christianreader | Kiwiria's April Adventures

Every Last Word - Tamara Ireland Stone, 5/5, 368 pages
Beautifully written, poignant and real. I'm finding it very difficult to talk about this book without squeeing all over the place, but I don't want to hype it too much, so I will try to restrain myself.

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley, and pretty much had no idea what to expect - I just liked the cover - but I quickly realized that this was right up my aisle. I loved the writing style, and the plot is YA when it's best. I really liked Sam and the rest of the Poet's Corner, and found a lot of the poetry really brilliant. Especially nearer the end - it was clear that people improved.

I also appreciated reading a book about OCD where the focus was more on the obsessive part than the compulsion part - i.e. more a brain that cannot be turned off, than specifically having to do certain things.

Mostly I loved the ending, and as I finished the last page, I had tears (good tears) running down my cheeks. Definitely a book I'll want to reread.

An Age of License - Lucy Knisley, 4/5, 195 pages
Ever since reading "Relish" I've known that I wanted to read more by Lucy Knisley. I finally got the chance, and I was not disappointed! In "An Age of License", Lucy travels around Europe, which means that I knew many places she visited (and many of the quirks she talked about), so that just added to the charm.

I love how Lucy obviously uses her drawings as a form of journaling. Being a journaler myself, this adds an element of relateability for me, as do the personal anecdotes she adds to her work. I'll definitely be on the lookout for her other books as well!

The Book of You - Claire Kendal, 3.5/5, 363 pages
Clarissa is huntet by a stalker. Terrifying from pretty much the very first page. I picked it up at 11pm on an evening where I was home alone, which was less than intelligent, as it got me on high alert. Perfect for a read-a-thon where I needed to stay awake though ;)

The book is about 360 pages, and I absolutely LOVED the first 330. It was at turns frustrating, intriguing, terrifying and satisfying. Totally unputdownable.

But unfortunately the last 30 pages didn't work for me. Without giving too much away, I thought I found a plothole, and the ending itself employed one of my biggest pet peeves in suspense novels, which unfortunately subtracted a couple of stars.

I still think I'd recommend it though, because for most of the book I was totally captivated. Could just have wished for a less stereotypical ending.

Coraline - Neil Gaiman (graphic novel), 3/5, 186 pages
Disclaimer: I've never read the original, but thought the graphic-novel version would be perfect for the read-a-thon. The drawings were gorgeous, but as usual I feel like I can take or leave Neil Gaiman as a story-teller... although that's perhaps not an entirely fair assessment, considering the medium, which did mean that it was at best a very superficial version of the story.

Skyggen af en sky - Taru Väyrynen*, 3/5, 207 pages
(The Shadow of a Cloud)
I remember reading and loving this back when it first was published (1992'ish), but haven't read it in probably about 15-20 years. I remembered almost nothing of it going into the book, but as the story unfolded, I'd find myself remembering things 3-5 pages before it happened, which was kinda fun.

It doesn't quite stand the test of time, but it does have an interesting twist, and I can see why I loved it so much back then.

A Dip in the Ocean - Sarah Outen, 5/5, 310
Absolutely fascinating memoir! Very well written, and so interesting! Parts had me crying and parts had me cheering. I seriously cannot even imagine setting out on such a huge adventure / challenge alone though! I'd be completely terrified. But I love living vicariously through others, and this book was right up there with "Changing Gears: A Family Odyssey to the End of the World" by Nancy Sathre-Vogel in how much it captivated me.

I need to google Sarah Outen now, and read more about the London2London trip she mentioned in her afterword. Perhaps there's a book out on that as well? (Nope - trip has been delayed, so rather than finishing in August 2014, she's still out there).

Highly recommendable for people who like to be adventurous through others. My one complaint was that there weren't enough photos added, but I've remedied that by reading pretty much everything I could find about her on the Internet instead! The more I read, the more fascinated I get!

The Strange Library - Haruki Murakami, 2/5, 77 pages
Really, really weird book. And not good weird - it mostly just seemed weird for the sake of being weird, which didn't work for me.

So why still two stars, rather than just one? A couple of reasons.

