Book Reviews Archive - Page 75 of 79

Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund: Book Review

Synopsis from the book cover: From the opening line--"Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last"--you will know that you are in the hands of a master storyteller and in the company of a fascinating woman hero. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby-Dick, Sena Jeter Naslund has created an enthralling and compellingly readable saga, spanning a rich, eventful, and dramatic life. At once a family drama, a romantic adventure, and a portrait of a real and loving marriage, Ahab's Wife gives a new perspective on the American experiences. I have to confess that my aunt handed me this, telling me that it was the story of that Ahab's wife, and I quailed a little. My junior year English teacher didn't even make us read Moby-Dick and instead let us get away with watching the movie version with Patrick Stewart. No way did I want to read a book about his wife. But I trust all my aunts' reading recommendations, so I gave it a shot. And I fell in love. Ahab has only a very small part in this book, and Una is very much her own independent, strong-willed woman. She has her own adventures and heartaches and she's a character you will never forget. I highly recommend this for historical fiction readers and those who like their women to be ahead of their time. It's amazing.

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake: Book Review

5 Stars. Beautiful. I opened this novel, already in love with the cover, and fell in love with the writing contained within. It's not a beauty that keeps you at arm's distance. It's a beauty that seductively whispers, "Come closer. Read what I have to say. See what I'm showing you." And then it [...]

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde: Book Review

In the future, after the Something That Happened, people's places in society are determined by the color they can see. Purples are the ruling class and Greys are sort of the untouchables. Eddie Russett is a bit of a rogue. He thought of a new idea for queuing and new ideas are frowned upon. After a prank, he is sent to live on the Outer Fringes, where he meets Jane, a Grey with a bewitchingly retroussé nose and a reputation for violence. His fascination with Jane leads him to start questioning what he sees going on around him. I see potential here, but this first book in the series mostly felt like world-building to me. There's plenty of stuff going on, but I really did feel like it was mostly just to show me how very screwed up this society is. That said, let me tell you a couple of things about me that you should probably know. I'm not crazy about dystopian literature as a whole. If an author writes an exciting story with characters that I like, (think The Hunger Games), I'm fine with dystopias. But I don't love them just because they're set in a world where things have gone wrong. Also, I don't know anything about color theory. I love Jasper Fforde's sense of humor in the Thursday Next series and the Nursery Crimes series, but that's probably because I'm on solid footing with books and nursery rhymes. People who know more about color than me might get more out of this book, just like I'm going to understand more of the humor in The Eyre Affair than a non-reader. I do see potential for me to ultimately like the series. Eddie is a likable chump who is on his way to becoming much more, but…

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull: Book Review

Eddi McCandry is a rocker with a big heart. She attracts the attention of the Seelie Court and her life is turned upside down. I absolutely loved this. If you know me, and maybe if you don't, you know that Charles de Lint is my favorite author. This is something very much in the same vein as de Lint's best work. I don't mean that it's a knockoff, it's just something that I enjoyed for a lot of the same reasons that I enjoy de Lint. These characters were awesome. They're people (or not) that I would love to know in real life. Eddi is a talented, creative musician with a true gift. She's not perfect, but she's big enough to apologize when it's necessary. She can take charge when that's necessary too. She gives her all for her friends and refuses to give up even when everyone else is telling her that what she wants to do is impossible. Her friend Carla is much the same way, except possibly even more loyal and more likely to give her friends a figurative kick in the pants when they need it. Willy, oh Willy. What a heart breaker. And that's all I'll say about him. But the star of the show is the Phouka. Can you say book crush? He's funny, sarcastic, dashing, romantic, a rebel, strong, tough, just enough of a bad boy, and he's learning more about what it means to be human. I adored him. I wasn't too sure about him at first, but he grows throughout the book, and we get to know him better, and I was a fan for life by about the halfway point. Love him. Even aside from the characters, the story was a page-turner. I was supposed to be training a new…

The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón: Book Review

David Martín is a writer of penny dreadfuls who is offered a huge sum of money to write a book for a French publisher. He can't find any evidence that the publisher actually exists though, and violent things start happening to David's friends and colleagues. I was rocking through the first half of the book, loving Ruiz Zafón's writing, and then I just stopped caring a little over halfway through. I'm not entirely sure what happened. I think I got sick of having absolutely no freaking idea what was going on. Yeah, I knew who the publisher was, but I didn't know how that was going to tie into everything else. I read this using this really cool post-it-flag bookmark my husband gave me, because I knew that I would probably have tons of quotes I loved in here. The last one is at page 324 out of 531 pages. There's no big event that I can find there, I think that's just where I ran out of patience. I loved Ruiz Zafón's previous book, The Shadow of the Wind, and I have a feeling that a re-read would bump that one up to five stars. I missed having a Fermín. There wasn't really anyone to give any lightness or grace to the story. It was all darkness and despair. The relationship between David and Isabella gave a few lighter moments, but he ended up hurting her feelings more often than not, so those were pretty limited. This is sort of a companion to Shadow, and I had a hard time figuring out how and when they fit together. I was confused about how Daniel was consistently described as being shy and sort of boring, when that wasn't the Daniel that I knew from Shadow. I don't think this is…

