Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

I have to start off by saying I'm usually pretty uncomfortable writing reviews for books I didn't enjoy. Is there such a thing as a bad book? I have my doubts. It's more of a preference thing. Unfortunately, throughout this book, I would have preferred to be reading something else, but that obviously doesn't mean that another reader won't see it in a completely different light.

It's not that the plot is bad. To simplify, it's about a group of students that attend a private arts high school and the relationships they have with each other and their eccentric teachers. The premise is actually a pretty interesting one and there's a unique twist in the second part of the book where things in the first part are not entirely as they appear. Unfortunately, the plot twist still wasn't enough to keep me interested. My main problem with this book was that I found all of the characters unlikeable. Weird, since there were quite a number of them, so odds are that I'd have some interest in at least one or two of them, right? Unfortunately, that just wasn't the case. For the most part, I found them unbelievable and annoying and a couple of the characters I was drawn to in Part One of the book seemed to do an about-face by the second half, cutting the one or two threads that tenuously held me to them in the first place. It's hard to want to keep reading when you just don't care what happens to anyone, but from reading the jacket, I knew there was this big plot twist that was supposed to happen and by the time it arrived, I was already halfway through the book so I felt the need to keep going until the end.

I also found the writing style confusing. In the third part of the book (the book is divided into three sections), it took me about thirteen pages to figure out who was talking and what was going on. The points of view change in each section, which in itself isn't an issue, but it got a little muddled at the beginning of the second and third parts for me. It was overly wordy and overexplanatory without actually helping me figure out what was happening with any ease. I also found the middle part extremely grating to read - the main character in Part Two breaks down all of her feelings into literal dictionary definitions. Using this technique once would have felt a bit clunky, but to have it used over and over again started to get annoying. There was a reason the character did this, but nevertheless, I just found it cringey.

So, all in all, this one wasn't a winner for me. My favourite part of the book was the graphic design on the cover, so I'm interested to read some positive reviews to see if I can gain any insight into what others took away from the same book.

Judge the cover: 4/5

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki + Jillian Tamaki

 

This One Summer follows Rose and her parents as they return to their summer house at Awago Beach. There, Rose reunites with her summer friend, Windy.

It's not a very fun summer for Rose. Her parents won't stop arguing and though her father tries to reassure her not to worry about it, that it's just adult stuff, her mother's depression is unbearable.

Rose escapes to the beach most days with Windy, a fellow only child, who she sees every summer. They gossip, hang out at the beach, and rent scary movies. It's at the general store where they rent their movies that they catch glimpses of the lives of some older teenagers who live in the area. They're intriguing, these older teens, with their secret hangouts and drunken parties and crazy drama. Rose and Windy mainly gather insights through holes in fences, by eavesdropping on conversations and via the teens' loud partying, but the drama culminates when Rose finds herself caught in the middle of a pivotal moment in one of the older teen's lives.

Sometimes drama can separate people; sometimes it can unite. Sometimes kids just want to be older until they're thrust into adult situations when they just want to re-embrace childhood. And sometimes a summer vacation is good, but sometimes it's just good to be home. No matter what, there's always next summer...

Judge the cover: 3/5

What My Mother and I Don't Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break the Silence by Michele Filgate

It's always given me a little thrill when, as an adult, I've confessed things to my mother that I did as a kid that she was completely oblivious to. There are really no consequences at this point: no possibility of being grounded, of losing the phone or of not being able to hang out with my friends. But there are still plenty of things that I wouldn't tell my mother about in a million years. It's not for fear of teenage consequences at this point, it's just that mother/child relationships can be sensitive. They seem to come with their own kind of built-in baggage. Sometimes it's just best to keep certain things to yourself, even if they're far, far in the past. 

It's for this reason that I admire and applaud each of the fifteen writers who contributed to this book. It took a lot of bravery to dig deep and tell these truths about their relationships with their mothers with such candid spirit. Some of the writers' mothers are deceased, so it's from a place of relative safety that the authors were able to let out their secrets. Others' mothers are still alive, which adds a whole other dimension to what they chose to say and how they chose to say it. 

