Books for June

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I didn't go quite as nuts with BSC books this month - down from 49 to just 15! Which probably also accounts for the total number of books read.


Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer, 2.5/5, 323 pages
This is a really, really weird book. I still haven't quite decided what I think of it. I can see its literary merit, but I guess it just didn't appeal to me at all. I did like the way Jonathan Foer used the medium to tell the story though. I always appreciate it when authors dare use the book as more than just something to carry the words. However, the writing style did come across as very artsy at times. Not necessarily a bad thing (Milan Kundera does the same, and I rather liked his The Unbearable Lightness of Being), but completely different from what I had expected, so I wasn't prepared for it. However, it wouldn't surprise me if this becomes the kind of book people study in high school 5-10 years from now.

I'm glad I've read it, but I'm also glad I just got it out of the library rather than buy it, as I doubt it's a book I'd want to read again.

The Monsters of Otherness - Kaza Kingsley, 4.5/5, 320 pages
The second book about Erec Rex, and I think I might even like this a tad more than the first book. The first book tired to introduce too much of a new universe too quickly, which made the start rather cluttered. This sequel didn't suffer from that issue, meaning that the plot was a lot cleaner and got started much faster.

Of course the story is rather predictable, but it's well-written and fun! I like the main characters, and loved hearing about the tasks Erec had to fulfill in order to become a king -- even if he did only manage the first 2 in this book. I'm already looking forward to reading the next!

My Sergei - Ekaterina Gordeeva, 3.5/5, 187 pages
I picked this up because I'm fascinated by figure skating, and thought it sounded really interesting. And it was in parts, but unfortunately Ekaterina Gordeeva is obviously not a writer, so certain sections of the book were rather clunky making the emotions difficult to relate to.

Two things really affected my experience of the book though. The first was discovering that I may actually have seen Ekaterina and Sergie perform 'live'! At least I remember my mum taking my sister and me to an international skating competition back when I was a teen, and it might very well have been the 1994 World Championship in Copenhagen.

The second was thanks to modern technology - about halfway through the book, I realized that many of the competitions mentioned would probably be on YouTube. Honestly, it was a really, really odd feeling to read about a program, and then sit down to watch it on the computer - especially knowing that Sergei died rehearing for just such a competition.

It was a surprisingly slow read, but well worth the time spent on it.

The Gift of Fear - Gavin de Becker, 4/5, 300 pages
Very engagingly written. I found the subject interesting, and the language easy to read (meaning that it wasn't as dry and technical as it could have been). Hopefully I'll never have to put any of this theory into practise, and Becker himself said that the book was more relevant for people in the US than anywhere else.

What I found especially fascinating about the book was the view it gave the reader into the psyche of violent people - how there are always warning signs, how a person never "just snaps" and how to trust one's instincts. For that reason alone, I found the first half of the book most interesting, and it more thoroughly focused on what to look for. The last chapters was more made up of examples met by Becker's firm than case studies the average Jane could learn from.

I guess you could accuse the book of fearmongering, and I probably wouldn't recommend it to somebody already suffering from an anxiety disorder, but Becker does make a case for not worrying unnecessarily, and I guess that's what it all boils down to.

A very quick read, which I found difficult to put down.

It Must've Been Something I Ate - Jeffrey Steingarten, 3.5/5, 320 pages
An amusing collection of food-related essays. Like in almost all essay collections there were some I laughed at, some I found interesting, and some I couldn't relate to at all. Steingarten does have a very entertaining writing style, but I must admit that I didn't care much about his adventures when going fishing or the quest for finding the perfect original French cuisine restaurant.

On the other hand, I loved reading about his research of chocolate (who wouldn't!), his taste experiments of salt and coffee, and the description of how to make the perfect bread and pizza crust.

A fun read, and each essay only takes about 10-15 minutes to get through.

A Moment of Weakness - Karen Kingsbury, 3.5/5, 433
I honestly don't really know how to rate or review this book. There were parts of it I loved, and parts where I just wanted to throw the book across the room. I think I'll have to try something new, and do a review in bullet form.

Things I Liked
* The childhood friendship between Jade and Tanner. Very sweet.
* Jade's reaction to meeting God. Brought tears to my eyes.
* Jade and Tanner's friendship 'that summer'.
* Jade and Ty's relationship
* The 'conversations' with God. I always wish I could hear Him that clearly.

Things I Disliked
* The heavy, heavy, HEAVY forshadowing. It almost made me give up on the book already on page 70!
* The blatant moralizing.
* How the evil people were evil, with no remedying qualities.
* The unrealistic judge and courtcase (at least I hope both were unrealistic!).
* Worst of all - how things just got worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and you could see that it was going to continue downhill (thanks to the lovely forshadowing mentioned above), until finally everything was resolved lickity-split and (as also mentioned above) in a very unrealistic manner. When you end up saying, "Oh, come ON!" as you read the final pages - it is not a good sign.

I don't know if this is standard for Karen Kingsbury, or just specific to this book, so I am going to give her a second chance, because as cringe-worthy as the bad things were, I LOVED the good things, so did end up finding it slightly more good than bad.

Halfway to Forever - Karen Kingsbury, 4.5/5, 339 pages
I'm glad I decided to give Karen Kingsbury a second chance, because I LOVED Halfway to Forever. It had all the good points of A Moment of Weakness and none (or only very few) of the bad ones. I do realize that this means I'll have to read more by her to figure out which is the rule and which is the exception ;-)

Halfway to Forever is a wonderful book about trusting God through adversity, and listening to Him, even when He seems far away. It's probably too in-your-face for a non-Christian, but an excellent reminder for a Christian. It's a sad book though. The adversity the main characters encounter is pretty severe, and I cried buckets while reading (good thing I was home alone!), but it was also very, very beautiful and reaffirming.

