Boom! by Mark Haddon

Children's

Jim and Charlie are spying on their teachers when they hear two of them start speaking in a strange language. Trying to get to the bottom of what those teachers are talking about, suspicious events happen. The boys set out on an adventure to try and figure it out.

There isn't a Haddon book I've met that I haven't liked. Until now. I enjoyed some of the moments between Jim and his dad, who is unemployed and trying to figure out how to contribute to the family when he's given a beginner's cook book. There were also some good moments between Jim and his sister. The rest fell flat for me.

Jim's sister is dating a weird guy (Craterface) who seems abnormally violent. Looking back on this character, he seemed to serve no purpose other than the use of his motorcycle. Surely there's an easier way to get a motorcycle than inventing a character?

The last quarter of the book was probably the worst part, with many threads unexplored and not making much sense. While I think a young boy would really enjoy this book, I'm not sure anyone else would find it entertaining.

First Line: "I was on the balcony eating a sandwich."

Rating:
(2/5)

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Children's

When Ella was a baby, she was "gifted" with obedience. When someone gives Ella an order, she must obey it. As a teenager, this becomes a big problem as people boss her around and make her do things that suit them rather than her. Ella looks to find the person that gave her this curse and see if she can get it reversed.

This is a different take on the Cinderella fairy tale, though you really only get in to the Cinderella part at the very end of the book. The first part of the book was imaginative and fun but swinging in to the Cinderella story line at the end of the book seemed like a bit of a cop out to me.

However, since this book is for kids, I don't think kids would care when they read this. It's still a fun story about a girl who overcomes her curse and everything ends happily ever after!

First Line: "That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara

Fiction

When Lui meets Ama, she becomes obsessed with his forked tongue. She is already part of the piercing world, increasing the width of the holes in her ears and now wants this forked tongue as well. Ama takes her to a parlour that helps her start her forked tongue journey. The parlour also does tattoos, and Lui wonders what she should ink her body with. She gets increasingly deep in to this world, experiencing both the good and the bad.

This is a very short book and while I was interested in the world of piercings and tattoos, the meat of the book was packed in to the last 5 pages and not fully explored. This made for a rather disappointing read and a lot of questions.

I'm not fantastic with grammar but Kanehara's seemingly excessive use of commas really started to piss me off. Almost every single sentence had a couple of commas.

That said, I did go look up what a "Barbie girl" was because I previously had no idea and characters called Lui this a couple of times.

First Line: "Know what a forked tongue is?"

Rating:
(2/5)

So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson

Non-Fiction/Memoir?

Sara Nelson is a compulsive reader. She has thousands of books at home and can tell you exactly what she has and where it is. She didn't always used to be this way but having a mom and sister who are either published or poets, they nudged her in to obsessive reader territory. In 2002, Sara decides to read a book a week and chronicle her journey. Sara sees connections between what she's reading and what's going on her life, as well as the book choices she makes.

Like Sara, I've married a non-reader which can be frustrating at times. When you really want to share a book you've read and your spouse looks at you like you're crazy, I know that feeling all too well. There were anecdotes that Sara described I'm sure any reader could relate to and this was the one for me.

Despite the few items I could relate to, I otherwise felt like this book was completely unnecessary. A book about books, why? Getting to know Sara and her background, one could be inclined to believe that the only reason she wrote this book was to try and catch up to her sister and mother in their literary pursuits.

The other thing that bothered me about this book, was how much of a book snob Sara was, and not in the usual manner of what you would get from a book snob. Sara doesn't read many classics but one thing she almost refuses to read is anything that's popular. Some books are popular for a good reason though, why miss out on those? Instead, you should think about missing out on this one.

First Line: "Call me Insomniac."

