DECEMBER 2009

The books dated December 2009 were read during 2009

Maui Revealed

Pre Holiday Reading
Aloha Maui

Lonely Planet ~ Maui

Pre Holiday Reading
Aloha Maui

The Reader ~ Bernhard Schlink

An interesting take
But rather boring overall

It was an interesting perspective to look at the effects of WW2 on the next generation of Germans ... "sins of the fathers" stuff.

This thought provoking perspective was a background to a much more provoking aspect ~ an affair between a teenager (15) and an older woman (36). The narrative is a a little cold and remote (translation? Germanic??) and I didn't feel that engaged with the characters. But the echoes of the war and the very questionable affair are not the crux of the story ... that is Hanna's illiteracy. And to me that was too much to be the pivot of the story.

Inkheart ~ Cornelia Funke

Children's Literature
#1 of a trilogy

Mo, aka Silvertongue, is able to "read" people out of a book ... but someone from this world is "traded" back into the fictional world of the book. Mo has accidently "read" his wife back into a book and brought its evil characters here.

The story follows the adventures of Dustfinger, Mo and Meggie as they battle the evil Capricorn and Basta.

There are great quotes from literature at the start of each chapter. They are widely sourced and appropriate to the content.

My reading of the book may have been spoiled because I saw the movie first but Alphie got right into the series and read all of them.

Library of the Dead ~ Glenn Cooper

al Da Vinci Code
Enjoyable but forgettable

A reasonable page turner with an plot that keeps your interest and doesn't get too ludicrous.

An ancient scriptorium holds all the records of everyone's birth and death ~ including the future. All recordings suddenly stop on a date in a not-too-distant year. The records are under the control of a secret US government agency.

The Birth of Venus

Spare me!
OMG! Excruciating chic lit

To each his own ... but I am embarrassed having it on my reading list! This is a poorly presented "historical" novel set in Renaissance Florence.

Yuk. This is very short on historical depth and is populated with very shallow stereotypical characters.

The Angel's Game ~Carlos Ruiz Zaffon

Big disappointment
Was SO looking forward to it

It tried so hard to emulate Shadow Of The Wind but it was a convoluted mess.

The author in the story sells his soul to the Devil. The Devil wants hm to write a book creating a new religion. Who knows? Maybe Zaffon had writers' block and sold his sold to the Devil ... hope he can get a refund!

The Unlikely Voyage of Jack De Crow ~ A.J. Mackinnon

Non-fiction, humorous travelogue
A "Camilla ~ Bookwarehouse" recommendation

The author, a young Aussie school teacher, had finished his stint at an English Public School and decided to row/sail a small boat from he school, down the river, to the sea ... no ... make that London ... or, why not cross the English Channel ... and just keep going .... to the Black Sea.

This is his account of his adventures on the rivers and canals of Europe

The Selected Works of T.S.Spivet ~ Reif Larssen

Quirky in presentation & storyline
But a mixed bag.

This had larger format pages to accommodate maps, drawings, diagrams, doodles etc in the margins.

I really enjoyed the first half : A 12yo boy genius is awarded a Smithsonian prize and runs away and rides-the-rails to collect the honour.

So far, so good. Good premise, good characters.

On the train we get a mega-dose of exposition ~ narrative shoved at us to carry the plot along and to fill in gaps (of its own making). T.S. had taken his mother's diary when he left home and his reading of this gives us a great slab of family history. I found this awkward, way too contrived and just not interesting.

But then we go completely off the rails.

The book becomes a mish-mash of SciFi + Dan Brown with wormholes and secret societies at the Smithsonian.

There were many good ideas ... just not all needed to make this book interesting. Needed an edit.