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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Mark Haddon
2004
Vintage

Summary:

Christopher Boone, the autistic 15-year-old narrator of this revelatory novel, relaxes by groaning and doing math problems in his head, eats red-but not yellow or brown-foods and screams when he is touched. Strange as he may seem, other people are far more of a conundrum to him, for he lacks the intuitive “theory of mind” by which most of us sense what’s going on in other people’s heads.

When his neighbor’s poodle is killed and Christopher is falsely accused of the crime, he decides that he will take a page from Sherlock Holmes (one of his favorite characters) and track down the killer. As the mystery leads him to the secrets of his parents’ broken marriage and then into an odyssey to find his place in the world, he must fall back on deductive logic to navigate the emotional complexities of a social world that remains a closed book to him.

I can’t really say much more than I loved it. Well, I can, but I won’t. This book has been talked about over and over and over. Most of the time I don’t buy the hype, but this one was great. If you haven’t picked it up yet, do it!

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Fat Girl
Judith Moore
2006 (Reprint)
Plume

Summary from Judith Moore herself:

Fat Girl tells the story of my family and the food we ate. We were an unhappy family. With the exception of my father’s maternal grandparents and a woman who worked for them and my mother’s half-brother, nobody much loved anybody. There was not a lot of family feeling. There was not a lot of blood is thicker than water and home is where the heart is. Everybody was pretty much in it for themselves. We were hard American isolatos. We were solitaries, some of us, even outcasts. Unhappy families, though, still have to eat. For my father and for me, who are Fat Girl’s primary fatso’s, food was source of some of our greatest pleasure and most awful pain.

I spent all day debating on whether or not to write a review of this book. On one hand, I absolutely love it. On the other hand, I hate it. I love this book because of the truth it holds for anyone that has struggled with weight in their life. I hate it for almost the same reasons. I feel almost indignant that Moore would tell our secrets and let people in on how the fat people club thinks.

I read the 196 pages of this book in one sitting. I laughed and cried. Mostly cried. For about 4 hours after I finished. This book has no happy ending, but most people who struggle with weight in the same way Moore does don’t have a happy ending either.

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Never Let Me Go
Kazou Ishiguro
2006
Vintage

Summary:

As children Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were.

Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special–and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.

This was a book club choice for this this month. We haven’t yet had the meeting, but I might update after we do.

I don’t think I’ve read such a sad book. I just turned the last page and I feel very unsettled. It’s part science-fiction, part literary fiction, part Gothic. It took me a lot longer to get through this one than most books. When I say that, I mean I can usually read a 250-page novel in a day or two. This one I took more than 2 weeks, not because I wasn’t interested, but because I didn’t want it to end.

It’s remarkably well-written. So often when I’m reading I find myself saying, “I wish that was phrased differently.” Or, “I wish it wasn’t so choppy.” Not once during this book was I tripped up by semantics or grammar choices. The story is virtually flawless. This was my first encounter with Ishiguro, but if the rest of his books are as good as this one, I’m his new biggest fan.

However, the book itself is not without flaws. The first 140 pages or so are very frustrating because Ishiguro writes as though we should know what is really going on. He introduces the terms “carer,” “donations” and “completion” and it seems completely unconnected to the story. But the reader picks up pieces of information as the characters do in their young lives: adults in the story let things slip and everyone finds themselves reading between the lines.

The revelation of the story is highly controversial. I don’t want to say too much because the moment when you figure out what’s going on is absolutely beautiful and absolutely heartbreaking.

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Stray
Rachel Vincent
2007
Mira

Summary:

Faythe Sanders likes to pretend she’s a normal college co-ed, but that’s only half the truth. It’s the other half that matters when her former lover appears on campus, sent to pull her back into a life her classmates could never understand, or even imagine. He has come to take her home, to where hunting doesn’t involve guns, the night isn’t for sleeping, and fur is much more than just a fashion statement.

Female werecats are disappearing from all over the south, and the Pride is helpless to find its missing members and stop the stray responsible. Confined to home for her own protection, Faythe must face everything she went to school to escape: the family she left behind, the love she turned her back on, and the destiny tradition says she’s bound to fulfill. And when it all becomes too much to handle, an emotionally charged error in judgment leads her into the unsheathed claws of the stray himself. Now, armed with nothing but animal instinct and a serious attitude, Faythe must free herself and stop the kidnappers before their horrific plot robs her Pride of its most valuable asset: its own continued existence.

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At this point, you all probably think I all I read is fluff! I don’t know why I’m on this kick lately. It’s probably the warm weather that has me branching into light reading. I do plan on reviewing heavier books in a few days! I have some I’m just finishing that I can’t wait to share.

Let me preface this by saying that I’ve had a love affair with new paranormal fiction since I read Twilight. Twilight didn’t appeal to me. I did read all three books, but I hate myself for that now. It was poorly-written fan fiction with new characters. It did open my eyes to the genre again though and for that I thank the books.

OK, on to Stray. (Behind the cut because I got kind of wordy)

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The Sex Club
LJ Sellers
2007
Spellbinder Press

Summary:

A pipe bomb explodes at a birth control clinic, then a young client turns up dead in a dumpster. Kera, the clinic nurse, discovers that the girl’s Bible group is sharing more than the Good News. Confidentiality keeps her from telling the police, so she digs for the truth on her own—becoming the bomber’s new target. Meanwhile, Detective Jackson races to find the killer, fearing that his own daughter could be next. But his investigation is blocked by power politics at every step. Can Jackson uncover the killer’s shocking identity in time to stop the slaughter?

What a good book! I hung on to every word. I read a review before going in from BookGasm, that says the author has a specific agenda and if you agree with it you’ll have a great time with the book. I really couldn’t agree more.

It’s obvious from the beginning that the good vs. evil debate going on in the plot is all perspective. Kera’s personal experiences working at Planned Parenthood lay the ground work for a multi-layered crime drama. Det. Jackson, a single dad of a young girl that is friends with the victim, find himself in the midst of a case that hits too close to home. The basic themes of the novel have been over and over by many authors, but Sellers is able to give the story something extra. I can’t put my finger on whether it’s the shock of what’s going on that brings the victim to the clinic in the first place or what unfolds as the story goes on.

Sellers does a very good job of showing all the angles to the story, even if you can’t bring yourself to agree with the actions.

I will say it is so hard to write about this book without spilling everything! I could give you some small plot points, but I feel strongly you should read it for yourself and put the pieces together yourself. Everything plays in to everything else, whether you want it to or not.

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