1. Wolf Hall/Bring Up The Bodies Okay, so there's two books here. But they're sequential, and I read them one after the other, so they probably should count as one. Hilary Mantel, the author, took a time period that I've read quite a bit about and did something different, and she did it in an entertaining way. Henry VIII was larger than life, even in his own times, but he's been done to death. There really isn't anything new to write about, from Henry's point of view. But the main character of these two books isn't Henry, or even Anne Boleyn. No, the main character is Thomas Cromwell, a commoner, who rose in the ranks to become indispensable to Henry. I loved the pace of these books, even though I knew how everything was going to turn out. Plus, I learned a little more about history, which was also a bonus.
2. Feed My friend Evil Laura recommended this book to me. (She's not really evil. She's more of a curmudgeon, but "Curmudgeon Laura" doesn't have the same lovely ring to it.) This is sort of a book about zombies. But it's also sort of not a book about zombies. It's more of a book about what happens after the zombies show up, after they become just another part of reality for the world. Since the zombies are the result of a virus, how the world interacts has changed dramatically, and things that we take for granted, like travel, are very different. Bloggers are the number one news source for the world in the 2040s, and Georgia Mason and her brother Shaun are invited to ride along on a presidential campaign. The first few chapters were kind of slow, but things started moving along pretty quickly once the two got on the road. Some of the chapters were very intense, but the zombies ultimately were the back story in this suspenseful tale.
3. World War Z I've heard that this book is going to be a movie starring Brad Pitt. Yeah, I am not sure how they will do that. The story is all about the zombie apocalypse, how it gets started in China, how it spreads, and ultimately, how the people left behind start fighting to get their country back. Each chapter is from a different part of the world, with a different narrator telling their story. Some of the chapters are a little disconcerting, especially when they talk about some of the difficult choices people had to make. Ultimately, the story is about the triumph of humanity against itself. Which is uplifting, even if there are zombies in the mix.
4. Let's Pretend This Never Happened What, you think that a blogger who lives nearby(in Texas, any place within a 200 mile radius is "nearby") who writes a book and I'm not going to read it? Lawson, aka the Bloggess, talks about her childhood in an extremely small town, how she met her husband, her extreme anxiety, how she got to be a mom, and her blogging. There are some pretty good laugh out loud moments, I have to say. The few times I've ventured into the outbacks of Texas, I've felt distinctly alien. That was East Texas, however. West Texas is probably completely different. Rural Texas, in all its glory, can be difficult, especially if you're in the middle of it, and the Bloggess was right there. Lawson's book is written in a very similar manner to her blog, which makes the reader feel right at home. If home involves scorpions and turkey buzzards.
5. Deadlocked This was the latest Sookie Stackhouse novel by Charlaine Harris. I've been reading the books since they came out, and I've been watching True Blood on HBO. This last book disappointed me. There wasn't really much to it. It was sort of like a snack, and it left me wondering about what's in the fridge. A large portion of the book was just Sookie going about town visiting and running errands. And the love story between Sookie and Eric, which has been very intense in the past, is almost nonexistent in this book. The two of them don't even act like they like each other. Sookie is supposed to be all passionate about Eric, and she doesn't even have the energy to get worked up. The fairies are more prominent in this book than they have been, but I've never been really happy about the portrayal of all the supernatural creatures. We've got shape shifters, vamps and were-animals--what do we need with elves, and brownies, and pixies? After reading this, I'm not really sure that I'm going to be reading any more of this series. I'll still watch True Blood, though. At least those guys know how to keep a plot interesting!
That's part of my reading list. What's on yours? Throw me some ideas!
I love anything from the time period of Henry VIII and, like you, there isn't much historically new there for me but I am intrigued by Wolf Hall/Bring Up The Bodies. As you know, I'm reading The Hunger Games then probably moving on to The Game of Thrones series. I need to read more and will but I just haven't been in the right frame of mind but that will change!
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely going to look for Feed at the library. I'm a sucker for zombies... I have been ever since my brother and I watched the original Night of The Living Dead. We watched it on TV back in, oh, 1994ish. I was 10 and I was hooked.
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