Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Rating: ★★★★

It’s been a while since I finished a book, but I’ve started many. According to my Goodreads, I’m currently reading 9 books. A few I own, and a few are from the library (Libby). I don’t read quite fast enough, so my loan usually expires before I finish. Then I have to put it on hold again. With Anne of Green Gables, I didn’t finish within the allotted two weeks either, but no one else had it on hold luckily!

I’ve never read Anne before and I knew nothing about it. I thought it was about an orphaned, red-headed girl who got treated badly but had an imagination. That doesn’t seem right at all after reading this book. Yes, she was badly treated in her past and she does have quite the imagination, but Anne is about something entirely different.

Anne is an orphan, and by accident she is adopted by siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert of Green Gables on Prince Edward Island. They are both loving in their own way, and Anne is raised in a remarkable way. She is free to be herself. Sometimes her temper or pride get her into difficult situations, but it all works out. This book isn’t here to challenge the reader in any real way. It’s meant to be pleasant and lovable.

For me, this book romanticizes childhood, but I don’t mean that in any kind of negative way. I’m tempted to write that, “We all want…,” but I will only speak for myself. I desperately want to remember how it felt to be a child. The imagination and the dreams. The magic, fun, play, laughter, ambition, hope… How so many things were new and exciting. How the world seemed great and full of possibility. I think this book romanticizes all of that, but in a way that it should be romanticized. We, as adults, should try so hard to remember those feelings.

I haven’t read up on any history of this book. I know when it was published, and that’s about it. I’m afraid if I read about the book, I’ll be spoiled for the rest of the series. I would like to continue reading it, and even the smallest spoilers usually bother me. So I’m unsure of any intent by the author, or history of the author herself.

The reason I’m not giving the book a full five stars is because roughly the last third bothered me. Most of the book was so detailed with how Anne was growing up between the ages of about 11 and 13. And then suddenly she’s flying through the years, and I think the book ends with her being almost 17. The chapters dedicated to “young” Anne are darling. I couldn’t stop reading. I enjoyed all of Anne’s eccentricities, and Marilla’s reserved amusement. Then all of sudden, Marilla remarks that Anne doesn’t talk as much anymore. What happened between then and now?

I would have loved more time dedicated to those teenage years. Again, I don’t know how the book was published – was it serialized? I don’t know how the author wrote it – was she rushed in the end, or was a series planned from the beginning? In any case, it looks like there are eight books in total. I suppose the story from here will dedicated to Anne as an adult. I’m sure it will be interesting, but the two-thirds of Anne of Green Gables dedicated to young Anne was so special.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Rating: ★★★★★

I’ve never read an Earthsea book, and I knew nothing about the world except that it was fantasy. I didn’t even know the name, “Ged.” I’d heard in many places how respected Le Guin is, but reading Earthsea was something I just would get around to one day.

Well, I got my library card and began using the Libby app. I’ve been reading ebooks on my tablet instead of my phone, and it’s much more enjoyable. And that’s how I put a hold on A Wizard of Earthsea. I knew of the book, and it was there, and when it became available, I read it.

Well, what a surprise and a delight. It’s a fantastical book following a young man as he becomes a wizard. However, he’s arrogant and proud, believing in his own greatness. This nearly ruins him, and then he must right his wrongs and discover how he can be that wizard.

The book is short, so I don’t want to share too many details. Learning about the world of Earthsea should be done by the book itself. It’s a quick, smooth read. The writing pulls you along as though you were listening to someone tell a great story at a party. You don’t want them to stop. You need to know what happens.

Le Guin’s style made me think not only of Lord of the Rings but also Narnia. It felt like a mix to me. It’s a fantasical history of sorts, and it’s so pleasant and enjoyable to experience. I can’t wait to read the next one.

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

Rating: ★★★★★

I’m so happy I was able to finish this book before the end of the year. I have to say upfront how much I enjoyed it. I felt so hard and so many things while reading this story. That hasn’t happened in a while. I don’t mean to sound old (I’m about to be 36), but a lot of new media I consume doesn’t make me feel much. I thought it was because all stories had been told, that I had seen all the formulas. But now I think it’s the way stories are told. The story of The Bean Trees is not necessarily groundbreaking. But Kingsolver’s prose, the way characters interact, the facts of the world around them, and zooming in on small moments are what make this book great. Those, and so many other things. With this in mind, I’ve started looking more at books published in the past rather than the newest ones. Don’t hold me to that, though.

The Bean Trees can’t really be summarized. A girl leaves rural Kentucky, practically fleeing, because she doesn’t want to die in the dirt there. She ends up in charge of an Indian toddler and living in Arizona with another woman who has her own baby. (As friends. Nothing queer here.) She works in a used tire shop for an older woman who helps refugees trying to make their way to safety while the American government wants to send them back to be killed in their home country. There is so much in this novel, and that’s because life itself is complicated and messy.

I read this book in high school, and for all these years, I’ve remembered that I liked the book. However, I’d forgotten anything significant about it, only that someone (I thought the main character) helps refugees to safety. I bought a copy a long time ago, and I can’t say how happy I am that I’ve read it.

This book deeply affected me. A big theme is motherhood, and the fear of taking care of a child. I don’t have or want children, but my mother died in 2018 and we did not have a wonderful relationship. Certain things resonated with me, and other things I probably just projected my own issues onto. But that happens for all readers, right? Every reading experience will be different. Being able to connect so strongly to a book, though, is a sign of the strength of the book, of the book’s own character and power.

There’s a scene near the very end where the main character calls her own mother back in Kentucky on a payphone. They don’t want to hang up, saying goodbye to each other several times, until the main character finally says she has to go. This moment just made me bawl. I see how it’s because I miss my own mom, that I’d love to talk to her on the phone again. I see exactly how we wouldn’t be able to hang up on each other. Moments like this, the reality of it all, is why this book is so moving and why I could connect with it.

