the quiet moments

4th July 2012

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So I’ve been missing for a bit. My internet has been odd lately.

In the meantime: I’ve read On the Island, Swim (short story), Room, and started South of the Border, West of the Sun.

On the Island was recommended to me, and while it’s a mildly good story, it just had too much romance and not enough suspense for me. And was predictable. And unbelievable. But an easy breezy read if you just want to relax. About two people that get stuck on an island.

Swim was a short story that I got for free on Barnes and Noble’s free ebooks section, and Jennifer Weiner has published a longer novel-length story with the same plot, so I might check that out. Not sure yet.

Room by Emma Donaghue. Ah, Room. Now I’ve finally read a book this summer that I would really recommend. From the point-of-view of a five year old boy, Room is the only thing in the world. He goes to sleep in Wardrobe, making sure to hide away from Old Nick who comes in the night to bring supplies for him and his Ma. Basically, it’s a fairly disturbing book about his Ma being held in captivity and she had birth to him in Room, but he doesn’t really understand what is going on around him. As a flaw, the book is a bit hard to read at first. Being written from such a young POV, it’s a bit odd (things like “switched off” instead of “fell asleep”). But you get used to it and then continue.

And as I’ve said, I’ve started South of the Border, West of the Sun. It’s Haruki Murakami, and I love the man’s strange writing, so I’m biased. Because I’m still at the beginning of the book, there’s not much to say yet.

Tagged: bookssummer reading

23rd June 2012

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So I read Perks of Being a Wallflower today for the first time. I liked it. I wish I had read it years ago, because I feel like it might have been a bit more useful then and I probably would have loved it. I think it had some great moments that sparkled, but also found it to be a bit boring and repetitive at times.

Still, I enjoyed it and most of the characters. And I’m always a fan of that stream of consciousness. And actually, the more time I spend away from the book, the more I’m enjoying the messages. I think I may have read it too fast and I probably should have slowed down to take it in and have time to connect to the story a bit more.

It’s like that for me lately, I have actually struggled to be empathetic. This is not normal for me. I don’t know, I just have had a harder time falling into the stories lately.

Tagged: Perks of Being a WallflowerStephen Chboskybookssummer reading

21st June 2012

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Books

So I stayed up and finished reading Sing You Home, which was my second Jodi Picoult book (the first being Nineteen Minutes) that I read. There are things I really enjoyed about this book, but there were a few believability problems for me. Seriously, if you hear me critique books, movies, shows, anything really, believability is my big issue almost always. I don’t mean realism, cause reading about supernatural stuff can still hold a sense of believability.

One good example that really bothered me was She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb. It was his first published novel and it was a female narrator, so I think those may play a role. But eventually, so many things happens to Dolores in such a short amount of time, and some of those god-awful things are just really hard for me to believe. Yeah, they happen, but do they all happen to the same person? Plus, it was honestly one of the most depressing books I’ve ever read. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it though. However, when you compare that to hisI Know This Much is True,it just falls flat. I read I Know This Much is True after She’s Come Undone, and I just fell so in love with Wally Lamb’s ability in that book. But he has flaws. At one point, you can literally skip every other chapter, and it doesn’t hurt the reading. This is because every other chapter starts being about background information. All the same, his ability to write emotions is fantastic.

Stieg Larsson, who, I hope my followers know by now, I’m absolutely in love with, also has writing flaws. Everyone who has read the Millennium Trilogy will tell you (if they’re being honest) that it takes FOREVER to get into his books. A couple hundred pages. Then the ending seems a bit rushed, all this information is just flooding you. But, all the same, he created Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, and those are undoubtedly some of my favorite characters ever.

