Book Review: Everything is Illuminated

The only reason I read this book is because it was in a double book with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  The book is about a man who travels to The Ukraine to find the women who protected his Jewish Grandfather from the Nazi's.  He travels with two men from a travel agency to translate for him. 

It was pretty comical to watch the two cultures interact.  The American (who shares the same name as the author) Jonathan is on a quest to be "Illuminated"  But it's surprising who actually reaches it. 

It's an interesting book. It shows how differently people view the world, or certain situations.  Some people are nitty gritty, and see it how it is.  And there are others who choose to overlook the bad things, and believe that people are being rude when they pull all the skeletons out of the closet.  At least one person learns a lot about the world and how to balance the two.

There are also some very funny parts in this book.  Funny enough, that I burst out laughing, and then tried to read it to Houston.  I don't know if he even got what I said, because I was laughing so hard while I read it.

Book Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

The book I have doesn't look like this but it has another book from the same author within it, and I wanted to make a review for each book separately.  I would love a copy of this book with this cover though.  Quite nice.  I hate buying books with movie covers on them.  I will will only do it if I have no other option. 

This is another book club book.  I went into this one thinking... "should I?"  Then I'm always pleasantly surprised.  I have reached a point where I can actually buy books of authors, I didn't know before, without being totally worried about if it will be good or not.

This may sound weird but I have this inner affection for anything that has to do with September 11th.  I know I'm not the only one that remembers exactly where they were when they found out about it.

This book is a fictional story about a boy named Oskar who is grieving after the loss of his father who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11.   He finds a mysterious key in his father's closet and believes it opens something his father wanted him to find.  The book is written primarily from his point of view as a 9 year old.  It's a very cool way to read, because it really feels like a 9 year old boy is writing it.

This is not exactly a happy book.  It's heart breaking to watch this boy struggle to gain closer.  He is atheist, which breaks my heart even more.  He is trying to find a scientific reason to why his father died and how he died.  The one happy thing about the book is that in the process of trying shut himself off from the world in his quest to find answers, he actually opens himself up to many.  Manly and lastly his mother.   It's one of those books that I felt like you don't completely understand and needs to be discussed with others.  I'm glad it will be apart of a book club to see what others thought of it.

It's a beautiful book.  Very worth reading.  It's a fictional account of a few people effected by something that has effected all of us, personally or impersonally.   It makes me cry even thinking about all those people who died.  But as a person who does believe in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, I can know that all those people are okay.  They weren't left alone during their last moments.  What a comforting feeling.  I wish that Oskar could've had that.

Anyway, great book.  Give it a read sometime.  :)  And no, I haven't seen the movie of it.

P.S.  I bought the book with this cover.  I'm a bit peeved I didn't see it the first time.  That's okay, I will have it shortly.  

Book Review: I Am Legend

Okay, here is one of the books I've had for a long time, read part of, and stopped for one reason or another.   Don't ask me why because it was really a good book. 

P.S. If you saw the movie I am Legend, that makes no difference here.  The movie was VERY loosely base on the novel.  When I say loosely, I mean like only slightly similar.  This is how much,  there is a guy in a boarded up house that has to protect himself from human like creatures that come in the night.  Note, the "Human like creatures" are not the same from book to movie either.

The novel is about a man named Robert Neville who just so happens to be the last man on earth.  That's if you don't count all the vampire like humans that come to his house every night just trying to get lucky and drink his blood.  He doesn't really ever become used to being alone.  In an effort to not just give on the run outside at night, he sound proofs his already boarded up house, to keep from hearing them taunt him.  But he's still lonely.  Then there is the dog.  The only other "normal" living creature out there.  He makes it his mission to befriend the dog.  It takes a very long time and within a week of the dog trusting him  Sorry Spoiler Alert!  The dog dies.  He then makes it his mission to discover what it is that's plaguing the people who come in the night.   That becomes his whole life for another long stretch, until he sees a woman walking in a field in the middle of the day.  It's been about three years that he's had to live alone with no other human contact.  In his excitement he runs across the field towards her yelling.  She panics and runs away from him.  What happens after he catches her..? 

You'll just have to read it!  :P 

I liked the book.  It puts a new spin on vampires.  It tries to explain why they fear what they fear, and why they can't come out in sunlight, all that stuff.  And come on, you have to feel for the guy!  He's all by himself, trying to hold on, even though it would be quite easy to just end it all.  The title always confused me too.  I always thought it was supposed to be his name.  It's not.  You really have to read the book to understand, then it makes complete sense. 

Also, this book has a bunch of other short stories by the author.  It was fun to read those too.  Some were kinda dumb, but for the most part they were all quite scary.  Especially one called Prey.  I was literally freaking out while reading it.  If you don't like the thought of killer dolls, stay away from that one.  Oh man, my mind was imagining everything that was happening.  Richard Matheson is VERY good at scaring you with only a few subtly descriptive words.

Worth a read, for sure!  I will definitely be looking for others books by him. 

Empowerment!

As most of you already know, my oldest sister has left that stupid waste of air of a husband that she has been with for 20 years.  Just to give you a little insight into what kind of person he is, he is dragging back into court to try to have the divorce decree changed as well as suing her for slander.  REALLY!?  Note: The divorce has been final for months, and last time I checked, he was the one who put his name on the dotted line saying he was okay with it the first time around. 

