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Book Report
Jan. 23rd, 2012 08:21 pmYikes, a lot of grade “C” books in this crop!
The Kid by Sapphire – This novel describes what happens to the son of the main character in Sapphire’s previous novel, the best-selling “Push”. (“Push” was turned into the acclaimed movie “Precious”, in case you didn’t know). “The Kid” is told through the eyes of nine-year old Abdul and it opens with his mother’s funeral; unexpectedly she has died young, of AIDS. On one hand, I was really intrigued to see what would happen to Abdul – without family or money, he falls into the foster system. But I have to say that by about halfway through, the novel starts to drag, and the last third or so of the book really falls apart. I felt as though Sapphire was trying to throw too much in there and taking us on tangents by the side characters instead of sticking to Abdul’s story. It took me a while to finish this one and picking it up became a chore. It’s too bad; “Push” is one of my all-time favorites. Grade: C-
Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman – I guess that for me, the bottom line here is that there’s nothing wrong with this book except for the fact that it covers ground that’s been well-explored in a lot of other books I’ve read lately: “Drive” by Daniel Pink, “Freakonomics”, and the work of Malcolm Gladwell. It uses numerous studies and interesting anecdotes to describe and explain instances when humans don’t always act rationally, and what can be done about it. Worth reading but I think I need a break from books like this for now given how much I’ve already read on the topic. Grade: C
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The Kid by Sapphire – This novel describes what happens to the son of the main character in Sapphire’s previous novel, the best-selling “Push”. (“Push” was turned into the acclaimed movie “Precious”, in case you didn’t know). “The Kid” is told through the eyes of nine-year old Abdul and it opens with his mother’s funeral; unexpectedly she has died young, of AIDS. On one hand, I was really intrigued to see what would happen to Abdul – without family or money, he falls into the foster system. But I have to say that by about halfway through, the novel starts to drag, and the last third or so of the book really falls apart. I felt as though Sapphire was trying to throw too much in there and taking us on tangents by the side characters instead of sticking to Abdul’s story. It took me a while to finish this one and picking it up became a chore. It’s too bad; “Push” is one of my all-time favorites. Grade: C-
Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman – I guess that for me, the bottom line here is that there’s nothing wrong with this book except for the fact that it covers ground that’s been well-explored in a lot of other books I’ve read lately: “Drive” by Daniel Pink, “Freakonomics”, and the work of Malcolm Gladwell. It uses numerous studies and interesting anecdotes to describe and explain instances when humans don’t always act rationally, and what can be done about it. Worth reading but I think I need a break from books like this for now given how much I’ve already read on the topic. Grade: C
More behind the cut.
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