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TSS ~ Sometimes It Even Happens Here

Every time I read about people getting the chance to meet authors on book tours, I get really jealous. Living in SouthWest Virginia, the opportunity to visit an author while on a book tour is few and far between.  Next Saturday, that will change at least for the day.

Kathleen Grissom, the author of The Kitchen House, will be stopping in Lynchburg at Givens Books at 2pm on February 13th.  The book was published on the 2nd, so it’s hot off the presses.  It got me out of my reading blahs.  I just could not put it down.  I read The Kitchen House last month and absolutely loved it.  Check back here on Friday for my review.  I will also be posting about the book tour during my next Sunday Salon post.  If all goes well, I’m hoping to have a signed copy to giveaway.

In the meantime, you can check out Kathleen’s site.  On her About The Kitchen House page.  There are some great resources there, including pictures I wish  I had seen while I was reading the book.  There is a book trailer as well.  I just finished watching it.  A slight word of caution: if you don’t like to know much about a book before reading it, you might want to hold off on it.

Now, be honest.  How many of you thought I was referring to this weekend’s snow storm?  Well, that news also fits my post title.    We had a great time sledding in the snow and making a snowman.  Thankfully we were able to make it to church this morning and then to the mall.  I had a serious case of cabin fever since this weekend was the second in a row that we were snowbound.  Yesterday morning I took a short video of our front yard.  We didn’t get hit as hard as some of my book blogging girlfriends in Northern Virginia or Maryland, but it was an anomaly for the Roanoke Valley.  I want to thank everyone who stopped by on our Friday snow day.

Reading and Reviews This Week

This week I read and reviewed Tainted by Brooke Morgan as part of the author’s TLC Book Tour.  I’m hosting a giveaway of Morgan’s debut novel, so be sure to check out my review.

I also finished Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls.  I started that during my reading malaise and put it down because I didn’t want it to be ruined by my lack of reading enthusiasm.  I thought it was a great companion to The Glass Castle and will be reviewing this novel soon.

For those of you not watching the Super Bowl (I’m assuming anyone reading this isn’t – who watching the big event would also read book blogs during the show?), I hope you enjoy your evening snuggled up with a good book.  I’ll be reading Twilight of Avalon by Anna Elliot.

Have You Been to a Bookstore Like This?

One of the highlights of the day on Friday was when my hubby showed me the St. Vincent video for “Laughing with a Mouth of Blood.”  I don’t want to give anything away other than to say other than it takes place in a feminist used bookstore. You will really appreciate this if you’ve ever been to bookstore where they take themselves a wee bit too seriously. Enjoy!

St. Vincent – “Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood”

st. vincent | MySpace Music Videos

Snow Day!

Today much of Virginia is getting socked with what is for us our third snow storm this winter.  The first storm hit about a week before Christmas and the second one hit last Saturday. Last week’s storm kept the girls out of school until yesterday. Today is a snow day for all of us since my work is closed as well.  I do have a few meetings with vendors throughout the day, but I’ll be sure to sprinkle some fun throughout the day.  I’m sure by Sunday I’ll be climbing the walls wanting to get out of the house, but for today I’m just going to enjoy this.

Here’s what we have on tap:

1) The girls both have their 100 day school project to do.

2) Allison needs to decorate her Valentine’s box for school.

3) Junie B. Jones!

4) Playing in the snow followed by hot chocolate!

5) Shoveling – a great way to get some exercise.

6) Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls.  I’m about 70 pages in and enjoying it.  It’s a novelization of her grandmother’s life told in little episodes. Later today I’m hoping we can stoke up the gas logs.  Reading by a fire is relaxing, don’t you think?

What do you have planned for today?

#233 ~ Tainted ~ Blog Tour and Giveaway

Tainted by Brooke Morgan

Published by: Avon A

Published on: December 2009

Page Count: 429

Genre: Women’s Fiction / Suspense

Format: paperback review copy from publisher

Availability: paperback and eBook

Giveaway: open until February 15, 2010; see the end of the post for more information

Today it is my great pleasure to be Brooke Morgan’s host on her TLC Book Tour for her novel, Tainted.  I would like to thank her publisher for sending me a review copy.  Please see the end of my review for a list of the blogs who are on this tour with me.

I have a lot of fun working as a tour host for TLC Book Tours.  They always have great books and authors on tour.  Check out their website for more information on this tour and the others that they are hosting.

