Link: amzn.to/H7jY0t

Grade: A

L/C Ratio: 60/40
(This means I estimate the author devoted 60% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 40% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.) 

Thematic Breakdown:
30% - Growing up
20% - Relationships
15% - Corrupt educators
15% - Humor
10% - World history
10% - The physics of the universe

Skippy Dies was published back in 2010, and since then, I’ve added and removed it from my reading list at least a dozen times. I blame my flip-flopping on Amazon’s description of the book. Okay, it’s a novel. But wait, the main characters are all teenagers. So is it a young adult book? And wait, it takes place in Ireland. So do I need to know Irish to enjoy it? Or is it just some morbid sequel to that Frankie Muniz movie about a dog?

In truth, I can’t blame whoever wrote the description of Skippy Dies. It’s simply not the kind of novel that can be summarized in a few sentences. As you can tell from the thematic breakdown above, there’s a ton going on here. Murray handles his shifting perspectives and tones with an art of grace, moving from a heart-wrenching moment involving a destructive affair right to a hilarious scene of banter between teenage boys (my favorite was the conversation about how Robert Frost’s poetry is actually all about anal sex).

I always complain about books being unnecessarily long, so I knew Skippy Dies deserved a high grade from me when I got to the end of the 12,000+ Kindle locations and still wanted more. Murray pulls you along on a wild emotional ride. I suggest you fasten your metaphorical seatbelt and hop on board.

Noteworthy Quote:
Maybe instead of strings it’s stories things are made of, an infinite number of tiny vibrating stories; once upon a time they all were part of one big giant superstory, except it got broken up into a jillion different pieces, that’s why no story on its own makes any sense, and so what you have to do in a life is try and weave it back together, my story into your story, our stories into all the other people’s we know, until you’ve got something that to God or whoever might look like a letter or even a whole word.

Link: amzn.to/xDilxr

Grade: B

L/C Ratio: 10/90
(This means I estimate the author devoted 10% of her effort to creating a literary work of art and 90% of her effort to creating a commercial bestseller.) 

Thematic Breakdown:
40% - Hunting for humans
30% - Coming of age
20% - Young love
10% - Oppressive government

No, this does not mean I have joined the world of young adult fiction. My decision to read The Hunger Games was the result of three things: a lost bet, an invitation to the movie opening next week, and the fact that Suzanne Collins’ trilogy is really the only bestseller available via Amazon’s Kindle Lending Library (meaning I was able to “borrow” it for free).

There have been approximately 36 million reviews of The Hunger Games already written (the vast majority being positive), so I won’t bother evaluating its literary merits in great detail. Instead, I’ll just pose two questions.

1. How will the film version handle the novel’s first person perspective? A lot of the book takes place within Katniss’s head, and I hope they found a way to translate that onto the screen. Perhaps when Katniss speculates about what characters outside of the Games are thinking, the film will diverge from the text and adopt those other perspectives.

2. In Collins’s futuristic world, have humans lost the need to go to the bathroom? If not, I fully expect the other books in the trilogy to feature a high volume of restroom scenes.

Noteworthy Quote:
District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety.

Link: amzn.to/zXTNrd

Grade: F

L/C Ratio: 65/35
(This means I estimate the author devoted 65% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 35% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.) 

Thematic Breakdown:
30% - Collapse of American life
20% - Failing relationships
15% - Parenthood
15% - Comedy
10% - Office politics
10% - Visual arts

I can’t remember ever being this frustrated with a novel. The opening chapters of The Ask had me laughing obnoxiously, as Lipstye introduces the character of Milo Burke with an authorial voice that has more bite and punch than anything else you’ll find in contemporary fiction.

Then you, the reader, gets to know Milo Burke. And you discover quite quickly that he is a dick. But it doesn’t stop there. His wife is a dick. His son’s babysitter is a dick. His boss is a dick. His coworkers are all dicks. His rich friend from college is a dick. And that rich friend’s illegitimate son, who lost his legs fighting in Iraq, even manages to be a dick.

Despite the total lack of likable characters, I was still holding out some hope for The Ask. Lipstye appeared to be on the verge of saying something profound about post-9/11 American society. Then I arrived at the quote that appears at the bottom of this post (feel free to go read it right now), and I lost what little respect I had left for the novel.

If Lipstye wants to use literature as an experiment, that is his right. But I expect writers to have a little more respect for their readers than to come out and flatly admit that they are constructing a poor narrative on purpose. The Ask is not meta. It is nothing more than a poor excuse for a novel, and the quote below is right – there’s no reason for it to exist.

Noteworthy Quote:
“I’m not very likable, am I?”
“You’re likable enough,” said Vargina.
“No, I mean, if I were the protagonist of a book or a movie, it would be hard to like me, to identify with me, right?”
“I would never read a book like that, Milo. I can’t think of anyone who would. There’s no reason for it.”

Link: amzn.to/w4CX2M

Grade: B+

L/C Ratio: 60/40
(This means I estimate the author devoted 60% of her effort to creating a literary work of art and 40% of her effort to creating a commercial bestseller.) 

Thematic Breakdown:
30% - Aging
30% - Relationships
20% - Literature & language
20% - Comedy

Without amassing an unwieldy page count, Penelope Lively manages to create a colorful cast of British characters and assign them each an amusing life crisis to endure. How It All Began is a simple, cute narrative, and Lively is kind enough to wrap up all the scattered plot lines in a timely fashion.

The novel’s eldest characters are the best developed (perhaps thanks to the author’s own age), which provides Lively with a chance to share some insightful thoughts on the challenges of growing old and finding a shred of meaning in life.

Literary geeks are sure to get a kick out of the frequent references to modern and historical fiction. For several of the characters in the novel, reading comprises a major part of their identity and helps to navigate them through the maze of their existence.

Noteworthy Quote:
She has read to find out if things are the same for others as they are for her—then, discovering that frequently they are not, she has read to find out what it is that other people experience that she is missing.

Link: amzn.to/ArcKxD

Grade: C+

L/C Ratio: 5/95
(This means I estimate the author devoted 5% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 95% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.) 

Thematic Breakdown:
50% - Vampires
50% - Comedy

Christopher Moore certainly has no trouble finding a literary voice in his writing. His characters are outrageous, and as a reader, you never want them to shut up.

Abby Normal is the star of the show in Bite Me, and the hilarity reaches a maximum level when she decides midway through the book to turn herself into a vampire. The rest the cast also finds memorable ways to stand out, especially Chet - the giant shaved vampire cat with a craving for meter maids.

The plot of Bite Me is almost as wacky as its characters, but with the over-saturation of the vampire genre these days, I wish Moore had done something a little more creative than the “old vampires chase new vampires” trope. Thankfully, Moore realizes he does not have a profound premise to work with and smartly keeps the action and laughs moving at a steady pace.