I didn’t love this book to be honest, but I also didn’t hate it; I simply enjoyed the chance to spend just a few more moments in Stars Hollow with one of my two favorite Gilmore Girls. I also hadn’t realized before this that “Lorelai” had written fiction as well, so one of her other books may be on my TBR for later.

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By this I mean, I really didn’t like it. I’d have to say Ove and Every Morning are probably two of my favorite books ever, so I had such high hopes even for this being only a short novella. Yet, this story just didn’t grab me. I guess when it was originally published, The Deal of a Lifetime was serialized in a newspaper in Backman’s hometown in Sweden and I guess I could see it going over better in that format. Maybe waiting for each installment might make snippets of this more profound? Yeah, no. Even then I don’t think so.

As it is, though, I wanted more character development of the Scrooge-like dad, the distant son, the sick girl, and especially the woman in gray (such an unusual personification of death or its harbingers!). In fact, I feel like the woman in the gray sweater is really the way I could have fallen in love with this book completely, but instead it just felt like she was merely a potential thread that was dropped. I do realize character development is one of the first things to get cut in a novella-length work, yet it didn’t bother me at all in Every Morning. There, those same character development gaps seemed whimsical and fillable by a reader’s own personal experiences. Here though, I needed more. I wanted to care about the sacrifice being made in this grand entrepreneur’s “deal.” Instead, I felt like I was left with caricatures of real figures with not enough substance and a forced and too-cute for words Christmas-themed redemption plotline more suited to a Hallmark movie.

Like The Clothes Make the Girl (Look Fat?), this book was a birthday gift to me; I only wish I could get my mom’s money back! I have Backman’s latest full-length novel up next on my To Be Read list following The Handmaid’s Tale. Please Beartown, don’t let me down.

The post The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman first appeared on The Book Dorks.

Since I follow Brittany elsewhere (Twitter, her blog, etc.) somewhat regularly and am familiar with her TED talk and media marketing runs, this didn’t feel all that new. Particularly the body-positive messages, blunt takes on fashion, and the bra-fitting stuff felt a little redone, but that is probably because I’m immersed in her stuff fairly regularly. I don’t disagree with what she says in most of these areas; fashion is hard for non-skinny people and it often tends to feel frumpy and old. Still, I simply wasn’t as profoundly moved by the topics here since they didn’t feel novel or shocking to me. I have to say, I could totally relate to the bulging button-up shirt on the cover, though

That said, I did ask for this book as a gift and I would have willingly purchased it had I not received it. The Clothes Make the Girl was just the enjoyable and light read I needed following my slog through The Man in the High Castle. While it definitely wasn’t groundbreaking literature, I am clearly part of her target audience and I polished this off in less than 24 hours like the guilty pleasure a piece of cake gobbled up after the kids go to bed would be!

The post The Clothes Make the Girl (Look Fat?) by Brittany Gibbons first appeared on The Book Dorks.

Written by John Gregory Brown, a professor of creative writing at Sweet Briar College, this is Southern fiction in all its slow-paced, character-driven, quirky glory. While I’m not typically a fan of this genre because it can feel forced, I enjoyed A Thousand Miles from Nowhere well enough as I could see the places and people described quite vividly. That said, I didn’t feel that I was being dragged through every Southern stereotype and fake accent the author could throw in to give it an “authentic” feel. I appreciate that the author had talent enough to draw his characters and small town settings vividly and believably enough that they came to life without relying on all too familar and overdone Southern tropes.

I think my only complaint about this one is that while I know it is Henry’s story of plodding through his emotional struggles, I really wanted more details on the Hughes family. Throughout the book, Henry became attached to them unexpectedly through tragedy and so did I; I craved more of their moments on the page. I also really wanted more New Orleans aftermath moments as I’ve not read many novels using Hurricane Katrina as the backdrop. I guess I do have one more complaint…this one was REALLY slow to get started and I’d already slogged through half of the book before I truly cared about any of the characters or their problems. Because of that, if it hadn’t been our monthly book club read, I may have actually given up on this one before I finished as it didn’t instantly hook me.

