I haven't written again in a few months, I'm so bad at blogging, no wonder I have no readers! I'm going to now write a short short short review for each of the books I have read, even though for a few months I did not do much reading, these last two weeks I managed to sort of catch up and I have now read in total 17 books and I just started number 18 yay me.
3/207 Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
This is a book which includes a range of subjects from modeling, to music, to eating disorders, to broken friendships and love from an unexpected person. Annabelle, the main character in the book, has had a complicated year with deciding to give up modeling but not wanting to let her mum down, her sister moving back home due to an eating disorder, having an argument with her best friend and being the new social outcast at school, always having lunch with the other social outcast, Owen, with whom she ends up forming a bond over music. Many may call the plot a cliché, but there's just something beautiful about the manner in which Dessen adds other details and makes a simple girl meets boy story so much more.
4/207 Tuesday's with Morrie by Mitch Albom
This is actually a book which chronicles real life events which occurred in Albom's life. The book starts of with Albom describing his graduation day and how he gives his favourite unversity professor a gift, a briefcase, and promises to see him again, he doesn't do so until he finds out that Morrie is dying and they start seeing each other every Tuesday like they used to when Morrie was still Albom's professor. This is a book full of live even though it closely follows Morrie to his grave. I don't think saying more would give the book any justice so I'll just say a lovely quote from the book "Life is a series of pulls back and forth. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. Most of us live somewhere in the middle. A wrestling match. Which side wins? Love wins. Love always wins."
5/207 Railway Station Man by Jennifer Johnston
I rarely ever read a book that I don't enjoy much and this happens to be one of them, when I first received it as a present form my mum's boyfriend I thought it will be very interesting for some reason. I liked the passages in which Helen is described when she paints quite a lot, and her simple lifestyle in Ireland after her husbands death and her son fleeing the nest to go to university in Dublin. I liked her lazy cat and the fact that she did not use her easel and instead crouched on the floor to paint, I liked that the story was realistic and showed that she did not get much out of going to Art School, as not everyone who goes to Art School is an actual artist. There is not much more I can about it, I enjoyed Helen and Roger's progression as a couple and the portrayal of their relationship at the end on the book.
6/207 Fear not by Anne Holt
This book comes form a scandinavian writer. It has a few plots throughout the book which were not very hard to decipher as a reader as the book progressed. I can't say i will read it again, I've read much more interesting crime novels.
7 and 8/2007 Diary and Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
If you do not know anything about this writer then maybe you have watched the movie Fight Club which was adapted from his novel. There is something about all his books, quite different and interesting, the teach you so many random things and you encounter a palette of characters and a range of emotions which are hard to describe to someone who has not read at leats one book by him, so I prefer to just recommend you, the reader, to read at least Fight Club if not the two which I just mentioned.
9/207 A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
This is the first book out of the Sherlock Holmes series in which Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are introduced and we are told how they meet. It is a short easy read which I enjoyed consuming over a mug of hot chocolate on a late April evening. Once again, giving away any detail from this book will just ruin the story, just sit down and read it in one go.
10/207 Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Sooo, I was first interested to read this book back when I was 16, and for some strange reason I never managed to finish it back then, well to be honest me and classics just don't get along that well. In April/May I decided to try and read it again and this time finish it, and I managed to! The reason I wanted to read this book in the first place is a poem entitled Miss Havisham, who is a character in the book, written by Ann Carol Duffy, here goes the poem, maybe it will spark something within you too.
Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then
I haven’t wished him dead. Prayed for it
so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes,
ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.
Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days
in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress
yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;
the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this
to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words.
Some nights better, the lost body over me,
my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear
then down till I suddenly bite awake. Love’s
hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting
in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding-cake.
Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.
Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.
11/207 The Zahir by Paulo Coelho
If you have ever read another book by Coelho, this plot will not suprise you. This book, as all his books tend to, contains the themes of love, religion, self discovery. Until I read this book I had no idea there are cars and lamp posts on the back of a certain dollar bill.
12/207 Before I go to sleep by S.J. Watson
This is Watson's debut novel, which very much reminded me of Mememnto, one of my favourite movies ever. It was a good quick read, I finished it in a few hours, started reading it while I was on the bus, then I kept reading while I had a two hours long bath in order to finish it.
13/207 Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
The main reason i read this book is the movie adaptation of this book which came out a while ago. For some reason, from the movie poster, I assumed it will be a love story between the characters played by Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor, but it wasn't meant to be, as the book was mostly just about the Salmon Fishing in the Yemen project. It was still an enjoyable read and I would recommend it to many, not just what U expected it to be.
14/207 Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
Another book which wasn't what I expected it to be, once again a love story. It is more the obsessive love Parry has for Joe. It was an interesting read, but I hated the first thirty pages, maybe it was just the state of mind I was in, but afterwards I was pretty much sucked into the story and I now want to watch the movie for it. From the beginning I emphasised with Joe, and disliked Clarrisa's dismissal regarding the danger Parry was for both her and Joe, and the fact that she did not really believe Joe was being stalked.
15/207 Love in Shades of Grey by Glynne Mclean
Coincidence makes it that I found out this book will be adapted into a movie with the male leading role going to Ian Somerhalder just after I finished reading it, I just can't wait until it comes out now.
16/207 Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders by Gyles Brandreth
Historical murder mystery in which the main characters are Oscar Wilde, Robert Sherard (he narates the novel with the help of his journal), Arthur Conan Doyle. I am not very familiar with how these three real life famous people were as I have not read any biographies but I enjoyed their portrayal in the book. This is the first book from a series so now I have to go and hunt down the rest of the books.
17/207 Great House by Nicole Krauss
The reason I will not write anything about this book is because you have to read it for yourself to perceive its beauty.
Wow such a long post! I am also so veyr bad at writing reviews.
Listebing to: Coeur de Pirate - Place de la Republique
