A book from my childhood Matilda, by Roald Dahl

I actually still remember how I discovered this book when I was a kid. It was after Bible study one Thursday night, and Noah, Esther, and Isaac were talking about a book that sounded really awesome. So of course, the next time I was at the library, I checked out Matilda, and fell in love. It was funny, and smart, and featured a main character who was brilliant and didn't really fit in, but who was the hero of her story anyway. You can probably see why a story like that appealed to a dorky little kid who was good at school and not much else...

I will confess to having tried to move things with my mind after the first time I read this book. (I also tried to use the Force after seeing Star Wars, waited for a Hogwarts letter that never came, and routinely checked the back of my closet for other worlds. If you imagine things intensely enough, they just might become real, right?)

Anyway, I loved this book as a kid, and I still enjoy it every time I reread it, which happens on a fairly frequent basis. There are things that I like less about it now that I'm older (For example, why are there no good adult characters? They're all either dumb, or cruel, or spineless), but I still like the fun twists and turns to the story, and there are definitely bits that I didn't quite get when I was younger that I find funny now.

A book recommended by someone with great taste The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman

This particular book was recommended to me by my favorite sister, who has awesome taste in books (honestly, she has much better taste and literary discernment than I do, so of course I take her suggestions). And she was right; it was a really good book - "sad but a redemptive ending," to quote her recommendation.

The Light Between Oceans tells the story of a lighthouse keeper and his wife, and eventually the baby who washes ashore on their remote island far off the coast of Australia. Through the pain and joy of their lives, the book weaves a compelling tale of love and grief, of heartache and longing and what we are willing to do for the ones we love. I really liked the way it was written, and although it moved slowly at times, I cared enough for all the characters that the book never seemed to drag.

Sure, the characters often made decisions that I vehemently disagreed with, but that's kind of the point, isn't it? Our decisions, no matter how well intentioned they are, or how justifiable they might be, are not always the right ones, and sometimes have outcomes we could never foresee.

So what does that leave us with? Doing the best that we can with what we have, loving one another deeply, forgiving mistakes, and living true to our consciences, I suppose. And for the Christian, trusting that God forgives us for our missteps and slowly works in us to make us more like him. Of course, you're not going to get that piece of the message in a secular book, but that just means that we have a foundation on which to place the nebulous hope that a good book extends.

A book I should have read in high school Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

Before we begin, a brief update on where I'm at in the reading for this challenge, since I got behind on the blogging: I have books read for ten of the twelve categories, a book halfway finished for one of the remaining two, and a firm resolution to start the last book next week. In other words, I'm doing wonderfully. Now on to the main body of the post.

I had trouble coming up with a book for this category, since it's a little ambiguous. Was this supposed to be a book that was assigned in high school that I didn't read all the way through? Because if so, I can't think of a book that actually fits. Back in high school, I was an avid reader, and after thinking long and hard, I couldn't come up with any assigned books that I skipped over altogether, or skimmed rather than reading. Thankfully, with an ambiguous category, I was able to simply interpret it differently - a book I should have read in high school because pretty much everyone else seems to have read it in either high school or college, and I never did.

Which brings us to Brave New World. I'm not sure how I managed to get through high school and college without ever reading it. In fact, I'm pretty sure the honors students starting a year or two after me at Geneva actually read it for their freshman book discussion. We read Frankenstein instead (and honestly, I much prefer Frankenstein - it raises similar questions about what it means to be human but isn't nearly as creepy). Anyway, I've read it now.

The edition that I read included a foreword by Huxley that was written almost fifteen years after the original publication of the book, and I actually found the foreword, short as it was, to be as interesting as the book itself. One of the things Huxley touches on in this foreword is the fact that the book, which was published in 1932, contains no references to the nuclear energy that was just about to burst onto the scene. His following predictions about the impact that nuclear development would have on society in the not too distant future are quite intriguing, because for all its original promise, nuclear technology has not changed the world (for better or for worse) to the degree that anyone back then predicted. We don't drive around in nuclear powered cars, but we also don't live in totalitarian states.

