Jamie Talks About The Last 3 Books She Read

Hey all! September was an awful reading month for me as I've mentioned on here earlier in the month (great month otherwise!). I only read 2 books and, while that's great compared to probably the rest of the world, it's so bizarre to have read so few books for me. But October is here and I've already read one book so hopefully I'll get back into the swing of reading!

Let's talk about the last 3 books I did read though!

Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman: 

This was such an adventurous romp through the Wild West! Definitely digging the Western setting -- gold mining, shootouts, lots of horse riding, gangs, etc. I enjoyed this book but it didn't quite make me LOVE it because I just didn't feel much for the characters. The main character is someone I felt badly for -- she lost her mother early on in life and now her dad just got murdered by a notoriously awful gang and she is driven by revenge to go find them and settle the score. But the problem was I didn't feel like she ever became more to me than a girl who was hellbent on exacting revenge. You see hints of other aspects of her character but I never felt anything except this revenge. There were some surprises in this book and I thought as far as the action and adventure went it was compelling but it was lacking in the character department for me.
I received this book for review consideration and this did not affect my opinion in any way.

Rating -- 3/5 stars

 

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: 

 This book was soooo hyped so I added myself to the library request list and waited until like literally 500 other people read it before me. FINALLY I received it! And guess what? It was JUST AS GOOD AS EVERYONE SAID. I loved it so much! I'm always a sucker for a WWII setting (probably one of my favorite settings for historical fiction) and I loved both POVs so much. I love the way it flipped timeframes and how that allowed their stories to unravel as we awaited how their path's would cross. COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. Worthy of the praise!

Rating -- 4.5/5 stars

 

 

 

The Status of All Things by Liz Fenton & Liz Steinke: 

This was a quick and enjoyable read! It's about a woman whose marriage-to-be has fallen apart and she gets the chance to go back and change things. It had a supernatural sort of method like Landline by Rainbow Rowell for how she gets to go back and change things to make it better between she and her fiance though I found Landline to be more impactful and thoughtful for me. I also really enjoyed the conversation about social media and how it can be good but also how it can be deceiving. 

Rating -- 3/5 stars

 

 

Have you read any of these books? Thoughts? Tell me the last 3 books YOU read!!

 

 

Lori Reviews The World According to Garp by John Irving

Title:  The World According to Garp

Author:  John Irving

Publication Information:  First published in 1978

How I Got This Book:  Honestly, I don't remember where I bought it, but I know I purchased my copy.

Goodreads Synopsis: This is the life of T.S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields--a feminist leader ahead of her time. This is the life and death of a famous mother and her almost-famous son; theirs is a world of sexual extremes--even of sexual assassinations. It is a novel rich with "lunacy and sorrow"; yet the dark, violent events of the story do not undermine a comedy both ribald and robust. In more than forty countries--with more than ten million copies in print--this novel provides almost cheerful, even hilarious evidence of its famous last line: "In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases."

My Thoughts:  I really enjoyed this one, even though it took me a while to finally finish.  It's funny because I stopped in the middle of a chapter because it started to drag for me.  Several weeks later I picked it back up and within two pages it picked up and I couldn't hardly put it down.

This is my second experience with John Irving.  I read and loved The Cider House Rules back in high school.  I own two (three?) more of his novels.  A Prayer for Owen Meany will definitely be my next Irving.

Though it didn't seem like it before reading the novel, the above synopsis (which is also on the back of my copy of the book) does a pretty good job of summing up the plot.

It leaves out the hilarious and real characters that Irving creates within this novel.  They are complex.  They have layers.  They mean well and are serious, but at times sometimes totally undermines that and it's hilarious and that's how life is.

One of the main things I took away from this novel is that you should just be good and kind to folks because they're folks.  Don't judge.  Don't hold them to your own personal standards.  Help them, regardless of who they are, because they need help.  And also oftentimes you can help and support someone the most by just listening and being there.  It doesn't always take a crazy act of solidarity to show your support.

