BOOK-A-HOLICS discussion

I finished reading
1. Blue Heaven by C.J. Box
2. An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear
3. Wild Inferno by Sandi Ault

I enjoyed them all.

You can see my reviews at
http//bloodstainedbookreviews.blogspot.com

I finished reading

1. Earth Abides - G. Stewart
2. Icebound - L. Guttridge
3. Alas, Babylon - P.Frank

All good reads

Elie Wiesel's Night holocaust memoir
Solzhenitzen's One Day in th Life of Ivan Denisovich short novel about stalin era concentration camp
Chekov's Cherry Orchard russian change from aristocratic to modern era
and Irene Gut Opdyke's In my Hands holocaust memoir

so man's inhumanity to man has been my major theme with the cherry orchard being the "light" read

all very good books and gut and wiesel's almost as artistically valid as Chekov and Solzhenitzen with the added impact of being survivor stories

I just finished Dragonspell by Donita K. Paul. I like fantasy, but this was religious fantasy and it just didn't work for me.

Adams v Jefferson
great book about who the Founding Fathers really were and about their political philosophies which are still relevant today

listening to TREE OF SMOKE about Vietnam and all that saga involved - won many awards and I can see why after listeniong to 1/2 of it

long but really puts you there and gets you to wonder how what happened then wasn't on anybody's mind when the Iraq War fever was building

Just finished The Other Boleyn Girl - fantastic read, completely captivating.

the human stain by philip roth
very mixed feelings about this one
how do you feel about your mortality?
if you are of a certain age..it's entertaining and good in some ways
ultimately deep
not so much

In the past week I've finished The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory and New Moon by Stephenie Meyer.

I found The Queen's Fool interesting because it showed one of my favorite time periods from a new set of eyes. I'm mildly obsessed with the Tudors, so I stayed with this lengthy read despite it not being exactly what I was expecting. The end was a tiny bit cheesy, but I'm not sure there was really any place left to go. I imagine that if this were read in school, they would tear it apart nine million different ways to break down how the narrator, Hannah, changes through the story, but I was more interested in the other characters (is that bad??)

As for New Moon, I felt I had to read it because of the first tidbit printed in the first book, Twilight, which totally hooked me. Sadly, I was kind of disappointed. As with Twilight, it took me nearly 200 pages to start to care about what was going on and sit up a little to pay attention. Maybe because I'm not a "young adult" and maybe I'm more a fan of vampires so that may be why this one let me down a bit (I don't want to give too much away.)

I finished Oh My Goth on saturday. I started it on saturday. It was so refreshing to read an entire book in a day. I havn't done that in a while. I am currently reading The Black Tattoo. It is pretty good so far. It is just getting to the really interesting part, and you don't know what has happened to the main character.

the last thing I read was The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray--the third book in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy. The series is REALLY good, btw. Right now I am reading The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud, the second book in the Bartimaeus Trilogy.

Happy Hour of the Damned by Mark Henry. It wasn't very good. Possibly because I really don't like zombies (I picked it up because the blurb made it sound interesting), possibly because the women were all. . . stupid, irritating, shallow, ignorant, & all around badly written. There were a few good one-liners, but it wasn't really worth my time. . . .

Masquerade by Melissa De La Cruz.

I just finished Dangerous Tides by Christine Feehan. I enjoy a quick, suspenseful, sexy romance once in a while.

I also just finished "Night" by Elie Wiesel.

I've been re-reading the same series recently. I've gotten hooked on Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse, so I just finished Eclipse and New Moon and am almost done with Twilight, again. I didn't plan on reading the series backwards, but I wanted to read Eclipse, badly, so I did. Then I felt I should read New Moon again, and since I had read the other two I decided to re-read Twilight again.

I finished reading "The Book Thief" today.

Just finished Into the Wild today. Amaaaaaazing!

I finished reading Maximum Ride-The Angel Experiment by James Patterson. It was an enjoyable read. I went looking for the second book today. BN was out, so after yoga I went to the second hand bookstore. I walked in and asked for the book to find out they didn't have it either, but the funny part is the lady that walked in right after me was looking for it too.

By the way, this book is no longer classified just a YA book, but you will also find it in the adult section, too, at least in BN.

I finished reading "Clay's quilt" by Silas House today. It took me forever to read because my young son has been very sick and my reading has been all but forgotten lately.

Norwegian Wood
by Haruki Murakami

I just finished this book and now I know why everyone in Japan has read this book. I enjoyed it very much, a little to much romance for my taste but it was tastful.
Wes

I just finished a quickie. I read Out to Pasture by Effie Leland Wilder. She wrote it at the age of 85. I found it a lovely, easy read.

Today I finished reading "Three Weeks With My Brother" by Nicholas and Micah Sparks. It was a wonderful memoir.

