Animal Farm: George Orwell (A book with at least one million reviews on Goodreads)

I knew going into this book that much of the satirical aspects would be way over my head. To say I'm not great at politics is an understatement, and my knowledge of world history is shaky at best, so I don't have much to say about this book as it was intended satirically, which means my review is going to be pretty useless.

I did enjoy reading it, however. Politics and history aside, it serves as a good warning for what can happen when we stop asking questions.

It is a well-written and very easy to read story, that serves as a warning and an entertaining animal tale.a

And Then There Were Nun: Jane Christmas (A book that takes place in an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage, or convent)

This was an interesting read to say the least. Christmas' religious journey is unlike any other I've heard which made the read fun. This was a great look into convent life.

I am struggling not to critique on a religious basis as that's not why I read this. I'll try to keep that out.

My biggest issue with the book is the overall lack of religion. Christmas loves to spout of about how religious she is and how important her faith has been to her, but actual faith in God is missing from these pages. She has a demonic encounter but relies on her self wit and books to protect her. Not once does she call upon the God who she claims is so important to her. Sure, she attends offices frequently but critiques the chanting and gives us little of the content or purpose. She studies Scripture but with the same way I studied and discussed this book.

She feels this call to become a nun, and has since she was young, and decided to finally pursue it, but then joining a convent isn't what she expected so she decides that she isn't called to be a nun after all. What? She didn't realize how much she would have to give up, and instead of giving up herself, she gives up this "call" that she has been feeling for 40ish years.

I guess the point of the book was to enlighten the world about convents and nuns, and she does so for daily schedules and clothing, but she never really goes into why one becomes a nun, what it means to be a nun, what the purpose of having nuns is, etc. She is very materialistic in her report of life for nuns, which is disappointing.

I gave it 4 out of 5 stars because it was an enjoyable read. Christmas has a sense of humor and writes well. My issues with it are more about her theology and personality than her writing. I don't quite know what to take away from the book, nor do I know what I should have gained by reading, but it was a compelling story of a woman's healing process.

The Christmas Letters: Lee Smith (Read a book during the season it is set)

This was a nice little Christmas-season read. It was easy and short, which is helpful during the busy season.

It's fun to read a story of Christmas letters and how families used to do them, and how they continue to do them. My family receives several Christmas letters each year, so I'm familiar with what they are, and I thought this read was a unique way to tell the story of one family's journey through several decades.

I loved the inclusion of recipies: some of them sounded really tasty, all were fairly simple, and they each appeared in the letter which helped me connect as a reader to the story.

I enjoyed how the letters travel through three generations allowing us to follow the family and they continued on in life. Although we got one letter per year and for only a few years, it was easy to track what was going on during those years. Each letter writer did a great job summarizing the years without making the letters read like a summary.

This wasn't an inspiring or life-altering read. The characters weren't exactly moving, but it was entertaining and helpful as I move into the season of Christmas.

Eligible: Curtis Sittenfeld (A retelling of a classic)

My forever favorite book is Pride and Prejudice, so I thought this would be a fun read. However, after finishing this book, I realized there can be no good retelling of Pride and Prejudice for me. If you're not Austen, you cannot get the characters correct. You can't tell the story the same way she did, which makes sense, really. There can be no two Austens, and Sittenfeld comes nowhere near her.

Had I been reading this book without ever hearing of Pride and Prejudice, there's a chance I could have enjoyed it, but reading through the lens of P&P made it a really terrible book. Sittenfeld took the ideas of P&P and sprinkled them on top of this book. Hardly even a sprinkling, though. You can just taste what was meant to be, but you have to suffer through the full dish without enough sprinkles.

The characters were completely terrible. Liz and Lydia switched places for the worst sister. Liz was just awful. Rude, obnoxious, unfiltered, and selfish. Lydia was actually the fun character. Sure, she was obnoxious too, but because Liz was the main character, we got more of her annoying person. Mr. Bennett isn't the best character in P&P, but his flaws are almost lovable. I think he is an endearing character in Austen's work. In Sittenfeld's, however, he is just a ball of flesh who has a few lines. He has no depth, he has no flesh, he has no lovable traits. In fact, he really has no traits. Sittenfeld also chose to make Jane completely pathetic in his story. Sure, Jane Bennett is a shy girl, but in this work, she is incapable of achieving her own happiness and must let others help her along the way. She can do nothing for herself.

