Another Religious Adventure

The Book of Names

Jill Gregory & Karen Tintori

Fiction/Thriller

To Buy Amazon - Barnes & Noble

Here's another review for Audiobook Week (an occasion I didn't know about this until I stumbled upon a twitter hashtag on Tuesday). The book is seven discs, (8 hours), and is narrated by Christopher Graybill.

It took me awhile to warm up to Graybill's reading, as it is with nearly every audiobook I listen to. Generally my first thought on track one is something like 'this guy/gal sounds so weird, how did he/she get this job?!' but about five minutes in everything is fine, and the voice simply becomes part of the story (except in one or two very bad cases). It catches my interest when an audiobook includes some kind of audio detail that you don't always hear, and in The Book of Names, it was sort of an echo microphone effect used when characters were either thinking to themselves or conversing through a telephone. It was a little odd sounding, but it was very effective within the story. The book is broken down into very small 'chapters', usually jumping points of view as the action sets up, typical thriller set up. I've seen some audio books that use multiple narrators to cover the voices, but that wasn't the case here. Graybill used variants of his vocal range and regional accents to cover the entire character spectrum. Some of the voices seemed a little exaggerated, but there was an international cast of characters, so it worked pretty well.

It is said that there are 36 souls in each generation that are capable of complete spiritual enlightenment. If any of them die prematurely, leaving less than 36 righteous souls at any time, the world becomes more chaotic. If all of them should die, the world as we know it, comes to an end. These names were recorded by Adam from the word of God, and were passed down until eventually the Book of Names was lost in time...

I liked the story - the fast pace and interesting historical questions made the time pass quickly while I listened at work. I have a love of old cultures and traditions, so many of the subjects discussed in the book intrigued me: Kabbalah, Tarot, Zodiac, biblical references, the Tree of Life, and of course, any secret societies (there is a bit of a conspiracy theorist in me)! I have little to no knowledge about Judaism, so a lot of the content was new to me, and I'm not completely certain what was fact and what was fiction, but it doesn't detract from the story.

The plot was very DaVinci Code esque:

In the DaVinci Code, Robert Langdon, a world-renowned symbologist (a person who studies symbolism throughout time and cultures), who teaches class at Harvard University, is sought out to help solve the murder of the Louvre curator. After analyzing the body and teaming up with a police cryptographer, Langdon begins an incredible journey of puzzles, history, and alternate biblical conspiracies.

In The Book of Names, David Shepard falls off a roof when he is young, and has a near death experience. Ever since that time, names fill his mind, names he's never heard, people he's never met - and he records them in a journal. We find out that these names are the same names in the fragments recovered from Adam's Book of Names. Unfortunately, a dark, evil, secret society, the Gnosios (I think, I only listed remember? The word derives from Gnostic) also finds out that David knows these names; names they have been desperately trying to recover for generations in order to destroy the world as we know it, to have it born anew.

The plots are fairly similar, but one thing really jumped at me. In DaVinci Code, Langdon is the teacher. He goes through his adventures with a knowing and calculating mind, and all the tools he needs as his adventure progresses. Shepard, on the other hand, knew nothing of any religious affiliations or even anything strange - for all he knew, the names were just a slightly strange side effect from a nearly fatal accident when he was a kid. I mean, his degree was in political science (his dad was a senator), and neither of those facts came in handy for him, except for one character he met through his father. I'm not sure which is more annoyingly convenient; having a character that 'happens' to know everything he needs to survive, or a character that depends on the people he 'happens' to meet along the way - I think the latter, because how could he have known who to trust? If he had let the wrong sort of person know about his gift, the story could have concluded with the end of the world.

As it was, David Shepard happened to hear one of the names on the news one day as he was writing it down - the woman had been murdered. Once the initial shock passed, he began searching for the other names, finding many of them also deceased. Unsure of what to do next, he asks his best friend and colleague, a professor of religion, who refers him to a Rabbi, and the adventure goes from there. Before he sees the Rabbi, however, he received a call from his step-daughter, whose mother had just remarried. The new husband adopted the daughter, changing her name to something very familiar to David...one of the names on his List...the list of people who mysteriously end up dead.

A Humorous Bite of Life

Bossypants

Tina Fey

Memoir/Humor

To Buy Amazon - Barnes & Noble

I am a huge fan of memoirs. I’ve read only a handful at this point, but I’ve enjoyed them all quite thoroughly (small insight into my life? I have never been able to spell ‘thoroughly’ without spell check – I know, really Emma??). I found Bossypants as an audiobook in my local library, and listened to it while diligently working, as I do.

