Lady Audley's Secret

This was acutally a book club selection. I was irritated with this choice, at first. When I read the synopsis of the book, I thought I had it all figured out. It was so obvious, after all. Then, I started reading. The writers craft was so beautiful it was almost lyrical. The descriptions were moving, like painting a picture with words. The descriptions reminded me of the descriptions of the Manderly estate in Rebecca, by Dauphne du Maurier (if you haven't read Rebecca, it's a MUST!).
Even though the plot seemed obvious, the story reels you in. I find myself caring about the characters, especially Robert, almost in spite of myself. In the end, this book managed to surprise me, several times in fact and I found myself pleasantly surprised. It's a little slow, at first, but if you give it a few chapters to develop, the story is well worth it!

Juliet

We all know the tale of Romeo and Juliet, but what if the story were true? What if Shakespeare based his tale of star crossed lovers on real people?

Julie Jacobs is devastated when her aunt passes away leaving her nothing more than a key and a ticket to Italy. What starts off as a journey of self discovery turns into a quest to answer a centuries old mystery. This is a wonderful, riveting page turner. I recommend it for anyone who enjoys a good mystery or love story.

An Update

Now that my Master's degree is finally finished, I can return to reading for enjoyment. My reading for the last couple of months has been sporadic, but I mean to change all that this summer. Here are a few of the books that I have been reading:

American Adulterer by Jed Mercurio. This is an interesting work in that the main characters are never mentioned by name. The main character is referred to only as the subject or the President. His wife is named as the First Lady or his wife. Even though names are never specifically mentioned; however, it is clear that the author is dicussing John F. Kennedy. The details discussed in the book are interesting even though the facts of Kennedy's life and adultery are mostly well known by now. I would rate this book a 2 out of 5. No more.

Beastly by Alex Finn. This is the fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast, told with an interesting modern twist. It is of course, completely transparent to anyone familiar with the story. This book is perfect for tween girls who enjoy reading about romance and the supernatural.

Finally Finished!

My youngest daughter and I started reading this series in the fall of 2010. We have so enjoyed reading them, and I highly recommend the entire series to lovers of magic everywhere! There are 15 books in the series, so, with my Master's degree and other reading, it did take me some time to finish the entire series. Finally though, the story has reached a most satisfactory conclusion! I loved the wolves, the owls and all the characters throughout the series. At times I thought that Kathryn Lasky was wandering with the story, but she always managed to bring the story back to the main characters and refocus the attention. This series is so much more than meets the eye....

Matched

For those of you who enjoyed the Hunger Games, this is a great book. It isn't as violent in the real sense of the word, but it makes you think about the direction we are going and who really makes the choices in our lives, and more importantly who should be.

This is the story of a young girl. She lives in a future society that selects your "match" based on your genenic makeup to ensure citizens who are both smart and healthy. Sounds like a perfect society where they have eradicated disease right? But then why do all the older people all die on their 80th birthday? Why are the relics from the past civilization taken? And who gets to decide what works of art should be preserved or not?

Cassia's "match" turns out differently than she expects that it will, and this causes her to question everything she was raised to believe. Which would you choose - the society who tells you it only wants what is best for you, or the freedom to make your own choice? It's a great book.

This One Should be Mandatory Reading for Every 5th - 8th Grader

I say that this book should be required reading for every 5th -8th grader, but truly every person should read this book. It is the tramatic yet inspiring story of one girl who survived being bullied in middle school/ early highschool. She experienced events that just made me shake with anger and amazement at how children could possibly be so cruel to one another.

This story really brings home that impact that bullying has - not just on the victims, but also their families. The implications are far reaching and long lasting. Some victims never overcome the trauma that they experienced in a place that is supposed to be safe.

If you have children, please, please, please talk to them about the repurcussions that their words and actions have on other people. Let's create a world that has zero toleriance for bullying.

It's been a while

Oh, I've been reading - like a fool, actually, I just haven't been blogging. Too much going on with work, school, kids, moving.... LIFE. Here is a brief pictoral of what I have been reading with short synopsises where appropriate.




The author has a very unique view of angels, demons and everything in between. The story is original and entertaining, but it didn't make my MUST list.







Both of these are part of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. It is a wonderful series, very entertaining with real depth to the characters and the plot. This story has so much more to it than initially meets the eye. Everyone in our family has loved the entier series and I can't recommend it highly enough. I have three more books in the series to go and I am looking forward to each one.



Trite and unnecessary retelling of The Blind Side. I loved the Toughy's after reading the Blind Side, I didn't need further in depth analysis of why they did what they did for Michael Oher to love them more or find their story inspiring.




Completely unbelievable. Sorry I wasted my time....



This story was completely original and showed so much promise initially. Two totally disparate events and stories, woven together in a way that finally makes sense - it's a beautiful thing. Unfortunately, Card gets caught up with too many plot tangents and the books is at least 150 pages too long. It gets interesting, then it drags, interesting, then it drags. I really had to struggle to get through it and in the end, it simply wasn't worth the effort.