In modernizing it, Sittenfeld used real-world problems, which of course makes sense, but in choosing those modern problems, he took away too much P&P for me. I'm no author, but as a huge fan of Austen's work, I just have to believe (and can imagine) a better retelling of such a well-loved classic. Sittenfeld just completely missed it for me.

Again, had I read this not knowing P&P, I probably would have enjoyed it. It's just too difficult for me to like something that was supposed to be close but was so very far away.

Home: Julie Andrews (Two books that share the same title #2)

I'm trying to appreciate memoirs more, and books like this one really help that. I think Julie Andrews is a phenomenal actress and singer, and I absolutely love The Sound of Music, so when I saw this book for $.99 at Goodwill, I decided to try it, and I'm very glad I did! 

Julie Andrews had a very interesting upbringing, and she writes about it so nonchalantly that one would think the book would be boring, but it wasn't. There were so many moments in the book when I thought, "Seriously? That poor girl. This is so horrible," but for Julie, it was just her life. What I appreciated about this book was that it was never a sob story. It was never a pity party. She never wrote to make us feel bad for her. She just wrote to tell her story. Even in the moments when you're afraid of what her step-father is going to do to her, she just writes, almost as if she's shrugging it off, but knowing her as you do when you finish the book assures you that she isn't shrugging it off. I think this is her way of acknowledging that all she experienced during her childhood led her to be the woman she is at the end of the novel, and that women is an incredible, talented, successful, joyful woman. Without her past, she wouldn't be where she was at the end. She wouldn't be flying to Disney to film Mary Poppins. She wouldn't be married with a beautiful baby girl. All the book made her who she was, and that's why she never tries to make her readers pity her or feel bad for her. In my small history with memoirs, most authors want sympathy. They want readers to feel bad that the author had to experience what they did. Julie was not that way, and that was great.

The book is well-written and well-paced. She doesn't linger too long in one period of life, but gives the main points and moves on, providing unique experiences for each stage of her early years. It was easy to read, easy to get caught up in, and yet easy to put down and pick back up, which made it easier for me to finish. 

My only disappointment was that this ended before she got to The Sound of Music, and I would have liked to hear what it was like to film that because I love it so much.

Home: Toni Morrison (Two books that share the same title #1)

This was a sad story of pain, suffering, and journeying through the trials of life to find your home. It was a very short read and moved along pretty quickly.

I struggled to follow the order of events in the book. No dates were given at the start of chapters, so it often took a bit for me to figure out if we were dealing with the past or present at any given point. At the end, I still didn't have a full grasp on the order of events. That made it a little challenging to follow the book.

I didn't understand the inclusion of Lily in the book, especially when she had her own chapter. Because of the length of the book, there was no room for her to grow or develop, so I couldn't understand why there was so much time spent on such an unnecessary (in my opinion) character/plot line. Frank talked about her quite a bit, which is fine and makes sense for the development of his character, but having a chapter from her perspective didn't add anything for me; taking me away from the main story of Frank instead. 

There are a lot of themes one could explore in this short book, which says a lot for the author, that she could pack so much into the book, but I wouldn't say the themes make this a phenomenal read. It was good, but it wasn't enjoyable, per say. 

11/22/63: Stephen King (A book featuring an amateur detective)

I don't like Stephen King. His books are a little too gruesome and freaky for me. Granted, I think the only book I read all the way through was Carrie, but that was gruesome enough to turn me off of King for life. But I know what It is about, and that is not for me. However, 11/22/63 has been on my list to read for a while because I enjoy reading, watching, and learning about the Kennedy assassination, and a book that purports to stop Lee Harvey Oswald sounded brilliant to me. 

However, I purchased it over five years ago, after my dad told me how great it was and have only just gotten to it. I think the length really intimidated me: the length and the fact that it is written by Stephen King. But I saw it on my shelf the other day and said, this is it. I'm going to read it. So I did.

First of all, for an incredibly long novel, it reads very fast. I started the book on Wednesday and finished on the following Tuesday, just reading in hour long increments as I had time. When reading, I found that the chapters flew by, partially helped by the break up of chapters into sub-chapters. I always find that when you have breaks in long chapters, it makes the chapters seem smaller and more manageable. I don't think I ever went more than five pages without a break in the scene, and that helped to keep things moving. 

King also just keeps the action moving. The characters aren't given much time to just sit and think; things are moving and changing at a rapid pace and readers have to keep reading in order to keep up with the plot. I greatly appreciate that because it meant I was constantly engaged in what was happening. 

