Book 4 Followed by a Break from the Series

I'm finding myself completely enthralled by Sara Donati's Wilderness series. I read Fire Along the Sky in one of those "can't put it down" phases. The 4th book in the series follows the grown children of the characters from the first book. I'm finding that I enjoy the characters and stories more with each book. There aren't any main characters that I don't like and, as I always hope, the bad guys more or less got what they deserved and the good guys more or less got what they deserved. The story was a fantastic pace and had just enough intrigue to keep it moving without being overwhelming and confusing. I want to move onto the next book, but I think I might deviate from the series and move into the Earth's Children series by Jean M. Auel (of which I have already read the first three).

Fire Along the Sky was a great book to have on the plane rides to and from Halifax, but I found myself closing the last chapter just as we were taking off leaving Calgary for Regina. I hadn't had the foresight to load up the next book before I left for the maritimes, so I was left wondering what to read. I had loaded the Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud by Ben Sherwood and was meaning to pick it up, so I tested the waters by checking out the length of the chapters. Pleasingly short! I started it on the plan ride on Tuesday and finished it this evening. The story is about a boy who is in a terrible car crash with his brother. Both die in the crash but Charlie is brought back by a first responder (trust me, not a good part of the book to read in public...I had a really hard time not crying on the plane and I do try not to be that crazy person who cries in public places while reading...that person always seems a little unstable). The long and short of it, without ruining anything, is that years later he meets a girl, has a perfect date with her and then finds out she has been lost at sea. It was a good story, if not a little bizarre. It reminded me quite a lot of Nicholas Sparks books and was somewhat predictable though still a good read. One random thought though: the cover doesn't really fit the story. Anyway, it was still a good read. I'm debating whether I want to watch the movie. I'm not sure how I feel about Zac Effron as Charlie...

Thirtieth Book

I had looked at A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick a number of times in the bookstore, but never ventured to pick it up. When Mum found out she was getting a kobo this summer, she bought a few books online, including this one. So I reaped the benefits of her purchase! The story is about a lonely, very wealth man living in rural Wisconsin who places an ad in the paper looking for a companion. Catherine responds and comes to live with him and be his wife. She plans to murder him. The story follows unfolds detailing each of their sordid pasts and describing them as terribly sad people who have had a really rough go at life. The reader learns of the complex web being woven around the main characters and around the midway mark of the book I had no idea how it would end. It's a dark book, but I very much enjoyed it and would recommend it.
I had bought Home by Shayna Krishnasamy for a couple of dollars on the kobo website. The story sounded somewhat reminiscent of the movie the Village by M. Night Shamalan, which I enjoyed, so I figured it was a pretty safe gamble. It was a great fantasy-type story about a young blind woman who lives in a secluded village in the woods. One day a young boy appears in the village and the villagers decide he is a threat to their peace and he must go, so the young blind woman offers to take him back to his home. As the story progresses we learn the woods they live in are dying and things are taking a terrible evil turn. I really enjoyed the story and it was a nice easy read. It also reminded me somewhat of the Book of Lost Things by John Connolly in that it was an eerie fantasy where the natural world has gone off.

After that, I read a tangible book (ie, not on the kobo). I found David Sedaris' new book Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk at Walmart for 30% off. I bought the tangible book because it had some pictures. :) Sedaris has a very twisted sense of humour and this book intrigued me. It's written as a series of little stories about animals, much like Aesop's Fables, but the animals are jerks, liars, backstabbers and really kind of awful. Some of the stories made me grin, but none made me laugh out loud, and the vast majority were so bizarre and gruesome that I was left thinking that maybe reading this book wasn't benefiting me at all. When I asked Mum if she wanted to read it I warned her that if she did and she reached a point where it was too bizarre and gruesome but thought that maybe it would get better, she should know that it does not. The stories get weirder and more grotesque with each passing tale. I finished it in an evening and have been thinking of donating it to a used bookstore or the salvation army or something, but I'm a little afraid that someone might pick it up unknowingly and be horrified by the stories. I'm not sure what to do with it now.
And that makes 30 books this year. I'm certainly not going to be able to read 52 as I had hoped (one a week), but we'll see how many more I can get under my hat before the year is up.

