Nose in a Book

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

Seventeen-year-old Ruby has been living alone ever since her negligent mother disappeared.  She’s been doing just fine, thank you very much (or so she thinks).  Eventually, the authorities discover her and she’s forced to move in with her older sister who she hasn’t seen or heard from in ten years.  Ruby’s sister Cora is married and rich.  Suddenly Ruby is attending an exclusive private school and living in a giant house.  But her mother has always taught her to be independent and not let anyone too close.  The novel is about how she comes to realize that it’s okay to let people in and let them care for you.

This was my favourite Dessen book so far.  I loved the characters and the story.  This story really had the potential to be lame and super cheesy but it wasn’t at all.  I really liked how she told this story.  I’m not sure if I can explain it without giving too much away, but basically everything didn’t magically get better just because she had money all of a sudden.  And everyone has problems, not just poor people.

I also really like this cover.  The pink part is the dust jacket and the blue part is on the cover of the actual book.  It’s pretty cool, right?

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson

I can’t really do a summary without any spoilers for the previous two books so I’ll just say that this picks up just where The Girl Who Played with Fire left off.  And it’s more of the same intense story.

I still think the first one of the three was the best but this one (and the second one) weren’t any slouch either.  After finishing this one, I wanted to go right back to the beginning and read all three again.  I just loved that this trilogy was just go, go, go.  From the first page of the first book to the last page of the last book.

The only complaint I had with this (and the second book) was that if you haven’t just read the previous book (and I hadn’t) you’re going to be a little bit confused.  Larsson just has so many characters that it’s almost impossible to keep track of them.  It’s not that big of a deal because he does a pretty good job of bringing you up to speed about what happened in the previous books (without if being boring and redundant if you have just finished the previous books.)  Also, I found that even though I couldn’t totally remember who was who, it didn’t really matter.  As long as I remembered, good cop or bad cop (and even if I didn’t – it became pretty obvious very quickly) I was okay.

I think what sets this book apart from others like it is the fantastic story-telling.  Larsson sure knew how to weave a tale.  And weave he did.  There were so many different things going on that all had to come together in the end and make sense and they did!  Just like this others, I couldn’t put this one down but when I had to, I wasn’t completely lost when I was able to get back to it.  Sometimes I find books like this with so much going on are hard to follow but that wasn’t the case with this one.  I’m just sad that I won’t be able to read more from Larsson.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Colin, newly graduated from high school, has just been dumped for the 19th time by a Katherine.  He’s never dated a girl that wasn’t named Katherine, not Kathy, not Catherine, just Katherine.  After the 19th dumping, he’s a little depressed so his best friend, Hassan, takes him on a road trip.  Somewhere in Tennessee, they are lured off the road by a sign promising a view of Archduke Ferdinand’s final resting place. Once there, they are offered jobs and decide to stay for a while.  Colin, a child prodigy, spends his time working on a mathematical formula that will describe his relationships with the Katherines.

When I reviewed Looking for Alaska, I complained that the characters were too similar to the ones in Green’s other book, Paper Towns.  Well, I didn’t have that problem here.  This book was my favourite of the three.  The characters were more real and more likable.  Colin was endearingly neurotic and Hassan was funny and cute.  And of course the girl, Lindsey, wasn’t actually anything special – which I liked.  She was just a normal girl.  I think that’s why I didn’t like the female characters from Green’s other two books, they were just too out-there.

The thing I love about John Green’s novels is the wit he brings to the story.  If you were to tell the same story without it, it would still be an interesting story, but it just wouldn’t be as fun to read.  I also like the way he tells a story – his writing style.  He doesn’t have any fluff in there.  It’s just a nice simple, flowing style.   I can’t wait to read Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

Also, I just love the cover.

Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville

Jeremy Thatcher, grade six, spends his time drawing and avoiding girls and bullies.  One day as he is doing just that, he stumbles across a magic shop.  Once inside, the strange proprietor, Mr. Elives, sells him a marble-like object that he later discovers is actually a dragon egg and he is expected to hatch it and then care for the dragon that it produces!