My Review

Holly is a terribly shy 23-year-old single mother who has never had a boyfriend.  Her beautiful daughter Katy was conceived with Billy, her best friend’s ex-boyfriend, during a one-night stand on the beach near her parents’ summer home in Shoreham, NY.  A couple of years after Katy was born, Holly’s parents died.  Holly retreated from Boston and moved to the summer home permanently.  Her grandfather Henry lives next door and takes care of his girls.  Holly is lonely for romantic companionship and Henry worries about how isolated she is.  That changes suddenly when a handsome, English stranger sits next to her on a bus trip from Boston.  When Jack  asks her out on her first ever date, Holly is swept off her feet.  She gives into the warmth of being loved and cherished, overlooking the fact that she knows nothing about him.  At what cost does she give her heart away to a stranger?

Here are my thoughts about Tainted:

• Tainted is a cautionary tale about moving too quickly into a relationship.  Holly is the prime target for a controlling man: she’s shy, she lacks self-confidence, and she’s lonely.  It is such a relief to her to have found love that she puts up with behavior other women might not.  Men who would take advantage of this seem to pick up on that  so quickly.  In that respect, I found Jack and Holly’s relationship very realistic.  It made me think of how important it is to instill a healthy self-esteem in our daughters.
• When I thought of Holly, these lyrics from U2’s “So Cruel” kept coming to mind:

Desperation is a tender trap
It gets you every time

• Katy and Henry were the characters that made this novel for me.  I loved their relationship.  I can see a lot of my father-in-law in Henry as a person and as a grandfather.  I also wish that my father lived close enough to be that close to my daughters. Grandparents and grandchildren are such treasures to each other.
• Up until last night if you had asked me how suspenseful I thought this novel was, I would have said somewhat. There was enough suspense to keep me reading, but nothing that would keep me up at night.  Subconsciously, it really did get to me:
  • First, I was reading the book and about 2/3 of the way through around 11:30 the other night.  Allison woke up with a growing pain in her leg and knocked on her bedroom wall to get our attention.  The girls do this all the time, but I was so startled that the book flew out of my hand and landed on the other side of the couch.
  • Second, I had a dream last night about going along with two friends on their honeymoon to make sure that everything went okay.  Bizarre!
• There were a couple of things that didn’t work well for me in this novel:
  • My biggest issue was with internal dialog.  Every time a character talked to his or herself, it was printed in italics.  There was a great deal of internal dialog in this book and I found it very distracting.  As the story picked up, I was able to get past it.  Still I couldn’t help noticing it even on the last page.
  • I had some difficulty with the way that characters seemed to overreact to things.  It was as if everyone was unnaturally on edge from the very beginning of the novel.  The example that comes to mind is when Billy, concerned with how little anyone knows about Jack, calls his friend, Jack’s boss to find out more about him.  While Billy was invading Jack’s privacy and putting his friend into a tough spot, it was overkill to have this friend tell Billy that he was acting “creepy.”  In some ways, this took away from those things that truly were concerning.
• It took me a while to get into this book.  About a quarter of the way through, the story picked up substantially.  I wanted to know what made Jack tick.  I wanted to see how long it would take Holly to open her eyes.  I was truly concerned for Katy and needed to know what happened. It was a quick read and I am glad I finished it.

My Final Thoughts

Despite a few quirks, I enjoyed reading Tainted.  As this is her first novel, I think that Brooke Morgan has a lot of potential.

Brooke’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS

Monday, January 18th: I’m Booking It

Wednesday, January 20th: All About {n}

Friday, January 22nd: Savvy Verse & Wit

Tuesday, January 26th: Café of Dreams

Thursday, January 28th: Clever Girl Goes Blog

Monday, February 1st: Dolce Bellezza

Thursday, February 11th: Life in the Thumb

Thursday, February 18th: Bookworm With a View

Tuesday, February 23rd: Cozy Little House

Wednesday, February 24th: In the Shadow of Mt. TBR

Giveaway

Thanks to Kendra at HarperCollins, I have a copy of Tainted to give away to one lucky winner in the United States.  To enter, tell me who you think is the most evil fictional boyfriend ever.

I leave you with “So Cruel” by U2:

#231 & 232 ~ The Hunger Games & Catching Fire

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Published by: Scholastic Press

Published on: September 14, 2008

Page Count: 384

Genre: Young Adult / Dystopia

Format: Audiobook from Audible.com.

Availability: hardcover, paperback, eBook, and audiobook

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Published by: Scholastic Press

Published on: September 1, 2009

Page Count: 400

Genre: Young Adult / Dystopia

Format: hardcover bought @ Target.

