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Dear Writers/Readers and Everyone in Between,

Please feel free to leave comments regarding the book reviews (or anything else for that matter). I want to open my page to healthy discussion and promote freedom of speech. I care what people have to say and want to hear it. If you disagree with my review or like it, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks for taking the time to come to my blog and read the posts. I appreciate it.

Regards,

Sarah

Animal Farm

Animal Farm by George Orwell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I chose this book because it was a Penguin Modern Classic and it was involving animals. Little did I know that it was going to be a book full of metaphors. When I started reading, I wasn't really in to it. Things started to happen and I really started to enjoy the book. I am surprised that I enjoyed it so much because the basis is very political and reflects the events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917. I did find that sometimes I would be reading and I would forget that the characters were animals instead of people. There was a lot of core values in this book, which I really enjoyed because core values are very important to me and how I live my life. I would have to say that my favourite characters were Boxer (the strong horse), Benjamin (the donkey) and Clover (the mare). There was a lot of cheating and lying and the pigs did whatever they wanted to get whatever they needed. I found Napoleon and Squealer to be quite overbearing and liars. They didn't really care about the farm and it's animals as much as they said they did. They cared about making a profit and living a cushy lifestyle. It was a little disturbing how the rules kept changing and the animals were surprised that they hadn't realized the certain words before. (This had me flipping back to the original commandments to make sure I didn't miss something.) Although Orwell used this book to portray the events leading up to the Russian Revolution, I couldn't help but relate it to the current situation of the Trump government and how they are conducting themselves. Therefore, I believe this story has happened many times in history and can be related back to it just changing who the references and characters pertain to. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and I am surprised by how much I did enjoy it.


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Uganda Be Kidding Me

Uganda Be Kidding Me by Chelsea Handler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is not entirely what I expected. While I thought that it would be stories about Chelsea's trip(s) to Africa, it was more than just that. It was about a variety of trips and the stories that go with those trips. I have to be honest and say that I didn't find this book as good as some of the other Chelsea Handler books that I have read but it definitely was a nice break from all the heavy reading I've been doing. I can relate to Chelsea because she is completely outrageous and blunt, which I think I am myself. She's constantly swearing and drinking and just trying to have a good time. One thing that I loved about the book was the pictures relating to the vacations and her captions. They definitely are a high point for the book. The travellers questions, travellers etiquette and hot travel tips are out there but they do make a fair bit of sense. I would rate this book at a 3.5 at the most but I will give it a 3 stars on Goodreads.


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Sam's Letters to Jennifer

Sam's Letters to Jennifer by James Patterson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is another book that is written partially in the epistolary style. When Jennifer gets the call to come back to Lake Geneva because her grandma Sam is very sick, she immediately jumps in the car and heads to the lake. It's a shock to Jennifer as she was never aware that Sam was sick. Sam has written a bunch of letters for Jennifer to read so that she can understand her story, the only catch is Jennifer is only allowed to read a few at a time. The fact that Sam is sick re-ignites issues that Jennifer has tried to deal with in the past but has not succeeded. It's a very emotional roller coaster for Jennifer and one that she soon learns she cannot handle on her own. A budding friendship turns in to a supporting and loving relationship only for Jennifer to come to a crossroads once again. As Jennifer paces herself through the letters, she finds out things that she never could have imagined. This book is old school James Patterson. Although it may not be in the mystery/thriller genre, it is nice to see that he has the flexibility to branch out and try something and have it be a success. It adds to Patterson's range and the varieties of audiences that he can reach. James Patterson has been around a long time but comparing how he writes now and how he used to write is like night and day. If you get the chance to read earlier books by James Patterson, I urge you to give them a try. They are best he's ever written and you won't be disappointed.


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The Color Purple

The Color Purple by Alice Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Epistolary novels are probably one of my most favourite things to read. They are a different way of telling a story and I find that I can actually picture myself as a third party, non-biased observer. The emotions are more intense. While it can be tricky to follow a story line, it challenges the reader to really focus and pay attention.

The Colour Purple is about the lives of several Negroes/ African Americans, living in the South and the hardships and trials/tribulations they have to overcome to find some piece of happiness in their lives. The letters are written by Celie and later her sister Nettie. When Nettie is writing letters she is writing them as a missionary in Africa, so not only do you get to explore the South (USA) but get to travel to Africa and see how a particular tribe's way of life is. I don't want to give anything away so I am going to keep what I say somewhat vague. This book is very raw. There is things you read about that most people would rather not know about or acknowledge that they exist. While there is a deep sadness within the writings, there is a silver lining in many situations. This is a great book but you have to pay attention and if you are able to do that you will have no trouble following the different story lines that come up.