I found Bossypants much more well-rounded than I expected. I’m not sure why I’m always surprised by the validity of books with cheesy/humorous titles, besides the same reasons other people have for the same thought. I was aware of how popular the book was, which is usually a turn off for me, but by now the hype has died down about it, and it was sitting there so politely on the library shelf on display. The rest, my bookish followers, is history.

The Bossypants audiobook is, as the best ones are, narrated by the author. The book is about 5 ½ hours on 5 discs and includes a PDF file for embarrassing/milestone photographs. One of the best things about this audiobook, that differs from other audiobooks that I’ve read so far, is that Fey recognized her readers as ‘listeners’ and changed some things to be more suited to her audience. Brilliant. She often related that there was a corresponding picture to the anecdote currently being discussed to be found in the PDF, and the original SNL skits are actually played for us to hear in the chapter about Tina’s ‘Sarah Palin days’.

I was surprised at how much I liked Tina Fey. I’d heard of her before, I knew enough about her to know she was on Saturday Night Live (which I’ve only seen skits of on youtube), and to recognize her by sight (she was in Mean Girls, for instance, but did you know she wrote the screenplay too?), but beyond that...clueless. When writing about her life, she made the awkward and light-hearted things laugh out loud funny, but kept the serious things serious, which brought the well-rounded feeling overall. She wrote a lot about growing up and becoming a woman, into her improve days, and how all that has helped her in her life today. The part I enjoyed the most were the bits about her daughter and parenthood (both the funny and serious parts), and I loved how honest she was throughout (no problem spelling that one, by the way!). The book was closed (I don’t consider this a spoiler because it is a memoir after all, and she is a celebrity) by her internal debate on whether or not to have another baby, and how at the end of the day, it was her decision, no matter how many things hung in the balance (possibly the difference between sanity and the alternative).

The only thing I wasn’t so sure about is the title. The book led up to her show, 30 Rock, of which I guess she is ‘The Boss’, but she didn’t necessarily write about being the boss. She did talk about the inner-workings of the TV show a bit, and how she is involved in the many aspects of it….I guess when I think of ‘Boss’, it’s the managing people part of it that I think of. I didn’t really get much of that from the book here, which is not necessarily a bad thing, just something I noticed. And 30 Rock is after all, only a small piece in the book that is Tina Fey’s life.

I would highly recommend this book to everyone, in every walk of life – after all, who doesn’t need a good laugh? This book was energetic and refreshing and a joy to read. I’m seriously considering purchasing (the audiobook version) for myself to keep listening to forever, but the price is not quite right for this point in my life ($20!). [This is the reason all the audiobooks I review come from the library!] My alternative is the paperback version. But if you can get your hands on the audiobook version, I’m telling you, you won’t be sorry!

Excuse me, everyone, while I go look up how much “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me” by Mindy Kaling is on NookBook!

Library Love Flashback

This, quite obviously, is not my typical book review - more of a bookish rambling inspired by my trip to the library today. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, there is a library branch located just across the street from my work building. Since I just got my license a month ago (and still don't have a car, so my boyfriend carts me around), I've spent a lot of time there in limbo between my work and my ride.

I got my first library card when I was five years old. That is the earliest you can get one in my neck of the woods. My mother was good like that :-) I remember being so excited that I could finally check out books with my own name. Also, how about a shout out for libraries around the nation that have amazing sections for kids, which don't only have amazing books at every reading level, but adventurous and comfy places to curl up and read them. Some of my fondest memories of the library are from back in those days. 

Anyway, I've always loved to read, and all of my books came from the library when I was growing up. I don't think it actually occurred to me, other than when the book wagon came to school, that you could buy the same books they had at the library. Not to say we didn't have books at home, I remember we got The Berenstain Bears books by mail twice a month. I just don't remember ever in my life thinking 'Hey, that was a really good book, I want to buy it and put it on a shelf'. I guess I just always figured that any particular book would go back to the library shelf and wait for me until I was ready to read it again.

