Book Review: Hamlet's Blackberry

Author: William Powers 

Title: Hamlet’s BlackBerry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age

Description: Our computers and mobile devices do wonderful things for us. But they also impose a burden, making it harder for us to focus, do our best work, build strong relationships, and find the depth and fulfillment we crave.

How to solve this problem? Hamlet’s BlackBerry argues that we just need a new way of thinking, an everyday philosophy for life with screens. William Powers sets out to solve what he calls the conundrum of connectedness. Reaching into the past—using his own life as laboratory and object lesson—he draws on some of history’s most brilliant thinkers, from Plato to Shakespeare to Thoreau, to demonstrate that digital connectedness serves us best when it’s balanced by its opposite, disconnectedness. Lively, original, and entertaining, Hamlet’s BlackBerry will challenge you to rethink your digital life. (Marketing description)

Writing style: The book is very readable, combining anecdotes with ruminations.

Audience: The book was written with a general audience in mind; anyone who uses technology probably struggles with the compulsion to be constantly connected conflicting with the stress of being constantly connected.

Major ideas: Powers calls on philosophers from the past (Plato, Shakespeare, Thoreau) to provide ideas that he can apply to our connected society.

Wrap-up: This book is more realistic than some dealing with the subject; complete unplugging isn’t recognized as a viable solution, so moderation is offered as a way to keep control of our electronics, rather than having them control us. Powers’ facility in dealing with the ideas of past thinkers is also a good model in general for folks who want to apply wisdom from centuries past to our much different lives today. 3/5*

I'm claiming this book for two reading challenges: the new author challenge (12/15) and the unread books challenge.

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: Ironweed

Author: William Kennedy

Title: Ironweed

Description:  Francis Phelan is pretty much unapologetically a bum, who spends pretty much any money he can get his hands on to take his next drink. Francis wasn’t always this way, though. He had a career as a promising baseball player—he shared the field with Ty Cobb. He had a loving wife and family. An unfortunate accident cost him a finger—and his baseball career. Then he was the cause of his baby’s death. The Depression meant jobs were scarce and fought over, and Francis caused another death in a labor dispute. Francis misses his family, but believes that they are better off without him; he now has a partnership with Helen, who once had a promising career as a concert pianist. In spite of the difficulty of finding food, warmth, and a place to sleep, Francis maintains some dignity and in his way, helps those who share his plight to maintain some self-respect, if it is in his power.  

Plot: The book opens as Francis visits, for the first time, the grave of the baby son he lost.  The ghosts of his past are never too distant as he looks back on everything that went wrong in his life, while at the same time negotiating life on the streets. Francis warily circles the neighborhoods of his past, unsure about the welcome he might receive, but drawn to see his family again.

Characters: In Francis Phelan, Kennedy has drawn a nearly perfect character study. Flawed by alcoholism and a quick and violent temper, yet loving and protective of those for whom he cares, Francis tries to maintain an existence to which every day is a challenge just to stay alive. Helen too is bedraggled and blowsy, but maintains the vestiges of the woman she used to be in a way that makes her worthy of Francis’ love. Even the secondary characters—the junk man, the neighbors of Francis’ youth, the other inhabitants of the streets and flophouses, are pitch perfect.

Writing style: Spare—the book is short for a novel—but beautifully written. Somehow the sordid conditions of Francis’ lifestyle are ever-present, yet transcended.

Audience: This book is a Pulitzer winner—it’s literary fiction, but definitely accessible to anyone who might want to read it.

Wrap-up: I never had the desire to read this book because Jack Nicholson starred in the movie, and I have a revulsion toward any movie or connection with Jack Nicholson. Once I got started in the book, though, Jack faded away to be replaced by the real Francis Phelan who has nothing to do with Jack. This was a beautiful book that I loved reading. 5/5*

I'm claiming this book for two reading challenges: the new author challenge (10/15) and the unread books challenge.

Book Review: Holy Ghost Girl

Author: Donna M. Johnson

Title: Holy Ghost Girl: A Memoir

Description: A single mother with two small children, Donna Johnson’s mother still felt a call to the ministry which prompted her to leave her Assemblies of God clergy parents’ home to join the entourage of revivalist David Terrell.  A tent-preacher in the faith-healing tradition of Oral Roberts, Terrell and his small group of followers traveled from town to town, mostly in the civil rights era South, holding revival meetings. From the time she was a toddler, Johnson grew up attending several preaching services a day, witnessing healings and speaking in tongues as everyday events, and associating only with other holiness converts.

ARC source: I received this book as a part of the Library Thing Early Reviewers program.

Writing style: Previous books that I’ve read in this genre tend to be pretty tongue-in-cheek, demonstrating that the author now knows better than to believe all that claptrap. And you have to admit that this type of lifestyle, while not generally prone to drunkenness and high living, has its own extremes. I was surprised at Johnson’s even-handed approach. While she does not cover up the flaws of the adults involved (Terrell was sexually involved with several women in the group in addition to his wife and Johnson’s mother seemed to have many priorities higher than parenthood), she also readily affirms the good memories and the seemingly miraculous events that surround Terrell.