In Series

After reading Sara Donati's Into the Wilderness, I started trying to track down a copy of the second book in an e-version. I looked and looked and couldn't find it so I when I finally stumbled upon it on the sony site (yay sony!) I started right into Dawn On A Distant Shore. Erin had told me that she started reading the series midway through and then read the first books afterwards and that the first one wasn't nearly as good as the later ones. She was totally right. The second book was much more interesting and a much better read. I found myself tearing through it. I had the third book all lined up and ready to go and was very interested in going right into it but decided to read something else in between.

I picked up Kiwis Might Fly by Polly Evans. The true story of a girl who goes to New Zealand to find a "realy Kiwi Bloke" who hadn't gotten soft with evolution, it sounded like a fun read. I still haven't finished it. I liked the writing style for the most part, but it just got boring. I think it would have been a hoot to read as a daily blog, but as a novel...meh. I finally gave up when I realized I wasn't reading because I wasn't interested. So I moved onto other things.

When I heard that Diana Gabaldon was creating a graphic novel of the first Outlander book I was nervous but somewhat intriqued. Then I saw some of the drawings that would come and I was mildly horrified and my anxiety was not alleviated in the least. The drawings were not only NOT what I had pictured the characters to look like, but they were so far from what I had pictured that I wasn't sure it was the same story. So when the graphic novel came out, what did I do? I went out and bought The Exile in hardcover right away! I read the story cover to cover and probably had a frown on my face through most of it. The story was ok, I guess, but I think the thing that worked best about Outlander (on which this book is told from one of the other characters and involves something of a side story) is the description and the emotion and the thoughts and internal dialogue of Claire. In a graphic novel that's pretty much non existent. For the most part Claire just looked annoyed and kept saying "Jesus H Roosevelt Christ". Sigh. It was suggested that I return the book as no one would know I had read it, but I do have the whole series and I think I want to give it one more try and study things a little more. But I certainly won't be expecting much.

After I gave up on Kiwis I decided to go for something that would most likely be a hit: the third in the Wilderness Series Lake In the Clouds. The second book in the series was better than the first and this was better than the second. I ripped through it in just over a week and in the times that I wasn't reading I found myself wishing I could be. That's the sign of a good story as far as I'm concerned. I was a bit confused to start with as the story started out several years after the second book ended and the author eluded to some pretty major events that happened between books but I double checked online and sure enough I hadn't missed a book in between. The story broadened and followed different characters who had grown up since the second book, making it a more varied story and more interesting. Plus, the move away from some of the main characters from the first two books was a good change as I wasn't terribly attached to them. I'm excited for the next book, though I've decided to take another break before starting it. I do have rather a lot of other books to read and I can see this series becoming fairly consuming.

I've been reading again!

It's been a few weeks since my last post here and in that time I've polished off four more books. Granted, they weren't difficult or even very big books, but I enjoyed most of them.

I picked up the Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World One Correction at a Time by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson. Being the sort of person who enjoys proof reading (though rarely on my own work) I thought this would be right up my alley. The story is based on Jeff and Benjamin's road trip around the US searching for and correcting typos and grammatical errors. For the most part it was cute and kind of funny. The verbose language and writing style seemed a tad on the pretentious side at times. My newsroom background made this slightly more irritating than it would have been otherwise. I'm a fan of saying things concisely. Don't get me wrong, I love a beautiful description, but I found the tone of the story was written in such a way that they were using words for the sake of it. It got on my nerves. Regardless, it was an interesting story and I giggled at just about every typo and error they encountered on the road trip. Plus, the end had some interesting reference material explaining why certain grammar rules apply.

