August 2006 Book Reviews

I often find it difficult to give up on a book - I keep hoping it will get better. Recently I've set a 100 page limit; I allow myself to stop reading if I'm not enjoying the material by then. August was full of books I was unable to finish. Here's what I did get through:

1. March, Geraldine Brooks, Rating: 3.7
Smart and interesting, as a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel should be. My main quibble is that I didn't like the character of Mr. March at all - I found him rather repulsive. That's just me, though, others might really enjoy him. Brooks has an informative, succinct endnote of what's fact and what's fiction in her work that I found very interesting.
2. Comfort Me with Apples, Ruth Reichl, Rating: 4.2
Reichl is certainly one of my favorite food writers, and I find the candor with which she writes about her life fascinating. This book goes into rather explicit detail about the affairs she had in the 1980s. It's really fun in a voyeristic way, but her total lack of concern about how her husband would feel just comes off as odd. She doesn't seem cold otherwise; I suspect she's not being totally honest about how she really felt at the time.
3. Blessings, Anna Quindlen, Rating: 3.5
I think this is the first book I've read by Quindlen - it was fairly forgetable but passed the time well.
4. Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Rating: 4.3
Fascinating and compelling. It reads like two different novels (the point of view of the narrator changes midway through). The writing is beautiful, the plot bizarre at times. Well worth reading.
5. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides, Rating: 4.7
I recently loaned this book to Adam, who devoured it. I think it was one of his favorite books ever. He was so enthusiastic about it that I was jealous, and found myself reading it whenever he left it at the house. It's really an incredible work, with a really odd plot that sucks you in immediately. I appreciated the quality of the writing more this time - he's snuck in some quite clever jokes and phrases.
6. A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway, Rating: 4.1
While not on the level of his novels, this book is a lot of fun. It's all about Hemingway's early years in Paris, and the people he knew (all famous, of course). It's really gossipy - like reading US Weekly without the pictures.
7. Fables, Volume 7, Rating: 4.0
I've written about this series before. I'll just say that it's one of the best comic books out there and you're really missing out if you're not reading it.