Book Reviews | Reading Roundup

I am thoroughly behind on my reviewing  - pretty much on all the platforms I post reviews.  As always life gets in the way, so I thought I would share some quick reviews of some of the books I've read over the last couple months.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of the books that we we're looking into for book club, and I have to say I enjoyed it much more than Ape House by Sara Gruen, (another we had purchased last year). For me there was plenty to discuss, not just about the book and it's characters but also the ethics surrounding animal testing etc. I struggled at times with descriptions and this is another book that has made me think more about how we treat animals, each other and our world in general.

I enjoyed the unconventional narration of the story, one thing I would've like to have see was more than one narrator - possibly from Lowell's perspective. Because it is all from Rosemary's perspective I feel like there were times when it would've benefited from someone else viewpoint. I think Rosemary starting in the middle was essential. I agree, knowing certain elements before that would've changed my feelings about the story. Overall, on the surface this was an easy, fast paced read. But ultimately one which made me think about a subject matter that is not entirely comfortable to discuss.


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Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There were parts of this I thoroughly enjoyed, it's interesting to read about the creative process. There were many times when I had 'Yes!' moments, but I didn't agree with everything Gilbert said - for the most part about education, or higher learning to be specific and her creative experiences was/is quite spiritual, (it's her experience so she can interpret it that way), but I don't really agree with it, or at least to that degree.

I thought this was narrated well, (by the author) and it's something I would happily listen to again, it was a quick, captivating read. I'd recommend this, not just to 'creative' people, it's a self help book, without being preachy which is a plus.

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Room by Emma Donoghue

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

 This is an uncomfortable read, but compelling read, made all the scarier because it is real. The idea of being locked in a a tiny room for seven years is abhorrent and to know that there are people in the world like this is generally not something I like to think about.

Donoghue's decision to have 5 year old Jack be our narrator is an interesting one, (at least to me). I haven't read any interviews with the author so I don't know why she chose to do so. Possibly to make reading and writing it a little easier, (Is that even possible?) But to have Ma experiencing things in the background while Jack is counting his teeth, or how many 'squeaks' in one way makes it easier to read - I say this lightly, as an adult - I know that Ma is going through something truly horrific, but by not focusing on it makes it less real. Does that make sense? Hopefully.

Despite the hard subject matter I found it easy to listen to. Our protagonist is 5, so of course the audio narration reflects this. I though the audio was well done. 

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Three books I recently read, have you read any of these?  What did you think?  

Until next time, happy reading :)

C

WWW Wednesday | 12.11.2014

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by Miz B over at ShouldBeReading.  If you'd like to join in here is what you need to do - answer these three questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you just finish reading?
What are you going to read next?

Once you're done, go and visit everyone else who is participating - simple :)

What are you currently reading?

I've still got a few on the go, I haven't actually done that much reading in the past week, but I started listening to The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.  Which I'm enjoying and finding it hard going, some of the stories are difficult to listen to.








What did you just finish reading?

After Tex by Sherryl Woods.  I was enjoying this so much when I first started it, but I didn't enjoy the second half as much, my full review is here










What are you going to read next?

I don't think I'm going to start anything new, I have too many books on the go at the moment and I really need to focus on finishing my book for book club, Ape House by Sara Gruen.  Our get together is coming up in a couple of weeks and I want to close out the year by actually reading the book!







Another week of reading is over!  As I said, I didn't get much done, hopefully the next week isn't so busy and I can read to my hearts content :)

Until next time, happy reading.

C.

Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan - Book Club Read - February

 
Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan

278 pgs.

I have to admit, as far as the happy goes, our book club has picked some fairly dismal tales, from last months apocalyptic 'The Road', to next months WWII fable 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas'.  But first is 'Be Near Me', the story of an English priest in a small Scottish parish.  Behold...the blurb.  And bear with me, it's been a couple of months since I read this.

Over the spring and summer of 2003, Father David becomes friends with two young people, Mark and Lisa: by the year's end his life is the focus of public hysteria.

As he looks back to his childhood, and to Oxford in the fever of student revolt, Father David begins to reconsider the central events of his life and to see what may have happened to the political hopes of his generation.  Meanwhile, religious warfare breaks out on his doorstep.