Audience: This book will appeal to those who enjoy reading memoirs and those interested in revivalism and religious history.

Major ideas: Although Johnson felt like her family was mostly broken, as an adult she comes to realize that perhaps she can define “family” in a way that will include the jumble of people who surround David Terrell. She also seems surprised that she has managed to become as normal of an adult as she seems to be.

Wrap-up:  I had a not dissimilar upbringing, so maybe I was way more fascinated by this book than other folks would be, but it still struck me as being gracefully written, evenly paced, and always fascinating. 4.5/5*

I'm claiming this book for two reading challenges: the new author challenge (9/15) and the Memorable Memoirs challenge (2/4).

Book Review: A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty

Author: Joshilyn Jackson 

Title: A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty

Description:  When Big decides to uproot the beloved willow tree behind the house, the small box that is unearthed sets in motion a series of events that rocks the whole household—Big herself, the strong matriarch, Liza, Big’s daughter, who recently suffered a stroke and has lost the ability to communicate, and Mosey, Liza’s fifteen year-old daughter. Each of them takes a different approach to tying together the past and the present, eventually turning up blackmail, drugs, and a couple of old love affairs.

Review source: Netgalley

Plot: Jackson had me captivated from the first sentence. This was the first book in a long while that I couldn’t stand to put down and couldn’t stand to finish. I would literally sit at work and pine for it, waiting until I could get home and read some more.

Characters: The three main characters, Big, Liza, and Mosey, are wonderfully fleshed out. Liza seems the most problematic, since she is so severely limited by her physical handicap, but Jackson lets the reader know what is going on in her mind. Big and Mosey are both sympathetic and smart.

Writing style: I thought this might be magic realism when I started reading it, but it turned out not to be, though the style was like that. There is this sort of tale-weaving that goes on in magical realism that is just spellbinding, and this book had that same feel.

Audience: I would think that those who enjoy chick lit and those who enjoy cozy mysteries would both enjoy this book.

Wrap-up: It’s hardest for me to review books I love because I’m just so tempted to break out into song. Imagine, if you will, angel choirs singing about how fun this book is to read.  5/5*

I'm claiming this book for the new author challenge (8/15).

Book Review: Chatterton

Author: Peter Ackroyd 

Title: Chatterton

Description (source):  Charles Wychwood, a sickly man who struggles to write poetry, comes across a portrait in an antique shop. He comes to the conclusion that the portrait, although it is of an elderly man, is actually of Thomas Chatterton, who supposedly had committed suicide as a teenager. The book moves back and forth in time between the present day and Chatterton’s lifetime, as well as the nineteenth century and novelist George Meredith who posed as the dead Chatterton for a famous painting by Henry Wallis—who absconded with Meredith’s wife.

Plot: As Charles tries to prove that Chatterton faked his own death and lived a long and successful life as a forger, Charles’ former employer, formerly successful novelist Harriet Scrope plots to get her hands on the painting in order to revive her dying career.

Characters: The majority of the action is set in the modern day, where none of the characters are attractive enough to the reader to inspire any regard whatsoever. The past, both Chatterton’s and Meredith’s are fragmentary and one never gets a sense of either of them as a person.

Writing style: I disliked Ackroyd’s writing style, probably because I disliked the characters so intensely that I begrudged spending my time with them. Charles, the protagonist, is so passive as to be slapworthy. Harriet is simply repulsive and refers to herself as “Mother.” Other more interesting characters such as Chatterton himself, come across as bit players, which in itself is frustrating.

Audience: this is literary fiction.

Wrap-up: The idea of a novel that features Chatterton, the famous painting of Chatterton, and the attempt to unravel their mysteries still beguiles me—and the idea is so much better than the execution that it’s a severe disappointment! 2/5*

I'm claiming this book for two reading challenges: the new author challenge (7/15) and the unread books challenge.

Book Review: Moloka'i

Author: Alan Brennert

Title: Moloka’i

Description (source): If you are familiar with the name Moloka’i at all, you probably know what this novel is about. Moloka’i is a Hawaiian island famous for its leper colony (Father Damien’s domain). Rachel is just a small child when leprosy strikes and she is separated from her family and sent to live on Molokai. The book follows Rachel’s life there as it is affected by events in Hawaii (the book opens while Hawaii is still under the monarchy) and by advances in medicine. 

Plot: The kind of book you’d classify as “sweeping narrative.” It basically follows one woman’s life from start to finish.

Characters:  Rachel, the heroine, is a very sympathetic character, and the reader identifies with and roots for her throughout the book. There are many interesting secondary characters as well, including some who are actual historical figures.

Writing style: This is one of the best-researched books I have read in a long time. Brennert is not a native Hawaiian, but the amount of historical detail is impressive, and it all rings true (though I don’t know enough about Hawaii to know for sure).

Audience: I think this book will mostly appeal to women, as it is woman and family-centered, though men who are interested in Hawaiian history or mission work with lepers would also enjoy it.

Wrap-up: Achingly sad at times, the book overall is the story of a life’s narrative, with some great times and some long, difficult trials. While it is educational due to the amount of medical and state history that is included, it never feels didactic. Our book group read this book, and I think it was unanimously enjoyed. 4/5*