Books And So Many More Books

Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout

2010-06-11T18:29:00.000+03:00

At our local Co-op they have three big bookshelves that are used for a book exchange. I skimmed it a few times but never actually brought any books or saw any I was particularly interested in. The a few weeks ago I say Olive Kitteridge (as well as a Val McDermid novel) on the shelf and had to take it. I promised myself I would bring in two to replace them the next time I came in…..I haven’t yet but promise to next week when I do my next grocery shop. I had heard really good things about this novel. I book friend of mine in Korea loved it so it has been on my list for a while. It took me two days to read it – quite a shorter amount of time then it has taken me to read anything lately.

Amazon.com says, “Heart-wrenching, penetrating portrait of ordinary coastal Mainers living lives of quiet grief intermingled with flashes of human connection. The opening Pharmacy focuses on terse, dry junior high-school teacher Olive Kitteridge and her gregarious pharmacist husband, Henry, both of whom have survived the loss of a psychologically damaged parent, and both of whom suffer painful attractions to co-workers. Their son, Christopher, takes center stage in A Little Burst, which describes his wedding in humorous, somewhat disturbing detail, and in Security, where Olive, in her 70s, visits Christopher and his family in New York. Strout's fiction showcases her ability to reveal through familiar details—the mother-of-the-groom's wedding dress, a grandmother's disapproving observations of how her grandchildren are raised—the seeds of tragedy. Themes of suicide, depression, bad communication, aging and love, run through these stories, none more vivid or touching than Incoming Tide, where Olive chats with former student Kevin Coulson as they watch waitress Patty Howe by the seashore, all three struggling with their own misgivings about life.”

I was surprised that I liked this book so much because it is basically short stories tied together by this one woman, Olive Kitteridge. I usually hate short stories. Actually hate is not the most accurate word because as soon as I see a book is short stories I don’t even bother with it – even if they are by my favorite author. There is something about them that just bothers me. I love the length of novels and the meat to them; I don’t feel I get that with short stories.

This book was sad. There were elements of it that broke my heart and characters that lead such a lonely life that I found it hard to read. I loved that sometimes Olive Kitteridge was a seen presence in the novel and other times it was just her words that stayed with the character. I liked Olive’s character; she was hard-headed and a little mean sometimes but you saw her through her own eyes as well as other characters and got to know her heart and the life she lead. You got to see her heart break when she lost not one but two loves.

I liked this book. It was a good read, not really light but somewhere in the middle.

Rating - 3

Island Beneath The Sea - Isabel Allende

2010-06-09T18:13:00.000+03:00

Once again I have been buying more books then I have time to read. I was taking a client in for an appointment last week and realized that I would have over an hour to wait for her. It was a hot sunny day and I had no book! I went to the local bookstore and picked out 3 new books (I had a really hard time picking one – so I got three!). As soon as I saw Isabel Allende’s newest novel I had to get it. I adore Isabel Allende. Her books make me feel wonderful and make me want to travel Latin America. Now from reading Island Beneath The Sea I really want to travel to the Dominican Republic and back to New Orleans.

Here is the synopsis from Amazon.com “Zarité, called Tété, is born into slavery in the colony of Saint-Domingue, where enslaved Africans are worked to death by the thousands, and European men prey on women of color. So it is with Tété and her “master,” the deeply conflicted plantation owner Toulouse Valmorain, who relies on her for everything from coerced sex to caring for his demented first wife, his legitimate son, and their off-the-record daughter. When the slave uprising that gives birth to the free black republic of Haiti erupts, Toulouse, Tété, and the children flee to Cuba, then to New Orleans. In a many-faceted plot, Allende animates irresistible characters authentic in their emotional turmoil and pragmatic adaptability. She also captures the racial, sexual, and entrepreneurial dynamics of each society in sensuous detail while masterfully dramatizing the psychic wounds of slavery”.

I loved this book. For starters the cover is beautiful and makes you want to read it every time you look at it. I love books that have amazing covers – it makes all the difference when deciding what to buy and what not to. This book is wonderfully written. It is set in Haiti (before it was Haiti) and is centered around a slave named Zarite. In the first page of the book we discover that she is now free – as are her children – and the book tells the story of how she became free.

There are some amazing characters in this book and some characters that I just hated. This always happens in books that discuss slavery. In modern times it is hard to even imagine people feeling that others can be owned and are less then human (even though in some countries it still happens – especially when looking at domestic workers brought from developing countries and trafficking for prostitution). My favorite character was a tie between Violette and Sancho. They both had big personalities and were kind hearted people who knew what they wanted.

This book made me feel the heat of the tropics and the sadness that Zarite felt when her child was taken away. To make me feel that, Isabel Allende wrote with beauty and with knowledge. I would definitely recommend this novel to everyone I know!

Rating - 4

I Feel Bad About My Neck - Nora Ephron

2010-05-16T12:23:00.000+03:00

I went to the Yellowknife Library Book Sale last week and picked up a few books (maybe about 12). I was away for the first days of the book sale so I only got there on the last day. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get there right away because I LOVE book sales. But I did get a few winners. On like this book by Nora Ephron. It had been on my list for a while and I am glad I got a copy.

Amazon.com states "With 15 essays in 160 pages, this collection is short, a thoughtful concession to pre- and post-menopausal women (who else is there?), like herself, who "can't read a word on the pill bottle," follow a thought to a conclusion, or remember the thought after not being able to read the pill bottle. Ephron drives the truth home like a nail in your soon-to-be-bought coffin: "Plus, you can't wear a bikini." But just as despair sets in, she admits to using "quite a lot of bath oil... I'm as smooth as silk." Yes, she is. This is aging lite—but that might be the answer."

This was a fun book to read. I am not a middle-aged woman but I could understand many of the things Nora Ehpron was writing about. It was a really funny book but there were many sad parts as well. A lot on growing older and living your life fully because you don't know what can happen. One of the most relatable parts of the book was an essay about books themselves. She writes about the feeling you got as a child when you read books and you could read them over and over again and wish you were in them and a part of them. Ms. Ephron writes about how hard it is to get that feeling when you get older with books but when you do it is AMAZING. I agree. There are a few books that I have read in the last few years that have taken me to another place and when I have to do something else I am frustrated that I can't just be reading the book. That has happened with Outlander by Diana Gabaldon and of course the Harry Potter series. Harry Potter was a group a books that I found myself continuously thinking about when I wasn't reading it.

All in all it was a book I picked up to read a few essay's every now and then. I like having one of those books around that I can read a few pages and put down and really think about it.

Rating - 3

Cockroach - Rawi Hage

2010-04-20T19:27:00.000+03:00

I saw this book at the Winnipeg Airport and as soon as I saw who the author was I knew I had to have it. I had read the first novel by Rawi Hage called DeNiro’s Game when I was living in Turkey. I had borrowed it from a friend who said it was amazing – he was right. I started this one hoping it would be the same.

Amazon.com states, “After trying and failing to kill himself, an unnamed narrator who believes himself to be part cockroach is compelled to attend counseling sessions with an earnest and alluring therapist. As he unspools his personal history—from his apprenticeship with the thief Abou-Roro to the tragic miscalculation that led him to flee his home country—the narrator, reluctant to tell his story (we never learn where the narrator is from, and inconsistencies in his tale cast doubt upon his honesty), scuttles through the stories of others, recounting secrets both confidentially shared and invasively discovered. Unable to support himself on burglary alone, the narrator takes a job as a busboy, but runs into complications after discovering his lover's connection to the restaurant's most prominent customer.”

This book is different from DeNiro’s Game in that it was more of the narrator’s thoughts in the book and less dialogue – and since the narrator is a little bit crazy the thoughts tend to not make much sense sometimes or be really, really aggressive. The narrator is not a very likeable character. He does some things that I found really scary (especially the breaking into homes and stalking people – especially women) and made me look a bit differently at the world. Its always the sign of a good book when it makes you see your surroundings differently – which is strange that it took me a book as I am a social worker and see some really crazy things all the time.

What I really enjoyed about this book was the narrator speaking with his counselor about his past in Lebanon. The things that are common place in Lebanon are so different in Canada. Especially the amount of violence that happens when going through war – and I don’t just mean violence in the country but violence in the home and between people who are friends. There are just so many ways that people live that are foreign to me. I can’t imagine waking up everyday expecting violence and fear. I have read many books that deal with time periods of war but I feel like the current ones hit home even more.

This book was a good read and I would recommend it to people who have some time to go deeply into a novel – and not only be looking for a quick escape.

Rating - 4

Twenties Girl - Sophie Kinsella

2010-04-11T03:40:00.000+03:00

I bought this book in the Edmonton Airport on my way to my excellent vacation in Las Vegas. I started reading it a bit on the way to Vegas but never really got into it until my flight home. I couldn't out it down after I started. I laughed out loud soooo many times that I think I scared the guy next to me (I was also pretty sick so that might have scared him as well).

Amazon.ca says "Lara Lington has always had an overactive imagination, but suddenly that imagination seems to be in overdrive. Normal professional twenty-something young women don’t get visited by ghosts. Or do they?
When the spirit of Lara’s great-aunt Sadie–a feisty, demanding girl with firm ideas about fashion, love, and the right way to dance–mysteriously appears, she has one last request: Lara must find a missing necklace that had been in Sadie’s possession for more than seventy-five years, and Sadie cannot rest without it. Lara, on the other hand, has a number of ongoing distractions. Her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, her start-up company is floundering, and she’s just been dumped by the “perfect” man."

This was a really fun, girly book. I always love Sophie Kinsella's books but I always tend to forget how much I love them until I read the newest one. They make me feel happy and make me feel like perhaps some sort of true love is out there - even if you have to go through many bad relationships to find it.

Lara would be my favorite character. She was very much like some woman that I know - especially when it came to her craziness surrounding trying to get her boyfriend back. I know tons of women who would easily make their man come back to them if they could - even if it wasn't real feelings on their part. I just loved how this book was written and how Lara changed throughout the novel. This could be one of my favorite Sophie Kinsella books. I could see this making an excellent movie and I hope that we see some more Sophie Kinsella books turned into movies!!

Rating - 4

People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks

2010-03-20T04:45:00.000+02:00

I started reading this book when I was in Singapore last year. My friend Lia had it and I only got through the first few chapters when it was time for me to leave. I bought it a few months back but never picked it up until the other day. I always tell people that they should read it when they are looking at books in my shelf because I enjoyed the first bit so much. I thought it was time to read it my self.

Amazon.com writes, “One of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illuminated with images, the Sarajevo Haggadah survived centuries of purges and wars thanks to people of all faiths who risked their lives to safeguard it. In the hands of Hanna Heath, an impassioned rare-book expert restoring the manuscript in 1996 Sarajevo, it yields clues to its guardians and whereabouts: an insect wing, a wine stain, salt crystals, and a white hair. While readers experience crucial moments in the book's history through a series of fascinating, fleshed-out short stories, Hanna pursues its secrets scientifically, and finds that some interests will still risk everything in the name of protecting this treasure.”

This book was a really enjoyable read. I loved how the story went from modern day book expert Hanna to the other people whose lives the Haggadah has touched in the past. It was amazing how this one book survived all the people that tried to destroy it. It was just a book but it felt more magical then that. There were so many amazing characters in the book but one that really stood out to me was Lola. Lola was a Jewish teenager who lived in Sarajevo during WWII. I loved how strong she was and how she kept herself alive against all odds. She was a beautiful character.

One thing I really liked about the book was the harmony between the Jewish and Muslim characters. The Haggadah was saved by Muslim scholars a few times – people risked their lives to save a book that was not part of their own faith. I found that amazing and inspiring. I also enjoyed how Geraldine Brooks wrote the book. She is a beautiful writer. I have read a few of her works previously and really enjoyed them. The book really flowed and I loved how Hanna would find a clue about the book and then there would be a chapter about the book from an earlier time period and the people who had it.

I would totally recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It is one of those books that takes you to another place and makes you want to travel, see the world and meet all the amazing people that you can.

Rating - 4

Nikolski - Nicolas Dickner

2010-03-15T20:33:00.000+02:00

I ordered this book as soon as the Canada Reads list came out in January. I had every intention of reading all of the Canada Reads contestants but didn’t quite get there – in fact I never ended up reading one of them. I guess I was going through I rough reading patch that meant my mind could only handle mysteries. But when the winner was announced last week I decided that it would be my next read. And what a great choice it was.

Amazon.com states, “An odd tale of missed connections, restlessness and the search for home that follows three quirky Montrealites. One story line follows a nameless narrator who works in a second-hand Montreal bookshop and reveres an inexpensive compass sent to him when he was a child by his absent father. Meanwhile, Noah, who grew up in the care of a transient single mother, arrives in Montreal to study archeology and rents a room from the owner of a fish shop. Then there's Joyce, a young woman from a family that claims pirate origins, who washes up in Montreal, finds work in the fish shop and begins her own version of living the family legend. The characters' lives brush up against one another (largely thanks to a book about pirates that, through various personal connections, ends up as the lightly binding force of the three characters' fates) but—in a nice subversion of the intersecting fates arc—don't loudly collide.”

I really enjoyed this book. It took me about 2 days to finish it – the fastest I have read a book in a long time. I love Canadian books – there is something about them that makes me feel proud and happy to be Canadian. I am always looking for pieces of myself in them and get so excited if Nova Scotia is mentioned. This book was mainly set in Montreal and as I have lived there for a few short months I could recognize some of the places. Montreal is a wonderful setting for a novel – there are so many different kinds of people and languages.

I loved all the characters in this book. They were well developed and made me wish the story didn’t end. One of my favorite parts is Noah writing letters to his mom and addressing them General Delivery wherever he thinks she may be now (she is a roamer and never has a fixed address). I think it would be crazy to look randomly at a map and send your mother a letter there. This novel made me realize how randomly we meet people in life but there are some people we are met to meet.

I think this was a great choice for Canada Reads winner – but I haven’t read the other ones yet so my opinion may change afterwards!!

Rating - 4

The Cruelest Month - Louise Penny

2010-03-13T22:50:00.000+02:00

After reading the a Louise Penny mystery a month or so back I went to the library and got another one because I enjoyed this the last one so much! I am not reading them in order but I don’t really feel like it is necessary to understand what is going on. I still haven’t even read the first one from this series!

Amazon.com says, “Chief Insp. Armand Gamache and his team investigate another bizarre crime in the tiny Québec village of Three Pines. As the townspeople gather in the abandoned and perhaps haunted Hadley house for a séance with a visiting psychic, Madeleine Favreau collapses, apparently dead of fright. No one has a harsh word to say about Madeleine, but Gamache knows there's more to the case than meets the eye. Complicating his inquiry are the repercussions of Gamache having accused his popular superior at the Sûreté du Québec of heinous crimes in a previous case. Fearing there might be a mole on his team, Gamache works not only to solve the murder but to clear his name.”

This novel was set in April, when the weather is warming up and the snow is melting. It made me excited to read because it will be April here soon (not that I think the Northwest Territories will exactly be snow free come April!). As I said in previous reviews of this series – I love the way the small town of Three Pines is depicted. It is beautiful and I want to live in a place nestled away from the world but not too far away that I can’t get books! This novel made me want to get a café mocha and sit outside and listen to music or read a wonderful book.

This novel was a bit supernatural, there was accusations of witchcraft and murder. There were some dark points but some really funny ones as well. I feel like I am becoming friends with this characters with every page I read. Gamache is still one of my favorite characters. I love how he treats the people he works with and the people in the community. You can tell the people in Three Pines love him – even if he does investigate a ridiculous amount of murders in such a small town.

I am jumping off the murder-mystery train with the next book I plan on reading – but I cant promise I will be off it for long!

Rating - 4

Gods Behaving Badly - Marie Phillips

2010-03-10T21:02:00.000+02:00

I really had no idea what this book was about when I picked it up at the Yellowknife Library book sale. I knew it was on my To Be Read list so I bought it. I was looking over my book shelves looking for a good read (that wasn’t a mystery as I have been tending to read only those lately and really need to broaden my horizons) and my eyes found this. A friend was over and she said she had read it and that it was hilarious. I thought that was exactly what I needed and I was right!

Amazon.com says, “The Greek gods and goddesses living in a tumbledown house in modern-day London and facing a very serious problem: their powers are waning, and immortality does not seem guaranteed. In between looking for work and keeping house, the ancient family is still up to its oldest pursuit: crossing and double-crossing each other. Apollo, who has been cosmically bored for centuries, has been appearing as a television psychic in a bid for stardom. His aunt Aphrodite, a phone-sex worker, sabotages him by having her son Eros shoot him with an arrow of love, making him fall for a very ordinary mortal-a cleaning woman named Alice, who happens to be in love with Neil, another nice, retiring mortal. When Artemis-the goddess of the moon, chastity and the hunt, who has been working as a dog walker-hires Alice to tidy up, the household is set to combust, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Fanciful, humorous and charming, this satire is as sweet as nectar.”

This book made me laugh out loud within the first few pages. It may not be a book for people who are offended easily though. There are some really funny sex scenes between the gods and goddesses and you always have to kind of forget that they are all related some how. I really liked Apollo. He was so self-centered and ridiculous and the most absurd things came from his mouth that I couldn’t stop laughing.

