Kiwiria's December Reads

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Not going to be able to finish any more books this year either. My official Goodreads goal was 200 books - I ended up reading 202. No need to exaggerate, eh? ;-)


Crossed - Ally Condie, 3/5, 367 pages
While I gave the first book 5 stars, I was sad to say that this one rated only 3. It wasn't nearly as fascinating nor intricate as Matched, the plot wasn't as interesting and as is so often the case with a second book in a trilogy, it was very obviously a transitory novel. In fact, I guessed that it had to be a trilogy before reading it, simply because of the style of Crossed.

It managed to keep me well enough entertained, but I was in no way blown away by it. I wonder whether or not the last book in the trilogy will be able to live up to the first tone, or if it'll be like Matrix in book form.

Awake at Dawn - C.C. Hunter, 4/5, 400 pages
Please tell me if there's some rule that all paranormal series must include a love triangle? I know I keep complaining about this, but it keeps coming up again! And it's getting old :-/

That annoyance aside, I really liked this book. I loved the first book in the series, and fortunately the sequel lived up to my expectations. I had started to think Kylie was a terrible Mary Sue the way she suddenly got good at everything, but it turns out there may be a logical explanation, so I'm willing to withhold judgement for now.

I really liked the various relationships depicted in the book and Kylie's interactions with both her cabin mates, Holiday and her parents. Didn't care much for neither Lucas nor Derek at all though. She could do better than either!

Next book in the series is out in March/April 2012 - can't wait!

Divergent - Veronica Roth, 5/5, 487 pages
"Divergent" is one of those books that suddenly popped up everywhere. I actually hadn't even considered reading it, until I read yesterday that it had been voted "Book of the Year" by Goodreads! Now I knew I had to see what the fuss was all about.

The book did NOT disappoint! I was hooked from the very first moment, and even the open ending didn't bother me too much... I must be getting to a point where I've started to expect them! I couldn't put the book down, and would have finished it much sooner if I didn't have that pesky work intervene ;)

The action is fast-paced and convincing - it takes a very talented writer to make me afraid of heights through her writing... and I don't even have vertigo! I was stunned when I discovered she's only 23 years old! If she continues in this vein, she has great things ahead of her.

It actually most of all reminded me of "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld, which isn't a bad thing at all. Now I just hope that Veronica Roth can keep up the pace in the sequel.

Read it! :-D

Book Lust - Nancy Pearl, 2.5/5, 256 pages
I stumbled across this book in the gift shop at NYC public library, and it seemed like a must-have for a bookworm like myself. Unfortunately it ended up being a very disappointing read indeed. In part because Nancy Pearl and I obviously don't really share a taste in books at all, but mostly because she didn't manage to 'sell' the books she did recommend. I realize that it's not possible to make a lengthy explanation/summary about each book when you want to list as many as she did, but just a single line or two would be helpful.

It's definitely not a book to read through from A-Z, but people with less of a TBR-mountain than I have might find it handy for quick ideas.

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern, 4/5, 384 pages
Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what I thought of this book. I found the way the book was structured really catching, and loved all the descriptions of the circus, and especially the atmosphere as a whole; but the characters were all very two dimensional, and as for the plot itself, it seemed basically... well, if not non-existing, then a reason for the atmospheric descriptions rather than the other way around.

But despite that, it really was a magical book, and I don't blame the reveres for following "The Night Circus" around - I would want to do the same thing myself.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon, 4/5, 240 pages
Thing That Amused Me #1: Christopher explains the Monty Hall Paradox which I had just seen Mythbusters investigate. Funny timing, and my gut instinct is still wrong.

Thing That Amused Me #2: When Christopher arrives to London he looks at a map over the Bakerloo line. Only the illustration Mark Haddon used in the book clearly shows that Christopher would have been at Edgware Road which is absolutely impossible, considering that he arrived with British Rail. He would have had to be at Paddington Street Station instead. And no, it doesn't take a train geek to spot this - it is very clear from the illustration if you have even the faintest idea of what a tube map looks like.

Thing That Amused Me #3: The chapters were numbered using prime numbers :D

Fascinating book about a boy with autism. I loved seeing the workings of his mind, and how his reasonings were always 100% logical and therefore often wrong as human beings aren't ever 100% logical (rarely, anyway). In many ways it reminded me of "Marcelo in the Real World" by Francisco X. Stork, only Marcelo was a lot higher functioning than Christopher.

