Title: Four to Score
Author: Janet Evanovich
Pages: 313
Grade: A
Summary: (From Publisher's Weekly)
There's no such thing as a simple assignment for Stephanie Plum. When Maxine Nowicki, charged with stealing her boyfriend's car, skips her court appearance, she's fair game to be hauled in. No big challenge, thinks Stephanie. Wrong. Before the case is over, Stephanie will invade an Atlantic City casino with her intrepid allies: sneaker-shod Grandma Mazur; her colleague Lula, "a two-hundred pound black woman with blond baloney curls all dressed up like Cher on a bad day"; and Sally, a seven-foot transvestite rock singer. Although Stephanie is the bounty hunter, she's the only one of the quartet who isn't armed. She also loses another car and her apartment, moves in with handsome cop and longtime love interest, Joe Morelli (causing a stir in his family and hers), has several memorable run-ins with arch rival Joyce Barnhardt, discovers a corpse and, finally, catches her quarry.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Book 41 - Four to Score
Book 40 - Survivor
Title: Survivor
Author: Chuck Palahniuk
Pages: 289
Grade: A
Summary: (From Publisher's Weekly)
The rise and fall of a media-made messiah is the subject of Palahniuk's impressive second novel (after the well-received Fight Club), a wryly mannered commentary on the excesses of pop culture that tracks the 15 minutes of fame of the lone living member of a suicide cult. Tender Branson, aged 33, has commandeered a Boeing 747, emptied of passengers, in order to tell his story to the "black box" while flying randomly until the plane runs out of gas and crashes. Branson relates in his long flashback the vicissitudes of his life: a member of the repressive Creedish Death Cult, supposedly founded by a splinter group of Millerites in 1860, he is hired out as a domestic servant who must dedicate his earnings to the cult. Despite his humble beginnings, Branson finds himself on the edge of fame and fortune when the cult members begin their suicide binge, and he keeps himself on the media radar by using the psychic dreams of his potential romantic interest, Fertility Hollis, in which the girl accurately predicts a series of strange disasters. After a brief period at the top of the freak-show heap, Branson succumbs to the excesses of his trade when his agent mysteriously dies at the Super Bowl as Branson predicts the outcome of the game at half-time, simultaneously triggering a riot and turning him into a murder suspect. Branson's spookily matter of fact account of his bizarre experiences does not excite tension until the narrative is well under way, but the novel picks up momentum during the homestretch when Branson goes on the lam with Fertility and his murderous brother Adam, and the story steamrolls toward its nightmarish climax.
Book 39 - A Simple Plan
Title: A Simple Plan
Author: Scott Smith
Pages: 416
Grade: B+
Summary: (From Publisher's Weekly)
Once one accepts the bizarre premise of Smith's astonishingly adept, ingeniously plotted debut thriller, the book fulfills every expectation of a novel of suspense, leading the reader on a wild exploration of the banality of evil. Indeed, it is difficult to believe that a tyro writer could have produced so controlled and assured a narrative. When Hank Mitchell, his obese, feckless brother Jacob and Jacob's smarmy friend Lou accidentally find a wrecked small plane and its dead pilot in the woods near their small Ohio town, they decide not to tell the authorities about the $4.4 million stuffed into a duffel bag. Instead, they agree to hide the money and later divide it among themselves. The "simple plan" sets in motion a spiral of blackmail, betrayal and multiple murder which Smith manipulates with consummate skill, increasing the tension exponentially with plot twists that are inevitable and unpredictable at the same time. In choosing to make his protagonist an ordinary middle-class man--Hank is an accountant in a feed and grain store--Smith demonstrates the eerie ease with which the mundane can descend to the unthinkable. Hank commits the first murder to protect his brother and their secret; he eerily rationalizes the ensuing coldblooded deeds while remaining outwardly normal, hardly an obvious psychopath.
Book 38 - Forever
Title: Forever
Author: Pete Hamill
Pages: 608
Grade: A-/B+
Summary: (Publisher's Note)
Moving from Ireland to New York City in 1741, Cormac O'Connor witnesses the city's transformation into a thriving metropolis while he explores the mysteries of time, loss, and love.
