One Day by David Nicholls

cover image from LibraryThing

Ond of my favorite actresses is Anne Hathaway.  So, how could I pass of this book fair book. There was Anne snuggled up and looking happy.

This book took me a long time to really get into. I felt like it was way to predictable.  Brainy and semi-boring Emma has a short fling with gad-about-town Dexter.  There are moments that they could each follow to create a real romance - but college circumstances keep that from happening.  As the years pass Emma becomes more entrenched in her causes and significant friendships and Dexter looses  his grip on reality as he becomes rich and famous as a spokesperson for nothing.

Let's see what will happen - there will be an awakening and both will realize at the same moment that they are perfect for each other - fall madly in love and life will be perfect.

I kept waiting for that to happen. I mean duh!!!

But it didn't quite happen. Instead the years rolled by and Emma become famous - as a writer and Dexter faded into nothingness as drugs and stupidity took their toll.  Predictable.

And then it happened.  But it wasn't what we all thought.  It was more and it was less.

The end of the book redeemed itself.  But, I have to admit I would not have stuck with it without Anne as Emma.  I knew Anne was more than Emma's dreariness.  But, that was because of my belief in other Anne's not becasue of the book.

So - it's hard to recommend this.  I liked it - but the story has been done way to many times!!!

The State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

cover image from LibraryThing

Let me tell you things come together in unexpected ways sometimes.  This is one of the books that I downloaded onto my Nook to read on our Mexican vacation.  What a great beach read it was!

This is the story of an unexpected journeys
       - from the cold of Minnesota to the wilds of Brazil
       - from the known sterile world of a pharmaceutical lab to the completely unpredictable world of 70 year old pregnant Brazilian women who gnaw on trees.
       -from the ordered life of Marina Singh failed gynecologist and clandestine lover of the company CEO to Dr. Annick Swenson the Amazonian queen of research

So - as I sat on the beach on my own journey I read about Marina and Dr. Swenson.  Marina, afraid of rocking the boat in so many ways and Swenson who not only will drive the boat, she will command anyone who touches the boat and perhaps burn them at the stake if they cause any problems. There could not be two more dissimilar characters.
As the paths of these two women intertwine - both in Marina's schooling and later at the research facility and finally in Brazil they take on one another's qualities...much to their dismay.

The story begins with a letter from Brazil announcing the death of Marina's research partner who has gone to Brazil to find out why it is taking Dr. Swenson so long to create a fertility drug from a tribe of women who still bear children in their 70s.   Marina is charged to go to Brazil to find Anders body and return it to his wife as well as check on the research.

As you would expect things don't go as they are expected to...there are cannibals, a hippie couple who hold unexpected information, a deaf child named Easter, and a jungle so full of insects that...well it gave me the creeps.

As Marina makes her way to the tribe - she is greeted with natives holding torches in the night...it so happened that I read that part the day that we took an hour boat ride to a darkened island where the torches on the beach welcomed us...there were no critters, but it was an interesting moment.

I enjoyed the way this story spun itself slowly out.  There were so many hidden treasures and half truths that worked their way into the tale.  This was a good one.

Girl Who Played with Fire and Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest By Stieg Larsson

Both these were page turners - in completely different ways.

cover image by LibraryThing

Lisbeth is the center of a police investigation in the Girl who Played with Fire.  It is an investigation into a double homicide and the gun has her fingerprints all over it.  As the police and the press search for a mentally unstable, lesbian, demon worshiper - Lisbeth quietly begins her own search for the killer. A search that pushes her friends to the limit - did she really kill these people, how well do they know Lisbeth, how far would she go?

How did she get involved???  The truth is a bit surprising - a series of unfortunate events you might even call it.  But - by then Lisbeth is deeply embroiled in the search for her own beginnings that she has to see it through.

This is one of those books that I hesitated to begin.  I really liked Lisbeth at the end of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I felt sorry for her and the way she was victimized and I didn't want the harassment to continue. So, I put off reading this second book.  I didn't want her at the mercy of her Advocate again.  Well...
Once I started reading her situation was much worse and much better than I had imagined.  I mean really - how could I feel like Lisbeth was a victim?  Her resilience is clear.  But in this book she begins to understand that her decisions have effects on her friends. In fact, it is in this book that she really decides she has friends at all.

cover image from LibraryThing

As The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest begins life for Lisbeth has been reduced to a hospital bed. This wonder woman is in terrible physical shape after being shot and buried alive.  And...now she is caught.

Then things take a mighty unexpected turn.  This is the installment that is all about strategy and planning and behind the scenes work.  The first two books were raw physical power.  This one is raw brain power... well sort of.

