The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

This is a book for readers. Correction, this is a gift for readers. For those who love escaping in the pages, and find themselves caring deeply about the characters who are revealed within them. This is a gift. A big, heart thumping, book so real you can feel it gift. 

That The Goldfinch won a Pulitzer Prize is not a surprise to me. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. It's a finely crafted, gracefully written, surprisingly accessible piece of masterwork fiction. I have a suspicion it may just be the best book I'll read this year. 

The story follows Theo Decker, a young teen whose mother is killed in a horrible terrorist attack. In the midst of the attack at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Theo escapes the grisly scene with a copy of Fabritius' The Goldfinch (you can read more about the painting here). A 1654 masterpiece whose story and description were lost with time, as Fabritius himself, and much of his other works were destroyed in a fire at his studio.

As a reader, we know only what Theo knows. We are shown the world through his eyes, and Tartt does a magnificent job telling us only what we need to know. She doesn't over explain, she doesn't extrapolate. We can think outside Theo's sphere, but not because the author herself has made any attempt to add in a narrator's interpretation. So there are some details of events in the book that seem so limited, but in a way, perfectly true to the story and the world created through Theo.

Theo is a flawed character, and I loved him the better for it. I never felt he was out of opportunities to make his life better, to overcome his trauma and the short shrift he was given in the life department. And Theo himself is aware of all this as well. It's like sharing in on a good friend's shame, and loving him despite all of it. 

There are so many twists in Theo's life, but Tartt knows just when to cut ahead in time and save us some of the banal sorrow that would have drug the piece down into tedious pace.

5/5 Stars.

2016 Review

In 2016 I read 57 books, or 18,395 pages (I also recently have a string of half-finished audio books that returned to the library before they could be finished and I'm patiently waiting for them to turn back up in my account - so the page number is a little higher). This is a dramatic increase over last year when I read 39 books, or 11,683 pages. I credit the increase in books read to the fact that I discovered audio books to aid in my half marathon training runs and a couple of long car rides that necessitated entertainment. All the reviews this year on the blog were my own fresh from 2016. I'm hoping to enlist a few guest reviews this year.

Longest Book: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. The surprising thing was not how long this book was, but how short Chernow managed to make it given the source material and the endless fascination to be spurred by the details of Hamilton's life. I mean, the guy died in a duel with the Vice President of the United States. I know Dick Cheney shot someone too, but it wasn't on purpose. Chernow was the first author to uncover many of Hamilton's writings from his time living in St. Croix and other details from his early life in the Caribbean. To say this is the book that launched a thousand memes is an understatement. It's the book that launched a musical phenomenon and saved Hamilton's face on the $10 bill. Quite an accomplishment. You can read my full review here.

Shortest Book: Short Stores from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists by J.K. Rowling. I came upon this by accident, but it was very cheap from Amazon one day and I'm basically a sucker for all things J.K. Rowling touches, so I got it. It's length didn't merit a full post, but you can read additional thoughts here.

Best Book: American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I can't explain it, but this book felt very important to me when I was reading it, and it made me think of America and Gods and religion in a different way. I loved the idea of it, and how it was executed. I'm so excited this is becoming a TV show (check out a promo video here). I hope the TV show doesn't suck, because I'll probably watch it anyway and hate myself for it. I told everyone I knew this year that they should give this book a chance. You can read my full review here.

Best Character: This was the hardest one for me to decide. Shadow from American Gods was a great character. He's thoughtful and honest and being with him at the unraveling of the theocratic structure of our country was quite a ride. I also was a big fan of Newt Scamander from the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them Screenplay (you can read that review here). I'm partial to any Hufflepuff who manages to make it big, so to speak. And finally, there's A. Ham himself. I've spent part of 2015 and all of 2016 engrossed and obsessed with all things Hamilton. It kind of reminds me of my pre-teen fascination with The New Kids on the Block, only high-brow. I don't have pins or posters from Teen Beat hung up in my room, but I did actually buy a paper copy of Rolling Stone Magazine this year and I saw the musical twice - once in New York (you can read about that experience here) and once in Chicago. Oh I also read both the biography and the story behind the musical.So in the end, I think I have to go with Mr. Hamilton. Ambitious, tragic, flawed, could have been President of the United States had he managed to get out of his own way at the time. He's fascinating and since he inspired the best piece of pop culture in my lifetime, I think he wins hands down.

Worst Book: Deliver Us From Evil by David Baldacci. I should have known this one was bad when I realized I had read the prior book and had no memory of it whatsoever, despite having reviewed in on Goodreads. I wasn't impressed with the first book either. This book had crappy characters, a crappy plot, and unbelievable motives. Plus, I was 10 pages away from finishing it on vacation when my eldest woke my youngest up from a nap and we proceeded on a cranky four hour car trip through the Canadian Shield. We were all fed up. So then I finally finished this book and put us all out of our misery. You can read my full review here.

