Book review: The Circle

Title: The Circle
Author: Dave Eggers
Rating:  3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Big Brother is good when it's positioned correctly.  Really, it's all about the marketing. When is a lack of privacy a good thing?  Well, it arguably controls people behavior.  Imagine how less corrupt our government would be if every conversation our politicians had was recorded.  But is a life with no privacy really a society that we want to be in?  Think of all the data that it would create!  And of course it's a good thing to share your thoughts on everything with the world.  Everybody wants to know everything about everybody else!  And people who don't agree, well...they're weird.

Review:  I've never read any of Eggers' work (at least that I can recall), but the name is prominent enough that I think he writes well-regarded books.  This book tackles our increasing lack of privacy as a result of our current data-driven world. The Circle is thinly disguised Google.

1984 is one of my favorite books of all time.  This felt like an update of sorts to 1984 but doesn't quite hit the mark. There is that sense of foreboding, and while I appreciate how those that don't agree with this lifestyle are treated, it goes on for too long.

Time to write review: 5 mins+

Book review: Some Luck

Title: Some Luck
Author: Jane Smiley
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Summary: Owning a farm is hard, no matter what year it is.  And kids have a funny way of having their own personalities.

Rating: I was intrigued by the premise of this book.  It has a One Day-esque feel to it in that it picks a day out of every year (although I realize that One Day is the same day every year), starting with 1920 and ending in the early 1950s.  Each chapter rotates through various family members and what's going in their heads in that particular day.  This book wasn't terrible, it just wasn't one that I really looked forward to picking up at the end of the day. It was pleasant enough, I suppose.  I don't think I've read other works by Smiley, so I can't speak to how this one compares to her other publications.  But all in all, not a lot of depth to the characters.

Time to write review: 4:01

Book review: Before I Go

Title: Before I Go
Author: Colleen Oakley
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary: Daisy Richmond is 27 and married to Jack, the love of her life.  In her early 20s she battled breast cancer and she's just found it's back. And this time it's terminal in a "6-months to live" terminal.  What's going to happen to Jack when she's gone?  Daisy wants to be sure that Jack is left in good hands after she dies, so she makes it her mission to find Jack a new wife before she goes.  Except that when Jack ends up getting close to a woman that Daisy perceives to be the perfect fit for Jack, Daisy worries that she's lost Jack even before she's actually passed away.

Review:  This is one of those books that when I picked it up from the library and the jacket I thought, "this might not be the best book for me."  But I loved it.  I'd call this sort of "heavy chick lit."  I mean, Daisy's terminal.  But there are funny parts too.  And Jack is a great guy, but terminal cancer can tax even the strongest of marriages.  I don't want to give the ending away, but did I mention her cancer is terminal?  It doesn't end well.  Make no mistake--this is a tearjerker of a book.  I realized it's been a while since I read a tearjerker.  They're pretty cathartic.  I finished this book last night and I was hoping that my sobbing wasn't waking up Aaron.  If you're in the mood for a tearjerker, check this one out.

Time spent on review: 3:39

Book Review: See How Small

Title: See How Small
Author: Scott Blackwood
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Summary: Three girls are killed brutally.  Many years later, this story checks in on the people that were involved or affected by their deaths.

Review: In another life perhaps I would have enjoyed this book more.  For some reason it just didn't hold my interest.  Perhaps it was the topic.  It's hard to think about three sisters dying and their mom having to go on without them, although the book switched point of views amongst several characters and didn't necessarily focus on the mom.  There was one interesting character, I think his name was Michael.  Sometimes it can be frustrating to read a book that doesn't tie up loose ends, but I generally like it.  However, I'd start a chapter and have idea who the character was and I'd have to go back.  This is probably more of a reflection on me than on the author, but again, it just didn't hold my interest.

Time to write: 5:01 minutes.

A new approach

Since I've started these reviews I've struggled with how to make these reviews unique and keep you readers interested.  I'm going to try a new approach--5 minute reviews.  I'm about 8 books behind, so clearly I'm spending time reading but not enough time reviewing.  I want to write these reviews, so I'm going to try a new approach--writing these reviews in 5 minutes or less.  We'll see how it goes.

If that doesn't work, then one or both of the cats will be taking over the reviews.

Book Review: Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands

Title: Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands
Author: Chris Bohjalian
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Emily Shepard is a homeless teen living in Burlington, VT after her parents died in a catastrophic accident at the nuclear power plant where her parents worked and where they lived in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.  To make matters worse, there's speculation that Emily's dad caused the accident that caused the town to be abandoned.  Once her parents died and Emily fled her hometown Emily had to focus on surviving.  She's surviving, but it's a lonely existence.

Review:  I started this review over a month ago and still haven't written the summary.  So, this is going to be quick and dirty.  This book was sad.  Emily's in a tough spot--she's orphaned and knows the accident wasn't her dad's fault but can't prove it.  She runs away because she's afraid she'll become a pariah.  I can't fault her for that.  I liked this book and I liked the ending but it was just too sad.

Book Review: I Was Here

Title: I Was Here
Author: Gayle Forman
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary:  When Cody's best friend Meg kills herself, Cody is left to pick up the pieces and try and find answers.   Why would a girl that lit up a room kill herself?  Could something more sinister be at play?  Or will Cody have to deal with the guilt that her best friend killed herself and Cody really never noticed that anything was wrong?

Review: I don't think I was the target audience for this.  Cody's an admirable young woman--her mom isn't very hands on, her dad wasn't around growing up and she grew up quite poor.  Despite being very smart, she forgoes school and starts cleaning ouses after high school graduation.  Anyway, Cody's world is shattered when her best friend Meg kills herself.  Without Meg Cody feels lost, but her death opens Cody's eyes to the distance that was growing between the two of them.  I probably would have enjoyed this book more if I was 20 years younger.  There's some romance, of course, which is one of the reasons that I took away one of the stars.  I wasn't convinced that this was going to be a relationship that was going to last.

Time to write review: 6:30 (what can I say, I was distracted).