Shin's 2010 Reads

[Shin]

Well, my resolution this year is certainly broken. I had every intention of reading alot of books in my TBR list before buying or borrowing from the library. That didn't last too long. Then I decided it was best to not borrow more than two books at a time from the library because I always feel as if I am rush reading them to take them back in time. Well, that went out the window also.

 

Any, after borrowing The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde the other day I thought I was doing great but I called in tonight after work (is it just me who gets really excited going to the library?) to see if they do Lord of the Rings in audio for DH. Got it order but also came out with three other books.

 

So, I have to add the follow to my priority TBR list.

 

A Faint Cold Fear - Karin Slaughter

Indelible - Karin Slaughter

The Lost Book of Salem - Katherine Howe

 

The one consolation is that all of the above is on my Wishlist.

 

I am only on page 113 of The Lovely Bones and I have started A Faint Cold Fear. I just really can't decide on what I want to read as I also read a few pages of The Eyre Affair!!!! Spoiled for choice.

[catwoman]

I also get excited about going to the library.

 

Good boks I have read all three and liked them all. I thought the lost book of Salem was Ok but personally I like more thriller and action, as for Slaughter, I look forward to hearing your reviews.

[Shin]

I am determined to complete the Grant County series, CW.

I really want to know if my suspicion is correct.

 

I read a review on here about The Lost Book of Salem and thought I'd give it a go. The librarian noticed I was taking this book out and said that if I like those sort of books she recommends Barbara Erskine. Well, the book she was recommending was Daughters of Fire as it was sitting on the counter but I think she was recommending the author generally. While I am not sure what this book is like so if I like it I may put Ms Erskine on my list. Are they chicklits?

 

Anyway, I have been wondering were I have heard or seen Barbara Erskine books before and it has just dawned...my mum.

[catwoman]

I have never heardof her, but the lost book of Salem is not a Chick-lit, but there is a little romance.

 

Good though, there are so many good reviews of the book. I may keep an eye out of that other author.

[Shin]

Synopsis: Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in the toil of his father before him, fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. Then he dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever. As the story builds to its stunning conclusion, Eddie desperately seeks redemption in the still-unknown last act of his life. Was it a heroic success or a devastating failure? The answer is as magical and inspirational as a glimpse of heaven itself.

 

This is a wonderfully written, warm hearted and heart breaking story. It gave me a totally different view of life after death and somewhat gave me some peace with the loss of my daddy just over two years ago. It may not be a story to read if you have just lost someone recently but definitely worth reading when ready.

 

The story tells of 82 year old war veteran, Eddie and his struggles of life and coming to terms with those struggles even after death. As many people, Eddie has many regrets in his living life and through meeting these certain five people, makes him understand that the regrets he had for events in his life, there were reason behind them. This brought it quite close to home for me. My dad died 11 weeks after being diagnosed with gall bladder cancer at the age of 62. After this time he said many times that he was a stupid man. We never did ask him what did he mean by this. I suppose we were afraid of his answer and now we do regret not asking him. So we don't know if he thought he was stupid for not seeing to his pains earlier or if he regrets for things he had done in his life. Whatever, he meant, after reading this book I think now that he knows that he wasn't stupid and there were reasons for his actions.

 

A truly lovely read and highly recommend book.

 

Rating: 5/5

[Shin]

I just got the above book in the post today and finished it five hours later.

Does that tell you something? I was just leafing through it to see what it was like and I just couldn't put it down.

[Charm]

Wow 5 hours? I'm impressed Shin, that was fast! It must have been really good, did you manage to breathe at all while you were reading

[Inver]

 

This is a wonderfully written, warm hearted and heart breaking story. It gave me a totally different view of life after death and somewhat gave me some peace with the loss of my daddy just over two years ago. It may not be a story to read if you have just lost someone recently but definitely worth reading when ready.

 

A truly lovely read and highly recommend book.

 

Rating: 5/5

Great you enjoyed it so much Shin....I had recently lost someone very close to me (my mum). I had put it on my wishlist that year for xmas (and we lost her just before xmas) and I ended up reading it a few days after xmas. In a way I actually found it helped me come to terms with the loss in a way!!

[Lilywhite]

I loved this book and at times couldn't read for the tears in my eyes. It's just beautiful.

