Tuesday, April 26, 2011

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - Book Review

The Time Traveler's WifeThe Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book grabbed my attention from the very beginning. While it started out a bit confusing, I caught on to the format rather quickly. It tells the story of Henry, a time traveler, and Clare, the love of his life. Clare first meets Henry when she is only 6 years old, but Henry does not meet Clare until she is 20 and he is 28. I know, confusing, right? The story weaves between 1963 and 2008, with Henry occasionally jumping from the past to the future and back. It's a love story with a sci-fi twist.



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Thursday, April 21, 2011

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larson - Book Review

The Selected Works of T. S. SpivetThe Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larsen

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I thought I would never finish this book. It took me nearly 6 months to read it, and it felt like even longer than that. It was the book cover that initially caught my attention. I found it for $1 in the bargain bin at Borders (say that 3 times fast), and it looked very unique and interesting.

The plot was intriguing: A 12-year-old boy, who happens to be a child prodigy in the area of cartography, hitchhikes his way across the country to accept the prestigious Baird Award at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. The committee giving him the award is unaware that he is only 12 years old, and have based their decision solely on his work in cartography. T.S.'s parents are unaware that he is leaving. And so, Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet finds himself on an adventure of a lifetime.

Unfortunately, I was mostly disappointed with the book. The story was all over the place and the writing was unnecessarily verbose. The sidebar illustrations, while unique and imaginative, did not add much to the story and ended up being nothing more than a distraction. The author completely changed direction in the middle of the book, and began telling a story of T.S.'s great-great-grandmother. The story ended abruptly without resolution, and went back to T.S's adventure. Overall, I was not impressed.



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Friday, April 1, 2011

Thunderstruck by Eric Larson - Book Review

ThunderstruckThunderstruck by Erik Larson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Thunderstruck tells the story of two men: Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy, and Hawley Harvey Crippen, the man convicted of Britain's second most famous murder. Larson weaves back and forth between the two stories, ending with Crippen's capture on a ship named the Montrose with the help of Marconi's wireless telegraphy.

I was quite excited about reading "Thunderstruck", as I was completely fascinated and enthralled with Larson's "The Devil in the White City". However, the magic that I found in "The Devil..." was missing in "Thunderstruck". While I loved the parts about Dr. Crippen, I found myself bored with Marconi's story, and even irritated when the author switched back to him. This book contains a fantastic historical account of both men, but it was not as gripping as I had hoped.



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