this book is an example of what is wrong with publishing: the trend to write books by committee. there's some sort of checklist of identities, ethnicities, and social justice issues where the author keeps adding superfluous details until they've accrued enough checkmarks. at it's heart, this is a story of 4 siblings who are told the date of their deaths and how they react to this news. as one life comes to an end, the story moves - baton like - to the next sibling. and once you add all those required identities/ethnicities/issues, it makes for a wide but shallow story. many details of their past are brought up when it is convenient to explain a sibling's present behavior. And I think a better constructed novel would place those incidents in the correct chronology. The mother, watching death after death of her adult children, doesn't even merit a chapter? mind-boggling! …
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when a book is really bad, I get through it knowing I'm going to enjoy the trashing
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crabbygirl reviewed The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
seems written by committee
2 stars
this book is an example of what is wrong with publishing: the trend to write books by committee. there's some sort of checklist of identities, ethnicities, and social justice issues where the author keeps adding superfluous details until they've accrued enough checkmarks. at it's heart, this is a story of 4 siblings who are told the date of their deaths and how they react to this news. as one life comes to an end, the story moves - baton like - to the next sibling. and once you add all those required identities/ethnicities/issues, it makes for a wide but shallow story. many details of their past are brought up when it is convenient to explain a sibling's present behavior. And I think a better constructed novel would place those incidents in the correct chronology. The mother, watching death after death of her adult children, doesn't even merit a chapter? mind-boggling!
the characters all have the same voice (and entirely too modern for the time period) and because we don't spend any deep time with them, the reader doesn't connect with them. for a book explicitly about their deaths, it doesn't pack the emotional punch I'm sure the author wanted. lastly, I'm incredibly frustrated that (spoiler) Klara commits suicide and NONE of the family members really reflect on that or the fact that she left behind a one-year-old baby. Or how about Daniel (spoiler) becoming a murderer? Varya and her mother never address it except in the lightest, dismissive, sense.
crabbygirl set a goal to read 39 books in 2023
crabbygirl reviewed Sweetland by Michael Crummey
Review of 'Sweetland' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
his is why I go to bookclub - I enjoyed this book about disassembling a tiny newfoundland fishing village and it's stubborn patriarch. and I liked that it wasn't all 'henry david thoreau' (or even gary paulsen come to think of it) and the guy cannot survive alone, be it the weather, the weevils, the madness of having no human company. but going to bookclub made me realize that every tiny possible death that happened, did happen. and that he never made it off those rocks with his dead grandson in his arms.
Review of 'Is everyone hanging out without me? (and other concerns)' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
i read this one. often, when it's a comedy book, i'll get the audiobook instead. this one i read.
in comedy, delivery is everything. the written word just doesn't do it justice. i laughed out loud 2, maybe 3 times. but mostly it was a breezy, easy to read account of how this girl from 'the office' got to where she is. in that aspect - it was interesting: she's the writer for 'the office' and had a hit off-broadway show she wrote and starred in. it's nice to know that plain people who seem to make it big out of nowhere actually have a long path that took them there.
crabbygirl reviewed No regrets by Sarah Ivens
Review of 'No regrets' on 'Goodreads'
1 star
yup, I'm too old for this title but I read it anyhow. or skimmed it because it was god awful. even the things that had turned out horribly for her - like getting a Brazilian - was still enthusiastically recommended. smacks of inexperienced youth that was programmed to follow any patriarchal, marketing technique. yuck. not to mention, she's a little full of herself and her youth to think these 101 things can only be done before 30 (ie: before the old, married, pregnant part). as my teen said, she made her journal entries be the goal: live my life or you'll be missing out. ppttttt.
crabbygirl reviewed Re-Gifters (Minx) by Mike Carey
Review of 'Re-Gifters (Minx)' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I was expecting something more from the author of Unwritten but this was a typical, contrived high school movie. it wasn't bad, but it wasn't particularly good either.
crabbygirl reviewed Fierce pajamas by David Remnick
Review of 'Fierce pajamas' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
some hit, some miss. but some that hit were incredibly funny: shout-out to George Kaufman for 'annoy kaufman, inc' and Robert Benchley's 'it's fun to be fooled...it's more fun to know' and - believe it or not - woody allen's 'the kugelmass episode'
crabbygirl reviewed Who do you think you are? by Alice Munro
Review of 'Who do you think you are?' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I was curious to re-read this book as an adult, or I mean precisely, an adult mother of teenage children. I remembered the stories being youth centered, meanwhile, they were not (did I only focus on the young one due to my age back then? or did I confuse it with Margaret Laurence books, like "bird in the house"?) And I remembered the mother/stepmother as hated by myself and the protagonist, but not so - rose has room in herself for much more layered emotions, including admiration and compassion. but the biggest surprise was finding, within it's pages, a story I had vividly remembered and retold many times in my life only to be NOT as I remembered. in my youth and innocence, I saw the protagonist as a victim of an action. with my matured viewpoint, I could see she had a more complicit role.
crabbygirl reviewed Did you ever have a family by Bill Clegg
Review of 'Did you ever have a family' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
meh. it was interesting to read - a great start with a desire to see the mystery unfold. but it did so at too slow a pace, and without enough reward when the ending became clear
crabbygirl reviewed Let's explore diabetes with owls by David Sedaris
crabbygirl reviewed Anne Frank by Sidney Jacobson
Review of 'Anne Frank' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
this was a good primer for someone who is going to read anne frank: diary of a young girl. it spans her entire life and so it covers alot of the political background of the time (even things that anne herself doesn't comment on in her diary). there are lots of asides that are labelled 'snapshots' and they do a good job of expaining world events or political movements in the context of her life. all in all, a great book that will emphasize - once again - that anne frank was not only a real person, but also a real talent that was lost when nazism spread across europe.
crabbygirl reviewed Parenting by Amber Dusick
Review of 'Parenting' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
got this one entirely because of the title. turns out it's another blogger cum author but I didn't take it too seriously, read it breezily like a blog, and had quite a few belly laughs over it. (note to self: never listen to a book on tape from a blogger turned author. their niche really is that small feeling of you-and-I. and books on tape are read as if to an audience)
crabbygirl reviewed Coming Ashore by Catherine Gildiner
Review of 'Coming Ashore' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
the third and final memoir in her series. I still loved the first one the best, but the first half of this book was quite funny in its own right. interestingly enough, if you just read this one, you'd wonder why someone deigned her life worthy of a memoir - it's not terribly exciting or pressing - but I imagine there was a clamor for her first 2 books to continue.
crabbygirl reviewed Wherever you go, there you are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Review of 'Wherever you go, there you are' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
still kicking around after 10 years of being published, this book was supposed to be a bible of sorts for meditation. too bad I'm not ready to actually start meditating yet. this book is really meant to be an aid as you start up your practice and contains lots of imagery (which I sort of hated) to help in the meditation process. I found him too goofy at times, too medical at others. and certain phrases he loves to use trigger me to think blah-blah-blah.