Books of 2012, #29: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Books of 2012, #28: John Dies at the End by David Wong
this is literally a book by the editor of cracked and it’s exactly what that sounds like jeez
Book of 2012, #24: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
Completely dazzling.
Books of 2012, #20: Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe by Charlotte Gill
An interesting but ultimately unpolished effort. The dumps of information are unfocused, the narrative thread feels rough and tenuous more often than not, and Gill gets swept away with her own poetic descriptions, particularly her attempts to smother the reader in page after page of vegetative descriptions.
Books of 2012, #19: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
I just finished this one, and my thoughts are still a little jumbled. The ending—well, frankly most of the last volume—felt tiresome and sort of redundant. At the same time, we’re left completely in the dark about Fuka-Eri and Komatsu and Tamaru and the dowager; these characters are all tossed away without a second thought once they are no longer crucial to the plot. Some of the writing is absolutely gorgeous, but the tradeoff is obnoxious stretches of characters doing nothing.
Honestly, I feel like this ought to have been one volume and two or three hundred pages shorter. It would fit better thematically (two moons, maza and dohta, Perceiver and Receiver, Tengo and Aomame) and the book would feel less at times like such a trek.
Still mulling the whole thing over, though. Must let the dust settle before I reach any concrete conclusions.
Books of 2012, #18: Snuff by Terry Pratchett
I have to say, as much as I love Pterry and as much as I enjoyed this one, it felt a little lacking. I think it’s because Pratchett really sticks with his character development—while that makes for more engrossing characters, all of the antics in this one felt like small potatoes compared to what we’ve seen Vimes tackle. I mean, what’s Stratford when we’ve already seen Vimes defeat Carcer? I would rather have seen a standalone about Feeney with Vimes supporting, Tiffany Aching style.
