Books I've Read

It's been a while since I've talked about any of my recent books... of course, taking 2 classes at the community college has kept me from having any time to read at all, but I have snuck in a few audio books... so I guess I'll catch up for the year so far.... here's my books for January-April.  In no particular order.....

The Race by Clive Cussler  
Another fun adventure novel about the charming, smart and just plain awesome turn of the century detective, Isaac Bell.  I've discovered  I really have a love for turn of the century novels.  Even without the British accents I love so much, I think it's just the time period that fascinates me.  (Not sure why... no running water for bathrooms or electricity yet in most of the country!)  This one was all about a cross country airplane race and it did not disappoint.  It was entertaining, interesting and exciting.  Not Book Club deep discussion material, but enjoyable fluff reading.  Details about the very first flying machines often went over my head, but I still enjoyed it none the less.

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James

This was our most recent book club book.  I was only half way through the book on the night we had book club, so I didn't get to  participate in the delicious discussion about the newest Pemberley scandal.  This isn't a classic Jane Austen, but it is a tribute to her amazing works and I thouroughly enjoyed it.  Sadly, it was more from Darcy's point of view than it was from Lizzie's, but it was interesting to see how the Darcy's and Bingley's have evolved in the few years after the double wedding.  All the favorites from Pride and Prejudice were brought back, including our not so faves like Wickham and Mrs. Young.   And references were made to characters from Persuasion and Emma, which delighted me!  All in all,  an enjoyable romp through England in 1903, despite the serious subject of a murder on the grounds of Pemberley.  

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
I seem to be reading Malcolm Gladwell's books in reverse order.  I first heard of this book many years ago, when I lived in Dublin.  The dear friend who worked so hard to get me to come to Book Club chose this book once in our book club there.  I never had a chance to read it, and I was busy the night she hosted book club for this book, so I missed the discussion as well.  This book focuses on the way in which epidemics happen... like how a particular TV show becomes an overnight hit, or how fashion trends are made by such small groups.  Fascinating reading material, but not really life changing.  I guess I can rest assured that my posts on Facebook about whatever I'm passionate about are not going to start any kind of social epidemic.

A Member of the Family by Cesar Millan
Ever seen or heard of the Dog Whisperer?  This is a book he wrote for the masses to help ease us all into the life of being dog owners.  Max is our second dog, but we are the first t to admit we didn't do a great job with our first dog, so we definitely wanted  to do it right this time around.  Cesar's tips make perfect sense and really helped me understand how the "pack mentality" works with dogs.  I highly recommend his books if you are getting a dog, just got a dog, or struggle with managing your dog.

The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
Try saying that  title with a British accent... it sounds so much better than when we butcher our way through this tongue twister of a book title.  This book has to be one of my all time favorite books EVER.  And I don't give that distinction out lightly.  I was surprised that the format was so easy to follow, as the entire book is written in the form of letters going back and forth between the main characters as they retell their histories during the German occupation of WW2.   This is one of those books where you wish it was a real story... you love it that much!   If  I ever get the chance to visit Great Britain, it will not be complete without a trip to the Channel Islands!

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Another story about WW2 from a different a angle.  I have a really hard time handling books about WW2, Nazis and concentration camps, in particular.  So I  always find it refreshing to find a book about the war that talks about other aspects of war-time life.  This book is about what life was like for the Asian immigrants who lived in Seattle during WW2.  We didn't have concentration camps, but we did throw all the Japanese living in America into "internment camps".  Not very AmericanL-like behavior.  Especially for the Japanese who were born in America and had citizenship here.  Many of them didn't even know how to speak Japanese because they'd been living in America their whole lives!  Read it... you'll love it...I promise!

The King's Speech by Mark Logue
When this movie came out, I really wanted to see it.  But my commitment to not watch rated R movies kept me away.  :(  No one is a bigger fan of Colin Firth than I am.  (And any man who can nail Mr. Darcy like he did can definitely play a king!)  When I found out there was a book, I RAN to the library to check it out.  It did not disappoint.  It was a fascinating  memoir written by the grandson of the speech therapist used by the king, Lionel Logue.  Absolutely fascinating how a self taught Aussie became such an important figure in Britian's history.  If anyone sees the King's Speech popping up on their TV guide as an edited for TV movie, I EXPECT to be told!  Can't wait to see it!

Books I’ve Read

October 2011

 

 Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve never read an Agatha Christie novel before.  Good thing it got picked for Book Club or I would have never discovered how delightful these books can be!  The audio was hard to listen to at first… all the French accents were tough to understand, but after a while I got used to it.  Once I could understand everyone and learned all the names, it was very enjoyable to listen to.  I’m looking forward to many more Agatha Christie novels in my future. 

 

 

  The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley

This is the second book about the character Flavia de Luce.  Flavia is an eleven year old girl obsessed with chemistry and death.  Flavia also happens to be a great detective.  Between Flavia’s obnoxious sisters, the 1950’s English country setting, and her obsession with chemistry, there’s plenty to keep you entertained.  This was the perfect book to take on my trip to Seattle last month.   It kept me entertained on my long days of travel back and forth.  I highly recommend this series of books.  Currently reading #3 in the series and so far it has not disappointed! 

 

I haven’t updated my good reads account in ages, so I’m feeling like there was another book I read in October that I’m currently forgetting about. If I remember it soon, I’ll update this post to include it.  I’m currently reading 3 books right now, so November’s post should be much more exciting! 

Books I’ve Read

September 2011

  The Good, the Bad and the Undead:  Kim Harrison

This is the second novel in the Rachel Morgan series.  I wouldn’t recommend reading these out of order… they aren’t really stand alone books.  Not because it’s one big continuous plot, but because there is so much given in the magic world explanations that don’t really get repeated or explained again in subsequent books.  I still think this series reminds me of a cross between Stephanie Plum and Twilight.  The first book was pretty tame, but the second one was definitely more racey.  Not sure if they are going to keep that trend, or not, but the overall plot was really good.  There are several more, but I’ve got a bunch more books on my “want to read” list that I will probably try to tackle before I come back for Rachel Morgan #3. 

 

  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks:  Rebecca Skloot

This was our September book club book.  Again, someone picked a book that I would have NEVER chosen on my own.  And again, I was blown away by how good it was.  This is the biography of the real life woman, Henrietta Lacks, who was the unknowing donor of the world famous HeLa cells.  This story is both inspiring and tragic.  Inspiring in how many medical advances and discoveries were made because of Henrietta’s cells.  But tragic in the way the doctors/researches dealt with her family.  Anyone who has any kind of medical background at all will LOVE this book.  I don’t have any medical know how, and I loved it anyway. 