Okay, on to the book itself. Unlike me, most of you probably did read this in school, so you know that the main society in this book relies heavily on both genetic manipulation and behavioral conditioning in order to create a society wherein everyone has a place and is content with their place because they were programmed that way, where science is the highest form of religion (and religion is nonexistent), and where pleasure is god. In contrast, you have the primitive society of the Savage Reservation, which revolves around a brutal religion, and whose people live in relative squalor. The book centers around Bernard, who is a product of the main society but has come to question its validity, and the Savage, who grew up in the Reservation but has read and dreamed of the glories of civilization. And, in a truly depressing fashion, both of them realize that their dreams of something better elsewhere are false, and Bernard ends up being exiled for his actions, while the Savage hangs himself in despair. Conclusion: humanity is doomed either way. You can all go home now and sleep on that.

I realize that books like this take things to extremes to make a point, and Brave New World succeeds admirably at pointing out the dangers of taking science too far, as well as the dangers of elevating society too far over the individual. Did I mention this book creeps me out? I think it's the casual disregard for each individual human life that's the most uncomfortable part for me, which is something worth considering. I have no desire to get into any sort of deep discussion here, but I can see why this book is required reading for the majority of high school and college students. It raises a lot of interesting questions, which is good. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide any guide for answering those questions, so it ends up being a rather depressing book overall.

A book by a favorite author Summer Knight, by Jim Butcher

You may remember that way back in January, when I originally posted about the reading challenge, I mentioned that it was a way for me to expand my horizons and not just read The Dresden Files this year. That did not mean, however, that I didn't intend to read any of Jim Butcher's books - I just wanted to read some other books as well.

Okay, onward.

Jim Butcher is by no means the best writer in the world, but if I go by how much I enjoy his books, he's definitely one of my favorite authors. His Codex Alera series is a fun fantasy romp, and his latest series - The Cinder Spires - got off to a good start this fall with The Aeronaut's Windlass (more on that in a later post). Of all his books, though, The Dresden Files are by far my favorite.

Summer Knight is the fourth book in the series, and, just like the rest of The Dresden Files, is narrated by the titular character - Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, the only wizard with an ad in the Chicago yellow pages. This particular installment introduces the Faerie queens, and Dresden, with his usual luck, ends up embroiled in Faerie politics, which are a little more cutthroat (literally) than your average government. Throw in an ex-girlfriend returned from the dead, a wizard council that isn't too fond of our favorite wizard, and the likelihood of an impending ice age if things go wrong, and you've got yourself one heck of a story.

Honestly, I love the Faerie courts, and their introduction in this book is great. The way the faeries are written in this series reminds me a little of Shakespeare's take on them, only with a little more brutality to go along with the capriciousness. I also love the battle at the end of the book, which takes place in the Faerie realm/above the storm clouds that gather over Lake Michigan. I mean, seriously, how cool is that? Suffice it to say, I like this book a lot, I have read it several times, and I fully intend to continue reading through this series on a semi-regular basis.

A book I chose because of the cover Once Upon a Grind, by Cleo Coyle

Ok, I know I haven't posted book reviews in forever. I have actually been reading lots of books this year, but never got around to writing anything. So this is me trying to pick up where I left off, and since I'm still going in chronological order of when I read the books, this will be a review of a book that I read months ago. I guess it's a good thing I have a good memory.

This was actually the category on the list that I really didn't care for, not because the book I ended up reading was terrible or anything, but because I never do this. I'm not one of those people who randomly chooses a book based solely on its cover. Between the books people have recommended to me, books that were talked about in articles I've read, and new books by authors I like, I've always had more than enough books on my to-read list. So this was something new-ish for me. (I think I used to do this a lot when I was in elementary school - mostly books that had horses on the cover - but never since then.)

The particular book I chose was one of the ones the librarian sets out on the little table that's right in front of the door. Based on the cover, it was pretty obvious that this would be one of those cutesy mystery stories, wherein the protagonist (generally female) stumbles across a mystery in the course of their daily life. After reading the front flap, I was expecting dead bodies, coffee, humor, and a dash of the fantastic, which is exactly what the book delivered.

