Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

from goodreads

3 stars

This weekend is the long weekend, which means we are half way through our summer. It is kind of hard to believe. I had such plans and I don't think I have done any of them. But, since I have a newborn I guess I can give myself a bit of slack. It is hard to create a magical summer for your kids when you are sleep deprived and barely able to get out of bed in the morning. Next summer can be the magical one.

Synopsis

The protagonist is just going through the motions of life. When he meets Tyler everything changes as they create the Fight Club.

My Thoughts

I knew a bit about the story going into this read. I have not watched the movie but I knew about the ending. Because of this knowledge I read looking for clues and hints that showed the ending.

This is not a typical book I would pick up. I don't really like senseless violence or living in the confusing crazy world of others. I found this book very hard to rate as somethings were fantastic but in the end I just didn't like it.

The author did a superb job showing the confusion and agitation of someone going through an identity crises as well as showing the brutality people can inflict on others. He was able to craft a unique story in a unique way and it worked. I liked how he left the ending open. Things weren't wrapped up neatly. There were still some questions, but, again, this worked.

I also liked how they made soap. I found that intriguing and a bit out there but a neat side story. How else were they to fund everything?

I just really don't like senseless violence. The idea of violence for fun is repugnant to me. The whole vigilante thing was really disgusting. All the things that they did and the manipulation they used bothered me and I did not enjoy reading it. All these things combined made the story feel hopeless as there seemed to be no way out. No way to change.

I also found the story to confusing at times and repetitive. This was most likely to show the mind space of the character, which is fine, but as the reader it grates on you.

All in all this is not a book I would read again and I am not going to look for any that are similar or in that genre. One was enough for me. The chaos in the book just didn't do it for me in as a reader. I did appreciate how the author showed his characters state of mind. I did appreciate the writing, just the subject matter was not something I would gravitate to.

A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout

3 stars

Man, life is different. This little boy of mine eats and eats all the time. Between dealing with him and his ferocious appetite and then paying attention to the girls, my reading time has definitely shrunk. When I am not holding Mr. S or helping one of the kids I just want to lie down and sleep. Or if I do start reading, I end up waking up half an hour later. I know that this is life with a new born and I know it will get better, but man... it is rough. Oh well, at least I have a nice chunky baby to show for all the feedings I am doing.

I will try to do weekly posts, but no promises. I find that I will plan to do a post on one day, and then forget or get distracted by other things, or I forget what day of the week it is. So I will do my best to do Thursday posts. But, please be patient with me... sleep trumps everything!

Synopsis

Amanda was held captive in Somalia. This is the story of her experience as well as events leading up to it.

My Thoughts

This book is Waterloo Regions One Book One Community selection for this year.

While this is a book full of interesting insights and scary situations, on the whole, it did not hold my attention. I did read all the way through but I had to force myself to keep reading at times.

Her mental fortitude during her ordeal was amazing. I really did feel for her as she was trying to figure out how to keep things from getting worse and trying to navigate a crazy system of captives where you were never sure if you were on the right path to your goal or not. It really must have been terrifying knowing that your value as a woman was zilch and you don't know what they could do to you at any moment.

I did try hard not to feel to judgemental while reading this, but a few judgy thoughts did creep into my head. She was warned multiple times about how dangerous Somalia was for foreigners. She did not have any protection or insurance from a network. She was freelancing and going about this on her own. And then she roped her friend in to join her on this crazy venture. What!? While I understand that life is about taking risks, we are also able to manage them. So the fact that she went against all these warnings from people who were more experienced and knowledgeable in the field (she was new to all this) just seems crazy to me. Like did she have an inferiority complex. What was she trying to prove? While what happened to her was horrible and should not happen to people period, in her case if she had heeded the warnings it could have been avoided. End of judginess.

