Tackling a Few More Books off the Reading List

Dear Harrumphing Bunny Wabbits,

Some more books I read recently:

Darling Jim by Christian Moerk
Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Darling jim
An abundance of katherines beat the reaper
katherines is great-- really fun fast paced YA read.. looking to others.

First, we have Darling Jim. I wasn't too sure if I was going to like this book going in and it turns out that my doubts were well-founded. The story in the novel is told well, and it's rather short in length, but it felt long to me. The interest was high in the beginning but didn't hold for me. The story itself is a mashup for different genres (fantasy, mystery, fairytale) and it felt forced, especially near the end. In the end, it was somewhat forgettable. I found myself skipping ahead at certain points, skimming through pages at a time. When I skim, don't just speed read, I scan. I take probably 15-20 seconds going over a page to glean the important stuff, then move on. In short, the story was interesting enough for me to find out what happened, but I didn't feel bad about not reading every word in order to do so. One thing that bothered me is that this story is about three sisters who are trapped in a house by a deranged aunt and most of the story is told from diaries. We'er supposed to feel for these women, but when they kept referring to an Asian character in the story as Chinaman (he was Korean, in fact), it just bothered me. Keep in mind that this story takes place in modern times, so there is no excuse really to say that it was just a word that was being used during that period. Even if the "Chinaman" was a villain in the story, using that term just did not sit well with me. Also, I was much more interested in the story of Niall, the postman who finds the sisters' diaries, than of the sisters' diaries themselves and I wish more of the story was about his adventure and not their plight. Christian Moerk, however, does deliver a solid debut and the novel is well written, even if I didn't fall in love with it.

On to An Abundance of Katherines. This YA novel by John Green is in a word--awesome. I first found John Green when I stumbled upon his hilarious dissection of the Twilight series on Youtube. His novel is about Colin, a recent high school graduate who is also a certified prodigy. He has just been dumped by his latest girlfriend Katherine, number nineteen. In turns out that all of them have been named Katherine and over the summer, he and his friend Hassan, go on a road trip while he tries to figure out what has gone wrong with his love life. The story is funny and poignant. Don't let the young adult label scare you off. This book is great. I look forward to reading his other novels: Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns.

Beating the Reaper is the debut novel of Josh Bazell, who is not only a novelist but a doctor as well. It's a rip-roaring story of a mob assassin who joined the witness protection program and is now a first year intern at the hospital. Unfortunately the mob finds out where he is, and then the trouble begins. Beating the Reaper has a great protagonist with a funny and fast-paced voice. The end felt slightly abrupt and a lot like a cliffhanger for a sequel. If Bazell does turn this into a series, I'd definitely take a look at the next one.

Until next time,

Matt