Artemis was also an awesome character. The scene where she has to fight the 3 headed dog of the underworld and how excited she was to do it was really funny. I also loved how she opened up to the mortals by the end of the book and talked with Neil about her own stuff.

Alice was a little too prim and proper for my taste but I do say she was probably needed in the story to balance the dirtiness of the gods and goddesses. I loved the parts of the novel with her in the underworld. I never pictured anything like what she was experiencing before so it made my imagination work a little harder.

All in all it was a really well written fun book. A good laugh and I would definitely recommend it!

Rating - 4

The Resurrectionist - James Bradley

2010-03-05T16:01:00.000+02:00

I bought this book in England last summer and was excited to start reading it. I don’t believe that it is sold in Canada (it wasn’t on amazon anyway. Bookoffers.com describes the book, “London, 1826: Gabriel Swift has left behind his father’s failures to study with Edwin Poll, the greatest of the city’s anatomists. It is his chance to find advancement by making a name for himself. But instead he finds himself drawn to his master’s nemesis, Lucan, the most powerful of the city’s resurrectionists and ruler of its trade in stolen bodies. Dismissed by his master, Gabriel descends into the violence and corruption of London’s underworld, a place where everything and everyone is for sale, and where – as Gabriel discovers – the taking of a life is easier than it might seem.”

This book was really fun to read in the beginning. I liked that the chapters were short and that I had time to absorb what was happening in each chapter. I found the subject matter really interesting and was waiting for a great gothic story. It didn’t seem to turn out like that though. I had read reviews about the book while I was in the middle of it and those reviewers said that the book seemed like it was missing something or was edited down so it was shorter. I totally agree. I felt the meat of the novel wasn’t there and it left me wondering. I thought the characters were interesting but there was not a lot of depth to them. This especially goes with the character of Lucan. I wish there had of been more character development with him because he would have made an excellent villain. I also feel that I never really figured out what the feud was between Poll and Lucan so that left me a little confused. I feel like the story could have been amazing if more was added to it.

All in all it was an okay read. I don’t know if I would recommend it as there are quite a few other books in the same genre that are much better.

Rating - 2

Ghosts of India (Doctor Who) - Mark Morris

2010-02-28T15:37:00.001+02:00

Synopsis from Amazon.com says "India in 1947 is a country in the grip of chaos, torn apart by internal strife. When the Doctor and Donna arrive in Calcutta, they are instantly swept up in violent events. Barely escaping with their lives, they discover that the city is rife with tales of 'half-made men', who roam the streets at night and steal people away. With help from India's great spiritual leader, Mohandas 'Mahatma' Gandhi, the Doctor and Donna set out to investigate these rumors. What is the real truth behind the 'half-made men'? Why is Gandhi's role in history under threat? And has an ancient, all-powerful god destruction really come back to wreak his vengeance upon the Earth?"

I really enjoy reading the Doctor Who series. I always feel like I am watching an episode and I can hear the characters voices in my head. I picked this one up when I was in England last summer and am now wishing I had bought a few more. I love the Doctor Who books that are set on Earth and involve important characters. They are fun to read. Gandhi is a main character in this one and I love how he ties everything up in the end and basically saves the world ( I am not giving anything away as the world is always saved at the end of Doctor Who!). They write tons of these books so there are always more to read.

Its a really great series if you are up on Doctor Who - you kinda need to know what is going on and who a lot of the characters are to understand.

Rating - 3

A Brutal Telling - Louise Penny

2010-02-25T08:00:00.000+02:00

The synopsis from Amazon.com is "When the body of an unknown old man turns up in a bistro in the Quebec village of Three Pines, Chief Insp. Armand Gamache investigates. At a cabin in the woods apparently belonging to the dead man, Gamache and his team are shocked to discover the remote building is full of priceless antiquities, from first edition books to European treasures thought to have disappeared during WWII. When suspicion falls on one of Three Pines' most prominent citizens, it's up to Gamache to sift through the lies and uncover the truth."

This is the second book of the Chief Insp. Gamache series that I have read. I haven't read them in order as this is the fifth one. But you don't even really have to read them in order to find the enjoyable. I loved this book. I think I loved everything about it. I feel as it has been awhile since I was swept up in a book and didn't want to let it go. The novel is set in a small village in Quebec and the way the author describes the setting is beautiful. I wanted to move to this little town myself and spend my days reading books by a fire and eating gourmet food at the local cafe. There was something lovely about Louise Penny's writing that made me smile and made me wish the book wouldn't end. I loved that it was Canadian.

The characters of this book are also all unique and memorable. Ruth, the meanest woman in town who is also one of Canada's most celebrated poets, is shown in a different light in this novel for only one paragraph - but it is a paragraph I will remember when I read future books that involve her. The characters in The Brutal Telling were ones that I cannot wait to meet again and hope that I get to spend more time with in the future.

I highly recommend this mystery novel. It had a captivating story and was very well written. Definitely a book I stayed up late reading!!!

Rating - 4

The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett

2010-02-19T07:30:00.001+02:00

A synopsis from Amazon.com says "Queen Elizabeth II walks into a mobile library van in pursuit of her runaway corgis and into the reflective, observant life of an avid reader. Guided by Norman, a former kitchen boy and enthusiast of gay authors, the queen gradually loses interest in her endless succession of official duties and learns the pleasure of such a common activity. With the dawn of her sensibility... mistaken for the onset of senility, plots are hatched by the prime minister and the queen's staff to dispatch Norman and discourage the queen's preoccupation with books. Ultimately, it is her own growing self-awareness that leads her away from reading and toward writing, with astonishing results."

This was an excellent read. It has been quite a few months since I have just sat down and read a whole book. I know this is a novella (so it had a little over 100 pages) but it was still nice to sit down and read a whole book with no interruptions. I feel like this might get me back on track for reading as I have been doing a pretty terrible job so far in 2010. What I loved about this book was that it was well written and the characters were very funny. I loved the plot of the Prime Minister against the Queen's reading - seeing it as common and disruptive for the whole nation.

At one point in the book someone remarks to the Queen that reading is a very selfish pastime - I can see that a bit. I know that when I read I go somewhere else where I don't want to be disturbed and that no one else can really go. It is all about me. And I don't think there is anything wrong with that. The Queen had been selfless for many years and now that she was in her late seventies she needed sometime for her. I loved the way the book ended. I had to rad the last page 2 times to really get the ending, I loved that it ended abruptly and left you thinking. I was hoping that the Queen would start her own national book club that would become just as popular as Oprah!

All in all this was a fun, fast and easy read.

Rating - 4

The Book Of Air And Shadows - Michael Gruber

2010-02-17T21:33:00.000+02:00

Amazon.com states "Tap-tapping the keys and out come the words on this little screen, and who will read them I hardly know. I could be dead by the time anyone actually gets to read them, as dead as, say, Tolstoy. Or Shakespeare. Does it matter, when you read, if the person who wrote still lives? These are the words of Jake Mishkin, whose seemingly innocent job as an intellectual property lawyer has put him at the centre of a deadly conspiracy and hunt to find a priceless treasure connected to William Shakespeare. As he awaits a killer-or killers-unknown, Jake writes an account of the events that led to this deadly endgame, a frantic chase that began when a fire in an antiquarian bookstore revealed the hiding place of letters containing a shocking secret, concealed for four hundred years. In a frantic race from New York to England and Switzerland, Jake finds himself matching wits with a shadowy figure who seems to anticipate his every move. What at first seems like a thrilling puzzle waiting to be deciphered soon turns into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, where no one -- not family, not friends, not lovers -- is to be trusted."

This had the potential to be a great book. The story was there, the characters were really interesting and the writing was pretty good. I guess the problem was that the book was too long for the amount of story that was there. It was 450+ pages and could have been finished in 300. It dragged on. It really sucks because I really loved the characters in the beginning, Jake Mishkin is such an awesome character. I loved how I was always surprised by his character and how he didn't fit into any box that I created for him in my mind. This was a really character driven book - everyone had quirks and there was a lot of humour in them.

After every chapter there is a chapter written by Bracegirdle, a man from the 1600's. This is written in old English and I found it pretty hard to get into. To be honest I totally skimmed some of these chapters. I kept wanting to get to the chapters with the action - cause there was plenty of that, I am not sure even now how I really feel about the book. I wanted to like it a lot more then I actually did. Maybe my hopes are to high for stories involving mysteries and books - I have read so many excellent ones that I expect them all to be that way.

Rating - 3

End Of The Year Stats

2010-01-02T09:23:00.000+02:00

So another year is gone. I can't believe we are in 2010. Time is actually flying by. I read so many good books this year. I have to say that this could be my best year for reading and it will be hard to beat the amount of good books (and the quantity of books) that I read in 2009.

Here are the books for 2009:

Number of Books Read = 125

Fiction = 111
Non Fiction = 14

Written By Men = 52
Written By Women = 73

Audiobooks = 4

My favorite book of the year is pretty hard to pick because I enjoyed so many for different reasons. But one book that stands out for me and that I will prpbaly re-read is The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

I didn't finish all the Book Challenges that set out for myself this year. I finished What;s In A Name 2009, 100 Book Reading Challenge and 2009 Chick Lit Challenge.

One of my major goals for next year is to read more non fiction. I know that I say this every year but I still want to try. I still having read a book in 2010 yet....I wonder which one I will choose!

The Tales of Beedle The Bard - J.K. Rowling

2009-12-31T23:34:00.000+02:00

My mother picked this book up for me for Christmas and I absolutely loved it. It is a tiny book by the author of Harry Potter. There are five bedtime stories written for young wizards and witches. They are like our "Muggle" fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty and The Three Little Pigs except with magical morals and messages!

The one thing I absolutely loved about this book was the commentary about each story at the end by Albus Dumbledore. It made me laugh and made me remember how much I loved being immersed in the world of Harry Potter. I wish I had never read any of the Harry Potter novels so that I could read them for the first time all over again!

There is not too much to say about this book - I don't want to give anything away from these short stories. I just recommend this quick read if you love Harry Potter and need something to lift your spirits!

The Spanish Bow - Andromeda Romano Lax

2009-12-30T23:53:00.000+02:00

I had this book on my list now for a couple of months now and had heard some great things about it from reading other bloggers reviews. This book is historical fiction that revolves around music and the world wars.

Amazon.com says “Feliu Delargo, an underprivileged child prodigy whose musical ability brings him into contact with world leaders, first-class artists and a life filled with loss and triumph. Their father killed in Cuba just before the Spanish-American War, Feliu, his three brothers and one sister manage a meager life in Campo Seco, a small Catalan town, while their strong-willed mother fends off suitors. At 14, Feliu and his mother travel to Barcelona, where a cello tutor agrees to take on Feliu as a student. Over the years, as Feliu establishes himself, he crosses path with Justo Al-Cerra, an egotistical, manipulative pianist, and their touring leads to an intertwining of lives that becomes more complicated when they encounter Aviva, a violinist with her own emotional damage. As the trio tour and Europe careens toward WWII, Romano-Lax weaves into the narrative historical figures from Spanish royalty to Franco and Hitler, giving Feliu the opportunity to ponder the roles of morality in art and art in politics.”

I found this book a bit hard to get into. Perhaps it was the music aspect of it that I found a bit tedious or it could have been that I did not relate to any of the characters in the novel. Usually I really enjoy reading books set in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s and I was surprised that I found this book a struggle. I did love the beginning of the novel that describes Feliu’s birth and how his name was changed from Feliz (as his mother had wanted). The book seemed to fall a bit flat for me after that and I found myself often looking at the pages I had left, wishing I was closer to the end. I hate when I have this feeling around books that I am initially excited for. I think that if I was a lover of classical music I would have found this book more appealing as it is based on somewhat true events. The description of Feliu’s love of music is wonderful and made me wish I had a passion that intense. Well maybe I do – books!

Pretty Dead Things - Barbara Nadel

2009-12-26T10:39:00.000+02:00

Another exciting murder-mystery/crime fiction set in Istanbul by British author Barbara Nadel. I had found her books when I was living in Turkey and was really happy to find one of her books in the library in Yellowknife. This book is a newer novel in the Inspector Ikmen series. Inspector Ikmen is one of the best policeman Istanbul has to offer - but he seems to always be involved in solving bizarre crimes and relying on the intuition that his mother (a local self proclaimed witch) has given him.

According to Amazon.com "When Emine Aksu, the flamboyant wife of an Istanbul style guru, suddenly goes missing, Inspector Cetin Ikmen's investigation leads him deep into her strange and colourful past. Emine was a hippie when she was younger, who wholeheartedly enjoyed the liberated lifestyle that swept across Istanbul in the sixties. Her husband suspects that she was visiting an old friend at the time of her disappearance. Meanwhile, Inspector Mehmet Suleyman is called to a terrifying scene at the art deco Kamondo Stairs in the old banking district of Karakoy. The skeleton of a woman has been discovered in one of the large plant containers. Could these two bizarre incidents be linked?"

The first thing I noticed about this book was the cover. There is a beautiful shot of a mosque in Istanbul and it reminded me of my trip to the Blue Mosque with my mother last summer. Living in the North now (where -40 is a normal winter temperature) has made me miss the warmth and the ancient beauty of Turkey. I love the characters in these books and they get more and more interesting after every new novel. The mysteries of Turkey are so different then ones that could happen in North America; maybe thats why I am so interested in them - like the underground tunnels and cisterns. This was a good and easy read and I am looking forward to the next Barbara Nadel book to come my way!

Rating - 3

Tooth and Nail - Ian Rankin

2009-12-20T20:10:00.000+02:00

This is the third Ian Rankin novel I have read in the Inspector Rebus series....but I feel like I have read so many more then that. I feel like that is a sign of a great series. In this novel Rebus is called down to London to help on the Wolfman case - a case where women are being viciously murdered and there stomachs being bitten open. Rebus has a tough time down in London - some cops are not happy to have an outsider, while others just seem not to be able to understand a word he says! This novel has a great chase scene as well as some graphic autopsy depictions. There is an interesting Canadian character in this book - I always love when there are some Canadians in my favorite novels.

I love Rebus more and more with each novel. I am kicking myself for not reading these books when I was in Edinburgh this summer. Especially because he did a reading at the book festival I was at and I didn't attend it because I didn't know who he was! My downstairs neighbour read this just before i did so we had a nice chat about it afterwards. I love when people have read the same books as I have recently and want to talk about them. I think I may have to start a bookclub here - it would was soooo much fun in Seoul and I made some amazing friends.

I don't have anymore Rebus books to read for the next little while - I guess I will be ordering from Amazon.com soon. I still have so many books on my shelf to read - over 65 to get to. I know I should stop buying (and stop going to the library) but its really harder then it seems. CHristmas is coming as well - who knows what nice presents I will receive in book form!

Skylight Confessions - Alice Hoffman

2009-12-14T05:16:00.001+02:00

This book made me sad. I don’t believe it was a good choice for me to read at this time, especially going through some of the personal stuff I am going through. I started reading it Saturday morning for the Read-A-Thon I was participating in and got through the first part (about 100 pages) and started feeling pretty down. Books affect me sometimes like that. My mood can be altered by what I am reading and this one sure did bring me down. I actually didn’t read anything else for a few days afterwards until I got up the nerve to finish it.

Amazon.com gives this description of Skylight Confessions, “On the day of her father's funeral, 17-year-old Arlyn Singer decides the first man who walks down the street will be her one love. That night, Yale senior John Moody stops to ask directions, and Arlyn and John take the first passionate steps toward what will become a marriage of heartache and mutual betrayal.”

I absolutely hated John Moody. I hated how he took his wife and children for granted…or maybe that is not even the right word because he did not pay attention to anyone of them enough to even notice they were there. Books about one person loving another more and marriages that are filled with one sided love always get to me. They make me feel like there is no hope and how does a person find someone else who will love them as much as they do.

This was a well written book and I found some of the other characters really interesting. I just wish the book had turned out differently and that there wasn’t so much heartbreak in it. I guess if I am looking for a feel good book I have to go back to some chick-lit novels!

Rating - 3

Another Read A Thon!

2009-12-05T08:54:00.000+02:00

Today I am going to try and participate in the Read A Thon that Dreadlock girl is hosting (http://www.dreadlockgirl.com/2009/10/readathon) I have quite a few books to finish up before this year is through and today is a perfect opportunity to to that. I have some things I need to do this afternoon but I should be able to get a good morning of reading in and finish a book or two!

So good luck to everyone participating!

Dead To The World - CHarlaine Harris

2009-12-04T07:41:00.000+02:00

It took a few good nights to finish the fourth installment of the Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) series. It didn't take me that long because it was hard to get through or because I didn't enjoy it - it took me so long because I wanted it to last. After watching the first season of True Blood, I find reading the books so amazing because it is like watching the movie in my head! I know what the characters look like (and have made up the ones I don't) so sometimes reading a chapter is like watching an episode!

