Traveling Through Books

"The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexander Dumas Verdict: Read it!!! "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexander Dumas was originally written in 1844 ( Wikipedia.org ) and is considered by all canonized standards, a classic. My biggest suggestion to everyone who passes by this book because of that status (an alarming number of people seem to find the word “classic” indicative of boring… but I love them, and they are usually far from boring!) to take another look and read it! The best word to describe this book is swashbuckling. The story is an adventure from beginning to end.  The thing that struck me most about this book was not only the fantastic adventure, but Dumas’ talent for writing with elaborate detail, but never getting boring. Often when authors are as detailed as Dumas they lose the urgency to continue reading. This, however, is not the case with this author. I always had a perfectly clear vision of what was going on without ever losing my total imm...

Title: White Oleander Author: Janet Fitch Genre: Fiction Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 9/1/2006 Read In: Nook ePub I have been wanting to read this book since I saw the movie however many years ago. The movie is actually a very good adaptation. This book centers around Astrid Magnussen and her relationship with her mother, Ingrid. Ingrid, early in the book, commits murder forcing Astrid into the foster care system. While Ingrid is described as the more compelling charcter, Astrid and her unique perspectives drive this novel. The novel is beautifully written with explicit description. This is fitting especially because Astrid is an artist; since this novel is written in first person perspective, the despription is how Astrid views the world: and ever-changing art piece. This book gives incredible insight to the ups and downs of the foster care system. During Astrid's six years of foster care she lives in five foster homes, has an extended hospital stay, and one fo...

Hello my readers, I realize that my posts are infrequent. I do apologize, you deserve better. While it is one of my goals this year to become more consistent and read more (which is really a never-ending goal of mine) I want to be sure you have reviews to read. Also, I'd like to consolidate all my reviews to one cyber-space. So here's the plan: I will be going back to my old Facebook group as far as it will let me and pull from the archives of my reviews. I will re-post these reviews once a week (excepting the weeks I post new reviews)  so that as many reviews as I can find will be present here. These posts will be title "From the Archives: [Insert book title here]". This way, you will know if it's a new review or a re-post. I hope that you enjoy the re-postings. Maybe you missed one or haven't been following me that long. Here is your chance to catch up, or not, whichever pleases you. I will be editing posts, adding or deleting thoughts that come to me to...

    Title: The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living Author: Russ Harris Genre: Self-help/therapy Read-in: trade paperback Publisher: Trumpeter Books   I'm not one to generally read self-help books. They do carry a stigma with them. But then, so do many other genres I read regularly. I also wasn't sure if I would share this specific book with you, my readers, because it was not read by my own suggestion but by my counselor's... who for some reason (I can't imagine why) thought I'd benefit more from a book about the type of therapy we're working on than just hand-outs. She was right. My decision to share is based on the fact that 1. My blog is based on the promise of reviewing everything I read and 2. that I find this method very helpful and so may some of you. I will keep this review pretty short because, let's face it, due to its topic, it's pretty boring.   The book explains Acceptance and Commintment Therapy (ACT...

Title: Shogun Author: James Clavell Genre: Historical Fiction Read In: Nook ePub Publisher: Random House Publishing Group This book has been on my "to read" list since I was a teenager. My parents have always raved about it. At 1140 (-ish, depending on publisher/format) pages, this book is a little bit of an undertaking. It's also very in-depth and slightly complicated. The book is set in Japan in the late 1400s to early 1500s, approximately the same time as the Medieval era of Europe and the Spanish Inquisition (which is mentioned in the book). It tells a story of a Dutch ship, piloted by an Englishman, who are shipwrecked on Japan in an attempt to find the Asias (meaning, primarily China and India). The pilot's name is John Blackthorne and he is one of the main character's of the book. One of the many things I really enjoyed about this book is that there are multiple main characters that are followed. There is not a single character that is not fu...

Title: Waistcoats & Weaponry (Finishing School #3) Author: Gail Carriger Genre: Supernatural Steampunk YA fiction Read in: Nook ebook Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers I think that I may be forming a small bias towards Gail Carriger books. I simply love them. I have yet to read a story of hers that I don't thoroughly enjoy. This is the third installment of her Finishing School series. As with most series, I love the first installment the most. But this is now my second favorite of the series. This book seems more true to the characters that we first fell in love with. Once again, Carriger's wonderful use of language has me enthralled. This is her young adult series, so expect the story to be slightly less complicated and slightly more predictable than her Parasol Protectorate series. That is really my only complaint (like I said, I may be developing a bias). I love that these books are easy to read and full of action and adventure while still manag...

Title: This Is How You Lose Her Author: Junot Diaz Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Read in: Trade Paperback Genre: Fiction This is the first book in a while that gripped me from the beginning and that I really enjoyed reading. It could be that it spoke to recent events in my life, but I think that it's mostly because it is very well written. I have to be honest that I'm usually partial to the style and voice that emerges from latin authors. The way they express themselves is often so compelling and human; generally it gives the air of someone telling you a story, rather than you reading one. This Is How You Lose Her is written in first person narrative. It tells, in short segments, pieces of characters' lives; each segment showing some aspect of how relationships begin to fall apart. A strong theme throughout is infidelity, especially in the Dominican culture. I have to be honest that I know absolutely nothing about Dominican culture...