She's the One - Gregory Gilderman, 2.5/5, 189 pages
I don't know how I managed this, but I'd gotten completely the wrong impression about this book. I'd somehow been lead to expect that it was a Christian relationship book (probably by myself), and was therefore quite surprised to discover that that was definitely not the case.

Rather, it's a book for 20-30 year-old single women, whom the author think are being mislead by the media and he therefore wants to tell them what men really want.

So really not at all relevant for somebody who's been married for 7 years. Sure, there were some few pieces of advice I could use (e.g. a chapter on fighting, which was actually quite an eye-opener), but in general I read it more for its entertainment value than anything else.

Thankfully it did have that. Gregory Gilderman knows how to write catchy essays, and while I'm not always sure he's representative of "Average Joe", he's probably right more often than he's wrong.

So if you're single and looking for some light-hearted advice, I'd pick it up, but if you're in a committed relationship, I'd give it a miss.

The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Emmuska Orczy, 4/5, ~8hrs
I'd seen a movie version of this ages ago, but remembered nothing of it other than the "They seek him here, they seek him there" rhyme and that I rather enjoyed it, so when I discovered that one of my favourite Librivox readers had recorded it, I decided to try it out.

And it's quite good. Nothing that blew me away, but definitely an enjoyable read. Quite predictable - I either guessed or subconsciously remembered all the twists - but as it wasn't exactly a whodunnit, that didn't bother me.

Who Do I Lean On? - Neta Jackson, 5/5, 358 pages
Neta Jackson never fails to inspire me through her books, and thankfully this third book in the House of Hope series was no exception. Though I did still occasionally want to shake Gabby for her bad choices, she had come far enough to realize her mistakes herself, before they got her in too much trouble.

Phillip was at his most likeable here, and I was grateful for this glimpse into the person he used to be - until now it had been difficult to understand why Gabby ever married him in the first place. Here we got to see behind his ambition to the person he could be.

I did think the Lee story line was much too easily resolved though. It seemed a bit too convenient - I would have liked to see Gabby come to a decision by herself, rather than being forced into it by an ultimatum.

But as always Neta Jackson delivered an AMAZING story that made me ache to be part of that kind of Christian fellowship myself.

I read the book in one sitting, and stayed up until 2am to finish it. Unfortunately the next (and last) book in the series won't be out until March 2011.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner - Stephenie Meyer, 3/5, 152 pages
To be honest, I wasn't sure I even wanted to read this novella. Everybody who's read Eclipse knows what's going to happen to Bree - why would I want to get to know and find sympathy for somebody I knew would die in the end?

And I have to admit, even after having read it, that's still my thought. This is NOT a novella for people who want happy endings - or even just closure. It was interesting enough, but I found myself much less engaged than usual, probably because I didn't care - and didn't want to care. The reason I still gave it a rating of 3, is that I can clearly see that this isn't the fault of the book.

I still love the Twilight saga, but I doubt I'm ever going to reread this.

Frygt - Helene Tegtmeier, 2.5/5, 192 pages
(Fear)
Not a very pleasant book, and I'm very dubious as to how realistic it was. That's usually not a problem, but I'm pretty sure this book was supposed to be realistic, which was unfortunate. I think the book would have benefitted from being longer, so not quite as much had to happen in as short a span of pages. The plot could easily have been stretched another 100 pages, as long as the author was competent enough to fill out the details. I'm not entirely sure that would have been the case though.

Idol Musings - Various, 4/5, 644 pages
I don't think the thrill of reading my own name in print is ever going to get old :-D

This collection of Idol Musings is very representative of the competition. Some entries made me laugh, some made me cry, some left me cold, and some made me sit back with a feeling that all is right with the world.

I doubt the book will register on the radar of people who haven't either participated in the writing competition themselves, or know some of the contributers, and that's a shame, because there's a lot of really, really good writing in there.

It's not a book I can sit down and read from A-Z, but for a few essays here and there, it's a pure treat.

Too Busy Not To Pray - Bill Hybel, 5/5, 180 pages
Somebody recommended this book to me many years ago. I no longer remember who, and I'm not even sure I got the right book, as Jo Carro has also written one with the exact same title. However, I'd been utterly unable to find that one, and the library had this one, so I'm going to claim this was it! ;)

Besides, even if it wasn't, I'm SO glad I've read it. Bill Hybels tackles some of the large issues about praying - how to pray, when to pray (scheduled prayer time is just as important as spontaneous prayer), why some prayers are answered and others aren't, and that listening is just as important a part of praying as talking is.

Very thought-provoking, very inspiring and very interesting, even if Bill Hybels didn't always touch on the topics that are most relevant to me: I have no doubt at all that God is able to provide whatever miracle I'm praying for - I wonder if he's going to. I know that listening is an important part of prayer - I just don't know how to, as my mind is always too busy with other things. He did have some practical advice though, which I'm going to try to follow.

A highly recommendable book, which I think I need to own for myself so I can underline stuff.

Babysitters Club, Babysitters Club Super Special
Not quite as many this month. Only another 15 books read. It's very obvious that the quality deteriorates the further into the series I get.

A total of 29 books, 14 rereads and 5 non-fiction - I'm definitely on a non-fiction kick these days! Usually I only read 1-2 a month. 6307 pages read.

Books total: 143
New books: 67
Non-fiction: 12
Pages total: 33.255


Book of the month: A tie between Too Busy Not to Pray and Who Do I Lean On?. Both were amazing.
Biggest disappointment: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I'd expected SO much more of it!