While I feel as though I've read enough college essays submitted by high school students to fill a book, sadly they don't count. I have however read a couple other real books this month!
First up was The Magicians by Lev Grossman.This is a book that I honestly probably would have never thought to read except a member of my book club was pretty excited for it. I went into it thinking it would be a more "realistic" version of Harry Potter. As the name suggests, there is magic - and not slight of hand and pulling rabbits out of hats. It centers around a guy named Quentin who suddenly discovers he has the ability to do real magic and goes off to a magic boarding school. He is also obsessed with a children's book series in which four siblings travel to this other world to be kings and queens. If these sound familiar to you, you're not alone! The story covered many years quickly, but with minimal character development and maturity. More than anything I found myself constantly saying "Ok that's just like Harry Potter" or "oh that's just like the Narnia series", which took away from the book. Probably my favorite part was a random trip to Antartica that was more original. This is part of a series, but odds are I won't be moving forward with finishing it.
Lastly was Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult. I'm a sucker for Picoult's books. This is her latest which I have been looking
forward to for a while. Picoult had previously released two short
stories written from the perspective of two of the characters in this book as prequels (both of which I mentioned earlier in the year as I read them). I felt the prequels actually did add to the book, especially the one from the perspective of Serenity. I loved Leaving Time as I do most of her books, in part because this one dealt with the mindset
of elephants and if you add in animal behaviors my interest will
automatically be peaked. It's about a tragedy that separated a mother and
daughter when the daughter was only 3, and the daughter's search for her mother years later. One thing I enjoyed was the seamless story telling between the present day and 10 years earlier when the
incident took place. There wasn't really a dull moment. It was captivating
and yet another one of her books I enjoyed.
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 Magicians by Lev Grossman
Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks
Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
First up was The Magicians by Lev Grossman.This is a book that I honestly probably would have never thought to read except a member of my book club was pretty excited for it. I went into it thinking it would be a more "realistic" version of Harry Potter. As the name suggests, there is magic - and not slight of hand and pulling rabbits out of hats. It centers around a guy named Quentin who suddenly discovers he has the ability to do real magic and goes off to a magic boarding school. He is also obsessed with a children's book series in which four siblings travel to this other world to be kings and queens. If these sound familiar to you, you're not alone! The story covered many years quickly, but with minimal character development and maturity. More than anything I found myself constantly saying "Ok that's just like Harry Potter" or "oh that's just like the Narnia series", which took away from the book. Probably my favorite part was a random trip to Antartica that was more original. This is part of a series, but odds are I won't be moving forward with finishing it.
Next up was Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks. Once again I find myself reading a book based in WW2.
Such a good time period for books to be placed. This is kindof a mix between
girl power and true love. The main character is Charlotte, a woman who moved to
London from Scotland, and fell into love very quickly with a pilot in
the war. He ultimately disappears while on a mission over France which prompts
Charlotte to take on a task which puts her in in France in some dangerous situations but potentially
closer to finding her love. This was a book that was a bit of a slower start
for me. I admit I wasn't really in the mood to really sit down and read after
work when all I had done at work was read so that may be part of it, but it
seemed like it really picked up about halfway through when Charlotte was in
France. At that point I was totally on board and interested to see what would
happen. While I
really liked Charlotte's courage and determination, part of me wishes that it
didn't take a guy for her to get involved though.
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 Magicians by Lev Grossman
Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks
Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