In her narrative I liked how she showed that she felt vulnerable that she did feel despair. She wasn't always happy go-lucky everything will turn out. Yet, through her vulnerability she was still able to maintain a strength about her and with that a quiet inner dignity. That came through well. I also liked how she showed us how this ordeal still affects her today. How she gets nervous around certain people and situations. I think sometimes as onlookers we think "well their out now, back to normal". But no! They are still trying to process and come to terms with a traumatic experience and we need to be aware of that. While it still affects her she also doesn't let this situation define her.

Her narrative is not horribly graphic but it doesn't sugar coat things either. She was abused, tortured and to some, just a plaything. We get to understand a little of what it might have been like.

After reading her story, I am not sure what the takeaway is. Was the point just to share her story? If so, she does that well. But if she wanted us to learn something from it I'm not sure what that would be. Don't go to dangerous countries on a whim? Some people are very clear on their takeaways such as Corrie ten Boom, this one not so much. I think it is because the takeaway was not clear the narrative on the whole loses it's impact and perhaps that is what made this book not the attention grabber it could have been. While I am glad to have her story and have her experience filed away in my brain, it is not one that will stay with me in the forefront. This could have been more than just a narrative of one experience of her life but unfortunately it feel short.

Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood by Liesl Shurtliff

from goodreads

4 stars

Summer!!! The sun is out, the beach is calling my name and I have finally had the frozen lemonade I have been craving. Summer and its hot weather has finally arrived.

I have signed up the kids for the library reading club. The girls are actually excited and are really thinking about what kinds of books they want to get from the library. It always makes my heart happy when they are excited about going to the library and not grumpy or making it feel like a chore.

Yesterday we went to one of the kick off parties our library is holding to celebrate the summer reading club. Being there helped remind me that no matter where you go, or what branch of your library you go to (we went to a party that was held at a different branch than our regular one) there are always dedicated staff ready to help you. The staff created a warm environment that allowed the kids to explore, want to share what they made and discovered, have fun, and get excited about reading. It was such a nice morning and a lot of that had to do with the great staff. Here's to a magical summer of reading.

Synopsis

Red's granny is sick and Red goes on a quest to find a cure for her granny. A cure that Red hopes will make her granny live forever.

My Thoughts

This was great! This is a fun story that still teaches you, or at least allows you to think about, life, death, the ability to let go, accepting change and being happy and grateful for what you have.

One of the most prevalent, and I think best, themes is looking at what scares us and how these fears can limit us or hold us back. We need to work through these fears and be willing to try again. Yes, there may be risks involved, but, there are always risks in whatever you do so you might as well keep trying.

I love how Shurtliff blends different stories together. Yes, it deals with Red Riding Hood, but it also has elements of one of my favourite stories Snow White and Rose Red. There were also other fairy tales that were thrown into the mix such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Beauty and the Beast. All these different tales flow together seamlessly and helps create this fantastical world that makes sense and you think it is real.

I loved the dwarfs. Now I know why they are always mining for gems. Ingenious!

This is a fun fairy tale retelling that you definitely have to add to your summer reading list. This would be good for ages 9 and up.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

from goodreads

2.5 stars

I know that we all know this already, but reading is amazing. We can learn so much. Our minds can be opened to new worlds and ideas. Fiction is especially good at this. Society is easy to explore and think about when reading a fiction story. When we see what the characters are going through you can get the sense that you are not alone or you can learn about differences or different perspectives on common problems.

Reading is never a waste of time. No matter the story we can learn something about ourselves. It could be a deep philosophical things or it could be as simple as learning you don't enjoy a particular genre. With all the different authors and genres and stories we will always be fed and nourished and hopefully all have a more broad view of the world.


Synopsis

This book chronicles the happenings of the Stephanides family, and more specifically the defect on the 5th chromosome that has gone down the line and created Callie/Cals hermaphroditism. Going from Turkey to the streets of Detroit, this is an interesting look at family, what makes us male and female and belonging.

My Thoughts

Well this book was definitely a surprise. When it was first put on the book club list I thought I was going to be reading a quaint book set in a county in England. So this was definitely not the story I was expecting.

I really enjoyed watching the evolution of this family. The grandparents tale was quite interesting. I also liked watching the evolution of Detroit. The transformation of the city during the different eras was quite interesting.

