The Unpossessed

Title: The Unpossessed

Author: Tess Slesinger

Pages: 306

Genre: Fiction

Grade: F

Synopsis: This book, published in 1934, is about a group of left-wing communist supporters in New York City in the 30's.  They want a revolution, but their best idea for getting one going was to start a magazine.

My Review:  I made it 2/3 of the way through this book before I finally decided that life is too short to spend so much time reading a book that I was simply not interested in and not enjoying. The prose was hard to follow and the characters all blended together and I had a difficult time telling them apart.

The History of Love

Title: The History of Love

Author: Nicole Krauss

Pages: 255

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: The History of Love is a book written by a Polish-Chilean immigrant, but it makes a far reaching impact on a couple of seemingly unconnected people in New York City.  Alma Singer is a young girl in New York City who only knows that she is named after the main character in a Spanish book titled The History of Love.  Leo Gursky is a lonely old man with only one friend, also in New York City, but who will often make a scene when he is out just to have human interaction. Zvi Litvinoff is the Jewish author of the book who fled from Poland to Chile at the beginning of WWII.

My Review: I found this book rather hard to follow as it jumped between three apparently unconnected story lines.  Each of the stories were independently interesting, but my brain had a hard time figuring out just what story was what, until the last chunk of the book.  I did find the ending of the book quite satisfying as it seemed to tie up the loose ends and stories very well.

A Wrinkle in Time

Title: A Wrinkle in Time

Author: Madeleine L'Engle

Pages: 211

Genre: Fantasy, Newbery Award

Grade: B

Synopsis: The unique young boy Charles Wallace and his older sister Meg are surprised by the arrival of some strange visitors on a stormy night.  Their father had been missing for years when researching alternate dimensions and tessaracts. When Meg, Charles Wallace and their friend Calvin have an opportunity to help locate Meg & Charles' father, they jump at the chance.

My Review: I'm certain that I read this book when I was younger, although I do not remember it.  I can handle and enjoy some science fiction, but this book was too strange for me.  Tesseracts and time travel, ok. Pulsing brains and talking and shape changing stars must be a bit too far (although, I did enjoy Dune and that was also a strange one). Ada likes the book and wants to read more in the series.  I'll go ahead and pass.