Book Reviews Archive - Page 50 of 79

Second Hand Heart by Catherine Ryan Hyde: Book Review

Vida is 19 years old and dying. She's been dying her entire life. Not in the vague way that we are all destined to die, but in a way that has led her through multiple heart surgeries in her short life. This time, it's for real. Her doctors are talking weeks if she's lucky. She's been bumped to the top of the waiting list for heart transplants. And then she gets a new heart and she's able to start living. On the flip side, Richard has everything. A job and a wife that he loves. Until he loses Lorrie in a tragic car accident. He chooses to donate her organs and Vida gets her heart. Vida's and Richard's lives are forever entwined after that. The first time Richard walks into her hospital room after the transplant, Vida tells him that she loves him. She's never met him before, but she feels a deep, romantic love for him. At my old job, I was the tiniest of tiny cogs in the transplant process. I did electrocardiograms on the donors so that doctors could make sure the heart was in good working order from an "electrical" standpoint. I was glad that the families had chosen to donate their loved ones' organs, but I hated that part of the job. I never saw the recipients (the actual transplant happened in larger hospitals), so I only saw the donors, and I knew that this beautiful child, wife, father, loved one would not be going home to his or her family. They were all beautiful and they were all young. I didn't do it often, but I was never able to detach myself from the sadness on that end. It was hard for me, to say the least. It was nice to read a book…

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke: Book Review

Meggie Folchart and her father, Mo, find themselves on the run from a mysterious man that Meggie knows only as "Capricorn." Capricorn is chasing after them, trying to steal a book that they own, and he won't stop at anything to get it. First off, let me say that I'm about 20 years older than the reader this book is written for. I enjoyed it, but I didn't fall in love with it. The big thing that kept me from giving it five stars was that I felt a little bit like the plot moved around in circles. I found myself thinking, "Are we really back here again?" It seems to me that with some creative editing/storytelling the plot would have moved along nicer and the book wouldn't have been quite so big. That was really the only bad thing for me though. This was the first of a trilogy, but it tied up everything pretty well. There weren't any major cliffhangers that left me feeling like I will never be able to wait to find out what happens next. The translator did a fantastic job. If I hadn't known that this was originally written in German, I would never have guessed. Everything flowed along very smoothly. I really liked the characters. The bad guys were really bad, but the good guys were a little more complicated. Meggie and Mo could be a little cranky, and Elinor was always cranky, but she had a softer side too. This all made them seem real and more likeable. There were tons of quotes in here that I loved: "Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly." "If you take a book with you on a journey...an odd thing happens: The book begins collecting…

Dreams Made Flesh by Anne Bishop: Book Review

Dreams Made Flesh is a collection of four short stories/novellas centered around Jaenelle and her court. One of the events takes place immediately after the third in the Black Jewels series, so anyone reading this should keep that in mind. It definitely has spoilers for the previous books. My favorite story by far, was "The Prince of Ebon Rih." How I grinned as I read it! I've always liked Lucivar, but he really is cast as the older brother in the series. There is definitely more to him than that, so it was great to see him as a powerful ruler in his own right and a sexy-as-hell man. Watching him deal with that bitch Roxie was a pleasure. Seeing his insecurity in dealing with Marian was delightful. He didn't know what hit him. Absolutely loved it. My sister, who shoved this book into my hands saying only, "Read. This. Now." loves "Zuulaman." This is an event from Saetan's younger years that made him a legend. I liked it, but somehow couldn't help comparing it to Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana. You probably have to be inside my head to see how that happened. I loved Tigana and this story suffered for the comparison. And probably from my sister's buildup. Still, it was a very cool showcase of Saetan's raw power. "Kaeleer's Heart" would have been good, but it was a little too much like "The Prince of Ebon Rih." It was nice to see Daemon and Jaenelle together, but I felt like I had pretty much read the story already, just a few pages earlier. It is sexy to see the lengths that Daemon is willing to go to in order to protect Jaenelle though. "Weaver of Dreams" was just a confusing little legend and that's all I have to…

