Book #42 – Watership Down (final thoughts)
When I joined the Back to School Challenge a couple months ago, I added Watership Down by Richard Adams to my list in a heartbeat. And while I read other books for the challenge, and various books in between, I had this one in the back of my head. I couldn’t wait to read it. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to like it.
*Very vague plot summary ahead*
The book starts off in a large, established warren. Everything seems okay, but a small rabbit gets a bad feeling about their current living situation, so he and his brother take off with a bunch of other rabbits to start their own warren. After some trials and tribulations, they settle down in a nice place and it looks like they have a good thing going for them. However, brother rabbit realizes that this good thing may not last very long – they’re all guys. What they need are some womenfolk. So, they go in search of some womenfolk.
*Vague plot summary over*
I don’t want to say I didn’t like it, there were parts that I really did enjoy. However, I couldn’t get into it, I couldn’t get myself to care about the story. If it weren’t for my obsessive need to finish any book that I start, I could have easily put the book down unfinished. I wish I knew where it went wrong for me. Maybe it was because I had seen the movie a couple times when I was younger and knew what was going to happen. Although, the book is less about plot and more about narrative. So maybe at the time I needed to read something that was more plot-driven.
It seems that every other person who has read this book has loved it, and I very much wanted to be one of those. But, while I’m glad I read it, Watership Down just wasn’t for me.
My rating: 6/10
Back to School Challenge: 3/4 complete
Related:
Teaser Tuesday #1
Teaser Tuesday #2
Soundtrack Saturday
Book #44 – According to Jane (final thoughts)
It had been an otherwise normal day for 15-year-old Ellie Barnett. Bullied by the popular girls (the leader of which being Ellie’s sister), teased by the ever annoying (yet tantalizing) Sam Blaine, and generally keeping up her reputation as the smart, nerdy girl. But then, while the next book to be studied was being handed out in English class, Ellie heard a voice. A voice that no one around her seemed to hear. A voice that belonged to the author of the book Ellie held in her hands, the classic Pride and Prejudice. A voice with plenty of opinions, none of which it hesitated to share.
A couple months ago when I found out I had won a signed manuscript of Marilyn Brant’s According to Jane from Lydia at NovelWhore’s Blog, I was pretty much ecstatic. I had heard a bit about it around the blogosphere and it sounded like such a great book. Plus, I was in the middle of reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time and thought that this would be the perfect first spin-off to read afterwards. It took me a while to get to, but I’m so glad I finally did!
Ellie starts hearing the voice of Jane Austen while in high school; she’s been sent to advise Ellie on life, but primarily on relationships. From the age of 15, we follow Ellie and Jane through twenty years of relationships and heartache. Through these relationships, and near-relationships, Ellie has developed a system to categorize the men she’s dated, which she and Jane discuss throughout the book. You see, Jane also has a system of categories that anyone who has read P&P will be very familiar with. There are the Wickhams, who have bad intentions from the get-go, but are experts at winning over women. There are also the Bingleys, who are sweet and kind, but can be somewhat spineless. Both of these seem to be in high supply, but where oh where are the gallant, noble Darcys?
I really liked Brant’s look on finding love, that it’s not always instantaneous. Sometimes it’s not about finding the right person, it’s finding, or re-finding (is that a word?) that person at the right time. Once in a while those two events coincide, but there are times when a bit of waiting is required.
I also enjoyed how Brant interlaced Pride & Prejudice themes and quotes with the modern story of Ellie. Each chapter begins with a quote from the book, but here and there throughout the book are little gems such as this:
Now, it’s a truth universally acknowledged that a young woman in possession of an important date must be in want of a hot outfit. (p. 111)
You don’t have to have read Pride & Prejudice to get what’s going on, but obviously understand the story, and Jane’s life, will add an extra layer of enjoyment to According to Jane.
My rating: 8/10
Book #43 – Ex-mas (final thoughts)
Christmas break hasn’t got off to a great start for 17-year-old Lila Beckwith. First, she’s handed a last-minute assignment on global warming, then her parents force her to cancel her Party Of The Year Christmas party (while also grounding her before they leave town), and to top it off her 8-year-old brother and his best friend take off to save Santa from the melting ice caps, of all things. Since her parents would freak if they found out their precious boy disappeared on Lila’s watch, she sets off to find them. And who’s along for the ride to track down the adventurers? Beau, the ex. Is this Christmas break destined not only to be a failure, but to ruin the social standing Lila’s worked so hard to attain?
Last week I was in a bit of a reading slump, coming off of two books that just didn’t work for me, one of which I haven’t finished yet. What I needed was something fun and quick. Did Kate Brian’s Ex-mas ever fit the bill! It’s not a deep, complex story, but Brian’s writing makes it entertaining and fun.
