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I had someone ask me just last night what I was reading. Although I haven't had time to read much in the last few weeks, this is the most recent book I've read.The Field Guide introduces us to the Grace siblings. Mallory, oldest, is taking fencing lessons (one of my favorite lines from the book: "...Mallory would either be an Olympic fencer or in jail for stabbing someone with a sword.") and is a pretty decent older sister. Jared and Simon are twins. Jared is the one the book kind of centers around-- everything we read is from his point of view. Simon is portrayed as being the 'perfect one'. He's the one that's good at everything, loves animals, a straight-A student, and so on. However, Jared is the troublemaker-- he's been getting in a lot of trouble at school. In the beginning of the book, the Grace family (Mom, Mallory, Jared, and Simon) move into their mysterious great-aunt's old house. In their exploring (and trouble-making), Jared finds a secret room and an amazing old book with a warning on it: "Go away/close the book/put it down/do not look!" So what does Jared do? He reads it. From here on, the siblings are sucked into a magical world where the ordinary is the extraordinary. Faeries, boggarts, dwarves... they all really exist. And they're after The Book. I saw the movie first (I know, shame on me) and loved it so much I decided to try the book. I was pleasantly surprised! I was expecting them to be kids' books, but they grabbed my attention right away. Realistic characters, great storyline, and fantastical ideas all lend themselves to make this a great series of books. Little did I realize that they're only around 100 pages each. Blast! Now it'll take me forever to get them all from the library! Oh, well. It's not like I actually have spare time to read, anyway. Thumbs up!
Again with the freaky covers. I think I'm inexplicably drawn to books with strange, almost frightening pictures. So much for not "judging a book by its cover."
Anyway, simply put, The Host is about an alien invasion. The "soul", called Wanderer, is implanted in the "wild" human girl Melanie and takes over her life. Souls are virtually bodiless themselves and live by taking control of other species' bodies-- parasites, really. Once they take over a human, all the human's memories become property of the soul, and the human's soul (spirit, mind, whatever) disappear. It's different in Melanie's case. She fights Wanderer's presence and refuses to just go away while Wanderer is probing her memories to discover the hidden location of one of the few remaining human refugee camps. In the process, they become pleasant enemies (being that close to someone will do that to you). Once they reach the camp, they find the man that Melanie was in love with. Since Wanderer (who the humans call "Wanda") and Melanie share feelings, it becomes somewhat of a love triangle... that is, until Wanda develops her own feelings for someone else. Oi, could it be any more complicated? Well, yeah. See, there are souls who aren't fond of humans, and Wanda's original task was to flush out the resistance. And it just gets more interesting from there.
Stephenie Meyer is just about the most well-known author in the US right now, even though she's only released 5 books total. Classified as an "Adult Novel", The Host is about as different from her Twilight series as a book can be. Instead of vampires, we have aliens along with a totally different plot line. I read the Twilight books before The Host, and I must admit to having been wary. I was expecting another book very similar to the vampire/ human complication of Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. Although there are a few similarities in The Host, it's by no means a copycat. Once again, I wouldn't suggest letting younger (under the age of 13) kids read this book, i's a great book that I would highly recommend to anyone who's in the mood for a little sci-fi.
Thumbs Up!
There are people who have social issues. Forensic entomologist (a.k.a. "Bug Man") Nick Polchak is one of them. He doesn't "do" people. Can't stand being around them, really. He'd prefer to spend his time with his bugs. Unfortunately (for him) one of Kathryn Guilford's friends has been murdered... well, "allegedly" murdered and she needs Nick's help finding out exactly what happened. Oh! Did I mention she has a pathological fear of all insects? Oh, yeah. She does.He may not be exactly famous, but Tim Downs is one fantastic writer. His books are along the same lines of the extremely popular TV shows CSI, Cold Case, Bones and others. Why is there such a fascination with forensics now days? Eh, beats me. All I know is that those are some of my favorite TV shows and this is one of my favorite series of books. Tim Downs is in no way rude, crude, gross or anything like that-- just very factual. His books are sold in Christian bookstores, but don't necessarily "preach", which is a very rare characteristic. There aren't necessarily any surprise twists, bit Downs does a good job of writing a very fascinating type of story that I've already read about 7 times... and I'm getting ready to read it again.Thumbs Up!
I'm not going to post a picture of this one, simply because I really really really really didn't like it. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the idea of continuing the tale of Elizabeth Darcy. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favorite books. However, when you try to make it more interesting by inserting scenes depicting their married life (*nudge*nudge*), it completely ruins the entire concept. I made it through only about the first 2 chapters before I was sick of it. Honestly, I was hoping for much, much better. This book has all sorts of acclaims and recommendations for it, but I was severely disappointed.[a very disappointed] Thumbs Down
We all know the story of Judas Iscariot, right? The traitor, who betrayed Christ to the Roman soldiers and benefited from his death. But he hung himself, remember? The field where he hung himself can be known as "Akeldama" or "Field of Blood" (Hence the title). This book is about a girl named Gina Lazarescu who doesn't remember her past and is completely in the dark regarding her future. All she knows is that, somehow, undead creatures known as "Collectors" are after her. These creatures (or "demons", "vampires", whatever you want to call them) were raised by the blood shed by Judas which seeped into the earth-- into burial caves underneath his hanging body. Field of Blood follows Gina in her journey to uncover her past and map out her future.
Eric Wilson is one of my new favorite authors. He used to go to my church, but that's not why. His style of writing is comparable to some of my other favorite authors, Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti. I have to admit, though, I had my reservations about this book. My first reaction was "Christian vampires? How in the world does that work?" Strangely enough, it does work. Wilson always does his research, and this book is actually based on real legends which adds an amazingly real (strange though it may be) feel to his writing. Yes, this book is kind of dark and, yes, t's KILLING me that the next book doesn't come out 'til July.
Massively Huge Thumbs Up!
