THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER (Stephen Chbosky) - February 20/15

The book didn't affect me quite as strongly this time around, I suppose since now I'm super familiar with all the twists, but it really picks up nicely in its final stretch. I'm looking forward to talking about it with Sayward... ***1/2 out of ****

THE SLAP (Christos Tsiolkas) - February 17/15

This actually reminded me a lot of Tom Perrotta's work, since it revolves around suburban characters and their exploits. The structure, eight chapters, eight characters, ensures that the book essentially feels like a series of short stories, and as such the book's effectiveness vacillates throughout. (The last story, about the gay kid, went on far too long, for example.) A good read, though, and I'll be looking for more of the author's work. *** out of ****

FAMILY PICTURES (Jane Green) - February 9/15

This decent chick book basically held my interest but the story is much, much longer than necessary. There reaches a point at which the story could end (the husband is caught and arrested) and yet it keeps going on for another hundred pages or so. A brief, 10 page post-script detailing what happened to the two women after that point would've been fine. **1/2 out of ****

DISGRACE (J. M. Coetzee) - February 3/15

I finished this over a week ago and I've already forgotten most of it, if that's an indication of how memorable the book was. Still, it was a fast, entertaining read. The lack of an ending was weird, though. **1/2 out of ****