Goat Mountain by David Vann (DNF)

In Goat Mountain, an unnamed 11-year-old boy protagonist goes to family-owned land in Northern California with his grandfather, father and a family friend.  The men in the family have gone on their annual deer hunt for generations and the boy can't remember a time he didn't go along, didn't desire to kill his own buck. This year, although he's not yet the legal age, he will be allowed to shoot.  But, then something goes terribly wrong when a poacher is spotted on their land and the boy's father hands his gun to the boy.  

This may or may not be a spoiler because it happens very early in the book (highlight to read white text):

When the boy gets his hands on the rifle and sees the poacher through the scope, he watches the man turn toward the gun and then pulls the trigger.  He's not sure why; he just desires to kill.

After the Terrible Thing happens, the men have to decide what to do.  They are not in agreement but one bad decision is followed by a questionable choice and a series of increasingly violent acts and terrible decisions.  In Goat Mountain, David Vann explores the potential for choosing the darkness inside us, allowing our baser instincts to take over, leading characters into their own form of personal hell. 

I made it about halfway through Goat Mountain before I stalled.  Tolerance for violent images is very much an individual thing and I'm a person who tends to prefer sweetness and light.  If you're okay with violence and you like a book in which characters must confront their darker side (and I do mean evil darkness), go for it. Goat Mountain was way too dark and violent for my taste. But, I was in the mood for something very different from my usual fare and kept going for a while in spite of being repelled by the characters' choices. 

Vann's writing style is also odd and fractured, a combination of full sentences and fragments that feels very much a "break all the rules" style.  I can appreciate his writing from a stylistic standpoint for its uniqueness but that doesn't mean I liked it. Goat Mountain's premise reminds me of A Simple Plan by Scott Smith -- the kind of book in which someone does something very, very bad and then he and his companions continue making terrible choices, piling one evil on top of another.  After all these years, A Simple Plan still haunts me (I avoided the movie) so when I found my interest in what was going to happen in Goat Mountain waning, I flipped ahead to the end of the book and read the ending. I didn't like it, so I set the book aside. 

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

A few DNFs -The Matchmaker of Kenmare, Eyes in the Mirror and The Lantern

I need to tackle my review backlog very soon, but I've got this little pile of Did Not Finish advance readers that I'm tired of tripping over, so . . .

Books I Did Not Finish and Why:

The Matchmaker of Kenmare by Frank Delaney - Released in February of 2011, my copy of The Matchmaker of Kenmare is an ARC that's been haunting me. Haunting, I tell you! I read Delaney's Ireland for HarperCollins' now-defunct First Look program (thumbs up) and The Matchmaker is at least partially set during my favorite time period to read about, WWII, so I wanted to love this book. I deeply desired to fall in love with it. But, after two attempts, I gave up.

Why did I set it aside? The simplest reason: I didn't find it engaging. But, I still keep looking at the book longingly, certain that if I could just get past the first 50 pages I'll love it.

The Matchmaker of Kenmare has received some pretty sparkling reviews and just bizarrely passed a spontaneous flip test, so I will probably give it a third chance. But, I'll do a little skimming within those first 50 pages in the hopes that doing so will get me past what I consider to be a yawn of an opening.

Eyes in the Mirror by Julia Mayer is a YA novel that I got from Sourcebooks for review. I must admit, the combination of cover image and description completely sucked me in. I wanted to read that book! It was one that I dived right into the moment it arrived on my doorstep.

Mini-description: Dee always desired to escape into another world but was stunned when she fell through a mirror, into the parallel life of Samara. Samara was friendless until Dee showed up in her life and agreed to switch places with her. Now, Dee is convinced that Samara's life needs fixing and has set out to change things. But, Samara doesn't like living in Dee's world and just wants her own life back.

Sounds good, yes? Unfortunately, the bit I overlooked in the description was the bio. The moment I began reading, I started to wonder how on earth such a simplistic, poorly written book managed to end up a published work of fiction and I flipped to the author's bio hoping that it would shed some light on that dilemma.

