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A review by vanessakm
1001 Books for Every Mood by Hallie Ephron
3.0
I have an abiding weakness for books like these, although my bulging TBR shelf certainly doesn’t need any assistance.
For the sake of full (and overly obvious) disclosure, I’ve thumbed through this a couple of times, but I haven’t read it cover to cover.
What I liked:
You’ll get plenty of bang for your buck. This book is 384 pages and a bit oversized. It’s broken down into a ridiculously specific number of moods: for adolescent angst, to save the world, to get wasted (or to get sober, if you prefer.)
Each heading has a list of around roughly 10-20 books, each with a short blurb, occasional excerpt, and a star rating system for literary merit (highly subjective, see below.) Additionally, there is a symbol legend to break the book down into further sub-categories: humorous, a page turner, challenging, and so on.
There is a fairly thorough index.
There is a good, sometimes cheeky mix of fiction and non-fiction.
Finally, it’s noted if the book has won any of a group of well-known awards (Booker, Hugo, Pulitzer, Newbury, etc.)
What was mildly problematic:
I don’t know this if this is a problem as much as it’s just the way opinions go, but some of the star ratings don’t make sense. Two out of four stars for All Quiet on the Western Front?? That’s the same, for the record, as what the author, Hallie Ephron, gave Jaws.
I hesitate to mention this, as it’s in no way the author’s fault, but this was published in 2008, so you’ll find the occasional outdated entry. I doubt anyone is reading Three Cups of Tea for inspiration these days.
Some of the choices are too obvious. While you’ll find some new to you reads here, other selections are no brainers:
—Want to be scared? Read The Exorcist. (I did appreciate how she also includes The Hot Zone, in case you really don’t want to sleep.)
—Want to have a good cry? Read Love Story.
(Please, that book is so maudlin. Oliver and Jenny meet at Ivy League schools, Oliver’s dad doesn’t approve, Jenny gets a terminal illness, Oliver’s dad shows up grief stricken at the hospital to apologize after she.....she....damnit, why are my eyes burning? WHO IS CHOPPING ONIONS?)
45 minutes later......
Bottom line: The younger of a reader you are, the more you’ll get out of this. If you’ve been reading for a while, you are going to be familiar (or overly familiar) with some of the selections, but you’ll still find new books, books you were only glancingly familiar with, and books you’ve forgotten. We all seek out specific types of reads sometimes.
For the sake of full (and overly obvious) disclosure, I’ve thumbed through this a couple of times, but I haven’t read it cover to cover.
What I liked:
You’ll get plenty of bang for your buck. This book is 384 pages and a bit oversized. It’s broken down into a ridiculously specific number of moods: for adolescent angst, to save the world, to get wasted (or to get sober, if you prefer.)
Each heading has a list of around roughly 10-20 books, each with a short blurb, occasional excerpt, and a star rating system for literary merit (highly subjective, see below.) Additionally, there is a symbol legend to break the book down into further sub-categories: humorous, a page turner, challenging, and so on.
There is a fairly thorough index.
There is a good, sometimes cheeky mix of fiction and non-fiction.
Finally, it’s noted if the book has won any of a group of well-known awards (Booker, Hugo, Pulitzer, Newbury, etc.)
What was mildly problematic:
I don’t know this if this is a problem as much as it’s just the way opinions go, but some of the star ratings don’t make sense. Two out of four stars for All Quiet on the Western Front?? That’s the same, for the record, as what the author, Hallie Ephron, gave Jaws.
I hesitate to mention this, as it’s in no way the author’s fault, but this was published in 2008, so you’ll find the occasional outdated entry. I doubt anyone is reading Three Cups of Tea for inspiration these days.
Some of the choices are too obvious. While you’ll find some new to you reads here, other selections are no brainers:
—Want to be scared? Read The Exorcist. (I did appreciate how she also includes The Hot Zone, in case you really don’t want to sleep.)
—Want to have a good cry? Read Love Story.
(Please, that book is so maudlin. Oliver and Jenny meet at Ivy League schools, Oliver’s dad doesn’t approve, Jenny gets a terminal illness, Oliver’s dad shows up grief stricken at the hospital to apologize after she.....she....damnit, why are my eyes burning? WHO IS CHOPPING ONIONS?)
45 minutes later......
Bottom line: The younger of a reader you are, the more you’ll get out of this. If you’ve been reading for a while, you are going to be familiar (or overly familiar) with some of the selections, but you’ll still find new books, books you were only glancingly familiar with, and books you’ve forgotten. We all seek out specific types of reads sometimes.