Still Too Busy to Read

As you can see, I still haven't had much time in the past month to read, and I doubt I'll have much time to read before the new year. I fit in a few books--the literary equivalent of fast food--but wasn't overly excited about them. I usually enjoy the romantic suspense of Jayne Ann Krentz and Heather Graham, and "Falling Awake" and "The Seance" were probably above average. I enjoy the paranormal aspect Heather Graham used--it makes the book a little cheesy but more fun.

I have been looking forward to "Simple Genius" by David Baldacci, but it let me down. It was too crazy. When I read political suspense fiction, I like to think that it might happen, even if it is highly unlikely. When I think that there is no way it could happen, it crosses the line into the ridiculous.

Too Busy to Read

I haven't forgotten that I have a book blog--I've just been busy helping other people add to their own libraries. I chaired the Scholastic Book Fair at our elementary school this week. I love doing it, but it is an exhausting job. It involves endurance, patience, and a loud voice. I can tell you that the hot books were "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney, " "Ark Angel" by Anthony Horowitz, and "The Dangerous Book for Boys" by Conn and Hal Iggulden.

I managed to fit in two books in the past three weeks. "Force of Nature" by Suzanne Brockmann was the typical romantic suspense novel except for two things--it included two romances and one was a gay male romance. I enjoy Brockmann's storylines but often avoid her books due to the bad language, but I decided to give her books another go. I was surprised that this book spent equal time on a heterosexual romance and a homosexual romance. I was repulsed and fascinated at the same time. The two romances were portrayed in a very similar way except for the amount of explicitness. I think it will probably be a long time before I try one of her books again.

"The First Commandment" by Brad Thor fit into the patriotic American spy thriller genre. The main character of the series--Scot Harvath--is the rugged American version of James Bond (without the tongue-in-cheek humor), rescuing our country from the big, bad terrorists. I enjoy these books, but Scot Harvath is sometimes just too good to be true, getting out of bad situations with too much ease. They are fun, simplified versions of Tom Clancy, but I think that Vince Flynn is a much better author in this genre.

"Hood"

Robin Hood is one of my favorite legends, so I was happy to find this take on his story. Stephen R. Lawhead sets his version of Robin Hood in the 1100's in Wales. (In his comments, Lawhead makes his case for this being a more accurate version of the story than the English Sherwood Forest version we are all familiar with.) I found this book a little slow, but the story of how Bran ap Brychan was driven to the forest by the loss of his kingdom was fascinating. There is a slightly supernatural aspect to how Bran becomes "the Hood," wearing a black cape that resembles a raven.

This is the first book in a trilogy, which is a good thing because Bran barely becomes the Raven King before the book ends. "Scarlet," the second book in the trilogy came out last month, and I will certainly be reading it soon to find out what happens to Bran.

"The Wilde Women"

I debated about whether or not to post a review on this book, but I laughed so hard reading it that I couldn't resist! Paula Wall's "The Wilde Women" is the most enjoyable book I have read in a long time. Living in Depression-era Five Points, Tennessee, Pearl and Kat Wilde are sexy and self-confident but share the family curse of falling for the wrong men. When one day Pearl catches her sister Kat wearing Pearl's favorite pair of shoes and her fiance, Pearl leaves town for three years and then comes back with a vengeance. Her return has an effect on every person in town, and we hear all their stories.

This book is primarily about the relationships between men and women, wives and husbands, lovers and want-to-be lovers. It is also about sex--although there is very little sex that actually happens in the book. The author's slyly insightful comments about male-female relationships are hilarious, as are the colorful characters who reside this southern town. I loved the people of Five Points and couldn't wait to find out more about them.

Usually I don't discuss books with David that I am reading because he just isn't interested. With this book, he kept wanting to know what I was laughing about. Then I would read him lines from the book and get him laughing. This book is not graphic, but it is "racy"--the type of book where you might think, "I can't believe she just said that!" I loved the humor, the twisting plot, and the outrageousness of the characters.

"Grave Sight" & "Grave Surprise"

A Halloween treat for me! I just discovered that Charlaine Harris (author of the Sookie Stackhouse vampire books that I like) has another recent series of books--just strange enough to be fun at this time of year.

Harper Connelley and her step-brother, Tolliver Lang, spend their time traveling around the country looking for bodies--yes, that's Harper's job. When Harper was 15 years old, she was struck by lightening. She is left with a few lingering side effects--one of those being the ability to find the dead. When she knows where the body is, she can sense the cause of death and sometimes the name of the person. Her brother manages her career, and they travel together to earn a living. Strange, I know, but the books remind me of one of my favorite TV shows, "Supernatural."