The basic premise for the book is this: A coffee shop owner ends up in the middle of a murder investigation when a girl turns up dead in Central Park. Toss in a dash of magical African coffee beans that give the drinker predictive visions, relationship drama galore, and a weird private club scene, and you've got the recipe for a decently interesting and rather enjoyable read. It was nothing spectacular, but it definitely kept my attention, and was an interesting twist on your typical amateur sleuth mystery novel. I don't know that I'd go around recommending it to most people, but if this is a genre you enjoy, you'll probably like this book. I honestly picked it up solely because I enjoy coffee shop AUs in fanfiction, and it exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations.

A book that's currently on the bestseller list Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand

I could have marked Unbroken under a couple of the other categories on the reading challenge, including a book I'd been meaning to read for while now, and a book recommended by a bunch of people with great taste. However, it was the first bestseller that became available at the library on base, so I chose to go with that.

As far as the book itself goes, it's about an era that I'd actually read quite a bit about. In fact, the majority of my non-fiction reading in the last ten years has been books about World War II. There's something about stories of courage and perseverance in the face of terrible circumstances that I really like, and Unbroken was no different. It was well written, and the author did a nice job of balancing personal stories with historical details, some of which were quite chilling.

The one thing that sets Unbroken apart from most of the other similar books I've read is the ending. Most (if not all) of you reading this entry probably already know that Louis Zamperini ended up becoming a Christian, and that his faith played a large role in his life. Seeing how God turned his life around after the war was probably the most powerful part of the story for me, although seeing God's hand at work preserving him through the war and prison camp was also very cool.

Okay, I realize this wasn't so much a book review as it was me rambling a lot, and I'm sorry about that, but here's the conclusion: Unbroken is a really good book. It isn't always easy to read about the horrible things that happen, but the narrative is woven together well, and though the aspects of Christianity in it were probably over-hyped by the media, it is definitely a powerful story, all the more so because it's a true story.

A book I've been meaning to read Allegiant, by Veronica Roth

The list of books I've been meaning to read is quite long, and Allegiant was not at the top of that list, nor had it been on that list the longest. Truthfully, the main reason I read it was because it's the third book in a trilogy, and I wanted to know how the story ended. I read the first two books, Divergent and Insurgent, last year, on the recommendation of some friends. They weren't amazing, but Divergent did a decent job of drawing me in, and even though I didn't connect with any of the characters, the plot was interesting and left me wanting to find out what happened next. Insurgent continued in that same vein, though I did find it to have less of a cohesive plot.

Which brings us to Allegiant, the culmination of the trilogy. In many ways, it was the weakest book of the three, partly due to a choice on the writer's part that made the flaws in her writing stand out more clearly, and partly because the book tried to address too many ideas at once. Before we jump into those criticisms, though, I suppose I should give a quick overview of the plot.

(Spoilers ahead for those who care.)

After the events of Insurgent, where the factionless overthrew the city government and took control, Tris and Tobias decide to follow the directions left in a cryptic message, and, along with several others, escape the city to go looking for the people outside its walls. It turns out that the city and its faction system was all part of a grand experiment, designed to create a race with purer genes (known to the city-folk as the Divergent). Of course, there are rebels who don't agree with the experiment and attack the scientists, and Tris and Tobias find themselves caught between the rebels, the scientists, and their family and friends still in the city.

Like the previous books, Allegiant was written in first person, but for this book, the author chose to switch at every chapter break between Tris and Tobias, rather than just having Tris tell the story. While this was probably a necessary move due to the more complicated plot, it was practically impossible to tell who was speaking unless you payed close attention to the chapter headers. This was particularly frustrating because Tris and Tobias were set up as characters with very different back stories, motivations, and ways of thinking. It should have been easy to tell whose head you were inside, but the author just wasn't that good at giving her characters different voices, and the perspective switches made that abundantly clear.

I also came away confused as to what the point of the book was supposed to be. Was it a story about love? Was it about finding your way when your world is turned upside down? Was it about the inherent value of human lives, regardless of genetic makeup? Or maybe about the dangers of valuing science above humanity? You could make a case for all of the above, given how the book jumped around. While the plot did move steadily forward, the author jumped back and forth between emphasizing each of the points above, and none of them ended up feeling fully developed. I was just reading an article the other day about the dangers of trying to expand your focus too much when writing sequels, and it seems to me that this is exactly what happened with Allegiant.

