Book Review: Postmortem

TITLE: Postmortem
Book 1 in the Kay Scarpetta series
AUTHOR: Patricia Cornwell
CATEGORY: Adult
PUBLISHED: 1990
GENRE: Mystery
PREMISE: A medical examiner gets caught up in a case involving a serial killer.
MY REVIEW: There are several thoughts I had about this, not all of them very good. I do have to give the author credit where credit is due though: this is apparently the first forensic mystery. All the stuff like Bones or CSI...we have her to thank for that. That is no small feat, to create a mini-genre.
Unfortunately...it is VERY dated. It also prescribes to White Feminism (feminism that wants to empower white women, but doesn't give a damn about anyone else) from what I can see, which...yeah no. Also don't get me started on the cop the author stuck Kay with. If I want to smack the people solving the mystery, that is not a good thing.
It gets the plot done and is very readable...I just didn't enjoy it, at all. It's just way too dated in attitudes and honestly too slow of a mystery for my taste. This was just very much a case of not for me.
WHO SHOULD READ: Forensic mystery fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five very dated series

Book Review: Angels in America

TITLE: Angels in America
AUTHOR: Tony Kushner
CATEGORY: Play
PUBLISHED: 1993
GENRE: Contemporary/magical realism
PREMISE: In 1980s America, characters dealing with AIDS and various other personal dramas try to figure out things.
MY REVIEW: So the Tonys are upon us again. Which means me reading some of the revival plays. This particular play has gotten all sorts of nominations this year. After reading it, I absolutely understand why.
It's a very odd play, with lots of things going on and topics being discussed. If you liked Rent, this might be of interest to you. It deals with the same sort of ideas of mortality and how that effects people and AIDS and its influence in the 80s. I personally, really liked it. Its got a sense of humor that really speaks to me (Prior is everything). However, the odd way this play is told...I have a feeling it's one of those things that will be an acquired taste. You either will really like it...or you won't.
For those curious about the other plays that are on Broadway that I'll hopefully be reading soon: Three Tall Women by Edward Albee (I'm going to try and read Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? first though), The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill, and Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw.
WHO SHOULD READ: Fans of Rent, Theater nerds
MY RATING: Four out of Five interesting stories

Book Review: Track of the Cat

TITLE: Track of the Cat
Book 1 in the Anna Pigeon series
AUTHOR: Nevada Barr
PUBLISHED: 1993
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Mystery
PREMISE: A park ranger discovers the dead body of a co-worker and investigates her murder...
MY REVIEW: I should probably warn you all now: I've decided to go back to my read through the library project. This year I'm doing the B authors. So you'll likely be seeing a lot of random titles in the future. Even more random picks then what I usually do.
This series has been on my list for some time now. I know it's a pretty popular one. I...just found it okay to be honest. It's pretty dated in some stuff. For instance when it's discovered that the dead woman has had an affair with another woman, it's treated as this huge scandalous thing. Then one character tries to say only religious folk get upset about stuff like that. Which...um....no. Sadly, it's not just religion that can make people homophobic. Sometimes people are just jerks. I'm a little surprised the author would think that during the nineties, when homophobia was rampant (there was a big resurgence of it when AIDS started happening). Then there was a lot of other things that just made me sigh heavily.
Mystery wise...this was honestly just okay. Anna as a main character...had her moments. Everything else about the book...was just ho hum for me. It's a nice mystery, but that's about it. I'm honestly probably not going to bother with the rest of the books. I didn't feel any particular attachment to any of the characters.
WHO SHOULD READ: mystery fans, those who like books dealing with wildlife/nature
MY REVIEW: Three and a half out of Five okay mysteries

Book Review: Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

TITLE: Dreams From My Father-A Story of Race and Inheritance
AUTHOR: Barack Obama
PUBLISHED: 1995
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
GENRE: Memoir/Biography
PREMISE: Written before he became POTUS, Barack Obama tells the story of coming to terms with his heritage.
MY REVIEW: This is one of those books that has been on my TBR list for quite awhile now. My library happened to have it this past week, so I picked it up.
This book was written before Obama became Senator and deals with the period where he was a community planner. There is also a lot of talk about race and his experiences with it (hence all the people getting mad over it). It talks a lot about his time coming to grips with his heritage.
This was a very interesting memoir. It's not the best one I've ever read. It stops too abruptly at the end. But overall, this was a very decent read.
WHO SHOULD READ: Obama fans, people interested in presidential biographies
MY RATING: Four out of Five living presidents whom I really miss