The mysteries that Harper and Tolliver solve are fairly typical and not particularly gory (thank goodness), but the supernatural aspect is what interests me. I tend to like quirky stories--what can I say?

Ranger's Apprentice books

I just wanted to put a plug in for the Ranger's Apprentice series of books by John Flanagan. We chanced into the first book, The Ruins of Gorlan, when we were searching for some books on CD for a road trip last fall. Everyone in our family enjoyed the book very much. We didn't realize that it was part of a series until months later when we came across The Burning Bridge, the second book in the series. Brian, Erin, and I all read it very quickly.

The books are set in some indefinite Medieval time and center around a teenage boy named Will. On Choosing Day, Will is hoping to be sent to Battleschool to become a knight, but instead he is made the apprentice of an intimidating Ranger named Halt. Although this is a fantasy book (not usually my favorite genre), the emphasis is on the characters rather than mystical creatures and magic. The life of a ranger (predecessor to the modern "spy") is fascinating, and the books emphasize positive values like friendship, loyalty, and integrity.

Flanagan is an Australian writer. Although three of his Ranger's Apprentice books have been released in the United States, I understand that he has already published six in Australia. On Amazon.com the books are labeled for 9-12 year olds and 4th to 8th graders. These books will hold definite appeal for boys, but the female supporting characters add interest for girls as well.

Harry Potter...Again

(Warning: spoilers ahead!)

I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the second time--this time out loud to my youngest daughter--and I must say (again) that J.K. Rowling did a fantastic job in bringing this series to a close. I can't help but think that she could have just skated through this book, writing a predictable conclusion without too many twists, just tying up some of the loose ends, and the book would have sold just as many copies. Instead she wrote a new story (the deathly hallows) and brought the previous stories to a very satisfying end.

The last hundred pages or so of this story, once Harry reaches Hogwarts and the battle begins, are masterful. She draws upon aspects of her previous books to help bring the entire series a complete ending. My favorite scene, by far, is when Harry walks through the forest to face Voldemort for what he thinks will be the last time, and he is accompanied by his parents, Sirius, and Lupin. I cried as I read this scene out loud, and my children thought I was funny. I realized that they don't understand what it is like to love someone so much that you are willing to sacrifice your life for them. I later read that this is also Rowling's favorite scene in any of her books. Thanks again to Rowling for such an incredible book.

"The Book Thief"

All I could say when I finished this book was, "Wow." It isn't that this is the best book that I have ever read--I've enjoyed other books much more. It isn't that this is the most thrilling book I ever read--in fact, I put it down and then read and finished another book while I was in the middle of this book. However, The Book Thief might be the most beautifully written book I have ever read.

This is the story of a World-War-II-era orphaned child named Liesel Meminger who is taken to live with a working class family in Southern Germany. She brings with her The Gravedigger's Handbook, a book she stole at her younger brother's funeral. Her foster father helps her learn to read with this book, and soon she gathers other books from unlikely locations. These books become her friends and her anchors during difficult times. She makes other odd friends in her town, particularly Rudy, a boy who paints himself black and pretends to be Jesse Owens.

The most fascinating character in the book is the narrator--Death. He is a reluctant observer who, much to his regret, is spending a lot of time in Germany due to the war. His thoughtful and dispassionate observations give the reader pause and cause the reader to look at situations in a different way than usual. Death is truly a master of words and speaks with wisdom that comes with experience.

This book is being marketed to young adults, but I think it would take a very mature or sophisticated teenager to truly appreciate it. Death, violence, racism, and hunger are some of the main elements, but so are survival and finding beauty in the mundane. If you can get past the confusing first 10 pages or so, you will find this to be a powerful and moving novel. The beauty of this book brings tears to my eyes as I think about it. There are very few books that I would enjoy reading a second time, but I must say that my understanding and appreciation of this book would be sure to increase with a second reading. I look forward to it.

A Girl Named Zippy

A few years ago, I put this book on my list of books to read because I was interested in the subtitle, "Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana." Having worked in the Admissions Office of Purdue University, I prided myself on having heard of every small town in Indiana and was curious about the book. This memoir by Haven Kimmel is fantastically funny, and I enjoyed every word of it!

Because he says it better than I could, let me quote a reviewer, Lawrence Naumoff, from the back cover of the book: "The prose in this book is lovely and wise and witty and sings as beautifully as 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow,' but it seems to have been written by Dorothy's wild and irreverent sister, the one you never saw in the movie, the one who locked Dorothy outside when the tornado was coming, sold Toto, set fire to the Scarecrow, ate the flying monkeys for lunch, and painted all the blacktop roads in Mooreland, Indiana, the colors of the rainbow, the colors of imagination and heart and laughter." (Corny--but perfect!)