A Light in the Window - Jan Karon*, 4/5, 413 pages
This series is balm to my soul :-) I don't like this one quite as much as the first book, mostly because cousin Meg and Edith Mallory both BUG me. I know they're supposed to, but seriously! Father Tim needs a spine transplant, because that wet noodle isn't doing him any good.

But aside from that, it's a delightful read. It had me smiling and even laughing out loud on several occasions, and I closed the book with a happy sigh.

Ronja Røverdatter - Astrid Lindgren, 4.5/5, 226 pages
(Ronia, the Robber's Daughter)
I grew up with Astrid Lindgren's books, and "Ronja" is still one of my favourites. Ronja's fearlessness in exploring the forest, and her growing friendship with Birk never fail to charm me. This read-through was no exception, and went to prove that "Ronja" passes the test of time better than most.

Wither - Lauren DeStefano, 2.5/5, 256 pages
I really enjoyed the first half and was really annoyed by the second half. Wither had such potential, but instead of making the most of that potential, Lauren DeStefano ended up with a book with bland characters and no plot to speak of. It's the first book in a series in the worst sense of the word, in that everything that happened led up to the last few pages, and nothing was resolved but instead left for the next book to pick up on.

DeStefano's writing appealed to me, so I enjoyed the book while I was reading it (until I got far enough into it that I could see the writing on the wall that nothing would be resolved anyway), but looking back at it, there are a lot of plotholes and stereotypes.

The Christmas Dog - Melody Carlson, 3/5, 176 pages
On the saccharine side, but I guess that's pretty par for the course for Christmas books. I liked it well enough, even if I did occasionally want to shake Betty for her bad decisions and interesting assumptions.

A quick read, but more of a feel-good story than an actual Christmas story.

The Librarian (Book One: Little Boy Lost) - Eric Hobbs, 3/5, 200 pages
I'm hard pressed to say exactly what I think of this book. The plot was spot-on and right up my aisle. I loved the idea of being able to visit different books, and even - ala "The Eyre Affair" - influence the plot enough to change endings.

I wasn't too impressed by the writing though. It seemed unfinished somehow. Had this been a draft, I would have said it had great potential, but I think the editors did Eric Hobbs a disservice by not getting him to polish it off properly.

So 4 stars for the plot, and -1 for the writing. I'm intrigued enough to want to read the next book in the series though.

Soul of the Fire - Terry Goodkind*, 4/5, audiobook ~24hrs
I still enjoy this series, but boy there was a lot of sermonizing and politics in this installment! I'm sorry, I don't care to read about politics - not even fictional politics.

Apart from that, I did enjoy the book though. I'm glad that Richard and Kahlan actually got to spend most of this one together for once! I did miss Zedd though, and hope we get to hear more about him, Ann, Verna and Nathan in the next book. Oh, and whatever happened to Addie? Anybody remember?

Børnene fra Frostmofjeldet - Laura Fitinghoff, 4/5, 95 pages
One of my favourite books as a child, and thankfully it passed the test of time quite nicely. I don't know how realistic it is, but it's a charming read nonetheless

Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts 3/5, 944
A rating of 3/5 just isn't enough for a book as long as this! It took me almost two months to read! It wasn't a bad or boring book, but it just wasn't a page-turner either, and for a book of 900+ pages, that's really to its own detriment.

I can't really figure out whether it's a novel or a memoir. From what I've been able to gather through online articles, it seems to be a fictionalized memoir... or a novel based on the author's own experiences. At least, all the larger details of Lin's life were things that happened to the author as well.

It was really, really interesting. I know next to nothing about India of the 1980s and was fascinated (and occasionally horrified) by the descriptions given. But holy foreshadowing, Batman! It's a literary technique that has always bothered me, and even more so when as in this book it occurs in almost every chapter.

I'm glad to have read it, and ended up loving some of the characters like Prabaker and (strangely enough) Karla, but I really, really doubt it's a book I'm ever going to read again.

Tomorrow, When the War Began - John Marsden*, 4/5, 285 pages
I'd actually seen this in the library 10'ish years ago and thought it sounded interesting, but decided against taking it out when I saw that it was part of a series since I didn't know if the books could stand alone or if the series had been finished. However, jennet recommended it to me back in 2005, so I thought I would give it a shot. I liked it well enough, but wasn't blown away by it, so I never picked up the sequels.

