Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Things Everyone Else Loves That I Hate

1. Cormac McCarthy and all his books. And all the movies that will ever be made of them. Obvs. I think this has been discussed on enough here.


2. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. See Jonniker, for she says it best. Or rather, her new doctor says it best. The doctor sees that she's reading Eat, Pray, Love and says, "You love it? Everyone seems to." Jonniker replies, "Not really. I think she’s self-absorbed. And I just finished India, which was the worst part." "No,” she {shakes} her head grimly. “Indonesia is much, much worse. She thinks she shits GOLD in Indonesia."


3. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I really didn't realize this book had a following until it was discussed in the comments on Jonniker's post about Eat, Pray, Love, but I've recently heard that there is a movie being made of it. And the thing is, I really liked this book and I thought it explored some very interesting legal ground and some thorny emotional issues and it really had me thinking as a mother and as a person about how would I handle a situation in which I needed to balance the physical needs of one child against the emotional needs of another child and if I weren't the mother, how would I advise that family? How can you tell a family to let one child die in order to let another child live? And then, just as I was pondering all of that, she ends the book with a completely bullshit, cop-out ending that completely negated all the thorny questions she had brought up in the book. I threw it across the room.


4. Dansko shoes. I don't give a rat's ass how comfortable they are, there is no way in hell I am going to pay over a hundred dollars for some damn clogs. I buy shoes at Target and at a cheap place online and they are comfortable and cute.

5. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt - simply because he learned nothing! He watched his mother scrimp and save and beg to feed him and his sixty-three siblings for his whole life and then, when he’s old enough to work and help out, what does he do? Why, he saves all his money so his selfish little ass can go to America! I was stunned.

6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - I'm sorry, there was another answer. No, I don't have it, but there was one. I just refuse to accept that that was the only answer. I have hated that book since I had to read it in high school.

7. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. This falls into a subset I call People I Don't Feel Sorry For or Well, What Did You Expect to Happen? Boy goes into the Alaskan wilderness to "live off the land" and tries to ride out the Alaskan winter. Boy dies. Who else saw that ending coming a mile away? Raise your hands, please. I did feel sorry for his parents. Am not totally heartless.

8. Grizzly Man - Same subset as Into the Wild. Man loves bears, Man lives with bears, Bears eat man. Once again, raise your hands if you saw that coming. I did feel sorry for his girlfriend, who perished along with him. (Get it? Perished? Like perishable food? Oh, was that in bad taste? HA! Bad taste! Oh, I should go home now.)

26 comments:

Jess said...

Um! I haven't read all those books! But the ones I have? I AGREE.

Pickles and Dimes said...

I really like Jodi Picoult, EXCEPT I HATED "My Sister's Keeper." The ending was a TOTAL cop-out.

email said...

I haven't read ANY of those books. Except Angela's Ashes. Which I liked well enough, I suppose. I don't remember much about it. Other than that, I hated "The English Patient" movie. And that one with Brad Pitt and the boy from ET, Henry something. Oh, "Legends of the Fall." Didn't HATE it, but found it rather BORING. Everyone else LOVED those movies. I'm convinced they're all lying.

TSintheC said...

I'm so with you on #5. Couldn't finish it. Blech.

Jonniker said...

The ending in My Sister's Keeper was SUCH A FREAKING COP-OUT. Oh I was pissed. Infuriated. PISSSSEEEEED.

Alice said...

i love you.

Shelly said...

Thanks Jess! I read way too much.

Shelly said...

Shauna - the more I read by Jodi Picoult, the less comfortable I am saying, "I really like Jodi Picoult." She likes to pull the "twist ending", which occasionally is the bullshit cop-out ending like "My Sister's Keeper". Which is bad, because my husband believes I like Jodi Picoult and occasionally buys me books by Jodi Picoult. Which I then feel guilty if I hate, because my husband never buys me books, and he's so proud of himself that he's picked up an author name that I like. Damn that Jodi Picoult. Why can't she just be a good author that I can love?

Shelly said...

jmc - Ooh, Legends of the Fall. A friend of mine brought that to show me because it was her favorite movie and one of my friends and I ended up mocking it (in front of her) because it was so bad. Wow, I'm not usually that rude. That's a bad memory. But, god, that movie is awful. "It was a good death." I beg to disagree - mauled by a bear sounds like a fucking awful death to me.

Shelly said...

Thank you, Hot. I remember when it came out. Everyone in the free world loved that book.

Tess said...

That Grizzly Man dude was just...DUMB. I mean, that's all there is to that.

Shelly said...

Hey Jonniker! Welcome! I absolutely loved your discussion of Eat, Pray, Love. Did you read the author interview at the end of My Sister's Keeper where she said that even her own was pissed about how it ended and how it "had to end that way"? I was like, no way, bitch, you totally ruined your book.

Shelly said...

Alice - thank you! I love you, too!

Pickles and Dimes said...

Shelly,

I made the mistake of reading THREE Jodi Picoult books IN A ROW, and by the end of it all, I had to step away and read some nice nonfiction for awhile because you're right, she's developed a twist ending for every book, and you can see it coming a mile away.

(Although her prose is SO beautiful, and I'll sometimes have a particular phrase of hers stuck in my head for days. Damn her.)

Shelly said...

Shauna - THREE in a row?! Oy. I can't think of an author that I would read three in a row. But you are correct that her prose is wonderful. That is why I keep coming back to her books. Despite the sometimes crap endings.

email said...

Oh, by the way, I am SO stealing this post idea tomorrow.

Shelly said...

jmc - Oh, help yourself! I stole it out of the comments sections on Jonniker's blog. : ) That's what I love about blogging!

Pickles and Dimes said...

Shelly, I sent you my address. Let me know if you still didn't get the email!

Shelly said...

Shauna, I still didn't get the email. I'm going to email you from my work email. I *know* that one works! I'm sorry for the inconvenience!

Pickles and Dimes said...

Shelly,

I emailed your work email. If you don't have that one, let me know and I'll email you from MY work email.

Maybe someone is telling me not to read this book! Hee!

Gina said...

I agree with just about all of them. Especially the "Into the Wild" and "Grizzly Man" ones. When those forst came out, I couldn't figure out why I was supposed to be so inspired by dumbasses.

I was, however, inspired by this post, and did my own.

Shelly said...

Thank you, Gina, that is precisely how I felt! I was like, "And what am I supposed to admire here?!" And I love that you copycatted this post!

dawn224 said...

Fortunately I haven't read most of these. I was all up in My Sister's Keeper, and even though the ending was a cop out, I still bawled. Apparently Cameron Diaz is in the movie ... I'm not feelin' it.

Shelly said...

That's the thing, Dawn, I cried, too! I was pissed that she had pulled such a bullshit, cop-out ending, but it got me.

Magpie said...

Thankfully I've read none of those. But I love my Danskos. Love.

Shelly said...

Magpie, and you're welcome to your Danskos. I'm glad you love them. They're just not for me.