Well. Obviously I’ve dropped the ball. Since my last post I’ve probably read 70 books, at least. But, I’ve also been in school full time. I have a two week break soon, and my number one goal is to log at least three books from that time.
Since my last post I’ve actually finished two books, so, I’ll knock them both out right now!
‘Just After Sunset’ – Stephen King
Stephen King’s “newest” (2008) collection of short stories. I’m an old school Stephen King fan, and really haven’t enjoyed all of his newest novels, so it took me a while to get around to reading this one.
I loved it. I had forgotten what an amazing story teller he is, and I so enjoyed the short story format. It’s been a while since I’ve sat an read an entire book of shorts by one author, so I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy the style, having gotten so used to the long novels I’ve been reading.
There were so many excellent stories in this book though, he seemed to focus on 9/11, and 9/11 “like” events, and how they effected people mentally. There were some interesting spins on how people might deal with something of that magnitude. A few of the stories were just vintage King, and wonderful. I was really happy with this book, it’s got me back on a King kick though, the next book I read was great, but I missed the suspense/evil behavior I had gotten into with this one!
‘Land of a Hundred Wonders’ – Leslie Kagen
Some how, through some crazy, amazing turns over the past few years I’ve managed to meet and correspond with some of my favorite authors. A batch of them live in the Wisconsin area, and are a pack of amazing, talented, and kind hearted women. These women have not only entertained my team mate/book club buddy, but for some reason been kind enough to introduce us to MORE authors, and provide us with signed copies of their books for our yearly auction.
Sandra Kring is one of those authors, this year after many back and forth e-mails, my team mate got to meet her (and said she was amazing, we love her books, so we behave a touch like groupies with authors, sad…) and she suggested we read her friend, Leslie Kagen (who also sent us signed books! Yay!).
This is the first book I’ve read of hers, but not her first book, I will be reading the rest though. I love this style, if you’ve read Kris Radish, Jacquelin Mitchard, or Sandra Kring, you’ll know the style I mean. I don’t want to call it “Chick Lit” because it’s generally stronger, and more meaningful, but they do center on relationships, more often then not female.
‘Land of a Hundred Wonders’ is set in the south in the 70’s, it touched on so many themes, racism, the war, drug use, and family tragedies. The main character is a girl who has suffered from brain damage, and it was really interesting to read from her point of view. The author does a excellent job of explaining the thoughts in Gibbie’s head, how she would think them, well giving enough to you, that you generally have a better idea of what’s going on then she does. It’s the third time recently I’ve read books from a different sort of perspective, and I find I get really pulled in. I like trying to understand that view point.
At it’s core, it was a love story, but a love story between many people, it moved quickly, but not so quickly that I felt cheated. Like I said, I’ll read her other books for sure. I think they’ll make nice summer reading material out on my deck at night after the boy is asleep.
In November my friend and I for some reason thought it’d be “fun” to read ‘War and Peace’…ahem.
‘War and Peace’ – Leo Tolstoy
This monster took me two months to finish. To be fair, it’s a slow read, really slow. In all honesty, I enjoyed it. It’s not for the feint of heart though, the novel flips back and forth between, logically, war time and peace time in Russia in the early 1800’s.
The war time, while interesting to a point, is heavily accurate, if that makes any sense at all. The author breaks down the specifics of war, and discuss’ his opinion on the strategies deployed by both the French and Russian armies. The peace time is much more entertaining to read, you focus on the same families, but understand a little more about how such a massive war affects the people of all classes.
My 1-10 rating, I actually gave it an 8. Like I said, I enjoyed it, I really did! My biggest complaint? Leo Tolstoy is a pious, uppity man, he wrote TWO epilogues for the book, one actually wrapping up the story lines, and the other giving his very, very long winded opinion on war strategies and how Russia could better fight next time around. It was very difficult to read through, but I read every damn word of the thing!
Getting crazy, I’ll add another recently read book tonight. (Currently I’m reading ‘Just After Sunset’ by Stephen King, not ready for a review yet though!
‘Promise Me’ – Nancy G. Brinker
I am heavily, and wholeheartedly involved in Susan G. Komen for the cure events. I’ll be walking in my third 3 Day for the Cure event this summer, and my team has raised over $16,000 for the organization. So, obviously I was excited to read the autobiography of the woman behind this organization!
It was so very different then I expected, I really didn’t know a ton about Nancy, we all know about Susan, but this brought the whole thing to a new level. You learn that giving to others, and not accepting bad things as the final answer was installed in them as children. Their mother helped them on a fund raising campaign to find a cure for Polio! Nancy is a business woman through and through, and reading her feelings on business, and how she’s protecting everything she promised to Susan really brings a fresh perspective to any negative new stories about the Komen group.
It’s also filled with statistics and history about breast cancer. I cried multiple times while reading it, something about it really touched me. It’s a fantastic read for anyone who has dealt with cancer of any kind, it really brought me a lot of hope about actually finding a cure. It also really encouraged me to continue to do what I’m doing, I’m hoping that by doing so, the same thing happens in my family, it’s just what you do, you help others. I hope my son sees my efforts, and continues them in some way, doesn’t have to be the same cause, just knowing he cares passionately about something will be enough.
Excellent book- highly recommended!
Since having my son in August of 2009 I have read 57 NEW books, I don’t keep track of books I’ve read more then once, so I know the number is higher. Since I started keeping an OCD listing of the books I read in July of 2005, I’ve read 248 books. I really love to read.
I actually am part of a book club, we’re two members strong at this point, and don’t actually meet, however, we encourage one another to read things we otherwise wouldn’t (‘War and Peace’ anyone?), and really enjoy discussing the books we “force” one another to read. We started with more people, and actual meetings, but it dwindled down to just us! (Might have been due to the threat of reading ‘War and Peace’)
I often have very strong feelings about books I’ve read, if the plot was good, if the writing was good, if it’s worth it to read anything more by the author, ect. This blog will be an outlet for my “reviews”. I assume no one will read it but me, which is fine.
I am my own book club.
My plan?
After reading a book, I will post my “review” here. I will also post “reviews” of other books I’ve read, starting with a book I read in early February;
‘The Things That Keep Us Here’ -Carla Buckley
On my simple 1-10 rating I give the books I read to help me remember if I enjoyed it, I wrote down a 10 for this one. It’s a beautifully written first novel. The world has a pandemic of a flu virus, a deadly flu virus, and the novel centers around one family dealing with it. I couldn’t stop myself from becoming slightly paranoid while I read it, there were times were the medical side of it had me honestly concerned and considering, strongly, whether my husband and I ought to build a safe room stocked with supplies. The author writes it with such passion, and such feeling, that you fall in love with every character, even the horrible ones. I read the book over two days, and I was quite sad when it was done, I really hope to see more from this author!