Books I’ve Read

August Edition

Fablehaven:  Keys to the Demon Prison by Brandon Mull

I’m so happy to say I finished this series.  I liked it, but I didn’t love it.  Listening to the audiobooks was probably a bad call.  Some voices I loved, others I hated.  I often felt like I was trudging through a Sunday School lesson, and I couldn’t believe that Seth kept making the same stupid mistakes book after book after book.  Having said all that, though, I think they are a great series for those in the tweener age range.  Megan (14) loves them, and I think Ian (11) would love them if I could get him to take the plunge.  (He’s not a big reader of anything. )   The last book was action packed, not at all boring, and I loved how the ending wrapped up all the loose ends that had been developed over the first 4 books.  I’m glad to say I finished the series, but once was enough for me!

  Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross

This was our book club pick for August.  A friend of mine has been trying to get me to read this for years, so she finally picked it for book club, so I would be forced to finally buckle down and get it done!  It’s a fictional telling based on a myth (not widely known) that back in 800’s there was a woman Pope.  It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book of this magnitude and her research on the Dark Ages was thorough and educational.  The book was extremely well written.  The plot was plausible and believeable.  What I didn’t really like was Joan’s character.   How she handled some situations bothered me.  But I think I was in the minority on this point, and almost everyone LOVED everything about the book.  I would love to get my hands on a copy of the movie version that was made a couple years ago, but it’s not available in DVD in the US.  If you buy it on Amazon, you have to have a special DVD player that will play DVD’s coded for Europe.  Weird, no?

Books I’ve Read

July 2011:

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison

My sister in law recommended this series to me a couple of years ago.  I’ve had the sticky note I wrote the book title on floating around my kitchen for ages.  I finally got around to hunting it down at the library.  And then I saw the cover art… and I started to wonder if this book was going to be a little to smutty for my taste.   I’m glad I didn’t let the cover art scare me away.  This book was wonderful!  It’s a fantasy novel that reminds me of a cross between Twilight and Stephanie Plum.  If you didn’t understand that last sentence, it’s about a witch who is a bounty hunter and tracks down rogue vamps, weres, and warlocks.  It’s way cleaner than a Stephanie Plum novel, but just as entertaining. 

 

 

  Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

I was so intrigued by Outliers that I had to listen to another Gladwell book.  It did NOT disappoint.  I don’t know how to explain it well, so here’s a clip from the summary on the Good Reads website:  In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple: the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of "blink": the election of Warren Harding; New Coke; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing" - filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

 

  The Spy by Clive Cussler

This is the 3rd book in the Isaac Bell series.  I really enjoyed it.  It was different from the 2nd book because it sends our Detectives into the world of international espionage.  We had everything from European spies to New York mobsters to a cameo appearance by Fred Astaire.  It also spent a chapter or two in my home-turf of Solano County which was kind of fun to read about.  Thankfully, Cussler does thorough research and even made sure the reader pronounced the names like Suisun and Vallejo correctly!  And our hero even subverted an attack on Mare Island.  I just checked on the next book in the series and it comes out in September… hopefully by then I will have cleared my ipod out and will be ready for the next one!

Books I’ve Read

May and June:

I was consumed with Girls Camp preparations during the month of May, so I didn’t get much reading done.  And what I did start reading, I didn’t finish until Girls Camp was over.  Except this book:

  Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

This was our book club pick for May.  With a week left to go before book club I figured I better just read it and get it over with.  This typically isn’t my type of book.   Within the first chapter I was hooked. 

It’s basically the science and reasons behind how certain people become extraordinary Outliers in our society.  People like Bill Gates, The Beatles, or any of the hundreds of Professional Canadian Hockey Players.   As he explains, extreme success is more than just being smart or talented.  It’s a combination of talent or IQ, timing, culture and luck.  For example, Bill Gates likely only because the computer tycoon that he is because he happened to be a smart kid raised in WA with access to a computer lab as a teen.  He had access to  computer labs that didn’t exist in most places of the world and he learned a set of skills that he couldn’t have acquired anywhere else.  He was born at just the right time to take advantage of new technology in the 60’s that made computer code writing easier and he spent about 10,000 hours as a teen/college student honing his craft.  This book was fascinating and completely enjoyable to read.  I highly recommend it!

 

Fablehaven:  Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary by Brandon Mull

I’ve been slowly working my way through the Fablehaven books.  I have to say, I’m not as big of a fan as most people are.  They are good, but I don’t put them in the “great” category.  I think I would like them better if I hadn’t listened to these on audio.  At first I liked the reader, but the farther we get into it, the more I get frustrated with the way he does certain voices.  Some voices like Tanu and Vanessa are done well, but other’s are terrible.   But, even the narrator isn’t the only thing that bugs me.  During the first book, I felt like I was sitting through a Sunday School lesson.  I guess for kids, stuff like choices and consequences have to be spelled out, but I felt like it was too much.  But, I have to say the 4th book would rank near the top in my favorites.  I liked this one more than the rest, and I’m only one book away from being done.  Throughout the whole book, I kept thinking, there has to be a spy… there has to be a spy… and there was… but it was NOT who I expected.  I couldn’t have been more shocked by it!  I do like them enough to finish the series and find out how it ends, but I usually need a break between each audio book so I don’t go crazy from listening to the narrator.

 

  The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

This was our book club pick for June.  I’ve read it before and own a copy of the paperback, so I took it to girls camp with me thinking that in my free time I could skim it and refresh my memory.  Except that I had no free time at camp, so I read it after I got home.  Which I really didn’t have time to do, but oh well.  I have to say that this isn’t my most favorite Shannon Hale book.  I like it, and her writing is so awesome, but I just can’t get excited about the special gifts Ani has.  I don’t know why it bugs me, but it does.  I do love the general plot, the romance between Ani and Geric, and all of Ani’s Forest-Born friends.  Most people love this book by Shannon Hale, and I like it, but I don’t love it.   It is the first in a series of four, so eventually I will get around to reading the rest.  I guess I better do it before I forget too much, though, huh?

 

  City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Megan and I have been waiting a long time to read this book.  It did not disappoint.  The story of Clary, Jace, Simon and company continues in this story where the plot continues to get even more complex and intriguing.   This is the fourth book in a six book series and it’s going to be tough waiting for the next two books to come out.  My only complaint is that C.C. really pushed the boundaries on intimacy between teens.  I hope that it doesn’t get worse in the next books, but I’m not hopeful that these fictional teens will suddenly develop that kind of responsibility.  We’ll have to see.   So far, I highly recommend this series, though. 

