read 15 books in 2009

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I love Neil Gaiman. I think he has an amazing imagination and reading his books make me feel like a girl reading fairytales. Only these are much more developed and interesting. The Graveyard Book is a fairytale using ghosts instead of fairies. It was exciting and kept you wanting more. Bod is a good leading character, and he guides you through the story as if you are the boyliving in the graveyard. The only complaint I have is with the weakly shaped reason he was orphaned in the first place. It seemed a bit forced and unexciting.

Recommended by my father and my younger brother as an interesting read.

1-6 of Harry Potter
7-10 The Twilight Series
11. The Pitbull Placebo
12. Beautiful Boy
13. Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything And Won Back My Life
14. Which Way?

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This is a great book about the sufferings of the German people during WWII. It is very well written. Of course it is sad, but it’s very touching and there is something about it that is uplifting as well. I really enjoyed the narrator being Death and would recommend this book.

Okay so this goal was fairly easy considering I was in Florida all summer with no friends and a step-mom who reads alot…

6. From Dead To Worse – Charlaine Harris
7. The Informers – Bret Easton Ellis
8. Dead And Gone – Charlaine Harris
9. Final Appeal by Lisa Scottoline
10. Dirty Blonde by Lisa Scottoline
11. Everywhere That Mary Went by Lisa Scottoline
12. Rough Justice by Lisa Scottoline
13. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
14. Moment Of Truth by Lisa Scottoline
15. Daddy’s Girl by Lisa Scottoline

Lisa Scottoline is a good author if you’re into mysteries and law. Charlaine Harris & Bret Easton Ellis are personal favorites, so those were really easy to get through. :)

ive reread the HP series and the great gatsby so far… 7 more to go!

Never read Greene before. I understand this may be his only “comedy”, or perhaps it’s merely the most humorous and lighthearted end of his spectrum.

In England, Henry, a retired bank manager would be content to live the rest of his days cultivating dahlias and writing stiff love-less letters to his only female friend, who lives in South Africa and makes lace for a hobby. Then, at his mother’s cremation, he meets his 70-something aunt, a wild Auntie-Mame-like-character with seemingly limitless liquid cash, who recounts her lurid affairs and adventurous exploits. No surprise, she whisks our poor boring hero out into the world, shakes up his world-view, introduces him to seedy people who live on the edge, and infuses his life with living.

In a particularly memorable passage, the aunt describes the death of Henry’s uncle. With a grim diagnosis, bed-ridden, and with very little time on his clock, he moves into a big decaying mansion and lives in each room for one week before packing his bags and “traveling” to the next room. The weekly journeys and the changed surroundings make his one final year feel much much longer. In the end, his expiry is pitifully pathetic. But he’s beaten the clock and milked every day.

A nice (darkly humorous) reminder to think about life—how we live and what we live.

I had the whole Harry Potter collection, except for the second book, so I had to wait until I could get this one before I could continue with the series.

Now I’m back on track and on to book three and a new goal of more books for this year!

15/15

I’ve been really slack about updating my books lately.

14/15

I don’t know who lent me this book or how it got into my possession. Somehow, it followed me to Germany. I wouldn’t say it was great literature, but it planted itself squarely in a real world and wove some fine images. It has its place.

A very simple story with ordinary characters living in a complex world and time. In Louisiana, in the late 40s, an uneducated black man is convicted of a crime and sentenced to death. His godmother (or grandmother?) enlists a friend’s reluctant nephew, an educated school-teacher, to make regular visits to the jail. The hope is that in a few short months, the schoolteacher can “make a man” out of him before he is executed.