I was surprised by how much I liked this book.
It was a bit strange, in every way I can think of. The Time Traveler’s Wife is the story of Henry DeTamble who, through some fluke in genetics, is a time traveler. It is also the story of his wife, Clare, who he often goes to meet when he time travels. Henry has no control over when he time travels, or when/where he goes.
Continue Reading “The Time Traveler’s Wife – by Audrey Niffenegger”
I think I was seduced by the artwork on the cover of this book. It shows a pale blue sky, with a few clouds, over a body of water that could be an ocean. In the center of the cover, on the horizon line, is a woman’s face surrounded by puffy, white clouds. It is very surreal. It made me wonder what was going on with the disembodied floating face, and what happens in the book.
Continue Reading “She’s Come Undone – by Wally Lamb”
Susie Salmon (like the fish) is fourteen-years-old in 1973. She has “mousey brown hair,” a family she loves (including a great dog) and a junior high school that she goes to. She is also dead, and this story is Susie telling the reader about her life, her death, and what happened after that.
Continue Reading “The Lovely Bones – by Alice Sebold”
The Priest’s Madonna fits into the historical fiction genre. The main story takes place between 1884 and 1917, in a small village in France. Marie, and her family (her parents, foster sister, and younger brother) move into a small village due to some misfortune. They are not greeted very warmly at all.
Marie is sixteen-years-old at the time. Soon, a friend of her mother’s comes to live with the family. Berenger Sauniere is good looking and charismatic, and catches the attention of the young Marie.
This the book that started it all! All the vampire movies and all the vampire books that came after were inspired by what Bram Stoker wrote way back when. It dawned on me recently that even though I have read many other books about vampires, I had never actually read this Classic.
Continue Reading “Dracula – by Bram Stoker”
The Swarm is a science-fiction book that focuses on biology and genetics. The main premise is that there are aliens living in the oceans, who have been there much longer than humans. The aliens are much smarter than we are, and have gotten really tired of our destructive ways.
Most of the characters in the book are scientists, from different countries and branches of science. They are trying to connect the dots between the many catastrophes and plagues that are happening around the world – in the hopes of discovering the source of it all.
Continue Reading “The Swarm – by Frank Schatzing”
Pride and Prejudice has suddenly become popular once again, due to the movie that came out recently that was based on it. I have not yet seen the movie, and am not sure if I want to.
The book was wonderful! The best parts were the sarcastic and witty comments on society that Austen wrote, and, since many of these are written from the viewpoint of her anonymous narrator, and not her characters, how could the movie version even touch that?
Continue Reading “Pride and Prejudice – by Jane Austen”
Little Women was one of my favorite books when I first read it. I must have been ten or eleven years old at the time, and had not encountered many other books that were “for kids” and were anything like this book.
Continue Reading “Little Women – by Louisa May Alcott”
The Other Boleyn Girl fits into the historical fiction genre. The reader is immersed in England of the 1500s. The story focuses on people who really existed and events that actually happened.
It is based on the lives of two sisters from the Boleyn family. Mary is 12, and already married to a man named William Carey when the book starts. Her slightly older sister, Anne, is just returning from France, where she was part of the French King’s Court. Both girls, and their older brother George, are going to be part of the English King Henry’s Court.
Continue Reading “The Other Boleyn Girl – by Philippa Gregory”
Pattern Recognition is a novel set shortly after the events that took place in the United States on September 11, 2001. The book was published in 2005.
Cayce Pollard is a “coolhunter”, which means she has a gift for spotting the next cool trend. Big companies hire her to find that for them, and also to judge if their next logo is going to work for them or not. She leads a very solitary life, traveling from country to country for work.
Continue Reading “Pattern Recognition – by William Gibson”