it's really just a list

I was at the library today, returning a book and picking up another.  I usually have one laying around to work through when I get around to recreational reading, but I don't buy them.  Yay for libraries.

And maybe since I don't buy them, I don't put a lot of research into it.  I typically grab something off the "popular" shelf or "staff picks" shelf.  I was looking through my goodreads account to see what books I've read so far for 2015.

Here's a brief look at my year of reading so far...

  Sorcerer's Apprentice:  My Life with Carlos Castaneda

Gawd, this book was awful.
I've read most of Carlos Castaneda's books and found them interesting even if a lot of it was totally made up.

I thought this book would be an amusing look inside CC's "gang".  Well, maybe if that gang was a buncha rotten middle schoolers.  Obnoxious.  Couldn't finish, it gave me headaches.



The Book Thief

Not much to say here since most people who would care to read this one probably already have.  One review I read likened it to a chocolate chip cookie in that regard...

 Meego read it for school, so it was laying around the  house.  I liked it well enough, but honestly thought it got overly sappy at times.

Life Drawing

A bookie friend of mine recommended this one.  It's about a reclusive artist and her writer husband whose lives get complicated when a neighbor woman moves nearby.

It was okay.  I didn't really like the characters much, though.  Three stars



Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven

Oh, now this one was quite a ride.  It's a true account of a couple of freshly graduated college girls who set off to travel the world for a year.  I thought it would be a fun travelogue to live vicariously through, but it was something totally different.

Things get a little... crazy.  Plan B!

The Book of Strange New Things

Same bookie friend who recommended Life Drawing recommended this one, which I actually liked.  It's about a Christian pastor who goes on a mission.  To a faraway planet.  Preaching to the aliens.  Because they asked for him.

It sounds very scifi, I know, but it was actually very human.   Emotional and imaginative.  And not real churchy.


Her Fearful Symmetry 

Diva twin sisters move to their dead aunt's home in England, hook up with dead aunt's boyfriend and OCD neighbor.  Dead aunt's ghost hangs around and they all become friends.  This book was just weird, and I didn't even share the spoilers.

Chaco read the title, "What does that even mean?"  Heck if I know.


The Girl on the Train

I thought this one was really good at the beginning.  A real page turner.  But then it just seemed to slow down too much in the middle.  Pages and pages of, "I can't remember"... "I'm going to do this thing to try to remember"... "I can't remember"... I'm going to do this thing to try to remember"... "I can't remember"..."I'm going..."  Well, y'know.

Predictably, she eventually remembers.  Not bad, not great.


So seven books so far for the year - one for each month.  I picked up another I've never heard of.  It's titled The Harder They Come by T.C. Boyle.  I've read one page, and so far, so good.

I will say that, if you do a search on that title, the results are all kinda nasty!  This book isn't one of those.  I don't think...

So, whatchya readin'?

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For Mama Kat's prompt:
4. Book review!

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