Mini Book Reviews
Hello and thank you for joining!
Today I am going to do something a bit different than I have been doing lately. I am going to do mini-reviews of the books I have read but don't feel can do a full review on. I hope you enjoy this little experiment of mine. I think I will. So without further rambling off we go!
This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada- My rating for this book is a 6.5/10. I really enjoyed the setup and the premise. The idea of manipulating DNA in order to defeat a deadly/zombie plague sounds great right? The problem lies in the execution. The first half of the book dragged. I didn't want to pick it back up. When a book takes ages to make me interested it's a bad sign for the rest of it usually, but the ending of this book was actually very good and very well executed. The characters who felt flat and one dimensional for the first two hundred pages finally got flushed out and became people you could care about. The relationships still feel lacking because they were not given enough time to develop, but I have hope for future books. I still plan to read them because like I said the premise is fascinating and we were slowly getting to know our characters, more importantly, they were beginning to grow in themselves.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle- Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. My rating for this book was a 3/10. I struggled to read this. I struggled so much. Thank you, good Lord, above that this book was so short because if I had to slug through more pages I would have cried. I know this book won the Newbery Medal, but I would have to respectfully disagree. I didn't think the writing itself was good, I found myself rolling my eyes a lot, which in all fairness I do that a lot. The main female character was weak, unsure and written to come across as the least important of all of the characters, she was specially made to be secondary to her younger brother Charles Wallace. I wanted to shake Meg and scream at her to get over herself, but I wanted to do the same to the seven-year-old younger sibling who acted like he knew everything because he was a “genius”. He didn't read like a child genius. He read like an adult stuffed in a child's body. There was an obvious Christian parallel, which was not executed well. The answer to all their problems was love. In my opinion, this was not a good book, I know this is my opinion so if you disagree please let me know and we can talk about it.
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan- This book I, well I didn't love it because it was non-fiction, but I highly enjoyed it. I rated it at about 8/10, simply because I wouldn't have been angry at another hundred pages. The premise is to explore the historical Jesus, which is a topic I have been interested in since I took my first Theology class. The author does an amazing job portraying the world that Jesus lived in. The historical context adds layers to understanding the bible that I think many overlooks and this book explores that context in a way that reads very well and provides a narrative to the storyline itself. This book also had the additional benefit of making me shake my head at the Roman Empire once again. Obviously their strategies worked for hundreds of years but that doesn't make them any less brutal and horrible. Not that many in the ancient world were better. They were not. Everyone was brutal to the extent that the modern mind has a difficult time understanding. It was after all a different world.
The Giver by Lois Lowry- Another Newbery Medal winner, and alas another book that didn't blow my mind. I have read this before in middle school, but at the time I didn't realize it was a series so I thought it read it again to see what I think now. Sadly I agree with my twelve-year-old self. Apparently, at twelve I had good taste lol. I rate this book at 5/10 which shows that I didn't hate it, but that I wasn't fully satisfied with it. The problem was once again developed. There was so much to explore in this book that was not explored! What Lowry created was essentially a society of psychopaths. These people felt nothing, had no empathy, no attachments, no capacity to love. Somehow in this world, this became the norm. No one felt any hesitation in committing murder, in lying, in breaking down children so they would confirm. It was considered good. I am not saying that a; the things that are painted as evil in this book are, but I am saying that in this society they were because they were carried out by people who lacked the capacity to understand that these things are supposed to be hard. Then we have Jonas who is not different in any way, yet gets chosen to carry all the memories of humankind. If anything he was more confirmed and more in favor than his friend Asher. So why Jonas? This is never answered and I wanted to know. I liked the setup, I liked the idea, I liked the writing even. I just didn't think there was enough thought put into writing it to make it amazing. It was simplified, and that is never a good thing.
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell- this one I rated at 7.5/10. It’s a nonfiction book exploring what it means to interact with strangers. This book shows exactly how badly humanity reads other people they do not know. Through the use of examples and case studies, Gladwell demonstrates his points. I wouldn't have been upset at a more in-depth exploration, which is why this book is rated so low, it was easy to read and I didn’t want to stop reading it, but I also wanted to keep reading once it was done. I thought we could have sued some more in-depth explanation of the theories presented. I also wanted Gladwell to write a chapter about his conclusions and ideas. I almost felt like this book was rushed into publication. Nevertheless, I highly recommend everyone read it for the eye-opening points it presents.
Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang- this is a picture book for little ones. I read it in about three minutes, out loud, at work, in as dramatic a manner as possible. I’m still not sure if my coworkers appreciated my efforts or not. I’m not sure how to rate it because it's meant for a completely different audience. I do think that reading it to children would be good. The book explains that feeling the way you are feeling is okay and you shouldn’t be ashamed of it or angry about it. It’s a good message and executed pretty well. So overall three minutes well spent.
So here we are ladies and gentlemen, and assorted creatures of the night. These are the other books I’ve read this year thus far. So a mixed bad, and full of weirdness. Some were disappointments and some were a pleasant surprise. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. See you again soon.
Love and all,
Anna
