Review: I'm Sorry You Feel That Way, by Diana Joseph

This collection of essays really raised my mom hackles. It made me uncomfortable to read the author describe how she sat her son in front of a television all day, every day, when he was a toddler. She later wonders why he grows up to prefer a sedentary life playing video games. She complains about him eating junk food, but who buys that food? Perhaps the irony is assumed, but I just never felt it.

There are passages in this book that are very reflective and profound. In a chapter about an ex-husband she writes, "He wants to know did I really love him or did I just hate myself." So it's a mixed bag kind of book, readable enough that I finished it, but not good enough to recommend.

Rating: two and one half celery sticks

Review: Dinner, a Love Story, by Jenny Rosenstrach

This charming book would make a great baby shower gift -- it's full of tasty-sounding recipes and friendly advice about feeding a family. There's nothing new or earth-shattering here, but it was a fun read.

Rating: three celery sticks

Review: The Devil all the Time, by Donald Ray Pollock

The Devil all the Time is terribly dark but fantastically written and completely unforgettable. The dichotomy caused some trouble for me; how could I enjoy a book that has so much pain and blood? When I thought about reviewing it, I actually felt guilty, like it was something I could only read in secret and not acknowledge.

Pollock's gritty story is set in the rural semi-south (West Virginia and southern Ohio) and it has a Jim Thompson-noir feel to it. It's not tough to imagine the book as a film, as the imagery is vivid and the characters are quirky.

All in all, it's a read it if you dare kind of book.

Rating: three celery sticks

Review: Confections of a Closet Master Baker, by Gesine Bullock-Prado

I adore baking and reading about it, so I started this book with considerable enthusiasm.  Bullock-Prado left a job with her sister's production company and moved to Vermont, where she started a bakery, Gesine's. Most of the book is a description of life in the bakery, mixed with memories of Bullock-Prado's late mother. A recipe completes each chapter. When I realized Bullock-Prado is Sandra Bullock's sister, my heart sunk a bit, but I continued.

Normally complaining in memoirs doesn't put me off , but something about Bullock-Prado's tone is incredibly irritating. She whines about Hollywood, the habits of dishwashers, and folks who order a cake and then expect it to (gasp) be ready. Americans are too fat because they eat excessive amounts of crappy sweets, but bakeries like hers don't encourage gluttony. Everyone wants a piece of her to be close to her sister. Her world is bittersweet, but more bitter than sweet.

The sections where Bullock-Prado writes about her family are by far the best.  Confections of a Closet Master Baker would have been more successful (and less annoying) as a straight-up family memoir with recipes.

Rating: two celery stalks

Review: There but for the, by Ali Smith

This unusual and creative novel is whip smart. If the book had been mine rather than a library copy I would have highlighted several passages to enjoy later.

The plot loosely revolves around a man who locks himself in a room near the end of a dinner party. He had just met the hosts, no one knows why he's done it, and he will only communicate through notes. The following meandering multi-narrative is unexpected and fantastic, with strong hints of satire. If you like Martin Amis's London Fields, I believe you'll enjoy There but for the.

What you get out of There but for the depends on who you are and what you know. Since I am handicapped by a deficit in things British, so some of the book went right over my American head. I did greatly enjoy Smith's use of language and dialogue -- particularly the memorable dinner party populated by characters and behavior quite true to life. I felt like I was reading a movie script combining Woody Allen's snappy dialogue and Luis Bunuel's dreamy surrealism. Exterminating Angel meets Manhattan, directed by Mike Leigh for the British touch.

Rating: four celery sticks

Review: In Zanesville, by Jo Ann Beard

This is a beautifully written, nostalgic book. I can't think of another novel that brought me so totally back to my young teenage years. Beard is about 10 years older than I and her novel takes place in the midwest while I grew up on the east coast, but in testament to small town life, it makes no difference. Other than a different soundtrack to the narrative, her characters' struggles and torments were the same as mine -- bad babysitting gigs, the torture of sanitary napkins with belts, an alcoholic father, a mother in despair, the capriciousness of teenage girls, and of course, what to do with boys. But In Zanesville is not a depressing book at all; I found it sweet and kind of innocent. Totally appropriate for 12 year olds and up, although it is classified adult fiction.

Rating: four celery sticks

Review: Where We Belong, by Emily Giffin

I'm a repeat forgetter. This is the second time I confused Emily Giffin with Suzanne Finnamore. I adored Finnamore's novel Otherwise Engaged, then I read Giffin's Something Borrowed (which I was tepid about) and somehow (maybe because both books were about weddings) I merged the two writers into one. That's how I ended up reading Giffin's Baby Proof as well as Finnamore's Zygote Chronicles -- and how weird is it that a baby book follows a wedding book for each author! Unfortunately for Finnamore, her third book was Split: a Memoir of Divorce (poor thing). Giffin's wrote a few post-baby books that I missed, and when I heard she had a new novel I did it again and thought she was Finnamore. I wish she was Finnamore, since Where We Belong is nothing special, unless you really enjoy chick lit -- it's pretty good for that.

The whole kerfuffle is a reminder to check LibraryThing before I submit my library requests.

Rating: two and one half celery sticks