Kiwiria's Books for December

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer*, 5/5, Audiobook ~17hrs
2nd reread. What struck me this time around was how nobody seemed to respect Bella's wishes at first. Edward came around thankfully, and mostly Jacob and Charlie did too, but Alice's insistence on throwing a wedding annoyed me. Especially the "If you loved me, you'd let me do this." How about "If you loved me, you wouldn't force me to do this."??

I still love the book though, and still couldn't put it down.

Drager over Kabul - Morten Hesseldahl, 3/5, 302 pages
(The Kites of Kabul)
Interesting book and great plot, but I felt the pacing was off somewhat. The build-up too long, the climax and resolution too quickly over and done with. The main confrontation happened 5 pages before the book ended! This meant that there were a lot of loose threads hanging around everywhere, which I found rather frustrating.

In style it seemed almost like a mixture of The Kite Runner and Dronningeofret. As I was bored by the former and loved the latter, I couldn't quite make up my mind whether or not I liked it. It kept me interested enough that I wanted to know what happened next, but I'm not sure I'm about to go rushing out to read more of Morten Hesseldahl's work.

Ateistisk andagtsbog - Leif Andersen, 4/5, 127 pages
(The Atheistic Devotional)
An atheistic devotional sounds like an oxymoron, but Leif Andersen makes it work. He is an atheist by nature, and only started believing in a God because he became convinced that Christianity is the true religion. In this devotional he raises a lot of the questions and doubts a Christian might have: Does God listen to prayer? Why is there so much evil in the world? Does it really matter what you believe, as long as you are a good person? Does God ever leave us? Not all of these questions were relevant for me, but enough of them were, that I felt I could use a lot of what I read. Definitely one of the better devotionals I've read.

Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer*, 5/5, Audiobook ~24 hours
I'll admit it - I adored it just as much as on my first read-through. I for one was definitely not disappointed by this ending to Stephenie Meyer's series.

For this reread I chose to listen to it as an audiobook instead in order to force myself to take it slower, and was pleased to find it was very well recorded indeed.

Flashforward - Robert J. Sawyer, 4/5, 319 pages
Fascinating premise, and I thought it was quite well written too for the most part. It did get a bit too technical at times though - even for me - and I don't know enough physics to know whether or not what Robert Sawyer went on about was even correct.

I found it very interesting that the book was written in 1999, took place in 2009 and flashed forward to 2030 - not the least because of some of the tidbits of information given about the future - this one quote in particular: "There will be another huge stock market crash; those who know what year it will take place are apparently keeping that information to themselves." Amazing insight into the future, or just a firm belief that history repeats? You decide.

The ending was quite a let-down though. It seemed as if Robert Sawyer was determined to outdo himself, and ended up going so far that it just became ridiculous.

So the 4 stars are for the first 250 pages. The last 50 only deserve 3 at most.

January (Conspiracy 365) - Gabrielle Lord, 2.5/5, 187 pages
It's always fun to get hold of books that haven't even been published yet! January: Conspiracy 365 won't be published until January 2010. (I wonder if Gabrielle Lord intends to publish a book a month for a year? That would be quite impressive!)

I'm not entirely sure what I think of the book though. It's well aimed at the target audience (young readers - age 10-12 I'd say), and could probably be a big hit if it's marketed correctly. The reason I put it like that is that January cannot stand alone, and shouldn't be viewed as an independent book, but as the first part in a serial. Nothing at all is resolved, all threads are left hanging, and the last page is one big cliff-hanger. This would annoy me terribly usually, but if I knew to expect it before starting the book, it could work. It's all in the PR ;-)

One thing I found incredibly amusing was that the page numbers counted down rather than up! It started on page 187 and ended on page 1. Neat idea!

And Then He Kissed Her - Laura Lee Guhrke, 3/5, 375 pages
This book has been on my to-read shelf for so long, that I don't remember who recommended it to me any longer! ;-)

The first half of the book took me in completely. I loved the writing style, and enjoyed getting to know the characters (would have loved to see more of Harry's favourite sister actually). However, the second half of the book bothered me. I don't know if I'm old-fashioned or just too much of a prude, but it bothered me to see Emma give up her morals that way. The way the ending was handled did mollify me somewhat fortunately, so I did end up enjoying it, but don't see it being a regular reread.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever - Barbara Robinson*, 4.5/5, 76 pages
A quick read (took me all of 30 minutes) and just utterly adorable. I hadn't read it in years until somebody reminded me of it, and had forgotten how much I like it. Reading how the children transformed the story of Christmas to something they could relate to and understand was a vivid reminder of what Christmas is actually about. Seeing the children discover this brought tears to my eyes.

