44 posts tagged “book”
Received from: Thomas Nelson.
Rating: 7 out of 10 (might have been higher had I read the first book -- this is the second)
Synopsis: The more than four hundred thousand readers stirred by the story of Ron Hall and Denver Moore will resonate with the all new, stand-alone true stories of hope and healing offered in this intimate, authentic follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Same Kind of Different as Me. With new "Denverisms" and reflections from Denver on his personal dealings with homelessness and disrespect from others, additional insights from Ron on what we can learn from people not like us and from those dealing with a terminal illness, and the stories of readers who have been impacted by the book's central themes, this inspirational reader will generate a host of new fans.
My review: I really wish that I'd read the first book, Same Kind of Different as Me, before I read this one. I have it coming to me from the library, so I'll review it soon. This book says it's standalone, but I really think I would have benefited from reading Same Kind first, just so I could have known the background of the three people What Difference focuses on -- Ron, Denver, and Deborah. Half of the chapters of the book are written by Ron, and half by Denver. Both had a lot of interesting things to say on the subject of homelessness and Christians. There are also stories of people around the country who were inspired by the first book. There was even a woman from West Sacramento mentioned -- her story hit very close to home. Needless to say, I really got a lot out of this book. It shifted my views of homeless people quite a bit, and it challenged me to think differently about the people I pass every day on the street. I don't have enough space to quote all of the different passages that affected me, but this one that really stood out (it was written by Denver, in his own voice):
"Since I been visitin a lotta churches, I hear people talkin 'bout how, after readin our story, they felt "led" to help the homeless, to come alongside the down-and-out. But when it comes to helpin people that ain't got much, God didn't leave no room for feelin led. Jesus said God gon' separate us based on what we did for folks that is hungry and thirsty, fells that is prisoners in jail and folks that ain't got no clothes and no place to live. What you gon' do when you get to heaven and you ain't done none a' that? Stand in front a' God and tell Him, "I didn't feel led"? You know what He gon' say? He gon' say, "You didn't need to feel led 'cause I had done wrote it down in the Instruction Book."
Hello conviction, I'm Cori.
(Finished 10/30/09)
Borrowed from: the Sacramento library
Rating: 8 out of 10
Synopsis: This sequel brings back the young wizard-in-training to face suspicious adults, hostile classmates, fretful ghosts, rambunctious spells, giant spiders, and even an avatar of Lord Voldemort, the evil sorcerer who killed his parents, while saving the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from a deadly, mysterious menace. Ignoring a most peculiar warning, Harry kicks off his second year at Hogwarts after a dreadful summer with his hateful guardians, the Dursleys, and is instantly cast into a whirlwind of magical pranks and misadventures, culminating in a visit to the hidden cavern where his friend Ron's little sister Ginny lies, barely alive, in a trap set by his worst enemy. Surrounded by a grand mix of wise and inept faculty, sneering or loyal peersplus an array of supernatural creatures including Nearly Headless Nick and a huge, serpentine basiliskHarry steadily rises to every challenge, and though he plays but one match of the gloriously chaotic field game Quidditch, he does get in plenty of magic and a bit of swordplay on his way to becoming a hero again.
My review: Ah, the adventures of the young Harry Potter continue. Again, I listened on audio book and fell in love all over again with Jim Dale's reading. He just brings everything to life. Also, he sounds exactly like Maggie Smith. Which is weird and awesome. This book is a little more intense than the first, especially toward the end. The characters are expanded more in this book, as are the growing mysteries surrounding Voldemort and Hogwarts. It's was also really well-paced -- unlike some of the others in the series, this one doesn't really get bogged down in the middle (I'm talking to you, Deathly Hallows). Plus, we get to see more of Ginny. And I just adore her. (Finished 10/13/09)
Read because: It's the second in the Hunger Games series. My review of Hunger Games.
Purchased from: Costco, along with Hunger Games. I couldn't help it. The covers are hot.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Synopsis: Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.
