Elegance

By: Kathleen Tessaro

Hmmm.

Hmmmmmmmmm.

Elegance is funny...yet...it's not a book I would read again.

Let's start with a summary. Elegance is the story of Louise, a woman in her thirties who is tired of being the wife who never has sex with her husband. In a desperate attempt to add some "pizazz" back into her life in any way, shape, or form, Louise picks up a copy of Elegance: A Complete Guide for Every Woman Who Wants to Be Well and Properly Dressed on All Occasions at a secondhand bookstore. By following this A to Z guide on how to be elegant and fashionable, Louise hopes to be able to love herself more so that her husband will in return. Instead, her plan backfires and causes her even more marital problems, leaving Louise with more changes and decisions to make in her life than she ever expected she'd have to deal with at her age.

Before I go into my "why this novel wasn't for me" spiel, I do have to note that the author's use of excerpts from Genevieve Antoine Dariaux's Elegance are a nice touch. This actual guide to elegance was published back in the 1960s, and had it not been for Tessaro's Elegance, I never would have known such a thing existed. So this does add something extra to the novel--it makes it a little more unique, I suppose.

Now it's a well-written novel and I do like the humor in it. I'll be very honest here--I was about to strangle this character Louise every page I turned. She's an annoying narrator because she's like that girl who, no matter what everyone else in the room is talking about and no matter what subject is being discussed, is all about "me me me me me." In this novel, Louise is so fixated on what people think of her and who likes her and who doesn't, yet whenever anyone thinks negatively of her it's because she did something to cause it. I had a hard time getting into a novel where the character creates all her own problems and expects pity from the readers on her behalf.

So what I'm saying is: good novel, but I wish it would have been written in the third person.

Hey Nostradamus!

By: Douglas Coupland

Where do I start?

Interesting novel.

I've read some of Douglas Coupland before, and I could never really get into it. To be honest, what really attracted me to this novel was the title. The book turned out to be a good one, although it has one of those endings where you kind of scratch your head and ask, "So what now?"

The book could technically be about a lot of things--religion, family, love, crime--but mostly it's about a guy named Jason and how the events of his life unfold after a school shooting during his high school years. The story is told through the eyes of four different people: Jason himself; Cheryl, his "secret" wife who is killed in the school shooting; Heather, the woman dating Jason when he disappears some time in his 30s; and Reg, Jason's uber-religious father who realizes too late how much he loves his son.

The thing that really made this novel likable is that each section, or chapter rather, has its own climax. There are so many twists and unexpected events throughout the whole novel that the story itself didn't really have one climactic moment...you're pretty much glued to the book the whole way through.

I just wish the ending would have been a little more--what's the word I'm looking for here?--resolved. As I said earlier, all I could do after reading the last sentence was wonder what in the world was supposed to happen next. But, I guess everyone has to judge for themselves.

The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud

By: Ben Sherwood

My first impression of this book was that it was...well, weird.

It took me about 50 pages to even understand where it was going. But once I passed that little hump, I decided it was a pretty decent story. And by the end, I decided it was actually a great story.

The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud is, in a nutshell, about a guy who can see spirits while they are "in between," or between the stages of dying and moving on to the next level, because of a promise he made to his brother Sam before he died in a car wreck. He works in the cemetery in which Sam is buried and visits his brother's spirit every night at sundown. While working one day he meets a woman named Tess, who agrees to go on a date with him. They begin what seems to be a perfect relationship, when Charlie hears that Tess has been lost in a potential sailing disaster that happened days before Charlie had even ever met her. With the realization that he might be falling in love with a spirit living in the "in between," Charlie must try to find Tess at sea before her spirit moves on to the next level.

This book will make you smile, cry, laugh, cry, tense up, and cry again. In that order.

This is the first book I've read by Ben Sherwood...it was actually the first time I'd ever seen his name. I was a little disappointed to find out that he's only written one other novel. His writing is beautiful, yet simple, and he knows how to work your emotions so well that you actually feel drained (in a good way) by the time you put the book down.

So, I guess I'll grab that one other novel he wrote at some point, since I liked this one so well. It's definitely one I'd recommend.

There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell

By: Laurie Notaro

I think I have a love-hate relationship with this book.

It's hilarious. I laughed all the way through. Laurie Notaro is clever, witty, and great with metaphors. Her writing style is definitely unique, and I will absolutely read more of her books.