I don't remember many of the books I read from the children's section way back when, but I actually remember the day I graduated to the young adult section. I think it had been quite some time since our last trip to the library, I might have been 10 or 11. The branch we were in had the kids section entrance on one side once you walk in the door, and the adult section on the other side. Well, I must have been feeling a little old for the kid section, so I went with my mom to the adult section. I can't remember if she suggested it, or I found it on my own, but there was a separate room in the back of the adult section for young adult books. It was perfect. There were several shelves, and it felt isolated, like my own secret library. I think at that time I was still a little young for some of the themes in those books, and I can't remember any of them very clearly. 

Jump forward and I'm about 15. A new library had been built not far from where I was going to school, and I went there frequently. The young adult shelves there hold the books that I start to remember reading. These books I fell in love with. I remember standing there looking at the shelves, usually in the A-G section and just looking over the titles over and over. I remember being diplomatic about some of my book choices. Sometimes I would pick a book by an author there was only one book by. Sometimes I would pick a book by the most interesting or colorful cover. Sometimes I would pick by the merit of the title. Sometimes I would deliberately leave my comfort zone of shelves A-G and pick a book from the other shelves H-Z...though for some reason I never liked doing this (even though I found some good books there too). A few titles I can remember, but I never learned the authors. Armageddon Summer, Someone Like You, Stargirl, East. Mostly I remember the content. Sometimes it haunts me that I will probably never know what book some of these ideas in my head came from. So many of them changed the way I read and look at the world. 

I remember for a short phase I would go to the D section in every young adult section of every library I went in and picture where my future books would fit in with all those others (it has always been a distant dream of mine to be among the library titles). Usually it was near the bottom or way up high, or in between unattractive books. I think that was the driving force behind my strange book picking habits. What about those authors, I would think, they worked just as hard and as long on their books, and most people don't even look that high, or that low. I made a point to be the person who did. 

That feeling, the feeling of perusing the shelves, knowing the perfect book is out there if you just look for the right thing, that's what I had again this afternoon. Most other days I go and plop into a chair to read the book I brought with me. It's been a long time since I just wandered the shelves looking through everything, considering titles, authors, covers, and plot summaries. It seems like lately I don't read a book unless I've seen a high rating of it somewhere, or someone else I know is reading it. It's easy to forget while clicking from one link to the next on the internet that it's the books in between, the ones hiding between the hits on the shelves, that can be the most valuable treasures. 

Hopefully this idea sticks with you, and on your next trip to the library you will take a second look at some of the books you've never considered before. Chances are, you'll find some really good stuff hidden in plain sight. 

Happy Reading Everyone.

These pictures are not of my local libraries, but random libraries scattered throughout the internet ;-)

These Ancient Greeks Are Just Like Us!

Lysistrata

Aristophanes

Unknown Translator

To Buy Amazon - Barnes & Noble

Well this is a first for me - I have never reviewed a play before on this blog, in fact, I haven't really read any plays before (save for one or two in high school). But after watching my friend Dean's video book review on it, I decided it may be worth a go. It took only an evening for me to read it on my Kindle (94 pages) and this morning I watched it in play form on youtube (which I highly recommend after reading). 

I downloaded the free version from the Kindle store, which was 'converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers.' (from the book description), but unfortunately I was unable to find which translation it was taken from. The version I read had a list of characters in the front of the book, but was not separated into acts and scenes as a standard play would be. I think it was especially helpful after reading this play to watch it being performed, as many of the parts were declared simply 'women', 'men', 'Spartans', 'old men', and 'Athenians'. One other critique of this version is the over the top lyrical lines. This was obviously not written in English, so even though it was poetic in Ancient Greek, I would rather have more exact translations to really get the meaning behind the lines. If I ever end up purchasing this play for my library, I will hunt around for a better translation.

Anyway,

Lysistrata is an example of a timeless piece of work, been written and performed before the time of Christ, it still resonates with us today. It is a Classical Greek Comedy, set during the Peloponnesian War (civil war between Athens and Sparta which lasted from 431 BC to 404 - 27 years). At the start of the play, the women had been suffering the absence of their husbands for years. One woman, Lysistrata, thinks she knows a way to end the war, and calls a meeting at the Acropolis to discuss her tactics. 

Lysistrata is hesitant at first to reveal her strategy to end the war, as it would prove a difficult trial for both the women and their husbands. Her plan is to lock themselves into the Acropolis to ensure the celibacy of the women, wives of soldiers and powerful men. Hilarity ensues as the play unfolds - some women try to sneak out of the meeting, making up ridiculous excuses, to which Lysistrata is not fooled. As time passes in the play the men becoming increasingly sex starved (not to mention the women), are all walking around with massive erections by the end of the play, begging for a resolution. 

