Book List

Book List 2011

…This is the post-summer book list, meaning Sept-Dec.

Only book names this time, yo.

1. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

2. So Long A Letter

3. Storm Glass (Glass 01)

4. Sea Glass (Glass o2)

5. Spy Glass (Glass 03)

6. The Great Gatsby

7. Snow Country

8. The Unbearable Lightness Of Being

9. Perfume

10. The Ingenious Edgar Jones

11. Stories from the Vinyl Cafe

12. 1984

13. 城南旧事

14. Wicked

15. The Carpet People

16. Mr. Golightly’s Holiday

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Book List of the 2011 Summer Holidays!

…I’m not going to review them extensively, because I’m too lazy to.

But watch out for spoilers, all the same.

*Because I’m a lazy procrastinator and have an arsenal of excuses at the ready, my response to the 100-book-in-2011 challenge will be this: 100/12 books per month. The summer holidays consist of two months, so…16.6667 books, meaning basically 17 books in total. So why the hell not? After all, it’s going to be impossible to make up for the missing half-year now, and I foresee no chance of me reading much at all once the IB starts, so…here goes.*

1. The Lovely Bones: nice, intriguing, the plot is kept flowing. However, the “heaven” setting needs more development and  the sudden change from there back to Earth is slightly too confusing for comfort. Character development is great; not only the main character is developed, but her entire family and even circle of “friends”.

2. The Horse Whisperer: a good book with a somewhat tragic end. Pace is comfortable, and characters are realistic and fleshed-out. Gripping. However, doesn’t seem to have left much of a deep impression on me. I only remember that it was a great read. Worth it.

3. The Lace Reader: Slow pace, but worth the wait. Vivid imagery and unique characters, and plot builds up gradually to form a final twist at the end. Depicts small-town life realistically.

4. The Art of Racing in The Rain: Written from a dog’s point of view; interesting enough. Something I noticed that felt a bit strange was the fact that the dog could do no wrong at all. Sure, he was smart and loyal and lovable, but he became more of a narrative device than a real, fleshed-out character.

5. Poison Study, and–in the same series–

6. Magic Study: Painfully, painfully Y.A., yet satisfying and compelling. The plot moved on at a comfortably brisk pace and the characters and settings were plausible enough. The concept of the magic wasn’t as original as hoped, but the main character was realistic–if too powerful/quick to learn. Occasionally the dialogue would be slightly forced, especially in M.S., but in general the writing style and storyline makes up for it. Conclusion: I was twitching while I read it and didn’t notice, so I guess that means that it’s good enough YA to make me feel mighty embarrassed. Which I do.

7. Fire Study: Could. Not. Resist. As the last of the series, it needed to provide an adequate ending, but it somewhat hindered the story and writing. Something the previous books had managed to avoid, Fire Study has an increasingly cheesy feel as it draws to an end. With that, the “hero knows all and survived all” feeling. The plot was more forced than before with sudden twists, and events progressed slightly too quickly to be realistic. Despite the cheesiness, a satisfying end to the trilogy if not the strongest book in the series. (And it being YA, the inevitable love interest thing…okay, Valek, squee.) Now that my embarrassment is complete, I can work on a thicker layer of skin again.

8. Emperor, The Gods Of War: Just your average fantasy-history-war blend, I suppose. Nothing too out of the blue or especially awesome about it, but the Roman/Greek setting makes it fascinating for me. 

9. Soulless: Original and set in a olden-days time period, the dialogue and writing is witty and compelling. The main character’s unique personality, monologue and her interaction with other characters made the book amusing and all-round awesome, although the end was less than satisfactory. 

… …

There were about 4 more, but I must’ve forgotten.

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