Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

This children's novel is really cute. I think that for it's purpose, to entertain and give small life lessons in a comical and unconventional way, it's very well suited. The idea of having mini cartoons and what not worked really well and the plot moved along really well.

This book was an incredibly easy read and would be a good book to recommend to friends who don't like to read because there are lots of pictures and even though the novel is geared for a younger crowd, it still has connections and what not that make it relate-able to all ages.

As for its academic value (themes and what not) again, they do seem somewhat juvenile but I think that for a book to teach, it would be fun for a younger group of kids. This one is apparently a NY Times Bestseller but it seems like every other book is and it seems that some books are simply "bestsellers" because they're good for a one time read through, but that's about it. *shrug* Perhaps I'm being too judgmental.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

I really liked this book. The back cover boasts that it is an atypical romance novel and it really is. The way that the plot unfolds and the way Niffenegger goes back and forth between Clare and Henry really adds to the story. Honestly, sometimes I would get confused between who was talking because I read through this novel really quickly but I mean for the most part it was pretty apparent who was who and what not.

Niffenegger also did a good job of explaining time traveling or at least resolving issues that usually arise when time traveling is part of the plot. It didn't turn into a science fiction novel or anything complicated which makes it accessible to a lot of readers.

When I initially picked up the novel, I actually thought it was going to be a spinoff of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, but I was completely off.

I think that academically this book has a pretty decent amount of value in terms of themes and symbolism. There's obviously the themes of love and waiting and fate but there's also really strong Christian symbolism in terms of Henry being a sort of prophet figure and transcending the boundaries of time while Clare also can be representative of Christians as a whole. I'm not sure if this was necessarily Niffenegger's intent, but the relationship is pretty strong so I would imagine that there's some kind of significance to such parallelism.

At any rate, I thought it was a good read both though honestly, some of the sex scenes were really graphic... I feel like this too contributed to the book rather than took away. Sometimes with books and movies, too many sex/action scenes just take away from the main plot. However, with this book, I think that it really showed just how deep the relationship between Henry and Clare was.

I also thought that the moment when Clare and Gomez kind of connect and have this "what if" moment was brilliant because it makes you think, if not for Henry, how different would Clare be? At the same time, playing on the idea of soulmates and fate, the fact that Henry and Clare end up together I feel is inevitable because from the start Clare and Henry knew each other and met.

This is one of those books that I think would be a lot of fun to do as a book club because the themes are pretty accessible and there's a lot to discuss beyond the academic. It's also an easy read and the language is really straightforward. Overall, I can see this book going a long way in terms of popularity and what not.

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

This is the sequel to The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo and I was very excited to read this novel because I thought that Lisbeth Salander was a really compelling character. In this novel, she's slowly but surely becoming a more active member of society and I'm not quite sure I necessarily like that. Because you get a lot more of what her life was like, the mystery behind who she is and why she acts the way she does is somewhat dispelled. In terms of comparing the two, this novel had a lot more action and plot movement and it doesn't have a lot of the seemingly unnecessary details that the first novel had but I feel like the first novel had more depth and the characters were more three-dimensional and engaging. There were several new characters that were introduced but I feel like there wasn't any other new dimensions to Salander and Blomkvist, which made them a little less interesting. I also feel like there were some character discrepancies with Salander at least because she's more talkative in this novel and by nature she doesn't talk much. I could be wrong though because she was such a mystery in the first novel.

I still feel like there was still a certain amount of unnecessary detail but I may just have been missing some of the underlying motifs that Larsson put into the novel. I may have mentioned this before, but Swedish people seem to drink a lot of coffee and eat a lot of sandwiches. And there's a lot of people who smoke.

I also got the feeling after I put the novel down that perhaps there may have been some discrepancies with the overall unraveling of the murders because of what the Millenium people had access to but I could be wrong.

Oh yes, and I'm envious of Salander's brilliance. Although she's on the socially inept side, she's so smart that I feel like it makes up for it.

Overall, like the first book, although this novel contains little academic quality, it is simply good to read for fun. Because this book was a murder mystery, I thought that the way the action played out was really well done and I can easily see this book becoming a movie.

[edit]

I also wanted to mention that there (interestingly) is also another theme about the abuse of women. Here it has more to do with organized crime, but I think it's interesting that both of these novels have underlying messages about treating women well and about women's rights. I think Larsson is a guy so the fact that he is saying something about the way women are treated I think has implications of what Swedish society is like right now. I could be wrong though since I know absolutely nothing about Swedish society.

A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marquez

This book won a nobel prize for literature so it's supposed to be really really good. Academically, I totally and completely agree because of the reoccurring themes of solitude and the idea of how everything has a cycle. There's also the element of the supernatural and the seemingly coincidental that Marquez works really well into the novel.

However, in terms of how engaging the text actually was, the text was pretty decent but it was honestly hard to keep track of all the Aurelianos and Arcadios. I mean it's clear that the repetition of the names had significance and perhaps I read the novel too sporadically to remember the differences between them, but I would have to say that that is what detracted from the novel for me.

The novel was also really really long (it just keeps going!) but given the title and what Marquez was trying to accomplish, I think that he kept the text engaging enough to keep the reader going. Sometimes these types of books eventually get really boring or bogged down by details but there was a constant storyline and the plot kept moving so that was good.

I think that the only reservations I have about this novel is that yes, it is a good read, but I guess it isn't completely my kind of novel, where the ideologies aren't as apparent and the plot isn't riveting (though I don't think that it needs to be for a novel to be good). I'd definitely want to read this novel again because I feel like a missed out on some important stuff but as for a recommendation to someone who doesn't really read, I wouldn't recommend this book.

