I feel like I was very busy this week, but I still managed to get plenty of reading in. I finished The Nix over the weekend. It started out great and never lost momentum. It shocks me to say this, but I think my favorite part was the chapter describing a minor character playing a video game for 30 hours straight. I’ll never forget you, Pwnage! Great characters, great story, strong recommend.
Moved on from there to Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty. Unlike Pwnage, I will be forgetting these people. This may be a case when reading so much works against me; this is well covered territory and not a standout by any means. It’s not terrible or anything, but it just never clicked with me at all. Disappointing, because angsty New England WASP family saga is one of my favorite genres.
Very, very removed from that genre is Problems. I’m still kind of on the fence on this one. Feels like a love it or hate it type of book yet for me it was just okay. I admired how deeply self destructive and unapologetic she let her main character get, and I never lost sympathy for her. I had some genuine laugh out loud moments and was dying for more scenes with Ogden. (Seriously, I’d read 500 pages of that character just having random conversations.) But in the end it left me cold. I don’t know, it was ok, and very quick, so kind of a half hearted recommend from me. Fair’s fair, I am definitely outside the target demographic for this one.
Today I’m hoping to finish up Happy Family. I’d been looking forward to this one as it seems right up my alley. So far I’m very mixed on it. Started out strong, got less interesting, things took an unexpected turn, got more interesting, now it’s losing steam a bit. I’m liking it but not loving it. The story is pretty good, the writing is okay, the main character is not so good. I’m curious to see how it turns out, so far it feels very “promising first novel.” And while I’ve never read Anna Karenina, I think this book marks the 1,000th time I’ve read its “Happy families are all alike…” quote as an epigraph. May be time for me to pick that one up!