Books I’ve Read

April Edition

The Wrecker by Clive Cussler

This is the second book in the Isaac Bell series.   I enjoyed this book but not as much as the first in the series (The Chase.)  Perhaps because the first book dealt a lot with trains and this book again was ALL about trains.  Perhaps because there were similar plot patterns to this one as the first.  However, I still enjoyed it.  And I’m looking forward to the next book in the series, as it should avoid trains completely.  (I think the next one is about submarines.)  Still, the historical content is well researched and fascinating to listen to.  I love the characters Isaac Bell, Marian Morgan, Archie Abbott and the new kid James Dashwood (nickname: Dash.)   This isn’t the type of book I would pick for a book club or a deep discussion, but it’s great escapist fiction to help me get through a day filled with laundry, dishes and other mundane tasks.  I can’t wait for Isaac Bell’s next adventure!

Persuasion by Jane Austen

This was our April Book Club pick.  I’ve read several Jane Austen books, but I honestly didn’t remember if I’d read this one.  I remember reading P&P and I remember S&S and I also recently read Northanger Abbey, but since I’ve seen the DVD version of Persuasion so many times, I couldn’t specifically remember if I’d ever read the book.  It was excellent.  The characters were so well described and I loved this story.  Is there a a bad thing you can say about a Jane Austen story?  I don’t think so.

 

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

This is the second book in the Maze Runner series.  It’s good.  Some questions get answered, some get more confusing.  This series reminds me a bit of the TV show Lost.  Not that they have the same premise, but that they do the same job of teasing me along… lots of mysteries, and just a few answers here and there.  And quite honestly, most of the answers we’ve gotten so far, we can’t really trust to be the truth.  My only complaint about this book is that it’s a classic “filler” book in a 3 book series.  I am always wowed when an author can make all 3 books in a planned series be stand alone reads.  This book was good, and it left me hanging on the edge of my seat waiting for the final installment.  At least it’s not a long wait.  The Death Cure will be released on October 11th!

Last Month in Books

 These is my Words by Nancy Turner

I first read this book just after I’d moved to Arizona.  I loved it then, but I’d forgotten how much I loved it and why.  It got chosen for our Book Club Book this month and so I hunted far and wide to get the audio version of this book, but it was not to be found!  So, I ordered a paper copy from Amazon and set it aside until I had time to read.  I ended up taking it with me to Science Camp.  It made for a great distraction on the bus and I read it by headlamp at night when I needed something to help me until I got super sleepy.  Once I got home, I couldn’t do anything without picking this book up and reading it some more.  I hate it when that happens, especially since I already knew how it ended… you’d think I could have spread it out a bit more.  But it is that captivating, and was even more so the second time around.  I would love to see a movie version of this book!  It’s a fictional diary of a girl living in the Arizona Territories in the late 1800’s.  I haven’t talked to many people who didn’t like this book. 

 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

I can’t decide what to write about this book.  It’s a “coming of age” book set in turn of the century Brooklyn.  It follows the life of Francie Nolan and all her relations as they work through tough times and extreme poverity.  You get a real feel for how it was to live in New York when most of it’s residents were still considered immigrants.  The descriptions of Brooklyn are detailed and interesting.  Each family member has it’s own unique personality and I think the family dynamics were pretty true to life of what it would have been like.  But on a whole I had a really hard time getting through this book.  I would almost call it drudgery.  Almost.  The only thing that kept me sane and coming back for more was the narrator (this one was audio, thank goodness.)  I’d have never finished it in paper, for sure.  Being from California, I don’t consider myself having an accent.  (Maybe East Coasters think we have one, but I’ve always been fascinated with east coast accents.)  The narrator does a wonderful job of nailing all the accents.  In all honesty, it’s the only reason I finished it.  I’ve decided that I’m just not a big fan of the “coming of age” story.  I can’t decide why, but I’m not.  Here is the proof:  I didn’t really like A Painted House by John Grisham.  I thought The Secret Life of Bees was just okay.  I felt like the ending to this book was really disappointing and quite sad.  I know that’s how life is, and that’s what makes it such a moving story, but I just can’t get into these types of novels.

Books I’ve Read

January and February edition:

I don’t think I did this for January, but I want to start doing this each month.  Just a quick synopsis of books I’ve read and what I think about them.  For this post, I’ll include every book I’ve read so far this year.  Thank goodness there aren’t too many of them.

The Chase by Clive Cussler

My mom has been trying to get me to jump on the CC bandwagon for years… and I just never managed to do it.  When I heard about this new series he has begun, I was very intrigued.  The Chase is about a turn of the century detective who is hired to track down a criminal dubbed “The Butcher Bandit”.  It’s a well told adventure story about the chase through many western states, including Utah.  I really liked how he portrayed the Mormons of that time period.  Well done!  The culminating part of the book is based around the true events of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.  It’s a great story that has enough real history in it to really keep you intrigued.  I loved it, and can’t wait to have time for the next one, The Wrecker.

The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card  

I’m still on the fence about this one.  I usually LOVE what OSC writes, but I found myself constantly disappointed with this book.  The concept was great.  The general story was interesting.  The main characters and their relationships with each other were good.  I just didn’t like some of the little side plots he threw in there.  I felt like it made the plot drag a bit.  The sci-fi concepts and presentation were amazing.  Danny’s attempt to live as a real human was the part that bugged.  And yes, because OSC is a Mormon, I’m going to be a total hypocrite here.  I hold him to a higher standard than I do most authors.  I was completely disappointed with the vulgarity in this book.  It was mostly unnecessary and I thought he could have made his point without going down some of the roads he went down.  I don’t know if I’ll keep reading the remaining books in the series.  Maybe by the time he releases the next one, I will have forgotten my frustrations.  Of course, the characters who caused the inappropriate situations aren’t likely to surface again, but still.  OSC, I expect more decency of you.  That’s what disappointed me the most.

