As I sat down to start writing my review for today, I realized I have a bunch of books in the queue that I just don’t have a lot to say about. They all happen to be fiction, which is probably because I’m out of practice writing fiction reviews. I also didn’t take take any notes on these books, which made writing long reviews impossible.
I kept all of these to two paragraphs (super short for me!), so if you have more specific questions about any of the books, leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them as soon as I can.
Book Review
For this month my Madison-area book club decided to do a book and movie night centered around Tom Perrotta’s 1998 book Election, which was made into a film starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon in 1999. I’d seen the movie at least once before, but honestly couldn’t remember much (anything, really) about it, so I think I went into the book without many expectations. And sadly, I wasn’t especially impressed with the book. I didn’t dislike it, but I wasn’t in love with it either.
One Sentence Summary: “This entertaining account of a literary and pop culture phenomenon tells how [Gone With the Wind] was developed, marketed, distributed, and otherwise groomed for success in the 1930s, and the savvy measures taken since then by the author, her publisher, and her estate to ensure its longevity.” — IndieBound.
One Sentence Review: Although a little heavily focused on the legal issues surrounding Gone With the Wind, the book is a great read for fans of the original or about the role bestselling books can play in popular culture.
One Sentence Summary: In 1933, the first year of Hitler’s reign in Germany, a mild-mannered professor was appointed the American ambassador to Berlin and became one of the first witnesses to the atrocities soon to come in Europe.
Two Sentence Review: I’m drawing a blank right now… In the Garden of Beasts is a good book and I enjoyed reading it. Enough said?
Why I Read It: Erik Larson is one of those big narrative nonfiction writers, so when I saw he was speaking at BEA about his new book, I knew I had to read it.
One Sentence Summary: After a pleasure flight of enlisted American men and women crashes in an uncharted part of New Guinea, a dramatic rescue is organized to save the survivors who are living amid a prehistoric tribe that calls the valley home.
One Sentence Review: Lost in Shangri-La exemplifies the best qualities of strong narrative nonfiction and was truly unputdownable.
One Sentence Summary: After getting laid off from his job, workaholic journalist Lee Kravtiz decides to spend a year reconnecting with his past and the people he wronged along the way.
One Sentence Review: A year of dealing with unfinished business should have conflict, yet this memoir felt a little too rosy to me.
Why I Read It: I’m curious about memoirs where people make a conscious decision to change their life, so this seemed like it could be up my alley.
One Sentence Summary: “The book centers on the emotionally challenged Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman, a 24-year-old telephone switchboard operator who has issues about whether or not she’s real.” — Wikipedia.
One Sentence Review: In what I believe is probably typical DFW style, The Broom of the System is laugh-out-loud funny, exasperating, confusing, and thought provoking all at the same time.
One Sentence Summary: When the bodies of eleven illegal immigrants were found in a train car in Iowa in 2002, authorities and the victims’ families demanded answers.
One Sentence Review: Train to Nowhere is a great “back to basics” nonfiction book — clean writing, relevant research, and a hint of the larger context of immigration policy.
Review: I read Nothing Left to Burn midway through the Read-a-Thon and know that I enjoyed it, but I’m having a complete brain malfunction trying to talk about it. I was impressed with the way Varner was able to build tension in the story even though at least part of the mystery — his grandfather’s history as an arsonist — is disclosed early in the book. There’s still a strong tension as Varner uncovers the clues and puts together the stories of his past.
In 1962, Margaret “Peggy” Marcus, an American Jew living in New York, picked up her life and moved to Lahore, Pakistan, a convert to one of the more political and extreme forms of Islam. She took the name Maryam Jameelah and went to live with the Mawlana Abul Ala Mawdudi, her mentor and man who helped lay the intellectual ground for radical Islam to take root.
In The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism, Deborah Baker attempts to reconstruct Maryam’s life through an extensive collection of letters, drawings, and political writing archived at the New York Public Library.
