Books

Book 150: The Enchantress – Michael Scott

[Check out my 2016 re-read here.]

Now THIS is how you end a series. Although I’m definitely sad about quite a few things, it took until the final ten pages for me to find out what was going to happen. And when I realized I scared the dogs because I yelled out ‘NO WAY!’ in excitement and wonder and then jumped up and paced while I read the last few pages.

After the lackluster ending to the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer, I wasn’t sure I wanted to read the last book of Michael Scott’s The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, but I am glad I did. Although I didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have (it’s been over a year since I read book 5), it was definitely an awesome ending! I think I’m going to have to purchase copies of the series and re-read them next year. Good thing work got me a $100 gift certificate to a local book store and I recently purchased to Groupons/Google Local coupons for a total of $50 (I only paid $25) for two local used book stores 😀

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Books, Reading Events

Book 148: A Son Called Gabriel – Damian McNicholl

I wasn’t sure about this book going into it. One of the best books I’ve read this year was The Absolutist by John Boyne, which is the story of a young gay man coming of age written by an Irish author; and one of my all time favorite books is At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill, which is the story of a young gay man coming of age written by an Irish author.

Overall I was completely underwhelmed until the last 15-20 pages of the book. I think McNicholl did a great job portraying working class Northern Ireland and interlacing just enough of the political landscape to keep the focus on the main character and not the conflict, but I just couldn’t get into it. I didn’t feel like Gabriel was a sympathetic character and I just kept wanting to tell him to shut up. I honestly kept thinking, good grief I hope I wasn’t that annoying when I was his age (even though I’m sure I was more-so).

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2012 Challenges, Books, Quotes, Reading Events

Book 147: Other Voices, Other Rooms – Truman Capote

After putting this book off for more than a month so that it would fit within The Literary Others reading event and after it sat on my shelf since I purchased it from the 2011 Boston Book Festival I’ve finally gotten around to reading it. I’m not really sure if it was worth the build up to keep putting it off, but it was an interesting read. In addition to being a part of The Literary Others Event it also counts towards my Mount TBR Reading Challenge (23/25)!

This is only the second Capote work I’ve read and it was very different compared to In Cold Blood, which I read before I started this blog. Other Voices, Other Rooms is Capote’s first published novel and is semi-autobiographical. You can definitely see the personal influence from the effeminate young boy to the faded rich southern decadence you catch glimpses of throughout.

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2012 Challenges, Books, Quotes

Book 140: Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami

You’ll have to excuse the language, but this book was a mind f*ck. Now, don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean it was bad, it is actually one of the best written books I’ve read this year, but my brain hurts trying to process the novel.

A friend in the UK recommended this book to me and I only just now got around to reading it and thus it counts for my Mount TBR Challenge (22 of 25).

I did a brief cursory search to see if I should save this novel for the Literary Others event in September and I should have with the amazing character Oshima, but I’m glad I didn’t. At one point he says this and it boggled my mind at how awesome he is. I mean there were a lot more awesome things, especially as to the reveal which happens pretty late in the book, but still definitely a great character. Click here to continue reading.

Books

Book 139: The Last Guardian (Artemis Fowl, Book 8) – Eoin Colfer

What an ending…It’s not very often an author can write an ending to a series that is simultaneously powerful and lackluster. Perhaps when I re-read this series I won’t think this (similar to how I was not impressed with Rowling’s inclusion of an epilogue 19 years later), but I’m not sure. There were good and bad parts to The Last Guardian, but honestly, I’m still digesting this book. I read it in less than 12 hours (had to get some sleep didn’t I?), but I’m not sure that was a good thing.

In this, the final installment of the Artemis Fowl series, I have to say I was somewhat disappointed. However, I can’t say why. There wasn’t as much hype, for me, as there was in either Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle or Rowling’s Harry Potter series. I think it has to do with the fact that the books within this series have really been hit or miss, and maybe even that I didn’t read them when they were first coming out and I was younger. I did review all the other books on this blog (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7), and perhaps my lack of WOW for this book is because I didn’t re-read the prequels before I read this, the final.

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