Another Book Update

It's time for another book review! Yes, it looks like I'm doing one of these a month...but that's just how much free time I have :) Also, we have to read a book every three weeks for book club - so that keeps me going, too! :) Here they are, in no particular order:

The Wheel of Time: Book 1. LOVED IT. Talk about a cool book! This was given to me as a birthday present from my dear friend, Sharill :) It is a fantasy series that is a-w-e-s-o-m-e. I highly recommend it. It is fast paced, the characters are unique and interesting, and the plot is very intriguing. Not stupid, at all. I definitely will be reading the rest of the series!

The Red Scarf. This was given to me by my Grandma. I think it was one of her book club books! Good, but sad. It is about a convict girl in communist Russia. It gives an insiders view on the world of Communism (pssssyyycchhooo!!!) and is all about how she is trying to rescue her other friend that is stuck on the chain gang! The story is very realistic and really makes you wonder...there is a little bit of gypsy-mysticism in the end, though. That kind of makes the story less believable, but it is still really interesting. Some parts of it are VERY heart breaking and it even has a CRAZY twist at the end!

Gentlemen and Players - WOAH! So CRAZY! :) It is by the same author who wrote Chocolat (the movie with Johnny Depp *love sigh*) and Five Quarters of an Orange (also a very good book, refer to previous book reviews). It is kind of hard to follow at the beginning and it took me about 50 pages before I really understood what was going on. It alternates between the King piece (a professor at the school) and a pawn (mystery character to be revealed at the end of the book). It is about the pawn trying to destroy this private school from the inside out. Very crazy murder mystery book :) Loved it.

The Hiding Place. Book Club Book. Portions of this book are used A LOT in general conference, actually. After reading it I was like, "oh yeah....this is THAT lady??" Crazy! True story of a woman in Holland during World War II running a Jewish Underground. It is REALLY sad, but she is so positive and has so much faith that it is actually a pretty uplifting book. She always refers to everything in a religious sense, which is refreshing for World War II! Sad...but uplifting...

Atonement - yes, the movie one. Boo. Two thumbs down for this book. I didn't like it. It was really depressing and nothing gets resolved in the end. I suppose this is more "realistic" and "lifelike" than other novels, but I don't want to read a book for life like situations! Life is depressing enough! I want to read a book where good prevails and evil is punished. This book was pretty depressing. The writing style was interesting, since it is written from a critical first person, but overall...kind of a downer.

Hanna's Daughters. VERY interesting. It goes through three generations of women and really helps you appreciate your grandmother! It talks about how it is your grandmother that created your mother and your mother that created you. We are all part of our grandmother, mother, and great-grandmothers. It is a little confusing with the character names: Johanna, Hannah, and Anna, but it works it out in the end :) There were parts of this that were kind of a downer, but overall, pretty entertaining and fast paced.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J.K. Rowling. Very cute. Very quick. Very easy. It is only, like, 100 pages so you can read it in an hour or so (or if you're like me....20 minutes) but anyway - very cute! It is kind of "fairy tales" for the wizard world. Each story has a moral and it is just how I like it: good prevails, evil is punished. Very cute. Dumbledor has little tidbits of his point of view at the end of every chapter - I found these to be pretty redundant and often skimmed over them. He only states the obvious...but if you are unsure of what the moral of each story is...then maybe you should read his notes :)

Beethoven's Hair. My non-fiction for the month. A piece of Beethoven's hair is snipped on his death bed and it travels through different centuries and countries until it is on auction by Sotheby's. The Beethoven chapters are REALLY interesting - all about his personal life, his friends, and what the general population really thought about him. The modern chapters are a little less interesting. They are trying to test his hair to see what diseases and problems he had: why he went deaf, why he had so many intestinal problems, etc. It turns out, they think he had lead poisoning! CRAZY! It explains so many things, but they can't figure out where he would have ingested such a high dosage...interesting. Anyway, I recommend this book for all you music lovers and for all you medical minded people :)

There they are! I'm in the middle of another book right now and have a big stack from my grandma to go through, so expect more! :) Does anyone even read my reviews?