Book Review: The Vagina Monologues

TITLE: The Vagina Monologues
AUTHOR: Eve Ensler
CATEGORY: Play, Non-Fiction
PUBLISHED: 1996 (I had the 10th anniversary edition published in 2006)
GENRE: Essays?
PREMISE: A print version of a play that features women telling stories related to their vagina.
MY REVIEW: So, I recently decided to join Emma Watson's Our Shared Shelf. I half-heartedly did it last year because I had so many books on my list last year and I wasn't sure how much I would like what was chosen for the book club (the pitfalls of any book club, lets face it) and while one I will never read (Caitlin Moran is transphobic, I'm not giving her my reading time) I liked the inclusive variety of reads, so I'll be following along this year. Plus, it fits in nicely with my get the feminist reads done goal this year.
So...I heard about the Vagina Monologues. There's probably not a theater nerd or feminist who hasn't. I also knew the basic premise of it. I also get terribly amused watching the general public lose their collective minds every time some theater or stage dares to do this play. Man, people really are scared of the word vagina, aren't they?
If you're one of the people who gets super uncomfortable with that word...well, this probably won't be for you. Not only is it terribly blunt about the word vagina, it is blunt about sex. Sometimes explicitly so. It also is blunt about childbirth, abuse, rape, and a whole lot of other issues surrounding the vagina. Now, I have heard the claims about this play being transphobic. I'm...not sure about that one. I mean, yeah it does talk an awful lot about vaginas, but there is also a monologue in it from trans women so it does try to be inclusive. But I also suspect that was a late edition to this new version I got, because it's the only trans monologue in the bunch. Same with the one monologue from a non-white person. So...it tries to be inclusive...but I'm not so sure it succeeds.
This is one of those reads that I've found gets a lot of different reactions. I've seen some really positive reviews, some really negative reviews, and a lot of reviews that range somewhere in between. I think it's one of those things that whether you like it, will honestly just depend on you as a person. Me, I...like the intent of it. Some monologues were better then others. I suspect it gets more impact when you see it on stage. I'm smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt so the odds of there ever being a production here of it are...slim, to say the least.
WHO SHOULD READ: Feminists, theater nerds
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five feelings about how vagina should not be a dirty word

Book Review: Girl With a Pearl Earring

TITLE: Girl With a Pearl Earring
AUTHOR: Tracy Chevalier
PUBLISHED: 1999
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Historical Fiction
PREMISE: A historical fiction imagining of who the girl in Girl With a Pearl Earring was and her life.
MY REVIEW: My interest in this book mostly comes from the fact that I adore art history. Also, this painting is beautiful and I find the whole practice of thinking about the lives of the models in art pieces interesting. But, just because it's interesting...doesn't always mean it'll make an interesting book. Unfortunately, that's the case here, because this book was frankly dull.
The historical detail is top-notch. The author also creates very vivid settings. The story is also quite believable for all that it's made up. But it's just very slow. Vermeer doesn't factor in very much and I personally didn't care for the relationship between him and Griet. It does give interesting insight to the artist but that's about it. Story-wise...this isn't particularly mind blowing.
It's a clever idea. I just don't think it's spectacular. Having seen the movie, this is one of the few cases where it makes a better movie then it does a book. At least with the movie you get pretty costumes and sets to distract you from the fact that the story is very very slow. It's a short book. It's actually less then two hundred and fifty pages. But those two hundred and fifty pages felt like they were crawling by and that's...not a good thing. I only recommend this if you are a big art history nerd. Because if you aren't, the chances are very good that you'll be bored.
WHO SHOULD READ: Historical Fiction fans, art history fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five yawns

