book reviews

First set of reviews of the new year! :):):):)

Ann Patchett, Bel Canto. This was a gift from my SIL, whose taste in literature is radically different from mine. Bel Canto is another in the painfully self-aware, intentionally "meaningful" genre, where every word feels carefully chosen. The book is the story of a group of people who are taken hostage at a fancy birthday party in a South American country and held captive for several months. Apparently, this is based on a true story ... and even knowing that, I could not suspend my disbelief enough to swallow this book. How you take real events and make them seem utterly impossible to believe, I don't know, but Patchett certainly managed. Additionally, the book didn't really end - the ending was tacked on with no explanation. So you spend all this time getting to know all these people, and in the end, you never get to see any of them grow or change. It just didn't seem worth the time, in the long run.

Mick Manning, A Ruined House. This was a Christmas gift for the kids from my Aunt Sarah, but given my love for old houses in all stages of dilapidation, I coopted it. It's a lovely picture book of a house in England that has been left to fall apart for centuries and some of the things that have happened to it over time - animals and bugs come to live in it, things you can tell by looking at it, etc. Quite enjoyable!

Louis L'Amour, The Broken Gun. When it became clear that this book had a modern setting, I admit I was worried. Foolish me! I should have had more faith. It was very much a modern-day Western, and while I might have asked for a bit more exposition, I got plenty of adventure and must perforce be happy with it. Not necessarily my favorite L'Amour, but a good one, nonetheless.

Simon Winchester, A Crack in the Edge of the World. Not at all what I expected! This book is very different in tone from The Professor and the Madman, and it is not simply a retelling of the events of the Great California Earthquake. It is an exhaustively researched overview of the geology of the West Coast, why the earthquake happened, how it was measured, etc. Tremendously in-depth and very interesting reading.