[pipread]

Great you enjoyed it so much Shin....I had recently lost someone very close to me (my mum). I had put it on my wishlist that year for xmas (and we lost her just before xmas) and I ended up reading it a few days after xmas. In a way I actually found it helped me come to terms with the loss in a way!!

 

 

I really want to read this book but after reading Shins comment and having recently lost my Dad was wondering whether I should, just yet, then I read your comment Inver and now I`m thinking maybe I should read it now anyway.

[Shin]

I really want to read this book but after reading Shins comment and having recently lost my Dad was wondering whether I should, just yet, then I read your comment Inver and now I`m thinking maybe I should read it now anyway.

 

I think it would be a lovely book for you to read pipread. Personally, this book has gave me hope that my dad is now in a painful heaven. So sorry to hear about your dad.

[Shin]

I loved this book and at times couldn't read for the tears in my eyes. It's just beautiful.

 

I can truly say it has been my favourite read this year so far.

[Shin]

Synopsis: My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. My murderer was a man from our neighborhood. My mother liked his border flowers, and my father talked to him once about fertilizer. This is Susie Salmon. Watching from heaven, Susie sees her happy, suburban family devastated by her death, isolated even from one another as they each try to cope with their terrible loss alone. Over the years, her friends and siblings grow up, fall in love, do all the things she never had the chance to do herself. But life is not quite finished with Susie yet ...

 

The Lovely Bones is narrated by 14 year old Susie Salmon who was murder by George Harvey, somewhat respected but strange man from Susie's neighbourhood. Susie watches her family and friends from a gazebo in her version of heaven. She watches her family fall to pieces and her siblings growing up. Susie so much wants to be alive and have the things her sister Lindsey is experiencing that she did not get to experience when she was alive. She also watches her murderer, Mr Harvey who has a thing for building dolls houses. In the meantime her father is obsessed with finding out who his daughters killer is. He suspects Mr Harvey from the very beginning but no believes him.

 

This is a tragic tale and the story for me was a little hard to read. But again, I found the afterlife aspect really lovely and yet again gave me hope that there is something out there for our love ones to go and that there is a possibility that they are with you everywhere you go. I like to think my dad is watching over me.

 

I also found that the author had a tendency to describe certain things in great detail that sometimes I didn't think it was needed. I think this was the reason that I found it hard to finish. I just found unnecessary descriptions and willing the author to get back to the story.

 

 

This is not the average tale of murder, as in the killer is caught. This is something that I think all readers would be expecting from a story like this but it never comes. The mother has an affair with the policeman investigating the case then she leave Susie's father and doesn't return until years later. In the meantime Mr Harvey leaves the neighbour because Lindsey finds evidence to connect him to Susie's murder. Still Susie's body is never found and they never find Mr Harvey. In all fairness Mr Harvey dies in the end but I really would have loved for the police to catch him and find Susie's body for peace of mind for her family.

 

 

I think that everyone would have different opinions about this book. I would recommend everyone should read The Lovely Bones.

 

Rating: 4/5

 

[Shin]

I have finally added my classics to my TBR list with the following:

 

Anthony Hope - The Prisoner of Zenda

Bram Stoker - Darcula

Captain Marryat - The Children of the New Forest

Charles Dickens - The Christmas Books (A Christmas Carol|The Chimes|The Cricket on the Hearth)

Charles Dickens - Hard Times

Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist

Charles Dickens - Little Dorrit

Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities

Charles & Mary Lamb - Tales from Shakespeare

E. Nesbit - The Railway Children

Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Secret Garden

George Eliot - Silas Marner

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen - Persuasion

Kate Douglas Wiggin - Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Robert Louis Stevenson - Treasure Island

 

The books above I got as Christmas gifts from my parent when I was younger and never really got to read them. They were from the Classic Advertures series and Penguin Popular Classics.

[Shin]

I have purchased four books from Green Met with the books I have sold on there.

 

I am currently waiting for:

 

Animal Farm - George Orwell

Birthing House - Christopher Ransom

Cairo Diary - Maim Chattam

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

[Charm]

Great review on The Lovely Bones Shin and some interesting titles you have there to add to your TBR pile! I love Dracula, my absolute favourite classic/vamp, I hope you like it

 

I almost started The Lovely Bones but went for The Resurrectionist instead, I think I'll pick it up next though

[poppyshake]

Thanks for the reviews Shin 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven' and 'The Lovely Bones' are two that I have waiting in the wings to read.

