create a list of 100 must-read books and read them.

Oh my….so bad. I just picked this book up at random. I was surprised to have picked up an extremely cheesy romance novel complete with torrid sex scenes, a stupid doormat and emotionally stunted heroine and a “too good to be true” man who is also a bit scary in his ability to take advantage of the girl and get away with it. I would have called the police at a few points in the book if the girl had been me.

Dean Koontz is always good and always creepy. Velocity was a fast read and not as descriptive or creepy as some of his other works. Definitely a good beach read!

This book was really interesting because it’s not a novel but a narrative of a real life love story. The story is written using the letters of two lovers and the history of the Venetian Republic in the 1700’s during the time of Casanova (who actually plays a part in the story). At times the letters are a bit repetitive and the lovers get irritating in their selfishness but the fact that it’s a true story and not a fiction makes it very engaging. With all the history put into the book that is relevant to the two lovers’ time, it also makes for a good history lesson and not a boring one.

A great book for anyone who wants to better understand their spouse. This book talks about the ten basic emotional needs that people have and which are a higher priority for men and which are more important to a woman and then how to deal with that. It is really interesting, insightful and helpful!

Interesting… I enjoy Margaret Atwood’s books. This was another sort of distopian novel by her, as with Handmaid’s Tale. I liked this one better for the sort of sci-fi bent it had. Her ideas are very interesting and creative in terms of the way the world has gone with technology and social issues in her near future vision of it. The scary thing is many of her ideas could very well happen. The story itself and the ending I didn’t get much. I didn’t get very attached to the characters and felt like nothing really happened and events surrounding the world disaster aren’t sufficiently explained. I like conclusions to the books I read and Atwood left this one open for the reader to decide what occurs. This just left me with a sort of unfinished feeling.

What a fun, romantic and inspiring book! I love travel narratives and this one was great. It made me want to go retire out to the French countryside and preoccupy myself with good wine and food. Peter Mayle’s narrative is colorful and really gives a warm familiar feeling to an unknown country. (Unknown to me at least). His characters are all endearing and his stories are very humorous. I love seeing how two cultures interact and get a long together and Peter Mayle’s experience is a fun one.

I have previously read Tara Road and Evening Class by Maeve Binchy and really enjoyed both books. I just finished Quentins and felt like it was written by a different author. Sure there were some of her reoccuring characters but the story was sort of silly and unrealistic, which I didn’t find to be true for the first two. I just thought it was sort of dumb.

This was an excellent book. I have previously read Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver and that was good but this was much better in my opinion. It’s a rather hard story to read, very sad and intense but it definitely grips you and is hard to put down. I even learned some history that I didn’t know before. Kingsolver has very creative character development and you can definitely feel what her passions are. I did start to get a little weary toward the end where it seemed like she stopped telling a story and started preaching her politics. She comes across very anti-american as Americans are represented through one of the main characters who is ditzy bordering on extremely stupid, racist, insensative and prissy. That’s a rather large stereotype.

This was a really fantastic book. I picked it up at random at the library and was very plesantly surprised. It is a mystery and so much fun because it takes place in Thailand with a half Thai half American (only in blood) Thai cop as the protagonist. This book is full of interesting cultural and religious commentaries and highlights quite often the differences between the East and West. It is written by a white guy though so I’m not sure how accurate the point of view of the Thai people is but nonetheless it was really fun and really interesting and in my opinion, a really good mystery as well. Sort of off the wall and different from your usual murders. I’d say this is one of the best books I’ve read in a good while.

What an odd story this is. I had in mind something a little fluffier and easy since generally it’s thought of as a book for kids or young adults. It was odd but I liked it. I thought the ending was sort of abrupt as I thought the whole point of their mission was to save the universe from “IT” but that didn’t seem to happen. Perhaps there are sequels? Either way, it was a fun read and pretty clever as well.