I had some songs posted on my page perfect for this, but my songs never stay the same so, the songs I HAD posted for this were Katy Perry's song, Part of Me.  And Kelly Clarkson's song, Stronger.  Go take a listen. They explain themselves. :)  She is such a strong person and I want her to continue to strive to become what she has always wanted.  All this garbage with him is only going to make her stronger and a better person, because I know, for a fact that she has seen how horrible people can be.  She has gotten discouraged about all this not going away.  I knew he would continue to try to make her life miserable any way he can. He spent their entire marriage telling her that she wouldn't survive without him and that she was too weak.  He has lost control of the one thing he thought he would always be able to get to do what he wanted.  Was he sorely mistaken... Yes!!!   I told her that she has an army in her corner because she does.  She is such a forgiving person, but now she has reached her limit.  She will go on to do great things and get the life she always wanted.  

Music is such a good way to explain emotion.  So empowering!  These songs are for her and any of you if  you think you need a little empowerment too.

Enjoy!

Book Review: The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril

This is a book that Houston's had since before I knew him.  He bought the book on a whim because he liked the cover art and thought the title was pretty awesome.  When I finished reading Water for Elephants he asked when I was going to read this one.  I'm waiting for another book to show up to read for a book club so I looked at the number of pages and decided that I had enough time to read this one while I waited. 

This book was really hard to get into at first.  The author tells the story of quite a few different people and the chapters bounce around between all of them.  It took a lot of effort to remember who you were reading about.  It didn't help that the chapters are pretty short so it's like reading a book that has it's own personal ADHD problem. 

I was a few chapters in when one of the characters was introduced, that I knew!  It's a real author, by the name of H.P. Lovecraft.  Come to find out, the whole book is a fictional story written about real authors.  The book takes place back in the early 1900's in New York.  All of the authors talked about in the book wrote what were called "pulps"  It's like a comic but with no pictures.  One of the authors is Walter Gibson who wrote a pulp called The Shadow.  I was telling my dad about the book and he got a little funny smile when I mentioned The Shadow.  After the pulp was created they made it into a radio show.  My dad and his brothers used to listen to it.  It would scare them so bad that they wouldn't want to go out and do their chores afterwards. LOL! 


Okay now the books redemption.  It's a story about all these authors writing their own stories and trying to find new ones.  In a crazy turn of events they all end up in the same place wondering about the same crazy set of coincidences.  All revolving around Chinatown, barrels of nerve gas hidden away by the military, a crazy Chinese guy seeking revenge for the loss of his family, and a, thought to be dead author who comes back for a brief moment to send a secret clue to the nerve gas discovered.  Wow, that was a mouth full.  It's SO suspenseful!  The book even has some horror elements that I totally am into. 

I would say that if you wanted to give this book a shot, that you should go into it knowing that you will pretty much have to remember everyone that was discussed separately in the beginning.  It will make so much less confusing when they all start coming together in the end. 

This book definitely redeemed itself in the end.  I was worried it was going to be the flop while I was in the first third of the book.  Thankfully my streak of good books still stands for this year.

To that continuing on,   !!!HURRAY!!!

Book Review: Water For Elephants

My niece Shelby bought this book when they were down right after Christmas.  I didn't even think about reading it until she said that she had heard it was a fabulous book.  So.... I bought it, and read it. :P

The book is about a man named Jacob Jankowski.  His life turns upside down when his parents die suddenly.  In the wake of his anger he leaves school right before he is about to get his veterinarian degree, just starts walking, jumps a train, and comes to find out he is hitching a ride with Benzini Brother Most Spectacular Show on Earth.  He becomes the shows resident Vet.  There he meet Marlena, the wife of the animal director. She performs with the horses and later an elephant names Rosie.  There grows a bond between Jacob, Marlena, and Rosie that could lead to certain disaster, but they all feel that it might just be worth the risk. 

I was unsure about this book at first.  It always felt like it could go very badly for all the people your cheering for.  I felt like there was no light at the end of the tunnel.  That's the joy of reading though, the farther you get the more everything falls into place and ends up the way it should.  I enjoyed it a lot. It's an easy read and not very long.  Just under 350 pages. 

I've been very lucky in the books I've read this year.  None of them have been bad, and I've never felt like I was trudging through them.  My library of books is getting bigger and bigger.  Lol!  We will definitely have to invest in, at least, a book case when we move into our own place.  Our little living space has books stacked up everywhere. 

Book Review: Let The Right One In

I heard about the, Swedish made, movie adaptation of this book from a friend.  I didn't know until later that it was a book.  I've known for awhile, but never got around to getting a copy.  I thought about it a few weeks ago and figured I better get it before I forgot again.  The book was originally in Swedish and lucky us, they translated it into English. 

This is a book for those of you who like vampire lore.  It doesn't follow all the legends about vampires but for the most part it does.  It's the story of a boy name Oskar, who is bullied at school and it just awkward all around.  His dream would be to rid the world of all those evil people who make his life horrible.  So much so that he acts out his plans on innocent tree trunks.  LOL!  During one of these moments he notices that someone is watching him.  He turns to see a young girl about his age.  There is something strange about her and he doesn't really know what it is.  She moved into the same building as him with a man, who Oskar assumes is her father. Oskar and Eli (the girl) slowly become friends, only meeting after dark.  In the midst of this, there are a bunch of strange murders that occur.  Oskar doesn't connect any of them to Eli or the man she is living with.  Things begin to happen while they are together and Oskar starts to connect the dots, to discover what she really is.  He is torn.  He is afraid of her, but he likes her too...  She helps him to gain courage to stand up to the people who are bullying him and he learns more about her than he really wanted to know. 

I liked the book.  It has to do with vampires and murderers, and even a zombie, so it's pretty graphic.  It's also very touching to watch the friendship grow between an awkward boy and an equally outcast girl.