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The Face on the Milk Carton

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

NB- This book is full of grammatical errors and spelling errors. Please be advised.
NB- This book is considered a banned book for reasons which I will state below.

As the 52 book challenge continues, this was my replacement for the banned book category. I remember reading this book in public school. It boggles my mind how today it is considered a banned book. The reasons for it being banned are “sexual content, challenge to authority and inappropriate for the age group”. There is mentions of sex and the insinuation that the kids did do something just not sex, therefore I challenge the sexual content allegation. The main character Janie does challenge authority but in this case I think if I were in the same situation I would too, and don't all kids challenge authority at some point. This isn't the first book that a child has disobeyed their parents or done something that the parents didn't want them to do. If anything, I would have thought that this would have been considered a banned book because it talks about child kidnapping and stolen children which is a felony offence. While I enjoyed this book as a kid, I did not enjoy it as an adult. There were so many grammatical and spelling errors that it was a challenging read. I think that the story line is very interesting and definitely held its own. A young girl drinks her milk at school and comes to the conclusion that she is the child in the picture of the child on the milk carton. She pursues this and finds out many things. I would give this book a solid 2 stars due to it's limitations and editing issues.

In case you are looking for banned books to read, here's a short list of the ones I found appealing:
The Colour Purple – Alice Walker
Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson
Sophie's Choice – William Styron
American Psycho – Bret Easton Ells (what the movie was based on, the character of Patrick Bateman)


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Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me

Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me by Chelsea Handler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Many people have given this book a poor review and said what an asshole Chelsea is but I'm not going to do that. I'm Team Chelsea no matter what. This book was hilarious and had me laughing out loud all the time. Some of the lies she told were unbelievable but there were people that believed them to be true. This book isn't a five star book because it's not nearly as funny as My Horizontal Life but it's definitely a solid four. This book is comedy/ humour in all forms. Sometimes we need to just have a laugh and take a break from all the serious reading and relax. That's what this book was for me. I especially liked that the last chapter was by CHUNK her dog. It was pretty cute and funny. Chelsea does get her say at the end of each chapter as she writes a blurb and adds a picture. Chelsea's input is more of what the world needs.

Nb- It says audio cd but I read a physical copy of the book.


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My Horizontal Life : A Collection of One-Night Stands

My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Handler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book a long time ago and added it to my 'read' list but when I was looking today I did not give any comments or feedback so I thought I would do it the second time around.

If you are looking for a book that will have you laughing in any situation this is your book. If you are looking for a book that has outrageous sex stories this is your book. If you are looking for a book that you wished emulated your non-existent party life so that you could live vicariously through the author/main character this is your book. If you are looking for a book to take story telling to a new adventurous and creative level this is your book. Basically this is your book in so many ways that you should already be going to the store and buying it, ordering it on whatever book website you use or downloading it already. Prepare yourself to laugh out loud, laugh till you cry and maybe even laugh till you pee a little because it's going to happen.
LOL

Re-Read - July 4, 2017


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Hot Zone

The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard   Preston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is by far my most favourite book. I read it at least once a year. It's based on true events about the Ebola break out that happened in Reston Virginia. My most favourite part of the book is when the virus amplifies to max capacity and causes a man to liquify on a small airplane. Preston has done his research and contacted the people involved to get their point of view on the situation that happened. This book sends chills down my spine when i read it because of the unsurety of the origins of the Ebola virus and it's sisters (Marburg, Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan and Ebola Reston). When the team is going through Kitum Cave and at the end of the book when Preston makes his journey to Africa to explore Kitum Cave for himself, you actually feel like you are right there. Observing first hand what he sees, touches, and feels. Some of the descriptions are too incredible to describe. Preston definitely hit a homerun with this book and it's a shame that there are not many novels around these days that can compare to such a story and the writing.

Re-Read June 29, 2017


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The Witches

The Witches by Roald Dahl
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is written by one of my favourite childhood authors that I still read to this day. Although The Witches was not one of his most famous books (Like James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, BFG) it was still an interesting read as an adult. Witches are not women with long black hair, wear black dresses or fly around on broomsticks. It's quite the opposite, they wear disguises so that they can blend in with the public and then prey on children. It gave me a few laughs and it was a quick read.


