53 books in one year

So I completed my challenge, even if I did not complete a review for each book on this blog. Oops. Here is a list of the books I've have read since I last updated.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Week 3-7 of Sevens by Scott Wallens
Reunion Karen Kingsbury
A Funny Thing HAppened on the Way to the Future Michael J. Fox
Invisible World Suzanne Weyn (A strange book, don't really recommend it)
Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne (the original set of stories)
Conspiracy 365: Malice by Gabrielle Lord (I read this one to see if it was appropriate for the school library and then learn it is the fourteenth in a series … I was a little lost, otherwise good book)
The Book Thief Marcus Zusak
A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens


With these last twelve books I have completed my challenge. I won't do it again this year, at least not deliberately. I'll have to think of a different reading challenge to complete.

Out of all the books I read this year my two favourite were:

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

I found this book extremely well written. I absolutely loved Zusak's use of language and narrative to tell the story. It had a good plot and well written characters. Overall this is my favourite book of the year, even though I read it at the end.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I read this book in the summer and thought it would be my favourite for a long time. I even bought it for my brother's girlfriend for Christmas with a note that it was my favourite. Guess I spoke to soon on that.  This book is very well written with a captivating story. If you want a quick read this is definitely not it, this is a book that needs to be enjoyed slowly, piece by piece, page by page.

Voila, my year of constant reading. Let's try for a more manageable goal this year. :)

Life in La Crete

One thing you may have noticed in my previous book list is that the last bunch of novels are all in a series where as previously this year I have been reading a larger variety of books. (Or have tried to at least).  The reason that is is because I have moved!

At the end of August I moved to Northern Alberta to do my internship for my Education Degree. One of the first things I did (after taking care of my, once again, broken computer) was to find a local library and start borrowing books. I did not bring many with me, since I was flying and space was precious, so I knew to complete my challenge I would need to find a library, or really on audio and ebooks, which is harder to do without a computer or e-reader.

The library I found is a community library. That means, small and local. Where as back home I could pretty much get any book I wanted, either from my nearest library or through an inter-library loan, here I am limited to the books they have in the library.  Also because it's a community library and not a public library I had to pay a membership fee (which was very reasonable). The library is located in the high school, a dual-purpose school/community library, so I am in limited in my book selection by what they have available. They have quite a large selection of Christian Fiction, and many novels that one would expect to be in a high school library (like those classic high school novels). However they are missing books that I was hoping to read this fall.  Game of Thrones, The Book Thief, anything Harry Potter.

I also had two books I had started by not completed before I moved, and I couldn't take them with me. Falling for God by Gary W. Moon and Dry Store Room No.1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey. I will try to find them online, either as audiobooks or ebooks, but I feel they will not be finished before the end of the year. :(

So my selection may not be as varied as before.  I will still gladly take any book suggestions and read them if I can find a copy of it. :)


I'll leave you with a scenic picture I took up here.

Fall is here!

Wow! Time has flown!  Sorry for not posting anything since the end of June.  Summer was really busy (I worked in a zoo, literally!) and then when I moved on the 23rd of August my computer broke, and I went a month (plus some) without computer/internet. Now I have both back!

Because I missed so much time, and I have read so many books, I'm not going to write a review for each of them, rather I'll just list them here and say what I had rated them on Goodreads. If you want to know what I thought about a particular book, just ask!

There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (4/5)

Son by Lois Lowry (3/5)

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls (4/5)

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (4/5)

A Whole New Light by Kim O'Brien (4/5)

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (4/5)

Killer Croc of Doom! by Laurie Sutton (4/5) - read this one with my nephew about three times one weekend.

We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee (4/5)

Invasion of the Ormazoids (Doctor Who: Find Your Fate #5) by Philip Martin (3/5)

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell (3/5)

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella (4/5)

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (4/5)

The Lightning Theif by Rick Riordan (3/5)

For Better or Worse by Jennifer Johnson (3/5)

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer (4/5)

Redemption by Karen Kingsbury (4/5)

Remember by Karen Kingsbury (4/5)

Shattered by Scott Wallens (3/5)

Varjak Paw by S.F. Said (4/5)

Return by Karen Kingsbury (4/5)

Exposed by Scott Wallens (3/5)

Pushed by Scott Wallens (3/5)

Rejoice by Karen Kingsbury (4/5)


Altogether I have now read 41 of the 53 books I am going to read this year. Yay! Which means I am one book ahead of schedule!! :)

Messenger - Lois Lowry

When I was in fourth grade I read a book that I immediately feel in love with. The Giver by Lois Lowry.  I read it many times between then and now, and it is still a favourite of mine. A few years ago I learned that Lowry has since written more books in the series. I admit I was not very excited at first, because I also learned that it was not about Jonas (the main character), and it was him I wanted to learn more about. However last year, while in France, I came across a copy of the second book (Gathering Blue), in Enlgish!, so I had to give it a try.  I really enjoyed it.

So now I have read the third book in the series (with the fourth, and final, sitting next to me).  Messenger follows one of the characters from the second novel and links three main characters together (although without naming one of them). I will admit that when I saw one of the characters again I squealed out loud! I really enjoyed it. Although I did find that the book moved through the story really quickly, I have to remember that it is labelled juvenile fiction, and is aimed at 10 year olds.

