Sounder (William H. Armstrong)

Hardcover

This book is, in a word, melancholy.  There's not a lot of dialogue and years pass in the scant pages, but the sparse style works to tell this simple story.

When there's no food to be found through honest means, the head of a poor black family gets some on the table dishonestly.  The police cart him off and shoot the titular coon dog in the process.  The remaining family makes do while the eldest son searches for the dog and, later, for his father.

I saw the movie about a week ago, so it was fresh in my mind.  The changes and additions certainly weren't bad ones, but they changed the story so completely that they probably should've changed the name too.  The movie has a fundamental joy that the book doesn't pretend.  The movie shortens the sentence while the book stretches out the punishment for a crime of a few dollars to years.  The book also contains vivid passages of revenge daydreams in which the son indulges when cruelty is visited upon him -- daydreams that would've been impossible to recreate on film but which, for me, were some of the most important passages in the pages.  The movie was good, but the book is definitely superior.

B+

Finding Emma (Steena Holmes)

Kindle Edition

I'm so annoyed -- I made this my once-a-month checkout from the Kindle lending library because it was listed as "non-fiction" and I'm behind my goal of 13 non-fictions this year.  Turns out it's neither true NOR well-written.

Emma's been missing since her third birthday, two years ago.  Her mother Megan's kept the hope alive while her dad's busy punishing Megan for not moving on.  We meet "Emmie," a little girl living with her "grandparents," and quickly understand what's going on.

Just ugh.  Lazy, predictable, and in sore need of an editor.  A huge waste of time that might have been OK if the story were true.  Since it's not, it's just a tied-up-in-a-bow happy ending falsehood.  Blech.

D-

Drive (James Sallis)

Hardcover

Style to spare and some great lines and descriptions that almost knocked me off my feet -- at one point he mentions a block of buildings that put one in mind of computer punch cards.  I mean, that's a way with words right there.

The story's great and the vibe is cool baby cool, but I had a problem following the timeline and the narrative.  It was like a stream of consciousness that included dreams and memories.  I felt tossed around and lost my footing several times...and I had to just give up trying to remember who was who and what was happening when and just plow on through.  For a book this slim, it's kind of a feat for the author to let his readers get all turned around in its pages.

B-

It's Like This, Cat (Emily Cheney Neville)

Hardcover

Dave, a New York teen in the early '60s, befriends a college-age thief, is constantly arguing with his father (which sets off his mother's asthma attacks), is friends with the apartment complex's cat lady, isn't interested in easy bimbos, and adopts a tomcat.

I read this because it's a Newbery winner and I'm working my way through them all.  It took a few chapters to kind of get into its groove -- the writing is both stiff and spars, which made it feel more dated than it already was by its setting.  Once I got used to the style, though, this was a quick and decent read.  The time when young non-gang teens were able to roam freely through a big city without their parents calling the cops may be long gone, but it's nice to have a reminder that it once existed.

B-

Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates)

Paperback

I breathed a sigh of contentment after the first couple of pages.  It was such a relief to be so obviously in the hands of a master (especially after traipsing through lots of literary "eh" in the not-too-distant-past).

I was a big fan of the movie based on this book and, while I wouldn't say either is better than the other, the book is definitely a match for its adaptation.  It's just so smart about the way that couples relate -- or fail to relate -- to each other and to other people. There didn't seem to be a single false note.  Though the story felt at times almost too heavy, it's always human.  I alternately loved and loathed both April and Frank; Yates made it possible to simultaneously understand them even as I sat in judgment of them.

A-

Breadcrumbs (Anne Ursu)

Audiobook

Hazel doesn't really fit in with most of the kids in her new school.  But that's OK because she does fit in with her best friend and next-door neighbor, Jack, and he makes sure to meet up with her every day during recess, making the rest of her day bearable.  Jack and Hazel are each other's refuge -- he needs one from the home that holds his depressed and empty-eyed mother and she needs one from what would probably be too difficult a rejection to bear: her father's recent choice to leave Hazel and her mother for a new life.

So, even though Jack has stopped being "Jack," and is now callous and uninterested in Hazel, when he goes missing, Hazel knows it's her job to find him.  And that's where the story becomes a tedious slog.  What was a vivid and honest depiction of how it feels to be sad and lonely in grade school becomes a Forrest Gump-style tromp through the fairy tale woods.  There's a white witch who jokingly offers Turkish Delight, red ballet shoes that dance their wearer to death, wolves to frighten, and birds to point the way, and kindly couples that take you in and then refuse to let you go....  I was bored and frustrated by its end.

Ursu created a couple of great child characters.  They experienced the pain of real life and the joy of real friendship.  Why jank it up with second-rate fantasy thriller rip-offs?

C-

Homestuck Book One (Andrew Hussie)

Paperback

Most of the reviews on Goodreads start with something like, "I didn't actually read the book, I read it online..." which is fine for the content of the very inventive/clever/funny comic itself, but to not have read the author's book-only comments about what he was thinking, what his intent was, and just random laugh-out-loud current observations is to have really missed out.  The book may be a true representation of the online experience, but it's an experience with its own worthwhile extras.

I did "cheat" a little and check out the online pages after reading it so that I could see any flash stuff that couldn't be rendered in the hard copy, but even if I had no internet, the book would stand just fine on its own.  I don't know what lies ahead in the thousands of online pages, but the beginning here is more than promising.

B+