Athena's Reading List 2014

[pontalba]

Great breakdown, Gaia! And excellent reading. . You're a great analyst, to be sure.

 

 

 

Ooh, thanks for those - they do look nice.

 

 

 

I want to read more of the cosy Inspector Gamache series, and also want to read more from South America and Spain ( I`ve got Mario Vargas Llosa`s Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, and a couple more from Carlos Ruiz Zafon, plus Night Train to Lisbon).

 

I also want to look at some European mysteries ; I came across this Dutch one, I don`t know if you`ve read any of them ?

Ohhhhhh! more for my list! Hah! I like the Penny books too.

 

Actually I have the Mercier and the Zafon on the shelf already. Just ordered the Dutch one.

Edited July 1, 2014 by pontalba

[Athena]

Great breakdown, Gaia! And excellent reading. . You're a great analyst, to be sure.

Thanks Kate .

[Karsa Orlong]

Peter F. Hamilton - Commonwealth Saga 2: Judas Unchained

 

 

Genre: Science-fiction

Age-range: Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 1235

Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's part two of a duology)

 

My thoughts: After reading the first part of this duology I was quite eager to read the second and final part of it.

 

This book continues the story that began in Pandora's Star. I quite enjoyed reading the second part of it. It's a pretty tense book, you want to keep on reading to find out what happens.

 

The major problem I had with it was the pacing. At some points in the story, it moved slow because of a lot of descriptions. This bothered me less in book one, but particularly in the second half of book two this bothered me because I wanted to get on with the action. Instead, at times, the author talks for three pages about the particular landscape that the characters are moving across. It's interesting but I really want to know what happens with the overall plot! The book could have done with a bit more editing and condensing it. That was really my major gripe.

 

The characters were pretty good. There are a lot of them but I didn't find them too hard to keep track of. Some I liked more than others (in particular I liked Paula a lot), but all had their redeeming qualities. The world is very well made (as in the first book) and I enjoyed reading about for example the technologies. While the first book of course had more worldbuilding than the second, I felt I understood things straight away this time around.

 

There are a lot of plot twists in the book, most of which I didn't see coming. I really enjoyed reading this book (minus the problem mentioned above) and spending time with the characters and the world. Overall I would recommend the Night's Dawn trilogy before this duology, but if you like science-fiction and have already read the Night's Dawn trilogy and want to read more of the author's work (and don't mind the descriptions too much), I'd recommend this duology. There are a lot of interesting ideas in it and it's a good story with great characters.

 

Rating: **** (9/10)

 

 

Only just catching up with threads, thanks to my pc problems    Glad you enjoyed Judas Unchained.  I didn't like it quite so much    In fact, if it hadn't been so big and heavy, I probably would've thrown it across the room at certain points (but it probably would've broken stuff, so just as well I didn't  ).  I was such a big fan of Hamilton's books up to that point, but I've not read any more since    Totally agree about Paula Myo, though

[Athena]

Only just catching up with threads, thanks to my pc problems    Glad you enjoyed Judas Unchained.  I didn't like it quite so much    In fact, if it hadn't been so big and heavy, I probably would've thrown it across the room at certain points (but it probably would've broken stuff, so just as well I didn't  ).  I was such a big fan of Hamilton's books up to that point, but I've not read any more since    Totally agree about Paula Myo, though

It's a shame you didn't enjoy it as much. Do you plan to read more of Hamilton's work or are you no longer interested? I have his Void trilogy on my TBR as well as two of the Greg Mandel books and a few others by him.

[Karsa Orlong]

It's a shame you didn't enjoy it as much. Do you plan to read more of Hamilton's work or are you no longer interested? I have his Void trilogy on my TBR as well as two of the Greg Mandel books and a few others by him.

 

I expect I will.  I've read most of his books: the Greg Mandel trilogy, Night's Dawn, Fallen Dragon, Manhattan in Reverse, and the Commonwealth Saga.  I've got Great North Road sitting on my Kindle but haven't gone anywhere near it as yet.  I'm sure I'll get back to him at some point, possibly after I'm up to date with Alastair Reynolds

[Little Pixie]

Great breakdown, Gaia! And excellent reading. . You're a great analyst, to be sure.

 

Ditto ! Very interesting to read the breakdown ; as you say, there`s nothing wrong with reading things `below your age` - a good book is a good book.

 

Ohhhhhh! more for my list! Hah! I like the Penny books too.

 

Actually I have the Mercier and the Zafon on the shelf already. Just ordered the Dutch one.