My one gripe is the last chapter, which goes through the main characters and details what happens to them.  As I read it, it felt like it dragged.  But I know if this hadn't been included, I would have been frustrated and wondered what happened.  Many of the characters met comical ends, which was kind of "eh" for me.

All in all this is a good book.  And I think I would probably read it again some day.

Lori Reviews The Signature of All Things

Title:  The Signature of All Things
Author:  Elizabeth Gilbert
Publication Information:  October 2013, Viking Adult
How I Got This Book:  I purchased it myself.  In multiple formats.  Because I couldn't help myself.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads:  In The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction, inserting her inimitable voice into an enthralling story of love, adventure and discovery. Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker—a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry's brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father's money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable gifts herself. As Alma's research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a man named Ambrose Pike who makes incomparable paintings of orchids and who draws her in the exact opposite direction — into the realm of the spiritual, the divine, and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose a utopian artist — but what unites this unlikely couple is a desperate need to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all life.

Exquisitely researched and told at a galloping pace, The Signature of All Things soars across the globe—from London to Peru to Philadelphia to Tahiti to Amsterdam, and beyond. Along the way, the story is peopled with unforgettable characters: missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, astronomers, sea captains, geniuses, and the quite mad. But most memorable of all, it is the story of Alma Whittaker, who — born in the Age of Enlightenment, but living well into the Industrial Revolution — bears witness to that extraordinary moment in human history when all the old assumptions about science, religion, commerce, and class were exploding into dangerous new ideas. Written in the bold, questing spirit of that singular time, Gilbert's wise, deep, and spellbinding tale is certain to capture the hearts and minds of readers.

My Thoughts:  A lot has been written about this book already.  And, I must say, the good stuff is all true.  (I don't know what the bad stuff is, so I don't know whether or not I'd agree...)  

One of my friends and I were so excited about reading this book, even before it came out, that we really kind of psyched ourselves out.  We were so afraid of being disappointed by our expectations that it took me almost a year to actually read the novel.  I loved Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love and I desperately wanted to love this novel, even knowing that the two would be so different that they might not even be comparable.  This friend and I talked about the novel so much that the abbreviation "SOAT" is in both of our autocorrects.

Somehow I was finally able to set aside my expectations, hopes, and fears and completely devour the novel.  It was fabulous.

I loved Alma as a character.  I loved how the focus of the novel was on how she was able to find completion and wonder in her work at a time when a woman was a failure if she weren't married with umpteen children by the time she was in her mid-twenties.  At the time that I read the novel, I was single, childless, in my mid-twenties, unemployed, with no idea as to what I wanted to do for the future.  I'm still single, childless, in my mid-twenties, and am not 100% sure of what I want to do for the future--I did, however, find a job--but I felt and feel better about all of it.  Not that I was feeling that bad about it to begin with, but I definitely felt unsettled by all of the question marks in my life.  I'll find my passion eventually and the other puzzle pieces of my life will come together eventually as well.  And all of that is OK.

Back to the book...I loved the grand, sweeping style in which the novel was written.  I felt like I was reading a masterful classic that completely transported me to a different place and time.  I think Gilbert's talents of describing the scene in Eat, Pray, Love definitely shine through in her descriptions of setting here.  She minutely, but not tediously, describes people, places, and objects.  I'm sure that contradicts with "grand" and "sweeping," but it really doesn't when you read the book.

Bottom line--The novel was absolutely enchanting and that is why you need to read it.

Lori Reviews The Thorn Birds

Title: The Thorn Birds

Author:  Colleen McCullough

Published:  Avon, 1977

Where I Got It:  My mom gave me this book.

Summary from Goodreads:  Powered by the dreams and struggles of three generations, THE THORN BIRDS is the epic saga of a family rooted in the Australian sheep country. At the story's heart is the love of Meggie Cleary, who can never possess the man she desperately adores, and Ralph de Bricassart, who rises from parish priest to the inner circles of the Vatican...but whose passion for Meggie will follow him all the days of his life.