The fourth installment has Sookie watching over Eric, the head vampire for the district because he has lost his memory and there are some bad witches on the lookout for him. Sookie's brother Jason also goes missing and we know that there probably is some supernatural reasoning for it! This book is a bit different from the others because Bill isn't a major player in them. There are new characters - including a sexy fairy - that come into pay and we start to see how many supernatural beings are really out there besides vampires and warewolves. There is lots of humor, blood and in this book quite a bit more sex then the others.

I am going on a trip to New Orleans in the new year so I am super excited to eat some of Louisiana's finest food that they are always speaking about in these books. I wonder if I will see any vampires lurking around through the streets? After Interview With A Vampire (and other Anne Rice books) and now True Blood - I bet I m not the first to go to Louisiana with that question on my mind!

Rating - 5

Little Bee - Chris Cleave

2009-11-25T06:07:00.004+02:00

I had a great time reading this book. I have been really stressed lately and haven't had a lot of time for reading so when I decided to go get a pedicure, I brought a long this book that I picked up that day at the library. I sat in a lovely massaging chair for almost 2 hours and read 75% of the book and then finished it up when I got home. It was a really easy read but heartbreaking at the same time.

According to the book jacket I should not give away what the book is about - just tell people to read it. So that is what I am going to do. When I started the book I had no idea what it was about but the moment I began it, I knew that it was going to be amazing. What I will say is that the characters are interesting and complex and the story is set between 2 countries and different people. This is one story that will make you think about your own life and how your choices can effect other people. It also makes you realize how strong people are and how there are some people who can get through anything - not only surviving but helping others along the way.

Since I don't want to give to much away I will finish by saying; Read this book, its pretty darn good!

Rating - 4

The Distant Echo - Val McDermid

2009-11-24T20:17:00.001+02:00

This book took me a while to read - not because it wasn't good, just because I have been going through some personal drama and when this type of thing happens I have a really hard time concentrating. It actually took me almost 3 weeks to finish this book but I am certainly glad I did.

According to amazon.com "Set in 1978 in St. Andrews, Scotland, four drunken male students, friends since childhood, stumble over the raped and stabbed body of a dying woman, Rosie Duff, while staggering home through a snow storm. Though her violent brothers are convinced of their guilt, no one is charged with Rosie's murder. In part two, 25 years later, the police hope new forensic technologies will solve the crime, and suddenly someone is stalking the four men, whose lives have been haunted and their relationships changed by the murder. Two die, supposedly by accident, and the remaining pair, Alex Gilbey and Tom Mackie, must find out what happened before they're killed, too. James Lawson, an assistant chief constable who was a junior cop in 1978, wants to close the case and avenge the death of his admired superior, DI Barney Maclennan, who fell from a cliff during the initial inquiry. When Graham Macfadyen, who claims he's Rosie's illegitimate son and also seeking revenge, contacts Lawson, the investigation takes a startling turn."

There is a lot to this book and it was definitely a page turner. I liked how half of the novel was set in 1978 and the rest in 2004. It broke the book up quite nicely and allowed us to see who the characters grew to be. I also liked how all the characters were so different and even though they grew up to be people they would probably not choose to be friends with -they still were friends when it came down to it. I think that is pretty true to life, sometimes you make friends you will have forever and those seem to be the ones you want when bad stuff is going down.

All of Val McDermid books are good. I have enjoyed everyone I have read. I have yet to read any of her series' but am looking forward to them in the future.

Rating - 3

The Wedding - Nicholas Sparks

2009-11-03T21:13:00.000+02:00

This book is the sequel to "The Notebook". If anyone has read The Notebook they will no how heart-wrenchingly sad it is and hopefully love it as much as I did. This sequel is not as good but lives up to the Nicholas Sparks reputation. When I picked this book up I had no idea that was a (somewhat) continuation of The Notebook.

According to amazon.com "Attorney Wilson Lewis has been married to Noah and Allie's daughter, Jane, for 30 years. Wilson and Jane have raised three children and lived a satisfying and prosperous life in the bucolic town of New Bern, N.C. After forgetting his anniversary, Wilson realizes that the passion and romance have gone out of his marriage and fears his wife no longer loves him. Being a methodical man, he decides to embark on a yearlong program to renew his romantic ties to his wife, seeking out the advice of Noah, who now spends his days in a retirement home feeding a swan he is sure is the reincarnation of his beloved Allie. In the midst of Wilson's machinations, his daughter Anna announces she is getting married. The upcoming wedding provides Wilson with the opportunity to bring his elaborate plan to fruition."

This was a sweet book. It was interesting to read about the rekindling of a romance late in life. I loved how this book goes from when Wilson first meets Jane 30 years ago to where they are in their lives now. It was wonderful to see how much he loves her - even tough he has let her down in the past. I also love how the book acknowledges how difficult it was for Wilson to live up to the expectations that Jane had for him in the ways of love and romance (remember she did have Noah and Allie to look at as examples). Some people are just not able to express love as freely as others - even if they love the other person deeply.

The romance in this book was beautiful. I loved reading it and it made me smile so many times. Nicholas Sparks writes lovely books and I hope they make this one into a movie!

October Recap

2009-11-02T20:17:00.000+02:00

I did a bit of reading this month and have to admit that I quite enjoyed many of the books I read. I read 11 books this month and they can be broken down like this:
2 Non fiction
9 Fiction
4 Murder Mysteries
1 Teen
2 Chick Lit
1 Humor Fiction
1 Newfoundland Fiction

Here they are:
Hide and Seek – Ian Rankin
The Shape of Snakes - Minette Walters
Breaking Dawn - Stephanie Meyer
Never Say Die - Tess Gerritsen
The Stupidest Angel - Christopher Moore
Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's - John Elder Robison
Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin
Certain Girls - Jennifer Weiner
Sylvanus Now - Donna Morrissey
Handle With Care - Jodi Picoult
The Mole People - Jennifer Toth

I really enjoyed the Ian Rankin novels, as well as Sylvanus Now. I would have to say my favorite was The Shape of Snakes and I really didn’t have a least favorite this month. I enjoyed reading them all for different reasons. I didn’t really read many culturally diverse novels (unless you can count Scottish and Newfound) so I hope to read some fiction from other countries in the month of November.

This month I have 2 weeks of Child Protection training (I am a social worker) so I will be studying more then reading. I hope to read 8 books this month. A few on my list are:

The Savage Detectives – Roberto Bolano (I have started this already and have to finish it)
An Imperfect Offering – James Orbinski (also started and need to finish)
The Spanish Bow - Andromeda Romano-Lax
Tooth and Nail – Ian Rankin
The Wedding – Nicholas Sparks
Skylight Confessions – Alice Hoffman
Pretty Dead things – Barbara Nadel

Has anyone read any of these? And if so what did you think??

Hide and Seek - Ian Rankin

2009-10-31T23:53:00.000+02:00

This is the second book in the Inspector Rebus series. I read it in a few sittings and enjoyed it as much as the first one - maybe even more. This book involves Inspector Rebus investigating the overdose of a young homeless man living in a squat. Rebus decides there is something off about the overdoes and that maybe it was murder. This book involves satanism, dog fights, sex and corruption - what more could you ask for in a book! I don't want to say much more because it is never fun to read a mystery book where you already know too much information.

I don't know what it is that I like so much about this series. I know that I do like Inspector Rebus and find his character to be one of the most engaging that I have seen in a long time. I love that he is a reader and a drinker and (tries to be) a lover of woman and won't stop a case until he gets to the bottom of things. As I have said before - the setting of Edinburgh is phenomenal. It is such a great place for a murder mystery. I just wish that I had read one of these books when I was visiting the city. I feel like I would have looked at the city a bit differently - perhaps looking for corruption and murder at every turn!

I have the third in the series (which I got from the library today) and have given it to a friend to read first. I want to give myself a bit of time before I jump into another Inspector Rebus novel. Maybe a week should be enough!

Rating - 4

The Shape of Snakes - Minette Walters

2009-10-30T21:02:00.000+02:00

I LOVED this book.
Rarely do I begin a review like that but since finishing it last night it was all I could think about. I had read this British author previously and enjoyed the book but I was not expecting the range of emotions from this novel. The book is about a woman named Mrs. Ranelagh, a woman who was 24 in 1978 and lived on a street that was filled with racists, adulturers and abusers. There was also a woman on the street named Annie Butts - Annie was the only black woman on the street and everyone thought she was crazy. Annie is found dead on the sidewalk one night by Mrs. Ranelagh - and Mrs. Ranelagh suspects she was murdered. Nothing seems to add up in the police reports or with the threats she is recieving for even mentioning that she suspected Annie of being murdered. Her own husband turns away from her and Mrs. Ranelagh makes a choice to give up her crusade to save her marriage and her own sanity. Now it is the year 2000 and Mrs. Ranelagh is going to find out who killed Annie and find justice for Annie and herself.

It sounds a bit far fetched but it was so so so good! Be warned - there are some major scenes of animal cruelty, violence towards woman and children and racism. Some parts were hard to read but the story left me guessing. There was so much more each chapter that you read. The ending gave me goose bumps and made me feel so sad inside. It tied everything up nicely and answered the one question that I had throughout the book - why did Mrs. Ranelagh care so much about a woman she hardly knew.

I love British crime fiction. It might be my new favorite genre - there are so many authors to look for and the ones I have read have been so well written. I can;t wait to head back to the library tomorrow!

Rating - 4

Breaking Dawn - Stephanie Meyer

2009-10-25T12:27:00.002+02:00

I waited a while before picking the last book in the Twilight series up. I read the first three books last year when I was living in Turkey. A few friends of mine told me that they really didn't like this last one and told me what had happened in the finale. Usually I hate when people tell me what happens in a book - well actually I never usually let anyone tell me what happens (I cover my ears!). This time though I found myself disinterested in the Twilight series and wasn't sure if I was going to read anymore. But I saw it at the library a few weeks ago and decided I should give it a go.

I won't tell too much about what happened because I don't want to give anything away. Pretty much everything is a surprise in this book. Bella and Edward get married. That is pretty much the only thing I can say without giving away the story. They book was good. I sat down yesterday and almost made it through the whole thing. I really enjoyed it and can say I liked it as much as I liked the second one New Moon. I loved that Jacob Black had his own section (he is my favorite character - actually the only character I like at all really).

I think I like the movies better then I like the books of this series - that rarely happens. I cannot wait until the next movie comes out - I guess I still have a bit of a teenage girl in me looking for that eternal romance!

Rating - 3

Read-A-Thon Over!

2009-10-25T09:12:00.000+02:00

I totally fell asleep at Hour 19. Couldn't keep my eyes open for a single moment longer. I am a little sad about this Read-A-Thon. I didn't get as much reading done as I wanted.

Total Pages: 652 pages
Almost finished Breaking Dawn but didn't quite make it. With only about 100 pages left I fought hard to keep my eyes open for the last of them. But then figured if I kept reading I probably wouldn't even remember what I read at all.

Thanks for all the well wishes. I really appreciate it. I love the Read-A-Thon and can't wait until April for the next one!

Read-A-Thon Hour 14.5

2009-10-24T20:33:00.000+03:00

Well I am yet to finish a book but I did sit down and read 515 pages of Breaking Dawn. I have to go out on another work call but I plan to finish this book as soon as I get back (only 250 pages to go!). Then I hope to move on to either the Ian Rankin novel or the Doctor Who book. I think my dreams of 3 books has been dashed. But any is better then none, right?

Read-A-Thon Hour (Almost) 11

2009-10-24T16:53:00.000+03:00

SO I got home from my call out for work and put on some supper and have read the first part of Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer. I am about 150 pages in and I am really really interested in it! I heard that this book was pretty bad but I thought since I read all the other Twilight books that I needed to read this one as well. I am glad I didn't listen to everyone else. I am checking out a few blogs now while my chili is heating up and then back to the books!!

Read-A-Thon Hour 7.5

2009-10-24T13:41:00.000+03:00

So I am pretty much sucking at this Read-A-Thon. A woman from work just came over for an hour to talk about a problem and I couldn't really turn her away and say "Can you come back tomorrow? I have this Read-A-Thon that I need to keep up with". But there was an hour wasted. Plus I am out on a call for work soon. Hopefully I will be back in an hour. Then I can really sit down and focus. I am reading Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer right now. I am only a few chapters in by I am excited to finish it up tonight.

Everyone cross their fingers for me that I have no more work stuff come up today!!!!!

Read-A-Thon October 2009

2009-10-24T10:34:00.000+03:00

So I am totally late starting this Read-A-Thon. In my time zone we were supposed to start at 6am but I am on call for work all weekend so I won't be able to do the whole 24 hours. But I will read as much as I can an try my best to get through the books I picked out. I hope to get 3 books read. That is how many I got read during the last Read-A-Thon.

In my TBR pile for the next 20 hours is:
Breaking Dawn - Stephanie Meyer
The Ask and The Answer - Patrick Ness
Hide and Seek - Ian Rankin
Ghosts of India (Doctor Who) - Mary Morris
Travelling With Che Guevera - Alberto Granado
The Shape of Snakes - Minette Walters

I would also like to try and finish The Savage Detectives - Roberto Bolano but I have been finding a pretty hard read to get through so I don't know how far I will get into it today.

For everyone out there reading Good Luck!!!!!

I will check in every few hours to blog and to read how others are doing!

Never Say Die - Tess Gerritsen

2009-10-23T21:23:00.000+03:00

Another suspense thriller to add to the ever growing pile. This is an older Tess Gerritsen novel. I have read most of the new books and really enjoyed them. The older ones (written in the early 1990's) are shorter and I have read some not very good review about them I saw this at the Yellowknife Library and decided to pick it up for the 24 Hour-Read-A-Thon (tomorrow!!!!!). I decided to give it a read before the Read-A-Thon.

Amazon.com says "Twenty years after her father's plane crashed in the jungles of Southeast Asia, Willy Jane Maitland was finally tracking his last moves. She recognised the dangers, but her search for the truth about that fateful flight was the only thing that mattered. Closing in on the events of that night, Willy realises that she is investigating secrets that people would kill to protect. And without knowing who to trust, the truth can be far from clear cut... "

This book was pretty cheesy. It was an easy read and I always enjoy thrillers set in Asia. I am a sucker for them - no matter how bad they are I will always finish them and always find more . I was surprised at the ending - that is always a plus. I don't know if I would ever read any more of her early novels because I liked the newer ones so much more.

Rating - 3

I Love Book Sales!!!!!

2009-10-22T22:00:00.000+03:00

Today was a pretty exciting day for me. The library book sale took place at my local library (well local meaning the closest one to me is 1 hour away and it took quite a bit longer because there was a snow storm). I went with 2 of my friends and I have been really really excited all week. Especially with the Read-A-Thon this weekend. It was awesome to find so many new books to read.

When we got there my arms filled up with books in literally 2 minutes. Paperbacks were 1$ and hardcovers were 2$. I picked through all the tables and ended up with these:

Bones To Ashes - Kathy Reichs
Dead In Dixie - Charlaine Harris (the first 3 Sookie Stackhouse books in a hardcover version)
Seduced By The Moonlight - Laurell K. Hamilton (I seem to have bought 2 copies of this same book...silly me!)
Peony In Love - Lisa See
Notes From The Hyena's Belly - Nega Mezlekia
Travelling With Che Guevara - Alberto Granado
The Reader - Bernhard Schlink
The Flanders Panel - Arturo Perez Reverte
A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
A Question Of Blood - Ian Rankin
Doors Open - Ian Rankin
Dead Souls - Ian Rankin
Fire Study - Maria V. Snyder
Uther - Jack Whyte
My Name Is Red - Orhan Pamuk
The Hunted - L.A. Banks
Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
The Loch - Steve Alten
Blackwood Farm - Anne Rice
Exit Music - Ian Rankin

I got 20 books for 27$. Not too bad I think! I am so excited for all of these new books! I have so many new Ian Rankin novels to read I don't even know where to start!

The Stupidest Angel - Christopher Moore

2009-10-19T21:02:00.000+03:00

I love Christopher Moore books. I remember getting my first one (Practical Demonkeeping) when I was in high school in Halifax at the used bookstore. I remember thinking "Damn, I have found myself a killer author". And I was right, his books have only gotten better from there. The Stupidest Angel brings back a ton of old characters from his other novels. Which makes it awesome. You don't need to have read tho other books to get this one - but it does make it a bit funnier.

Since I have a difficult time summing up Christopher Moore novels, I will let Amazon.com have the honors! "'Twas the night (okay, more like the week) before Christmas and little Joshua Barker is in desperate need of a Christmas miracle. Josh is sure he saw Santa take a shovel to the head and now the seven year old has only one prayer: Please Santa, come back from the dead! But coming to Earth, seeking a small child whose wish needs granting, is none other than Archangel Raziel. Unfortunately, he's not sporting the brightest halo in the bunch and before you can say 'Kris Kringle,' he's botched his sacred mission and sent the residents of Pine Cove headlong into Christmas chaos, culminating in the most hilarious and horrifying holiday party the town has ever seen."

It is a great Christmas novel with just enough holiday spirit and profanity to make it a hilarious read. My favorite character is a tie between Molly (the ex B-movie star nut case) and Tuck Case (who we saw before in Island of the Sequined Love Nun). Both characters are strange and funny and I hope there are real people out in the world just like them!

