Alternate Side

by Anna Quindlen
May 5-15, 2019

I read all genres, all age groups, all kinds of subjects, but the last few Quindlen books have just felt old to me. Even though the main human was less than 10 years older than I am, the whole thing felt so geriatric. And I said "human" because evidently the main protagonist was a parking lot. Not one thing felt fresh or inventive about this group of ho-hum neighbors on a coveted block in NYC. The dust jacket describes the story as "provocative" but that couldn't be more off-base.

A quirky technique that was hard to ignore was the constant use of the past perfect tense.

"Nora had had to yank their dog away from a cardboard container of moo shu something..."

I don't normally dial-in on grammatical styles, but I couldn't help but notice how often it was used – I don't think normal day-to-day conversation calls for it so frequently.

This is the third dud in recent years from Quindlen. For me she's lost her dazzle from the Black and Blue days. I'm done.

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My Year of Rest and Relaxation

by Ottessa Moshfegh
April 30-May5, 2019

Well, that could very well be the most unlikeable character I've read in some time. The unnamed narrator of this story is a selfish, narcissistic, manipulative drug addict. She is downright mean. With the amount of prescription drugs she took, it's a wonder she didn't kill herself (yes, I know it's fiction).

The book jacket praises the book in many ways, but the description of being "at times blackly funny" is so far off the mark as to miss it completely. It's impossible to feel sorry for "her." She treats her best friend like dirt; she thinks of herself as a 10 even when she's withered away in a drug-addled state. Her psychiatrist...oh God, please tell me that there aren't real doctors out there like this one. Every facet of this book is unbelievable. And with the constant pushing of the date in the reader's face (2000-2001) it's plainly obvious where this book is going. And that ending was downright offensive.

As I'm reading other reviews, I'm learning that this is the author's "thing" –  to write extremely unlikeable feminine characters to the point of shock value. Doing that over and over again shows a lack of originality and even with this one book, I'm bored by it.

And magically, sleeping for a year drugged out of her mind, and suddenly she is cured! Um, OK.

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The Library Book

by Susan Orlean
April 19-30, 2019

The Library Book is absolutely the author's homage to the library. Explained in the blurb: "weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire ... author Susan Orlean delivers a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling book that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians ..." This is all true, EXCEPT, I wouldn't say the book weaves. It's kind of an unorganized jumble.

"It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever."

All of it was fascinating, from the history of the LA Public Library, to the 1986 fire that destroyed nearly half a million books, to the suspect Harry Peak, but for me this was one case where I would have preferred a linear timeline. And while the main focus should have been on the fire itself, it wasn't. That's what I wanted more of. Everything else was very interesting, but the combinations of so many topics and dates left the book spread a little too thin.

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