The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

SUMMARY

"Containing clues that were to prove crucial to Harry Potter's final mission to destroy Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes, The Tales of Beedle the Bard is the volume of five wizarding fairy tales left to Hermione Granger by Albus Dumbledore in the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

 

MY REVIEW

I thought it was cute, yes, cute.  I didn't have high expectations for this book, so it wasn't a letdown or anything, it was just cute.   The stories KIND OF reminded me of Asop's fables, in a way.  All of the little stories had a lesson at the end and after every story, Dumbledore added his commentary.  This was my favorite part. I love how clever and witty Dumbledore is!  This book was not meant to be something that is out of this world, like the Harry Potter books, but it was quick and enjoyable.  I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the HP books.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larrson

SUMMARY

"This novel not only puts the cap on the most eagerly read trilogy in years; the sequel to The Girl Who Played With Fire marks the completion of its Swedish author's career: Stieg Larsson died at the age of fifty in 2004. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is, however, too exciting and too adept to be read simply as a major author's memorial. From its onset, with "avenging angel" protagonist Lisbeth Salander lying in intensive care, this fiction pulses forward. One British critic called it "intricately plotted, lavishly detailed but written with a breakneck pace and verve...a tantalizing double finale—first idyllic, then frenetic."

MY REVIEW

Although it's not quite as good as the first one, this book was a decent end to the series.   The main characters come across as real people, and the emotions they feel for each other develop in a plausible way. Larsson is very good at describing everyday conflict in the early 21st century Western world.  There is hand-to-hand fighting too, but it's much more fun to see how someone takes care of a complicated legal problem, or a colleague at work that they don't get on with, or a series of offensive emails. Last, he is not afraid of strong women. Lisbeth, Erika, Monica and Annika are all tough chicks, who are in many ways stronger than the men, but without thereby becoming caricatures.  I really loved how Lisbeth's character develops all the way through the end of the book.  She was one of my favorite characters and I am glad to see that she can get on with her life and has learned that human contact is necessary. 

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

SUMMARY

"Part blistering espionage thriller, part riveting police procedural, and part piercing exposeé on social injustice, The Girl Who Played with Fire is a masterful, endlessly satisfying novel. Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander's innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past."

MY REVIEW


I can't really think of much to say about this one.  The character development and the storyline were amazing.  I was slightly annoyed with the unnecessary detail that the author went into.  I was also annoyed by the fact the no loose ends were tied up by the end of the book.  He might as well have made the second and third books into one.  Yes, it would be longer but I would have been a little less annoyed.  Don't get me wrong though, I really enjoyed the book, and the storyline is incredible and I was able to get through it pretty quickly considering its length.  I can not wait to find out what happens to Salander and Blomkvist in the third and final book in the series.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

SUMMARY:

"Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch - and there's always a catch - is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo."

MY REVIEW: 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has a well-designed plot with many surprises and a perfectly satisfying, even though predictable, ending.  This book demands a lot from the reader, such as dealing with some financial Jargon.  This book also demands a bit of patience on the reader side.  This is not a book which catapults you through the story.  Instead, you are taken step by step through Blomkvist and Salanders journey and are given a bit of background information on the two of them.  The book consists of credible characters, no one who was too out there to be believable. The story has all you can ask from a mystery; fraud in big business, old family secrets, a small town, internet-masterminds and political corruptness. I liked to watch Mikael Blomkvist from the first page until the end.  I also liked his friends, enemies, colleagues, lovers and relatives, but the one I liked most was Lisbeth. A little bit more than a little bit crazy, underrated by nearly everyone, arcane but also pragmatic, the avenger. Finally, I liked the evil characters.  They were not trite, disgusting and primitive, but their malignity had style, background and warranty, the sophisticated evil, which is the worst.  These characters caused some emotional drainage on my part!  The Swedish title is, “Men Who Hate Women”.  In my opinion this title fits much better!  As a woman, there were several parts of this book that were hard for me to read.  However, it is sadly realistic.  Overall, I loved this book and I can’t wait to get into the next of the series.   

