January 2014 Readling List

Happy New Year! Even though I have no set goal for numbers of books to read in 2014, I still want to record what I have read and impressions of those books.  With that being said the following books are what I completed this past month:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J K Rowling
2. The Seventh Day by Scott Shepherd
3. Revelations by Elaine Pagels
4. The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card
5. The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck
6. The Zero by Jess Walter

Finally finished the Harry Potter series.  Haven't finished watching the movies yet but I almost think they couldn't capture the pictures in my mind.  I do have to admit though that Part 1 so far has kept pretty close to the book.  Definitely glad I read the books though.  I even did a QuizUp challenge based on the books and did ok!

With Seventh Day I had no idea what to expect.  A pirate ship floating across the land?  That's weird (and never really got explained).  By the end I was pretty much hooked and I'll be looking for the sequel(s).  It was written as a serial so Shepherd had no way to go back and revise previous portions of the story.  That being said it is still pretty cohesive.

I'm a sucker for debunking history as we understand it and especially history twisted by religious institutions.  So if you're up for that then you'd love this non fictional account of the true purpose of the Book of Revelation.  Not my first by Pagels and certainly won't be my last.

I really enjoyed Lost Gate and already have Gate Thief on my virtual shelf.  Classic Card stuff.  He weaves together many of the magical histories of different cultures into one framework and then extends it across planets.  Perhaps not as good as Alvin or Ender but still very enjoyable.

The Good Earth is practically a classic.  I enjoyed it as the writing was solid and intelligent.  However it read as a "story" in the traditional sense of how a storyteller might relay it and I found that a little distracting at times.  This book was followed by two sequels but you get the sense at the end of Good Earth that the story is done.  I am with it anyway.

If you enjoyed Beautiful Ruins then leave it at that.  The Zero is nothing like that.  Don't get me wrong -- it's a clever story but I should've been paying attention to what other folks have said about it.  The protagonist has "gaps in his memory" which relates to gaps in the narrative which I think detract from the flow.  I got lost so often I despaired of ever finishing.  At the end I almost felt let down but I do have to give Walter credit where its due -- he has a masterful skill but I don't think this use of that skill is universally received.