A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni
384 pages
Finished 7/11/08














I can't even begin to tell you how long I waited to read this book. Actually, you can probably guess - ever since it came out! I have this weird book quirk that generally has me buying only like books. I bought The Kite Runner in paperback, so I have been waiting what seems like forever for ATSS to come out in paperback. However, like The Da Vinci Code before it, it seems the publishers have decided to milk it in hardcover for as long as possible. Grr. I finally broke down earlier this month and bought it.

Overall - I loved it. It was a great story, heartbreaking and eye-opening all at once. Scary to think that all of that really HAS happened in modern day Afghanistan. At times I was reading it and thinking "How could they do that? Women would never stand for it!" But unfortunately, there was just nothing they could do. So sad.

My only complaint about the book is that I actually felt it was too easily written. It was an extremely fast read, even for me, something that The Kite Runner wasn't. It felt a little like ATSS was missing some depth that could have been there. It's a little hard for me to articulate what exactly I thought was missing - blah, me, at a loss for words?

Overall, though, the book was worth the wait, and yes, even worth purchasing in hardcover.

Four stars.

The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks

The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks
432 pages
Finished July 9, 2008














The Dark River is a sequel to The Traveler. These books are part of a trilogy. The first book, The Traveler, was beyond fabulous. I think the books can be considered dystopian - people aren't living in poverty, but the world is constantly being watched by Big Brother. Everywhere you go, you are on The Grid.

The Traveler follows a Harlequin, Maya, who is out to avenge the death of her father. Before doing so, she must first protect Gabriel, a man who has essentially lived off of the Grid with his brother since they were children. A Traveler is a person who can leave their body in spirit and travel to other realms.

I was so anticipating this second book in the trilogy - the first book was fabulously written, intense, and very imaginative. Unfortunately, I felt like most of the second book (the first quarter, for sure) moved very slowly. I was anticipating a fast moving novel, but it seemed a little lacking at first (with an exception or two).

Luckily, the book picked up, and the ending...WOW. Let's just say I can't WAIT until the final novel in the trilogy comes out (whenever that may be). The end definitely made up for what the first part of the book was lacking, and it definitely made me (as the reader) incredibly anxious for the last installment.

I would definitely recommend checking out this trilogy - I probably didn't do the book justice trying to describe it. :)

Also, one other note - after I read the second book, I started to look up information on the author, and it seems his (or her) identity is a secret. Allegedly even his editor has never met him. The author contacts his editor via a satellite phone, which is not traceable, and also uses a voice scrambler so the voice can't even be recognized. The author also claims to live "off the grid." Crazy - it makes the story even more interesting to me!

Four stars for The Dark River.

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi
689 pages
Finished 3/30/08





I've always wanted to read about this book - I've heard so much about it. I discovered it at Goodwill one day a month or two ago and bought it. Of course, I didn't take a look at the book until I picked it up late last month to read it...and discovered that my book starts on page 11. So annoying. Why don't I check these things out ahead of time? Luckily, that was all that was missing, and it was pretty easy to pick up on the book there.

Helter Skelter is the story of Charles Manson and the Sharon Tate murder. The book is authored by the prosecutor in the book. I think he does a really good job of telling to story - the book is long, and it took awhile to get through, but there is so much detail needed that I couldn't imagine the story being any shorter. It was very interesting, in-depth, and chilling.

Four stars.

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
462 pages
Finished 3/19/08











I like to judge books by their covers - so I picked this one up based on it's cover only. I had never heard of the book (and certainly hadn't heard of the Bartimaeus Trilogy, which is the first book of).

It's very easy to see how this book is compared to Harry Potter. This book follows the story of a novice magician named Nathaniel, and what happens when he summons a djinni (or demon) named Bartimaeus to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from a magician that had once humiliated Nathaniel.

The book switches back and forth between Nathaniel and Bartimaeus, but it's definitely Bartimaeus that steals the show. He is shown as a smart, witty, and very self aware. His sections are littered with footnotes to further explain what is happening. I personally love the footnotes, and think they are great - especially when Bartimaeus explains his reasoning for them part way through the book.

