Its been a while!

I can't believe its been so long since I last finished a book!  The cause is a combination of bad book choices (I decided to put down not one but TWO books halfway through) and life craziness including senior week at school (fun!) and moving into my new apartment (exciting but somewhat less fun)  Anyway things are finally settling down so I finished a book just last night.

Title: Fragment

Author: Warren Fahy

Did I like it: It (mostly) held my attention but it was very generic.

Should you read it: Don't, you can find other books that will be much more exciting and unique.

Synopsis: A boat full of biologists featured on a reality TV program find new creatures on an isolated island...

So like I said this book was perfectly sufficient as something to hold your attention, but it was one of the most cliche and ridiculous things I've read in a long time.  The book included a lot of boring and unnecessary talk and many  plot turns were predictable in their absurdity.  I'm not going to read it again and it has already faded into the background of my reading past.  Don't bother with this one.

As Promised!

TONS OF BOOKS!  So here we go:

Title: The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Did I like it: Its a holocaust book so its depressing, but I did like it.

Should you read it: If you are OK with holocaust books, then yeah, its one you should read.

Synopsis: In 1939 a girl is on a train with her mom and brother being taken to a family who will adopt her.  Story is about the next few years of her life with the adoptive family.


I'm not usually into holocaust books what with their depressive nature but this one hooked me in.  (And was recommended by a friend who insisted it was good) The book is narrated in a unique way and also approaches the holocaust from an unusual angle.  


Its a holocaust book so, duh, its depressing.  But its also good!  I couldn't put it down even when I had been traveling for 24 hours and was still in an airport.  Definitely check out this book.

Title: Many Waters

Author: Madeleine L'engle

Did I like it: Even more than last time I read it!

Should you read it:  Oh please do!

Synopsis: Sandy and Dennys, two side-characters from her other books, get transported to a 'warm sparsely populated place' by their father's experiment, and then...


Oh what a wonderful book!  An amazing adventure mixed with a sort of antique feeling which I love.  I think its the least trippy of her books that I've read.  In this one she really gets the mixture of wishy-washy new-agy-ness and adventure-y-ness just right.  I've read this book over and over since I was little and I've loved it every time.  Odds are you will too!

Title: True Spirit

Author: Jessica Watson

Did I like it: It was alright

Should you read it: If you like uplifting stories of human triumph, go for it.

Synopsis: Young girl decides to sail solo and unassisted around the world... and does it.  (True story)


So oddly, this book suggestion comes from the PI (aka the professor) of the lab one of my friends works in at school.  I suggested he read Shadow of the Wind and he suggested this in return.  I'd read a book called Dove in 7th grade about a similar story and had liked it so I inter-library-loan-ed this one.


And its OK.  Exactly what you'd expect from a book written by a 16 year old who recently finished sailing solo & unassisted around the world.  Its kind of an interesting adventure and uplifting and she tries to sound inspiring sort of, but shes also 16 and, not to minimize her achievement, its a huge deal, but it sounds like she kind of got lucky with weather conditions most of the time.  Its not an awful book though, check it out if you are jonesing for something to read but can't decide on anything.  Sooo, I'll end this post now before you all die of comma overdose...

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.