Review times two: Dexter and Choke

Yes, today is yet another two-fer. It's just been so busy in my world, it's hard to keep on track with the reviews! Hopefully June will be a little less busy for me so I can catch up on some extra reading! Anyways, on to the reviews!

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

by Jeff Lindsay

288 pages

My husband is actually the one who brought this little gem of a book into our house. We have been watching Dexter for a while now (and anxiously awaiting the next season to start!) and he wanted to compare the book to the show. Needless to say, he only got maybe halfway through it before he said "It's pretty much just like the show" and moved on to the next MMA-UFC related non-fiction book he could get his hands on. So, I picked it up.

It really is a lot like the show. And, I could really picture Michael C. Hall as Dexter. He really is perfect for that role.

It's full of witty, kind of dry, yet creepy humor and you really want to not like Dexter because, well, he's a MURDERER. But, since he only kills the bad guys...you just can't help but like him. Despite the look of the shiny-knife-with-bloody-happy-face cover, it's really not all that gory. Definitely nothing that will enter into your dreams and make you not be able to sleep or anything.

Oh, and the ending? Not really at all like the show. It's kind of a combination of the first two seasons of the show in this one book, but it's not really the same. For this reason, I'm really interested in reading the next two books of the series that are out because they are bound to be incredibly different from the show!

9 out of 10 stars. I love me some Dexter.

Choke

by Chuck Palahniuk

293 pages

I followed the oddly lovable Dexter book with another book featuring an odd, yet kind of likable main character. Of course, when you pick up a Palahniuk book, you KNOW that it's going to be kind of odd. "Kind of" maybe being an understatement...

So, in Choke, we follow Victor Mancini who has dropped out from medical school and is working at a colonial town setup circa 1734. He seeks sex from women at sex addicts' meeting and, to pay for his mother's assisted living facility bills, he pretends to choke at a restaurant every night so someone will save him then feel somehow obligated to send him money to help with bills (that he makes up). He keeps a detailed list of everyone who has saved him, their name, address, where, etc. All the while, his mother's health is deteriorating and he can't seem to find the reasons to care.

While the book follows Victor's present day life, there are also flashbacks of his childhood, his mother being deemed unfit to care for him and spending her time in and out of jail. Each time he ends up in a foster home, only to have his mother get out of jail and come back to kidnap him. Then she goes on about all sorts of conspiracy theories that she has. No wonder he turned out so messed up!

Everyone in the novel seemed to have really lost touch with reality, but by the end, they all kind of accept the hand they've been dealt. The whole book is centered on Victor going out, choking, then making someone feel like they're a hero, like they have something in their life to be proud of, while he's been lacking that his entire life.

8 out of 10 stars. If you like Palahniuk, I think that this is one of his better novels. And, it's on the 1001 list.

Book Review: The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye

by Toni Morrison

206 pages





I kind of had to drag myself to the computer to write this review. It's not that I didn't like this book...I just didn't LOVE it. I totally get why it won awards, how Toni Morrison is brilliant, and why I should love it but, I guess it just wasn't my cup of tea.

The Bluest Eye has a very serious topics within it. The title comes from the way that the black girls in the novel are shown that the standards of "beauty" are white characteristics like blond hair and blue eyes. This is addressed by one of the young girls in the book when she receives a baby doll with blue eyes and blond hair and ends up tearing it up out of anger and frustration. The main character in the book, a young girl named Pecola, is raped by her father, becomes pregnant, and the baby dies. I found it interesting that Pecola is the main character, yet none of the chapters focus on her, while they do focus on the lives of the children around her, and her mother and father's childhoods.

Overall, I see that the novel is beautifully written but I just couldn't enjoy the characters like I want to when reading. Although, I don't think that I was really suppose to in this one.

I have to say 6 out of 10 stars. I have one more of her novels sitting on my nightstand that I'll get to eventually. Maybe I'll like that one more.

Review: Middlesex

Middlesex

by Jeffrey Eugenides

529 pages







The first line of this book really catches your attention.

“I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.”

The story is told by a 41-year-old Cal Stephanides, who was born Calliope Stephanides. He tells of his grandparent's journey to America from Turkey, what they experienced once in America, how his parents met, and how he came to be born with 5-alpha-reductase deficiency. 5-alpha-reductase is the enzyme responsible for converting testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, which is necessary for the development of male external reproductive organs in utero. Since Cal lacked this enzyme, his outer genitalia never full developed which caused him to be raised as a girl until the age of 14, when his condition was discovered and he decided to live as a boy.

I got much more from this novel than I expected. I really thought that it was going to be a story of a girl who really felt like she was a boy growing up, only to find out that she really is a boy. But, it was more about Cal's family and life growing up as a teenage girl, who had normal teenage girl worries (when am I going to get boobs???) and then found out about his true sexuality and made a conscious decision to live as a male. It's not quite the "I was born a girl, but really FELT that I was a boy my whole life" story, which makes it very unique. The other thing that surprised me about this novel was that the focus wasn't about Cal the whole time. It really focused on each member of his family at one point so I felt that I knew each one of them and their story.

I can definitely see why this book is on the 1001 books to read before you die list. It's a very interesting read.

