Saturday, April 21, 2012

Pledged by Alexandra Robbins (CBR-IV #15)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #15/52
Published: 2004
Pages: 384
Genre: Nonfiction


     I have almost zero interest in sororities, but I found this book for $1 at a used bookstore. I decided to pick it up because my best friend from high school joined a sorority in college while my small, private college had absolutely no Greek system whatsoever (we didn't even have a football team!). She got really into the whole sorority thing (and still is five years after college) and I guess I just don't really get it. To me, it seems like you're paying people to choose whether your good enough to be their friend. But she seemed to have a good experience that was almost nothing like the craziness in this book. Because of that (and so I don't get flamed by sorority girls), I completely understand that what I read is NOT a representation of all sororities. The author even states this at the beginning of the book. Just to clarify again, I fully understand that there are good, decent sororities out there....they just aren't really represented in this book because, frankly, that would be boring.


     I read this book knowing almost nothing about how the Greek system works besides random tidbits I've heard from my one friend (the only person I really know that was in a sorority). The lingo was always strange (Spring Sing? Jump week? Bigs and littles?) and I never really knew what any of it was. Thanks to this book, I now know what all that crap is. Sigh. More useless knowledge, I guess. 


     The book follows four girls who are in college sororities. Their names and schools have been changed for privacy, but supposedly their stories are completely true. I think the college is supposed to be somewhere in the South, where apparently sororities are a HUGE deal. Like, could make or break a future job interview big deal. And they weren't kidding. Most of these girls take the whole sorority experience very seriously. 


     In between the personal stories of the four girls, there is some interesting information about the history of sororities and how they work. I thought this was probably the best part of the book. It was very informative and interesting. I didn't really care for the stories from the girls because 90% of it was drama over guys and dating. I guess getting a date is really important to sorority girls. However, I don't really care if they find dates, so this part was mostly filler to me. 


     Overall, it was interesting to see how sororities are run and to see some of the shocking statistics, but I could have done without the dating drama. Sometimes I felt like Robbins specifically chose certain stereotypes to follow (the black girl who grew up poor, the rich white girl with her dad's credit cards, etc.). It made the characters seem more like caricatures than real people.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan (CBR-IV #14)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #14/52
Published: 2009
Pages: 401
Genre: Horror


      I generally don't care for vampire books (or werewolves or zombies or any sort of "creature horror"). But I do love a good earth-destroying virus story, so I figured I could give The Strain a try. After all, I did really enjoy The Passage and it's a vampire virus book. Ultimately, The Strain let me down despite the good reviews I read. 


     The plot started out promising: a plane full of people lands in New York and just stops on the runway. Everyone inside is dead and there is no appearance of any sort of panic or struggle. Okay, I'm intrigued at this point. Except the rest of the book never really lives up to the exciting mystery they present in the beginning. 


     There are a few characters that try and figure out what happened on the airplane, but honestly, none of them were fleshed out enough for me to really care about them except for the old man who owned a pawn shop. Setrakian was in a concentration camp during WWII and realizes that the evil master vampire that he saw over in Europe has now hitched a plane ride to New York (in a giant black coffin, no less). He's been following him ever since and I'm pretty sure no one in New York would have figured anything out about this case without him. Frankly, I'm surprised anyone actually listened to him because his story is pretty outrageous. 


     I guess the story was just a little too campy for my taste. The vampires turned people by shooting a worm/tongue thing out their throats and their blood was milky white (which just made me think of the cyborg guy from Alien.) While I can appreciate that the authors didn't want to go for cliche vampires, in my opinion they got a little TOO creative to the point where they were like  cartoon characters created by a 12-year-old boy's imagination. 


     Mostly, I was just underwhelmed and ultimately bored by this book. I didn't care about the characters or what happened to them, so I have no interest in reading the rest of the trilogy. It's too bad, because I really wanted to like this book. 

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Fully Loaded by Blake Crouch (CBR-IV #13)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #13/52
Published: 2011
Pages: 230
Genre: Thriller/Short Story 


     Blake Crouch is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. His books are great thrillers and he's always offering free/reduced price e-books (not to mention his e-books are generally less than $5 regular price). Previously, these short stories were only available separately, but now they're offered in this short story collection.


     Since there are ten separate stores in this collection, I'll just comment on my favorite/least favorite:

-The Meteorologist was probably my least favorite. It's not that it wasn't any good, but it wasn't really a thriller. It was about a guy who chases extreme weather conditions in his RV. It wasn't even as exciting as the plot sounds. It was mostly about him and a woman he meets.

-Serial was probably my favorite. I've read it before (it was co-written by J.A. Konrath and was included in one of his collections) and it really plays to both Konrath's and Crouch's strengths. Crouch is more of a thriller writer while Konrath knows how to bring on more of the horror aspects. Serial follows what happens when two serial killers target each other. It's an insanely good read.

-Shining Rock was also one that stuck out to me. A couple goes camping in the woods when a weird guy shows up. I won't give anything away, but some interesting things are revealed that completely flip who you want to make it off that mountain alive.

     I thought it was a great book! I look forward to reading more by Blake Crouch in the future.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (CBR-IV #12)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #12/52
Published: 1996
Pages: 202
Genre: Non-fiction/Biography


     I saw the movie that was based on this book back when it came out and was intrigued by the story. I was too young (elementary school age) to remember when the actual news story came out about Chris McCandless and his ill-fated journey into the Alaskan wilderness, so the movie was my first I'd heard of it. The book has been on my to-read list ever since. It's a short read (200 pages), so I finally decided to pick it up.

     Chris McCandless was a bright college graduate who decided to burn all of his money and trek into the Alaskan wilderness with nothing more than a bag of rice. Some think he was crazy or had a mental illness. Some think he was just heavily influenced (and misguided) by some of his favorite authors which included Thoreau and Jack London. No one's really for sure WHY Chris McCandless decided to give up what looked light a bright future to be alone and live in a bus in Alaska.

     I've previously read Jon Krakauer's Morman biography, Under the Banner of Heaven. I'm not a huge non-fiction reader, but I enjoy how Krakauer presents the story. It feels more like a story than just facts on paper and in this case Krakauer even journeyed to Alaska to follow McCandless's trek through the wilderness. It gave the book a more personal feel than if he had just relied on interviews and newspaper facts. 

     The book is very sad. Most people probably know how it ends, whether from seeing the movie or remembering news reports, but it still packs an emotional punch. It's worth a read before you decide whether or not McCandless was an idiot or incredibly brave. He may not be as easy to label as you might think.