It’s obvious from the get-go that being thrown together for this spontaneous trip isn’t Lila or Beau’s idea of a good time. Although they’re only in High School, they’ve already managed to create quite a history together, and their rocky relationship feels believable. Most of the book takes place in a car, which could easily become boring, but Brian does a great job of keeping the story going, both through Lila and Beau’s conversation and Lila’s memories of how things used to be.
The only thing that irked me was the overabundance of pop culture references. They work for the story, but it’s not going to take too many years (months?) for the book to feel dated. And Lila saying that A Knight’s Tale was one of her favourite “old-school” movies made me feel old. Um, yeah…
I definitely recommend this book for 2009 holiday reading, especially if you need a break from some heavier reading.
My rating: 7.5/10
Holiday Reading Challenge: 1/2
Related:
Soundtrack Saturday
Book #41 – Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married (final thoughts)
When her coworkers convince her to visit a psychic with them, Lucy Sullivan isn’t expecting much, other than a few laughs. And she can’t help but scoff at what the psychic tells her – that she will be married a less than a year. You see, Lucy has never had much luck with men. She doesn’t even have a boyfriend, not even any possibilities waiting in the wings. She’s ready to write the whole thing off, but then her coworkers’ predictions start coming true. Will Lucy finally meet the man of her dreams?
Marian Keyes is by far one of my favourite authors. She writes chick lit that deals with tough subjects without making them seem trivial. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every book I’ve read by her and expected the same experience when I picked up Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, at least not for the first part. The first half of this 600+ page book infuriated me so much I almost stopped reading and it became my inspiration for last week’s Booking Through Thursday post (Is life too short for bad books?). The story seemed a bit wobbly, but it was Lucy who drove me up the wall. To people who were nice to her, she really couldn’t have been meaner. I think she was supposed to come off as a tease, but it wasn’t funny to me. Instead, she welcomed in people (read: men) who used her and treated her horribly. But she was completely oblivious to how they acted and thought they were wonderful.
Like I said, I almost gave up on Lucy, but Keyes hadn’t let me down in the past and I didn’t want her to now. So I kept on reading. And I am so glad I did! Keyes’ charm came out in full force as Lucy was required to see some situations as they really were. I finally found that I could rally behind her and cheer her on. At one point I almost wanted to use the phrase “You go, girl!” Almost.
It took me a week to read the first 300 pages, but I flew through the last 300 in about two days. I so enjoyed watching Lucy grow up that I couldn’t put the book down. The realizations she came to weren’t always easy for her (or the reader) to swallow, but I was completely drawn into her life. I won’t say how the book ended, but I will say that at one point I thought my heart was going to burst with joy, it was so wonderful.
My rating: 6/10. Rating would have been much higher if not for the beginning of the book.
Have you had a similar experience with a book, where one half of it didn’t work for you at all but you really enjoyed the other half?
Related:
Teaser Tuesday
Booking Through Thursday
Soundtrack Saturday
Book #40 – The Truth About Stacey
When Amy announced that she was going to host a Baby-Sitters Club Week, I knew I had to be involved. I signed up to do a review without a second thought. However, when the second thought came around I realized I actually needed to find one of the books to review. A library would have the books, right? To my great disappointment, I found out that neither the Burnaby nor Vancouver public libraries carry the original series anymore. How sad is that? They both carry the updated graphic novel versions, but those aren’t the same.
After a panicked email to a bunch of friends failed to turn up any books, I make a trip to Value Village. I don’t know what I was expecting, but their Teen section was like a trip down memory lane. There were Sweet Valley books galore, plus this book that I loved back in the day about this girl who’s football player boyfriend dies (of cancer?) and she’s all heartbroken until the Spring when she realizes that her boyfriend had planted flowers in the middle of the football field for her. Anyway, it took a bit of searching, and then there they were, dispersed throughout the mess of youthfulness, the first three books in the Baby-Sitters Club series. It was a hard choice, but I decided on book #3 – The Truth About Stacey.
Stacey McGill has missed big city life since she moved from New York City in August, but is enjoying life in small Stoneybrook, CT thanks to her new friends Kristy, Claudia and Mary Anne. Together they’ve even started a business – The Baby-Sitters Club. The Club has been in existence for about two months, providing the families of Stoneybrook with access to four baby-sitters with only one phone call. Business has been good, however that doesn’t mean that the girls can become complacent. Oh, no. There’s trouble a-brewin’.
Enter in the Baby-Sitters Agency, who promise to connect would-be clients with a whole network of baby-sitters through a single phone call. Kristy does some stealthy undercover work and finds out what the deal is. Apparently all parents need to do is call one of the founders of the agency (Liz or Michelle), tell them when they need a baby-sitter, and the girls phone around and set up someone for the appropriate time. And the baby-sitters they have access to are not only older than the girls in the Baby-Sitters Club, but can stay out later, even on weeknights! This is bad news, bad news indeed.
