A Life in Books

Four Janet Evanovich books in two days.  Life doesn’t get any better than this.  Except that it does because her newest entry into the Stephanie Plum series-Plum Lovin’-came out today.  I finished it in a couple of hours (it was really short).  It made me laugh out loud, which is really my only requirement for books these days. 

I’m going through a period where I don’t want to read anything that is thought provoking.  Even the supernatural books that have strong prejudices mirroring our world’s prejudices are pushing it these days.  My brain just doesn’t want to work at all. 

I hope this stops soon.  Other Me keeps giving me books to read, but they require too much thought right now.  She loaned me her copy of Possession the other day.  I’ve been wanting to read this for a while, but when I tried, my mind rebelled. 

Alas, it would seem my brain has finally realized we’re not in school anymore and has decided to go on vacation.  Just as well I suppose, I’m not feeling very much like thinking about anything these days. 

I’m officially taking a mental vacation.  Starting now!

The new Stephanie Plum book comes out this Tuesday, so I’m reading my favorite books in the series to get in the mood for the new release.  My favorites are Hot Six, To The Nines, Eleven on Top, and Twelve Sharp.  For those of you who have read the series, you may notice that my favorites are the ones that feature Ranger.  He is one kick-ass bounty hunter.  So, I’m going to go read and countdown to the new release.  Happy Reading!

While reading Fforde’s very disappointing book, my sister gave me a romance book she had been given for Christmas.  My sister doesn’t read romance, but she knows that I do.  Since Fforde wasn’t holding my attention, I began reading the romance book.  A Noble Heart, by Sara Blayne, is a historical romance about childhood friends falling in love.  There’s amnesia, intrigue, duels and so much more.

If you like romances, this is a great hour and a half read.  If you don’t like romances, you probably stopped reading this a long time ago.  So I can call you pretentious reading snobs.  I’m just kidding.

I know romances aren’t for everyone, but I do think everyone needs a kind of book to read that they don’t have to think about.  Does that make sense?  The books aren’t badly written, they’re just easy reads.  They don’t get complex or involved or anything that requires too much mental muscle.  They provide a great break for me when I need to relax between reading Milton or Melville.  If you ever need a break from the riggors of reading classics, read romances.  You still get your reading fix without overwhelming your brain.

Whenever one of my favorite authors begin a new series or a new book, it becomes a test to see how much I really like the author.  By reading  another book or another series by the same author, it allows a reader to view the writer differently.  You can discover whether you really enjoy that authors writing, or whether it is the characters and/or plot of one particular book or series that you like.  Sometimes, you can tell whether you like the writing or just the story, but other times you can’t.

About three years ago, I read my first book by Jasper Fforde.  The book was called The Eyre Affair and featured a woman named Thursday Next.  I first read this book because of the obvious connection to Jane Eyre, which is one of my favorite books.  I loved the world Fforde had created with that first book and have since read all of the other books in that series.  I was very disappointed when he announced that he wasn’t going to write another Thursday Next books, but he was starting a new series that features Jack Spratt, a character who appeared in Thursday’s world.

So, after waiting over a year and then breaking down and reading the first book in the new series, I was very disappointed.  The Big Over Easy is not even close to being as good as the Thursday Next series.  It is not as engaging as Thursday’s books.  I had no problem putting this book down and walking away from it.  I actually read an entire other book before going back to the story of Humpty Dumpty’s death.

Seeing the characters from nursery rhymes-such as Mary Mary (quite contrary) and the Gingerbread Man (they finally caught him)-living as normal people was a great premise, but Fforde’s writing fell flat when hinting at what nursery rhyme some of the characters were from.  Other Me didn’t even recognize Mary Mary from her rhyme until I pointed it out to her.  As for myself, I got most of the character references, but I’m sure I missed some of them.  This book also wasn’t as funny as the Thursday series was.

Maybe it’s wrong to compare this book to another series, but even without the comparison this book is not engaging.  I didn’t get caught up in the plot or the characters and, even though it was a very far out ending, I still guessed what it was.  I both love and hate when I can do that.  Every once in a while I’m still surprised by an ending, but the more I read the easier it is to guess where the author is going with a plot.  It’s that whole “there are only seven plots” theory working in overdrive.