Oh. Okay. Mayer wrote the first version during an 8-week program between her sophomore and junior years of high school. Quite an accomplishment, really. The writing is at least justifiably immature. But, honestly? It's just flat awful. I will not give Eyes in the Mirror a second chance. I set it aside in flabbergasted horror (although not as soon as I read that bio -- I gave it at least another 20-30 pages before giving up). I've read beautiful, mature writing that's been passed over by publishers because the subject matter wasn't considered timely and I truly believe this book was only published because paranormal books are currently "in". There are probably a few people out there who will enjoy Eyes in the Mirror, but I will not be recommending it to anyone.

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson - A gushy, buzzy favorite in many corners and a book whose gorgeous cover you can't help but ogle, The Lantern fell completely flat for this reader. I would blame high expectations if I hadn't received the book early and found it pretentious and irritating before it even managed to work up a buzz.

Actually, I hate it when people use the word "pretentious" to describe someone's writing. I don't know the author. She might be totally down-to-earth, not one whiff of pretense about her. But, even flipping through randomly, just this moment, I found myself cringing. The writing just comes off as overwrought to me.

It's not unusual for me to end up absolutely hating books that get a lot of praise, but darn it! It sounded so good! I just peeked at Paperback Swap, where there are 168 people waiting in line for a copy (4 stars based on 2 ratings) and Amazon (4 stars on average and a broad range of reactions). With that many people waiting, I think I should offer up my ARC on the off chance it will find a happy home.

So, if you are dying to read The Lantern, leave a contact email in the comment section and tell me why you so desperately want to acquire a copy (sorry, US residents only). No need to broadcast this giveaway. I'd rather give it to a regular reader than someone who happened to read a random giveaway tweet. This will be a quick giveaway. I'll draw a name by Friday, December 2 at 10:00 AM, and if nobody signs up I'll just donate it. That gives you about 48 hours to sign up. *Remember to leave a contact email or you're basically screwed*.

Unfortunately, the ARC does not have that dreamy cover, sorry. The cover of this book I purchased last week, however, does:

I know the whole hands-holding-whatever thing has been done to death, but Amaryllis in Blueberry strikes me as the kind of book cover I'd like to stick into a frame and hang on my wall. I just love that stunning electric blue. Unfortunately, the story didn't live up to either the beautiful cover or the appealing description. I got to page 40 before giving up on this one. Too much negativity from the characters turned me off. I mulled giving it a second chance for about 2 nights before deciding, "Nah," and have already swapped it. I've mentioned this one in a past post but I had to share that cover. I adore that cover.

All three four of these "boo, hiss" DNF opinions are just that -- merely my personal opinion. If you're one of the authors and I meet you in a dark alley, someday, I promise not to kick your butt for wasting my time. Wait! I meant . . . remember my opinion is just one drop in an ocean of opinions and there's no need to pick a fight with me. Plus, I probably have at least 50 pounds on all of you and could roll you flat, although I hope to be all muscle and no flab by the time we meet.

The mailman just rang my doorbell!

He delivered some books for Kiddo's birthday (the only thing he asked for -- three books from a series he's currently reading) and Christmas Stories from Mississippi, my face-to-face book club's December selection. The plan is to read "one or two stories per year" because nobody in my F2F group apparently likes to read books that require a lot of thought during the holidays and they always struggle with selections.

It'll be interesting to see if I can actually stop myself at a mere two stories. The very last story is by Willie Morris! I love Willie Morris! Okay, I think we just answered that question.

Next up will be a review of a book. Which book? You've got me. I'm not sure just how I'll approach the reviews, yet -- most recent or first read? Whatever I feel like reviewing? We'll just burn that bridge when we get to it. Or, something like that.

Bookfool in a Goofy Mood

©2011 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Recent DNFs, mostly abandoned because I'm a moody reader

Before I dive into book reviews for the week, I've decided to go ahead and describe a few books I Did Not Finish (DNF'd in the current slang) and share why they ended up abandoned.