The post A Thousand Miles from Nowhere by John Gregory Brown first appeared on The Book Dorks.

I loved, loved, LOVED this book. Told in a series of sparse but beautiful narrative poems that depict one short elevator ride, Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds is a YA standout. This little book is reminiscent of the troubling books of verse by Ellen Hopkins (i.e. Crank, Glass) that explain her daughter’s meth addiction in a captivating, heartbreaking, and highly readable way. Like Hopkins’ works, Long Way Down uses its few words, text spacing, punctuation, and patterns of letters to create visual shapes on the page that linger with a reader long after they’ve put down the book. And, like Hopkins, Reynolds manages to take a frightfully real and painfully ugly topic and deliver a volume that is nothing short of beautiful.

The book focuses on the shooting of Will’s older brother Shawn as he walks home from the corner store. Will finds himself learning about the “rules” which survivors of such tragedies must follow. Will takes possession of a gun and seeks out his brother’s killer to exact the expected revenge. As he descends in an elevator to meet the person who killed Shawn, Will encounters a series of surprising characters as the doors open on each floor. Each character is more unexpected than the last and each has a unique and heartrending message to share with Will before he completes his ultimate goal of becoming a murderer.

Definitely not your mother’s book of love poetry or the famous but stiff Shakespearean sonnets they forced you to read in school, Reynolds’ latest is modern poetry at its evocative and realistic best. I definitely recommend this one!

The post Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds first appeared on The Book Dorks.

In this, Germany has become a superpower taking over the Eastern lands in America, has essentially razed Africa, and is now using its technological prowess to explore the only unconquered regions known to man: outer space. Japan has taken over the West Coast and created a hierarchy of classes and races with Americana-obsessed Japanese-born at the pinnacle of the “Place” standings. A buffer zone of Rocky Mountain states exists between the two former Axis allies who seem to be working against one another here in separate but simultaneous attempts at whole world domination. Superstitions and Chinese divination practices are commonly used to make decisions, black people are once again enslaved, Jews hide in plain sight to avoid detection, and Americans bow and grovel before rich Japanese investors in order to eke out a living. Overall, this future doesn’t show a pretty picture of what life COULD have been like if the war had gone the other way. Interestingly, a man in the Rocky Mountain sector has written his own revisionist tale proposing that the Allies won (although it doesn’t completely look like history as we know it); this tale-within-a-tale called The Grasshopper Lies Heavy is banned but secretly read widely throughout the regions. This subplot alone is the only part of the book I enjoyed and even that falls flat when we actually meet the reclusive author.

Full of weird syntax and awkward phrasing likely designed to show the rigidity of the Japanese nationals and infighting among the famous top generals in Germany hoping to become the new Fuhrer, I found the language of the novel itself failed to flow. While it is true that the featured assasination attempts on authors and world leaders and continued genocidal schemes made the book plausible, they didn’t go very far to make it at all interesting. The characters are not fleshed out, the plot seems weak, and the story itself seems to struggle to fill an outline of what could have been a promising and engaging novel, but instead just feels forced and downright boring.

The post The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick first appeared on The Book Dorks.

The premise here is that a series of space ships inexplicably appear over the Earth one day, not to stage a hostile takeover, but instead to make the world more equitable and fair. No violence is necessary to accomplish this odd goal, just a series of strange demonstrations of alien power which allow the humans to understand they could not fight back even if they wished to do so. The alien Overlords meet one-on-one with only the Secretary General of the UN, but refuse to show themselves publicly to anyone for at least 50 years after their initial appearance (phase one of their benevolent takeover). Until then, they are content to observe, guide, and speak to mankind largely incognito.