Rating:
(2/5)

Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekback

Historical Fiction/Mystery

Maija, husband Paavo, and their two daughters trade homes with a relative and move to the Swedish Lapland in 1717. Paavo is a fisherman but has become afraid of the water, making this a good chance for the family to start new. As they move to the mountains, the two daughters come across a dead body. Maija finds other settlers to come examine the body and learns of the dynamics on the mountain. There are a few other families, a priest in the valley, a nobleman and his wife, and the local Lapps. Maija has to wade through old relationships and dredge up past history to determine who has murdered this man. The information does not come easy. When the ghost of this man starts visiting Frederika and she can hear the mountains, the family must quickly find out what happened before anyone else gets hurt.

The majority of this book takes place over the winter and the cold hung over this book giving it an incredibly dreary feeling. Getting through the book, at times, was almost like trying to wade through waist-high snow like the characters. In addition to the winter was the dark. There is no sunlight over the winter in this part of the world and despite all the descriptions for this and the eeriness the book had, I still had troubles picturing this forever night. Despite this, the atmosphere as a whole was incredibly well written.

Reading this book made me feel like I was back watching the TV show Lost. They both keep throwing twists and turns at you and there are varying degrees of supernatural elements at work, but you either never get a full resolution or the questions never get answered. In addition, virtually no hints were dropped about who was responsible. It made for a rather frustrating read, despite being a page turner near the end. I wanted the author to give me some resolution but hardly anything was solved until the last few pages which made things feel unfinished. Some things were never fully explained to my satisfaction either. Like what Frederika did about the wolves and why the letters were kept from Maija.

First Line: "'But how far is it?'"

Rating:
(3.5/5)

American Assassin by Vince Flynn

Thriller

This is the first book in Flynn's Mitch Rapp series. Rapp is scouted by a clandestine branch of the USA government. Despite being the young age of 23, they suspect that Rapp will be a talented assassin. Rapp has history too. His girlfriend died in an air disaster, taken down by terrorists and Rapp wants nothing more than revenge. Rapp is brought to the training grounds with stick-in-the-mud Stan Hurley, who was also once the best in his time. They need to train up Rapp for a mission to bring home CIA agents that have been kidnapped in Beirut.

The majority of the book focuses on the training of Rapp and, sadly, only the last little bit was actually on a mission, which was the most interesting part. The action and suspense of the team's time in Beirut was great and poises the rest of the series for many interesting reads. Funnily enough, even though there was so much background for the book, I still feel like I never really got to understand what makes Rapp tick. I know he carries a big grudge, that he's very athletic and used to play lacrosse but aside from that, I don't know much more. Hopefully we learn more in the next of the series.

First Line: "Mitch Rapp stared at his reflection in the dusty, cracked mirror and questioned his sanity."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Historical Fiction

The Sarajevo Haggadah is a beautiful fifteenth century illuminated Hebrew manuscript that has miraculously survived many conflicts. This time it was saved from the Bosnian War when Hanna Heath is called on to look at and restore the book as a expert but also a neutral party. Hailing from Australia, Hanna flies to Sarajevo to examine this masterpiece. She finds a small insect wing, a wine stain, salt crystals, and a hair. Trying to get as much information as she can out of the book and it's history, the reader is privy to the real story as we learn how each item came to be in the book and how the book came to be itself.

With such an interesting premise for a book, I was very eager at the beginning and really wanted to know how this book came to be and the lives it touched along the way. As the first couple of stories got underway, I was a bit sad for Hanna that she would never know what I know and yet felt like I was privileged to be part of the secret.

Yet as the book continued, my reading of it got slower and I couldn't really put my finger on it. When I got to the end, I realized I didn't really care and it was because of Hanna and her mother. Brooks introduces a toxic relationship between Hanna and her mother. Mom is a doctor who will accept nothing less than Hanna also being in the medical field and lets her know it any time they see each other. The thing is, this added absolutely nothing to the story. Instead, it made me dislike both Hanna and her mom and not care much what happened to them. In addition, Hanna's love interest is also a bit of a snore.

It's a shame that the execution of this book didn't live up to the idea of it.

First Line: "I might as well say, right from the jump; it wasn't my usual kind of job."

Rating:
(3.5/5)