The Tiger's Wife

Obreht, T. (2011). The tiger’s wife. New York, NY: Random House.

*I received this book for free as a first reads winner on goodreads.

Genre: Historical Fiction, Adult Fiction

Natalia, a doctor, shares stories that she remembers from her grandfather as she goes on a journey of her own to better understand her deceased grandfather and the fable of the tiger’s wife.

I was thrilled to begin reading this book because the premise of the story was enticing, touching, and I was interested in the bond between Natalia and her deceased grandfather. 

However, the slow story development kept me from being pulled into the story. It took me nearly six months to read more than a few pages at a time. And honestly, “slow” is a fairly nice term…painful is more accurate. Don’t get me wrong, Obreht is a great storyteller and the writing was much better than some of the authors I have read but The Tiger’s Wife lacked character development, cohesiveness, and emotion from Natalia. 

For me, the most meaningful aspect of the book was when Natalia shared her childhood memories of spending time with her grandfather and his stories, especially his tellings of the “deathless man”. Obreht’s approach to flip back and forth between Natalia’s present and the grandfather’s stories was a bit disjointed but it did reinforce the similarities of the two and their paths of doctor-hood (at the sake of the book’s flow and readability).

Disappointing. If I had to describe my reading experience of The Tiger’s Wife, disappointing would be the word. Natalia’s character is not deep enough to unravel a magical legend. Or maybe it is the writing that makes me feel this way…the sentences were good but they lose their value when placed together so poorly. Hmmm…regardless, I do think there is much to gain from reading this novel and I would recommend this book to anyone looking to read something challenging and different.

"Wither"

DeStefano, L. (2011). Wither: The chemical garden #1. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Genre: Dystopian Fiction, Young Adult

Rhine is 16. In her world, that means her life is almost over. Huh? Yep, her life is almost over. In this dystopian novel, geneticists are scrambling to find an antidote to cure a virus causing a 20-year lifespan that plagues the world’s youth. There is much conflict surrounding geneticists and their work because they caused this virus with their attempts to create a perfect race. Rhine’s parents, both geneticists, were killed in a bombing. Rhine and her twin brother, Rowan, are left in a poverty-stricken city forced to find odd jobs to survive. To make matters worse, young girls, like Rhine, are the targets of horrendous crimes as people seek to either rebuild the human race or rip it down to prevent even more suffering. 

And that’s just the opening. Rhine is kidnapped and bought as a bride to a wealthy man, Linden. His father is a sinister geneticist who will do everything in his power to keep Rhine under his control. Will Rhine be able to escape and find her way back to Rowan?

Reaction: Despite numerous warnings from others, I have to say that I really enjoyed DeStanfo's debut novel. Wither is beautifully and addictively written. I quickly became fond of Rhine and could understand her mixed emotions about her situation. She was kidnapped, torn from her brother and home, and forced into a polygamous marriage. Her sister-wives offer an interesting dynamic to the story as they cope with their generation's deadly virus, share their wealthy husband, and try to deal with the evil whims of Vaughn. At times, I wished I could have heard the inner thoughts of Rhine’s sister-wives. Rhine finds an unexpected love interest in the mansion that is her prison—for me, this was the highlight of the book. This unexpected love adds dimension to the plot and leads to a cliffhanger ending that will be continued in the next installment of this emotionally tragic, intriguing series. (Read in August 2011)

“Miss Dorothy and Her Bookmobile”

Houston, G. (2010). Miss Dorothy and her book mobile. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Genre: Memoir/Biography, Children’s Picture Storybook

Loving books and people, a young Dorothy knew right away that she wanted to be a librarian in a fine brick library--just like the one in her hometown. She went to college and library school but married and moved out to the beautiful country before she could be a librarian in a fine brick library. Despite this, Dorothy never stopped loving books and people and she continued to read and share books with friends. A group of those friends came together and just like that Dorothy was traveling all over the countryside in a green bookmobile sharing her love of books with everyone, young and old. She grew a little older and in time, a patron donated a fine white house for Dorothy to use as a library. Miss Dorothy was never able to run a fine brick library but she touched the lives of many as a traveling librarian in a fine bookmobile.

Heartfelt story with soft, serene illustrations emphasizing the caring nature of Miss Dorothy. I loved the letters shared from her now grown-up patrons. I was most fond of the message that although we may not end up fulfilling the dream we set for ourselves, we can still inspire others to pursue their dreams...as long as we are doing what we love.

