Haven't written in a while cause pretty much the only book I read during spring quarter was A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking, awesome). I started my summer reading pile and am starting to think I have horrible selecting instincts because I've gone through quite a bunch of stinkers. I just want to read a GOOD book, dammit! I wanna laugh and cry and be slightly disorientedly dazed for a day afterwards before I even start to think of how to comprehend the thoughts its given me.
1. The Clouds by Aristophanes: Kinda goofier than I thought it would be, but mildly amusing at parts with the slapstick- otherwise some over-the-top-message (that's somewhat self-serving as well), not really interesting unless you care about the juvenile out/infighting between various philosophy schools of classical Athens. 1.5/5
2. Life of Pi by Yann Martel: I don't know how you make a fight on a lifeboat between a tiger and a shark boring, but this manages, and it's even the most exciting part! Snooze-inducingly unbelievable both in message and events. The main character doesn't seem to learn anything from his "unique" experiences, and neither do we- nothing that isn't cliche at this point- and not even particularly true or deep exploration of those either. 1.5/5
3. Rewind by Laura Downer: Abhorrent message- I don't care how you are "manipulated"/"seduced"(not) or how morally gray your victim is, stalking and violence is not okay. Very disturbing that the author doesn't seem to see this and presents us a sappy love story between said stalker and a third party (generic artsy nice girl) right at the end. Characters and situations largely drawn out of bad teen soap operas, ridiculous cliche-"shocking" teenage behaviors, and unearned attempts at heartstring pulling- spare me. 0.5/5
4. Tokyo Year Zero by David Pearce: An interesting premise (police detective in post-WWII Tokyo) that is botched by its pretentious attempts that manage to land it into several hateful literary genre categories: 1) historical fiction that appears to solely exist for the author to show off extensive period research much to the boredom of everyone else who hasn't written a thesis on the topic; 2) gazillion page stylistic narrator-going-crazy post-modern stuff (you are not Fight Club); 3) un-illuminating crime gore. And I'm sure I could name more if I had bothered to read more, but I didn't. 0/5
And one thankfully not stinky one:
5. Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman: I loved Korman's I Want to Go Home! as a kid, and while this book is not quite as hilarious, I did laugh out loud several times. Believable teenagers (though Korman's slight behindness in technology/slang does show sometimes), understandable conflicts, AND some serious actual exploration of the guilt and ties of family and blood money and friendship (in the mob and the FBI). Cute, sweet, and proactive characters you can root for, downside being the ending seems incomplete (guess the novel was always intended to have a sequel). Very refreshing after the above awfulness. 4/5