My Book Meh-commendations

I mean ... maybe YOU will like them. #124

Let me confess one of my most churlish, most curmudgeonly pet peeves: the rampant contemporary overuse - dare I say misuse - of the standing ovation.

People! A standing ovation used to mean something more than just appreciation. It signified unparalleled excellence, not just an impressive performance. It was collective acknowledgement that we were all witnessing something special. It was rarely bestowed. But nowadays people just hand them out, willy-nilly, like they’re promotional flyers for a discount sandwich shack.

Outside of my apparently irrepressible need to expose my ridiculous peccadilloes to you, I bring this up because I also wonder if the trend toward freewheeling, over-the-top lavish praise wherein books are called “devastating,” “brilliant,” or even “Shakespearean” (!!), is doing a disservice. Generally I’m 100% supportive of more positivity in the world, and writing a book does seem like a magical act which we should applaud, but often I find my reading circle will often say “I was so excited because of the reviews, but I thought it was just - okay.” It’s a disappointment due to the hype, rather than an otherwise perfectly fine reading experience.

Could I just, you know, be an adult and read books and not let reviews shape my perspective? I’ll take it under consideration. But for now, the following is a list of books I was So! Excited! to Read! and ultimately thought were just - meh. Books with some redeeming qualities but also some real challenges = my meh-commendations.

Once I’ve exorcised my reading agita, I shall return next week with my regularly scheduled recommendation positivity. If I can save one person from bloated reading expectations, it will be worth it.

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Summary: Birnam Wood - A renegade ecological group and a mysterious billionaire meet at the crossroads of a wealthy New Zealand estate.

You might like it because: The writing is well-observed, and the author raises some interesting points about ecological dread and late-stage capitalism. Everyone from Barack Obama to Stephen King thought this was great.

My issue was: Not taut enough to be a thriller, not profound enough to be a character study, you didn’t root for anyone, and the ending, while symbolic, came a little out of nowhere. It basically became a thriller in the last fifth of the book, too late.

Summary: Happy Place - A group of friends reunite one last time for a weeklong getaway at their beloved Maine house, but Harriet and Wyn are no longer the perfect couple their friends think they are - and they have to hold up the charade.

You might like it because: Emily Henry writes fun characters who are more believable than the average rom com, and she champions platonic friendship as much as romance here. I’ve seen a lot of people say it’s (one of) their favorite books of hers.

My issue was: The plot was pedestrian, the dialogue was okay but not spectacular, and it was all very … expected? My own Emily Henry ranking is as follows:

• Beach Read

• Book Lovers

• Happy Place

• People We Meet on Vacation

I said what I said.

Summary: Yellowface - When author June Hayward witnesses her friend, star author Athena Liu, die in a freak accident, she steals her new manuscript and publishes it as her own. June’s literary star rises, as do questions about appropriation and racism.

Why you might like it: It’s such an intriguing premise, and author R.F. Kuang takes a big swing in her satirical-horror-unreliable narrator-social critique.

But my issue was: I really wanted to like this, but for me it didn’t deliver on its promise. For a book about star writers, both the narration and the books-within-book passages were banal. It was kind of a mess in execution, raising more questions and pointing more fingers than it actually answered. It needed to be more clever, or more satirical, or more biting, or the narrator needed to push farther … something. It just ended up in the middle for me.

Summary: Pageboy - Actor Elliot Page’s journey through a challenging childhood and into embracing his own trans identity.

Why you might like it: There aren’t many people who can tell this kind of story - where the disorienting scrutiny of fame meets the anguish of gender dysphoria meets a deeply dysfunctional family of origin - and there’s a tremendous amount of power and vulnerability on these pages. There’s merit in being a witness to this story.

But my issue was: This was a memoir that I thought I liked more at the time than I actually like upon reflection. The wounds were a little too raw, and the reflections were more juvenile than I expected of a thoughtful artist in his mid-thirties. Like, I’m glad I read it but also can’t necessarily say it was good.

Did I get these all wrong? Did you love them? Is there a meh-commendation you’d like to share with the class? Please leave a comment!

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And Another Thing!

• All links this week go to Best Bookstore in Palm Springs, which we’ve talked about before. But turns out a/ I haven’t visited that many cute indie bookstores, weirdly, is that not my personal brand? and b/ they have this incredible concierge service that sourced and shipped off some gift books for me, all through a delightful text chain.

• Please. Send me your favorite indie bookstores. Or they’re all going to link to the same four stores forevermore and then where will we be, I ask you.

• Wondering why a five-lamb book is still “meh”? Because reminder: lambs are not an indication of quality, but of emotional succor. Get the scoop HERE.

• Interested in books I actually do recommend? (Recommendations? In a book recommendation newsletter? Groundbreaking.) You can see all past recommendations in the archive here.

• As always, shares and comments are gratefully received. Otherwise how am I going become a lady who leisurely reads all day long? Thxkilybye.