The subject was also interesting. What makes us male, what makes us female? Hermaphrodites are not often the main character of a book and I found it interesting learning about the different kinds, what they have to go through. It is not often talked about so it was nice to see it put into the forefront. It definitely helps to open a dialogue about the subject and get us thinking about it.

What I didn't like was just how boring the majority of the book was. I loved the grandparents story, I loved Cal talking about his life in Germany (this is once he is way older) and I liked the part of the story once they realized something was not quite right and they were going to doctors, and experts to figure out what was happening and Cal made a decision of what he wanted for his life. Everything else, was just boring. It seemed that the author had so many different characters and storylines that he was trying to do justice to that it just got drawn out and wasn't all that interesting (at least for me). There were a few times that I wanted to just stop reading as it was not holding my interest, but I trudged through because I knew they would be talking about Cal's condition eventually and so I kept going.

This is a book that did have an interesting premise, and that premise will stay with me for a while as it put in mind some thought provoking questions and ideas that will be fun to mull over. The rest of the book and most of the characters will not stay with me and, in that way, made it not all that great.

Matched Series by AllyCondie

from goodreads

3 stars

The end of school is two weeks away. Lately I have been researching different programs at our library, different books to keep the girls entertained and figuring out my own summer reading list. What I am discovering is there is so much choice. Everything looks good, and it is hard to pare things down. I want to read everything now, which would be an awesome super power, but is not a realistic option. Trying to find the perfect summer read, or the next great book for the kids is a hard undertaking. I have to be careful not to build up my expectations too much or else it will be a let down. Oh the horror of too many books and too little time!

What are you looking forward to reading this summer?

Synopsis

Cassia lives in a society that seems perfect. But when a glitch happens she realizes that there are limits to what she can do, what she can learn, and who she can love. The fabric of her society starts to unravel as she tries to figure things out and save/be with the person she loves.

My Thoughts

This was a pretty average series. The premise had a lot of potential and seemed interesting, but I don't think it lived up to its hype. It had parts that I liked and parts that just seemed meh. The first book did have a Giver vibe. Condie gave us a detailed society with things really thought out.

As the series progressed the story went in directions I wasn't expecting. I found the last two books to be such a contrast from the first book that it was hard to make the leap at first. I found that it dealt with too many abstracts. I wish I knew more about who lived on the fringes. It was confusing to know how they fit into the society. Not all of them were hiding from the society but, they weren't part of it either. It was confusing. I think it would have been helpful to have a map of the country as well. They talked about different provinces and cities, but it was hard to picture.

I found Cassia and Ky's relationship to be a bit hard to believe at first. She talked about her best friend Xander and how she was glad she was matched with him. But when she starts to think that Ky was an option all of the sudden he is all she wants. How could she fall so fast and so deeply? It seemed that Ky was always on the fringe of her radar. How could they be so intense? It just didn't seem believable.

While I liked how the series ended, and I liked it wasn't like all the other dystopians with lots of guns and violence, by the end I was reading just to finish it. I really didn't care about the characters and the society. I just found it dull. All the references to art work and poems and how those things were commodities got confusing and abstract.

This series would be good for getting your feet wet in YA dystopians but it was not my favourite series. It was just a bit dull for my liking.

The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport

from goodreads

2 stars

Well I think life is finally going to settle down. I will hopefully get more reading done than I have in the past few weeks and my schedule will be as such that I can be more consistent with my reviews. And why is this? I had my baby! YEA!!! We had a boy and he will be known in my blogging world as Mr. S.

It will be interesting to discover the differences between the girls and this boy. I am so used to dresses and pink and sparkles and dolls it will be cool to discover the boy side of the world. So far he does much the same as the girls or any other baby. He eats, poops and sleeps. Ah the life of a new born.

Synopsis

This is a look at the lives of the daughters of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II. It gives background on their parents lives, especially their mother and also looks a bit at Russian society during their life.