Why I Read It:  My mom and grandma loved this book when it came out.  A few years ago (4? 5?), my mom, who is totally not a reader, gave me a copy.  I picked it up a few times and set it aside.  One time I even read about 2/3 of it before stopping.  I just couldn't finish.  This year I signed up to participate in Roof Beam Reader's TBR Pile Challenge and wanted to finally finish--mostly because this book obviously meant enough to my mom for her to buy me a copy.

My thoughts:  I decided to tackle this book first for the TBR Pile Challenge because of my mom.  I wasn't getting any pressure from her, but I felt like I needed to finally read the novel.  I read the entire thing in six days.  It's not a particularly short book.  I just couldn't put it down.  Maybe it was a right book, right time kind of thing.  Who knows?

The book starts out on Meggie's fourth birthday.  She is the youngest of several children and the only girl.  Her family is fairly poor, so they tend to get practical gifts, like clothes and shoes.  Except this time Meggie's mom bought her a beautiful doll that Meggie had seen on her only trip into town.  Meggie absolutely treasured that doll.  The opening chapters do a wonderful job of setting up the family dynamic--the mother works all the time on the home, the father is lord and master, the eldest brother has a great anger in him.  It's a dynamic that is explored throughout the book.  We all have our reasons for doing what we do and acting the way we act--they're just not always apparent to the outside world until much later.  That's the case here.

The big plot is Meggie falling in love with a priest.  That's what this book is known for, right?  I loved the dynamic between the priest and Meggie!  He was about eighteen years older than her and first met her when she was a child.  So, in some ways he always thought of her in that light.  But she grew up and became a lovely woman and he was attracted to her.  He struggled with how to honor his vows and also honor with woman he loved. (I was raised Protestant, and converted to Catholicism, so I am used to pastors being able to marry; however, my eventual children will be raised Catholic and I am kind of curious to see how they react to this story...)  However, it's not the love that is the main point.  It's the pain caused by the love, by the things we want most in life, that is the point.

When she novel shifted focus to Justine and Dane, I very nearly lost interest.  Justine is really abrasive and I didn't like her.  A couple of things seemed to come out of left field.  But they eventually make sense.  Honestly, one of those things almost made me yell out when I was reading the novel at work (I work in a library frequented by graduate students, so we keep things very quiet...).  Then the last passage beautifully ties it all together and is the reason I give the book four stars:

Each of us has something within us which won't be denied, even if it makes us scream aloud to die. We are what we are, that's all. Like the old Celtic legend of the bird with the thorn in its breast, singing its heart out and dying. Because it has to, its self-knowledge can't affect or change the outcome, can it? Everyone singing his own little song, convinced it's the most wonderful song the world has ever heard. Don't you see? We create our own thorns, and never stop to count the cost. All we can do is suffer the pain, and tell ourselves it was well worth it.

Life is pain, but we endure.

It wasn't the best written novel in the world.  And that's fine.  I wasn't expecting it to be.  But the story!  Oh, the story definitely sweeps you along and sometimes you just can't breathe.

Paula's short review of A Short Stay In Hell

 

A Short Stay In Hell by Steven L. Peck

Strange Violin Editions  

Lent to me by a friend

4 stars

A few months ago my friend was over for dinner and saw that I was reading On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony. The cover of my edition was a great illustration of Death riding in a Cadillac and prompted a discussion of how we both adore books that take on different views and discussions of death (and capital D personification Death). Her immediate recommendation was the novella A Short Stay in Hell. 

The premise of the book is simple. Our main character, Soren Johansson, has died. He led a simple Mormon life and died young of health reasons. He finds himself in Hell- because all along Zoroastrianism was the true religion. The great thing about this religion? Hell isn't eternal. The downside... it can still last a very very very very very very very long time. (We're still talking millions of years). Soren gets cast into a specific hell based on The Library of Babel. He is told that as soon as he finds the book that contains his life story he is allowed to leave. Being cast into a library for awhile- that sounds awesome right? Soren quickly finds out that is not the case. This library contains every book that has ever been written and Soren can't leave until he finds his own....