My review: I'd heard mixed reviews about the second book in Collins's Hunger Games trilogy. After utterly devouring the first in the series a few months ago, I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into Catching Fire. Luckily, I wasn't disappointed. A few reviewers thought it had a bit of a sophomore slump feel to it, but I thought it was still fresh and intriguing and followed up Hunger Games very solidly. I think most readers would agree with me. The dynamics between the characters (including a few new characters that were woven in without seeming forced—see the TV show Lost for poor examples of this) were just as good as in the first book, and the relative ethics were still pervasive, which I loved. I didn't think the love triangle was as in-your-face as some might have—I think the triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale was realistic and a good part of the plot. I thought it did drag just a little around the 2/3 mark (it got a little deja vu-ish), but picked right back up and ended with a bang. A big fat grumblecakes for having to wait another year until book three is released. (Finished 9/25/90)
Recommended by: my friends Brittney and Esther
Borrowed from: the Sacramento Library
Rating: 8 out of 10
Synopsis: In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.
My review: Woah. I don't read a lot of young adult fiction so I was a bit surprised with this one. It was really very engrossing and mildly terrifying. The idea of locking up 24 kids in a giant Bio-Dome style arena in a death match is disturbing. I thought that Collins handled the material deftly and made the characters very real. Their behavior (kill or be killed) was intense. I felt invested in the characters and hurt for them and cheered them on. The only thing I wish she'd delved more deeply into is the psychology of murder -- some of the kills came so easily, and I can't imagine this doesn't mess up these kids for life. Then again, there are two more books in this series (the next, Catching Fire, is still "on order" from the library -- come on! It was released a week ago!) so perhaps she'll tackle those issues more in the later books. This was an intense book, but I definitely recommend it. (Finished 8/2/09)
(Note: I am soooo far behind on book reviews. I'm hoping to crank out a bunch today. Prepare for your neighborhood feed to be clogged with reviews!)
(Note #2: Vox is being dumb and won't let me upload the book cover. *grumblecakes*)
Read because: I read and loved the Shadow of the Wind earlier this year.
Purchased from: Costco!
Rating: 8 out of 10
Synopsis: From master storyteller Carlos Ruiz Zafón, author of the international phenomenon The Shadow of the Wind, comes The Angel’s Game--a dazzling new page-turner about the perilous nature of obsession, in literature and in love. In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martín, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city’s underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner.Like a slow poison, the history of the place seeps into his bones as he struggles with an impossible love. Close to despair, David receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike anything that has ever existed--a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, and perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home.
My review: As I was reading this, I kept sighing and wishing I could write like Ruiz Zafon. I also kept thinking, "This is a great book, but it isn't the Shadow of the Wind. Still, I thought it was an excellent read, although I will admit *mini spoiler alert* that the number of deaths in this book might top Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell, my all-time winner of the "Holy Crap A Lot Of People Die In This Book Award." It took me far too long to realize that it was a prequel to the Shadow of the Wind -- for a large part of the book I thought they were running concurrently because some of the characters overlap. The Angel's Game also has a supernatural element that I'm not sure I quite understood. I'll be interested to see what the third book in this series offers in the way of the supernatural. Altogether it was a great, albeit dark and disturbing read that I highly recommend. (Finished 7/30/09)
Read because: I think Jen (?) and/or Kelly (?) recommended it
Borrowed from: the Sacramento library
My Rating: 5/10 (sorry friends!)
Synopsis: When Clary Fray witnesses three tattoo-covered teenagers murder another teen, she is unable to prove the crime because the victim disappears right in front of her eyes, and no one else can see the killers. She learns that the teens are Shadowhunters (humans who hunt and kill demons), and Clary, a mundie (i.e., mundane human), should not be able to see them either. Shortly after this discovery, her mother, Jocelyn, an erstwhile Shadowhunter, is kidnapped. Jocelyn is the only person who knows the whereabouts of The Mortal Cup, a dangerous magical item that turns humans into Shadowhunters. Clary must find the cup and keep it from a renegade sector of Shadowhunters bent on eliminating all nonhumans, including benevolent werewolves and friendly vampires.
