Books 8 and 9
I’m kind of failing at keeping this up to date, but I will try and stay on top of it better! 😀
Book eight is Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong. It’s book 11 in her Women of the Otherworld series. I haven’t read the Twilight books (nor do I ever plan to), but I can pretty much guarantee that this series is much better!
The narrator this time around is 21-year-old witch Savannah Levine, who is more powerful than your typical witch. She works for a supernatural detective agency, and is excited to investigate her first case solo – the murder of three girls in a small town. And that’s all I’m going to say about that!
Kelley Armstrong is an amazing writer, and I pretty much think she can do no wrong. Waking the Witch is not one of my favourites by her, but it’s an interesting story for sure. The only part that frustrated me was the ending, but I’m not going to spoil it and say why.
Book nine is Last Resort by Linwood Barclay. It’s a memoir based on his experience working and growing up in Green Acres, a cottage/trailer resort in the Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario.
Last Resort is full of amusing anecdotes about living in a small, somewhat remote city, interesting people, some tragedy and sadness and a lot of heart. It is, to use the cliche phrase, a great coming of age story. It made me laugh, made me cry and offered a look into a completely different way of life than anything I’ve ever experienced. Read it!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Book #7
Book seven is Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card, who is probably best known for writing Ender’s Game.
Speaker for the Dead is a follow up of sort to Ender’s Game, taking place 3,000 years later.
Andrew Wiggin (a.k.a. Ender) is a Speaker, meaning he researches the lives of people who are dead and shares his discoveries in an attempt to paint a realistic portrait of the kind of life they lived. A request for a Speaker comes in from the colony Lusitania, and so Andrew/Ender begins the long journey (22 years, but only two weeks in transit for him), where the reaction to his arrival is less than welcoming.
The book was okay – not the greatest thing I’ve ever read, but not the worst either. It got off to a very slow start and took a long time before things really started happening. Once it got into the action and the meat of the story, it became more interesting. It was really difficult for me to get through, though.
If you’re a science fiction person or if you read Ender’s Game, then it might be worth it to read Speaker for the Dead.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Books 5 and 6
Two books, one post.
Book five is Never Look Away, another from Linwood Barclay.
To put it simply, this book was AWESOME, for sure the best one I’ve read so far.
David Harwood is a reporter at a struggling newspaper (something a lot of reporters can relate to these days, for sure). One day he’s at an amusement park with his wife, Jan, and their son, Ethan. Then his wife goes missing – she pretty much disappears without a trace.
Without giving too much away, what’s particularly odd about her disappearance is that despite being in public with Jan right before she goes missing, no one actually recalls seeing her. Suspicion then falls on David of having something to do with her disappearance.
Never Look Away has everything I look for in a book: suspense, mystery, action and incredible writing. Especially in the first 100 pages or so, I felt both really uncomfortable at what was going on in the book and like I didn’t want to put it down. This one’s a must-read.
Book six is Push, by Sapphire (i.e. the book that inspired the movie Precious).
This is easily the most depressing book I’ve read in a long time. Precious Jones is 16, illiterate and pregnant for the second time – with her dad’s baby. She has been raped by her father repeatedly since she was seven years old. Her mother is physically and sexually abusive and hates Precious for “stealing her man.”
Despite the depressing subject matter, it was impossible to put the book down. It’s written in a very unconventional way, with spelling and grammar that is intentionally horrible. This made the book a challenge to read at times, but it was worth sticking it out.
One interesting issue that is raised in the book is whether society has a responsibility to help people like Precious and her children. Some say yes, that everyone deserves a chance. Others disagree. Wherever you stand on the issue, this is a still a book that I think everyone should read.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Book #4
Book four is The Man Who Left Too Soon: The Biography of Stieg Larsson, by Barry Forshaw.
I assume everyone knows who Stieg Larsson is: the author of the Millennium series. He died in 2004 when he was 50.
While this book starts off somewhat promising, with the author conducting interviews with Larsson’s brother, father and partner of more than 30 years and discusses the fourth book in the Millennium series Larsson was working on when he died, it rapidly goes downhill from there.
