Among Others by Jo Walton

Why I read this book?

This book was the May selection of the Sword and Laser book club.

What's the book about?

Morwenna Phelps is a teenager girl who recently lost her twin sister and escaped her home in Wales. She goes with her lost father and is now going to a boarding school for girls in England. All of her life she has find refugee in books, mostly science fiction, but also fantasy. She has also found solace in magic. This is a coming of age story, full of book references and magic...if you believe in it.

What was the thing I liked the most? 

Besides the book references? I know have a bookshelf in Goodreads of books she talked about that made me want to read it...I liked the empathy I could feel for Mori. 

What about the main character?

Mori is a teenager and it shows in some of her responses to life. However, she is also a very different type of teen since none of her peers read as much as she does and this gives her a unique perspective on things. She uses magic as she uses books, to protect herself and surround herself of a safety net; at least in my opinion. She will question a lot of the things that are taken for granted around her, and just for the fact that she changed dramatically her environment she also changes, little by little, some of her views. 

Final thoughts

I think is a precious book, but I do understand why several of the members of the book club didn't fall for it the way I did; it was hard to say it was a real Sword selection, but anyway. That said, I was horrified by the amount of people that just read, maybe a third of the book, and just quitted. In my opinion, the whole idea of a book club (even when it is a bit genre oriented like this one) the idea is to push your typical boundaries and this book certainly was not the typical thing to read.

But leaving this aside, I have to tell you I really enjoyed the book, I felt a lot of empathy towards Mori.  The only thing I guess that kept me from giving it a 5 was the missing connections at the end. But I realize that might be just me and my science head wanting to have the whole idea at the end. 

TSS: Mid year Re-Cap

Hello everyone, 

I'm a bit late to this post, and it won't be that original, since I think almost everyone of us did the half year re-cap, but here I am. 

I have to tell you, I'm a bit disappointed this year. Yes, I have read 30 books already of my 42 year challenge...but I haven't LOVED most of them. Don't get me wrong. I've enjoyed my reading life this year; is just that I haven't fell over heels over that many books and that makes me wonder whether I have  become more critical, or I just haven't found my sweet spot in reading yet.I cross my fingers is the latter.

 

On the other hand, and thanks to the book club I'm part off, I've widened my reading spectrum, and, a big plus, this year I don't have a book that I didn't like at all, thus far. That's a great thing you guys, last year, with Jersey Angel I was so frustrated!

Also I have to consider something, and that is that there are several books that I have keeping untouched, waiting for the R.I.P. Challenge this year, as well as the autumn read-a-thon. So, fingers crossed, that will tip the balance to a more "loveable" reading year. 

So far, my favorite book of the year has to be between Ready Player One and Gone Girl; both very different and both kept me reading past a decent hour. Least favorite has to be, hands down I Don't know how she does it. Not much to say on that one; I wasn't expecting a great book out of it, but even with low expectations I ended up very disappointed. 

Anyway, here is to a great rest of the year for all of us!!!

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Why I read this book?

Before I changed countries, a long time ago, I saw my aunt reading this hefty, brick like book with so much interest. I asked her, what is it about? She said: Dracula, as if he was alive in modern time. I wanted to read it, but alas, my luggage was kind of limited. So after years of waiting I finally got her copy and dive into it...

What's the book about?

Well...my aunt didn't lie. In the book Dracula is supposed to be still alive...but the book doesn't deal much with him actually. Is more about...well a family of historians that somehow end up connected to Dracula; we follow them through different European countries, following the trail of mystery and darkness that the Count left behind...allegedly.

What was the thing I liked the most? 

I enjoyed the description of landscapes, of the cities; If we divide the book in 4 parts...I enjoyed the 3rd one, when the father is moving around Bulgaria and Romania.

What about the main character?

Was there really a main character? The book in titled The Historian (La Historiadora in Spanish) which made me think the first girl to talk was the main character...but she wasn't. For me the main character was the father, and even so...this place, the main character felt empty for me for most of the book. So I won't comment much in this section.

Final thoughts

3 months...that's how long it took me to read this book. I could tell you that it was because I was studying, which is true, but I read a lot of other books in this 3 months. Thing is, the story failed completely to grab me. Is not that I don't like descriptive literature (I loved Proust's In search of Lost Time), but here the descriptions of what the girl drank in certain plaza...seemed so utterly pointless for the story. I felt that knowing that she liked her orange drink didn't change the outcome of the tale one bit. That said, the part where the author described the mountains, the landscape was beautiful. The part that I liked (part "3") was full of different countries, different cultures, that part was great...but it was surrounded of nothing really happening, and then the end was so disappointingly anticlimactic! I think that my aunt remembers liking it because of the country descriptions...but for me this wasn't enough to make it an outstanding book.

Scarlett by Marissa Meyer

 

No picture this time, sorry :(

Why I read this book?

This is the second book in the Lunar Chronicles of Marissa Meyer. I really enjoyed the first one, Cinder and decided to continue with the series. It also makes part of my sequel challenge.

What's the book about?

As it was the case with Cinder, this is a re telling of a children story, in this case Little Red Riding Hood. The story follows Scarlet and Cinder in different parts of the world to finally merge towards the end. On her side, Scarlett's grandmother has gone missing and she is sure it's abduction. While trying to find her grandmother she will meet some interesting people along the way.

What was the thing I liked the most? 

Although you know how the story goes for LRRH this re telling takes a few twists that make the book interesting. I enjoyed the way the characters are written. 

What about the main character?

As you probably guessed by now the main character here is Scarlett Benoît, and she is inspired on LRRH, she even wears a red hoodie! Once again, as in Cinder, they have glimpses of the original story, but they are both very strong young women, albeit they are still teen agers and as such they will sometimes take rush decision marked by a pretty pair of eyes, if you know what I mean. In the case of Scarlett, she is also an orphan, even though her father is still alive, but he pretty much walked on her, so its her grandma who brought her up. She is a bit ill tempered, but mostly because she has had to deal with a lot.

Final thoughts

I'm really getting into this series, Meyer takes the fairy tale background, including the origin of the story (in this case France) and incorporates them into the whole tale while adding a bit of futuristic elements without pushing it into sci-fi necessarily. The characters are not dull, although sometimes is a bit predictable what their reaction will be, but never mind that, the books are very enjoyable. 

TSS: Back once again

Hello everybody!

OMG, it's been such a long time since I did a TSS post! Maybe I mentioned, maybe I didn't but I had a huge exam recently...long story short if you don't pass this exam you are not allowed to graduate from your PhD. I passed!!. You can only imagine how happy I am, how relieved and how relaxed I am right now. 

My reading life was not in a pause however, I was a good girl and kept on reading...ok, it had nothing to do with being a good girl, but mostly needing to do something different than studying every night. So I did finish 8 books since my last TSS post. 

However, as you may have noticed I did not post the reviews for the last 6 :S. But I'm catching up, yesterday I posted the reviews for Gone Girl, The Buddha in the Attic and Wool. Hopefully during this week I will be able to post the other 3; I'm lucky to have a long week-end all for myself and work on this.

Other than that everything is going fine. Weather is not very summery yet, but I will change my banner soon, just the window image. Maybe that will hint mother nature that is time to summer things up?

Anyway, have a wonderful week, and fingers crossed you will be able to drop by and actually find new stuff in the site. I'm a bit behind updating my lists of challenges and books reviewed, but I will get to it soon enough.