The Curiosity by Stephen P. Kiernan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was an incredibly great read, I enjoyed it immensely. I liked that the author made the whole scientific part of the story entirely plausible.

The whole premise is just intriguing; bringing back a man who has frozen in hard ice for over a hundred years. Bringing a frozen body back to life is not all that unbelievable, because it has happened in real life. In fact, many times, though I can't account for the accuracy of the articles.

However, bringing back a person who has been frozen for a hundred years... now that's interesting! It's like Sleeping Beauty, but after the kiss. You know how the story ends after "...and they lived happily ever after"? This is the story of what happens after. Well, not really.

Jeremiah Rice's story is as far from Sleeping Beauty as you can get, and he was brought back by science, not a kiss. Obviously though, we can't help but be curious about how people who lived in the 20th century would think about our technology-filled lives now. All the cars, airplanes, computers, iPhones, wide-screen TV... it would be overwhelming to take in all at once.

Not to mention, of course, the huge culture shock itself; the immodest fashion nowadays compared to way back when, the vulgar everyday language a lot of us speak in without thinking twice, the fact that there's actually a black president now when a hundred years ago, blacks were seen as slaves.

Seeing these things through Jeremiah's eyes are interesting, sure, but there's more to the story than that. The story is told in a few other POVs, one which was told in a second-person narrative and influenced my feelings of the character very much, and there are other characters who I really feel for as well.

This is definitely one of my favorite books in 2013. I thought it was very well-written, and honestly, I can't praise the whole second-person narrative POV enough. It just made me take a step back and really look at the person who was "speaking". It looks like this might be made into a movie as well, and I look forward to watching it on screen.

The Light Bearer by Donna Gillespie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I first read this book in 1994, and I've loved it ever since. Initially, I re-read this book every year, but in the last five years, I've only read this book twice.

I've had so many new books to read that I don't need to re-read as much as I used to, but once in a while I would miss Auriane and Marcus, and want to read about them again. This time, I wanted to savor the story and read it slowly, I wanted to study Donna Gillespie's writing and maybe learn something from her.

But as I read, I forgot about the writing and got engrossed in the story. When I remembered, I would try to concentrate on the writing again, but then forget again as the story pulled me in. Eventually, I just gave up trying to study anything and just enjoyed reading the book.

That's how good Gillespie's writing is, that's how good the story is. It makes you forget everything else except the story. Everything else fades away.

The Light Bearer has been a favorite book ever since I was just 11 years old. There are many things I love about it, but among what I love most is that it features a very strong female protagonist, Auriane, who was a huge influence for me as I was growing up. I also love Marcus, and I love how wise they both were. I love how they outsmarted their enemies, how they solved their problems, and I love how exciting the whole thing was.

This is one of the most underrated books I know, and I wish more people would know about this book and read it. It's amazing.

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am a Chinese Malaysian, born about a hundred years after the period this story takes place, and even I, jaded as I am about the state Malaysian is in now, find The Ghost Bride fascinating.

It's interesting to remember how people lived back then, before Malaysia was Malaysia, when it was still Malaya and under the British rule, how the various immigrants and cultures intersect.

What I enjoyed most is imagining how this story could have very well been my own family's story. Not the ghost bride part, of course. It is a rare occurrence in itself, but I believe by the time my own grandfather migrated to Malaysia, the practice of marrying a living person to a dead one had all but disappeared. I have heard of a recent case of a marriage between a dead Chinese couple though.

No, what I could imagine was the family intrigue, the head of the house with his many wives and concubines, the many children spawned between the wives and concubines, the family politics as the wives and children all try to win their husband/father's favor. The competition between the wives to produce a male heir, the hatred and jealousy between each wife and their children.

My own grandfather had three wives and a concubine. My father, the youngest son of the Second Wife, had 7 siblings by his own mother. I am not sure of how many children my grandfather had with his First and Third Wives, but there were many. His concubine produced one son.