Many critics have dismissed this play because of it's phallic nature, but you can't deny the themes we can still sympathize with today. I don't know of how many jokes I've heard on movies and television of women trying to manipulate men in the same ways described in this play. Thought the concept of this play is humorous on the surface, Lysistrata's motivations were pure. She and her comrades were quickly aging while their husbands were away, dwindling down their child bearing years, for what? In one line, Lysistrata is arguing with the magistrate about the issue. She offers that while the men also age, coming back with heads of grey hair, they are still able to take a young ripe wife if he so chooses, while women only have so many fertile years to bear before 'shriveling' up. 

It is for these timeless themes that I believe Lysistrata has endured the centuries, and will continute to resonate with readers for many to come. Before Dean's review video popped up on my youtube feed, I had never heard of this play, so thanks Dean! I look forward to reading and reviewing many more plays, and also some more ancient greek stuff, which I always enjoy :-)

If you'd like an extremely quick and hilarious summary of this story, click here!

Happy Reading Everyone!

Reread: Merchant Princes

The Merchant Prince Series

Charles Stross

Science Fiction/Series

To Buy (Book One) Amazon - Barnes & Noble

I hate to continue writing posts few and far between, about books that really aren't that great.....but I just finished the first two books in The Merchant Prince Series by Charles Stross, and I'm just jumping back into a reading-all-the-time phase (so look for some more reviews coming up soon).

This is the second time I have started this series: once about five years ago (on a recommendation from my mother, who was recommended by a friend), and I got through book three, The Clan Corporate; and started them again last week, reading through books one and two, The Family Trade and The Hidden Family, respectively. 

The books have an interesting premise - a family who is genetically exclusive to a world walking ability that our main character happens to stumble upon early in the first book: The Family Trade. I admit, the first book captivated me, but finished with too many loose ends (as they do when it's part of a series eh?). The second book, however, tied up nearly every plot point that interested me from book one, so I feel no real desire to continue reading (in fact, I don't even remember what the third book is about from my first reading...everything I remembered about the books was from books one and two). 

The story starts in crisis, as many thrillers do, where Miriam Beckstein stumbles onto a corporate money laundering mess that gets her fired and on the run. Her mother then chooses this critical moment to pass down relics from her 'real' mother (Miriam was adopted), including a strange locket that she will soon find out is a passport to another world. What she doesn't know, is that there is a sophisticated mob of her own blood family members in that world, who end up kidnapping her and introducing her to the family. 

Miriam realizes that this new world is medieval in much of the politics and technologies, and she hopes to wean her aggressive family members off the drug circuit in her world, and onto pursuits of making a profit from advancing the new world into modern civilization. I assume this is what the rest of the six book series is about (book two adds many juicy details a plot twists, adding a convenient intermediate third world), though the writing didn't urge me to keep reading. 

To me, the story started to get dry with the backdrop of Miriam having to convince her drug cartel family members to drop the drug trade and invest in something more worthwhile. Though the conversation was varied, it seemed like getting their approval was all  Miriam thought about and talked about with all of the characters. She is a very driven person, and always seemed to know exactly what to do - this means either she was much more clear headed and logically thinking that I am, or that this woman was created in the mind of a man. Also, the politics and genetics of the family was explained to death, which I mostly skipped over...as a reader, all I cared about was which characters were able to world walk and which weren't, not particularly why. 

Basically, these are good books if you are looking for something to entertain you and make your mind work around inter-galactic phenomena. We all, at some point, hope to find a good long series of books we can really latch onto, because lets face it, it can be very difficult to find a good book these days. This series may be that for you, it just wasn't for me. Then again, as I said - I read them once and they were always in the back of my mind, had to read them again to scratch the itch of half-memories. 

Have any of you read this series? Am I missing much by stopping at two? Please let me know!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day

Hello Everyone,

I am an Irish girl - well I'm an American who is mostly Irish in ancestry, a fact I was quite proud of growing up, and I'm not even sure why. 

Now, I don't know about you guys, but I never knew why Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated, so I decided to look it up today. Lucky you guys, I did the research for us all! 

