Summary:
The book follows a handful of boys as they observe the Lisbon girls, who live on their street. I think it's set sometime around the 60's, but it could be as late as the late 70's or early 80's even. The Lisbon girls are an enigma to the narrator and his friends, especially when they start killing themselves. It literally starts with the EMS showing up at the Lisbon house after the last girl kills herself, and then goes back to describe the rest.
Thoughts:
It's really rather boring to me, honestly. It's a love letter to the Lisbon girls. It feels like it's written by a man that's now fully grown, who saw the girls kill themselves when he was a child, maybe twelve or thirteen at most. The narrator never actually names himself, and doesn't ever say enough to describe exactly when or where this is set. I like to have an idea of when exactly a book takes place, and who's telling the story. Call me crazy. But I digress (a little).
The boys of the story are pretty much obsessed with the five Lisbon girls. The narrator talks about the first girl killing herself, and then spends the next hundred and fifty pages talking about the uproar of the town over it, and the decline of the house itself, and freakin' tree diseases. Bleh.
The layout of the book itself, too, is cumbersome. There are five chapters in the book. The third one alone is 92 pages. And between the first suicide and the second, third, and fourth, (which all happen on the same night in the story) there are 183 pages. There's only 249 pages in the book. The way the narrator tells the story, you think that another suicide is coming any second, if only he would stop talking about what the house looks like now, and then it all happens right at the end.
I really didn't like the book, and I can't imagine why someone would. I just found it incredibly boring. I got the book through Paperback Swap, and have been waiting for it for literally months. I'm now wishing I hadn't bothered with it, because it really wasn't worth the wait.
28 down, 22 to go!
Pages: 249
Genre: general fiction
Grade: D+
Would I Recommend?: No. Straight up.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Making Mischief (Elizabeth Young)
Summary:
Abby saw something at 16 that she very much shouldn't have. The boy her cousin, Rachel, had a crush on was getting busy with one of her cousin's best friends right in Rachel's backyard. She never told Rachel, though she did tell another cousin, Fleur. Once they grew up, the boy has become a man (named Guy) and has started dating Fleur (not Rachel). Fleur begs Abby to keep an eye on Guy for her while Fleur couldn't be around. Abby found Guy to be very upstanding, and began to rekindle the tiny crush she had on him from when they were teens. But what's a girl to do when the guy she's got the hots for is dating family?
Thoughts:
A fun, easy read. Sure, the author's lazy for naming the main guy GUY. (Really? There's NO other names that would have fit this man??) But it's one of those stories that you hope she figures out the right way to go about things, and when she does, it's great. And the nice thing is that this one didn't just end when the romance bit resolved itself. It had a little bit of a happily ever after tagged on in the last chapter, which made me happy.
Pages: 332
Genre: Romance/chicklit
Grade: B+
Would I Recommend?: Sure, it was fun.
27 down, 23 to go!
Abby saw something at 16 that she very much shouldn't have. The boy her cousin, Rachel, had a crush on was getting busy with one of her cousin's best friends right in Rachel's backyard. She never told Rachel, though she did tell another cousin, Fleur. Once they grew up, the boy has become a man (named Guy) and has started dating Fleur (not Rachel). Fleur begs Abby to keep an eye on Guy for her while Fleur couldn't be around. Abby found Guy to be very upstanding, and began to rekindle the tiny crush she had on him from when they were teens. But what's a girl to do when the guy she's got the hots for is dating family?
Thoughts:
A fun, easy read. Sure, the author's lazy for naming the main guy GUY. (Really? There's NO other names that would have fit this man??) But it's one of those stories that you hope she figures out the right way to go about things, and when she does, it's great. And the nice thing is that this one didn't just end when the romance bit resolved itself. It had a little bit of a happily ever after tagged on in the last chapter, which made me happy.
Pages: 332
Genre: Romance/chicklit
Grade: B+
Would I Recommend?: Sure, it was fun.
27 down, 23 to go!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Murder of a Sweet Old Lady (Denise Swanson)
Summary:
Skye Dennison is back. She's been visiting her maternal grandmother every day for the past few weeks to get the family history from Grandma. One day, instead of finding her grandmother ready for more chatting, she finds her dead. The family thinks it's old age, but Skye doesn't think so, and she's right. Someone's poisoned Grandma. Skye makes it her mission to find out who killed Grandma, and manages to turn up old, long-forgotten family secrets in the process.
Thoughts:
Skye is a fairly good character, sure. And she's great at being nosy enough to solve a murder. But she is so not good with men. This was what annoyed me the most about this book. Sure, she had a crappy relationship with an ex, and she's "afraid that she's going to lose herself again like she did before." But she's a much different person now. Suck it up, get over it, because you've just lost a hunk who was really in love with you, because you wouldn't let him get to second base. Really? What are you, in high school again?
Otherwise, the crime fighting stuff was okay. It's an easy read, and semi-predictable. I had a feeling I knew what the Big Family Secret (tm) was long before anything was revealed. When you put certain clues together, which I can't say for fear of spoiling the book, it's a fairly obvious ending. But it's okay. I enjoyed most of it, and will probably keep reading, just to see if Skye can get the hell over herself. (Probably not, since she seems to be Swanson's version of a Mary Sue: a character that is based on the author who gets to live out the wacky hijinks the author can't in real life.)
Pages: 251
Genre: Mystery with a dash of romance
Grade: B-
Would I Recommend?: Yeah, it's not bad.
26 down, 24 to go!
Skye Dennison is back. She's been visiting her maternal grandmother every day for the past few weeks to get the family history from Grandma. One day, instead of finding her grandmother ready for more chatting, she finds her dead. The family thinks it's old age, but Skye doesn't think so, and she's right. Someone's poisoned Grandma. Skye makes it her mission to find out who killed Grandma, and manages to turn up old, long-forgotten family secrets in the process.