 

Hurray !  I can wait for you to read it then, before I add to my TBR.

 

It looks like a very popular series ( in the English versions ) - there`s lots on Goodreads about it.

Edited July 1, 2014 by Little Pixie

[Athena]

I expect I will.  I've read most of his books: the Greg Mandel trilogy, Night's Dawn, Fallen Dragon, Manhattan in Reverse, and the Commonwealth Saga.  I've got Great North Road sitting on my Kindle but haven't gone anywhere near it as yet.  I'm sure I'll get back to him at some point, possibly after I'm up to date with Alastair Reynolds

I hope you enjoy some more of his work in the future .

 

Ditto ! Very interesting to read the breakdown ; as you say, there`s nothing wrong with reading things `below your age` - a good book is a good book.

Thanks !

 

It looks like a very popular series ( in the English versions ) - there`s lots on Goodreads about it.

I feel a little embarrassed I don't know about it , I've certainly not seen it in bookshops here. Goodreads tells me the first book is called Het lijk in de Haarlemmerhouttuinen in Dutch and was published first in 1975 (so it makes sense I haven't seen it as most bookshops only stock recent works). If I ever see a book of the series for a good price I'd certainly be interested in reading it. The Dutch Wikipedia tells me it's comparable to Baantjer which I love (and incidentally is as far as I know the most famous Dutch mystery/detective series). They have made two films and one TV show of Grijpstra & De Gier. I haven't seen the films, but I remember bits of the TV show. I didn't watch it that often back then, it was more something my sister watched (she watched more things than I did I think, or at least more detective shows. My love for detectives has only been 'rekindled' the past maybe two-three years.). I didn't know it was based on a book series (this was in a time before you could just use the internet on your phone and look it up on Wikipedia within five minutes).

Edited July 1, 2014 by Athena

[Athena]

Gabrielle Zevin - Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac (re-read)

 

 

Genre: Chick-lit

Age-range: Young-Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 271

Synopsis (back of the book):Above all, mine is a LOVE story. And like most LOVE stories, this one involves chance, gravity, a dash of head trauma. It began with a coin toss. The coin came up tails; I was heads.

 

WHen Naomi wakes up in a hospital bed, she has no idea how she got there or what has happened during the last three and a half years of her life. She doesn't remember that her parents are divorced, or who her friends are at aschool, and she doesn't even know if she has a boyfriend or not.

 

When Naomi gets back to school she starts piecing the fragments of the last three and a half years together, and soon it is clear that she may not want to be united with her past quite as she left it.

 

My thoughts: I've been meaning to re-read this book for a while now. I absolutely loved it the first time I read it. It was the first young-adult book I read in English that I recall (after not having read much young-adult since I was a teenager myself), and it's always had a special place in my heart. It was also the first book I remember reading that I bought at the book fair. I went in with no expectations and loved it. I was hoping I would find the book just as brilliant upon a re-read.

 

This book didn't disappoint! I remembered some things about the book and more things I remembered as they happened. I fell in love with this book all over again. There are so many aspects to the story and I loved the writing style. I loved the vintage parts of it and the talks about music (these kinds of things remind me of my own teenage years).

 

I loved to read about the characters. Main character Naomi is great but also the other characters in the book are all unique and great to read about as Naomi talked or interacted with them.

 

The book discusses various difficult subjects, while I've classified it as chick-lit because of the funny and cute aspects, it could also be classified as the more serious 'contemporary fiction'. There's quite a lot of things going on in the book, to do with Naomi's past, her parents, her friends and her schoolwork. I loved reading about all these different aspects.

 

I have read two other books by the author, Elsewhere (which I rated 10/10) and Margarettown (which I rated 8/10) but this one is my favourite (though Elsewhere was really intruiging and good too). If you like a contemporary read with romance, friendship and other aspects, I'd fully recommend this book.

 

Rating: ***** (10/10)

[pontalba]

Ditto ! Very interesting to read the breakdown ; as you say, there`s nothing wrong with reading things `below your age` - a good book is a good book.

 

 

Hurray !  I can wait for you to read it then, before I add to my TBR.

 

It looks like a very popular series ( in the English versions ) - there`s lots on Goodreads about it.

 

   

[Little Pixie]

That teenage amnesiac books sounds good ( I do like an amnesia story : Spellbound is one of my favourite films   ).

 

I`m off to order it.

[Athena]

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did !