Reading this book makes me want to go back and reread all the Christopher Moore books again. Maybe you should too!

Rating - 4

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's - John Elder Robison

2009-10-18T23:14:00.000+03:00

I found this book on the wall of the library promoting Mental Health Day. I thought it looked pretty interesting and I always need a good non-fiction book to read on my lunch break at work. When I got the book I was unaware that the author was the brother of Augusten Burroughs (the author of Running With Scissors). For anyone who has read Running With Scissors, you must realize how insane the family was and I knew that this book was going to be interesting.

This was a really amazing look into the life of someone with Asperger's Syndrome. According to Wikipedia, Asperger's Syndrome is "an autism spectrum disorder, and people with it therefore show significant difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests". This book was so interesting because the author didn't realize he had Aspergers until he was quite old - in his late 30's. He had been taken to a number of mental health specialists when he was younger and they all said he was just bad and deviant - no one knew he actually had a medical condition. Learning about his childhood and am surprised that John Elder Robison turned out as well as he did. It must have been so difficult to have everyone telling you that you are pretty much a sociopath when you actually have a medical condition.

I loved how John Elder Robison wrote the book explaining why he does and says the things the way that he does them. He takes us through his thinking process and that gave me a lot of insight into Asperger's. This book had some really funny parts to it and some great stories that made me laugh out loud. A good read!

Rating - 3

Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin

2009-10-14T19:27:00.000+03:00

I was at a new friends house on the weekend and I noticed they had a few Ian Rankin novels on the shelf. Ian Rankin has been on my TBR list now for a number of years. I just always had a hard time finding the first novel in the John Rebus series. My good luck was that they had it!! I took it home, finished the book I was currently reading and then dived right into Knots and Crosses.

The book is about Detective Sergeant John Rebus, a seemingly broken man who lives in Edinburgh and sees a side to the city that the tourists do not. Rebus is divorced, with a thirteen year old daughter Samantha he hardly sees. When Rebus is put on a murder/kidnapping case that involves young girls - Rebus finds out that something from his past has come back to haunt him. The book is short and we get an introduction to many characters that will be in the rest of the series (like Rebus's hypnotist brother Michael and the newspaper man Jim Stevens). I liked the novel because it was fast paced and had a lot of different voices in it.

Edinburgh is also a main character in the novel. Hopefully this will continue throughout the series because I love when an author uses a city to its full potential. I was in Edinburgh a few months back and I can picture some of the places that Ian Rankin describes in Knots and Crosses. Actually being to a city where a novel takes place brings the novel to life for me because I am putting myself in the novel. Edinburgh is a wonderful city to experience first hand as well as in literature.

I have the next on the series, Hide and Seek, sitting on my shelf. I will give it some time before I jump into this. I may save it for the 24 Hour Read-A-Thon. I always need something to keep my attention during those things!

Rating - 4

Certain Girls - Jennifer Weiner

2009-10-13T23:14:00.000+03:00

I had read the prequel to this book, Good In Bed a number of years ago and remember really loving it! Since then I have read a lot of Jennifer Weiner's books and when I heard about this book I was really excited to read it.

The novel is about Cannie and her thirteen year old daughter Joy. Cannie is a very overprotective mother (Joy was born premature and had a lot of difficulties including speech problems and hearing loss) and Joy is just trying to be a normal teenage girl. Cannie wrote a book 10 years previous that was somewhat based on her life and her experience getting pregnant with Joy, having a baby with medical issues and marrying a man who was not her baby's father. When Joy reads this she is shocked at her mothers life and the secrets she seems to have.

The book is about a mother and a daughter and the fact that it is sometimes hard to communicate. These two females were the center of the book - Peter, Cannie's husband was in it, as was Bruce, Joy's father but to me they seemed to have smaller roles. This was a book about a mother and daughter relationship. I liked this book because the way the acted and spoke to each other seemed real. My own experience with my mother is usually wonderful but sometimes she just says something the wrong way (or as I see it as the wrong way) and it makes me snappy and cranky. Cannie and Joy had that kind of relationship. I also loved that the family was Jewish. I haven't read very much fiction that involves Jewish tradition. Joy is going for her bat mitzvah and I really learned a lot about it by reading this book.

All in all it was a fun, easy, girly read. Sometimes thats just what a girl needs!

Rating - 3

Sylvanus Now - Donna Morrissey

2009-10-11T23:30:00.000+03:00

Sylvanus Now is a wonderful book set in a small fishing village in Newfoundland in the 1950's - 60's. Sylvanus Now is a young man who has only one true calling in life - and that is to fish the way his father and his grandfather fished. He also is in love with and marries a woman named Adelaide. Adelaide is a woman who had great dreams of educating her self and getting away from the world of fish and the sea. This story chronicles Sylvanus and Adelaide's life together and how the emergence of international boats trawling in Newfoundland waters effected the their lives.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was really powerful and moving. Coming from an area of Canada myself where fishing has been one of the main industries, I could relate with some of the characters points of view and perspectives. Also it being set in the 1950's allowed to already know the outcome of the difficulties faced by Newfoundlanders when international boats started fishing their waters. All of the fears in the book about how sustainable fishing could not be practiced when huge boats were hauling everything in with no regard for how it was affected the ecosystem of the sea turned out to be very true and really heartbreaking.

I loved all the characters in the book. I loved how quite Sylvanus is and how much he loved Adelaide - no matter what. She is a difficult woman but a good woman. In my eyes they were absolutely perfect for each other. They both had strengths and issues and needed each other.

I have read other books by Donna Morrissey and loved those as well. Everyone should check her out!

Rating - 4

Handle With Care - Jodi Picoult

2009-10-07T04:45:00.003+03:00

If you have read any of my previous postings about Jodi Picoult books you will know I have a love/hate relationship with her novels. This one was no exception really. The only thing that was different was that I didn't really go "what?!?!?!" until the very end of the book. In her others this usually happened about the middle,

Handle With Care is another controversial novel. It is about a young girl named Willow who has osteogenesis imperfecta - a very severe form of brittle bone disease. Her mother Charlotte decides to sue the obstetrician (her best friend) in a wrongful birth suit because she thinks she could have noticed the disease earlier on in Charlotte's pregnancy. And then Charlotte would have had had the choice to terminate the pregnancy. Charlotte believes she is doing this for her daughter to have a better life - Willow's disease has cost the family a lot of money and Charlotte believes the money they will get from the lawsuit will give Willow a chance to have all the things she needs. But Charlotte must be willing to say that she might never have had WIllow if she could have chose. And it also could destroy her other daughter and her marriage.

This book to me is not about abortion or a woman' right to choose. To me it was about the sacrifices people make for the ones they love and the lengths they will go to create oppurtunities for them. Charlotte was willing to ruin her own life to helm make Willow's more comfortable. Its amazing to me how Charlotte's character was able to cope so well with her community and family against her thinking she was an unfit mother and just money hungry. I really loved the relationship between Charlotte and Sean. They both had such strong convictions and really had to look at their marriage and whether or not they were worth saving after all they had been through.

I actually really enjoyed this book. I thought it was well written and it was a book that I didn't want to put down. It was horrifying reading about all the breaks that Willow had went through - especially the ones she had when she was a baby. Maybe because I am getting to the age where I am thinking about children but this book made me realize how lucky I was to be born healthy and how hard it must be for parents of children who were born with disabilities. It scares me to think of all the complications are possible when having baby. I have been lucky that almost all of my friends and family have been born healthy.

I am reading this book for my Facebook Book Club Babes In Toyland and am really excited to discuss this with the other women in the group. It is a great book for discussion - but it has the potential to get really heated!

Rating - 4

Been Away For A While

2009-10-05T16:40:00.000+03:00

Well...it has been over a month since I wrote. I have been in the process of moving and then didn't have the internet for a while. I finally got my apartment sorted out this weekend and am back and ready to blog! I actually haven't even read a lot this month because the only furniture I had on my apartment was an air mattress - and that isn't conducive to reading. But now I am settled and have a wonderful new reclining chair to sit in while I am reading.

I moved to the Northwest Territories a few weeks ago. I am about an hour away from Yellowknife - far enough to be in the woods but close enough that I can get to the library on the weekend. The Yellowknife Library is wonderful!!! It has so many great books and a huge collection of audiobooks and DVD's. I got some great titles to read in the upcoming weeks -The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano, Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner, Sylvanus Now by Donna Morrissey, Don't Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robison and the book I am reading now for my online book club, Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult. I really enjoy going to this library - there are a lot of seats to sit and read magazines and a great section of recommendation by the staff. There is a library book sale on a few weeks that I can't wait to attend! I am so happy to have a library again!

So now I need to focus on my reading. I am at 105 books so far this year. I only read 5 since the last week of August. I was hoping to get to 150 by the New Year but the lull in September may have messed up my goal. But I guess it will start getting cold soon and I will be spending more time inside with a good book!

Hit The 100!

2009-09-03T23:34:00.002+03:00

So it has been a while. I am in the moving process right now with no time to blog - or even read for that matter. But I did want to take the time to post that I hit my goal of reading 100 books already (about a week ago!). My 100th book was The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton (an awesome book!). I am so happy that I completed The 100 Book Challenge before September even started. Especially because last year I didn't even make it to 100.

I have packed up many books for my adventure up to Northern Canada next week. Hopefully I can get close to 150 books read by the end of the year. Won't be an update for awhile but I hope to have some more books to review soon!

Under A Blood Red Sky - Kate Furnivall

2009-08-23T12:03:00.005+03:00

This novel is set in Russia during the 1930's. It is about a woman named Sofia who has been sent to a work camp in SIberia because her fatehr was considered an enemy of Russia. There she meets Anna, a woman who was once wealthy but now has nothing and no one. They survive in the work camp together by Sofia's courage and by Anna telling stories about her childhood - and her childhood love Vasily. When Anna gets gravely ill, Sophia decideds she must escape the work camp and try to find Vasily so he can help Anna. Sophia travels hundreds and hundreds of miles in search of him. What she finds when she gets to the village where he is supposed to be is not what she expected - friendship, love and maybe even a family.

I was really excited to read this book because I loved The Russian Concubine (which this author wrote as well). I have to be honost and say that I didn't like this book as much as I liked her previous novel but I am not sure if it had to do with th book or my mood when reading it. This book was kind of cheesey and parts were very unrealistic and I found my attention wavering when I was reading it. I had this book for my plane trip back to Turkey with a 5 hour stopover in Munich. I figured i could get through it easliy. I did finish but not until I got home and sat down for another hour. The reason why I think it may have been my mood more then the book is because The Russian Concubine had its fair share of cheese and I loved that. I think that maybe because I had been reading so many murder mysteries lately that I was looking for a little more intrigue and drama.

I really did like some of the characters in this book - especially the young boy Pyotr. It was so sad to see him trying to decide what is right - Mother Russia and all of the propaganda that he has been taught or his feelings for the people around him (even if they did things that seemed to be against Russia). I can't imagine telling on my own family or friends just to get more food or a special favor. I hope I am never in that position. This book made me realize that there is so much Russian history that I need to read up on. Anyone know of any good Russian literature about the 20th century?

Rating - 2

The Grave Tattoo - Val McDermid

2009-08-21T14:50:00.005+03:00

I have been trying to read British fiction since I have been in England because some of it is pretty hard to get in Canada. Especially murder-mysteries. I read a Val McDermid novel when I was on vacation with my mom in Greece and really enjoyed it. This one was also really good. The novel is quite different then most murder mystery novels I have read as it has a scholorly twist. Jane Gresham is William Woodsworth scholar who is looking for a lost poem that he has written about Fletcher Christian - the mutinous first mate on the Bounty. A body is discovered in the Lake District; a body that is over 200 years old and had tattoos on it not unlike Fletcher Christian. Jane heads up there to investigate and but death seems to follow when elderly people who are involved in her search begin to die. There is also a subplot about her relationship with a young black girl named Tenille who lives with her aunt in the apartment complex that Jane does. I really enjoyed this extra aspect to the book.

The was interesting cause I thought I knew who the killer was but then I wasn't too sure. I like it when books let me believe I know who did it but then throw in a bit of a twist that makes me doubt myself. They talked a lot about this author when I was at the Edinburgh Book Festival because she is from Edinburgh. Many of her mystery novels take place in the city but I have yet to read one. I hope I am able to find some when I get back to Canada!

Rating - 3

Some New Books

2009-08-20T23:35:00.000+03:00

I resisted the temptation to buy books for most of my time in England. I had a great library to browse through and I was really satisfied with most of the books I got to read this summer. But there are some great books and some really good sales here. I realized that I will need to stock up on my books because I will be moving to the Northwest Territories next month. I went to this great store near my father-in-law's house that sells paperback books 3 for 5 pounds (which is 3 for 9 Canadian dollars). I picked up 9 books and here they are:

The Careful Use Of Compliments - Alexander McCall Smith
The World According To Bertie - Alexander McCall Smith
44 Scotland Street - Alexander McCall Smith
Helpless - Barbara Gowdy
Ghosts Of India (Doctor Who) - Mark Morris
Under A Blood Red Sky - Kate Furnivall
The Resurrectionist - James Bradley
The Marriage Bureau For Rich People - Farahad Zama
The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton

Has anyone read any of these books and if so are they any good??

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2009 Writing Workshop

2009-08-17T15:53:00.002+03:00

So I finally got to spend a few days a real book festival and it was amazing! It has been running for 26 years and goes on for about 2 weeks. There are many different events for all book lovers - poetry readings, meet the authors, literary readings, workshops, children's events and a lot more. I only attended two events because I was only in Edinburgh for 3 days and had some other things that I really wanted to see (like a LONG day trip to Loch Ness). As I talked about in my previous posting I went to see Carlos Ruiz Zafon discuss his new book The Angel's Game. The event was sold out and I loved how diverse the audience was. It was awesome to be sitting with a bunch of people who have enjoyed his books as much as I have.

But the first event i went to was first thing opening day - and that was a workshop called Writing Fiction. There were only 20 spots available so I booked this weeks ago. I have always wanted to write a novel, when I was a young girl I used to write all the time. I gave it up as I got older (besides this blog) and now spend most of my free time reading books. Over the years I have decided that I really want to get into writing again but just have no idea where to start. I thought this would be a great starter. The workshop was an hour and a half and we started off by telling our names and if we had written anything previously. It was a diverse group - some had published stories while others had never really written anything before and were interested in starting.

The first exercise we did was to write 3 sentences describing the story we either had already started writing or that we want to write. I sat there for about 10 minutes with a blank piece of paper. Suddenly an idea came to me. I wrote it down and then rewrote it, then changed it. It was really interesting and got my brain thinking about ideas that I never knew were there. We then all went around and talked about our ideas. It was great to see how different everyones story ideas were and the positive feedback I got on mine.

For the last bit we talked about character development and how to keep a plot moving in a novel. We got some work sheets and some information on a week long writing workshop in Northern Scotland that I would die to go to at some point in my life. We also talked about how to get motivation to write and how important it is to write everyday - even if it is only for 10 minutes. It was a great workshop and I think it has motivated me to really sit down and start to write something. I think I have it in me - I just need to really do it!!

The Angel's Game - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

2009-08-16T23:14:00.000+03:00

I got up early yesterday morning to finish The Angel's Game before heading to The Edinburgh International Book Festival to see the author Carlos Ruiz Zafon speak about it. When I found out a few months ago that I would be going to the Book Festival for the first 2 days I was SO excited to see that I would be able to see Carlos Ruiz Zafon and get him to sign my favorite book The Shadow Of The Wind. I picked up a hardcover edition of The Angel's Game as it was only released a few weeks back. I began reading it on the train to Edinburgh and got involved in the story right away.

The book is set in Barcelona in the 1920's. It is a dark book filled with mystery and supernatural elements. David Martin the main character - he is an author who has had a hard life that seems to be getting harder. He makes a deal to write a book for a mysterious Parisian publisher - and then people around him start dying and David begins to wonder who is the man he is working for and what dark secrets need to be uncovered. I don't want to give any more info because I don't want to give away any of the twists of the book. There are many of them! If you have read The Shadow Of The Wind then you will recognize some of the characters in this new novel. But don't worry - it is a stand alone book and you don't have to know The Shadow Of The Wind to enjoy this book. But I do have to say that The Cemetery of Forgotten Books is back in this novel and will play a part in his next two novels as well!!!

When I finished the book yesterday morning I was worried that I had read it too fast. I had a hard time with the ending and wasn't sure if I really understood it. I reread the ending but still didn't get it. I went to the Book Festival hoping that the author could shed some light on what I had read. And he did. Carlos Ruiz Zafon was excellent to see speak. He was funny and engaging and talk about books like they were friends. He said that many people were very angry with him because they did not understand the ending to The Angel's Game. When I heard this I breathed a sigh of relief - Thank God I wasn't the only one who didn't get it!!! He said that this was a book that you had to think about. It didn't take you by the hand the way The Shadow Of The Wind did and wrap everything up nicely. This was a darker book - one that you had to think about and interpret for yourself.