My thoughts: It's a smart tale...that was really at its best, for me.... when Cormac was really living a life. I loved the beginning. The small boy growing up in Ireland. I loved his encounter with the Countess. And I loved the ending. The pace was nice at these points and I was completely enthralled. But this story, though revolving around Cormac becomes so much more once he reaches New York. It becomes in even more ways a tale about Manhattan. And even knowing that it was going to reach the year 2001...there is something about reading something like that...in a book...that just pulls you back to where you were at that moment. The description is raw, frightful, everything that you know it was. Hmm, sometimes books you find for three dollars are more than worth it. =)Book 37 - Prozac Nation
Title: Prozac Nation
Author: Elizabeth Wurtzel
Pages: 362
Grade: -
Summary: (From Publisher's Weekly) Twenty-six-year-old Wurtzel, a former critic of popular music for New York and the New Yorker, recounts in this luridly intimate memoir the 10 years of chronic, debilitating depression that preceded her treatment with Prozac in 1990. After her parents' acrimonious divorce, Wurtzel was raised by her mother on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The onset of puberty, she recalls, also marked the onset of recurrent bouts of acute depression, sending her spiraling into episodes of catatonic despair, masochism and hysterical crying. Here she unsparingly details her therapists, hospitalizations, binges of sex and drug use and the paralyzing spells of depression which afflicted her in high school and as a Harvard undergraduate and culminated in a suicide attempt and ultimate diagnosis of atypical depression, a severe, episodic psychological disorder.
Book 36 - American Gods
Title: American Gods
Author: Neil Gaiman
Pages: 588
Grade: A-/B+
Summary: (From Publisher's Weekly)
Titans clash, but with more fuss than fury in this fantasy demi-epic from the author of Neverwhere. The intriguing premise of Gaiman's tale is that the gods of European yore, who came to North America with their immigrant believers, are squaring off for a rumble with new indigenous deities: "gods of credit card and freeway, of Internet and telephone, of radio and hospital and television, gods of plastic and of beeper and of neon." They all walk around in mufti, disguised as ordinary people, which causes no end of trouble for 32-year-old protagonist Shadow Moon, who can't turn around without bumping into a minor divinity. Released from prison the day after his beloved wife dies in a car accident, Shadow takes a job as emissary for Mr. Wednesday, avatar of the Norse god Grimnir, unaware that his boss's recruiting trip across the American heartland will subject him to repeat visits from the reanimated corpse of his dead wife and brutal roughing up by the goons of Wednesday's adversary, Mr. World. At last Shadow must reevaluate his own deeply held beliefs in order to determine his crucial role in the final showdown.
My thoughts: I'm not very eloquent today....and there is so much about this book that deserves more praise then I'll get out here, but nonetheless I shall try. First off...the use of the word nonsensical! But the thing I really loved and enjoyed about this novel...was the small quaint little town...that you know is seeped in something strange but I loved every character there. I adored the mythology. The mere almost shades of the Gods of their original countries trying to thrive here...where there has never been much room for them. And I loved the side stories...they were possibly my favorite parts. So, you know....if you have any love of the myth/lore of old and an appreciation for the fantastical...I totally recommend.
Book 35 - The Deed
Title: The Deed
Author: Keith Blanchard
Pages: 302
Grade: C+/B-
Summary: (From Booklist)
Jason Hansvoort lives an all-too-common 20-something existence: he has an unfulfilling job at an uncaring corporation, too many evenings spent in bars with friends, and a string of one-night stands to his credit, but very little direction in life. Then the beautiful Amanda, a Native American law student, finds him and tells him he may stand to inherit Manhattan Island if a 350-year-old deed can be found. Suddenly Jason finds himself with two goals worthy of pursuing.
My thoughts: Um, a fairly quick and easy read. However, it is quite anti-climatic. And the lead characters just don't seem fully fleshed out as characters. I think really while the basic storyline is well paced...and the story was complete...details were missing, which kept it from being a good novel. But again, quick read, mildly entertaining, and only cost me a $1.