Fire by Kristin Cashore: Book Review

Fire lives in a country known as the Dells, and she is a human monster. There's a strain of wildness in the country that leaves some of the animals and people with impossibly seductive beauty and power. Fire is so named because of her hair. She can enter minds and control people and animals. But she is constantly in danger because other monsters want to prey on her and other people either love her or hate her too much. She does have a small group of friends that are like family though, and her world, while small, is as safe as she can make it. Yet she chafes against it. When she is invited to King's City to discuss how her power could be used to prevent a civil war from erupting, she jumps at the chance to go, despite the personal danger she puts herself in. I'll get my complaints out of the way first. Leck (from Graceling) is worked into this story and he does not fit. I don't see any purpose to his character at all. I kept expecting something more from that storyline but it just fizzled out. It is entirely possible though that I've forgotten something from Graceling that would have made it apparent why he needed to be in this story. The other thing is about Fire herself. I loved her as a character. She has almost limitless power yet she's afraid of herself. She has not had an easy life by any means, yet she does try her best to help where she can. She loves those in her circle with a love so intense that it's almost scary. She is willing to lay her own life on the line for them. But about three-quarters of the way through the book, she has…

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks: Book Review

Hanna Heath studies and restores rare books. She is offered the chance of a lifetime when she is contacted by the United Nations to restore a rare illuminated Haggadah at the end of the Bosnian War. Hanna manages to pull out a few clues to the book's history. As she follows up on the clues, we glide back and forth through time, visiting first Hanna, and then the story of the book's owners and saviors backwards through a long, tumultuous history. Hanna's story was almost just filler to me. I wasn't bored by any means, but I couldn't wait to see where and when the book would take me next. The characters in the book's history were fascinating and only at the end did I really get a good sense of how everything fit together. The hints were there, they were just so subtle that I didn't quite catch them. But the author wrapped everything up beautifully. None of this is a complaint, by the way. I found the whole thing intriguing. I loved the fact that there was a theme running throughout of people saving the book who weren't necessarily Jewish. Muslims and Christians living during times when everyone was fighting saw the value of the book and saved it. It just seems that so often, history and books seem to focus on the negative; it's nice to see that there are always people out there who are able to overcome prevailing prejudice and do what is right. I recommend this one to just about anyone. Reviewed January 15, 2009 Read an excerpt. Find author Geraldine Brooks on her website. Buy People of the Book at Malaprop’s | Better World Books Friday Flashback Reviews are a weekly feature here on The Introverted Reader. These are old reviews I wrote…

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman: Book Review

Twelve-year-old Odd doesn't quite fit in with the rest of his village. He crushed his leg when he was younger and that's left him with a limp. He'd rather be carving alone in the woods than hanging out in the hall with the other villagers fighting and telling stories. His stepfather is just awful. So Odd just leaves one day. He's going to stay in the shack his dead father left behind. On his first day alone, he comes upon a bear, a fox, and an eagle who need help. As one must in fairy-ish stories, Odd helped them. Then he discovered that they needed more help defeating a frost giant that has taken over their home and made it eternally winter in Odd's village. Can the boy with the limp save the day? I really liked this very short book. Odd is such a little fighter. Oh, not in the ways that the rest of his village fights, but just fighting for what he believes in and what's right. Fighting to grow into the man he wants to be, not the man he's expected to be. While the story itself is good, I liked what I took away from it more. Odd never really let his crushed leg hold him back. He learned to work through problems rather than walk away from them. There's the art of compromise as well, and possibly a little about forgiveness. The illustrations by Brett Helquist fit the story perfectly. A little rustic, they fit right into this story of Norway in the days of the Vikings. I love the book itself as well. A perfectly-sized little cloth-bound book, I could just hold it for hours. Do you have books like that? Ones that just feel like they're made for your hands? Recommended for…

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson: Book Review

Dr. Montague, a researcher into paranormal activity, has rented the fabled Hill House for the summer. The house has a reputation for being haunted. Very few people have managed to stay in it for more than a night. In order to sort of help the house do its worst, he invites people to stay with him who have had paranormal experiences. The only two who take him up on his offer are Theodora and Eleanor. Luke, the future heir to the house, also comes along. It does not take long for the house to show what it's made of. I think this might have been ruined for me by the narrator. The book is in third person, but is told from Eleanor's point of view. Why on earth did someone choose to have a man narrate? For the right book, he would be fine, and he did what he could with this. An older man with a deep voice is just not the right person to lead us down Eleanor's thoughts when she's so very--weak, maybe? No, uncertain is the better word. She's uncertain of her place in the world, in the house, in the group. She's also a dreamer who has a tenuous grasp on reality at best. The narrator definitely needed to be a young woman. Eleanor herself is something else. Her thoughts get to be a little disturbing. She's definitely an unreliable sort-of-narrator. I never really knew what was happening in the real world and what was only happening in her head. For that matter, I never knew what she was actually doing. Aside from that, I think I expected more of a horror angle. Sure, the house does get up to some crazy things, but nothing as bad as what I expected. I don't feel like…