Gregor the Overlander and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins

I started this series last year because it was the same author who wrote the Hunger Games.  It’s a very interesting concept and never ceases to surprise me with the creative plots.  It’s considered JF, but appropriate for YA audience too.  This was the third book in the series.  I don’t even know how to describe this series, but the more books I read, the more I like it.  By biggest complaint with SC is her cliffhanger book endings.  I’ve come to realize that’s just her writing style, and it didn’t bug me so much this time around.  The general gist of this series is about a boy and his sister who fall down a shaft in their laundry room and discover an underground world full of people, giant cockroaches, huge rats and other mammoth sized rodents.  At first I wasn’t sure if I liked the series, but the more I read them, the more I like them.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

This is a series based on the fantasy world first introduced to us in CC’s Mortal Instruments series.  Different characters (mostly… love that Magnus Bane makes an appearance!)  It’s a different story about the same world of people set in a different time, but just as good.  I enjoyed it immensely!  This type of fantasy is Megan’s FAVORITE fiction genre.  She loves everything about vampires, werewolves, shadow hunters and the Downworld.  It’s kinda like Twilight, but kinda not.  This series is set in Victorian era London, and I loved all the historical descriptions. 

The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis

I’ve wanted to read this ever since I read the first book in the Narnia series several years ago.  CS Lewis’s outlook on God vs. the Devil is fascinating and his observations about human nature are spot on.  Screwtape is one of the devil’s many devoted servants who trains other young devils to tempt and lead away humans on earth.  Even as you know he is the Devil’s agent, it’s sometimes hard to remember that the main voice of the story is the opposite of what we should be doing.  This book shows just how easy it is for humans to slip down the slippery slope of sin and made me re-evaluate my attitude about certain things.  Definitely a book to make you think!

 

The Alchemist by Paul Coelho

This book is short and got rave reviews, but I just couldn’t get into it.  It’s about a boy who meets a king who sends  him on a quest to discover his own personal legend.  Written in the form of a fable, the boy learns many lessons along the way and even discovers true love during his quest.  Even though it was a short book, I still felt like it dragged a lot.  If I hadn’t been listening to the audiobook, I would have never been able to bring myself to finish this one.   In fact, I may not have finished it at all, as I got to the end of the last disc, the audio just stopped.  Not mid sentence, but if that was the end, it was abrupt, and made me dislike it even more.    I think with this one, you’ll either love it or hate it.  Sadly, I fell in the latter category.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

In this YA novel, a boy named Thomas wakes up in a glade full of teenage boys.  He has no prior memories, and discovers that the glade is surrounded by a large maze patrolled by deadly monsters.  The boys send runners out to the maze every day to try to find an exit.  After Thomas arrives, thing start to change.  The life the boys have grown accustomed to deteriorates and they are forced to go to more extreme measures to find a way out of the maze that will kill them if they sit around and do nothing.  I loved this book… never a dull moment, plenty of mysteries to unravel and an epilogue at the end that made my jaw drop on the floor in shock.  It’s the first in a (3 part?) series.  Books one and two are in print, book 3 is slated to be released in the fall.   Can’t wait to see what happens next!

Matched by Ally Condie

It seems that Dystopian society novels are all the rage right now… as Matched is another one that falls into that category.  In a world in the future, “The Society” controls everything… how much and what you eat, what you do for a living, who you mate with, and how and when you die.  All things are perfectly timed and arranged to make life for the citizens as perfect as possible.  Cassia encounters a glitch during her “matching” that leaves her to wonder who she should really be matched with, and why she can’t find true love on her own.  While it’s a teenage romance novel, there is enough political plot to keep most readers intrigued.  Megan will LOVE this book.  It’s right up her alley.  Only bummer is that we have to wait for November for book 2 in the series.  Darn!

My “Bookies”…

I haven’t had the time to review as many books as I’d like to, so I’m going to give some “bookie” awards to my faves from this year:

Best Fiction:  This one is a tie.  I honestly can’t decide.  So, I have two favorites for the year – The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale and The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

The Actor and the Housewife was a captivating story that pulled me in deeper than I have been sucked into a book in a long, long time.

The Help was an amazing story about the deep south in the 60’s and what life was like for both blacks and whites, as the civil rights movement progressed. 

With both books, I laughed, I cried, I rejoiced and I despaired… and not necessarily in that order.

Best Non-Fiction:  The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls.  This is an amazing memoir of a woman’s upbringing that will have you saying, “no way!” Over and over and over again…  if you think your family is dysfunctional, think again. 

Best Self-Help:  ChiRunning by Danny Dreyer.  If you are an avid runner, if you struggle with injuries or pain, or if you want to be a better runner than you are, get this book.  Danny teaches a running technique that combines running with Tai Chi, in a way that reduces impact on joints/muscles and maximizes energy and efficiency.  I can’t say enough good things about this book.  Now I want the companion DVD that goes with it.

Best Juvenile Fiction:  Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke.  I haven’t read a lot of JF this year, but this was by far my favorite.  It’s a wonderful tale of dragons and other mythical creatures living in the modern world.  It is entertaining enough for the older crowd and tame enough for the younger set.  I’ve read a lot of Funke’s books, and I think this one is my favorite so far.

Best Young Adult Fiction:  The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan.  The Percy Jackson books are a family favorite right now.  Two of my kids have read them all (Megan has read the whole series 3 times, I think.)  And Ian, my non-reader is reading them, too.  For the record, I started them before the movie was even announced.  In this rare case, I don’t recommend listening to the audio versions of these books.  And I also don’t recommend waiting long periods of time in between books.  (Unless you are a Greek Mythology buff…. in that case you will have no trouble whatsoever keeping track of every character and sub-plot.)  The last book was the perfect ending to the series.  Loved it!

Best Series:  The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare.  I picked this one up after reading a review on www.blogginboutbooks.com.  I don’t know how to describe these books.  They are kinda like Twilight, kinda like Lord of the Rings, and kinda like Harry Potter.  If you enjoy fantasy, teen angst and forbidden love, and if you haven’t tired of witches, vampires and werewolves, then you will likely enjoy this series.  Megan liked them even more than I did.  The first book in the series is called City of Ashes.

Now for the worst – books I won’t be able to recommend:

Didn’t finish:  Rain of Gold  by Victor Villasenor.  This was our book club read a few months back.  I was first turned off by the lack of audio for this book.  Because I couldn’t find the audio, I had to wait for a library copy to be available, which left me with less than a week to finish this one before book club.  I didn’t finish, and I didn’t make it to book club, and within a day or two I lost interest.  This book has merit… I just wasn’t in the right mood to read it in the time allotted.  It’s a dynasty story about a Mexican-American family, written in a similar fashion as East of Eden.  I LOVED East of Eden, but about half way through this one I started to lose interest.  And honestly, I just couldn’t keep going… I don’t think it was the book, it was just me.