As if this drama isn’t enough to put Stacey in a funk, her parents have decided that she needs to see this supposably awesome new holistic doctor in NYC. You see, Stacey had diabetes and her parents have been dragging her to doctor after doctor after doctor to get this thing cured. But Stacey’s smart, she knows they aren’t going to find a cure, and that the routine they have now is working just fine. How can she convince her parents that going to see this doctor isn’t a good idea?
I’m not going to tell you how everything is resolved, because I know you all want to read this now and I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you. There’s a whole lot of drama, a bunch of emergency BSC meetings, and more than a few tears. Ann M. Martin throws spies, sabotage, and deception into the mix, but she also includes sweet romances, wild parties, and heartwarming reunions. Really, it has everything a 12-year old would want.
I can’t tell you how much I loved these books when I was a kid. I remember studying the list of BSC titles at the back of each book. It was probably my earliest TBR list. This series made me thing that being a baby-sitter would be great fun. So much that I even took a baby-sitting course, in which we learned how to make our very own Kid Kits (I don’t think that’s what they were called in the course, but the were basically the same thing). How disappointed was I to find out that baby-sitting was not fun. In fact, I greatly disliked it. However, that did not deter me from devouring each and every Baby-Sitters Club book I could get my hands on.
Thanks Amy for organizing this trip down memory lane!
Book #38 – In Her Shoes (final thoughts)
Rose Feller spent her childhood trying to protect her younger sister. Now 30 and working at a big law firm, she’s still trying to protect her sister by cleaning up her messes – unpaid bills, evictions, drunken dates gone wrong.
Maggie Feller never had her big sister’s brains, but she has something else – looks and a fantastic body. Maggie might not have a steady job, but at least she won’t ever be lonely like Rose.
1000 miles away, Ella Hirsch has thrown herself into volunteering in and around her Florida retirement community. Maybe if she helps enough people, her good works will make up for the daughter she lost and the granddaughters she allowed herself to be separated from.
Jennifer Weiner has been on my to-read list for a long time, but for some reason I put off reading any of her stuff. However, a few months ago, while channel surfing, I came across the movie In Her Shoes. It was pretty good and since the book is usually better than the movie, I finally decided to take the book out of the library.
Rose, Maggie and Ella all get a chance to tell their side of the story in In Her Shoes. The point of view changes from chapter to chapter, something that I really enjoy when it’s done well, and Weiner does it well.
It’s already been a while since I saw the movie, but I still had the basic plot in my head while I read the book. So, I had a pretty good idea of what was going to go down. I spent the first third of the book waiting for The Incident to happen, the big thing that causes some changes to start taking place in all three characters’ lives. I don’t know if it was the waiting or the story, but the first part of the book dragged a bit for me. It was okay, it just didn’t pull me in.
The story really took off right after The Incident, that’s when I was pulled in. I loved watching both Maggie and Rose struggle and take chances and grow. Some of the solutions they reached may have been a bit far-fetched, but Weiner does a good job convincing the reader that these things really could happen.
At this point I thought I would walk away having really liked this book. But then the last third happened. I do like how Maggie’s story carried on and resolved itself, but Rose’s seemed contrived. I really wanted to get on board with the whole love interest thing, but I just couldn’t.
Overall, it was an okay, but enjoyable read. I probably would have liked it more if I hadn’t already seen the movie.
My rating: 7/10
Book #34 – Pride and Prejudice (final thoughts)
Pride and Prejudice is one of those books I always thought I should read, but never really wanted to read. I mean, it’s so old, there’s no way it would be relatable, right? Oh, how wrong I was.
After reading Emma earlier this year, I wanted, needed, to read Pride and Prejudice. Finally I found myself without an excuse not to read it, as I had a copy of it in my possession and I had included it in a challenge I was already behind in.
It’s easy to understand why this is such a beloved novel. It has memorable characters, scandal, mistaken intentions, and, of course, true love. What I was least expecting to find within it was the humour. Can I say humour for a classic like this? The only word that really seems to fit is ‘wit.’ I’m sure quite a few of the quips flew right over my head, but there were so many subtle phrases that popped up here and there about characters and situations, that at times I realized I was reading with a big grin on my face. I knew whenever Mr. Bennet was in a scene that a great line would be coming up.
It’s impossible to pick what I loved most about this book. The plot was engaging, but I think it was the wonderful characters Austen created that made the book all that more special. Of course everyone loves Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, but even Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine De Bourgh provided so many great, albeit cringe-worthy, moments. I found this chart on wikipedia which shows the relationships between all the characters, but I think it just made me more confused!
Pride and Prejudice sucked me right in – into the story and into the characters lives. Sometimes, when I’m really into a book, I start narrating my life in my head in the same style as the book I’m currently reading. The weird thing is, it doesn’t happen right after I put the book down. No, it happens when I’ve had a little break from reading, such as when I’m walking to the train in the morning. So, for the last two weeks, I’ve suddenly found myself narrating my mornings in 18th-century English. Mostly by using lots of double negatives.
My rating: 9/10
Back to School Challenge: 1/4 complete