Book 34 - Across the Wall: A Tale of Abhorsen and Other Stories
Title: Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories
Author: Garth Nix
Pages: 305
Grade: A -
Summary: (Book Description)
Nicholas Sayre will do anything to get across the Wall. Thoughts of Lirael and Sam haunt his dreams, and he has come to realize that his destiny lies with them, in the Old Kingdom. But here in Ancelstierre, Nick faces an obstacle that is not entirely human, with a strange power that seems to come from Nicholas himself.
With "Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case," Garth Nix continues to explore the magical world of the Abhorsen Trilogy. In additional short stories that range from two widely different takes on the Merlin myth to a gritty urban version of Hansel and Gretel and a heartbreaking story of children and war, Garth Nix displays the range and versatility that has made him one of today's leading writers of fantasy for readers of all ages.
My thoughts: The Abhorsen Trilogy is possibly my all time favorite childhood fantasy series. So you know what...Garth Nix can go back to this world anytime he likes and I will follow. That is much how I came into contact with this collection, and I really enjoyed not just the novella but all the tales.
Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case - It was really just a pleasure to go back into this world that I've always so enjoyed. And the appearance of Lirael at the end certainly didn't hurt. It was a quick read, as are all things Garth Nix writes, but a fulfilling one, an enjoyable one.
Under the Lake - The first of two Arthurian tales. I adored it. The lady of the lake is possibly my all time favorite character from the myths....and I loved this new take on things.
Charlie Rabbit - It broke my heart. The short tale gives you just a brief glimpse into the lives of children facing like in the middle of a war zone. And sometimes the faith of a small child...isn't always for naught. You may not see it that way. Or even afterward view it the same way the small child did. But he was right. Charlie Rabbit did save them.From the Lighthouse - Nix took a bit of a step into the Sci-Fi realm... and while I like the concept and the setting... due to its length...I think I just feel like I'm missing out on more of a story. But nice nonetheless.
The Hill - I adored this. The setting, the young boy, the old man, the cab driver, the young boy's father....everything seemed so fleshed out...though the short story is just that short. I didn't feel like I was just glimpsing this story. I understood this story. A love of a land and how it should be. Longing to the simplicity of the past before everything became all about money and greed and what you can get from something rather than just enjoying something.
Lightning Bringer - I appreciated it...and the lightning concept reminded me a bit of Something Wicked This Way Comes. But not one of my favorites.
Down to the Scum Quarter - Brilliant! I laughed. Choose Your Own Adventures...shall always be grand.. especially with the humor of well Nix.
Heart's Desire - The second of the two Arthurian tales, and once again I adored it. Because he picked up on my other favorite part of the myth. The twisted tale of Merlin and Nimue. I love this take how well why everything fell apart. Why a great man such as Merlin fell for Nimue to begin with. Loved it.
Hansel's Eyes - I love modern day takes on fairy tales. I always have and always will. Because the tales that were creepy when we were young...remain creepy to our older selves when they are taken from a hidden faraway fantastical world. And put into our own modern day one.
Hope Chest - Brilliant! I wish there was more. Or that it could be lengthened to an actual novel. There is so much here. And so much I am left wondering out. Plus...I have a soft spots for tales about ordinary women who suddenly come into powers and kick major ass.
My New Really Epic Fantasy Series - Just a riot! I laughed all the way through.
Three Roses - Just really short, simple, and sweet.
Endings - Another tale that I wish I had been given more of. Simply because it was so well awesome really. Because within three pages...there was so much story there. So much woven into that short amount of words. Love!
Thus endeth my Garth Nix love fest.Book 33: Thief of Lives
Title: Thief of Lives
Author: Barb and J.C. Hendee
Pages: 410
Grade: A
Summary: (From Booklist)
Former con-artists-turned-vampire-slayers Magiere (a half-vampire, half-human called a dhampir) and her half-elf partner, Leesil, return in this sequel to Dhampir. After she had taken care of the vampire problem in Miiska, her and Leesil's adopted village, Magiere assumed her vampire-hunting days were over. Now a successful tavern owner, she wants nothing more than to forget about vampires. But when a vampire kills a councilman's daughter in the city of Bela, Miiska officials pressure her to go hunt down and kill the vampire. At Leesil's urging, she reluctantly agrees. The trip gets off to a bad start when three hired thugs try to kill Magiere aboard the ship to Bela, and when she and Leesil begin investigating, Magiere is puzzled by the deliberate nature of the crime. Clearly, someone was trying to send a message. But was the sender a vampire or some other sinister, dark force?
