Review: Adultery by Paulo Coehlo

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So, you could read my spoilery review of this book or you can follow this link to this video of Bill Nye on Inside Amy Schumer and pretend that I am Bill Nye and the book is all of the women in this video.
Bill Nye on Inside Amy Schumer

When I requested this from the library, I thought I knew what I was getting into. I’ve read other Coehlo books before. I know what his writing is like. I expected that something would happen and that it would lead to some kind of inevitable communion with the infinite, the one, God. I wasn’t wrong.

What I did not expect was to so thoroughly loath the main character. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. I’m not married so I certainly haven’t been married for ten years. I don’t have children. Her life is just different from mine, I kept telling myself. Don’t be a hater!
I’m totally a hater.
And, I’m a hater because the main character dismissed people’s attempts to help her. I’m a hater because she assumed that all treatments for depression are just pills and you’re fine. I’m a hater because the main character didn’t talk to her husband about her feelings until way past the point that she should have and then failed to connect with him. I’m a hater because when she sought therapy (finally) she was unhappy that it would take six months for her to make progress that she dismissed them all and looked for a quicker cure (that wasn’t a cure-all pill.  Which no one offered her, by the way).  And, when this Swiss woman finds her “quicker cure” in the words of a Cuban shaman (who tells her to go ahead and have the affair), it still takes her at least six months to have her effing epiphany.

I get there are many paths to God and I get that lots of people are different and I get that sometimes you just got to get something out of your system. But, this book was terrible and the main character is a horrible person. I don’t often finish books that I don’t enjoy but I did finish this one. And now that I have, you don’t have to. You’re welcome.

Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.  Do not read this book.

Review: Losing at Love by Jennifer Iacopelli

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This was a good follow up to Game. Set. Match. With the French Open now behind them, Penny, Indy, and Jasmine look to make the quick turn around of Wimbledon.  Probably the most underrated difficult thing to do in any sport, go from the super slow clay courts of Roland Garros to the lightning fast grass courts of Wimbledon.  True, over the years, The All England Club has slowed down their courts in an attempt to encourage more rallies but it’s still unbelievable achievement to win the French Open and Wimbledon back to back.  Borg did it multiple times, Nadal has done it twice and Federer only once.  Ok, so you get the point.

All three girls are in very different places.  Indy had a successful French Open, in more ways than one.  She won the juniors and got Jack. Penny beat the World number 1 again but sprained her ankle in the process.  And poor Jasmine, crashed out the first round of the juniors and now is being pushed to play college instead of going pro.  All of their careers are going in different directions and the stakes are getting higher.  How does one balance friendships when your playing for thousands of dollars in the most prestigious tournament in the world?

Now, there are a few things I do have a problem with from a tennis fan perspective.  Indy and Jasmine have to qualify to make the women’s doubles field but when Indy is given a wildcard, she pulls out.  The reasoning is her coach and agent think that she can’t play qualifying and focus on her singles.  For someone who has followed tennis as long as I have I feel this in inaccurate, for lack of a better word.  Young players are often encouraged to play doubles when they are younger.  It gives them more match play, a chance to get real life experience of playing in tournaments.  It gives young players a chance to compete and learn how to compete on a more consistent basis while their singles game improves.  Winning is winning.  However, I understand from a drama point of view, why Miss Iacopelli would decide to go this way and really, I’m being nit picky here.

I do like the friendships.  I like that they are messy.  I like that for the most part, when they do fight, it’s not about boys but about their games.  They all may have dramatic love lives but for all three of them their tennis comes first.  I think it’s important to show that girls can be ambitious, that they can have drive but also have the love and respect of a man.  I hope that there are more of these because now that Wimbledon is over I can’t wait to see what happens at the US Open.

I got to meet Rainbow Rowell 

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In a perfect set of coincidences, I am visiting my parents in Cedar Rapids, IA. Rainbow Rowell is speaking in Cedar Rapids, IA. Oh and the library’s ebook of Attachments became available. So, I read the first three chapters before heading out.  To start, I wasn’t sure if she would read or give a talk or answer questions.  Rowell did mostly questions and answers and she started by answering a question that she gets a lot: how did you become a novelist.

