Hullo! Is it the end of the year already? That was fast. Christmas came and then things were very busy for awhile and now that I have time to sit down at the computer I find 2010 is over. Well. I suppose I should tie up some loose ends now. Here’s a few things I just finished up:
- Finished Falling for Snow review (almost…I’m so tired, my apologies…..)
- Posted a Depeche Mode review for December 28
- Posted the second part of The Hunger Games trilogy review
- Edited the books, writing and music links up top. Now you can browse an index of sorts of all my posts in the loads of free time you have. ;P
I’ve realized that posting one book review a week is not enough, especially in 2011 with all the challenges I’ve taken up! Here are some short review of a couple of books I finished recently but didn’t have the change to post review. I just want to wrap them up here so I can have a fresh start next year.
- The Last Hunt by Bruce Coville (Rating: 3.5 stars) – The fourth and final book in a series I began in grade two. The first two books were published in the last nineties, the third was published in 2008 when I never ever expected the series to be finished. This final book did not disappoint and keeping in mind that it’s a series meant for early/middle schoolers, I still enjoyed it. I couldn’t help but compare the family dynamics to those of Inkheart which of course is an entirely different story, so while the family aspects of The Last Hunt could have been much stronger, they were appropriate for the story. I would have liked to have seen more of the Dimblethum, but otherwise it was a good read. I hope to read these books to my niece or nephew one day, perhaps.
- Blood Relatives by Craig Francis Powers (Rating: 4 stars) – I bought this book at the local writers festival in September and finally read it in November. Young Newfie author, his first book. Completely different from what I usually like to read (very gritty, realistic, people are shit and so is my life kind of story) but I found myself really enjoying the prose and the story, even though almost all of the characters were disgusting (but that was the point). The ending was not at all what I expected but it was satisfying. I’d recommend this if you can get your hands on it.
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (4.5 stars) – I can’t remember why I picked this up. It was very good (dur…). The beginning was a bit slow, but I eventually became absorbed in the characters and the straight-forward but oh so true prose. I don’t usually read books like this, that are sort of a reflection on people and relationships, but I was in the mood for something like that for once. I will for sure be buying this one. I’m also interested in seeing the movie, especially since it stars Carey Mulligan.
Earlier this month I discovered ‘book blogging’ and challenges. While I wouldn’t put myself in the category of book blogger, I’ve been enjoying browsing blogs and I definitely like the idea of challenges. You can click here [page no longer exists] to see the ones I’ve signed up for. I’m hoping these challenges will help me plow through some books I’ve been meaning to read for ages and also to just generally increase my reading habit back to a level where it used to be. With the list of books I have now, I’ll have to read one book every two days or so for 2011. That would’ve been no problem a few years ago…but with a full university course load and work I’ll have to see how well I’ll do! I’m not really sure how I’ll go about blogging about the books…perhaps I’ll do my best do full ‘reviews’ as often as possible and then do a monthly summary review if need be.
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