ***READER WARNING*** skip the next few paragraphs if you don't like reading cuss words. In fact if you don't like reading cuss words you definitely should not read this book. Not even like one page):
From GILLIAN: 

Rating: WHAT THE HECK EVEN WAS THAT AND WHY THE HECK DID I LIKE IT I think my brains are on the floor
This book is a teenage boy's wet dream written as directed by an indie film director on the worst kinds of drugs. This book is a vintage horror B movie mixed with high literary introspection regarding personal legacy and sexual orientation. This book is hilarious and vile and vulgar. It is the strangest goddamn collection of sentences I have ever encountered. This book has a million things happening, and every single one of them is important. This book is about smalltown America, homophobia, and friendship. This book is about the private inner struggle of a boy in love with both his female girlfriend and his male best friend. It about the global scale of the apocalypse, as led by giant fucking (literally) praying mantises. It is about I don't even know the hell what.

Sonja again:  This may be the best book I've read this year. And it scares me to say that. 

 "Please Ignore Vera Dietz" by A.S. King / YA / *** / Kindle
Favorite quotes: “I knew not to give the best of myself to the worst of people.” 
and
“I felt a mix of wanting to kill him and wanting to kiss him at the same time. When I thought of what true love must be like, I figured it must be like this, and not the stupid eighth grade infatuation most girls my age felt. True love includes an equal part of good and bad, but true sticks around and doesn't run off to Vegas with a podiatrist.” 
 
Another Printz winner (honoree from 2011). I hate to say this is a story of an 18 year old (Vera) dealing with issues such as being abandoned by her mother, living with a loving but controlling father, and the death of her best friend Charlie.  While all these things are true, it just sounds so SAPPY and formulaic. This book is anything but that. It was raw and gritty and poignant and sweet.  Vera was an extremely real character to me.  I loved the relationship she had with her dad. The book switches back and forth in time between the present (Vera's senior year) and the last several years leading up to Charlie's death.  I enjoyed this one.

"Jasper Jones" by Craig Silvey / YA / ** / Kindle
Another Printz winner (honoree from 2012). 

It was very highly reviewed on Goodreads, but I just couldn't get into this one. Thirteen year old Charlie gets a knock on his bedroom window one summer night. It is the young town outcast, Jasper Jones.  The story has a whole slew of incongruities for me, especially as the mother of a 13 year old boy.  It is ludicrous that a bookish non-athletic obedient boy would sneak out of his home to go traipsing through the late night woods with someone he doesn't even know well (it is explained that while he is afraid, he is desperate to impress, even though he describes the boy in derogatory terms). Jasper takes Charlie to his secret spot in the woods, showing him the body of a classmate dangling from a rope.  Anyone who saw this would be FREAKED OUT, but in this story they calmly decide to cut the body down, tie rocks to it, and sink in in a nearby lake so that Jasper won't be blamed for it.  They then try to figure out who the murder is. Sub plots include a love interest for young Charlie, racial tension building for his Vietnamese friend, and Charlie's dysfunctional mother.  I really did not enjoy this book. I was almost angry that the author seemed to be trying to invoke a "To Kill a Mockingbird" feel to the story. Skip this one.
   
"Rogue Lawyer" by John Grisham / A / *** / Kindle
I needed me some good solid John Grisham to cleanse my palate from that last book.  While not as good as his old original stuff, I enjoyed this more than some of his recent stuff. Grisham manages to both honor and poke fun of the noble profession of law with his books.  This story was not exception.  The main character is Sebastian Rudd, a lawyer famous for defending the "undesirables" in society. He is dodgy and brash. He skirts around the ethical edges of the law. He is an appalling parent. But he is still somehow likeable.  This book was fun, but it was really sobering to me. I was reminded of just how far criminals will lie, cheat, and twist to avoid jail time or monetary penalties.  It was almost depressing.

"After You" by JoJo Moyes / A / ***1/2 / Kindle
This is a sequel to the book, "Me Before You". This story didn't pack near the emotional punch as it's predecessor, and that was just okey-dokey with me.   I am a true introvert... strong emotion freaks me out even when it is in books.  I normally avoid all books about cancer patients, child abuse, and the holocaust.  I'm not kidding. I would never have read "Me Before You" if I'd known what it was about before I started. But anyway, this story offered a nice but definitely not tidy conclusion to Lou's story.  You can't help but love this character.  Get some closure. Read the book.

"The Girl of Fire and Thorns" by Rae Carson / YA / * / Kindle
WHYYYY do I read free books from Amazon Prime? WHY????
This one was just ridiculous from beginning to end. Even if I don't love a book, I usually can understand why other people like it.  But no dice this time. The fact it has a four and a half star rating on Amazon and the fact that Donald Trump is leading in the presidential polls makes me feel the same way inside (which for the record is scared and confused and worried that our nation is full of idiots).
 I should wrote more to warn you off  but I JUST CAN'T WASTE ANOTHER MINUTE OF MY LIFE ON THIS BOOK. Seriously. I.JUST.CAN'T.

"Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden / A / *** / Kindle
I figured before the month was over I better read at least ONE book from the Goodreads list that is my book goal for the year.
I can see why this book is on the Goodreads list. The beginning and end have such gentle imagery that beautifully evokes the style of Japanese art popular at the time.  The story was written in such a way that I really did think it was a real memoir for a while... I even looked it up on the internet to see.  Once I found it wasn't real, I was surprised that the author used so much of the page content to describe the mundane day to day routines, petty fights, family relationships, and struggles of a young girl trying to make her way in the world of a geisha. It started to drag after a while. There was not a real peak to the story, plus I didn't really feel anything for the main character.  The ending was also very rushed.  Despite that, I am glad I read it.