Book Review: The Virgin Suicides

TITLE: The Virgin Suicides
AUTHOR: Jeffrey Eugenides
PUBLISHED: 1993
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: A group of boys recounts the summer a group of sisters in their neighborhood all commit suicide.
MY REVIEW: This book has been sitting on my TBR list for quite some time now. I finally got it out of the way. This book is a perfect example of "it's not you, it's me". Because that's basically how I felt about it.
I understood what the author was trying to do. It was clever even. The writing is kind of beautiful in a way. I even understand why lots of lit folks have pounced on this book and have billed it as the best thing ever. If you're big into serious lit, this will probably please you a lot. Me, I can take or leave serious lit. It depends on the serious lit. This particular one, I just found dreadfully dull. Beautiful writing. I'm sure middle-aged white guys will probably feel lots of nostalgia for it. But I am not a middle-aged white guy, so...sorry I pretty much yawned my way through this book.
But, I seem to be in the minority on this one. So I strongly suspect this was very much a case of "it's not you, it's me". So if you are a fan of serious lit that likes to wax poetic about suburb childhoods, maybe this one is for you. I don't know. I just know it definitely wasn't for me. I will still be trying Middlesex though. Eugenides writing is great and from what I've gathered, that book is much better then this.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of the Stand By Me movie, middle-aged white guys, serious literature fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five yawns

Book Review: Chocolat

TITLE: Chocolat
Book 1 in the Chocolat series
AUTHOR: Joanne Harris
PUBLISHED: 1999
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Magical realism, drama
PREMISE: A woman and her daughter come to a small town and cause a stir with her chocolate store.
MY REVIEW: This is one of the few instances where I saw the movie before I saw the book. I've seen the movie dozens of times, it's actually one of my favorite films. I don't know why I've put off reading the book for so long. But recently the movie was available on Netflix, it reminded me there was a book, and Joanne Harris has been busy being awesome on Twitter lately so I thought it was high time I read it.
This is one of the few instances where a book hasn't ruined a film for me. True, there are a few things different in the film. But for the most part, they keep the main plot of the story and issues of the story the same. The book also takes care of the one issue of cultural appropriation that I had with the film because in the book, it doesn't exist. Vivienne just has a gift with chocolate and it's never made into the slightly racist stereotyped route that the film went into. I love the movie, but those bits have always bothered me.
The book more or less follows the plot of the movie, with just a little less romance and more character focus. Personally, I found the book's version of the story more realistic then the movie but that generally tends to be the way. Apparently there is a sequel out there. I'm not sure if I'm going to read it or not. We'll see.
WHO SHOULD READ: Chocolat movie fans, Sarah Addison Allen fans, magical realism fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five chocolates

Book Review: My Life in France

Title: My Life in France
Author: Julia Child
Category: Non-Fiction
Genre: Memoirs
Published: 1996
Premise: Julia Child talks about the years spent with her husband in France where she goes to cooking school and starts to write a cookbook...
My Review: This one is a little strange for me to review because I'm not sure how to rate it. Memoirs like this are going to have a specific set of audience and that audience is likely going to search this out only if they wish too.
So for that audience....this will be a good pick. If you want to know more about Julia Child and how she got her skills and how the book The Art of Mastering French Cooking came to be then this is probably the book for you. If you could care less about France or cooking or have little interest in Julia Child...then you probably wouldn't have picked this book up in the first place, but in case you did, you'll likely still be bored.
As a memoir it's pretty straight forward. Child has all the information organized and her descriptions of food and Paris itself are lovely. It's helped much by photographs that her husband and others have taken. So if you're interested in Julia Child and want to know about this period in her life, it's a good and informative read. If you have no interest...then you probably don't need to bother.
WHO SHOULD READ: Cooks, fans of Julia Child, memoir readers
MY RATING: Four out of Five pans

Book Review: Speak

Title: Speak
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Published: 1999
Category: YA
Genre: Realistic Fiction/drama
Premise: A girl goes to a school that hates her as she tries to get over being raped.
My Review: This is one of those books where whatever I have to say about a book is not really going to impact it much. This has been out for fifteen years now. I think it's fairly close to becoming a modern classic. Give it another five years or so.If you've gone to high school in the last decade or so you might even have read it for school.
I was in high school when this book came out and I don't really remember hearing much about it. I don't think it became what it is now until a year or so later. Honestly, a lot of nineties books in YA happened that way because the YA section was not the YA section back then. It was still rather small and not the powerhouse in sales that it is now so YA books were not pushed like they are now. That's probably why I missed this one (as well as a few other books like Perks of Being a Wallflower). Plus I went to school in the bible belt. My school did abstinence sort of sex-ed, you know they weren't about to let a book about date rape get in their libraries.
So that's how I missed this classic despite being the target audience for it when it came out. Now that I've read it, I'm kind of mad that I missed it. This book is important and should be read by every high schooler, especially boys and people who like to victim blame rape victims. I also am kind of impressed by how not dated it is. This was written fifteen years ago and doesn't feel dated at all. Mostly because the author doesn't go around trying to put in pop culture references or teen slang. Authors, please take notes.
WHO SHOULD READ: Laurie Halse Anderson fans, those that like books about serious subjects, anyone inclined to read it
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five near perfect books