Availability: hardcover and audiobook

My Summary

Suzanne Collin’s Hunger Game Series tells the story of an America that has fallen apart.  What once was the United States is now called Panem, a set of 13 districts held in a choke hold by the iron grip of the Capitol.  The Capitol fears the rebellion of its districts so much that it requires the blood sacrifice of both a young boy and a young girl from each district each year.  Although the children leave their districts alive, this is a blood sacrifice because they are forced to fight to the death in the Capitol’s Hunger Games.  What is life or death to the people from the districts is a sporting event/red carpet-like parade for those living in the Capitol.  This series begins with the Reaping, where the Tributes are announced.  Katniss Everdeen, a scrappy young girl from District 12, is forced to volunteer to be the district’s female Tribute.  District 12 is one of the poorest, hungriest districts in Panem.  Does she even stand a chance at survival?

My Review

I could not possibly write a separate review for each of these books.  I read them in quick succession, so one experience bled into the next.  So, the following are my thoughts on both books with minimal spoilers for those who haven’t read either book:

• I listened to The Hunger Games on audio.  When I finished it, I had to know what happened next.  When I realized I didn’t have another Audible credit until the end of January, I knew I couldn’t wait that long.  I checked my local library, but all copies of Catching Fire were loaned out.  I simply couldn’t wait even long enough to sit on a waiting list.  I bought my copy of Catching Fire less than 12 hours after finishing The Hunger Games.  I finished Catching Fire within 24 hours.
• I listened to the novel in audio and Carolyn Mccormick’s voice just a wee bit irritating, mostly because she sounds much older than Katniss.  Since the story is told from Katniss’ point of view, that was a disconnect for me.  As a result, The Hunger Games started off slow for me.  It most certainly picked up once Katniss and Peeta arrived in the Capitol, though.
• I found the terminology of the Games a little off-putting, which contributed to the slow beginning for The Hunger Games.   The Reaping, really?  Tracker Jackers, WTH*?  I kept thinking, “Who named these things?”  It all started to make more sense – or at least I became acclimated to it – once the Capitol came into focus, because that entire place is so very stylized.  Although I was never completely comfortable with it, I didn’t think about it twice during Catching Fire.
• I don’t typically read science fiction (this may have something to do with my point above about the terminology), but I loved and adored these books.
• These books may be published by Scholastic for a young adult audience, but I did not feel like I was intruding in YA land for one second.  There was nothing about these books that made them YA  except that the main characters were teenagers.  Also true there was no sex or language, but I didn’t miss them.  I had no trouble connecting with Katniss because I’m (a little) more than twice her age.
• What I loved the most about these books was how realistic Katniss’ struggles were for a young woman her age forced first  into taking care of her mother and younger sister by circumstance and second into fighting to the death with other teenagers in order to appease a government that will never be satisfied.  Her paranoia, anger, fear and hope were all very true.  When Suzanne Collins coupled that post-apocalyptic nightmare with with the confusion, insecurity, and unpredictable emotions typical of adolescence, she hit the mark.
• Of the two novels, Catching Fire was my favorite.  If the third novel in this series, which isn’t published until August 24, 2010, is any better than Catching Fire, I will cry when it’s over. Guaranteed.
• I am most firmly on Team Peeta.

* Keeping my acronyms cleaner for the Young  Adult audience, but y’all know what I really meant. LOL!

My Final Thoughts

Read these books!   There’s something here for everyone.

About the Author

Suzanne Collins has worked as a writer for many Young Adult and children’s television programming such as Clarissa Explains it All, Little Bear, Oswald, and Clifford’s Puppy Days.  It was children’s author James Proimos who encouraged her to become a novelist.  The Hunger Games is not Collins’ first series.  Previously, she wrote a five-part series called The Underland Chronicles.  Collins currently lives in Connecticut with her family.

Scholastic’s website has some fun resources on Collins’ About the Author page.  There is a link to an interview as well as her answers to a couple of reader’s burning questions.  Scholastic’s website also has a countdown clock to the release of the third book for those who love the pain of being reminded of how far away August really is.

Other Voices

There is no way I could do any justice to listing all of the great reviews out there for these books.  If you’d like to explore the opinions of other bloggers out there, check out the Book Blogs Search Engine created and maintained by Fyrefly.  It’s a wonderful resource.

