35 posts tagged “books i'm reading”
Another Monday is upon us. One day I will figure out how to control the way time goes so fast one days off and weekends to use during the work week. Sure, I'm terrible at science and avoided physics in high school like the plague, but not only would it serve me well to be able to speed up a Tuesday in the office, but it's a surefire money-maker.
At the very least, I would like to move Daylight Savings Time to a Tuesday afternoon. So that one minute you leave for lunch at 1pm, still only take your hour allotted lunch, but return to the office and it's 3pm. That would be wonderful. Much better than losing an hour sleep.
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I finished Rob Thurman's fourth book in the Cal Leandros series last week.
After reading, I'm not sure if this is the last book in the series (at least for the time being), as this book managed to wrap a lot of the major plot points that began in the first book. It's also the first book that has a split POV and gives us a look into Niko's mind unfiltered (as we've always just seen him through Cal).
I really liked it. Probably my favorite since the first one. And selfishly, I hope it's not the last of Cal & Niko. I love their relationship and the supernatural quandaries they find themselves in. However, the writer part of me can understand why she might want to move onto new things.
I definitely recommend this series to people who like urban fantasies, but specifically if you like the show, Supernatural. it has a lot of similar themes at work.
I'm now hoping to finish up City of Bones (i'm refraining judgement until I finish) before Claudia Gray's next book comes out.
I really was going to attempt to keep up with this better. I really planned to and then the universe, in its infinite wisdom, decided that things needed to go into free fall, topped off with my mother dying at the end of January. She wasn't sick and it was quite unexpected and emotionally draining, to say the least. I'm still in emotional overload, trying to deal with a whole lot of stuff, but I'm trying to attempt some sort of normalcy.
Easier said than done. Life is just...insane...right now.
I'm also attempting to get back to reading. I haven't really had the attention span for much, but I did finish one book and am currently reading two more.
I had read the first book before the holidays and enjoyed the premise. I liked this one more as the main character deals with her new identity and battling feelings of revenge versus helping people. I like that it's not a simple case of black-and-white for the main character or a few of the other secondary characters. I'm hoping to read the third book soon.
Currently reading the latest Rob Thurman as I love the Cal Leandros series and I was giving the Cassandra Claire trilogy of books a try. I'm not sure on the latter quite yet. It has an interesting plot, but the writing is far from great.
The last two books I read were both nonfiction and politically-oriented. Probably not the wisest decision for hot summer days. So I'm now back to mindless fun reads.
Okay, I love Bill Moyers. He's one of my favorite journalists and I enjoyed all the speeches included in this book. But they are speeches and I feel like all of these good speeches would only be so much better in auditory form. To hear how he gave the speech. So this is one of those books I'd recommend in audio format (if Moyers does the reading - that I'm not sure). Overall, good content, but again, I think it would be better to hear than read.
I'm came at this book from the point of view of a very liberal Jersey Girl. Therefore, I know I'm completely biased against the administration. Why did I bother reading it? I was looking for some insight, some reasoning behind why this administration has done so many horrible things. What did I get instead? A civics lesson and the importance of honesty in government from someone who worked for Bush. Plus, there was a whole lot of "it's not Bush, but the system that is corrupt" meanderings and constant reminders that most of the Bushies were good, hard workers.
I guess if this book won't make you extremely angry, it wasn't a bad read. I just found it hard to swallow this "we were wrong and this is why...so buy my book" thing (I got it from the library). I especially have trouble with all these former Bushies who wait until they're impotent to help make a change for the better to come out and say, "It's wrong and I knew it all along." Why not speak up when you can make a difference?
This was not the book for me.
Next reads; Tall, Dark & Dead by Tate Hallaway and Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (comes out this Saturday)
The past month I've been in a place where I've been reading about six different books at once very slowly and not finishing any of them. Even on vacation and on the plane, i didn't really read. Instead I watched the movie and chatted with other passengers. Have I broke my reading brain?
Thankfully, I finished one book yesterday.
This is a book that made me want to go out and do more for my community. It's very inspirational and if you're in the midst of a moment where you think most people suck, this is a good book to read. Because it shows how much people really do care about others and how the simplest things can make a big difference in someone's life.
I grew up with two parents who worked in non-profit for various charities, so I was around philanthropy all my life, but I still feel like I don't do enough most days. I'm trying to work on that and this book was a great motivation, reminding me that if a sick kid can raise money for children in Africa, I can do something too.
So I recently picked up two novelizations and read them. So I'm gonna add them to my reading list for the year.
I wanted this one because it was set in the Charmed universe, but featured adult Chris & Wyatt. And I loved chris like whoa and really thought that he managed to revive the show for the season he was on.
Now, I know not to expect brilliance from novelizations, but most are enjoyable if you enjoy the world its based in. That said, even if you're a fan of the show and/or Chris, do NOT read this. It's pure drivel and the way the characters were written did not resemble the ones we saw on television.
