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.

December Booklist

We've reached the end of the year and the final tally was 107 books.  I added only 6 books to the total this month and I think the reasons for this were: (a) I got some kind of weird knee injury that put a hold on my running; (b) the holidays meant there were other distractions going on; and (c) there was a pressing work need forcing me to work longer hours than I normally would.  But all in all I am very happy with meeting my goal this year.  The 6 books I completed in December were:

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J K Rowling
2. 22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson
3. Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz
4. Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
5. Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See by Juliann Garey
6. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Now that I have caught up in books where I'd gotten to with the films I am very excited to complete the Harry Potter series!  And it all makes so much more sense to me now!

22 Britannia Road is a good read about a Polish couple who come together after again in 1946 after being split apart by the events of WWII.  Their different experiences of survival are what get in the way of picking up where they left off.  Well written story but just a little predictable.

I've been following along the Odd Thomas series from the beginning and Apocalypse is the 5th in the series (there's #6 out already).  I am getting a bit tired of the formula though.  Odd's narrative is always amusing and entertaining but unless events are going to come to some kind of completion in #6 I won't bother going any further.

I loved Await Your Reply.  Such an interesting topic to select to write about.  The book explores the psychological impact on different personalities as they undergo a conscious decision to reinvent themselves (or the impact of knowing someone who has disappeared in this way).  Not until the end do we learn how three seemingly different stories are linked together.  Great book that I would recommend.

Same too with Too Bright (i.e. I loved it).  I kept thinking about this story long after I completed it.  We follow the narrator's experience with his descent into and out of a severe bipolar disorder.  The way the story unfolds is every bit as fragmented as his loss and recovery of memories as treatment for the disorder ensues.

My daughter had to read Watching God for high school.  I picked it up this month out of curiosity.  Although the story is straightforward as events unfold I loved the parts of the story where the dialog has stopped and the characters contemplate.  The prose is just beautiful as the name of the book suggests.  I enjoyed stopping and thinking about the imagery of those words when the book was in this mode.

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I've decided to continue keeping a monthly summary of my readings going forward -- even though I have no set goal in mind for 2014.  If nothing else, its a record of what I've read and impressions that I have.  Some friends ask for recommendations on what to read based on my thoughts so if nothing else this blog might help others.