My thoughts: Ok, this is typically the place where I would say profound things about writing and characters and what not. But no. Not this time. These books... are just Completely and Utterly awesome. Because the characters are so damn perfect. And the story...while well laid out...just kind of moves around their development...and I LOVE IT! I pimp it out. Read Dhampir. Read the series...and love it. That is all!
Book 32: Invisible Monsters
Title: Invisible Monsters
Author: Chuck Palahniuk
Pages: 297
Grade: A
Summary: (From Publisher's Weekly) (Edited and condensed by me because well a bit too revealing elsewhere)
Palahniuk's grotesque romp aims to skewer the ruthless superficiality of the fashion world and winds up with a tale as savagely glib as what it derides. Narrator Shannon McFarland, once a gorgeous fashion model, has been hideously disfigured in a mysterious drive-by shooting. Her jaw has been shot off, leaving her not only bereft of a career and boyfriend, but suddenly invisible to the world. ... Adding to the plot's contrivances are the relentless flashbacks, heralded at the beginning of almost every paragraph with "Jump back to..." and the author's pretentious device of using a fashion photographer's commands ("Flash. Give me adoration. Flash. Give me a break") to signpost the narrator's epiphanies.
My thoughts: This, like the other novels by Chuck Palahniuk, is once more making a statement. It's gross. It's beautiful. It's unbelievable. And it's real. It's life. And it's not life. The people out of the spotlight...will go to any length to get the attention they crave. Not because they necessarily want the end product...but merely because they want all eyes on them. The people in the spotlight....can be led to do crazy things to get away from it. To get as far from it as possible. Because in the end...they just want to feel something that is real. It's a large generalization but at the same time oddly fitting.
Book 31: House of Leaves
Title: House of Leaves
Author: Mark Z. Danielewski
Pages: 709
Grade: B+/A+ (The first grade given for my overall opinion of the book, the second grade for just how damn awesome the idea, format, and well everything about this book is.)
Summary: (From and Condensed by moi...from Amazon)
Had The Blair Witch Project been a book instead of a film, and had it been written by, say, Nabokov at his most playful, revised by Stephen King at his most cerebral, and typeset by the futurist editors of Blast at their most avant-garde, the result might have been something like House of Leaves. Mark Z. Danielewski's first novel has a lot going on: notably the discovery of a pseudoacademic monograph called The Navidson Record, written by a blind man named Zampanò, about a nonexistent documentary film--which itself is about a photojournalist who finds a house that has supernatural, surreal qualities. (The inner dimensions, for example, are measurably larger than the outer ones.) In addition to this Russian-doll layering of narrators, Danielewski packs in poems, scientific lists, collages, Polaroids, appendices of fake correspondence and "various quotes," single lines of prose placed any which way on the page, crossed-out passages, and so on.
My thoughts: This novel is seriously a combination of about three different stories in one. It's first off about Johnny Truant, the tattoo-shop worker whose life gets turned upside down one night in finding a complilation of papers. Those papers are the second story... a tale of a man, Zampano, and what his whole life revolved around, The Navidson Record. And the Navidson Record, portraying the tale of a photojournalist and his family moving into a house in the country to try to rebuild their relationship is the third story. The style amazes me. The work and thought that had to have gone into this. It's an essay...telling the main story...and footnotes telling the tales of the other two stories. And everything just flows. It works. And they are joined by appendices, letters, and photos. And though at times I felt like I was lost and confused...I think it was because I was meant to, and not because I couldn't follow the story. The thing that stuck out to me most, past the fact that this novel could at moments make me feel like darkness might descend upon me, was a review on the back that mentioned this was a 'love story.' I thought it was crazy. No where in the beginning could I see the connection. Yet as I finished The Navidson Record, it suddenly became quite clear that that is at least partially what House of Leaves is. It is a love story. It is a labyrinth. It is everything you are looking for and not at all what you would expect.
