My Year in Books - Short and Sweet Reviews 2015 part 1

Good evening, follow reader. This year I beat out my Goodreads goal of 25, by reading 35 books/graphic novels! I'm a comfort-reader, in the same way some people might be comfort eaters or comfort movie watchers. Actually, I'm also a comfort eater and movie watcher, as well as a comfort knitter, comfort cat-petter, and comfort napper. I do a lot of things for comfort, ok? That being said, it's been a bit of a tough year (work and family stuff, you know?) and I really hit the books with a determination to bury myself in fantasies and carefully crafted pseudo-realities.

My appetite was a strange mixture of all different kinds of books: fiction, non-fiction, young adult fantasy, memoirs, and classical literature. I basically just picked up whatever looked good at the time and dove in. So, here are my findings for 5 books from a year of reading, with short and sweet reviews:

1. The Shining, Stephen King (1980)

Synopsis: You probably know the synopsis already, but if you don't: a man moves his family to an isolated hotel in the off season when they get snowed in and the hotel is evil as heck and there are ghosts and weird stuff and someone gets a little bored and murdery.

Who should read this: people who love creepy horror movies of the haunted house variety, people who have seen the Stanley Kubrick movie and want something a little different, older teens and adults

Short and Sweet: The novel is mostly written from the perspective of Danny, the caretaker's young son. Through his eyes, King is able to really dig deep into the creep: he made Danny's fears my fears. I like it when a scary book creeps me out in a real way - when I can have nightmares from a book, I know it's gotten into my head, and that's what I like. The strength of the novel is in how relatable the characters are. Jack Torrence struggles with anger and addiction, his wife Wendy struggles with being afraid of her husband and protective of her son. Danny's simple perspective makes him both vulnerable to the evil goings on, as well as the strongest and most consistent element of hope. Danny's distrust of his parents - fearful of his father and his potential violence, fearful for his mother and her supposed weakness - is familiar to anyone with parents, and as a basis for the plot, the supernatural and mystical elements of the book suddenly become so very real.

Rating: 4/5 murdery butterflies

2. The Cuckoo's Calling, Robert Galbraith (2013) 

Synopsis: A model is dead, and Cormoran Strike is trying to figure out if it was suicide or murder

Who should read this: People who like mystery without a lot of action, people who have ever wanted to read something by JK Rowling that isn't about wizards (who are  you people?!), adults and older people (teens will probably be bored, imho)

Short and Sweet: This was boring. Maybe it's just me in my world without Kardashians and
Instagram, but I don't really care about models or rich people as members of the higher echelon. I think if that kind of thing was important to me - if I liked reading about celebrity news or watching ANTM - I'd probably be more into it. The whole story is somewhat vapid. The main characters and minor characters all similarly drone on about how rich people have problems, too, and everyone is jealous of everyone, and the people who try to not be so selfish get killed. Maybe the other books in this series are better, but I probably won't read any of them to find out.

Rating: 1/5 bored Marry Higgins-Clark fans

3. & 4. Oryx and Crake (2004) / The Year of the Flood (2010), Margaret Atwood

Synopsis: Something happened to the world, and it's bad. The human species is all but extinct. In Oryx and Crake, we follow around one man, maybe the last man on earth, and look into his past as he witnesses first hand the events that lead to this mass devastation. The Year of the Flood is set at the same time, but following a different group of people, living in a radical eco-friendly commune.

Who should read this: Fans of science fiction who are also disaster-prepared, people who are disillusioned with the standard of entertainment and education in America, older teens, adults

Short and sweet: Full disclosure, I'm a wee bit obsessed with Margaret Atwood's writing. She's right up there with my other favorites: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Haruki Murakami, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Emily Bronte. This is a fantastic series (so far, I have yet to read the conclusion, Maddaddam). It's science fiction of the speculative nature, wherein we are given an understanding of scientific possibilities, but what's truly laid out for us is the nature of unbridled ability and the devastation it ultimately leaves. It turned my mind on to the weird consumption of entertainment, what we accept as entertainment, and reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale, gave me a sense of distrust of the unchecked standards of virtue: to serve our government, to serve our people... but how? Also, I make my own Kombucha, so for what it's worth, I liked the God's Gardener parts of The Year of the Flood.

Rating (for both): 5/5 googly-eyed dystopian fangirls

5. The Bees: A Novel, Laline Paull (2015)

Synopsis: The social structure of bees is vicious and unforgiving. Flora is a worker bee who shakes the hive and is like the Cool Hand Luke of bees: she won't stay down

Who should read this: People who love bees, people who like the novel 1984 and the speculation of social brainwashing, teens and young adults

Short and sweet: I really like bees. I don't know a lot about them except that they are necessary to almost every agricultural crop in the world and they're intelligent and a hive operates as a single organism. Paull appears to have done a great amount of research about the social structure of bees. She adds to it an imaginative sense of the inner lives of individuals among an overwhelmingly forceful oligarchy. It doesn't have to be about bees, but that it is about bees I think reinforces the often brutal, animalistic events. The ruling class is malicious and insidious, and supported by a sense of duty to the survival of the hive. When one can claim an intention to protect, one can justify the most heinous acts. 

Rating: 4/5 adorable dancing bees