I am currently reading "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. It is a #1 best seller in the nation right now, which usually turns me off , but I wanted to read this the moment I heard about it because I had just gotten back from Italy and am in love with India. The book takes place in 3 different countries; Italy, India, and Indonesia. I don't really have a thing for Indonesia, but maybe I will once I read that part of the book.
I am about half-way through the book and... its okay. Usually when a book gets a lot of hype I expect it to go above and beyond, so I am let down. If I just found this book and randomly read it, I would probably think it was amazing. But, because it is a #1 best seller, it needs to be more than amazing and it isn't. I am really into memoirs right now and "Eat, Pray, Love" is a memoir of sorts. Her writing style is okay, more than once she has used a cliche and said "I know this is a cliche and I HATE writing in cliches." That bugs me because if writing is your profession and you don't like a certain technique then you can choose not to use it, but she chooses to use it and states afterward that she hates the technique that she just used. Okay I'll stop whining about this now.
The narrator talks too much about how terribly heart-wrenching, yet inevitable her divorce is. She is a whiny narrator, but I keep reading it because when she describes the city of Rome and it's little secrets I get hooked. She is wonderful at describing the setting of cities, the looks of people and the little characters that come into her life. So sometimes she can be a good writer and that is why I keep reading... and because it is cool to read about Rome and think "oh yea I remember seeing that fountain and she is right about the way the sunlight hits it."
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Oops...
I confess I forgot about this blog but I am going to update it now with my past and current reading choices so Laura won't feel quite so lonely :)
Let's see, after Three Cups of Tea I read:
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning: Interesting but I found it hard to follow him sometimes because it seemed like the book was kind of randomly put together.
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey: Really really powerful. I know that there was the whole controversy on Oprah about the legitimacy of the story but it was really good just the same. I had to get used to the style of writing but I really felt awful for the main character the whole time because of all the stuff he went through in drug rehab.
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett: A great book. It's set in England in the 1100s and follows the building of a cathedral in Kingsbridge. Even though it was over 900 pages I never felt like it was too long. It constantly had some struggle going on between church and state which was interesting. The ending was NOT my favorite, though.
Zorro by Isabel Allende: GREAT! I love any of her writing anyway but this was interesting and a very different story line then what she normally writes. It makes me want to see the Zorro movies now!
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini: I'm currently reading this and love it although I'm not that far into it. I am a huge fan of The Kite Runner, though, because it started my current interest in Middle Eastern people and culture so I'm really excited about this book!
Unfortunately, school starts Monday so my reading choices are about to head downhill into the realm of boring textbooks.
Let's see, after Three Cups of Tea I read:
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning: Interesting but I found it hard to follow him sometimes because it seemed like the book was kind of randomly put together.
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey: Really really powerful. I know that there was the whole controversy on Oprah about the legitimacy of the story but it was really good just the same. I had to get used to the style of writing but I really felt awful for the main character the whole time because of all the stuff he went through in drug rehab.
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett: A great book. It's set in England in the 1100s and follows the building of a cathedral in Kingsbridge. Even though it was over 900 pages I never felt like it was too long. It constantly had some struggle going on between church and state which was interesting. The ending was NOT my favorite, though.
Zorro by Isabel Allende: GREAT! I love any of her writing anyway but this was interesting and a very different story line then what she normally writes. It makes me want to see the Zorro movies now!
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini: I'm currently reading this and love it although I'm not that far into it. I am a huge fan of The Kite Runner, though, because it started my current interest in Middle Eastern people and culture so I'm really excited about this book!
Unfortunately, school starts Monday so my reading choices are about to head downhill into the realm of boring textbooks.
Friday, August 8, 2008
three books later...
hello??? *echo*
helllllllllllllooooooooooooooo???? *echo, echo, echo, fade out*
well, anyway, im here to tell whoever reads this that...
i just finished reading "the shack."
obviously, ive veered a bit off the proposed reading list, but i got some interesting books this summer that i couldnt help but read. before that, i read another holocaust-genre book called "everything is illuminated" that was interested but has some sexual stuff that i found uncessary and distasteful. it was a fresh way, however, to look at the guilty conscience of a non-German who was used to do terrible things by the nazis. the characters were fairly interesting. there's a movie out with elijah wood in it but i havent seen it yet and dont know if im gonna.
theeeen i read the shack and it wasnt quite what i expected. actually, my expectations were really high after all the hype, and i was prepared for what it really was. i agree with my aunt, who says that it would have made a lot more sense going into it KNOWING that william p young wrote it to be a kids book--a way to explain God to his children as they grew older. if i had known that, i would have understood why people were so enthralled with a book that wasnt very impressive from a literary standpoint. it did bring up some very interesting ideas about God that i was eager to embrace, but unsure if i should. i just longed for some biblical support so that i knew i wasnt being pulled in to just someone's opinion or personal view of God. but i guess that's the challenge: remember what he said about God and his relationship with Jesus, the Holy Spirit and ourselves and put it to the test of the Word. a good excuse to dive into the Bible. there were several scenes at the end of the book that were worth reading the whole book, for me. i was crying pretty hard near the end, i guess my heart longing for such peace and reconciliation. it WAS a pretty amazing portrait of relationship and God as love.
so, right now i'm reading Red Moon Rising, which is a book about the creation of the 24-7 prayer movement that began in England. so far, five chapters in, its just a personal story about how the idea came into being and then started becoming reality. it is really inspiring to read about this man's journey of true faith, and it has been bringing up some real questions in my heart and mind about prayer, and about my prayer life. its been fun to journal about them, dialogue with God about them, and ponder them. maybe when im done ill remember to write some of my new thoughts on here.
what's everyone else reading? anything good?
helllllllllllllooooooooooooooo???? *echo, echo, echo, fade out*
well, anyway, im here to tell whoever reads this that...
i just finished reading "the shack."
obviously, ive veered a bit off the proposed reading list, but i got some interesting books this summer that i couldnt help but read. before that, i read another holocaust-genre book called "everything is illuminated" that was interested but has some sexual stuff that i found uncessary and distasteful. it was a fresh way, however, to look at the guilty conscience of a non-German who was used to do terrible things by the nazis. the characters were fairly interesting. there's a movie out with elijah wood in it but i havent seen it yet and dont know if im gonna.
theeeen i read the shack and it wasnt quite what i expected. actually, my expectations were really high after all the hype, and i was prepared for what it really was. i agree with my aunt, who says that it would have made a lot more sense going into it KNOWING that william p young wrote it to be a kids book--a way to explain God to his children as they grew older. if i had known that, i would have understood why people were so enthralled with a book that wasnt very impressive from a literary standpoint. it did bring up some very interesting ideas about God that i was eager to embrace, but unsure if i should. i just longed for some biblical support so that i knew i wasnt being pulled in to just someone's opinion or personal view of God. but i guess that's the challenge: remember what he said about God and his relationship with Jesus, the Holy Spirit and ourselves and put it to the test of the Word. a good excuse to dive into the Bible. there were several scenes at the end of the book that were worth reading the whole book, for me. i was crying pretty hard near the end, i guess my heart longing for such peace and reconciliation. it WAS a pretty amazing portrait of relationship and God as love.
so, right now i'm reading Red Moon Rising, which is a book about the creation of the 24-7 prayer movement that began in England. so far, five chapters in, its just a personal story about how the idea came into being and then started becoming reality. it is really inspiring to read about this man's journey of true faith, and it has been bringing up some real questions in my heart and mind about prayer, and about my prayer life. its been fun to journal about them, dialogue with God about them, and ponder them. maybe when im done ill remember to write some of my new thoughts on here.
what's everyone else reading? anything good?
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