Biggest Disappointment:  Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.  What more can I say about this that I haven’t already said?  I’ve griped plenty, but time to let the dust settle hasn’t lessened my disappointment any.  Maybe one day, I will go back and read them all back to back.  I still think that the epilogue in Mockingjay was the most well written chapter in the entire book.  The epilogue was the most moving.  How pathetic is that?

Wasn’t Terrible, but left me wanting more:  Artemis Fowl:  the Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer.  I was sucked into the Artemis Fowl vortex a few years ago, and have enjoyed his books immensely, although the last couple have had plots so complex, that I couldn’t always wrap my simple brain around the concepts. However this most recent book was a letdown.  Artemis isn’t himself in this book, and the villain ends up being a disappointment too.  The big climatic conflict in the end turns out to be so anti-climatic, that I finished the book thinking, that’s it?  Huh?

Now that I’ve wrapped up my year in reading, I plan to work on a wish list for next year’s reading.  I also need suggestions for books to read with our book club for the year, so please send any good ideas my way! 

"So What Did You Think of Mockingjay?"

I can't tell you how many times I've heard or read online that question. 

Hmmm....... I haven't talked to a lot of people that have a clear cut answer.

I finished the book on Saturday and I'm still chewing on it. 

It's not a clear-cut 5-Star book, but it's not a dud either. 

Truth be told, I feel kind of the same way about it as I did about Breaking Dawn, by Stephanie Meyer. 

Things about it, I loved.  Things about it, I hated.

Was it well written?  Definitely. 

Was it appropriate as Young Adult Fiction?  Not so sure.

Were there deaths in it that broke my heart?  Absolutely. 

Was I happy with the romantic outcome?  Yes.

If you are still reading this post and haven't read the book, be warned... you are about to get spoilers!

Here's my take on some of the prevailing themes throughout the books.

Katniss-Peeta-Gale love triangle:  This is one thing where I was completely satisfied with the ending.  I was never really on team Gale or team Peeta.  I loved them both for different reasons, and at the end of book two I was still on the fence about who I thought she should end up with.  Throughout book 3 we finally saw Gale's true personality, and although I liked Gale, I didn't see him as a good fit for Katniss.  In the end, the only place for Peeta or Katniss was with each other.  They were both broken by the Games/Capitol, which is something that Gale will never be able to relate to.  And to be honest, Gale designing those new weapons with Beetee really disturbed me.  I felt like he was stooping to the level of the Capitol, which makes him no better than Snow.  I fully expected Collins to kill one or the other off in book 3, making it an easy choice for Katniss, but I actually liked the way she handled that too.  Completely unexpected and different from the usual love triangle solution.

Katniss:  in general her, character was so weak during the 3rd book.  I really got tired of reading about her wandering around, drugged out, and hiding from everything.  It just doesn't fit with the girl who volunteered for the Games in book 1.  I know she's been to H*ll and back, twice, but still... I expected more fire from her.

Peeta:    It was sad not to have our Peeta through most of this book.  I always felt Peeta deserved a happy ending because of his good nature and gentle spirit.  It broke my heart to see what Snow did to him.  It made me happy to see him fight back to overcome it.  In his dying breath, why did Boggs tell Katniss to kill Peeta?  That never made sense to me.  The other stuff he told her made sense, but not that.

Prim:  How ironic that Prim died in the end, after all Katniss did to save her.  The entire series was born from Katniss's desire to protect her baby sister whom she loved more than anyone.  If Prim had indeed gone to the games when her name was called, she would have likely died and the revolution wouldn't have been able to come-out-of-the-closet.  I guess, there was some long term benefit because the games didn't go on after she died.  And she died doing what she loved. 
District 13:  The whole concept of District 13, it's leaders, how it's run, etc., was alarming to me.  I know it was such a different and peaceful place from the rest of the districts under the Capitol's reign, but was it really any better?  Did people really have more freedom?  It seemed to me like a very controlled utopian society.  I never trusted Coin or her motives.  Turns out that was a wise move.

Who I wish didn't die:  Finnick.  His death hurt the worst.  Maybe because we finally got to know him on a personal level.  Maybe because we finally understood how much he had endured after he left the arena the first time.  Maybe because we misjudged him.  But mostly because he finally got his 5 minutes of happiness.  And it was only like 5 minutes.  Just heartbreaking.  (It hurt almost as much as losing Fred in book 7 of Harry Potter.)  And while we are on the subject, I was heartbroken over Cinna, too.  I loved Cinna, and every time his name was mentioned in Mockingjay, it was like a little dagger in the heart.

The Capitol Games:  This part of the book was so upsetting to me.  How could anyone in their right mind suggest continuing the games and keeping it going with kids from the capitol instead of the districts?  I still don't understand why Katniss voted yes.  If someone understands the logic behind that, please fill me in... please.

Given the extreme violence in this book, I can't decide if I think it should be classified as YA fiction.  I know it's about teenagers, children, really, but does that mean it should automatically be put in the YA fiction category?  I don't think so.  The concept of children being forced to kill other children is so despicable.  At the end of the audio for Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins herself tells how she came up with the idea.  Think back to the Roman Empire... think Gladiator.  I've never seen that movie, because that kind of stuff doesn't appeal to me, but it's the same concept.  Putting people in an arena to fight to the death while spectators watch, all for sport.  I guess we can't say that it hasn't been done before.

And one final comment before I turn it over to you to comment and throw in your two cents:  why did they make the cover light blue?  It just doesn't fit.  And it bugs.  It really bugs.  Whose idea was that?  It's a nice color for a book jacket, but it doesn't fit well with the other two.  It looks terrible on the shelf next to the first 2 books.  Doesn't anyone get paid to catch these things? 

Book List for 2009

I want to delete my 2009 book list from my sidebar, so I thought I would copy it into a post so it would be forever saved in my archives. Now I can post my book list for 2010 on the sidebar!

I also wanted to give some "awards" for my favorites:

Best YA work - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (also the sequel, Catching Fire). Megan, Taylor and I will all be fighting over the 3rd book when it is released in September of 2010.

Best Non-Fiction - Stop Whining, Start Living by Dr. Laura Schlessinger. This book really spoke to me on a personal level. I loved it.

Best Fiction - it's a tie between The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. The Lost Symbol is Dan Brown's best work since Angels and Demons. Guernsey is a fictional story that's based on historical records of a time in England's channel islands during post WW2. The entire book is written as an exchange of letters between various characters, and even though it might sound hard to follow, it's exceptionally well done.