TSS – January in Review

January has come and gone in a flash.  I would think at some point I’d stop being surprised at how fast the time goes by, but it never ceases to amaze me.  This is a month I’m pretty happy to have behind me, though.  It was tough getting back into the school routine after the Christmas break and I am working on a project at work that has tapped me out in a lot  of ways.  I was hoping that it would be finished by the first of February, but it now looks more like the 16th.  The end is near, though.  That’s a good thing.  I’m looking forward to my work getting back to normal.

Blogiversary

I celebrated my 3rd blogiversary on the 17th.  Thank you so much to everyone’s well wishes.  The giveaway, including a 1g iPod Shuffle and books is still open.

Reading

Reading this month also went in fits and spurts.  January began on a high note with Shanghai Girls by Lisa See for a TLC Book Tour.   I followed that up with a near manic reading of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.  I couldn’t read them fast enough.  However, once I was finished with what we currently know about Katniss and Peeta,  I entered a reading dry spell.  I picked up and promptly put back down 8 books, including 3 audio books.  I just couldn’t be satisfied.

Thankfully, my malaise came to an end when I picked up The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom.  She is coming to Southwest Virginia in February and I’m looking forward to the chance to meet her.  I followed The Kitchen House with A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick.  I loved it so much that I couldn’t wait to finish it before I posted about it.  Last night I finished Robin Maxwell’s O, Juliet, a novelization of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.  In audio, I started Mudbound by Hillary Jordan.  I’m nearly finished.  I’m hoping to finish it today, but it may be early next week.  I am enjoying this novel, but it makes me so mad at times, too.

Reviews

I reviewed the following novels  this month.  Click on the image to go to the review.

Reading Deliberately
This month, I finished nearly seven books.  Of those books, three were books of my own choosing – The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mudbound.  Four were review books – O, Juliet, Shanghai Girls, The Kitchen House, and A Reliable Wife.  The Kitchen House and A Reliable Wife I said yes to this month.  As much as I have enjoyed those books, it shows a lack of  resolve in saying no to review copies.  My initial goal was to only request one book per month.  I requested those as well as Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Small Wars by Sadie Jones, Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd, and The Hand that First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrel.

So, I have had mixed results with goal of reading deliberately.  I am more aware of what I’m doing, though.  That’s a good start.  Lifestyle changes take time.  On the upside, I did say no to 10 book review requests.  Compared to 3 to 5, that’s progress.

#230 ~ Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mantel’s latest novel first entered my radar through an issue of BookPage, a monthly magazine made available for free from my local library.  From the momemt I saw the cover (H8 may not be displayed prominently on the cover, but you can’t slip him by me) and read the review, this book shot up to the tippity top of my “I want, I want” list.  When it finally arrived from Powell’s, it felt as precious in my hands as gold.  I love it when a book gives me that feeling.

After finishing the novel in December, I haven’t been able to wrap my head around writing a proper review.  Instead, I’m just going to give you my overall thoughts about this novel:

• After starting this book, the darndest thing happened – I found myself liking Thomas Cromwell. Despite all that I have read about Henry VIII’s reign and his specific place in that history, I was actually fond of him.  I could not believe it.  Mantel did not gloss over who he was, where he came from, or what he did.  What she did so brilliantly was give him a life, one that was worth protecting.
• I did not read this novel straight through.  I don’t think I could have.  It took me a little under a month to complete it.  I loved Mantel’s writing, but it requires a great deal of concentration.  When my attention drifted even a little, I found I had to reread paragraphs to figure out if the “he” in question was Cromwell or another man.  When I picked the novel back up, I never had any difficulty remembering where I was and moving forward.
• It was nice to read about this time in Henry VIII’s history from a male perspective.  When much of what I’ve read to date is from the female perspective, the “men of the time” have been much more one-sided than they were in Wolf Hall.  There is a great deal in this novel about Cromwell’s relationship with Thomas Moore and I found it interesting to view Moore from Cromwell’s point of view.  I often found myself comparing his Moore to the Moore of Vanora Bennett’s Portrait on an Unknown Woman.
• It would not suggest choosing this novel as one’s first introduction to Tudor history.  Despite a rather exhaustive cast of characters at the beginning of the novel, I attribute much of my enjoyment of this novel to the fact that I have a decent overall knowledge of the life of Henry VIII and the politics of his court.  Without that, I could see myself getting bogged down.
• In equal parts I enjoyed this novel and truly respect it for its craftsmanship.  However, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to everyone.  This is a novel for those who love the Tudor time period, are interested in the Medieval English law, or are interested in the growth of Protestantism in England.  I think those without that background or types of interest would struggle with it.  This isn’t a book I would pick up and read just because it’s a Man Booker Prize winner.
• I purchased this book in hardcover.  It is, however, available on the Kindle.  I’m not sure how I would have liked the reading on the Kindle, though.  I can’t really put the reasons why into words.  It just wasn’t “that” kind of a book.

