The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

This book knocked my socks off!

"The circus arrives without warning ... The towering tents are striped in black and white ... No color at all ... the black sign painted in white letters ... reads: Opens at night fall / Closes at dawn. 'What kind of circus is only open at night?' people ask...

Le Cirque des Reves

...The Circus of Dreams."

This is hands down the best book I've read in years. I want to use all the cliché reviewer terms like "astounding debut" and "richly imagined" and perhaps even - heaven forbid - "tour de force"!

Some people will call this book magical realism. I will not. For me, it's flat out magical.

There is a lot of descriptive detail in this book, but none if it is superfluous. The circus Morgenstern has created is astonishing, and she conjures it beautifully with her words. There are no other books I would compare this to, but if I had to pick a mood to compare, it would be to Murakami. The sense you get while reading is so encompassing I felt jolted when I'd look away from the text and find that I was in my home.

Katherine Dunn said it perfectly, this book has a "leisurely but persistent suspense." I wanted to savor every word, but couldn't wait to get to the end.

Even though it is couched in the context of magic, this book contains one of the best descriptions of physical (romantic) chemistry I've ever read. What is chemistry if not magic?

I wish I could emphatically state that this book is for everybody, but it isn't. I think of readers I know well ... My step-father will love it, my mother might, my father won't. Then again, this book is so surprising, I could be completely wrong.

For me, it was flawless.

Bon Reves.

If you find my review helpful, I'd really appreciate your vote on Amazon. Click here to vote.

The Leftovers - Tom Perrotta

My only experience with Perrotta prior to this was two movies - Little Children, which I liked, and Election which I didn't. His books definitely seem like something up my alley, but I'd never been compelled to pick one up.

This one sounded ideal for me. I love the different portrayals authors make of those "left behind" or in this case, "Leftover."

The prologue, for me, was genius. Absolutely hilarious. I thought it was setting the stage for what was going to be an uproarious social satire. It was not. Though there were moments of humor beyond the start, they were few and far between. What I found most about this book was that it was subtle.

For a long while it felt to me like "The Stepford Wives: The Rapture Years". I'm not a plot point type of reviewer, so this is nothing that you can't read on the jacket copy. There was an event, and a lot people disappeared from the planet. But this isn't some kind of 12 Monkey's type world. It's about normal people, with cell phones and jobs, coming to terms with what happened, and moving on with their lives. The aftermath of the aftermath if you will.

I was feeling really critical of the book because for a long time it felt so emotionless. Some people lost entire families, yet there was no grief. I didn't feel connected to anybody, and the back of the book said "a colorful cast of characters" and I just wasn't getting it, at all (with one minor exception.)

And then it sort of transcended and all came together. And what felt subtle and emotionless as I was going through it, left me feeling ultimately as though I'd been on an emotional journey the whole time.

Being unfamiliar with Perrotta's work, I'm not sure if this is par for his course. But I think that this book has potential to feel disappointing at points through the course of reading it. If it feels like that, I'd encourage you to stick with it. The book rarely veers from its subtlety, and I'm not promising a great ending ... But the way in which it evolved was quite masterful.

4/5 stars

Adam and Eve - Sena Jeter Naslund

(Publication Date: September 29)


From the sublime to the ridiculous - or vice versa


There aren't any spoilers in this review. If something seems like a spoiler, it's nothing that's not mentioned on the dust jacket. If you've not read the dust jacket, and don't want any spoilers, then you should probably skip this.

I really liked this book. I found it original, fast-paced, fun and filled with wonderful characters. It's a very different kind of book, and I would encourage readers to keep an open mind. This isn't an Ahab's Wife-like retelling of Adam and Eve. It's kind of a thriller, with a codex and all that implies (i.e. religious uproar). It's also a little bit fantasy, a little bit love story, a little bit science fiction even.

It could have been a 5-star read for me, but there was some ridiculousness that I just could not get past. Conveniences that hampered the story rather than helped it. At one point, I just wanted to scream at the editors and demand they explain why they hadn't insisted on fixing it.

At times I found the writing and story flow choppy, which was so unexpected for Naslund because she usually writes beautifully. However, lodged between the bumpy and convenient beginning and end there is the oasis of Eden. The fictional Eden of the book, and the oasis of gorgeous writing and story telling. (Adam eating a tangerine ... Sublime! so simple, yet so beautiful) I loved that part of the story!

I feel like this book had an agenda (a couple actually), and the agenda got in the way of it being brilliant. The potential was there.

I've read (and loved) two other books by Naslund and I thought she was sort of a prissy writer. But this book showed me she's willing to get her hands dirty, and that makes me want to read more of her work. So while this book is not perfect, it's still a really engaging, fun read.

4 of 5 sections of a tangerine

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Philip Pullman

3 Hours You'll Never Get Back

Let me disclaim: I have no religious affiliation whatsoever, so my dislike of this book has absolutely nothing to do with any personal feelings about the subject matter.

