Sunday, April 2, 2017

The Books I Read In March

My reading this month was all over the map with respect to genre.  I ended up reading five very different books.  The first was MaddAddam, the third book of The MaddAddam Trilogy by Margaret Atwood.  In case you missed it, I talk about all three books here.  That was, by far, the best trilogy I've read.
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I had this book sitting on my nightstand for soooo long.  Rich actually ended up reading it while I finished one book and then another (library borrows.)  One night, Emily was looking at the cover and asked, "Who in the heck is this Seinfeld person?"  Seinfeld is arguably one of the best sitcoms ever created.  It's my favorite.  It debuted when I was in college and I remember watching it all the way back then.  Nowadays, Rich and I will pop on an episode when we need something light to watch.

So while I'm a huge fan of the show and knew that Larry David was involved in its creation, I was unaware that many of the episodes were based upon David's life.  Because there's only so much you can take from your real life and translate into this specific type of comedy, the show had a pool of writers and frequently rotated writers.  The book provides background information on the writers, which Rich didn't really like.  I didn't mind it as much as Rich did.  Although, some of it was probably filler.
   
I've you're a fan of the show, I would highly recommend this book.  There's quite a bit of behind the scenes information that's extremely interesting.  (In my opinion, a non-fan may find themselves a bit lost when it comes to details of certain episodes.)
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I have somewhat mixed feelings on this one.  I enjoyed reading it and didn't feel like I was reading just to get through it, but parts of the plot seemed predictable or obvious that the author is leading you in the wrong direction.  I originally picked this book to read because it was listed as historical fiction and that is partly true.  The book flips back and forth between the present and the past with a storyline surrounding the unsolved disappearance of a six year old girl.  I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.
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Everyone's heard of this one, right?  Rape and the justice system in a college town.  I thought it was very well written and extremely informative.  There was definitely a "true crime" feel to the narrative.  I was really into this book until near the end, when I felt like it became repetitive.   Because I read this over five days or so, I had no trouble keeping the characters or their stories straight.  For me, there was simply too much restating of facts and the last court case contained too much detail.  At that point, I wanted to just finish reading the book.  It almost felt like I was reading the entire court transcript.  I can see why the author decided to repeat himself - he's assuming that readers had forgotten - but it should be the responsibility of the readers to remember what they read.  A really good book but the last 20% or so could have been presented in a better way.  
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Another mom at dance read this for her book club and then lent it to me.  When I asked her what it was about and if she liked it, she responded that it was about adult triplets (a pair and a spare) and their life and "eh, it was okay."  I haven't really been reading much in the way of chick lit these days simply because there are so many other books and genres I'm interested in.  I've read three other books by this author - two of which I enjoyed (What Alice Forgot and The Husband's Secret).  I was not a fan of Big Little Lies.  I know Three Wishes is Moriarty's first book but I didn't think it was very good.  If Seinfeld is a show about nothing than this is a book about nothing.  Really, all I can say is that it follows adult triplets for a year.  To say more would give away parts of the book and then there would be no need for you to read it.  I also found it to be too predictable and the author's quirky sense of humor didn't fit well with my very dry sense of humor.  So as it turns out, "eh" is a good way to describe this book.
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1 comment:

Tracy said...

I love Seinfeld too and still frequently quote it, which leaves all my younger coworkers blinking at me with stunned expressions. May have to look into that book.