After this one, I picked up Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern. The book is just a series of chapters each starting with a quote from his dad followed by the story that lead up to that quote. After each chapter there are a number of other random quotes. I was laughing out loud multiple times during the two days it took me to polish this one off. In reading some of the brief quotes to Brad we were both in tears. I would absolutely recommend this one to anyone who needs a good laugh. I'll also be watching the show starting this fall with William Shatner.

Mare and I started reading Emma by Jane Austen after this, but as we're having a bit of trouble getting through it, I swapped quickly and briefly to the Big Love by Sarah Dunn. The story is about a girl whose boyfriend goes out for mustard and calls to say he's not coming back. I don't have much to say about this chick lit book other than Meh. Pass.

Next, on my Mum's recommendation I swapped to something non-fiction and read Outliers: the Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. The book examines what makes people successful. It was a really interesting read and somewhat satisfying to discover that successful people have an awful lot of factors contributing to their success beyond the typical "rags to riches" story. I particularly liked the explanation that for anyone to become a professional or expert at something they have to commit 10,000 hours to practicing. That tells me that if I put 10,000 hours into scrapbooking (I'm about halfway there) I'll be a pro. Not that that will get me anywhere, but it'll be fact. Ha! Definitely an interesting read though.

Three More for the Shelf...

So after reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I found myself mildly annoyed to find that I absolutely had to read the next one. The Girl who Played With Fire was consistently more exciting than Tattoo. It was exciting just about all the way through and I very much enjoyed the character development. It ended on somewhat of a cliff hanger, yet it still felt like it wrapped up nicely. Nothing drives me up the wall more in books than a story that has a sequel and is left hanging at the end of the book. I have great admiration for a novelist who can leave a story open to continuation without feeling like the story cut off mid sentence.

After Fire I took a brief hiatus from the Girl Who books and read something different on the kobo for a change. I picked up The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. Disappointing. It started off threatening to make me sob like I did in Marley and Me as Enzo the dog told about getting old. The rest of the story, as told by Enzo, followed his owner Denny's marriage, birth of his daughter, death of his wife, and resulting custody battle with the in-laws. The book was full of meanness and Denny constantly being beaten down by life. It was not an upper. I sort of enjoyed Enzo's character voice, but for a dog who was being written as a dog, he bordered into way too human at times. I for one, am a big believer in dog personalities, but Enzo became almost creepily person-like at times and then would flip back to being totally dog-like on the next page. The book was also peppered with analogies to car racing and techniques that I assume were supposed to be a metaphor for life and the trails and tribulations, but I'm not a fan of car racing and was big-time bored by these chapters, despite Enzo's enthusiasm with recalling specific racing moments. I would give The Art of Racing in the Rain a pass.

I did finish it in about two days however, which left me without a book and drawn back to the Girl Who saga, promptly buying The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. The final book in the trilogy did not disappoint. The excitement and intrigue and conspiracies ran throughout and there was just enough bad-guy behaviour to make it really satisfying when the good guys got a leg up every now and again. References to the first book occasionally really reinforced for me that Larsson had intended to write the story in three parts and that it wasn't just a coincidence that after the success of his first book he wrote two more. I'm totally with the rest of his fans who feel his untimely death was a terrible shame.

NOW, I'm onto The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World one Correction at a Time by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson. So far, so good!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

At my mum's recommendation I picked up the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson...about 10 days ago. In general mysteries/suspense aren't my favorite genre, but I was sucked in by the hype, and in general I didn't feel disappointed. The first half was a bit slow for my liking, but the second half really grabbed me and sucked me in. I was lucky enough to be able to read for long periods of time Thursday, Friday and Saturday while we had our garage sale and while things were quiet. I didn't find it terribly suspenseful, but I also didn't want to put it down. So much so that i postponed cleaning up from the garage sale until I finished it yesterday afternoon. There characters were interesting and I honestly had no idea who the murderer was until it was presented to me, which must be the mark of a good mystery. While it was definitely a gruesome novel with some truly terrible crimes, it felt like justice was served and I was pleased with the outcome. The last couple of pages annoyed me though...and while I wasn't planning to read the sequel right away the last two pages made me go to my computer and purchase the Girl Who Played with Fire and download it to the kobo which I started yesterday. I guess my other books will have to wait.
I've heard there are critics that felt there was too much description ("I don't care what they had for breakfast", etc) and I completely disagree...however the one thing I will say is that if all people in sweden drink as much coffee as the characters do, I'm surprised more people don't have ulcers! It almost made my stomache churn to think about another cup of coffee.