I didn’t particularly enjoy this book but I’m not exactly the target audience so I’m going to turn this review over to my seven year old son and he can tell you what he thought of the book.

Isaiah:

“I liked this book because of the dragon.  There was a really funny part where the dragon chased the cat into the dining room and caused a lot of trouble.  I liked that the book was about magic.  At the beginning, I didn’t like the book because it started out kind of boring.  My favourite character was the dragon because it burned the art teacher’s foot.  My favourite part of the book was the ending (which we aren’t going to tell you about because we don’t want any spoilers!)”

I thought this book had a lot of potential but I think I’ve been spoiled by all the really great children’s fantasy out there.  (Harry Potter, Fablehaven etc.)  I just found that it moved too slowly and there wasn’t a whole lot of excitement.  But my seven year old seemed to enjoy it.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future by Michael J. Fox

Read for: Canadian Book Challenge 4

Intended for recent graduates, this quick little read is a little bit funny and a little bit advice and insight.

Even though I’m not a recent graduate, I definitely found this book to be a worthwhile read. Despite dropping out of high school, Fox argues that he still managed to learn everything he needed from life.  As the subtitle suggests, he learned from the twists and turns.  And he takes this opportunity to share those lessons with the reader.  The thing that makes this book different than the 37 million other advice books out there is Fox’s humour and his attitude.  As we all know, Fox is funny, and this book doesn’t disappoint in that corner.  But what surprised me (but probably that’s just me – apparently he’s known for being an optimist?) was how positive he was about life in general and his in particular.  A lot of times I avoid advice type books because I wonder what makes this guy so great that he thinks he can give me advice?  (For example: I read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and while it had a lot of god stuff in it, it mostly just annoyed me.)  But something about Fox’s attitude and his sense of humour made this one readable and enjoyable.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Miles is off to boarding school in search of his “Great Perhaps.”  Once there he meets Alaska Young – beautiful, smart, fun-loving and moody – and of course falls for her.  Then something really bad happens and Miles must find a way to deal with it.

The book is divided into Before and After so you kind of know right from the beginning that something bad is going to happen.  I think I’ll start with what I didn’t like about this book so I can finish off on a positive note.  I have just recently read Paper Towns by the same author and while I did like Looking for Alaska better, I felt like the characters, especially the female leads, were very similar – too similar.  I also have another of Green’s books sitting in my tbr pile and it makes me wonder if the characters in it will also be the same.  I loved the characters in Paper Towns but finding them so similar in this book worries me that Green can only write one type of character.  (We’ll see how the third book works out.)

Okay, now for the good.  John Green can really write.  I love the flow in his stories.  I love the way he develops his characters and I love the wit he includes in his books.  I found myself laughing out loud at the thoughts and words of his characters.  I also loved the characters.  I found Alaska to be a bit annoying sometimes but she was real.  The story was also real.  That’s why I liked this one better than Paper Towns.  It was much more realistic.  (I, myself, have never gone to boarding school so maybe it actually isn’t all that realistic, but it felt honest to me.)

All in all, it was a good book, definitely worthwhile reading.  (As if you need me to tell you that, see that gold sticker on the cover?  It won the Printz award.)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series by Rick Riordan

I’ve just finished reading this series with my seven year old son.   I’m going to get him to help me with the review.

First of all, I’m not sure I need a summary or how to go about that with an entire series so I’ll just give you the basic premise.  So, Percy Jackson is a half-blood, meaning that one of his parents is a Greek god.  Because, the Greek gods do exist and are still around.

I really enjoyed reading these books to my son.  I was worried that they would get too old for him as the series progressed but they didn’t.  (They were getting there.  My son is pretty mature for his age and I’m not sure my second son will be able to appreciate them at that age.)  I really liked this about them.  I would love to read Harry Potter to my son but I think they just get too dark in the last few books but I would like to read him the whole series at once so I’ll be holding off on them.  That’s one thing I really appreciated about these books.