Haven Kimmel is a couple of years older than me, and while I didn't grow up lower class or with a chain-smoking father, so much of what she writes about is familiar--the freedom to ride your bike anywhere, miniature Avon lipsticks, interviewing your family with a portable tape recorder, and listening to Shaun Cassidy songs. I wasn't much like "Zippy" as a child, but she's the girl I always wanted as a friend--daring and fun! This is a funny and nostalgic memoir of growing up in a small town in the 1970s told from a refreshingly innocent child's point of view. I laughed all the way through it!

"Nineteen Minutes"

I hadn't intended to blog about Nineteen Minutes, but I found that the plot of this book has been on my mind lately. In Picoult's novel, 19 minutes is how long it takes for Peter Houghton to lay siege on his high school with four guns and to kill 10 people in a school shooting. Peter's story is a story we've heard before--a social outcast, obsessed with heavy metal music and video games, can't handle being bullied any longer, so he fights back the only way he thinks he can--with guns. The characters consist of the stereotypical jocks, nerds, beauty queens, ignorant teachers, and busy parents, but they are well defined; we come to understand each one's point of view. As in most of her novels, Picoult gives equal treatment to all sides, and I felt sympathy for the shooter as well as for his victims.

I think this story has been on my mind because of the many hours I've spent lately as a substitute teacher. As I watch the kids at school, I wonder how they feel about their peers and what they will become in the future. I, myself, have not witnessed any repeated bullying of one particular child, but I can't help but ask myself, "What am I not seeing?" Bullying must go on at my children's school, but I don't know if I can do anything to help if I never see it.

I enjoy Jodi Picoult's exploration of controversial social issues in her novels. A few of my friends have said that her books are too sad to read, and I must agree that her books can be sad. I appreciate how the books make me think about changes I can make in my life and how they always seem to offer a glimmer of hope for the future. I still think that My Sister's Keeper is my favorite Picoult novel, but I would definitely recommend this one as well.

"Eclipse"

I just finished "Eclipse" today (voraciously devouring it in the past 24 hours) after waiting several months for it to be published. This is the third in a series of books by Stephenie Meyer about the love between vampire Edward and mortal Bella. Meyer said that her first book ("Twilight") was about finding true love, her second ("New Moon") was about losing true love, and this book is about choosing true love.

I truly enjoyed this book--couldn't put it down--but I was a little disappointed in the plot development. Edward and Bella have found and nearly lost each other. Reunited, they await graduation and soon after, the possible turning of Bella into a vampire. Of course there is conflict, and a series of murders need to be solved first before anything can happen. More importantly, Bella must deal with her feelings for both Edward and Jacob.

The good in the book:
How can a story about werewolves and vampires seem so real?
More character development for Rosalie and Jasper.
More back story on the wolves and their history.
Bella begins to see true ramifications of becoming a vampire
How do you choose between gorgeous, considerate Edward and happy, fun Jacob?! Their rivalry was great and humorous.

The bad in the book:
When did Bella become so whiny and indecisive? Get some backbone!
I could see the "Victoria thing" coming a mile away--a very predictable ending.
Not much plot development. Nothing really changed.

Despite my complaints, I really did enjoy this book! Bella became weaker, to the point where I barely even liked her anymore, but I have high hopes for the next installment. Meyer has promised that the next book, "Breaking Dawn," will resolve the Edward and Bella's story--we just have to wait for another year. I love Edward, Bella, and Jacob enough that I know it will be worth it!

Hawaiian Holiday

David and I returned from our vacation to Maui and Oahu on August 1st, and I'm just now finding time to post! (It takes too long to play catch-up.) I made it through only four books in the 10 days I was gone, so obviously I did too much sightseeing and not enough reading!

(An example of the sights--maybe it's a good thing that I wasn't reading!)

Our flight left at 8:00 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, July 21, so my fantastic friend Jenni bought the Harry Potter book for me at midnight on Friday at Ralph's and left it on my doorstep so I could take it on the plane in the morning. I was one of many people reading the book on the plane. I read most of it on Saturday and managed to finish it by noon on Sunday. Although I cried numerous times, I loved it! I thought J.K. Rowling did a great job of tying in to all of her previous books, yet she still managed to work in a new story about the three "deathly hallows." The book dragged a little while Harry, Ron, and Hermione wandered in the wilderness, but the last 200 pages or so were thrilling. A few predictions came to pass (spoiler: I knew Snape couldn't be all bad), and a few surprises knocked me off of my feet! My tears at the end of the book came because I knew there would be no new adventures for Harry--I'll miss him. Thanks to Rowling for such a fantastic series of books!

