So I've found that if I don't write down the books I read and what they're about, I tend to forget all about them. (Unless they were really good) So I've written down all the ones I read this last year. I'm pretty sue I forgot a few. Also, none of them stand out to me as being that great. I need some really good books to read.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon-This was fun, sad, and interesting to read. It was like being inside Abed's (from Community) head. It's written from the view of a boy with autism. He's trying to solve the mystery of who killed his neighbor's dog and he learns other things about his life and family while he's at it.
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway-A very fast, pretty boring read but Santiago is a great example of self respect and perseverance. And I love the way the boy took care of him.
So I read three novellas bound in one book by Jim Harrison...
1. Revenge-This was a pretty dark story. A man and a woman are having an affair. The woman's husband finds out and beats the man, leaving him for dead and sends the woman to a whorehouse for a while (He's some high-up drug lord or something in Mexico in the 70's or 80's) and then to an insane asylum. The story is mostly then about the man and his plans to find the woman while seeking revenge on her husband.
2. The Man Who Gave Up His Name-This story was awful. It was about a recently divorced middle-aged man in the 70s who basically did nothing and thought about sex a lot. It was essentially without plot until some random terrible attempt at something intense toward the end. This isn't word for word but this was basically what was on every page. "He looked at the sky then he crossed the street then he thought about sex then he watched a dog in the park then he sat down and then he thought about sex some more."
3-Legends of the Fall-Okay so my favorite movie ever (ever.) is based off this book. I don't think I've ever thought a movie was better than a book nor been glad about changes the film made. But with this one, I sure am glad for all those changes the screenwriter's made as this book was nothing to get excited about. If I hadn't seen the movie, I maybe would have thought this story was pretty good. It was definitely better than this author's other two, but meh.
The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright-This was an okay book. Written about an older couple who passes away, this tells the story about their life and their now-grown children. It has a tiny bit of intense plot which resolves way too unbelievably and another part of the plot resolves way too easily but all in all a nice story about love and support within families and communities.
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean-So this is another movie that I love which is why I read the book. It talks about fishing so much that I'm sure many could be easily bored by it. But the language and descriptions are so beautiful. I read in another book once that people are either lake people or ocean people and I've always disagreed, because I am a river person. I loved the descriptions of the rivers in this story and Norman's daydreams of becoming the river. It's how I feel sitting by the river and listening.
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman-So things were pretty hectic around my house when I was trying to read this book and it took me a while to get into it. But it turned out so much differently (and better) than I had expected. It was about a couple struggling with infertility while they were lighthouse keepers on an island by themselves and one day a row boat washes ashore with a dead man, and a living baby wrapped in a woman's sweater (so we can assume the mother also died). They decide to keep the baby and not report it. I don't want to give anything away but it is heartbreaking from all sides in the end. When I finished I went and picked up sleeping Atticus and just held him.
In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick-This was a non fiction about a whaling ship called The Essex that sailed out of Nantucket in the early 1800's. It was attacked by a whale and sunk. (Moby Dick is based off of it) It tells the story of that and how the survivors tried to find land, eventually resorting to cannibalism. It was an interesting story but it took a while to get to the actual story and I felt like it left the story a lot too as it went off on tangents about whaling and other whaling ships and people, or other ships that had sunk. I liked it though.
Runaway Jury by John Grisham-Meh. I generally like the intensity of John Grisham and this one was lacking. It was way too detailed about all the testimony of the trial and as the trial was about whether or not tobacco was addictive most of the testimony seemed redundant for the book.
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton-I really like the way she writes. All of her books span across different decades and sort of bounce back and forth as you put pieces together. This one is about an old woman remembering her life as a maid as a young girl during WWI and the 1920's. There's always a mysterious element to her books which makes them intriguing.
Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson-I read her other book, whatever it was called (Edenbrooke?) a while back and basically feel the same way about this book. They are quick, pretty enjoyable reads but they always seem to have obvious plot holes and then wrap up so quick and easy you have no closure about most everything and everyone in the story. The biggest plot hole that bugged me in this one was the deal Kate makes with her crazy mom. She's supposed to have something like a month to do her end but after three days they decide that she failed and her mom gets to force her to do all these horrible things. Plus there are much better ways to solve Kate's problem than writing some letters and running off. (Sorry for the spoilers)
The Distant Hours by Kate Morton-Another good one by this author. This one was the interwoven stories of a girl who works in publishing trying to learn more about her favorite childhood book, her mother who was sent to the English countryside during WWII, and about the family she went to stay with and their life after she went back to London. This one had me guessing more than her other books.
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys-This was about a girl and her family who were accused of being traitors in 1941 and were taken by the Soviets in cattle cars to work camps in Siberia where most of them died. I really liked it but it was brutal. It was interesting to read about this side of WWII that I really knew nothing about. (And these people were kept at the work camps years past the end of the war.)
Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky-I'll admit I had to go back to finish this book. I hated it. I don't know why. It had some good stuff in it but I had a really hard time with Charlie, the main character. It was written from his point of view and he is so devoid of emotion that it was boring. And a lot of his naivety I found to be unbelievable as well as the maturity level of many of the other characters who were supposed to be in their teens but were acting and reacting to things as a very well-rounded adult would do. And then Charlie on the other hand seems super immature at times as well. The whole book just seemed to skim the surface of all the issues going on in the book and never going deeper than that into any plot point. (Not to mention how many issues and problems were faced by the characters. If I listed them all it would sound like a Lifetime movie.)
I also made a goal to read some of my children's books this year whether I'd read them before or not. Some girls buy shoes, some purses. I buy books. This problem is especially bad when it comes to children's books. I have two 5-shelf book cases loaded up with children's novels/chapter books. I also have another smaller bookcase stuffed with picture books and many books stacked in piles and in boxes because there's no room for them on the shelves. I picked a random spot on a shelf to start to read this year and just went straight across. Oh and you better believe I alphabetize my books by author (after arranging them by size of course.)
-The Wish-Gail Carson Levine-Message about being kind and being yourself but pretty lame preteen book and way too much kissing for 8th graders. I'd let my kids read it but I'm not going to waste my time reading it to them. There are much better books for that.
-The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine-Great book about race relations growing up in 1918 Alabama. Great for older kids. White boy befriends the new black girl in town and begins to see the world differently. Teacher me approves.
-The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis-I had read this already when I was very young and liked it. I'm glad I read it again. It's great of course.
-Where The Mountain Meets The Moon by Grace Lin-Pretty good story. About a girl in China who leaves to try to find the man of the moon and ask him to change her fortune. She meets a dragon and some other great characters along the way.
-Ronia the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgreen-So I remembered reading this in 4th grade and liking it. In fact I'm pretty sure I must've somehow taken the book from my teacher (Sorry, Mr. Hogan) because I have no idea where I got my copy from. Anyway, it's a cute story about the daughter of the chief of a clan of robbers who befriends the son of a rival clan's chief.
-Pippi Longstocking, Pippi Goes Aboard, and Pippi in the South Seas by Astrid Lindgreen-I loved these books when I was in the first grade and I loved reading them to my first graders as well. But reading it as a grown up... A little bit of Pippi goes a looong way.
-Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle-So I liked this book for the lesson about befriending someone despite differences. But I hated how everyone else handled the friendship between the two girls. One girl is impoverished with a sickly mother who she takes care of. The girl basically runs the house for her mother and so falls behind at school etc. And when the other girl's mother finds out she calls authorities so the girl and her mother leave to live with family. Which is great but then the non sickly mother tells her daughter it was wrong of her to be friends with the poor girl because she was a bad influence etc and everyone continues to judge the poor girl. Not the kind of thing I want my kids reading.
-A Message From the Match Girl by Janet Taylor Lisle-I've decided this author is just a little weird. This one is about three friends. One friend starts receiving messages from his mom whom he thought was dead but then maybe she isn't. I'm sure young kids would like reading this but it doesn't really resolve anything and is just odd.
-The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting-Oh this one was painful to get through. A kid reading it on his own would love it but not so much for grown up me. Kind of like Pippi Longstocking, a little went a long way.
-Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord-Just a cute little story about a family living on a lobstering island off of Maine, who take in a boy from foster care.
-Rules by Cynthia Lord-Nice story about a girl trying to be normal and make friends with the cool new girl while also dealing an autistic brother that embarrasses her and making friends with a boy she meets at her brother's OT office. No real ending to the story though. It is just suddenly over.
-Messenger by Lois Lowry-I read Gathering Blue last year which shares characters from this book (as well as The Giver) but meh. It really messes up The Giver for me because it introduces all these magical elements to that world. Plus the plot was pretty dumb and didn't make much sense.
-Son by Lois Lowry. Ugh, This one started out really great about a girl in the same village where The Giver takes place. She was assigned the job of birthmother but something goes wrong with her first birth and so she's assigned somewhere else. She finds out who her son is in the community and wants to keep him (It turns out her son is the Gabriel, the baby from The Giver) but then the last two thirds of the book get boring/go back to all the weird magic and sorcery of her other books and it is just dumb.
Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan-I had never read this before and I get that it was a story from someone's family history but it was so boring. It had no depth or real plot and you didn't really get to know the characters at all. I have one of the sequels but skipped it.
Missing by Kathy MacPhail-I think this would be a fun one for preteen girls. It's about a family whose brother/son had disappeared roughly a year before. They found his body and have a funeral but then the girl starts getting phone calls from someone claiming to be him. So it's a fun little mystery but the conclusion is really dumb. Even for preteens.
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