Book 30 - Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Volume 11
Title: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Volume 11
Author: Clamp
Pages: 183
Grade: B
Summary: (From the back of the book)
The Dragonfly Race is set to begin in Piffle World, and the prize for one lucky lightweight aircraft pilot is an amazingly powerful battery in the shape of a feather. But for the four dimension-travelers, and one odd creature named Mokona, who have joined the competition, the feather represents more than energy–it’s one of Princess Sakura’s lost memories! And Sakura’s feather isn’t the only thing at stake. Despite President Tomoyo’s best efforts to protect the race using her wealth and resources, unexpected hazards keep popping up, and the perilous contest could lead to death for unskilled pilots . . . like the princess!
My thoughts: I was actually bored...this time. It's very sad really. The only thing that saved this for me was um Fai/Kurogane Yay!
Book 29 - Three to Get Deadly
Title: Three to Get Deadly
Author: Janet Evanovich
Pages: 321
Grade: A
Summary: (Stolen from Publisher's Weekly)
Trenton, N.J., bounty hunter and former lingerie buyer Stephanie Plum (last seen in Two for the Dough) becomes persona non grata when she tracks down a neighborhood saint who has failed to show up for his court appearance. No one wants to help Stephanie, who works for her bail-bondsman cousin, Vinnie. While questioning admirers of the man nicknamed Uncle Mo, Stephanie is attacked and knocked out as she cases his candy store. She comes to next to the dead body of her attacker, who turns out to be a well-known drug dealer. Suddenly, she can't avoid stumbling across the bodies of dead drug dealers: one in a dumpster, one in a closet and four in the candy store basement. Stephanie suspects that mild-mannered Mo has become a vigilante and is cleaning up the streets in a one-man killing spree. But when she's repeatedly threatened by men wearing ski masks, she wonders if Mo has company and just might be in over his head. Despite her new clownish orange hair job, Stephanie muddles through another case full of snappy one-liners as well as corpses. By turns buttressed and hobbled by her charmingly clueless family and various cohorts (including streetwise co-worker Lulu, detective and heartthrob Morelli and professional bounty hunter Ranger), the redoubtable Stephanie is a character crying out for a screen debut.
My thoughts: The Stephanie Plum novels are possibly that I'm going to consider the best bad crack ever recommended to me. I never fail to laugh. And isn't that what you just need sometimes?
Book 28 - The Ice Child
Title: The Ice Child
Author: Elizabeth McGregor
Pages: 368
Grade: A-/B+
Summary: (Stolen from Publisher's Weekly)
Making her U.S. debut with this dramatic, fast-paced tale of adventure, survival, romance and enduring parental love (human and ursine), British writer McGregor should reach a broad audience here. Acerbic young London journalist Jo Harper has an assignment to interview the wife of Doug Marshall, a British archeologist gone missing in the Arctic while pursuing the mystery of the Franklin Expedition, which vanished in 1845. While Jo has no interest in the story at first, it isn't long before she is fascinated by man and quest alike. When Marshall is rescued, she begins an affair with him and has a child, though her happiness is not fated to last. Three other narratives revolve around Jo's story: Doug's 19-year-old son John's painful attempts to capture "his father's true attention"; the deadly, icebound struggle of the Franklin Expedition, told from the point of view of a 12-year-old ship hand; and a polar bear's dedication to her cub. The protagonist of each segment fears being frozen out, both literally and emotionally, and struggles to survive very private trials. The book shifts its focus without losing steam when a tragic death and another disappearance occur, and a terrible discovery shifts the balance between the searchers and the sought-after. McGregor introduces perhaps one dramatic twist too many, but her novel otherwise artfully mixes historical background, up-to-date medical information about a rare disease, a bit of pop psychologizing and some upbeat lessons about the survival of the human spirit.
My thoughts: This story, while it has little to do with the book description, actually was much better than I expected. It told the story of 'parents' of different times, sexes, and species all trying to find safety and salvation for their 'children.' It struck a deep cord and truly warmed my heart.
