The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Hey everybody!

This week I will be reviewing The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.

Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination, but an answer. 

In heaven, five people explain your life to you. Some you knew, others may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: "Why was I here?"

This is a re-read. I read it about 6 years ago and barely remembered it until the last person then I remembered little pieces. This book is fantastic. It's a book that really makes you think how you impact people. How could you meeting this person kill them. This book is so simple and perfectly lovely. It reads so easily. This book touches on death and an after life and it is well done. It was definitely kind of preachy but it was such a good book. I gave it 5 out 5 stars.

Happy reading!
Mackenzie

Lorien Legacies

Hello, hello, hello

The last book I read was I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore. I read the next three books in the series, The Power of Six, The Rise of Nine and, The Fall of Five. Instead of making three separate postings I'm going to clump them all together in one post and give you just a little bit of insight on each. If you have not read my review on I Am Number Four here is the link:



The Power of Six

In this book Lore starts switching between characters. That's great but he doesn't tell the reader they've switched characters. Hmm....I didn't know who was talking. There were a few continuity errors. These books seem really to be based on luck and I know I will repeat this in my other quick reviews. There wasn't too much action in this one. It was an overall okay read. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars.

The Rise of Nine

There was more character switching in this book but it was a lot more organized. It was almost every chapter that they switched. They explained the seven world wonders from a Lorien point of view which was super cool. Anything Earthly from a Lorien point of view is cool. There were LOTS of love triangles. There was quite a bit of action in this one. Again, the issue of continuity. I also gave this one 3 out of 5 stars.

The Fall of Five

THIS ONE! I would read this whole series just to read this one book. It was that good. This was the most twisted book so far. I could have done without the love stories that were in it. It seemed the love triangles were fixed. Like all the others it was all based on coincidence. It was kind of predictable but oh so good! There was much more action in this one to balance out the amount of waiting time they do. I gave this story 4 out of 5 stars.

Fahrenheit 451

Greetings!

My next book on review is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. This book does not fit into my challenge but it was a recommendation for me to read.

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family." But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear, and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television. When Mildred attempts suicide, and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

Right into the review. This was closest to 1984 by George Orwell. Another dystopian society where books aren't allowed (how awful!). It was also very similar to Wall-E because of the amount people rely on technology and I feel like this parallels our world (similarly to all dystopian books). The title in itself is so clever. Fahrenheit 451- the temperature at which paper burns. Also, Bradbury uses literary devices extremely well. This book is so simple it's good, no real twist or anything drastic in the book but it's good. There were a few parts were I was confused. Some things just weren't explained enough. There was also a lot of disconnect between the characters and there was a lot of babbling and repetition. This was overall a really good book and it's a classic. It was also quick and easy to read. I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars.

Happy reading!
Mackenzie

Four

Hey there!

So last Tuesday, I saw Veronica Roth speak and got my signed copy of Four. I finished the book quickly and wanted to give you my opinion on Allegiant before we went back in time and reviewed Four. So bonus review this week!

Here are the previous Veronica Roth reviews for those who haven't read them yet:

Divergent
Insurgent
Allegiant

Okay, I don't really have a lot to say about this book. This book is a compilation of four stories and three "exclusive" scenes, all from Four's perspective. The first three stories take place before Divergent even happens and we get to hear the full beginning of Four's life and his story. The fourth story happens in the middle of Divergent. The three exclusive scenes are scenes found in Divergent only told from Four's perspective. When I went into this book it was so hard for me to read it in Four's voice because I was so used to reading in Tris's  voice. I felt like pieces of the stories were missing and jumped around a little.Also, there were a few continuity issues. I understand it's hard writing stories that happen before your first book but it's crucial to make sure that everything lines up correctly. I really liked the first three stories. The fourth story and the three exclusive scenes were the same story as Divergent. There was a little more insight that was given to later events in Divergent but not that different. Overall, it was kind of cool to see it from Four's perspective. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Happy reading!
Mackenzie

P.S. It seemed appropriate to bump this review up. I'm flying through books and I have reviews into October already!