Biggest Disappointment: Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. After coming off reading In a Dark Dark Wood (you can read that review here), I was pretty stoked to read Ruth Ware's follow up. The previous book had made for some good running material as I was completely engrossed and seemed to not notice I was running for hours at a time. But this was was hugely disappointing. The main character was not tolerable, not barely tolerable, she was NOT tolerable at all (see below). So I put on my big girl pants, since the main character was not going to, and finished the book. Only now I feel bad because somehow my mom started reading this on my purported recommendation, and I can't believe I screwed up so badly as to lead her down this path. You can read my full review here.

Worst Character: Lo Blacklock, The Woman in Cabin 10. Typically unreliable narrators are okay for me, but they have to be someone I at least could be in the same room with. Big no for Lo Blacklock. Big big no. See above.


Honorable Mentions:  I should say there were a few books that didn't make the above list but were so good, I wanted to throw a shout out to them. Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad (review here) was excellent, as was Justin Cronin's City of Mirrors (review here) - rounding out his trilogy that began with The Passage.I'd highly recommend either of these books.

Goals for 2017: I've set my goal of 52 books for this year. I know it is doable since I blew that away in 2016. I'll be training for another half marathon soon so I'll have the time to listen. 52 books is a book a week and I know I'll get my Ploughshares love in three times this year.

Will George RR Martin get around to publishing Winds of Winter (signs are pointing to yes!- check out this update), I'm not counting on it (I was similarly disappointed last year) or I would have set the goal at 45. But if it ruins my reading goal for the year, I'd be okay with that.

Dead Wake - Erik Larson

Nerd alert. I love history and I love military history, but my brain always seems to jump from the American Civil War to WWII. I recently read a book about the Napoleonic Wars in Europe (you can read that review here). After reading this book, it seems that Europe was still confused about whether they were fighting the Napoleonic wars in 1915. 

Trench warfare is awful.

Anyway, a lot of the assumptions I had about the Lusitania were wrong. I thought the US went to war right after the Lusitania was sunk. Wrong. I thought the Lusitania was a US ship. Wrong. 

So amid all of these wrong facts, I somehow forgot that in May 1915, the Lusitania was filled with people. Mothers, fathers, children, babies, sons, wives, Vanderbilts! And that's all so sad and tragic. Larson really hits home with the descriptions of families trying to stay together as the ship went down. Even though the water was warmer than the Titanic sinking, the speed at which the ship sank, the 55 degree water, and the distance from shore really made surviving difficult for the passengers. 

The narration of the audio version was slightly irritating as it was a bit too over dramatic, but all in all I really liked this book and learning more about the events precipitating WWI.

4/5 Stars.

Mini Reviews - Filling my Days with Harry Potter Shorts

I know it seems like all I've been doing lately is reading Harry Potter related things (like the play Cursed Child, or the Screenplay for Fantastic Beasts). I probably am due to go ahead and re-read the entire 7 book original series. There's a certain catharsis in reliving all the Harry Potter moments. But when Kindle offers me a $1.99 deal on reading some Harry Potter shorts, well, then, just take my money Amazon. Just take it.



A good collection of Pottermore descriptions which I appreciate being put into an anthology so I don't have to dig around on the site to find.

I'm a total sucker for anything that includes J.K. Rowling's name (or let's be honest, even her fake name) on it. This collection is a testament to the rich world she created with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's (Philosopher's) Stone. 

Keep creating J.K. I'm ready for anything.





This was a short volume Rowling wrote to raise money for Comic Relief. Written in full Harry Potter world form, the book gives the history of Quidditch from the middle ages through present day. 

It was fun to read about the possible fouls and early forms of Quidditch. A short delightful read for anyone who loves the world of Harry Potter.

U is for Undertow - Sue Grafton

At this point I'm going to assume Grafton has changed up her writing style and we're going to get different points of view from different characters and different time frames in future books. This isn't a complaint, it actually works well but I think this is the fourth book now that has had some shifting timelines and perspectives so it's safe to say that this is the new format to expect.

In this book, Kinzie is hired by Michael Sutton who has been inspired by a newspaper report about an old kidnapping, to come forward with some very old information. The police can't do anything with Michael's vague tip, so he turns to Kinzie. Michael remembers seeing two men digging a hole twenty years earlier, but he didn't know who they were and he wasn't entirely sure what they were burying. 

When the eventual spot is found and exhumed, the only thing buried is an old dead dog. But, Kinsey being Kinsey, she can't quite let go of the thread. So even though her day's work for Sutton is over, she continues to work the problem on her own. 

In the mix is a neighbor dealing with her son's poor choices, a neighbor coming to terms with his poor choices, and a sudden appearance of Kinsey's relatives. 

