#47-52
Holy cow, I haven't posted since mid-August. For whatever reason, I fell into a major reading slump this fall. I had expected to easily surpass 60 books this year, but that's definitely not going to happen now. Ah, well; at least I hit 50!
#47: Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery: I bawl through little Joyce's brief life and Leslie's tragedies and Captain Jim's last dawn. Come to think of it, Montgomery could've finally used the title "My Graves" for this story. Spectacular book, though. It's so beautiful.
#48: The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner (Audio book): I was delighted to discover the Doctor Who books. They're like really good fanfic, but with an actual publisher! I had to listen to this one, since it's read by David Tennant. His impersonation of Mickey cracks me up. The story is far better than I expected. The show runners are brilliant to include these books in their canon, as it expands the show's universe far beyond what the episodes are capable of covering. This particular story featured Rose and the Doctor going back to ancient Rome to figure out the story behind a Roman statue of Rose in the British museum. I'm struggling to describe this story without using fanfic terms, but I don't know if I can escape that. The author does a great job of expanding upon the televised-characterizations and gives them a broader adventure than I'm used to experiencing with them. The emotional impact of their adventure is nicely explored both in terms of how it affects the primary characters as well as the Romans they encounter. Much less of a hit-and-run feel as compared to what the show delivers.
#49: The Next Big Thing by Johanna Edwards: I picked this up at the Half-Price bookstore for cheap, with little expectations. As such, it didn't disappoint. The story is about a girl who goes on a reality show for overweight women who want to lose weight while stuck in a Big Brother-esque house. I greatly appreciated the protagonist's perspective about what it is like to be overweight and how people around her react to her weight struggles, but that was pretty much the only thing I'd endorse about the book. The rest of it was rather blah. Part of my problem may be that I really don't like most reality shows, so I had trouble enjoying the environment and conflicts in the story.
#50: The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards (Audio Book): Another Doctor Who book. I didn't like this one quite as well, though it had a good story to it. It's an outer-space pirate adventure featuring mutant robats. I think this would've been more interesting on screen, as the story was so very visual in nature. I'm more interested in historically based books than sci-fi, for the most part. So this one just wasn't as gripping for me. The ending was a good surprise, though.
#51: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis: One of my favorite Narnia books. I love the numerous adventures contained in this one short book. I love the alternate (and prefered by Lewis) ending that American readers got to the Land Where Dreams Come True. I love the opening to this book. It has one of the best opening lines to any book I've ever read. Actually, the entire opening paragraph is fantastic. We see so much of C.S. Lewis' personal opinions reflected in that section (tobacco, alcohol, health-nuts, and difficult names - all hot buttons for him). I wonder how they'll introduce Eustace's character in the movie? I'll also be interested in seeing how much the film-makers expand on the roll played by the Star's Daughter, as she barely appears in the book.
#52: Borrower of the Night by Elizabeth Peters: I believe alliebean02 recommended this one to me. I loved it! Vicky Bliss is a very interesting protagonist, the plot was fascinating and rich in historic details, the solution to the mystery was a huge surprise to me, and I never had any trouble re-immersing myself in the narrative in spite of the numerous times I was interrupted while reading this. (As opposed to several other books I've abandoned this year after getting interrupted so many times I lost interest and gave up.) My one complaint was that I'm obviously not as smart as Vicky. There were several times where she would solve something and only vaguely explain it, because it was assumed that the reader could keep up with her rapid-fire thought process. Um, I couldn't. I had to wait and hope she'd give a complete explanation later to someone else more on my intellectual level, and this didn't always happen. I need to go back and re-read a few sections since I'm still not clear on exactly where they found the thing in the end, even though it was apparently extremely obvious to everyone else. Still, that's not just a quibble. I'm well into the next book right now and can't wait to tear through the entire series. Fantastic rec, Allie!
#47: Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery: I bawl through little Joyce's brief life and Leslie's tragedies and Captain Jim's last dawn. Come to think of it, Montgomery could've finally used the title "My Graves" for this story. Spectacular book, though. It's so beautiful.
#48: The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner (Audio book): I was delighted to discover the Doctor Who books. They're like really good fanfic, but with an actual publisher! I had to listen to this one, since it's read by David Tennant. His impersonation of Mickey cracks me up. The story is far better than I expected. The show runners are brilliant to include these books in their canon, as it expands the show's universe far beyond what the episodes are capable of covering. This particular story featured Rose and the Doctor going back to ancient Rome to figure out the story behind a Roman statue of Rose in the British museum. I'm struggling to describe this story without using fanfic terms, but I don't know if I can escape that. The author does a great job of expanding upon the televised-characterizations and gives them a broader adventure than I'm used to experiencing with them. The emotional impact of their adventure is nicely explored both in terms of how it affects the primary characters as well as the Romans they encounter. Much less of a hit-and-run feel as compared to what the show delivers.
#49: The Next Big Thing by Johanna Edwards: I picked this up at the Half-Price bookstore for cheap, with little expectations. As such, it didn't disappoint. The story is about a girl who goes on a reality show for overweight women who want to lose weight while stuck in a Big Brother-esque house. I greatly appreciated the protagonist's perspective about what it is like to be overweight and how people around her react to her weight struggles, but that was pretty much the only thing I'd endorse about the book. The rest of it was rather blah. Part of my problem may be that I really don't like most reality shows, so I had trouble enjoying the environment and conflicts in the story.
#50: The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards (Audio Book): Another Doctor Who book. I didn't like this one quite as well, though it had a good story to it. It's an outer-space pirate adventure featuring mutant robats. I think this would've been more interesting on screen, as the story was so very visual in nature. I'm more interested in historically based books than sci-fi, for the most part. So this one just wasn't as gripping for me. The ending was a good surprise, though.
#51: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis: One of my favorite Narnia books. I love the numerous adventures contained in this one short book. I love the alternate (and prefered by Lewis) ending that American readers got to the Land Where Dreams Come True. I love the opening to this book. It has one of the best opening lines to any book I've ever read. Actually, the entire opening paragraph is fantastic. We see so much of C.S. Lewis' personal opinions reflected in that section (tobacco, alcohol, health-nuts, and difficult names - all hot buttons for him). I wonder how they'll introduce Eustace's character in the movie? I'll also be interested in seeing how much the film-makers expand on the roll played by the Star's Daughter, as she barely appears in the book.
#52: Borrower of the Night by Elizabeth Peters: I believe alliebean02 recommended this one to me. I loved it! Vicky Bliss is a very interesting protagonist, the plot was fascinating and rich in historic details, the solution to the mystery was a huge surprise to me, and I never had any trouble re-immersing myself in the narrative in spite of the numerous times I was interrupted while reading this. (As opposed to several other books I've abandoned this year after getting interrupted so many times I lost interest and gave up.) My one complaint was that I'm obviously not as smart as Vicky. There were several times where she would solve something and only vaguely explain it, because it was assumed that the reader could keep up with her rapid-fire thought process. Um, I couldn't. I had to wait and hope she'd give a complete explanation later to someone else more on my intellectual level, and this didn't always happen. I need to go back and re-read a few sections since I'm still not clear on exactly where they found the thing in the end, even though it was apparently extremely obvious to everyone else. Still, that's not just a quibble. I'm well into the next book right now and can't wait to tear through the entire series. Fantastic rec, Allie!