I will definitely be looking into the next two books in the trilogy - I have no idea what they are about, but hopefully they will be as good as the first.

Four stars.

Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore

Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore
322 pages
Finished 3/10/08













This is my second Christopher Moore, after first reading (and LOVING) Lamb. The title of this one is pretty...interesting, and the premise of the book is just an interesting. A pilot name Tucker takes his boss's pink plane (his boss is Mary Jean of Mary Jean Cosmetics Corporation - remind you of another company?) on a drunken joy-ride and ends up crashing it. While recovering from injuries to his very special place, he gets an interesting job offer - a pilot for a medical missionary on a small, secluded island that is controlled by a high priestess.

The first couple of chapters were a little hard to get into. Once Tucker left the States to make his way to the island, the story really picked up though. Moore is an extremely witty author and his humor can be so subtle sometimes. Moore also created some great minor characters - my favorite, by far, being a talking bat named Roberto.

The only thing that bothered me about the book is that I felt like I was reading constant product placements - Cheetos, Budweiser, US Magazine were just a few that were mentioned. Still, it was a minor annoyance in an overall very good book.

Four stars.

True Evil by Greg Iles

True Evil by Greg Iles
640 pages
Finished 3/1/08













Every time I read a book by Greg Iles, I think to myself, "That was pretty good. I should read his books more often." Then I promptly forget about him until the next time I am browsing the clearance section at Half Price Books (or, actually, in this case, when I am browsing the books at Goodwill - so cheap!).

True Evil is about an FBI agent named Alex who is haunted by her past and the recent death of not only her father, but her sister. Right before her sister dies, she tells Alex that her husband is the reason for her death. This leads Alex to do some research and find a divorce attorney who seems to be connected through business transactions to a number of clients whose spouses have all died. Alex reaches out to Chris Shepard, a doctor whose wife has just visited the divorce attorney - Alex fears Chris is the next target.

My biggest complaint about the book is that it read almost like a sequel. As I started reading, I wasn't sure if there had been a previous book that featured Alex, the way they were alluding to an accident that she had. It turns out that the author just wasn't great at revealing a story piece by piece - the writing is just a little too awkward.

I still liked the mystery behind the story, and there was a slight twist that I hadn't seen coming at the end, which always makes me happy.

Four stars.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
311 pages
Finished 2/18/08













Ah, Flowers for Algernon. One of those books that it seems like everyone and their brother read in high school. Well, I didn't, so lay off! This is one of those books that I added to my amazon.com wishlist years ago (fine, it was May 28, 2004, to be exact) and then promptly forgot about. I found it the other day while on my magical trip to Half Price Books (which, by the way, was followed up by an equally magical trip to Goodwill, where I found tons of Baby-Sitter Club books. Because I'm 12).

For those that don't know, Flowers for Algernon is basically about a man named Charlie with a low IQ (around 70) that has an experimental surgery to increase his intelligence. The surgery has already been performed successfully on a mouse named Algernon. The story is written diary style by Charlie.

I really went back and forth with this novel. I loved it in the beginning - Charlie just seemed so sweet and delicate that I really cared about him, and how the surgery would go for him. Once the surgery happened, though, I got more and more annoyed with Charlie. He was so negative. During this period of the book, his high points are with Algernon (who is not mentioned nearly enough, in my opinion). It was the ending of the book that made me really love the novel in the end, though. I really wasn't sure what to expect, but in a way, it was the perfect ending to this book.

Flowers for Algernon brought up a lot of great questions for me. How do you relate to Charlie on any level, both pre- and post-surgery? What would this book be like if it was written today, in 2008? Has anyone read it and care to discuss? Anyone?

I give it Four Stars. There is so much to think about...

Thinner by Stephen King

Thinner by Stephen King
318 pages
Finished 2/7/08






Still on my quest to read all Stephen King books. This book started out a little slow for me. The story is about an overweight lawyer that accidentally hits and kills a Gypsy that crosses the street in front of him while he's in his car. After getting off very lightly due to connections with the judge presiding over the case, Billy (the main character), runs into another Gypsy, who touches him on the cheek and says "Thinner." Billy is soon drastically losing weight.

