Book #13 - The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

I'm actually quite surprised that I never read The Lovely Bones. It's been an extremely popular book for the past few years, and I've always had it on my mental "to read" list. However, I finally was compelled to read it over the holidays.

While visiting my family in northern Virginia after Christmas, my cousins Ashleigh and Allison had a stack of books set aside for me that they thought I should read as part of my 100 book quest. One of them was The Lovely Bones.

I started reading this novel, and was a little surprised at how much information was offered up about Susie Salmon and her murder at the very beginning of the story. Once I continued reading, I understood why. As I'm sure you've seen as part of the film's previews, the story follows 14-year-old Susie while she is in the In Between heaven and earth after her death. Through her narration, we are able to see how her family is coping with the tragedy of her murder.

As the reader, we also gain insight about Susie's murderer and his sordid past and chilling behaviors. We see the quest for justice and vindication for the Salmon family and are kept suspensefully on-edge through the many close encounters of their revelation of the killer.

The Lovely Bones was much, much more than the murder/mystery novel I was expecting. Like I said, it's hard to be a mystery when you know who the killer is from page two. Instead, I was delighted to find a novel full of thoughtfully imaginative narrative that provided hope in a tragic situation. Sebold creates characters that you feel sympathetic toward, but who you also cheer forward as they try to move on with a "normal" life. In my opinion, I would have liked the Salmon family to receive the justice they are so longing for, but as a whole, The Lovely Bones definitely does not disappoint.

Book #12 - Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

I was first exposed to the novel Bel Canto while in college, as my advisor was reading it at one point in time, and he suggested I picked it up. Well, nearly four years later, I finally read Bel Canto as a recommendation for this project from one of my supervisors.

The novel is based on the Lima Crisis, and focuses on a group of terrorists who hold high executives and people of high political standing hostage. Set in an unnamed South American country, the story begins at a birthday party thrown at the country's vice presidential home. The party is thrown for Katsumi Hosokawa, the visiting chairman of a large Japanese electronics company called Nansei. Performing is a famous American soprano, Roxane Coss.

Bel Canto explores how the terrorists and hostages cope with living in a house together for several months. Many of the characters form unbreakable bonds of friendship, while some fall in love. What's interesting about this novel, is that the relationships that form are not just between the hostages, but between captor and captive, as well.

The daily activities of the hostages and how they are forced to live for months in a strange place with child terrorists standing guard are described with such detail and care. It almost seems as if nothing really happens in the plot for pages and pages, and within the last few, all of the action takes place.

The novel meticulously reveals the human condition of survival, and allows the reader to get a glimpse of how we could all hope to act if we've found ourselves in a similarly unfortunate situation. It also demonstrates the emotions that can develop if given the chance; in a world where race, language and age aren't the first things we see. Instead, the characters are able to fall in love and appreciate their fellow housemates for who they are and what the believe in, and not based on the color of their skin or the language they speak.

Book #11 - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I decided to read The Great Gatsby because a number of people told me that it was a quick read. When you're trying to read 100 books in a year, and the phrase "quick read" is combined with "classic," you need to jump at the opportunity.

The story follows Nick Carroway, a young Midwestern man who's moved to New York City after college. He then meets Jay Gatsby, his neighbor who is fabulously wealthy and is famous for throwing lavish parties on his sprawling estate. As the novel progresses, we learn that Jay loves Nick's cousin Daisy, whom he met and courted before going off to fight in the war. Daisy is now married to Tom Buchanan, another wealthy man, who cheats on his wife and thinks he is better than those around him.

After an initially awkward reunion, Gatsby and Daisy reestablish their connection and begin an affair. Tom soon becomes suspicious of his wife's relationship with Gatsby and confronts them on a trip to New York City. As they rush back to Long Island when things go awry, the car Daisy is driving accidentally strikes and kills Tom's lover, Myrtle, but Gatsby takes the blame. Myrtle's husband seeks out revenge, and when Tom tells him that Gatsby allegedly killed his wife, he finds and shoots Gatsby in his pool, ending his mysterious and tragic life.

The American lifestyle of the 1920s that The Great Gatsby portrays is eerily similar to the years preceding the recent economy crash of 2008; living in excess, spending beyond our means, wrapped up in questionable morals and a quest for pleasure above all else. Just like Gatsby, Americans no longer value the dreams of discovery, individualism and the pursuit of happiness. Instead, it is about having more money than the next guy, and having better stuff than him, too.

Perhaps we should take Fitzgerald's observations about the changing American Dream to heart. Because look what happened to Gatsby - his desire for money and personal pleasure overtook his more noble goals, and eventually, led to his demise.

Book #10 - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

This book was recommended to me by my Mom, but I had heard about it before she lent it to me to read. The title alone was a somewhat intriguing and it had been popping up on a number of the "Must Read" lists I found online. I'm glad to say that overall, the book did not disappoint either.

At first, it was a little difficult for me to get into the story. This book is set in Sweden, and I often have a hard time relating to stories that take place in a foreign country. Perhaps it's because it takes a little longer for me to create my frame of reference. Just understanding how much items cost is a challenge - how am I supposed to know what the dollar equivalent of a kroner is?