I didn't particularly like this story, I thought it was well written, but it was just so damn bleak.  While reading it I felt the weight of the world, (seen through the characters), on my shoulders.  The characters of Mark and Lisa aren't terribly likeable.  They're selfish, rude, they steal and vandalise.  So you have to ask, why would Father David, befriend these kids - is it because he wants to help them, or is it because he's lonely and can't relate to the other adults in his parish.  I'm going with the second one by the way.  Apart from his relationship with his housekeeper, he doesn't seem to relate well to the other adults and I don't think he's happy with how his life has turned out.  The dinner he has with (I want to say bishop), a fellow priesty person is prime example.  His views on many things, Iraq for one - the war had only just begun - didn't seem in line with the Catholic church.  I'll say sorry again, I'm writing this from memory, so events are slightly fuzzy!

What I did love about this book, was after things had escalated with Father David and Mark and the 'religious warfare', you get to know the real Father David.  His early days at Oxford, I like this person, not that I disliked him later, I just felt he'd lost his way.  Ultimately, I don't think he ever really wanted to become a priest, and if certain events in his life didn't transpire, I don't think he would've become one.

Would I recommend the book after all that - yes.  I thought it was well written, and O'Hagan's ability to make me care about characters I didn't like is a good trait for an author to have.

As a book group we were lucky enough to meet the author, as he was on a book tour, promoting his latest book Maf the dog and his friend Marilyn Monroe.  O'Hagan wasn't at all like I expected him to be.  I think I still had Be Near Me resonating in my head, so I thought he'd be a sad, depressed, quiet man.  What he was instead, was a very funny man, with the gift of the gab.  I really enjoyed his description of his early life and his reading of Maf was great, complete with accents.

Until next time, when we tackle Nazi and 'The Boy in the striped pyjamas' I'll sign of and wish happy reading to all :)

C.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy - Book Club Read - January

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

 307 pages

A father and his young son walk alone through burned America, heading slowly for the coast.  Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind.  The have nothing but a pistol to defend themselves against the men who stalk the road, the clothes they are waring, a cart of scavenged food - and each other.

Blurb taken from the back of the book.

I enjoyed this - as much as one can enjoy a scary post apocalyptic journey cross country.  McCarthy is almost lyrical in his writing, it reminds me of the ballads of Homer.  The way this is written helps with that general feeling also - lack of punctuation and no chapters.  It's like a story told in one giant, crazy, almost suffocating breath.  I think that McCarthy's desicion to not discuss the apocalyptic event that sent the father and son on their journey was the right choice.  In this story it's not about what has happened, but what's before the two characters.  I read this almost in one sitting, despite the subject matter it is an easy read, I didn't actually want to put it down, I wanted to know what happened to the them.

Be prepared to be horrified  Of course, one can guess at what type bad things father and son will run into, but it's not until you actually see the words on the page that it really sinks in, yes 'XXXX' is going to happen, (I'm attempting no spoilers, hence the XX bizzo).  But for all the horror and despair there is hope, love and joy, the smallest thing is a miracle - finding a can of coke, or food, just when they thought they wouldn't find anything.

The relationship between father and son is beautiful and I like that they don't have names, it adds to the story, brings it a strength and a belief, that this could truely be anyone.  And McCarthy did what I didn't think he was going to be able to do - I finished the story feeling hopeful.  All through the book I had in the back of my mind, this won't end well for anyone, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I haven't seen the movie version of this yet, but it's on my list of things to watch.  But I think it's going to be one of those movies where I need to be in the right mood.

What did everyone else thing of it? - the book or the movie.

C.

Up next for February is: Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan.

Changes to the blog

While I should've been leaving work on time and 'getting things done', I did some procrastinating instead - so technically I did DO something, just not the thing I was supposed to.

Like the new look? It's got some more colour, I liked the brown, but this are more my style, and I love the flowers. Now I just have to organise some tabs, since this blog isn't just devoted to books, I thought tabs would be a good way to separate the topics I write about. Now there's no way I'm getting time to do anything before book club, until next time stay classy Adelaide. It's time to discuss The Road.

C.

It's my first Blog Hop!

I thought I'd try something different and have seen this on a couple of other blogs that I read. So I thought I'd give it a go.

This weeks question is: "What are you reading and why are you reading it?"

I'm reading a few things this week, all are for my LibraryThing challenges I've got going for 2011.


Beyond Evie is the coming of age story of Charlotte, who feels a bit left behind by life, since her father passed away, she hasn't really spoken about it until Evie. Evie is the new girl that Charlotte works with at the local bakery. I'm enjoying this so far, it's by Australian author Rebecca Burton, whose first novel is supposed to be very good - another one for Mt. TBR, but really what's one more!









This was recommended to me by a friend, I'm a fan of Evanovich, I've not read her Stephanie Plum series, but I loved the Full series and I'm slowly working my way through her earlier titles. Alex moves to Alaska to find herself a man - all thanks to Alaska's lack lustre man to woman ratio. She meets Casey, who in anybody else's opinion, would be prime material, hilarity follows I'm told.