Guys. This book is so good. It reminds me (in the best kind of way) of that Twilight Zone episode Time Enough At Last where the bookworm's glasses break. Clocking in at just over 100 pages - it only took me an hour or so to read. I devoured it. Each event that happened was perfectly chosen and needed to be in the story. This book presents a lot of different ideas on death and eternity and isolation. But in a way that doesn't feel forced or "REALLY IMPORTANT" like a lot of literature tends to do. 

Unfortunately since it is such a small release- it might be difficult to find a copy at a big box store. But it should be available on Amazon. http://amzn.com/098374842X so if you are looking for something quick to read that will still fill your mind with amazing thoughts. I highly suggest you click that link.

Lori Reviews The Song of Achilles

Title: The Song of Achilles

Author: Madeline Miller

Published: Harper Collins, 2012

Where I Got It:  This book was sent to me by the publisher for review.

I'm really not even sure where to begin with this review.  As many of you know, I am a major fan of the classics.  But a lot of them really intimidate me.  Especially the Greeks.  A few blogs I personally follow recently read The Iliad and The Odyssey and I really wanted to read them, but I was really scared.  Then the opportunity to review this book, which is a modern retelling of The Iliad, came up.  Needless to say I jumped on it and I am so glad that I did.

This book tells the story of The Iliad in novel form, which makes it incredibly accessible to readers who are unfamiliar with Homer or are just intimidated by it.  Naturally, Miller had to take some creative license, but she did the research to make sure that she was at least in the spirit of the story.  Miller chose to tell the story from the perspective of Patroclus, who was Achilles companion/lover.  Patroclus was a very minor character in the original, so this was a very interesting choice for narrator, but I think it was spot on for telling a greater story about Achilles from someone very close to him.

The story starts off with Patroclus as a young boy witnessing the ceremony in which Helen (the face that launched a thousand ships) became betrothed to Menelaus.  One thing leads to another and Patroclus finds himself in Phthia, where he soon meets young Achilles.  They soon become companions.  Then they become more than companions.  Achilles's mother, Thetis, a sea-nymph, does not like Patroclus one bit.  Achilles goes off for training and Patroclus soon follows.  Eventually they find themselves called upon to fight in the war once Paris and Helen sneak off to Troy.  Miller does a good job of developing life in the Greek camps on the island of Troy, but does not get bogged down in the fact that ten years pass while they're on the island.  Then there are a few climactic battle scenes and the war ends.

I thought this book was exquisitely done.  Miller's choice of Patroclus as the narrator was perfect.  Because he is such a minor character in The Iliad, she was able to fully develop his personality.  As Achilles's lover, Patroclus was able to give the reader a more human look at one of the most famous heroes of all time.  The prospect of becoming a hero for all time surely changes a person, right?  Right.  And Patroclus is able to be sympathetic but also able to call it like he sees it when Achilles gets out of hand.  Miller develops this dynamic into something of a beautiful love story of two individuals who truly and purely appreciate each other, a facet of the story that stands out very strongly in my mind.

Bottom Line:  I highly recommend this book for people who are intimidated by Homer and are looking for an introduction before diving right in; for people who are looking for a good love story with a fair bit of action and adventure; and for people who really liked Homer and want something else.

Jessi Reviews The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Title/Author: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Publisher/Year: Riverhead Trade, 2009
Where I Got It: I picked up a copy from my library's used book sale
Why I Read It: Any book blurbed by Stephen King is a must-read for me!


Synopsis (from Goodreads): 



With The Little Stranger, Waters revisits the fertile setting of Britain in the 1940s - and gives us a sinister tale of a haunted house, brimming with the rich atmosphere and psychological complexity that have become hallmarks of Waters's work.

The Little Stranger follows the strange adventures of Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. One dusty postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline - its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.

Abundantly atmospheric and elegantly told, The Little Stranger is Sarah Waters's most thrilling and ambitious novel yet.


Review: 


This book came as a surprise to me in many ways.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

I was surprised by how quickly the pages flew by.

