It seems like there has been a lot of popular interest in the Greek-American experience in the wake of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It's an interesting phenomenon. Whether that has anything to do with the popularity and high acclaim won by Middlesex I couldn't say. I can say that I enjoyed it, though. The first word that comes to mind when I try to think of how to describe Middlesex is "epic." It's not a bad choice, really, as the book is spans three generations of the Stephanides family. The fact that the narrator and main character is named for the Greek muse of epic poetry is also a nice touch. On the one hand the book is an explanation of the family history that produced Calliope Stephanides. Beneath that, though it's also a look at the history of America as experienced by an immigrant family. The scope of the story could have been pretty overwhelming, but the narration provides a sense of intimacy that manages to hold it together. On the other hand, that very closeness also creates a curious sense of distance from the other characters. My one complaint is that I wish the author would have chosen a tense and stuck with it; the constant switching from present tense to past and back again was very jarring.

Started: 2005-01-11 | Finished: 2005-02-08

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I'm sure by now that everyone has either read this book or been told about it by a friend. But if you're reading this review, I guess you want my opinion. So here it is: If you're into fast-paced books about conspiracies and secret societies with lots of action, and you don't much care about good writing or the Christian religion getting trashed then you'd probably enjoy this book. On the other hand, if you prefer your novels to be written by someone with a good narrative voice and strong characterization, or if you find overly sensationalist books distasteful, you may want to avoid this one. If you do decide to read The Da Vinci Code, though, just keep in mind that it's a work of fiction.

Started: 2005-01-01 | Finished: 2005-01-05

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I'm not quite sure what to say about this book, mostly because I'm not quite sure I completely understood it. I've always had trouble with stream-of-consciousness writing, and most of the story is told in that style. In general, I found the text very difficult, nearly opaque. In fact, if not for Barron's BookNotes, I probably would never have made it through the first section. I did make it, though, and underneath the words I got a sense of a story that I found compelling, even if I didn't completely follow it. I'm not sure I could tell you what happened in that story—in fact, I'm pretty sure not much happened at all—but something about the characters and their circumstances evoked some pretty strong feelings in me. I think I'll have to come back to it again some time.

Started: 2004-12-20 | Finished: 2004-12-28

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If you're a fan of Orson Scott Card, this collection is worth your time. Consisting of nearly all of Card's short stories (notably missing are those stories already released in other collections), it is great for seeing how Card's work progressed over his career. I can't say that I liked every story—especially those where his politics or taste in literature come out—but some of them were particularly moving.

Started: 2004-11-15 | Finished: 2004-12-19

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It's a little hard to describe The Time Traveler's Wife. It is, obviously, a story about time travel. One of the two main characters, Henry, is a time traveler. It's a little different from your average science fiction story, though. You see, he can't control when he disappears, nor can he control when or where he goes. The other main character, Clare, is Henry's wife, who is not a time traveler. Clare first meets Henry in 1971; she is six, but he is in his thirties. Henry first meets Clare in 1991; she is twenty and he is twenty-eight. Is that confusing enough for you? The Time Traveler's Wife is the often confusing, very disjointed, quite circular, but exceptionally beautiful story of the love between Henry and Clare, and the way their lives intertwine and shape each other. Much like other time travel stories, it investigates questions of predestination, free will, and the nature of time. But above all that, it is a highly character-driven story about the unique relationship that develops between the main characters. I'm not sure what I could say to really capture the feeling of the book, but if my reaction is any measure of the story's quality then let me tell you this: it's one of the only books—possibly the only book—I've ever read that has made me cry.

Started: 2004-11-04 | Finished: 2004-11-10

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What would you do if you had your life to live over again? It's the kind of question that everyone has asked himself at one time or another, so it's not surprising that there should be so many stories about it. This one, though not the best of those stories, is nevertheless good. In the very first scene of Replay the main character, Jeff Winston, dies, then wakes up to find himself 25 years in his past. We then follow Winston through several iterations of his life as he continues to die and return to his life. Several of the plot devices are familiar to this sort of story; we see Jeff Winston use his knowledge of the future to change his fortune, we see him become disillusioned as his life continued to repeat. In spots things seem a bit cliché—though I can't honestly say whether these themes would have seemed so when the book was first published in 1985—but Grimwood manages to write some truly poignant scenes. It's by no means a perfect novel, but I found myself quite moved by parts of it.

