Update

So you may have noticed that I've been slightly delinquent lately.  This is because I have to give a thesis talk on Monday and I'm slightly (read: majorly) freaking out and my response to that is to spend even more time in lab.  (I go days at a time without seeing my roomates, its a little scary)

That said, I will be done with everything (well, just college really) on Monday at 5(!), so you can look forward to soon hear about the books I've been reading in the meantime:  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Many Waters by Madeleine L'engle (who's name is not pronounced Legeney, which I thought as a child), True Spirit by Jessica Watson, and soon Fragment by Warren Fahy.  (Still working on The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl as well, but seeing as that needs to be returned to the school library in order for me to get my diploma, I may not finish it any time soon...)

Have a good week everyone (yes, all of you who read my blog so regularly!)

Lots of love books these days

Title: The History of Love

Author: Nicole Krauss

Did I like it: Yup, but it felt more frivolous than Shadow of the Wind

Should you read it: Its interesting and unusual, I'd say go for it.

Synopsis: Mainly following the lives of a funny old dude and a young girl both living in the same city.


This was a good book, a nice read, I was drawn into it, and was sad to finish it.  However it doesn't even come close to Shadow of the Wind.  This book was lent to me by the same friend who lent me SotW, so maybe thats why I'm comparing them in my mind, because really they are very different books.  I suppose they are both about love, but they approach that topic in different ways, are set in different times and places, and have very different types of characters.


Regardless, SotW was an amazing book (which you should read) which means that even though this book isn't quite as good, its still really not a bad book.  Actually, its a pretty good book.  At times it was very funny, at other times sad.  I really liked the 'old dude', enjoyed his morbid humor.  I just didn't fall in love with him the way I did with Fermin in SotW.  You should read this book though.  If every book you read was amazing you wouldn't appreciate them as much.


Side notes:


Apparently the author is married to the guy who wrote Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, another book you should definitely read, which is interesting because 1) the books sound similar now that I think of it and 2) my brother's friend who was staying with us while I read this book was reading that book. Also, I read this book in Israel.  I'm trying to remember where I started it, probably the first night I was there, but I've found that jetlag-induced sleepyness makes my memory bad.  Anyway, it'll be interesting to come back and read it when I'm not in a different country.


Lastly, this is not the book that I mentioned in my previous post that was boring me.  I left that book at school over break.  Maybe I'll pick it back up when I get back, I do hate stopping books in the middle, but it was making my nighttimes boring.

A meta book

Title: Among Others

Author: Jo Walton

Did I like it: Yes, but I'm not super excited about it the way I was about Shadow of the Wind

Should you read it: Bibliophiles will like it, and others may as well.

Synopsis: A teen who loves to read and sees fairies starts at a boarding school following a mysterious incident.

I think my favorite part of this book was the discussions of other books.  The book is overdue, but I'm going to sit and make a list of all the books mentioned before returning it because the discussions were so enticing!  The only unfortunate thing is that the book is set in '79/'80, so no recent books are mentioned.  

I personally didn't like the mentions of fairies but perhaps that is because the fairies are difficult in the book, and I'd prefer them to be easier.  There were also parts of the book that were painful to read, but in a good way, a way that books need in order to feel like you read something worthwhile instead of something frivolous.  

Like I said above, if you like reading, especially scifi, definitely check out this book. I feel like I'm sort of glossing over this post and I feel bad about it.  I finished the book a while ago at this point but just haven't had the time to post because of my thesis, and the book has already faded into my past.  On top of that I'm really not enticed by my current book and may (gasp) stop reading it and switch to another...  We'll see.

Almost a New Favorite

Title: The Shadow of the Wind

Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Did I like it: I was seriously considering making this my new favorite book, so yes.

Should you read it: Yes. If you only read one book this month (or semester or whatever), read this one.

Synopsis: A complicated weave about books, reading, writing, love, relationships, and the landscape of life. Also beautiful writing.

You may have noticed that its been a while, almost three weeks in fact! There are a few reasons for that. In part I was busy relishing this book, in the same way I take a lot longer to eat a good pickle. In other part I've been deep in the trenches of the job application process and a draft of my thesis is due on Wednesday, so I've been incredibly busy.

I absolutely adored this book. The writing was vivid, direct, and connecting. I didn't just fall into this book, I also admired the skill of the author. The story was also enrapturing, sentimental and sometimes surprising. The characters feel like real people and I miss them. I have a favorite character even though I don't usual feel so strongly about one character. I also spent a great deal of time being very mad at one character, another thing that doesn't usually happen to me.

You should read this book. No matter who you are, whether you like fiction or non-fiction, scifi or cookbooks. Whether you read regularly or have (somehow) never read before. This book was an experience for me, and I hope that you can have that experience too.

(As an end-note, it is not my new favorite but I don't want to say why because I don't want to influence your opinion of the book before you read it. If you read it and still want to talk about why its not my favorite, get in touch with me.)

Meh

Title: Watchmen
Author: Alan Moore
Did I like it:  It was good but I'm not sure it lived up to the hype
Should you read it:  Probably.  Its always interesting reading in graphic novel form, but the book isn't riveting 100% of the time.
Synopsis:  The stories of a group of people brought together by their desire to anonymously help humanity.

While this book is very different from the one I read before it (The Attack), for some reason the tone almost felt the same to me.  Maybe I was still subconsciously caught up in The Attack, but that sort of foreboding tone made the book a bit less enjoyable for me.  That said, I did like this book, I thought the plot was creative and I really enjoyed the way the many different plotlines wove around each other.  I also thought that the graphic novel medium was used really well, and allowed the story to be told in a way that wouldn't have been possible without the pictures.  