I was surprised by how good it was.

I mean, Sarah Waters can really write. When I first picked this up and saw that it was 500 pages long, I was wary. I thought it would take me forever to get through. After the first 40-ish pages, though, I was hooked. I felt like I was hypnotized. I'd sit down for what felt like ten minutes, and here it'd be hours later and I'd be hundreds of pages down the road. Even when I wanted to be doing other things, like blogging or whatever, I couldn't bring myself to put the book down. And like I said, Sarah Waters writes really well. Her prose is beautiful, but at the same time, I wasn't even really aware that I was reading. I was able to picture everything perfectly clear, and her story is one of the most atmospheric I've ever read. Hundreds Hall was so sinister, it was like I could feel it oozing off the pages. I was genuinely creeped out at parts, particularly that nursery scene.

I did have a few frustrations, though. By the end, Doctor Faraday made me want to scream, which I'm guessing was Sarah Water's intention. I get it. You have to play the rational card. But seriously--how much has to happen for you to start thinking that maybe something weird is happening that can't be explained rationally? Also, without wanting to give anything away, I found him to be too forward and definitely too persistent without having any reason to be so. Crazy obsessive stalker, much?

And finally, the ending just didn't really do it for me. I thought it was terribly anti-climactic. It was like, "Oh man, all this stuff is happening!" and then all of a sudden: "Oh...well...okay, I suppose that's it." Part of my frustration with the ending, too, is that Sarah Waters leaves it with one of those open-ended endings for the reader to decide what happened. Personally, I'm not a big fan of those, so it didn't work for me.

All things considered, though, it was an awesome read. Gothic, subtle, creepy, atmospheric, hypnotizing. I would definitely recommend it.

Jessi Reviews "The Plague of Doves"

Title/Author: The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
Publisher/Year: Harper Perennial, 2009
How I Got This: As a Christmas present
Why I Read It: I think Louise Erdrich is an amazing, yet underappreciated author
Rating: 4 Stars

Synopsis:

A beautiful, compelling, utterly original new novel from one of the most important American writers of our time. Pluto, North Dakota, is a town on the verge of extinction. Its unsavory origins -- which lie in white greed -- contain the seeds of its demise. Here, everybody is connected -- by love or friendship, by blood, and, most importantly, by the burden of a shared history. Evelina Harp, a witty, ambitious young girl, part Ojibwe, part white, is growing up on the reservation. She is prone to falling hopelessly in love, most notably with her cousin, Corwin Peace, a misfit with a late-discovered talent for music, and then with her teacher, Sister Maria Anita Buckendorf, a godzilla-like nun whose frank acceptance of herself is irresistible. Mooshum, Evelina's grandfather, is a seductive storyteller, a repository of family and tribal history; listening enraptured to his tales Evelina learns of a horrific crime that has marked both Ojibwe and whites, whose fates have been inextricably bound ever since.Nobody understands the weight of that crime better than Judge Antone Bazil Coutts, a half breed from Pluto, who also suffers from pains in the love department; as a judge on the reservation, he keeps watch over its inhabitants and recounts their lives with compassion and rare insight. In distinct and winning voices, Evelina and Judge Coutts unravel the intertwining stories of their families, their friends, and their lovers, the descendents of both the perpetrators and victims of the historic crime. Louise Erdrich's characteristically graceful prose and sense of the comic and the tragic sweep readers along to the surprising conclusion of this stunning novel, a portrait of the complex allegiances, passions, and drama of a haunting land and its all-too-human people.



