I wasn’t overly inspired by what I read in December. One book I hated so much, I quit reading it. I pretty much never quit reading a book. I’ll force my way through, so that means this book was exceptionally awful. Then I read a book that was just okay. And finally, I tore through a book in a series that’s a complete guilty pleasure.
What I Quit
Flight Behavior
By Barbara Kingsolver
I can’t give you a proper review of this book because I quit reading it after only getting through 8% of it. I gave it a go, but as my cross-country flight to San Diego neared, I couldn’t bear the idea of reading a book I was forcing myself through for six hours. I needed something that I actually found pleasure in. This was not the book. As I mentioned before, ordinarily, I would have pushed through, but when I realized that the book was quite long, I just didn’t have the energy to put in the endeavor. Also, I don’t understand how Barbara Kingsolver is this supposedly revered writer. I found her writing to be unclear. Her descriptions of scenes had me wondering what it was that she was talking about. Her style is not for me at all. I do not recommend picking up this book.
What I Read
The Year of the Gadfly
By Jennifer Miller
384 pages, published May, 2012
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
First I’ll tell you how I got to reading this book. I was doing some viewing of my favorite Paul Walker movies after he died and I watched The Skulls. It rekindled a long buried interest in secret societies, so I sought titles on the subject, both fictional and not. I stumbled upon this book, and it was relatively well reviewed and it was compared to another book I enjoyed, Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, so I decided to give it a shot.
The Year of the Gadfly takes place at Mariana Academy in The Berkshires and is narrated by three characters in two different time frames, in 2000 and in 2012. Iris, a 15-year-old student newly arrived at Mariana after moving to the area after the death of her best friend, is an aspiring journalist who idolizes famed reporter Edward R. Murrow (and she actually has hallucinations of conversations with her hero). Jonah Kaplan is a new science teacher at Mariana who graduated from the academy years before. The third narrator is Lily, who was Jonah’s twin brother Justin’s girlfriend when they were all student as the school. They tell a story about how the three of them are tied together in 2012 by events that happened at the school in 2000.
At Mariana, a long dormant secret society has reemerged when Iris enters the school. Prisom’s Party is responsible for distribution of a newspaper called The Devil’s Advocate, which airs the dirty laundry of students and faculty alike. Whether a student has a drug addiction or a faculty member indulges in pornography on campus, Prisom’s Party knows and tells all, leaving human devastation in its wake. As Iris begins to investigate Prisom’s Party, Jonah also scrutinizes the clandestine operations of the group at the urging of the school’s administration. They reveal the scandalous truth about the activities of Prisom’s Party that shakes Mariana’s foundation.
In a nutshell, this book was pretty good. I frankly had a difficult time writing a synopsis of the book without saying exactly what happened. It was a very straightforward story. Even the “twists” of the plot weren’t all that shocking. The book failed to fulfill my search for a good secret society novel, as Prisom’s Party wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. Furthermore, if you’re interested in reading about prep school life, I would recommend Prep as a better read. Despite those sentiments, this book was incredibly well written. Miller successfully weaves two first person narratives with a third person narrative. It was interesting switching between narrators.
The 8th Confession
By James Patterson
368 pages, published April 2009
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Reading James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club series is like my literary equivalent of reading celebrity gossip magazines. Is there any actual merit to taking the few minutes it takes to flip through? Probably not. But does it make you happy? Absolutely. I won’t even take the time tell you the specific plot of this book, but will let you know that this book was the eighth in a series that totals 13 books and counting (each book cutely uses the number it is in the series as part of the title). The series follows a crime fighting group of women in San Francisco made up by Lindsey Boxer, a detective in the SFPD; Claire Washburn, the San Francisco Medical Examiner; Cindy Thomas, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle; and Yuki Castellano, an attorney in the office of the San Francisco District Attorney. I’m not even ashamed to say these books are mindless reading. They really are. This one only took me four days to read. The writing is what I’d describe as middle school level. But so what? The stories are great. I love the characters. The series was a made into a TV show on ABC several years ago and I loved that too. We all need an author or series that mindlessly entertains us and gives us an escape. Isn’t that why we read in the first place? If you’re looking for that, I highly recommend this series.
What I’m Reading Now
Labor Day
By Joyce Maynard
An escaped convict seeks the help of a lonely boy and his depressed mother in New Hampshire on Labor Day weekend. Henry and his mother take Frank into their home to give him refuge from the authorities and their lives change forever in the span of a few days. I love reading books that are made into movies. The movie version of this book staring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin is in theaters on January 31st. I will definitely be seeing it!