So many writers become inhibited when it comes to writing about their family members. After all, there are so many tricky emotions tied up in our life stories and our original core relationships. Some families are intensely private and would sooner die than have someone read about them. Others are more aloof, but when it comes down to it, it's still a very delicate balance for an author to decide if they tell all of the facts straight-up, consequences be damned, or if they choose to blur some details to make them more easily digestible than their original version. 

In this particular book, all of the writers were upfront with their stories even when it wasn't an easy task. There were issues of abuse, neglect, physical disabilities, wealth and step-families. There were also all different sorts of mothers: they were overbearing, cruel, loving, unfulfilled, free-spirited, lonely, proud...There is no such thing as a perfect family although we've all daydreamed about being part of one at some point. But some of these stories prove that when we think that the grass must be greener on the other side, in some cases, it turns out there's no grass at all, just an empty lot where that green, green grass should be.

It wasn't lost on me that I was reading this book while visiting my family for the weekend over Mother's Day. It got me thinking about all of the things that my own mother and I don't talk about. I'm just not sure I'm quite brave enough to have that conversation quite yet. Maybe I'll just keep it all buried safely away for now.

Judge the cover: 2/5

This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Philipps

Occasionally, I like to read memoirs by people I don't know very much about. That was the case with this one by Busy Phillips. I only knew the pencil outline version of her work - that she was on Freaks and Geeks, Dawson's Creek and Cougar Town and that she has a soon-to-end nighttime talk show, which I only watched once. I was more familiar with her red carpet appearances with best friend Michelle Williams above anything else.

Busy writes in a really conversational tone, as if you're her friend who she's dishing to over Cosmos on her couch. Her story starts right at the beginning, showing her independent streak when she takes off on her own for a walk around the block as a toddler. She then moves through her childhood and into her high school years, which was the point at which she decided that she wanted to be an actress. The difference between her and every other teenage girl with that very same ambition is that she actually made it happen. (And she got the satisfaction of throwing up a virtual middle finger to her teacher who told her that she wasn't going to be an actress and that being an actress was not a viable career.) She's extremely headstrong and determined; once she makes up her mind to do something, she goes for it and doesn't give up until she achieves it. Or if she doesn't quite achieve it, she has a cry (crying is a theme throughout), picks herself up and puts in one hundred percent effort to the next thing she's after.

This is one Hollywood celebrity who's not afraid to namedrop. Though I consider myself fairly up on pop culture references, I didn't recognize many of the names, though there were definitely enough that I did to make her anecdotes feel juicy. There was a purpose to it, though, and many times it was her way of standing up to the overriding boys' club/patriarchy/white male privilege that she put up with on so many occasions. It's her way of calling them out publicly for how they treated her or for their blatant hypocrisy. For someone who admittedly suffers from anxiety and depression, some of her writing felt like therapy. She was able to pour out her frustrations and worries onto the page. She never shies away from the truth and is really bold in the way she discusses her relationships from high school through to the present day. She's fully open about being raped as a teenager, the breakdown/reconciliation cycle of her current marriage and how she struggled with pregnancy and work obligations later in life.

This is still very much a Hollywood story. When she discusses money troubles and nannies not working out, as someone who's not anywhere near that upper echelon, it's definitely a little hard to relate, but that's just who she is and where she is because she put in all of the hard work to get there. Because Busy is so completely honest about all of the other aspects of her life, she doesn't try to sugarcoat anything to try to preserve her reputation. She puts it all out there and you can take it or leave it. She's already moving on to the next thing. Onwards and upwards.

Judge the cover: 4/5

Tin Man by Sarah Winman

I thought I'd enjoy Tin Man more than I did. It was just a little too cozy for me. There was a lot of potential, but it was just too quiet for my taste.