Louise Erdrich has just become one of my new favorite authors. This was an excellent book. Have you ever finished a book and felt like your own words were not enough to convey how great a book was? Because that's how I'm feeling right now. Simply put, Erdrich has a beautiful voice. I found myself pulled into this story just because of her writing style alone. She writes her tale in a non-linear fashion but never lets the reader falter or become confused. Her language was just exquisite. It was honestly hard for me to put this book down--not so much because it was riveting plot-wise (because it really wasn't) but because I felt like I was bathing in her words. She has a way of wording things that makes so much sense but that you would never think of yourself. In one scene, the narrator at the time, Evelina, is describing her parents helping her move into college and what it was like just before they left her: 

My father, so thin and athletic, looked almost frail with shock, while my mother, whose beauty was still remarkable and who was known on the reservation for her silence and reserve, had left off her characteristic gravity. Her face, and my father's face, were naked with love. It wasn't something that we talked about--love--and I was terrified of its expression from the lips of my parents. But they allowed me this one clear look at it. Their love blazed from them. And then they left. I think now that everything that was concentrated in that one look--their care in raising me, their patient lessons in every subject they knew to teach, their wincing efforts to give me freedoms, their example of fortitude in work--allowed me to survive myself.

My favorite part of reading books is often the characters. Nothing makes me happier than when I read a book with characters I know I won't soon forget or even just characters who are incredibly well-developed. I definitely found those here. My favorite characters were Evelina and then probably Mooshum. The thing that made this book so great for me was that Erdrich weaved the tales of the people living in Pluto and the nearby reservation with such care that I felt like I was glimpsing parts of a spiderweb as the intricate connections between characters slowly came to light. As I said before, this is not a book with much going on as far as the plot is concerned, but I never felt as though that took away from it. I rather enjoyed hearing these stories, learning the history of the town and its characters, and discovering all of the connections until the final surprise at the end. 

If I were asked to say what this book was about, I think that honestly the publisher's blurb is perfect and I couldn't word it any other way. I'd recommend this for those looking for a new author to try or for those who like immersing themselves in the language and the telling of a story.

Nathan Reviews The Art of Racing in the Rain

Title/Author: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Publisher/Year: Harper Paperbacks; Reprint edition (2009)
How I got this book: I bought it at Barnes & Noble
Why I read this book: I researched many books for a school project. I had to find a novel that fit in the literary fiction genre, read it, and present about it. I found this one to read and once I got a couple chapters in, the reading became more than just a school assignment.

Synopsis: Enzo is a philosophically inclined and intelligent dog who wants to be a man when he dies and is reincarnated. He lives with Denny, the best race car driver that ever lived - in Enzo's opinion. This book recounts the life of Enzo, including the highlights and the horrible. Enzo can teach us humans a thing or two about being a human through his experiences as a dog and through his shared wisdom about race car driving.

My thoughts: This book made me cry at the end! I saw it coming for a couple of chapters, but I was so emotionally attached to Enzo that I cried my eyes out for the last 20 pages or so. I couldn't stop crying until I fell asleep. It was sad and wonderful and beautiful all at the same time.

Enzo is such a reliable narrator despite being a dog. He knows so much about how we operate and how we view the world. His greatest wish is to become a human in his next life. He lives with Denny, who eventually marries Eve and has a wonderful daughter Zoe. They are happy together, but through a horrible series of events, Denny must fight for his family.

Although this would technically be classified as Literary Fiction, it is not hard to read or understand. Enzo provides us with his knowledge in a clear and open way. He teaches us how to be better humans through his observations of Denny and his interactions with others as well as the knowledge he has gained from his experience with race cars. I would recommend this novel to an older audience because of some of the language used and a little bit of sexual content (like two or three lines).

The plot of the novel is a little slow at times, although it picks up drastically in the middle of the book. The language used by Stein is simple and beautiful. It sounds at times as though the narrator is not a dog but some kind of a yogi-race car driver mix. The end offers many pieces of advice about racing in the rain and living your life as a better human. You'll have to read the book, which does not take very long (unless you have tons of homework...), to find out why I became so attached to Enzo and why the ending is a true tear-jerker. You will become so attached to Enzo that you will think about him long after you read this book. He is unforgettable in my opinion. The plot twists will make you cry, get angry, yell, laugh out loud, and smile. If you actually invest your time in reading this book and don't cry at the end, something is wrong...

Rating: 5 stars

*Note: This post will also appear on my personal blog at: Man and Dog