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Book review roundup #1

This week, instead of a book review, I’m giving you a recap of every book I’ve reviewed so far, along with their ratings and links to the reviews. You can also always consult my virtual library, the Index of Book Reviews. You wouldn’t want to miss anything, now would you?

Tuesday is normally a single-post day, but I decided to treat us all with a bonus post this afternoon. Stay tuned for some really pretty things to appear around 2 pm.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

This book is: Awesome.
Other elements: Humor. Being a woman, being yourself. Life.
Read it: If you admire smart, sane women who have smart, sane things to say about life.
Overall rating: 9.5/10

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

This book is: a well-written, totally insane psycho/mystery/love/crime story.
Other elements: Lies. Marriage. Public opinion. Love.
Read it: If you enjoy crime shows. If you like having your mind blown.
Overall rating: 8/10

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.
This book is: A story told from the point of view of a 15-year old boy with Asperger’s or autism.

Other elements: Pets, parenting a special needs child, math.

Read it: If you’re interested in psychology, if you appreciate excellent first-person perspective.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

This book is: A YA fantasy novel, the first in a series, about a girl with a supernatural gift for killing.
Other elements: Right vs wrong, romance, friendship.
Read it: If you like YA fantasy, if you enjoy ass-kicking women, if you liked The Hunger Games.
Overall rating: 7.5/10
This book is: silly.
Other elements: urban fantasy, magic, adventure, saving-the-world, conspiracy theories, humor.
Read it: if you have the right sense of humor (do you enjoy Terry Pratchett? Monty Python?).
Overall rating: 7.25/10

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.

This book is: A book about college and relationships.
Other elements: Some degree of bildungsroman, life with manic depression/life with a manic depressive, how your parents affect who you are, the role of religion in a modern world, unrequited love.
Read it: If you are interested in early prescription treatments for manic depression, if you miss college, if you sympathize with characters having religious crises.
Overall rating: 7.2/10
This book is: about a boy who suddenly finds out that myths are real and he’s related to one. Adventure ensues.
Other elements: Parent/child relationships, Greek mythology, learning disabilities.
Read it: If you like YA fantasy, if you enjoy Greek myths, if you are 10 years old.
Overall rating: 6.9/10

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin.
This book is: A gritty crime novel set in a rural town.

Other elements: Class issues, race issues, nature of friendship.

Read it: If you like crime shows, don’t mind dialect, and aren’t easily depressed.

Overall rating: 6/10

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.
This book is: Historical fiction about Ernest Hemingway and his first wife.

Other elements: Women not standing up for themselves, adultery, dependence on men, emotional abuse, alcoholism, polyamorous relationships, bullfighting.

Read it: If you are fascinated by Hemingway, if you like Lifetime movies, if you don’t mind weak female characters, you’re stranded somewhere with absolutely nothing else to do and have run out of thoughts.

Overall rating: 2/10

An Escapade and An Engagement by Annie Burrows.

This book is: a romance novel about a horrible woman and a horrible man who have an unconvincing relationship.
Other elements: Sex. Patriarchy. Golden ringlets.
Read it: If your only alternative is death.

Overall rating: 0.01/10
I gave some harsh reviews in this first 10. I guess that’s what happens when you try to read only the books that come for free on your Kindle. I promise that next week I’ll review a book that I loved.

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1) by Rick Riordan.

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1) by Rick Riordan.

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1) by Rick Riordan.

This book is: about a boy who suddenly finds out that myths are real and he’s related to one. Adventure ensues.
Other elements: Parent/child relationships, Greek mythology, learning disabilities.
Read it: If you like YA fantasy, if you enjoy Greek myths, if you are 10 years old.
Overall rating: 6.9/10

This is a bright, fun, clever little YA fantasy novel. It’s the first in a series, and it was rather popular a few years ago, if I remember correctly. I ran into it at the library and decided to give it a try.

Most of the YA fantasy I read feels like it’s aimed at young teenagers. This reads like it’s aimed at 10-year-olds. The voices in this book are occasionally a little too childlike for me to fully lose myself in the story. It really feels like I’m not the target audience. But you know what? I’m not. So I really can’t hold that against it.