I first read this in high school a long time ago, and found it again last year as a rerelease, I've only read the first bit so far but I'm enjoying it enough to keep reading. I remember this was supposed to be a true story, the diary of an anonymous teen girl who was sucked into the world of drugs with no way out, I didn't particularly believe that then and I definately don't now. This was written by Beatrice Sparks, who also wrote a number of other diaries that she just happened to 'find', dealing with Satanism, teen pregnancy and HIV, to name a few.



I started reaing this last year, but I keep getting side tracked by other stuff, it doesn't help that I'm reading it on my iPhone. So it's usually trucked out when I'm waiting in line. I'm enjoying it enough, but I'm not finding it terribly scary or thhrilling, which is the side effect of reading it in parts. Oolanga has just had a first hand experience with the worm, so I think it's curtains for him, but there's still plenty of other unsuspecting victims and let's not forget the kite flying, fun for the whole family!*


* Apparently kite flying is the perfect thing to scare off a bird infestation - I'm still confused about that, (and a few other things, maybe the application of vodka would help?).


So there you have it, a few different things on the boil and who knows what we'll start reading for book club, something a bit happy I think, we're discussing and watching The Road by Cormac McCarthy tonight, which should be fun (well as much fun as an apocalyptic road book/movie can be), but I think it'll give great discussion. I've already got lots floating around my head. I really enjoyed the book, I love the lyrical way that McCarthy writes. This is the first that I've read of his - I've seen No Country for Old Men, but I'll be heading out to the shelves to find out what else we have of his.

C.

Books I've read in 2009 - April

I haven't added my books I've read lately - only a few months behind, so here's Aprils. Be thrilled people, be thrilled!!

15. Poppy Shakespeare by ??? - This was a playaway, not sure if I would have finished it otherwise. It was actually a little annoying. The main character, known as 'N', narrates the story of how Poppy came to be at the mental health daycare centre. There was one thing that N said over and over which got annoying quickly. That said, this did have funny moments and the author describes the menagerie of characters so that they add to the story rather that detract. Overall, not a bad noivel, the ending is just depressing and really sad. It ended completely differently to what I was expecting.

16. Mavrick by Lora Leigh - Yay, new Lora was my first reaction. But I was actually a bit disappointed with this. It continues the Elite Ops series that has spun off from her Tempting SEALs series. Many of the reoccuring characters shor up in this. It continues and (sort of) conclues the back story of the kidnapping of Kari and Emily by her father and the beginning of the relationship between Kari and 'Mavrick', who wants to avenge his mothers death and the hands of Orion, who also had a hand in kidnapping the girls and is the new threat in Kari's life. It's safe to say that Leigh has a reoccuring theme that runs through her books - her leading men find redemption through the women they love, but it would be great to see her write something where this wasn't part of the story. I'm hoping that the Australian character that she has will steer clear of it, especially since he seems a bit frisky and rather happy go lucky. Personally for me, the best bit of the books - all for the wrong reasons mind you - was when he and Mavrick are talking about Mavricks 'stare' or as the skippy dude puts it - his 'Mossad facade' - absolute gold.
17. Marley & Me by John Grogan - This was April's book club book and I really enjoyed it, I guess everyone is able to relate in someway to the story. Growing up we had a dog just like Marley, who thought nothing of destroying the house if we were so insensitive t o leave her home. But she was such a good dog, she got forgiven quick snap. I enjoyed Grogan's style of writing, he was quite funny and I think Istarted tote book not thinking I would like it so much, but the balance between Marley stories and Grogan's life were a nice mix, I coiuldn't help but get on the Marlye bandwagon.

18. Body Double by Tess Gerritson - Another author I hadn't read ye, I'm doing quite well with the resolution to read anything and everything this year. This is part of a series that features ME Maura Isles and Det. Jane Rizzoli. It was well written, snappy and kept me interested. Maura comes back from a trip to Paris to be confronted by a murdered woman in her front yard, one that looks exactly like her. She discovers truths about her past and the sister she never knew. Meanwhile, her friend Det. Rizzoli is investigating the murder, while trying to prepare for the birth of her first child. Uncovering the truth could harm Maura and Jane in more ways than one. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

Well that's it for April, I'll have to get the butt into gear and add the rest, sometimes I really wish I had those damn innerwebs at home! Would make my life a whole lot bloody easier I tell ya. Enjoy the rest of your Saturday :)

C.