Thoughts:
Skye is a fairly good character, sure. And she's great at being nosy enough to solve a murder. But she is so not good with men. This was what annoyed me the most about this book. Sure, she had a crappy relationship with an ex, and she's "afraid that she's going to lose herself again like she did before." But she's a much different person now. Suck it up, get over it, because you've just lost a hunk who was really in love with you, because you wouldn't let him get to second base. Really? What are you, in high school again?
Otherwise, the crime fighting stuff was okay. It's an easy read, and semi-predictable. I had a feeling I knew what the Big Family Secret (tm) was long before anything was revealed. When you put certain clues together, which I can't say for fear of spoiling the book, it's a fairly obvious ending. But it's okay. I enjoyed most of it, and will probably keep reading, just to see if Skye can get the hell over herself. (Probably not, since she seems to be Swanson's version of a Mary Sue: a character that is based on the author who gets to live out the wacky hijinks the author can't in real life.)
Pages: 251
Genre: Mystery with a dash of romance
Grade: B-
Would I Recommend?: Yeah, it's not bad.
26 down, 24 to go!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Fatally Flaky (Diane Mott Davidson)
Summary:
Goldy Schultz is a caterer in Colorado dealing with the bridezillaest of brides, who likes to throw Goldy as many curve balls as she can. The biggest comes just two days before the wedding, when Billie Bridezillie tells Goldy she's changed the venue and added fifty more guests to the list. Oh, and Goldy is in the middle of working another wedding when she gets the news, a wedding in which not only does the estranged father of the bride shows up drunk and trying to get involved in the wedding, but the man who is supposed to be walking the bride down the aisle winds up dead in a ravine. The story follows Goldy as she tries to find out whodunnit, and as she grieves for someone else who winds up dead, too.
Thoughts:
It was kind of slow going. The author describes far too much having to do with the baking mess, and should focus more on actual story. The writing isn't bad, and I definitely didn't pick out the ending. I will say that it seemed to wrap up too easily, like even the author wasn't sure who did it in the end, and she didn't put out enough clues that would lead to the killer. That could be just me, though.
Pages: 382, unless you count the recipes, then 432.
Genre: Mystery, with a hint of "crazy bride!" thrown in, cookbook (last 30 pages of the paperback!!)
Grade: B-
Would I Recommend?: Wouldn't go out of my way to, but wouldn't dissuade anyone either.
25 down, 25 to go! Halfway point for the year's goal!
Goldy Schultz is a caterer in Colorado dealing with the bridezillaest of brides, who likes to throw Goldy as many curve balls as she can. The biggest comes just two days before the wedding, when Billie Bridezillie tells Goldy she's changed the venue and added fifty more guests to the list. Oh, and Goldy is in the middle of working another wedding when she gets the news, a wedding in which not only does the estranged father of the bride shows up drunk and trying to get involved in the wedding, but the man who is supposed to be walking the bride down the aisle winds up dead in a ravine. The story follows Goldy as she tries to find out whodunnit, and as she grieves for someone else who winds up dead, too.
Thoughts:
It was kind of slow going. The author describes far too much having to do with the baking mess, and should focus more on actual story. The writing isn't bad, and I definitely didn't pick out the ending. I will say that it seemed to wrap up too easily, like even the author wasn't sure who did it in the end, and she didn't put out enough clues that would lead to the killer. That could be just me, though.
Pages: 382, unless you count the recipes, then 432.
Genre: Mystery, with a hint of "crazy bride!" thrown in, cookbook (last 30 pages of the paperback!!)
Grade: B-
Would I Recommend?: Wouldn't go out of my way to, but wouldn't dissuade anyone either.
25 down, 25 to go! Halfway point for the year's goal!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Murder by Puffins (Donna Andrews)
Summary:
Meg Langslow is at it again. She and her new boyfriend, Michael, go to her aunt's house on a small island in Maine or somewhere, thinking that they will have a nice, quiet getaway. Instead, they get seasick on the boat thanks to a hurricane off the coast that just won't go away, and when they finally hit land and go to the aunt's house, they find not only Aunt Phoebe herself, but Meg's parents and brother as well. Meg and Michael try to get some relaxation (and avoid doing a million chores) by going out for a walk, but instead they find a local artist dead.
Thoughts:
Good story. Well written once again. It's a fun series, and I definitely plan on keeping up with it. Though around every turn, you do start wishing Meg could just get a break, and get some time without her crazy relatives... Though they are one of the best things about the book, so it's kind of a toss up.
Pages: 302
Genre: Mystery
Grade: A-/B+
Would I Recommend?: Absolutely.
24 down, 26 to go!
Meg Langslow is at it again. She and her new boyfriend, Michael, go to her aunt's house on a small island in Maine or somewhere, thinking that they will have a nice, quiet getaway. Instead, they get seasick on the boat thanks to a hurricane off the coast that just won't go away, and when they finally hit land and go to the aunt's house, they find not only Aunt Phoebe herself, but Meg's parents and brother as well. Meg and Michael try to get some relaxation (and avoid doing a million chores) by going out for a walk, but instead they find a local artist dead.
Thoughts:
Good story. Well written once again. It's a fun series, and I definitely plan on keeping up with it. Though around every turn, you do start wishing Meg could just get a break, and get some time without her crazy relatives... Though they are one of the best things about the book, so it's kind of a toss up.
Pages: 302
Genre: Mystery
Grade: A-/B+
Would I Recommend?: Absolutely.
24 down, 26 to go!
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