The story of Earth progresses peacefully and relatively uneventfully through phase two, in which human beings wait to meet the everpresent beings from above, all while society is gradually becoming more equitable and placid. Scientific discovery and artistic prowess ebb as humankind is largely content with its fate and it is clear that alien science so far surpasses our own understanding we could never hope to catch up. The fifty years pass and the Overlords eventually reveal their surprising physical forms. The next period involves humans and Overlords learning to live together without undue conflict. We learn more of the alien’s actual limitations, their motivations for coming to our planet, and about the higher power which even the Overlord rulers answer to.

Phase three marks a stark contrast in earthly developments as the Overlords, having met their ultimate goal, are ready to depart the world as they are no longer needed here either to keep peace or drive progress. Just as the Overlords have become superfluous though, so have most ordinary humans as a new race of men has emerged ready to change the world as we know it. Big surprises occur at this point, but telling any more would simply give too much away.

I think the quote that resonated most with me was the following one (and it is likely for this idea alone why this novel was used in a political science course): “Fifty years is ample time in which to change a world and its people almost beyond recognition. All that is required for the task are a sound knowledge of social engineering, a clear sight of the intended goal—and power.” Too true, that, I’d say.

Overall, I’d have to say Childhood’s End was worth reading, especially if you are into sci fi, but this is not one I’d likely reread.

P.S. Why is this cover so darn ugly? I’m using it for my Popsugar book challenge in that category. Ick.

The post Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke first appeared on The Book Dorks.

Kelley and I read this one for our neighborhood book club. (Since she read it some time ago, I’m not sure she’ll post about it, so I didn’t label this one “Two Dorks, One Book.”) Dinner with the Smileys: One Military Family, One Year of Heroes, and Lessons for a Lifetime was about a woman whose military husband went on a yearlong deployment overseas and she decided to invite a guest to a family dinner with her sons to keep the loneliness at bay for the 52+ weeks. It had all the elements I should have liked as I felt I could really relate to the author’s issues: I have also been a military wife and had a deployed spouse, I have three sons, I attended college later in life after having a family and job, I have worked as a writer and a teacher, etc.

Parts of the story WERE very relatable and I liked that Sarah Smiley kept the interactions – particularly those about her sons’ attitudes toward the various guests, situations, and meals – realistic. She didn’t sugarcoat the bad manners or reluctance her kids often displayed (or her own occasional lack of interest in hosting!) which helped to humanize their conversations and home life. She stressed that she tried to keep things informal and real even when inviting senators, governors, and the like to her home.

However, I didn’t like that most of the dinners focused on famous or influential people in their Maine community and very few focused on the regular folks most of us might interact with on a daily basis. I don’t necessarily think she set out with that as her goal, but perhaps based on her job or the notoriety the dinners eventually seemed to garner, it did seem that most of the stories that ended up in the book played out as a “Who’s Who” of Maine’s cultural icons. Most of those stories weren’t even showcased with much depth or color either. My favorite of the dinner anecdotes involved the everyday people and I would have liked to have read more of those. The teachers, the neighbors, the friends who helped them when times were hard made for the most interesting stories, and I felt more of those stories would have provided a clearer picture of what life for the four home-based Smileys was really like.

I also felt a little misled when she revealed in a postscript that she’d also had a professional photographer at most of the sessions and used the same stories in her columns for the Bangor newspaper. As a result, I ended up feeling like the author was trying too hard to pull at the heartstrings and ultimately the book registered as just a little too trite.

Overall, not a bad read, but not one I’d likely reread or recommend.

The post Dinner with the Smileys by Sarah Smiley first appeared on The Book Dorks.

For my first post in several years, and given that the very last post entered on the site was about this very same thing in 2015, I’m hereby committing to the Popsugar Reading Challenge for 2018. This year’s challenge includes 40 books (or 50 if you’re going the advanced route). Since my Goodreads goal for the year is a book a week, this is perfect The categories are listed below and they have a handy printable graphic on the site linked above to help you chart your progress. I’ll update this post as I finish each category along the way and try to do a individual review of each book choice. Join me and we’ll have some fun, discuss some books, and maybe I’ll even get out of my reading (and blogging) rut!