But at the same time, I feel like the last 100 pages were very rushed, like she wasn't sure where she was going with the story. It was as if she got stuck and couldn't find her way out. I was confused by the end, where she leaves a remaining mystery that never even comes close to being solved.

The story revolves around Maye, who moves with her husband Charlie to a fictional town in Washington comprised of uber-liberal, socially picky vegetarian hippies who are pretty much impossible to befriend. As Maye continually fails to make a decent friend who can compare with the ones she had in her home in Phoenix, she decides to enter the Sewer Pipe Queen Pageant, a quirky "beauty pageant" type event open to contestants of all ages and genders. Along the way she starts learning about mysterious events of the town's past and puts some puzzle pieces together about all of it that no one else has ever noticed before.

The novel has a good balance of funny moments, intense moments, and sad moments (although for the most part I just giggled the whole time). Laurie Notaro also does an outstanding job with her characterization...this is the first novel I've read in a long time where the characters really came to life and all appeared to be truly unique within the whole story. I was amazed by how wonderfully she accomplished this.

Again, I was personally a little disappointed with the ending--it just doesn't feel 100% complete--but it isn't something so horrible I couldn't read the book again and enjoy it. Overall, I think it's a novel worthy of reading.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

By: Kim Edwards

Just a small warning: this novel will tear your heart to pieces from beginning to end.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter is about the affects a 25-year secret has on a family. A man, David Henry, also a doctor, delivers his wife's twins during the middle of a snowstorm. When he recognizes right off the bat that his daughter has Down's syndrome, he commands his nurse to take the baby to a special institution. When his wife Norah wakes after giving birth, he panics and tells her their daughter has died. The nurse, however, can't bring herself to put the baby in the institution, and instead she moves away and raises the baby as her own.

From the very first page to the very last, I almost felt ashamed to smile. There is hardly a happy moment in the book...however, the novel sucked me in and I kept wanting to know what would happen next, how much worse can things possibly get for these characters?

Although the novel is emotionally draining, the story comes together really well. It's actually easy to relate to the characters because--for once--everything in their lives is not peachy keen. They experience heartache, regret, sorrow, loss. They all have plans for themselves and for most of them, things don't work out quite as they had anticipated. And most of all, the story focuses on what a "little white lie" can do to someone, how it can completely change the entire path of life.

Angels & Demons

By: Dan Brown

I'll be completely honest. When I read the synopsis on the back of this novel, I almost put the book down and didn't read it. A story about historic Roman art, futuristic scientific discoveries, and the Illuminati is not my type of book.

But now, several hundred pages later, I'm laughing at myself over that. Not only did I love Angels & Demons, I might even call it one of my favorite novels.

I know nothing about the Illuminati; very little about Catholicism; close to nothing about historic art; and pretty much nada when it comes to physics and chemistry. While reading this novel, I learned quite a bit about a lot of things with which I was unfamiliar, and at the same time I watched a complicated and intense story about murder and faith unfold.

I haven't read The Da Vinci Code yet. I know Dan Brown uses historic paintings and artifacts to create an entirely fictional yet intriguing and convincing story. Angels & Demons works the same way; Dan Brown obviously possesses insane amounts of knowledge about European history--especially when it comes to art--and he creates a story so convincing I almost felt the need to look up some information on the internet to make sure it wasn't true. A-mazing.

This is definitely a book I'll have to read again in the future sometime...yes, it was really that good. And I have to say, it would make a great movie. Maybe Dan Brown should look into becoming a screenwriter.

Cat Getting Out of a Bag and Other Observations

By: Jeffrey Brown

Hands down, most genius book I've ever read. It's a short book comprised of mostly comic-style cartoons about a kitty named Misty. They're not actual comics, however; there is usually no dialogue and Misty the cat is often the sole character in the "scenes." The book conveys everything weird that a typical housecat does, including:

-Cat attacking a pen while it is being used to write something.
-Cat running around the house with a crooked tail and an arched back while making a "mrooorwrwr!" noise.
-Cat asking to go outside, only to immediately turn around and ask to come back in.
-Cat sleeping for a long period of time, waking up and speed-cleaning itself in one spot on its body, and falling asleep again instantly.

Anyway, it's hilarious...that is, if you've ever lived with a cat. Every single cartoon I read made me keel over with laughter.