Day: December 31, 2008

I haven’t read a Dean Koontz novel in ages, and my favorite was Watchers.  I drifted away from this type of novel for several years, but with the sleep depravation that comes with raising an infant, I was looking for something light and fast paced.  The Good Guy was also recommended by Stephen King in his EW article, so I gave it a go. It wasn’t bad.  It was definitely a fast read. It is a bit of a chase novel (like The De Vinci Code, but without the contraversy) but it held my interest.  I would consider this a good vacation read – light and fast.

I read Riding Lessons because I loved Water for Elephants so much.  It’s always intersting to me to see if I will love most novels by an author, or just the one.  For example, there are very few Stephen King novels I don’t like, and despite his towering ego, I really enjoy most John Irving novels. In any case, I thought this book was OK.  Water for Elephants was just so good, it’s hard to compare.  I found myself not liking the main character in Riding Lessons that much, which made it a little more difficult to enjoy.  It’s still worth reading, but you can’t go in with too high of expectations.

When Will There Be Good News was recommended to me by my mother in law.  I immediately downloaded it to my Kindle without even reading the summary, based on her enthusiasim alone.  I then saw that Stephen King recommended this book in his “Best Books of 2008” article he wrote for EW.  I took that as a sign and read this book as soon as I could.  It was excellent!  I suppose at the heart of it, it is a mystery, but what I liked most is that even through all of the darkness that prevaled through most of the novel, there was a fierce hope and determination not to let that darkness win.  This is the first novel by Atkinson that I have read, but I downloaded a second to the Kindle just yesterday. I haven’t started it yet, but plan to soon.  I am curious of they are all as good as this one.

Why was my last post March 25 of this year, you may ask?  Because I found out I was pregnant in early April and struggled with morning (all day) sickness and finding enough energy to go to work, never the less post on the blog!  However, I did get some reading done over the last several months (and even some now that the baby is born – she still sleeps a lot and I am still on maternity leave;-).
One novel that I really enjoyed was The Host. As you know, I completed, and thoroughly enjoyed, the whole Twighlight series, so The Host was a logical next read.  I was curious how Meyer would handle a novel targeted to adults, and in my opinion she didn’t disappoint.  Without spoiling the plot, this is an interesting story about a race of sentient beings who believe they are improving worlds by “body snatching” other sentient beings.  That is the moral back drop of the story, but I really enjoyed the characters as well, both alien and human.  I am not sure my hubby would enjoy the book as much as I did, as there is a love story that figures as one of the central plot lines, but I suspect many of my girlfriends would.
In any case, I hear that Meyer is working on a sequel to The Host. If so, you can bet I will pick that up too!