Recently i_smell_apples started talking about it again. She'd seen the movie and raved about both it and the books, so I figured it was time to give it a second chance. I don't know what changed, but this time I loved it, and will definitely be continuing with the rest of the series.

I think one difference may have been that I read it in Danish last time and English this time. Even the best translator cannot capture the Australian slang in Danish. I felt much more connected to the story and am eager to see what happens next.

We never think war could ever come to our country, and discovering it so suddenly, like the kids here did, must have been a terrible shock. I can't even imagine.

The Dead of Night - John Marsden, 4/5, 272 pages
This series suffers one weakness similar to that of the "Gone" series by Michael Grant - since I know this book isn't the last in the series, I also know that there will be no real resolution to the war.

But at least I know that going into the novel, so it doesn't bother me as much as it would have otherwise. And I'm still fascinated by the picture John Marsden paints.

I was annoyed with Ellie for giving in to Lee. It could have been handled so much better, because as it was it seemed like she only agreed because he kept pressuring her.

Harvey's army infuriated me, and I'm almost glad we haven't heard the last from him, as I'd love to see some kind of retribution.

I thought the end was glossed over too quickly, but can sort of see the reason for this, since the books are supposed to be Ellie's account of the happenings and therefore only focuses on what she can bear to focus on.

The Third Day, the Frost - John Marsden, 4/5, 278
(A.k.a. "A Killing Frost")
Probably the most chilling book of the series so far. I literally had tears come to my eyes when the kids got in contact with New Zealand. And then the end... but I won't spoil it for the rest of you.

I wasn't quite as satisfied with the closing of the Major Harvey incident as I had hoped to be, but then I always prefer bad guys to recognize the error of their ways... yeah, I'm ridiculously naive that way.

Glad Kevin's back. I hope we'll hear more about Corrie soon too.

Saftevandsmordet - Thøger Birkeland, 2/5, 129 pages
I read and loved this book as a kid, and reread it with an eye on recording it for my nieblings. Unfortunately it doesn't pass the test of time, so I'm afraid they'll have to do without.

Darkness, Be My Friend - John Marsden, 4/5, 272 pages
John Marsden doesn't pull any punches! But I like his way of doing it - it's necessary to make the series seem realistic, yet he doesn't throw them all at once, so the reader gets time to breathe between each new tragedy.

I didn't like this book quite as much as the previous three, as it seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong and it got to be a bit much at one point, but it's still a fascinating read and I can't wait to see what happens next!

Burning for Revenge - John Marsden, 4/5, 272 pages
I loved that the kids finally got revenge! Not at all in the way I had expected, but I was very gratified that something finally went their way. I can't even begin to imagine what they must be going through and was very glad that they finally experienced something they could be pleased about.

I couldn't believe Lee's betrayal though. That infuriated me!

The Night is for Hunting - John Marsden, 4/5, 256 pages
Still an amazing series, but this foreshadowing is getting a bit old. When every second chapter stars with "We should have known...", "If only I had..." or something similar, you know that the author needs to learn a new writing technique.

But despite this, I'm still happily devouring the books. I liked the addition of the ferals in this one, even if Gavin did annoy me something terrible. He's deaf! That makes him a liability - not a help! He can't hear if there are soldiers about or if he's making too much noise!

I was also glad to see they finally got some more help from New Zealand!

The Other Side of Dawn - John Marsden, 4/5, 333 pages
No joke, I literally sobbed my way through much of the second half of this book - much to my husbands bemusement and concern. For a minute there I was very worried that the series would end up with an open ending after all, but in the end John Marsden tied everything together very nicely.

Somehow the resolution of the war did offend my sense of justice though. I know it's probably a very realistic resolution though, so even if I don't like it much, I can understand why John Marsden didn't tie everything up in a neat little bow in the end.

I'm glad I've finally read this series. I've heard so much about it for ages, and it deserves its hype. Now all that's left is to figure out whether I should continue with the Ellie Chronicles next ;) Recommendations, anybody?

Conrad, the Factory-made Boy - Christine Nöstlinger, 4/5, 112 pages
I loved this book as a child, so I was a bit worried whether or not it would pass the test of time. Thankfully it did so quite nicely, so I think this will be the next book I read aloud for my nieces and nephews.

3 BSC books, 350 pages


Book of the Month: Divergent
Biggest Disappointment: Book Lust and Wither