Book Review -- The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

My enjoyment rating: 3 of 5 stars

Source:  Personal copy

Genre:  YA Fiction

For the sensitive reader:  premarital sex; some language (I think?)

Hazel and Augustus -- both with cancer, both in love, both trying to live longer than expected.

This was a smart, brave, emotional journey of two teenagers who are fighting for one more day with each other.

It was a tender love story -- with very adult situations and results.

Only complaint: their obsession with a reclusive author, whom they track down in Sweden. He is a drunk and dysfunctional. For me, it was awkward and unsatisfying.

The last few pages of the book include one of the best "love letters" ever. Cue tissues.

 

*(It's been several weeks since I finished this book -- and a vacation too -- hence the brevity -- my brain only retains so much).

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Occupational Hazard

It's happened.

 

The dreaded occupational hazard that lurks around every page and at the end of any unsuspecting book.

 

It can't be predicted. 

 

It's not the same for everyone.

 

But every book blogger will experience it at some point in their blogging life.

A Reading Rut.

I can't seem to get past 12 pages of any book I pick up.  The more I read...the fewer pages I finish.

 

My eyes glaze over at my Nook or a paperback.

 

Even the books I've been dying to read for months are tossed aside like empty candy wrappers.

 

Maybe it was the election.  Maybe it was football season.  Maybe it's the impending holidays.

 

I can't identify the cause...but I do know that this is not the first time I've experienced a rut...nor will it be the last.  But I do know, I will crawl out of the literary hole I am in, and will be refreshed by the time away from pages and words.

 

In the mean time...I hope your reading flourishes, while I am trying to find my mojo.

 

Check back in after Thanksgiving.  We are taking a road trip to Disney World...surely 16 hrs trapped in the car with my kids will force me to take refuge in a book.   Because that's not just reading...that's survival.

Book Review -- The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

My enjoyment rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book source:  Library

Genre: Juvenile/YA fiction (won the Newbery Award (juv), but cataloged at our library in the YA section)

Sensitive reader:  the opening scene (a murder) could be difficult for young readers -- but it's something I would let Daisy Daughter (11 yrs old) read.

 

What do you get when you combine a horrific murder, an orphaned baby, and an ancient graveyard: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman -- the perfect book to read for Halloween -- ghosts, witches, ghouls, spells, caskets, crypts – and an unlikely survivor, Bod Owens.

I really enjoyed this book. Just the right amount of spooky without being terrifying. Just the right amount of sinister without being evil (except for the murder part). A group of ghosts that were amazingly creative, unique and loving – like the people they once were. The author does a great job creating an atmosphere of Dickens’ England, but set in modern day.

I think my only quibble with the book (OK 2 quibbles) is: the reason Bod survives his family’s massacre and why he has been targeted by the “Order of Jacks” is fuzzy at best. The author failed to make the correlation the least bit clear. And anytime you include an orphaned boy, the boy’s mentor, a female friend, a pit with a snake – one is immediately reminded of ANOTHER book with an orphaned boy, a boy’s mentor, a female friend, and a pit with a snake. Surely a talent like Neil Gaiman could have come up with something else. Come on. Give it a try.

That said, I still really liked the book. A good choice from my friend Liz.

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