My Thoughts

This book was not what I was expecting or hoping for. I was expecting more information on the girls to really get a sense of who they were. Instead there were lots of names, lots of discussion surrounding the tsarina's health, and basically the same information being toted around about them, how they were simple, naive and secluded.

I know that information about the sisters, especially primary sources, would be harder to come by as their journals and letters would have been destroyed or lost or perhaps were incomplete, but I was still hoping for more of a complete picture. Instead of being the focus of the book, as the title would seem to indicate, the Romanov Sisters seemed to be in the background of their own story and not the star. So much attention was given to their brother and his ailments, their parents and others. I think I know more about them then the sisters.

Perhaps if I knew more about the time period and more about Russian history during the war and revolution I might have appreciated any new information that Rappaport found out about the sisters. But, as a newbie I didn't know what was already common knowledge and what was ground breaking so couldn't appreciate it.

I also found that the ending of the book was rather fast. The last few chapters were actually interesting and dealt with the time that they were under house arrest before their execution. I understand that the author has written a book that deals with their last days in detail, and thus, didn't want to go into the same detail in this book. But it would have nice to have a bit more than what she gave. One second they were in a new place, the next paragraph they were being lead to a basement and were killed. For a slow moving narrative, this chain of events was abrupt and quick and left me with a sense of "what just happened?"

On the whole this book does not give history or biographies a great name. While the subject matter should have been interesting, the delivery was not there. I probably would have stopped reading it if it wasn't for book club and if I didn't have the hope of perhaps learning something more, something interesting.

I do appreciate the tragedy of their lives. I wish that they could have lived more. It is such a tragic and sad way to end your life. I guess that is what will remain with me from this book. The sense of tragic loss. And loss that could have been avoided perhaps if their parents and those around them could have gotten out of their old ways of doing things and seen how the world was changing. It is sad.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

2 stars

Well it has been a while since I have posted. Why??? Well I have lots of appointments so that eats up my time. And because it eats up my time and I still have organizing and housework to do the blog was put on the back burner. Also, my laptop went caput. And while I have been using my husbands desktop, I didn't like ignoring Miss P that much as his desktop is in the basement. So it made spending time writing and editing blog posts not the easiest.

Well, thanks to our tax return I have finally gotten myself a Chromebook. It is not as fancy as my last laptop buy I figure since most of what I do is online anyway it made the most sense. Also, if I need to do anything else that requires an actual desktop, I can just use my husband's. I like that all my google stuff is right there and connected. Pretty cool.

Now I am just playing the waiting game. I am officially at term (37 weeks) and would love for this baby to get out. So send baby get out vibes my way.

Synopsis

This follows the life of Kathy and her two friends Ruth and Tom. They all go to a secluded school called Hailsham. This looks at their life at the school, and their life now and the memories they have. Through these memories they learn more about what their life is really about and the strangeness of the society they find themselves in.

My Thoughts

This is an adult, artsy, not violent version of a dystopian novel. I started into it thinking it was going to be more mysterious and thrilling, but it didn't turn out that way. I kind of found the book a bit dull and felt I was forcing myself to finish it.

I didn't understand why once the kids found out their true purpose in life they didn't want to run away and leave. They seemed to be accepting. Perhaps a little too accepting.

I wish that the author went more into the moral dilemma of the society. How this program really worked and was funded and how things got harvested. Like was it as the need arose or did they keep organs on bank or what. What did the rest of society really feel about it? Other schools were always alluded to. It would have been neat to see how those schools were run and what the difference was. How did the people get selected for what school they would go to?

I thought I was getting myself into a boarding school drama and ended up with it being a review of society instead. It took me awhile to realize it was a sort of alternate reality, though it could really happen and that is scary.

The time lines were a bit confusing as well. The author constantly alluded to something that would happen in the future, and then backtrack into the story to lead you to that point. It was not a technique I enjoyed reading. Once in a while maybe, but not every chapter. The story also jumped around a bit so it was hard to follow.

While the premise seems promising the delivery just wasn't there for me. I know some people love it, and that's great, it is well written. I just couldn't get into it to really enjoy it.