3. A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunnigham
The first couple chapters of this book are jaw-droppingly good. I read a short story in one of my classes that I didn’t know was from this book. It involved two young brothers taking acid and one brother dying in a freak accident. It sounds kind of lame, but it was a good short story. Within the context of the novel though that story should be etched in stone and handed down from the Mount Sinai. The second half of this book, however, pales in comparison. The ending made me so angry that I had nightmares about it, and then I woke up even angrier than before. I’m still angry. So don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.
2. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
This was one of the books I read on my Nook in my ongoing quest to read all the free classic e-books that interest me. The trouble though is that very few interest me. I skimmed the summary of Great Expectations, and it was an instant sedative. Anyway, I truly enjoyed this book though. Carrie got annoying once she found herself in the lap of luxury, but I liked reading about her toiling in a factory and being shocked at men calling her “ducky.” Also, I am never one to support cheating, but Carrie and Hurstwood’s affair was probably the biggest snoozefest in all of literary adultery history. However, he still didn’t deserve his fate at the end of the book.
1. The Fallback Plan by Leigh Stein
I read a few good reviews for this book, and it has a cheery blurb on the cover from Gary Shteyngart. (Though, according to his Facebook, “[he’ll] blurb just about anything! Books, people, hair care products…”) I ended up reading the entire book in about an hour and a half, but that speed mad have been due to me skipping the sections about the talking baby panda. I didn’t find anything in the plot particularly interesting, but I guess I was intrigued by the fact that this was the modern book I’ve read so far. It could take place yesterday. Stein does write children very well though. I noticed she works in kids book publishing, so maybe that has something to do with it. Further proof that people in publishing are insufferable but secretly cool.
