books 20, 21, 22

housekeeping, marilynne robinson
rating:


i got this book for a plane ride back from massachusetts a few weeks ago. it's about ruth, the narrator, and her younger sister, lucille. left on their grandmother's doorstep by their mother, they are raised by a string of female relatives, starting with their grandmother, followed by two silly and not so competent great-aunts, finally ending up with sylvie, their mother's strange and emotionally remote sister. i don't even know how to describe this book, but i really enjoyed it. it's quiet and really kind of strange. it's not like very many other books i've read before.

looking for alaska, john green
rating:


oh, good, it's summer and i can go back to my old YA novel-reading ways. this one won the printz award at some point and i can see why. it's one of those books that's really only "YA" because the characters are seventeen. the scenarios could probably play out at any age, except for all of the boarding-school specific stuff. so pudge, the narrator, leaves sunny but friendless florida for boarding school in alabama where he becomes really good friends with: his roommate chip; takumi, this japanese guy who likes to spit the rhymes; and alaska, a pretty screwed up, but strikingly beautiful girl (apparently these are the kinds of girls who go to boarding school. it's always this way in various forms of mass media. i'll verify this stereotype with matt, who went to boarding school, though he didn't actually board there. i'll keep you posted). anyway, love and friendship and pranks and hijinx ensue, all backed by really solid writing.

i kind of love john green now, and i just got his second book from the library. i've also been "reading" the video blog that he maintains, along with his brother, hank. i'm really enjoying it. also, my friend sarah, who I consider to be some kind of YA royalty, has been on a panel or something with john green and says he's really nice. two thumbs up, then.

you don't love me yet, jonathan lethem
rating:


okay. i'm sorry. i do not like jonathan lethem. i really tried. i had a horrible experience with and she climbed across the table during my formative years and i haven't picked him up since then. actually, that's not true, i checked out motherless brooklyn from the public library at least four times but never actually read it. but this one tempted me with its slick cover and red lettering and i liked the title, too. but...

there was too much sleazy sex in it for me (and this is coming from someone who once religiously watched silk stalkings, okay?), too much hipness for me. i know people love jonathan lethem, but for me he is now officially one of the hip "jonathans" of contemporary fiction: jonathan franzen, jonathan safran foer, dave "might as well be named jonathan" eggers.

but obviously i kept reading it so that's something.