I enjoyed this book. I’ve always loved Greek myths, and the idea of what happens to the Greek gods and their children in the modern world is unique and interesting. The characters are engaging, although one of them – the satyr – was slightly irritating in a slapstick, Jar Jar Binks, unnecessary sidekick kind of way. Still, the characters are creative and they have to use their brains as well as their swords to get themselves out of trouble.

Something I thought was really great was the author’s detail that most children of Greek gods have learning disabilities – ADD, dyslexia, etc. In the book, the reason given is that their brains are hard-wired for ancient Greek. So their disabilities are basically a side effect of their superpowers. I loved that. I don’t imagine that children struggling with learning disabilities are often given such a creative and positive way to think about themselves.

The main female character, a plucky, intelligent, resourceful daughter of Athena, feels a bit like Hermione Granger…but I love Hermione Granger, so rock on.  The more bookish heroines we have out there, the better.

I probably won’t be rereading this or buying it for my own collection, but I would totally read it to my theoretical future child or recommend it for someone else’s child.

This post contains affiliate links. 

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling. A fun, smart, highly-entertaining read. Click through for full review. Via Diamonds in the Library.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)by Mindy Kaling
This book is: Awesome.
Other elements:  Humor. Being a woman, being yourself. Life.Read it:  If you admire smart, sane women who have smart, sane things to say about life.
Overall rating: 9.5/10

I think generally it’s kind of dumb to read books by celebrities. They’re just going to tell me that they’re just naturally skinny, that everything is easy, and that they’re a real person just like me. At best, they’re mediocre biographies written by ghost writers who deserve better jobs. Right?

This is what I always assumed. That’s why I had no intention of reading Mindy Kaling’s book when I first heard about it. Especially because all I knew about her is that she’s associated with The Office in some way – which is a show I saw 15 mins of once and vaguely disliked.

Then I encountered an excerpt online, and it made me think.

 This book is really awesome. I spent extra time in the physical therapist’s office with ice on my bare foot because I was so engrossed in this book. I also laughed out loud, alone, which I almost never do.
What struck me the most about this book – besides the pure entertainment value –  were the exceptionally sane things Mindy (we’re on a first-name basis now) has to say about weight. People talk about weight all the time and yet we almost never say anything of substance. We talk about what we wish we weighed, what we used to weigh, what other people weigh, what we will weigh in a month after we’ve stopped eating gluten, etc. At one point, Mindy says her exact size and follows it up with “this week, anyway.” She just says it, in a book, like it’s not a big deal – because it shouldn’t be. Have you ever heard anything saner? I haven’t.

Now, a collection of random quotes:

“What I’ve noticed is that almost no one who was a big star in high school is also a big star later in life. For us overlooked kids, it’s just so wonderfully fair.” – Page 31

“We clung to each other with blind loyalty, like Lord Voldemort and his snake Nagini. I, of course, was Nagini. If you messed with one of us, you knew you messed with both of us, and Voldemort was going to cast a murder spell on you, or Nagini was going to chomp on your jugular.” – On best friends. Page 48.

“Your boyfriend is never going to tell you that your skirt is too tight and riding up too high on you. In fact, you shouldn’t even have asked him, poor guy. He wants to have sex with you no matter how pudgy you are.” – Page 81

“When a beautiful actress is in a movie, executives wrack their brains to find some kind of flaw in her that allows her to be palatable. She can’t be overweight or not perfect-looking, because who wants to see that? A not 100-percent-perfect-looking-in-every-way female? You might as well film a dead squid decaying on a beach for two hours.
So they make her a Klutz.
They 100-percent-perfect-looking-in-every-way female is perfect in every way, except that she constantly falls down. She bonks her head on things. She trips and falls and spills soup on her affable date. … Despite being five foot nine and weighing 110 pounds, she is basically like a drunk buffalo who has never been a part of human society.” – On the types of women you see in movies. Page 100.

“For the record, I’m a size eight (this week, anyway). Many stylists hate that size, because I think, to them, it shows that I lack the discipline to be an ascetic or the confident sassy abandon to be a total fatty hedonist. They’re like: pick a lane!” – Page 192.

In conclusion: Mindy Kaling, if you ever see this review, can we please hang out?


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