Book Review Blitz

In the last month, I've been reading voraciously, binging on lighter fare than college classes usually allow, and enjoying every minute of it. I review things rather rarely at Catherine the Greatest, but I plan to do more of it, so I think it's time to introduce an official rating system: the royal crown! Let's use a 1-5 crown scale. Here are the highlights of what I've read.

Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Plot: High-schooler Hannah Baker committed suicide, but before she did, she recorded and mailed 13 audio tapes to each person who played a role in the circumstances of her suicide, for better or worse. Audio tape transcripts are intermingled with the narration of Clay Jensen, one of Hannah's classmates and a recipient of the tapes. He spends an afternoon and night listening to all of the them, visiting the locations Hannah tells him to, and listens to her story unravel. Clay was always friendly to Hannah, and is tortured by thinking that he could have made her depression worse. Asher succeeds in writing a heartbreaking, affecting story that readers won't soon forget.
Takeaway: I didn't realize when I ordered the book from half.com that it was a young-adult novel. It soon became obvious through the level of writing, but adult readers shouldn't be steered away. It's a compelling, gripping novel that I finished in a couple of afternoons, and is definitely a must-have for high-school libraries. It will make you rethink the way you treat other people, and remind you that you never really know anyone's whole story. Asher is brave to cover such a heavy topic that all too often is ignored.
Rating: ♔♔♔♔

Title: I am the messenger
Author: Markus Zusak
Plot: Nineteen-year-old Ed Kennedy is a cab driver who feels like a directionless failure. After being held up at a bank, where he proves himself a local hero, he starts receiving playing cards in the mail with no explanation. Each card has three clues or addresses, and Ed has to find out what message he must to deliver to every person. By helping others, Ed find himself and a new confidence that comes with feeling needed. All of his missions are heartening and the relationships he builds are realistic. Zusak has knack for explaining the human condition simply and beautifully in just a few sentences, while other authors spend lifetimes and fill reams of paper trying to get it just right.
Takeaway: My friend's mother teaches high-school English and says she divides this novel in sections, as if each of Ed's mission is its own short story. It's an effective way to teach this novel which ultimately fails to hold itself together. The book ends abruptly and disappointingly, after having maintained taught suspense throughout. I only really read it because I'm obsessed with Zusak's The Book Thief. So if you're going to read anything, read that one. It will be the best thing you read all year.
Rating: ♔♔♔

Title: The Year of Magical Thinking
Author: Joan Didion
Plot: John Dunne, Didion's husband, dies suddenly on New Year's Eve, after the couple returns from visiting their comatose daughter in a New York hospital. Didion chronicles her year of grief, and the constant struggle to think logically during a time when she admits she was hardly sane.
Takeaway: One of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. Didion is one our greatest living authors, and you'll see why. She can put words to some of the most unspeakable, senseless human emotion, making your heart ache and mind reel. At times, I put the book down just so I could absorb the sheer weight of her words.
Rating: ♔♔♔♔♔

Title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
Author: by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Plot: Author Juliet Ashton is researching topics for a new book, and gets in touch with several residents of Guernsey, an English Channel island that was occupied by Germany during World War II. The book unfolds through the letters she writes to the island's residents, and those they right back. At times the letters jump from subject to subject, from weightier war stories to charming tales of island living, but they're always lively, absorbing and entertaining.
Takeaway: You have to read this. It is an intellectual's answer to light reading, filled with researched history, simple love stories, and vibrant, lovable characters. You'll be sad to leave them when you finish this book.
Rating: ♔♔♔♔

Title: My Sister's Keeper
Author: Jodi Picoult
Plot: Thirteen-year-old Anna was originally conceived to be a genetic match for her sister Kate, who was suffering from leukemia. Having spent her entire life saving Kate's by giving marrow, blood, and now a propose kidney, Anna decides to sue for medical emancipation from her parents. Anna, her mother, father, brother Jesse, sister Kate, lawyer Campbell, and a court-appointed guardian at litem take turns narrating this page-turning medical/legal drama. The toll Anna's case and Kate's illness take on the family is explored in fascinating emotional depth, and will leave you thinking about how easy it is for family members to become so emotionally and morally distant from each other, and what it takes to fix it.
Takeaway: I'd heard a lot about Jodi Picoult but never read one of her novels, thinking they were a fluffier than what I usually am drawn to. But after reading this one, I'll be seeking out all of her other books. Her characters are so richly drawn, you empathize with all of them, and the quality of her writing is unmatched by most other bestselling authors. My Sister's Keeper is a perfect summer read; it'll have you up until three o'clock in the morning.
Rating: ♔♔♔♔♔