One More Thing

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You might know BJ Novak from his many roles in movies and TV shows we love to watch (The Office, Saving Mr. Banks, Inglorious Basterds), and now you can have his book sitting on your own bookshelf!  

One More Thing is a collection of short stories (some very short, just a few lines) that you will just totally breeze through.  There's the guy who wears the same red shirt every day so that he's easy to pick out in the 'Missed Connections' section of the newspaper, the girl who gives great advice, a child who wins a cereal competition which unravels his life.  One of my favorites is about a woman on a blind date with a great guy except that he's a warlord.  (This American Life did a radio show of this story, which starts 7 minutes in here.)  

You'll love it for a beach day, as it's easy to find stopping points, or for a day of travel on a flight with a child. I totally enjoyed it.

The Luminaries

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I wish I could sugarcoat this to make myself sound faster or smarter, but it's impossible: this book took me over two months to finish.  Granted, Eleanor Catton's novel is over 800 pages and there is a small child taking up a lot of my time, but that seems like a really long time to get through a novel.  

It should give you a taste of how much/little I enjoyed it. 

The short story is that The Luminaries is about Walter Moody, an Englishman who has sailed to New Zealand in the 1860s to partake in their gold rush.  On the night he arrives, he stumbles upon a gathering in the lobby of a hotel; twelve men are discussing their involvement in the disappearance of a young entrepreneur, the overdose of a prostitute, and the sudden discovery of a rather large fortune at the house of a dead alcoholic.  This sounds like an interesting read right off the bat. 

And I really wanted to enjoy this tome.  It's the most recent Man Booker Prize recipient, the author is a young woman (always exciting to see the award go to the unexpected!), and I truly think it is a well-written story.  It just wasn't interesting to me.  It took a few chapters to get into the language Catton uses, as it is (evidently) a parody of a 19th-century novel and the characters speak as such.  Even taking that into consideration, something about the convoluted story arc and main characters didn't do it for me.  

Does that happen to you?  I'm not sure if it was overrated or just not suited for me.  

State of Wonder

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It happened!  I finished a book over the holidays!  I won't confess how long it's taken me to read Ann Patchett's State of Wonder, but I will tell you that I loved it.
Decades ago, Dr. Marina Singh was a budding obstetrician studying under a well-respected but incredibly demanding gynecologist and teacher, Annick Swenson.  Now, Marina works for Vogel, a pharmaceutical company, where she is partner to the kind and family-centered Anders Eckman.  When Anders dies under mysterious circumstances in the Amazon jungle while researching a new miracle drug, Marina is sent off to find out more from his team, including the elusive Dr. Swenson.
It may not sound like much, but it's such an intriguing start to a book.  Patchett is detailed without being overly verbose with her characters, so you'll be sucked in from the get-go.  Much happens within the nearly 400 pages, including an encounter with a cannibalistic Amazon tribe, interactions with 70-year-old pregnant women, and an attachment to an astute and gentle deaf/mute adolescent.  State of Wonder is definitely a book you could read in a weekend; if you're stuck inside with dreary weather, this is sure to transport you.

How My Breasts Saved the World

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Much can be gathered from the fact that the only book I've been able to sit down and read consistently is about a woman's 'misadventures' in nursing.  Lisa Wood Shapiro wrote her memoir detailing the immersive nature of breastfeeding throughout her daughter's first year, and I absolutely love her for it.  I feel like her story is my story.  

Ok, not exactly, but it doesn't sugarcoat the difficulties inherent with attaching a starving, living wet vac to your chest for several hours a day.  She details how naive many new moms are about the trials of breastfeeding, the opinions she faced from her family, and her own preconceptions of nursing.   Unlike this other book I read, though, Shapiro focuses on the nursing victories and community she developed.  

Ultimately, isn't that the only thing that gets us through the early weeks of parenthood?  Forget about the milestones like your baby lifting his head during tummy time and holding a rattle for the first time with his own hand; it's, as Shapiro notes, when you realize that you can nurse your baby without a fortress of pillows supporting you, and walking with your baby in a stroller by yourself around the block.  It's finding another new mom who is just discovering this new identity, and wandering down the path of nursing and motherhood together.  Being a first-time parent to a small baby can be a strangely isolating experience, and knowing someone else, even an unknown author, has gone through it and survived, is a reassuring thing.  

