"Slaughterhouse Five"

Kurt Vonnegut's satirical anti-war novel is somehow hilarious and depressing at the same time. I read it in about two days and wished it would have lasted longer. Billy, the main character, is a POW in WWII who survives the Dresden bombing and recounts the atrocities he witnesses during the war with a light wit and straight-forward manner. Billy also inadvertently time travels, living and re-living events in the future and past out of sequence, describing his mundane future marriage, a plane crash he already knows he's going to be in, and time spent as a captive on an alien planet. (It doesn't read as crazy as it sounds).
     His time travel and the aliens' comments on the manner of humans raises existential questions in a very approachable way, that makes you think but isn't so complicated that it loses its entertainment value. This book has gotten ton of literary praise, and for good reason. It's considered an American classic, and has been called "the best book written in the 20th century." It might have also earned a place in my top 10 favorite books.

"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and not much else

Seth Grahame-Smith had the ingenious idea of combining a classic victorian novel with a science-fiction monster. A lot of people have asked me about this book and I hadn't read it, so I decided I should. But reading it was more tedious than trying to read the original "Pride and Prejudice." The ONLY thing this book has going for it is the novelty of throwing zombies into an austere Jane Austen novel. Zombie attacks are conducive to rich descriptions, vivid details, and intense action, but this book completely lacks all of those. The characters are unappealing and static, the plot is just as boring as it has always been. Reading it felt like a chore. Each zombie attack depicted (and there were a lot) all went like this: "The zombies grabbed their victims and started eating them." The next chapter, "The zombies grabbed their victims and started eating them." Each scene was shallow and lifeless (no pun intended).
     The author didn't exactly do a great job of blending the zombie motif in with the original novel, either. There are very odd asides that describe the Bennet girls' intense training in the Far East that lead them to become top zombie warriors. What? Poorly woven into the original plot and language, it just seems jarring and ridiculous. I couldn't get invested in the story at all, and I'm having trouble understanding how this book managed to become so popular.

A modern version of "Moby Dick"

"We, the Drowned" by Danish writer Carsten Jensen was just recently translated into English. It begins in 1849 and ends in 1945 just as WWII is coming to an end, and is centered around a small Danish sailing village, although a lot of it takes place at sea. With battles on the ocean, 2 world wars, cannibals, shrunken heads, foreign ports, mysterious women, love affairs, murderers, and epic journeys around the world, you'd think this book would be exciting. It's nearly 700 pages and split up into sections that are disconnected and seem to drag on and on, repeating the same stories of sailors going to sea and dying in a war or a storm that sinks their ship. The characters are completely flat and it's impossible to get invested in them; whenever a main character died, I didn't care. They lack personality and everything else that could make readers care about them.
     The worst part is, the very last section of the book including the ending is absolutely amazing. It's hard to believe that the incredible, beautiful end was written by the same person who wrote the rest of it. I kept thinking someone needs to chop off the last section and publish that separately, because then it would probably be one of my favorite books. But the other 550 pages are so tedious and redundant that, overall, this is one of the worst things I've read all year.

Don Delillo's "Cosmopolis"

Edgy, modern, and risqué, Delillo's novel has a unique style. It takes place mainly in the back of a limo making its way through Manhattan roughly during the course of one day. Eric Packer is a billionaire who encounters women that are just as sex-obsessed as he is, and everyone around him finds his charm (and money) irresistible. Except for one mentally-disturbed man who periodically cuts into the narrative with his manic, stream-of-consciousness ramblings and plots to kill Eric Packer. The limo Eric is riding in is super high tech and as they drive through the city they are constantly stalled by traffic jams caused by various unusual occurrences, so Eric jumps out of the limo several times to do whatever he feels like doing at the moment, and keeps running into his beautiful heiress wife. Throughout the course of the day he purposely makes poor investments, throwing more and more money away, which parallels the course of his downfall. Finally, he also purposely loses all his wife's money as well, to ensure his ruin. More strange occurrences and even stranger encounters bring the day-- and the novel-- to a close.
     I like the style of this novel, as well as its originality. It was interesting and ingenious, but not extremely exciting.
     The film adaptation of this book is in progress right now, so maybe you can wait and just see the movie. It's worth mentioning that Delillo has other novels that were critically acclaimed and very successful, including "White Noise." If his style sounds appealing to you but this book sounds a bit dull, try that novel.