[Athena]

Roy Richard Grinker - Unstrange Minds: A Father Remaps the World of Autism


(this is the British cover of the book but I couldn't find a good larger picture)

Genre: Biography, Information
Age-range: Adult
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 352 (but I didn't read all of it)
Synopsis (GoodReads):Unstrange Minds documents Grinker's quest to find out why autism is so much more common today, and to uncover the implications of the increase. His search took him to Africa, India, and East Asia, to the National Institutes of Mental Health, and to the mountains of Appalachia. What he discovered is both surprising and controversial: There is no true increase in autism. Grinker shows that the identification and treatment of autism depends on culture just as much as on science. As more and more cases of autism are documented, doctors are describing the disorder better, school systems are coding it better--and children are benefiting. Filled with moving stories and informed by the latest science, Unstrange Minds is unlike any other book on autism. It is a powerful testament to a father's quest for the truth, and is urgently relevant to anyone whose life is touched by one of history's most puzzling disorders.

My thoughts: I got this book for free at a book fair. It is I think the only information book on autism that I owned, that I hadn't read yet (I do have some biographies to read about someone with autism). I decided to read it, while waiting for the book on ADHD to arrive (which is what I really wanted to read). I should point out somewhere in this review that the author has a daughter with autism and he is an antropologist.

The book is split up into two parts. The first part deals with the history of diagnosing autism, the second with autism around the world and more personal stories. I found most of the first part to be quite interesting. One thing that bugged me was the focus on the US system. I found it a bit painful to read about how certain things were back in those days. The book is written by someone in the US, so this focus makes sense of course, but since I don't know much about the US education system and US health system in the 1990s, it was sometimes a bit hard to understand. The last chapter of the first part had lots of numbers and statistics in it, and this was too much for me so I skimmed it. I liked the parts where the author talked about his own daughter and what the process was like for her. I also had a bit of trouble with the parts where some people suggested autism was caused by vaccines. Back then this wasn't sure and the author nicely left it in the middle what he thought, but it's always annoyed me since I didn't believe autism was caused by vaccines (neither did my parents). To me it's something I was born with, not something I suddenly got. Recently there has been research that has finally disproven it, my mum told me (as a medical doctor she tends to know these things).

Anyway, on to part two of the book. The first chapter had to do with his daughter and I enjoyed that. The rest of the chapters I skimmed and then skipped because they couldn't hold my interest. I find it hard to read about countries very different to what I'm used to, because I have trouble imagining what it's like unless it's properly described. My mojo wasn't feeling well and retreated more and more.

Overall then I quite enjoyed reading most of the first half of the book, about the history of the diagnosis and about the author's daughter. The second half I didn't enjoy and couldn't hold my attention long enough to read it all. Since it was a free book I'm not too disappointed overall. I'm not sure if it's something I would've bought if it hadn't been free (unless maybe at a cheap price).

Rating: *** (6/10)

[Athena]

Roald Dahl - Going Solo



Genre: Biography
Age-range: Children's
Format: Paperback
Pages: 210
Synopsis (GoodReads):The second part of Roald Dahl's extraordinary life story. Here he is grown up: first in Africa, then learning to be a wartime fighter pilot. It is a story that is funny, frightening and full of fantasy - as you would expect.

My thoughts: This is the last book in my Roald Dahl boxset of children's books that I had left to read. I've been reading one each read-a-thon so when it was the July 2014 read-a-thon I read this book.
I had some problems with this book. First off, I found some parts a lot more interesting than others. I skipped / skimmed the last part of the book, because it couldn't hold my attention. My mojo was failing me. It didn't help it was already a bit low to begin with after I abandoned the second half of Unstrange Minds by Roy Richard Grinker.

The first part of the book was about Roald Dahl going to Africa, to work at Shell. I would've liked some more details on what he did in his job for Shell, as someone who's studied chemistry I'd be quite interested to hear what his job entailed. I enjoyed reading about the boat journey the author took to the place he ended up in (I can't remember the name at the moment, but the book has a map). The second part of the book was about him becoming a pilot in the second World War.

As far as I knew, the book was written for children, but I found some language hard to grasp for them. One part of a sentence seemed wholly inappropriate to me these days so I'm going to assume it meant something different back in the time the book was written. The book had some words in it I didn't know or that I thought I knew what they meant but perhaps the meaning was different. It also seems to be written for older children or teenagers or adults, since it didn't explain much at all about the second World War. I don't know what age children get taught about this at school in Britain (it's a British book), but in the Netherlands back in my days you had to be in I think maybe 'groep 5' to hear more details about this.