Max By James Patterson

SUMMARY:

"Max and the flock have traded in Antarctica's sub-zero temperatures for sunny Los Angeles, where they're taking over the skies with their hair-raising air show. But far below, a deadly assassin watches their every move, waiting for the perfect moment to send them plummeting to earth." "Suddenly, the flock learns that millions of fish are dying off Hawaii's coast and that someone - or something - is destroying hundreds of ships. When they are confronted with the most frightening ecological catastrophe yet, they have no choice but to go deep into the murky waters. Now, nowhere is safe." While Max and her team comb the depths of the ocean, a powerful enemy tracks them. He has his own plans for the flock and will stop at nothing until they're under his control. Can the flock protect themselves from the approaching army - and save the world from utter destruction?"

My Review:

Sadly, I was disappointed in this book.  I love the Maximum Ride series and I love all the action and fighting and mad scientist stuff and I didn't get any of that in this book.  None at all.  Although I am all about eco-friendliness, I don't think that it is fitting for this series and this book is all about saving the planet and radiation sickness ect.  What saved this book (slightly) for me was Max and Fangs romance which was predictable, but still.   I don't even know what to say other than that I am seriously disappointed and I hope that the next one fits better with the series.

After You by Julie Buxbaum

SUMMARY:

"When tragedy strikes across the ocean, Ellie Lerner drops everything—her marriage, her job, her life in the Boston suburbs—to travel to London and pick up the pieces of her best friend Lucy’s life. While Lucy’s husband, Greg, retreats into himself, his and Lucy’s eight-year-old daughter, Sophie, has simply stopped speaking. Desperate to help Sophie, Ellie turns to a book that gave her comfort as a child, The Secret Garden. As its story of hurt, magic, and healing blooms around them, so, too, do Lucy’s secrets—some big, some small. Peeling back the layers of her friend’s life, Ellie is forced to confront her own as well: the marriage she left behind, the loss she’d hoped to escape. And suddenly Ellie’s carefully constructed existence is spinning out of control in a chain of events that will transform her life—and the lives of those around her—forever."

REVIEW:

I LOVED this book! I thought it was well written and really quick to suck you in; I read this book in a total of two days! The characters were all well crafted, and I felt like I really got to know them all.  I especially fell in love with Lucy's daughter Sophie, a bookworm whose thirst for knowledge has left her socially isolated.  I also love her little friend, Inderpal who is as thirsty for knowledge as she is.  The story was very moving to me, especially having lost a very close friend; it is very relate-able. A lot of the reactions to Lucy's death were realistic, and were reactions to death that I have seen firsthand.   The author wrote it so realistically that I could feel what the characters were feeling, which I loved.  I didn't really like who Lucy turned out to be, though.  It just goes to show that you never really know people as well as you think you do. It really made me think about my relationships with my friends and what each of us may decide to tell each other or keep secret.

Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch

SUMMARY:

"Sarah Walters is a less-than-perfect debutante. She tries hard to follow the time-honored customs of the Charleston Camellia Society, as her mother and grandmother did, standing up straight in cotillion class and attending lectures about all the things that Camellias don't do. (Like ride with boys in pickup trucks.)
But Sarah can't quite ignore the barbarism just beneath all that propriety, and as soon as she can she decamps South Carolina for a life in New York City. There, she and her fellow displaced Southern friends try to make sense of city sophistication, to understand how much of their training applies to real life, and how much to the strange and rarefied world they've left behind.
When life's complications become overwhelming, Sarah returns home to confront with matured eyes the motto "Once a Camellia, always a Camellia"- and to see how much fuller life can be, for good and for ill, among those who know you best.Girls in Trucks introduces an irresistible, sweet, and wise voice that heralds the arrival of an exciting new talent."

REVIEW

I enjoyed this book for the most part.  It was a quick read and was entertaining. However, the narrating style was inconsistent and kept changing which would sometimes throw me off.  Chapters skipped around in time, which was confusing, and important events weren't always explained, such as her sister marriages and her friend Charlotte's Heroin problem. The main character, Sarah Walters wasn't really likable, she was pessimistic and pretty pathetic and I kept waiting for her to change but it never happened.  If she had, then this could have been a great coming of age story.  The one thing that saved this book was the wit.  The writer was very witty and it made the book entertaining, if nothing else. 


P.S. Sorry, my first two reviews are so negative.  I really usually like my reading material.