My Review: Worst. Audio. Book. Ever. So sorry, Ari Graynor, but this was just not a good reading. I have no idea if I would have really liked the story or not, because I spent most of the book marvelling about how Absotively Posilutely Not Good the reading was. For instance, if you're riding on a vampire motorcycle, flying over the Hudson at 60mph, and you shout back to make sure your passenger is okay, it might sound something like this, "YOU OKAY BACK THERE?!!" Graynor would read this as, "you okay back there." As if the character were asking the passenger if she wanted a buiscuit. All the voices sounded the same. The tone throughout was the same. Gah! Why did I keep listening? I knew I wouldn't pick it up again in regular book form, and I kept thinking things like only...seven...CDs...left.... And at that point i didn't have another audio book from the library. The story itself was kind of fun, with a lot of (I assume) interesting characters and situations. One thing that drove me crazy about the writing was repetitive words and phrases. A thesaurus could have been really helpful. Anyway, unless someone can convince me otherwise, I'm not picking up the next one, especially not in audio book. (Finished 7/6/09.)
Read because: it was on the library rack and I needed an audio book. And it's hard for me to say "no" to anything with "Austen" in the title.
Borrowed from: the Sacramento Library
My rating: 6 out of 10
Synopsis: Thirty-three-year-old Jane Hayes, who has a fairly serious addiction to the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice, inherits a trip to Pembrook Park, Kent, England, the location of a resort where guests dress, talk, think, and act in ways that Jane Austen would approve. Refusing to lie about her age, even on vacation in a place right out of Austen's England, Jane finds herself quickly overcoming the obsession with Mr. Darcy that may very well have jeopardized her 13 "relationships" over the years. Left to walk in last to dinner, mildly obsessed with one of the hotel's gardeners, and annoyed by another guest's overeager attempts to bag a man, Jane is eager to return to Manhattan. Then she decides to give it all one more chance, since Great-Aunt Carolyn did see fit to pay for the entire vacation.
My Review: Oh, Chick Lit. Welcome back to my life. It's been a while. I thought this book -- the plot is pretty much The Best Dream Ever for me and many of my English major friends -- was a fun little novel about a modern girl who gets to go live with Mr. Darcy, wear corsets, read a lot, take walks, and eat wild game. Most reviewers liked it more than I did. I thought the main character was a little too dense (a common problem in this genre) since Mr. Darcy was staring her in the face for, well, the entire novel. And her obsession with Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy didn't seem as dire as the author wrote it (OMG, she owned the DVD version!). But it was fun and the writing was neat and tidy and I didn't find myself overly frustrated with flat characters or a boring plot. Now if only a real Mr. Darcy would come a'calling, eh? (Finished 6/23/09.)
Read because: I enjoyed his first novel, the Dante Club.
Traded through: www.bookins.com (although I listened to the audio book from the library)
Rating: 7 out of 10
Synopsis (from Booklist): In late 1849, Poe, traveling from his home in Virginia to Philadelphia for a lucrative editing job, went missing; however, he was found several days later, apparently drunk in a Baltimore tavern; he died after several days of delirium in a hospital and was buried unceremoniously. Press reports that Poe would be little missed so disturb Quentin Hobson Clark, a young Baltimore lawyer of independent means and a Poe admirer, that he vows to represent Poe's interests. To solve the mysterious death, Clark seeks in Paris the real-life model for Poe's fictitious detective, C. Auguste Dupin, selecting crime solver Auguste Dupont over lawyer Baron Claude Dupin. But the baron, still claiming to be Poe's model, follows Clark and Dupont to Baltimore, starting a cat-and-mouse game of detection that, because of French political implications, turns deadly.
My Review: This was one of those books that I'm really glad I listened to. I think I would have given it a lower rating had I read it, but I really appreciated Erik Singer's reading. I think it would have felt old and musty but Singer managed to bring a lot of life to the characters, especially to those who were French (the French accent in my head is ridiculously poor). In particular, I wouldn't have understood the subtleties of the names of characters, which were very important. The plot was slow and a felt a little heavy, but I liked learning more about both Poe (who really was just an ancillary character) and about Dupont and Dupin. The main character felt a little ridiculous and even irritating at times -- quick to judge and quick to get himself into trouble. I wanted to yell at him to slow down and think a bit and to stop being so impulsive. Bah.