Best Audio Production - The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. This story is told from two viewpoints, a young woman and an elderly woman, and so two ladies do the audio, which enriches the story telling immensely.

Here's the list of what I read in 2009:

Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater
Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane - Suzanne Collins
Skipping Christmas - John Grisham
The Heretic's Daughter - Kathleen Kent
The Shack - William Young
This Book is Not Good for You - Pyeudonymous Bosch
The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown
Savvy - Ingrid Law
Gregor the Underlander - Suzanne Collins
The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson, book 2) - Rick Riordan
Stop Whining, Start Living - Dr. Laura Schlessinger
If You're Reading This, It's Too Late - Pseudonymous Bosch
Fablehaven: The Rise of the Evening Star (book 2) - Brandon Mull
The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
The Name of This Book is Secret - Pseudonymous Bosch
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
Man's Search For Meaning - Viktor Frankl
Simple Genius - David Baldacci
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
The Glorious Cause - Jeff Shaara
Brisingr - Christopher Paolini
Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
The Six Sacred Stones by Matthew Reilly
Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Jinx by Meg Cabot
Inkspell by Cornelia Funke
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck

Book Review...

I was really excited when I heard Shannon Hale had written another adult novel. So far, I'd read 4 SH novels and loved them all.... even the one that I didn't think I would like going into it. I've developed a certain "crush" on SH.... and I was starting to think I'd love anything she wrote. Then I read the premise of her newest novel, The Actor and the Housewife.... WHAT was she THINKING?!?! Here's the summary, taken straight from Shannon's own website:

Mormon housewife Becky Jack is seven months pregnant with her fourth child when she meets celebrity heartthrob Felix Callahan. A few hours, one elevator ride, and one alcohol-free dinner later, something has happened, though nothing has happened...it isn't sexual. It isn't even quite love. But soon Felix shows up in Salt Lake City to visit and before they know what's hit them, Felix and Becky are best friends--talk-on-the-phone, drop-everything-in-an-emergency, laugh-out-loud-at-stupid-jokes best friends.

Becky's loving and devoted husband, Mike, is mostly unconcerned. Her children roll their eyes. Her large extended family and neighbors gossip endlessly. But Felix and Becky have something special... something unusual, something that seems from the outside--and sometimes from the inside too--completely impossible to sustain.

On the surface, Becky's story of a steadfast housewife and the handsome star is the ultimate romantic fantasy. But the depth of emotion that Shannon Hale shows us in Becky is the strength that underpins only the strongest relationships. It is what makes this story resonate beyond the glitter of Felix's movie-stardom to the deeper understanding of the kinds of true love we all dream of having.

Shannon Hale has created a magical and often hilarious story that explores what might happen when your not-so-secret celebrity crush walks right into real life, and changes everything.

I am also a Mormon Housewife, and have some real strong opinions about book plots like these. I've been known to stop reading a novel and take it back to the library when I was uncomfortable with the lines being crossed in the plot. I am a fairly "liberal" reader (by LDS standards), and tolerate probably far more "ick" than I should, but marital infidelity is one thing I won't read about. The minute the main character is walking down that road, no matter how unhappy their current marriage is, or how justified the situation might seem, I will close the book and walk away.

With that in mind, I doubted whether or not I could read this book, and like it. I doubted whether or not I could still respect Shannon Hale when it was all over. I doubted whether or not I could finish it. I had nervous butterflies when I thought about reading it. One part of me was dying to read it and see how she made this story work, the other part of me was terrified that I would be so unhappy with how she made this story work. Does that make sense?

So, a few months ago, (yes, months!) I put this book on hold on the libary website. I waited paitently as I was #16 in line to read it. It took a long time to get to the top of the line, but when I finally did, I realized it was time to just read it and get it over with.

So I began reading.... and instantly was drawn to the main character, Becky Jack. (Although I was never in love with the name Becky... does anyone go by that name anymore???) She was grounded, likable and witty. Oh so witty. Each night for several nights while the family sat on the couch mesmerized by the Olympics, I would multi-task... read the book and occasionally look up to watch the Olympics when it was something really great or exciting.

I've always wondered how I would act if I ran into a celebrity that falls into the category of Felix Callahan. My list of celebs like him would include Colin Firth, Hugh Jackman, Ewan McGregor , Daniel Craig and Christian Bale. Geee... I really like the British ones, don't I? I know for sure that I wouldn't have the guts to "spar" with any celebrity like Becky Jack did. And I loved her for it. I think her gutsy personality is what drew me into the story. That girl was a typical Mormon housewife in the suburbs, but she had spunk.

But then I committed the ultimate crime: about 100 pages in, unsure of where this was still going, I peeked at the last page. Stupid, stupid, stupid me. I know better than to peek at the last page. I never read the last page first. But given the subject matter, I just had to know... ya know? Of course, reading the last few lines of the story was a mistake, as it always is, because I didn't get a true picture of the ending based on those last few lines.

I won't say how the book ends, but I will say that I felt completely satisfied with the ending. It actually could have ended two or three different ways and I would have been satisfied. I think that speaks volumes about SH's abilities.

I just gave this book 5 stars on good reads. I rarely give a book 5 stars. I have to really LOVE it to give it 5 stars. This one was more on a 4.5 level, but I decided to be generous and round up. The things I loved most about this book is how it made me feel and analyze my own life. I have a lot in common with Becky Jack and I found myself comparing myself to her more than once. How would I handle the same situation she was in? I started reading this book hesitantly... ready to abandon it at any moment and flee for the hills if I didn't like where it was headed... yet, I kept reading... and kept reading, even though the lines to be crossed were often blurry and unclear. When I got to page 256, and an event occurs that changes Becky's life forever, I started sobbing. And I mean, SOBBING. NEVER... never have I had such an intense emotional reaction to a book. At that point, I realized how well SH had done her job. I was so invested in the characters of this book, that I felt like Becky's heartaches and triumphs were mine as well. The remaining 80 pages were read with Kleenex in hand as I laughed and cried through the story. At times, I was crying so hard that I couldn't read the words.

This book was incredibly thought provoking. It made me think about the value of friendships. My friendship with my husband, my friends, both male and female, and also with my kids. It made me wonder whether or not I could have a man as a BFF. It made me think about a lot of things, including motherhood. Since the book spans 11 years, there is ample time to watch Becky and her children grow up. Time to see how they all change and grow together. I finished this book 24 hours ago, but I still can't stop thinking about it. Another sign of a 5 star book.

So there's my review... go get the book. Get in the queue at the library now (it's a long line... to many Mormon housewives and not enough copies for this town!)

