The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Title: The Great Believers

Author: Rebecca Makkai

Publisher: Viking 2018

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 421

Rating: DNF

Reading Challenges: 

If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?

It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children—four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness—sneak out to hear their fortunes.

The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.

This is the September book club selection for the Girly Book Club. I gave it almost 100 pages and just couldn’t continue. I was intrigued by the storyline of the AIDS crisis in Chicago, but greatly disliked the modern storyline. Also, I could not connect to any of the characters. So many of them felt so flat to me. Nope.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Paris in Love by Eloisa James (DNF)

Title: Paris in Love

Author: Eloisa James

Publisher: Random House 2012

Genre: Travel memoir

Pages: 258

Rating:  DNF

Reading Challenges:  Semi-charmed -- Memoir; ; Dewey -- 910s; Mixing it Up -- Travel

How I Got It: I won it!

In 2009, New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James took a leap that many people dream about: she sold her house, took a sabbatical from her job as a Shakespeare professor, and moved her family to Paris. Paris in Love: A Memoir chronicles her joyful year in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

With no classes to teach, no committee meetings to attend, no lawn to mow or cars to park, Eloisa revels in the ordinary pleasures of life—discovering corner museums that tourists overlook, chronicling Frenchwomen’s sartorial triumphs, walking from one end of Paris to another. She copes with her Italian husband’s notions of quality time; her two hilarious children, ages eleven and fifteen, as they navigate schools—not to mention puberty—in a foreign language; and her mother-in-law Marina’s raised eyebrow in the kitchen (even as Marina overfeeds Milo, the family dog).

I am sad to say that this was a DNF.  I read almost halfway through this book before deciding to put to down and move on.  Please don't take my DNF to say that it is a horrible book.  It's just I could get behind it at all.  Let me explain.  The structure of the book is short vignettes.  At least, that's what the introduction implies.  I thought I would be reading short vignettes or essays from James' life in Paris.  But no.  These "vignettes" are based mostly off of Facebook posts James made throughout her year in Paris.  Most of them are one paragraph Facebook statuses.  They are short with little to no context or commentary.  Many of them would be great FB posts, but fail to intrigue me as a reader who is not personally acquainted with the author.  Occasionally, James has an essay that caught my attention.  She uses an occurrence to then comment on cultural differences or life lesons or sheer comedy.  Those were good.  Those kept me going for another 70 pages.  But in the end those were too few and far between.  I just couldn't get through the intervening paragraphs.  I feel like this could have been a much more interesting book with a little curating.  Take those interesting pieces and expand to create essays (of more than one paragraph). I feel like I could have gotten behind that book.  Alas, this was not that book.  And so, I move on to other selections...

Notes from a Spinning Planet: Ireland by Melody Carlson

Title: Notes from a Spinning Planet: Ireland

Author: Melody Carlson

Publisher: WaterBrook Press 2006

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 256

Rating:  DNF

It’s pretty humiliating to admit, but I’ve never flown in a plane before today. So wouldn’t you think that I’d be feeling pretty jazzed right now? Instead I keep grabbing onto these armrests as I ask myself why on earth I ever agreed to come on this frightening trip.… Affectionately teased as a “country bumpkin,” nineteen year-old Maddie has never been one to explore new territory. Her first trip outside of the country with her Aunt Sid and Sid’s godson, Ryan, promises an exhilarating adventure. Northern Ireland is more captivating than she even imagined–and Ryan is offering plenty of intrigue himself.

As Aunt Sid researches peace camps, Maddie and Ryan explore Ireland’s rich landscape. During the journey, Maddie begins to discover more about what she wants from life, while developing a deeper friendship with her irresistible traveling companion.

When Maddie and Ryan dig for the truth about the IRA car bomb that killed Ryan’s father years ago, questions about the past accumulate. Unable to let go of growing suspicions in this mysterious country, Maddie finds herself on a dangerous journey, a journey that will lead her to the greatest discovery of all.

I ran into a huge setback today in Notes from a Spinning Planet: Ireland.  I picked this and the two sequels (Mexico and Papua New Guinea) thinking they would be an interesting "See the world" type of book.  I found many problems with the book and quit 60 pages in.

1. The book is written in a first person journaling style.  It got a bit annoying when it switched from a journal style to an almost 3rd person retelling, but happening currently events.  Does that make sense?  Every time it changed, I had to rethink how to read the book.
2. The main character was annoying.  Maddie has been asked by her Aunt Sid to travel to Ireland for a research project.  She tells us right off that she's never been "off the farm" (literally in her case).  Okay, I get it, she's new to this whole traveling thing, but the culture mistakes and intolerance annoyed the crap out of me.  Don't go to another country unless you really want to learn about and experience the culture.  In fact, before you go, read some guide books, prepare yourself to their way of life.  If you don't, you're not appreciating the peoples.  End of rant.
3. The Christian angle was baffling.  Is this a book about Maddie refinding Christ?  Is this a book about her witnessing to others?  I couldn't tell.  Maybe this was cleared up later, but I had absolutely no clue in the first fourth of the book.
4. Beer.  The entire third and fourth chapters Maddie's fixates on the fact that Ryan, Aunt Sid's godson, is having a pint.  She even makes nasty comments to him about it and then mentions to him that she thinks that all Christians should not drink.  I know some Christians do not drink, but her reasoning was that "Jesus didn't drink."  Ryan mentions the fact that Jesus and his disciples drank wine, to which she replies "I heard it was more like grape juice."  Her ignorance and naiveté really got me.  How did this girl live at all before now?  Fine it's her issue, but do I have to read about her whiny thoughts about beer throughout two chapters?
5. My last problem has to do with the targeted audience.  What age group was the book written for?  The library shelved it in Reader's Services (adult fiction), yet it read like a teen novel.  Looking at the back of the book, the book is listed as "Fiction/Young Adult."  Well that explains it.  The book should be shelved in the Young Adult section.

Maybe this book would appeal to me if I was 13.  As I am 29, I felt very over this type of coming of age story.  Maddie was too naive and intolerant for my tastes.  Therefore, I put it down after 60 pages.  I'm going to try another book by Melody Carlson, one that was written for adult audiences (I double checked it!).

Notes from a Spinning Planet

• #1 Ireland
• #2 Papua New Guinea
• #3 Mexico