Believe

Wally Lamb is an author I enjoy reading. I read his first novel She's Come Undone way before it got popular and Oprah decided it was cool. I think it was the very blue cover that caught my attention some day in my teens when I was browsing our local Borders with my dad. The book was good. Long, intimidatingly long at the time, but good. Lamb's other novels have been on my list and I'm glad I finally got to listen to The Hour I First Believed.

The jacket description of this book does not do it justice at all. The jacket describes it as another Columbine novel, and yet it was so much more. The main character is a teacher at Columbine and his wife is the school nurse. His wife is there on that tragic day and he is not. The story takes the husband and wife couple through their marriage and the impact of these events on their lives. I have to say I found a few parts to be unrealistic (which if you haven't guessed by now is not a positive in my book) but overall you could really see most of this unfolding.

Columbine really affected me as it happened my freshman year of high school and changed our school lives for ever. It was sort of like Virginia Tech in that you could look at the students on the news and they looked no different than you and your friends at the time. That's really the only explanation I have for why these two shootings in particular affected me.

Back to the book though, Lamb takes the reader beyond Columbine and through the after math which also includes Hurricane Katrina. I found it interesting he choose to focus on that tragedy and not as much on 9/11. 9/11 is mentioned but just barely. This book is long too, it seems the author is not a fan of shortening his thoughts, but well worth reading.

Current Listen: A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire

Another Wedding Book

Wedding Girl by Madeleine Wickham was a strange book. Very predictable and oddly written if you ask me. Wickham is a pen name of Sophie Kinsella author of the shopaholic series. The shopaholic books weren't necessarily bad, but not the greatest books ever. The library really sucked me in on this one though by featuring it on the website and making me think it would be good. The plot just jumped way too much and was too unbelievable. The main female lead was also not a strong character and this bothered me greatly. Overall a quick read so not upset I read it, but not really worth the (even limited) time it took to get through.

Current Read: The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell

A Famous Author

Until now I had never read a Nora Roberts book. When I worked at the library though, I think she had the most shelf space of any author. I may be exaggerating, but honestly I can't think of another that took up as much space as she did. So I thought I needed to add a book or series of hers to my list. I saw the bride on the cover of Vision in White and thought that would be a good one if I felt like I needed to read a Nora Roberts book. A friend saw it on my list and thought I would like the series as well.

I happened to be reading this a couple weekends ago while visiting my mom. She saw the book and asked if I liked the author and explained she had always heard the books read like romance novels. I hoped she was wrong as that is just not a genre I enjoy. She was kinda right though. Not entirely I guess, but to some extent it was more or less. I guess the best description is that it is a very well written romance novel. It's not all bedroom scenes and thesaurus overuse. I am going to go ahead also and read the rest of the series, though I expect they will all be sappy romanticy novels. Oh well, I now need to know what happens to the other three women. Series is clearly unrealistic and all, but right now that is just fine by me.

Current Read: Wedding Girl by Madeleine Wickham

L.A.

Finished listening to Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey. I have to say I have a love hate relationship with Frey. I read his first novel A Million Little Pieces a few years ago. I started it on our plane ride to Paris and remember being super jet lagged when we got there but not being able to put the book down so I finished it up when we got there instead of taking a nap. I loved that book. It was one where you rush through it but then are sad when you get to the end. Obviously though a few months later I was very disappointed? when the controversy of this book arose.

Either way though I think Frey is a great write. Which is really why I didn't understand why he couldn't be honest with his first book. Whether it was fiction or non fiction (or as wikipedia says in the link above "semi fictional") it was a great book. I do have to say though I was mostly disappointed in the second book Frey authored. My Friend Leonard wasn't exactly bad, just not near as good as Frey's first book.

Still when I saw a third novel was out I added it to my list and BSN did not disappoint in the least. I was hooked from the beginning. The novel's central theme is Los Angeles and is told in two parts woven together. Los Angeles history is explored throughout the book as one of the parts. Additionally short stories taking place in L.A. makes up the second part. Most of the short stories are a few pages long and then that's it for the characters. There were however a handful of stories that we got to find out more about throughout the story. These were the characters you were routing for to succeed. Some did and some tragically did not. I've never been to L.A. and I don't have any real passion for the city, but this book made me fall in love with L.A. More so though it just makes you take a look at the intermingling of our lives and the history of time and where it can take us. I highly recommend it.

Current Listen: The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

not so perfect fifths

Read the last book in Megan McCafferty's series about fictional character Jessica Darling. Perfect Fifths disappointed me big time. I was pretty bored by it and it took awhile to be able to get through it. I don't necessarily regret reading the series as it was on my list and all, but the series started out strong and empowering for teens and turned into a fairy tale romance series. Pretty lame if you ask me.

There was really nothing I liked about the last book other than it the was the end of the series so I wanted to see how things turned out for the characters. The format, the story line, and the actual end of the series just didn't connect for me. It was almost a whole new series or just a separate book with the same characters.

I am possibly being too harsh, but I just wasn't impressed.

Current Read: Vision in White by Nora Roberts

Movie versus Book

Finished listening to The Reader by Bernhard Schlink . This doesn't happen very often, but I have to say I enjoyed the movie version better. The book wasn't bad by any means, and perhaps it is because I saw the movie first and then read the book (hate doing this), but it lacked so much of what the movie had. It just didn't paint the picture as wonderfully as the movie had. I still enjoyed it and it was a quick listen, only four discs, so I don't regret sticking with it, but I do feel a bit disappointed.

That said, the concept of this fiction book is pretty amazing. I can't imagine how the writer came up with this story and put it to paper. It is a well written book and I can easily see why it was picked up to become a movie.

Current Listen: Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey

Son of a Witch

Finished listening to Gregory Maguire's Son of a Witch. I guess I foolishly thought I would get the happy ending missing in the first book Wicked. No such luck at least for the main character Elphaba from the first book. I'm still extremely confused on how the book evolved into the play. Either way I'm still drawn to this series for some reason. The second book about the son of Elphaba was just as odd as the first. It also continued to remind me of the Harry Potter series in some subtle ways.

The book is a bit more gruesome then the first in describing a dragon problem across OZ. There are several images I could have fast forwarded through and still been okay with what was going on. The ending however was more optimistic then I had anticipated which has made me want to read the next one in the series A Lion Among Men though I have no idea what more needs to be said about the world of OZ.

Current Listen: The Reader by Bernhard Schlink