I found it really hard to imagine why Roald suddenly wanted to become a military pilot. If there were any signals in the book or in Boy that he had aspirations of this, I must've missed it. I didn't understand why all of a sudden the civilian Germans were seen as bad as in my opinion they hadn't done anything wrong - just their government had. I do understand that letting them go back to the homeland isn't a good idea but otherwise..

I thought the actions of a boy of a tribe involving a German civilian seemed very unnecessary and I found it hard that Roald supported him (not that I would've want him to turn the boy away but..). I didn't get why Roald or anyone for that matter would go into a situation knowing the odds are very much against them, and that they're likely to die. I enjoyed reading about his training to be a pilot but I didn't enjoy the last part of the book so I skimmed through it.

Overall I enjoyed some parts of the book but not others. I definitely prefer to read his fiction children's work, I realise it's not a fair comparison perhaps but I much more enjoyed Matilda or The Witches.

Rating: *** (5/10)

[Athena]

Ann M. Martin - The BabySitter's Club 15: Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn (re-read)



Genre: Chick-lit
Age-range: Children's, Young-Adult
Format: Paperback
Pages: 136
Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's part of a series) (basically though, some of the children want to enter the Miss Stoneybrook competition and it's up to the Babysitters to help them).

My thoughts: It was another read-a-thon, so I read the next book in the BabySitter's Club series.

It's always nice to read these books. As per usual, I didn't fully feel like reading it beforehand (thinking it might be a bit childish) but once I started reading I enjoyed feeling the nostalgia and remembering the other times I read this book. It was great to read about the babysitters and the children they babysat. There is another plot line interwoven in the plot, about Dawn and her family. I also enjoyed reading this storyline. I quite enjoyed reading this book and look forward to read all of the series (that I own). I hope to one day read and own them all. Since I only own some in English and more in Dutch (though a lot wasn't published in Dutch), I might at some point re-read all the Dutch ones too (some are falling apart a bit ). They're releasing a lot of them on the Kindle too so might buy some more of those too. Anyway, overall I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to read more in the series during the next read-a-thon. The book helped restore bits of my mojo.

Rating: ***** (10/10)

[Athena]

A. C. Baantjer and Simon de Waal - De Waal & Baantjer 6: Een Mes in de Rug



Genre: Detective
Age-range: Adult
Format: Paperback
Pages: 181
Synopsis (me):A body is found in a hotel room. It looks like the man died of a heart attack, but once the detectives take a better look it might be murder.

My thoughts: It was another read-a-thon, so I read another detective book. I've been quite enjoying this series and I don't own number five (it's on my wishlist), so I continued with number six.

This review isn't going to be a whole lot different from my reviews for the other books in the series I've read (books two, three and four, I also don't have number one (wishlist)). The story was again very enjoyable and very good. There was a lot of suspense, I wanted to keep on reading to find out what had happened. I really enjoyed reading this book. Both this book and the BSC book (Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn restored my mojo a bit.

Rating: ***** (9/10)

[Athena]

Dagmar Geisler - Vriendjes Verboden



Genre: Chick-lit
Age-range: Young-Adult
Format: Paperback
Pages: 175
Synopsis (me):This is a story about two best friends who agree with each other they'll never fall in love with a boy. Then one of them does.

My thoughts: I picked this book up at the charity shop a while ago. I decided to read it for the read-a-thon because it was last in the pile of 'Dutch Young-Adult books I bought at the charity shop recently' (until I bought some more in another shop, anyway..).

This book was translated from German. It's told from two points of views, of the two main characters (Georgie and Melle). Each character has their own font, so it's easier to distinguish one from the other. The synopsis of the book sounds like it could be a bit cheesy and simple, but the book was more than that. There were other issues going on and more characters in the story. A few of the plot twists were predictable, but others less so. I quite enjoyed reading this book, more than I thought I would. I didn't know anything about the book other than the synopsis on the back of the book and I guess sometimes it's good to start a book with not much expectations. I really liked the characters in this book and found it easy to sympathise with the main characters, particularly Georgie (the one who doesn't fall in love). I also quite liked reading about the side characters, the parents of both girls for example, particularly their mothers.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book. It had a good writing style, great characters and had more layers to it than I was expecting.

I've never had a best friend like in this book. I always like reading about friendship though, maybe because I never had a friend like it? That said, I'm fully happy with my boyfriend who's also my best friend ::.