Have you read Wolf Hall?  What did you think?

Other Voices:

Boston Bibliophile
Asylum
Fantasy Book Critic
Farm Lane Books
Medieval Bookworm

Related articles by Zemanta

• Hilary Mantel Wins Man Booker Prize (mediabistro.com)
• Hilary Mantel wins Booker for Wolf Hall (cbc.ca)
• Wolf Hall: a worthy winner? (guardian.co.uk)
• Up Front: Hilary Mantel (nytimes.com)

Where Has This Book Been My Whole Life?

It’s crystal clear that my recent reading blahs are a thing of the past.  Despite knowing that A Reliable Wife was only published last March, I feel like so much time was wasted before I read it.  Hadn’t I read review, after review, after review, after review, after review?  I may have only myself to blame, but I feel like it’s one of those books that has been written just for me.  Have you ever felt that way?

I started A Reliable Wife on Saturday night.  Just before bed, I read the first chapter.  Hadn’t had to get to sleep in order to keep my points for Game On Diet, I would have read more.  Yesterday, I could not stand to put the book down.  This book is dark, mysterious, sexual, and thoughtful.  Today I was reading it in bits and snatches at traffic lights (a bad habit I try my best to fight), on the elevator between the 1st and 2nd floors at work, and any other spare moment I wasn’t working.  I cannot get enough of it.  I can tell right now by the way I’m getting distracted from writing this post to read one page more that I will be finishing this novel before I go to sleep tonight.

As I’m lousy at marking down passages I love to share with you in my reviews, I used a receipt to mark page 191, the page containing the paragraph that I got so engrossed in that my fellow traveler had to beep his horn at me.  Mea maxima culpa, sir.  I have a feeling you might have needed a little prompting yourself if you had a copy of this book in your car, too:

He had meant to be so many things.  He had meant to be a poet.  He had meant to be a lover and collector of art, to encourage young artists and have them gather around him.  He meant to live his life in an orgy of sensation, according to the sensual rules of attraction and seduction.  He had meant to be a father, to have children to inherit his love of the arts and the flesh.  Instead, he had lost his heart’s deepest passions; one day he woke up and realized they were gone, amputated as surely as an arm, cut off by the death of his little girl and the infidelities of his wife, the intractable rage he felt toward his bastard child.  His affections and obsessions had been replaced by clean shirts and half-slept in sheets and polished boots and clear soups.  The world of the body and its pleasures had closed over, as a scab closes over a wound.

The only downer about this reading experience is that I will be so close, but ultimately too far away to attend Robert Goolrick’s book signing at Fountain Bookstore in Richmond on February 11th.  I will, however, be taking part in the bookstore’s Twitter book club on Monday, February 1st at 6pm EST.  Thankfully a good buddy of mine has offered to get the book signed for me.  I’ll be pouncing on the book as soon as it gets back.

So there  you have it.  I have actually torn myself away from this book long enough to tell you to run, not walk, to the library or bookstore and pick this book up.  If you have a Kindle or Nook, it’s even easier.  You won’t regret it and I can’t thank Brittany from Algonquin Books enough for sending me a review copy.

Call For Suggestions & A Reading Update

Yo-Yo Mama stopped by today and asked if I would indicate whether the book is available on Kindle when I write my reviews since I am a Kindle owner.  As I read that comment, I wondered why in the world I hadn’t thought of doing that myself.  I really appreciated the suggestion.  It called to my attention the fact that the format of my reviews has not changed very much at all in the last three years.

If you go to my Library and click on links to my reviews, you’ll find the same three elements: a picture of the cover, a link to Amazon, and my review.  Recently, I tried to be better about adding links to reviews by other bloggers, but that is a recent development.  I’ve also thought about adding a rating to each review, but I just don’t think that’s me – at least not yet.  In general, though, it’s time for a change.   Besides, there’s nothing like the new and novel to get my energy flowing, right.

While I’m rethinking my review format, I would love to hear from you.  What would you like to see?  What would make the experience of reading about books at The Literate Housewife Review more enjoyable or rewarding for you?  While I might not include everything suggested, but I promise to take everything into consideration.

P.S. Speaking of my Library, I just updated it over the weekend.  It now includes all of my reviews, I’ve tested and fixed broken links, and I’ve modify formatting for books beginning with “A” or “The” to be categorized by the second word in the title.  I’m also thinking about creating a page listing books by author.

