Bad books

booksLast week I read through the “notable books of 2012” section of the NY Times Book Review and put in reserves at the library for a bunch of them.  So far, I’ve started and given up on five of them in short order:

Shout Her Lovely Name, by Natalie Serber. The stories in this collection felt contrived and the mostly young women heroines seemed imagined, not real. Contrast this to How to Breathe Underwater, by Julie Orringer. The mostly young women heroines in these stories fairly leap off the page with authenticity. Continue reading “Bad books”