I enjoyed Jake as a main character. He reads, writes, and teaches kids to enjoy reading and writing, and I find that brilliant in a character. He definitely becomes an amateur detective of sorts when Al asks him to take over, and I was surprised by how well he handles this new task. Somehow, his literature and language background prepares him perfectly to jump boldly into this "new" world and do exactly what he means to do. Even when the past is throwing every obstacle at him, he manages to scrape by with grace, dignity, and bravery, and it almost seems like he never falls or falters, even though it sounds like he should have. He is pretty much the perfect hero, and that I didn't enjoy. I'm not saying it should have been harder for him because it was plenty hard, but even when it was plenty hard, Jake always knew exactly what to do, and he never had an issue coming up with the perfect plan or perfect way around every obstacle. That was too unrealistic, I found.

I did not like the Sadie aspect of the book. I understand this as the mortal flaw for Jake, and I understand why King had to include her, but I certainly did not like her or her involvement in the book. She just drops in, Jake says, I don't love her, but she's a nice friend, until all of the sudden she's the center of his world and he can't look past her to see the bigger picture. That drives me a little crazy, especially in the center of the story when I felt Jake could have been doing a lot more useful things but was too distracted. However, I do understand and I get that without Sadie, the book would be missing an important aspect. 

I still don't know how to feel about the ending. I get why it ended the way it did. But I don't think I like it. It was disappointing, and yet King manages to make the disappointing ending satisfying, which is nice. It does almost feel like the whole book becomes a waste, though, and I'm not sure what to make of that feeling. 

I'm very interested to see how Hulu turned this into a series. I'd really like to see what they make of it, how they portray the characters and the world, and if anything is changed from the book.

I can't say that I like Stephen King. I appreciate him as an author, fully acknowledging that this man has incredible talent, but his books are not for me. However, this is one I'll gladly keep on my shelf and maybe return to sometime in the future.

The Wife Between Us: Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen (A book becoming a movie in 2019)

This was a very captivating and thrilling read. I remember thinking in the beginning, "how am I supposed to keep this straight? I have no idea which woman is which and who is doing what." Little did I know. I laughed at myself later.

The authors do a marvelous job keeping readers just slightly off base: enough to keep us turning the pages with fury trying to figure out what the heck is going on. Even through to the epilogue, they're dropping one more piece of surprise on us, surprise that I had no clue was coming.

This book was easy to read, difficult to follow (which made it easier to read because I had to keep reading in order to figure out what was happening), and very hard to put down, which is why I finished it in about two hours instead of two days.

I read An Anonymous Girl earlier in the year, and really enjoyed the fast-paced speed. I was excited to read this one, and I enjoyed this one even more. It had the same feel, but I think the characters were more believable. I know I mentioned Thomas in An Anonymous Girl being a "wet-blanket" character, having no real depth, so I appreciated that Richard was a real character with real background, real stories, and real emotions. He was an enjoyable character to read, and the authors do a great job leaving readers uncertain as to how to feel about him.

I can't say enough how much I enjoyed how this book was set-up and paced. I loved that for the first half, I thought there were two women. I loved that I was following two different stories trying to figure out when they would collide, and then realizing that they've been colliding the entire book. I loved going back and learning about Vanessa's history, and I loved keeping up and learning about Vanessa's future. I'm glad things work out for her in the end because I wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel about her for the first 75% of the book. I couldn't tell if I was supposed to believe she was crazy, insane, and vengeful, or if I was supposed to believe that she was a victim and just a little unstable. As her character and motivation grew clearer, it was easy for me to love her as a character, pity her, and sympathize with her, so I was very glad with the ending they gave her.

This was an incredibly enjoyable read, and I cannot wait to see the movie!

Wunderland: Jennifer Cody Epstein (A book recommended by a celebrity you admire)

This book was recommended by Jamie Ford, who wrote Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet which was a book I greatly enjoyed, so I admire his reading recommendations!

Wow. This was a hard one to read. It wasn't hard because of the writing or the language, but because of the content. Epstein did an incredible job making these historical events and people real and present even with the time gap between now and then. She brought history to life with her words which is an incredible feat that many authors can't accomplish.

I enjoyed Epstein's writing style. She was very captivating and easy to follow. She wrote her characters very well and made them true real people during the time I was reading this book. She breathed life into her words and the people of Wunderland were people of my life for the time.