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris: Book Review

I tried, but I give up. The first story, "Santa Land Diaries," was great. Sedaris's tale of working as a Macy's department store elf is hilarious! Those people who inevitably make the news every Black Friday by pepper spraying and punching their fellow shoppers? I think they all go to Macy's at Christmas. Sedaris writes about them with his usual biting wit. My favorite scene had to be when he gets fed up with this awful Santa who keeps making him sing Christmas carols with the kids. Sedaris sings "Away in a Manger" in Billie Holiday style. I have never heard anything like it in my life, but it is absolutely perfect. You have to listen to the audio for that alone! I was cracking up alone in my car! There are a few poignant moments as well, especially from one Santa who likes to remind people what Christmas is really all about. One of the local theaters does a stage production of this story every year, and my husband and I have always been curious about it. We will definitely be going to see it next year. Oh, but then. The second story, "Season's Greetings to Our Family and Friends," was horrible. Absolutely horrible. It's supposed to be a spoof of a Christmas letter gone horribly wrong. Something's gone horribly wrong alright--Sedaris's attempt at fiction. I kept listening, thinking it had to get better, but it just kept getting worse and worse. Disturbing only starts to cover it. I wish I could scrub that half-hour listen out of my brain. For real. This one was told from a woman's point of view, so it's read by David's sister, Amy Sedaris. I have to admit the tone and reading were absolutely perfect for the story, but it set my teeth…

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling: Book Review

This book is the one that Hermione inherited from Dumbledore. It contains the "Tale of the Three Brothers" that was told in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It also contains notes about each story written by Dumbledore and J.K. Rowling. I'll be honest here. True, morbid, Brothers Grimm fairy tales are just not my thing. I much prefer the fully fleshed out, happily ever after Disney versions. So, this book was just okay for me. Rowling did a good job of staying true to the form of real fairy tales, I have to give her that. It just wasn't for me. They were mostly mildly entertaining. I liked that Rowling points out that the heroines of her stories are not helpless females that things just happen to while big strong men rescue them. Her heroines rescue themselves. Dumbledore's comments did add some insight. Some of Rowling's comments felt unnecessary. This book is aimed at Harry Potter fans. What true Harry Potter fan doesn't know what a Muggle or a Squib is? But then some comments could have been explained further. I would have liked to be told about an Ashwinder instead of being referred to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. That happened several times and felt like an attempt to push up sales of that book. This doesn't really have anything to do with anything, but I loved the feel of this book. It's such a nice, neat little book and the pages feel so smooth! Call me weird. I know. I don't regret reading this, but I don't feel like I gained much from it either. I did like that the proceeds from the book are being donated to a children's charity that Rowling co-founded. That's really probably justification enough for me. Reviewed December 28, 2008…

When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornelia Funke: Book Review

Twinklestar, the last reindeer, panics in a thunderstorm and sends Santa's caravan plunging toward the ground. After making sure everyone is okay, Niklas Goodfellow, the last real Santa, realizes that he has come to earth in a territory controlled by the evil new head Santa, Gerold Goblynch. Niklas is on the run from Goblynch and his cronies, trying to maintain the real meaning of Christmas despite Goblynch's greedy schemes. The caravan is broken and it will take Niklas's elves a while to fix it. Not to mention that no one can find Twinklestar because he's invisible. Niklas befriends two of the neighborhood children, Ben and Charlotte. They try to help Santa and protect him from Goblynch and his henchmen. They also try to spread the Christmas spirit. I listened to this on audio, read by the author. I had a little bit of a hard time understanding her German accent. I had to pay very close attention. Also, her voicing for Matilda, Niklas's angel assistant, was way irritating--very high-pitched and bossy. Admittedly, Matilda was a bossy little soul, which would have irritated me enough without the ear-piercing pitch. There is a good message about the true meaning of Christmas here. Ben and Charlotte learn about friendship and standing up for what you believe in. There's even a little message for parents about maintaining a sense of Christmas wonder. I am definitely not the target audience for this book. Children will probably like it more than I did. It would probably be nice for them to think about children helping Santa. The little adventures, like searching for Twinklestar and making snow, will be more exciting for them. I can't really recommend the audio, but the print version will be fun for the younger crowd. Read an excerpt. Buy When Santa Fell…