Books of substance? Step aside!

It's obvious to me that I have no interest in books with any sort of body to them lately.  Let's just call it a phase, ok?  I recently jumped on the lady-porn bandwagon and read the 50 Shades series by E.L.James.  I would like to write a critique of these books, but, to be utterly honest, I don't know how.  I didn't like them...but I somewhat enjoyed them.  Ahem.  The first was probably my favorite (though "favorite" seems a bit strong).  The second was terribly vapid, and the third was a skim up until the final quarter which actually became interesting.  A friend of mine was reading them as well and made comment about how many times Ms. James used the word "murmur".  I (foolishly) made a bet that "growl" was more frequent.  Sadly I lost BIG time.  I used my handy-dandy e-reader to do a search on both words in books 1 and 2.  Fifty Shades of Grey had 21instances of "growl" and 196 instances of "murmur".  Damn.  Book 2, Fifty Shades Darker had a mere 13 "growls" and a whopping 279 "murmurs".  At times the word "murmur" showed up 3 times on a page!  We collectively decided the author used "murmur" and "said" interchangeably.  I was going to count them up in book 3, Fifty Shades Freed, but I got bored.  Anyway, they're descriptive, moderately pornographic, and basically a ramped-up Harlequin.  What I found interesting about these books is that they were written as a form of fan-fiction for the Twilight books.  I guess, had there been vampires, they would have been an adult version of what might have happened... but there were quite a lot of similarities in the main characters and their utterly unhealthy relationships.  Anyway...take it for what it is...lady-porn. 
After that I was attempting to read something with more substance, but apparently I had unhealthy relationships and Twilight on the brain, so I downloaded a pdf of Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer.  This volume is unpublished and unfinished.  Ms Meyer was working on it and it was leaked, so she quit writing.  Apparently there were a number of different copies floating around, so she released one in pdf format on her webpage so that there was at least some consistency.  It's the story from the first Twilight novel, but told from Edward's perspective.  I don't really have anything to say about it other than it was very much in keeping with the others and probably would have sold like hotcakes had she finished it and published it.  Not that it was particularly good, but the twi-hards would have gone absolutely nuts for another volume. 
Somewhere in there I also took an afternoon to read Christopher Moore's The Griff, a graphic novel.  A little known fact about me: I like comics and I especially like graphic novels.  They're dandy.  I had been meaning to read this one for a while but had to order it from chapters as it is a touch too obscure to be readily available in store.  So, when it came in I spent the afternoon sitting on the deck reading.  It's a story of an alien invasion of winged lizard type creatures.  They come to earth, destroy just about everyone and everyone and a group of survivors have to manage to...well...survive.   It was a decent storyline and the artwork was well done.  Plus, it was peppered with the fun dialogue that Christopher Moore is known for.
What am I going to read next?  Hard to say...I have a number of great books at my disposal, and a number of books that I'm really interested to read...I just don't know if I'm over my "nothing but fluff" phase.

Back to Reading like a Fiend

After finishing the Hunger Games trilogy I swooped onto J. Maarten Troost's second book Getting Stoned with Savages.  I was hoping for some more laugh-out-loud writing...like Sex Lives but, well, MORE.  I was, sadly, disappointed. Getting Stoned was funny, and Troost's writing had the same tongue-in-cheek-sort-of-ironic tone that I so enjoyed, but the stories just didn't strike me in the same way.  I don't know that I would recommend it, either.  I tried his third book, Lost on Planet China and I remain halfway through.  I'm not sure that I will get past the halfway through marker.Once I finished Getting Stoned  and gave up on Planet China, I picked up a much anticipated book.  Jenny Lawson's (aka, the Bloggess) Let's Pretend this Never Happened.  This book was literally the funniest book I've read in...well....a really really long time.  I haven't laughed out loud that hard and long since reading Sh*t My Dad Says,  and, frankly, I think Let's Pretend is funnier.  I tried reading some of it to Brad and found myself laughing so hard I couldn't finish the sentences.  Her outlook on life is so amazingly offbeat and her writing style make me want to be her best friend.  (seriously, Jenny, if you read this, call me!). 
I was sad to finish Let's Pretend, so I moved on to some teen fiction.  I started Maggie Steifvater's Lament on Wednesday, Finished it on Friday, started the sequel Ballad on Friday and finished it today (Sunday). 
These stories, about musical genius teens who are able to see and interact with the Faerie world.  Obviously, the fey are troublesome and manipulative and the teens have to be brave and save themselves while getting really tangled in love affairs with members of the faerie community.  Granted, this is definitely teen fiction, but I've really enjoyed the stories.
Finally I read The Giver by Lois Lowry.  This is actually a book I read in grade 9 (yikes) but my friends and I were talking about books we liked in highschool and I remembered enjoying it but I couldn't remember much about it, so I took it out from the library online and read it today.  Still just as good as I remembered.   The book is about a 12 year old in a futuristic world who is given his "assignment" for the rest of his life to be the "receiver" of the memories of all of the world so the society doesn't need to know or deal with them. 
Moving on...well, I'm not sure what I'll move on to next!  Thinking maybe the fifty Shades of Grey series.

