Angel Sister

Yay! I made it to 1000 pageviews!! Anyway on book related topics, I finished Angel Sister by Ann Gabhart. This book takes place in the 1930's when a little girl is dumped off at the local church, the church has to decide what they think is best for this little girl.

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So I really liked this book, at first it was very jumpy and a little confusing but it smoothed out. This book has flashbacks which I love in books because I get part of the characters' past. Gabhart also nicely tied together three generations which was awesome to see how the different generations felt on certain topics. I was surprised at how much religion was intertwined in this book, there was a lot of quoting the Bible and the big question "Do you believe in God?" came up A LOT. So, if you're not into religion I wouldn't suggest this book. I had such a nervous feeling reading this book because I felt for the characters and I was nervous for certain ones. I had such wide range of emotions reading this book. One night I was sobbing, the next I was so angry at the book. This book is radiating with so much hate and tension you could cut it with a butter knife. There were even a few Romeo and Juliet type romances in the flashbacks. I related to the character Kate the most, she and I definitely share the same personality and character traits. I don't think this book closed nicely, I think relationships were left of hanging I didn't like it and I don't think justice was served. There is another book after this one but the ending didn't make you feel like you needed to read it.

So, I'm going to try to read All Enemies again, but I may come back to you soon with a back-up book.

And thanks to all of you for sticking with me!

Happy reading!
Mackenzie

Stuck

Hey! So the book All Enemies by Robert Hugh McCauley, is the father of friend of mine from high school. My friend was adopted from Russia and was part of the inspiration for this book. It's a very political book with many technical terms and right now I'm having a hard time focusing on reading it especially since I'm not really a political person. I feel like it's important for me to read this book because it's written by someone I know and I want to diversify (real word?) the genres that I'm reading and broaden my horizons. So I promise by the end of this challenge I will have read this book, but right now it's too much. I'm going to read a book called Angel Sister by Ann H. Gabhart and hopefully soon I'll finish All Enemies.

Happy reading!
Mackenzie

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Hey everyone! I just finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, which I'm counting only as on book. Sorry, it took me a lot longer than it should have. I've been so busy and sick lately. But this is a classic story most people have read about a little girl who gets lost in this crazy mixed up world and comes in contact with many different creatures.

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So I had never read this book before and I really wish that I had, but better late than never. This is definitely a book I will read again and again and to my children. The chapters are short so it makes it a quick read. Carroll is truly a clever writer to be able to create this world is crazy and twisted and exactly opposite of ours, which makes it so much fun and you can really escape reality in this book. The creatures were brilliant and so like the whole story so creative, and the descriptions were so well done you could really see what he was talking about. It's also funny, which it's hard to get an adult to laugh a children's book. I thought it was funny how everything was taken very literally, something that doesn't happen now a days because we don't say what we mean. I liked how there were real poems in there, not just ones Carroll wrote. I found myself forgetting I was in Wonderland and not in Oz. The characters and worlds are so similar. If you have never read it, go out and buy a copy and start right away. Such a good book.

My next book is a book called All Enemies, which was written by an old friend's dad. I'll give some more background in a later post. Also, I'll be writing a statistics post later this week.

Happy reading!
Mackenzie

Angels and Demons

I promise I haven't abandoned you. I just finished Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. This is a great mysterious, suspenseful book about a Harvard symbologist who is called to help find a murderer who is suspected to be part of an underground organization that was thought long deceased.

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I love this book. It is a quick read because the chapters are shorter and the book is so captivating. It is so creative and the book really comes to life when Brown uses real life references to statues and building that are still standing. As I was reading this I started remembering bits and pieces but I think my knowledge of this book and The Da Vinci Code kind of blurred together because parts of the book I thought were in the other book were in this one and vice versa. Even though I have read this book before, it was a long enough time span that the book was still fairly unpredictable. There are so many twists and turns throughout the book. Dan Brown had to be very knowledgeable about history, religion, and science to write this book. It was truly a work of genius.It is a good idea when reading this book to have Google open at all times. I used it a lot, especially to look up certain sculptures and buildings referenced in the book. It was nice also to do some extra research on Christian rules and the underground group that resurfaced.

I'm going to read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass as one book.

Happy reading!
Mackenzie

I Am Legend

I finished I Am Legend by Richard Matheson last night. I was unaware, until I started reading, that this had short stories along with the story "I Am Legend". This book includes, "I Am Legend", "Buried Talents", "The Near Departed", "Prey", "Witch War", "Dance of the Dead", "Dress of White Silk", "Mad House", "The Funeral", "From Shadowed Places", and "Person to Person". All of these stories had some kind of supernatural element to them. I need to start a new word, since none of my current words have any "I"s in them:

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This book was amazing! I really liked it and it was a quick read. My favorite stories were "I Am Legend" and "Prey" both of these had excellent concepts and they were written so well. My least favorite though was "Dance of the Dead", not that it wasn't well written I just wasn't a fan of the concept. All of the stories ended with a cliff hanger ending that made you think, which is a really nice ending when you aren't obligated to read another book to find out. It just makes you think. Since most of the stories were really short, I didn't really take notes of criticism or praise. I did take notes for "I Am Legend" though since it was longer. It flowed nicely and all the other stories did as well. I thought that vampires were stupider, but I guess I've been watching too many zombie things and just assumed that all undead creatures were dumb. I was wrong. It's scary to think that this could actually happen and the way he wrote it made it seem possible.

So now I'm going to do things a little differently. Since I don't know what to read next, I'm going to start with "A" and work my way down the alphabet, for the most part. I'm going to read Angels and Demons (hence why I chose ARMADILLO to start). I read this book six years ago, when I was just getting back into reading. So, it will be nice to read it now that I'm older and appreciate it more.

Happy reading!
Mackenzie