The only thing I didn't understand which led me to not like was her order of writing. Perhaps on a second read through I could focus on the effects of the order of events, and that would lead me to understanding why she spaced it as she did. The jumping back and forth between characters works really well, but she's also jumping back and forth out of chronological order, and those two jumps made it challenging to keep up with the chapter changes. I'm sure, however, that there is a very good reason for doing this; I'd just need to take the time to figure her out more.

I'm also not sure if Epstein wants us to understand and therefore like Ilse more at the end. Renate seems to open her heart again to Ilse, but I simply found her weak for that. Ilse was a monster, a truly horrible woman, and she does nothing to prove otherwise to me. Her letters are full of nonsense excuses, never any true apology, so I can't understand how anyone could appreciate or forgive Ilse in the end (aside from my Christian upbringing and Christ's commands to forgive everyone.).

The last comment I have is that I think we could have used more of Ava's character. She was included, but her inclusion was so disjointed and incomplete that I had a hard time understanding her involvement. I know that we needed her in there for the ending, but I never fully understood why she received so much attention throughout the book. Perhaps it's just to keep proving that Ilse was a horrible mother, but I didn't need to see that to dislike Ilse as much as I did. I think the book could have benefited from either more of Ava's character, to develop her more, or less of her character, to develop the rest of the book more.

Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression: Mildred Armstrong Kalish (An Own-Voices Book)

I started out enjoying this book quite a bit: it was like a grown up version of Little House on the Prairie, which is one of my favorite book series. However, I quickly grew uncomfortable and annoyed with the amount of talking down I feel Kalish did to the reader. I felt much of this book was her talking down to today's society, today's culture, today's youth, and today's people. It was as if she was trying to make us feel guilty for modernization and the life we have now, which isn't fair. I found much of her tone to be snooty, high, and mighty.

Here are some of the phrases she used that led me to these feelings: "Is there any sense in trying to make the modern reader understand..." "I don't know anyone today who knows that..." "I've never met anyone else who can..." and so on. The one I especially did not like was "The current generation will never know the sublime taste of the tomatoes and the strawberries we picked sun-ripened from the vine and ate on the spot." We do have tomatoes and strawberries, and many of us actually do pick them straight off the vine and eat them. I know I have on countless summer days picked a bright red tomato and eaten it right there among the plants. I really struggled to appreciate Kalish's life when the whole time she was telling me that I will never have as fulfilling a life as she did.

It's so hard to compare today's life to that of the life Kalish lived. There are just too many differences that each comparison can't hold up, I think. Sure, we have indoor plumbing (praise God) and electricity, which assuredly make things easier, but they also bring a lot of complications too. For each benefit of today's life, I'm sure there's a negative to follow that, just as with Kalish's life, for each negative, there is a positive.

The other issue I took with this book is that Kalish never brought up hardships she faced due to the Great Depression. Sure, she talked about how cold winters were, but even those cold winters, she had a blast sledding and skating, and she always kept warm. So although the title brings up "Hard Times," those hard times aren't made known to the readers, and I can't help but feel this is because she wants us to feel how much better her life was, and if she brought up the bad, we wouldn't be as jealous.

Maybe I'm being too hard on the author, but I couldn't shake the feeling that Kalish is better than anyone reading this book, and there's nothing we can do about it because we don't have to work hard for the lives we live. That makes me very unappreciative of the stories she shares, and it led me to have a very difficult time enjoying this book.

**Also, I know I'm totally stretching the "own-voices" thing, but I figure, she's writing about a time she lived through and how she made it through the challenges she faced, so oh well.**

Assassin's Creed: Oliver Bowden (A LitRPG Novel)

This was really just terrible. I read it only to fulfill a requirement on my reading challenge, and I will never again return to the likes of this book. It was just bad, honestly.

I'm sure I'm not the best person to judge this book as the content is of absolutely zero interest to me, and so it's hard to look at it with a positive attitude. Maybe I didn't give it enough try, but I just couldn't. 

It's obvious that this is a book written by gamers, for gamers, nothing more, nothing less, and for that I can't fault the author or the book. It appeals to a certain niche which is what books are supposed to do, right? I just found the writing to be pretty low-grade, which makes since for the population it is trying to appeal to. It just makes it very hard for me to enjoy. There are areas where Bowden tries to be "fancy" with his writing: long, detailed, complex sentences that just really aren't necessary. I thought several times throughout that this author was trying too hard to be like Dickens, and this is not the place for that type of writing. Much of the book is descriptions of fighting and chase scenes and other action sequences that make sense for a video game book: lots of training to be a good fighter, climber, runner, etc.