St. Patrick's Day has been celebrated for more than 1,000 years, and marks the anniversary of St. Patrick (March 17th, 461), the national apostle of Ireland. He is credited to bringing Christianity to Ireland. Legend has it he explained the Holy Trinity using the three leaves of a shamrock. Traditionally in Ireland, pubs were closed on March 17th, as it was a religious holiday, but in 1995 the government realized they could use the holiday as a tourism campaign - now over one million people gather in Dublin to partake in St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Dublin (the Mardi-Gras of Ireland!). Although it is an Irish holiday, it is celebrated in many countries including the United States (home of the biggest St. Patrick's Day Parades), Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, and Russia. 

In honor of the day, here are a few Limerick Poems :-)


A flea and a fly in a flue
We're imprisoned, so what could they do?
Said the fly, "Let us flee!"
"Let us fly!" said the flea
So they flew through a flaw in the flue


There once was a boy named Kyle,
who passed out in a pile,
"Shit" he said,
as the pigs were fed,
I must of been out for a while.


There was an old man with a beard
Who sad, 'tis just as I feared!
Four larks and wren,
Two owls and a hen,
Have all built their nests in my beard!'


My dad said there was once a lady
Who lived to one hundred and eighty
She only ate flies
Which she baked into pies
But I think this story's a bit shady


Einstein was exceedingly bright
And exceeded the speed limit of light
He set out one day in a relative way
And returned on the previous night

Now go out and drink some festive green beer tonight, there's time to read tomorrow! 

(All limerick poems from limerickpoems.org)

It's Been Awhile - New Book Review!!

It has been so long since my last post that I literally had to look at previous posts to get the format right.

So without further ado...

Swell

Corwin Ericson

Maritime/Island Fiction

To Buy Amazon - Barnes & Noble

For some reason, I have an absolute inexplicable attraction to books about the sea. Let me explain why this just may be the strangest thing about me. 

I live in Colorado. My family moved here when I was very young, and I cannot remember anything in my life before this place. I've been to the ocean twice (maybe three times, I can't really remember), and every time I went, I didn't enjoy it much. I hate seafood and sushi and the smell of fish. Yet, I am always intrigued by a story pertaining to a sea faring adventure - a voyage. It is this draw that made me pick up Swell.

The book was interesting. It wasn't the best story - in fact, parts of it were quite strange. The story revolves around one man, Orange Whippey, who lives on an island off the east coast called Bismuth. Basically the guy is a bum. He has no real job or real friends, everyone on the island is familiar because they've all known each other forever. He gets caught in a strange series of events involving a package/drug deal (sea gum is the drug...some kind of mouth numbing chew). Anyway, it's basically one unlikely thing after the next tangled in a web of almost over-defined characters, or at least overly-quirky.

Despite the large whale on the awesome cover of this novel, there is really only one whale in the story, and it is in the last fifth of the book. What it boils down to, is the perspective of two neighboring cultures (not Bismuths, but these other two people, and I still don't really know why they were on the island...) and their treatment of whales. The arguments are overly dialogued and stretch for pages at a time, but were the most interesting part for me. I'm an anthropology-loving kind of person, so even fictional peoples are interesting to me. One of the cultures breeds and herds whales in relative captivity, killing them for supply/food selectively through their breeding process. The other hunts whales in the wild, killing the strongest, oldest males - yet both cultures hold the whale in high revere. There is a lot of information packed into the character arguments, which can make it a little 'boring' to read, for want of a better word.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - mostly because it fulfilled my maritime fascination, and I would recommend it to someone who enjoys similar themes. At times the writing did seem unskilled, but overall, and for a first novel, it really wasn't bad. I'd originally checked it out from the library, but I bought it on Amazon halfway through reading. I plan on expanding my maritime literature collection, and I consider this a good start :-)


Until Next Time....
Happy Reading Everyone...

A Wicked Children's Book

Plain Kate

Erin Bow

Young Adult Fantasy

To Buy Amazon - Barnes & Noble

As you can tell by my recent lack of posting, the time I've allotted in my life for reading hasn't really been up to snuff lately, not that I sit back and allot time for things in my life, but you get what I mean (hopefully). My plan has been to remedy that with audio books listened to while working (don't worry guys, I'm a hard worker and even better multi-tasker, my work performance is in no way affected by whatever I listen to during the day...thought I'd throw that disclaimer out there). This resolution has led to several recent trips to the library, which is convieniently located just across the street from my work building...