Book Review: Thyme of Death

TITLE: Thyme of Death
Book 1 in the China Bayles series
AUTHOR: Susan Wittig Albert
PUBLISHED: 1992
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Cozy Mystery
PREMISE: A former lawyer who owns a shop gets involved when an apparent suicide of a close friend is in fact a murder.
MY REVIEW: So, here's my weekly read the through the library find. I...wasn't that wild about this one. To be honest, it's entirely me. There's nothing really WRONG about the book. It was just a bunch of little things that bugged me that kept me from enjoying it.
For one...it's pretty dated, particularly in attitude. I can absolutely tell a middle-aged white conservative lady wrote this. And no, there's nothing wrong with being a middle-aged white conservative lady. But it did mean that I spent a majority of the book wanting to bang my head on the wall at some of the nonsense going on in the book. For instance there's a conversation about guns that makes me cringe. I'm trying to keep in mind that this woman is from Texas and she wrote this pre-Columbine and not in this day and age where there's a shooting every damn week. But it did make me groan nonetheless (I'm pro-gun control. No, I don't want to take away your precious guns, but you can't honestly tell me you need to take a gun into a freaking Target).
Then there's the air of judgement that tended to come every time China spoke about someone who didn't behave "appropriately". This someone was almost always a woman. I also can't help but notice how strange it is that everyone in this town (a college town, mind you, not some small Stars Hollow ville place) was white. Literally, everyone. Oh, and don't get me started on the treatment of the revelation that the victim was a lesbian. It made it out to be some scandalous thing, and then the author did the preference bs. Being LGBT is not a preference/lifestyle choice people. Being LGBT is a part of who that person is. They do not choose it. Basically, this book was trying to be feminist (or what the author thought feminism was at the time), but really it kind of failed. Miserably. That's not even going into the fact that the main character BURNS EVIDENCE AT THE END. What self-respecting former lawyer burns evidence? I don't care if you're trying to protect someones image, you don't freaking do that.
Now, this series is still going on apparently, so for all I know the author has changed stuff and fixed the problematic things (people can change their viewpoints, it happens). However, I don't particularly care enough to find out as other then getting annoyed at the bad feminism, I was pretty bored through out this really predictable mystery.
WHO SHOULD READ: conservative cozy mystery fans
MY RATING: Two and a half out of Five yawns

Book Review: Fire Bringer

TITLE: Fire Bringer
AUTHOR: David Clement-Davies
PUBLISHED: 1999
GENRE: Young adult, adventure, quest story, fantasy
PREMISE: There are troubled times among the deer and a prophecy tells of someone who will bring peace.
MY REVIEW: My problem with this book isn't that it's badly written. I do actually think the author has talent in that he does great great world building and I have no problem picturing what is going on. My problem is however the storyline and characters. More specifically, it lacked these things.
The storyline is pretty much like every hero's journey story you've ever read: there's a prophecy, destined to bring peace, evil guy to overthrow yadda yadda. To be blunt, there's nothing new in this other then the fact that it's deer instead of humans. As for the characters...they didn't have much personality and being deer it was hard to relate to them and thus it was also kind of hard for me to really care about them in the long run.
But that's just me, I'm pretty sure I'm not the target audience for this book. Honest though, I'm not entirely sure WHO the target audience for this book is and am not sure who to rec it to except for maybe fans of Watership Down. So it's not a totally horrible book...it just lacks something that makes me say it's a must read.
WHO SHOULD READ: Not really sure...maybe if you liked Watership Down
MY RATING: Two and a half out of Five deer

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