A Reader's Addiction

Read: October 22-31, 2011 read in 10 days pages: 293 I was hoping to be more wow'd by this book, as it was a very cute cover and a clever title I thought, and was pretty happy to have stumbled upon it at the library when I was literally browsing every shelf for a random book to read. Turns out it was just ok. I was not wow'd and while the title of another of her books sounds good as well I'm not thinking of reading it after this one let me down. I did like the southern down home feel. I liked the country phrases and while the characters were religious to an extent, I did not feel as though I were being hit over the head with the religion. So yay, big plus there. What didn't work for me was while I understand the reason for the bok being split into four parts because there was some stuff Catherine Grace dealt with in each of the sections. What didn't work for me was the third section how it seemed to lack any form. I don't mind a novel throwing in some epistolary...

Ok so Saturday morning I get an email informing me of a new Twitter follower. It is MJ Rose the author of The Reincarnationist and The Memorist. I've read The Reincarnationist and was a little let down as I really expected the novel to be good. It had an awesome premise and I thought it would be similar to Dan Brown's Davini Code.....turns out it was but not far enough away to be a great story on its own. Disappointment to say the least. But it is cool that she is following me, little ol' random me on Twitter. All my Twitter posts are for the most part are my Goodreads updates. Still cool either way. I will say this: while I didn't particularly enjoy it, I will one day be picking up another one of her novels to give her another chance.

Read: October 21-27, 2011 read in 6 days pages: 214 This story was just all kinds of strange. The characters were weird. You could tell when reading it that the family was just a little off. Not that that gave the town any reason to treat them as they did, however it sure explains alot. I liked the sisters. I found the uncle to be very strange and I really disliked the cousin that shows up on their doorstep. And I'm a little happy to find his stuff destroyed in the fire thanks to little sis and happy to see he is displaced from the home! I was a bit let down that the tragic event that took place is never replayed as things happened in the moment. Things are recounted a few times over the course of the novel through the uncle's memories and the sisters at one point, but given the distance of the retelling it had little chill effect aside from the nonchalance with which the sisters and uncle speak of the event as though it were not too horrible. The book was not fantastic but its...

Read: October 16-20, 2011 read in 4 days pages: 672 I'm still not sure what I should rate this book. I didn't hate Battle Royale, it is tolerable in a very twisted and sick way. While it is incredibly violent and reminds me very much of the The Crimson Labyrinth which I had a hard time with I was not as opposed to this as I was the novel. I'm not sure why the novel version of a similar idea of "survival of the fittest" bothered me more than this manga/graphic novel did. I'd think that seeing the images drawn out for me would have been worse. Course I'm not saying the images are tame by ANY MEANS and that it didn't bother me cause it did. This is incredibly graphic and could turn the stomach of some sensitive readers. While it didn't bother my stomach, it does make my heart race and makes me very tense. I'm literally jumpy as I sit here and type this. Crazy? Maybe but that's the honest to goodness truth. The first night I read a chunk of thi...

Read: October 15-16, 2011 Read in a day pages: 180 Not terrible. Not great or amazing though either. Literally a weekend book. In fact depending on your speed you could finish this is in a day. Young woman meets her father and step mother who is only 40 years old, which makes her younger than herself, in New Orleans to find out her father is losing his eye sight similar to the way her mother also lost hers years before. She returns to her childhood home with her step mother and her father in a coffin due to his death after surgery. Not sure exactly why he died, he did linger three weeks after his surgery though and the Dr did not believe it was the eye surgery that was the culprit. Either way Laurel returns to her childhood home and learns a little about herself, her parents and their relationship with one another and the true personality of the childish step mother she has. In the end Laurel finds that objects are not what she needs to cling to but the memories that she has of the lov...

Read: October 10-14, 2011 Read for 4 days - ABANDONED not finished pages read: 78 This reads very much like a text book. I have given up and will not be finishing the book. I just can't get through the book. The characters are incredibly flat. This is not so much a young adult book as it is a grade school book. It is educational in terms of one young girls experiences during the plaque that took over PA, and would be a great historical introduction for the younger crowd it is intended for. I do have intentions on reading her novel "Speak" however to see if the hype over it is true and whether it really is that great of a novel or not.

Read: October 7-10, 2011 read in 3 days pages: 396 Much much better than Revolution. I'm amazed really that this was written by the same author. This novel has much better characters and while there is SO MUCH going on in terms of issues the author touches on I was able to make a connection with the main character Mattie. Course it helps that she LOVES books and words as much as I do. Her thirst for knowledge is a characteristic I really enjoyed. It is inspiring as well. At one point she describes her teacher Miss Wilcox's library as though she has stumbled upon "Ali Baba's cave" and that she was "breathless, close to tears and positively dizzy with greed." There is the issue of race with the Weaver as the only black boy in Eagle Bay. His mom is working and saving all her money to get him into college. The character is interesting but there is not a lot covered on him other than his father was killed in front of him and his mom for not having moved from...

I'm nearly done reading A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly, and will likely have a posting for that tomorrow afternoon. Wow. I'm having a hard time putting it down when I pick it up. (I only set it down this time because its a tough moment for Mattie and I couldn't get my own emotions in check, so I'm going to pick it up again before bed.) What a great story though. There is a lot going on and the book tries to tackle a lot of things. I'm enjoying the characters MUCH more than her novel Revolution. I could start reviewing it now although I have less than a hundred pages left. I'll wait though because I have a few quotes that I want to mention that caught me. On another book related note, I ordered a copy of the book The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern from Amazon.com and I can't wait to get it in my hands. I heard about it a few weeks back on NPR when they had interviewed her. From the sounds of it the premise of a circus that only starts after dark I w...

Read: September 25, 2011-October 7,2011 read in 13 days pages: 472 This book took my entirely too long to read. Which was in part my fault that I didn't have much time over the last week, and I wasn't really into my reading mode as I have been. No shocker I read nearly non-stop for a while I was bound to hit a breaking point eventually. The other part of the fault I have to give to the book. I hate saying that about a book, but sometimes it really can not be helped. What I liked about the book for starters was the fact that there was the historical fiction aspect. I'm attracted to them and that portion of the book had my attention. I won't say everything was completely accurate because I honestly don't know. I am not a history buff by any means, although I do enjoy a bit of history now and then, but this did spark my interest in the French Revolution. It did take a while to get to this part of the book, and I was glad when it did because that helped me want to fini...