Although I have heard many stories about my father's childhood, this book really brought to life my imagination of how my grandfather and his family lived, and I assure you, it was a lot more dramatic and quite frankly, uglier, than the family dynamics in the book. My uncle's second wife actually chased my mother around the house with a kitchen knife.

However, let's get back to the book; I loved the whole Ghost Bride theme, Yangsze Choo's depiction of the Chinese's beliefs about the different levels of Hell and burning offerings to the dead ancestors. I love how Choo brought the ghost dimension, the Plains of the Dead, and all the other ghostly denizens to life (no pun intended).

It felt a little bit like Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, and is written just as well as Neverwhere was, perhaps even better. But I might be biased. However, Neverwhere is one of my favorite Gaiman books, and this is me giving really high praise to The Ghost Bride. I can't recommend this book enough.

It's amazing and I loved it.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I haven't read such an enjoyable book in a long time. It was fresh and unique, and I really like all the different elements of the story.

It feels like some kind of historical novel when you first start the story and enter the old bookstore, a mystery with the puzzle solving and members of a secret society, then it becomes somewhat sci-fi with all the talk about Google and immortality, and then comes fantasy with the heroes trying to save the mission; the rogue, the wizard, and the warrior. I loved how the author put them all together.

Clay was a great protagonist, an anti-hero of sorts because he didn't really set out to do much except try to impress the girl, but in the end, he really rose to the occasion and saved the day.

I loved that the other characters were portrayed like characters in an RPG, each one playing an important role in a quest. They were real people living in the 21st century, don't get me wrong, but they all had their RPG roles to play in this mission, and I loved that.

This book is so quaint and modern at the same time, I loved the whole adventure. I love how different this book is, and how fun, mysterious, and smart it is. It's pretty much one of my favorite books this year. =)

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very interesting book and very well-written and well-thought out.

The beginning was a little slow, but it picked up fast in the middle, and I got sucked in. Both the protagonists, Nick and Amy are unlikable people, but you have to admire them for the mind games they had to play.

I liked how the author tells the story in the beginning with Nick's POV and then Amy's POV from her diary. She leads you in one direction and then when you find out the truth, it really does turn into the metaphorical car crash that you just can't look away from.

You never end up liking either character, and it's pretty hard to decide who to root for, but of course, I end up rooting for the one who was a little less crazy. Weak and selfish people, though unlikable, are still understandable. Psychos are just a little harder to relate to.

The ending was a little anti-climatic though, and unresolved. I would've liked something a little more definite. Not because I need resolved endings, I sometimes enjoy unresolved stories, but because this particular story just calls for it.

All those mind games, all that ego... something had to give, someone had to lose. But...nothing. So yes, I'm a little disappointed with the ending, but otherwise a great read.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s really hard for me to write a review of this book without getting angry. Suicide makes me angry, and there’s just too much to say about it that I can’t put the whole thing into a review of this book.

I might one day take the time to talk about my feelings about suicide, but for now, I’ll just give everyone a break and focus on the book.

So, I really like the book, even though I have issues with Hannah “blaming” her suicide on other people. She can blame them for their stupid and thoughtless, and even criminal, actions, but it’s completely unfair to put the blame of her suicide on those actions.

Teenagers make mistakes all the time, and I have both treated my peers badly and had been treated badly as a teen. I have had my closest friends turned against me, and had things get so bad to the point that I had to change schools. I got over it, we all got over it, we grew up and we’re all friends again now. Maybe my case wasn’t as bad as Hannah’s, but there are many other people who had it worse, and they got through it too. Two different people can go through the exact same thing, but they will react differently because of who they are.

Bottom line, people don’t contemplate suicide because of what other people do to them. They do it because they can’t handle it. Does it make what those other people did right? No. But they are in no way responsible for the suicide. Responsible for being jerks, maybe, making people miserable, sure, but suicide? No.

So I don’t like Hannah, I don’t think she should’ve committed suicide, the things that happened to her aren’t even that bad, and she did have good things happen which she by choice pushed away. The part about how her parents weren’t there for her was also weak. It’s also not like she didn’t have the strength to fight back, the fact that she did what she did before she committed suicide, showed that she had the anger, the will to stand up for herself.

