Sunday, April 24, 2011

I'm a Reading Fool!

So, when I came up here five months ago, I had a little extra time on my hands and a lot more darkness.  It was a challenge finding my footing and settling into a new routine after the absolutely chaotic live I had in Vernal.  There never seemed to be enough time to do all the things I needed to do down there!  It has been a while (with the exception of the Twilight series that I read in a week) since I have read anything but gospel based books.  I've been a teacher for quite some time and I've always tried to stay on top of things by studying all the time.  Anyhoooo....  That all changed when I got up here with more time on my hands and a snoring husband that kept me from even trying to attempt sleep before midnight.  The following is the list of books I have read over the last five months as well as my personal rating:

Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy
The Hunger Games - 384 pages
Catching Fire - 391 pages
Mockingjay - 400 pages
A rather dark story line that I questioned in the beginning but by the end I was totally obsessed.  This is being made into a movie supposed to be released next year.  Awesome trilogy with a full five star rating.

Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments Trilogy--with an added fourth being released this month!
City of Bones - 496 pages
City of Ashes - 496 pages
City of Glass - 576 pages
This series goes along the lines of the hidden world of those magical people living among us.  I loved it and give it a good five star rating too. 

Richard Paul Evan's
Grace - 307 pages
I got this because I thought it was going to be a nice Christmas book that would help me get into the mood of the season.  Hated the book.  Actually, it wasn't a bad read but I hated the ending because it wasn't the mood lightening read that I had hoped for and it ended horribly.  Stars...eh...one.

Kristin Cashore's
Graceling - 480 pages
Another book of super human powers that seems to be the main thing the younger generation thrives on these days.  I read mostly young adult novels simply because the last time I bought a book that wasn't a church book, it contained a whole heck of a lot of naughty and the young adult novels seem to try to keep that to somewhat of a minimum...sometimes.  This book earned a good three and a half stars from me.  Good but not great or compelling.

Sara Gruen's
Water for Elephants - 350 pages
I think I liked this one because it read as if you were seeing the young life of an old man through his memories of better days.  It did have a few parts that I had to skip over but it was good enough.  I'd think three stars because it was just so-so for me.

D.M. Cornish's
The Foundling's Tale, Part One - 404 pages
This was the first book in a series.  I decided to forgo the rest of the books because this seemed more young adult than the young adult type that I like.  It is also about magical and mythical beings and the struggle of a young boy to get to the end of his journey amongst all of it.  It gets a three star rating as well.

Erin Quinn's
Haunting Warrior - 372 pages
Okay, so the guy on the front of the book with long hair blowing in the wind and a six pack may have had a little influence on my buying this book--but believe me, it was more the $1 price tag at the Border's Book Store's closing that got me more than anything.  I like time travel type books where people go back in time to find their true love but this guy was totally obsessed in a way that the story got lost too often.  But, I will give it a three star because the guy FINALLY came to grips with the obvious beauty of the lady and the story did finally begin to roll.  Eh...maybe a two and a half...somewhere in there.

Lorena McCourt's
Invisible - 320 pages
Invisible was a nice change of pace.  It was free from Amazon for my Kindle Reader so I thought I'd try it out.  Pretty slow paced but good enough.  She had me laughing with a few of her analogies.  I'd say a good three stars for this one.

Amanda Hocking's Trylle Trilogy
Switched - 330 pages
Torn - 356 pages
Ascend - 294 pages
I really enjoyed this set of books!  It is about trolls but not in the sense of the billy goats gruff trolls.  It has a good flow to it as well as a little romance but the romance stays in good balance with the plot.  I downed all three of these in a little over a week.

So!  There are my recommendations!  That is just a hair under 6000 pages of mind-escaping, snore-enduring pleasure.  I have sixteen books just waiting for me to begin reading when I come back up for the winter--thanks to the Border's Bookstore closing!

No comments: