Average Girl Reads

This week, I want to tell you about two books that didn't click with me. If I abandon a book, I usually don't post about it because it doesn't seem fair to write about a book that I didn't read all the way through. However, I thought it might be a good idea to start writing about these books so I can get reactions from others. Perhaps I abandoned them too soon, or maybe I'm not the only one who didn't enjoy them.

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs: I was expecting to enjoy this book. Frequent readers of this blog know that I enjoy a good stunt memoir. I also enjoyed Jacobs' later book, The Year of Living Biblically, so I thought this would be a sure winner for me. Unfortunately, I couldn't get into it. While he was exploring the Old Testament, he was actually doing things. This book is full of reactions to what he read in the encyclopedia and the strange reactions he got from friends and family when he shared this knowledge. Jacobs said that he had trouble getting through the As; I had trouble getting through his description of reading the As. However, I am still looking forward to reading his next book due out in December, Healthiest Man in the World.

The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd: This book suffered in comparison to Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, a book I read a little over a year ago. I tried to appreciate it on its own, but the settings were too similar: a teenage protagonist writes about how much her life has been altered after a natural disaster of international proportions. In the Pfeffer book, the characters felt like my neighbors and I got a chance to know them and go through the disaster with them. With this book, Lloyd starts at the point where the disaster has already occurred and the government is just starting to enforce rationing. It was difficult for me to understand what was going on or have any sympathy for the main character. I can't even remember her name. When an author creates a compelling world and arresting characters, I often find myself dreaming about that world when I go to bed at night. This book didn't invade my dreamscape or draw me back to it when I had a spare moment.

The good news is that marking off these books has made my TBR list a little shorter. Two books down, 220 books to go!

My Life in Pink & Green by Lisa Greenwald

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Genre: middle-school fiction
On my TBR list? Yes, since Aug 2010



Summary, from Goodreads:

Twelve-year-old Lucy Desberg is a natural problem solver. After the local homecoming queen shows up at her family’s struggling drugstore with a beauty disaster that Lucy helps to fix, Lucy has a long line of makeover customers for every school dance and bat mitzvah. But all the makeup tips in the world won’t help save the pharmacy. If only she could find a way to make the pharmacy the center of town again—a place where people want to spend time, like in the old days. Lucy dreams up a solution that could resuscitate the family business and help the environment, too. But will Lucy’s family stop fighting long enough to listen to a seventh-grader?


This story, with its young heroine who knows more than the adults, could have been annoying. Many of us have grown up watching TV shows and movies with parents portrayed as morons and kids who have too much power and freedom. However, Lisa Greenwald gave it context that made it more believable. It was easy for me to see how a 12-year-old and her college-student sister could do the research needed to help save the family business, especially when the grown-ups are so close to the problem that they are frustrated and blinded to the possibilities. I remember reading a few stories like this when I was a teen and I found them inspiring. Even when the circumstances are bit unrealistic, the idea that you can at least try to do something to make things better -- no matter what age you are -- is uplifting.

C1, my 13-year-old daughter, had a few things to say about this book, as well:

My Life in Pink and Green was written for girls my age, but even so, I found it kind of hard to relate. I had a feeling of what she was going through with the money problems, but other than that, I found the book a little boring. In the description above, the book sounds like it is all about makeovers, but it took a long while to get to the makeover parts. When we finally got there, she didn't stay on the subject for too long. It seemed like doing makeup was a side thing, while the real issue was whether or not the mayor is going to give them the grant. There was a touch of romance in the book, but since she was only twelve it didn't go very far. I read books with main characters a lot older than me, so I'm used to people at least getting to the first date, before the book is over. All in all, I think this book is good for girls my age or younger, but I personally didn't like it that much.

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Smile by Raina Telgemeier

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Genre: graphic novel, middle school fiction
On my TBR list?: No



Synopsis, from Goodreads:

Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth, and what follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there's still more to deal with: a major earthquake, boy confusion, and friends who turn out to be not so friendly.


