Book Reviews: Swamplandia!, Bossypants, Living Oprah

I've read three books recently that I'd like to tell you about. The first is Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. This book was getting a lot of buzz and I thought it looked interesting so I suggested it to my book club. They chose it for this month's selection and I got started reading. The beginning was OK but as I started to get further in things took a very dark turn. Now, there may be people out there who like dark books but I'm generally not one of them. There are exceptions for me, of course, but not this time. I hated it. I only read the whole thing because I suggested it to my book club, but I waved them off with a "don't read it" e-mail. (They tend to not like really dark books either.) We talked about it a little at our meeting yesterday and I apologized profusely for suggesting a book I hadn't read first. I fell for the hype. It did look so promising, though. It's set in Florida and it looked quirky, two things that are usually a good omen. The writer also follows the plot style of creating this idyllic world (which she tells you about in flashbacks) then destroying it completely. This isn't a fantasy book but that's a common plot from fantasy novels such as Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy- the characters live in this lovely world (Middle Earth/Swamplandia) then it is ripped apart. The fantasy novels I'm thinking of come to far more satisfactory ends than this book, however. I can't say much more without spoilers, and if you like books of this nature I don't want to ruin it for you. (I will also add that if you have any history of sexual abuse you might find it upsetting. It is not cathartic in any way and there are no lessons to be learned.) I will repeat- I hated it.

I've also just finished Bossypants by Tina Fey. DH started reading this and loved it so he bought me a copy too. (He has it on his Nook which he didn't want to share since I was all germy with my cold and stuff, so he bought me a hard copy from Costco.) She's funny, the book is funny, don't read it in bed next to your significant other if they are trying to sleep 'cause you'll wake them up when you laugh and shake the bed. She writes about her career path and how she got to be who she is. She writes a little about playing Sarah Palin. She writes a little about her time with Saturday Night Live, and she writes a little about 30 Rock. She uses, umm, colorful, shall we say, language, so if that bothers you consider yourself warned. I like her brand of feminism. She dealt with a lot of misogynistic creeps in the comedy world but she just kept going and wound up on top. That aspect is probably my favorite part of the book, more so than the comedy. DH liked the comedy and says if she comes a knockin' I'm in trouble. ;)

Finally, I read Living Oprah: My One-Year Experiment to Walk the Walk of the Queen of Talk by Robyn Okrant, another non-fiction book. This was also light with several funny bits, another one not to read in bed next to a sleeping spouse. The author decides to chronicle her experiment to follow ALL of Oprah's advice for one year to see if, indeed, she will find her "Best Life". The results are mixed, but the journey is funny and fascinating. The way she interprets some of what Oprah says to do got me chuckling; she's very resourceful. I got the book on my Kindle, my black and white Kindle, and missed out on the full effect of the pictures at the end of each chapter. The charts were legible if you set the font size to the smallest setting. (Which you are advised to do somewhere in the book description.) If I see a hard copy of the book in a bookstore I'll thumb through it to see what I missed, but I don't regret getting the Kindle version.

Both Bossypants and Living Oprah are light, fun reads, which I needed to erase the trauma from reading Swamplandia!. Now I just have to figure out what to read next. Any suggestions?