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Get Well Soon - Jennifer Wright

Rating: 

This book is about some pretty gruesome topics, nothing I would particularly want to delve into without a guide who is both charming and insightful. Jennifer Wright is both with her sense of humor and her ability to shed light on some of these sore subjects. (SORE. GET IT?) 

Forgive me, I’m a little out of it. I just got put on an antibiotic and had the thrill of a tetanus shot. I’m tired, but determined to get this review done since I promised myself that I would do two a month. Man did I wait to the last minute for this one. 

This book was eye-opening. I knew about quite a few of the plagues mentioned, but I didn’t know so many details of it. Like, I had heard of Typhoid Mary, but I hadn’t really known how she managed to spread Typhoid all over. Little did I know, she was cooking food all over the place and contaminated about a hundred people. When the doctors tried to take her in to test her, she fought them like a wild animal. Eventually they caught her in a closet or something and quarantined her. SHE BROKE FREE, TOOK ON AN ALIAS, AND STARTED COOKING AGAIN. It’s like juicy gossip that’s incredibly old. It’s ok though. I’m always really behind on all the good gossip. 

Pardon me, I just got distracted by:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/katangus/very-important-tweets-you-need-to-see-right-now?utm_term=.mb8LZ4qDn#.jf0GqvEZW

Back to the review:

This book genuinely made me laugh out loud. At one point she called Yoda a “little monster who lives in a backpack”, and I had a good cackle over it. 

The combo of humor with juicy gossipy facts made this book a worthy read. 

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From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

Rating: 

What a stinking adorable book. 

I probably should have read this book when I was much younger, because that was when all my other friends did. Somehow I missed this one though, as I am sure I did with many others. I missed a lot of movies too. 

This book came up in conversation when I was talking about a computer game that I was addicted to. I can’t remember the name of it, but you got locked into the museum when the computer system went haywire, and all the exhibits were messed up. Then you had to go fix things. I remember one point in particular where you had to make a copy of a key, so you wedged a hunk of wax into the lock. Then it instantly hardened into a key. I have no clue why that stuck with me. Probably because I found out somehow that it wouldn’t work, so I felt betrayed by the educational computer game my parents had bought for me. (My mother was very into me playing educational computer games, language learning computer games, and Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. I have since found out that Mavis Beacon is not a real person. Once more, I have been betrayed.)

Anyway, I brought up this game, and my friends squealed that it sounded “Just like Mixed Up Files!” 

I was confused as to the reference, so my friend Sarah let me borrow it. It didn’t take me long to read at all, but it’s a kid’s book. So the fact that it didn’t take me long is not impressive.

It’s worth reading as an adult however because it is so smartly written. Claudia and her brother, Jamie, have some moments that were so brilliantly child-like. Often, when I read a book, the children don’t come across to me as children, but as adults with a child’s vocabulary who occasionally do immature things. Claudia and Jamie are kids though. My friend Mel told me that she wished she were as cool as Claudia when she was a kid. I probably would have wanted to be like her too. 

Whereas some of the things that Claudia and Jamie do require the reader to suspend their disbelief, it’s worth it. The book is fun and light-hearted. It shows the power of perseverance, and lets you live out your nerd fantasy of spending a night in a museum. 

I have always wanted to spend a night in a museum. Or a library. But not legally, as a hideaway. The closest I have gotten has been the time I went to the Museum of Fine Art in Boston and stayed until closing with Sarah and her husband James. There weren’t many people in the museum, and it was dark outside, so it almost felt as if we had a private go of the museum past closing time. I’d love to do that again. I wonder if I could hide in the bathroom and make it work so that I stayed the night? (Highly unlikely. I don’t have the patience to hide in a bathroom that long. Plus, I’d just wind up sleeping somewhere and not actually exploring anything because I’m old.)

