books 28+

okay, let's chip away at a few more while i briefly have internet access:

book 28
i love you, beth cooper, larry doyle
rating:


i was sad to see that alicia hated this so vehemently, because i enjoyed it a good bit. the main character, class valedictorian, professes his love to head cheerleader beth cooper in his valedictory speech. many graduation night shenanigans ensue. sure, it was a little superficial, but i liked the limited time frame (maybe about 12 hours?), which reminded me of dazed and confused and other movies whose titles i can't think of now. the big difference was that this one focused on just one plot line. maybe adding in a few more would have given it more texture. but still, i thought it was light and fun, and i consider it the perfect book to read when you're sitting in a driveway on a saturday morning, trying to get people to buy many of your earthly possessions in your parents' neighborhood's annual yard sale. have you ever participated in a yard sale? it's like an anthropological study.

book 29
dedication, emma mclaughlin and nicola kraus
rating:


those nanny diaries authors are at it again. i liked the nanny diaries when it came out, though i found some of the conventions the authors used vaguely annoying. i never read their second one, citizen girl, which i've heard described as "a book that needs to make up its mind. is it chick lit, or is it a feminist manifesto?" i think this one made up its mind, b/c i read it as pretty much 100% chick lit, with a little confusion thrown in at the end. okay, kate goes back to her hometown in vermont (why do i read so many books that take place in vermont?) to confront her high school boyfriend, jake, who left town w/o a word right before prom, and has since become a huge rock star by exploiting their very personal relationship in his lyrics. i liked the structure, which pretty consistently alternated a past chapter with a present chapter, starting pretty early on in kate's life. but the story fell flat for me. i did laugh out loud, and loudly, once, so i'm adding a headless 'bot just for that.

books 23+

matt and i are living with our respective parents for a month while we get ready for our big move. i've been here for two weeks now, but sheer laziness, coupled with my parents' crappy computer have conspired to keep me from updating. now i'm not sure if i can remember all of the books i've read, but i'll try. i've been keeping it nice and light:

book 23
promise not to tell, jennifer mcmahon
rating:


in some ways, this reminded me of gillian flynn's sharp objects: woman goes back to her hometown and all sorts of weirdness from her childhood comes out. kate returns to a small town in vermont so that she can decide what to do with her ailing mother. the first night she's there, a pretty grisly murder of a young girl occurs, which is eerily similar to the murder of kate's secret best friend when she was a girl. i found it pretty compelling but i had to knock some 'bots off because there was wayyyyy too much supernatural, ghosty stuff. the mystery wasn't too complicated but the story itself was overall pretty satisfying.

book 24
the year of fog, michelle richmond
rating:


my sister had this one at home, and she liked it so i thought i'd give it a shot. abby, a photographer in san francisco, babysits her fiance's daughter, emma, and basically loses her on the beach. over the next year or so, she becomes totally obsessed with the search for the little girl, even leaving the country to look for her. this started out really slowly for me, and finished up in a somewhat pat, cheesy way, though there were some things about the ending that i think richmond really did very well. i was interested in abby as a character, though i was relatively bored by everyone else, including her librarian neighbor who tries to teach her all about the history of memory, her fiance, and the little girl herself.

book 25
a model summer, paulina porizkova
rating:


okay, let me explain this. i saw paulina porizkova on the colbert report and found her to be pretty funny, so when my mom brought this book home from the library last week, i thought i'd give it a shot. i mean: sex, drugs, international modeling - what could go wrong? as it turns out, lots. not terrible, but very slow for a summer read.

book 26
innocent traitor: a novel of lady jane grey, alison weir
rating:


i loooooove historical fiction when i'm on vacation, and the tudors have always fascinated me. this novel is about lady jane grey, great-niece of henry viii, who becomes queen for nine days and becomes embroiled in a great battle for the crown. interesting catholic/protestant stuff, and lots of nice historical detail. weir is a historian, and this is her first attempt at fiction. so the background and context were solid, but the dialogue and the inner monologue of jane didn't sit right with me. especially her obsession with beheadings, which seemed very over the top considering that we know from the beginning that's how she'll meet her earthly end. sorry to ruin it for you, but you can learn as much from wikipedia.

book 27
dead clever, scarlett thomas
rating:


oh, i love scarlett thomas. even when her books are batshit crazy (i.e., the end of mr. y), her writing is really enjoyable. this is the first in a trilogy of mystery novels featuring heroine lily pascale. like the other scarlett thomas leading ladies i've come across, lily is smart, witty and neurotic, and holds a master's degree (just like THIS BLOG'S leading lady. hey, maybe that's why i like these books so much?). in this first installment, lily breaks up with her loser boyfriend and moves away from london to live with her mother and brother in devon, where she takes a position as a literature lecturer at a local university right after a student was brutally murdered. the mystery is convoluted, though i pretty much guessed who did it from the start. but that didn't keep me from really enjoying it. a perfect summer read for mystery lovers.


i've also finished books 28-31, but i'll save those reviews for another day. this is getting ridiculous.