I became quickly annoyed at the amount of "fake suspense" in the first 20 pages, and then, to my dismay, throughout the rest of the book. In two pages alone, there were five accounts of the character leaping off a roof and "almost" not making it across to the next rooftop. And each leap contained a paragraph of the character worrying about misjudging the distance and worrying about the fall. Seriously? Five times in two pages is way to much. I would go so far as to say that one time in two pages is too much. Gag.

It's obvious that the action scenes are meant to be more exciting than the overall plot, which again, makes sense for a video game book, especially one about fighting and killing. It's easy to see how the book fits in a video game: there are quests and the next quest begins when the previous quest is completed, and sometimes there are little side gigs to distract from the main quest, and there are always rewards. I don't know much about gaming, but I know this is pretty usual.

I'm glad some people enjoy this type of book, and I'm glad that it's okay for me not to enjoy it. I never have to read this again (hopefully).

The Rainmaker: John Grisham (Book set on a college or university campus)

I'm kind of stretching it a bit as really, only about the first 30 pages or so are on a college campus, but Rudy has the feel of a student throughout the whole book, so I figure it works fine.

I've come across a lot of Grisham in the past, but I've never actually finished a book of his before this one. I picked this book up somewhere and it's been sitting on my shelf for years, and I decided this was the week to read it. So I plowed my way through...

Part of my problem with Grisham is that he takes so long to get to the point. I get so bored in the beginning and sometimes I can keep going through, knowing that things will get interesting, but with Grisham I just never could get past the beginning. There's a lot of lawyer-talk which might be part of the reason it's slow, but as he writes courtroom thrillers, I can't complain about the lawyer-talk.

This book, specifically, is only thrilling when court is in session, and that takes up less than 50 pages of the book. I spent the rest of the book wondering when we would go back to the courtroom, thus making it a very long read. Grisham did an amazing job in the courtroom, so I can appreciate and understand why his courtroom thrillers are so widely acknowledged as being the best. He writes the scenes very well and keeps writers on their toes throughout the trial, and I was very captivated in those scenes.

He also writes characters very well. I feel about the main character exactly the way I think Grisham wants me to feel about him. He is very pathetic and sad in the beginning. He starts to mature and get his life together, which makes me root for him even harder: I want him to succeed. Somewhere along the way, however, he loses that appeal for me. He lets it go to his head and starts focusing so much on his success that everything else is nothing to him, and that's when I kind of start to hate him. Grisham did a great job leading me through that relationship with Rudy.

What really did not work for me in this book were the different subplots throughout the story, like Miss Birdie and Prince. Those held no meaning, and when they didn't impact the main plot at all, I was very disappointed and annoyed. I still don't understand why they were included. Miss Birdie gave Rudy a place to stay, but there were many different ways Rudy could have found a home without needing to introduce a whole new plot point and a whole new character that just fades away into the rest of the book, being overtaken by the main trial. Grisham could have saved a lot of time by just keeping her and the tale of Prince out of the book. They had no meaning, no appeal, and no point.

I had just convinced myself that I liked the book when I got to the ending. Then all bets were off and I put the finished book in the trash can. Seriously? How many ways can authors write a guy throwing away his life for a girl? It's just not a great story line, and I have no patience for it. Rudy just loves this girl so much, which is not justified to the readers (and I get it, love doesn't have to be justified, but at least try to make me believe it...), and he just takes off with her, because he messed up in a big way, and the trial he thought would give him all the success of the world, doesn't give him as much as he wanted. I was so annoyed when I read those last few pages.

I don't plan on returning to Grisham. Ever. He was slow to get in to, and just when things got interesting, they took a turn for the worst. No thank you.

The Graveyard Book: Neil Gaiman (A ghost story)

This was a fun, quick read. I enjoyed the uniqueness of the plot and the entertaining characters Gaiman "brings to life."

Part of what really kept me reading was that Gaiman holds off on revealing so many important details until the last chapter. I wasn't necessarily bored while reading, but this lack of information really helped propel me through the story. Then, when I got to the last chapter, I was rewarded with all the missing secrets and ended the book feeling fulfilled, to a certain extent.

