Some Assembly Required - Anne LaMott

This is Anne LaMott's musings on the first year of her grandson's life - and what it's like to watch her teenage son and his girlfriend raise their own child.  I read this book during my own son's first year of life - which I thought would make me relate to so much.  Instead, I found LaMott annoying and self-centered.  Perhaps, grandparents reading this book might relate better.  And perhaps parents watching a very yonug child raise their child might relate even better. But, I thought she lacked real perspective - while I know that all parents and grandparents find their children/grandchildren amazing and wonderful, her descriptions of her seemingly average grandchild were so over the top and distracting.  She seemed overly meddlesome in her son's life - though perhaps some of this stemmed from the fact that she was contributing so much to his ability to live in San Francisco as a teenage parent.  I suppose, I should have just appreciated the book for what it was - a grandmother's dotting descriptions of her grandchild, but I just expected more from such an accomplished writer. 

The Poet - Michael Connelly (Jack McEvoy #1)

In The Poet, Connelly takes a break from focusing on the perspective of homicide detective Harry Bosch, and introduces a new amateur sleuth - a journalist by the name of Jack McEvoy.  After McEvoy's twin brother dies from an alleged suicide, McEvoy's digging leads him to believe that there is a serial killer on the loose, borrowing lines from Edgar Allan Poe for his doctored suicide notes.  Stephen King wrote a bang-up endorsement of this novel for the Introduction - claiming that he couldn't stop reading, and that it was a thriller to top all murder mystery thrillers.  I'm a definite King fan, so the endorsement meant something - and maybe raised my expectations a bit too much.  I found the writing in the first few chapters a bit choppy (a bit pulp fiction-y) - and as McEvoy tries to convince folks at every turn that his brother was murdered and didn't commit suicide, I just found the telling and retelling of the evidence tedious.   But, then Connelly did hit his stride, and I thought the story unfolded well.  Unfortunately, McEvoy did a lot of jumping to (the wrong) conclusions, which I found frustrating, and the mystery was revealed a little too rushed at the end (I think in the final 10-20 pages, though I could be mistaken).  This is not the best murder mystery novel of all time, but it's entertaining, as Connelly's books usually are, and it was nice to start a new character and see where he ends up.

A Theory of All Things - Peggy Leon

This is the second book I reviewed for the Saroyan Prize.  It's the story of the tragic Bennett family - sent in varied directions after the suicide of one of their brothers and abandonment by their mother.  As their aging father sucuumbs to Alzheimer's, each child tells their own story, and that of their family, in their own words.  The five remaining siblings range from the brilliant, but socially inept Mark, to the practical sister who stays home to care for their father, to the free-spirited hippie who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant.  While I appreciated the family aspect of this book, there were a bit too many moving pieces for me to really enjoy.  Focusing on three siblings might have made for a better story.  And, at times, it just seemed like too many bad things were happening to all these people.  Leon is experimental in her narrative - telling portions of the story through emails among the siblings.  An interesting portrait of a family, but disjointed at times.

If You Live in a Small House - Sandra Park

Every two years, Stanford and the William Saroyan Foundation award the Saroyan Prize to a newly-published work of fiction that commemorates the life, work, and intentions of William Saroyan.  To screen the entries, Stanford asks for volunteer readers.  I've volunteered for the last three awards, and this is one of the books I was assigned for this year.  Sandra Park's novel takes place in Hawaii, and tells the story of Korean immigrants growing up on the island.  As the title suggests, it is about multi-generations of family living under the same roof - and the book centers around the idea of space - why do we need it and how do we get it - from our families, from our pasts, and from ourselves.  Taking place on a small island, such as Hawaii, I felt that it all took place within the confines of this small confined space, and at times did give me a feeling of claustrophobia as I read.  I enjoyed the novel - I tend to like books set in Hawaii - and I hadn't read much in the past about Korean-Americans on the islands.  I did find the writing style a bit disjointed - it skipped around from character to charater and presented the story in a vignette style that I found frustrating at times.  But, it was a good read for just getting a sense of a time and a place.

The Art of Fielding - Chad Harback

I seem to enjoy books that take place at small town colleges.  Richard Russo's Straight Man and Jane Smiley's Moo come to mind.  The Art of Fielding follows Henry Skirmshander, a shortstop phenomenon to Wisconsin's Wetish College.  As Henry learns to navigate college life and the pressures of college athletics, his roommate begins an illicit affiar with the univeristy President.  And, the President's daughter, running from a failed marriage, begins her own dalliance with the team's captain.  Amidst a lot of baseball talk, is a coming-of-age story about a boy who lacks confidence, who is then built up to believe he can do no wrong, who then makes an unforeseen error that potentially changes the trajectory of not only his life, but of all those around him.  At times, this book was a bit too melodramatic for my tastes, but overall it was an enjoyable story with some interesting and real characters.

The Street of a Thousand Blossoms - Gail Tsukiyama

My mom has been telling me to read this book for years.  As usual, I should listen to my mother.  I am a big fan of Gail Tsukiyama and have a number of her books unread on my shelves.  I feel like I'm saving them for something, but I know I need to just read them and enjoy!  The Street of a Thousand Blossoms takes place in Japan mostly following the bombings of Hiroshima/Nagasaki during World War II.  The book focuses on orphaned brothers, Hiroshi and Kenji.  While Hiroshi follows his dream of becoming a sumo wrestler, the quieter Kenji gravitates toward the beautiful mask making of the Noh theater.  The story spans decades and follows the brothers through the lives in post-was Japan.  At times, this book was a bit too tragic for my tastes.  It seemed like sadness lurked around every corner - often, I felt, unnecessarily.  But, Tsukiyama tells a wonderful story about a family and brothers who find each other no matter how different their life paths and desires.  Definitely one of the best books I've read this year.

Echo Park - Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #12)

Because I keep reading these things out of order, I can't keep track of whether Bosch is about to retire, working through his retirement, or just coming back...but I already knew that something crazy was about to go down in this book because a later one I read kept referening the debacle that was "Echo Park."  In this one, Bosch is haunted by yet another cold case - this one involved the disappearance of a young woman twelve years prior whose body was never recovered.  When a serial killer about to be executed for his crimes confesses to the woman's murder and promises to lead Bosch to her body, he goes against his judgment and bites.  As with all Connelly's novels (and crime stories in general) - the first suspect is never the right one, and here we also know there is bound to be police corruption involved.  I enjoyed the cat and mouse hunt of this one, and even though I knew the serial killer couldn't be the real killer in the case Bosch cared so much about, I enjoyed the suspense of finding out who actually did it.  I really just never tire of these books!