Books

I don’t have any sort of “reading goals”- the big one lately seems to be everyone wanting to read one book a week. I prefer to think I have a life, so I tend to read sporadically, but voraciously if I’ve picked up something great. Below is simply a list of books I want to read, what I’m currently reading and any thoughts I have about them.

Currently Reading

The Silmarillion  J.R.R Tolkien- I’m not sure what I can say about this book. I’ve been reading it for about a week now and I don’t mind admitting I’m making very little headway. The plot is interesting and compelling but the writing style is just beyond me. There seem to be about five different names for each character and place and the introductions and descriptions are…complex. But, I’m sticking with it for the time being, as I do enjoy what I can make out of the storyline. Hopefully it’ll click into place.

 Desperation Stephen King- I don’t find it scary in a way that makes me sit on the edge of my seat, or jump at a sudden noise. I find it scary because I don’t know how I would be in a horrible, unknown situation. Would I scream and cry and be useless? Would I put my fear aside and get on with whatever needs to be done? Would I be the first one to get killed off? Hopefully, I’ll never have to find out. This book is a page turner, and I usually finish it within a few days, given at least a small snatch of time during the day to read. Apparently it’s been adapted to film, but with most SK adaptions, it had a pretty rotten review. I’ve not seen it, though I would probably sit through it, even if it is bad. Probably like slowing down to watch a car crash scene, you just can’t help yourself.

Anna Karenina (found behind a chair!) One of my favorite books. Funnily enough, I never cry. I just, close the book and close my eyes and think about the characters, the author, the story, etc.

The Lovely Bones-Alice Sebold – This story was so different from anything I had read previously that I would be hardpressed to say I didn’t enjoy it, even if that were the case. I enjoyed having Suzies perspective, and enjoyed the way the various lives, interwined with hers, unfolded. I didn’t like the detectives role in the story, nor was I happy with the way the murderer’s role played out. But, overall, I felt it was well written and intriguing, and it definetly has a place on my “something I’d like to read again” bookshelf.

We Need to Talk about Kevin– For obvious reasons, I found this book quite sad. In some ways I related to the mother, as raising my eldest son has been fraught with pain and hardship. But, I found the book itself very wordy, boring at times. Occasionally I lost concentration, had to reread sentences because I didn’t understand what was happening, etc. It felt clumsy in areas, where it could have been written much better. The last few pages of the book had me in tears, and I had to close the book and cry and talk to my husband. Which felt silly, it is only a book, but it felt so real, also. The very ending was difficult for me to accept, to digest, though maybe not to understand. I am not sure I could do the same thing, I think both choices would be exceedingly difficult for me.

Cell-Stephen King (on the train) I quite like this book, I look at it like the lite version of The Stand, which I imagine was the authors intention.

The Dark Tower (on the train, misplaced AK) It took me about two years to finish this book. I frequently got the impression that after something like 30 years spent on the saga, SK was probably sick to death of it and just wanted it done, hence the last three being churned out so successively. Or perhaps he was just mindful that he may not get another 30 years. Either way, the book was difficult, boring in some places and a betrayal right at the very end. Nonetheless, I loved it.

Anna Karenina (on the train)

Jane Eyre (at home)

WANT TO READ

A Thousand Splendid Suns– Khaled Hosseini

“Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry the troubled and bitter Rasheed, who is thirty years her senior. Nearly two decades later, in a climate of growing unrest, tragedy strikes fifteen-year-old Laila, who must leave her home and join Mariam’s unhappy household. Laila and Mariam are to find consolation in each other, their friendship to grow as deep as the bond between sisters, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter.

Duma Key– Stephen King

“In bestseller King’s well-crafted tale of possession and redemption, Edgar Freemantle, a successful Minnesota contractor, barely survives after the Dodge Ram he’s driving collides with a 12-story crane on a job site. ..”

Perfume, The Story of a Murderer – Patrick Suskind

“Perfume relates the fascinating and horrifying tale of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a person as gifted as he was abominable. Born without a smell of his own but endowed with an extraordinary sense of smell, Grenouille becomes obsessed with procuring the perfect scent that will make him fully human…”

Teddy Bear Cannibal Massacre – Tim Lieder

“…an entertaining trip into the Outer Limits of the Twilight Zone.”