I also made a new find while in Maui--a series of books by the author Charlaine Harris. She writes fiction that she bills as "Southern Vampire Mysteries," and I would add "humorous" to the description. I chanced into Club Dead, the 3rd in the series, and was intrigued by the concept. They are set in the current time in a world where the vampires existing side by side with us mere mortals have decided to "come out" and announce their existence due to the invention of a realistic synthetic blood that allows them to no longer have to feed on humans. The werewolves and shape shifters are watching in the wings to see how this stunt will work for the vampires before they come out! The books are about Sookie Stackhouse, a mind-reading waitress who falls in love with Bill the vampire, and about how she feels torn between human society and vampire society. Quirky is a good description for these books, which means I know they won't appeal to everyone, but for this vampire-loving reader, I find them to be a fun read! (P.S. Did you know that Elvis isn't really dead--he was just turned into a vampire!!!!)

"The Bourne Identity"

I thought I would wait to post on this book until we had our Book Club discussion last night. We were pretty much agreed. All of us who had read this book before (it was first published in 1980) remembered it as a gripping thriller. I've read it three times; first in 1986, then about 10 years later, and now last week. I would have to say that this book has definitely lost some of its lustre. Robert Ludlum didn't pioneer the spy genre, but he certainly brought it to new heights in early '80s. His books were exciting and different; I had never read anything like them before.

Recently, authors have raised the bar on spy thrillers with books like "The DaVinci Code" and authors like Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, and David Baldacci--the action never stops. I had some trouble getting through "The Bourne Identity" because it moved so slowly. It was easy to get lost in the middle of the plot because it seemed to go in circles without progressing.

Some of the good things about the book were that I still cared about the characters, and wanted to know what would happen to them. The plot still worked and was only slightly affected by dealing with the old-fashioned technology. (It was funny to read about these high-level spies and assassins all needing to use pay phones!) I appreciated the toned-down sex and violence that are so graphic in modern books.

I enjoyed revisiting this spy classic, but I mourned the fact that it did not live up to my memory.

Bite into a Good Book!

I don't know why I'm fascinated by vampire books, but I simply can't get enough of them lately. Knowing that a vampire is in a book is usually enough to get me to pick it up and give it a chance. Most often the vampire is the villain, but in the best books, the vampire is a hero. How can a vampire be a hero? It's the struggle he has against their own nature that makes him so fascinating. Here are a few of my recent vampire favorites!

The Vampire Plagues by Sebastian Rook -- This is a trilogy written for kids--yes, kids--in which children battle an evil vampire and his minions who were released from ruins during an expedition to Mexico in 1850. The books take place in London, Paris, and then Mexico. Very suspenseful for 4th to 7th graders. My daughter and I really enjoyed them. (Villain)

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova -- In this novel, a daughter inherits her father's research about Vlad the Impaler from the 15th century and discovers that her father thinks that Vlad (Count Dracula) is still alive. The book runs three different storylines about people all over Eastern Europe, trying to hunt down Vlad. I found all of the historical detail fascinating, but some of you may not (some parts read like a dissertation). The book is long but fantastic! (Villain)

Morrigan's Cross (The Circle Trilogy) by Nora Roberts -- This trilogy is way out there, but I couldn't put these books down. The story is about a witch, a wizard, a vampire, a scholar, a warrior, and a shape-shifter who lead the battle to save the world from a blood-thirsty group of vampires . The heroes time travel and go from real locales to a fantasy land. It sounds like crazy fluff--and it is! But the personal relationships were enough to make me read all three books. (Hero and Villain)

Twilight and New Moon by Stephenie Meyer -- These are the first two in a continuing Young Adult series, and I'm heavily promoting these books since I enjoyed them so much! They are the love story between Edward (a vampire) and Bella (an average teenage girl). They are character-driven books about severely star-crossed lovers and how difficult it is to love a vampire. (I'm sure you can all relate!) The idea seems far out there, but I found myself believing every word. I'd recommend these to any teen girls or women. (Gotta support a fellow BYU grad, and I can't wait for Eclipse!) (Hero and Villain)

I've never read Anne Rice because the movie Interview with a Vampire was too disgusting, but I'd love to hear any vampire recommendations you might have!