They were definitely entertaining.  And sometimes I find that a series of books like this gets old or tired by the end of the series and I’m just reading to find out what happens, but that wasn’t the case with these.  In fact, I think they got better over the series.

We also learned a lot about Greek mythology.  It also made me realize how much Greek mythology is still present in our society today.  Isaiah (my son) has started noticing Greek letters everywhere and names of the gods also.   He’s also given everyone in the family a godly title.  For example, I’m the goddess of books and reading!

Here’s what Isaiah had to say about the books:

“I liked them because there were lots of battles and quests.  They were exciting.  I learned lots about the Greek gods and some letters from the Greek alphabet.”

“My favourite book was the 4th one (The Battle of the Labyrinth) because they went into the Labyrinth and time went by really fast.”

“My favourite character was Percy because he was the main character.  My favourite god was Zeus because he can control the sky.  He shot lots of lightning bolts at the bad guys.”

Overall, this was a great series for us to read together.  Now, I just have to find something else for us to read.  Any suggestions??

Promises to Keep by Jane Green

(This book is called The Love Verb in the UK and I actually think that title works much better for the book.)

The book is about a group of friends and family that are happily living their lives when they are devastated with the news that one of their group is dying of cancer.  It’s the story of how they come together to deal with the illness and imminent death of a close friend.

I didn’t really like this book.  First off, I was expecting it to be light hearted chick lit and obviously it wasn’t.  It was a lot heavier and emotional than I was expecting.  (Which isn’t really a flaw in the book but still colours how I feel about it in the long run.  It may be a marketing flaw but it was probably just a mistake on my part.)  Second, I found that the story took a really long time getting started.  Over half the book was character development and setting the stage for the real story to start.  I think I would have appreciated the book more if there was more story after the diagnosis.  This is what the book really should have been about (and I think is what it’s supposed to be about) but this part of the story just isn’t developed enough for me.  Third, I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing.  It wasn’t really bad, but it wasn’t great either.  And fourth, there were recipes between each chapter and while they weren’t really distracting or anything, I just didn’t really get what the point of them was.  One of the characters was a chef and really loved cooking and if she had been more of the main character it might have worked better.

I didn’t totally hate the book though.  It definitely pulled at my heart strings.  The dying character has two young children and I found myself just sick at the thought of dying and leaving my own children without a mother.  I really think the story had potential because it’s such a real story, such a familiar story.

Well, I’m joining the Canadian Books Challenge again this year.  Technically I didn’t finish last year because I didn’t review 3 of my books, but I’m calling it completed because I didn’t realize there was such an important emphasis on actually reviewing the books.  This year I will make sure to review all the books I read so I can officially say that I’ve completed the challenge.

Anyway, I need suggestions.  I need Canadian books to read! The challenge it to read books by Canadians or about Canadians, but my goal is to read 13 books written by Canadian authors.  (I’m also taking part in an Anne of Green Gables challenge so some of those books will definitely work for this challenge as well.

So, lay it on me.  What books by Canadian authors do I have to read?

Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

Lara just broke up with her boyfriend and she’s having a rough time with the new company she and her best friend just started.  And she has the ghost of her great-aunt Sadie bugging her to find some silly necklace so she can rest in peace.  This is typical chick lit so you know the story.  The girl either has no boyfriend or has a crappy one.  Ditto for the job.  By the end, she has a great new boyfriend and a great new job.  This story line could get old but with so many different ways of getting from A to B, it doesn’t, at least not to me. And Kinsella is better at it than most.

The characters in Twenties Girl are lovable (and hateful) as always, especially Sadie, the ghost.  Sadie adds a whole new twist to the story.  And she’s quite the character.  Fun-loving to a fault, extremely demanding and used to getting her own way, which leads to some interesting and funny circumstances.

If you like chick lit, this is one you can’t miss!