books 54, 55, 56, 57, 58

the fruits of my last hurrah before the semester began.

king dork, frank portman


one of my favorite books so far this year. a smart and funny look at high school, with a 'mystery' threaded through it. apparently this author is some sort of big shot musician, but, as you may know about me, if it's not sleater-kinney or something sleazy and electronic, i'm unlikely to know about it. anyway. i recommend this book! the main character is tom henderson, who's kind of an outcast, and who stumbles upon his late father's books from high school while trying to find a copy of catcher in the rye to read for school. and it's about a lot of other things, too. it's categorized as "young adult," because the narrator's fifteen, but there's really not much else that's young adult about it.

pretties, scott westerfeld


i felt a little bit more eh about this, the second book in the uglies trilogy, than i did about the first. extreme overuse of the word "bogus." but still, a nice, fast-paced read. tally got the surgery and became a "pretty" so that a scientist she met back in uglies can try out a "cure" on her. these books are like sci-fi-lite. sci-fi for teenaged girls. with pretty covers. honestly i read this over a week ago so i forget whatever it is that i meant to say about it.

the keep, jennifer egan


okay, so here's the book i've been waiting for all summer. i really liked most of it, but i'm in absolute agreement with bookslut about the ending. it's about two cousins, who had a bad experience when they were teenagers, and who reunite as adults to help renovate this mysterious eastern european castle. and it's about a guy in prison, writing a manuscript in a writing seminar. and it all comes together. it's so creepy and nicely layered but then there's just this piece at the end that seemed tacked on, like maybe the publisher was afraid people wouldn't "get it" or something. anyway, still worth reading, as are all of egan's books.

kiffe kiffe tomorrow, faiza guene


i've been pretty consistenly impressed by salon's fiction recommendations lately, and this was no exception. the narrator is a fifteen year old girl named doria living in the projects outside of paris, the daughter of north african immigrants. her father went back to morocco when doria was younger to marry a peasant woman so that he could have a son. and now doria and her mother are struggling, trying to exist on welfare and the crappy pay from the mother's housekeeping job at a hotel. sometimes depressing but with some optimistic notes that managed to be non-cheesy. i absolutely hate the author because she wrote this in college and is now a big famous international book-star. but at least she grew up in the housing projects outside of paris as well, so she's not posturing too much.

memoirs of a muse, lara vapnyar


eh. a russian girl who learns about dostoevsky's muses early on decides that her goal in life is to be a muse for a great author. she moves from russia to new york city, meets an accomplished american author, moves in with him, and quits her job to become a muse. well-written, but a little slow for my current taste. also, i guess i thought there would be more about dostoevsky than there was.