I just started The Elegance of the Hedgehog! :) Happy reading!
1.5.
Away. I tried really hard and just can't connect with this book, and it feels tedious to me, so I'm dropping it 100 pages in.
2.
Iodine. Very interesting book. Still not sure what to think of it; I'm not sure I'll have my mind made up on it until I read through it again.
9.
A Thousand Splendid Suns--I heard mixed reviews of this one, but I couldn't put it down and devoured it in about three days.
10.
A Three-Dog Life--This was lovely, but I'm not sure about the ending. In many ways it was fitting, but it felt really abrupt to me.
I'm glad you liked
Little Brother! I've been longing to read that one.
11.
Gregor the Overlander--I expected more from this one. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't terribly compelling or nearly as inventive as I'd hoped it might be.
Gregor the Overlander is also aimed for 9- to 12-year-olds though. I had the same reaction when I read it (after a Hunger Games kick), and while it wasn't on the same level, it was good on a DIFFERENT level. I heard the next in the series is good so I'm going to read that soon hopefully!
12. Genesis by
Bernard Beckett--This one was a bit mind-blowing. Definitely not quite what I was expecting. Very well put together.
13. The House of the Scorpions--Honestly, I was expecting more from this with the three awards it won and all the five-star reviews I saw on Amazon proclaiming it the best sci-fi book the reviewers had ever read. It was good, but not amazing.
Message edited by its author, Mar 26, 2009, 11:17pm.
14.
Uglies--Wasn't sure what I would think of this. I enjoyed it, though I don't think I'll bother with the rest of the series.
15.
Tender is the Night--Very slow-going, and I failed entirely to connect emotionally with the characters. F. Scott Fitzgerald is not my favorite.
16.
People of the Book--Good, but not as gripping as I'd hoped.
17.
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie--Fabulous, with the most amazingly precocious 11-year-old narrator! Extremely well-done debut novel. I can't wait for Alan Bradley to write more.
I blame my slacking on grad school applications.
18.
The World to Come--I loved this. The contemporary and historical stories were beautifully interwoven, and I really loved the characters and their little idiosyncrasies.
Paper Towns by John Green
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
People of the Book
I've got all three of these on the tbr pile. Any review of the first 2?
And, I too loved
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I am anxiously awaiting the next in the series.
Message edited by its author, Jun 10, 2009, 10:28pm.
I still haven't read
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, unfortunately--I have yet to procure a copy. The other two I thought were good but not amazing, though I know many people who absolutely loved one or the other of them.
19.
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - I wasn"t as enamored of this as I'd hoped. I enjoyed it, but also didn't connect strongly with the characters, and found the ending rather abrupt.
Message edited by its author, Jun 16, 2009, 1:26pm.
20.
Graceling - I really enjoyed this. Fabulously strong female lead character, dealt really well with her burgeoning sexuality. Why can't teenaged girls read this instead of Twilight?
21.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - Fabulous. Frankie is clever and cunning, and a great character. Another great one for teen girls.
I feel like I'm forgetting something before Graceling, but I can't think of what.
So glad you liked
Graceling! Wasn't it fantastic? Her second book,
Fire, is coming out in October. I read an ARC and it just might be even more fantastic than
Graceling.
And speaking of
E. Lockhart, you should check out her Ruby Oliver series if you haven't yet. It starts with
The Boyfriend List.
Looking forward to seeing what else you've read!
Glad to hear you enjoyed Fire so much--not all the reviwers have, but it does sound like an interesting story. Noted on the other E. Lockhart books. Thanks for the recommendations! (Not sure when I'll get around to them all with my impending grad school start in August, but we'll see!)
22.
The Joys of Motherhood - I was not impressed with this. Not terribly well-written, very abrupt ending, and it was really hard to connect with the characters. I finished it for book club.
23.
The Boyfriend List (thanks, stephxsu!) - Very fun. I liked Ruby, and it really got the gist of crazy high school drama. Fun with good messages.
24.
In Defense of Food - I love Michael Pollan, and I agree with this book and its views. That said, I think it could have been better organized and edited. I definitely preferred An Omnivore's Dilemma to this one.