The premise was an interesting one: Ellis and Michael meet as twelve-year-old boys. They form a deep friendship that turns into more. And then one day, Michael is gone.

In the first half of the book, we are introduced to Ellis in the present day. His wife, Annie, has died and Ellis is struggling to get through life on his own, without his wife and without Michael who he reminisces about, as neither of them are no longer in his life. He works in a job that his father insisted on years ago, but his heart isn't really into it. He tries to bond with his younger neighbours, but he's trapped in his memories of the love he had for his wife and his friend, both of whom he misses terribly.

Most of the second half of the book is from Michael's perspective. Michael left town as an adult and we find out where he is and what his life is like afterwards. Before Michael disappeared and after Ellis met Annie, all three of them were inseparable friends. They hung out together all the time and Annie and Michael bonded just as much as Ellis and Michael. So, much of Michael's life is also spent reminiscing about the life he shared with Ellis and then both Ellis and Annie.

Having just read an action-packed novel that was full of punchy dialogue and original, descriptive language, Tin Man just felt bland in comparison. It's not a bad book - it was perfectly fine, but when there are so many amazing books out there, perfectly fine is not going to be memorable. Though I can see its appeal for another audience, unfortunately, this one just wasn't for me.

Judge the cover: 2/5 (Van Gogh has never been to my taste, but his Sunflowers painting is an important reference in the book, so the cover makes sense)

Eating the Sun: Small Musings on a Vast Universe by Ella Frances Sanders

If there's ever a thing to make you feel small in the world, it's examining the world itself and how we find our place within it. It's a difficult task to make the entire universe and all that it's composed of digestible and easily understandable to the average human. Eating the Sun manages to do just that.

If I were a person with a great memory, I would feel superbly smart after reading this little book. As it turns out, the part of my brain that retains facts and figures is unfortunately just a dust bowl. Things go in, but then they disappear. So I learned that there is actually a name for the different shades of grey and black you see when it's dark, I just can't remember what that name is. Did you know that the skeletal structure of a human arm is extremely close to the wing of a bird and that because some birds?/a particular species of bird?/something like that? has hollow bones and because of this, its feathers would actually weigh more than its skeleton? Let's see...what else can I "remember"...oh! This one's fascinating: did you know that you never actually touch anything directly? Everything has a forcefield of mumblesomethingsomethingparticlescan'tremember around it and so while it appears that you can feel objects, you're really just forcing apart the forcefields that are surrounding you and the object making it seem as though you're directly touching things!

Um. So.

If you have a better memory than me, you'll find this book rewarding. I mostly appreciate that vast vault of knowledge could be distilled down to only about a couple of pages per topic, all in laymen's terms with a small flourish of poetic language tying it all together. A ton of topics are covered from evolution to trees to outer space to how living things naturally synchronize. Amazing! I also loved the accompanying illustrations that added a sweet touch and a nice break between all of the facts. The only thing I have a slight problem with is that I couldn't find any references back to the sources where the author found her facts and statistics. As someone who doesn't know anything much about the topics in the book, do I just rely on the author's viewpoint? I'm sure a lot of this information, though scientific, is still subjective. In fact, at several points throughout the book, it's mentioned just how often scientists and researchers discover new information as they come to new understandings about the world we live in. But overall, this fun little reference book in a sweet package is a great alternative to all of the dry reference books out there. If only my memory was as great as my sense of curiosity.

Judge the cover: 5/5

If there's ever a thing to make you feel small in the world, it's examining the world itself and how we find our place within it. It's a difficult task to make the entire universe and all that it's composed of digestible and easily understandable to the average human. Eating the Sun manages to do just that.

