Curiouser and Curiouser

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, was a book club pick...last summer. I was out of town for the meeting, so even though I had purchased a copy, I didn't bother reading it until a few weeks ago.

The story is about Christopher Boone, an autistic teenage boy, living in England. After his neighbor's pet dog, Wellington, is murdered and he is wrongfully accused, Christopher decides that he wants to do some detective work to find out who committed this terrible act. While he is a shy boy, who doesn't like strangers and hates being touched, he goes about interviewing his neighbors in hopes that he can solve the crime. But in doing so, he unravels a mystery having to do with his own family and ends up setting out on an adventure that challenges him in all sorts of ways.


While this won't go on my list of favoites, I did enjoy this book. To me, it wasn't so much about the story itself, it was more about how it was told through an autistic teenager's mind. It's a good reminder that not everyone sees the world through the same set of eyes.

Never Let Me Go

I'm not sure when I first heard Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go. I may have read a review somewhere or saw a preview for the movie and thought I should check out the book. Regardless, I put it on my Amazon wishlist at some point and then when ordering some other items not too long ago, I decided to purchase it.

The story revolves around three main characters Kathy, Ruth and Tommy and is told from Kathy's point of view as a 31-year old women. You learn that the 3 were lifelong friends that grew up together at a prestigious boarding school in England. There is something different about the students at this school though, something that they learn about slowly as they continue their education. It's hard to say too much without giving away the secret of what makes these students different, but this is an interesting story about life-long friendships, love and loss.

I really enjoyed reading this book and found it hard to put down. The secrets of what makes the school and students so unique are slowly given to you, like they are to the students, although I did have an inkling of what was happening. In the end you do learn what makes the students so special and why they are treated so differently, but the real world implications are never touched upon, which makes me think this novel would be a good pick for a book club discussion.

Find it Never Let Me Go at your local library or order it from Amazon.

Book Worm

I really love to read. This isn't anything new, growing up, I used to drive my parents nuts by devouring any book I could get my hands on in a couple of days, which meant many trips to the bookstore and library.

Over the last year or so when I was wasn't working, I was able to put a lot more time catching up on the books I have been meaning to read, as well as picking up some new things. The book club that I am apart of, Tequila Mockingbird, also forces me to spend more time reading even when my schedule gets crazy.

Well due to this, and the fact that I know a lot of my friends enjoy reading as well, I have decided that I am going to try to write reviews of everything I read going forward. I've already read 2 books this month, which I plan of writing about soon.

Also, if we aren't already friends on Goodreads, feel free to add me!

Reading Rainbow

Since I've had so much time on my hands recently, I've had a lot of time to spend with my books. I generally prefer to read science fiction and mysteries, but I've been trying to mix it up a bit.

Going forward, I may start doing reviews on the books I read, but in the meantime, if anyone is curious about any of the books on the list below, let me know and I can give you a rundown.

Without further ado, here is a list of the books I have read in the last 7 and a half months or so (in no particular order). And if anyone has any recommendations, send them my way!

• A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick (didn't like this at first, but ended up really liking it!)
• Speaker For The Dead by Orson Scott Card (loved, sequel to Ender's Game although it was good enough on it's own)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clark (book club - loved)
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Tijuania Striats by Kem Numm (book club - one of the few books I didn't like, which is unfortunate because I've read some of his other books and really liked them.) 
• The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester (book club - didn't really like it much as I was reading it, but looking back I liked it)
• The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (loved the whole series, 1st two movies are great too!)
• The Girl With Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson 
• The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
• Big Machine by Victor LaValle (book club - this was just weird)
• A Wind at the Door by Madeleine L'Engle 
• A Touch Of Dead by Charlaine Harris (short stories around the Sookie Stackhouse novels) 
• Dead And Gone by Charlaine Harris (I've read all of the Sookie Stackhouse books (what True Blood is based on), as close to chick lit as I get) 
• Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris
• The Shack by William P. Young (this was an accident, from what my mom told me, I thought it was a murder mystery. I didn't realize it was a Christian book until I already bought/started reading it, so I figured I should finish it. That being said, I didn't like it.)
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (the movie wasn't bad, but the book was better) 
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy (read the entire book in one sitting, on a flight from NY to CA)
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (reread it for about the 10th time) 
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (book club)
• Xenocide by Orson Scott Card (3rd book in the Ender series, currently reading)