When I went to get my books autographed I told Mr Zafon that I was one of those people who didn't understand the ending but I was not angry about it. It just made me want to reread the entire book again and see what I could pull from it. That is a sign of an excellent book! There are 2 more books coming and I cannot wait to read them!

Rating - 5

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas - John Boyne

2009-08-13T11:20:00.004+03:00

This novel is about a nine year old boy named Bruno whose father is a Commander with the Nazi's. The father is sent to work in Auschwitz and the family goes along to - to live in the house beside. Bruno doesn't really know what his father does or really about anything that is going on around him. All he really knows is that his friends are no longer here and he cannot go exploring like before. That is until one day he finds a boy his age wearing striped pajamas living behind the fence. His name is Shmuel. And then the book just gets sad.

This is a short novel. A little over 200 pages, I read it in 3 sittings. Written from the point of view of a German child this story is heartbreaking. I had to sit back and think when I finished the last page because it made me feel so utterly sad. It made you feel for everyone in Auschwitz and especially for these 2 little boys who just wanted to be friends above everything else. The only problem I have with this book is how little Bruno is aware of what is going on around him. I don't know if it was typically for boys to be not told anything about Hitler or the Nazis - especially if the father was so important. Bruno seems a quite selfish and silly little boy - but if the author did that on purpose to show how he was just a boy being a boy unaware of the horror around him then it did work.

I think that this should be read in elementary schools and high schools. It brings the story of the holocaust from a different viewpoint and also looks at friendship between two little boys who live on different sides of the fence. If this book doesn't break your heart I don't know what will.

Rating - 4

The Tenth Circle - Jodi Picoult

2009-08-11T18:13:00.005+03:00

I always tell myself that I am not going to read another Jodi Picoult book because they always just make me feel sad and hate humanity. But then I see one at the library and pick it up. It was not exception this week with The Tenth Circle. I read this book in 2 days. An easy and a pretty good read. Maybe I like it because it didn't bring out as strong emotions in me that reading her other books (like Nineteen Minutes and Mercy) did. That can be both a good and a bad thing because those books will stay with me where I don't know if this one will.

This book is about Trixie, a 14 year old girl who says she has been raped by her ex-boyfriend Jason at a party where everyone has been drinking. It is also about Trixie's father Daniel, who only wants to protect his daughter and make Jason pay for what he has done to his little girl. The book is a he said/she said and you really are not sure of what to believe while reading it. Rape is one of those hard to read about subjects and I hated reading about the backlash that Trixie went through at school when everyone found out. Also the rape and sexual violence statistics that Picoult talked about are really shocking, especially when most North Americans have no idea about them. This novel made me scared to death to have a teenage girl someday. The excessive drinking, drugs and unsafe promiscuous sexual activity is enough for me to cringe. We see things like this all the time on daytime talk shows but its still hard to swallow.

I did love Trixie and Daniel's relationship. Very rarely do you see a novel with a father/daughter bond that is so strong. It reminded me a bit of my own relationship with my dad and how he would react if he found out something like that had happened to me. I think that without that bond the story wouldn't have been nearly as good.

Rating - 3

The Name Of The Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

2009-08-08T22:55:00.000+03:00

Somewhere (and I cannot remember where) I heard some really good reviews about The Name of The Wind. I heard that it was the next Harry Potter for adults. This got me excited but a little bit skeptical - I really enjoyed the Harry Potter series and it would be hard to find another series like it. I am so happy that the reviewers were right about this one - cause it is so good!!!!

This book is science fiction. I am normally not a science fiction girl - I find it hard to remember all of the made up names and places (so it makes for a very long reading experience) but this one was something different. This book is about Kvothe - an extraordinary man who is telling the story of his life to a man known as The Chronicler. He is trying to live as an innkeeper under an assumed name but things are happening around him that could spell trouble coming.

This quote is from the back cover of the book and if it doesn't draw you in I don't know what will!
"I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. My name is Kvothe. You may have heard of me."

I really really loved this book. It took me a few days to finish this because I didn't want it to end all at once. I found the stories interesting and the writing amazing. This is the first in a trilogy. The next book doesn't come out till April - it will be hard to wait till then! I guess I will just have to reread this one!

Rating - 5

The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo

2009-08-05T14:39:00.003+03:00

I really wanted to read this book because was going to Paris and I love reading books about places that I will be. I looked at bookshop upon bookshop (and library) in England and couldn't find it. I finally got one when I was in Paris - so I started reading it there. Let's just say it was not what I had expected.

I am sure most people have seen the Disney movie or read the children's version of this French classic set in Paris in the 1500's. The real book is in no way like the movie. I should have realized this but I didn't. So I was really surprised at how the book turned out. The book really isn't about Quasimodo (the hunchback) or Esmeralda - its really about the cathedral and also a lot about the people living in that time. The book was hard to read in places and I will admit that I skipped the chapter about Paris from a 'Birds Eye View' (I rarely skip chapters but I felt that if I didn't I would never get through this book). There was more descriptive writing then dialogue, which is common for classics but I found it a bit difficult to understand because I don't really know much about French history.

The more I read the book the more I liked it. It took me a good week to finish it but when I did I was glad that I read it. The end surprised me - the brutality of the book also surprised me. I was looking for the feel-good Disney ending and I didn't get it. The book left me feeling sad at how people are judged by what they look like and sometimes their characters are shaped by the way people act towards them. Things are not so different today.

Rating - 2

July's Reads

2009-08-04T17:12:00.002+03:00

I just got back from vacation so I am a little late writing in my monthly reads. This was an amazing month for me. I read more then I remember ever reading before. 20 books in one month. I was on vacation and had access to a really good library and loads of time. Some books were great (like, Yes Man, The Abstinence Teacher and Swan Song) and some not so good (like, The Shack and The Piano Teacher ).

I read 3 non-fiction books and 17 fiction books. I really need to step up the non-fiction reading. The books I read this month were:

88. The Last Days of Dogtown - Anita Diamant
87. A Concise Chinese English Dictionary For Lovers - Xiaolu Guo
86. Yes Man - Danny Wallace
85. Lord John and The Hand Of Devils - Diana Gabaldon
84. Petite Anglais - Catherine Sanderson
83. Growing Pains - Billie Piper
82. The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
81. Ines Of My Soul - Isabel Allende
80. The Abstinence Teacher - Tom Perrotta
79. The Camel Bookmobile - Masha Hamilton
78. Size 12 Is Not Fat - Meg Cabot
77. Fatherland - Robert Harris
76. The Shack - William P. Young
75. Killing The Shadows - Val McDermid
74. The Piano Teacher - Janice Y.K. Lee
73. No Time For Goodbye - Linwood Barclay
73. When Will There Be Good News - Kate Atkinson
72. The Fifth Victim - Beverly Barton
71. Grave Secrets - Kathy Reichs
70. If You Could See Me Now - Cecelia Ahern
69. Swan Song - Robert McCammon

Not all of these were reviewed. I got most of them done but didn't have time for some of them. I am aiming to review all of my books in August. I would also like to reach my 100 book goal by the end of August. That means I have 12 books to read (actually 11 because I already finished one). I am feeling pretty positive that I can do this - especially if I keep reading the way I have been!

A Concise Chinese English Dictionary For Lovers - Xiaolu Guo

2009-07-27T12:23:00.004+03:00

This Novel is about a young woman named Z who moves from a village in China to England to attend an English language school. She doesn't know anyone in London and spends her days writing in her journal about learning English and living in such a strange and new country. Then she meets a man, an older bisexual man whom she moves in with and falls in love with. She only has a year long student visa in England - so there definitely is potential for some heartbreak!

This book was at times hard to read because of the broken and choppy English (obviously it got better as the story went along and her English improved). This could be due to being an English teacher for so long and reading students essays exactly like this till I thought my head was going to explode. But the way Z expressed her feelings is beautiful. It makes your skin tingle and makes you smile. Her love for this man (who is lost himself) is so big that it takes up her whole life. He is her first love (though at an older age) and I can relate with those feelings in your chest that make you feel ill because you are either so happy or so scared of how much you love the other person. I have never read a book like this before. It was lovely. Most of the Asian literature I read is historical fiction. It was nice to sit down and read a novel set in present day that is easy to get through and makes you feel something.

Rating - 4

Yes Man - Danny Wallace

2009-07-26T00:22:00.003+03:00

This book is about Danny Wallace. Danny has been staying in a lot lately and saying no to most of his friends requests o do things. One day he gets on a bus, sits beside a bearded Asian man, they start talking and Danny tells him about his boring life. The bearded man tells him he needs to say yes more. That is where the book starts - Danny Wallace spends the year saying yes to everything (really EVERYTHING!!). I loved in the book that there were five different degrees to saying yes - 1 were easy things that you would say yes to anyway and 5 being things that you would NEVER say yes to.

This book is hilarious. I read Danny Wallace's book Friends Like These a few months back and enjoyed it so much that I needed to find another one! This book makes you laugh but it also makes you want to change your life. It makes you think about what would happen if you did say Yes more or even spent one day saying yes to everything. Would your life change? Would you meet some interesting people? I think I may give it a try.

Rating - 4

Petite Anglais - Catherine Sanderson

2009-07-24T23:51:00.001+03:00

I am going to France next week and due to the fact that I cannot for the life of me find a copy of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I decided to read this because it takes place in Paris and was recommended to me by a fellow book blogger. This is the true story of the life of British ex-pat who begins to write a blog about her experiences of living in Paris as a working mom, living with her French boyfriend in a relationship that seems to be failing. It is pretty much an account of how blogging changed her life (seemingly for both good and bad).

This is not a particularily feel good book. A lot of people didn't seem to like it because the narrator cheats on her partner for someone she meets through her blog. I agree that cheating is bad but it does happen. It was a bit uncomfortable to read about because you know it did happen and you feel pretty bad for Mr. Frog (her boyfriend) and for their daughter Tadpole. But I also felt for Catherine as well. Leaving an unhappy relationship is hard and sometimes its easier to take that step if you have someone waiting for you outside the relationship. As we learn from Catherines's story - this is not the healthiest option and usually ends in another heartbreak because it is really hard to begin a relationship on the coat tails of an old one (at least one that will last).

When I first opened this book I found it a bit boring and didn't think I was much interested in reading another true story (I had just read a biography of a British pop singer). But I sat down and actually got so into it I couldn't put it down. I finished it in a few sittings and really enjoyed it. I have read a lot of reviews saying that Catherine is a hard to like character and is self absorbed - I just think she is honest. She made some bad choices but really, who doesn't? She learned from her mistakes and I believe that she is better of for making and learning from those mistakes.

Rating - 3

The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

2009-07-21T18:43:00.005+03:00

Quick synopsis:
This book set just after WWII, with the main character being Juliet Ashton. Juliet is an author in London who gets a letter from a man on the island of Guernsey named Dawsey Adams. He had a book that she had sold to a second-hand bookshop that had her name an address in it. He wrote to her to ask for information on other books by this author and through these correspondences (as well as letters with other people from the island) Juliet gets to know the people of Guernsey, what the went through during the war and the German occupation, and how the The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society was formed.

This book is written in the form of letters. I didn't know that when I borrowed the book from the library and I am glad that I didn't because I probably wouldn't have read it. I typically don't like reading books written in letter or email form but since I had it and people had liked it I thought I would give it a try. It was a really nice book. The characters were lovely and I found myself laughing out loud to some of the things they wrote about. Because it was in letter form it was like reading one long conversation - and I really liked it. The characters were well developed and I loved how much they cared for each other. This would be a really good book club pick.

It was a fast read and left me feeling good inside. I admit that I had some tears in my eyes when finishing up the last few pages at Starbucks this morning. But they were good tears. Some times its nice to read a story that has a happy ending!

Rating - 4

Ines Of My Soul - Isabel Allende

2009-07-20T11:10:00.004+03:00

This novel is set in the 1500's and is about Ines Suarez - a Spanish woman that sets of to Chile to find her husband but instead she falls in love with Pedro Valdivia and helps him to conquer Chile. The story is told by an elderly and dying Ines to her stepdaughter Isabel. She tells the story of the hardships of venturing to Chile as both a Spaniard and a woman. The story is based on the real life of Ines Suarez and the men she loved. It made me realize that I need to really read some more history books because I hardly know anything about what happened in South America.

I did enjoy this book. It was heavy to read because there is not much dialogue but the writing was interesting and kept me captivated. It was hard to read about how awful the Spanish explorers treated the indigenous population of South America and how they felt they were less then human. I had to keep remembering this book was written from a woman's point of view in the 1500's and not the views of the author. I love Isabel Allende and always enjoy her books. I especially love the fact that most of her stories are adventure novels involving really strong women. She is a really smart author and I hope everyone reads one of her novels!

Rating - 4

The Abstinence Teacher - Tom Perrotta

2009-07-18T22:53:00.004+03:00

This book was excellent. A short synopsis of the book is that it is about Ruth, a sex-ed teacher who is forced to teach abstinence based curriculum (even though she does not believe in it) and Tim, a recovering drug-addict who is also a born again Christian and coaches Ruth's daughter's soccer team. It all comes to blows when Tim prays with the girls at the end of one game and some of the parents are not happy about it. There is a lot more to the book but I am terrible at reviews.

I liked the book being from Ruth and Tim's very different points of view. It made it less one sided and more interesting. The idea of teaching only an abstinence based curriculum was so interesting because it has been in the spotlight the last few years (especially in America with George Bush). My personal opinion is that teenagers deserve to have all the facts even if some people do not agree with them. It was interesting that Ruth had to give the kids information that she knew was not totally true - just used as a scare tactic to make kids not have sex (even though she knew that wasn't going to work and they were still going to do it anyway just without the correct info on contraception!). She was a strong smart woman but just didn't want to lose her job.

Tim was a sad and lost character. He didn't seem to really believe in the things he was saying - but he sure did want to believe in them. He was trying to change his life any way he could and church seemed to sort him out and change his life for the better. But as you will see when you read the book (and you better read it!!) sometimes people just want to believe even when it is not right for them.

I have never read any of Tom Perrotta's books before. I had seen the movies Little Children (which I really liked) and Election (which I didn't) and really didn't know what to expect with this one. I am certainly glad I read it and would encourage others to do so as well!

Rating - 4

Ahhh, The Library

2009-07-17T13:56:00.002+03:00

I arrived in England on Sunday evening. First thing I did Monday morning was head to the small local library that is a 5 minute walk from my husbands house. We went in and while he got a card (and made sure that could use it without him being there) I took a look around to see what I could find.

Straight off I loved the small sections all over the library that said things like "Newly Returned" or "Librarians Picks" or even better "Ones That You All Like!". I found 4 books right away that I wanted to read - and that was without even looking at the shelves! I got a Meg Cabot YA novel called Size 12 Isn't Fat (never read one before), some short stories by Diana Gabaldon, Billie Piper's biography and The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta (which I am reading now and really love so far!). I have been real library deprived for so long that I was too excited for this one.

The next day we went into town where the main library is. We stopped there even though I had only finished one of the books I got the day before. This was a bigger library and had quite few really good finds. There I got Ines Of My Soul by Isabel Allende, The Camel Bookmobile (which I reviewed below), Petite Anglais, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Not too bad for my first week in England.

I can't wait to finish these books up and get some more!

The Camel Bookmobile - Masha Hamilton

2009-07-16T12:46:00.005+03:00

The Camel Bookmobile is about a traveling library that brings books to rural areas of Kenya. The camel bookmobile visits one nomadic village called Mididima where lives are changed forever (in many different ways and not always positive). The book has many characters and every chapter is narrated by a different character. Some characters are Fi Sweeny is a librarian from New York who is a consultant on the Camel Bookmobile project; Matani is the teacher in the village who doesn't feel at home in his community because he was sent away as a teenage boy to the city for schooling; and also Taban (also known as Scar Boy), a boy who was disfigured by a hyena and is pretty much an outcast of the tribe. There are many more characters but I don't want to give too much away!

The book was an easy and interesting read. I liked the idea of it and I was really pulled in by the cover of the book (I have the British version which has a different cover then the American one). As I have said in previous reviews - I love books about books and this book is about the love of reading and stories. It is also a book about how cultures need to be preserved and children need to learn about their heritage so that the knowledge doesn't die away. A really good read and I would be happy to add it to my reading collection!

Rating - 3

Fatherland - Robert Harris

2009-07-14T14:25:00.002+03:00

I bought this book for my husband because he had read Pompeii by the author and loved it. Well I had nothing to read so I grabbed it before he even got to it. This was a good book. Really really interesting as a historical novel as well as a murder mystery.

Amazon.com says "Fatherland" is set in an alternative world where Hitler has won the Second World War. It is April 1964 and one week before Hitler's 75th birthday, Xavier March, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei, is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb. As March discovers the identity of the body, he uncovers signs of a conspiracy that could go to the very top of the German Reich. And, with the Gestapo just one step behind, March, together with an American journalist, is caught up in a race to discover and reveal the truth - a truth that has already killed, a truth that could topple governments, a truth that will change history." It was an intriguing idea and I got so involved with it the moment I started it. I really liked the characters, especially Xavier March. He was defiant in his own way in a situation where that usually lead to being tortured or killed. As we know, the Nazi's were terrible and the things that were done were horrific. But what if they had won the war and the German people really didn't know (or were forced to turn their heads at) what had and was still happening to people who were moved to the "East". This is what this book was about.

