Thursday, September 17, 2009

Book Review

Yep! It's that time again - another Book Review Post!

You may wonder where I find all this time to read so many books, well, the answer is simple:

1. I am an astoundingly fast reader
2. I live on a tropical island with nothing to do.
3. My child likes to play by herself, giving me a lot of time to myself.

So yeah, here are my most recent reads:


The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. My next book club book. Yes, the title is a mouthful, but it is REALLY good! It takes place during World War II, and I sort of thought it was going to be another holocaust book, but it isn't. It takes place in England during the occupation. The Potato Peel Pie society is an underground "book" club that takes care of each other. The whole book is written in letters and notes. It is a really quick and fun read. There are parts that I literally laughed out loud, and that is hard to do in a book that takes place during a war!


Year of Wonders. Very interesting book. It is about a woman living in England when the plague breaks out. There are some slow parts of this book, but overall it was very interesting. It helps you get a look into the every day activities of an individual during that time period. Some of the characters are very superstitious, others are fanatically religious, etc. This book also helps you appreciate being born in this day and age because woooooweeee! Let me tell you about hygiene! Haha! A quick read.


The Red Tent. Wow. Very fast read. VERY interesting. This is the story of Jacob and his sons (yes, from the Bible) from the point of view of his only daughter, Dinah. It is about all the women in that group: Rachel, Leah, Bilhah, etc. I really enjoyed this book. There are some pretty risque parts, so you can just skim over that, but overall it was really well written. I don't necessarily agree with everything the author is suggesting, but some of it really makes you think. Another book that helps you appreciate living now! Haha! It is cool to finish this book and then read Genesis chapters 28-34. It definitely makes you think.... :)

The Weight of Silence. Just a random book I picked out from Costco when I was home. Another quick read. The book is written like The Poisonwood Bible, where each chapter is from a different point of view. This was a quick read, but it was just okay. A lot of the plot was predictable, but I did like the different points of view. The plot is that there are two girls, best friends, who go missing. The one girl, Callie, doesn't speak because she was traumatized as a child, but no one really can figure out why she doesn't talk. So they go missing, and it is all the different people around them trying to find them and deal with it. The ending is pretty good, even though some of it is predictable. A fast read, even though it is kind of long.

Shanghai Girls. Boo. I did NOT like this book. I kept thinking it was going to get better and better and it never did! Normally I like Lisa See, but this one was a huge downer! NOTHING good happens! It is about these two sisters who get sold off as wives to these two guys that are moving to San Fransisco and all their adventures. The only cool thing about this book is that the whole book is written from the older sisters point of view, so she assumes things that are incorrect. It is interesting to have a book where the narrator is false in her assumptions. So that was interesting. Other than that, I could've done without this book.

Woo! Another Wheel of Time book! This one started out REALLY slow and it took me quite a while to get into it, but man...once it gets going, it REALLY gets going! Again, another fabulous book from this series :)

The Alchemist. Very interesting and deep. It is sort of like The Shack, where it is somewhat mystical and religious. The story is about a young boy trying to find "treasure" and his life that he builds around that. It is all about self discovery and inner truth. I really liked it. It is really short, but not a very quick read. You have to sit and think about what the author is telling you. Again, I don't necessarily agree with all of its ideas, but it does make you think :)

Okay, that is all the books I've read in the past month or so...I'm not sure when the next book review post is coming, so keep an eye out! :) Haha!

1 comment:

amber {and co.} said...

Laura can I trade you babies for a while?? I have a high maintenance kid who won't even play by himself long enough for me to get a blog post done (hence it takes me forever to post, hehe ;) let alone read a book! Maybe when he goes to kindergarten I'll be able to read some of these books Ü