And trust me, DON'T read the last page first. No matter how much you are tempted. Just trust me. Now that I know and understand the ending, I want to read it again... but I am going to wait a bit. Another emotional breakdown which will likely happen again wouldn't be good for me twice in one week. (Just thinking about those scenes makes me get teary eyed... and it's fiction for crying out loud!)

And I'd love to hear the perspective from a non-mormon housewife. I'm curious to see how much the religion aspect of the book may have swayed my opinion. So, if you've read it, speak up... I'm dying to hear another opinion on the book, even if you hated it. I promise I won't bite!

Book Review...

I used to listen to Dr. Laura when living in the Bay Area on occasion. I will be honest. I didn't always like her. I usually agreed with her, but I guess her radio persona never really lured me in. Then a couple years ago, a trusted friend recommended her book "The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands". I told her that I wasn't a huge Dr. Laura fan, but she insisted that I read the book anyway. So I did. And I loved it. I had checked out a copy at the library, and was bummed because I couldn't highlight or mark important thoughts. On my next amazon order, I threw it in with the other stuff I was ordering. I'm glad I have that one.

I picked this audio book up on a whim... I uploaded it to my ipod, but didn't really know when I would be in the mood to actually listen to it. I'm not a huge lover of self-help books, so I have to be in the right mood to tackle one. Last week, I had a day home with a sick kid, which meant I could dedicate a lot of my time to cleaning. That's a cue to me to break out an audio-book. I decided to listen to this one. I figured if after the first disc I wasn't hooked, I'd move on and listen to something more fun. I finished the entire book that day. I laughed, I cried and I related a lot to what she had to say.

The thing I like about Dr. Laura's books is this: she doesn't spend 5 cd's preaching to you. Her book is mostly comprised of phone calls she's taken on certain topics, and letters/emails she has received in response to those particular phone calls. I found it fascinating, and inspiring, and motivating. This is one self-help book that I heartily recommend!

P.S. On a side note, the narrator is not the same girl, as far as I can tell, but she sounds JUST LIKE the girl who narrates the Twilight series. The voice similarity is uncanny. I was so sure it was her, that I looked up the two names online to see if they were twins, or if it was the same girl using two different names. I know, I'm weird!

Book Review...

I got a request to post a review of the Inkheart Series by Cornelia Funke. (Thanks Lexie for your confidence in my book opinions!)

They recently made Inkheart into a movie starring Brendan Fraser, which I haven't had a chance to see yet. I missed it through the movie theater and now I anxiously await it to come out on DVD, later this month. But, just from seeing the trailer it appears to be well done and well casted. I can easily spot some plot alterations just from the trailer, but I think they are good changes that will help push the story along, so I'm not going to nit pick them at this point. Of course, all this is based just on the 90 second trailer... but I have to say that Helen Mirren and Andy Serkis were brilliantly chosen for their roles. I have a hard time envisioning Brendan Fraser as Mo, just because that's not how I saw him from the beginning (I started the books before the movie was announced publicly). And Meggie was never blond in my mind. She was probably described as a blond way back in the beginning of the first book, but I just don't remember that detail. One thing that I could imaging bugging me about the movie is Brendan Fraser's voice. The books are very specific about Mo's voice and I don't see Brendan pulling that off. But, ironically enough, I later found out that the author always saw Brendan Fraser as Mo. So, once I've gotten my hands on the DVD, I'll let you know what I think.

Okay, back to the books! But first, one more detour. As you must know by now, I'm an audiobook junkie. I listened to all three books on audio. They were well done with one exception that really bugged me. The first and second book are read by the same person, but the third book is read by someone new. Once you get to know the character's "voices", it's hard to follow when someone else is suddenly doing the voice for that character totally different than how it had been done previously. I don't know why they didn't have the original reader do the third book, and possibly it was unavoidable to do it this way, but I was completely distracted during the first half of the third book by the inconsistencies in the character's voices. But, I will still recommend the audio because so much feeling and emotion is spoken through the voices that can't always be conveyed through the text.

Okay, on to the books. If you don't know what they are about, here's a quote from Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke:

"Taste every word, Meggie, whispered Mo's voice inside her, savor it on your tongue. Do you taste the colors? Do you taste the wind and the night? The fear and the joy? And the love. Taste them, Meggie, and everything will come to life." (Inkheart)

It's really hard to describe each book separately. Inkheart can stand alone in it's own story, but Inkspell and Inkdeath are basically one continuous story. I really liked the books. Inkheart was my favorite by far. I decided to cut and paste summaries from this website instead of writing my own... I tried to write my own and they were just lame.

"Imagine it were possible to bring the characters from a book to life. Not like when someone reads a book with such enchantment that the characters seem to jump off the pages and into your bedroom...but for real. Imagine they could actually climb out of the pages and into our world.
Now imagine if those characters brought their world into ours.
One cruel night, young Meggie's father, Mo, reads aloud from Inkheart and an evil ruler named Capricorn escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she has only read about in books.
Somehow, Meggie and Mo must learn to harness the magic that conjured this nightmare. Somehow they must change the course of the story that has changed their lives forever.
This is Inkheart, a timeless tale about books, about imagination, about life."

"Although a year has passed, not a day goes by without Meggie thinking of INKHEART, the book whose characters became real. But for Dustfinger, the fire-eater brought into being from words, the need to return to the tale has become desperate. When he finds a crooked storyteller with the ability to read him back, Dustfinger leaves behind his young apprentice Farid and plunges into the medieval world of his past. Distraught, Farid goes in search of Meggie, and before long, both are caught inside the book, too. But the story is threatening to evolve in ways neither of them could ever have imagined."

I loved it when we finally got to travel to the Inkworld that we'd been teased with so much in Inkheart. The inkworld was so well described that you really started to think it's a real place. My biggest complaint about Inkspell is that it's clearly the "filler" book. Not meant to be read independently of the others. Another difficult thing to manage is keeping track of all the characters. In one online review I read, they counted 114 characters over the 3 books that are mentioned and developed (some more than others, of course.)

"The Adderhead--his immortality bound in a book by Meggie's father, Mo--has ordered his henchmen to plunder the villages. The peasants' only defense is a band of outlaws led by the Bluejay--Mo's fictitious double, whose identity he has reluctantly adopted. But the Book of Immortality is unraveling, and the Adderhead again fears the White Women of Death. To bring the renegade Bluejay back to repair the book, the Adderhead kidnaps all the children in the kingdom, dooming them to slavery in his silver mines unless Mo surrends. First Dustfinger, now Mo: Can anyone save this cursed story?"

