christianreader | Kiwiria's January Reads

It's been a great month for reading - two 5 star books and three 4.5 star books! I'm not complaining :-)

Twenty Miles Per Cookie - Nancy Sathre-Vogel, 4.5/5, 206 pages
I was first introduced to the Vogel family when I found their blog where Nancy chronicled their two-and-a-half-year bike ride from Alaska to Argentina. I was completely blown away by their adventures, so when I discovered she was writing a book about their earlier one-year bike ride around the US and Mexico, I knew I had to read it.

And it didn't let me down. The magic that made me fall in love with the blog is in the book as well, and I finished it in one day. It really gets my wanderlust boiling even if I know I could never take a year out of my calendar the way they did.

I still hope Nancy will write a book about their longer trip as well, but until then, this book will tide me over nicely :-)

The Bro Code - Barney Stinson, 3.5/5, 195 pages
Pretty funny :) But don't even bother if you don't know and love "How I Met Your Mother".

The Maze Runner - James Dashner, 4/5, 375 pages
After reading a number of negative reviews about "The Maze Runner", I approached it with some trepidation. Would I end up giving up half way through?

Thankfully that wasn't the case at all. Quite the contrary, I had severe difficulties putting it down. In style and atmosphere it reminded me a lot of "The House of Stairs" by William Sleator. A group of kids are kept captive in an enclosed environment without knowing neither why nor how to get out. It's in many ways a chilling read, but also very captivating... no pun intended.

It's very obviously the first book in a series, but the cliff-hanger isn't too bad and thus didn't annoy me. I do want to read the next book though, in the hopes that it can live up to this one.

The Magician King - Lev Grossman, 1.5/5, 400 pages
Most of the book was semi-boring, but okay enough that I wanted to finish it, so I figured it would be a 2-star review... then along came the sucky ending and we're down to just one. A shame too, because I had really liked "The Magicians".

If "The Magicians" was inspired by Harry Potter and C.S. Lewis' "Magician's Nephew" this was inspired more by "The Dawn Treader" - but is unfortunately nowhere near as good. I ended up actually not caring too much about life in Fillory and was much more interested by Julia's life in the safehouses - especially once she made it to Murs.

But even at its best it was unfortunately only "vaguely interesting", so I cannot in good conscience recommend it to anybody.

Down Under - Bill Bryson, 5/5, 394 pages
(aka "In a Sunburned Country")
Some authors have an amazing way with words, and Bill Bryson is definitely one of them. After a single false start, he proceeded to make me utterly homesick for a country I've in large part never visited at all (three weeks total in Cairns, Brisbane and Sydney is nowhere near enough). I learned a bunch of new things about Australia and new places I want to visit. Bill Bryson's love for the country is unmistakable, and makes this not only a fascinating memoir and travel-account, but also an adoring ode to a soul country.

Interesting things I learned from "Down Under":
- The concept of "Tomorrow, When the War Began" (John Marsden) wasn't actually as farfetched as I originally thought, but could have been based on a very real threat during WW2.
- Racism is alive and well in Australia - the Aboriginals don't seem to be very accepted at all, and as late as 1970 their children was still considered wards of the state rather than of their parents and could be removed at will.
- As of the time of writing, there was still a single territory that had declined becoming a state of Australia... meaning that though they could vote for elections, their votes didn't actually count for anything.
- Australia is unique both from a geological and a botanical viewpoint and HUGE parts of it haven't been properly surveyed... if surveyed at all. Also, it has the coolest names for places, plants and animals :D
- I WANT TO GO!!!

If I Stay - Gayle Forman, 4.5/5, 260 pages
This book ought to come with a warning: "Tear-jerker ahead!", because unlike most books that have made me cry in recent times (e.g. the last book in the "Tomorrow, When the War Began" series), it's not just one passage that triggers the tears - but pretty much the entire book.

Despite this, it's actually not a depressing book - sad, yes; depressing, no. You quickly get to care and feel sympathy for Mia, and for once the outcome is not necessarily given in advance.

Gayle Forman has written a sequel, "Where She Went", but I'm not entirely sure I want to read that one. "If I Stay" is such a powerful stand-alone novel, and I'm afraid a sequel might just cheapen it.

Certain Girls - Jennifer Weiner, 3/5, 406 pages
I was just thinking the other day that I seldom recognized emotional manipulation in books or even really knew what it consisted of. Well, now I do. It was so blatantly obvious here that it would be impossible not to realize it for what it was.

