Instant Love- Jami Attenberg

I need to state immediately that while I will occasionally read a chick lit book or 5, I’m in no way a huge fan of these modern version fairy tales where the girl ends up getting her perfect man after countless numbers of mishaps. I don’t know why, but the happy ending presented in a prettily wrapped Tiffany’s box always irks me. Call me a cynic. Which is why I thoroughly enjoyed Instant Love so much! There is no happy ending for the female characters, they struggle and hurt and have flaws like the rest of us, and NYC makes many appearances. The characters are all interconnected, but with no major resolution to that- there is simply just a common thread uniting them all. I think I would have preferred for the chapters to just be independent short stories, with no character connection. The stories were strong enough to stand on their own, and I would have been able to spend more time enjoying the stories instead of trying to remember who date whom and which one stuttered.

4 bookworms- ½ a bookworm was added solely because the East Village was occasionally the setting, and not 5^th Avenue. Nice!

Wishful Drinking- Carrie Fisher

Essentially, there is only 1 thing preventing me from giving this memoir my first 5 bookworm review- it was too short! It’s very clear that this is a by-product of the 1-woman show of the same name and was not given much extra consideration to flesh this out to a truly awesome memoir. In case you can’t place a face to the name, Carrie Fisher played Princess Laia… yeeah. Also, she underwent electroshock therapy… yeeah. She highlights some absolutely fascinating stories about her life, but I wanted more. Tell me more about your crazy childhood! And as much as I hate to admit it, tell me more about sex with Chris Dodd (woot CT)! The writing style is intimate, and you can occasionally sense how difficult rehashing all of this is. And while I enjoyed the writing style, I kept think that there is no way an editor had looked at it. Perhaps because it came straight from the monologues of her show? Again, I felt as if the stories were too rushed, too quickly mentioned, and too quickly left to the wayside to be forgotten about like one of her stints in rehab. She is currently performing in NYC (at Studio 54, no less!), and I want to go see how this stacks up to the hardcover version. May the force make it better!

4 bookworms.

Zorro- Isabel Allende

Disclaimer: I have always been fascinated by the Zorro fable, and used to love the black and white show that used to be on Nick and Nite in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Also, I was a Spanish Language and Literature concentration in college, and I had always heard nothing but great things about Isabel Allende. Which is why I think this book was absolutely, positively FANTASTIC. This is classic storytelling at its finest- a protagonist you want to cheer on, an evil, evil villain, plot twists, heroic battles (which, might I add, were expertly written and very thrilling), unrequited love, and a great history lesson thrown in as a bonus. It’s a big long book, and it reads like a big long book- which is what prevents me from giving it 5 bookworms or even 4 ½. When I finished it, I did not want more, or wish for the sequel- I was content with the ending and very glad I spent my time with Senor De La Vega and his compadres.

4 bookworms.

The Zombie Survival Guide- Max Brooks

Now here is another book that I was looking forward to. While I am, admittedly, more of a vampire person (I really, really, love Queen of the Damned… and Twilight… and the Blade movies), there has been a recent surge of zombie literature and I’ve decided to test out the bandwagon. It started out amusing enough, and I found myself chuckling at the intensity of the writing and the sense of urgency. Plus, any book that uses colloquialisms and witty phrases in the prose (as opposed in character conversation) is a win for me. Also, there are funny cartoon drawings of drawings! What’s not to like? Unfortunately, I found myself dragging to finish the book- I felt like it was becoming a bit redundant and I just could not get into it. There was nothing really bad for me to bitch about- I just couldn’t get into it to thoroughly fall in love with the book. I did enjoy the recorded attacks section at the back of the book- it most definitely satisfied the conspiracy theorist in me! The book was not bad, but not fantastic either- and I imagine that some people who like this type of book and writing style will enjoy it immensely.

2 ½ bookworms.

The Arsonist’s Guide to Writer’s Homes in New England- Brock Clarke

As someone who was raised in New England (yay Connecticut!) and was educated in the private school system there, I was really looking forward to reading this book. Any review I have read has been higher than stellar, so I settled down to read a really fantastic book. Surprisingly, and disappointingly, I feel very ambivalent towards the book. The main character, the ‘arsonist’, quite simply drove me nuts. He continued to make very obvious poor decision after obvious poor decision, and I just wanted to reach through the pages and yell at him to get some common sense. I was unable to connect to any of the other characters as well, and struggled to get into the central mystery of the story. Apart from these personal issues (as in, you might not feel this way about the characters), the book was well written, occasionally witty, and I could completely understand why it was on the New York Times Bestseller List. All in all, I am not disappointed with the novel or upset that I spent time reading it, but I think I was expecting something much more spectacular.

2 ½ bookworms- The conventional side of me wants to conform with the other multitude of reviews and give it a higher score, but that would not be true to the point of this blog. It earned the ½ instead of being a plain-Jane 2 because I really think others will enjoy the book more than I did.

Anansi Boys- Neil Gaiman

I was a fan of the Sandman comics in High School, so I was very very excited to read this book. Mr. Gaiman definitely knows how to tell a story, that is most definitely certain. Admittedly, the book did start a bit slow… but that me because I felt so bad for the main character, Fat Charlie. I find it difficult to read or watch characters put in uncomfortable or embarrassing situations- they make me squirm and feel embarrassed FOR said character (which is why I can’t watch Meet the Parents). Sympathizing for Fat Charlie made me hate his father and Spider, just as he did in the beginning chapters. If that was Mr. Gaiman’s objective there, then well done, sir! The book picked up quite quickly once the plot was established, and I was very happy with the way all the story lines connected by the end. Decided that when this project is over, or if I’m wacky enough to add more books to this list, I must read all his books. Not an instant classic that I will want to re-read for my favourite passages, but very, very good.

4 bookworms.

A Year in the Merde- Stephen Clarke

Absolutely charming. Mr. Clarke has a brilliantly comic way of writing that I thoroughly enjoyed and even made me giggle out loud. He writes the way I wish I could speak! Loads of amusing anecdotes and you just can’t help but root for him against his tyrannical boss and sex-crazed roommate. Never been to France (nor have I ever e really cared to), but Mr. Clarke paints such a vivid and lively picture that I can imagine it in my head. Recommended!

3 ½ bookworms.

We’re so Famous- Jaime Clarke (NOT from The List)

This wasn’t on my list, but I picked up anyway because it seemed interesting in the library (I’m a sucker for anything remotely related to pop culture). What a waste. Incomplete plot lines, boring protagonists, and an annoying writing style. Above all, the stories didn’t make sense. As someone who lives in new York city and has dibbed her big toe in the crazy fashion/party-all-the-time (hey Eddie Murphy and your random foray into music!) lifestyle, I found the characters dull, pointless, and hugely stereoptyped. Don’t waste your time. I should have known better than to go off The List!

½ bookworm.