The Summer of Sucktastic Books

I will be the first to admit that I am a book snob of the highest order. I like my classics. I expect my books to have some meaning and some meat to them. Even the books I pick for fluff are usually a little less fluffy than the norm. I don’t mind trying a new author, but I expect a lot out of them.

This summer, though, I thought I’d step out of my comfort zone and try a few books from the bestseller lists–something I usually avoid like the plague. My biggest problem with bestsellers is that I feel they have been dumbed down for the masses as if we can’t hold a real thought for more than two seconds.

Of the six books I read this summer (a woefully inadequate number), some were for book club and some were just random books I picked up from Borders. Only two were not sucktastic. Only two were worth buying, keeping, recommending, and re-reading: The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

• The Other Daughter by Lisa Gardener: This book is interesting enough, but isn’t a real challenge. Those of you who like a paperback pool book or something you can keep in the car and pick up for those 10-minute waits here and there, this is your book. The premise is that a family’s daughter is abducted. A few years later a girl about their daughter’s age is abandoned at the hospital where the dad is a doctor. They adopt this girl to replace their daughter. Is this adoptive daughter the daughter of the man that abducted and murdered their original daughter?
• The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay: This is a book that can be discussed on several levels. What exactly is the power of one? Is it the influence of one person on another? Is it the impact of a single event? Is it the power of one person over his own destiny? We meet PK when he is only five years old and is sent to school. From there we watch him as he grows, learns, matures, and trains to become the best boxer in the world. The memoir of his life in WWII Africa is engrossing. Don’t miss this one.
• Whiteout by Ken Follett: I picked this up on the $5 rack at Borders. I have only read one other Ken Follet book and that was The Pillars of the Earth. Pillars is one of the best epic, historical fiction novels I’ve ever read and I highly recommend it. It’s also very different than Whiteout. In Whiteout, Follett tackles bio-terrorism. Toni Gallo is the security head at a pharmaceutical company who finds that some very important and deadly chemicals are missing. Throw in a Christmas snowstorm, a romance with her boss, and some nasty villains and you’ve got yourself a story. The thing that saves this book is Follett’s writing. He doesn’t belabor the point and he moves things along just fast enough to keep you interested. I could have done without the contrived love interests, but I suppose those are an integral part of any bestseller these days. I’d recommend it if you have a plane ride in your future.
• Deception Point by Dan Brown: I have had this on my list of books I could read for a while now. I enjoyed The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons for what they were and thought I might enjoy one of his earlier novels as well. This is another pool book (in fact, that is where I read this one). It is not a great pool book, but it will do. This is supposed to be a thriller you just can’t put down. The book is about NASA finding a meteorite with fossils that prove there is life in other parts of the universe. Various agencies are brought in to authenticate the find. Here’s where I started having problems–not with whether there’s life "out there", but with the fact that the entire plot could have been avoided if a major character had just done her job (which I kept saying to myself as soon as she failed to do so). That little tid-bit made it hard for me to relax and enjoy the book; I just couldn’t buy that the best in her field would make such a rookie mistake. And again with the contrived love thing. Can we please have a strong woman without her needing to eventually fall into the arms of a man? Love is grand. I love LOVE. But not when it’s not a part of the story. Gah! If I’m reading a love story? Great. This was not a love story.
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck: Anyone who actually knows me knows I love me some Steinbeck. Although East of Eden is still my favorite, Grapes of Wrath was still a masterpiece. Although I have lived in Oklahoma since I was three, I had never read this book. My friends, it is powerful. The Joad family is representative of every family in America that had to move to find a better life for themselves in the 20s and 30s. Each family member emerges from the journey changed and with new purpose. The discussion for this book is boundless: are we all part of one "big soul" or are we solely responsible for ourselves? How does nature function (good or evil)? How does one lose his connection with the earth/land/humanity as he lives for himself alone? I highly recommend this book to everyone. Steinbeck’s writing is laced with symbolism, but it does not impede your reading. The story is just as wonderful to read without worrying about the deeper meaning. If you choose to delve deeper, though, you will never find a shortage of things to consider and you won’t be disappointed.
• The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards: I do realize this book is popular right now. That may be one of the reasons I hated it so much. I thought the writing was mediocre and the story was boring. It had the potential to be interesting, but Edwards just didn’t have the talent to bring it alive. I found myself skimming the paragraphs to discern the gist of the page and moving on. I won’t give anything away, but about two-thirds of the way through a few things happen abruptly. My first reaction was that Edwards started to bore even herself and this was the only way to get the end started. The book is about a doctor and his wife who have twins. One of the twins is born with Downs and, it being the 50s, the doctor orders the nurse to take the baby away to a home. The doctor tells his wife the baby was still-born. They raise the other twin. The nurse, instead of taking the child to the home, decides to move and raise the child as her own. You can see how this all raises many problems and how it could have been a riveting read. Unfortunately this book is one of the worst I’ve read and I cannot recommend it. I only read the entire thing because it is one of our book club books and is being hosted by a friend of mine next month. What I can recommend is walking the other way if you see it in the book store. Of all the books I read this summer, this was the most sucktastic.