Water For Elephants

Following my journey Through the Looking Glass I decided it was time to read one of the "tangible books" that people have lent me (as I find I now have to refer to books that aren't on my kobo), so I picked up Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. The story is about a young veterinarian in the 30s who finds himself traveling with a train circus. I'm finding that I'm not actually a big fan of books that take place during the depression, but I still did enjoy this one. There was plenty that was upsetting - animal and people cruelty - but the it all seemed rather matter of fact and somehow better that way. I kept thinking as I read that it wouldn't be long before it was made into a movie. Low and behold as I was looking for a picture of the cover for this blog entry, I found that it has been made into a movie for release next year. The story ends well enough which was a relief as it always seems to be a bit of a crap shoot as to whether a book filled with trouble and badness will end well. More interesting (and significantly more disturbing) was the afterward where the author talked about her inspiration for the book and the history of train circuses and elephants. The moral of the story, as far as I can tell, is don't piss off and abuse an elephant: not only do they remember, but they seem to get more angry about it as time passes...though I couldn't blame sweet Rosie for what she did.

Two Classics

As a way of encouraging the other to actually read the classics, Mare and I have previously decided to read them together. We set goals for reading for the week and go over our thoughts when we chat. The book(s) we tackled this time were Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. We had only intended to read Alice but were both astounded at how quickly we were able to fly through it. What started as "we'll read 5 chapters by Tuesday" quickly turned into "I think I can finish it before Tuesday, you?" A truly bizarre story, I felt like it was fairly disjointed and nonsensical. I had heard once that it was a parody of British politics and government at the time it was written, cleverly disguised as a children's novel. Unfortunately I know nothing of British politics and government at the time, so I rather felt it was lost on me. I was even more confused by the total lack of most things from the movie (either the animation or the new tale), but it seems most of those things were actually from Through the Looking Glass; another truly bizarre disjointed story. I had thought at the start that it made more sense than Alice but by the end (which took me two days to reach) I was not so sure. Frankly, I'm still not sure.

Two on the Kobo

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger was the first book I read on my Kobo. It was excited when it came out last fall and wanted to read it right away, but wasn't willing to purchase it on hardcover: too expensive and too difficult to balance a hardcover comfortably in bed. But my kobo solved both of those problems for me and I was able to read it happily. Well, as happily as a person can read a strange story about two generations of twins and their obsessions and deceits. I did very much enjoy the novel and the characters, even when they displayed their particularly evil and deceptive sides. The end left me feeling a bit cut off. It was another book that just sort of stopped suddenly.

Following Symmetry I proceeded with a book taht I bought based solely on the title. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender caught my eye online and I read the exerpt and found I liked the writing style and premise of the story. This one I tore through over the weekend. The story, about a girl who finds she can taste people's emotions in the food they make, was a delight. Granted, it did get pretty weird about halfway through when Rose discovers her brother has a "special skill" all his own, but the story had such a poignant touch of reality and the day to day life of a "typical" family living in the suburbs of california, it was really enjoyable. Definitely a good read for the summer.

Into the Wilderness

I wrapped up Into the Wilderness last night. I did enjoy it, though there were parts that were just a bit too long winded descriptive for me. As a whole though, the novel moved along at a good pace and had a lot of interesting characters (though it was unnerving when I read the list of "important characters" at the start of the novel and it spanned several pages). One particular chapter early on made reference to Ian Murray, Claire Fraser and Jamie Fraser who are characters from the Outlander series (which is my very favoritest!) and I became both intrigued and very nervous. It was interesting to have them name-dropped, but I was very concerned that meant they would appear later on and I'm not ok with someone else writing about them. I also don't really see the point in having them name-dropped as it was just a bit confusing. The main character, Elizabeth, was a bit too prim and prissy for my liking at the start but, as I hoped she would, she did develop as the story went on into a stronger willed character, less constrained by society.
I guess all in all, it was a good story and I am curious to read the following books (three more I think?)