The fact that she shared all those thoughts and emotions *after* she killed herself is such a cop out. Suicide was her choice, she had many choices and she chose to kill herself, yet in the end, she wouldn’t even take responsibility for that one final action.

However, while I don’t like Hannah, at all, I loved the way the story was told. I loved how intense and emotional it was. I always say that I like books that make me think, but the best books are the ones that make you feel. I felt deeply with this one. Anger. Frustration. It doesn’t have to be good feelings all the time.

I could’ve given this book only 4 stars instead of 5, because I felt that all the reasons for Hannah’s suicide were really weak, but instead of blaming the author for not being able to come up with convincing reasons for Hannah’s actions, I choose to believe that he made Hannah’s reasons weak on purpose, because, let’s be honest, there’s no reason good enough for suicide.

 Room by Emma Donoghue

One of the more thought-provoking books I’ve read in a long time, Room addresses certain issues that most of us take for granted.

The book is written from the perspective of a five-year-old boy, Jack, whose whole life is “Room”. He’s never known any other world except the small room he was born in, where his mother has been kept in captivity for 7 years.

The man who holds her captive, and who fathered him, brings them their food and other items they might need. They have a TV where Jack sees things that are “real” and “not real”.

There are two parts to this book, the story of their lives in captivity, and then the story of after they’ve escaped. Both parts make you think.

The first part is pretty straightforward in that you wonder about how Jack’s emotional intelligence has been compromised by only knowing Room as his whole world, and only having Ma, and occasionally her captor, as the only other people in his world.

Although compelling, it’s the next part of the story that really makes me wonder. After Jack and Ma escapes, they both have to (re)integrate themselves into society, and of course, for Jack, his whole world turns upside down.

The thing that strike you, is although Jack and Ma were kept in captivity, the irony is that they were free to be themselves when their whole world was just them. Now that they are free, they no longer have the freedom to be themselves. They have to conform to the rules of society.

Jack has to learn manners and ways of speaking and addressing people in society. Ma can no longer breastfeed Jack because he’s five years old and society doesn’t approve. There are so many new rules to learn to be an accepted member of society.

Personally, I feel that breastfeeding is a good, healthy, natural thing and should be done as long as possible. Unfortunately, even though I feel this way, I probably still wouldn’t breastfeed my kids past a year, because I would worry too much about what other people think. I would, however, wholeheartedly support mothers who are braver than me and breastfeed however long they and their kids want to.

The point is, it makes me think… are we all just prisoners of society? But then again, who makes the rules? It’s really up to us, at the end of the day, to change the status quo. Certain things frowned upon years ago are acceptable now. Slavery was abolished, gay marriage is legal in certain parts of the world now, many other changes are happening… It’s up to us to become prisoners or not.

I highly recommend Room, because it is so profound on so many levels. But even if you only read it at its most basic level, it’s still a terribly fascinating book, and one that grabs you and makes you want to read more and find out what happens.

 

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Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult

As per Jodi Picoult’s style, this is a controversial novel about a picture perfect couple, to the outside world. Behind closed doors, Alex Rivers, a famous actor, abuses his wife Cassie Barrett, a renowned anthropologist.

I won’t go too much into detail here, except to say that Picoult handled this subject very well, but it’s hard for me to enjoy it because of the subject matter.

I get it, I do. It’s hard to leave someone you love. It’s harder to leave when you have no outside support, and most abused women don’t because their husbands try to alienate them from their friends and support systems. I’ve been there too, in a “less abusive” relationship. Physical abuse is easy to quantify, but how do you know when you’re in an emotionally abusive relationship?

To me, I guess it’s about happiness. Are you happy with him or crying all the time? It’s never been about how much you love each other. We all know that sometimes even though you love someone, it doesn’t mean that you should be together.

I decided that love isn’t what makes the world go round, happiness is. Love doesn’t always bring happiness, but happiness always brings love.