It was a fast paced book that is a pleasure to read. Now I have a new author that I need to get a few more books from!

Rating - 4

The Shack - William P. Young

2009-07-13T17:32:00.004+03:00

This is a hard review to write. I brought this book on my flight to England yesterday and made the fatal mistake of bringing a book I didn't really know anything about and then I was stuck with it for my entire flight. It was a rookie mistake that I rarely make - I always have a back-up...but not this time.

Amazon.com says "Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives as the shack on a wintry afternoon and walk back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever." My mom bought me this book - as she is a flight attendant and saw a bunch of people reading it on her flights. I don't think she read the back of it so I can't blame her.

I really really didn't like this book. I think I threw it on the empty seat next to me at least 10 times in anger and frustration. The main reason was how poorly written it was. It was choppy and not enjoyable. The way the conversation flowed was not the way people actually speak - it made it hard to read. Though I am not religious, I do think that the idea of the book was interesting and had the potential to be good. People love books like this and it is too bad that it was so hard to get through. I have read loads of reviews on this book since I finished this and at least I feel better knowing I am not the only one who feels this way about this book.

Rating - 1

Grave Secrets - Kathy Reichs

2009-07-05T11:53:00.002+03:00

Another interesting mystery to add to the "Bones" pile. This Temperence Brennen mystery is set between Guatemala and Montreal. Amazon.com says "Temperance Brennan is helping her Guatemalan colleagues identify the remains of villagers who were "disappeared" 20 years ago when she's called in to consult on four more recent disappearances. Is there a serial killer loose in Guatemala City, or is the fate of the young women who've gone missing--including the daughter of the Canadian ambassador--connected to the murder of a human-rights investigator looking into the decades-old massacre?"

I really liked the setting of this novel and it made me want to learn more about Central America and the human rights violations that have went on there in the recent past. It also made the travelling bug inside jump up and down because I have never been to Central or South America before. I also love Temperence Brennen's character in the novels. It is so very different from the show that the only thing similar is the name. She has a new love interest in this novel (plus the old one) and I would like to see how that plays out in the next book.

What I didn't like about this novel was the ending. It started out strong but the ending just didn't fit right for me. It was almost like it was just thrown in there by mistake or had to be finished up quickly. It wasn't a bad book but it wasn't as good as the others that I have read by Kathy Reichs. I will definitely continue reading her books because I always look forward to a smart murder-mystery!

Rating - 3

If You Could See Me Now - Cecelia Ahern

2009-07-04T21:05:00.003+03:00

I found this super cute book at in a discount bin in Bodrum. I told myself I was not going to buy anymore books but then I decided I really did need some chick lit. I had read a book by this author previously and really enjoyed it so I was excited to take this to the beach in Greece with me!

Amazon.com says "Living in her own house in a small, posh Irish town, 35-year-old Elizabeth Egan is an uptight interior designer and adoptive mother to her six-year-old nephew, Luke, whose mother, Elizabeth's 23-year-old sister, Saoirse, prefers boozing to parenting. Saoirse's behavior reminds Elizabeth of a painful past—the alcoholic mother who abandoned the family, leaving Elizabeth to care for her baby sister and forgo her own childhood, and the emotionally distant, controlling father still waiting for his wife's return. Unlike the other women in her family, Elizabeth adheres to a fastidiously well-ordered existence—no mess, no complications, no love. But all that changes with the arrival of Ivan, a goofy and spontaneous man intent on infusing much-needed fun and tenderness into Elizabeth's frigid persona. The catch is no one can see this ageless man from the land of "Ekam Eveileb" save Elizabeth and her nephew. Through Ivan, Elizabeth becomes the woman she's always been too afraid to be." It is a book about love and about make-believe.

This book was really fun and really sad at the same time. I found that Cecelia Ahern's novels have such a sadness to them but have a magical aspect that doesn't leave you depressed. I really like that. I loved the character of Ivan. He had such a childlike, carefree quality about him that made me miss being a kid and kind of excited to have my own someday! Life is so serious when you get older that you sometimes forget that the world will not stop spinning if you don't do the laundry or pay the bills on time.

This was a sweet, easy read.

Rating - 3

Swan Song - Robert McCammon

2009-07-02T21:58:00.000+03:00

I am on vacation now. I love vacation. And I love vacation books. They are always fun to pick out and I always remember the books I read on vacation because my focus is usually solely on them. This book was no exception. My mom had been reading this book for a while and raving about it so when she brought it with her on her trip to visit me I decided to read it as soon as she was done. It took me a few days to read because it is about 1000 pages. But its not hard to read..its actually an easy read with and interesting topic.

Amazon.com Review says "Swan Song is rich with such characters as an ex-wrestler named Black Frankenstein, a New York City bag lady who feels power coursing from a weird glass ring, a boy who claws his way out of a destroyed survivalist compound. They gather their followers and travel toward each other, all bent on saving a blonde girl named Swan from the Man of Many Faces." This is one of those end of the world books where nuclear war has destroyed most of the world (or at least the United States). People have compared this to The Stand and I totally understand why after reading it. It is a lot like The Stand, not just with the theme but with the characters as well. \

Now at first this bothered me because I LOVE The Stand. It is one of my favorite books. I remember seeing the mini-series when I was younger and didn't read the book until a few years back. But after I got into Swan Song and started liking the characters I wasn't too bothered with the similaritles. There is more of a supernatural element to Swan Song and there is more graphic violence and destruction. But the characters are really interesting and there is an excellent story line. All in all it is a great vacation book!

Rating - 4

Books Read For June

2009-06-30T12:12:00.000+03:00

So this was a pretty good month for reading! I don't know why I got so many more books read then any other month (could have been reading while sitting at the pool!) but I am pretty proud that I did it. The 16 books I read (or listened to) this month were:

The 19th Wife - David Ebershoff
Dance With Death - Barbara Nadel
DeNiro's Game - Rawi Hage
Sepulchre - Kate Mosse
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Audiobook)
Friends Like These - Danny Wallace
My Own Country - Abraham Verghese
The Witches - Roald Dahl
The Girl Who Played With Fire - Steig Larsson
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
The Ghost Map - Steven Johnson
Outlander - Diana Gabaldon (Audiobook)
Devil's Peak - Deon Meyer
The Breaker - Minette Walters
Tracks - Louise Erdich
Messiah - Boris Starling

I listened to 2 audiobooks (both were excellent!), read 2 children2s books (Roald Dahl is soooo good!), 2 non fiction, 5 murder mystery, 2 for the Diversity Rocks Challenge, 1 British comedy novel and 2 literary fiction. I had a good variety this month but I did overload on the murder mystery. My husband brought a bunch home from the book exchange at his work. I read books by authors from England, South Africa, Sweden, Lebanon, Turkey, India and the United States.

My favorites this month were Devil's Peak by Deon Meyer, The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson, DeNiro's Game by Rawi Hage and The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff.

I am finished work for the summer as of today and hit the beach with my mom for a week before heading to England for the summer. I have no idea what books I will be reading for the month of July. I have a few to bring to the beach (mostly murder mysteries) and I will get to use a real library in England (YEAH!!!) so who knows what I will be reading.

I won't be posting much in the next few weeks but will update as soon as I get back from the beach.

The 19th Wife - David Ebershoff

2009-06-30T11:04:00.003+03:00

A short synopsis from Amazon.com, "This sweeping epic is a compelling and original work set in 1875, when one woman attempts to rid America of polygamy. Ebershoff intertwines his tale with that of a 20th-century murder mystery in Utah, allowing the two stories to twist and turn into a marvelous literary experience."

I found this book really really interesting. After reading 50 pages I realized how little I knew about polygamy - even though it has been in the news a lot in the past few years. I also never knew that The only thing I knew about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints is that they made some pretty good commercials that were on TV when I was younger. I never knew that they were once a polygamous group. It is all really intriguing and I found myself stopping reading the book so I could look info up online to see how much of it was true.

I loved Jordan, the main character in the present day setting. His character was strong and sweet and sad all wrapped in one young boy. To be left on the side of the road by your mother because the Prophet said he was a sinner would leave anyone a bit bitter. But when he sees that she is in jail for murder he returns right away to Mesadale (his hometown) to see her. I also loved that Jordan was gay and that the author included a scene where him and his friend Tom go to a LGBT friendly Mormon church because you can be homosexual and still have religious faith.

I myself am not very religious but I was compelled by the faith that people have, even when it means giving up there own children. It is amazing that there are areas in North America where children are taught vastly different histories than the rest of us. It also makes me horrified (as both a woman and a social worker) that young girls are being forced into marriage (not legally) at a really young age to men that could be their grandfathers. It is sad because many of these girls think that this is their path to heaven and they just have to do it. I strongly believe that everyone should be free to practice their own religions but I think people cannot ignore how some religions oppress women and children.

Everyone should give this book a read. It was informative as well as interesting.

Rating - 4

Dance With Death - Barbara Nadel

2009-06-28T22:12:00.001+03:00

Amazon.com says "A body is discovered in a cave in the remote region of Cappadocia, Turkey. The woman died of gunshot wounds, and her corpse has lain undisturbed for twenty years. Who is she and who killed her? Inspector Ikmen is summoned from Istanbul to investigate but discovers a complex web of intrigue. Was it her boyfriend, driven mad by love, or her husband, believing she would never bear the son he wanted so badly? When it is revealed the girl was pregnant when she died, the whispers and accusations increase. Ikmen, stifled among a rural community thriving on legend, folklore and intrigue, begins to think he will never see clearly through the lies surrounding this case. One thing, however, is clear: the past is as potent as the present."

I was actually visitng this area of Turkey with my mom and husband when I bought this book. There was a cute little used bookstore in the middle of town called 1001 Book that had loads of great books and when I say this one I knew it would be a great read while I was staying in a cave hotel.

I have read 2 other Barbara Nadel books since I have lived in Turkey and really enjoyed them - this one was no exception. I loved reading about the mysterious and wonderful place of Cappadocia (if you haven't seen pictures of it you should google it because it is AMAZING). The houses are built into the sides of caves and you can explore underground cities that were built by the Christians hundred and hundreds of years ago. It is a great place for a murder mystery setting.

Inspector İkmen is excellent in this novel. He is funny and I love how we see the character develop in each novel. I also liked that there was a sub plot going on in Istanbul involving Inspector Mehmet Suleyman. It is interestşng how he handles the case he is working on without Inspector İkmen's help and insight.

The ending of this novel is by far the best in any of the books in this series that I have read. It wraps things up nicely and some parts made me laugh. Overall it was an excellent murder mystery. I think if this author got more worldwide recognition it would be wonderful. Turkey is such an interesting setting for books such as these because there is so many different people and places.

Rating - 3

DeNiro's Game - Rawi Hage

2009-06-27T21:51:00.000+03:00

I find it really hard to describe this novel. Booklist describes it as "Bassam and George have been best friends since childhood, when they roamed the ruined streets of their hometown of Beruit, making a game out of collecting empty bullets and cannon shells to trade for cigarettes. Now, years into the civil war, "ten thousand bombs had landed," and the two have lost their parents and many neighbors to them, growing hard and cynical in the process. Every day is a test in survival, a mad scramble for food and petrol. Bassam dreams of escaping to Rome, where even the pigeons look "happy and well-fed." He and George concoct an elaborate ruse to rip off the gambling parlor where George works, but after joining the local Christian militia, George is a changed man."

It was amazing and heartbreaking and beautiful and so very sad. The lyrical writing style as well as the decriptions of war reminded me a bit of The Cellist of Sarajevo. The characters were wonderfully written. Bassam just wants to get out and live somewhere that is safe. On the other hand his best friend George gets caught up in everything and will do anything to fight for the Christian militia.

DeNiro's Game allows us to see what can happen to young men and women during times of war. But more importantly it shows us what can happen after either it ends or they leave the area of conflict. It is difficult to change a mindset that has been set during times of conflict. It was hard for Bassam to give up his gun when he left Beruit and even harder for him to believe that he didn't have to fight for his life in the streets of Paris. Bassam does some terrible things but some of it is forgiven when we look at the bigger picture (at least for me they were forgiven).

We find out near the end of the book what the title Deniro's Game means to the characters and how it really isn't a game at all but a way of life for some people in Beruit.

I think everyone should read this book. It makes you think about how countries survive and rebuid themselves after a war when their own people have been so damaged.

Rating - 5

Sepulchre - Kate Mosse

2009-06-21T09:36:00.006+03:00

From Publisher's Weekly "In 1891, Parisian teenager Léonie Vernier and her brother visit their young aunt at an estate in southern France. After finding a startling account of her late uncle's pursuit of the occult, Léonie scours the property for the tarot cards and Visigoth tomb he describes, unaware that more tangible peril in the form of a murderous stalker is seeking to destroy her loved ones. Present-day biographer Meredith Martin is in France finishing a book and tracing her ancestry when she sees a reproduction of the same tarot, which bears her likeness. She investigates the connection when she, too, arrives at the estate, now a hotel in which a new battle between good and evil rages."

I read Kate Mosse's previous book Labyrinth and had a really hard time getting through it. I remember being really interested in the setting (Carcassonne) so I forced myself to finish it. Despite not liking her previous book I was drawn to Sepulchre. I thought the author had good ideas and I was willing to give her a second chance - especially because her newest book is set in an area outside of Carcassonne that my husband and I will be visiting in the summer.

I was interested in Tarot Cards when I was much younger so I found it interesting that they played such a large role in this novel and in the characters lives. It made me shiver to read about how realistic the pictures on the tarot were and how how the present day character say herself in them. The elements of the supernatural made Sepulchre a page-turner.

I did enjoy this book. I liked the main female characters Leonie (in the 1890's) and Meredith (present day). They were interesting women who were always seemed to be searching for something. I liked how the author wrote the book - she broke it up well, making the chapters short and moving from one point of time to another by rotating sections. It made it easy to read and never got boring. I wouldn't say it was the best novel I have ever read but it was much better then I thought it was going to be when I began it.

Rating - 3

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J K Rowling (Audiobook)

2009-06-20T23:39:00.001+03:00

I am pretty sure that most people know about Harry Potter. I am not going to bother giving a synopsis of the book since everyone I know has either read the book or seen the movie. I read the book twice - the first time a number of years ago. I started listening to the audio book last year but my copy was given to me by a friend and was one long MP3. It made it impossible to listen to on my iPod, so I gave up. Finally a few weeks ago I got all of the Harry Potter Audio books (ones that are broken up into chapters and way easier to listen to) and just finished listen to the first one - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

I loved the narrator Stephen Fry. He did a great job of changing voices - moving from Hermione to Harry with ease. And he did an EXCELLENT job of sounding like Hagrid. For a while I thought he might e the character himself! This audiobook was really enjoyable to listen to. I would put it on when I went to the pool and get through a few chapters of it in no time. It has been a while since reading a Harry Potter book (the last one did come out two summers ago and I read it the day after it was released!) and I forgot how much I love the characters.

Harry Potter is such a fun series. I am so happy that I have Harry Potter in many different forms - book, movie and now Audio book! I look forward to listening to the rest of the series. It is fun to listen to tales of magic and friendship - especially when life gets a bit hard!

Rating - 5

Friends Like These - Danny Wallace

2009-06-18T21:49:00.003+03:00

This book was funny. Laugh out loud funny. I love British humor. Amazon.co.uk says "Danny Wallace is about to turn thirty and his life has become a cliche. Recently married and living in a smart new area of town, he's swapped pints for lattes and had even contemplated buying coasters. Something wasn't right - he was feeling way too grown-up. Until - Danny finds an old address book containing just twelve names. His best mates as a kid. Where are they now? Who are they now? And how are they coping with this scary concept of being grown-up? And so begins a journey from A-Z, tracking down and meeting his old gang. He travels from Berlin to Tokyo, from Sydney to LA. He even goes to Loughborough. He meets Fijian chiefs. German rappers. Some ninjas. And a carvery manager who's managed to solve time travel. But how will they respond to a man they haven't seen in twenty years, turning up and asking if they're coming out to play?"

I didn't realize till I was half-way through it that this wasn't a fiction book but a book based on his own experiences. That made it even funnier. Some of the things he does are brilliant and I couldn't imagine doing them. I liked the idea of getting to an age where people feel that they need to look to their past and to get in touch with people who were imporant to them. Growing up we make friends pretty easily and many times we grow apart from old friends when we make new ones. I have moved around a lot since I finished high school so I have made new friends in a lot of different places but there are only a few that I keep in touch with. The invention of Facebook has allowed me to see what everyone is up to from my past and my present.

There was one scene in this book where Danny Wallace visits Tokyo and goes to a ninja-style restaurant. It was sooo funny and so a place that I would love to visit. He has quite a lot of adventures. He wrote the book Yes, Man and I had just watched the movie last week. Once again I didn't know that the movie was based on his real life. I think I will have to pick up some more of his books!