25.
The Depression Book - Fabulous. Definitely includes new ways to look at and deal with one's depression. Quick read, but more of a reference that I'll keep picking up.
Do you think it would be helpful for someone who doesn't always know how to best deal with someone else's bouts of depression?
It's written more for people who are struggling with depression themselves, though it's certainly possible you'd find it illuminating. You could always get it and pass it on to the depressed person.
26.
The History of Love - This is a beautiful book that I suspect I would have enjoyed more had I read it before
The World to Come. There were many similarities between them, and I only read them a couple months apart. I rather wish I'd read this one first.
>27: You mean the depressed person who won't admit that she's ever depressed and later reinvents history? "I wasn't sad...mad...depressed!" **smiling** That one?
>28: I'll have to try
The World to Come. I think that's one of the reasons people have such different reactions to books; it may be as simple as they've already read a really good book with the same theme, so the ideas aren't as shocking/captivating. I've heard good things about
The Housekeeper and the Professor. I'll have to check to see if it's on my wish list.
28.
Olive Kitteridge - Well-done, stories drew me in, but mostly fairly unhappy people resigned to their lives. Not entirely upbeat.
29.
The Little Prince - I was expecting a lot more from this one, given how hyped it had been from some friends of mine. It was alright, but I found the Little Prince to be a complete brat and don't really understand why so many people love it so much. I liked the illustrations the best.
I had a similar reaction to
The Little Prince, and I think you are right that so much hype had led to (perhaps unrealistic) expectations. Of course, I probably also didn't read it at the right time of life for it to affect me the way it did others.
30.
Mudbound - I enjoyed this one, though I was a bit annoyed at first by the multitude of perspectives and the seemingly random switching between different characters. It made more sense later on, and the story definitely drew me in.
I normally like one narrator too; it allows me to better fall in love with the character and/or really escape into the story. I did love
Mudbound though.
31.
The Boy Book - This was a fun read. Good escapism from the heaviness of grad school.
Grad school would be why I'm reading so slowly now when it comes to the fun books.
32.
Unaccustomed Earth - Really good. I loved the characters, the stories were gripping, the writing amazing.
And since I seem to have forgotten it (read it right after Mudbound):
33.
Plainsong - Honestly, I was expecting a lot more from this one. It didn't grip me as I'd hoped, the characters needed more dimension, and once again I felt the story followed too many people, as with Mudbound. I'd really been looking forward to this one, so it was disappointing.
I think I'm harder on books that I've heard a lot about before reading it myself. Kent Haruf's descriptions were so utterly beautiful to me. Plus, I loved the interaction between those two old geezer/farmers. I hadn't known anybody who read the book before I did, so it felt like such a fantastic discovery.
bonnie: It definitely has a simplicity to it that I can see others finding beautiful. It just left me a bit cold; and I'd also read so many raving reviews that I had high expectations of it. I might have reacted to it differently otherwise.
34.
Unaccustomed Earth - Not quite as good as Interpreter of Maladies, but I did really enjoy this one, and appreciated bits of it more once we discussed it at my book club. I love Jhumpa Lahiri's writing.
35.
Eucalyptus - Not quite what I was expecting from this one, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Eucalyptus was a book that was enjoyable enough while I read it, but ultimately forgettable. To be fair, though, so much of what I think and feel about a book has a lot to do with my own life experiences, or those of my friends and family.
36.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - This was a mostly fun read. Not quite what I had expected of it, but interested characters at any rate. I wasn't quite so into the ending--it felt like a bit of a cop-out initially, though as I thought about it, I started to see it a bit.
37.
Run - This was alright. The characters could have used more depth, the book could have used more editing, and the ending felt a bit like a cop-out to me as well. Definitely not such an organic feeling to this one.
38.
Stone Gods - This was an interesting book. I got into it much more in the second half, but I'm still not sure what I think of it (probably not helped by the fact that I read the first half months before the second half). Interesting, at any rate.
39.
Drowning Ruth - Really oddly put together, could definitely have used a lot more editing than it got. The author has some potential, but this one was just strangely constructed.
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