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot: Book Review

I don't have a review written up for this book, but I have loved it since the first time I read it. It was summer break, I must have been in high school, and I had finished all the books I had checked out from the library. I didn't feel like re-reading anything, so in desperation I checked out my parents' bookshelves. Why I looked on my dad's, I will never know. He really only ever reads westerns, which I had no interest in at that point of my life! Anyway, after quite a bit of digging, I found this little gem. I sat down to read, and I had tears of laughter rolling down my face within the first few pages! I was hooked. On a non-fiction book at that! James Herriot was a vet in Yorkshire and he mostly writes about the early years of his practice, around the time of WWII. This was before the days of antibiotics, so there really wasn't all that much vets could do. But Jim, his boss Siegfried and Siegfried's brother, Tristan made their rounds, doing the best they could for their patients. They also date the local women and play pranks on each other. James' dating stories are hilarious! And Tristan will be one of your favorite people ever. The Mad Conductor scene should be a classic and required reading for everyone. I couldn't breathe, I was laughing so hard at that one. James is a natural storyteller and reading the pages of his book, I laugh, I cry, I celebrate the small victories, get angry at the injustices, and just generally experience everything that makes us human. I can't recommend this series enough.

Cybele’s Secret by Juliet Marillier: Book Review

Paula is accompanying her father to Constantinople on a trading trip. She might “only” be a seventeen-year-old girl, but she’s an intelligent, able assistant. They’re in search of an ancient religious artifact, Cybele’s Gift. Once in Constantinople, Paula starts seeing strange visions, visions that she feels sure are coming from the Other Kingdom, the fairy tale world next to ours. She learns that it’s her turn to go on a quest. Can she accomplish the task set for her? I am so torn in rating this book. The beginning felt like it was at least a hundred pages too long. I don’t know exactly what could have been cut, I’m just left with the feeling that a lot of it was unnecessary. It was all character development and setup for the quest, but it got a little boring and I was feeling disappointed that this wasn’t as good as Wildwood Dancing. It was interesting to read the descriptions of Constantinople, but there should be a limit to setup. I read 200 pages before I really got into it, but once the story got going, it was a fantastic fairy tale with impossible challenges, riddles, dangerous pursuit, and all the stuff that make us love the old stories. I finished the rest in one sitting, on the edge of my seat, waiting to find out what happened next. Three stars for the first half, five stars for the second half, and we’ll average it out at four. Paula is a woman ahead of her time. She loves to read and dreams of opening her own book trading business. She sometimes gets a little too lost in her own head though, and needs to be reminded that there is a whole real life to be lived outside of books. She also has…

Life of Pi by Yann Martel: Book Review

Piscine Molitar Patel's family owns a zoo in India. When they decide to immigrate to Canada, they sell all the animals, book them all on a cargo ship, and head off to deliver them en route to their new home. The ship promptly sinks and Pi is left alone in a lifeboat with some of the surviving animals. I didn't get it. I got that there's something about choosing to have faith. I got that there's something about each person following their own path to God. But that's all I got. I kept waiting for the blinding epiphany, flipping to the end, worried that there weren't many pages left for an epiphany to happen, and it just never happened. So many people have rated this highly that I know I'm showing my own ignorance, but there it is for all the world to see. I Didn't Understand Life Of Pi. As for the surface story, without looking for any hidden meaning in anything--it wasn't my thing. A boy in a life boat, endlessly trying to survive is just boring for me. Even the animals didn't liven things up. I just didn't care. It was fiction that read like non-fiction, and that is not a compliment coming from me. I'm so clueless about this that I don't even know who to recommend it to. I guess if you like stories about one person battling the elements you'll like this. If you're willing to work harder than me to understand some sort of allegory about faith and religion, you might like it too. But if your taste is consistently similar to mine, you should probably steer clear.

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen: Book Review

4 Stars. This wasn't exactly what I expected when I started it. I was expecting a typical shy-girl-meets-handsome-guy story. But it wasn't exactly like that. This was more about finding the courage to get to know yourself. The importance of female friendships. The jealousies between mothers and daughters. Surrounding yourself [...]

Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson: Book Review

Nonny Frett is caught between. She was born into the Crabtree family and secretly adopted into the Frett family, two groups that have been fighting since time immemorial. She wants to divorce her husband but she's caught between lust and lassitude. She's frequently caught between what she wants to do and what she feels like she has to do. How appropriate is it that she lives in a town called Between, Georgia? I enjoyed this. Parts had me laughing out loud, I was worried sick in other places, and I was ready to slap some characters around in still others. It felt like a real slice of someone else’s life. The whole Hatfield and McCoy thing was a little over the top, but it made for a good story, and gave Nonny a good backdrop against which to grow into herself. Nonny is thirty years old, but she hasn’t really found herself yet. She’s constantly dissecting herself and her behavior, looking to see if she’s more Crabtree or Frett in the whole “nature vs nurture” dichotomy. She tends to float along in life, either choosing not to make decisions, or content to let others make them for her. In all honesty, I related a little too much to her, so I liked watching her become who she was always meant to be. I loved Nonny’s mother. She was born deaf and has lost her sight by the time the book takes place. There's no word of complaint from her though. She's actually the rock of the family. She's an artist, she's wise, and she takes care of business. Her sister Bernese would argue, but Stacia is the one they rely on to keep them anchored. Nonny’s family is practically all women. She has an aunt Bernese that is a holy…