- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
- Published: September 2011
- Genre: Magical fantasy
- Why I picked it up: Intensely hyped book with a premise that intrigued me
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Challenges: 100+
- My Thoughts:
- This is the only book I have ever purchased solely based on the hype surrounding it. In fact, I hadn’t seen any of the hype, only the discussion of the hype. But I was intrigued, especially by the fact that it started out as a NaNo and features a magical circus, so I picked it up. I finished reading it month and a half ago but school killed my blogging habits.
- I had hoped this book would live up to the hype and in many ways it did. The prose is fantastic. Morgenstern’s style is lovely; she chooses precisely the right words in the right amount. It is for this reason that I will likely read whatever else she chooses to publish.
- The many characters had lots of promise (I loved the twins and Chandresh), but none of them were quite as developed as I would have liked to see them. Frankly, I despised Celia and Marco. Well, perhaps despise is a strong word, but they were such flat, dull characters, I didn’t feel any hint of romance between them with was the central point of the story.
- Which brings me now to the reason why I was so disappointed by this book…the plot. For me, the plot was nothing interesting, nothing exciting. I felt no suspense or worry for the characters caught up in it. As I mentioned, the romance between Celia and Marco was greatly lacking and so prevented the final climax from being interesting or dramatic whatsoever. I found the final events to be a little confusing and rushed (but perhaps it was because I was getting sick of the story and rushing through the end of the book…)
- I think I would have enjoyed this novel a lot more had I been able to connect with Celia and Marco. I enjoyed Celia’s introduction and thought she would be a character I would like, but unfortunately, no. The prose is the redeeming aspect of this novel and why I would recommend you give it a shot if you’re looking for something to read.
- Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist by Stephen Batchelor
- Published: June 2003
- Genre: Non-fiction memoir/religion primer
- Why I picked it up: Label of ‘Buddhist Atheist’ may apply to me, wanted to read about the guys ideas
- Rating: 3 stars
- Challenges: 100+
- My Thoughts:
- This book is sort of a sequel to Buddhism Without Beliefs. I knew they were related, but it wasn’t until I was a great deal in to Confessions that I realized how much of a follow up Confessions is to Buddhism. I think I would have been more comfortable with this book had I read the first book first!
- It was hard for me to swallow a lot of what Batchelor wrote about, even if I logically agreed with him. However, I’m not familiar with Buddhist texts (I’m still a novice here) and I can’t just accept whatever he decides to pick out from the texts and whatever he decides to ignore because I don’t know what’s accurate.
- The purpose of this book is to explain how he came to his beliefs in his first book. I am interested in reading his first book, and I think that might help aid my understanding in this book.
- I like the memoir segment of the book, where the author illustrates his progression through Buddhism.
Month: November 2011
Jaclyn Moriarty – The Ghosts of Ashbury High
Author: Jaclyn Moriarty Title: The Ghosts of Ashbury High (Dreaming of Amelia in Australia) Published: June 2010 Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books Length: 480 pages Genre: YA fiction Why I picked it up: Love the series Rating: 4 stars Challenges: […]