Rating - 4

My Own Country - Abraham Verghese

2009-06-17T17:41:00.005+03:00

I have been trying to read more non-fiction recently so when I saw that they had this at the university library I picked it up. I have been reading it for almost a month now..picking it up and putting it down. This is not because it isn't a good book but because it is really a gut wrenching read.

Publishers Weekly description of My Own Country states, "Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City saw its first AIDS patient in August 1985. Working in Johnson City was Abraham Verghese, a young Indian doctor specializing in infectious diseases who became, by necessity, the local AIDS expert. Out of his experience comes a startling, ultimately uplifting portrait of the American heartland."

This was a really well written book. It was more about this mans journey through the HIV/AIDS crisis in a small town when no one had ever seen it before. It was interesting to read about Tennessee from a foreign doctors perspective. When I started reading the book I forgot that it takes place in the 1980's when prejudice and just basic lack of information made people with HIV/AIDS have very few resources and help. I have read quite a bit about HIV/AIDS in my life. I had volunteered and worked at an AIDS organization in a small community when I finished high school. Since then I had read more about HIV/AIDS internationally, especially in Africa. It was different to read about the effect of HIV/AIDS in a rural American town. I liked that Abraham Verghese included people of many different backgrounds into his story - people that had contracted the disease through homosexual and heterosexual sex, as well as through blood transfusions. It showed that diseases like HIV/AIDS can be contracted any type of person.

I found the stories sad. Most of the people ended up dying - I had to keep reminding myself that people who had HIV/AIDS in the 1980's usually didn't live very long because of the lack of medicine and research. I felt for the doctor because of all the sadness he had to see everyday and how that affected his home life. Abraham Verghese helped so many people when no one else wanted to take the responsibility.

I would recommend this book to people who want to learn more about the beginnings of HIV/AIDS and also if they want to know some stories of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Rating - 4

The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson

2009-06-16T12:00:00.003+03:00

I read the first in this trilogy The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo a few months back and really enjoyed it. I had never read any Swedish fiction before and I was really happy when the second book was released. This book is not yet available in North America (my friend ordered it from England) so I was lucky to get a chance to read it early.

Amazon.co.uk review says "The highly intelligent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, is a confrontational young woman, whose Goth accoutrements sometimes alienate those around her (except the individuals she opts to have sexual relations with – strictly, that is, according to the rules she lays down). In the second book in the Millennium sequence, The Girl Who Played with Fire (as in its its predecessor), Lisbeth's closest ally is the older journalist Mikael Blomqvist, even though she has abruptly ended her emotional relationship with him. Lisbeth has left all she knows behinds her and has begun a relationship with a gauche young lover. But after a grim revenge run-in with a man who has abused her, she becomes a suspect in three murders, and is the subject of a nationwide search. Blomqvist, however, is convinced of her innocence (he has just been responsible for a blistering report on the sex trafficking industry in Sweden), and is determined to help her – whether she wants his help or not."

This book was really large and a little intimidating at first because of its size. But when you start into it you realize how fast paced it is and you are through a hundred pages in no time! I loved how different this book was from regular North America murder mysteries. It had more of a European flavour to it. I totally understand why Stieg Larsson is considered a brilliant author in Europe (and now North America!!)

The characters are great. Salander is so interesting and I am really happy that this book explored more about her character. In The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo we were given only little bits of info and left hanging when it came to her character. She is such an interesting woman. I love books with really interesting characters who are not perfect.

I guess I will have to wait a while for the third book to be translated to English. It made me sad to find out that this author had died. He was such a great writer and I would have enjoyed reading more of his books.

Rating - 4

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

2009-06-15T16:31:00.002+03:00

I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a long time ago and I remember loving it. I decided to re-read all the Raold Dahl books after the school I work for received them all from a publisher. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is really good. I loved Charlie Bucket and what a sweet character he was. I loved Grandpa Joe and how excited he was when Charlie found the Golden Ticket and was able to visit Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory! As a kid I was never as much of a fan of the Oompa-Loompas as the other kids were. I wasn't much into their songs. But I do appreciate it now that I am older. There are so many lessons for kids on how they should (and shouldn't) behave and what might happen if they do. Of course everything is exaggerated. I think these books are really important (and timeless). They were written many years ago but are still being read by kids in schools today.

I loved reading it as an adult because there are alot of references that have been made in pop culture today (or when I was younger). For example the band Veruca Salt (which I loved when I was in junior high!) You look at these books a bit differently when you are an adult. I can't wait to move on to the next one!

Rating - 5

The Ghost Map - Steven Johnson

2009-06-13T18:13:00.006+03:00

This was one of the best non-fiction reads I have had in a while. Pretty much this is a story about the cholera epidemic in London in 1854 and how some really intelligent (and very different) people discovered how cholera infected the public and how that discovery changed living in cities forever. It was a really interesting read and I never found it boring. I had read some really good reviews about this book and picked it up even though it is not something I would usually read.

I liked that the scientific aspects were intertwined with stories about the people who were affected by cholera. It made it enjoyable to read. I learned so much about epidemics and how epidemics can break out at anytime if we are not careful. It was interesting reading this book after the "swine flu" scare that has been going around recently. Steven Johnson talks about the "avian flu" and how that has affected people around the world. I see how everyone around the world has been worried about "swine flu".

Somewhere I read a review that said, "If you like a good story and infectious diseases then you are going to love this book!". I think that says it all.

Rating - 4

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2009

2009-06-12T09:30:00.003+03:00

I have been waiting for months for the author list for The Edinburgh International Book Festival to come out. This is the first International Book Festival that I have ever attended and I am really excited. I attended the Stephen Leacock Literary Festival in Orillia, Ontario 2 years ago and really enjoyed it. That was my first time attending an author reading and I loved every moment of it. Since then I have traveled a lot so I don't often get to go to these things. But this year I will be spending the summer in England and my husband planned a trip to Edinburgh at the beginning of this festival. So not only will I get to see Scotland (which I have never been) but I will also be in readers heaven.

I am most excited to see Carlos Ruiz Zafon - the author of The Shadow of The Wind!!! As I have wrote previously - I love love love this book! His new novel
The Angel's Game comes out next month and I can't wait to read it. I will have to get a copy as soon as I get to England.

I also am going to attend a workshop on How To Write A Novel . I have always wanted to write a novel and I figure this is a great opportunity for me to learn some things and to really think about starting a novel. I feel that Edinburgh would be a great place to give me inspiration!!!

There are also some other lovely workshops going on and I haven't decided on everything I will do yet. Is anyone else out there attending The Edinburgh International Book Festival 2009?

Outlander - Diana Gabaldon (Audiobook)

2009-06-09T19:27:00.005+03:00

I have read Outlander about 4 times and when I found the audiobook I thought that it would be so fun to listen to the characters rather then just read about them. It was so much fun!! If you don't already know about Outlander here is a description from Amazon.com "While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn't all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she's never known before."

It took me about 5 weeks to listen to this audiobook - It is a long one, perhaps 28 hours. I listened to it at work and some before I went to sleep. I loved the narrator Davina Porter!! She will always be Clare Fraser to me. She was excellent at changing into different characters. I could picture the characters in my head for years so adding a voice to this was wonderful. Since I have read the book a few times before I could listen differently then if it was the first time. If I missed something it was okay. I really enjoyed listening to the Gaelic words - words that I had made up in my head were made real while listening. Sometimes when I can't pronounce a name I end up making up a similar one to call the character. It was fun to hear if I was even close to the actual names.

I found the parts about the torture that Jamie underwent by Randall to be hard to listen to. I remember skimming over it a bit when I was reading the book and listening to it was even harder. I heard the pain in the narrators voice when she was describing Jamie's pain - and it made me feel ill.

Listening is so different then reading. I don't know if I could listen to books that I haven't previously read - I don't know if I have the attention span for it. But I will continue to listen to books that I have already read. It will give me a new look at books that I already really enjoy.

Rating - 5

Devil's Peak - Deon Meyer

2009-06-08T21:55:00.005+03:00

I started this book during the 48 Hour Book Challenge but didn't get it finished until tonight (I spent the last 2 hours reading in Starbucks with my husband). This was a great book. Another murder-mystery (I should have joined a murder mystery challenge this year) but a different kind because it is set in South Africa.

From Amazon.com, "Former mercenary Thobela Mpayipheli is trying to live a peaceful life, but these plans are shattered when his eight-year-old son, Pakamile, is shot dead. The two gunmen responsible escape before sentencing, and the grieving father decides to take matters into his own hands. As he pursues his son's killers, Mpayipheli begins to target pedophiles and other perpetrators of violence against children, meting out justice with a Xhosa tribal sword called an assegai.Dubbed Artemis by the papers as the killings increase, Mpayipheli becomes a kind of folk hero to the people of Capetown. Insp. Benny Griessel, an aging alcoholic whose struggles with the bottle have all but cost him his family and his life, works the case with a desperate intensity. Griessel finds an unlikely ally in Christine van Rooyen, a young prostitute, who lures the detective into a very dangerous plan of her own when her young daughter goes missing."

I really liked this book. I enjoyed reading about South Africa but not in a literary novel sort of way. I liked that this book was a good murder mystery but was really culturally different from ones that I am used to reading. I really liked the character of Thobela. My heart broke for him when his son was killed. The author did a great job in making the reader feel that he was justified in killing the people that he did. Of course there are twists and when it is all over you don't really know who was right or wrong. Makes you really think about your own views and values. I will be picking up more of his books.

Rating - 4

48 Hour Book Challenge - The Finish Line

2009-06-08T08:46:00.002+03:00

So I totally didn't do this Book Challenge the way that I did the last one. I didn't stay home and read, read, read. Maybe that had to do with how hot it was this weekend (almost 30 degrees!). I read for most of the day on Saturday before heading out for dinner. On Sunday I went to town with my husband but read on the bus there and then in the evening. I read more then usual - but not as much as I should have for a Book Challenge. I finished one book that I have previously started (Tracks), finished a whole book (The Breaker), read half of another book (Devil's Peak) and listened to my audiobook (Outlander). Not bad for one weekend. I read some other blogs - but to be honest I spent most of my time out of the house. It is so nice to sit in a coffee shop and read a book in the air conditioning (especially when the heat is killer outside).

I hope that I spend more time reading in the next Book Challenge. But I did enjoy this one and I guess that is the most important part!

Hour 20 of the 48 Hour Reading CHallenge

2009-06-06T15:10:00.006+03:00

I got a lot of reading in last night, had a good sleep then woke up at 6:30am to keep reading. I finished another book The Breaker by Minette Walters and listen to a bit of Outlander audiobook while I was sun bathing. I am going to start a new book and then listen to the rest of Outlander on the bus on my way to dinner. Hopefully I will get another book finished tonight. I haven't stopped my life to do this book challenge but I am definitely reading a lot more then usual.

The Breaker - Minette Walters

I must be in a murder mystery zone because I have read more lately then in my entire life. Apparently this author is a big writer in the UK and from reading this book (and I have heard this is not even one of her better novels) I can understand.

Amazon.com states "When Kate Sumner's corpse is discovered naked, bruised, prone and violated on the rocks of a sleepy South Coast town by two curious young boys and her tiny, traumatised daughter is found wandering alone several miles away, police are instinctively drawn to two suspects. William Sumner, Kate's husband, and Steven Harding, a handsome would-be actor, find themselves at the centre of the investigation and as police suspicions grow, their fatally flawed personalities are gradually disembowelled in the search for the truth."

This was pretty much a straight forward murder mystery. I thought I knew who did it, then I thought it was someone else, then I wasn't so sure. That is always a sign of a good book - it keeps you guessing. I liked how the book was broken up by putting coroners reports, police files and letters from friends in. It gave another outlook. All in all it was a good read - kept me reading and always wondering what was going to happen.

Rating - 3

Tracks - Louise Erdich

2009-06-05T21:02:00.001+03:00

I really don't know what to say about this book. I had a hard time understanding what was going on and I felt I was really missing something but I wasn't sure what. THEN I read a review of the book which revealed to me that this is the second in a series. Then it started to make sense on why I was feeling a little confused.

Library Journal says "The continuation of an escalating conflict between two Chippewa families, a conflict begun when hapless Eli Kashpawwho has passionately pursued the fiery, elemental Fleur Pillageris made to betray her with young Sophie Morrissey through the magic of the vengeful Pauline. That simple summary belies the richness and complexity of the tale, told in turn to Fleur's estranged daughter by her "grandfather," the wily Nanapush, and by Pauline, a woman of mixed blood and mixed beliefs soon to become the obsessive Sister Leopolda."

This is literary fiction and has I have blogged about before - I sometimes have a hard time with it. I like this at the beginning but then found myself skimming parts of it. That is never a good sign. What I did really love was the characters of the novel - Nanapush was a great character and I enjoyed reading of events from both his and Pauline's perspectives. I really wanted to read some more Native American/Canadian authors; I feel that is one genre that I don't really read. I have read a lot of Native American/Canadian non-fiction books but not a lot of fiction. Maybe I will try her first book Love Medicine and see how that goes.

Rating - 2

First Hour

2009-06-05T20:22:00.002+03:00

So I have begun the 48 Hour Reading Challenge at 8pm. I have sent my husband out, got my tea and am ready to read! I had started a book a few days ago called Tracks by Louise Erdich and I hope to finish that up tonight as well as start another one. I won't post again until I have a review for Tracks but I will spend sometime checking out what other people are reading. Good luck everyone!

48 Hour Book Challenge

2009-06-05T13:57:00.006+03:00

I signed up for the 48 Hour Book Challenge a month ago and totally forgot about it until I was browsing some blogs today. It seems to be for children and adults. Every since the 24 Hour Read-A-Thon I have been excited for another reading challenge. I am excited to get started and read as much as I can this weekend. I will be a little more casual abou this weekends reading - I plan on reading at Starbucks, while I sit outside at the Sports Club and on my deck. The weather is hot this weekend so I will take advantage of it! I will also listen to audiobooks while I am walking and at the gym. I have no idea what books I am going to read. I have to bring some back to the library after work tonight; I am sure I will find some good reads there.

I will begin tonight at 8 or 9pm and continue till Sunday night. I hope this is as much fun as the last one!

The link is http://www.motherreader.com/2009/05/fourth-annual-48-hour-book-challenge.html

Books That Stick

2009-06-04T23:58:00.000+03:00

I have never done Book Through Thursday before but this week was so interesting that I thought I would give it a try!
This week from BTT:

“This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.”

1. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I read this series for the first time when I was going into university. A love story set in the Scottish highlands in the 1800's - the twist is that the main female, Clare, has traveled from the 1900's to the past. These books will stay with me forever and I am so happy that there are still more to come!

2. Lamb, The Gospel According To Biff Christ's Childhood Friend by Christopher Moore. This book as hilarious. I loved every minute of it. Christopher Moore is a genius. This book always reminded me of the John Prine song "Jesus The Missing Years".

3. Fall On Your Knees by Ann Marie MacDonald. I remember being 15 and curled up on Christmas day reading this book on the love seat in the kitchen. I couldn't tear myself away from it! Set in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia (my home too!) this is a wonderful novel about small town family and the secrets that they have. I was soooo excited Oprah picked this book for her bookclub. It is always nice when Canadian authors are recognized.

4. Beloved by Toni Morrison. This book was disturbing, still haunts me and a really really great read. My favorite out of all of Toni Morrisons books.

5. The Sirens or Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. I have a worn paperback copy of this novel that I found at a flea market. One of my favorite Vonnegut books. I just got the audiobook and can't wait to listen to it!

6. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I read this book so many times. As a little girl and as a young woman. I loved Jo's character and how close the family of gırls were.

7. The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. One of the most interesting books I have ever read. I could not put it down. I love books that involve other books. I loved the mystery to this and how well developed the characters were. Not very often do I enjoy a mystery more the second time around!

8. The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Thinking about this book always gives me chills. I loved the Joad family and I loved the way this book was written. I remember hearing the Bruce Springsteen song "The Ghost of Tom Joad" before I read the novel and wondering how the song related to the book. I am so happy I read that book!

9. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I remember reading this during a snow storm that left me without school for a week. I was curled up in bed and read and read and read! I daydreamed I was living in Russia and couldn't wait to travel there (still waiting!!).

10. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Anyone who knows me will know I preach that this is one of the all-time best books. I only read it a few years ago but it really got to me. Having a social work background (and having a union man as a father) makes me interested in novels that have to do with social class, workers rights, immıgration etc. Just an amazing book.

11. Willard and His Bowling Trophies by Richard Brautigan. I got this book from one of my parent's friends. I remember reading it...not understanding it..reading it again and starting to get it. I was given a wooden carving of Willard the bird for my high school graduation.

12. Disgrace by J.M Coetzee. I found this book depressing, hard to read and really really angering. It brought up strong emotion (which is ually a sign of a good book no matter how hard it is to read). It is an important read but not a pleasant one. Some scenes I will never forget.

13. Matilda by Roald Dahl. I read this book so many times as a child. I loved that she was a book worm like me. I can't wait to read this book to my daughter when I have one!