So was it a good book? Yes and no. It did raise some interesting questions, but the quality of the story-telling was not great. If you're really into young adult dystopian novels and an interesting plot is more important to you than well-developed characters and themes, you'll probably enjoy it quite a lot. But if that's not really your thing, then you're probably better off spending your time on something else.

Look, I read a book... Beyond the Deepwoods, by Paul Stewart

Well, I read a book. It doesn't fit into any of the categories on my list, but that's okay. I was really trying to read Allegiant (I only have 100 pages left), but I kept getting bogged down - more on that when I finally finish it. So I went back to my library and stared at the shelves, trying to find something that I actually wanted to read. The first thing I realized was that I have a lot of good books. The second thing was that at that moment, I had no desire to read most of them, even books I normally love. This was problematic.

Then, I realized that I was trying too hard. I'd previously decided to read "real" books this year - that is, ones at high school or adult reading level. But you know what? When you're having trouble focusing, it's okay to read something easier, to help yourself remember how to get absorbed in a story. So, I pulled Beyond the Deepwoods off my shelf.

For those of you who haven't read it, Beyond the Deepwoods is the first book of a kids fantasy series called The Edge Chronicles, and while it's not the best of the series, it's still quite good, and an engaging read. I never read it as a kid, because it wasn't published in the U.S. until I was almost done with high school, but I grabbed it off Evan's pile of library books at one point when I was bored. And it was surprisingly good. From the first sentence - "Far far away, jutting out into the emptiness beyond, like the figurehead of a mighty stone ship, is the Edge" - to the world-building (which is expanded upon a lot more in future books), it was a fun read.

Granted, this first book actually doesn't have a lot in the way of an overarching plot - it reads more like a string of semi-connected adventures - but it's enjoyable nonetheless. What plot there is reads as sort of a journey story, although it's more about the protagonist's search for identity than a quest with a particular destination. On this reread, I did feel like the ending was a bit rushed, but given that the next book picks up where this one leaves off, most of those story threads actually do get addressed properly. It just doesn't happen in this book.

All critique aside, though, I sat down and read this book in three sittings, reading about 90 pages at a go. And it never once felt forced - I was actually enjoying the story, and was caught up in the adventures unfolding on the pages before me. So I feel like I've accomplished something good here, even if it was with a book aimed at slightly younger readers :)

2015 reading challenge

I used to read all the time. As in, my mother would send us outside to play and I would sneak a book out with me and read instead. Sometimes, I'd stay up really late reading a book by the light from the hall that shone in through the crack under my bedroom door. And most days, I'd read while I ate both breakfast and lunch.

Somewhere in the insanity that was college, I lost that.

Now, I have the time, but I spend it doing other things, mostly watching television. This year, I want that to change. I want to relearn the love of reading that I had as a kid, and I figure the best way to do that is simply to start reading again.

So when I saw this reading challenge on my FB newsfeed, it seemed like just what I needed to reboot my enjoyment of all things literary.

Credit to modernmrsdarcy.com

The variety of this list really appealed to me, as did the freedom to choose whatever books I wanted, within the listed categories, of course. So this is one of my reading goals for this year - to read at least twelve books in twelve months, using this list to help broaden my reading horizons. (If left to my own devices, I would totally just read The Dresden Files and call it quits. This should give me more variety in those twelve books...)

My other reading goal involves only one book (or sixty-six of them, depending on how you count). For the first time in a long while, I'm trying to read through the whole Bible in a year. I've only actually managed that once in my life, but I'm hoping that, with some much-needed discipline, I can do it again.

Anyone who wants to join me on either of these challenges is more than welcome - in fact, I'd love company on this, and other people to talk with about the books or Bible passages being read. Either way, if this goes as planned, I'm going to be writing a mini review on this blog of each of the books I read for the challenge, so this hopefully won't be the last you hear about this.