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<3

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Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie

Rating:

It’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy week, and fortunately, I just finished a Sci-Fi book. I didn’t even know. Science Fiction is a genre that I don’t always dive into willingly. I like the ideas of space and alternate universes. I like a lot of the elements that can be contained in a sci-fi book, but for some reason I can’t always get into them. They usually take me longer to enjoy because I often set them aside. (There are exceptions to these rules. William Gibson comes to mind.) Keeping this in mind, I went for this book in an audio format. I heard it was a book worth reading, and so I figured why not?  If you like science fiction more than I do, you would probably rate this book higher than I did. The main character is a spacecraft - well, the AI of the spacecraft, Breq. As a result of this, Breq can be distant and is not always as engaging as a reader would hope. This led to the story losing my interest a few times and wandering off. So, I would re-listen. 

There are also two story lines occurring. The first is the current timeline, in which Breq is now reduced to one ancillary, and is no longer a ship. The other storyline is in the past when Breq was a ship with 20 ancillaries. (Ships had AI, and they also had ancillaries, which look like people and can move about wherever they have landed and assist with whatever their captain would like.) The past storyline explains what happened to reduce Breq to one ancillary. The present storyline has a much slower plot, kind of hanging out while the past storyline catches up. Eventually, the explanation of the past explains what Breq has done in the present for the most part. Once the two storylines merge, the story became more interesting to me. I think it’s because Present Breq had more to do than just dawdling about waiting for Past Breq to catch up. I wasn’t sure I was going to be interested in reading the next book in the series until the ending. I became engaged, and I wanted to know what was going to happen. 

Overall, this book is worth sticking with until the end. It may be slow in the beginning, but by the end it delivers. 

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The Light Between Oceans - M.L. Stedman

Rating:

WOO. Wonky graphics because I’m lazy. I also have to write two book reviews before this month ends, and I almost forgot. BUT FEAR NOT BECAUSE I REMEMBERED AT THE LAST MINUTE LIKE A REAL ADULT. I’ve actually been incredibly busy, and I’m working on balancing everything to get what I value most done. But, enough about my life. You aren’t here for that. You are here for book reviews.

I read this book for book club this month, and if I didn’t have that as a motivating reason, I probably would not have finished it. The main redeeming quality of this novel is the author’s writing style. I love the way Stedman describes things, and I would gladly read a book about a man in a lighthouse just going about his lightkeeper business and gazing at the ocean if she wrote it. My favorite parts of the book were the ones when she described little details of lighthouse business. 

I felt that the characters were, with a few exceptions, pretty unlikable. I didn’t care about them, nor did I care much what happened to them. It reminded me vaguely of how I felt when I was reading “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn. The characters were god-awful, but their motivations were intriguing. I wanted to know what was going to happen to those terrible people. I didn’t care what happened to the terrible people in “The Light Between Oceans.” In fact, the motivations of the characters became muddled and unclear. I don’t want to spoil things, but some of the things they said or did just didn’t make sense to me. (Or to the other members of bookclub, so I’m not just incredibly obtuse.) 

In regards to the plot, I often felt as if the author set up moments that could be dramatic and lead to the character making a difficult decision, but then constantly took the easiest route out. This bothered me immensely. 

As I said before, if I hadn’t had to read this for bookclub, I wouldn’t have finished it. It is her debut novel however, and I did enjoy her writing style. Therefore I would be willing to give her another shot. Hopefully she’ll create a stronger plot and characters.

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The Wicked and the Divine - Volume Four

Rating: 

All right. I am finally satisfied. This volume gives me the answers I was looking for, and it resolves a majority of the conflict found in the first three volumes. It leaves some questions unanswered however. We still don’t know why these gods show up every ninety years and live for two. And at the end of this volume, we are left with an even larger question. I’d post it, but it’s a massive spoiler that I am going to just leave unsaid. 

This volume returns to the original artist, so everything is gorgeous again. We also see more of Sekhmet who isn’t in the first three too much. There are also some pretty good scenes with Baphomet and Woden. (At one point with Baphomet I laughed out loud. It was one sharp bark of laughter that would have startled someone else if I weren’t reading it alone.) They’re both kind of gray area characters with questionable morals, and I like that. 