Once again Lowry has written a story that has captured my imagination, and I am well past her target age. I only wish I could have read these books when I was back in grade four (although Messenger was not written until 2004).  I recommend this book to anyone who is in its target age (about 8 -13), and anyone who is a fan of The Giver (although read the second one first).  This novel got a 4/5 stars from me!!

Serenity: Better Days - Joss Whedon & Co.

This is the second book in the Serenity series that fills in the gap between the tv show Firefly and the movie Serenity.  I enjoyed reading Better Days, and found that it was better than the first one, though not quite as enjoyable as the third. (I guess this is a case of it gets better as it goes).  One thing that I am enjoying about graphic novels are the graphics. I found these were well drawn and ignited my imagination. They definitely enhanced the story and had a lot of details hidden away in the pages. I found that I could just study the pictures for ages and still enjoy them.

I have not read a lot of graphic novels, outside of the Serenity series, so I do not have a whole lot to compare this to.  This book is different from the other two because it was composed of a bunch of shorter stories, a number of vignettes of a grander story arch (which is the story arch of the whole Firefly world). These stories brought me back into the world of the show. It read like the tv show played, and I rather enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend this to other firefly fans.

Overall I would give it 4/5 stars!

A Stolen Life - Jaycee Dugard

At the young age of 11, Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped and held prisoner for 18 years before she finally escaped with her two daughters. A Stolen Life is her story, her memoir.

This was a hard story to read. What happened to Jaycee was beyond words. I could not fathom what happened, nor how the two responsible could justify it. Yet in the end she is able to forgive her captors and move on, as much as she can, to normal life.  All she wants for her children is a normal life, one that she was never able to have.  I think back to my teens years, and how much I experienced and all the things I would have missed out on had I been missing for 18 years, I would not even be back yet!  My heart breaks and weeps for all that she missed, and all that she went through.

From a more literary/readability standpoint I have to say that this was well written.  She wrote the book from the mind-
frame that she was in at the. Consequently at the beginning it is as if an 11 year old is telling you the story.  Throughout the book she jumps back in, current time, to fill you in on what was happening outside of her life, and reflections based on what she currently knows.  Some people might find this confusing if they have trouble following narrative that does not follow a straight line, however I did not find it to difficult to follow.  I have read memories before that are poorly written, and while you can't fault them for telling their story, they just are not written well enough.  This was definitely NOT the case. It was very well written, even without a ghost writer, and she got her story and message across very well.

I would recommend this book for others to read. I feel that it reminds us that horrible things still happen in our day and age and that we need to pay attention to things that do not feel right or just feels odd. But even while it reminds us of the bad in the world, it also shows us that there is hope.  There is good out there that offsets the bad. Light to outshine the dark.  I give this memoir a 4/5 stars.  I will warn you that the earlier chapters especially are a little graphic, although not so much explicit, it could be a trigger for some people, especially those who have experienced abuse in the past.

Serenity Vol. I & III - Joss Whedon & Co.

There are three graphic novels (I believe) in the Serenity series. These novels fill in the gaps in between the show, Firefly, and the movie, Serenity.  Firefly is a television show created by Joss Whedon that aired in 2002.  It is a space western and only lasted one season, sadly. I started watching these at the end of last year with some friends, and found that they are actually really good. The film, Serenity, was released a few years later and attempted to summarize what happens in the last 5ish seasons of the show, although mostly just how the show would have ended.  There were a lot of gaps. These graphic novels help to fill in the gaps.

I read these books out of order because it was the order I could get them in at the library.  I also did not seem to need to read them in order because there were not really

spoilers crossing one book to the other (I have, after all, seen how it all ends in the movie).

The first graphic novel that Whedon released was called Those Left Behind.  I read this about two weeks ago and already forget what the plot line was.  That really isn't a great sign. All I really remember of it was that it read like an episode of Firefly, which I really enjoyed.  The graphics were different that I am used to, but I still really enjoyed them. They definitely lit up my imagination and helped to create the story.  In this book the crew of Serenity take on a job that turns out to be a trap set by an old enemy, and that is all I can remember. :(  I still give this particular novel a 3/5 because I did enjoy it while reading it, and would definitely read it again.  I think the only problem with graphic novels is that I tend to read them fairly quickly and miss out some of t
he story because of it.  I didn't take the time to read the pictures of this one like I did with the next two.

The third graphic novel of the series is called A Shepherd's Tale and tells the background story of Shepherd Book, and boy was it a background story. I really enjoyed this story. You don't learn a whole lot about Shepherd (a pastor in this future world) in the television show or in the film. In the film you learn that he left the crew and stayed on one of the planets to guide the people.  In the first novel you find out why he decided to stay behind.   This novel handled the background telling different than other books I read. Instead of being a linear regression it told the story backwards. It started with Book's death and then had narratives of what had happened that brought him to that point. Starting with where he was just prior to joining Serenity at the beginning of episode one. The last story was of him as a young man, living at home with his father and what drove him away from there in the first place.

This third novel made me want to go back and re-watch the series because it completely changed how I viewed this character and made me understand him a lot more. That is something that I think a good book should do. It should make you re-think something and make you take a look at it in a different light. And although this book did it through making me re-look at his character in the television series, it still made me look at him in a new light, and by consequence other people I meet. Sometimes when I hear someone's background story it is a little disappointing because it does not truly feel like it fits, but this time it did. For that I give it a 4/5 starts. Much better than the first one, I read it a little slower and truly enjoyed the story line.