January

Well, January is coming to a close, and I’ve gone through seven books this month. Not too shabby. Anyhow, hear is a brief rundown, after time has passed on some (as I post the initial blogs near moments after putting the book down). In order of personal preference.

The Other Boleyn Girl – by Phillippa Gregory. I tore through this book, eagerly devouring each new page and allowing each new plot twist to thoroughly effect me. I literally could not put this book down, and only an extreme case of the stomach flu kept me from finishing it in a day’s time.

Lovely Bones – By Alice Sebold. I know, I know, I was all “but one chapter ruined the book for me” and I still stand by that. I still believe that the author’s intention was nice, but handled in a way that was a little too Fantasy Island for my liking. And yet, my mind keeps wandering back to this book. I feel an urge to reread it. To revisit the Salmon family and see how they’re doing. To remember little Susie’s voice. Yes, this book is quite enjoyable.

Mary – By Janis Cooke Newman. While there were times that I fell in and out of interest of Mary’s life, I never fell in or out of interest with Mary herself. I must admit, the Civil War itself is not my favourite portion of American History, though I am fascinated with the world immediately before as well as the aftermath. Quite honestly, I’m not a fan of most war history in general, though I do often like hearing how the war is effecting the common man. This is a book that took me a few days to truly get into, then somewhere around the end of the war, I couldn’t put it down.

Under The Banner of Heaven – By Jon Krakauer. I still believe that this book’s biggest flaw is in how the author chose to tell his story. It is loaded with so much information about Fundamentalist Mormons, information that is horribly fascinating, but very little direction in how the information is spread out. It felt like a text book posing as a novel. Yet despite this, and despite the fact that I stopped reading the footnotes about a quarter into the book, I still find myself thinking of the stories I read, still thinking about the things I’ve learned. Like all religions, Mormons have those extremists that make them shake their head and make the rest of them look bad. It’s very clear in this book that the extremists, the ones we hear about in the news, are very different from most of the Mormon population. And yet, they live in our backyard A haunting read, to be sure.

Bitsy’s Bait & BBQ – By Pamela Morsi. Okay, so I finished this less than 12 hours ago. Still, the characters were engaging. And the story was, I felt, the right kind of predictable. I could see this being a pilot episode for a television show set in the small town of Warbler Lake. And now I sort of wish it was.

The Emperor’s Children – By Claire Messud. I know, I hated the characters, hated how little of the story we heard post 9/11…completely hated the ending. But it has potential. I read online that it was opted for a movie, and this gives me hope. The right actors could bring these characters to life. Make me feel for them in more than just fleeting moments, and perhaps even making me feel for more than just the two of them. Very pretentious, in ways that are both enjoyable as well as demeaning. This book’s biggest problem, I still believe, is that the first half was so engaging, so compelling and setting up these interesting scenarios, and the second half didn’t follow through with those scenarios. It was a year in people’s lives, and a year I felt was more interesting than the characters let on.

Dear John – By Nicholas Sparks. It was okay. I think what this book’s biggest flaw was, the thing that made this quick read the bottom of the list, was the lack of characters. There were four main characters, and I rarely identified with any of them. Years flew by in this book, and I found myself captivated with the secondary storyline of our main character and his father. Perhaps, if the book was marketed as that, with the love story taking the supporting role, I would have enjoyed this a bit more. I don’t deny that it’s a well written book, I just don’t think it was the sort of well written book for me. Still though, I intend to try one of his earlier works.

Currently Reading: Nothing! With my schedule the way it is today, I doubt I will be able to start anything new before the month ends. Next on the list, however is Picture Perfect, by Jodi Picoult. This is my first of her books, so I’m a bit excited. One month down – 11 more to go!