July was a better month than June for book reading! Even with unpacking a new place, and 2 weeks of absolute craziness at work-I still managed to read a couple! Better yet-I enjoyed most of them!!!
First I finished The Peppered Moth which I had previously started in June. As much as I wanted it to, it never fully captured me like I hoped it would. It seemed to jump a bit going from person to person within the same overall family tree. Each person was moderately interesting, but it just never fully meshed well for me. At the end I was just feeling like I just watched a scripted reality TV show. It was that feeling of kindof getting a feel for someone, but never feeling as though they were as open and had as much depth as you had hoped.
On the other hand, I was instantly hooked with The Maze Runner by James Dashner! Looking over the books I've read this year it's obvious I don't really read a lot of science fiction, or dystopian type of books. And yet oddly enough-I do really like that genre! Maze Runner captured the spirit of adventure and the unknown right away. When even your main character and narrator has no idea about his past, where he is, who he is, or even how old he is-it makes for a pretty interesting ride! Add in some survivalist fears, some mystery, and then a big twist at the end and I love it! It's part of a series and I definitely think I will be continuing it!
Lastly was The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. This had been on my list for a while and I'm happy I finally sat down to read it! It follows a family over a number of years, but focuses first and foremost on the family's first year as missionaries in the Congo. One thing I liked about this book is that it is written from the 5 main female characters (the mother and 4 daughters) points of view. But the mother's is always looking back and in past tense while the daughter's are always in the present. You can't help but feel for the family; and the paths the 4 daughters go down are so vastly different! I don't admit to being a great scholar on Africa's politics in the 1960s and 70s so it did kindof open my eyes a bit to what life may have been like at that time there (with a grain of salt however as it was a fiction novel). Great read from start to finish!
Books Read in 2014:
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Burned by Ellen Hopkins
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
A Grief Observed by CS Lewis
The Monument Men by Robert Edsel
The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith Beer
Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass Isak Dinesen
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Looking for Alaska by John Green
When Life Comes Undone by TJ Addington
Number the Stars by Lois Lowery
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Where There's Smoke by Jodi Picoult
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
First I finished The Peppered Moth which I had previously started in June. As much as I wanted it to, it never fully captured me like I hoped it would. It seemed to jump a bit going from person to person within the same overall family tree. Each person was moderately interesting, but it just never fully meshed well for me. At the end I was just feeling like I just watched a scripted reality TV show. It was that feeling of kindof getting a feel for someone, but never feeling as though they were as open and had as much depth as you had hoped.
On the other hand, I was instantly hooked with The Maze Runner by James Dashner! Looking over the books I've read this year it's obvious I don't really read a lot of science fiction, or dystopian type of books. And yet oddly enough-I do really like that genre! Maze Runner captured the spirit of adventure and the unknown right away. When even your main character and narrator has no idea about his past, where he is, who he is, or even how old he is-it makes for a pretty interesting ride! Add in some survivalist fears, some mystery, and then a big twist at the end and I love it! It's part of a series and I definitely think I will be continuing it!
Lastly was The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. This had been on my list for a while and I'm happy I finally sat down to read it! It follows a family over a number of years, but focuses first and foremost on the family's first year as missionaries in the Congo. One thing I liked about this book is that it is written from the 5 main female characters (the mother and 4 daughters) points of view. But the mother's is always looking back and in past tense while the daughter's are always in the present. You can't help but feel for the family; and the paths the 4 daughters go down are so vastly different! I don't admit to being a great scholar on Africa's politics in the 1960s and 70s so it did kindof open my eyes a bit to what life may have been like at that time there (with a grain of salt however as it was a fiction novel). Great read from start to finish!
Books Read in 2014:
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Burned by Ellen Hopkins
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
A Grief Observed by CS Lewis
The Monument Men by Robert Edsel
The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith Beer
Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass Isak Dinesen
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Looking for Alaska by John Green
When Life Comes Undone by TJ Addington
Number the Stars by Lois Lowery
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Where There's Smoke by Jodi Picoult
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen
The Peppered Moth by Margaret Drabble
The Peppered Moth by Margaret Drabble
