I started writing book reviews, but I don't like writing reviews. Instead I'm giving awards to all the books I read. Here you go....
Sahara Special (finished December 13th) neutral
Winner of the "Most Formulaic School Story" award for the cute but unremarkable story of an unmotivated inner city kid and the teacher who won't give up on her.
My Name is Asher Lev (finished December 15th) thumbs up
Winner of the "Most Captivating Story with a Seemingly Uninteresting Plot" award. Seriously every chapter can be summed up in this way: Asher Lev draws something and his parents don't like it. (Sometimes he paints instead.) And yet I somehow could not put this book down.
Tarzan (finished December 16th) thumbs up
Award: "Most Competition for Edward Cullin." I also had a hard time putting this book down. Who knew it would be so exciting? (Jacob and Dave, apparently.) Tarzan, himself, is definately "the stuff". I think he probably could take a vampire and come out on top. Very adventurous, surprisingly romantic and even a little thought provoking. When I'm the A.P. English teacher, this will be on the required reading list.
The Wee Free Men (Finished December 19th) thumbs up
Award: "Best Use of the Scottish Language and Best New Swear Word." Crivens. Crivens crivens crivens. I like it. This was a nice little book. My whole life I thought Terry Pratchet was a woman (until I read the "About the Author" at the end). My first foray into his Discworld series was a success, I think.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Finished December 21st) thumbs down
I hated this book. I only finished it because I said I would. Wins the "Most Likely To Have Been Secretly Written by Stephanie Meyers" award. No, there were no vampires; only a sucky "plot". Every page tried to show how profound the book was and every page failed.
My Sister's Keeper (Finished December 22nd) thumbs down
Winner of the "Most Like a Soap Opera" award. It's like when you're just flipping through the channels and you come across a really bad Lifetime movie and yet you just can't seem to turn it off. (Also, this one was about teenagers dying of cancer - how did I get tricked into reading two of these kinds of books?)
Fablehaven (Finsihed December 23rd) neutral
Award: "Character I Would Most Likely Punch in the Kidneys if I Knew him in Real Life." He was one of the main characters even! Grandpa would tell Seth not to do something and then Seth, who knew better than grandpa, would do it, and then Bad Things would happen. I realize you have to make the plot move along somehow, but come on! (I will read the next book in the series to see if he gets better, but if not, watch out for your kidneys, Seth!)
An Ordinary Man (Finished December 26th) thumbs up
Winner of the "I Can't Believe People Really Do These Kinds of Things to Each Other" award. Oh man - very hard to get through because it was just so sad. It is about the guy who inspired "Hotel Rwanda". I don't think I have anything more to add about this one.
And that's as far as I got. (I wrote the "reviews" as soon as I finised the books.) I started reading George MacDonald (which I am thoroughly enjoying by the way) and then lost my reading momentum during the holidays. But I'll still try to finish a few of these up in the coming weeks.
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