two-minute book review: silver linings playbook

Favorite Quote: "After I returned to New Jersey, I thought I was safe, because I did not think that Kenny G could leave the bad place, which I realize is silly now--because Kenny G is extremely talented and resourceful and a powerful source to be reckoned with."

Favorite Character: Jake

Meetways: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time meets How to Be Good

Three Words: straight-forward, simple, quick

two-minute book review: drown

Favorite Quote: "In a better world I would have kissed her over the ice trays and that would have been the end of all of our troubles.  But you know exactly what kind of world we live in."

Favorite Character: La Inca

Meetways: Love in the Time of Cholera meets The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

Three Words: casual, personal, immediate

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Favorite Quote: "No amount of heart-leather could stop something like that from hurting."

Favorite Character: Ysrael

Meetways: The Namesake meets Ask the Dust

Three Words: sad, funny, empathetic

two-minute book review: interpreter of maladies

I read Interpreter of Maladies (a short story collection) by Jhumpa Lahiri last week (and I'm reading her novel, The Namesake, currently).  Here are my brief thoughts:

Favorite Quote: "In fact, the only thing three-dimensional about Boori Ma was her voice: brittle with sorrows, as tart as curds, and shrill enough to grate meat from a coconut."

Favorite Character: Eliot

Meetways: Nine Stories meets The God of Small Things

Three Words: authentic, poignant, accessible

two-minute book review: the children's book

Over the past two weeks, I read The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, which is probably the longest book I have read since Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  It's 887 pages.  Here is my quick review:


Favorite Quote: "They were all equally present because they were all gone."

Favorite Character: Dorothy

Meetways: Anna Karenina meets Great Expectations

Three Words: familial, surprising, Victorian

two-minute book review: the marriage plot

Book number three in Jamie and Grace's Summer Reading Fest (patent pending).

Favorite Quote: "If Mitchell was ever going to become a good Christian, he would have to stop disliking people so intensely."

Favorite Character: Mitchell

Meetways: Goodbye, Columbus meets Tender is the Night

Three Words: contemporary, psychological, well-written

two-minute book review: the sense of an ending

Deleting my Facebook has had a lot of benefits, but my favorite right now is that I read a lot (which I have always done, but now it's increasing again).  Jamie and I read The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.  Here are my quick thoughts:

Favorite Quote: "This isn't something I actually saw, but what you end up remembering isn't always the same as what you have witnessed."

Favorite Character: Adrian Jr.

Meetways: Atonement meets Mystic River

Three Words: mysterious, narrative, quiet

two-minute book review: a fraction of the whole

Jamie and I read our first book of the summer!  We read A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz.

Favorite Quote(s): I had to pick two.

"...when you're a child, to stop you from following the crowd you're assaulted with the line 'If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?' but when you're an adult and to be different is suddenly a crime, everyone seems to be saying, 'Hey.  Everyone else is jumping off a bridge. Why aren't you?'"

"We ignorantly indulge in negative thoughts, unaware that thinking over and over again 'I suck' is probably as carcinogenic as sucking down a carton of unfiltered Camels."

Favorite Character: Leonard Potts

Meetways: East of Eden meets Choke

Fun Fact: It is Steve Toltz only novel to date.

Three Words: Australian, dark, comedic

Next up: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

two minute book review: netherland

I read Netherland by Joseph O'Neill a few weeks ago.  Here's what I thought.

Favorite Quote: "I was just a boy on a boat in the universe."

Favorite Character: Hans' mother

Meetways: The Great Gatsby meets Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Fun Fact: Joseph O'Neill is a regular contributor to Atlantic Monthly.

Three Words: immersing, sincere, well-paced

two minute book reviews: the god of small things

 I recently (2 weeks ago) read The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.  I was going to wait to review it until Tess finished it (it was a book club selection), but things are not looking promising in that department.  So, here it is anyway.


Favorite Quote: "But anger wasn't available to them and there was no face to put on this Other Thing that they held in their sticky Other Hands, like an imaginary orange.  There was nowhere to lay it down. It wasn't theirs to give away.  It would have to be held.  Carefully and forever."

Favorite Character: Estha

Meetways: One Hundred Years of Solitude meets The English Patient

Fun Fact: It's the only novel Arundhati Roy has written.

Three Words: vivid, original, fresh

two minute book reviews: then we came to the end

Last week, I read And Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris.  Here's what I thought, quickly.


Favorite Quote: "Death has a way of ruining your plans and sending you on a tailspin on what should be a work night."

Favorite Character: Benny Shassburger

Meetways: Catch-22 meets The Office

Fun Fact: The title comes from Don DeLillo's Americana.

Three Words: engrossing, funny, satisfying