I was in a very unhealthy relationship and I was hurt and crying all the time. I couldn’t leave because I had no friends and no support system, I felt dependant on him, but the thing is, I *always* knew I had to leave. He’s really not a bad guy, he’s too simple to know that he hurt me, to be perfectly honest, and again, it’s emotional abuse, he never laid a hand on me. He loved me and I loved him, but I always knew we weren’t good for each other. I left when I could.

So I do get it. Kind of. I just wish more people would realize that love doesn’t make the world go round. Love doesn’t mean you should be together. Stop looking for love and start looking for happiness. Happiness will bring you love, not the other way round.

I found my happiness and my love. I hope others do too.

 

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Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult

As usual, Jodi Picoult comes up with a very interesting and controversial topic for a book. A mother whose child is born with osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, sues her doctor, who is also her best friend because the doctor failed to find out that her child had the disease until it was too late to abort.

The thing is, her child, Willow, was born five years ago, and even if she’d known ahead of time about the genetic disorder, she’d never have aborted the child. She’s suing because she wants to secure a better future for Willow, one where they won’t have to struggle to make ends meet paying for Willow’s surgeries and hospital bills because of her breaks and fractures.

I’m a big fan of Picoult, and I love most of her books. I love that she tackles controversial topics, and I love her writing style, which is so natural and engaging. However, I feel that Picoult is now being controversial for the sake of being controversial.

The subject matter of the book and most of the story is very interesting, but towards the end of the book, and especially with the verdict, a lot of things didn’t make sense. I couldn’t understand how the verdict could be what it was, with the testimonies presented. I felt like she ran out of things to say, and didn’t know how to continue with the story, as if the topic was a hypothetical one where she couldn’t find an answer to present to us.

Also, the ‘twist’ at the end of the book… I remember watching an interview of Picoult a while ago, where she says people expect twists in her books, because, hey, it’s Picoult, so in that particular book, there was a twist of a twist. The problem is, the ‘twist’ in this book was so unnecessary, and knowing that she did it for the sake of doing it made it really cheap. She calls it a twist. I call it jumping the shark.

It’s as if she feels her books can’t be good unless there are twists, but honestly, I think she’s an amazing writer and really doesn’t need to have twists in her books all the time! 

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

I’ve heard and read a lot of reviews about this book, and I’d been curious about it for some time.

The reviews piqued my interest, and the subject matter looked like it would be fascinating to read about. It didn’t disappoint. Much.

The story’s about Truly Plaice, who’s born big and keeps getting bigger, apparently from a medical condition. She suffers from isolation and the cruelty of her peers because of her difference, and it doesn’t help that her older sister is the total opposite of her; petite and beautiful.

The story was good, but I felt that there could’ve been a lot more to it if the author would’ve explored further. The ending was a little anti-climatic for me, I felt that there was so much potential that wasn’t probed at and explored.

All in all, I’d say that the book is worth reading, but not particularly spectacular. Perhaps other readers will like it better than I did.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

I watched the movie when it came out a long time ago, thinking it was a light-hearted chick-lit. Imagine how taken aback I was when I realize the somberness and tragic nature of the movie.

It made an impact on me, but perhaps I wasn’t ready to understand it yet.

Now, many years later, I read the book, thinking that maybe I’ll get more insights about it that I missed before with the movie and my young age.

Truth is, I still don’t understand much of it, but I think it’s not really meant to be understood. Perhaps Eugenides was trying to tell us how futile it is to try to put a label on the reasons for suicides. It could be any number of factors, even the person who commits suicide may not understand what compels them to do it.

I don’t claim to know anything about it, but still I wonder about it and strive to find reasons. We want to know why, even when we realize that we may never know the answer.

Suicide is a painful subject, especially for those left behind, but Eugenides tries to let us see it, in a roundabout way, from the points of view of the persons who commit suicide. We’ll never be able to see it, but still we try our best.

It’s a sobering and tragic story, but written very well. I think the most important thing about this book is that it forces you to think, and perhaps, talk, about a very painful subject.