The book tells the story of a journalist, Michael Blomkvist who is commissioned to uncover a mystery within the legendary Vanger family - Sweden's fictitious dynasty family who has fallen from grace as the captain of industry they once were. Blomkvist is asked by the family patriarch to uncover what happened to his niece Harriet. The catch is that the mystery is nearly 40 years old.

As he starts to uncover more pieces to the puzzle, Blomkvist realizes he needs the help of a professional researcher to actually make headway in the case - enter "the girl with the dragon tattoo," Lisbeth Salander. What they discover is a grizzly family secret that changes the family's history forever. I know, I know, you're probably wondering if they find out what's happened to Harriet; to find that out, you're going to have to read the book.

The synopsis I provided is what I think is the best part of the novel. However, in my opinion, the plot was muddied with a number of superfluous story lines - like Blomkvist's recent conviction of libel in an attempt to expose of crooked businessman; or Lisbeth's back story of being raped and a prisoner of the Swedish mental health system. They were somewhat interesting, but I think the heart and the mystery of the story - what happened to Harriet within the twisted web of the Vanger family - is more than capable of standing on its own.

Book #9 - The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich

One of my coworkers read this book a few months ago, so I vowed to keep it on my radar. When I started this challenge, I knew that I needed to read it as one of my non-fiction selections. After finishing, I'm not sure if The Accidental Billionaires should even classify as non-fiction, since I was skeptical as to how much of the story was even true.

The story begins with Eduardo Saverin, who allegedly helped Mark Zuckerburg launch facebook while they were both students at Harvard. You're probably thinking that same thing I was: who in the world is Eduardo Saverin? I've never even heard of him. Then I read that Zuckerburg declined to participate in the writing and research of this book. Big. Red. Flag.

If that wasn't enough, my skepticism kicked into an even higher gear with the tale of the Winklevoss twins, also Harvard students, who claim to have had the idea of facebook before Zuckerburg. They say he stole their program, and The Accidental Billionaires continues to outline the ridiculous measures the Winklevosses take to try and stop Zuckerburg and facebook.

As someone who was in college when facebook was in its infancy, I remember the reasons that made it a success, which are discussed in the book. The privilege you felt by being able to have a facebook account; your university had to be selected by facebook in order to join. There were no high schoolers, no corporations and definitely no parents. I remember a time before the writing on walls and tagging photos. And although it was only a few years ago, to see what facebook has now become, it feels like it's been a lifetime.

If Mark Zuckerburg really did steal others' ideas, shame on him. But more importantly, shame on them for letting him get away with it for five years. I don't think having some third party author write about Zuckerburg's transgressions is the most effective way to tell your story. It didn't make me hate Zuckerburg; heck, it didn't even portray him as the villian in this saga. Instead, The Accidental Billionaires reminded me of a simpler time of social media, before that classification even existed. It made me long for the days in my Denison dorm room, when after the semester's first day of class, you could easily get 50 new facebook friends based on who was in your new set of classes and the voyeuristic feeling was thrilling and new.

Now, it's just part of my daily routine.

Kudos to Mark Zuckerburg, for giving the world the ability, and the social acceptability, to keep tabs on people we actually care about, but more importantly, those we're just nosy to know about.

Book #8 - The 6th Target by James Patterson

I have long been a fan of James Patterson’s novels. This began in high school when my 10th grade English teacher allowed us to select our own books for a reading project, and if I remember correctly, three of my four selections were books by Patterson.

This book, The 6th Target, is the sixth book in the Women’s Murder Club series, which I started reading prior to this 100 book challenge. In the series, a San Francisco police officer, Lindsay Boxer, and her friends – Cindy, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle; Claire, the chief medical examiner, and Yuki, an attorney in the DA’s office – work together to solve murder mysteries in the San Francisco area. I know it’s not groundbreaking literary achievement, but a quick, entertaining read nonetheless.

Patterson has been writing novels with the help of secondary authors for some time, and the quality of his plotlines has noticeably diminished. In this book, there were three crimes that struck the members of the Women’s Murder Club. First, a disturbed homeless man opened fire on a crowded ferry boat, on which Claire happened to be one of his targets. Although she survived, four others were killed, and Yuki took on the case for the DA’s office, trying to prove that the killer was not criminally insane, as his defense was claiming. The second crime focused on the kidnapping and trafficking of wealthy children, which Lindsay worked to resolve and the third involved a crazy tenant living in Cindy’s apartment building who was terrorizing other residents.

In the earlier novels, Patterson would not have muddied the story with so many crimes, unless he was to reveal in the end how they were connected in some interesting, albeit nearly impossible way. But with The 6th Target, I was disappointed that he couldn’t develop one of the crimes enough to make it stand on its own to carry the storyline.

I believe there is a seventh novel in the series, and maybe one day I’ll read it. But for now, I think I’ll try out some new authors and see if they can turn me into a loyal fan, as Patterson once did.