I read (listened to --) this book by accident. As it happens, they do not have 'adult fiction' and 'young adult fiction' sections of audio books at my library, which is where I was when I noticed this book - in audio format - obviously. I had already picked two other books, and was tentatively browsing for a possible third when I saw the colorful, interesting cover of this one. I read about half a sentence of the synopsis on the back - "Plain Kate lives in a world of superstitions and curses, where a song can heal a wound and a shadow can work deep magic." - and added it to my pile of auditory literature. For no reason in particular, I chose this of the three to listen to first. (WHY do I always have to explain the entire story of how I came to read something? How lame am I for doing this??)

 So about the book - I had somewhat of a hunch this was a young adult fiction book before I started it, but was hoping it wasn't. It's not that I have anything against YA, but I've grown up and out of that stage, though I enjoyed reading the angst-y dramatic soul searching morals of that genre up until a few years ago (and still enjoy a really good one every once in awhile if the writing is good enough to compel me). 30 seconds into this book and I pressed pause to re-evaluate my choice. 

First, let me distinguish a distinct difference between actually reading a book and listening to one. You cannot see the pages of an audio book. You have the freedom to look at whatever you choose while you listen, which can cause much more distraction if you are not careful, but I think there is just something fundamentally different between reading to yourself mentally and being read to. (This subject may lead to it's own blog post soon.) Recalling specific details is more difficult. When I think back on a certain passage, it, for whatever reason, helps me to picture the words on the page, which I can't do if I've never seen the page. It is one of those things you don't notice until it isn't there, like the noise of your fish tank running at night, or the noise of anything electronic, really. Read any poetry and you'll know, things don't sound quite the same in your mind as they do read aloud. Keep this in mind if you are considering an audio book.

The justification for that brief divergence of topic - this book sounds a little kiddie. The sentences were short, and simple language was used. This would be okay if the subject matter were a little bit less, uh, frigging horrific. I kept thinking to myself during the book - this author needs to pick her audience a little better, the writing is geared toward younger readers, around ten I would say (from how it sounded, I didn't actually see the words, which is probably enormously helpful when making an assessment such as this, but take it however you will), but the subject matter of human cruelty, starvation, being orphaned, loneliness, death, trickery, references to blood everywhere (needed to work powerful magic spells), and witch burning - I thought was not fit for such young people. 

The story is about a young girl who loves her father. He teaches her carpentry with which she later supports herself (to a point). Her father dies in a plague people say is caused by witches, which in turn causes people across the country to persecute and burn persons suspected of witchcraft. Kate is orphaned and forced to leave her home and sleep in a drawer. She finds some cats, and miraculously she survives four years without starving. Townsfolk start gossiping that she may be a witch and she is forced to leave. A real witch barters her shadow for her secret wish, which is to have someone to talk to, and all of the sudden her cat can talk. The rest of the book is spent with Kate trying to get her shadow back, and I guess there is something of a mystery involving the witch who took her shadow (and nearly every other character Kate conveniently meets on her journey). Also, this book was set in a Scandinavian-esque country - but there weren't many ways you could tell throughout the writing, though at the same time it was made blatantly obvious. For example - Plain Kate's last name is Svetlana (full first name is Katerina). The country's name is Samilae (had to look up this proper spelling since I'd only heard it sim-a-lay). 

So many reviews I just browsed over on goodreads.com gush about how they cannot believe this is Erin Bow's first novel, while to me, it screamed inexperienced from the first track. I know most of you who read this blog wouldn't be interested in YA, but if by happenstance someone who is looking for good YA to read and has ended up here, this is for you: I would not recommend this book. There are so many other good books out there it's ridiculous. If you happen to love books about magic and hardship and cheesy mysteries, go ahead and try Plain Kate, it seems plenty of other people have enjoyed it (the average rating on goodreads.com is 3.83, which is somewhat high -- I gave it a 2 -- seriously, it baffles me how many people loved it). Here is a list of YA books to consider instead of this one: 
Ender's Game - Orsen Scott Card
This Lullaby - Sarah Dessen
The Giver - Lois Lowry
The Hunger Games series - Suzanne Collins
His Dark Materials series - Philip Pullman
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Ann Brashares
HARRY POTTER series - Jo Rowling
Hatchet - Gary Paulsen.


Hope to have new reviews up soon. Thanks for reading!

Update, and What I'm Reading

It seems a lot has been going on lately. I haven't blogged as much as usual lately, and I feel bad about it!