Catching Up on my Books

Blogger was giving me troubles before Christmas so I put the updates on my book blog on hold (and fought it out with my personal blog to get some minor updates posted).  Now that it seems to be working fine again, I can finally catch up on my book review blogging.  The only problem is that I can't recall which order I read these books in!  So, I guess I'll just throw them out there with the thoughts I remember.
The Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowpa was a well written story.  It follows the story of an adopted Indian girl, the family that adopts her and the family that gave her up.  Definitely emotional, and I was fascinated by the culture and that the timeline was current.  While I know many cultures still value male children over females, it's still somewhat shocking to read about that scenario in a
present-day story.
I also picked up The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.  I have read a couple of Dan Brown's books and have been happy with them.  I didn't care for Angels and Demons though (and didn't finish it, to be honest), so I wasn't entirely sure about trying a third Robert Langdon book, but this was very good.  I enjoyed it as much as the Da Vinci Code.  Several times I found myself sitting up late at night just trying to find a place that wasn't gripping so I could put it down and go to bed.  Gripping and very interesting.  Excellent story telling, thrilling plot, exciting conclusion and fascinating topic.
The last of the three books i read in 2011 (though not necessarily in that order) was the Family Fang by Kevin Wilson.  This is the story of the two grown children of a pair of performance artists who stage events that send those around them into chaos.  The two kids, often referred to as Child A and Child B are (obviously) dysfunctional and the story centers around the two trying to figure out their parents' mysterious disappearance.  Each chapter ends with a description of event that the group has done in the past.  It was very very odd, but I entirely enjoyed it.
I attempted to read the Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon; the latest of the Lord John Grey books...but to be honest,  I lost interest and just don't care.  I want her to finish the Outlander series.  Then write more Lord John books, if she must, but let's finish one thing at a time.
This year on vacation I ripped through three books.
My reading started with a recommendation from a friend of mine; The Sex Lives of Cannibals I  by J. Maarten Troost.  Absolutely the funniest book I've read in a long time.  The story is based on a portion of the author's life in which he moves wit hhis girlfriend to Kiribati, a small atoll in the equatorial Pacific.  The culture shock (the locals love the Macarena), environmental shock ("did I mention it's hot?"), and societal shock are written in such a fantastically entertaining way, I repeatedly was reading out loud to Brad - without asking if he was actually interested in me reading to him, but he seemed entertained, so that's always a good sign, right?  Absolutely a recommend for me1
I moved on to the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  In case you have been living under a rock with your fingers in your ears, humming to yourself, you have probably heard about the Hunger Games.  The trilogy takes place in a post apocalyptic country where the Capitol (read: evil dictatorship) punishes the people of the 12 Districts for their uprising 74 years ago by sending 24 teens to an arena once a year to fight to the death.  Pretty gruesome topic for teen literature, if you ask me.  I did enjoy the first one and read it in about a day.  The second book, Catching Fire follows the main characters as the districts start to revolt against the Capitol, and the third, Mockingjay, finishes off the revolution.  While it only took me a day to finish, I found book 2 to be fairly predictable and somewhat contrived.  The third book was just plain old boring for the first two thirds and took me just about a week to read.  The final third, however, became so utterly exciting though that I stayed up until 1 in the morning finishing it; literally huddled under the covers with a book light so that Brad, who was sleeping, wouldn't wake up, look at the clock and tell me to go to sleep (party pooper).  I found a lot of the imagery to be disturbing, though this could be because I have a pretty decent imagination.  I'm actually on the fence about whether i would recommend these books or not. I  think because they;re such an easy read, I would say yes.  Also, because the movies are coming out and I have a feeling that those who saw the first one without reading the book missed out on a lot of the subtler details and things that just couldn't be included.  But I suppose that's basically always the case with a book-to-movie transition.
Next on the list is another book by J. Maarten Troost, Getting Stoned with Savages.  VERY excited!!