I actually ended up "reading" this 3 times this month - first I read it myself, then I listened to ruthette's recording of it, and finally I recorded it myself (in Danish though) for Isabella, Jordan and Miriam. Only counted it once for my stats though ;)

Twilight Children - Torey Hayden, 4/5, 403 pages
This is the third book by Torey Hayden I've read, and like the two others, it was fascinating. I find it intriguing to read how she connects with troubled children and helps them move on.

I think that most of its appeal is that it's memoir - I don't think I'd be nearly as interested if it was fiction, because I wouldn't be as certain about the validity of the actions. As it is, I'm eager to read more.

Voices in Summer - Rosamunde Pilcher, 4/5, 190 pages
Usually Rosamunde Pilcher's shorter books aren't as well-written as her long ones, but this is the exception that proves the rule. It's a simple plot that works very well in the 190 pages she used for it, and her character descriptions were thorough and believable. I'd guessed the who of the ending but not the why, which meant the book avoided being too predictable, and I was very glad to be proven wrong about both Alec and Gabriel.

Sweet book, and perfect for a lazy afternoon.

Matched - Ally Condie, 287 pages
An ARC that as of yet has no publication date, so I've been asked not to have a public review out. Sorry :-/ This is my placeholder for the real review :D

Adam - Ted Dekker, 3/5, 388 pages
Good entertainment, but not high literature. Some threads were left hanging, and certain twist had the definite air of a true plot device. Also I was annoyed by Daniel's single-mindedness and the flirtation with death that that caused.

I found the ending a bit rushed, which was a shame, as it had me riveted. I'd love to have had Ted Dekker spend more time on that aspect of it.

February - Gabrielle Lord, 3/5, 186 pages
After having read February, I'm more impressed by this series. It still needs to be marketed correctly, as no single book in it can stand alone, but could be compared to separate episodes of "24", but now that Gabrielle Lord has set the stage, she has more time to explore the characters and not just let the action carry the plot.

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict - Laurie Viera Rigler, 3/5, 288 pages
I always find books with some sort of time-travel fascinating - especially those where the main character cannot reveal that she is not from that era, but has to "fake" her way through. A trick made even more interesting here by the fact that Courtney didn't just end up in a different time, but also in a different body, and had to figure out how her "new" self acted and what she knew.

Enjoyable, light-hearted chick-lit. I wouldn't recommend it to anybody who didn't know (and love) Jane Austen though.

March - Gabrielle Lord, 3/5, 186 pages
I'm reminded of Animorphs when reading this series. There's nothing exceptional about it, but I still feel entertained while not expecting too much of it. I'm impressed that Gabrielle Lord so far has escaped being predictable, and hope she can keep that up.

Drizzle - K.D. Van Cleve, 288 pages
Again an ARC that as of yet has no publication date, so I've been asked not to have a public review out. Sorry :-/

Claudia Kishi: Live from WSTO! - Ann M. Martin*, 4/5, 140 pages
One of my favourite BSC books - funny and interesting. Not much babysitting in it though.

Flaskepost fra P - Jussi Adler-Olsen, 5/5, 486 pages
(Message in a Bottle From P)
A true page-turner. It's almost 500 pages long but I simply couldn't put it down. It's well-written and the changing narrators fits the style and plot well and helps build the tension. I was absolutely mesmerised and found myself alternatively feeling pity for the perpetrator and being absolutely disgusted by him.

"Flaskepost fra P" is the third book in the series about Department Q, but though I could occasionally sense references to the previous books, they were in no way necessary in order to follow the plot of this one.

Brilliant crime novel. I hope it will eventually be translated to English so more people get to read it.

Looking for Alibrandi - Melina Marchetta, 3.5/5, 228 pages
A friend saw I'd really enjoyed "Does My Head Look Big In This?", and recommended "Looking for Alibrandi" as being even better. I still prefer the former, but I did enjoy this one as well. It's a sweet YA and I enjoyed the way Melina Marchetta explored the family dynamics of the Alibrandi family.

I would probably have liked it better if I hadn't known to compare it to DMHLBIT though. It's good on its own, but couldn't live up to my expectations.

The Door to Time - Pierdomenico Baccalario, 3.5/5, 123 pages
Very interesting combination of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Over Sea, Under Stone" in style and atmosphere, plus it had a bunch of riddles to solve and codes to break, which always fascinates me. Obviously aimed at a much younger audience, but it still had enough going for it to keep an older reader like me entertained ;)

Unfortunately it ends with a cliff-hanger (a pet-peeve of mine), and feels more like a part of a longer book, or an introduction/prequel than a book that's meant to stand alone. If it had felt more 'complete', I would probably have rated it a 4 instead.


Book of the Month: Flaskepost fra P - one of the best suspense novels I've read in a long time.
Biggest disappointment: And Then He Kissed Her - I'd been looking forward to reading it for so long that I couldn't help ending up disappointed.