The novel really gets going about a third of the way in, when Billy starts to look for the Gypsy that cursed him. It's a great story - face paced with a lot of things happening. The best part of the book was the ending - I didn't see it coming. There was a feeling of horror as I read the last few pages...it was sort-of like, "No way!" I was liking the book quite a bit, but the ending actually brought it up a notch for me.

Four stars.

The Regulators by Stephen King

The Regulators by Stephen King
512 pages
Finished 1/29/08













In case you can't tell, I am on a bit of a Stephen King tear. I'm trying to build up my collection - I've always been a King fan, but haven't read much of it lately. Thanks to Half Price Books, I'm now all over it.

Anyway, at one of my last trips I picked up Desperation, and I liked it quite a bit. I had seen on the book that there was another book (The Regulators) that I thought was a sequel of sorts. Turns out the books are more "companions" of each other. You can read them completely separately, and really aren't missing anything. I got David to take me to HPB again this past weekend, and decided to check out the Stephen King section again for funsies (even though I had picked up a couple of King's books already from the dollar section). I saw The Regulators and snatched it up right away, even though I honestly had forgotten about the book.

The coolest thing about these two books are the characters - simply because the characters names, and a number of their main traits, are recycled between the two books. I didn't realize this when I first started reading Regulators, and I actually had David go grab Desperation for me out of the office so I could compare names (and yep, they matched). It was a little confusing at first, and then I realized that I had to separate the two stories - just because someone was a bad guy in one book, didn't necessarily mean he/she was a bad guy in the other.

I really liked Regulators - more than I liked Desperation, even. I was reading some other reviews, and it sounds like most people think Desperation is the better of the two, but I'd have to beg to differ on this one.

Four stars.

Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield

Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
219 pages
Finished 1/11/08












Ah, the mix tape. I was a big fan of the mix tape when I was younger - my choice tape was what the author called "The Radio Tape." I always had a tape handy, ready to record my favorite songs when they were played on the radio. And the funny thing is, when I hear certain songs, I still hear the DJ's comments on the song, from the tapes that I played over and over. I'm a little disappointed in myself that I only made 1 mix tape specifically for a person - my friend Minta when we were in 8th or 9th grade. It was a damn good tape, too, with plenty of Boyz II Men and other sap songs (we were getting over boys at the time, of course).

This book actually hit me pretty hard - I was teary through most of it, and full on crying at the end. The author writes about his relationship with his wife, and how she died in his arms after only 5 years of marriage. I was reading it and thinking through out the whole thing - I cannot imagine losing David. Hate the thought of it. It doesn't help that he is gone for the weekend, either.

Anyway, the coolest thing about this book are the playlists that he gives at the beginning of each chapter. I admit, I'm not familiar with 80% of the music - it's a lot of underground, alternative 90's rock that really wasn't my thing. Still, it was cool to read about music and how it influenced their relationship. And I was a little giddy when I got to the chapter titled "The Comfort Zone" because that playlist had my type of music - Kris Kross, Paula Abdul, TLC, Hi-Five, and tons of other early 90s Top 40 goodness that I enjoyed.

Funny thing about the book - I never looked at the back cover to see the picture of the author. I knew his name, of course, and that he was an editor for Rolling Stone, but I didn't realize until I finished reading the book that this was also one of the guys that is always on those VH1 shows - I Love the 80s, I Love the 90s, etc.

Four stars.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
498 pages
Finished 12/30/07













To say that this is a fast read would be an understatement. I began reading this book yesterday afternoon, around the beginning of the 4th quarter of the Packer game (Go Pack!). I finished it by 9 last night, and I was definitely not reading the entire time (took some time off to make dinner, drink some wine, and put the book down every 3 minutes or so to meow at David. Which he didn't find annoying. At all.).

I was throughly absorbed and addicted to this novel. It is a young-adult novel about a high school junior named Bella that moves to a new school and falls in love with a vampire. It was easy to see why/how a teenage girl can get swept up in it - what heterosexual teenage girl didn't day dream about the perfect guy falling for her and whispering sweet nothings to her? I thought it was a very romantic novel when looking at it from eyes of the teenage girl I used to be.