On a reading kick...thank you summer!!

Following my werewolf kick I swapped into some general fiction, picking up The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. The novel is about a Chinese boy growing up in Seattle during World War II who befriends a Japanese girl. She and her family are sent away to concentration camps along with all of the Japanese Americans living in the city. It's a time period that has always interested me and a perspective I've never read from before: the persecution of Americans by Americans based simply on fear. the Hotel was a beautiful story and I would recommend it for sure.

I then picked up When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman. The book is divided into two parts, the first when the main character, Elly, is a young girl in 1968, and the second in 1995 after Elly has grown up. I really enjoyed the first part with a number of laugh out loud moments, but the second was much more serious and less enjoyable for me. I did like the book on the whole, but it became much more poignant in the second half.

Finally I tore through the Help by Kathryn Stockett. Typically I don't read a book before seeing the movie (most often I'm just terribly disappointed by the movie if I read the book first, so I'll see the movie and read the book afterwards), but I was really interested in reading this one, so I went for it. I absolutely loved this book! The protagonists were likable and the antagonist was awful. I'm really looking forward to the film now...and I desperately hope I won't be disappointed...

On a side note, Brad and I went into Coles bookstore yesterday and I looked around and saw all of the books that I've read recently in physical form. It was odd to see the tangible copies when I've just known them on my kobo. I was looking at them, thinking "that looks like a book I'd like to read" when I have already read them...weird.

There Be Wolves!

Recently I went through a little kick of reading teen fiction (which has been made acceptable by the Twilight phenomenon, I tell myself). It never hurts to have something lite when camping and that's exactly what I went for. I started off with finally reading Shiver by Maggie Steifvater. The long and short of it is that it's very much a Twilight type book written for fans of Team Jacob; girl watches wolves out her back window and becomes possessive of one with funky eyes, girl meets boy with same eyes, puts two and two together and discovers that boy is a werewolf, boy and girl begin intense relationship (far too intense for 17 year olds). All in all though, I'm not going to lie, I really enjoyed it. The second (Linger) and third (Forever) book in the series were also good, though not quite as much. It was definitely an easy read, but sometimes that's just what a girl needs.

I finished Shiver while camping and didn't have book two and three yet, so I swapped into another bit of teen fiction, also wolf related, that I had been wanting to read; Red Riding Hood by ...I have no idea. I had bought it without doing proper research, apparently. I knew it had sometime to do with the movie and thought that it was what the new movie was based on. How wrong, I was. Turned out, it was the book based on the movie. From a very early age I learned that books based on movies are TERRIBLE and this one was no exception. It's like the writer watches the movie and transcibes the scenes, making terrible attempts at filling in the internal dialogue. The most common sentence in the book was "Valerie felt...". It was just horrible. The plot was the only thing that kept me going whatsoever, not to mention it was a really really easy read. Regardless, it was one of the worst written books I've picked up in more than a decade. PASS.