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kid

I’ve read The Secret Life of Bees, and I loved it, and I’m a little fascinated with mermaids and mermaid stories too, so any book with “mermaid” in the title is bound to catch my attention.

While this book isn’t really about mermaids, it has a very interesting mermaid myth that features quite prominently in it.

What the book is about, is a 42-year old married woman, Jessie, who feels discontented with her life and finds a great reason to leave her husband and her home for the island she grew up in, when her mother deliberately cuts off her own finger.

There she falls in love with a monk, Brother Thomas, who hasn’t taken his final vows and who falls in love with her.

So what do you expect happens after that? What could happen after that? I pretty much expected the ending, which is to say, it is quite predictable, but in this instance and with this book, I’d say that it’s not the destination but the journey that matters. It certainly seems that way, for both the reader and for Jessie.

It is the journey that allows Jessie to grow and learn, and see things she’d never really seen before. Many things happen along the way, and she finds out things about her own past that she never expected, but in the end, things work out for the best.

All in all, this was an enjoyable read, but not an amazingly good one. What I enjoyed most was the descriptions of the mermaid chair and the myth. Well, what can I say, I do have a fascination with mermaid stories.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the back cover blurb:

Kidnappers storm an international gathering hosted by a poor Latin American country to promote foreign trade. Unfortunately their intended target, the President, has stayed home to watch his favorite soap.

The takeover settles into a siege, bringing together an unlikely assortment of hostages, including a beautiful American opera diva, a Japanese CEO who is her biggest fan and his unassuming translator. Two couples, complete opposites, fall in love, and a horrific imprisonment is transformed into an unexpected heaven on earth.

My review:

If I had to use one word, it would be “poignant”. Since luckily enough, I can use more than one word, it is a beautiful, profound, and ironic story about how a terrible situation can turn into a magical one.

Most importantly, it’s a story about people, about human nature, about how monsters can turn into angels when you get to know them and understand why they do the things they do. It’s about love, the kind of love that happens only when there are no expectations, no demands, no fear about what others may think.

There is so much to think about in this book, so much to ponder upon, so much to rejoice for and to grieve for. I am still in awe over this book, and it has won a place in my top favorite books of all time. I’m sure, many years from now, I will still love it as much as I love it now.

Floating in My Mother’s Palm by Ursula Hegi

 

I read Hegi’s Stones from the River some years ago, and I thought it was hauntingly, heartbreakingly, beautiful. That was my first Hegi book.

 

Floating in My Mother’s Palm is my second book from Hegi, and supposedly, it can be read as either a prequel or a sequel to Stones from the River.

 

The truth is, I have a habit of forgetting details of the books I’ve read, and since I read Stones from the River so long ago, I’ve forgotten most of the details.

 

I remember Trudi Montag, of course, but honestly not much else at all. Hanna is lovely, and I enjoyed most of Floating in My Mother’s Palm, but I must admit to being a little lost when I finished the book.

 

I felt that it ended a little abruptly. Or maybe abruptly isn’t the word I’m looking for. I think it ended a little too soon. I expected more. I wanted more. I felt like Hegi left me hanging. Perhaps it’s because I have to re-read Stones from the River to tie up the loose ends, I don’t know, but I do feel a compulsion to revisit the book again, that’s for sure.

 

I do think that Floating in My Mother’s Palm would not make a great standalone book, though many fans of Stones from the River love it, I’d think it’s only good if you read it with Stones from the River. In that case, I recommend reading both. Because Floating in My Mother’s Palm is charming, and Stones from the River is amazing.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

 

I’d heard a lot of good things about this book before I picked it up, but when I realized that it was about a girl living in 1939 in Germany during the time of the Nazis, I put off reading it again and again.

 

I had assumed that it would be a difficult and dry read about the Nazi regime, and I hadn’t been in the mood for these kind of books the last few months. But then I thought about all the great reviews and recommendations from so many other readers. They can’t be all wrong.

 

So I decided to start reading it, and once I started, I couldn’t stop.

 

Death is the narrator, and getting to know him throughout the book, he seems almost human in the end.