Book 27 - White Night
Title: White Night
Author: Jim Butcher
Pages: 404
Grade: A++
Summary: (Stolen from Booklist)
My thoughts: Wow. Can I just say Wow? It was another twisting turning ride that I couldn't put down from the moment I picked it up until the very moment I finished. The supporting cast were all integral to the plot. People from almost every previous book were present and accounted for in some manner. It was really just a joy to read. I never fail to be impressed by just how much planning has to go into these books. There is no other way to account how every person thrown in, of which there are many, all connected to the major plot of the story. Seriously...anyone who isn't reading this series...should be.
Book 26 - Something Wicked This Way Comes
Title: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Author: Ray Bradbury
Pages: 293
Grade: B+/A-
Summary: (I like to steal from Amazon, I do I do.)
My thoughts: I love Bradbury. I love Bradbury largely because I'm always left with a message after I finish reading. I don't know that it is always the message everyone else has but I'm left with one all the same. This book is the story of two boys, best friends, who are trying to save their town. They aren't perfect. One of them even caves to the darkness. But the prevailing message of this novel, for me, is that laughter, happiness can defeat the darkness. A smile can scare off fear. Death isn't a scary, horrifying thing waiting to come get you. Death is just what happens. It's only scary if you allow the fear and the pain and the sorrow to overtake you. A dark, well thought out novel stating basically "Don't Worry...Be Happy."
Book 25 - Brave New World
Title: Brave New World
Author: Aldous Huxley
Pages: 259
Grade: A
Summary: (I like to steal from Amazon, I do I do.)
My thoughts: One of those books I actually finished in a day. Largely because it kept me interested enough to well not really put it down. Something about the fact that there is no true happiness I think was possibly the biggest thing I got from this. And I think it might well be true. With free will, the human race will never be happy. Because having the right to love, to care, to mourn, to solitude, to separation. All of these things....will at one point leave you unhappy. Relationships end, people die, isolation leaves you feeling well alone. But not having the right to those things....to be blindly happy, believing you belong to any and everyone. Everyone has a station they were mentally and physically developed to fit.. It's not happiness. It's a manufactured reality. There is no peace...no forever happiness. There is only this life or that life. And I think I prefer this one. Savage that that might make me. Heh.
Book 24 - Sense and Sensibility
It was to my great horror the other day, while scanning my bookshelf that I realized I had never read Sense and Sensibility. I bought it around the same time I bought Pride and Prejudice...which I was rather young then... 14 maybe? Considering I'm 20 now...that's a long time for me to leave a book I actually want to read...sitting on a shelf. Well, that problem has now been fixed. Now to read Persuasion and obtain Northanger Abbey and I will have read every Jane Austen. My literary goals are special things.
Title: Sense and Sensibility
Author: Jane Austen
Pages: 331
Grade: A- (ish)
Summary: (I like to steal from Amazon, I do I do.)
Though not the first novel she wrote, Sense and Sensibility was the first Jane Austen published. Though she initially called it Elinor and Marianne, Austen jettisoned both the title and the epistolary mode in which it was originally written, but kept the essential theme: the necessity of finding a workable middle ground between passion and reason. The story revolves around the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. Whereas the former is a sensible, rational creature, her younger sister is wildly romantic--a characteristic that offers Austen plenty of scope for both satire and compassion. Commenting on Edward Ferrars, a potential suitor for Elinor's hand, Marianne admits that while she "loves him tenderly," she finds him disappointing as a possible lover for her sister:
Oh! Mama, how spiritless, how tame was Edward's manner in reading to us last night! I felt for my sister most severely. Yet she bore it with so much composure, she seemed scarcely to notice it. I could hardly keep my seat. To hear those beautiful lines which have frequently almost driven me wild, pronounced with such impenetrable calmness, such dreadful indifference!Soon however, Marianne meets a man who measures up to her ideal: Mr. Willoughby, a new neighbor. So swept away by passion is Marianne that her behavior begins to border on the scandalous. Then Willoughby abandons her; meanwhile, Elinor's growing affection for Edward suffers a check when he admits he is secretly engaged to a childhood sweetheart. How each of the sisters reacts to their romantic misfortunes, and the lessons they draw before coming finally to the requisite happy ending forms the heart of the novel. Though Marianne's disregard for social conventions and willingness to consider the world well-lost for love may appeal to modern readers, it is Elinor whom Austen herself most evidently admired; a truly happy marriage, she shows us, exists only where sense and sensibility meet and mix in proper measure.
