city of bones by cassandra clare

i picked up this book out of mild curiosity after reading that they were going to be making it into a movie. 

it was alright. a little too much going on in the way of the supernatural for me. it got a little too chaotic in my mind trying to keep track of all the weird stuff. i doubt i'll continue on with the series. but i might check out the movie when it comes out.

catching fire by suzanne collins

the second installation of the hunger games series. i liked it, and i'm excited to read the final book.

a theme that really resonated with me in this book was leadership/responsibility. katniss finds her actions in the first book have inadvertently set her up as the poster child for an underground revolutionary movement. when her family is threatened her first instinct is to run. her only thought is for the safety of herself and those she loves. she does not want to use the influence she finds herself in possession of to lead those who would follow her.

i struggled with this when i was younger. i've always had a strong personality. people often describe me as confident, independent, a leader. i often found myself in leadership positions; in possession of unsought-after influence over my peers. i can't count the times my mother warned me to be careful of my behavior as others would follow suit. i resented it for a long time. teenage years are hard, and awkward, and living them under a microscope of responsibility makes it even more trying. every mistake is amplified and thrown in your face. every experiment is dissected. while you're bumbling around just trying to figure out who you are others are expecting composure, clarity, solidarity. it's terrifying. and lonely.

it took me some time, but i finally realized that wanted or not, leadership and responsibility were mine. i could either resent it and be mad, or accept it and make a difference. i like to think i've chosen the latter. it still get frustrated at times, but when those moments come i try to remember that people often seek in others what they lack in themselves. i'm blessed with confidence, intellect, creativity, courage, the ability to think for myself. i wouldn't trade those for any amount of peaceful anonymity.

something borrowed by emily giffin

stopped reading because i got bored.

basically a chick-flick in book form.

don't get me wrong. i love myself a chick-flick, but apparently i don't like to read them.

so now i know.

the house at riverton by kate morton

i got bored, so i stopped reading. too many other books on my list to waste time on books that bore me . . .

wuthering heights by emily bronte

it's been several years since i read wuthering heights. honestly, i don't know why i like this book, but i do.

the level of dysfunction and ruthlessness are startling. it seems as if no one in the story is capable of making a wise or correct decision. and i always wonder why someone doesn't just shoot heathcliff and save everyone in the story?

also, cathy is maddening. so narcissistic. you wonder how anyone could love her, or heathcliff, for that matter? but i guess that's why they love each other so much.

like i said, i don't know why i like this book, but i do. it's very easy to get swept up in.

(man, i would have liked to have spent some time at the bronte house!)

the forgotten garden by kate morton

the forgotten garden follows three story lines, all which eventually reveal the story of a young girl found on a dock in australia in 1913. she does not know her name and no one is there to claim her. the dock master takes her home, names her nell, and raises her as his own. he eventually reveals to her the truth about how she came into their family.

the three story lines follow nell as she sets out to discover who and where she came from; her granddaughter, cassandra, who takes up the search upon nells death; and eliza makepeace, an english authoress whose book is one of the only possession found on nell when she arrives in australia.

the book was alright. it had the capacity to wrap you up in it, which is nice while you're reading, but in the end it doesn't really deliver. it's good enough, and if i wasn't such a prolific reader i probably would have found it more fulfilling. the overall tone of the novel is very gothic and haunting; and there is an underlying suggestion of malice and danger throughout that is really anti-climactic when the reason for it is revealed.

but it did make me wish i owned a cottage in cornwall.

sarah's key by tatiana de rosnay

sarah's key tells two stories:

one is of sarah, a young jewish girl who lives in paris during wwii. on the night of july 16, 1942, the french police come to sarah's house in the middle of the night, arresting her family as part of the vel d'hiv round up. thinking she will be home in a few hours, sarah locks her younger brother in a secret cupboard and keeps the key in her pocket.

the second story follows julia, an american journalist living in paris sixty years later. she receives an assignment to write an article about the vel d'hiv for a magazine. during her investigation she encounters the reluctance of the french to talk about the event and discovers her own families link to sarah's story.

i half-way liked the book. i really liked sarah's story. it was heartbreaking. and i was pleased to learn about an event in history that i hadn't heard much about before.

i didn't care for julia's story line. i didn't mind it as far as it was connected to her uncovering sarah's story, but beyond that it confused me. i didn't see the relevance or importance of her marital problems and pregnancy to the real point of the book, and it became annoying and distracting. and the ending was so abrupt and awkward.