Please bear in mind that there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of these books, even if I mention something specific that stopped my reading. I simply have been trying my best not to allow myself to sink back into a slump and the best way to do that, I've found, is to simply abandon anything that isn't grabbing me like crazy. All of the following titles will get a second chance. I have not abandoned them permanently; they simply either weren't right for the moment or require greater focus than I was willing to devote to them.

The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise by Julia Stuart is a book I intended to take along with me to London, for obvious reasons. As it turned out, the book didn't make the final cut when I was choosing vacation reads. And, then I ended up falling into bed exhausted the moment I'd doctored my feet with sticking plasters and antibiotic ointment (oops . . . bad shoe story that makes me blush) in London. So, it's likely I wouldn't have gotten to the book anyway.

However, I did eventually pick The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise up; and, it was just not the right book for the moment. At the time, I recall thinking I really wanted to read something suspenseful and taut, instead.

Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan is a totally different story, when it comes to Novel Abandonment Issues. When I picked the book up, it captured me so thoroughly that I couldn't put it down. I read about 100-150 pages in the first sitting. And, then I got busy and didn't read any more for about a week. When I picked up the book, again, I'd forgotten enough of what was going on to totally mess up the fun.

I became frustrated because of that gap between readings and opted to set Of Bees and Mist aside till later. Obviously, this particular case of Did Not Finish was my own darned fault. Like many books that I set aside for stupid reasons, Of Bees and Mist is one that I think deserved my full attention. It's a book I plan to return to when I can devote myself fully to the reading.

Solitary by Travis Thrasher had the misfortunate of hitting the top of the pile when I was still in the midst of my reading slump. I read about 50 pages or so and it didn't seem like anything was happening. But, I'm not sure if that was really the case, since I was in such a "grab me or I toss you" mood, at the time.

Maybe it just wasn't the right book for the moment. It's a YA suspense and I typically love suspense. But, almost nothing was grabbing me, during the week I happened to pick up Solitary. I set aside so many books that week that I can't even remember what all I abandoned. Solitary stands out in my mind because I was looking forward to it and kind of ticked at myself for not being able to get into it.

Wicked Company by Ciji Ware is my most recently abandoned book. I think it may be the fact that it's not only a chunkster but pretty dense-looking chunkster that's putting me off, in spite of the fact that I love Ciji Ware's writing and actually have enjoyed what I read. It's one thing to enjoy the writing and another to want to pick a book up, every time you sit down. This one simply isn't calling out to me, at the moment, but it's about a young playwright who is female, "a love story, and a compelling glimpse into what life was like for a strong and independent-minded woman in an emphatically man's world."

I know I'll come back to this one, hopefully very soon.

In other news:

I dropped off 30 books at the library, this weekend (donations) and checked out 4 DVDs. I intended to watch Northanger Abbey, last night, but discovered I'd ended up with an older version and I really was hoping to watch the Andrew Davies version. So, I turned that off and watched The Student Prince with Robson Green, instead.

Isabel says, "Females love a man who reads."

I did watch "The Making of Pride & Prejudice" (the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version) and the Jane Austen bio by Biography, today. More on those, later.

Just walked in:

Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce - The story of a 12-year-old boy who looks like he's about 30 and cons his way into a special civilian space flight for kids . . . as the adult chaperone. The cover flap describes the book as "a funny and touching story of the many ways in which grown-upness is truly wasted on grown-ups." Doesn't that sound fun?

Pre-slam announcement:

Before I bury you in book reviews, I need to make two disclaimers:

• I'm only planning to bury you in book reviews. I don't know whether or not it'll actually work out, since I'm as moody in my writing as I am at reading.
• If it does work out, there should be about 8-10 reviews posted by the end of the week. But . . . who knows if that'll happen. If I do succeed, I promise I'll take a break after I'm done. The idea is to catch up, not to kill my readers. Aren't you grateful that I care?

How was your weekend?

©2010 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.