Letters From Skye

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Jessica Brockmole's debut novel is an absolute pleasure to read.  My mom brought an advanced reader's copy from the American Library Association conference (so I wouldn't have to worry about returning it to the library; she's a smart lady who knows that new moms are not punctual in the least), and I casually read it during August's night feedings.  As if seeing that cute baby boy's eager face during our midnight meetings wasn't enough, this book helped me stay awake in the wee small hours of the morning.
This epistolary novel takes place during World Wars I and II, and tells the story of two pen pals from different sides of 'the pond'.  Elsbeth is a poet in Scotland, specifically the Isle of Skye, whose words entrance American David Graham.  He writes to her on a whim, and she responds; thus, a years-long correspondence begins.  Their romance is sweet, but won't give you a toothache; I found it charming.
Brockmole weaves in vivid imagery of Europe during WWI.  David signs up to be an ambulance driver in Europe, which isn't something I think about when war comes to mind.  It's also easy for civilians to gloss over the agony of being out of touch with their loved ones who are fighting, and this book taps into the worry of waiting for a letter.  One review I read compares this to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a very fitting statement, and one that might help you picture the feel for Skye.  I thoroughly enjoyed both!

Labor Day

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Months ago, my grandmother sent me a recommendation for this book, with a note that it was the first good book she'd read in a while.  Feeling in a bit of a book rut myself, I picked it up from my local bookstore (couldn't even wait to get it from the library!), and dug in.  

Maynard's sixth book follows the story of a young man, Henry, who runs into a stranger while running errands, and inexplicably invites him to go home with him and his mother.  Henry and his mother generally lead a solitary life; she has become somewhat of a hermit, and Henry is picked on at school.  The stranger gives their Labor Day weekend a dash of the extraordinary, although it is said that all good things must end.  

This novel is a wonderful read, quick but soulful.  Maynard imbues her characters with heart and they pop right off the page.  As the holiday is quickly approaching, I definitely recommend picking this book up to read by the pool! 

My Name is Memory

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Ann Brashares may be best known for a little series she wrote for young adults about a pair of jeans (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, anyone?), but she has also written two novels that steer toward a more adult audience.  The more recent publication, My Name is Memory, caught my eye while I was shelving books at my local library.  A Florida girl cannot say no to a book cover that features water like that.
The gist of Memory is that Daniel and Lucy are meant to be together.  Daniel was born with the ability to remember his past lives, back to around 500ish AD, which is the first time he recalls laying eyes on the soul of Lucy.  The novel is told by both characters: Lucy in the present day, figuring out the attraction she feels to this mystery man she first encounters in high school, and Daniel recounting his past, including his many families and lives that have led him back to Lucy.  The idea itself is intrinsically intriguing; who hasn't tried to fall for the concept of love at first sight?
The problem is the story's execution.  Daniel's history is based solely on his connections with Lucy, so don't expect any social commentary or big moments being documented here.  Lucy is written so flatly and with little personality that it's difficult to believe that a man would spend centuries trying to work his way into her life; honestly, is there no other woman he's had intense feelings for over 1600 years?  Daniel's ability is interesting enough, to the point where I wish he had been the sole narrator.
Don't even get me started on the ending.  Ugh.  Can I just say a lot of this book reminded me of Twilight, and leave it at that?  From the author trying to make romance out of thin air, to the descriptions of intimacy, I felt so underwhelmed by the love story.  It was a bummer.  I'd pass on this one.

Skippy Dies

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I really hate to ruin anyone's day, but 14-year-old Skippy does not make it past page 5 in this second novel from Paul Murray.  As you can probably deduce from the title, Daniel 'Skippy' Juster, dies.  The first half of the book is dedicated to the lead-up to the death, while the second half deals with the fallout.  The majority takes place in an exclusive and long-standing Catholic boys' school, and its nearby town.
Although there are several plot points, including string theory, a teacher's affair with a substitute, pills, and at least one teacher's battle with some illicit longings, this is a character-driven piece.  Skippy is dealing with some issues at home and is not known for being a lothario; you can imagine his surprise when one of the prettiest girls at the neighboring all-girls' school takes up with him.  Skippy's roommate, Ruprecht, is hiding his own secrets while constantly building new and outlandish inventions.  Their small group of friends falls apart after Skippy's death, each one dealing with the loss in his own way.  A history teacher is having a quarter-or-third-life crisis, which he deals with by taking up with a geography substitute during a school dance, leaving a number of students unchaperoned and the school open to a host of complaints.
This is just a small glimpse into the 647-page tome.  It's not that Murray is long-winded; it's that there is so much going on in and it's difficult to maintain a steady stream of interest in such a multitude of characters.  Perhaps if I had read it over a couple of days, rather than a couple of weeks, I would have enjoyed this more.  It is an enjoyable read if you don't go in expecting madcap adventures in an all-boys' school; adjust your expectations accordingly, and read in long spurts if possible.

