Book Recs (and Warnings): Read in 2014

[crickets]

Wherein I recommend and/or warn you about some of the awesome/terrible things I read in 2014!

Comments

[blighted_star]

Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline | I was recommended this book by one of my library compatriots. It was not for me. Maybe it's a good book actually and I just have bad taste? Maybe?

Oh....I was going to read this. I think I might still give it a try but I won't be in a rush to read it.

My Friend Dahmer, Derf Backderf | This is my first graphic novel. It was written by a classmate of Jeffrey Dahmer's that is all about Dahmer's high school days and pre-cannibal ways. He was in no way "just a normal kid." This book kind of stuck with me because I find myself thinking about it a lot after reading.

I never read a graphic novel before, but I will give this a try. Sounds like a really interesting premise.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematorium, Caitlin Doughty | This book is a memoir written about the author's time working for a crematory -- it is exactly as morbid as it sounds but thankfully her tone makes it palatable. This book has completely made me think burial/death rituals in modern America. I am

[crickets]

Regarding Orphan Train. I have a sense that this is a "just not my kind of book" situation. I barely even remember most of the plot but I remember vividly being bored by it, and being glad it was over.

My Friend Dahmer was one that was reviewed by Literary Disco and a friend of mine on goodreads had added it to her to-reads list, I can't remember which came first. But I remember going to the goodreads page and reading a hilarious review of the book and I was sold. I am not exactly a graphic novel convert as a result, but this was super fascinating!

If you end up liking Smoke... and what Doughty has to say about the "death industry" then you should know that the author has a youtube channel apparently. I haven't watched any of her videos but I keep meaning to check them out.

[blighted_star]

Did you get My Friend Dahmer through Barnes & Noble?

I think I'm going to read Smoke after the current book I am reading, Oxygen by Carol Cassella. They almost fit together because Oxygen is about an anesthesiologist whose patient 8 year old patient dies during surgery.

[crickets]

I got it from the public library actually.

Oxygen sounds sad. How is it so far?

[eponine119]

Someone else who didn't care for Code Name Verity? Right on.

I added several of these to my to-be-read-someday pile.

[crickets]

I just. I don't know it sounded so exciting! I was really looking forward to reading it and I just... yeah. Did not care for it is a good way to put it.

Hope you got some recs you end up liking in the end!

[weatheredlaw]

ohhh my gosh Wild is going to be a great read, if you like Strayed's other work you'll definitely love it. It's one of those books that caused like a tiny shift in my world view, I just saw things differently for a while. It's an incredible story, I hope you enjoy it.

[crickets]

I am excited to read it. (And then I can watch the movie, which I wanted to see but didn't because I wanted to read the book first!)

[sometimesartist]

You know what? All I expect from a celebrity memoir is to be entrained for a moment this is why I'd put Yes, Please on the list of things I loved.

As for Eleanor & Park I really liked it for what it is. YA fiction about which I do not have to think to hard. I really thought it was adorable. I've also read Attachments by Rainbow Rowell and I thought that was really meh in comparison.

[crickets]

I think I've just read too many celeb/comedian memoirs and I generally find them super fluffy and more of a marketing thing than anything. The funny thing is that I think I've loved Yes, Please more than any of the others, but despite loving it THE MOST THE MOST I still felt unfulfilled. I decided of course never to read any ever again. (Which of course explains why I just finished Steve Martin's Born Standing Up.... ? Haha!)

I guess I just felt like I wanted more from E&P based on the hype around both it and the author. Knowing Attachments was "meh" just makes me feel better for taking her off my reading list. Maybe eventually I'll give in, who knows. I have heard a lot of praise and criticism for Fangirl and am slightly curious where I would fall on that line but I'm not sure I'm curious enough to find out! Haha.

[sometimesartist]

Ahh, that makes perfect sense to me.

Yeah man... I have Fangirl on my bookshelf but after Attachments I was like... meh. I don't wanna read that now. I need to finish my current book though I've been trying to read it all month and then I always opted for sleep on the train instead. Ooops.

[crickets]

What are you reading? Or rather... not reading? Haha.

[waltzmatildah]

I've only read two of these, The Fault in Our Stars (did not like, I wrote "hated" here first, but that feels too strong. Maybe unoriginal, mediocre, manipulative, over-hyped and, ultimately boring would be better? Obviously served by the Magical Penis of the writer. Obviously), and the one about Memorial Hospital in NO. I agree with you so hard on how jaw-dropping the research is! And, I'm kinda in awe of the author given she is ALSO an MD!!

[crickets]

For some reason I really got into the characters in TFIOS. I thought he did a decent job at that. I agree the story is nothing new, and had all this meta within it about "cancer books" that seemed to be saying "this is not just another cancer book" which was funny because it really kind of was. (Not that I've read a ton of cancer books, but enough.) But a few years ago I tried reading Looking for Alaska and couldn't get into it so I just don't think I'll be picking up any of his other titles.

There was a book I had to read in my freshman year in college. It was A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr about cancer-causing pollutants in a town's water supply. There was a movie a while back with John Travolta. Anyway, again this is one of those NF books that just BLOWS my mind with the research that had to go into it. Insane. What I really loved about Memorial was the narrative feel of it in many scenes. It was like she was there. Incredible. I totally forgot about her being an MD. You're right. Wow. Give that woman a gold star.

[waltzmatildah]

What I really loved about Memorial was the narrative feel of it in many scenes. It was like she was there. Yes! This!! I thought it was so freaking well written, not just factually, but stylistically and dramatically and just, yes. It was fabulous.

And I think I've seen that movie (A Civil Action), but not read the book. Perhaps I should check it out.

[crickets]

I think that's what In Cold Blood and Memorial have in common. There's "literary non-fiction" and then there are those books. They go above and beyond the call.