A Package in the Mail

I came home at lunch yesterday and found a parcel sitting in my mailbox. It was small, shaped like a paperback novel and the return address said "Erin Brinkman". I knew it would be a book, so I unwrapped it quickly to see what she had sent me. The book is Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati. The quote on the front cover is by Diana Gabaldon, one of my favorite authors, so Wilderness has officially bumped its way to the top of my reading list. Thanks Erin!

Kurt Vonnegut...huh...

I just finished the Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. I'm not really sure what to say about it. Weird. I could get all intellectual about it and discuss the theme of free will and how we apparently have none...but I don't think I could do justice to it. I'll sum it up in one word: Bizarre.

While Reading...

While I was reading Travels in the Scriptorium the pages would fall in a certain way and I would be struck by a severely creeped out feeling. Why do I feel like I'm being watched?

I bought a book based on its cover. I judged it by its cover and judged correctly. Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant was exactly as I assumed; bizarre, witty, clever, wonderful. I would go so far as to say this is one of the best books I've read in years. I don't know if it's a case of every once in a while a book comes along and hits you at the right time in your life, but Tortoise certainly hit me. The way Audrey (Oddly) thinks about things and analyzes situations was so strangely familiar to the way I think and notice things. It is chalk full of plays on words. And the chapters told from Winnifred the tortoise's perspective were delightful and adorable, everything from her perspective on being warm, to her thoughts on Shakespeare's writing style and how he "uses so many exponents". The Tortoise was a complete delight to read and I want to read it again. It definitely gets my recommendation.
The enjoyment I got from reading this book may have heightened my disappointment with Jennifer Weiner's Best Friends Forever. I've read a number of her books and they tend to vary from enjoyable to so-so, but this one was a let down all around. The supporting characters were frustrating and the plot was very predictable. I felt like I had seen this book in cheesy tv show or movie format a million times.
Following BFF, I picked up a book I'd been eyeing up at the bookstore for some time. Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster was finally in the discount bin at $2, which was a bit of a red flag for me, but I decided to risk it anyway; for $2.10 after tax, can't go wrong, right? Wrong. The only merit to this book was that it was only 143 pages long. The story was about a man who wakes up in a room and has no idea who he is, where he is or how he got there, but the people that come to his room throughout the day are angry with him to varying degrees. It's all very mysterious, yet very flat. To start with, I didn't care for the writing style, but I went on with it anyway. The story took many different paths and hinted at many different things, and I began to feel really let down when I realized I had about 6 pages left in the novel and nothing had been revealed or wrapped up in the least. Nothing was explained, nothing wrapped up and there appeared to be no point to any of the subplots. Maybe I'm missing something, and it was actually literary genius...but I suspect the people who would refer to it as such are just trying to sound clever. I have only one word for this book: pass.
I think I'm going to move on to to some Vonnegut. I could use a bit more of the bizarre.

One off my list

I finished a book I've been meaning to read for quite a while now; The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. The story, which was made into a movie that I would also like to see, is about a 15 year old who has a love affair with Hanna, a woman more than twice his age, in Germany in the years following World War II. She disappears suddenly one day and he encounters here again years later when he visits a courtroom as a law student and sees her on trial for hideous crimes of war. The story is sad, but mysterious and seems so real and plausible. I found it interesting how a situation that should be so morally wrong could seem almost acceptable from the perspective of the boy. That being said, I still can't quite wrap my head around how Hanna could allow herself to be romantic with a teenage boy...that was always in the back of my mind while I read. It was well written though, and I definitely think it's worth a read. It makes me want to see the movie and how they interpreted the story.

