January Books That Did Not 'Make the Grade'

This month I read two incredible novels, each different and inspiring in their own way. I had hoped for more to join them with receiving a review but unfortunately, the following books did not have enough to 'make the grade':

No Animals We Could Name: Short Stories by Ted Sanders- Short stories, especially collections of them, are a hit or miss with me because with the amount of space they are allotted, they have to be able to capture my attention very quickly or I will lose interest. With Sanders' collection,  it was a miss for me.  I loved his poetic writing style and I can appreciate his strange story-lines but they had to be delivered properly and he did not execute them well.  He took some risks in formatting his stories like newspaper columns and breaking up paragraphs like a poem, but after having trouble with the first story and barely getting through the second because of the lack of strong delivery and inability to keep me interested, I had to pass on this collection.

The Photo Album by K.B. Dixon- What turned me off about this book was not the concept or the way it was written but the way the 'photo album' was structured. Maybe this is just me being finicky but if you are going to write a book about imaginary photographs and give each of them descriptions, at least do it in a way that that would appeal to the reader, do not have random photos of random events; make a story! There is no plot and it was frustrating, to me at least, to have to imagine each each photo for over 100 pages, each page with a new photo to imagine.(I would not have had a problem doing this if the photos were in some kind of order, however.)  I understand the author's intent on trying to have the reader be an active participant and to use their imagination, but this was going a little too far with the lack of story-line it provided.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain- The introduction was very strong, giving interesting facts about the differences between introverts and extroverts as well as showing how they both deal with different situations.  After the introduction, however, everything went downhill.  Cain goes into the history behind how people viewed introverts and honestly, it became quite boring.  I skimmed through the rest of the book to see if there was a glimmer of hope but there was not; the entire book would have been better off as a research paper because the introduction summed everything up so well.

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury- As it seems to be with too many books, I love the idea behind it but the execution is poor, like Dandelion Wine.  I could not get past the first chapter because of the TERRIBLE flow of story line and the way Bradbury cannot decide if he wants his main character to speak in first or third person. Some may say I did not give this book the chance it deserved but when I cannot get through a section of the book I know contains vital information because of inconsistencies in crucial detail that is the author's fault, my hopes for the rest of the book are very low and I could only assume the rest of the book would have the same problems.

I hope you guys have enjoyed my January reviews and thank you again for your support!

~Shelly-Beans

Dora: A Headcase by Lidia Yuknavitch

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Date of Publication: August 7^th, 2012

Memorable Quotation: “Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, lemme tell you. Those are big years. Everybody always thinks of it as adolescence- just getting through to the real part of your life- but it’s more than that..I could die tomorrow and have lived the main ups and downs of life. Pain. Loss. Love. And what you all so fondly refer to as wisdom. Wanna know the difference between adult wisdom and young adult wisdom? You have the ability to look back at your past and interpret it. I have the ability to look at my present and live it with my whole body.” (pg. 174)

Lasting Impression: Raunchy, fast-paced, and immediately captivating, any fan of Chuck Palahniuk will love this story of a teenage girl who rebels against society not for attention but for the need to be free against judgmental adults.

Storyline: A

Pace of Story: A+

Characters: A+

Ending: A

Overall Grade: A+

Taking Sigmund Freud’s patient Ida Breur aka “Dora” into the twenty-first century, she is given a modern twist as being a defiant seventeen year old who adopts the name ‘Dora’ because of the Dora the Explorer purse she always keeps her Zoom H4n in to record the world around her  putting her own twist on things. Between Dora and her three comrades, Little Teena, Ave Maria, and Obsidian, they perform ‘art attacks’ to stir up the mundane of everyday life, live in the glory and pain of adolescence and in doing so, form a family that goes beyond blood. 

Lidia Yuknavitch’s story she gives Dora to tell is unlike anything I have ever read, mostly because this is not your typical coming-of-age story. Even if you are not, or were not, a teenager plunging into anarchy against your parents and the entire world, everything Dora says and describes makes sense. The bold and blunt context Dora uses to tell her story is fierce but with a passion to show the world that being a teenager is not ‘a phase’ that will go away with time and Yuknavitch, like Palahniuk, is not afraid to yell at society through their characters and tell everyone how everything really is. 

Part satire of psychology and all the fast-paced adventure of finding yourself you can handle, the only small issue with this novel is the pace. Yuknavitch moves very quickly and sometimes you may have to catch your breath and re-read some parts to keep up, but if you are quick on your feet and can keep going without hesitation, you are in for a wild ride.

There are not enough words to describe how extraordinary and important this book is in today’s world, but author Vanessa Vesselka has made an interesting observation that shows how important Dora: A Headcase is. She says, “In twenty years, I hope to wake up in a world where Dora: A Headcase has replaced Catcher in the Rye on high school reading lists for the alienated.”  Believe me, I hope I wake up to this world one day as well, because this novel could serve to be one of the most important pieces of literature anyone will ever read, especially teenagers. Some teachers may think that this book is advocating teenage rebellion (which it is not), but the significance is there. Through Dora: A Headcase, Yuknavitch brilliantly shows how love goes beyond words, self-expression goes beyond art, and if the world is not ready for you, tell them to make room because you’re coming anyway.

~Shelly-Beans 

By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho

Translator: Alan R. Clarke

Genre: Inspirational/Fiction

Date if Publication: May 23^rd, 2006

Memorable Quotation: “The wise are wise only because they love. And the foolish are foolish because they think they can understand love.” (pg. 28)

Lasting Impression: A young woman’s journey of self-discovery leads her to reviving her faith in God as well and remembering what happens when you let yourself love fearlessly.

Storyline: B+

Pace of Story: B

Characters: B-

Ending: B+

Overall: B

My mom has a quotation on the side of the refrigerator that reads, “Sometimes you have to leave your life to find yourself again,” and that is exactly what Pilar does in Paulo Coelho’s inspiring story, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept.   After receiving a letter from her childhood sweetheart, asking her to come to one of his sermons, Pilar leaves her academic studies to reunite with him. Once Pilar comes face to face with him again, she decides to take a risk and leave her schooling behind and embark on a journey with him that will lead her to a greater understanding of God, love, and herself.  

Coelho’s storytelling is light and airy, and the story of Pilar is beautiful as it shows the struggles struggles of a young woman’s heart as to what path is best for her and still have the sense to feel she is capable of using the gifts God had granted her.

The main aspect of this book that gave me problems was something that not everyone will agree with because it depends on you feel about religion. Coelho talks about God and the Virgin Mary frequently, which is fine but sometimes it seemed to take over the story line and made me lose interest temporarily.  The lessons he had imbued into these religious segments are important and the way he presents them tie in well with the story but I wish he would have only mentioned them and moved on, not focusing on them with so much detail. 

Regardless of the religious aspect, Paulo Coelho is definitely a master of his craft when it comes to invoking a deep sense of humanity and what it means to live.  He reminds us that God and change are always with us, and By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept is a story that gently reminds us that we cannot run away from our fate, or our faith.  

~Shelly-Beans