"The Monsters of Templeton"

Lauren Groff needs to keep writing; this was her first novel and it's been successful with critics and readers. The story takes place in the fictional town of Templeton, where Willie Upton returns after having an affair with her professor, and then trying to run the professor's wife over with a small plane. Upon her return, a dead monster is discovered in the lake, bringing news crews and scientists to the town and leaving everyone totally baffled. In the midst of this, Willie's hippie mother decides to tell her that she's been lying all these years: Willie's father is not a hippie that her mother hooked up with once at a commune in California; he's a citizen of Templeton, and someone Willie knows. But that's as much as her mother will say, so Willie obsessively researches her family's history, going back to the founder of the town hundreds of years earlier, of whom she is a direct descendant.
     This story has tons of layers, twists, and lovable characters. Willie herself is flawed but endearing, and her interactions with her old high school classmates that she tries so hard to avoid are funny and memorable. Willie's mother is probably the best character, and adds a ton of humor, wit, and originality to the story. I appreciated the ending, which completely did justice to the rest of the novel. I hope Groff's next novel comes out soon.

Not Recommended: "Imperial Bedrooms"

"Imperial Bedrooms" by Bret Easton Ellis is worthless. From a writer's standpoint, it's poorly written, purely plot-driven, shallow, soulless, and completely banks on shock value. From a reader's standpoint, it was mildly entertaining but fell flat, and was mostly just disgusting. The narrative follows a screenwriter from LA named Clay who's hedonistic and self-involved. He is constantly having sex with random young girls (and sometimes young boys, too) by promising them that he can get them roles in movies, and of course he never follows through. Then he finds out his long-time best friend, a guy named Julian who works as a pimp, is dating the girl Clay has been pursuing. So Clay does what any normal person would do: he drops Julian off with a violent killer to be murdered. Then he rents a house out in the desert where he spends days violently raping and torturing a young girl and young boy, until the boy turns evil and the girl goes out of her mind. The entire book is completely devoid of emotion, and Clay lacks remorse for everything he does, discussing these horrific acts the way a person would talk about going grocery shopping. But the cold-hearted, detestable main character didn't bother me as much as the bad writing. Don't waste your time with this one.

in my Top 10: "In Cold Blood"

Truman Capote's writing holds a special place in my heart. Whether he's talking about a love affair or murder, his writing is just shockingly beautiful. It's like a really beautiful song that you just love hearing. This book is non-fiction and is about a family-- husband, wife, youngest daughter, and son-- who are murdered during a robbery by two men who are eventually tracked down and sentenced to death. Although all the factual details are there, it reads like fiction. Capote spent years researching this case and personally interviewing the killers while they awaited execution in prison. He got so close to them, in fact, that he befriended one of them. His close friend, Harper Lee (author of "To Kill a Mockingbird") also took part in conducting interviews and collecting research, and you'll notice that Capote dedicated this book to her. Once he finished writing it, he was so disturbed and so drained from the experience, that he never finished another novel, although up until then he was a celebrity in the literary world (I have a copy of a photograph of Truman Capote dancing with Marilyn Monroe at a party).
     By the end of the book, you feel like you personally know the murdered family, which makes it even more heartbreaking. You know the killers well enough to see them as regular boys, and you start to wonder what the hell happened to them. You won't be able to sleep with the lights off; there are parts of the book that are absolutely terrifying, and the ending is perfect, understated, undramatic, just the right way to end something like this.
     And after you've read this book, you should watch the movie "Capote" which earned Phillip Seymour Hoffman a best actor Oscar, and covers Capote's arduous process in writing "In Cold Blood."

Classic of the week: "The Sound and the Fury"

The title comes from Shakespeare's Macbeth, the novel is from William Faulkner. It's notable for its use of stream of consciousness, and is separated into 4 sections, each one narrated by a different member of an old-money family that's in a state of decay. The construction of the book is both impressive and baffling. In fact, if you're going to read it, you might want to do a little research on it first so that you can follow what's happening. Particularly because the first section of the book is told through stream of consciousness from the mind of a severely mentally handicapped man who recounts events completely out of sequence. Adding to the confusion is the double-naming; there are two different characters named Jason from two different generations, two different characters named Quinten-- one is a boy who commits suicide and the other is the illegitimate daughter of that boy's sister, and two different characters named Maury, but one of them is usually referred to as Benjy. It's not always clear which Jason or which Quinten is being talked about. In the literary and historical sense, this book was and still is significant, and worth reading. It's success contributed to Faulkner winning the Nobel Prize in literature. However, if you're not ready to tackle something so difficult but you want to read Faulkner, you might want to start with something a little easier, like his short novel, "As I Lay Dying," which is just as noteworthy.

