Friday, February 06, 2009

Book Update

I finished "The Man Who Loved Jane Austen" by Sally Smith O'Rourke and I have to say that I kinda enjoyed it. It definitely didn't ring my bell, but I thought the concept of the story was an interesting one. I can't elaborate without giving the story away, but I could recommend it for a light, fun read that isn't completely engaging or engrossing.

As for "The Bronte Project" by Jennifer Vandever...I must warn you to run away, quickly. The book started with an interesting grasp, a woman searching for lost letters from and to the Bronte's and how they would shed unseen light on their works as writers. The book was interesting in the first part, confusing soon after, and then completely worthless. The characters were fleeting, shallow, and uninteresting. I knew it was time to quit reading when I was skipping whole paragraphs and couldn't care less about what happened to the main character. It became littered with casual, meaningless sex, recreational drug use, and aimless wandering by the characters and the story. I only made it half way through the story, something unheard of for me. I hate quitting on a book, but I knew that if I kept reading I was going to be confused, frustrated and bitterly disappointed to have lost the time and energy spent to finish it. I read the reviews on the back cover and wondered if those quoted had actually read the book, or even got past the first few chapters. Because, if they did, their quotes betray them as either liars or completely without knowledge of what constitutes a good novel.

Sorry for the rant. Hopefully I will have better reviews with the next two books I just picked up at the library. More to come.

1 comment:

Nicole said...

Wow ~ I thought when you talked about the Bronte Project before it sounded like maybe a good book. Thanks for the warning! Ick!

Sarah's Key, is an awesome book if you need a recommendation ;) it's my latests favorite.