Dinner with a Perfect Stranger by David Gregory

I also read the sequel to this novel, A Day with a Perfect Stranger and I think that although both are good reads, theologically, there are points that I don't agree with.

I liked how this book seems to unbiasedly portray the essence of Christianity rather than the typical books on evangelism with their hell and brimstone approaches. I can still see how non-Christians can be put off by this book because some of the answers I think aren't completely answered. It was a really good simple read. I finished the book in an hour or so I think.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

I absolutely loved this book. I think that the way this narrative flowed and the ideas that the author so subtly and blatantly put in this novel are exactly the types of elements I look for in a novel. The circular narrative with the constant reoccurrence of various motifs, ideas, patterns of the way the characters thought just tied in so well together. The first chapter set up the entire novel and the idea of the unbearable lightness of being was so well played out in the novel. I liked how Kundera would slip in that certain situations were "unbearable" and then he spent a chapter on the idea of "being" and the idea of being "light" or "free" and what that meant for each character. He also had such interesting asides that really put into perspectives the actions of the characters. All in all I really didn't want the book to end and forced myself to put it down several times to savor the ideas and just really soak up the entire book. I could probably write an entire book analyzing all the different ideas Kundera brings up.

The only complaint that I can think of was that the book seemed to come to a sudden end. I can see why Kundera chose to end the novel where he did, especially because he already gives the "ending" earlier on but because there doesn't seem to be a solid resolution in the plot, I can see readers becoming dissatisfied with it. However, because his whole novel plays on the idealogical aspect of the various situations of the characters rather than the movement of the plot (with undertones of the war - which I thought was pretty cool), I think that the ending more or less was fitting. I actually thought that the book would end similarly to the beginning of the novel with something more idealogical rather than ending with the characters so in that sense I was a little dissatisfied, but again, I can see why he made that choice.

Also, I can see how people would complain that there wasn't a solid plot because almost all of the conflict that characters had was completely internal and there would just be all this miscommunication between characters. However, I think that that's exactly why the book was so interesting.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. There's just so much in this book that I definitely want to come back to it someday.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

**WARNING** ~CONTAINS SPOILERS~

[preliminary review]

I just started this and I must say I got goosebumps. I knew where the story was going to lead up to but the way Zusak chose to narrate it just was so unique and he did such a good job leading the reader (me) to the beginning of Part 1 that I really can't wait to read the rest of the novel. The way Zusak led the colors to the Nazi flag was something that I didn't notice and thought was just brilliant. I also like the detached voice of Death that Zusak uses. Because the Holocaust has such obvious sides (the victims versus the oppressors) sometimes, I almost feel like Holocaust narratives end up taking the same tone of horror, a sense of loss and depression. I'm going to try and take it slow so as to savor it (besides I'm in the middle of like 4 other books) but I may just end up reading it all in one go.

Honestly, I'm a bit worried that this may be a typical Oh-no-the-tragedies-of-the-Holocaust-type of story. I'm not trying to discount the Holocaust and I definitely think that there are untold stories that must be told. There are many good and very necessary narratives that hopefully will carry out through history so that it is never repeated (though unfortunately there are still genocides out there in the world...). At any rate, my point is, if the writing is a piece of fiction, I feel like it's almost a cop-out to use the Holocaust because of the emotional nature of it. However, I think this novel is going to be GOOD. I hope my expectations are met.

[edit - full review]

I thought that this book was really really good. The imagery that Zusak uses are so unique yet they work so well with the novel. There were definitely some motifs that I think I missed but the idea of Death as the narrator was definitely a really unique one. I liked that he was portrayed as a 3-dimensional character and he was seen more as human. However, honestly, I don't think that it worked perfectly because there are obvious instances where there are lapses in the narrative because unless Death was there, he wouldn't be able to have made some of the statements that he did. I haven't verified this though because the way Zusak makes up for that gap is with Liesel's diary. Because the voice took on more of a third-person omniscient point of view, I'd have to say that with a close reading, there are probably going to be some lapses (but honestly, it wasn't noticeable when reading the novel..).

This book did end up being a Holocaust novel (I don't really think that you can get away from that if you're going to be talking about Nazi Germany in WWII) but at the same time, I think that it put Germans in a better light than just this evil force that went around killing everyone. I think that more than anything it was able to properly portray the horrors of war and the idea that in war, when it comes to individuals, no one really wins. The imagery was definitely pretty graphic for a younger audience but I think that this novel is labeled as a "teenager novel" which is a good age group given the things that they address. However, because the main character is younger, I can see teenagers brushing it off as a novel for younger children.

I really liked how Death would give the endings without leading up to any suspense. Even though you know that certain people are going to die, you still hope and wish that they won't. It's quite a conflicting feeling. It's like re-watching a sad romance movie where you know one of the lovers is going to die and even though you know the ending, you still watch it again to prolong the inevitable and in one way or another hope that he/she won't (but of course they still do...).

All in all, a good read though I wouldn't say it's absolutely fantastic. I feel like this novel is more about the plot than it is about any ideologies (aside from the apparent) so from an academic viewpoint I don't think there is as much to glean (which is perfectly fine). Also, the beginning was considerably stronger than the ending. I don't think that the novel ended badly and all the loose ends were tied up quite well, but I didn't get that "ah that was an excellent book" feel as I closed the book. I'm not sure if I'd pick this novel up again because it is somewhat depressing (especially the ending) but definitely something I would recommend to others.