Where do I start...

"Beat the Reaper" by Josh Bazell is... brutal? Ruthless? Don't read it if you have a weak stomach, particularly because of the extremely detailed part where the narrator slices his leg open, breaks his own bone and then rips it out to use it as a weapon. Yeah, that really happens in this book. I'm not complaining; I stayed up all night to finish the last 150 pages because I couldn't stand not knowing what would happen next. It's also really funny, witty, sardonic. The narrative is split between the main character recounting his youth when he became an orphan and was informally adopted by a mob family who ends up hiring him as their best hit man, and the present where he's working as a Doctor and is in the witness protection program for obvious reasons. There's so many jaw-dropping moments in this book I don't even know where to start, and I don't want to give away any of the good parts. Just read it.

Short, Tragic, Hilarious

Though just as tragic as any good Russian novel, "City of Thieves" was written by American author David Benioff. This one is a little over 200 pages and easy to read. The author was inspired by stories from his own grandfather, and used those stories as a jumping-off point for his best-selling novel. It's set in a small town in Russia that's under siege by the Nazis in WWII. The narrator is sent, along with a deserter of the Russian army, on an impossible mission by a prominent Soviet colonel. The boys' alternative to this mission is execution or slow starvation, so they cross enemy lines and encounter cannibals with human torsos hanging behind a bloody sheet, sex slaves held captive by Nazis, dogs rigged with bombs, a rogue group of Russian soldiers that are hell-bent on executing a certain important member of the SS, and finally actual Nazis that they have to out-wit in order to conceal the fatal fact that the narrator is a Jew. The bleak snowy landscape and depressing reality of what the Russian people endured is contrasted by the author's sharp wit and clever use of humor. The ending of this book is what really makes it so memorable.

More Non-fiction (?)

"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," by John Berendt, was a #1 national bestseller. It takes place in the old southern town of Savannah, Georgia, and exposes the odd and eccentric residents as well as their dirty laundry. The book covers everything from transvestites to suicides, crimes of passion, murder, sweet southern belles and high society. If this book wasn't non-fiction, it might be kind of dull. But the fact that all these strange things really happened makes it far more intriguing. What bothered me was the author's note that he may have stretched the truth in some places in order to tell a fluent, interesting story. Though the narrator is a bit boring and up-tight, the people he encounters are very much the opposite, making the book scandalous enough to be worth reading.

in my Top 10: "The Devil in the White City"

Non-fiction normally doesn't sound too fun to me, but Erik Larson writes cold-hard facts as alluringly as if it were fiction. Not only is "Devil in the White City" extremely captivating, it's also a fascinating history lesson about the 1892 World's Fair in Chicago. For example, did you know the first Ferris wheel was invented for the Chicago World's Fair in order to compete with the Eiffel Tower which was built for the Paris World's Fair? The Ferris wheel had cars big enough to hold 60 people each, and the public was so enamored with it that many people tried to use the cars as a venue for their weddings. The narrative is split between this and another historical figure: a serial killer who builds a hotel and uses the fair as a method to lure guests aka victims. The real-life hotel was built as the perfect machine to trap, murder, and dispose of young women, complete with body-sized ovens in the labyrinthine basement. Sounds interesting, doesn't it?

Stephen King; "The Stand" vs "Under the Dome"

I'm probably about to make some people angry, but I read "The Stand" and I didn't like it. There were parts of the book that just dragged on and got repetitive. The end section is a bit odd and also drags on, then it wraps up with the typical King ending where you're left with the possibility that the villain will rise again. I mean, it wasn't awful. But I read his new book, "Under the Dome," right before that and it was a lot better. The two books are a lot alike. In fact, I'm pretty sure the book jacket of "Under the Dome" has a quote that compares them. The new book wins for me because the characters are a lot more dynamic and more interesting, the conflicts (both major and minor) are way more engaging, and there's a lot more action going on. Twice while reading this book I accidentally stayed up all night because I was so into it and needed to know what would happen next. It's over 1,000 pages but it didn't take me very long to read it. The ending got a little cheesy and didn't exactly blow me away, and in typical King style it left open the possibility that "it could happen again." But overall it was entertaining and that's what I wanted. (Gotta take a break from those heavy Russian classics!) If you haven't read either and you're interested, go for "Under the Dome."