If I were a person with a great memory, I would feel superbly smart after reading this little book. As it turns out, the part of my brain that retains facts and figures is unfortunately just a dust bowl. Things go in, but then they disappear. So I learned that there is actually a name for the different shades of grey and black you see when it's dark, I just can't remember what that name is. Did you know that the skeletal structure of a human arm is extremely close to the wing of a bird and that because some birds?/a particular species of bird?/something like that? has hollow bones and because of this, its feathers would actually weigh more than its skeleton? Let's see...what else can I "remember"...oh! This one's fascinating: did you know that you never actually touch anything directly? Everything has a forcefield of mumblesomethingsomethingparticlescan'tremember around it and so while it appears that you can feel objects, you're really just forcing apart the forcefields that are surrounding you and the object making it seem as though you're directly touching things!

Um. So.

If you have a better memory than me, you'll find this book rewarding. I mostly appreciate that vast vault of knowledge could be distilled down to only about a couple of pages per topic, all in laymen's terms with a small flourish of poetic language tying it all together. A ton of topics are covered from evolution to trees to outer space to how living things naturally synchronize. Amazing! I also loved the accompanying illustrations that added a sweet touch and a nice break between all of the facts. The only thing I have a slight problem with is that I couldn't find any references back to the sources where the author found her facts and statistics. As someone who doesn't know anything much about the topics in the book, do I just rely on the author's viewpoint? I'm sure a lot of this information, though scientific, is still subjective. In fact, at several points throughout the book, it's mentioned just how often scientists and researchers discover new information as they come to new understandings about the world we live in. But overall, this fun little reference book in a sweet package is a great alternative to all of the dry reference books out there. If only my memory was as great as my sense of curiosity.

Judge the cover: 5/5

The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney

This is the kind of book that I'd guess the adjective "rollicking" was invented for. Some other descriptors on the cover blurbs are: confident, gripping, a wild ride, punchy, edgy, fizzing. Yes to all of them! All so true.

Lisa McInerney is an author with a bold voice whose characters have solid identities and a lot to say. Like every Irish-authored book I've read to-date, it makes me wonder what it's really like growing up and living there. There is a certain toughness, a melancholy-yet-hopeful tone that radiates from their pages. That said, don't get me wrong; there's no way I'm saying that Lisa McInerney's writing fits into a typical mould - it's entirely original and a force of a book - it just sizzles with that hardscrabble Irish undertone that I've come to love.

In The Glorious Heresies, we meet Ryan Cusack - teenager, petty drug dealer, oldest of six, head over heels in love with his beautiful girlfriend, Karine. His mother is long dead and gone and his father, Tony, is an abusive alcoholic, so he's trying to keep his head above water. The deeper the trouble he find himself in, the harder it becomes for him to try to claw his way out. It doesn't help him any that Jimmy Phelan is running around in the shadows.

Jimmy is Tony's old friend who relies on Tony's sense of duty and need for money to help him clean up the bodies Jimmy leaves in his wake. If only Jimmy's unhinged mother, Maureen, would stop blabbing his business he'd be a lot better off. But Maureen just wants to be free of the ghosts that haunt her flat and her mind. It doesn't help anyone when, by chance, Georgie, a local prostitute, crosses her path one day and they start helping each other unravel the mysteries that plague them both. Georgie's desperately trying to find out what happened to her beloved boyfriend, Robbie, who went out one day and never came back. She's now trying to sort out fact from fiction while Maureen is looking for answers of her own. They both find themselves running away from their problems and finding themselves enmeshed in new ones.

As time passes, everyone's paths start crossing and their lives become further entrenched to the point where the evil web starts catching them all. Central to everyone's hatred is Tara Duane, a former madam, general lowlife and neighbourhood loudmouth. She's trouble from the get-go and a deliciously unlikeable character. 

Everyone in this escapade is broken and needs to be taken care of, but exactly which definition of that phrase applies depends on whose perspective you're seeing it from. Everyone's running from themselves, from each other, from endless worries and insurmountable trouble. What will happen when it all catches up to them is what will keep you turning the pages.

Without a doubt, this is one of the best books I've read so far this year. I'm beyond excited to see that there is already a sequel out, The Blood Miracles. After a brief moment to catch my breath, I can't wait to jump right back into this high-strung saga and get my blood pumping again.

Judge the cover: 5/5