Review: Princess Bride

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

I can’t imagine anyone who hasn’t seen the movie; it’s one of our family’s iconic texts. So rather than a normal book review, here I’ll concentrate on book/movie contrasts. First, I started this book once, many years ago, and was supremely bored by it. I put it on a shelf, but didn’t get rid of it. Recently, I decided to cull my bookshelves and rather than just dumping it, I decided to give it one more shot.

I think what bored me the first time was the prologue. The movie’s frame (sick little boy being read to by grandpa) is introduced  by a lengthy and sort of whiny prologue in which the narrator (author?) relates how he’s contemplating adultery  in L.A. but instead returns home to his indifferent wife and spoiled son. He remembers the best book in the world which his father read to him, and determines to fetch it for his son. It turns out to be really boring in parts, so he revises it to just have the good parts so his son will enjoy it more.  (I know, you’re bored just by my relating this much. Imagine 20 pages of it).

Once I got to the story part, it mirrors the movie very closely, down to the dialogue. It does have little bits that aren’t in the movie, though, and of course, it was great fun to find them and imagine them as acted by our old friends. (In terms of casting, the movie nailed it, except for Prince Humperdinck.) When you love a movie this much, it’s a joy to add on to the lore. And don’t feel guilty for skipping the prologue. 5/5*

Review: America (The Book)

Author: Jon Stewart and the writers of the Daily Show

Title: America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction

Description:  A “lighthearted look” at American history and politics.

Writing style: Funny as heck.

Audience: People who can get a joke.

Major ideas: Let’s try not taking ourselves so seriously all the time.

Wrap-up: Two fairly major caveats: the book is almost 10 years old by now, and it has some fairly raunchy bits (words and pictures). These two aside, I laughed through most of it. Sometimes these political books can be so topical that they become not merely funny, but nearly incomprehensible. This book does a survey of American history, so that will always be there. It’s mostly just the stuff about the 2004 election that seems pretty dated. 4/5*

Review: Notes from a Small Island

Author: Bill Bryson

Title: Notes from a Small Island

Description: Bill Bryson was an Iowan who took a trip to England, met a girl, married her, and stayed. After quite a few years there, the family decided to move to the United States. Bryson decided to take a trip around Britain, sort of by way of saying good bye.   

Writing style: Bryson has become quite a well-known author since he wrote this book, and I’ve read and enjoyed several of his other books (A Walk in the Woods, In a Sunburned Country). He is sort of a humorist, but not a laff-a-minute guy like Dave Barry. One thing I didn’t enjoy about this book is that Bryson made lots of in-jokes and references that only British folks would get.  The book has also become dated.

Audience: English people.

Major ideas: England is a small island with some very polite people, but it is being destroyed by commercial development.

Wrap-up: I was disappointed with this book, but looking back, I probably expected it to be as good as the others that I mentioned. As an earlier effort, and maybe with a very specialized intended audience, it just didn’t live up to the others. 2/5*

Book Review: I've Got Your Number

Author: Sophie Kinsella 

Title: I’ve Got Your Number

Description: Poppy is engaged to the suave intellectual, Magnus. Ten days before the wedding, she loses the (family heirloom) ring, but the same day, she finds a cell phone tossed into a trash can. Hilarity ensues.

Review source: Netgalley

Plot: The phone Poppy finds is connected to Sam, a businessman who rarely answers his messages. While she is waiting for her ring to turn up, Poppy does some tidying up of Sam’s emails. This results in just what you would expect: embarrassing situations and a good deal of lying to get out of them.

Characters: Kinsella does a good job of rounding out the main characters—Poppy is scattered, kind, and funny, while Sam is harried and brusque.

Writing style: The story builds and builds; by the climax, I was pretty much flipping the pages as fast as I could. There were plenty of funny bits.

Audience: Kinsella is one of the top names in chick lit, and she certainly delivers here. I doubt the appeal of the book to folks who don’t like chick lit, though.

Wrap-up: The book was admittedly lightweight, but kept me roundly entertained while I was reading it. 4/5*

I'm claiming this book for the new author challenge (11/15).

Book Review: Join Me

Author: Danny Wallace 

Title: Join Me

Description: Danny Wallace (for a reason while I’ll let him explain to you) decides to place an ad asking people to join him by sending a passport photo. They do. What results is a collective, not a cult. To tell much else would be to present spoilers, since really not much actually happens in this book. Danny has done some silly things in the past, and conceived of a few more; his no-nonsense girlfriend calls these boy-projects and refuses to have any part of them.

Writing style: Wallace has a clever and funny writing style, which is really the point of this book. While I don’t know that I laughed out loud, I certainly enjoyed his sense of humor and read the book in about three days.

Audience: Those who enjoy humorous memoir (or really any type of memoir) will enjoy this book.

Major ideas: We can make the world a better place just by being friends and thinking of others. Don’t deceive your significant other.

Wrap-up: This was a very British book, full of pints and chips and other British things, including British humor, which can be irresistible if done well. 4/5*

I'm claiming this book for three reading challenges: the new author challenge (4/15), the unread books challenge, and the Memorable Memoirs challenge (1/4).