The book I'm reading now is called "Come, Thou Tortoise". It's bizarre, and I'm very excited to get into it!

Reading on Holidays

During our trip to Vegas I made a point of sitting by the pool each day (gotta take advantage of situations when they present themselves) and while sitting by the pool I was reading Spanish Fly by Wil Ferguson. Ferguson is the author of, among others, Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw, and Generica, both of which I have read and greatly enjoyed. Spanish Fly had the same type of tongue in cheek humour that is present in his other books. I enjoyed it, though at times it seemed somewhat repetitive. The story is told from the perspective of Jack McGreary, a young man living through the depression who gets taken in by two con artists. Much of the story seemed to be talking about the various cons of the era and stories of who had pulled what off, or which con artist had been the first to do which con. It was interesting, but at times, rather than hear about another con, I found myself hoping for more plot. It was definitely an easy read; not quite fluff, but definitely motored along nicely without too much effort, and god knows I love a short chapter! I would recommend it....but I think I would have rather read it in paperback...hardcover is a bit cumbersome for reading by the pool.

When we were leaving Las Vegas (isn't that a song?) I bought a paperback copy of Maeve Binchy's newest Heart and Soul. Binchy stays true to form at all times. I've read a number of her books and each one can be counted on to be charming with some very quirky characters. Heart and Soul is about a heart clinic in Dublin and the people whose lives were effected by it, either by working there, receiving treatment, or a number of other loosely tied in scenarios. I'm not a big fan of short stories, and I was about a third of the way through the book when I realized this particular novel was a series of short stories that all tied in together. Tricky. I have preferred some of her older books that are focused on set characters, but she's such a pleasant story teller, I was willing to let it slide.

Two More for March

In the remainder of March I ripped through two books.

The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland, and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

The Gum Thief seems to be about par for the course for Coupland from what I've read. Weird characters who are almost unlikeable but somehow it feels like a betrayal to dislike them. I wasn't terribly interested in the first third, but the chapters were so simple and short it was hard to not feel like I was making progress (it's one of my little OCD reading quirks: I have to feel like I'm making progress when I read, so I'll look at how many pages I've been through, or how thick those pages are). The second third and into the final quarter (is this measurement making any sense?) was quite good and I found myself genuinely interested in what was going on with the characters. I busted up a few times when Bethany was describing the pigeons in London: "If London is a meal, then pigeons are the parsley on top of it, except instead of being green and crisp, they're grey and hobbling and missing toes, and while they may appear to be technically cute, they also appear to be riddled with disease and mites." The end left me feeling sort of sad again. I'm undecided about it as a whole.

The Lovely Bones was basically what I had heard: really good and about a really terrible topic. I loved the perspective of Susie watching everything from her heaven. I think I finished in about three days (again, my OCD about seeing how much progress I made). I'm really interested to see the movie, though I think that it will be hard to watch too. This is a definite recommended read...but I must say that I awsn't really a big fan of the end with a weird out of body experience, and a less than satisfying ending for the antagonist. I'll leave it at that though.

Monsters of Templeton

I originally bought The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff because I thought it might be something of a fluff book. A nice easy read. I was partially wrong.

It was an easy book to read simply becasue it flowed so well and her writing was totally captivating. But it was not fluffy. The story was deep and spanned generations with enough of the truly bizarre (a legitimate seamonster that suddenly dies and surfaces in the lake of a small town, a woman who can set fire to buildings simply by being upset, a man born so hairy that his father calls him his "little baboon"), that I was completely engrossed in it. It did take me a while to read, but that was more because of life getting in the way. Not once did I put it down because I'd had enough. The end was a wee bit "tied up with a pretty bow" but Groff made it all better with the epilogue which tells what the monster was thinking on it's last day: "fish and fish and fish and fish...." which made me giggle. (There is actually more to the epilogue, but that did it for me right there).

It might be a good book to read a second time just because there were so many characters and so much geneology that I feel like I missed a lot the first time through or that I wasn't sure which characters where related to which. I definitely recommend it though.