The Alexandria Letter by George R. Honig
A young scholar, Nathan, stumbles across an extremely old manuscript while doing research on Hebrew poetry. He translates the manuscript and finds that it is a letter written by a man who was a disciple of John the Baptist and Jesus. The contents of the letter “threaten to turn long-held principles of Christianity on their heads.” According to the book summary Nathan “finds himself thrown into an agonizing struggle against powerful forces committed to discrediting him…As he races to verify the authenticity of the letter, he faces rejection by his fellow scholars and sinister opposition from within the Church that aims to stop him at any cost.”
I really didn’t like this book and here’s why:
The story lacked flow. The story was told in three alternating parts: the letter, Nathan’s narrative and the story of a shady priest who’d spent at least 30 years murdering, stealing and plotting. There was way too much unnecessary detail in the letter and it was so boring. The part of the book that told Nathan’s story was too impersonal and the writing was stilted. This part of the story didn’t have enough detail. As a result the characters were not adequately developed and I never got to know the characters. Because I didn’t know them, I didn’t care about them or the outcome of the book. The shady priest parts of the book were so random. I think the author was trying to show us what a bad guy he was but so much of what he did was so completely unrelated to the rest of the novel that it was confusing.
The book summary was one of the things that bothered me the most about the book. I thought the story was going to be exciting, and suspenseful, and controversial. But it wasn’t! The book moved so slowly, I didn’t find it to be suspenseful at all. And controversial? I don’t think so. You’d think with the subject matter of the letter that it wouldn’t be that hard to find some controversy but I suspect that if the letter had been real most Christians wouldn’t be all that bothered by it. I wouldn’t anyway.
After trashing a book like that, I usually like to find something good to say about it but in this case I just can’t think of anything. I always feel badly, saying I didn’t like a book because I know a lot of blood, sweat and tears go into writing a book. I’m sure there is someone out there that would enjoy this novel, it just wasn’t for me.
The Seven Year Bitch by Jennifer Belle
Isolde Brilliant is married with a son. She’s unhappy in her marriage but she and her husband have decided that they can’t afford a divorce. As for plot – that’s pretty much all there is. And usually in chick lit that’s enough, but somehow it just didn’t work all that great this time.
There were several things that annoyed me about this book. First of all, Isolde loses her job right at the beginning of the book and for the three years that the book covers she doesn’t get another one. Her husband has started a publishing company out of there apartment and you get the impression that he’s not all that successful. But despite the fact that both parents spend the majority of their days at home, they still hire a nanny. And they own a country home and they spend huge amounts of money on clothing and eating out and fertility treatments for the nanny. What I want to know is where are they getting all this money from?
Second, Isolde was not at all lovable. (And maybe that was the point? After all she is the seven year bitch of the title.) She was nosy (prying into her nanny’s infertility etc.) and she was a total cow to her husband. Sometimes he deserved it, but sometimes not. She was also really whiny. She thought her life was so awful but it really wasn’t that bad. And her husband, Russell, wasn’t all that lovable either. It’s no wonder they both wanted a divorce – they were both complete nut-jobs!
Third, the story had no flow. It got kind of confusing sometimes because it jumped all over the place. And the book was divided into three parts that seemed almost arbitrary – there didn’t seem to be any actual meaning to the divisions.
Lastly, (spoiler warning!!) the ending was totally unrealistic. All of a sudden in the last few pages she decides to start a new business and that she actually is happy with her life and marriage. It just came out of left field. It was like the author was trying to follow a formula which said that the main character had to end up happy with her marriage and her career even if it really didn’t fit the rest of the story.
There were a few things I liked about the book though. It was an easy read and quick, even though it was over 300 hundred pages long. It was also very funny – there were some parts where I laughed out loud. And besides the jumpy randomness of the story, I actually liked the writing. It was perfect for the genre. I actually think this book could have been quite good with just a little editing to improve the flow and tone down Isolde’s whining (and maybe a rewrite of the ending!). Some of the other things that bothered me could be forgiven if Isolde had been more likable.
Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
So my friend started reading these books and told me they were really fun and she’s gotten so caught up in the series, I just had to try it out!
Jessica Darling is a sophomore in high school and her BFF has just moved halfway across the country. The book is written as if it’s her journal which is a style I normally hate but it works in this book. The plot is just about her teenage, high school angst which again I normally hate but totally works in this case. I think it’s because Jessica is so self-aware – she knows she’s angsty and pokes fun at herself for being so melodramatic.
It actually took me a bit to get into the book but once I did, I was hooked. It’s been a while since I’ve been in high school but reading this book is like reading some of my old journals. The emotions Jessica experiences, the situations she finds herself in – she reminds me of teenage me! Except she’s way wittier than I ever was. And her observations about her peers? Hilarious!
This book was so fun and real and easy to read. I’ve already read the second one and can’t wait to get my hands on the remaining three!
Would You by Marthe Jocelyn
Read for: Canadian Books Challenge
This book is about a teenage girl whose sister is seriously injured when she is hit by a car and the week immediately following the accident. The book was really short and there really wasn’t much more to it.
I didn’t really like this book. I think it needed more. I think I know what the author was trying do with this novel but it needed more depth, more character development, more time. After reading a book, I like to feel I’ve been entertained or that I learned something or that I gained some new understanding but after reading this one I felt none of that. I don’t want to sound rude but I’m not really sure what the point of this book was. It was well written and if there had been more depth of the characters and the story I could see it being a really good book. As it is though, it just didn’t do anything for me.
