Sleep No More by Susan Crandall

Thanks WordPress for randomly screwing up my prior blog.  These are the remnants that I salvaged.

Grade: D

While I am vehemently against censorship, especially in music and books, I have a few exceptions...mass market paperbacks.  MMPBs should come with a disclaimer like the ones on the backs of scratch off lotto tickets.  The odds of getting a good read are strongly against you.  I associate MMPBs with some of my least favorite authors like Stephen King (where is that man's editor) and Danielle Steele.  For the life of me I cannot remember where I first heard the term jugs for MMPBs, but it cracked me up and stuck with me.  Whoever came up with the phrase 'don't judge a book by its cover' never met one of these jugs, or me.  This is where the book snob in me comes out.  I fully admit to judging books by their covers.  If there is a picture of some busty woman embracing a Fabio looking beefcake with dreamy looks in their eyes, I gag a little and ignore the book. 

The latest train wreck book is Sleep No More by Susan Crandall.  Normally I would never have read this book, but I received an advanced copy and part of that was I agreed to review the book.  Apparently I stumbled upon this book without looking at the cover (maybe it wasn't posted when I entered the contest) or knowing that it was a MMPB.  Sleep No More was really hard to get into, probably because the writing is so trite and predictable.  50 pages in and you should be able to guess the ending.  It almost seems like there is a college course offered called MMPB Writing 101, since all of these books are formulaic.  The plot line is a woman has some sort of sleepwalking disorder that makes her do odd stuff like set fires and drive cars.  She set her childhood home ablaze and seriously burned her sister.  Now as an adult, she got in her car and drove while asleep and wound up in some boggy marsh in the South.  Go figure she also meets a strapping doctor and falls in love.  

If you've read this so far, you know too much about the book.  Do yourself a favor and don't read it.  There are so many other quality fiction titles that deserve to be read. 

Missing Mom by Joyce Carol Oates

ISBN: 0060816228
ISBN-13: 9780060816223

Grade: A+

This book like We Were the Mulvaneys should come with a box or three of tissues as the crying risk is rather high.  I was in tears on the first page.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

A little background on my relationship with Joyce Carol Oates.  To say that I am a little biased towards JCO is an understatement.  I fell in love with her writing ten years ago in high school during a creative writing class.  We got to pick stories to read and discuss in class, and a short story called Shopping caught my attention.  The love affair grew uncontrollably since then (thanks Mr. Jones, I owe you one).  She is one of my favorite authors and all but one book of hers so far has been incredible.  This latest book, Missing Mom, is no exception.  JCO has such a gift of pulling people in to her characters and storylines so that you almost feel like a fly on the wall in her books.

Missing Mom is definitely one that I would take with me to a deserted island.  It's not the lightest of reads, nor is it a particularly uplifting book, but it is one of honesty and one young woman's journey through grief.  It is the story of Nikki Eaton as she deals with the horrific murder of her mother Gwen.  It follows Nikki and her sister through the agony of losing their mother and the resulting trial.  This book is so much more than a mother-daughter and sister-sister relationship.  While Nikki may not be a likable character, she's real...flaws and everything.  Same said for Clare, yet I didn't like her anywhere near as much as Nikki, probably because Nikki was a such a glorious misfit.  



Missing Mom is shelved next to We Were the Mulvaneys as they are both perfection.  This is JCO at her finest, a masterpiece of grief.

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

ISBN: 0763620912
ISBN-13: 9780763620912

Grade: A-

This title just spoke to me, whispering to come live in my bookcase.  I had never heard of Carolyn Mackler prior to this and aside from Harry Potter books, have not read a YA book in a long time.  What a fun book this was to read.  A little background on me...I was a fat kid, and have graduated into a fat adult, which is probably why this book called out to me.  In terms of identifying with the main character, I think anyone who has been an outsider, a misfit, or just gone through the typical teenage self esteem ups and downs can identify with this book and its main character Virginia Shreves.  Virginia is a chubby chick with a completely dysfunctional family (aren't all families dysfunctional) . Virginia is the youngest  and oddball of a family full of skinny brunettes.  She attends a school that's a bit on the yuppie snobby side where one is ostracized if one isn't pretty and popular or a jock. I devoured this book for a few reasons, 1- because it's a young adult book and rather short at 244 pages, and 2- because it was a fantastic read and I lost myself within its pages. Carolyn Mackler writes as if she was a chubby teen, even though she was not (maybe a chubby girl in a previous life), with such grace that you can instantly identify with Virginia even if your teen years are long behind you.  The ending was a pleasant surprise as well, reaffirming my faith that not all YA books have to end predictably.


There's a website that I belong to called GoodReads and they have a book swapping program that I have fallen in love with.  People can list books that they own and are willing to part with and other people can request these books.  It's a great way to get a cheap book and clean out your bookshelves.  Normally a book that I loved like this would not get swapped...ever.  I had a long internal debate with myself about this book and decided that the universe wanted me to share.  Of all the books that I've swapped, this was the hardest to let go, but I think it went to a good home and hopefully will be loved.

WordPress

So many of you have been asking what happened to my blog.  Well, it has moved over here and had an identity change (name change).  I finally reached my breaking point with WordPress and decided that enough was enough.  Going cross eyed after customizing anything got tiresome, so bear with me as I move stuff from over there to here.  This blog will continue in the same way as the previous one with lots of stuff about books and some of the shenanigans that are my life.