I knew immediately that I was going to like her because she had on a dress with trees on it (I found out at the signing it was from eShakti) and a large cat face necklace. Normally, I am loath to be the kind of person who judges people by what they’re wearing but plus-size women who have cultivated a sense of style (especially ones that are my age or older and remember a time when all plus-size clothing was hideous) are always cool even if I don’t like them.

Rainbow Rowell chatting with the room


So, Rowell started out by telling us about her life before her books were published as a journalist who for awhile had a gig covering Western Iowa for an Omaha paper. It was great to hear her tales of the hijinx that we get up to in the middle of the nation. (We had a Pork Queen who was a vegetarian.  If that’s not funny to you, you’re either not from here or you’re not from here and you guessed wrong as to what a Pork Queen is.)

Then she took questions from the audience. She gave advice to young authors. She talked about her favorite fandoms (Sherlock). She talked her X- men-Mary Sue-self-insert fan fic she wrote as a teen.  I laughed so much I was so excited to continue reading Attachments.

After Rowell’s talk she signed books. There was a long line and it was great that she signed so many books. I don’t usually fangirl (especially not over an author whose books I’ve not finished) but I stood in that really long line to tell her how much I enjoyed her talk, get my book signed and to get my picture taken.
Yup, I’m that kind of nerd.

Rainbow Rowell and Kate being a total Fangirl.

The problem with eBooks (A discussion thread for late night reading, eBooks, and eReaders)

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if you aren’t careful and you allow yourself to get sucked into a novel you don’t notice that you need to recharge your reader. 

Then, you’re sitting up, way past your bed time, reading the book on your phone because your reader died during the emotional climax of the book. 15 pages from the end. (which you’ll read across 60 screens are your tiny little phone.) 

(I have never been so happy that the library allows you to open a book in a browser instead of redownloading the whole thing. Thank you, Buffalo and Erie County Public Libraries!) 
What was the last book you stayed up late to finish? How do you keep yourself from ignoring battery warnings on your eReader? Sound off in the comments! 

Reasons I love The Diviners by Libba Bray

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Featured imageLet’s try something different in this review.  Let’s just talk about what I love about this book and this series (now that I have finished Lair of Dreams!!!)

1. Evie O’Neill is the Elephants Eyebrows, which I assume in 20’s slang for the Bees Knees.  She’s joyful, funny, sarcastic, brave and yes a bit spoiled but at her core she wants to help and make difference. If that happens to get her name in the papers so be it.

2. All of the female characters are awesome.  Mabel, Evie and Theta are all completely different.  I mean seriously, I don’t think you could find different girls.  Well, you probably could but as different as they are they compliment each other.  Yes, they fight, yes they have their falling outs but when it matters, they are there for each other.

3. The guys are not bad either.  Sam, Jericho, Henry and Memphis all have book boyfriend potential.  You have bad boy Sam with a heart of gold.  Studious Jericho who is more then he appears to be and mysterious Memphis with a poets heart and brother’s loyalty.  Henry is the class clown.

4. Libba Bray does a great job of setting a tone of 20’s optimism with darkness and foreboding of something big that is about to happening.

5. You can tell that a lot of research went in to writing of this novel.  Everything from the tone, to the slang to the description of clothes and city to the politics and social issues that really brings you into the time and truly makes for a lush reading.

6. I sorta can’t believe that I’ve made it this far without mentioning their super powers! The story revolves around a group of 17-18 years old who start to discover they have strange powers.  Like, walking in dreams, reading objects for a person’s past, seeing into the future or healing the sick.  It’s like an X-Men origin story!

7.The big bad is truly terrifying but nothing is truly terrifying to me then someone who truly believes that what they are doing is for good even though it is bat shit crazy!

8.Speakeasies, night clubs, Follies and so much more of the Roaring 20’s.

9.For all the optimism of the 20’s, Bray is not afraid to touch on the less happy things from the era, like racism, the Chinese immigration laws, religious fervor and eugenics movement.

10. The diversity of characters.  Memphis is black and Henry is gay.  Not to mention it’s filled with characters from all spectrums of life in smaller roles as well and more of those characters to come in the sequel.