The indubitably creative, the slightly offbeat, the unbearably quirky, the altruistically strange, and the slightly endearing. Although many may prefer the tales where everything makes sense, the stories off the beaten path are sometimes the best. This month, the quirky tales took center stage. It began with Looking for Alaska by John Green and ended with some Neil Gaiman. Alas, I googled "quirky novels" and found some wonderful stories to read in between which filled out the month perfectly.
Whilst reading a novel, one of the things I most appreciate is an author's ability to take the ordinary, mundane, or regular and turn it into a story worth reading. I love vocabulary and an author's effective use of it within the tale. John Green is one of those authors. I love fell in with his writing style with The Fault in Our Stars and was quite excited to read his other works. Looking for Alaska had gotten such high praise, I was looking forward to reading it. However, I found it sub par to The Fault in Our Stars for a few reasons. It was more teen angst ridden and the characters were not all that likable. The main characters, in particular Alaska, was actually quite annoying. And SPOILER ALERT, I was quite glad when she died. However, I still enjoyed his writing style but the story he told just wasn't as enjoyable as his other book. I guess I would say read the book but for me, it just was not quite as good as I had hoped.
However, Warm Bodies by Issac Marion, most recently turned into a movie, and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender were certainly worth a read. Warm Bodies was clever, creative, and quite amusing. I loved being inside R's zombie mind and hearing what he was thinking and what he actually was able to express. It's a brilliant novel and a brilliant take on the recent influx of zombie tales. It still has zombie killings and fights but the fact that the lead character is a zombie who slowly moves toward being human again is a fantastic story and definitely worth the read. I'm excited to see the movie now.
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake was certainly a quirky novel but also very clever. The main character, Rose, when she is 9 years old discovers she can taste people's emotions in the food she eats, beginning with her mother's lemon cake. As she gets older, she learns what food she can eat without tasting too much emotion. As she grows up, she watches as her parents grow apart and her brother descends into a rather solitary place. The novel was really good. I appreciated the creativity to the story but also how rooted in reality the story stayed except for what happened to her brother. Even though I read through that part several times, I was just confused. So if you read the book, I'd be curious to know what your conclusion is. SPOILER . . . .(I think he turns into a chair . . )
Lastly, American Gods by Neil Gaiman was also quite interesting. I thought the idea of ancient gods walking amongst us is a premise to be explored. It was a good read and I enjoy Neil Gaiman's writing. A bit of language and sexual content so be prepared. But I like the idea of taking a regular human, throwing in some ancient gods who haven't gotten a lot of worship in recent years, setting the story in America and letting Neil Gaiman write the rest. In some ways, although it's probably an awful comparison and Neil Gaiman probably wouldn't appreciate it but it's sort of like Percy Jackson for adults . . sort of . . .But give it a read. It is good.
As one might expect, I like authors who do not follow the normal pattern of reality and allow the impossible to happen within a possible world. Creative words, interesting syntax, and quirky spins on age old stories are truly some of my favorite types of imaginatorium. The books of this month all had a sense of quirkiness to them which I thoroughly enjoyed. There are a lot more books as well that fall into this category. Do a Google search and see what you find. There's a lot of authors that may not have made the best seller lists but are excellent reads.
Next month: Life of Pi is the inspiration . . . stay tuned for what books follow.
Looking for Alaska- John Green
Warm Bodies- Issac Marion
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake- Aimee Bender
Still Life of a Woodpecker- Tom Robbins
American Gods- Neil Gaiman
