Before I start my book reviews can I tell you that I am so excited that my church friends have started a book club. I belong to an online book club but this is my first meet in person one. I mean, I have joined them before but they always get canceled before we even meet once. Well we met last night and made a schedule for the next 6 months. I love book clubs because they force me to read stuff I may not have otherwise and I like to talk to people about books. The book we discussed last night was These Is My Words by Nancy Turner which I had actually already read a year or so ago for online book club but I still went to discuss it last night and had a blast. It is a good book but not my jump up and down favorite like it seems to be for everyone else who reads it. It is written as a journal and in parts does not read like a journal would so I wish it had just been written like a novel, but the characters and the story are both good so it is still worth checking out if you haven't already.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
I read The Kite Runner a few years ago and liked it, really liked it in parts but did not like how everything fell together and was wrapped up all neat and conveniently at the end, too predictable for me but the writing was good and I had heard that this book was even better. It was! I really, really, really liked this book. The characters were so tangible, the emotions so real. The story starts with an illegitimate Afghan girl being raised by her single mother and infrequently visited by her 3 wife father and the way that it describes her relationships with them felt very much like how it felt to be a child of divorced parents. How their jabs intended for each other always land on the child. It was spot on, and the emotions behind the characters remained that way throughout the book. I couldn't put it down and I cried at one point. I do, once again feel like he could have wrapped it sooner though, which is weird to say about a couldn't put it down book. I was still interested to the very last word but I thought the last few chapters read more like an epilogue and spelled everything out and there was a powerful point in the story where I think it could have ended and we could have been left to fill in our own hopes for the story. But still no love lost, I really liked this book.
Son by Lois Lowry
I was so excited for another installment of The Giver. The trilogy felt complete and I couldn't imagine what could be left to say but I still had to read it. Can I be honest and say that I didn't love it? It goes back to the start of The Giver and tells the events through the eyes of a different character, a birthmother. I could see potential but it just never went where I hoped it would and in the end got too fantasy like and weird for me. Part two almost had a Katniss from Hungers Games vibe and Part Three felt like a super condensed Harry vs. Voldemort type thing. Still love her writing and I didn't hate it, but the series didn't need it and it just didn't suit my personal taste very well.
Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster
I stumbled upon this for free on Kindle and how had I never heard of it before? It is a quick little book about an orphaned girl who is given a chance to go to college thanks to an anonymous benefactor and it is told as a series of letters from her to him. Love my orphan stories but they are sometimes way too similar so I was happy to see that this one took it's own direction. I am also leery of books written in an epistolary format because they often fill in parts of the story for the reader that you would never actually put in a letter or diary entry so they don't read naturally, but this one did. I loved her voice and her wording was sometimes re-read it perfect. She did have a little bit of Anne Shirley type spunk too, if you are an Anne fan. As I was reading I had the perfect ending scene planned and while it did end as you predict it will, the specifics were different and I still like my idea better. Cute book though, and only takes an hour or two to read so I am happy to have stumbled upon it.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
I read this for the online book club I am in. I really wanted to skip it because Lord of the Rings (the movies, haven't read the books) makes me almost physically annoyed. It is on TV all the time and Seth always stops to look at it and I have to quickly leave the room or grab a book and bury my nose in it so I do not have to be bothered by it. You know how I feel about fantasy, right? But I have heard such high praise for this book over the years and I thought that if it was well written I might be able to get into it. Uh, no, not so much. I only read it at the gym (went to the gym 15 times this month, mostly to have some dog free reading time but still...go me!) and never once thought of picking it up at home. I even finished my workout one day with 3 pages left in the whole book. You would think I would stay and finish the book but no, I waited until the next day to read the end. I don't know what my problem is but I just can't do fantasy 99% of the time. It was well written but it just has no pull for me and I would tune out altogether and then realize it and have to back up several pages and read them again. There was never even any real drama. Every time they were in a scrape it would resolve itself before any real tension built up. Just not for me, I guess.