I am now looking forward to the next volume to see what will happen next. I am pretty okay with a slow burn on the storylines. Partially because I can gorge on it in large chunks, and also because I may or may not have ...12 other volumes of comics waiting for me to read them. :B

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The Wicked and the Divine - Volume 3

Rating: 

This is more of a 3.75 for me. I think it is an improvement over the last two in regards to the storyline, but I don’t love it enough to give it a 4. In fact, for this volume, there are various artists, so it is the storyline that carries it for me. (By this I mean some of the art did not appeal to me, and I kept going for the story.) The second graphic novel left us with a cliffhanger that goes relatively unacknowledged for most of this volume. Instead, we get stories told from the perspectives of different gods/goddesses that contribute to the overall storyline. I liked the fact that we got some stories behind characters we don’t see as often or characters we hadn’t met yet but had heard about.

Things begin to make sense here, which was kind of a relief. I think I know where things are going. I am not sure how I feel about such a slow build in a storyline however. It’s fine for me right now, because I am reading all these volumes back to back over the course of a couple hours. If I were buying these on a monthly basis, it would be over a year of confusion to start to get answers. I am not sure I would be satisfied with that. I think some of the hints that are being dropped now could have been included sooner. 

I think of it a little as a TV show. If a TV series starts to nosedive and stop making sense, I stop watching it. I’ve cut shows off because my time is valuable, and there are plenty of other things out there I could be enjoying. Currently, this is working for me because it isn’t a huge time investment. I don’t have to reread a comic to refresh myself, and I don’t have to make a trip to a comic store on the monthly to pick up my subscription. I do intend to keep reading, especially since the storyline is beginning to pay off for me. 

I will probably be reviewing that one as well since now I feel obligated to keep reviewing them as I read them.

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The Wicked and The Divine - Volume 2

I’m freaking out? No. You’re freaking out. 

I am mind blown that I am whipping out yet another review in the same day. Usually I just procrastinate on the second one until the end of the month. But, it’s rainy out, and I’m waiting on things in the oven, so why not? 

Rating:

This rating is a little lower with this collection for me. The art is still just as gorgeous, and we meet a new God who makes things a little bit more colorful.

Unfortunately, we lose a lot of steam with the “Who Dun It?” plotline of the first volume. We figure out who the two shooters that Luci killed off are, but no headway is made over who killed the Judge. That seems to be discarded as new gods come into the story and a second plotline is introduced. 

The plot comes across as a little less chaotic in this series, and it may be because my brain has started to either figure things out or has absolutely given up as a defense mechanism. I wouldn’t put it past my brain to do that. 

Laura does wind up having more a purpose this novel, so I guess I can forgive her existence. 

I think one thing that disappoints me about this series is that I don’t really have a character that I adore. I was taking a bit of a shine to Lucifer in the first volume, but that was obviously not meant to last. There is no other character that really appeals to me and whose appearance I look forward to. 

You know, reading this series has made me think of “The Sandman” series. I really should pick that up again. That series had abstract concepts and a variety of characters whom I LOVED and would get excited to see. I remember one storyline in particular involved the death of a character that made me feel like I got socked in the gut when I read it. 

I have had no strong reactions to these graphic novels. Really, the main thing that I think is keeping me invested and makes me want to keep going is that artwork. If it were any less stunning, I think I would care less. 

This volume does get bonus points for a Prince look-a-like:

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The Wicked and the Divine - Volume 1

I legit need to make my graphics with photoshop when I have access to that computer. I keep forgetting, and this is ridiculous. Also, I have a boo boo on a finger, so my typing is awkward and also ridiculous. 

Today I went to the library and went on a spree where I took out eleven volumes of comic book collections. Sometimes, I just get into that kind of mood. I gravitated to this series because the artwork is gorgeous. 

This is the first page I opened up to just to peek at, and it is stunning. The art earns this comic some of its stars, because the storyline has a few weaknesses. 

To give you a quick background: Every 90 years, 12 gods come back in the form of young people (teens to early 20s), live for two years and then die. Their current incarnation is as pop stars. 

We see them briefly from the 1920s in the opening of the comic, and I am guessing that they are mediums since that is what was popular as the time.