There are numerous subplots to follow and lots of characters to keep track of, but a good read, none the less. My most favorite chapter of the whole book was the last one. It was somewhat similar to HP#7's epilogue where we find out what is happening with Harry and company many years after Voldemort was defeated, but it was better. I absolutely LOVE how the Inkdeath epilogue is written and it left me teary and happy and completely satisfied.

If I were to give the books a grade, I would give the following:

Inkheart: A

Inkspell: B

Inkdeath: B- (with the epilogue getting an A+)

Overall, the books were very creative, imaginative and worth reading. As one online reviewer said, "don't even think about reading them out of order." I would definitely recommend them, especially to teens who need a good series to keep them busy over the summer and anyone who loves a good fantasy YA story.

Book Recommendation

Okay, after I drugged up on Excedrin last night, I was wide awake, feeling pretty good and got sucked into this book:

I stayed up till after 1 a.m. reading and then picked it up and read in bed this morning until it was finished. I couldn't put it down for more than a minute...

I've been on the waiting list at the library for quite a while for this one. I knew nothing about it, only that at least 3 of my friends who are avid readers highly recommended... three friends who do not even know each other! Back in January, I sent an email out to my book lovin' friends asking for book suggestions for our Book Club and I got many duplicate suggestions, this being one of them. I got onto my library webpage and starting putting various books on hold. I was 12th in line for this book, so I knew it must be good! When we met for our Book Club planning session, I didn't recommend this one, because I still hadn't even gotten a copy of it, or had a chance to look it over, but I will definately recommend it now!

Here's a brief synopsis of the book:

January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she's never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb.
As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. Born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.
Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society's members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.
Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

I just found out there's an audio version of the book, and being the audio book junkie that I am, I will have to track down a copy so I can listen to it. Nothing brings a book to life like this one better than a reading by a cast of readers, so that each letter has it's own voice. I'm not a big fan of books that retell stories about Nazi Germany (I find them so depressing and difficult to deal with), but I loved this book. I laughed, I cried... tears of sadness, and tears of joy. And more than once, I laughed and cried all at the same time! I love the format of the book... written expressly through the form of letters from one character to the next. It's sad to think we've lost the art of a well thought out, hand written letter.

Run, don't walk... to your local library to get this book... and if you have to get on the waiting list, just bag it and run to your local bookstore to buy this book. You won't regret it! I only wish the book had included the recipe for a "potato peel pie"!

Book Review - Breaking Dawn

Okay, so it's been over a week since this book was released. It should be safe for me to blog about it now! So, beware... this post contains spoilers!!!

Let's start at the beginning... with Twilight. I was so skeptical about this book. Annalise highly recommended it and I almost always enjoy the same books that she does. (Sorry Annalise, Wild Swans was the exception....) But I waited a while to actually read it. I just couldn't wrap my head around the premise that a teenage girl could fall in love with a teenage boy vampire and it could work out. It just made no sense at all! So, expectations were low... and I think that matters. I loved the book and it continues to be my favorite in the series, but I think I loved it so much because I had low expectations.

New Moon was next. It was a hard read the first time through because Edward is so absent through most of the book. Once you get through it and find out that Edward and Bella get reunited in the end, then it's very enjoyable to go back and re-read it, getting completely involved in the world of the Quilutes and the Wolves. Absolutely fascinating and so well thought out and written. So.... plausible.

Eclipse was third. I loved how much Bella seemed to mature in this book... okay, well maybe she doesn't mature much until the very end, but she really grows up finally. A lot of my friends were so irritated by Bella's "immaturity and irrational" behavior, but I was never bothered by it. Who hasn't been an insecure teenage girl... and she has the boyfriend that just seems too good to be true.... of course she's insecure.... I think Bella is very human, and that's not such a bad thing. I loved the teamwork of the wolves and vampires in the end for the greater good. I loved the compromise. I'm glad Bella finally was able to make a firm choice on who she was going to be with forever. I'm glad she decided to go about tying up her loose ends in a mature way, even though it wasn't necessarily what she wanted.

So, Breaking Dawn opened just days before the "wedding". I love the car Edward gets her when the truck breaks down, but I would have loved to see her drive that rusty old truck a bit longer. I actually got attached to it over the course of the books! (It would have been fun to see what she thought about driving it after she was changed). So Bella survives the wedding without tripping once and Edward takes her to a private island in South America for their honeymoon. This is where the plot took a huge turn I didn't expect... who knew vampires could be so fertile! I was completely shocked that Bella could get pregnant, but in the end, I was so happy with how that worked out. Bella and Edward were able to have a baby (something that Bella had decided to give up in order to be with Edward) and the birth was the catalyst to make sure Bella was changed into a vampire. I'll admit I was leary of having to read through Bella's "newborn" phase, but Bella went through with flying colors. I'm still not sure if this was a "gift" of hers or if it was purely due to her mental preparation. Either way, that was a pleasant suprise. Of course, the showdown with the Volturi was inevitable and I loved how that brought in so many other vampires to get to know. And I loved Bella's "gift/ability". I loved the fact that she was able to finally protect the people that mattered most to her and be a critical part in fighting the battles with their enemies. I especially loved how Bella figured out how to share her memories with Edward. That was a very touching moment and a perfect way to end the book. A lot of people (online reviews) seemed to be bothered that Jacob "imprinted" on Bella's daughter, but it didn't bother me. It was a wonderful way to make Bella's and Jacob's relationship work. Jacob deserves to be happy, and if Bella had chosen him, he could have broken her heart by unwillingly imprinting on someone else down the road. The only thing that puzzles me is... 7 years down the road, and Jacob and Renesmee are able to be together "romantically", what kind of kids will they have? quarter vampire, quarter human, half indian- werewolf? Maybe it will never turn into a "romance" thing... since this is the first time something like this has ever happened... My only real complaint about the book is the name Renesmee. It's hard to say, and I totally agreed with Bella about hating the nickname "Nessie"... but I know from experience, once a nickname gets started, it's hard to stop it!

So, those are my thoughts... I'm anxious to go back and give it a second read, but we're having lots of company next week, so it will have to wait a bit.

I was really shocked to read reviews on Amazon. After 1500 reviews, the book still only averaged 3 stars. It seemed that about 500 gave it 5 stars and 500 gave it one star. It appears you either loved it or hated it. (I read some pretty negative reviews!) What was your favorite part??? Did you love it or hate it?