Short and Easy

"Summer Crossing" by Truman Capote took me 2 days to read. It's 126 pages, so if you don't have a lot of time to commit to reading or you just want a book for the beach/plane, try this one. Capote is considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, and although this was his first novel, it's just as great as his later, more famous books. The back-cover text gives the best summary: "Set in New York just after World War II, the story follows a young carefree socialite, Grady McNeil, whose parents leave her alone in their Fifth Avenue penthouse for the summer. Left to her own devices, Grady turns up the heat on the secret affair she's been having with a Brooklyn-born Jewish war veteran who works as a parking lot attendant. As the season passes, the romance turns more serious and morally ambiguous, and Grady must eventually make a series of decisions that will forever affect her life and the lives of everyone around her."
Don't let the description trick you into thinking this is a cheesy romance novel; Capote would never do that to us. Although he does give us a startling ending that will leave you thinking.

My favorite: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

You know a book is good when the Simpsons do a parody of it in an episode. Yeah, I know the movie is good, but books are almost always better than movies because the narrator can express or describe things that you'll never see on-screen. We have Ken Kesey to thank for this awesome novel. Before Kesey was a renowned author, he worked in psych ward in the late 1950's, and the disturbing things he observed there inspired him to write "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," his first novel. Interestingly, he was also used as a test subject for government experiments with LSD and other drugs. In the late 60's Kesey became a big fan of LSD and sometimes gave it to people without their knowledge so he could watch their reactions. He lead a group called the Merry Pranksters who drove across the country in a painted bus; it's no wonder his writing is so entertaining.
     The two main characters in this book-- McMurphy and Nurse Ratched-- are brilliant inventions, and their extreme personalities are perfect catalysts for the war of wills that ignites between them. McMurphy wants to rebel against every rule that exists in the psych ward in which he resides, so he smuggles in alcohol and women, gambles, instigates other patients, starts brawls, and challenges Nurse Ratched. As a patient, you'd think he'd be helpless to get away with much, but his cunning intellect and hilarious insolence push the staff and the rules to their absolute limits. This book is so funny, so entertaining, so shocking, and so appalling that I've never been able to find anything to read that I love as much as this. Kesey brings to light the disturbing things that go on in a mid-century mental hospital, and interlaces hilarity with sad calamity, culminating in an ending that's astonishing and completely unforgettable.

The Russian Classics; Leo Tolstoy

Terrifying, right? Most people would do anything to avoid reading a book like "War and Peace." It's long, tedious, and was written a long time ago (1869). However, most people have an entirely false impression of Leo Tolstoy's most renowned book. Originally written as a serial, there's a huge cast of characters and several subplots, but the central story follows the Rostovs, a prominent Russian family that has come into pretty bad financial problems, and Russia's war against Napolean and France. After reading the book myself, it is clear that this book is famous for good reason.
     Who would've thought that Tolstoy had such a good sense of humor? There's a scene in the book where Nickolai Rostov has joined the Russian army and finally has to come face-to-face in battle with French soldiers. He panics, pulls his gun out, and throws it at them instead of shooting at them, then runs and hides in the bushes. The way Tolstoy writes it is hilarious, and this is not the only funny moment in the book. While the funny moments are extremely funny, the tragic moments are some of the saddest you'll ever read. The war scenes are so intense that my heart would literally be pounding, and Tolstoy has no sensor for blood and gore. The characters have such depth, especially Pierre-- the illigitmate son of an extremely rich Russian prince-- that at the end of the book I felt a loss for not getting to read about them any more. This book is truly astounding.
     His following book, and also one of his best known works, is "Anna Karenina." This book has all the good qualities and rich, beautiful writing that "War and Peace" has, but without the epic war. Therefore, I found it to be a little dull, but maybe that's just because I had such high expectations. The characters are just as 3-dimensional, the tragedies are just as hurtful, and this is still Tolstoy (and Russia) at his very best. It is worth noting that Tolstoy was praised and admired by both Anton Chekhov, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. And that says something.

"WE." Like 1984, but better

If you've read Orwell's "1984" and liked it, or even if you hated it, you'll love "WE" by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It has the same futuristic, dystopian themes, and the same pessimistic, less-than-suave main character. But the writing itself is stunningly beautiful in some places, and enticingly mysterious in others. This book is the only one ever written by Zamyatin, a man who was exiled from Finland and said to have "dangerous ideas," and the novel was not widely published until after he died. In fact, it was originally banned in the Soviet Union until the 1980's (it was written in 1921). English translations of the Russian text appeared before the book was even available in Russia. Far less depressing and dreary than "1984," this book is not only still relevant, but stunning.