The Second Nine Months

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I've been reading a lot of pregnancy guides and have more than one pregnancy app on my phone, but am starting to realize that I'm a bit out of the loop as far as post-partum life goes.  While shelving some books at my local library, I came across this memoir of a woman's experience with her firstborn and checked it out on a whim.  I think I'm glad I did.

Vicki Glembocki is a successful writer and editor, and this book picks up just after she gives birth to her daughter Blair; it ends just after Blair is nine months old.  Glembocki covers the gamut, from feeling guilty for not crying when dropping her daughter off at daycare for the first time (she forces herself to cry just so she can tell everyone she did) to the time she tried to milk herself manually when she forgot her breast pump at home for a day trip to the beach.  Glembocki struggles with the isolation of being a new mom, the frustration she feels with her husband for his inability to read her mind, and basically just being a parent.  

The gist I got from reading this book is that it's okay to not immediately feel maternal and completely in control of being a new parent.  Other people have gone through it and, for the most part, survived.  It's given me some new insight into the complicated world of Mommy and Me classes (Bring a blanket for your baby to lay on!  Wear makeup!), the endless sleepy nights, and fear of judgment from other people at Babies R Us.  When I put it down, I was feeling a little deflated; Glembocki doesn't spend a ton of time on the positive parts of life with Blair and her husband.  Surely, there are enough good parts to being a mom to at least rival the negatives.  Right?  

All in all, I'm glad I read it, and will take comfort in the knowledge that, if things don't go perfectly, I'm in good company.  I hope my memoir of the second nine months, though, is a bit more uplifting.

An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England

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Whew, what a mouthful of a title!  I'm about 6 years late to the party for Brock Clarke's novel (it came out in 2007), but, after plodding my way through it, don't really feel as though I missed out on much.
The story follows Sam Pulsifer, a somewhat clueless and hapless 30-something man who accidentally burnt down Emily Dickinson's house during his teenage years.  Oh, and there was a couple inside the house at the time who didn't make it out.  He's done his 10 years in prison, and the plot picks up about 10 years after his release, when he is the married father of two.  At this point, someone has started setting fire to other notable author's houses in New England, and all signs point to Sam.  This time, though, he has nothing to do with it.
Who's framing him?  Why didn't he tell his wife or children about his past, and why did he lie to them about his parents being dead?  What's going on with his alcoholic father and enabling mother?
For me, the biggest question of the novel is, "Why am I supposed to care?"  I had higher hopes for this book, which was compared to The World According to Garp and Catch-22 in a few reviews I checked out.  Perhaps if I'd read this at a different point in my life (maybe when I was in high school and neck-deep in my Chuck Palahniuk phase), I would have enjoyed Sam's story.  However, my interest waned after realizing that he doesn't take responsibility for any of his actions, and does absolutely nothing to help himself.  He's one of those guys who thinks things just keep happening to him without any provocation, when he really could stop the build-up of blame by being a grown-up.  I won't be picking up any of Clarke's other novels; this one totally turned me off.