14. Last Of The Mohicans by Jamea Fenimore Cooper. This could be my number one pick for least favorite book. I remember reading it so vividly because it was so boring and soooo overly descriptive. A friend of mine dared me that I couldn't read it because it was so boring. It took me a month to finish - and its not even a long book.

15. The Stand by Stephen King. This book was so good. Really long and interesting and scary. I used to read this on my hour long bus ride to work in Korea. Sometimes I would get the longer bus just so I could read more. I haven't read many Stephen King books but this one was a winner!

What are some books that will always stick in you head?

Messiah - Boris Starling

2009-06-02T22:36:00.001+03:00

This book was creepy. And bloody. And interesting. And really really good! I couldn't put this one down.
Publishers Weekly says "Scotland Yard's Redfern Metcalfe "gets inside killers' heads and reels them in." But Britain's latest serial killer (an evil genius dubbed "Silver Tongue" for his grisly technique and distinctive "calling card") is the worst Red's ever seen, leaving the hardened investigator shaken to his core. While Red and his hand-picked team of detectives concoct half-baked theories and chase shadows, the elusive Silver Tongue taunts them by racking up victims. With no forensic evidence to go on, Red is forced to play an excruciating game of "wait and see" with the killer asending his personal and professional life into a downward spiral."

I never realized how much I really enjoyed murder mysteries until lately. I love how fast paced they are and how I don't want to put them down. I really liked this book because I thought I figured out who the killer was at the beginning but then was totally surprised by the end. I love books that really surprise me. This book was over 400 pages but it the chapters were only a few pages long - which made it really easy to read.

This is a definite beach book. But it is pretty gory and I had to skim a few paragraphs because it made me feel ill to read the details!

Rating - 3

Reading List For June

2009-06-01T09:06:00.001+03:00

So this should be a big month for me. Summer is a big time for reading. My vacation begins on the 26th of the month so I should be able to read all the books I want to plus a lot more.

The books for June are:
Messiah - Boris Starling
The Last Temptation - Val McDermid
The 19th Wife - David Ebershoff
Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Ghost Map - Steven Johnson
My Own Country - Abraham Verghese
The Famished Road - Ben Okri
Tracks - Louise Erdrich
Netherland - Joesph O'Neill
The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson

Here are 10 books want to get read. My mom is visiting and may bring me a few new ones. Fingers crossed! I hope I get these read and do better than last month!

Books Read In May

2009-05-31T20:38:00.003+03:00

It has been a bad reading month. I spent days not reading anything and really had no interest in even picking up a book. Maybe it was the stress, maybe it was the lack of good reading material or maybe just having other things to do. It did pick up at the end of the month though and in the end I read 8 books. My lowest so far but its better then none. The books that I read were: 52.

Tropic Of Orange - Karen Tei Yamashita
Deadly Web - Barbara Nadel
Club Dead - Charlaine Harris
The Ruby in the Smoke - Philip Pullman
The Lion Tamer's Daughter - Peter Dickinson
Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
The Double Eagle - James Twining
The Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng

I didn't finish all the books that I had on my list for the month of May for various reasons. I started A Secret History - Donna Tart, A Prayer For Owen Meany - John Irving and My Own Country Abraham Verghesse but I wasn't interested in the first two. I will try to finish My Own Country next month as well as read Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe.

No non-fiction this month. I read 2 Young Adult novels and 4 murder-mystery type novels. I also read 2 more books for the Diversity Rocks Challenge. I liked all the books I read this month but my favorites were The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng and Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. Both books were very different and really really good!!

I am up to 52 books for the year. At this rate I will definatly be able to reach my goal of 100 books by the end of the year. Especially when I get to begin my summer vacation reading.

Tropic Of Orange - Karen Tei Yamashita

2009-05-30T11:53:00.004+03:00

This book was interesting. Not my usual read but I wanted to give it a try because I had heard good things about it. The book is set in Los Angeles and is narrated by seven different people for seven different days. Each person narrates a part of each day. Amazon.com says "This fiercely satirical, semifantastical novel ... features an Asian-American television news executive, Emi, and a Latino newspaper reporter, Gabriel, who are so focused on chasing stories they almost don't notice that the world is falling apart all around them." This is just part of the book. The author focuses on Asian-American, African American and Latin American characters and their lives in LA and Mexico.

I liked this book but I can't say I fully understood it. I liked how it was written and when I began the book I got into it right away. The last 50 pages dragged a little for me but when I finished it it seemed to wrap some things up that I wasn't sure about. I have heard people say that this book is full of magical realism and maybe that's why I find myself not understanding some of it. I have read some books like this (for instance One Hundred Years of Solitude) and really enjoyed them, so I am not sure why I feel this way.

What I did enjoy in this book was all the cultural and political references that were going on when it was published (NAFTA, Rodney King, illegal immigrants, illegal harvesting of body parts, homelessness etc). I think that there might have been too many different focuses and it got to be too much. I think I will try out another one of Karen Tei Yamashita's books in the near future. I feel there is a lot of possibility for me to really enjoy them!

Rating - 2

Deadly Web - Barbara Nadel

2009-05-27T13:43:00.004+03:00

Seems I got my taste for reading back. Finished this one up in a day - I loved when I have mornings off! This novel is part of a (9 or 10 book and counting) murder mystery series that takes place in Turkey - mostly Istanbul. I have read one previously and really enjoyed reading a modern book about the country that I am living in.

Amazon.com description of the book says "A naked teenage girl is found dead near the beautiful Byzantine Yoros Castle in Turkey. She has stabbed herself through the heart but there is evidence of bizarre sexual practice. In another part of Istanbul, a young boy seems to have committed suicide in similar circumstances. What dark rituals could have compelled them to fatal self-abuse? Inspectors Çetin İkmen and Mehmet Süleyman follow an Internet trail that leads them to an underworld of Goth nightclubs and Satanic worship. But even those murky shadows hide more than they reveal and the answers to an ever increasing number of suspicious deaths is more shocking and terrible than they could ever have imagined."

There was a great mixture of supernatural and mystery in this book. I loved how you never really knew what was "magic" and what wasn't. There is a lot of magical elements to this series because the main character, Çetin İkmen's mother had been an Albanian "witch" and he believes in many supernatural things. The city of Istanbul has such a diverse culture and many different religious practices. Mystic beliefs are a part of some peoples lives.

The novel talks about the Yezidi religion, which is a religious minority in Iraq. I looked it up on the Internet after reading this book because I didn't know anything about it. It seems that the religion takes from many different ones such as Sufism, Christianity, Islam and Mesopotamian religious traditions. It is really interesting. I suggest if you read this book you take the time to look up some of the things you do not know. I did and it made the book more enjoyable. The book is graphic - in mostly violent sex. So you need a strong stomach for some parts.

I also did not know that sorcery has been prohibited in Turkey. I find that really interesting. Its fun to live in such a cool place!

Rating - 3

Club Dead - Charlaine Harris

2009-05-26T19:35:00.006+03:00

I have been in a HUGE reading slump lately. I have had no ambition to pick anything up - I have started about 4 different books but kept putting them down. I decided if I wanted to get my love of reading back I was going to have to go for something that couldn't do me wrong. And that would have to be my last Sookie Stackhouse novel - Club Dead. Now this is not the last in the series; this is only number 3 but it is the last one I have here in Turkey. I was saving it for a rainy day and it and has certainly been raining lately!!

I feel that the series keeps getting better and better. I thought the first one was okay, the second one better and this one great! I loved this book. According to Booklist "Sookie Stackhouse is having man trouble. Her vampire boyfriend, Bill, has been distant and inattentive lately. Then he announces that he is going on a business trip, which clearly is more than it seems. After a werewolf tries to abduct Sookie at work, Bill's boss, Eric, tells her that Bill fell under the sway of his--Bill's, that is--ex, a sexy vamp named Lorena, and has been kidnapped. Eric wants Sookie's help in getting Bill back, and despite her hurt over Bill's betrayal, Sookie agrees to go to Jackson, Mississippi, to find her wayward lover. Eric has persuaded Alcide, a dashing werewolf, to get Sookie access to Josephine's, aka Club Dead, the local hangout of Jackson's supernatural element. In between dodging kidnappers, the advances of amorous Eric, and her growing feelings for Alcide, Sookie has to find out who kidnapped Bill and figure out a way to rescue him."

Sounds great doesn't it! I really enjoyed the new character Alicide. I thought him and Sookie should get together the moment he was described in the book. Big and strong, always warm and eats up a storm - besides being the strong part he is almost the exact opposite of Bill. Sookie has her fair share of men in this novel - she seems to get caught up with a lot of them when she escapes danger. I guess that can be pretty sexy!

Sookie's character has always been strong but she seems to be getting stronger in every novel. She doesn't take money from anyone (even if she really needs it and would like Bill to offer!) and wants to get things done on her own. She is a great female character - especially in the face of having weak characters such as Bella in the "Twilight" series. These books are always fun and always make me smile!

Rating - 4

The Ruby In The Smoke - Philip Pullman

2009-05-17T09:58:00.001+03:00

This is such a cute book. I picked it up after I had downloaded the BBC show with Billie Piper in it. Everyone was saying the book was really fun. Amazon.com says "a fast-paced, finely crafted thriller set in a rogue- and scalawag-ridden Victorian London. Sally Lockhart, the 16-year-old heroine has no time for the usual trials of adolescence: her father has been murdered, and she needs to find out how and why. But everywhere she turns, she encounters new scoundrels and secrets. Why do the mere words "seven blessings" cause one man to keel over and die at their utterance? Who has possession of the rare, stolen ruby? And what does the opium trade have to do with it?"

Doesn't it sound fun! A book for young adults that deals with the opium trade - not your usual young adult novel. This book was easy to read but kept me interested. Sally's character is everything I loved about reading mystery books as a kid. She is a strong female character that wants to do things for herself - which is hard to do in Victorian England. I also loved that she met up with some characters that are as unusual as herself - I am hoping she can try to recreate the family that she has recently lost.

I need to start keeping a list of all the great young adult books that I have been reading lately. I can't wait to have kids that I get to pass these titles on to!

Rating - 3

Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith

2009-05-14T17:49:00.003+03:00

There are times where I am in the middle of a book and I put it down and think to myself - this is why I love reading. I had that kind of feeling while reading Child 44. I had read a review of it in a magazine and it caught my interest right away. I put it on my TBR list and then found it in a used bookstore in Munich.

As i posted previously I have been in a reading slump lately so I really needed something that I wasn't going to be able to put down. That is what I got! Here is what Publishers Weekly says "When war hero Leo Stepanovich Demidov, a rising star in the MGB, the State Security force, is assigned to look into the death of a child, Leo is annoyed, first because this takes him away from a more important case, but, more importantly, because the parents insist the child was murdered. In Stalinist Russia, there's no such thing as murder; the only criminals are those who are enemies of the state. After attempting to curb the violent excesses of his second-in-command, Leo is forced to investigate his own wife, the beautiful Raisa, who's suspected of being an Anglo-American sympathizer. Demoted and exiled from Moscow, Leo stumbles onto more evidence of the child killer."

Sounds good huh? Well I throughly enjoyed very bit of this book and was so excited when I found out that there was going to be a follow up book. I really liked the characters and I loved how Leo's blind obediance to the Soviet State fell apart when he started really thinking about what he was being asked to do. I realized after reading this book that I need to read more about Stalin and the Soviet Union. I know very little about the subject and was horrified by what I have been finding out. I had previously read some novels that dealt with work camps but I never really went any further than that.

I like books that open my eyes to new things. And this one certainly did!

Reading Slump

2009-05-13T13:03:00.002+03:00

So I literally read nothing for 4 or 5 days. This is really strange for me because I love to read. I have hit the gym hard the last week and have been completely exhausted. Also I began reading The Secret History by Donna Tart and could hardly get through the first 20 pages. I really want to read it but I guess I am just not in the mood for it. It may be hard for me to get my 10 books in for May. I am so restless lately that I need some books that are going to keep my attention.

I have been downloading audio books like crazy lately. I am now listening to (and loving) Outlander (which I have read at least 3 times) and am downloading all the rest in the series. It is an amazing book to read and even better to listen to. I go to bed early every night so I can have a listen before I go to bed. I also have Lamb by Christopher Moore and all of the Sookie Stackhouse books to listen to. I usually only listen to books that I have already read because I find it hard to concentrate on the entire story while listening. It is easier if I have an idea of what is happening.

I started reading Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. So far it has got my attention. Hopefully it will get me back on track and I can plow through all the books I was supposed to read before the end of the month!

The Double Eagle - James Twining

2009-05-07T12:44:00.000+03:00

From Booklist "The Double Eagle is a gold coin recalled by the U.S. government during the Depression. All extant examples were melted down--all, that is, except five, which wound up in Fort Knox. Now the coins, with a value of $40 million, are missing. Jennifer Browne, a disgraced FBI agent looking to jump-start her career, teams up with Tim Kirk, a former CIA agent now making his living as an international jewel thief. Predictably, Jennifer discovers that the coins are at the heart of a nasty conspiracy."

This book was fast-paced, exciting and interesting. A really good action novel. I sailed through this book pretty fast. Probably because I read the second in this series already and knew who the bad guy was before I even started. That probably wasn't a good idea because I became a little bit bored because I knew what was going to happen.

I did like that parts of it took place in Istanbul (somewhere I have been) and that the characters moved from place to place. That is my favorite part of spy/ international crime novels - the fact that they go from country to country. Its always interesting.

I would recommend this to anyone who needs a good fast paced read. It would be a great book for a long trip!

The Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng

2009-05-06T09:49:00.003+03:00

This book was good - wait not just good it was excellent. It made my brain work in overtime trying to figure out why the characters did what they did. I think I am getting a little ahead of myself here. Here is a brief synopsis from The NewYorker
"Set in Penang in the years just before and during the Second World War, this début novel explores the consequences of love and duty. Philip Hutton, born to a British father and a Chinese mother, finds himself drawn to a mysterious Japanese diplomat and aikido master, and soon becomes his devoted student. But their friendship—described in romantic, even erotic terms—is called into question when the Japanese invade the island and Philip must decide whether to join the resistance or collaborate with the occupying army."

The novel sounds very straight forward - another war book but it is so much more than that. The characters are so developed and are so complex that I kept saying out loud to myself "WHY!!" I loved (and hated) the relationship between the narrator (Philip Hutton) and his sensei (Endo-san) because it was so all encompassing and affected every part of each others lives. They did horrible things to each other but I don't believe that they ever hated each other.

A big theme in this novel is the idea of duty. This is widely seen in Asian cultures but I think the author Tan Twan Eng takes it to the extreme in this case. Duty towards family is the most important thing and I saw from the very beginning why Philip Hutton did what he did but I was almost at the final pages when I really saw the reasons behind Endo-San's actions.

I loved this book because it appealed to all of my senses. When the author described taken the boat from Penang to Kuala Lumpur I felt if i was there. I could see the huge beetles and feel the mist on my arms. The Malaysian/Chinese food that was described were things that I had eaten and loved. I also enjoyed the stories about the Chinese and Japanese forms of martial arts and the training that Endo-San and Philips grandfather had went through.

The story is sad. Many people die in this book but I do believe that when you finish it leaves you with a sense of peace. This book made me want to travel back to Asia and see all the countries that I missed out on the first time around - Especially Malaysia!

List For May 2009

2009-05-01T17:46:00.003+03:00

So the list of 10 books I will be reading for the month of May are:

The Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng
The Secret History - Donna Tart
A Prayer For Owen Meany - John Irving
The Double Eagle - James Twining
Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe
Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
Club Dead - Charlaine Harris
When Will There Be Good News - Kate Atkinson
My Own Country - Abraham Verghese
Tracks - Louise Erdich

I have included 1 non fiction, 1 book from my 1% Well Read Challenge, 3 from Diversity Rocks Challenge and 1 from Paranormal 666 challenge.

Happy Reading everyone!

April Wrap-Up

2009-04-30T22:35:00.001+03:00

So I did really well on the reading front in April - actually a lot better then I thought that I would. I read 14 books this month - 13 fiction and 1 non-fiction, 1 children's book 2 historical fiction, 1 chick lit and 2 mystery/suspense. I read all 10 books that I had previously decided on at the beginning of the month. Making a list makes reading so much easier! My total for the year is 44. The books I read are:

44. Earth Democracy - Vandana Shiva
43. What Are You Like? - Anne Enright
42. The Rossetti Letter - Christi Phillips
41. The Assassin's Song - M.G. Vassanji
40. The Magic Finger - Roald Dahl
39. Divine Evil - Nora Roberts
38. The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness
37. The Bridges of Madison County - Robert James Waller
36. The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson
35. Fatal Voyage - Kathy Reichs
34. The Black Sun - James Twining
33. A Vintage Affair - Isabel Wolff
32. World Without End - Ken Follett
31. American Pie - Michael Lee West

I found some great books this month. Some of my favorites were: The Rossetti Letter, World Without End and American Pie. I had a hard time getting through The Gargoyle and What Are You Like?

I had a really great month and hope to continue it into May!!!