A Range of Topics

It's been a while since my last book update and while I haven't had heaps of time for reading, I have been plugging away at several volumes. The first I polished off was Garbo Laughs by Elizabeth Hay. I absolutely loved Late Nights on Air and thought I would try another of her stories. Sadly, this one fell flat with me. The "jacket" described it as "a funny sad-eyed deliciously entertaining novel about a woman caught in a tug of war between real life and the films of the past. Inflamed by the movies she was deprived of as a child Harriet Browning forms a Friday-night movie club with three companions-of-the-screen: a boy who loves Frank Sinatra a girl with Bette Davis eyes and an earthy sidekick named after Dinah Shore". Sounds great, right? Not so much. It was very poignant but I didn't find much of it "funny" at all. Just sad. It didn't help that I really have never seen any of the movies that were referenced (though I'd love to) so I missed out on all of the references. Very ho-hum as far as I was concerned. Not writing off Elizabeth Hay though. I may try something else by her in the future.
After the disappointment of Garbo, I moved on to the next book in the "Earth's Children" series; The Shelters of Stone. I was nervous going into it after the Plains of Passage was so terribly disappointing and DREADFULLY boring. But Shelters provided at least a great deal more interaction with other characters. Still, for such a long book, very little actually happens. I think it can be summed up by this passage I read on a book review blog "Ayla is introduced to someone new. New person is wary about being so near to a wolf. Ayla explains they have to let Wolf smell their hand so they can be introduced. They do, and are charmed when Wolf licks their hand. Ayla explains the process of domestication. Then there's a good 3-4 pages about limestone rock formations or leather making or the habits of the woolly rhinoceros, then Ayla is introduced to someone else. Lather, rinse, repeat". That's more or less the jist of it. If you've read the first 5 books, go ahead and delve into this one, but don't expect miracles (even though it is a marked improvement over the last book in the series).

Finally, I launched myself (somewhat nervously) into Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I remember buying a copy in my tween years and wanting to read the epic romance of Heathcliff and Catherine. Not going to lie, it was probably a good thing that I got bored with the language back then. I was grossly misinformed as to the content of this novel. It is not a romantic story of tortured love ala Rome and Juliet. Well, I suppose it sort of is... Heathcliff falls in love with Cathy who, not knowing he is listening to her conversation with a friend, says she could never marry him but loves him with all her heart. He only hears the bit about not being able to marry him and runs off for several years. She, in the meantime, being a fickle silly girl, marries some other guy. Heathcliff returns and is a fairly terrible person. He starts spending time with her again and she somehow goes utterly mad and dies. But not before having a baby. He also marries Cathy's husband's sister and she has a baby and runs off from evil Heathcliff. Heathcliff is horrible and cruel and tries to make everyone's lives miserable for the rest of the book until he goes insane and dies. That's about it. That being said, it was fairly entertaining, all the madness notwithstanding.

Mare sent me my next book for my Birthday (which hasn't come yet, but I opened the package early. Whoops!). Clinton Kelly's Oh No She Didn't. It's a style guide chronicling the 100 biggest style mistakes women make. The book was like a written version of What Not To Wear, which I always enjoy and filled with a much sassier side of Clinton than he lets out in the show. Definitely an entertaining read.

Following that I read Hide and Seek by Shayna Krishnasamy. This was a short story, which I typically don't read because I prefer something to really get into. I also don't know how to review short stories...it was short and well written, I'd say. Fairly dark and a little unnerving. I think it was for adolescents, but whatever. Every now and again everyone needs something simple, right?

It's been rather a while, but it took me quite a long time time get through the Fall of Giants by Ken Follett. I've read two of his other epic stories, Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, both of which were excellent, so I had high hopes for Giants. The story follows several individuals around the world in the lead up to World War 1, through the war, the Russian Revolution, and the aftermath of the whole mess. Two families in Wales, another in Russia, one in Germany, and one in the United States. All of the story lines were intertwined and it was fascinating to read about the war from the fictional perspective. It was a gigantic book (my kobo showed 42 chapters at an average of about 90 pages, though the pages are a bit smaller than a printed page) but I never once found myself bored or wondering when things would move on. I'm looking forward to the next in the trilogy, though I have no idea when that will come out.

Three books, and a series finished

I picked up the Queen of Swords by Sara Donati (book 5 in the Wilderness series) and tore through it quite quickly. I think it was probably my least favorite of the series. This portion took place in New Orleans which, while rife with character, I didn't enjoy as much as the stories in the American wilderness. It was good, don't get me wrong, and it was a fairly easy read, much like the other books that just pull you through the story. I was happy to complete it and move on to the next installment in the series. A quick break was required though, as (coincidentally) on the day I finished Queen of Swords, a coworker lent me a book that she had won at a work event.

Who Moved My Cheese by Dr. someone or other is about reluctance to change and the effects it has on one's life as well as the process of learning to change and what that process can do to oneself. It literally took me a couple of hours to read. Nothing earth-shattering about it. The long and short of it is that some people easily adapt to change and they are often the happiest. Others adapt only when they realize they will suffer if they don't and then can learn to be happy like those who change quickly. Finally there are those who don't change and in their refusal are scared and often become left behind. Very easy book. I don't know if I'd recommend it or not...