How to Buy A Love of Reading

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Tanya Egan Gibson's debut novel is a bit...challenging at first.  I picked it up because, honestly, how great is that title?  I did end up reading the whole thing, but it took a good two weeks; something about the characters took a while to resonate with me, and the plot is such that I just stopped explaining it to people when they asked what I was reading.  BUT I did finish it, so don't be completely deterred!
The main gist is that Carley's parents have decided that their 16th birthday present to their daughter is a novel commissioned especially for her to foster a love of the written word.  They will be modern-day Medicis, and bring the meta-fiction author Bree McEnroy to live with them for a month while the novel is being completed.  Slowly, throughout the writing process, secrets are uncovered, harsh truths faced, and a world-famous author is brought back to the public eye.
There are a lot of people to keep track of here: Hunter, the alcoholic, pill-popping heartthrob of Fox Glen; Gretchen, Carley's weight-obsessed mother; Suzanne, Hunter's mother who has been carrying on a decades-long affair with Carley's father, Francis; Amber, Carley's best friend and Hunter's sometimes-booty call; the list continues.  The setting, Fox Glen, is like something out of Great Gatsby, which is somewhat paralleled in How to Buy...The parties are grand, and the story becomes less about the crazy lifestyle and more about the people in the second act.
If you are feeling up to engaging in this story, you'll need to just grit your teeth and power through the first section.  It's a challenge, but I did find myself staying up late the last couple of nights to finish this book.  I can't recommend it to everyone, but there are definitely worse ways to spend your evenings!

One Last Thing Before I Go

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Admittedly, I have a soft spot for Jonathan Tropper; his fifth novel, This is Where I Leave You, was the first book I reviewed on TLP.  I stand by my original statement of Tropper being cut from the same cloth as the decidedly male-centric Nick Hornby; this is another novel about the plight of the middle-aged, middle-class suburban male in today's world.  

Drew Silver is having a tough week: his ex-wife is getting remarried to a cardiac surgeon, his 18-year old daughter just told him that she's pregnant, and he has been told (by his ex's fiancee) that he needs a stent put into his heart or else he will die within a matter of months.  After years of having nothing to live for and secluding himself from everyone who loves him, Silver decides to not have the surgery, using his remaining weeks to rebuild some of those bridges long ago burned.  

The novel moves along at a swift pace, and the characters are moderately likable, if not incredibly flawed.  Tropper is at his best when exploring the inner workings of the male mind, as with Silver's realization that his father (a rabbi) has never raised his voice until recently or that his daughter has told him about her pregnancy because he's the one person who she doesn't mind disappointing.  I can't help reading his books as though they're already being scripted for films, as they feel a bit Hollywood.  There's a big revelation, love triangles, scripted ending.  I'd visit Tropper's books for summer reading, as there's not too much here to really scratch your head over.  

The One and Only Ivan

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My mom recommended this book to me a few months ago, as it's based on a silverback gorilla who now resides in the Atlanta Zoo!  Katherine Applegate tells the story of the one and only Ivan, who lives in a mall.  He's one of a few zoo animals who does shows a couple of times a day; there's also Stella, an older elephant, and Bob, a stray dog who sleeps on his belly at night.  The mall owner/zoo keeper brings a baby elephant named Ruby into the show one day, and her optimistic outlook on life kicks Ivan's ambition to get out of the mall big-top into high gear.  

It's a juvenile fiction book, so the wording is pretty simple.  I almost wrote 'the narrative is pretty simple,' but had to backtrack; I think this book has a lot of depth that isn't always present in books for younger audiences.  Ivan and Stella have been treated pretty badly by humans, and Ruby is a baby whose spirit is in danger of being squashed by the mall owner.  Readers will definitely develop a great amount of empathy for the animals represented in the book, and it offers several opportunities for discussion with kids.  Also, it won the Newbery Award, so you know it's good!

What's A Dog For?

When I go to the library with time on my hands, I tend to end up in one of two places: 636.7 (Dogs) or 746.1 (knitting).  This particular book caught my eye, because the pup on the front reminded me of a certain niece of mine, with crazy ears and a cute little face.  John Homans' dog, Stella, was the catalyst for this book, when his family adopted her from a rescue.  He wanted to know why she was the way she was.  Why does she like his company so much?  Why the elaborate greeting when he walks through the door?  Why does she look to him to solve her problems (like the fact that the leftover chicken is in the fridge, and she doesn't have thumbs)?

This book raises some really interesting questions, and provides some really thought-provoking answers.  He writes about the Canine Science Forum in Vienna, where scientists present experiments to prove that dogs understand human expressions of emotion, explained "dog guilt", and hypothesize about the ways that dogs differ from wolves and foxes.  He speaks with scientists who discovered that dogs are the only animal (the only animal) that understands the act of pointing at something, people who study how dogs are like human babies (hint: a lot), and whether dogs likes humans only because humans give them food, or if human interaction has been hard-wired in doggy brains after eons of breeding.   Homans presents his findings in a narrative voice, and loops everything back to his own beloved pup, which makes this a really informative but actually interesting read.

