Tuesday, June 23, 2009

What I've been reading

Ranee, I was so inspired by your post that I thought I should finally post something as well. :) I promise I've been thinking about it for awhile, but haven't gotten around to it. Story of my life!

Some books I've read in the past few months:

"Waiting" by Ha Jin. It was just okay. I didn't find the plot very compelling, and I felt very little sympathy for the main character. Basic plot is a man who wants to divorce his wife in the country so he can marry his girlfriend in the city. I wasn't impressed by the ending, and a few parts of the plot seemed to be thrown in there to add some excitement, which it failed to do. It's not a bad book, but don't read it unless you have to. :)

"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. I really enjoyed this book. It was compelling and I found myself thinking "what would I do in that situation?" It wasn't always 'fun' to read because parts of the plot were emotionally difficult or painful, but that's the way life is. I also like it when novels involve a little history, and this book includes a bit of Afghanistan's rocky history. Overall, I would recommend it.

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams. YIKES! What was I thinking? I figured I would read this book because it's sort of a Sci-Fi classic, right? Boy was I disappointed! I chuckled a few times in the first couple of pages, but soon after that I was struggling to get the pages turned! I understand that it's a different style or genre than I'm used to, and now I know why to avoid that style in the future! It was an enormous waste of my time.

"My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. I read this because it was recommended by a friend, and also in preparation for the movie coming out. It was a good book; a fine book. I didn't love it, I think because I didn't really find myself emotionally connected to the characters. I didn't' really sympathize with the mother at all because I thought she was a bad parent in many ways. I was surprised by the ending, but not particularly moved. The part of the book I was most interested in was a side story about a questionable past love between two characters. I don't think that part will even be in the movie. But I'm still very curious to see what they do with the movie, because the commercials don't look too much like the book. We'll see...


Well, those are my most recent reads. I am currently reading "The Eighth Day" by Thornton Wilder. So far it is just okay, but I'm not too far into it so I'm hoping for good things. :)

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