1. A book made into a movie you’ve already seen – Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose (ok, so it’s a play, and I guess shorter than a book, but whatever…)
2. True crime
3. The next book in a series you started – Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles
4. A book involving a heist
5. Nordic noir
6. A novel based on a real person – The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (This features actual famous Nazis as potential world leaders in an alternate universe, although they aren’t really central figures, but I guess it counts).
7. A book set in a country that fascinates you
8. A book with a time of day in the title – Night by Elie Wiesel
9. A book about a villain or antihero – Circe by Madeline Miller
10. A book about death or grief – Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
11. A book with a female author who uses a male pseudonym
12. A book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist
13. A book that is also a stage play or musical
14. A book by an author of a different ethnicity than you – The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (A reread for school, but this is truly one of my favorites. The prose is sparse and poetic in its simplicity while delving into heavy topics such as racism, poverty, domestic and sexual abuse.)
15. A book about feminism
16. A book about mental health
17. A book you borrowed or that was given to you as a gift – The Clothes Make the Girl (Look Fat?) by Brittany Gibbons
18. A book by two authors – Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston
19. A book about or involving a sport – Beartown by Fredrick Backman
20. A book by a local author – A Thousand Miles from Nowhere by John Gregory Brown (Does an author who lives within two hours of my house count? For now, this book will go here. I guess if I find someone MORE local, I can move this to a book about mental health.)
21. A book with your favorite color in the title
22. A book with alliteration in the title
23. A book about time travel
24. A book with a weather element in the title
25. A book set at sea
26. A book with an animal in the title – The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
27. A book set on a different planet
28. A book with song lyrics in the title
29. A book about or set on Halloween
30. A book with characters who are twins
31. A book mentioned in another book
32. A book from a celebrity book club – The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
33. A childhood classic you’ve never read
34. A book that’s published in 2018 – Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
35. A past Goodreads Choice Awards winner –Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls and Everything in Between by Lauren Graham (How past must this be? This won in 2017 for the Humor category.)
36. A book set in the decade you were born
37. A book you meant to read in 2017 but didn’t get to – The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Bachman
38. A book with an ugly cover – Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
39. A book that involves a bookstore or library
40. Your favorite prompt from the 2015, 2016, or 2017 Popsugar Reading Challenges
41. A bestseller from the year you graduated
42. A cyberpunk book
43. A book that was being read by a stranger in a public place
44. A book tied to your ancestry
45. A book with a fruit or vegetable in the title
46. An allegory
47. A book by an author with the same first or last name as you
48. A microhistory
49. A book about a problem facing society today – Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (It’s about gang violence and retaliation)
50. A book recommended by someone else taking the Popsugar Reading Challenge

Others that fit nowhere: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Dinner with the Smileys by Sarah Smiley, Feed by M.T. Anderson, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles, Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, Bone Gap by Laura Ruby, That’s Not English: Britishisms, Americanisms, and What Our English Says About Us by Erin Moore, Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Anthem by Ayn Rand.

The post Back again! first appeared on The Book Dorks.

A book with more than 500 pages – (Damn it, why did I finish Written in My Own Heart’s Blood in the LAST week of December??? I’m not ready to try that again any time soon!)  —-  Then, I decided to fill this slot with our book club read: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, but it became the Pulitzer Prize winner for 2015, so I moved it. (This MAY be the slot that never gets filled!!!)  Ok, finally, just to get this one over with, let’s make it, Grey by E.L. James

A classic romance – H.R.H. by Danielle Steel

A book that became a movie – Still Alice by Lisa Genova

A book published this year – Wreckage by Emily Bleeker 

A book with a number in the title – The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

