Archive for September, 2009

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneger

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

TimeTI. Loved. This. Book.

I thoroughly and completely loved this book. I know I’m a little late in reading it but I wanted to read it then see  the movie. I can’t wait to see the movie now!  Think I can drag my husband to the movie?  We’ll see.

I really didn’t know anything about the book other than the obvious, that it’s about a Time Traveler. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I got into the story. I really enjoed the way it was written and the story itself was not plausible but believable because of the way it was written. And the love story is so sweet! 

If you’ve read the book, click on the highlighted text below, because I’ll be giving away a few plot points and I don’t want to spoil it for those that haven’t read it.

More …

(more…)

0
Posted in Fiction, Love Story |

Keeping the House by Ellen Baker

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

keepinghouse

I picked up Keeping the House by Ellen Baker on a whim at the library and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was set in the 50s and I can’t get enough of that era. What simpler times!  The story is about Dolly, a newlywed who struggles with her role as a housewife. The story is also about the Mickelson family, who has its share of drama and mystery. Dolly uncovers small pieces of their history, one little nugget of intriguing information at a time. The story has a powerful twist that I didn’t expect at all. I was actually sad when I finished this book, I didn’t want it to end!

1
Posted in Fiction |

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

heartJoe Hill is Stephen King’s son, and yay for him for not riding on his father’s coat tails and writing as Joe King!  Heart Shaped Box was a pretty good read.  It was a bit predictable, but it was also suspensful. When you’re reading it you kind of can figure out how it’s going to end, but at the same time you can’t wait to see if you’re right.  If that makes sense.  The story was unique and Joe writes differently than his father, which I appreciated. And he’s not so wordy!  Joe’s book was a very manageable size.  I also think that some of King’s work is a bit too graphic and gross for my taste, but Joe’s book was not like that at all. Heart Shaped Box is essentially a ghost story, with a few fun twists. Joe’s got a blog too, evidentally he’s a comic book writer too!

0
Tags: ,
Posted in Horror/Suspense |

Dry by Augusten Burroughs

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

dry_phixr2Blah.

Even though I’m usually a fan of memoirs and memoir-like books (think Wally Lamb, Jennifer Lauck) I didn’t enjoy Running With Scissors, so maybe I should have been prepared to not enjoy Dry.


0
Posted in Memoir |

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

kite-runnerKhaled Hosseini’s Kite Runner is magnificent. I started it Sunday night and finished it moments ago. I really couldn’t put it down.

I thought the story was going to be hard to relate to – after all, what do I know about any of the topics in the book – but it was a quick, easy read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t know what else to say. (Except that I cried at the end.)

1
Posted in Fiction |

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

glasscastle2If someone takes the time to recommend a book, chances are I’ll read it. Take ‘The Glass Castle’ for instance. I love memoirs, but didn’t know a thing about this one until Two Pretzels praised it here.

I loved this book for several reasons: it wasn’t about abuse or even alcoholism really, the tone and my insane desire to meet the author’s parents.

How the author kept such a matter-of-fact attitude about her ‘crazy’ parents and lifestyle is amazing to me. And it pains me to admit this, but I think her dad and my dad are brothers.

0
Posted in Memoir |

Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

0446672211.01.LZZZZZZZI don’t know where I was 13 years ago (oh, yeah I do, drinking, staying up too late – your general carousing), but I just got my hands on Billie Letts‘ Where the Heart Is. And I love it.

In case you too were participating in drunken merrymaking back in the day (which in this case is 1996), Where the Heart Is is the story of 17-year-old Novalee Nation and what happens after her craptastic boyfriend left her stranded 7-months pregnant at a Wal-mart in Oklahoma while on their way to California.

Letts‘ style of writing is easy and enjoyable to read. Her characters and their conversations are quirky. The juxtaposition between Novalee’s story and her baby’s daddy’s story meshes well.

It’s no secret that things are gonna work out for Novalee or that Willy Jack is gonna get his, but that’s OK. I give it an A.

1
Posted in Fiction |

Holly’s Inbox by Holly Denham

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

hollys-inboxI have been recommending this book to everyone! I read it over vacation this summer and immensely enjoyed it! It’s funny and it’s clever and it’s written entirely in emails – what could be better? The book is about Holly, a quirky receptionist, and her trials and tribulations over friendships and dating. The book is a light read and even though it’s huge – 672 pages – it’s easy to get through and it’s a page turner. I had a hard time putting it down because I wanted to see what emails Holly got next.

What I liked most about this book was its unconventional style. Because it was written entirely in emails it lacked quoted dialouge, but I didn’t miss it. The emails are mostly short, and to the point. It was easy to follow. And also, because it was written in emails, it didn’t have overly explained situations. I thought that was refreshing and added to the charm of the story.

Holly’s Inbox was, I guess, a book taken from a website, which is here. I haven’t had a chance to explore the site fully, but it appears as though the web site continues the story.

1
Posted in Chick Lit |

Welcome to Book Reporters!

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Hello and welcome to the Book Reporters blog! We created this blog because we love reading and we love blogging. Quite frequently our blogging friends ask for book recommendations. So we thought, what better way to archive the books we’ve all read than to put them onto one blog?

This blog is an open community. You are invited to become a Book Reporter to post your own book recommendations. Just send an email to bookreporters@yahoo.com. We’ll post Book Reporters on our sidebar and we’ll ask you to keep up with your “what I’m reading” profile and to occasionally post a book review. By becoming a Book Reporter you’re not committing to reading a certain number of books. You can post just once a year or six times a month, it’s completely up to you. We are using Wordpress for this blog – if you’re comfortable with using Wordpress we can set you up with an account and you can post directly onto the blog. If you’re not comfortable with using that program, you can simply email your Book Reports to us, and we’ll load them onto the site for you. Easy peasy!

The few rules we have about Book Reports are quite simple:

1.) You cannot give away important plot points. Your Book Report is a recommendation about why you liked the book. You can also do a Book Report on a book that you did not like.

2.) No book reports on the Twilight saga. We’ve all read them.

3.) Feel free to share additional information about your book. For example, if the author has a web site, feel free to link it.

4.) Books will be divided into genres and we’ll create them as we go along. The genres are on the side bar of the blog, so that readers can pick the genre they are interested in and read the Book Reports associated with it.

A fun feature is our Book Reporters Swap, see the link on the top of the blog. We can share books for the cost of postage alone. If you have a book you’d like to swap, post it in the sidebar. Book Reporters can contact each other with shipping details.

Have fun with this blog, we know we will!  And keep checking back because we’ll be adding things and enhancing it as we go along .

0
Tags:
Posted in Blog info |