Rating: ***** (9/10)

[Athena]

George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire Graphic Novels 1: A Game of Thrones Boek 1



Genre: Fantasy
Age-range: Adult
Format: Comic
Pages: 64
Synopsis:The start of the A Song of Ice and Fire series in comic book format.

My thoughts: I saw this book on a book fair and was curious. I love the A Song of Ice and Fire series and since comics are usually pretty short I decided to read this one for the read-a-thon of July 2014.

The book follows the beginning of the story in A Game of Thrones (the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series). It was really nice to look at the illustrations. The artist has a very unique style. Some of the characters don't look like the ones in the TV show, others do. The comic book series is meant as something seperate and is based on the books and not the TV series. I thought this was quite nice. Some of the faces were a little angular, it takes a little bit of time to get used to them.

I read the Dutch version, which means some of the places and names have been translated into Dutch. An example, Jon Snow is now called Jon Sneeuw and his wolf is called Spook instead of Ghost (and Kingslanding is Koningslanding etc.). On the whole they're pretty much literal translations but it threw me off on occasion because to me Jon is called Snow, I don't translate it in my head to Sneeuw or anything. It makes sense of course for Dutch people and perhaps in the Dutch books the names and places are also translated.

I liked seeing the characters and environments drawn. I prefer the books of course, I always do, but it's nice to read the story in a different format. I could follow the story rather well, to me it was easy to follow though I don't know what it'd be like for someone who's never heard of the ASoIaF series (but then again you'd not be that likely to pick up the comic book based on a book series that you haven't heard of, perhaps).

Overall I enjoyed reading this and while I won't be rushing out to get the others in this series (for book two, see the review of that) for full price, if I see any again on the book fair I may buy them as I enjoyed reading this.

Rating: **** (8/10)

[Athena]

George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire Graphic Novels 1: A Game of Thrones Boek 2



Genre: Fantasy
Age-range: Adult
Format: Comic
Pages: 64
Synopsis:The continuation of the start of the A Song of Ice and Fire series in comic book format.

My thoughts: After reading the first comic for the read-a-thon (July 2014) I decided to read the second comic book straight after.

I can't say a whole lot here that I didn't already say in my previous review. The story continues where comic book one left off. I enjoyed seeing the characters and read the story.

Rating: **** (8/10)

[Athena]

Berthold Gunster - Omdenken



Genre: Information
Age-range: Adult
Format: Paperback
Pages: 64
Synopsis (me):This book explains the concept of 'Omdenken'. It's a different way of looking at 'problems'.

My thoughts: This book was pretty short so I decided it would make good read-a-thon material. I own a bigger book by the author (Yes - but what if it all works out? (translated from Dutch into English) as well as another small book (Omdenken: Relaties. All three books were bought at the same book fair.

My mum has had a workshop of this author before and had told me about the concept of omdenken. I did know a few things about it before I went into the book. I thought the book explained the concept rather well, using both text, illustrations and pictures. It has to do with looking at a problem in a different way, so that it isn't a problem any more. The book has several examples of this, some fully explained, others give a case and have an explanation in the back of the book, so you can think about it yourself before you look it up. I think it's quite an interesting concept and it does make you think. I don't know if it can be applied to all problems, but the examples given were good.

Here are some quotes from the book that I liked (translated into English by me): (there are pretty pictures with some of them too)

'For the pessimist the glass is half empty. To the optimist the glass is half full. 'Omdenken' assumes a third approach: Where is the tap?'

'Children with ADHD have a serious problem, all their teachers are boring.'

'When the Israeliers first stood eye to eye with the giant Goliath their first reaction was: "That one is so big, we can never beat him.". David however said: "That one is so big, I can never miss him.'

'What do children do when it rains?' (picture of a child in rain clothing jumping in a puddle with water)
'What do adults do when it rains?' (picture of two adults holding newspapers over their heads)

Overall I quite enjoyed reading this book and it's certainly food for thought. Sometimes more can be accomplished by using a different tactic than 'the obvious' which doesn't work. The book states that when problems arise, people tend to resist against them, which makes things go from bad to worse. The book says that in English this is called a 'disimprovement', in German a 'Verschlimmbesserung'. I hadn't heard of either of these words so I couldn't really comment on that.

I quite enjoyed this little book, it was informative and interesting, with great pictures, examples and quotes.

Rating: ***** (9/10)

[Athena]

Berthold Gunster - Omdenken in Relaties



Genre: Information
Age-range: Adult
Format: Paperback
Pages: 64
Synopsis (me):This book explains the concept of 'Omdenken' applied to relationships.

