fiction

Started: 5/16/20
Finished: 5/19/20

It’s a book, not a movie, so while I would call it a rom-com, I suppose it’s more correctly chick lit.  It’s totally a rom-com, and it name-checks every rom-com out there because part of the plot is that it steals the meet-cutes from them.  And just like a rom-com, it was SO OBVIOUS who the love interest was that it was infuriating that no one else seemed to think so.

It was light, it was mostly cute, but it seemed to go a little longer than it had to.  I’d watch the movie, but I wouldn’t re-read the book.

Started: 5/2/20
Finished: 5/6/20

This book started out really cute, turned absurd, got serious, took a dark turn, and ended on the cute side again without taking into account the darkness.  The second half, especially the last little bit, felt like an exercise rather than a novel, so I can’t say I fully recommend it, at least not as an immersive novel.  On the other hand, it was a really interesting exercise in use of language, and the made up months and days made me laugh, especially toward the end.

Started: 9/23/19
Finished: 9/27/19

I almost put this book down several times out of, not boredom, but kind of a “this isn’t what I want to be reading right now” feeling.  I kept convincing myself I wanted to see where it was going.  It won the Pulitzer Prize by being about an author who dated a man who won the Pulitzer Prize  and who was trying to get his third book published.  It got rejected because no one wanted to read another book about a man wandering around his city coming to terms with his life.  What was this book about?  A man wandering the world coming to terms with his life.  I suppose I appreciate the lampshading, but at the same time, it’s kind of disgusting.

So…it was good, but not for me.  I finished it anyway.

Started: 5/8/19
Finished: 5/10/19

I’ve heard so much about this book while also learning absolutely nothing about it, so I really didn’t know what to expect.  It’s an interesting story, but I think I was looking for more to come out of it.  More…plot.  So I’m left feeling unsatisfied. Sort of “that’s it?”  I’m pretty sure that’s the fault of my expectations, though, and not of the book itself. I need more distance from it.

Started: 4/24/19
Finished: 4/25/19

Overall, I don’t think I liked this book.  I read it quickly, it drew me in pretty well, but it’s written from the point of view of this woman who never seems to have matured past college age.  She’s telling the story to someone, and her voice is irritating.  And her two great loves?  Also irritating.  I would not be friends with any of them, and oh my god, she’s just wrong.  I don’t think I felt this strongly about that when I finished it.  Given a week to let it sit, and yeah – I didn’t like it.