Book 6: Lullaby

I will be starting 'Lullaby' by Chuck Palahniuk today. This is the story of a reporter who is writing up a story about SIDs cases. The reporter discovers that some parents had been singing a culling song to some of the child victims before bed. The culling song is a type of African lullaby that is known to give a painless death to the old. The parents who were simply reading their children a lullaby were actually accidentally killing them. He begins a quest to put this song to rest and save the nation of accidental disaster. Palahnuik is known to have a weird twist on humor, and I really enjoyed Fight Club, so I'm interested to try another one of his books.

Finished Book 5

I just finished 'Vanishing Acts' by Jodi Picoult. This book was about a child who was kidnapped by her father when she was 4 yrs old and goes through all the reasons he had for taking her and whether it was right to do so. In the other 2 books I read by Picoult there was one main moral that was focused on. This books seemed to be full of moral dilemmas and had too many different stories to focus on. I thought the writing felt very scattered and that there should have been one main focus point. When reading 'My Sister's Keeper' and 'Handle with Care', I was really interested in the story and excited to hear the outcome. In 'Vanishing Acts', I wanted to hear the end, but just so I could be done reading. The book was not nearly as good as the other 2 books.

418 pages

Book 5: Vanishing Acts

I will be starting 'Vanishing Acts' by Jodi Picoult today. In a way I'm both excited about it and dreading it. I always feel that her books have such a big moral dilemma that ends up making me sick and angry throughout the whole book. On a good note they do usually keep me interested and I end up reading them fairly quickly. I only had a few minutes to grab a book before book club on Tuesday night and came to a blank on authors. I saw a whole shelf of Picoult books, so I decided to give another one a try.
'Vanishing Acts' is about a woman named Delia Hopkins. As she is planning her wedding she keeps getting strange flashbacks. The police come to her with a shocking secret about her past that may jeopardize her future and her ability to trust people.

Finished Book 4

I finished the book 'Rebecca' last night. This book was not really what I expected, but I really enjoyed it. It was a little slow going into it, but then I found I didn't want to put it down. I really can't think of a review that will not give away parts of the book, so I just recommend everyone to read it. It's kind of a haunting, love, suspense, and mystery story all in one.

Book 4: Rebecca

Tomorrow I will be starting 'Rebecca' by Daphne Du Maurier. I don't really know too much about this book besides Rebecca "haunting" her husband's new wife. I know that I watched a movie based on this book with my grandma who said it was one of her favorite books. I can't really remember too much about the movie and I'm just hoping the story isn't scary in any way, especially close to Halloween.

Finished Book 3

I just finished 'The 158-Pound Marriage'. I have to say that this was my least favorite Irving novel. I still think the writing was good and creative, but the subject matter just made me mad. It was a story of cheating, sex, and wrestling, 3 of my least favorite things. Throughout the story I felt sorry for all the 4 main characters at different times, but I just found them all stupid for thinking that "partner swapping" could be the answer to their problems. It's hard to say whether I liked or disliked this book. I think the subject just makes me so mad that I can't like it, but then I have to like that it's something I wouldn't normally read and it was written in an interesting way.

Book 3: The 158-Pound Marriage

My third book will be 'The 158-Pound Marriage' by John Irving. This is the first book club selection for the Boone YMCA book club. I love John Irving, but I have read reviews that this is not one of his best books. The reason we picked it for the Boone Y club is that it is short (only 154 pages) and has sex in it. Most of his books contain sex, but Levi tells me this one is filled with it. It's set in New England during the sexual revolution and tells the story of 2 couples involved in "partner swapping". The book is supposed to deal with how the swapping affects the couples' relationships. Kind of an interesting subject and not normally something I would be interested in. Hopefully I won't see it as a huge disappointment in Irving's career.

Finished Book 2

I almost finished Sarah's Key last night, but kept falling asleep, so I finished the last few pages this morning. I absolutely loved the first half of this book. The chapters were alternated between Julia and Sarah's stories and I thought it really worked well. I didn't want to put it down. I didn't like the second half of the book as much when it switched to just Julia. It was still good, but I guess I just found the writing a little more cheesy and predictable.
Even though it was a fictional story, it really got me interested in learning more about the Vel'd'Hiv' roundup. Such a sad time, but so important to history. I will definitely be looking up more books about this subject.

293 pages.

Book 2: Sarah's Key

'Sarah's Key' by Tatiana de Rosnay is the Boone Library book club selection for October. They will be discussing it on Oct. 19th, which gives me a little over 2 weeks to read it. This is the story of a 10 year old Jewish girl named Sarah who is arrested by the French police in 1942. Before the police arrest her family she locks her little brother in the bedroom closet thinking she will be back in a few hours to let him out. 60 years later a journalist named Julia Jarmond is investigating the arrests of 1942 finds a trail of secrets that link her to Sarah. This book sounds really interesting but has got mixed reviews. I'm hoping I enjoy it so it will be easier for me to get back on track with my reading.

Finished Book #1

I finished 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Bronte last night. I really liked the writing style compared to some other classics. The language and format of the book just felt a little more modern, which for me made it less boring than some. The only thing I've really heard about this book is that it's really sad. I did fell sorry for the title character, but I didn't think it was as sad as people made it out to be. Overall I really liked the writing and the story itself. I wouldn't say it's one of my favorite books, but it is one of my favorite "classics".

Finished 10-01-10: 466 pages