Of course, other things drove me nuts - things that were unexplained (Edward, the vampire, can read everyone's thoughts...but Bella's), Bella's ridiculous outfits there were supposed to be cute (floor length khaki skirt? Really?), and even the sexual tension got a little annoying. It was all too pure. The two barely ever kissed!

Either way, I still really liked it, and I am already reading the second novel, New Moon. I'll let you know how I feel about that one.

Four stars.

Come Back by Claire and Mia Fontaine

Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back by Claire Fontaine and Mia Fontaine
306 pages
Finished 12/9/07











This book is a memoir written by a mother and daughter. The book tells of their struggle with Mia's (the daughter) addiction and the steps her mother and step father took to get her to rehab.

Overall, I thought it was a great book. Both Claire and Mia's stories are inter-mixed throughout the chapters, so you get to see/hear both sides of the story while it's happening. They are very frank and honest about a lot of things - their shortcomings and the huge circumstance in their life that was the catalyst in Mia's addiction.

My only complaint is that it seems like some important information is either left out or suddenly sprung on you. It made it feel a bit like a novel when I was reading those books - the story is compelling enough without throwing these "surprises" in.

Still, it was a great book, and I was happy to see that this book had a happy ending. And no, I'm not ruining the book by saying that. I mean, come on - it's written on the back of the book, nevermind that Mia's telling the story herself. Like a junkie could/would do that.

Four stars.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

I have been reading a lot of Margaret Atwood novels lately, and have found that they are hit or miss - I either LOVED them (The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake), or I HATED them (The Edible Woman). Luckily, this one falls into the former.


Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
460 pages
Finished 9/27/07





Another great book from Margaret Atwood. I was a little confused at the beginning of the book, because I didn't know what it was about. A quick search of the Internet and I found that this is her spin on a true story of a murder in the 1800s. The beginning was a little slow, and I was a huge fan of the Dr. Jordan sub-storyline, but once it got to Grace telling her life story, I thought it was great. Very well written.

I also liked Atwood's interpretation of what happened to Grace after she was eventually released from prison. I find it fascinating that she disappeared as she did - she was essentially released from prison and there is no record of her since. It's a bit of food for thought - sure, that was possible in the 1870's, but now days? That could never happen. The Internet is a magical place.

I gave it four stars.

Sept. 17 - 22

Whew, with these four books I am all caught up with the month of September.


The Book of Fred, by Abby Bardi
292 pages
Finished 9/17/07










I liked this book a lot. The characters were likable without being completely unrealistic, the book was well written (I especially liked that some of the narrative was written like a person would talk), and the book wasn't as predictable as I thought it would be. It was a nice story, and a great $1 find.

I gave it four stars.


The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
235 pages
Finished 9/18/07










This was a fun, quirky little read. It is a very fast read. I was a little annoyed by the writing style (the jumping stories bothered me), but overall it was cute, and I liked the main character. I don't think I'll go out of my way to read the other books in the series, but if I see them at the local bookstore in the dollar bin, I'd definitely pick them up.

I gave it three stars.


Letters for Emily by Camron Wright
214 pages
Finished 9/18/07










I started out the first few chapters really liking the book (the storyline of the Grandpa with Alzheimer's was touching), until we actually got to the "letters for Emily." Then the book quickly turned into a James Patterson book - it was so much like Sam's Letters to Jennifer/Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas I wanted to gag. Way to cheesy and unrealistic for my liking. The ending was pretty out there, too. Blah.

I gave it one and a half stars.


From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz
729 pages
Finished 9/22/07






I've read most of Dean Koontz's books, so I was excited to read this one, especially since I hadn't read one in awhile. It only let me down in one aspect - the summary written on the back of the book. I understand what they were going for, but I think it gave up WAY too much of the story. It wasn't until 3/4 of the way through the book that some of the things mentioned started to happen, and that was a bit of a bummer. Otherwise, I really liked it.

I gave it four stars.