#19 "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

Unless you've been living under a book and tv rock for the last what, three years now? You probably know about Game of Thrones the HBO series and first book by the same name of the Song of Ice and Fire series. That being said I'm going to now forgoe the plot summary paragraph and move onto a short review.

While Martin's writing style is something akin to Tolkein or Baum, vorbose, overly descriptive, and exacting (three things not at all up my alley), his plot lines are dramatic and engaging enough to draw the reader in and hold their attention for around 50 pages at a time. The first time I picked up the book it was a library copy I was starting at 1 am during a week of grass-roots camp. I was to interested to put it down and ended up falling asleep with the book in my face. Sadly my interest was touch and go and it's taken me over a year to finally finish the 807 page book.

While I have the next 3 volumes of the series already it may take me until I'm staring down the flight to Ireland to actually read them. Especially given the way that first book ended, I'm a little depressed with the story line.

#18 "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor

A Good Man was something I picked up thinking it was going to be a love story, quickly figured out it was a collection of short stories that have very little to do with love, and only continued reading because it was on a list of books every girl should read in her twenties. I thought that given the style and the review it would end up being something akin to Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. It is not.

The stories are full of emotion without much energy. The characters all feel things, but not enough to do much about their predicament. There is a total lack of positive, creative, or advancing energy in every story. While the apathy of miserable characters was a total downer, it also struck true to the era and setting of the book (post WWII south).

I don't consider this book at all necessary for anyone not in a literature course studying female short story form in the early Cold War south, it also doesn't make the text poorly written or not worth while. It's just a little too miserable for dank winter days.

#17 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams

Though it feels like cheating, I have finished the first book of the Hitchhiker's Trilogy. It feels like cheating because the story is hardly over. But as I am enjoying the writing immensely (nothing like totally random sci-fi comedy to lighten your day) I will hopefully finish all three books soon.

Hitchhiker's for those of you who don't like Douglas Adams, Martin Freeman or Zooey Deschanel, is the story of Arthur, a less than ordinary earth man who's alien friend Ford saves him from death when both his house and his planet are destroyed--one by a human demolition crew, the other by an alien species who were owed a debt by the mice for the commissioning of the planet. Though ultimately I would imagine the book ends like the movie, with Arthur (Freeman) trying to find a new home in the universe, thus far it has covered many subjects, none of which are very imaginable. The entire book is in and of itself an improbability drive of literature.

But like I said, I'm loving it. Adams' style is right up my alley and the first of the series gets an A+ for readability and humour.

#16 "Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky

 
This is a book I've been wanting to read for a long while now. When the film first came out it was Emma Watson's first big thing after Harry Potter (which we all know I love) and I was so excited about it but I knew there was a book and I promised myself I would read it first. Then I moved to Germany and broke that promise. But in the end I find it important to remember that I did eventually read the book.

The novel is the story of Charlie, a high school freshman with absolutely zero friends and a very broken mind. The entire novel is written in the form of letters from Charlie to his "Dear Friend" who is never named and you only learn a little about. Charlie is intelligent but damaged and the combination is disastrous for his social life until he meets two step siblings who introduce him to a whole new world of people and experiences that he gets to observe and participate in. All the while Charlie is being challenged by his English teacher, being an amazing brother, and trying to survive high school. None of which is easy. But add on top the psychological battle Charlie is fighting as he discovers drugs and sex and music and literature, and it just all seems impossible. I'll stop before the spoilers start.

Admittedly I thought the film was better than the book. Not because the book was bad. The book was and is beautiful. But Chbosky is a film writer, Perks is his first novel, and as wonderful as reading Charlie's letters to this anonymous friend is, the film had a more solid progression of events. I also felt that the medium of film was just better suited for the complicated story of a kid who is so cerebral he doesn't even know what's happening in his mind. The book was certainly good enough (and expensive enough) to warrant a spot in a box back to home; all in all a solid A-.