I would love to see more of this storyline, but alas it did not happen. Anyway, back to the modern time period of the comic.  We meet Lucifer, who being Lucifer, does something bad - she blows a couple of guy’s heads up. They were trying to shoot multiple pop stars, so it wasn’t as if Lucifer did it just for kicks. Lucifer is caught and taken to court where she makes a comment that she could blow up the judges head too. She flicks her fingers, and it happens. According to Luci, she was not the one who did it, because she had only meant it as a joke. Someone else did it, which sets up the crime that needs to be solved. 

Luci goes to jail.

Enter Laura, a seventeen year old fangirl for all these Gods. Laura is our heroine, but she feels super unnecessary. There is also Cassandra, who has a degree in mythology ,and I believe ,is an investigative reporter rolling around who could fill the same purpose and is far more interesting. Laura is just a rebellious college student who interferes because of her obsession with the Gods - in particular Lucifer. 

She meets other Gods, such as The Morrigan, and attempts to enlist them to help her free/save Lucifer. Some parts of his get confusing and jump all over, which detracted from the story for me. I wish there had been less going on and a more concrete storyline. I think a lot of these moments were unnecessary filler which slowed the story down to the point where the main issue (Who killed the judge?) isn’t solved by the end of the volume. In fact, only one thing does happen that just leads to more questions. This will go unmentioned due to spoilers. I definitely plan to read the second volume, but I hope the storyline is clearer with fewer circuitous paths and jumpy tangents.

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The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly

Rating: 

Ugh. This book was so good, I wish I had written it. 

In this story, our protagonist, David, becomes bitter when his father remarries after the passing of his mother. From this marriage comes his little brother Georgie, whom David loathes merely for existing. The book begins a bit slowly as all of this evolves, leading to an argument between Rose (the step-mother) and David in which he is quite rude, and she retaliates by slapping him across the face. David’s father becomes angry and punishes David by telling him he is to stay in his room on his bed and do nothing. 

This is where the magic begins and the true story unfolds. This story does have many of the tropes that you find in coming of age fantasy stories, but it plays with them. David is clearly aware that he is playing a role in a fairy tale, and he uses this awareness to his advantage. He comes across characters that are familiar to us from tales we have heard in our youth - but Connolly gives them a sharp twist that makes them darker, more serious. 

Connolly handled a story that could have been generic masterfully, reworking it in a way that I wish I had the skill too. It was a beautiful piece of prose from beginning to end. I want to squeal about so many details of the book that I loved, but I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. Just please bloody read it, it’s so damn good. I had the same feeling reading it that I get with a good Gaiman book - that it’s just perfect and well-thought out, and I never want it to end. 

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Magic Bitter, Magic Sweet - Charlie N. Holmberg

I will go into this stating that I am not a huge fan of romance, but the romance was not the issue that I had with this book. It was everything else. I can’t even really justify it getting a star, because it was so weak on so many levels. I liked the idea of magical cakes and pastries being imbued with spells to improve the person who ingested them. That is it. It could have been executed so much better than it was.

The characters in this book were all incredibly flat. The heroine, Maire, has no real discernable flaws aside from memory loss. MAIRE-Y SUE.  This also feels like an overdone trope, especially since it happens in this book three times, and not just with Maire. Only one character in the book stands out to me, and that is because he is a poorly characterized “broken” character who comes across as someone with a disability.  Alamus, this character, could have been a great opportunity to make a gray area antagonist that you aren’t quite sure is the bad guy. Instead, the author did a botched job of it and just made him a mess. It seems like a poor portrayal of someone with problems that seem to be mental health related. (It may be an unfair call on my part because his issues are magical related since Maire created him, and she did a poor job of it. But, it’s how he comes across, and I didn’t like how it was done.)

There is a stab at a love triangle that falls flat since none of the relationships in the triangle are well developed. Maire has a “love” from her former life who just flits in and out of existence and can’t give her a straight answer to any question for no reason. It is more or less just done that way to build a mystery and to try to keep the reader reading.  No explanation why he can’t tell her anything, which is how I want my relationships to be. BUILT ON SECRETS AND WITHHOLDING INFORMATION THAT I WANT.

