better than the original

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: Knowing that Vinegar Girl was a "modern re-telling" of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, I made the mistake of reading the play so that I would be able to understand the allegory.  Never mind that Shakespeare should not be held to a modern-day standard when it comes to something like gender equality (feminism is much too strong a word to even wave in the direction of The Taming of the Shrew), but the play doesn't even make sense.  What is the point of Christopher Sly, and why do people keep using fake names?  Fortunately, Anne Tyler had the good sense to leave those parts out, not to mention making her characters human and sympathetic, in further contrast to the original.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

niggling doubts

Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eagar
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction, middle grade
Review: Overall, I enjoyed this book.  I thought the language was lovely.  However, the faults in the premise kept niggling me, even in the best parts of the book.  The premise that bothered me was not the magical realism.  I actually thought that was beautiful.

What bothered me was the idea that there's an old (old) man living alone on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, who starts getting dementia, and someone notices.  The man has no car.  There's nothing to indicate that he has any contact with anyone off the ranch.  But somehow there's a doctor who is so concerned that he calls the man's son (who hasn't spoken to his father in 12 years, since his mother died), and says that the old man must be moved to a nursing home immediately.  And then the son decides that he has to uproot his entire family (including his two children, who have never met their grandfather) and they're all going to spend the summer on the ranch caring for the grandfather and fixing up the ranch house.  In the middle of nowhere.  In a drought.  Except it turns out that no-one is surprised when the buyers are just going to tear the building down anyway, because who wants a who-knows-how-old ranch house in the middle of nowhere, no matter how clean it is, anyway?

So yeah, that bothered me.  In the few moments that I was able to ignore that, I found the story of a tween girl getting to know her grandfather and listening to his stories of love and magic and really coming to care about him (and the ranch) quite nice.  Niggle niggle.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

all lead-up

Eleanor by Jason Gurley
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Genre: Fantasy
Review:  I don't know how to rate or review this book.  I feel like I started at least three separate books between the same covers.  One book was a fairly normal story of a family broken by tragedy.  Another took place somewhere outside of reality.  And the third took place in a very contained world populated by a single person.  Although all of these stories came together well, I couldn't decide whether I was supposed to be reading "normal" fiction with a touch of fantasy, or the other way around.

The writing itself is lovely, at least in 2/3 of the stories I was reading.  Gurley's descriptions are vivid, and the pace of the novel is very well done.  I think my ultimate problem with this book was that I didn't get the story I wanted.  The bulk of the book is taken up with the idea that Eleanor's ultimate mission is to unravel the tragedy that happened to her family, which she ultimately does.  But I found myself not overwhelmingly compelled by the lead-up to the reversal (i.e. the entire book), because I wanted to know what happened next.  Maybe Gurley will write that story, along with 2 or 3 others, in his next book.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

inspirational but interesting

Kid Athletes: True Tales of Childhood from Sports Legends by David Stabler
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Genre: non-fiction, middle grade
Review: Although a little too inspirational for my tastes, these vignettes about the childhoods of famous athletes are also interesting stories about the families and educations of the athletes.  Young sports fans will enjoy learning more about their heroes, and the short format of each story will also appeal to reluctant readers.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

uneven treatment

The Symbolism and Sources of Outlander: The Scottish Fairies, Folklore, Ballads, Magic and Meanings that Inspired the Series by Valerie Estelle Frankel

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Genre: non-fiction
Review: Fans of the Outlander series who, like me, will read anything to get just a taste of the books (in between our periodic re-readings of the entire series), will pick up this book just for that taste, and maybe also in hopes of gaining some deeper understanding of the world that Diana Gabaldon has created.  In some areas, readers will be rewarded, such as in Frankel's exploration of Caribbean voodoo practices.  In other areas, readers will be disappointed by Frankel's lack of exploration.  It's ironic that I should say this because I was always the one in English class complaining about having to find symbolism everywhere, but I think that if you are going to mine a book for its symbolism, you should do some delving into what those symbols mean.  For example, Frankel lists many of the Biblical references in the series, but without any hint of what meaning understanding those references might bring.  The treatment of the "symbolism and sources" is quite uneven, and more than a little dry, but it all adds up to an exploration of the series that fans will appreciate.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

'ware the derivative novel

After Alice by Gregory Maguire
Rating: 2.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: historical fiction, fantasy
Review: I'm very grateful to Gregory Maguire that he chose not to set the entirety of the book with Ada after she falls down the rabbit hole after Alice.  The parts that were set down there were tiresome enough.  Lewis Carroll did Wonderland and Gregory Maguire has nothing new to add there, aside from more convoluted language that can be painful to read.  I love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and I smiled to see some favorite characters again, but even those smiles were few and far between, and bookended by frustration at having to wade through tortured language (yes, I get that he was going for a style similar to Carroll's, but it didn't work for me).  Unfortunately, although the "real world" scenes provide relief from Maguire's interpretation of Wonderland, there's very little else to recommend them.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

nothing new here

Irish Meadows by Susan Anne Mason
Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)
Genre: romance, historical fiction
Review: I've read enough romance novels to know that there is usually a formula, and the formula is so plain that many people think that anyone could write one.  Apparently, Susan Anne Mason falls into that category.  Unfortunately, she's wrong.  She adheres to the formula admirably well (young people hopelessly in love but horribly unsuited to each other because of class differences? check.  forbidding father? check.  conflict to keep the lovers apart in the middle of the book? check.  conveniently timed illness to shift the plot onto different rails? check.), but the writing is so trite and predictable, it's almost painful to read.  Fortunately, it also has the required happy ending, which doesn't even seem particularly contrived, so there were warm-fuzzies all around.  It wasn't enough to make up for writing that preceded it, but, you know, all's well that ends well.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.