I'm pretty sure I have it figured out, though.  What's a dog for?

Snuggling.

11.22.63

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This book was recommended to me by my wonderfully prolific reader cousin Summer.  It's not my first Stephen King read (my dad used to loan me copies of his short stories and novellas, which are mind-boggling and bizarre), but it's been a while since I picked up one of his works; man, he is just a good writer.  King might be the only author who can make a story about the story of a man who travels back in time to stop the JFK assassination believable.
11.22.63 begins in 2011, when Jake Epping is summoned by the guy who owns a local diner.  It turns out that, in the back room of the establishment, there is a portal into September 1958.   Jake can step back into mid-century America and change history.  Al tried to go back to stop the assassination, but became ill while he waited for 1963 to roll around; he thinks Jake is the guy for the job.  A lot of things contribute to Jake deciding to accept the assignment (his recovering alcoholic wife has recently left him, things around town are kind of slow, he doesn't have a ton of connections to keep track of), but chief among them is a writing assignment he graded for his GED English class about a man whose life was changed on the night that his father murdered his family.  Jake decides to go back in time and try to stop this event first, then stays on in the past as George Amberson, a nomad who travels from Maine to Florida to Texas.  His journey finally leads to Lee Harvey Oswald and that fateful day in November.  Will he have the conviction to stop Oswald's gun from firing?
Let's start with the fact that this novel is a hulking, very King-esque 849 pages.  It's taken me 3 weeks to complete, not because it wasn't riveting and well-paced, but because it's so thick.  Jake travels back in time more than once, so there are a couple of time lines to keep straight, in addition to the issue of him having a life from 1958-1963.
As I was navigating the plot, John Paul asked, "So has the woman come in yet?"  He didn't know anything about the story, but was totally correct in intuiting that there was a love story connected in some way.  Jake/George does indeed cross paths with a woman while in Texas, and their match imbues the novel with much-needed emotional resonance and gives him a sense of responsibility in the past toward someone other than himself.
In the end, yes, the story has a lot of information about a truly watershed moment in American history (keep in mind, though, that this is fiction), but is more about how a man from today's world can develop a life in a completely new time and place.  I totally recommend it.  Just make sure you have the time!

Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love

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Last week, I stopped by my local library to sign up for a card, and couldn't leave empty-handed.  After putting a jillion books on hold (there are a ton of libraries in this system, so items are really spread out), I browsed through the dog book section.  With the busy-ness of unpacking and getting everything together for this house, I needed something that would leave me feeling good and smiling.

Larry Levin's book isn't ground-breaking: a family adopts a dog that was once used as bait in for other dogs in fights.  Oogy, the sweet pup featured above, was adopted by the Levins at about 4 months old when they stopped by their local animal hospital.  He had already undergone extensive surgeries on his mouth and ear, and would need a family who could love him unconditionally despite his somewhat odd appearance.  The Levins, including their adopted twin sons, embraced Oogy as one of their own.  

That's really all there is to this story.  A dog was in need of a family, and this one stepped up to the challenge.  It's sweet (although it is clear that Levin is a lawyer, not an author; be aware of this as you read the somewhat stilted and repetitive narrative), well-intentioned, and the dog doesn't die at the end!  Win-win!

The Giver

I feel like everyone my age has read this book in school, and elementary school at that.  Somehow, though, it was never assigned reading for me, and I didn't pick it up until Mommi and I were browsing the children's department at my library and, at 192 pages, went by way too quickly!

The story follows a a boy named Jonas through his 12th year, in a society where everything is carefully regulated: food is delivered to and picked up from every home for every meal, husbands and wives are assigned to each other, children's jobs are assigned in their twelfth year.  When Jonas has a dream about his yearning for a female friend, he is assigned to start taking pills to stop "the stirrings".  You later find out that these societies decided to go to "sameness"; geneticists and scientists have worked to make everything and everyone the same.  The same toneless, emotionless, shallow existence. 