There is bad fanfiction out there that looks genius in comparison to this. Seriously horrible book. I can't believe I read the whole thing, even if it did only take two hours.
On the complete opposite end, I really enjoyed this first Supernatural novelization. It's wasn't amazing writing, but it was enjoyable for someone who loves the show and the main characters. The boys acted/talked like they would and the monster-of-the-week mystery of the book wasn't too boring or lame.
But really, here's the thing with a novelization. I'm reading it because I love the characters, so as long as you do right by the characters, I walk away like I didn't just waste time and money too much. This author gave me a Sam & Dean I recognize and enjoy.
My "all reading, all the time" phase seems to have passed. Mostly because vacation is over and work/real life has been slightly insane, so I'm taking longer with finishing a book again. Le sigh. Stupid life. Doesn't it understand how lovely book ingestion is?
I finished this book two days ago and I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it on a whole. I love Brashares style of writing and there were a few bits of the novel I found myself stopping to write down excerpts as quotes because I just related to it.
That said, the three main characters and their inability to communicate amongst themselves (even though they claimed to be close & to share things) drove me crazy. And I think that was part of the whole theme of the book, but it still annoyed me and I wanted to shake them.
The end was predictable, but I still enjoyed the ride of the story. And sometimes that's all I need from a book - a great ride.
I'm also not sure if I'm unfairly judging this book because I loved and adored her Sisterhood of the Traveling pants books. That series of books created characters that I adored and this book just didn't really do that for me.
If you're interested, you can check out all my latest reads and such over at my good reads account.
I finished this book yesterday on my lunch. 3 down, 1 to go in the Chesapeake Bay Saga. So far, Cam's story was my favorite (the first one), but this book was enjoyable. I loved the further development of all the characters and how Seth slowly, throughout all three books became a part of the family and the mysteries of his history with Ray were revealed.
Like most romances, it has the predictable love story/romance that unfolds, but it was enjoyable.
Definitely recommend the books.
Having finished these three Nora Roberts' books, I realize what it is about the romance genre in general that drives me crazy. It's not the relationships - love and relationships are innate to being a human. It's something we all experience at some point in our lives...so I enjoy reading about relationships, find them fascinating. But in these romance novels, it's not so much the relationship as the emphasis on the notion that "I never thought love would happen and then you appeared" or the "I never had a problem closing myself off, but you wormed your way in" idea. Where are the romances where it's like, "Yeah, I've loved before, but never the right person at the right time...and now I think I've finally found that." Is that too ordinary? Too much like what most of us have probably experienced in our life so the readers clamor for this idea of one true love that finally finds his/her way to the other person? I guess I'm just not much of a romantic in the general sense and it makes for interesting reading in this genre where sometimes I roll my eyes.
I'm in one of my "rather be reading" moods where I overlook most things in favor of a good book.
I discussed this book with the best friend and my sister at lunch this past weekend and we agreed that there was barely any Marcus, which makes us sad. And what we really want are Marcus' lost notebooks. We think that should be published rather than any more Jessica Darling books.
This is hard for me because I absolutely love the first two books of the Jessica Darling series. Book three was okay and this book was okay as well. But it gets to the point where it just felt like it was writing for the sake of writing, with some really contrived plot bits that bugged me a tad.
I still do enjoy Jessica's style of sharing her story with sarcasm and a heavy vocabulary, and it moves along rather quickly.
I enjoyed it enough, but I wouldn't bother unless you've loved and adored the first three.
I picked this book up because I really like Elsewhere and it didn't disappoint. It's a quick read about a young high school girl who loses her memory. It was abrupt at points, especially toward the end where it felt like everything got wrapped up much faster than I, as a reader, could savor and enjoy, but overall, interesting characters and a story that didn't necessarily go where I expected it to.
Zevin has a great ability at creating fresh stories. Definitely recommend.
I finished this book a few days ago. It's a long one, but an interesting look at Einstein's life and his lifelong belief in the importance of daydreaming and imagination. Of course there is science talk, but it's nothing that someone completely illiterate in science (ME) couldn't understand so it's not daunting. I enjoyed learning more about the man behind the crazy hair and important discoveries.
This is the second book in the Chesapeake Bay saga of books. I've never read Nora Roberts before these books because I'm not that big into romance, but it was recommended to me as an easy, fun read. And it is enjoyable. The romance isn't too much that it makes me want to kill myself and the characters continue to come into their own and you care about them.
If you like romance, you'll love it. If you like beach-type reads, you'll probably like it too.
I finished this book last night and enjoyed it. Quick read. Romance with interesting characters. Most Nora Roberts books aren't really my thing, but people highly recommended this series of her books, so I decided to give it a try. I was a bit wary considering the narration is third person omniscent so it was jumping around to everyone's thoughts, but I truly enjoyed the story and came to love Cameron and his brothers. I'll definitely continue reading the rest of this series (after I read the next Jessica Darling book and a few I have from the library).
I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys romance - it's not too overwhelming in this book and there is an actual story.