In the introduction, Forshaw says that he never actually met Larsson – strike one against the book. Then, a bit later on, Larsson’s brother says that since his death, a lot of people have been coming forward and trying to attach themselves to him. I thought to myself, you mean like the author of this book?
Strike two: half the book is just a rehashing of what goes on in the Millennium books – completely unnecessary considering that I think it’s safe to presume people who are reading the biography are doing so because they’ve read the books already. And not only that, the author gets so many facts confused and just plain wrong and also mixes up things that happened in the books with things that happened in the movies. It made me so angry that I skipped over the book summaries.
I do not recommend this “biography” to anyone.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Book #3
Book three is Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston.
If you don’t know who Aron Ralston is, you’ve probably been living under a rock (pun only slightly intended). On the off chance someone doesn’t know who he is, here goes: Ralston is an experienced mountain climber who, in 2003, was stuck for five days in Blue John Canyon in Utah when a boulder crushed and trapped his arm. He eventually amputated his arm in order to escape. The James Franco movie 127 Hours is based on Ralston’s experiences.
Initially I found the book to be quite boring. Based on his writing, Ralston seems to be a very technical and precise person. There were a lot of super specific numbers and measurements and hiking terms that I really did not understand. When I got to the end of the book I found the glossary – wish that had been at the beginning!
About 100 pages in or so, the book gets really good. It was told with an immense amount of detail, and at certain parts almost had me in tears. By the end I came to the conclusion that Ralston is pretty much the luckiest guy in the world. Yes, the whole arm amputation thing is not so lucky, but the fact that he survived and that things happened as they did shows 1) that he’s incredibly smart and badass and 2) someone was definitely watching over him.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Book #2
Book two is Too Close to Home by former Toronto Star columnist Linwood Barclay. (Side note: he’s pretty much the reason I wanted to become a journalist).
Anyways, I mostly enjoyed the book. It’s a murder mystery – a husband, wife and son living in Promise Falls, a small town in upstate New York – are all shot to death one evening when someone breaks into their home. Their neighbour, Jim Cutter, informally starts investigating the murders himself.
The ending was good, it was hinted at but not in an obvious way so I didn’t expect it. A major theme of the book is that things are not always as they seem, and this was conveyed very well.
My one complaint is that, at 500 pages, it’s much too long. Towards the end I just wanted it to be done, not because I was anxious to find out what happens but because it was really dragging on.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Book #1
Book #1 in my goal to read 100 books by the end of 2011 is Made to be Broken, by Kelley Armstrong.
I am a big Kelley Armstrong fan. She is an Ontario-based writer, and writes extremely well in my opinion.
Made to be Broken is the second in a series about Nadia Stafford, a former cop/current lodge owner and hitman (hitwoman? hitperson?) When one of the employees at her lodge, a teenage girl, disappears, along with her baby, Nadia realizes there’s a lot more to her disappearance than she thought.
The book touches on a lot of heavy issues: the police’s lack of concern in following up with the girl’s disappearance, the difficulty couples wanting to adopt face and coming to terms with bad things that have happened in one’s life.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The writing is mostly solid, the events moved along at a fast pace and I was anxious to finish reading as quickly as possible so I could find out what happened.
My only complaint is that after the exciting and tense first 3/4 or so, the last bit fell a bit flat and was somewhat predictable. That being said, I definitely recommend this book (after reading the first one in the series, Exit Strategy.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
2011 resolutions
I am usually not a maker of resolutions. However, this year I’ve decided to take on a little ‘project,’ if you will.
Those who know me know how much I love to read. There are a lot of books that I want to read, but haven’t had time to do it.
For 2011, my ‘resolution’ is to read all these books. More specifically, to read 100 books by this time next year. I’ll keep track of the ones I’ve read on this lovely site and (if you’re really lucky) share my thoughts on them as well.
I think I’m first going to tackle The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, by Mordecai Richler. Further suggestions and recommendations are welcomed!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
laurastricker 