"Jethro Byrd, Fairy Child"

Jethro Byrd, Fairy Child

Graham, Bob. (2002). Jethro Byrd, Fairy Child. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Genre: Fantasy, Children’s Picture Storybook 

Determined to find fairies, Annabelle searches for them outside in the weeds despite her father’s nay saying. Good thing too, because Annabelle soon finds a young boy fairy, Jethro Byrd. Jethro Byrd introduces her to the entire Byrd fairy family. Annabelle helps the family and invites them to come through the fence to join her family for tea and fairy cakes. Annabelle’s mother plays along but her father is too busy tapping away on his computer to participate in this magical moment. Annabelle’s father is much too old and busy to be bothered by fairies, shares the Byrd family. Eventually, the fairies must leave and travel to a family reunion but they have something special for Annabelle that only she and her baby brother can see.

Graham is a favorite in my household. His stories are meaningful, magical, and offer feelings of mutuality. His characters, settings, and illustrations are real. For example, in this story, Annabelle’s family lives in an apartment complex and she plays out on the concrete and in the weeds. Graham could have chosen a single-family house for the setting, but an apartment building with graffiti displayed on a nearby fence is reality for a large number of families and now that population of children can connect with Annabelle in this beautiful story. The message shared about Annabelle’s workaholic father is a nice addition to the story because it emphasizes the genuine and pure nature of children. If fairies flew by my apartment window, I hope that I would see them :).

"Gone Girl"

Gone Girl

Flynn, G. (2012). Gone Girl. New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group. 

Genre: Thriller/Mystery, Adult Fiction

Nick and Amy are celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary. But, Amy is nowhere to be found. She’s missing. She’s gone. Amy’s disappearance becomes big news quickly and Nick is almost immediately pegged as the perpetrator. Flynn switches the point-of-view back and forth between Nick, in the now, and passages from Amy’s diary. And it seems the two are in completely different marriages. One thing seems to hold the truth, an annual scavenger hunt planned by Amy has scattered clues all over town. Will the clues lead us to Amy? Is Nick guilty? Is anything what it seems?

Wowzers! What a book!

When people ask me why I do not ever want to get married...I will refer them to this book :).  Ha ha, but seriously, marriages like this are not rare. Well, this is extreme and fiction but people are dysfunctional.

Okay, back to being serious. Flynn’s writing was perfect. Yes, perfect. Not in an Amy kind of way perfect, but perfect perfect.  And intriguing. It is absolutely scary how real the characters are. Flynn spent a lot of time developing their personalities, voice, mannerisms, etc. and it paid off because their characters are fully developed, multifaceted and it is easy to visualize an accurate depiction of them.

A theme or message I took away from the book is, people are natural pretenders, Nick and Amy are pretenders to the world but because Flynn took us inside their heads, we were able to see them for whom they really were. Two individuals so stuck on issues from their childhoods, they cannot function appropriately. Amy is controlling, obsessive, and ruthless. Nick is cowardly, insecure, and emotionally empty. 

Flynn held my attention throughout the book with her structure and insight into human thinking. Skewed patterns of cognitive processes fascinate me and Flynn captured this phenomenon, so well. People pretend to be cool, good, or whatever they deem favorable because these ideals do not actually exist, we all just want them to.

Flynn has some side agendas with this book. The bashing of the media and internet is almost like a second plot line. A good one, but it probably was not necessary.

*An afterthought: Go, Nick’s twin sister, was my favorite character. She is a nice contrast to these off-putting main characters with her honesty, loyalty, and humor. She was introduced to us as the dysfunctional one but girl has a good head on her shoulders.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a thriller, a mystery, or something different from the typical read. Kudos to Flynn.

A to Z: YA Book Reading Challenge

As part of the YA Book Club on goodreads, I am participating in an A to Z reading challenge. Here is my progress so far.

Book reviews to come :)

A: Radiance by Alyson Noel, 3/21/13
B: A Million Suns by Beth Revis, 1/5/13
C: The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle, 4/7/13
D: A Partial History of Lost Causes by Jennifer Dubois*
E: Everlasting by Alyson Noel, 3/25/13
F: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn*, 1/27/13
G: One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf*, 3/19/13
H: Horde by Ann Aguirre
I: Scumble by Ingrid Law or So B. It by Sarah Weeks
J: Just One Day by Gayle Forman, 2/16/13
K: Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
L: Sever by Lauren DeStefano, 3/9/13
M: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, 3/4/13
N: Evermore by Alyson Noel, 3/22/13
O: Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler, 3/20/13
P: Prodigy by Marie Lu, 2/24/13
Q: Requiem by Lauren Oliver, 3/16/13
R: Shades of Earth by Beth Revis, 3/6/13
S: Shadowland by Alyson Noel, 3/24/13
T: Belong To Me by Marisa de los Santos*
U: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
V: Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi, 2/2/13
W: The Gaia Wars by Kenneth G. Bennett
X: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood * or Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Y: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Z: Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson* or The Book Thief by Markus Zusak*

*=not YA




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Completed: 16 of 26

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