The climax happens in the last few chapters, making the first 75% of the book build-up, but Gaiman does a very nice job making the build-up entertaining and fun to read. It could have been very dull, but Gaiman brings in unique characters and side-stories to keep the book moving along.

I can definitely see this as being a great book to read aloud to children, but I would personally hold off on doing that until middle school, as a lot of the themes and ideas of the book are dark and unsuitable for children of a younger age. However, I think this would be very fun to read with your junior high kids!

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet: Becky Chambers (A book set in space)

At first, I want to say that this wasn't at all what I expected, but then I have to go back and try to figure out what I did expect, and I guess it was what I expected: a long journey across space. 

I definitely did not enjoy reading this book. I tend to not like science-fiction at all, and this was no exception. My favorite thing about reading is being able to visualize the story and having a movie play along in my head as I read. With this book, it's just not possible. I understand the author not wanting to spend pages on just describing things; that would annoy me too. I just prefer reading about things that are, things that can be, and things that I understand. Countless alien species inter-living with humans, and Earth no longer existing is just too far out of my realm of understanding that I had no way to follow along with visuals. That makes a book very hard to get into, for me. I was very happy when I reached the ending. 

I did enjoy some of the characters-it was a fun and spontaneous group, so their stories and growth together was enjoyable, but it was still hard to understand when the aliens were so far from understanding. Even with the basic backstory and description, I had a very difficult time reading them as other than human, so each time they did something "alien," I was thrown off and taken out of the story. 

I understand that sex sells, but I didn't enjoy that being a sub-plot. With Rosemary and Sissex, it just felt so forced, as if Chambers only included it because she knew that would win over many people. It did not win me. I'm very grateful that there was nothing explicit, however. I just think the story was working fine without it, and because it added nothing of value to the story, it would have been better to leave it out completely.

Perhaps because this is the first in the series, there really is no plot. The whole story feels like description and character/world building, which is fine for a beginning, but I've heard the the next books aren't about the same characters, so I don't understand why there couldn't have been more of a plot. This felt more like a few exciting events mixed in with world-building, which again, made it very difficult for me to enjoy. 

I read this to fulfill my "book that takes place in space" requirement on this challenge, and I suppose it is good to step out of my "comfort" reading zone every-once-in-a-while, but this book was no fun, and I will not be returning to it. 

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared: Jonas Jonasson (A book by an author whose first and last name start with the same letter)

This was a delightful read. I can't remember the last time I read a book that was so light and fun, but also extremely captivating and enjoyable. I could put this book down if I needed to, but I definitely didn't want to.

Allan is such a fantastic character, and he really shows readers how to live life to the fullest. He's so angry about still being around at 100, then to have to go to a birthday party for himself makes matters worse, so he just climbs out his window. Why not? He says early on in the book "When life has gone into overtime it's easy to take liberties," and that struck me. It makes sense, right? When you get older, it's easier to bend the rules a little bit. I watch my wonderful grandmother live this out. She says whatever she wants, does whatever she wants, everybody else be darned. One of the perks of growing old is having less people to answer to, I guess.

But as I read the book and learned of Allan's early life, I realized that for him, it was always easy to take liberties. He never answered to anyone but himself. He never did anything he didn't want to do, and he never let anyone tell him what to do. Even when he was arrested and sent to a labor camp with a thirty year sentence, he spent five years there, working hard and enjoying the free room and food before he got tired of not having anything to drink, and so he left. 

I appreciated the wide array of characters that Jonasson brought to the table. From Stalin to Sonya the elephant, each character added humor and fun to the story.

There were a lot of political sections that I skimmed through because I don't get or care for those, but it's easier to skim through those sections when the main character also has no tolerance for political conversation, which is funny considering how much of his life was dealing with politics. As the narrator says, "politics was not what interested Allan most in the world," so he just doesn't put up with it, and he even goes so far as to change sides midway through a war, and of course, that works out perfectly for him. The politics help show that Allan really is just a spontaneous, easy-going guy who isn't afraid to take liberties, have no plans, and go with the flow. 

I think the thesis of this book is when Allan says this: "You'll see that things will turn out like they do, because that is what usually happens-almost always, in fact." And things just do, from page one to page 384.

This is definitely a book everyone should read, if only for a few laughs and a fun ride through a simple man's life. I quite enjoyed it. 

