YOU LOOK LIKE THAT GIRL (Lisa Jakub) - February 20/16

Been waiting a while to read this and it's pretty decent. Jakub spends a lot of time talking about why acting wasn't right for her, whereas I'd preferred many more behind-the-scenes stories. (I think there was, like, one Robin Williams anecdote.) **1/2 out of ****

THE TREES (Conrad Richter) - February 16/16

Umm obviously I wanted to like this but the language is so archaic I was never able to get into it. I found myself glazing over long stretches and it often felt like it would never get finished. A bit of an ordeal, honestly. * out of ****

THE GUEST ROOM (Chris Bohjalian) - February 9/16

I'll admit that for the first 50 pages or so, I was really hating this. Too descriptive and too meandering. But there did reach a point at which The Guest Room morphed into a typically solid Bohjalian read, albeit one that is way too long and too meandering. (What's with the lengthy flashback right at the end?) Weird that the affable central character dies, though. *** out of ****