Happy Monday, friends! It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date, and adapted by Kellee at Unleashing Readers and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts with a children’s/YA focus. The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. These weekly roundups are a great way to discover new blogs and bloggers, share some of the titles you’ve been enjoying, and add to your ever-growing to-read list.
Friends, let me tell you. There’s no such thing as a “guilty pleasure”, at least when it comes to reading. Readers should always feel free to read whatever they want, without worrying about what other people might think about them. Reading should be a joy, and selecting reading material is a deeply personal experience – one man’s trash is truly another man’s treasure when it comes to books.
That being said….boy oh boy, I’ve been reading some pretty embarrassing books recently. I’m going to blame it on my schedule, which has left me pretty exhausted and foggy. Sometimes, when life gets crazy, you just need the book equivalent of junk food – not particularly good for you, but easy to eat.
And so, because the internet is a safe space, I share with you my “guilty but not so guilty” read for the past week:
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.
This book. Oh WOW is this book terrible. The writing is just ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. There are no actual human beings anywhere in the story, just exposition-spouting robots who speak like animated Wikipedia articles. “What does XYZ mean?” says the first character. “Funny you should ask,” responds the second character, before launching into four pages of exposition. The dialogue is so unnatural it’s downright hilarious.
Then there’s plot! The plot is just over-the-top insane. People act in remarkably stupid ways, and there’s a marked lack of understanding of just how religion works, at least in terms of faith itself, not to mention the fact that the majority of the world’s population isn’t even Christian, let alone Catholic, meaning that the demise of the Catholic church, while obviously distressing for many people, would hardly mean the end of society as we know it.
And yet….
What can I say? This book is poorly written, ridiculously plotted and frustratingly structured, but it sure does move quickly. The pace is relentless, and if you want something to take your mind off your daily problems, this is definitely a worthwhile pick.
I strongly believe that there is a book for every time and place. Sometimes you want a book that will challenge you, that will test you, that will expand your horizons and build your vocabulary and your knowledge base. And sometimes you just want to zip and zoom your way through a silly book that moves at a breakneck pace and keeps you entertained. Read what you want, friends, even if you’d rather not flaunt every book you read.
In the world of children’s books, I recently discovered FukuFuku: Kitten Tales, another collection of cat stories from Chi’s Sweet Home creator Konami Kanata. If you have cat-loving graphic novel fans in your library, this title is guaranteed to be a winner. The Chi’s Sweet Home series is extremely popular in my library, with plenty of devoted young fans.
A collection of 24 sweet little vignettes, Kitten Tales is all about an adorable little kitten named Fukufuku who adapts to life with her equally adorable elderly owner. Even die-hard dog lovers are sure to fall in love with this sweet, curious, cuddly kitten!
And that’s everything for me today. I hope everyone has a wonderful week, and keep reading!
Interesting reviews, Jane. I enjoyed your thoughts on the Dan Brown book.
I used to read Dan Browns books a long time ago. Way before I became more critical of what I was reading. I’ll need to revisit this and see if my tastes have changed LOL. I do enjoy the movies though.
Fuku Fuko looks really funny. Thanks for sharing! Hope you have a great week!
Dan Brown has made a lot of money on those books, I suspect! As for guilty pleasures, we all need a break now & then. I turn to re-reads to get me through a messy time!
I was so distraught over the absurdity of the one Dan Brown movie adaptation I saw that I swore off his books then and there–and rightly so, it seems. Your review made me laugh! But sometimes we do need a page-turner and it sounds like this book is ideal for that sort of reading. I just requested that my library purchase FukuFuku–it looks adorable! And I am a sucker for anything and everything cat of course.
I loved Angels and Demons, but that may be because I was reading it while a new Pope was being elected, so it was life and art imitating each other. I don’t think Dan Brown is a stellar author, but you are right, his books move fast and sometimes they are just what you need.
Haha, Dan Brown is an awful writer, but I’ve somehow read almost all of his books. They’re fun, quick reads.
Ha ha. I feel the same way about Dan Brown and I’ve read all his books!
YES! Me too! 😀
FukuFuku: Kitten Tales is on my For Later list on the library website. That list isn’t as bad as my Goodreads list, but still, I am not sure I will ever manage to read all the books on it.
Fukufuku is new to me and would definitely appeal to some of my readers. Thanks for sharing!
Kitten Tales looks like an adorable book. I’ll have to look for it! Have a great week!
I completely agree there’s no such thing as a “guilty pleasure” read! We should read what we enjoy at the time. I think a lot of us use that term because we feel others are judging our selection and, therefore, judging US. Either the book is poorly written or poorly researched or contains silly subject matter… whatever. I remember reading Angels & Demons back when it first came out. At the time I was a brand new mom, surviving on caffeine and ice cream, and I was finishing up library school and working while putting my hubby through his PhD. And at the time, it fit what a needed. There have been many other junk food books (Outlander, Ready Player One, etc.) that I honestly enjoyed at the time, but it always gives me pause when I have to rate the book. Because I want to be able to say, “FIVE STARS for this was a very imaginative world that I’d love to get lost in for a few days.” But simultaneously, “TWO STARS because it was poorly written and contained some obvious holes.” Just one reason why I struggle with the 5-star rating system. lol Have a happy reading week!
Exactly!! There are so many books (and TV shows and movies) that I absolutely LOVE, even though I know they’re utterly ridiculous. Sometimes you just need the right material at the right time, and there’s no shame in that!! And there are books that I think are utterly brilliant that other people have written off as terrible, and that’s cool, too! Ratings are so subjective, really, which is why I struggle with them, too. I would hate for someone to miss out on a book they might love because I gave it a poor rating!
I’ve never read any Dan Brown, but I definitely need a “guilty pleasure” book every so often!
I did love Angels and Demons but I wonder if it would uphold as a reread since I’ve started my crazy kid lit reading? I have a couple of his newer books but haven’t wanted to put down kid lit in order to return to the “adult” books. I wonder if that is telling….
I liked Angels and Demons the movie but I don’t think I ever got around to reading it. Have a great week!
I LOVED reading your review of that Dan Brown novel. I read Inferno back in 2015 at the behest of my host in Istanbul when I visited – he gave me a ‘Dan Brown’ tour of Istanbul, so I thought I might as well. I had the exact same sentiment – there was this desire to appear so learned/smart it’s downright insane. I recalled enjoying him more when I was younger (hahahhaa). Here’s the link to my own Dan Brown review which I managed to dig up:
https://gatheringbooks.org/2015/11/26/a-slightly-inferno-sunken-palace-tour-in-istanbul/