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Will Grayson Will Grayson

Book Notes Posted by kitt at 12:40 on 31 May 2016

I have no idea why I had this book in my to-read stack. NO. IDEA. Could have been a mom-book, which would explain a lot, actually, given that it's by one of my mom's favorite authors. Could have been a free book I picked up. I have no idea. I think I said this.

This book was, regardless of possession origin, a delightful read, both delightfully quick and delightfully entertaining. I laughed out loud a number of times reading this book, which is a good sign, I'd suspect.

This book is about two boys, both in high school, both named Will Grayson, who meet under odd circumstances. One is coming-out gay kid, the other is the best friend of an out gay kid, and oh boy are there issues with being gay in the horrors of high school.

I can't say I'm the same level of John Green fan that Mom is, which is why I'm willing to say I'm glad I read it. I can also say I'm okay not reading all of his other books, being astutely avoiding The Fault in our Stars. And I can also say, while not overly recommended, it's a fun read.

The Peripheral

Book Notes kitt decided around 20:09 on 26 May 2016 to publish this:

ANOTHER BOOK NOT RECOMMENDED BY MOM. I know, shock.

Rob recommended this book, after I mentioned that I have been reading The Knowledge 10 pages a day in the morning while trying to absorb enough sunlight to make a dent in my vitamin D levels. He had just finished it, and mentioned that it's an entertaining read.

It is.

Burned

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 19:33 on 18 May 2016

This is book 7 of the Alex Verus series.

I realized only two nights ago that it was out, and kicked myself for not realizing it a month ago. Good thing I was ordering that tea on Amazon and the site recommended the book. Also, added Jacka to my list at Author Alerts.

I really liked this book. I really like this series (though, maybe the last one I didn't like as much). It was recommended by Jim Butcher at some point, and I'm glad I read them. I like tales Jacka spins and the mage world he has created. I like the recurring characters and the intrigue developing.

The one was pretty much all action. Verus had very little time to relax and little time to brood. The book ends on a cliffhanger, WHICH IS GREAT, as it means there's another book to follow.

I am looking forward to it.

Recommend the series.

The Circle

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 15:08 on 14 May 2016

Okay, I understand the world described in this book: the one where no one has any privacy because, well, a shit named Zuckerberg declared privacy is dead and no longer the social norm, then spent $100,000,000 protecting his own privacy, but it doesn't mean that I agree with it or like it or didn't struggle to throw this book across the room when I was reading it.

The gist of it is there's this big social media payments company that forces its users to log in with real names then promptly begins absorbing everything so that it knows everything about its users and peer pressures its users into sharing everything, connects everything, tracks everything, until the concept of privacy is destroyed. It follows the journey of an idiot 20-something woman, Mae, as she becomes a sheep and stops thinking for herself, acting only on the whims of others, the opinions of others.

I wanted to throw this book across the room a thousand times, pick it up, and throw it across the room another thousand times. Sure, "sharing is caring," fine, yes, but forced sharing is bullshit. And "privacy is stealing"? YES, the obvious conclusion of a surveillance state, which is the direction the world is going, where, again, those in power stay in power.

Related: instantaneous, required democracy is called a lynch mob.

Eggers got his point across with this one. Problem is, the people who are listening already knew, and the people who refuse to listen? Well, they kinda deserve the future they get.

I recommend this for the rage inducing stupidity of the sadly realistically written main character, and the cautionary tale told.

Night Strangers

Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 17:03 on 2 May 2016

WHY DID I READ THIS BOOK? Had I not learned from Guest Room?

Okay, here's the thing: I'm plowing through all of the seven books Mom bought, mostly so that I can go back to my two meter tall stack of books I've selected, and didn't look at the author of this book. When I was 90% of the way through before I noticed the author of the book. I did a double-take, checked that this author indeed had written Guest Room, and then groaned. Pretty sure Chris Bohjalian takes his writing cues from George R.R. Martin, because I didn't like this book's ending, either.

The good guys don't win!

WTF?

Anyway, this book was another psychological thriller, complete with ghosts and pains and witches and potions and kids and tragedy and all sorts of situations that I find uncomfortable (which is to say, those where you KNOW that someone is taking serious advantage of another someone and a kid's sense of fairness in this world just rages).

This book won't be around in 10 years, or kept as fine literature. It's a creepy romp for a weekend read. If you like his style, read it. Otherwise, skip it.

Bleh.

The Farm

Book Notes kitt decided around 18:01 on 24 April 2016 to publish this:

What? Another book recommended by Mom? Yeah.

Again, not the book I was expecting. Again, a book that surprised me.

This book deals with an older woman's difficulties moving with her husband to a new location (back to her home country), depression, interpretations, and dealing with family secrets and the past.