Oh well.  I gave Fforde a chance and was vastly disappointed.  I don’t think I’ll be reading the second book in this series, but he has announced another installment in the Thursday Next series so I can just wait for that one.

I finished The Time Traveler’s Wife today. This book is the perfect example of why a reader needs to stick with a book that has some turbulence in the beginning of the book. I don’t mean turbulence as in bad stuff happens to the people in the book, I mean turbulence in the actually mechanics of the writing. As I said before, the problem with this book is the pacing of it. Niffenegger puts in so much backstory and explanation in the beginning of the book that I was quickly losing interest in what was going to happen.

Fortunately, once the reader catches up to the characters in time (as in, Henry and Clare are themselves in real time-eight years apart), the story goes from being mildly interesting to being entirely engrossing. Once the real core of the story was revealed, I couldn’t stop reading. The relationship between Henry and Clare is a constantly evolving ride of emotion that carries the reader from the exhilirating flush of first love through the crippling hardships of life and into the throes of grief. Henry and Clare win and lose a lot in their life together, and Niffenegger invites the reader along for the memorable journey.

Then she leaves you to crash and burn in the end. The book is divided into three parts. We’ve already explored the grueling beginning and the incredible middle. Now let’s examine the last part-the third part, the smallest part, the worst part. Clearly added as a resolution, it doesn’t resolve anything. Well, it didn’t for me. Some people might enjoy painting their own ending for the book, but not me. They take a jump of 45 years and explain nothing of the between years. I want to know what has happened. What have they been doing for nearly half a decade? It’s very frustrating. This is the third time this has happened to me with books. I hate it everytime.

However, the ending and the beginning are not bad enough to detract from the appeal of the overall book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story, even if there are some bumps along the way. The characters are well-rounded, with flaws and strengths that make them human. Niffenegger’s writing is superb, even when the pacing falls short of entertainment. A few points get confusing to follow, but they make sense at the end of the book. Just hold out until then and you will be rewarded with a wonderfully unique love story that takes the time travel novel and presents it to its best advantage.

By the Way: A note of caution: Charlotte Bronté never finished her novel Villette, but they published it anyway. A very dissatisfying ending, that.

The first book I am reading this year is The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.  Well, theoretically I am reading this book first, but Other Me, in what can only be a desperate attempt to sabotage my reading efforts, has overloaded me with distraction.

First she buys me a video game.  Sure I wanted it and it was a nice gesture at the time, but now her evil plot has been revealed.  Instead of reading, I spend hours playing the game.  Then, I spend valuable time arguing with myself over whether I should stick with Niffenegger to the end, or if I can take a break from her long enough to read Jasper Fforde’s book, The Big Over Easy, which incidentally Other Me loaned me.  She’s a wily one, that Other Me.  Trying to distract me from my reading.  And it’s working.

Last night I cracked and read part of Fforde’s book about the tragic death of Humpty Dumpty.  I’ve also read a good deal of Niffenegger’s book.  In my head, the two books have melded together and made for one bizarre dream last night.  I dreamt that Humpty Dumpty had to travel through time to solve his own murder.  Not to save himself, just to find out who had killed him.  It was very weird.

I’ve made myself stop reading Fforde’s book and am focusing on the pitfalls of time traveling.  I’ll probably finish this book today, but this has become one of those books where I have to work at making myself read it.  It reads more like a love story than a time travel novel, which is a good thing for me since I don’t really like the time travel books.  However, despite Niffenegger’s best efforts, there are times when the reader is as lost in time as the characters are.  There are hints and sneak peeks at things that are going to happen, but by the time the stuff actually happens, you’ve forgtotten about it.

The biggest problem with this book is the pacing.  So much time is spent hinting at what will happen and explaining what has already happened that I’m losing interest in what is happening.  Did you follow that sentence?  Get used to it because that’s how Niffenegger’s  book flows.  It gets very complicated.

Complications aside, I am enjoying the story of the book-the story of what is happening to Henry and Clare.  The writing style is easy to follow, once you figure out where in Henry’s life you are.  The dialogue is natural and not trying to be overly profound.  It’s just hard to stay interested long enough to follow through the maze of time.

Anyway, back to the pages.  Hopefully I’ll finish this book today and can decide whether it was worth reading or not.