Follow Friday

Q: School is out! What is your favorite Summer Reading book??

I would have to say The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. I had to read it for my AP English class senior year in high school and I loved it. I've been hooked on Hardy ever since.

And the Soft Wind Blows by Lance Umenhofer

Timmy Enosh is a peculiar, small man: fivethree, onehundredandfifteen pounds, and is a pharmacist in Ashton City, Tennessee.

He finds himself at fortythreeyearsold as his life starts to fall apart: his threehundred pound wife disappears, his romantic interest has lost interest and has gained hatred toward him, his coworkers harass him, customers verbally assault him, and he has the strange urge to adopt his foulmouthed, eighteenyearold coworker, Alex.

When things start to pile up, Timmy must find a way to deal: he turns to Alex to supply him with marijuana, starts sewing an elaborate Mr. Mistoffelees costume, finds solace in the wild, etc., etc., etc.

And the soft, constant wind of change blows him on, on, and on.

This book’s premise was definitely interesting: a man who slowly realizes he’s is being trampled in every aspect of his life and the catastrophic meltdown this inspires. I had high hopes. Unfortunately, the writing didn’t live up to my expectations.

It really was the writing that made this one a tough read. There were quite a few quirks, with the author doingsomethinglikethisandjoininwordstogetherwithoutspaces for no real reason. Once or twice might have been okay, to make a point, but it’s done quite a bit throughout the novel and it gets tiring for the reader. Another huge thing is the “show don’t tell issue.” We were “told” pretty much everything, instead of getting to know the characters and the situations by reactions or interactions. It’s tough to enjoy a book that has that kind of fault.

The last chapter or two did feel like they’d been written in a smoother manner, which made them the best ones in the book.

It’s tough to say something like this about an indie author, knowing how hard it is for them to get their books out there, but this is one I would not revisit unless it is heavily edited.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


From Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

“Science doesn't tell us what we should do. It only tells us what is.” 

The Boy Who Could See Demons by Carolyn Jess-Cooke

Alex Broccoli is ten years old, likes onions on toast, and can balance on the back legs of his chair for fourteen minutes. His best friend is a 9000-year-old demon called Ruen. When his depressive mother attempts suicide yet again, Alex meets child psychiatrist Anya. Still bearing the scars of her own daughter's battle with schizophrenia, Anya fears for Alex's mental health and attempts to convince him that Ruen doesn't exist. But as she runs out of medical proof for many of Alex's claims, she is faced with a question: does Alex suffer from schizophrenia, or can he really see demons?

I’ve said it time and time again, but I will say it again: an unreliable narrator is, for me, the best literary device any author can use to produce a taut, fascinating narrative.

An unreliable narrator, though, makes it hard to write a proper review, since I don’t want to give anything away to those of you who haven’t read it. If I’m a little vague, then that is the reason. The story has two narratives: Alex’s and Anya. Anya is a psychiatrist who takes over Alex’s case when his mother tries to kill herself and his apparent delusions threaten to take over his life. We get tastes of both unique voices so that we do feel connected to both characters. This is why the end comes as such a shock.

The story is pretty straight-forward until the last chapter or so when we really start to feel something is “off”. The author manages to build a wonderful sense of tension throughout the novel, so that a few times I did find a slight shiver running down my spine.

If you love unreliable narrators and complex stories, then I do recommend this one. It’s a lot of fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.



I'm reading My Second Death by Lydia Cooper. I just started it this morning, but I'm already hooked. The protagonist appears to be a psychopath, and a female one at that, which is not the usual, so it makes for fascinating reading. She reminds me a bit of Lisbeth Salander, but more cleverly written.
 

The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne

Josh Hanagarne couldn’t be invisible if he tried. Although he wouldn’t officially be diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome until his freshman year of high school, Josh was six years old and onstage in a school Thanksgiving play when he first began exhibiting symptoms. By the time he was twenty, the young Mormon had reached his towering adult height of 6’7” when—while serving on a mission for the Church of Latter Day Saints—his Tourette’s tics escalated to nightmarish levels.

Determined to conquer his affliction, Josh underwent everything from quack remedies to lethargy-inducing drug regimes to Botox injections that paralyzed his vocal cords and left him voiceless for three years. Undeterred, Josh persevered to marry and earn a degree in Library Science. At last, an eccentric, autistic strongman—and former Air Force Tech Sergeant and guard at an Iraqi prison—taught Josh how to “throttle” his tics into submission through strength-training.

Today, Josh is a librarian in the main branch of Salt Lake City’s public library and founder of a popular blog about books and weight lifting—and the proud father of four-year-old Max, who has already started to show his own symptoms of Tourette’s.

The World’s Strongest Librarian illuminates the mysteries of this little-understood disorder, as well as the very different worlds of strongman training and modern libraries. With humor and candor, this unlikely hero traces his journey to overcome his disability— and navigate his wavering Mormon faith—to find love and create a life worth living.

This is a wonderfully entertaining memoir, which, though it does deal with a conditioning as misunderstood and frustrating as Tourette Syndrome, still manages to stay light and funny.

Josh, the author and narrator, is an engaging voice that catches our attention from the very first page. He has a self-deprecating humor that really makes the story flow well, without letting it get as heavy as it might otherwise be. He just has a way with phrases.

The way the book is set up, with anecdotes from Josh’s job as a librarian at the beginning of each chapter followed by a chronological narrative of his life, was particularly pleasant for me to read since it allowed us to get little tastes of the future. The writing itself was simple and efficient, with humor always leading the way.

I can easily recommend this book to everyone who loves memoirs and nonfiction books. Definitely a fun and enlightening read.

Follow Friday

Q: Happy Mother’s Day! Who is your favorite mom from fiction?

Eva from We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.
Okay, this one might seem a bit strange because the character is a pretty awful mother, but she is so interesting, so multi-faceted and dealing with a love-hate relationship with her son that it is hard to not enjoy her narrative. She shows a different side of motherhood, one not as rosy and pretty as we like to think about, and for that, she is my favorite.