I stumbled upon the synopsis of The Child Thief by Brom on Goodreads and was hooked. I needed to read this book! It offers a completely different look at Peter Pan, one where he is stealing children from our world to help fight his war in his world (which isn't Neverland, but, so what.) This is a difficult one to talk about. Because I actually did not enjoy it. I was so tempted to DNF it. To begin with, I suppose I should talk about the writing. The blurb on the cover said that this was poetically written. Hmmm... Clearly, people do not read poetry. I thought the writing was flat. It was an action following an action. The dark setting was created solely with regular adjectives and foul language. At no point did I feel engrossed in the story, which is how I usually feel when I read. I read this feeling like I was reading. I did not live the story. I think better language use, creating imagery, would have changed that. The plot, though, was interesting. I liked the spin on Peter Pan. I liked the combination of mythologies and the world that had been created. I liked that he went beyond all safe boundaries. It was as if the heroes in a cop show arrived ten minutes after the bomb went off, rather than with 10 seconds to go. What I did not enjoy were the attempts to create a dark setting by including irrelevant dark scenes. A dead and raped girl laying on the ground with her bleeding vagina on display comes to mind. Did the paragraph it was given create darkness. No. All it did was make me angry - not at the characters, but at the writer, because he clearly cared as much as I did about this unnamed girl - nothing. I got the impression that he was sitting there, wondering how he could make this scene even more gross than it already was and decided, "Hey presto! Let's put in a dead, raped girl." Now before you think I am prudish and whatnot, let me put out there that I gave 'A Brief History of Seven Killings' 5 stars. Now that was dark. It had every despicable thing one could imagine in it. But it was how it was handled that was different. This book's sole goal seemed to be to make sure it was never shelved in the children's section. It was as though it wanted to be daring and bad, putting unnecessary scenes in like people add tomato sauce to chips. The characters were good though. They were complex, multi-layered and flawed. The art work was brilliant. Overall, I think it was a great concept, poorly executed. I gave it a meagre 2 stars.
I don't know why I started reading the next book. It was a book I was given, and I took it off my shelf while hunting for the next book to read, opened to the first page and that was that. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee is the second book I have read by Coetzee. I can't say that I loved Foe, and I can't say that I loved Disgrace either. (The cover should have been the only clue I needed.) But Coetzee is a South African author, and I feel I should read his works, if for no other reason than patriotism. This story follows a professor who is disgraced after having an affair with a student, and 'let go' from his position in a university. The story is about his journey just before and then after his fall from grace. I did enjoy the connection I felt when they spoke of my alma mater and Grahamstown. I will acknowledge that this was well-written. I could appreciate the themes and could see where Coetzee was coming from. But, even though it made sense in the story, there is no way that I could ever ENJOY a book with rape and the mass murder of so many hundreds of dogs. Sorry to all out there who could see why this was necessary to the plot and the character. I just squirmed inside while reading it. I gave it 2 stars. (It probably says a lot about me that I can read books about serial murderers, and not squirm an inch; but put a suffering animal in there, and I spend the rest of the book trying to convince myself that it is not real.)
After those two books I needed something light and fluffy - with no dead animals. I had heard that The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion was a funny book and it was just what I needed. It was humorous, light and fluffy. This book follows a man who has decided he wants a wife. He elects to use a questionnaire to eliminate unworthy candidates. While romance is not my preferred genre, this one kept my attention. For starters the protagonist has Asperger's, so his social skills were limited to say the least. But as the novel is told in the first person, his logic and explanations felt like mine. I think I enjoyed this more because it followed a male looking for love and not the woman. I generally find the female perspective very annoying as we are reduced to hormonal, emotional stereotypes who go through mood swings with the speed of a bullet. I would recommend this to people who are wanting to head into the romance genre (for reading challenges) but who are not fans of the genre. Other than that, I think lovers of the romance genre would enjoy this one too. I gave this 3 stars.
I finally buckled down to finish reading A Slip of the Keyboard by Terry Pratchett. This book was informative in so many ways. I found what Pratchett had to say about writing, his routine, books and all other aspects of his craft, fascinating. The section on his feelings about being allowed to end his own life as a result of his Alzheimer's was also very interesting. He had good points and his efforts in that field were commendable. I would recommend this one to fans of Terry Pratchett and folks who are interested in writing or books. I would suggest that one takes reading this slowly, otherwise some of the essays will sound repetitive. I gave it four stars, although it is very hard to rate a collection of essays.
And finally! The last book! The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera is a book that I had picked up about 20 years ago and then failed to read. I don't know why I picked it up initially, but I picked it up now because I am trying to read the books I have been sitting on my TBR pile for a long time. I can't say I was particularly motivated to read it. But having said that, although I cannot exactly, or honestly, claim that this was an enjoyable read, there were aspects of this book I really did appreciate. This story is set in Czechoslovakia during the Russian takeover and the introduction to communism. But that barely covers what it really is about. I loved the philosophy in it. I also loved the intrusion of the author's voice, where he explains where and how he thought up the characters. I thought the chapter that explained the different meanings of everyday words was absolutely bloody brilliant! Let me explain this part. Because of our different experiences in life, even something as simple as music can have different meanings to different people. Some might find it soothing; others might find it an intrusion. Of course, the book takes this idea so much further, but I don't really want to spoil anything. But having said that, the character that I really felt the most for was *drum roll* the dog. Bring out the tissues - again - folks! I gave this 4 stars although, it is more for appreciation and not really for having enjoyed it.(Although, as I said above, there were parts I loved.)I have done it! Fifteen books lightly reviewed, my blog up to date, resolutions of not letting it get this out of hand again made.
Next up!? Possibly a book haul.
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