"The Secret Pearl"

One of my confessions is that I really enjoy a good regency romance--the key word in that sentence being good. Unfortunately this book did not meet that qualification. But there is something about Mary Balogh's romances that I enjoy. She seems to write her books about fairly ordinary people. Most romances seem to be about feisty beautiful women with quick comebacks ready on their tongues. The men all seem to be extraordinarily handsome and either unusually sensitive or devil-may-care rough. Mary Balogh usually writes about quiet people who act with morals--a pleasant surprise. A good Mary Balogh book would be "Simply Magic."

Night of the Blackbird

I usually enjoy Heather Graham's books--they're full of intrigue--but this one from a few years ago was blah. It dealt with the reunification of Ireland and was pretty predictable. Not one of her best, in my opinion.

"Birdwing"

I did get a little reading of my own done while camping in the mountains of Utah. I finished a young adult book entitled Birdwing by Rafe Martin. It is a continuation of the Grimm Brothers fairy tale "The Six Swans," in which six brothers are turned into swans by the evil enchantress who becomes their father's new wife. Their little sister must not speak or laugh for 6 years while she creates shirts for them made out of nettles; these shirts will turn them into humans. When the six years pass, the brothers come back and she places the shirts on them, but she has not had time to finish the last, the littlest shirt. The brothers become human again, but the youngest brother has a swan's wing in place of his arm where his one sleeve was not finished. This is his story.

Rafe Martin writes Birdwing with beauty and poetry. I enjoyed the story of Ardwin (Birdwing) and how he discovers that a curse can be a gift. In the Q&A at the end of the book, they ask the author what his "wing" is. You can ask yourself if you have something you formerly considered a curse and now consider a gift or a blessing. The author answered that his imagination used to get him in trouble, and now it is how he earns his living. If you enjoy this story or fantasy literature, you might enjoy a book we read for Book Club a few years ago, Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. She actually wrote a trilogy about this fairy tale, and I (surprisingly) enjoyed them very much.

Books on CD

I've been gone the last week on "vacation" (I honestly need a real vacation after a family vacation!), but still managed to fit in a little literature. When we have a long drive, we try to borrow a few books on CD from the library to keep everyone quiet. This time we listened to Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce on the way up and Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf by Wendelin Van Draanen on the way back.

Kelly was excited to listen to Framed--a story about a 9-year old boy in a small town with a big secret that might involve him in the crime of the century--but quickly changed her mind about 10 minutes into the story. The CD case did not tell us that the small town was in Wales and that the man performing the story would have a thick British accent that was nearly impossible to decipher. The story was written for ages 8-14; Kelly couldn't follow it, the older kids liked it, and David & I loved it! The story of how the English National Gallery stored a collection of valuable paintings in a mine near this small town and how the town was changed by it was very interesting, but it was listening to all the colloquialisms and the different pronunciations that was so fascinating. Examples: instead of saying that people were running around in the nude, he said they were running around in the "nuddie." Instead of going to a swap meet, they went to a "car boot sale." I don't know if the story would be as entertaining written as it was spoken, but we laughed often and very much enjoyed it.

The Sammy Keyes book was one of a series of books that none of us had ever read before. The interest level for the story was listed at ages 10-13, and that was about right because it was our 10-year-old and 13-year-old who enjoyed the story most. Sammy Keyes is a junior detective who is a step above most. The story was a little more complicated and a little less predictable than most detective stories written for this age group. While I was not terribly interested in the story line, a rich lady's dog being stolen and a little girl who continually runs away from home, I thought that Sammy had great personality, and I enjoyed her determination to solve the problem in the end. The actress did a great job with the first-person story. It was not great literature, but it was well done for the genre. I wouldn't be surprised if Erin read another one in the series, but Brian probably wouldn't because it was a "girl book."

Welcome

Welcome to my book blog! It seems that I am always being asked if I have read any good books lately, and I usually have...but I have trouble remembering what they are! My sister and sister-in-law recommended I start a blog with all the books I have read, which seemed like a great idea. Once I realized how easy it would be to do, I thought I would give it a try.

I am willing to share with you all of the great books I have been reading, but you must be willing to take what I call my "junk books" with them. Junk books are either books I read (and wished I hadn't!) or books that are guilty pleasures that I am too embarrassed to tell people that I read. One day a friend asked me what I was reading. I told her sheepishly, "Oh, it's just junk." Then she said, "Tell me what it is--I like junk too!"

So I will share everything--the good and the bad--and you can decide for yourself what is worth reading. I hope you enjoy this (and I hope that I can keep it up). Thanks for caring!