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
My friend, Jen recently left me a comment stating that this was the best book she had ever read. She has sent a few good reads my way over the years so I decided to give it a look. In parts I liked it, in parts it was okay and at times, I wasn't feeling it. If he mentioned that he was circumcised and no one else in South Africa is one more time in the first 100 pages I was ready to throw the book at the wall. We get it, move on. I also got annoyed because after a rough start to life, things suddenly just magically go his way all the time. I am glad things turned for him but I wanted to see more fight, more overcoming. And then the ending was not my favorite. The last couple chapters lost momentum for me but there were some good parts and some good characters along the way. At some point I was very interested to see how it ended but by the time I got there I was over it so I guess it fell apart for me somewhere along the way. Sorry Jen, I liked it but only in a lukewarm sort of way, but I know you won't be offended because you gag over some of my book preferences as well.Also FYI for some of you who actually follow my recommendations, there are some tough to read scenes in this one (think prison abuse type stuff) and a good sprinkling of f bombs and I know some of my reading friends want to know that up front.
And that is it for this month. What have you got for me this month? Anything good?
Oh wait...I also meant to say that I read with my kids every day and never manage to mention that here. Chloe's favorites right now are the Betty Bunny books by Michael Kaplan and we have been renewing them for months but she likes to be read many books, many times a day, always has. Alyssa honestly reads about a book a day, on her own but she is starting to sit in on me and Alex's reading time as well now that he is ready for stuff she is interested in. Before me and Al mostly ready Flat Stanley books but this month we read Frindle by Andrew Clements and we all loved it. Now we are reading The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull but I will wait until we are done to form an opinion. So far the kids are super hooked on it though and on the couple nights when we were out late and didn't have time to read, they cried.
Friday, November 2, 2012
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3 comments:
Ahh too bad you didn't like The Hobbit. I loved it. But that's no surprise and I had a feeling you wouldn't so I'm not surprised about that either. It made me laugh to read your reaction to the Lord of the Rings movies because they are some of my absolute favorite movies.
I think it is so funny how half of the things we like and do are so similar and the other half are polar opposites. :)
Abi has been loving the Flat Stanley books lately too. Her favorite recently though was The Witches. We are reading Candy Shop War too.
Haha, you didn't LOVE my recommendation. That's okay. I have to agree that there were a lot of unnecessary narratives and foul language. And his early puberty days didn't need to be described so vehemently...haha. Much could be left unsaid. I agree with you there. I guess what grabbed me in the Power of One is not so much the life of Peekay, but I loved learning about the history of South Africa from the perspective of a young, white English boy who is eventually loved and admired by the people who should hate him (based soley on the color of his skin). There's something about South Africa that has always intrigued me, the culture, the history, and now (after reading the Power of One) the landscape. I also loved the relationship between Peekay and Doc. They both needed each other for various emotional reasons. Now that a few months have passed the high from my fresh read has worn off. So I'd say it's probably not my favorite but ranks high up on the list.
I read A Thousand Splendid Suns a few years ago and enjoyed it for the same reasons as you. It breaks my heart to read how women are treated over and to feel it from a woman's perspective. It's funny you mention the abandoned daughter story line because I totally related to it as well. My own biological father was never part of my life and my relationship with my stepdad has been sketchy. He now has grandkids from both of his biological sons, and we haven't heard from since (even with my calling him about a once a month and leaving messages). Pretty sad, mostly for my girls because Annie asks about him often. Totally off subject, I know...haha.
I'll have to check out Daddy Long Legs because I, too, love successful orphan stories. The Language of Flowers (I mentioned it a while back) is another good one. I guess movie rights have been bought and will start filming soon.
Read the Hobbit in high school. I'm with you, I could never get into fantasy.
Currently reading the Kitchen Boy . Just barely started, so I can't say much.
Cheryl, I really wanted to like The Hobbit. I feel guilty when I don't like the classics but I just couldn't get there. I did see the trailer today for it today while we were at Wreck It Ralph and the sets look really cool. Not sure I can sit through it but it looks like they did a good job with it.
Jen, I forgot about The Language of Flowers and I meant to check that one out so thanks for bringing it up again. The Power of One had so much potential and I can see why you loved it but it didn't all come together and wow me as a whole. And you are right about the puberty scene...utterly pointless. It had nothing to do with the story whatsoever and there was never even a love interest or anything so I have no idea why he added that. The prison brutality was awful to read but it was relevant to the story. I did like Doc and Peekay's relationship though and his relationship with Morrie as well. Like I said, so much there but just not quite complete for me.
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