Looking for Alaska by John Green
This is a pretty good book, but I found the second half to be far better than the first half, which felt somewhat random and uninteresting. I wanted to enjoy the characters, but found them largely unlikeable, with the exception of the narrator. I didn’t like Alaska at all–she had the potential to be more, but the vagueness of her story caused her to be distant and unattainable.
I also didn’t like how the boys in the story mythicize her; they seem to worship her for no reason in particular and that really bothered me. But still, the book asks some very relevant questions at the end (about death, potential suicide, and the like) but the inconsistency of the writing kept me from loving the book more.
Lastly, I should mention that this book was on a lot of awards lists back when it was first published–it even won the Printz Award in 2006. I have to say that I don’t really get it. It’s an okay book, but personally I don’t feel it lived up to all the hype surrounding it. I guess that just goes to show that award winners aren’t necessarily for everyone–or maybe I just wasn’t clever enough to understand this one. 
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Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn
I read this in a day. It’s kind of a standard-issue ghost story. Nothing spectacular or terribly surprising here (including the ending, which is obvious from the start).
What I really liked about this book is how the author drew her characters–especially the character of Sissy. I felt Ali’s frustration with her because Sissy is one of the most annoying characters I’ve ever read. I wanted to smack her repeatedly. So if nothing else, the author succeeded in getting me to sympathize with her protagonist and cheer her on.
As I said, the ending is super predictable, but I still found the writing very suspenseful and I would call this a page-turner. I wouldn’t mind reading another book by this author.
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The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
An enjoyable, fast-paced mystery. The story reminded me of the movie “Clue” with less slapstick (though there’s plenty of fun and comedy in this book). The characters are diverse and interesting, so much that I found myself wanting to know more about some of the supporting characters.
I wasn’t expecting an epilogue type of ending–those can be tricky sometimes because they can feel rushed and sometimes hokey, but I found this one satisfying.
I kind of wish I had read this as a child, but then again I might not have appreciated it as much. There were a lot of humorous bits that probably would have gone right over my head as a kid, but as an adult I was able to enjoy the humor much more.
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Love, love, love this book. It touches on numerous themes; at its core, it’s yet another coming-of-age story, but it’s very well done. Charlie might be one of my favorite characters ever. At times he is kind of annoying, but in the overall scope of the story, I understood why. He’s just so awkward and unsure of himself, but at the same time really aware and in tune with the emotions of people around him. He is strange and paradoxical that way.
Apparently, the author drew from The Catcher in the Rye, which is okay with me (even though I HATED Catcher). I guess you can think of Charlie as a much more likeable version of Holden Caulfield.
When I got to the pretty big reveal toward the end, it really changed my perception of the story as a whole. In fact, when I finished the book, I went back to the beginning and flipped through to reread certain portions. I think this is a book that will get better with each read and it’s definitely one I plan to read again.
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Smokin’ Seventeen by Janet Evanovich
Yeah, this book is pretty lame.
Let me back up. I read this for work and while it’s enjoyable in parts, my overall feeling can be summed up in the word “meh.” The plot is holey as Swiss cheese and the situations are highly unrealistic, but I guess that’s the point of a book like this. It’s sort of a guilty pleasure for some, I guess. Also, the dialogue is super cheesy and really annoying. The strong profanity didn’t bother me at all, but I did get sick of countless dorky euphemisms for sex organs.
I should also mention that I haven’t read the preceding books in the series (because my reading of this was for work and I didn’t have the time to read 16 books in less than a month). I thought I would get lost in the plot, but considering how goofy the plot is, there isn’t much to get lost in.
Lastly, the big reveal at the end isn’t a surprise at all. I figured out who the killer is about halfway through because it’s that obvious.
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Sorry to end the post on a negative note, but that last book was one I really disliked! I feel like I’ve read a lot of books in 2011, but not a whole lot that I enjoyed enough to read more than once. hmm. Not sure if I’m going to set a specific reading goal for 2012. We’ll see.
I liked this book more than I probably should have, haha. And by that, I mean that it’s very similar to Twilight (so if you didn’t like that, absolutely don’t read Mara Dyer). This one doesn’t have vampires and werewolves, but it invoked the same kind of emotions/feelings in me that Twilight did, if that makes sense.