The Fault in Our Stars

Well, hello there!

Yes, I read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. This was the main reason that I stopped just reading to fill in letters of my book quest. I wanted to see what the hype was about and I couldn't find out since I used all of my F's. I'm sure you all know what the cover looks like since it's been talked about since it has come out, but here it is anyway and four days before the movie comes out:

And onto my review:

Yes, I sobbed. Yes, I laughed. Yes, I loved this book. But did I? It's about a girl who has terminal cancer. As I was reading this I wondered if Green had had someone close to him or had personally gone through this to make him come up with this perfectly acceptable point of view on life. But no he hasn't. So I don't know how I feel about him writing this story. Is it his story to tell? But I guess no one had a right to tell any story in that case. But because it's a subject so close to me, I tend to get defensive. It is fantastically written with all it's very corny lines and I guess it's just a moral dilemma that keeps me from giving it five stars. The other thing that bothered me was it was kind of predictable. Although any book is hard not to predict. So, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars because of the feels. Oh my feels! I don't know how to handle them. If you don't want to conform and be like everyone else and read this book, that's your decision, and this is my review so take it as you wish.

Happy reading!

Mackenzie

Fortunately, the Milk

Hey everyone!

So, the next book I read during my break of posting was Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman. I read this while it was very slow at work one day. It barely makes my page minimum clocking in at 114 pages. BUT I finished F already as Desmond told you in that last post. So you will simply have my review and a lovely picture of the cover.

Neil Gaiman, how silly you are. I really am fond of him. His stories are ridiculously silly, which is not very traditional in books. The other nice thing about his books is that they can be children's books AND adult books and not just an adult reading a children's book. This one however, is a children's book. It is far too goofy to be anything but. This story takes you through the adventure of a father who is simply trying to bring his children back some milk for their breakfast cereal. He goes through crazy obstacles and adventures to do so, and it is priority to make sure he gets the milk home. It was a really cute book. I would definitely read this to little kids. You can see Gaiman's imagination running wild with this book, as in many of his books. I gave it a 3 out of 5 stars for the fact that I was an adult reading it, although I did really enjoy sillyness of it, it .would have been better were I child reading it for the first time. I would suggest this to people who have little ones or to little ones reading this blog (?) or even to people who have a great imagination. I enjoyed this very short read and I think you should read it to your wee ones.

Happy reading!
Mackenzie

The Fellowship of the Ring

So, thanks to having a snow day, I have finally finished The Fellowship of the Ring. That took me a lot longer than it should have but... Now I have:
Funniest Cop Stories Ever (The)
E
N
N
E
Chemist (The)
Fellowship of the Ring (The)
O
X
Yay! Progress!
So I really liked this book, but there wasn't a lot of action going on in this book. It was kind of slow going, unlike The Hobbit which was very fast paced. The ending was a perfect break to continue into the next book. So far, my favorite character is Sam Gamgee, he's so loyal and sweet. My favorite creature is the Balrog. There is just something so interesting about it and the way its described. This book is a fantastic fantasy and very imaginative, all the creatures and places are carefully crafted. I suppose I will go onto The Two Towers next. I hope I can get through it a lot faster. But first I'll watch the first LoTR movie and see how it compares.
Happy reading!
Mackenzie

The Funniest Cop Stories Ever

So I have finished The Funniest Cop Stories Ever and so it's now time to review this book, but first:

Funniest Cop Stories Ever (The)
E
N
N
E
C
F
O
X

Why did I pick such a long animal name? I have no idea. But anyway, so this book in my personal opinion was not very funny. I definitely have heard funnier cop stories. Maybe if you're a cop you will appreciate it more, so if you have any cop friends suggest it to them. I bet they'll get a kick out of them. But it just wasn't a book for me.

So, I'm continuing on with FENNEC FOX and I'm going to read The Fellowship of the Ring since I have read The Hobbit I wanted to continue on with the series. This one will probably take me a little bit longer to read but hopefully I'll stay on track.

Happy reading!
Mackenzie