This book finally finally finally gave us some movement on Kinsey's estranged relationship with her cousins. I don't know why I'm surprised, but it's great to see that after so many novels, Kinsey can still continue to grow as a character.

3.5/5 Stars.

The Girl who Fought Napoleon - Linda Lafferty

I recently had to travel to Seattle for work. The most concrete way I can explain the length of time it takes to get out there (with a layover at O'Hare) is to say that I finished two books during my trip. I received The Girl Who Fought Napoleon from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

I'm a little torn on what I ultimately think of the book. It was entertaining and informative. The author used fantastic source material. Turns out, that during the end of Catherine the Great's reign as Tsar in Russia, there did live a girl, Nadezhda Durova who left home and joined the calvary, disguised as a young man, and went on to fight in the Napoleonic wars for Russia. She did, indeed have a close relationship with Catherine's grandson, the eventual Tsar Alexander I. Later in life, Durov wrote her own biography, which Lafferty used as source material.

So the basis and the general story were great, but in parts it felt like the book was trying to do too much. Aside from Durov and Alexander, we also get snippets from Napoleon's POV which seemed unnecessary as well as fleeting insights from rather minor characters due to a 3d person omniscient point of view during chapters that were not about Durov. At some points, these details seemed completely unnecessary, at at others, there were moments where I wondered why the reader was left in the dark. Amid all of this, the timeline jumped around a lot too. One chapter would be 1799 and then the next would be 1795 and then back to 1799 until finally Durov and Alexander's timelines matched up toward the second half of the novel. It seemed a bit overdone for me - as if the editor wasn't giving the reader enough credit for being able to be away from one particular story for a long time.

And at times, the research got a little lazy. Towards the end of the novel, when Alexander is marching into Paris (1814), the novel notes a young French boy watching the events unfold - Jules Verne. Verne is best known for his adventure novels, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. But, Verne wasn't born until 1828, so he couldn't have been present at Alexander's march into Paris. It was this kind of detail, totally gratuitous and then historically inaccurate, which undercut some of the authentic feel of the book. And while I realize that this ultimately is a work of historical fiction - I like the events to at least be possible. 

The writing itself was well done for this type of story. The prose wasn't overly difficult impacting the speed of the narrative. Durov herself seemed to be given a lot of accolades for her fighting in the war, but considering most of the details of her actions involve her getting yelled at for making stupid mistakes in battle, I'm not really sure how this came about. The end chapter was also a bit grating, as we see an elder Durov coming to terms with her life story - both the outward one she wanted to project, and the actual slightly seedier details she sought to hide. The author's choice to keep these details to the end, when it landed with more confusion than shock, fell flat for me. 

3/5 Stars.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Screenplay) - J.K. Rowling

This is the first screenplay I have ever read and there was a definite learning curve over the first few scenes in the book. But once I caught the rhythm, this was a fast and fun read. I love the world of Harry Potter, I've read all those books through several time (not this year, I had too ambitious a reading goal for the year) and I recently read the libretto for London play Cursed Child (this is the Harry Potter "sequel" - oh what am I telling you for, you are reading a review of Fantastic Beasts, you're probably aware of what Cursed Child is, you can read that review here). 

In any case, Fantastic Beasts is a much more grown up Harry Potter world, with larger consequences, and no teen angst. However, Rowling's humor and wit are ever present even in the scant dialogue or details surrounding some events. I am not sure when I'll have time to actually go see this movie, so getting to read the screenplay was wonderful. And the amazing thing about reading a screenplay is that it's only part of the picture. So many people work with the words on the paper to bring the vision to life, and so reading a screenplay is only part of the overall picture. I don't feel like it's "ruined" the movie for me at all. 

In this story, Newt Scamander arrives in New York to repatriate a rare creature. He has a serious soft spot for magical creatures and is working to advance awareness of their needs and protection. Upon arrival he runs into Jacob, a no-maj (muggle is a way better word - 0 points to America for coming up with a cool term) baker who is looking for a loan at a bank. Tina, a former Auror who can't quite let go of the duties, and Queenie, Tina's gorgeous sister. Oh also, New Scamander is a Hufflepuff (Pottermore says I am too) so of course I'm wishing him loads of success. 

Newt ends up losing a few of his creatures and in his quest to recover them, Tina, Jacob and Queenie get pulled in for the ride. In the background of all this action, Grindewald is looking to cause an international showdown between the magical and non-magical (you may recall this was the cause of his ultimate falling out with Dumbledore who wasn't really down with that kind of elitism), and a Second Salem movement bent on discovery and eradication of witches has some pretty horrible repression going on with some sad and scared children. 

If anything, I was a little disappointed in the climactic scene/showdown portion of the story, but I'll withhold judgment on that until I see it on screen, as I'm sure some nuance is missing from the screenplay that might make this a little more palatable. 

See the movie or read the screenplay if you are a HP fan. It holds up.

4.5/5 Stars