WUTHERING HEIGHTS (Emily Bronte) - July 25/14

My finish-every-book rule is thwarted yet again by another so-called "classic." Like Jane Eyre and Sense and Sensibility, this has been written in an archaic style that simply doesn't work in this day and age. There's no flow and no momentum, and Bronte compounds this by emphasizing underdeveloped characters. I just couldn't keep track of these people. (Bronte didn't give me any reason to care, at any rate.) This is another case where I was determined to finish the book, but sitting on the subway I just decided that life is too short and stopped around page 90. No rating.

THE ONE & ONLY (Emily Giffin) - July 21/14

Another winner from Giffin. Though I occasionally found the football stuff to be a little overwhelming, I was quickly wrapped up in this story of a successful woman who begins dating a quarterback and eventually falls in love with her best friend's father. The ending is incredibly pat and neat but I didn't really mind. *** out of ****

FROM NOTTING HILL WITH LOVE...ACTUALLY (Ali McNamara) - July 18/14

It probably helps that I read this immediately after the abhorrent To the Lighthouse. This is basically the book equivalent of one of those Richard Curtis romcoms and I have to admit I really enjoyed it. It's probably about 100 pages longer than necessary, but I found this to be a breezy pageturner that I couldn't put down. I'm looking forward to reading the sequels! *** out of ****

TO THE LIGHTHOUSE (Virginia Woolf) - July 14/14

Oh sweet lord. This is one of those books where I was pretty much alienated right from the word go. Woolf's flowery, infuriatingly "poetic" style results in a book that's entirely devoid of interesting characters or compelling situations. There is absolutely nothing here that works. Okay, she's a good writer, but who cares? I wound up flipping through the last 100 pages in about an hour. What a pretentious ordeal. no stars out of ****

I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS (Maya Angelou) - July 11/14

A book one admires more than one enjoys, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is an episodic telling of Angelou's childhood and teen years. There are certainly a number of harrowing stretches here - eg her rape at the age of 8 - but Angelou is unable to infuse the narrative with a flow or momentum designed to keep the reader interested. There's an extreme unevenness here that's simply impossible to overlook, and it doesn't help, either, that Angelou, particularly towards the end of the novel, employs overly flowery language that exacerbates the arms-length feel. ** out of ****

STRANGERS (Dean Koontz) - July 5/14

This relatively early Koontz book reminded me of why I liked the guy in the first place. Before he completely lost it sometime in the last 15 years, Koontz was certainly a master of setting up horror-centric stories and characters. And this is, in its opening stretch, no exception. But the book is ultimately way, way too long. Koontz himself notes that he was offered six figures (!!!) to chop out 30% by his publisher and I can see why the offer was made. There's just too much going on here and the final stretch is frankly a little interminable as a result. This book could've been a third the length, easily. ** out of ****