Now that 2011 is here, I'll soon be providing you all with my riveting reviews of books I read throughout the year. I know you can't wait. :-) I realized though, that there are a couple of books I read in 2010 that I've not written about, so here's a quick catch-up:
The Twilight Series (4 books) by Stephanie Meyer: Yes, I read these books, and am almost ashamed to admit it. There is a lot that could be said about them...but I don't really feel like going into a big long explanation. Suffice to say, they were fun, mindless entertaining summer reading. Overlooking the fact that the writing was mediocre, and that I pretty much wanted to slap Bella silly, and that it's obvious she should have been with Jacob, these books were a good way to escape reality, even for a bit.
Zion Legacy Series (6 books) by Bodie & Brock Thoene: I've already written before how much I enjoy the Thoene's books. This series is primarily set in ancient Israel, and tell in a fictionalized way stories of people who lived there and encountered Christ. They are also pretty easy books, and its easy to get wrapped up in the story. But, unlike Twilight, these stories have more substance.
The Giver by Lois Lowry: This is a pretty popular book that I think a lot of kids read when they're in school. For some reason I've never read it until now. It's pretty interesting, but kind of made me go "hmmmm" at the end. Essentially, it's a story of a supposedly "utopian" society which has eliminated memories from everyone. Only one person - "The Giver" - holds everyone's memories (all emotions, world events, colors, feelings, etc.). A young boy from the community is chosen to the The Giver's "replacement", and to receive from him all of the community's memories. What happens when this boy realizes that the life he has always known is a lie, leads him to make some pretty drastic decisions. It's the kind of book that I could see generating a lot of discussion if read in a book club. I, however, read it a night snuggled up in my bed and therefore had no one but myself to talk with about it. :-)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson: This was a major disappointing read. I picked it up because it was so hyped up as being such a great book. Considering that it is the first book in a trilogy, I was excited about the thought that I may have stumbled upon several good books to read. At its core, this book is a murder-mystery, "who-done-it" story. The bare aspect of trying to solve the mystery was pretty interesting. However, this book gets low marks on my scale due to the fact that none of the characters are particularly likable, and I found myself at the end of the story not really caring about what happened to any of them. There was a pretty explicit description of a rape, and less explicit, but still plentiful other sex between the rest of the characters. Basically the main character (a male) is a man-whore and has multiple casual sexual partners throughout the book. On top of all this, the foul language in the book made me cringe. I think when writers use foul language it just shows their lack of creativity in being able to come up with better words to describe things. So, bottom line, don't waste your time with this one. (The one entertaining aspect of the book is that, being set in Sweden and originally written in Swedish, many of the characters had Swedish last names, which made me feel as though I was reading an IKEA catalog. One of characters' last names in Malm, and I seriously have an IKEA dresser that is from the "MALM" line.)
Now, on to 2011. So far my reading year is off to a good start, as I'm currently in the middle of two really ones. Stay tuned!
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