Crazy Rich Asians: Kevin Kwan (A book that includes a wedding)

Kwan sure knows how to make his readers hate his characters. He does a great job making it obvious which characters are lovable and which ones are detestable from the very first chapters. It's sometimes hard to read books with such horrid characters, but Kwan makes his horrid character fun to read about anyway. 

This was a very lighthearted fun book that was quick and easy to read. The writing is easy to understand and follow, and I appreciated his use of footnotes throughout the book; it helped me more fully understand the culture he was presenting. 

The culture is one which I struggled to visualize, especially when it came to the wedding. The whole wedding celebration was just so far beyond anything I've ever known that to follow the schedule and the descriptions was challenging, but I think I just need to watch the movie to help with that. I am actually very intrigued to see how they make this into a movie. I'm sure the sets are outrageous and beautiful. 

I was also a little bit confused by the multitude of stories that Kwan told in this book. The main story is clearly Rachel and Nick, but then you have the story of Eddie and his dysfunctional family, that never really has a resolution, you have Alistair and Kitty's story that is fully resolved, and you have Astrid and Michael's story which isn't completely resolved. Then at the very end, Kwan also throws in some plot twists for Francesca and her family. Rachel and Nick could use a bit more resolution, but from the way Kwan ended it, they seemed pretty settled. Because of these multiple stories, I'm very intrigued to see what the next books are about; there are a lot of different paths that need ending. 

Overall, I really enjoyed Kwan's writing style and the way he brought this fun story to life. He did a fantastic job with the characters and creating plot using those characters. I do think I have to finish the series because I had fun with this book, and I'd like to see what he does in the next books!

Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen (A reread of a favorite book)

Pride & Prejudice is the answer I give anytime anyone asks me what my favorite book is. It's one of those "never-gets-old" books for me. I've read it more times than I can count, and I never let a year go by without reading it. This is the second time I've read through it this year.

Mom gave me this book to read when I was in middle school. My guess would be sixth grade, but I just can't remember for certain. I'm pretty sure she gave it to me around the time she grounded me from reading Harry Potter for a month and wanted to show me that there are other good books in the world.

The first time I read it, I remember being so confused and overwhelmed by the language, the long, complicated sentences, the weird names, the unusual setting and time period, and so on. I didn't really grasp the story. Mom rented the 5+ movie with Colin Firth for us to watch, and that helped me figure out a little bit better what was going on, but after watching the movie, I had to read the book again. On that second read through, I was a goner.

I don't know what girl would not fall for Mr. Darcy. I can't imagine the type of person who would say, "You know, he's just not for me." Mr. Darcy is for everyone... seriously.

Elizabeth is an easy to relate to character, who's very down to earth even amidst an entire family with their heads in the clouds, How she could have come from such a family never fails to baffle me. She's clever, witty, and fun, and she's not afraid to acknowledge her faults, which is enviable. She is quick to admit her failures or wrong-doings, and she's quick to forgive the wrong-doings of others. She lets criticisms of her go above her head and isn't shaken by the judgments of others. She's happy to be who she is and let others fight to be the best. I think that's pretty cool.

The world of Pride & Prejudice appeals to me on many levels as well. This time, the late 1700s and early 1800s, is such an interesting period. The way society worked, the way men courted ladies, the way families lived, the way neighbors visited, the lavish parties that were held, it's all fascinating and sounds like fun. I want to live in that world.

Specifically Pemberley. I want to live in Pemberley. That's my life goal. Unfortunately, I think I have to settle for continually reading about it in Pride & Prejudice...

Do Penguins Have Knees: David Feldman (A book with a question in the title)

Okay, this was a fun little read! It's just a book full of "imponderables" or questions that many of us have probably thought about but never been able to solve, like "how and why did 7UP get its name?". It's written in plain, easy-to-understand English so that the common man can understand and have his imponderables answered. 

I'll admit that there were some questions I skimmed through as I didn't particularly care for such as "Why do the back wheels of bicycles click when you are coasting or back pedaling" and "Why Was April 15 chosen as the due date for taxes?"

Some questions I thought were pretty obvious like "Why are baseball dugouts built so that they are half below ground?" I always just assumed this was so that the dugouts didn't block the prime behind the dugout seating. Turns out, I was right. And I don't even care about or know about baseball!

This was published in 1991, so some of the questions were outdated, so I skimmed: "Why must we push bothe the 'record' and 'play' switches to record on an audio tape recorder, and only the 'record' on the VCR?"

