Memorable Fiction 2018

I always appreciate book recommendations and reviews by others, so I thought I'd go through my list of books from last year and do a few blog posts about them. Please note that 'memorable' does not always equal 'good' in my book :) First up, fiction:

I was fooled into grabbing this book by the Pulitzer Prize sticker. The intro intrigued me, as the book was published posthumously, thanks to the determined efforts of the author's mother, a decade after he committed suicide.  I made it about halfway through the book. The cover illustration is on point: the book is solely about a creepy middle aged man who still lives with his mother and has zero redeeming qualities whatsoever. I'd add it to my Worst Books Ever list. How this book made it to a 35th anniversary edition is beyond me.

A book I thoroughly enjoyed that centered around time travel of its characters between 1890's Kansas and 21st century San Francisco. One of those rare books that has surprising twists and turns. It was impossible for me to predict the ending.

A year ago, my daughter who works at the library told me about this book, as she often does when she runs across odd titles. Not a very PC title, that's for sure! Once it became a movie that people seemed to enjoy, I decided I'd read the book, as I always think the books are better than any movie. Ok, don't judge me, but I LOVED this book! It's described as a modern day Asian 'Pride and Prejudice' and I concur. It's over the top and funny. Some reviews complain about all the footnotes on the bottom of the pages, but I loved learning about Asian culture, language, food, etc. I ended up reading the entire trilogy, but the first book is the best. 

A friend recommended this book to me after her book club read it, telling me that it provided good insight into cyberstalking. Well, maybe if your stalker is Ted Bundy! Once I saw the path this book was headed, I closed it. Very disturbing. What made this a particularly bad book was the way the author portrayed the victims. It's hard to feel any empathy for people who strip and masturbate in front of open windows in their NYC apartments. Or put their daily itinerary on social media. I'm not surprised it became a Lifetime series. Ugh.

I love a good novel and this one delivered, delving into the lives of four siblings over many years. The premise: How would you live your life if a fortune teller told you the exact day you would die? Overall, I enjoyed the book, thanks to good character development and dialogue. However, I think the author took the easy way out and had three of the four siblings die from self-destruction, which didn't seem all that realistic to me. Still, a very interesting read.