This can't really be qualified as a book review because I haven't come anywhere close to finishing this book. I joined an online community called The Ooze Viral Bloggers. Each month, you can select one book, generally related to the more progressive end of Christianity, and they'll send it to you for free if you blog about it within thirty days. Sounds awesome, right? I thought so, so I signed up.
I chose So Beautiful by Leonard Sweet:
More than 50 years ago scientists made a remarkable discovery, proclaiming, “We have found the secret of life – and it’s so pretty!” The secret? That life’s biological code is helixical, two strands surrounding a single axis-the foundation for DNA. This design, Sweet proposes, points to an even deeper – and more poignant – secret.
Just as DNA’s three strands make life possible, three other elements work in harmony to make life not just pretty, but beautiful. And it’s in the church where we find the greatest expression, and ultimate fulfillment, of these three components to a beautiful life.
The Good Doctor Sweet presents an extraordinary look at life as it was intended to be lived, sharing secrets of God’s design for God’s people in three interwoven elements that form the heart, soul and calling of the apprenticed-to-Jesus life. In the spirit of radical inquiry – from radix, going to the root –So Beautiful unearths God’s deep-rooted dreams for the church after his own heart. Recommended for missional, organic, and house church provocateurs, as well as open-minded emerging church folks.
I've had Sweet's book for a while now, and I've picked it up several times to read it -- I'm about fifty pages in now. The other reviews of it have been fabulous, but I can't seem to get into the meat of it. I think it's because I haven't read a lot about "church theory" so there is a lot of language and structure I'm struggling through. It feels very academic, and I'm not sure I ever learned to speak "church academic." As you can see from my blog, I read a lot, so I'm struggling because I can't make this work in my brain. I find myself reading and rereading sentences to try and get what Sweet is trying to say and wondering if I'm missing something huge. I know that there is some good stuff in there. I come across nuggets like these, and they make me want to understand further:
"And the church that is incarnational prays every day a colonizing prayer: 'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' Every Christian is a colonizer: We are colonizing earth with heaven. We are creating 'colonies' of heaven not Christian-coated mirror cities."
In reference to evangelism: "[stop] thinking of bringing Christ to India . . . but rather [start] thinking about finding Christ already there."
"There is no spiritual life. There is only life. One life where the spiritual is not separate but the whole."
I wanted to post about this before my thirty days was up. I'm going to keep going through it, hoping that God will make Sweet's writing more clear to me, because I can feel there is some real truth in there and I'd like to dig it out. I'll write a complete review when I've finished it up and can take a step back and view it as a whole.
Read for: June Avid Reader Book Club
Purchased from: the Avid Reader
My Rating: 6 out of 10
Synopsis (from School Library Journal): Adult/High School-Dumas first came to the U.S. from Iran in the early '70s when her father was sent to California on a two-year contract from the National Iranian Oil Company. Her family soon discovered that his presumed skill in English was basically limited to "vectors, surface tension and fluid mechanics." In short, humorous vignettes, the author recounts their resulting difficulties and Americans' almost total ignorance of Iran, illustrating the kindness of people and her father's absolute love of this country.
My Review: Funny in Farsi was a light read but as I read it while Tehran is in complete upheavel, it was very strange to have two completely different ideas about Iran at the same time. Dumas only lightly touched upon the Iranian revolution and the rest of the memoir is incredibly light. Not that I mind light, but it just felt...off. Anyway, I've already heard some of my book club members avidly (heh) argue that Dumas is mean to her father (they started reading it before last book club -- cheaters). I didn't really get that at all. Her father was from a different world and she expertly showed the clash between his culture and typical American culture, and the results were very funny and often had life lessons behind them. I do wish, however, that the book had been a little more organized -- I wasn't sure how old she was sometimes and it sort of skipped around in a confusing way. But overall it was a amusing little book that I recommend if you need to escape for a little while. (Finished 6/7/09)