I've been hoping for early snow this year, as I've been more excited for the fall/winter seasons this year. Last week, my wish was granted. After weather in the 70s all week, temperatures plummeted Tuesday night, and it snowed 14 inches by Wednesday mid-morning. The next day it was 50 and then back up to 70s again, until this last Tuesday night the exact same thing happened, except not as heavy and destructive. Welcome to Colorado! Generally when we have a forecast of 3-6 inches of snow, we are lucky to get enough to cover the grass and sticks around past the afternoon. This time, we got double or three times more than expected. It was wet and heavy with incredible packing power (perfect for making forts and snowball ammo for kid snow days), but unfortunately the trees and power lines couldn't handle this massive dumping of powder from above. A third of the town was without power for more than a day (some places up to three days), and our phone line was cut. We (and about everyone else in town) lost huge branches and entire trees, because they hadn't yet lost their leaves, and the weight was just too much. The second snow didn't do much damage, but a few more branches fell. All the havoc out there happened, but it was covered in a beautiful blanket of snow :-)

Also, I was sick. It had been coming on a few days before the first snow, but I thought it would pass. Instead, about 11:30 on snow day central, I went back to bed and could not muster the energy to do anything until after 7, when my fever finally broke. I didn't even want to get up to look for medicine, so when my boyfriend got home to take care of me, he scrounged around for some. All we had is some Dayquil that expired in 2003. EIGHT YEARS AGO. I think it's time to go shopping, yikes!

We also had a busy weekend that week. Bar Friday, hockey game Saturday (GO EAGLES), and a movie on Sunday night. Which film, you ask? The Three Musketeers.

A brief history:

Once upon a time a movie came out about a book. It had a man who'd played Jesus in it (Jim Cavezel, if anyone was curious), and The Time Machine Guy (Guy Pearce), so a girl's mother bought it and took it home. The movie was The Count of Monte Cristo, and though neither of them knew it was based on a book at the time, they both loved it. Fast forward several years. The girl grows up and becomes a book blogger/enthusiest, and finds out a bit about Alexandre Dumas. Although she has wanted to read his work, she has been intimidated by the size and length of his books. The Count of Monte Cristo was always at the top of her list, with the Musketeers a scant second. Though she found an adorable edition one day she couldn't pass up. Then, she saw the movie.

All in all, I liked the film. Seemed much more steampunk that it probably should have been, and it was a typical modern action movie (think Sherlock Holmes esque). But I didn't believe the movie had the story right AT ALL. I mean, it's called the THREE Musketeers for a reason, right? This conundrum running through my mind-the sabotage (I thought) of a great story, motivated me to finally pick it up.

So far I'm about 200 pages in, but I realized as soon as I picked it up that I was wrong.

I LOVE this book. I'm telling you guys, I didn't expect to. Nothing about the story or description or times ever really interested me. So I'm glad I saw the movie - otherwise I don't' think I'd have caught on quite as fast (which is grounds to quit reading early on for me, in big books such as these). Also, I'd have NEVER pronounced D'Artagnan correctly, I took Spanish, not a lick of French.

One drawback, I know NOTHING of French history. I will try to read a bit of that on the side, but I plan on doing more than one post on this book, since it will take me awhile to read (it's only a few pages less than a thousand). I think finishing a book of this length (which I can't actually remember ever doing), will boost my confidence to tackle more larger books. Believe me, I have enough door-stops on my shelves to fuel my reading for probably two years (if that is all I read...and even then, maybe up to five years! I have a lot of books!).

Hope you guys will bear with me while I digest this one, and maybe next time read a big 'un with me :-)

Hope you are all well, keep reading, and I'll see ya next time :-)

R.I.P. Challenge Wrap-Up

October has faded, and we're now into another November, which means the R.I.P. Challenge has come to an end.

This was my first year participating, and I kind of took a loose approach to it. I did read several books that fit into the challenge's parameters:

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

My Review

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (audio)

My Review

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (audio)

My Review

The Gunslinger by Stephen King (Dark Tower I)

My Review

The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King(Dark Tower II)

My Review

As I've posted before, I think reading books set in the same season/mood as you're in can not only enhance the story for you, but also emphasize your surroundings - which is why I absolutely wanted to include myself in a challenge based on that same principal. I had fun, and really enjoyed the books I read in the last two months. I look forward to participating again next year :-)