Started: 2004-10-24 | Finished: 2004-10-25

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In the first chapter of A Widow For One Year, Ruth Cole, a four-year-old child, walks in on her 39-year-old mother having sex with Ruth's father's teenage assistant. It's a shocking scene, but also a funny and revealing scene. It's a very John Irving type of scene. Irving has such an interesting style. He telegraphs everything; indeed, he tells you everything before it happens, and yet when the time finally comes you still find yourself completely drawn into the moment. That takes skill. The rest of the book follows the lives of Ruth, her parents, and Eddie, the teenage assistant. One of the things that intrigued me the most is Irving's descriptions of the types of writers that Ruth, her parents, and Eddie are, or become. There's a lot in there that seems like it must be autobiographical to some extent, which is ironic in light of the fact that Ruth, herself, disdains autobiographical fiction. I'm not sure what else I could talk about that wouldn't give away too much of the plot—and in a John Irving novel the plot is what drives the book—but suffice it to say that it was a great read.

Started: 2004-10-11 | Finished: 2004-10-23

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I both enjoyed and didn't enjoy this book. Ross' story shows us the world of the Big Sur coast as it was in the mid-nineteenth century. Life is hard, but the land is beautiful. We follow the main character, Zande Allan, through the changes his life makes when he marries his mail-order bride, Hannah. On the one hand, the story resonated with me in much the same way that Steinbeck's works do. I have spent a lot of time in Big Sur; I've even lived there a couple of times. So, as I made my way through Stranger, much of description was familiar to me and made me feel connected to the story. On the other hand, I don't know that I really cared for the story or the way it was written. Ross wrote the story in the first person and so decided to write her prose as Zande Allan would say it. It added to the ambience, but made it harder to read. But even more, I just didn't care for Zande. In some ways his actions and attitudes can be excused as a product of the world he lived in, but even by the end of the story I just couldn't find it in me to like him. Even so, if the character tale was lost on me, I still found the book fascinating as a description of life on the coast.

Started: 2004-09-23 | Finished: 2004-10-07

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Steve Martin has a real way with words. His first novel, Shopgirl, had a sort of whimsical, lyric quality to the writing that I liked rather a lot. The problem was that the style had the effect of distancing me from the characters. I think Martin has solved that shortcoming in The Pleasure of My Company. It has the same sensitivity, the same dry humor, but it also manages to keep me very close to the main character. It's a very quick read, and the plot is rather sparse, but the character is rich enough to provide substance to the book. The story revolves around Daniel Cambridge and his host of obsessive-compulsive behaviors. But Martin is a skillful enough writer to help you see the person underneath the neuroses. I found myself becoming very attached to the characters in this book, despite the fact that it was so short. Interestingly enough, for most of the book I was able to hear Martin's voice in the prose; this is one of only a handful of books that have ever done that to me. It actually made the book seem more personal, almost conversational. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

Started: 2004-09-19 | Finished: 2004-09-21

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Anyone who has ever enjoyed a solo hike knows that there's a certain something to being alone with nature that, though wonderful, is difficult to put into words accurately. In this book, Jerry Kobalenko gives us an insight into that feeling in his description of Ellesmere Island, one of the most northern places in the world. Kobalenko touches on nearly every aspect of the island, from the history of its exploration to its geography to its ecology, but what really comes out is his deep love of the place. It's enough to make me want to see the place myself—although given the difficulty I have carrying a pack with supplies for one day, I know I wouldn't last long dragging a hundred-pound sled for thirty miles a day. Even so, I really enjoyed reading about it.

Started: 2004-08-30 | Finished: 2004-09-15

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