I was surprised by the amount of questions relating to the postal service, stamps, envelopes, and mailing. Apparently these are subjects people ponder a lot to no avail. Although I've never asked myself what the USPS does with mail it can't deliver or return because of a lack of return addresses, I was interested to read the answer to that question. 

At the end of the list of imponderables, Feldman lists the top 10 "frustables," questions that he and his team haven't been able to answer, like "why do doctors have bad penmanship?". His hope is that readers will see those and use their knowledge to submit the answer for the next Imponderables Book. 

Like I said, this was a fun little read. It was quick, easy, and I could put it down and come back to it at any time. I can't say that I'll visit his other books, but if one comes across my lap, I might flip it open! And in case you were wondering and don't mind the spoiler, yes. Penguins do have knees. 

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (A book that makes you nostalgic)

I can't tell you how old I was when Mom gave me this book to read, but it's been on my bookshelf for as long as I can remember. I even have two copies: one is the battered blue book that has seen far better days, but I can't get rid of because it's been so well-loved by me, and the other copy is a hard cover that I broke down and bought after realizing how beat-up my original copy was.

Reading this book again made me remember the days of innocent youth: summer mornings, reading in the front yard on our hammock swing while everyone else slept, snow days spent curled up on the couch reading, car rides to visit family spent buried in a book. Those were easier times. 

And even though now I'm older, slightly wiser, and a bit more worn down, reading Little Women made me feel like a care-free child. 

I think part of me was always drawn to the idea of four sisters who liked to spend time together. I have three brothers, and we didn't exactly have the same tastes, nor did we get along very well. The idea of four sisters (even a sister was and is such a foreign concept to me) who played together, worked together, planned together, shopped together was amazing to me. 

I was also drawn to the character of Jo, who was and is still my favorite. I envied her independent nature. She wasn't afraid to go out on her own, while for me, shopping by myself is still very intimidating. She did what she wanted, and while the opinions of others mattered very much, she didn't let that stop her from becoming exactly who she wanted to be. And she makes it seem very easy to become an accomplished writer, which I also envy. 

I love this book for all that it makes me think and feel. This isn't much of a review, but I think this is as far as I'll go with reviewing it. It makes me feel, remember, and dream. It makes me laugh and cry. It makes me nostalgic for a time when life was simpler. 

The Only Woman in the Room: Marie Benedict (A book based on a true story)

While I was quickly swept away in the story, my involvement and engrossment quickly dissolved into me simply reading to finish the story. The book was quick to engage and quick to disengage.

My first issue was with the character Hedy. She had no depth, no development, no engaging characteristics. She was a one-dimensional, uninspiring character, which was incredibly disappointing considering Hedy Lamarr's life. Even when Hedy begins developing the plans for the torpedoes, she remains seemingly impassive and unattached to her story. I believe this was due to some weak character sketching of the author. The character didn't seem to care about what was happening in her life, so I didn't either.

While the events in the book were wrought with suspense, the book was not. Marrying a powerful political man at the start of WWII, and then planning an escape after discovering his true character should be thrilling, and that's not including all of the politics involved in Hedy's life. However, I was left disappointed after a quick page summarized the escape attempts. When the escape was successful, there were no details as to how Hedy got to where she was. Readers are expected to guess? Or to not want to understand how Hedy succeeded. It makes a very real story sound very unreal, which leads to a very boring story.

The book feels to be in chunks: before marriage, marriage, crumbling of marriage, success in Hollywood, torpedoes. Each chunk seems like a separate book, and the only thing connecting each one is a page or two, which isn't enough to carry readers through the story of Hedy's life.

I'm sure trying to write a book about a real person who had real-world impact while keeping the book under the "Fiction" category is incredibly hard and time-consuming. An author can't make too much up about the character because she existed in the real-world. This is where artistic license comes in. I think much more could have been done to make Hedy's story more enjoyable, educational, and exciting had the author attemped to delve more into the person of Hedy.

As I read, I was keeping in mind this challenge, trying to figure out what prompt I could put it under. When I finished, I read through the acknowledgements where the first sentence is "The opportunity to share the incredible legacy of Hedy Lamarr, both historic and modern..." This led to me Googling Hedy Lamarr and discovering that she was indeed a real person! Color me surprised! I had never heard of her before. The most disappointing part of this book was that I learned more about Hedy through her Wikipedia page than I did in the book. However, I was glad to learn that this book was based on a true story, so that I could count it towards my reading resolution!