Book: Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. Grey (Chapters 1 and 2)

Only kind of, not really. I've actually only read the first two sample chapters on the brand, spanking new Kindle Touch that my BFF got me for my b-day. (She's sleek, she's awesome, and I call her Jane.) I love the sample chapter option available with the Kindle, but I will admit that it could be as detrimental as it is helpful. Sometimes the opening of a book is not the best part of the book. Fifty Shades of Grey, for example, could be a better book then those first two chapters let on.

Summary from Amazon: "When literature student Anastasia Steele is drafted to interview the successful young entrepreneur Christian Grey for her campus magazine, she finds him attractive, enigmatic and intimidating. Convinced their meeting went badly, she tries to put Grey out of her mind - until he happens to turn up at the out-of-town hardware store where she works part-time. Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever."

Fifty Shades of Grey is reportedly erotica of the BDSM variety. I have no problem with that. In fact, I enjoy those stories when they are written well. I don't get the feeling that Fifty Shades of Grey is written all that well. One of the Amazon reviews dubbed Fifty Shades of Grey as the erotica version of Twilight, and I have to say, all the signs are there. Clumsy, insipid, self-esteem challenged heroine, and a manly, enigmatic, perfect, beautiful, too-cool-for-school hero. He is attracted to her bumbling, messiness for gods know why and she is equally mesmerized. Hello, Twilight, so good to see you set-up for the super sexy times!

I do not especially love first-person narratives, let alone first-person narratives that are poorly written. The last really good first person narrative that I read was Alden Bell's The Reapers Are the Angels, an absolutely stunning tale set during the zombie apocalypse. (Who knew that the zombie apocalypse could be poetic? I surely didn't.) Fifty Shades of Grey has a shitload of rave reviews, but also a fair share of mediocre and bad reviews. To be honest, after the debacle that was me reading the Twilight series, I am not inclined to pursue this new series after reading those opening chapters.

The prose was also less than enchanting: too expository for a first-person, too plebeian, and too much of zero happening. After the first meeting between the main characters, we get what amounts to a rundown of Ana's day before Mr. Grey mysteriously (read randomly) shows up at the local DIY store where she works. I skimmed ALOT and that is never a good time. I like to be invested in what I'm reading. Fifty Shades of Grey was far from engaging. Although the prose picks up by that second meeting, I am not inspired to buy the book. The most I'm willing to do is wait for it to show up at my local library.

Give it whirl, if you like, and let me know if it gets better in the meantime. I will admit that only reading the first two chapters is hardly giving the novel a fair shake, but to be honest, I am never interested in wasting scare, valuable reading time on a mediocre book.

Book: World War Z by Max Brooks

I am way behind in reading this book. The furor has passed, at least until later this year when the buzz about the movie's 2013 release gets into full swing and we undoubtedly get a reprint with a still from the movie on the cover. I am not sad about that because I think that despite its slow start, World War Z is a damn good book. Like Alden Bell's The Angels are the Reapers, World War Z is a surprising and compelling read. I wasn't prepared to like the book as much as I did.

World War Z is the thinking man's zombie narrative. Brooks does a marvelous job of incorporating class, economic, cultural, and political considerations into the narrative, creating a richness of story that engages the heart and the mind. It is a global story and Brooks constructs the world and events around the recognizable. Existing national conflicts, PTSD, survivor guilt, fanaticism, capitalism, truth, lies, and the "let's blame it on Africa" game all get equal time. Human behavior is the highlight of the story, the zombies are almost negligible, a MacGuffin, if you will. To put it very simply, the true heart of this story is the people. The way that they respond in crises, how they respond to each other, how they survive. World War Z doesn't shy away from the evil things that men do, the greed and the selfishness. It also does not shy away from the goodness and the self-sacrifice. It does a really good job of avoiding caricatures, instead allowing the characters to be flawed, multifaceted, and deeply affected by the novel's events. The good and the bad collide and, like with any true community event, the perspectives and what they mean are ever changing.

I was initially put off by the first person POV, (the narrative is constructed as a UN report and written interview style)but again, it works. In fact, it works with astounding success. The voices are very individual. Another thing that I really loved about this book is the way that Brooks identifies and stresses the fact that the human story is a global story. For better or worse. A great read and I can't recommend it enough.