My thoughts: I decided to read this short book for the read-a-thon.

For more information on the author or the concept of 'omdenken', see my review of Berthold Gunster - Omdenken. This book applies the principles of omdenken to relationships between people. The concept of 'mirroring' (spiegelen) is also explained, as well as the concept of 'omspiegelen'. The book talks about that it's important to respect and accept other people and to look at their positive aspects rather than focus on their negative ones.

Here's a quote from the book I quite liked:

'When life gives you lemons, ask for salt and tequila.'

Overall I quite enjoyed reading this book and thought it was interesting. I look forward to read the 'Yes, but what if it all works out?' book by the same author.

Rating: ***** (9/10)

[Athena]

Sophie van der Stap - Buiten Spelen

 

 

Genre: Biography

Age-range: Adult

Format: Hardback

Pages: 63

Synopsis (me):A biographical book about the rules of society and whether we can also be happy by going against them.

 

My thoughts: I bought this book at the book fair a while ago and thought it was short so it'd be good for read for a read-a-thon.

 

The book postulates a concept of everyone living in their own fishbowl and whether we wouldn't be happier living outside of it. I thought this metaphor was interesting but didn't quite get what the author was getting at. A lot of the story takes place in Paris, which is where the author lives. She has gone through cancer when she was younger and wrote a book about that. Unfortunately for me, not much of this book touched upon that experience (as that's something I think would've been interesting). The book talks about social rules and spirituality.

 

A large part of the book seemed to be about the author (and whether it's true or not I don't know, since she does mention some bits are made up) having many lovers (so not being in a relationship with one person but sleeping around with multiple). She seemed keen on letting "Miljonaire" pay for lots of things for example. I didn't understand at all why she would behave like this, as it's something I don't think I would ever do. I found it hard to understand why she didn't want a relationship with one person rather than having all these quick superficial flings.

 

I would've liked the book to be more philosophical rather than just telling about which men she meets and how that goes. I failed to see the point of the book (she was asked to write a philosophical / spritual essay). Maybe someone else would get more out of this, I didn't enjoy it that much and found it confusing and boring.

 

Rating: ** (4/10)

[Athena]

Virginia Andrews - De Beers 0: Duister Zaad (Dark Seed)

 

 

Genre: Chick-lit

Age-range: Young-Adult

Format: Hardback

Pages: 62

Synopsis (GoodReads):Dark Seed, reveals the disturbing early days of Willow DeBeers, the "dark seed" of the DeBeers family. This prequel to Willow, the highly anticipated first novel chronicling the DeBeers family, hints at the dark shadows that can haunt forever. Find out what secrets lie behind the begining of the tragic and flawed DeBeers family. Revealed as only V.C. Andrews can.

 

My thoughts: This was another short book that I thought might be good to read during a read-a-thon. I bought it at a library sale.

 

It's been quite a few years since I read any books by Virginia Andrews. It was good to read one again. I've read the first three books in the De Beers series (or the Willow series as it's called in Dutch). The book did a good job to introduce the characters. The writing style was as I remembered it and I quite liked that. I liked the psychiatry aspects of the story. It was nostalgic to read a book like this, since I used to read quite a bit of Virginia Andrews' books when I was a teenager. I love finding out the secrets in the books but don't like some of the usual plotlines that often occur in the books. The secrets in this book were pretty good and nice to read about. The book was easy to read. All in all I'm glad I bought it. I should re-read it at a later time and then read the three De Beers books I have. I have a couple of Virginia Andrews books that I haven't read yet, it should be good to read them at some point.

 

Rating: **** (8/10)

[nursenblack]

I've never seen a cover that has V.C. Andrews first name written.  All of the ones here say V.C.  That's pretty interesting.

[Athena]

That is interesting! I've never thought about it but upon a look on my shelf, my Dutch copies do say Virginia Andrews (the few English ones I have, don't). Maybe they thought it'd go over better with a Dutch audience to display the name like that?

[Athena]

I ordered lots of books a while ago and it shouldn't be long anymore before they're all here. Then I'll catalogue them all. Next week our library is having a sale, so I'll be going there too to see if there's any nice books, too. So there'll be a long list of books and maybe some pictures in a bit.. .

 

(but after that I'm not allowing myself to buy many books for a while. I'll be busy in the bakery anyway though with unpacking etc. I will be buying supplies for that, such as lamps.. this is a tough month for my bank account.)

Edited July 9, 2014 by Athena