8.5 out of 10 stars

Teaser Tuesday: Middlesex

As always, sponsored by MizB.
TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
  
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
  
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
  
• Please avoid spoilers!

My Teaser:

The chief imperative in cases like mine was to show no doubt as to the gender of the child in question. You did not tell the parents of a newborn, "Your baby is a hermaphrodite."

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides pg. 413

So far, I'm really liking this book but it's taking me longer to get through that I anticipated. Hopefully I can pick it up a bit this week!!

Book Review: Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

by John Steinbeck

105 pages






This book fell under the "read a book you read in high school" category of the Winter Book Challenge. I feel like I remember surprisingly few books that I read in High School. To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, The Grapes of Wrath, and Of Mice and Men are all that really come to mind. I know that there are more, but I just can't think of them! Anyways, I picked Of Mice and Men because it's the one that I remember the least about even though I remember the class that I read it for very well since the teacher, Mr. Bailey, was one of my favorites! He was a laid back, free thinking, varsity baseball coaching, former (?) hippie kind of teacher who every one thought was awesome. Unfortunately, the themes of this book got lost in my memory of that class in exchange for Mr. Bailey's stories of hitch hiking across the US in the seventies. (Don't worry, he always told us that this was a poor decision on his part and hitch hiking is dangerous! haha).

Anyways, this book is about two men, George Milton and Lennie Smalls, who are traveling together and working on ranches during the Great Depression in California. George has promised to take care of Lennie since he is "not too bright" and it is evident that Lennie has some mental handicaps. George has a plan to make some money and buy a piece of land so him and Lennie can live off their own land and Lennie will be safe. Lennie just seems to get in trouble because he doesn't understand rules, social conduct, or his own strength.

As George and Lennie begin working at a new ranch, their dream of owning their own place seems to be becoming more of a reality until Lennie accidentally kills the ranch owner's son's wife while trying to stroke her hair (he likes to pet soft things). A lynch mob is formed to go get Lennie but George finds him first and takes his friend's life himself to save him from a painful death.

I definitely got more out of this book this time around. There are several themes running through this short novella that I didn't remember from reading it the first time such as loneliness, love, dreams, and friendship. All through the book, George is questioned for traveling with Lennie since most migrant ranch workers travel alone and for having a dream of owning his own place when few men actually achieve it. And in the end, with Lennie gone, George just becomes another lone migrant worker with a far fetched dream that will probably never happen.

8 out of 10 stars. Definitely a good read, especially for the hour and a half or so it would take to finish.

Book Review: The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale

by Margaret Atwood

311 pages

The United States is a completely different world in this book. A military group takes over and everything is changed from a country much like the one we are currently in (except perhaps with more open sexual displays) to one where women are stripped of their jobs, money, and significant others (unless you are in your first heterosexual marriage). The US is renamed the Republic of Gilead. Women are not allowed to be single or live on their own. They are put into a position in society such as a Wife who is married to a ranking officer, a Martha who is a cook/maid in the house, an Econowife married to a poor man, or a Handmaid who is there to conceive a child with the ranking officer. Each caste of women have a specific dress code. The Wives wear blue, Marthas are in green, and Handmaids are in red. This ensures that everyone knows the caste of everyone else.

This story is told by Offred (a name that means she is the Handmaid of Fred, the Commander). She is living at the home of the Commander and it is her third and final chance to conceive a child or else she will be relocated to The Colonies and be declared an Unwoman (infertile woman, unfit for integration into Gilead society). This society structure is a fairly recent occurrence (within the past 10 or less years it seems) so Offred still remembers her past life with her husband (a divorcee), daughter, books (Handmaids aren't allowed to read), and job. It's so sad reading about how Offred (her former name is never revealed) remembers her past life and feels those memories slipping away.

Like any other society, people are corrupt. Offred, like other Handmaids before her, is coerced into spending time with the Commander during the night at times other than the "ceremony" which takes place once a month in attempt to get Offred pregnant. She also begins a relationship with the chauffeur, Nick, which was started by the Wife in order to increase Offred's chances of conceiving. Offred continues to see Nick without the knowledge of the Wife and without knowing whether he is an Eye (member of the Internal Intelligence Agency) or a member of the resistance who can help her.

I'm glad that I read this book since it knocked another one of the 1001 list for me (total up to 17 now!) but, I didn't LOVE it. I was wrapped into it throughout most of the book, but I think that that was only because I was so curious to understand all the parts of Offred's world and what would happen to her. Everything was revealed very slowly since Offred was narrating and revealing things as she remembered them or came across them. I guess sometimes I like rules of the society in the book laid out for me ahead of time. The other thing that bothered me was the ending. The last chapter written by Offred ends with her being taken away. Then it goes to a chapter which is a speaker in the future giving a lecture on Gilead society. It's obvious that the Republic of Gilead came to end but I wasn't really told how or what happened. Also, I never found out exactly what happened to Offred, which just bothers me! You would think that after the rave review of 2666 which had an ending that didn't really resolve a whole lot, I wouldn't mind this ending but man! It bugs me A LOT. I guess I just got attached to Offred so much that I just wanted to know that she ended up okay. Nothing wrong with that I suppose!

7 out of 10 stars