Ok, now I want to say something else about this book but I hate it when people say stuff like this to me, so I'll give you an opportunity to not read this next part.  Its not a spoiler, but please skip the next paragraph if you plan on reading this book.

I didn't like the ending of this book.  I think I always initially don't like endings that are drastic with unpleasant implications like this one (maybe I'm squeamish or blindly optimistic about the way the world really is, and these sorts of endings shatter my blinkers...).  The ending left an unpleasant aroma in my mind and since I was about to go to sleep, that sort of overshadowed my day today.  (I hate it when people tell me stuff like this because then I spend the whole book looking for the thing the person told me about.  It changes my reading experience.)

Ok you can start reading again now.  Overall, I'd suggest this book to people who read at least semi-often and don't mind a tiny bit of scifi.  Its good and entertaining and parts of it are really fun too!  In the vein of graphic novels, I'd highly recommend Maus (by Art Spiegelman) and Persepolis (by Marjane Satrapi).  Both are wonderful and meaningful books and I'd say both are easily better than Watchmen.  Now I want to read Maus... I guess thats another book for the list!

Also, for anyone keeping track, we are in the 9th week of the year and I've read 13 books so far, for an average rate of 1.44 books a week.  

A Book and a Tangent

Title: The Attack
Author: Yasmina Khadra
Did I like it:  I liked it but may not read it again for a while.
Should you read it:  I'd say its definitely worth checking out, but probably not as your first book in a year.
Synopsis:  A terrorist attack sends many victims, including Dr. Jaafari's wife, to the hospital where he is a surgeon.  Shortly after realizing that his wife is dead, he is told that she is the prime suspect in the attack.  Cue depression.

This book was written very well.  I folded page corners throughout the book whenever I found a particularly wonderful sentence.  Here are a few:

"With a movement of her chin, she directs me to the living room, where a wicker chair and a worn old leather armchair are staring daggers at each other."

"By now her cigarette's just a twig of ashes suspended in the air."

"In Jenin, Reason has a mouth full of broken teeth, and it rejects any prosthesis capable of giving it back its smile."

This book was interesting because it narrated a side to the mess in the middle east that I personally don't encounter very often.  To be honest though, I don't really keep up with the news.  I'm generally far more interested in Tuesday's Science Times than in the front section of the paper any day of the week.  In that regard while the new perspective was intriguing, in some ways reading this book felt like work (or, as my mind puts it, like school).  I read to have fun, to relax, to be peaceful and quiet, and (cliche I know) sometimes to escape from parts of my life.  This book didn't really allow me to do that, so I probably won't read it again until I go literary (which does happen some times).  I did like it though, and would recommend it to the right type of person.

And now a story about how I got this book that you don't need to read because its not really relevant but that I think deserves to go here anyway.  I took a year off school before entering college.  One of the things I did that year was work part time at a Borders in D.C.  I loved that job.  At the time I didn't have very much to compare it to, and while I still haven't done much job-wise, it remains my favorite job with lots of fond memories.  The work was alright, but the people I worked with are really what made the experience what it was.  

I didn't buy so many books that year because we were allowed to "check out" the books in the store as if it was a library, but I decided that I was going to make the most of my employee discount while I had it and buy a bunch of books right before I left for school.  I asked a lot of people for suggestions and wandered around the store for a while with a V-cart picking out books I liked.  I don't remember exactly how many books I got or how much I spent, but I do remember that I definitely needed the V-cart because I couldn't carry them all at once, and that getting home that night wasn't easy.

I've since read all the other books I got that night, "The Attack" is the last one.  It still has the Borders sticker on it which tells me that it was printed on April 30th, 2007, and the triangular 3 for 2 sticker that I probably put on the book myself.  A close friend who was one of my coworkers at the bookstore at the time recommended it to me.  Recently Borders declared bankruptcy and the store I worked at is closing.  I think its sort of appropriate for me to be finishing the last of those books now as the store is being liquidated.  I'm sad to see the store closing and hopeful that my friends who are still there will find new jobs soon.  I feel like I need a concluding sentence here, but I don't know what else to say...  If you called a bookstore and someone answered the phone with "You've reached Borders at 18th and L home of the waffle, how can I help you?"  what would you say?

:)

Title: Pathfinder

Author: Orson Scott Card

Did I like it:  Yeah, I really really liked it.

Should you read it:  Yes, unless you have a deep deep hatred of scifi.  (not just deep, deep deep)

Synopsis:  Rigg goes on a journey in his wallfold, meets people, has adventures, and lays the groundwork for a second book in the series.

Let me begin by saying that I am biased in my review of this book.  Orson Scott Card is my favorite favorite author, so of course I liked this book.  Then again, he is my favorite author because for every one of his books that I have read, I have found myself engaged in the story, wanting to read more, and (a phrase I have used a lot this past week) addicted to his books as if they were crack!  So perhaps it is not that I am biased, but more that this book fit in with my observation-based expectations.  (I am a scientist, remember)

So, yeah, I loved this book.  I found myself reading a chapter or more before bed every night, I carried it with me to read in free moments during the day even though the book is kind of huge, and I simultaneously wanted to find out what happened, and wanted the book to never end.  When I finished the book I had a wonderful feeling of happy contentedness, similar to that "ahhhh" feeling you get when you arrive home from work and sink into a comfortable chair. 

Here is the deal though:  Not everyone should read this book (it kills me to say that though).  This book deals with some pretty heavy scifi topics.  If you have never read a scifi book before, don't start with this one.  If you scoff at silly things like wormholes (not saying that there *are* wormholes in this book, just an example) don't read this book.  However if you have read a few (or many) scifi books, then please read this book, you will like it.  

Also:  I'm taking book suggestions!  Post in the comments what books you think I should read.