I listened to this in the car, because I find that Picoult's novels are perfect to listen to. The plot isn't so detailed that I need to flip back to the front of the book to check a detail and it's light enough that I can listen while I drive without worrying about my thoughts drifting for a minute.
This particular story follows the traditional Picoult model...lots of controversy, a trial, and a "surprise" ending. This book follows the story of Zoey, who struggles with infertility, loses a baby in week 28, and loses her husband shortly after. The main plot is the fight for remaining frozen embryos between Zoey and her husband after she discovers she is a lesbian and he discovers Jesus in an ultra-conservative, media-loving church.
It was what it was...it would never make a recommendation list or a top-ten list, but it was interesting and served its purpose.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Book 7: 11/22/63 by Stephen King
Man, I used to read every book that Stephen King wrote, but as my tastes "matured," I put King's books away and moved onto book club and intellectual-type books. Now that I'm venturing back into the world of entertainment fiction, I think I need to go back and read King's books that I missed while I was gone.
This book was very highly recommended by an acquaintance, and so I happily towed the huge monstrosity with me on a cruise to Mexico despite the weight. I'm very glad I did. It was a perfect book to read poolside (except for the size, of course). When I wasn't reading, I was thinking about the storyline...
Now that I have finished the book, I still think it was a worthwhile read, but I am a little bummed at the ending of the book. I can't decide if I'm bummed because I didn't want it to end that way or if I'm bummed because of something that King did wrong. I know that I'm personally bummed with how it ended, plot-wise, but there might also have been a little rush towards the end as King no doubt tried to keep the book under a thousand pages.
I would recommend this book if you like long drawn-out plots with lots of character development and don't mind some science-fiction points (it is Stephen King, after all...)
This book was very highly recommended by an acquaintance, and so I happily towed the huge monstrosity with me on a cruise to Mexico despite the weight. I'm very glad I did. It was a perfect book to read poolside (except for the size, of course). When I wasn't reading, I was thinking about the storyline...
Now that I have finished the book, I still think it was a worthwhile read, but I am a little bummed at the ending of the book. I can't decide if I'm bummed because I didn't want it to end that way or if I'm bummed because of something that King did wrong. I know that I'm personally bummed with how it ended, plot-wise, but there might also have been a little rush towards the end as King no doubt tried to keep the book under a thousand pages.
I would recommend this book if you like long drawn-out plots with lots of character development and don't mind some science-fiction points (it is Stephen King, after all...)
Book 6: The Secret Supper by Javier Sierra
I got this book at a book exchange we had with my book club.
My first impression was that this book was going to be very similar to The DaVinci Code, with lots of intrigue and mystery. It both was and wasn't. Comparing the two books, Dan Brown did a much better job of taking the very deep thoughts of DaVinci and making them accessible to the masses. I don't think that Javier Sierra did quite as well. At the end of the book, I was still asking myself if I understood what DaVinci supposedly hid in the Last Supper... And then in the afterword, Sierra talked about his research and said something along the lines of...such and such theory has never been proven, until now. It left me scratching my head, because I'm a pretty intelligent person, and I did not get that feeling of the concrete understanding that I was hoping for.
All-in-all, there are good parts of this book, but I wouldn't say that the conclusion merits the journey.
My first impression was that this book was going to be very similar to The DaVinci Code, with lots of intrigue and mystery. It both was and wasn't. Comparing the two books, Dan Brown did a much better job of taking the very deep thoughts of DaVinci and making them accessible to the masses. I don't think that Javier Sierra did quite as well. At the end of the book, I was still asking myself if I understood what DaVinci supposedly hid in the Last Supper... And then in the afterword, Sierra talked about his research and said something along the lines of...such and such theory has never been proven, until now. It left me scratching my head, because I'm a pretty intelligent person, and I did not get that feeling of the concrete understanding that I was hoping for.
All-in-all, there are good parts of this book, but I wouldn't say that the conclusion merits the journey.
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