Lisbeth is charged with a series of crimes. Nothing impossible, just difficult.  But, the real maneuvering is in the government. A division of the secret police so secret that they have operated outside the law most of Lisbeth's life.  And they have now reconvened to take her down.

This is the book where Lisbeth really understands that she is not alone. She is probably her most vulnerable and her strongest in this one.  And I have to say it was my favorite. i really like all the finagling and rangling and planning.  I like the way Lisbeth evolves into a different character.  Maybe it's growing up - but I think it's much more because for the first time she is really not alone. REALLY not alone and we all know it.

These are amazing stories and many threads are still hanging.  What a story Stieg Larsson had to tell!!!

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - the movie

Whew!!!
Went to the movie yesterday and this is a doozy!!! Somehow it's so much worse to see things happening than to just read about them.  This is not a film for the faint of heart  - Lisbeth's life is not easy to see...

But - my goodness does it keep you engrossed!!

The Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

I just finished this book. I have to say I love these!! This one does not disappoint...

The books are about Tessa Gray.  A New York girl who has been brought to London and is under the care of the Institute of London. Basically that means that she lives in the institute with Charlotte and Henry, Will and Jem and Jessamine.  Now that may sound very mild mannered - but the Institute houses the Shadowhunters - beings descended from the angels tasked with keeping the world safe from demons and evil.  Tessa is not a Shadowhunter, she is not a werewolf, vampire or other downworlder, she is not a warlock because she doesn't have a mark.  But - she is not a mundane (normal human) because she is able to change into another person with the help of something that person owned.

That sounds difficult enough - but there is a nasty dark figure stalking the Shadowhunters seeking to own Tessa.  He is the Magistrat and the mastermind behind an army of clockwork monsters ready to kill.  And he seems to be everywhere - easily finding their weaknesses through spies and clockwork creatures.

Oh yeah - and there is more.  Will is a loose cannon - irreverant, uncontrolled, unpredictable, hating everyone he comes in contact with.  Jem is the exact opposite - he is caring and kind and looks out for everyone and he is dying - addicted to a drug which is slowly killing hime and to stop the drug would kill him outright.  These two are fighting partners - paired in a special ceremony to defend each other no matter what. And they are both in love with Tessa.

Now the real problem...

I hate reading series...I really hate it...It's been too long since I read the first book and I have forgotten some of the underlying connections. So what do you do??  And the book just ends. The story doesn't - only the book.  So you are left with another year before the next installment.
Sometimes I think I should just buy them when they come out and not read them until they are all here...

Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan

I clearly have been on a supernatural kick lately!  I also read the first two installments of  Heroes of Olympus.  These books follow the Roman Gods - where the Percy Jackson series followed the Greek Gods.


There is also a Roman camp - run very differently from Camp Half Blood. Everything is very military, very controlled, very scary.  Sort of the antithesis of the Greek camp. But the prophesy says that both the camps must work together to save the world. A little difficult since the camps don't even know the other exists...so on single goddess has an idea...

What if we took the heroes from each camp - bonked them on the head so they lost their memories and then dumped them in the opposite camp.  Sound like something a meddling goddess might do??

So in the first book The Lost Hero - Jason ends up at Camp Half Blood - where everyone is mourning the disappearance of Percy and are more than a little concerned about this very talented kids appearance.  The same thing happens in the next book Son of Neptune. Except this time Percy ends up at the Camp Jupiter.
Both of these boys are given a quest to prove themselves and a couple of misfit kids to help them out...

All the while both camps and campers are moving closer to fulfilling this prophecy...

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,To storm or fire the world must fall.An oath to keep with a final breath,And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

I enjoyed these books - I continue to be in awe of the understanding and research that Riordan brings to these stories! They are like textbooks for the ancient gods.  Incredible!

Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan

 The Kane Chronicles are Riordan's newest journey into the ancient world of gods and their children.  These are the tales of the Egyptian gods - those who fill mortals with the spirits and fly through sand filled portals at any Egyptian relic site.

Riordan's  main characters are two siblings - Sadie and Carter Kane. Two teenagers as different as their parents were - Sadie raised rather prim and proper by her English grandparents and Carter raised by his Africa American Egyptian archeologist father roaming from one dig site to another.

In each of these books the Kanes must work together to attempt to save the world from the ever approaching god of Chaos.  Each book connects known well known places with Egyptian gods and their cohorts.  Each also reminds the reader of the importance of Egypt in the past and the present.  The Kanes slowly become more of a family as they accept the difficulties of trying to train future godlings and keep the world from succumbing to chaos.

As I read these I was reminded again and again of the other Riordan books and have become quite curious about his ease in describing gods in many different lands and ways.  It makes life quite interesting.