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.