This is a sweet graphic novel that my 13-year-old daughter adored and asked me to read. Memoirs in graphic form are a hard sell to me; the ones I've read haven't inspired anything more than a "meh" feeling. With this book, however, Raina Teigemeier did a great job of making me care about her sixth-grade self and what she went through. I think any girl who has felt insecure about her looks or her place in the school hierarchy would enjoy this book.

Here are a few comments from C1, my 13-year-old--

What I liked:
-it was in color
-she was about my age for most of the book
-it showed what braces are really like when you first get them
-she does the right thing
-there was comedy

What I didn't like:
-the setting was before my time, so I was confused about some fads and fashion
-it ended so soon! >=(



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Due to some "rob Peter to pay Paul" action, we were without cable TV and internet access for the past week. (We are considering the possibility of getting rid of cable altogether, but that is a story for my other blog.) Combine that with an extraordinary level of fatigue, and I got more reading that usual done last week.

I've always marveled at the people who barrel through 5-10 books a month, but I am well on my way to being one of them this month. While the cable was off, I read an entire book on Monday and then another one on Tuesday. It is unusual for me to read that quickly. More accurately, it is unusual for me to finish a book that quickly now. I must admit that I fell back into old habits last week and read until I could barely keep my eyes open. That was the way I used to read when I had no kids and a good book was worth losing a little sleep. These days sleep is more important than entertainment. Does that mean I'm getting old?

The real trick will be to get myself to post about the books I've been reading. Lately, I feel more motivated to read a book than write about it. However, I know that my interest in blogging waxes and wanes periodically so I'm not overly concerned. It is a good thing that reviewing books isn't my livelihood, though.

TBR LIST STATUS: My TBR list is up to 225 titles. When I saw that total, I was reminded of all the bookish folks who actually have their TBR books in their houses. Yikes! I think my husband would leave me if I owned that many books. Luckily, there is no chance of that because I would probably start hyperventilating before I got to that point!

Between reading and culling, my mini-list of books that have been on the TBR list since 2008 is down to five titles. One of them is a book I own, and two more are in my library stack. The last two books are a poetry anthology and Mere Christianity. I will probably check out the anthology this week, but C.S. Lewis is too heavy for my frame of mind right now. That title will probably stay on the list for a while.

My next goal will be to read or remove any titles that have been on my TBR list since 2009. As my most recent count, there are 70 books still on the list from the ones I added last year. This, of course, doesn't count any on my Goodreads "not at my library" list or my library's Wowbrary list; once I check those, the number may increase. I don't plan to wait until 2011 to start on my goal. I am going to start right in on it as soon as I finish the 2008 books. As a matter of fact, one of the books is in my library stack now.

CURRENT READING MOOD: I can't shake my craving for pioneer novels. Ever since I finished the last Lauraine Snelling novel I had on hand, I wake up each morning looking forward to jumping back into that universe. Then I remember that I finished the book already. When I get like this, it is difficult for me to jump into another book, especially another series. Hopefully, these standalone novels that I have on hand will shake things up.

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd by Holly Black

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On my TBR list?: Yes, since October 2009

For some reason, I thought that this was a book of essays, true stories about what it was like to grow up as a geek. It is actually an anthology of short stories with a geeky bent. In case you think that "geek" only applies to someone who is into sci-fi or comic books, then this book may surprise you. The stories fall in line with my definition of "geek", which is anyone who has an strong affection for something and more knowledge about it than the average fan. That's why you will find stories about theater geeks, science geeks, and even "Rocky Horror Picture Show" geeks.

A subtitle for this book could be "Geeks in Love" because many of the stories involved high school outcasts finding one another. I found that those were the stories I enjoyed the most. A few of the stories reminded me of the Disney movie-of-the-month, and that's a good thing. The ones that strayed from that formula were my least favorite. Still, even the stories I didn't like that much were pretty good.



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