First Book Reviews of 2007

I have finished a few books these last couple of months and wanted to share my reviews so here are the first four books for this new(ish) year…

Why Do Men Have Nipples? was a bunch of fun questions related to the human body – sort of like cocktail party questions, you gotta have a drink or two before asking. It is a good premise and they have already come out with a 2nd book but honestly, I was expecting more novel information and more definitive answers. More often than not it was “no one really knows why” type of answer or they offered several explanations but not that much evidence to back any of it. I would have liked more support given on each answer. I was left unsatisfied after many questions – like they had avoided the question, babbled about some related facts but never really answered the question. Don’t know if I would necessarily recommend it unless it was on the sale table. Good book for bathroom reading… LOL

I read The Alchemist by Pablo Coehlo a few years ago and remember it as memorable and a good read. With this in mind I picked up his more current book, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. The story moved along swiftly at the beginning but then the philosophical issues presented kept repeating themselves and the language continued to be so “flowery”, that I lost interest in the characters. Maybe because I am not religious and am not overtly spiritual but even for those of you who are, I think the characters become tedious. I feel like the book repeated itself and nothing new was introduced in the second half, nothing dynamic happened and the climax of the story came and went without much notice. I could see potential but I felt like I was just let down. If you are spiritual, you might enjoy this but when I read the last page I felt like Coehlo had gotten lazy on this novel.

Maybe a Miracle by Brian Strause was one of the best books I have read in a while. I literally could not put it down! Ending was, eh, but the rest of the story more than made up for it! Strause is amazing at building characters and I felt like I knew Monroe (the main character) intimately. He was so real. I actually think that – if done well – this would be a good indie film. Anyway, the story is unique, extremely well written and very engaging. It’s funny and tragic at the same time. If you live in Houston and are interested, I’ll even let you borrow my copy!

Bee Season by Myla Goldberg has already been made into a movie with Richard Gere as the father. I didn’t know this or care when I bought the book because the story itself looked interesting. It was but it suffered the similar fate as “By the River Piedra…” reviewed above. It started off strong then suffered from the often seen “dragging it out too long” syndrome. It was better than Coehlo’s book though and it was still a good read that was hard to put down. In essence, the book has no chapters. It is divided into sections, each section corresponding to one of the family members (young daughter who is the focus of the novel, high school son, crazy mother and intense father). The sections alternate between family members. Suffice to say that I have never liked the concept of the spelling bee and my opinion has been strengthened. LOL And for the record, yes, the movie is in my NetFlix queue. We’ll see how the story translated onto film.