2015 Reading Challenge -- A Book You Were Supposed to Read in School but Didn't

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

First, a disclaimer. I don't believe there was a book I was supposed to read in school that I didn't read. But this is a book that it seems everyone has read and is part of of the fabric of our culture. But I hadn't read it. So I decided to.

This book is considered to be groundbreaking and gained something of a cult following. So the question I wanted to answer is: Why?

The hero (or anti-hero) is a teenage boy, Holden Caulfield, who comes from what might be called a "good" family with some money.  We know this because he lives in Manhattan and he has just been expelled from his fourth (?) private boarding school. This teenage boy curses and uses slang constantly. He is obsessed with the opposite sex and the act of sex itself. He is completely self-absorbed and has unreasonable expectations about just about everything. He is cynical and distrusts everyone and everything. Sounds like just about every teenager I've ever run across. So what's the big deal?

We have to consider it in the context of the era in which this book was released. The era is post-WWII America. We had just defeated two evil empires, and our soldiers were coming Home Sweet Home to their happy-to-be-housewives and their 2.5 kids who were to be seen and not heard.

And here we have 1) a main character who unashamedly rejects the values of his parents and society in general  [See Sister Carrie] and 2) the narrative style is casual and conversational. These two factors were shocking and dismaying to some, refreshing and delightful to others.

To me, the point is not what Holden is complaining about or whether his parents find out that he has been expelled yet again. The point is that the vast machine that is society will always prevail, individuality be damned.

2015 Reading Challenge -- A Book by an Author You've Never Read Before

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
This book fulfilled the "Author I've Never Read Before" but it is so much more than that. It's been a while since I've thought "this is one of the best books I've ever read". But this books rates a place on my particular "Best Ever" bookshelf. It literally makes me want to write Mr. Kesey a letter and thank him for writing this book. Sadly, Mr. Kesey is no longer with us so it's too late for that.

This is the story of the Stamper family, a prominent family in a Washington state logging town, and what happens when a labor strike pits the family against the rest of the town. But it is also a story of brotherhood, betrayal and vengeance. The narrative style is very unusual. It can vary from the inner thoughts of one character to another character to third person all in the same paragraph. At first this  was a little confusing, but when I realized what was going on I thought -- OK, let's throw our inner tube into this river and hang on for the ride. And what a ride it is. Like the river that plays such a prominent role in the book, sometimes the story thunders with rage, and sometimes it is a calm meandering journey. The cast of characters ranges from Old Henry Stamper --  eccentric, maybe even a little nuts, but beloved by his family to Hank Stamper, his son and the face of the logging company his grandfather started decades ago, to Teddy the bartender, who hopes for bad weather and bad times because that's when his business is good. This book is why I read. A treasure unearthed from the vast library of possibilities. Thank you, Ken Kesey.

2015 Reading Challenge -- A Book that Scared You

Salem's Lot by Stephen King
I chose this book to fill the Reading Challenge category "A Book that Scared You". I could have read a book I thought might scare me, but I decided to re-read a book that scared me the first time I read it -- close to 40 years ago. And of course I wondered if it would scare me the second time around.

The first time I read this book I was working in an office and had lots of free time on my hands. So I would bring a book to work and read at my desk. Those were the days. Anyway, I remember that this book frightened me so much that I had to put it away in my desk. There I was, sitting in an office in broad daylight and I had to put the book away and shut the drawer.

So did the fright factor stand the test of time? Short answer -- Kudos to Mr. King. This is as chilling a tale as you will ever run across. Ordinary people living in an small New England town doing ordinary things gradually realize that something is very wrong ... something to do with the old house on the hill. Yes, all the cliches are there -- the old house with a murderous history, mysterious strangers who take up residence there, their mesmerizing stare -- but don't let the familiar vampire story memes lull you into thinking that this story won't send chills up your spine.

When you consciously decide to stop reading a half-hour or so before bed time because you don't want the memories of what you just read to be the last thing on your mind as you try to fall asleep, when you actually feel your heart rate go up while you're reading, when your son asks you if you want him to turn off the lights before he goes up to bed and you say NO! -- because you don't want to have to walk through dark rooms on your way to bed -- that's when you know that King's reputation as the master of horror is well-deserved.

2015 Reading Challenge -- Debut Novel
The Time Traveler's Wife

When I started this book I had two thoughts: 1) What an intriguing and unusual premise -- a love story about a man (Henry) who travels in time and the woman (Clare) who loves him and accepts the difficulties that come with loving someone who literally disappears and reappears without notice. Not only that, but sometimes Henry is 28 and Clare is 20 and sometimes Henry is 35 and Clare is 6 and sometimes Henry is 40 and Clare is 17; and 2) How in the world is this author going to be able to tell this story in a way that the reader can follow? 

Niffenegger succeeds in solving that potential problem. And the storyline definitely had my attention. But I have to say that I didn't get emotionally attached to these characters for some reason. Maybe I'm just not as much of a romantic as I thought I was. And there were a few incidents in the book that just didn't seem plausible to me. And this is after I accepted the rather implausible premise of the story in the first place.

For instance, the main character, Henry, meets his end after being shot in the stomach during one of his time travels. He then reappears in his own living room during a New Year's Eve party:

"Henry's skin is warm, his eyes are open, staring at me, he is heavy in my arms, so heavy, his pale skin torn apart, red everywhere, ripped flesh framing a secret world of blood. I cradle Henry. There's blood at the corner of his mouth. I wipe it off. Firecrackers explode somewhere nearby.
Gomez says, 'I think we'd better call the police.' "

The next page is a month later. Apparently there has been no legal fallout from this fatal shooting. Henry's wife  Clare, is described as being depressed "past hunger, past vanity, past caring." All very understandable, but there is no mention of how this violent death was resolved in the real world. Are we to believe that just one month later the police investigation has been concluded to the satisfaction of the legal system? That's a leap I just can't make.

 I wanted to love this book but it turns out that I just liked it.

2015 Reading Challenge -- A Book at the Bottom of Your Reading List

The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian
This book landed at the "bottom of my reading list" by sorting the number of stars on my Goodreads.com "to-read" list and choosing the one with the fewest stars. The Goodreads rating system works. This book was just OK.

Think Amityville Horror meets Rosemary's Baby with a sprinkle of Stepford Wives thrown in. A family moves to an old Victorian house in a remote New Hampshire town in order to escape the aftermath of the terrible accident the father has endured through his work. The basic plot line is pretty good I suppose but the actions -- or inactions, actually -- of the characters allow the story line to progress in a way that strained my suspension of belief. And I kept wondering why a story with visits from ghosts still bearing the scars of their demise, including a little girl, a father who is contemplating murder, and the creepy "herbalist" women in the neighborhood who take an inordinate interest in the twins in the family didn't give me so much as one spine shiver.

It had potential, but left me wanting more.