Since we’re on the topic of things I didn’t like about this book, how about the plot? Or really even the lack thereof. The structure of this story was flimsy at best, with many side stories and turns that didn’t really need to happen. I was excited when she tied in other fairytales - the house that appeared in Hansel and Gretel, and the Gingerbread Boy, but she didn’t build much on them. They were just little side tangents that felt lacking.

Really, this book just felt undeveloped for me - LIKE AN UNDERBAKED CAKE. :B

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The Other Side of Midnight - Simone St. James

I finally finished all her books, so I figured that I should review the one that I hadn’t included before.  This book took me longer to read than the others, and I think I am a little burnt out on the 1920s ghost mystery thing. I didn’t hold that against this book though, since I kind of did it to myself by reading them all in one go. I couldn’t help myself though. 

So onto my final Simone St. James review until she publishes her next book.

Rating: 

I enjoyed this book because it was different from the others in the fact that our protagonist, Ellie Winters, is a medium who communicates with the dead using her powers. Unlike prior heroines who saw the dead, for Ellie this was her profession. Don’t get me wrong, the checklist for “Things That Happen in Every Simone St. James Book” I created in my prior post is met. But, the difference in this book is certainly refreshing, and it made the book feel less procedural for me than some of the prior ones had. 

The romance in this book didn’t seem particularly forced or overwhelming either. I liked seeing her develop as a writer since this is one of her more recent books. The bedroom scene was also tamer, which didn’t detract from the overall storyline. Reading this book made me realize how much the romance had taken away from the ghost story in some of the others. 

Despite the fact that I didn’t down this book with the rapid speed I did some of the others, it may have been my favorite because of the psychics. I have always been interested in them since I read Mary Roach’s book “Spook” which has a chapter about it. I like how the book included some of the things that mediums were doing at the time to fool their clients. I wish it had included some of the others that were more bizarre, like women spewing out cheesecloth and calling it ectoplasm. 

I liked the characters she created, and in particular, I liked Gloria, the main murder who sets off the string of events in this book. There is something bright and bold about her, and part of me was glad she wasn’t the main character. Building up a mystery about Gloria added to her intrigue, and as the book moved along, more of her was revealed. She begins as just a caricature of a flapper, but she becomes more 3D as we move along through the book. 

Like all of her other books, I think that this book was worth the read. I would definitely suggest not guzzling them all down like I had. Spread them out so you don’t get burnt out on them.

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Maya’s Notebook - Isabel Allende

Rating: 

This is the first book I have read by Allende, and she is an author whom I have always thought I should read. I was sadly disappointed by this book. I don’t think I would dislike other books by Allende, I just don’t think she did well writing with a younger voice. Maya, the titular character, was my absolute least favorite in the novel. Her backstory couldn’t hold my interest. 

Granted, it involved a lot of drugs and alcohol which isn’t really my cup of tea when it comes to literature. I had a hard time believing that all of this could have happened to her, and for her to remain as lucid and relatively undamaged as she is when she heads to Chiloe. Sure, there are some signs of damage, but they are so minimal. If her backstory had been less extravagant in nature, sure. But it was just so much to happen to one person.

I didn’t care for her love story with Daniel either. Her obsession with him was tedious, which I suppose teenagers are wont to do. Doesn’t mean I particularly want to read about it. 

The parts I really enjoyed were the parts about the culture of the people of Chiloe, and the pieces which developed the characters around Maya. (Well, not the ones from her past or Daniel.) I loved hearing about her grandmother, Manuel, and Blanca. All of these characters were so interesting, and I felt that adults were more of Allende’s wheelhouse. I would have gladly read a book about Maya’s Nini with her various love affairs over Maya’s story. 

I would certainly consider reading another Allende book, however this is not the one I would recommend to someone else.

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Simone St. James Round Up

Gah. Tumblr ate my original draft, which is highly frustrating. I had quite a bit written too. So, here I go again, but this time in a different document that I can just copy and paste. Thanks for being a butt Tumblr.

