SORRY!
I didn't realize I had not put books up in 4 months!!
Here's my catch-up:
(Oh, and I have HIGHLIGHTED the really good books!)
by: Meg Mullins
Read: August 10
Rating: 4 or 5
I really liked her first book, the Rug Merchant. I did not like this one so much. I think I liked 75 pages in the middle. It is about a family that was going to adopt a baby. The father died the day before. They got the baby. They mother couldn’t cope, so she sent it off to another house. The little boy for the original family couldn’t emotionally let the baby go. He looked his whole life to find that baby. He finally finds him when the baby was 21 years old. It was not so satisfying.
Pictures of Hollis Woods
by: Patricia Reilly Giff
Read: August 10
Rating: LOVED 10
Really YA book. Very short. LOVED. Many years ago, little girl from ages 6 – 10 going through the foster care system. How she copes, what happens to her, people she meets. I loved it. Very short.
Peony in Love
by: Lisa See
Read: Sept 10
Rating: DNF 3 (Did Not finish)
Very Chinese culture filled with this opera “Peony in Love”. Wanted to like it, just didn’t.
Why I Became a Famous Novelist
Author: Steve Heley
Read: Sept 10
Rating: DNF 4
Read that this was a very funny book. It just plodded for me. It was ok, but I was not excited to read it so I quit!
The Maze Runner
Author: James Dashner
Read: Sept 10
Rated: Really LIKED! 9
Sci fi YA – I really enjoyed this book! Future; boy wakes up and finds himself in an odd community of teens. They live in an area, just outside the gates is a huge maze that they have to figure out. They do not know why they are they, but are trying to understand and figure out how to get out. This is in the same vein as The Hunger Games. The second book is The Scorch Trials. Out Oct 2010
Lilly’s Crossing
Author: Patricia Reilly Giff
Read: Sept 10
Rating: ok 4
Wasn’t so good. I read it because I saw on many of her other books how great this one was. WW2. little girl; no friends until she finds Albert. Father off to war, grandmother watching her; mother dead. Ugh.
Last Night in Montreal
Author: Emily St. John Mandel
read: sept 10
Rating: dark 3
Too dark for me; wanted to like it and for it to be better. Woman was raised by her father that took her away from her dangerous mother so she spent her life running. As an adult, she realized that she did not know how to “stay”. She felt compelled to run and leave without notice. She made a big impact on the people she stayed with; kind of haunted them; left them grieving. The story hinges around the last man she lived with; when she left how he tried to find her; what he went through.
McNally’s Alibi
Author: Lawrence Sanders
Read: Sept 10
Rating: boring 3
Ugh; another book not so good! I have enjoyed Sander’s other books, this one just didn’t do it for me. I did enjoy the first 20 pages. Same protagonist; he is funny and somewhat enjoyable but really I don’t agree with nor like his lifestyle. He lives with his parents; he is probably in his 30’s, he has a girlfriend that he does not want to marry; doesn’t want the responsibility but sure wants the perks. Really, that is gross to me. GROW UP! I really hope to like my next book!!
Lost
Author: Alice Lichtenstein
Read: Oct 10
Rating: Liked 8
Marriage; man has dementia; he was brilliant architect; now very difficult; wife trying to care for him alone. He leaves the house and gets lost. There is a search. Also side story of one of the rescue people; about his life. It is a sad story, but I liked how the author ended it; tied it up.
Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Read: Oct 10
Rating: Liked a lot! 9-10
3rd in series the Hunger Games. Really liked this series. About war, relationships, hardships; power, control. Deep in the future; girl must be the face of a rebellion.
Still Alice
Author: Lisa Genova
Read: Oct 10
Rating: LOVED! 10
Woman 50 diagnosed with early on set Alzheimer’s. She is a brilliant Harvard professor. Book told from Her, Alice’s, perspective. It’s about husband relationships, family, hardships. It is a fabulous book with a great look inside this awful disease. Beautifully written.
Crossfire
Author: Dick Francis
Read: Oct 10
Rating: fine 7
Usual Dick Francis. Guy in Afghanistan is wounded; loses his foot; comes home to hard, awful mother and step father. They are in financial trouble…blackmailed…the mother is a horse trainer. The son (guy, Thomas Forsyth) tries to help and solve all problems.
City of Tranquil Light
Author: Bo Caldwell
Read: Oct 10
Rating: Liked a Lot 9
I loved this author’s firs book The Distant Land of my Father. This book was VERY hard to get into until around page 75…then it turned good. I was glad I persevered. It is about Mennonite missionaries from America traveling and living in China. The span of time is 1909 forward. I loved the lessons learned. The story is so similar to Ammon in the book of Mormon. I recommend reading this book. Just hold on for the first little bit; it is worth it.
The Housekeeper and the Professor
Author: Yoko Ogawa
Read: Oct 10
Rating: Like a Lot 9
You never know their real names. Japan; told by the housekeeper. She is sent by her agency to watch and care for a many with only an 80 minute memory. He was a brilliant mathematician many years ago before a terrible accident that took is memory. He only remembered things from 1976(?). It’s a story of love and caring, helping, forgiving. It’s short and I liked it.
Fall of Giants
Author: Ken Follett
Read: Nov 10
Rating: ok…6-7
WAY too long – it’s a 985 page book! Really! The story would have been fine to good in a 350 page book. It was like reading a history book! Ok, Ken, I know you researched and you like WW1. I finished the book because I usually really like Ken Follett (Pillars of the Earth; one of my favorites). I thought it would get better. I hated to quite just before it “caught on”. Really, if you like the first 200 pages, then you will like the book. It is a HUGE story of WAY too many characters. The writing is fine, but not luscious. I didn’t slurp up his sentences. I didn’t find myself reading parts allowed to Kerry. I did find myself skipping all the long and boring conversations between people talking about how the war was moving on; and war strategies. That helped me finish the book. There are TWO more books like this coming. What a drag.
Mini Shopaholic
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Read: Nov 10
Rating: DNF 1
So saddened by this book. I have LOVED all of Sophie’s books. This one I just could not stomach even though it was the same character. She now has a daughter that is terribly spoiled; a husband that does not seem to connect. He only seems to connect with his business. She seems like an idiot mother, unaware and raising a daughter that will be a menace to society. Then there was the language. I just can’t read that. Can’t even think of parents speaking that way to each other in a most casual way. Really, disgusting. I stopped reading it. I did skip huge hunks to get a gist of the story; that was only ok. It wasn’t even a nice try.
Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Read: Nov 10
Rating: hmm 7 Very Good
WW2; Germany. It’s hard, war is hard, war is bad, there are bad people, they do bad things, it is all hard on the kids. The writing was excellent! I just couldn’t give it a bigger number because by the end of the book, it was a sad drag. I really enjoyed the beginning. I thought it would be a faster read than it was. The book is written from the point of view of “death”. Interesting. There is a little girl; loves her mother and brother, her mother is forced to leave the girl with another German home. The mother, I think was communist and was taken “away”. The brother died. The girl is sad. Her foster mother is a hard woman, the foster father is kind and gentle and teaches her how to read. He has amazing patience. She takes a fallen book, then steals another book….the book thief. It is the story of that girl, her foster family, her friends, the war and death. I would recommend. Please read it and tell me what you think.
The Passage
Author: Justin Cronin
Read: Dec 10
half way through...enjoying...very long
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