 

Death tells us the story of the book thief, a little girl name Liesel, and her life on Himmel Street with her friends and her family. It’s an incredible story, there are happy moments and devastating moments, and so many interesting ones.

 

We watch Liesel live through those few years, hungry and poor, but mostly happy and loved, and always, stealing books. We see how the books mold her, help her create friendships and get through the tough times, and how in the end, they literally save her.

 

It’s a heartbreaking read and it brought me to tears, but it’s such an amazing read too, and it’s definitely become one of my most favorite books.

The Last Summer (Of You and Me) by Ann Brashares

 

From the Amazon review:

 

For as long as she can remember, 21-year-old Alice has spent summers on Fire Island with her parents and older sister, Riley. Riley, 24, is a beach lifeguard, more boyish in both looks and spirit than sweet, feminine Alice.

An island neighbor and Riley's best friend, Paul, whose father is dead and mother mostly absent, returns to the island after two years away and must decide whether to sell his family's house there.

More importantly, he and Alice finally act on an attraction they've felt for years, but they keep their frequent nuzzling quiet so as not to hurt Riley. Riley, meanwhile, has her own problems that could ruin Alice and Paul's clandestine romance and just about everything else.

 

My thoughts:

 

I've never read The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants or any of the author's works before, although I've watched the movie and enjoyed it, so I wasn't sure what to expect with this book.

 

I ended up really loving this book! A couple of people have said that what happens between Paul, Alice, and Riley were overly dramatic, and I agree that what happens is actually quite a trivial thing that could’ve been solved very easy, compared to so many other books out there that have more shocking and dramatic things happening.

 

But I think that’s what I like about the book. It’s real. What happens between them is trivial and made more dramatic because they didn’t communicate and couldn’t solve a very-easily-solved problem, but it’s real and could easily happen with anyone of us. I’ve had my own share of overly dramatic experiences, which could’ve been solved easily, if only I had been less immature.

 

I love this book because it’s real. It's something that could happen to any of us in real life. It's a trivial, mundane, everyday thing, that two young people didn't handle well, and because of that, escalated the tension, the misunderstanding, and the drama. And it could happen to anyone of us.

He Sees You When You’re Sleeping by Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark

 

I found this book at Malaysia’s first OBCZ, Official BookCrossing Zone, at 1 Utama! Let me just say that I’m very happy that MPH and 1U have got on the bandwagon of BC! =)

 

I’ve been spending so much time there, and this book and my next four books were all from our OBCZ!

 

I was worried that I was having a dry spell, not being in the mood to read any of the books I already had, but finding these books there, and all which I read in a day each(!) definitely cured me of my dry spell!

 

My thoughts:

 

I've enjoyed most of Mary Higgins Clark's books, but I've never read anything by her daughter Carol, nor one written by the both of them. I decided to try this book, and while it's not the best book I've read by Mary Higgins Clark, I did enjoy it.

It's about a man, Sterling, who'd died and gone to Heaven, or more precisely, gone to wait at the Heavenly Gates for entry. He'd been waiting for about 50 years, give or take, and it seemed it was because he wasn't a very helpful person when he was alive. The Heavenly council decided to give him a chance to redeem himself, by allowing him to go back to Earth (as a ghostly angel) to help a little girl have a happy Christmas. That's the gist of it, anyway.

It was enjoyable as a book, but not what I would've expected from the Higgins Clarks. I found it read like a feel-good Disney Christmas movie where the characters were caricatures. Again, unexpected, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult

 

I’m on a Picoult binge. What surprised me was that the last Picoult book I read, Change of Heart, featured the main characters in this book.

 

This book was published nine years before Change of Heart, but the characters are as vivid as ever.

 

From the back cover:

 

When the marriage of Mariah White and her cheating husband, Colin, turns ugly and disintegrates, their seven-year-old daughter, Faith, is there to witness it all. In the aftermath of a rapid divorce, Mariah falls into a deep depression – and suddenly Faith, a child with no religious background whatsoever, hears divine voices, starts reciting biblical passages, and develops stigmata. And when the miraculous healings begin, mother and daughter are thrust into the volatile center of controversy and into the heat of a custody battle – trapped in a mad media circus that threatens what little stability the family has left.