A book written by someone under 30 – Looking for Alaska by John Green

A book with nonhuman characters – The Mermaid’s Sister by Carrie Anne Noble

A funny book – The Potty Mouth at the Table by Laurie Notaro

A book by a female author – The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds

A mystery or thriller – The Black: A Deep Sea Thriller by Paul E. Cooley

A book with a one-word title – Anthem by Ayn Rand

A book of short stories – Dear Life by Alice Munro

A book set in a different country – The Unimaginable by Dina Silver

A nonfiction book – Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

A popular author’s first book – Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet – Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

A book a friend recommended – The Gatecrasher by Madeleine Wickham

A Pulitzer-Prize winning book – All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

A book based on a true story – The Vow: True Events that Inspired the Movie by Kim & Krickitt Carpenter

A book at the bottom of your to-read list – The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (Honestly not sure why this was at the bottom of my TBR list, but somehow it was so, here this shall fit. I liked it and I’m not really sure why I’d put it off!)

A book your mom loves – The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

A book that scares you – The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard (because kidnapping is definitely scary!)

A book more than 100 years old – The Awakening by Kate Chopin

A book based entirely on its cover – The Red Tent by Anita Diamant (ok, so this one is a definite stretch. I don’t normally pick books just because of their covers and this one I read for book club, and it was a re-read. But, that cover IS pretty cool.)

A book you were supposed to read in high school but didn’t – Lord of the Flies by William Golding (And just to clarify for all my teacher friends: I’m not a slacker; I read everything ever assigned to me. However, I should have probably read this as a senior as it’s still assigned to the seniors where I teach, but we got a new teacher my 12th grade year and she never assigned it and I read it on my own in college).

A memoir – Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

A book you can finish in a day – The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

A book with antonyms in the title – Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit – No Time to Wave Goodbye by Jacquelyn Mitchard (Set mostly in California, a place I’d sort of like to visit…these are getting hard as I approach the end of the challenge!)

A book that came out the year you were born – Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor

A book with bad reviews – Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

A trilogy – Infected, Contagious, and Pandemic by Scott Sigler

A book from your childhood- The Cay by Theodore Taylor

A book with a love triangle – The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

A book set in the future – The Martian by Andy Weir

A book set in a high school – The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

A book with a color in the title – Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

A book that made you cry – Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (Ok, to be honest, I didn’t cry on this or on any previous read of this novella. However, this is likely because I am a terrible person and I NEVER cry at books. Still, this one comes close; I’m just not evil enough that I can squeeze out even a single tear for poor Lennie. I do have so much literary sadness over this one that I WISH I could cry.)

A book with magic – Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris

A graphic novel – Resistance: Book 1 by Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis

A book by an author you’ve never read before – We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

A book you own but have never read – Sounder by William H. Armstrong

A book that takes place in your hometown – Sisters of Shiloh by Becky & Kathy Hepinstall

A book that was originally written in another language – Night by Elie Wiesel

A book set during Christmas – Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand

A book by an author with your same initials – You Deserve a Drink: Boozy Misadventures and Tales of Debauchery by Mamrie Hart

A play – Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

A banned book – To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

A book based on or turned into a TV show – Doctor Who: The King’s Dragon by Una McCormack

A book you started but never finished – Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers

And…for extra books I read while finishing the challenge that fit NOWHERE: Buried Onions by Gary Soto, Timothy of the Cay by Theodore Taylor, Animal Farm by George Orwell, Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella, Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald translation) Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles (unknown translation), Antigone by Sophocles (Fitts and Fitzgerald translation again), The Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus (E.D.A. Morehead translation), Longbourn by Jo Baker, andThe Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman.

I’m currently working on One Second After by William R. Forstchen and Winter Stroll by Elin Hilderbrand to try to finish up my overall 80 for the year. With 18 to go and only about 6 hectic holiday-prep weeks left in the year, I don’t think I’m going to make it.

The post Michelle FINISHES the 2015 Popsugar Reading Challenge (UPDATE) first appeared on The Book Dorks.