First of all, I read the illustrated version, and loved the illustrations. I'm always pleased when books dare to play around with the media (authors like Jasper Fforde and Walter Moers are brilliant at this), and this did so rather nicely.

Secondly, when I came to review this book on GoodReads, I read an interpretation of the ending, which put the rest of the book in perspective to me, and kinda made it work. It's a major spoiler though, so I won't reveal it here, but leave me a comment if you want to know.

The Body Electric - Beth Revis, 4/5, 351 pages
I wasn't sure what to think of this book at first, as it seemed to take awhile to find its groove, but once it did it really took off, and I couldn't put it down. It's not quite as good as her "Across the Universe" trilogy, and I did think there were some questions left unanswered - or where the answers given weren't satisfying - but as a whole, I thought it worked.

Time Between Us - Tamara Irealand Stone, 4/5, 384 pages
After reading (and being blown away by) an ARC of "Every Last Word", I knew I had to read more by Tamara Ireland Stone - even if I realized I was likely to be disappointed.

Fortunately that didn't turn out to be the case. Granted, "Time Between Us" could in no way live up to ELW, but even so it's a very enjoyable YA. It reminded me very vividly of "The Time-Traveller's Wife" in places, but as that is one of my favourite books, I have no complaints there ;) The plot itself is a pretty run-of-the-mill girl-meets-boy, boy-cannot-remember-girl, boy-time-travels-to-girl (okay, so perhaps not quite that run-of-the-mill) story, but the writing style that captivated me in ELW is present here as well and though desperately sad in places, I was glad to read it.

Don't enter into it expecting another masterpiece like "Every Last Word", but if you're just expecting a traditional YA romance novel, you're likely to enjoy it.

I did at least - and will be continuing right on with the sequel.

Time After Time - Tamara Ireland Stone, 4/5, 353 pages
"Time After Time" picks up immediately where "Time Between Us" leaves off, and the two books should really be read as one, as they'd have worked just as well as one long book, rather than two middle-length ones. Because of this, I have a hard time thinking of them as two individual books (it also probably didn't help that I read the last half of the first one, and the entirety of this one in one day!), and I can therefore think of very little new to say about "Time After Time" that I didn't already say about "Time Between Us". I liked that Bennett was the narrator of this book, so we got to see things from his side, and got to meet his family.

I don't envy Anna and Bennett their circumstances, and almost hope there'll be a third book, to show us how things turn out down the line. This book seemed very final though, so I doubt there'll be more.

The ending confused me a lot - at first I thought there was a major plot-hole, and couldn't understand how Tamara Ireland Stone (or her editors) hadn't discovered that, but thinking about it, I'm starting to think that it wasn't a major plot-hole, but just a really brilliant twist... although possibly still with a tiny plot-hole in order to make it possible. But tiny plot-holes I can accept :)

And my initial opinion still stands - I'd love to read more from Tamara Ireland Stone's hand.

Beauty Queens - Libba Bray*, 4/5, 400 pages
I was in the mood for some light reading, and this fit the bill perfectly. The plot seems to be a mix between "Miss Congeniality" and "Lost", and, though absurd at times, actually works. I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion.

The book is neither deep nor thought-provoking, but it's fun and entertaining. Sometimes that's all I ask for.

Little Women - L.M. Alcott*, 4/5, 592 pages
For once I have to downgrade my rating somewhat - I no longer feel like it deserves 5 stars. The morals / preaching is much too heavy handed for that, and there were passages I found myself skimming, when LMA got too wordy. Still, the good parts remain very, very good, and the sad parts still make me cry. This time around I especially loved Beth's poem - I don't remember being quite as touched by that in previous read-throughs.

Swordfights and Lullabies - Debora Geary*, 4/5, 25 pages
Feathers - Debora Geary*, 4/5, 50 pages
These two short-stories complete my 2015 reread of all of Debora Geary's books. I'm not typically a fan of short stories, but I make an exception for my favourite authors (and especially when they're part of the established universe).

Book of the Month: A tie between Every Last Word and A Dip in the Ocean. Two too different books to compare.
Biggest Disappointment The Strange Library.