So now, after reading two Jodi Picoult books, I can say that I can already see the pattern of her writing. Switching between characters, the twist at the end… Which in Sing You Home,did not really take me by surprise. Same with Nineteen Minutes, I guess. All the same, I enjoy her writing. It has a good flow. I will say that the religion stuff got a bit in the way while reading Sing You Home. But I pushed through those chapters. One thing is though, I think she rushes the ending a bit. They don’t feel complete. What happened to Lucy? How did Max and Liddy end up together, what happened with Reid? And while it wasn’t necessary to know all of those, I would have liked a glimpse of that. Also, I would have enjoyed reading about the pregnancy. And really, I thought that Vanessa and Zoe got married awfully fast. I mean, three months after a divorce and you’re still reeling, usually. And it’s good to get to know someone for a longer period of time than three months before you marry her. Oh well. I don’t care too much, because I loved both Zoe and Vanessa, and they were great together.

So now I’m kinda struggling to pick out my next book to read. I’ve started several, but I’m just not sure what I’m in the mood for. I still feel like reading fiction at this moment. But then I’ll probably switch it up and read a psych memoir or something. Send any recommendations my way, I’ll add it to my to-read list! :D

Tagged: booksjodi picoultwally lambstieg larsson

3rd June 2012

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reading list

Updated Summer Reading List (alphabetized by author!)

• Boys of My Youth – Jo Ann Beard
• Running With Scissors – Augusten Burroughs
• Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky
• Have You Found Her –Janice Erlbaum
  
• Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
• Babyville – Jane Green  Finished! 06/06/11
• The Beach House – Jane Green
• Dune Road – Jane Green
• Mr. Maybe – Jane Green Finished! 05/21/11
• The Other Woman – Jane Green
• Promises to Keep – Jane Green
• Second Chances – Jane Green
• Straight Talking – Jane Green Finished! 05/28/11
• Swapping Lives – Jane Green
• To Have and To Hold – Jane Green Finished! 06/02/11
• Snow Falling on Cedars – David Guterson
• Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs - Chuck Klosterman (Reading…Paused)
  
• I Know This Much Is True – Wally Lamb Finished! 07/28/11
  
• She’s Come Undone –  Wally Lamb Finished! 06/21/11
• The Hour I First Believed –Wally Lamb (Reading)
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larson Finished! 09/03/11
• The Girl Who Played With Fire - Steig Larson Finished! 10/05/11
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest - Steig Larson Finished! 11/01/11
  
• Let’s Get Lost – Sarrah Manning
• After Dark – Haruki Murakami
• Dance Dance Dance – Haruki Murakami Finished! 08/08/11
  
• The Elephant Vanishes – Haruki Murakami
• Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami
• South of the Border, West of the Sun – Haruki Murakami
• Sputnik Sweetheart – Haruki Murakami
• Vintage Murakami – Haruki Murakami
• The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami
• 1Q84 - Haruki Murakami (Reading 11/02/11)
  
• In the Miso Soup – Ryu Murakami Finished! 05/19/11
• Piercing – Ryu Murakami Finished! 05/20/11
• Diary – Chuck Palahniuk
• Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk Finished! 05/30/11
• Lullaby – Chuck Palahniuk
• Invisible Monsters – Chuck Palahniuk
• Cracked – Drew Pinsky Finished! 06/09/11
• Sybil – Flora Rheta Schreiber
• When You Are Engulfed in Flames – David Sedaris
• The Last Song – Nicholas Sparks
• Safe Haven – Nicholas Sparks
  

05/25/11 - Pre-Ordered Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84, which I’ll get late October/early November. A Haruki-written ode to Orwell’s 1984? LOVE. 928 pages (All three books combined into one).

06/05/11 - And this list just keeps growing. I’m interested in any recommendations and have been adding them along. Naturally, this may be more than just summer reading.

06/03/12 - So I went back and pulled this up, I’ll have to edit it later, but a lot of it is the same and I ended up not reading a whole bunch while I had classes (I read so much for philosophy, there was no time to read anything else D:). But I also read other books that aren’t on here, like the Hunger Games trilogy, Looking for Alaska, Nineteen Minutes, and maybe some other stuff. So that’s it, I’m starting my summer reading now! (I’ll edit this list and repost it later)

Tagged: booksreadingsummer reading