If you are looking for an alternative look at Jesus, look elsewhere. Might I suggest Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal?

This was terrible. Really, incredibly, indulgent. No point, no redeeming qualities, not a clever point of view. Short, lazy, boring. It's a bunch of bible passages, tweaked, a couple of theories (truth vs. history), halfheartedly shoved down your throat.

It wasn't worthy of Pullman, and it wasn't worth of publication. I'm not going to spend 2 more seconds thinking about it.

1/2 a Jesus twin out of 5

Super Sad True Love Story - Gary Shteyngart

Publication Date: July 27






I didn't find this book to be a "super sad true love story" ... nor a "super sad, true, love story". Mostly, I found the love missing and rather than sad, I found it kind of depressing.

So why the 5 stars?

Let me break it down:

Originality/creativity - 5
Humor - 2
Characters - 2.5? maybe 3
social commentary/satire - 5
eerie plausibility - 5

Originality/creativity

It's the near future. Perhaps it's now. It's impossible to tell. We are addicted to social networking, online shopping and our iPhones. Our worth as humans is measured by our credit scores and LDL cholesterol. There IS no privacy. Dying is optional. We're all members of the Bipartisan Party. Credit is King, and a highly valued profession. Media is an aspiration and a high compliment. The dollar is wallpaper, unless it's Yuan-pegged.

Shteyngart really did a fantastic job with his "vision" of our near future.

Humor

There's a lot of talk about how funny this book is. I didn't find it so at all. The truth is very often funny, but in this case, the truth was just too scary for me. That didn't detract (for me) in any way from the book, but I wouldn't go in expecting a laugh riot.

Characters

The "love" in this story was ostensibly between Eunice, a beautiful young girl, of Korean decent and Lenny, an "old man" (39 ... old in the context of the book), of Russian descent, not attractive, kind of a dweeb. The story is told from their alternating points of view.

Here's where I really struggled, because I'm not convinced it was possible to love the characters. Or perhaps even to like them. We've all seen it ... A group of people sitting at a table, having dinner or a coffee, and nobody is interacting. They're on their iPhones, Blackberries. Texting, googling, checking the stock market or their auction. Human interaction is becoming superfluous. Need a friend? Login to Facebook. Need some shoes? shoes.com. Imagine what we'll be like in ten to twenty years. Self-absorbed, self-sufficient, uninteresting, SHALLOW. Only the most innate biological imperative will drive us to other people.

I didn't "feel" the love in this potential "love" story, because I'm not convinced the characters were capable of love, either of themselves or others. Maybe they weren't fully developed, but I don't think that was it. I think they were as fully developed as they could be given the times they grew up in.

Social Commentary/Satire

It's so well-done, and so plausible, it almost doesn't even feel like satire. Quite simply: Brilliant.

Eerily Plausible

David Mitchell called this book "social prophecy" in his blurb. I hope he's wrong, but it sure does seem like we are headed down this path. Shteyngart had to have started writing this book at least two years ago. Yet, so much of what is in this book is happening right now. The Facebook privacy controversy is a prime example.

In addition to the social aspects of this book, there's also the political. I don't want to give any more detail than I already have, but this passage really struck me:

"....there were all these like little shacks for the homeless people in Central Park. It was really sad. These people are getting kicked out of their homes along the highway because the Chinese central banker is coming and Lenny says the Bipartisans don't want us to look poor in front of our Asian creditors."

This is an eye-opening novel. A cautionary tale! We are selling America to the highest bidder so we can wear our Juicy dresses and Prada sunglasses, while dining on truffled lobster Mac 'n Cheese in our kitchens with subway tile blacksplash.

Take Heed!

Incidentally, this would make and OUTSTANDING (though not traditional) book club read. So many great topics for undoubtedly heated discussion.

Rated 5/5 stars

The Ark - Boyd Morrison

I love Biblical fiction; books like David Maine's The Preservationist or The Red Tent. While this book is not biblical fiction, it has that element that I love. Taking a story from the bible, kind of taking it a part and putting it back together again. All the elements are still there, but it allows the reader to think of it in a way they may not have thought of before. I find that fun! Especially with a tale as tired as Noah's Ark.

This is a modern day thriller, with all the cool technology, twists and turns, gun fights and explosions, loony tunes bad guys, and near death experiences that go along with that genre. But it also deals with the story of Noah's Ark in a really interesting way.

As with most thrillers, it's a very fast-paced, fun and enjoyable read.

This is not Christian fiction, I don't know why anyone would think that (Was Indiana Jones a Christian Movie?). I thought the author was quite respectful in dealing with the slippery slope of presenting an alternate point of view of the Bible's Noah.

Entertaining!

Rated 4 of 5 stars