And unfortunately it made me rather disappointed by the book. Most of it was good enough, but because of the emotional manipulation I ended up not enjoying it nearly as much as "Good in Bed" or "In Her Shoes".

I did appreciate the follow up to "Good in Bed" though, and learning what happened to Cannie and Peter after the birth of Joy.

In Darkness and Light - Allison Rogers, 3/5, 190 pages
It's often hard to rate a collection of short-stories, as the individual stories can vary a lot in quality. This was very much the case here - some I would have rated 5 stars, others just 1.

Some of the stories would have worked best as writing prompts for longer novellas or even novels. One especially, about a husband and wife disappearing into a sinkhole, I felt ended far too early, both because the story intrigued me, and because I felt it had ended without a real ending.

On the other hand, I LOVED the stories about Jeremy and Olivia, and could happily have read an entire book just about them! I hope Allison Rogers will expand on their story in a later novel.

Faith of the Fallen - Terry Goodkind*, 4.5/5, Audiobook ~30hrs
Whereas "Soul of the Fire" wasn't as good as I remembered, this one was even better than I remembered, so it all evens out :)

Not as many different story lines in this book. Richard and Kahlan are apart from this book, so of course we have theirs, but neither Zedd nor Ann get much pagetime on their own. That didn't bother me too much, I've always thought Richard's storyline the most interesting in this book. I'm fascinated by the mentality of the Order and the Old World - once again proving that communism is a good idea in theory, but it'll never work in practise - people are too corrupt, too egoistical and too lazy.

I found it a tad far-fetched that a simple statue could have such a profound effect on people, but I guess it only works like that within the confines of a society that surrounds people with death and ugliness.

The Book of the Dead - Douglas Preston / Lincoln Child, 4/5, 436 pages
I bought this book not knowing that it was the third (or seventh) in a series - I only discovered this when registering it on Goodreads, so it was with some trepidation that I started the book - would I miss too many references, lack too much backstory?

Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case. Certainly there were references to previous books, but they all seemed nicely explained, so while I may have missed some nuances, it didn't hinder my enjoyment of the plot itself.

The Book of the Dead reads more as a screenplay than as a novel. I caught myself thinking about "that movie I had been watching about the Egyptian grave... oh wait! That's a book!". It employs a lot of cheap tricks and certainly isn't "high literature" in any sense of the word, but it's a quick read and good entertainment.

Kindred - Octavia E. Butler, 4/5, 267 pages
I picked up this book on a whim after reading the back blurb in a book store and being utterly unable to stop thinking about it again. Something in the blurb mesmerized me, and I knew I had to know more.

It's a fascinating story that ended up leaving me tied to my couch for 3 hours straight while I read it. It gives you a very unusual insight into the lives of black people in the South in the early 19th century, and how an otherwise decent white person can become so much a product of his time that he turns cruel too, because that's all he has ever known.

Octavia Butler left a number of things unexplained - why did Dana suddenly start travelling in time on her 26th birthday? Why not before? And once she did start, why did the travels occur so quickly, one after another, rather than spread out over several years? Why did she lose her arm (no spoiler, this happens in the prologue)? And will she continue travelling after the events described in the book occurs? These unanswered questions did bother me somewhat, but not enough to distract from the powerful message of the plot itself. I'm glad the book wasn't any longer than it was (267 pages) - I'm not sure I could have borne it.

Snow in April - Rosamunde Pilcher, 2.5/5, 152 pages
More of a novella than an actual novel, and unfortunately - like most of Rosamunde Pilcher's novellas - neither very realistic nor very engaging. I think Rosamunde Pilcher meant for this to be a quick, feel-good read, but while she definitely succeeded with the former, it was less so with the latter. The only relationship that felt real was the one between Jody and Caroline - I never really came to believe any of the romantic entanglements.

I tend to love Rosamunde Pilcher's novels, but her novellas are more often miss than hit.

The Help - Kathryn Stockett, 5/5, 443 pages
I've wanted to read this ever since I saw the movie last year. I loved the movie, and was eager to see how the book compared. Thankfully the movie was very close to the book, so I ended up loving the book just as much as the movie.

I've heard many critics complain that it paints too rosy a picture of the reality, but I don't agree at all. It's very obviously just a selection of experiences and makes it clear that there were many, many others to be found - both some better and some worse. It's a tricky book to write - especially for a white person - but I think Kathryn Stockett handled it well and approached it with humility and poise.

I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being the best book I read all year.

Book of the month: A tie between "Down Under" and "The Help". Both fantastic for very different reasons.
Biggest disappointment: "The Magician King". Ugh!