Follow Up on My Restless Reading

I just started The Kitchen House by first-time author Kathleen Grissom yesterday and I’m eating it up!  Yay!  I guess I just needed a little trip back to the Antebellum South to clear my head.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Rantings of a Restless Reader

Restless Reading

Ever since I’ve finished The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (in short, incredible reads), I have been flitting restlessly from one book to the other, never reading more than 100 pages, but mostly no more that 20.  I’ve picked up and set back down the following physical/Kindle books:

• The Queens Mistake by Diane Haeger (about 4 chapters in, but I’m just not that in to it – probably a touch of Tudor-itis)
• Magnolia Wednesdays by Wendy Wax (made it to 100, trying to force myself on it – that didn’t work)
• Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls (made it to 20ish – put it down because I can tell it will be incredible and I didn’t want my general malaise to ruin it)
• A Second Helping by Beverly Jenkins (made it 20ish pages and thought it would be “the one,” but sadly I just could not get into it)
• Inglorious by Joanna Kovenna (made it to page 3 before I put it down – the story would be too heavy for me right now for sure)

I am currently reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck for the Classic Reads Book Club.  It’s an interesting story thus far (on page 38), but while I was waiting for Emma’s prescription to be filled, I picked up and started reading True Colors by Kristin Hannah instead.  Hmmm…

This is not just true of physical/Kindle books.  It has carried over into my audio books, too.  I’ve started and stopped the following since early this month:

• The Other by David Guterson (stopped it maybe 5 minutes in… I could just tell…)
• The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta (I was really looking forward to this one since I loved Little Children so much.  I got to the “my priest molested me and I kinda liked it scene before I stopped that one)
• Somebody Else’s Daughter by Elizabeth Brundage (can you say cynical?)

This isn’t the first time since I’ve been blogging when I’ve gotten restless and otherwise unsatisfied with the books I pick up before.  I just wish I blogged about what it was that turned the tide.  I know that this time my work and home life has been so busy that I don’t have the energy to read that I normally do.  Also, my key reading time is after the kids are in bed.  With Game On Diet, I can’t sacrifice sleep for reading without losing points.  I know eventually my desire to read will return.  I just need to be patient.  Patience is not my strength.

Restless Reader Ranting

While I might not have actually finished a book in a long time, over the past few days the little reading I have been doing has driven me up the wall.  I am really, really getting tired of the  bitter, cynical adult narrator or the mildly cynical adult narrator with super-cynical adult friends.  I give a pass here to cynical young adults in literature because those feelings often go part and parcel with the age.  When the character is an adult, I just want to scream “Grow up!”  There was a time and a place in my when I would have eaten that up and begged for seconds.  Although I’m pretty far from Pollyanna myself, they just don’t appeal to me any more.  I think that grew old for me sometime after I graduated from college. If you’ve gotten past the age of 35, which is really pushing it, and you haven’t come to terms with your life, you need to take responsibility for yourself and your outlook.

The Abstinence Teacher led me to the edge of my patience.  I should have known by the title that this would be a cynical look at the wars being waged about sexual education in the public schools.  I tried to stick it out, but the whole priest thing I alluded to completely turned me off.  Still, it was Somebody Else’s Daughter that pushed me over the edge last night.

Claire, an adopted daughter of a prosperous New Englanders, has never gotten over how her father drank away the pain of his wife’s death when she, 13  at the time, needed him.  She rebelled into a world of drugs and moved to the West Coast.  She came back to her family home when her father was on his deathbed.  After deciding to live in her family home, she remains resentful as ever, not satisfied with her father’s final attempt to apologize.  Through it all, I continued to listen, hoping that she would eventually have an epiphany that would let her move on emotionally.  I took her attempting to get involved to help a badly beaten young immigrant from Poland as a good sign, but it just fed her sour world view.  Petra was clearly being abused by someone.  Her huge black eye couldn’t be hidden.  What her first encounter ended up being was a slam at the United States and then Claire ruminating at how others will either ignore Petra entirely or think she had gotten what she deserved.  Really?  I agree that there are many people who don’t want to get involved, but I find it hard to believe that there are enough people who automatically assume that an abused woman deserves it to be a factor.  That was all I could take.  There was enough redemption out there to make the rest of that novel worthwhile for me.

Cynical adults characters, especially the bitter kind with no sense of humor, are definitely a reading pet peeve of mine.  Ahh… It feels good to get that off of my chest.

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