My thoughts: I never finish a Jane Austen novel without being in some way amused. Because Jane Austen never fails to not well mock her own characters. Or exaggerate their flaws grossly. I adore it. I do. Elinor, I immediately relate to. And really I want her to have whatever makes her happy. Though in some weird way I think I wanted Col. Brandon to be like "OMG MARIANNE STFU...UR SIS IS TEH S3X!!!!!" Sadly no...he was just a sad pathetic little man in love. Whom I adored fully, but still. And Edward with his whole "SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP MOTHER. I AM GOING TO RUN OFF AND MARRY THIS GIRL I PROMISED TO MARRY 4 YEARS AGO AND DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT NOW BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT I SAID I WOULD DO." That's before said girl ran off with his brother. And he immediately after ran to Elinor to declare his undying love. But you know. Saying that, that is the other thing I love about Austen. She tells me where everyone ends up. I like things being wrapped up sometimes.
Book 23 - Paradiso (Divine Comedy)
Title: Paradiso
Author: Dante
Pages: 165
Grade: B+/A-
Summary: (From the lazy mouth of Lisha)
The third and final part of the Divine Comedy. This is the poetic journey through Heaven.
My thoughts: Here is where I default by saying...I am not a Christian. However I grew up in churches...I like to think I know the bible better than most Christians seeing as I have actually read it. And I appreciate aspects of the religion. More than anything...the most interesting to me has always been the Catholics. Dante...while being ever so colorful...and ever so in the past...gives me a fun little look at past Christianity. What I noticed in this segment...rather than the other two...even he had some small concerns over his own religion...largely the way God was meant to deal with certain things...like the people who had come before said religion. People who might have been just as pure and pious and deserving of Heaven as those who came after. I enjoyed my realization that while he understood the rules of his religion what could and could not be done...he believed over that..that God was loving and merciful...should always be loving and merciful and therefore he could not understand partial exclusion of some. Which again I say came as a nice surprise because in the first two...I often got the feeling he was merely speaking out against what had been done to him...through his beliefs and his skill as a poet. Not that I'm saying he didn't...because well really...throwing enemies in hell and friends in heaven would have perks. But I think there is a little more there and I like it..a lot.
Book 22 - The Third Secret
Title: The Third Secret
Author: Steve Berry
Pages: 376
Grade: A
Summary: (From Publishers Weekly)
Visions of the Virgin Mary, secret documents and politicking in the highest echelons of the Catholic Church—Berry (The Amber Room) combines combustive elements in this well-researched thriller. In 1917, the Virgin Mary revealed herself to three children in Fatima, Portugal, disclosing three secrets to the eldest, Lucia, who shared the first two secrets soon after their revelation but left the last to be disclosed upon her death. This third secret was released to Pope John XXIII in 1960 and made public by Pope John Paul II in 2000... or was it? The novel's stolid protagonist—Msgr. Colin Michener, longtime secretary to Clement XV, the novel's near-future successor to John Paul II—has reason to doubt the accuracy of the public version of the secret. Beleaguered by radically dogmatic cardinals and bishops, the embattled Clement XV also appears distressed by recent knowledge of secret documents regarding the Fatima messages. Before his inexplicable suicide, Clement sends Michener to Romania in search of a Father Tibor, who translated the third secret for Pope John XXIII and may hold the key to its mystery. Also on the case, if a step behind, is the ambitious and traditionalist Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Valendrea, with an eye on the papal throne.
My thoughts: Ok, I am a sucker for anything written by Steve Berry. Playing with the myths and hidden things of history and turning it into a twisting turning story...shall always make me love you. Admittedly...knowing how much they are the 'it' thing right now I've limited myself to well Dan Brown obviously...and Steve. He wrote about the Romanovs...The Amber Room....I loved and adored it all. He has one on the Templar's which I am a sucker for... and now the third secret at Fatima. Really....I love everything by him. So...if you like that kind of stuff...and you haven't read anything by him...*hits people over the head* DO IT!