I've been on a church history kick of late. I just got done reading The Story of Christianity: From the Early Church till the Dawn of the Reformation by Justo Gonzalez. Gonzalez depiction of the church up till the beginning of the fifth century was very good and easy to read. Once he got into the Middle Ages, however, he began to concentrate more on the development of ideas, often following the development of those ideas throughout the whole of the Middle Ages. This made the reading more uneven and fragmented than it would have been if he would have crafted the story chronologically.

Another problem I found with Gonzalez' rendering is that he exhibits a very strong Protestant bias towards Papal history as well as the Catholic church in general. The Popes are described in the most negative fashion possible and Gonzalez does not attempt to mitigate any of their actions with cultural and political observations. I found that to be very unbecoming of a Harvard trained Professor of Historical Theology.

While, overall, I enjoyed the book, I certainly would not recommend it to someone as a first survey of the history of the Christian church.

yesterday i finished The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud

Finished "Nothing to Lose" by Lee Child this morning, not one of his best, which I am loathe to say because his books are the best, still a good story, just not as page turny as his other books. Still can't wait until the next one though!

TREE OF SMOKE BY Denis Johnson
great book about Vietnam and what was going on here/there
SUPERMAN V HOLLYWOOD
fast book about how Hollywood works by focusing on the Superman franchise and how/why its various movies/tv series were made

hey steph
review those would you-let us know how they were
i haven't read any but have wanted to read phantom and garp for quite some time

I finished reading "Starwater Strains," a collection of science fiction short stories written by Gene Wolfe. My favorite stories were "From The Cradle," "Pulp Cover," "Mute," "Castaway," "Empires Of Foliage And Flower," and "The Arimaspian Legacy."

i just finished My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. (I HATED THE ENDING! IT WAS SO LAME)

I finished A Man Rides Through by Stephen R. Donaldson the other day. It took me over a month to finish it but I've been busy. I gave birth in March so reading was the last thing on my mind.

I love the Golem's eye! Also Night!

i just finished The Specials

Oh, I loved the ending to My Sister's Keeper, Brigid....ok, loved isn't the word. I wish it didn't end like it did. But life doesn't go like we hope or planned and I think this is what the ending shows. I loved her books and wouldn't change a thing. A twist to shock you makes you pay attention! And I love a book (or movie) that you might think its ending.....but then something happens and shocks you.....and ends where you least expect it.

sure the end was "shocking", but it just seemed to me like the author couldn't think of another way to end it. the whole twist was just so random, the book didn't seem realistic to me anymore. it all happened within the last five pages of the book. i mean, i read the whole thing thinking, "wow. this story is so original." but the whole death-by-car-crash is SO overused, and it really changed my entire perspective of the book. if it had a more original and meaningful ending, i would have liked it so much more.

I just finished "Harvesting the Heart" by Jodi Picoult a couple of minutes ago.

i finished the first Warriors book: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter today.

I finished Sitting Practice yesterday. This was a very well written, and touching story of a young cople whose lives are changed by on accident which leaves the woman a paraplegic. Told with wry humor it is a great story of adaptation.

I just finished reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. It was interesting.

I just finished Kathy Reichs' Deja Dead. It was ok, but not as good as Bare Bones.

I just finished The Heroines by Eileen Favorite. I loved it.

Just finished reading The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

by the river piedra i sat down and wept - paulo coelho

FREAKONOMICS - INTERESTING AND FAST READ
LOT OF INSIGHTS INTO CURRENT PROBLEMS AND HOW A DIFFERENT THINKING ECONOMIST COMES UP WITH UNUSUAL OUT OF THE MAINSTREAM ANSWERS AND THAT MAKE A LOT OF SENSE.

NO THEORY, MATH INVOLVED TO ANY EXTENT

JUST LOOKS HOW ECONOMISTS THINK ABOUT THINGS AND HOW OFTEN THEY ARE WRONG

Just finished reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. I had read Under the Banner of Heaven years ago and really liked Krakauer's research, writing style and point of view. I found the book and McCandless absolutely fascinating. He was a passionate kid with so many admirable traits. I think he will be with me for some time to come.

Agreed. That was one of the most haunting books I've read, Jen.

I just finished Safe Harbor by Christine Feehan, a fun, quick read.

I just finished, In Secret Service by Martin Silver, about an hour ago. It was not the best book I've read. It's a little hard to explain how I feel about it. It's about a factual Flemings manuscript that someone inherits. The manuscript part was very well written and enjoyable, but the protagonist was a woman and I hated her, even if she was the "good guy". She was just so damn silly. I guess one could say, the author, doesn't write woman well.

The premise of the story was good however, if you can put up with the good guys.

Several minutes ago I finished Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye, the first book of the Erec Rex series.

I just finished The Time Machine and The Invisible Man (both stories were in 1 book) by H.G. Wells. Also, recently finished Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. Both books were great!
-Kelly

Last book I finished was Sunday at Tiffany's which was good once I relaxed into the story. Two previous books before that were On Chesil Beach, which was good, and For One More Day which was sooooooooo good.

the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. i liked it; it was funny :D