 Everyone lives this way, because they don't know any better.  But when Jonas is chosen in his twelfth year to be the Receiver of Memory, he discovers that his life could be so much more happy, sad, desperate, calming, exciting than it has been engineered to be.  The question is: what will he do about it?

(Also, I hear that a movie adaptation has just recently been green-lighted, to star Jeff Bridges.  Once you've read this book, you will understand how incredibly perfect Jeff Bridges is for his role in this film.)

My Life and Hard Times

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In the midst of packing, I came across this 1933 James Thurber autobiography, which I read for high school English Lit.  Have you read it?  Seriously, it is an absolutely wonderful misanthropic humorous book.  Even better, every event he wrote about took place before he was 25 years old.  Hey, your own 20s could be worth a book!
Thurber grew up in Columbus, Ohio, with his mom, dad, senile grandfather, two brothers, and a cousin who sleeps with camphor next to his bed in case he needs to be revived in the middle of the night.  He includes stories of the night a bed fell on his father in the attic (note: it didn't really), the family dog who bit everyone except his mother, the day the dam in the city broke (note: it didn't really), and his time at Ohio State University.  He's absurd, but incredibly earnest; the stories are short and giggle-worthy; and Thurber's illustrations are charming.  You know he used to be a humorist for The New Yorker?

Beautiful Ruins

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Jess Walter's latest novel is part homage to grand films of the past, and part coming of age for adults.  Two main plotlines and times tell the story of a rising star of the 1960s and her time spent in a small port city in Italy; interwoven is the modern tale of a woman who has her dream job in film development, but has to work for a man who makes truly awful movies.  One day, a man shows up in the movie studio she works in, asking for her boss and dredging up memories of a past that will teach everyone the importance of making the right choices and second chances. 

The amazing part of this novel is that both stories are equally compelling: Pasquel, an Italian 20-something who has moved back to his small hometown to care for his mother after his father passes away, is enthralled by the visiting beauty, Dee, on respite from her filming obligations for Cleopatra; in the current day, Claire, who works for legendary producer Michael Deane, longs to find that one project she can truly believe in, and meets Pasqual by happenstance on a day when her boss is out of the office.  Pasqual spends his life in a state of penance for missing his father's death, leaving behind his love in Florence, not doing enough to help the ailing Dee when she comes to his small hotel.  He's a wonderful character, and your heart will just ache for him as he matures throughout the novel.  Claire's faith in creativity and even romance is fading at the beginning of her story, and she needs to actually see something work out for the best to maintain her happiness.  Michael Deane is a less likable character, but necessary and the most stereotypical of the novel. 

This isn't a book that will change your life, but it is interesting to read the non-fiction woven into the novel (Richard Burton and Liz Taylor make appearances) and Walter keeps the pace brisk.  Would be a great summer read!

The Sleep Hollow Family Almanac

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In all honesty, I feel like I should like this book more than I actually did.  It's received pretty decent reviews from NPR and was a starred review in Publisher's Weekly, but I couldn't get behind it 100%. 
Calvin Moretti is a 24-year-old living at home after his plans to be a great...something with film doesn't work out.  He is aimless, awful with his finances, has warped priorities, and can't seem to really grow up, but we're supposed to connect with his innate humanity.  (None of us is perfect, Calvin is willing to admit his own flaws, etc.)  His successful older brother lives at home to help take care of his recuperating-from-cancer father, and his teenage sister has recently admitted that she is pregnant.  You can imagine what this has done to his mother.
Calvin spends his days working with autistic children, getting stoned with his high school friends, and trying to figure out what to do with his life.  I can see how other people in their mid-20s are supposed to find a kindred spirit in him: I have spent a lot of time wondering why I paid a not insignificant amount of money for a post-graduate degree when I can't find a job outside of administrative work.  At 26 years old, I don't feel like a grown-up. 
BUT Kris D'Agostino's novel seems to think that the the modicum of growing up that Calvin does throughout the story is equal to climbing Mt. Everest.  Calvin quitting his job when he has no back-up isn't helping anyone.  His inability to save money because he 'deserves' weed, vinyl, and prescription painkillers isn't indicative of a man who knows how to grow up; it's indicative of a man who won't  grow up.  By the time the book was over, I was ready to be done with the Moretti family. 
On the upside, this book did make me feel as though  my life is a bit more together than I think at times.  I'll take these small victories where I can!