This month I’ve been binging the books of Simone St. James. She has five published as of this time, and I’ve read four of them. I was hoping to finish all five of them before I wrote my book review, but other books sprung up that just needed to be read. It’s what happens when you’re part of a book club, and you’re an English teacher building new curriculum for yourself.

These books all hit a niche that I genuinely love - 1920s era. I love reading historical fiction from that time period. During that time period there was also a lot of exploration going on with the spirits of the dead, and I like that Simone St. James includes ghost stories in her novels.

Now, the books themselves can be a bit formulaic, so you might want to parse them out over time instead of just reading them in one go like I am. Some aspects of the novel did lose a bit of their lustre for me since I knew they were going to be happening. Each novel has included:

1. A likable heroine during the late 1910s, early 1920s.

2. A soldier post WWI (whom the heroine falls for)

3. A ghost story

4. At least one bedroom scene

Each story has different variations of these however, so it didn’t feel to me that I was reading the same thing over and over again.

Anyway, on to the actual reviews. I plan to write the reviews in the order which I read the books, not in the order in which they were published.

Also, forgive my rating stars. I am lazy, and I haven’t gotten around to making ones that aren’t garbage. 

Rating: 

The first book that I read was Lost Among the Living, which is her most recently published book. Most of it I listened to as an audio book, and it was so gripping that I listening to it while I was at the gym - which I never do. I usually listen to music so I can focus on getting swole. I also had to go take the book out of the library because I couldn’t stop myself. I was addicted.

Simone St. James writes beautifully, and she is able to paint beautiful settings with her words. Now, the book doesn’t have a ton of depth to it, but it is a fun read. It’s a book you can enjoy for the pure sake of reading and enjoying. I did wind up prolonging my bedtime for it. Well worth the read.

I enjoyed the character of Jo Manders, and reading about her own personal dilemma regarding her missing husband (a RAF pilot in WWI) was seriously engrossing. I kind of like when a book reads a little like a soap opera. I don’t get sucked into those sort of TV shows, but give it to me in a book, and I will thrive on it. The problem is, I want to gossip about it, but I have no one else to gossip with because nobody I know has read this book but me.

Rating: 

The second book I read was Silence for the Dead, which I believe is her second book. The setting for this one was a hospital, and the main character was a bit more of a bad girl than Jo. Kitty earns a spot as a nurse in a hospital for soldiers who have suffered as a result of the war. The hospital, Portis House, tends to soldiers who are mentally suffering more so than they are physically. I was not as enthralled by this book as I was by Lost Among the Living. I think part of it was because the setting seemed so much more bleak for me.

I also was not as into the romance in this scenario. If you read the description of the book, it hits pretty hard at who Kitty is going to be interested in - and it’s one of the patients. I know I should go with the story, but for some reason the unprofessionalism of this bothered me. He’s a mental patient for God’s sake. Sure, she’s young. Sure, he’s probably incredibly handsome, but I was just not into that. I enjoyed him as a character, I liked Kitty, but I could have gone without them being together.

I was also pretty interested by the character of Captain Mabry. A character of this name also appears in Lost Among the Living, but they were so dissimilar that I couldn’t imagine the two of them were the same man.

The ghost story wasn’t as gripping for me either in this story, but I still found it an enjoyable read.

Rating: 

Third, I read Inquiry Into Love and Death, which features Jillian Leigh, a woman who is quite modern due to the fact that she attends Oxford to obtain an education. It was interesting to see how other people treated her since she was pursuing an education for herself, as if this were such an outlandish idea for a woman. Jillian is called away from school to clear up the final business in the death of her uncle, which appears to be a suicide. Her uncle was a ghost hunter, and he had been there on business at the time.

While there, she encounters a ghost or two, and she is lead to believe that her uncle’s death was not a suicide, but a murder. A detective shows up, and here comes the love story. At this point, I was completely over the romantic aspects of these books, and I was all in it for the story.

I liked the intrigue surrounding her Uncle’s life and death, and that was what held most of my interest during the book. There were many suspenseful moments during the book that kept me reading. I would rank my enjoyment of it higher than Silence for the Dead, but not as high as Lost Among the Living.

