Even though I didn't manage to complete either of this years reading challenges I would love to do one this year as well. Please let me know if you have any good ones.
Here are my reviews of the last 3 books of 2011.
The Boy He Left Behindby Mark Matousek
Inner front cover: Mark Matousek grew up in an eccentric family in Los Angeles. He has only one memory of his father: a stranger who appeared when he was four and tried - unsuccessfully - to kidnap him. Years later, challenged by a friend, he hired a private detective to try to track this man down. The Boy He Left Behind is the true story of Mark's extraordinary search for his lost father, and an exploration of our own sense of identity.
Very interesting book about a man's search for his father. There are loads of people and names in the book so it can be quite confusing at times. But it's interesting to read about someone's thoughts about finding his father. I can't even begin to imagine what that would be like. He also writes a lot about his past, how it was growing up in his family, and how he feels about the different people in his family.
Grimm's Fairy Talesby Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm and Edna Henry Lee Turpin
I read this as an e-book so I don't have a blurb, but who hasn't heard of Grimm's fairy tales?!
I've read a lot of the fairy tales before, but there are so many versions of all of them, everybody makes small changes to them, so it was nice to read what I think/hope is the original version. I'm not sure which fairy tale is my favourite as I liked quite a lot of them. I like how they all have a moral to them, kids should always be read Grimm's fairy tales I think. I love fairy tales!
The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow - And Other Storiesby Washington Irving
Outer back cover: In the aptly-named village of Sleepy-Hollow, the people are much given to talk about ghosts and spirits. Even the very air seems haunted. Ichabod Crane is a teacher at the village school: learned, assertive and sometimes cruel.
Crane wishes to marry Katrina, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy farmer, but he has a rival: Broom Bones, a valiant horseman and a local hero. One night at a party held by Katrina's family, Bones tells a story that chills the hearts of his listeners: the story of a ghostly headless horseman. That is the last night that anyone lays eyes on Ichabod Crane...
It has been a while since I saw the movie Sleepy Hollow but when I saw this book I had to get it as I seemed to remember I liked the movie, and the book is usually better than the movie.
Sleepy Hollow is the last story in the book, and so I had to read a lot of other ones before I got to it. They seemed to get more and more boring. The stories themselves wasn't necessarily boring, but the way they were written was. My mind started wandering in all of them and I had to re-read whole pages because I had no idea what I had just read. I actually fell asleep while reading this book, I have never before fallen asleep while reading!! Needless to say I was looking forward to getting to Sleepy Hollow, but that was a disappointment too, as it was just as boringly written as the rest. I would like to see the movie again though now that I've read the original story, just to see what they've done differently. But I think this will be one of the few cases where I prefer the movie.
The only story in my eyes that wasn't too bad was Rip Van Winkle, I got through it without having to re-read too much and I though it was quite interesting.
1 comment:
I think 45 books in a year along with moving country, starting a new job, etc, etc is very impressive. Well done.
Post a Comment