I am a bit apprehensive about reading them as they are obviously quite melancholic and having lost family members recently I don't know how it will make me feel to read them but I'm encouraged by your reviews.

[pipread]

Thanks Shin I`m definately going to buy, The Five People You Meet in Heaven tomorrow, thanks for that review.

[Shin]

Great review on The Lovely Bones Shin and some interesting titles you have there to add to your TBR pile! I love Dracula, my absolute favourite classic/vamp, I hope you like it

 

I almost started The Lovely Bones but went for The Resurrectionist instead, I think I'll pick it up next though

 

I have had Dracula for many years and for a vamp buff like myself I just don't know why I haven't read the book before.

 

I think you need to be in the right frame of mind for The Lovely Bones so I can understand why you are reading another book.

[Shin]

Thanks for the reviews Shin 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven' and 'The Lovely Bones' are two that I have waiting in the wings to read.

I am a bit apprehensive about reading them as they are obviously quite melancholic and having lost family members recently I don't know how it will make me feel to read them but I'm encouraged by your reviews.

 

Sorry to hear of you losses poppyshake. As for reading these books after a loss, I don't think it would harm in your griefing process. It was the heaven aspect that made me feel more comfortable about my loss and the thought that our love one are still around us somewhere. I recommend reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven first. The Lovely Bones is a bit harder in terms of how the little girl dies and the effects it has on the people left behind. I recommend having another book on the go while reading this book, maybe a light hearted one.

[Shin]

Thanks Shin I`m definately going to buy, The Five People You Meet in Heaven tomorrow, thanks for that review.

 

Your welcome pipread, I got the book through a bookring by Diane (Inver). Maybe you can join that instead of buying it but I think it is worth buying and keeping. I am going to purchase the book for myself too.

[poppyshake]

Sorry to hear of you losses poppyshake. As for reading these books after a loss, I don't think it would harm in your griefing process. It was the heaven aspect that made me feel more comfortable about my loss and the thought that our love one are still around us somewhere. I recommend reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven first. The Lovely Bones is a bit harder in terms of how the little girl dies and the effects it has on the people left behind. I recommend having another book on the go while reading this book, maybe a light hearted one.

 

 

Thank you so much, I definitely will read Mitch's book first. I am aware of the subject matter for 'The Lovely Bones' .. so I definitely need a bit of courage before attempting it and I'll take on board your advice about having another book on the go (I do that a lot anyway if a book is sad or complicated).

[Shin]

Received all my Green Met books today.

 

And I think I forgot to mention I got 5 books from the charity shop about a week ago. All 5 were for

Edited March 1, 2010 by Shin

[pipread]

Your welcome pipread, I got the book through a bookring by Diane (Inver). Maybe you can join that instead of buying it but I think it is worth buying and keeping. I am going to purchase the book for myself too.

 

 

Thanks for that but I bought it and I`ve nearly finished it now. I have enjoyed it so far ( not too many tears either!) I like the idea that that`s what I`ll find when I die.

[Shin]

Synopsis from Waterstones: There is another 1985, somewhere in the could-have-been, where the Crimean war still rages, dodos are regenerated in home-cloning kits and everyone is deeply disappointed by the ending of 'Jane Eyre'. In this world there are no jet-liners or computers, but there are policemen who can travel across time, a Welsh republic, a great interest in all things literary - and a woman called Thursday Next. In this utterly original and wonderfully funny first novel, Fforde has created a fiesty, loveable heroine and a plot of such richness and ingenuity that it will take your breath away.

 

Literature Detective for Special Operations Network, Thursday Next takes us on an adventure in capturing the third most wanted villian, Acheron Hades before he destroys the famous classic, Jane Erye. It is a strange plot and in a totally different 1985, a world were literature is their being. The Crimean war never ended and there is dodos of all versions.

 

At the beginning I thought I was going to stuggle reading this book but I was so wrong. I disappeared inside this book. I can't say more. Enjoyable, funny and now I am definitely going to be putting Jane Eyre on my TBR list.

 

Rating: 5/5