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The Twenty-Three

The Twenty-Three by Linwood Barclay
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This book only gets one star. When I was finished reading it I was relieved. The only reason I continued reading it was I wanted to find out who had poisoned the water and who the killer was. It was mind bending and confusing to figure out the killer and the water situation. Once they figured out who it was it was like “Hey no big deal.” The story was told from at least 10 different characters POV and there was not a continuous or clear narrator. So after a while (if you aren't reading the book in one sitting) you have be remember who is what character and what their particular issue(s) is/are. Another thing I found quite annoying is that it took 350 pages to cover 1 day, which I consider ridiculous but it was all the fault of Barclay trying to tell so many characters stories. To be honest some of the stories were relevant and others were like “So what, who cares.” I was majorly disappointed in this book. I used to love Barclay's books but if this is the way that he is going with his writing I definitely will not read him again. The Zack Walker books were so good and had awkward humour which made them wonderful to read. This book was lacking for sure.


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PostSecret

PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives by Frank Warren
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Frank Warren devised a plan to have people send in anonymous postcards so that he could use them in his art as well as in this book. People were to write short, to the point secrets that they had never told anybody. The stuff that people reveal is from any and all walks of life. From dating to parenting, to disorders to not having long to live, to anything you could absolutely imagine. At times I was nodding saying, “Oh yeah that's me for sure.” Other times I was thinking, “Damn, I feel sorry for that person or what they have to go through.” It's a very emotional read that brings so many different emotions to a head. I'm not going to give away some of my favourites or anything because this is truly a book that a reader needs to experience for themselves and take away what is important to them. This book can be read in a day or less depending on how much time you have in one sitting. Even though there isn't much to this book I will give it 5 stars for creativity, presentation, abstract thought display, displays of common human thoughts and originality. I can't rave enough about this book and it has a very special place in my heart.


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15th Affair

15th Affair by James Patterson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Easy read, predictable and cheap when buying a book. I am not a huge fan of the Women's Murder Club books because I find that James Patterson was trying to play off of Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli and Isles series. There are too many women and they are all kind of annoying chickens. The main character Lindsay Boxer is a drama queen, I would liken her to Kim Kardashian with a police badge. The one thing I enjoyed about the book was the infiltrating of Chinese spies in to the United States and how they are meant to learn the culture and lifestyle and then act out their mission when the timing is right. (This may have heightened my enjoyment considering all that is going on in the political environment in the United States and with the recent terrorist acts.) The one thing is when the book hits it's climax it's almost as if Patterson is in a rush to get the book finished. Sometimes that works for authors but as a reader it's like they really don't care about the details or the story they have built up it's just like, “I have to get this book finished in under 400 pages at all costs.” Ie. This book is completely finished at 361 pages. It's not a daunting read or anything so if he could have used those extra pages to beef up the ending a bit that would have been fine. I would give this book a 2.5 but in Goodreads land I will give it a solid 2 because I just wasn't that impressed and it was like all of Patterson's other books.


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The Wonder

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When comparing this book to ROOM, I would say it wasn't as good, but on the other hand I was constantly interested to know what was going to happen to Anna and especially what Lib (one of her watchers and a nurse) was going to do about the situation. I didn't know this but historically there have been almost 50 cases of Fasting Girls and how they survived for long periods without food for religious reasons and some for reasons unknown. I found this very intriguing because ... lets be honest I love food... but different strokes for different folks, right! The setting was a small village in 1850's Ireland and Donoghue did an amazing job describing it. From the inn that Nurse Lib resided in, to the bogs that were absolutely everywhere, to the homestead that Anna and her family resided in. Everything was very plain and there was an air of depression and sadness in this remote area. I found the characters of Anna's mum and the cousin Kitty to be quite annoying. They were always kind of brash and rude with Nurse Lib when really it was the town that imposed Anna be watched to determine whether or not she was truly surviving on no food. Things do take a twist which was handled very interestingly by the characters. Anna's reasoning for doing the fast is something that is totally out of her control and she feels guilt for what has happened. The ending seems to happen in a whirlwind but surprisingly it didn't happen the way I thought it was going to. Overall, I was pleased with this book.


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