Anyway, I recommend it.

You by Caroline Kepnes

Rating: ★★★★

This book was very intriguing and engrossing, but after finishing it, I’ve realized I didn’t like it or enjoy it. I found myself disgusted by and scared of Joe. I wanted something bad to happen to him. That’s what I kept reading for. Since it kept me so interested, I have to give this book a high rating. I can’t give it five stars because it just didn’t have that spark for me, but this story is definitely different and kept me turning pages.

Joe Goldberg is a stalker through and through. That’s not a spoiler. The book begins because a girl walks into his bookshop, named Beck, and he becomes so instantly obsessed that the entire book is written in second person directed at her. The whole story is written from his perspective. Everything he does is for Beck in some way that he justifies. Very creepy, and very well done.

The best thing about this book is how Joe’s emotions change his perspectives. One minute he’s in love with Beck, then he realizes something, and she’s a slut. He wouldn’t say this out loud. He’s very careful with what he says out loud. But the running inner monologue demonstrates how unhinged he is.

The book kept me turning pages to find out what would happen to Joe, or what he would do next. It was enthralling in that way. It’s not slow, though there are some lags where time has to pass in the book. However, the last 20-30 pages is where a lot happens, and I’m not about to discuss it here since I don’t want to spoil anyone. I thought the ending was done well and it made me have strong emotions. At first I thought I didn’t like the whole book because of it. But then I realized… Well, I really don’t want to spoil anything.

I know about the tv show and the sequels. I haven’t watched the show and I don’t know if I want to read the sequels. When this first came out, I swear I remember it being marketed as a stand alone book. Then it was popular, so then there was a sequel. That’s one of my biggest pet peeves. It’s either a stand alone or it isn’t. So I kind of just want to enjoy it as a stand alone. If you’ve read the series, though, and think the sequels are just as good, please let me know.

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Rating: ★★★

This book was really too short for the subject matter. I wish there was more time and space to really go deep into all the new, fascinating things the reader is introduced to. I’ll pick up the next one as I’m sure it will expand the universe, but I feel this little story really could have been more. It felt like base ideas that weren’t fully explored or fleshed out yet.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Rating: ★★★★

I read extremely slowly, especially since 2017. It’s just been difficult for me to consume things. However, I loved going back to The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. I kept feeling excited for what was going to happen next. Things started off so well. I viewed it as Rosemary’s story, and that she was going to become a part of this interesting crew.

However, after a certain point, and I don’t want to give any spoilers so bear with me, it seemed like the author didn’t know where to go. Events were no longer planned. Everything was a surprise. Characters, from Rosemary to Corbin, acted so out of character. Or at least, they weren’t developed enough. Perhaps it was a bit past the half-way mark that things started to degrade.

I still kept returning to the book, but the frequency of picking it up became less and less. Yes, I read slowly, but it took me two months to read the book. Usually, at least lately, I can get through a book in a month or less.

There was a lot of potential in this book. It is so creative and fantastical. I love the world, the universe, that’s created. It’s huge and wonderful and I loved exploring it in the pages of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. But in the end, things were just so underdeveloped.

I skimmed the acknowledgements after I finished reading the story, and I think Chambers said she turned to finishing the novel after her freelance work dried up. Well, if there was a dedicated part of book-writing and then a “I have no money and am terrified” part of book-writing, I can clearly see it.

I’m just disappointed.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Rating: ★★★

I can’t really say I enjoyed this story, and that’s for a number of reasons. The plot of this book focuses on Starr, who was with a black boy named Khalil when he is murdered by a white police officer. Throughout the book, she has to deal with the trauma of that and with, basically, living in a racist society and bringing together two different worlds – she goes to a wealthy, all-white school yet lives in an all-black “hood.”

Starr goes through a lot, and it’s tough and dark and unpleasant. She has good times with friends and family, of course, but there’s a lot of darkness here.

I guess I had two main issues with this book. One would be that the darkness, the trauma, is handled almost casually, and when Starr does have outbursts, it feels over-the-top. This book is taking on a very complex issue that is intertwined in our culture in more ways than can be described, and yet there’s little nuance or subtlety reflected in this story. I think the reason for that is due to my second issue with the book: I really disliked the writing. It felt stilted, unedited, shallow, amateur. In creative writing classes I’ve taken, professors would always say, “Show, don’t tell.” All this book does is tell. The language is clunky and unpolished. It was seriously a chore to read this book, and every time I went to pick it up, I was not excited due solely to the poor writing. I feel bad saying this because I think this story is important and should be told and should be published and should be read, but this may be some of the worst writing I’ve encountered.

Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart

Rating: ★★★★

This book is a great work of historical fiction. The characters are what move the story along, and I enjoyed the somewhat mundane details of the sisters’ lives on a farm in New Jersey in 1914. I think when this book first came out, we didn’t know it’d be part of a series. But I’m glad that there is a second book! I can’t wait to pick it up.

While the book is classified a mystery, that is a rather small element of this story. This is the story of Constance and her sisters, Norma and Fleurette, and how they’re getting on when they’re unlucky enough to run in to a rather pathetic gangster.

I did thoroughly enjoy this book, and I read it quickly, but sometimes it felt a bit too slow. Some bits could have been left out to make the plot move along a bit faster. The one other con I have against this book is that Constance, our protagonist, is almost the weakest character. I have a good sense of who Norma and Fleurette are – what interests them and what their personalities are like – but with Constance, she sometimes seems like a doormat and at other times she jumps up and manhandles people. Maybe Constance is uncertain of herself, her life, and her own wants, but I still think that, by the time she’s in her mid-thirties, she’d have more personality traits.