Books 20, 21 & 22: Divergent, My Name is Memory & Fool For Love

Well we are quite a way into 2014 and I have been very neglectful on logging my reading progress.  I have been reading, I am just finding it hard to find time to get it typed out.  I even have short stories I finished in December that need attention- Guess I will be re-reading those stories.

Anyways. 

There are 3 books I will be talking about today.  I know two of them I finished in January and the third was either January or the beginning of Feb.

First I read Divergent, by Veronica Roth.  I was not so sure I wanted to read this one, but it looks like it is required reading for anyone who is looking for a book after reading "The Hunger Games".  And of course there is a movie coming out.  I don't want to go into too much plot detail, but lets just note that it takes place in a dystopian future and has a girl who needs to find her strength as the main character. 

I did not hate the book, nor did I love the book.  I did feel like the the author needed to sit with the book a bit longer and really flesh out this new world.  There are 2 more books to the trilogy, but at this time I have no interest in reading them.  But I will probably go see the movie.

Next I read My Name is Memory, by Ann Brasheres.  This is a book I had been really wanting to read.  The subject matter is right in my sweet spot, a man who remembers all of his past lives.  Oh I had high hopes.  Well maybe I had too high of hopes.  I was really let down by this one.  It is the first "adult" novel by the author, who is known for "The Traveling pants" books, and the writing felt like it was a YA book. At the start of the book I was Ok with it, but as it progressed the story and the dialogue just became painful.

In the book I was hoping for more introspection and reflection on being out of time, or the burden and conflicts of remembering all the lives.  But instead it was a sappy "soul mate" search through time, and even that love seemed forced and not real.  Instead of being in my sweet spot, it hit all of the tropes that make we cringe, which is too bad, because I really wanted to like it.

After that, I decided to read a palette cleanser type book.  So, I picked up a book that has literally been sitting on my night stand for at least a year "Fool for Love, F Scott Fitzgerald" by Scott Donaldson.  Yes, a biography on Fitzgerald.  I can't say I learned a whole lot.  Most of what was there I had already read in other biographies.  However, there was some interesting facts about his time in North Carolina, that I had not really known about.  That time and the women he was involved with always seem a bit sketchy in most biographies of his life.  It was some of the time where he was at his lowest, and getting involved with women.  It was just the type of book I needed at that time.

Well I am on to another Fitzgerald biographies, this one focusing more on the couple.  Hopefully It won't take me months to log that one.