Snapshot Book Review: Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I love Sedaris, and I think he's a brilliant comedic writer, but this book is not his best. There are some absolutely hysterical and spot-on pieces, such as "Standing By," "#2 to Go," and "Mind the Gap." However, other chapters felt a bit misguided, rambling even, and I was horrified to read "Understanding Understanding Owls" and realize that I must have read that story before. I have terrible recall, so hopefully I didn't read it in another of his books, but I was still upset by my desire to skip that chapter when I have read his entire book Me Talk Pretty One Day may times over and laughed anew at each vignette.

Fans new to Sedaris, here is my advice: skip this book and go back and read Me Talk Pretty One Day or When Engulfed in Flames. Also, if you ever have the chance to hear him live, definitely grab that opportunity. Sedaris is a fantastic reader of his own work.

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Long Branch Half: A Little Bragging, a Little Humility

So I know it's been a while since I last posted anything, but I feel the need to share my latest achievement: a new personal best time in the half marathon!

I offer my utmost thanks to my friend T___, who helped me speed train on Tuesdays, and to J___ (a.k.a. Speedy Sasquatch), who graciously invited me along on more adventurous and inspiring long runs than I ever would have taken myself. I would also like to thank the broad-shouldered man wearing the bright yellow tank top, who I used as my "wind shield" for the first 7 miles of the race. I wouldn't have PRed without any of you!

Also, while I am very proud of my 7:04 average pace and 4th place age group finish (out of 649 25-29 year-old women), I am well aware that I am not--and likely will never be--a contender for first place in this caliber of race. The woman who took first place in my age group finished almost a full ten minutes before me! Even the woman who finished one place ahead of me (3rd), was nearly two whole minutes faster. That averages out to almost 10 seconds per mile!

Nevertheless, I'm happy with my run. Here are the results:

Race Length	Finishing Time	Average Pace	Overall Place	Gender Place	Age Group Place (F25-29)
13.1 miles	1:32:42	7:04/mile	91/5,348	15/3,352	4/649

Snapshot Book Review: Sharp Objects

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I (like many people, I am sure) sought this book out after finishing Gone Girl. I wanted to see if Flynn's other writing could live up to that bestselling novel and, if so, immediately devour it. Devour it I did.

Did this book shock me (in a good way!) as much as Gone Girl did? No. Did it live up to the writing in that book? Definitely, definitely yes.

This is one of those books that achieves success with the unlikable narrator. Camille is a really miserable person. You almost want to feel sorry for her, except she makes all these bad choices like sleeping with men and drinking to avoid, well, life, that you sort of despise her the way you despise a friend you pity.

Then, her mother, father, sister, and essentially every other person in Wind Gap is equally miserable, weird, shallow, or just plain awful. The closest we get to a likable character is Camille's mentor Curry, who is essentially absent the entire novel. Yet, I was compelled to keep reading, and not just by the murder mystery, which I admittedly solved earlier than the characters in the novel did. They might have been miserable people, but they were complex miserable people, and that is what marks the difference between Flynn's novels and so many others.

With two down and one to go, I'm excited to read Dark Places. I'm sure I will not be disapointed.

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Snapshot Book Review: Salvage the Bones

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To my own surprise, this is the first book I have read about Hurricane Katrina. Although, to call it "a book about hurricane Katrina" would be doing it a disservice, as it is about much more than that. I would be much more inclined to say that it is a book about the impoverished culture of Bois Sauvage, or a book about dog fighting, or a book about family dynamics. It's about a girl and her brothers, or a boy and his dog. It's about the theme of birth, and about the theme of destruction, the promise of life and the struggle against death.

The character I both loved and hated the most was Skeetah's dog China; Ward does an excellent job describing both the savagery and the beauty of such a dog, as well as the loyalty that can develop between dog and master.

My main issue with Ward's writing is that she loves similes and metaphors just a little too much. It's beautiful writing, I will not deny her that. However, while I was captivated by her most poignant and perfectly placed literary devices, she often took me out of "the moment" with an overabundance of "his back was like a reed" and "her stomach protruded like a melon." What's most striking of all is that the metaphors and similes were usually not trite! There were just too many of them clogging up the progress of the story.

All in all, though, I am not sorry at all to have read Salvage the Bones. I can imagine it becoming a historical text, used as a literary reference to Hurricane Katrina, for years to come.

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Snapshot Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An excellent example of a well written young-adult book, which is equally enjoyable by adults. The characters are endearing and thankfully not your typical "cancer patients;" instead they are surprisingly funny--the dry wit of children who are forced to grow up quickly but are still full of teenage angst and frustration, which has been an shockingly untapped resource for writers who perpetually cover the Terminal Patient.

My one big qualm, which I believe is shared by some other reviewers, is that real teenagers do not talk the way these characters talk. As one reviewer wrote, "My main issue with Augustus and Hazel was their penchant for dramatic, long and perfectly edited speeches. Yes, it was all very beautiful in a perfect kind of way that real things are not -- and more importantly in a way real teenagers are not."

Hazel and Augustus simply do not sound like teenagers. I asked a friend of mine who read the book why she thought Green didn't just make them adults or at least college-age. Her response was perfect: "He probably wrote it originally about adults and then his editor read it and was like, 'Nope this won't sell. But you know what will? A cancer story about kids." And so, in theory, Green had to re-write the story to make it about kids rather than adults, and ended up with too-perfect/smart-sounding teenagers.

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