Having found my Cheese I was able to pick up the final book in the Wilderness series The Endless Forest. This was probably the easiest of the series and had the feel that it was wrapping things up. I was happy with the storyline and the way all of the different characters' (spanning two generations) stories tied up nicely.

I've finally moved on to The House At Riverton, the first novel by Kate Morton. About halfway through and loving it so far!

The Forgotten Garden

Following my sprint through Bite Me, I had hoped to have similar luck reading An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin. One of my favorite books was Shopgirl, also by Martin, so I had hopes this would also pique my interest. Sadly, I lost my drive to keep reading and took that to mean it was time to move on. (Maybe it's time I started a blog about the books I've put down recently?)

Skimming through the list of books on ye olde kobo, I realized I had bought the Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton (or did Mum buy it?), so I decided to give it a go. The funny thing about kobo books is that, as soon you as you have bought them and loaded them to your devise, the only way to remember what they're about is to actually start reading, or go online. There is no synopsis on the back cover...being that there is no back cover for which to have this printed.

I started into the story and next thing I knew I was being swept away by the characters. The story is of 38 year old Cassandra whose grandmother passes away, leaving her with a cottage in England and a mystery to go along with it. Nell, the grandmother, was found on the docks of an Australian town at 4 years old and discovered the parents who raised her weren't her biological parents. Cassandra sets off from Australia to England to find out who her grandmother really is. The story shifts time periods from 2005 to 1975 to 1907 and back. I was totally captivated through the whole tale and would definitely recommend it.

First One Down

With my goal of reading 40 books this year in mind (we'll see how that goes!), I have finished the first for 2011. I borrowed Bite Me by Christopher Moore. This is the latest from one of my favorite authors and the third in his vampire series. A far cry from the Twilight saga, these stories take on a morbid twist with lots of bizarre characters and humorous moments. I've read all of Moore's books and while this series is not my favorite of his, it was thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless. I suspect a sequel may be on the way though... One can hope!!

The Last of 2010

For whatever reason I decided to end of 2010 by slogging through two of the driest, slowest books I've tackled in years.

Months ago, Mare and I decided to read Jane Austen's Emma. We decided to read it together as a way of making sure we stayed on track and finished it. I've seen the movie (with Gwyneth Paltrow) and really liked it, and I also have enjoyed watching Clueless which is based on this story as well. Unfortunately the book itself was a terrible slog. I don't know how many times Mare and I had to convince each other to carry on. It took months. Just when I was fairly certain that something was going to happen....nothing did. Again and again and again. I honestly can't figure out how a book with so little plot could have lasted through the ages. Anyway, I think it's safe to say I would not recommend anyone read it. (I've also heard that of all Austen's works, this is one of the hardest to get through, which does make me feel somewhat better).

After finally closing Emma, I picked up the 4th book in Jean M Auel's Earth's Children series: The Plains of Passage. Yet another very slow moving book. Auel has made colourful description somewhat of her trademark and I was expecting it to some degree...but the extend to which the descriptions went on was bordering on torturous. The story followed a pattern though: Description of foliage, terrain and animals, declaration of love from the two main characters, descriptive sex scene, description of foliage, terrain and animals, declaration of love, sex scene (complete with the frequent use of the word "manhood"), Description of foliage, terrain and animals, declaration of love, sex. I think you're getting the picture. When the two main characters actually encountered other people it became interesting (except that each time they encountered a group of people there would be the cursory "my what a strange accent she has" thought from the new people with regards to Ayla. I get it, she has a funny accent. I didn't need to be told 13 times). I'm not going to lie, I did rather a lot of skimming through the description bits...and the sex. Believe it or not, I do intend to read the next one in the series. I suspect there will be substantially less description as I believe the two main characters have reached their final destination and the travelling aspect (with changes in scenery) will be at a minimum.

So, with the final page of Plains I officially reached 34 books read in 2010. Not too bad, if I do say so myself! That's more than one every two weeks. I'm hoping to read 40 this year. Though we'll see how that goes. It's good to have goals, right?

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.