 

This isn’t so much like Picoult’s later books where there are surprising twists, this is a simple story of a little girl who starts performing miracles and a family who is going through a messy divorce in the midst of it all.

 

There are parts that doesn’t make sense to me, especially with Colin’s actions towards the end. Why go on with the custody battle when you already know your daughter needs her mother? The book tells the story with Colin’s lawyer as the bad guy in court, but all Colin had to do was say the word and the battle would’ve been over.

 

It was a good story, however, and I loved it because of all the religious controversy and the miracles happening left and right. Picoult’s name really speaks for itself, and I seldom feel the need to tell how much I liked her books, because I always do!

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

 

I’m a fan of Picoult simply because she writes such thought-provoking stories. Her books are filled with ‘what ifs’, and they force us to think about controversial issues that we otherwise might close our eyes to.

 

As I get more and more familiar with her work though, they start to become predictable. You know there’s going to be a twist, and sometimes you even know what the twist is going to be right from the beginning.

 

That’s what happened for me with this book.

 

Shay Bourne, who’s on death row convicted of murdering June Nealon’s husband and daughter, wants to donate his heart to June Nealon’s remaining daughter, Claire, after his execution.

 

It’s his way of trying to make amends, giving his heart to save June Nealon’s younger daughter, since he was responsible for the death of the rest of her family. What makes it more interesting is that Shay starts healing the sick, resurrecting the dead, and making other unexplainable miracles happen. Is he the Messiah, or is he a fake?

 

Either way, June Nealon’s not willing to forgive him, and she can’t imagine having the heart of the man who murdered her family, beating in the chest of her last remaining family. But Claire will die if she doesn’t get a heart soon, and June has to decide what’s more important, her hatred for the man who destroyed her happy family, or her love for her youngest daughter.

 

My brain was working overtime with all the ‘what ifs’, there were so much to think about in this book. The Messiah angle, the heart transplant angle, the death sentence angle…

 

Even though I guessed the twist early on in the beginning, it didn’t deter from my enjoyment of the book and the telling of the story. As with all Picoult’s books, I think this is another must-read for all.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

 

I’ve seen so many great reviews about this book and have been intrigued for so long, but nothing prepared me for how incredible the book was and how terribly graphic the detailed description of the protagonist’s burns were.

 

And guess what?! I read more than 400 pages before I even realized that the protagonist/narrator was never named. That’s how engrossing the book is!

 

There are many stories within this book, but I believe the main theme is about beauty and how it is only skin deep. The thing about the protagonist is that he used to be beautiful before he got burned.

 

He had smooth, beautiful skin, and handsome features, an amazing body that he used to please the many women who found him attractive… but he was ugly inside. He was an unhappy, self-centered, manipulative, hedonistic bastard.

 

Then he got burned, and he became the ugliest man he could possibly be on the outside. Burn scars everywhere, on his face, on his body, his hair burned off, his features misshapen, his limbs burned or cut off… and he was still an insufferable bastard.

 

But he meets a mysterious woman, who claims to have known him many centuries ago, and she tells him stories, about other people, about who he used to be when they knew each other before. He thinks she’s crazy, but she’s the only friend he has, since all his friends deserted him after he turned into a gargoyle, so he tolerates her, and he listens to her stories.

 

As time goes by, the protagonist slowly becomes a decent human being. Davidson writes the protagonist’s change almost as if he was a butterfly emerging from his cocoon. His metamorphosis is due to the mysterious woman who stays with him and tells him stories, but there is more to her than meets the eye too, as we find out further in the book.

 

I devoured this book completely! From the moment I read the first sentence, it was almost impossible to put down, and although there has been a lot of positive response to the book, I wonder why it’s not more popular! If I had a book club, I would definitely recommend reading this book for it, it would be great for discussion! What a fantastic read!