We Didn't Agree!

We didn't agree!  We read Vincent and Theo and Holding Up the Universe.  Kerri and Laura spoke right after Christmas and agreed that we preferred Holding Up the Universe.  We thought it was engaging, liked the characters well enough, and were sure that we knew lots of students who would read it.  Laura also remembered being fascinated with face-blindness when she read Bone Gap in a previous Smackdown edition, and this book built on the background information she researched after reading that book.  Vincent and Theo, on the other hand, felt way too much like homework.  IF a person HAD to do a biography on Vincent Van Gogh, this would be the book we would recommend.  But we couldn't imagine a person who would read it for pleasure.  Then Kerri looked back in the blog to see what it had possibly beat out, and discovered that our previous reviewers had only selected it as slightly better in a pair of poor choices and weren't endorsing it for any particular virtues.  

Then we heard from Wendy.  She said Holding up the Universe was formulaic -- disease of the week.  Romance.  She enjoyed the book despite all that but noticed that the same formula is used in her next book-- the disease is somnambulism or narcolepsy but she also covers suicide and depression and oh- there is a death.  Have I read too many of these? Perhaps.  Vincent and Theo was interesting because it was non fiction and didn't cater so baldly to its audience but it was ultimately just a timeline.  The relationship was interesting but there was only a one note analysis of that relationship and it was a relationship that didn't change over the years.  Thus was repetitive and boring.

I didn't like either of these books.  Do I have to pick one? I'll pick Vincent and Theo if I have to.  

But she refused to be swayed to vote with us for Holding Up the Universe, for much the same reasons as the previous bracket who chose Vincent and Theo.  Ultimately, she's only one vote, though.  We throw in two votes for Holding Up the Universe, but we probably didn't read the Smackdown winner this round.