Rating:

Finally, I read The Haunting of Maddy Clare. This is Simone St. James’s first book, which was published just over five years ago. Sometimes, when I read a debut novel, I can tell it is the author’s first. It has awkward moments, or it lacks some of the sophistication that comes with experience. If I hadn’t known prior to reading that it was her debut novel, I never would have been able to guess. Her writing read as someone confident with what she was doing.

In fact, out of all four books, I felt that this one had the most intriguing ghost story to it. The ghost is a former serving girl, who had shown up on the doorstep of the Clare family. The Clares took her in, and while she resided with them, she killed herself.  She then began to haunt the premises. Alistair  Gellis, a ghost researcher, is hired by Mrs. Clare to rid them of this ghost.  He hired Sarah Piper as a momentary replacement for his usual partner, Matthew Ryder.

Obviously there was romance in this book as well, but it didn’t irk me as much as it had in the past couple of novels I had read. I think I enjoyed the ghost to the point where I was willing to forgive the romance for existing. I also felt like it was built out of something more than what the romance had been based on in the prior ones. Sometimes, I felt like St. James created a love story just to have one in the book. Perhaps because this one felt a wee bit genuine,  I was more willing to accept it.

I would rank this book right up there tied with Lost Among the Living. I am looking forward to reading her fourth book, The Other Side of Midnight, which is the only one I haven’t read yet. Pretty sure I am going to start it tonight. ;)

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84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Rating: 

Note: If you’re doing the 2017 read harder challenge, this book is a book about books. So, I used it for that requirement. 

This book is well worth the hour it takes to read it. It’s so incredibly charming. The story is composed of a series of letters between Helene Hanff, a writer in NYC, and the staff of an antiquarian bookstrore in London at 84 Charing Cross. 

Reading to me is so important. I like sharing the experience of a book, and I like how meaningful a book can be. It struck a chord with me when Helene showed how much she appreciated books. The way she described how they made her feel, the sensory details she noted when she touched them, her love of little written inscriptions and notes on the pages ..it all rang true to me. 

I also enjoyed the development of the relationship that was built between Helene, the booksellers, and in the case of Frank Doel, his family. They genuinely cared for one another, and there was a sweetness to seeing a love of books create a deep friendship. 

There was also a movie made for this book 20 years ago in 1987. Anne Bancroft loved the book so much that her husband bought the movie rights, and then they made the film. (This adorable story only seems to compound the charm of the book. ) The movie runs longer than it takes to read the book, so they did not miss a beat. It’s a bit slow-moving, but it’s a good movie to watch on a cold winter day, curled up with a mug of tea. 

[litsporation]

“The Girl from Everywhere” by Heidi Heilig

Please ignore the derpiness of the third star in that rating. I got lazy about my graphics. I read this book as one of the requirements for the read harder challenge, otherwise I am not sure I would have finished it. It was relatively light-hearted fun, but there were some aspects that didn’t appeal to me.

Many of the characters are pretty flat, including the main character. I love me a well-rounded character. I like someone that seems genuine to me. It isn’t to say that the characters aren’t flawed, but they only seem to have one, maybe two defining characteristics. The only well rounded character, Kashmir, seemed like an Aladdin rip off. (And is his name pronounced “cashmere”? Like, could I turn him into a sweater. It’d be the most “Silence of the Lambs” thing I have ever done in my life.*)

Handsome, charming, Middle Eastern thief? Pretty much Aladdin. 

Another nuisance was the love triangle she kind of just forced in there, because all teen novels have to have a love triangle. One corner of the love triangle is Aladdin, who has feelings for Nixie. The other is this blonde-haired, blue eyed artist who could have been someone else. Maybe like another young girl so she could have a female companion or something. That never seems to happen enough in YA novels. At least, not in the ones that I have read. 

I suppose if you just want some mental junk food where things are told more often than shown and characters are pretty 2D, you can go for it. The idea of time traveling pirates who move through maps is pretty cool. I just wish it had been executed better. 

*Note: The current most “Silence of the Lambs” thing I have done is merely quoting it when someone has used lotion near me.