A son's mother comes to him in a panicked, paranoid state, with wild accusations of what had happened with her move with her husband, the son's dad. The dad follows shortly, while the mother tells the son convincingly in chronological order of the events on the farm the parents had moved to. While the mother's interpretation of events is plausible, so are the father's rebuttals of what was happening. How is a son, who is also hiding his own secrets from his parents, to choose or know which is actually true.

Okay, yeah, that's the gist of the plot. The telling, however, is remarkable. We are conditioned to believe what we read, so of course the mother is telling the son what happened. Yet, interpretation, paranoia.

I wasn't expecting to like this story as much as I did. The ending is haunting.

Guest Room

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 11:47 on 22 April 2016, kitt created this:

What? Another book from Mom's list? I know, I know, I can't believe it either. Thing is with this book, I can't believe this is a book Mom would read either. I mean, I can understand why she read some of the other books she's read, they fit various themes of what I believe she reads. Except, she reads what she wants to read, what she finds interesting, and this is one of those, "Wait, what?" books that she wanted to read.

I guess.

I'm not giving anything of the book away when I say the book centers around two sex slaves escaping after killing their captors while working a bachelor party, because this particular part of the book happens in the first paragraph of the book. The rest of the book is about the aftermath of that act: the why, the history, the emotions, the recovery, the fall. It is told from the first person viewpoint of one of the sex slaves (ex sex slaves) and from the third person omniscient view of the father-husband-brother-of-the-groom, his wife, and his daughter.

The causal violence in the book threw me off.

The sex slaves in the book threw me off.

The description of the emotional journey of the wife threw me off.

The emotional attachment to help someone in need totally resonated.

The book is lingering with me. I'm not sure I recommend the book, nor am I sure I'm glad I spent the time reading it. It is lingering, though.

The Grownup

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 19:55 on 18 April 2016, kitt created this:

This definitely is one of the books from Mom's pile of books. She recently added this one to my list as one "you have to read!" Except she hadn't read, so I'm unsure why she felt I needed to read it.

I suspect it's because it's by the same author as Gone Girl, and Mom really liked the twist in that one.

This one starts out as giant con job, and turns into a ghost story. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the twist near the end, while the actual ending had me cracking up.

The book is a quick read, no reason not to borrow it from the library and read it in an evening, with enough time left over for a barbeque, to be honest.

The Passenger

Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 16:54 on 18 April 2016

I know! I know! SHOCK! Another from the pile of books from Mom. I swear I have other piles of books and books from other people and books from lists that sound interesting. I do! I do!

Though, I suspect I beat Mom in finishing this book. Go me.

The book starts with the main character fleeing her life after the death of her husband, who had fallen down the stairs. Normally, contacting authories is the correct reaction, but Tanya Dubois has a past that she doesn't want investigated, so instead of the "correct" reaction, she runs.

She adopts new identities in an attempt to establish a new life, but continues to be on the run from town to town. She eventually moves towards confronting the dark secret of her past, learning more than a few things along the way, with a satisfying resolution at the end.

The story cuts off at an interesting place, the part where things could start to become boring, so we have a "she lived happily ever after," but I'm uncertain that one could switch from looking over one's shoulder for ten years to settling down. I guess it could happen.

The book was interesting, but I don't know that I'd recommend it. I might have to start a new rating scale: Don't read, get from library, borrow from friend, buy a copy, buy two copies, one to lend.

Something like that.

Looking for Alaska

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 20:53 on 14 April 2016, kitt created this:

I swear, all of the books I have been reading lately are from Mom's pile. It might begin to frustrate me if my pile of books doesn't start reducing in size, too. Something about the growing stacks, from two to three, is starting to bug me.

Also bugging me about this book is the setup. We have a geeky, six-foot kid who actively wants to go to private school because he has no friends in the public school he attends, who meets the most amazingly beautiful girl in the school, who we later learn is also attracted to him, and we are supposed to believe this setup?

If a six foot kid isn't immediately recruited to the basketball team, even in a private school, something is wrong. But the most unbelievable part is having the most attractive girl in the school being attracted to the book's protagonist who has exactly no friends in his previous school. Having no friends? No girls attracted to him, throwing themselves at him, wanting to date him? That's a hard suspension of disbelief to have. Just saying.

The book countdowns to the major event in the book, then counts up from said major event. It does that well for structure, but fails to convey the overwhelming heartbreak that is involved in said event. Not sure how else to explain how the second part felt superficial.

It's a good story, so for that reason I'd likely hand the book to a friend, though I wouldn't be worried about asking for the book back, or buying a second copy so that I had a version to loan. My copy will likely go into the Little Lending Library out front.

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