The other Anne Tyler I’ve read in the past is Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and my recollection of that is that it was well-written but depressing. This one seemed more hopeful, almost a book of redemption. Specifically you’re watching the lead character, Macon, emerge from the box he’s lived his life in. I’ve been working on getting out of my box too.

We all tend to define ourselves–I never do this, I always do that, I’m no good at such and such–as though these are physical absolutes, unchangeable laws of nature. But that’s an illusion. Macon finds himself walking out of his box without effort, finding that he doesn’t have to always this or never that. His character is more fluid than he’d ever believed. And I’ve been finding the same. All we have to do to change is stop labeling ourselves and say yes where we’ve always said no.

So I’m glad that The Accidental Tourist was placed in my line of sight and I’m glad that I said yes to it. Now back to the writing.

The ending seemed hectically rushed.  There were no long chapters of wrapping up and resolution, just a couple of quick paragraphs to catch the reader up on a wealth of backstory that had been occurring unseen (though not completely unguessed) throughout the book.  Now we wait for the third installment (not yet published) to find out how she wraps up a complex set of story lines.  The romantic triangle seems unsolvable.  It’s hard not to root for Peeta since he’s the love interest we see the most of.

When my friend Sheila gave me a nice hardcover edition for Christmas, I thought I hadn’t read it, but once I started it did become familiar.  Maybe there aren’t any unread McBain’s out there for me.  But this was a great one to re-read and the edition is a big upgrade from my tattered paperback.

Tweak has no better picture to paint. In fact, although it ends where Beautiful Boy did, my edition contained two additional epilogues/afterwords chronicling two more (shorter, it sounds like) relapses. Since then, Nic has had a blog but when I went to check it out, I found the last post was one saying “Bye” because other things were consuming his time, which reads a bit like addict-speak for “I’m getting ready to relapse.”

Aside from my increasing frustration with Nic’s relapses, I enjoyed the book. His writing is a little too obviously casual, peppered with “like” and “you know.” It’s meant to sound like he’s really talking but it comes off as artificial over a space as long as that book is, but he’s honest and open and a good writer. I wish him luck.

The Hunger Games is the first book in the latest sub-adult series to hit it big with audiences of all ages.  I didn’t realize that Hunger Games was considered Young Adult until I went to look for its sequel and had to find my way over to that section.  Compared to the early Harry Potters, which were clearly written for children, or Twilight, which has unquestionable appeal for teenage girls, Hunger Games seemed pretty adult to me.  Yes, the protagonists were children/teens, but the writing level was up to adult speeds and the themes are pretty grown-up.  Except that, as with Twilight, no one is getting it on.

My only gripe with Hunger Games is that it’s monumentally predictable.  That she will win, we can guess.  That somehow he’s not going to die either, we can assume.  That they’ll fall in love?  Well, she managed to surprise me there only by ending the book without a decision.  I didn’t realize going into this book that it was a series.  I now see the impending love triangle, but I also see a lot of potential for some more serious themes.  Future installments won’t just be a glimpse into the future of reality TV.  I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.