19. Olive Kitteridge

By Elizabeth Strout (270 pp.)

I keep calling this book Olive Strout. Kim recommended it to me a long time ago. We saw Ms. Strout at Arts & Lectures in Jan 2011. This book has been sitting here to read forever and you know what? I brought it with me on vacation because it was skinny and easy to stick in the backpack. I'm going to do a post about how I decide what to read next because my system is really a head-scratcher.

This is a book of connected short stories that include the character Olive Kitteridge. Sometimes her part is minor. Sometimes she's the whole story. The stories range through a large part of her life. She's not the nicest lady but she's portrayed with great love and compassion. I recommend.

18. Anna Dressed in Blood

By Kendare Blake (211 pp. eBook)

Kira reviewed this book and I wanted something fun and easy to get into for my trip. This was perfect. It's scary and unexpected things happen and has great characters. It's about a guy who hunts ghosts. Anna is a ghost with some surprises. I recommend.

17. The Tesseract

By Alex Garland (273 pp)

When I visited Kira she had credit at the used bookstore and told me to pick something out. I picked this. Alex Garland wrote The Beach and the movie 28 Days Later and other things that I like. It's about a bunch of different people in Manila with switching POV characters and it takes awhile to see how it's going to connect in the end. Also its suspenseful. I liked it a lot. I'm thinking about reading it again. But I think it might be a hard sell for folks who like their narrative more straightforward.

16. The Gunslinger

By Stephen King (300 pp)

I've intended to read this series forever and I finally started it. This book was published the same month I graduated from high school. So: a long time ago. Now I've got 6 more books to look forward to. Actually a new one came out this year, so 7! It's about a pitiful but badass guy who is traveling the ends of the earth (or someplace like earth) to find the man in black.

15. The Fear Principle

By B.A. Chepaitis (196 pp ebook)

One of my stories is in an ebook collection and I had a coupon to download it. While I was getting it, I decided to support small presses and buy a book and I decided on this one. I put it in my cart and turns out it was on a freebie promotion. So I ended up buying the book I was in.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. There were a couple of parts where I felt like it was getting into "don't want to put it down" territory but then the scene would change to a long explainy bit. It's set in the future after "the killing times" a mass murder free-for-all. The protagonist is a woman who treats criminals using telepathy. It has some good moments but not enough for me to check out other books with this character.

14. Insurgent

by Veronica Roth (342 pp ebook)

This is the sequel to Book 12 and it didn't do much for me. It's set in a future dystopia with a war and a bigger picture. The protagonist is scrappy in the first book and mostly annoying in this book. Her entire relationship development consists of juvenile bickering and the story doesn't hold up well under scrutiny (tiny example: where the hell is the food coming from and who works in these giant cafeterias?). Having said all that, I still would probably finish the series.

13. The Magician King

By Lev Grossman (362 pp ebook)

This is the sequel to The Magicians and I had almost the identical experience. I really enjoyed the book but I kept waiting to fall madly in love and came up a bit short. Again, this isn't intended to be an iffy recommendation. I'm a solid recommend. This one is the further adventures of Quentin and it also fills in the story of Julia who disappears for a big chunk of the first book. To be honest, I got a little bored with Julia's story and was happy when it went back to Quentin. I can't say much more without spoilers.

12. Divergent

by Veronica Roth (312 pp. ebook)

My sister gave me this book and I gobbled it right up. It's the new hot dystopian genre with teens who have to bad scary stuff in a terrible world. Plus romance where they're always drawing a finger along each other's cheekbones. It's fun and cheezetastic in the best possible way. *And* book two is coming out next week.

Also, I don't like this new window Blogger and I'm sure you don't care even though I see the little "send feedback" tab at the bottom, I'm not going to fall for that.

11. St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised By Wolves

By Karen Russell (246pp.)

I've had this book 30 minutes away from being finished for almost a week and just couldn't get to it until this morning. This is a collection of short stories, all with a speculative element. I feel like I should do a discussion talking about speculative fiction vs. literary speculative fiction but I've had the world's longest week and I did epic amounts of yard work and I'm pretty sure my arms are about to fall off.

I loved the writing in these stories. While I was reading the first couple I was a little lukewarm on the stories themselves but eventually the author won me over. I think my favorites were the one with the turtles and the one with the old folks home at the marina. The avalanche singers one is a nice hair-raiser. Recommend.

10. Nobody's Fool

By Richard Russo (549 pp.)

Holy moly this was a long book. It felt long. I love Richard Russo and this was easy enough to read, even when I just had a short time to dip into it. But after all that I'm not sure where we've been. The protagonist is a jerk at the beginning and a jerk at the end - but not without some humanity. Things were screwed up at the beginning and screwed up in a different way at the end. As in all Russo stories, the characters are pitiful and hilarious. I didn't hate it but it's not my favorite Russo book.

9. The Secret History

by Donna Tartt (503 pp.)

Both Keetha and the Awl (this month's classic trash!) mentioned The Secret History recently. I read this book close to when it came out (1992). I thought it was when I still lived in California but the dates don't line up. This is the first time I've re-read it in its entirety and it mostly holds up. It's about these college students who kill one of their classmates (not a spoiler, this is on the first page) and then goes back and explains what happened. It's a tad long and tedious in spots. Too much lounging around smoking/drinking/doing drugs/sleeping/not sleeping - this college is nothing like the one I remember. I think even Tartt made a crack about all the knocks on doors in this book. But mostly it's fun and easy to get wrapped up in. The scene at the classmate's funeral is brilliant.

And look at me. Already 9 books for this year and three of those fatties!

8. Bird Cloud

by Annie Proulx (234 pp.)

I think this is mainly a book for Annie Proulx fans. And I am one. It's a memoir about the house she built in Wyoming. Also covered: personal history, Wyoming historical tidbits, nature-y stuff. If I learned anything, I never want to build a house. But I would love to live in this house for an extended period of time and watch the birds and landscape. It sounds amazing.

I am going to add that I finished this book in the middle of the night suffering some major indigestion after a delicious Italian meal (where I ate too much). If I have terrible indigestion I prefer to sit up until it passes so I managed to do a chunk of reading that night.