Book 123: "Who Could That Be at This Hour?"

I was really excited for this book. I was going to try to convey to you how excited I was but I tried to think about it and then I couldn't, but know this: I was pretty excited.

Lemony Snicket has been one of my favourite authors for a long time. I adored his A Series of Unfortunate Events as a child, his Unauthorized Autobiography, and, of course, The Beatrice Letters. One of my greater book shames is that I have not yet read Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid, but that's a story for another day.

Before reading "Who Could That Be at This Hour?" I didn't know a lot about the All the Wrong Questions series, particularly the part that it is autobiographical in nature, which makes it all the more amusing. The book is light and not as depressing as his Series of Unfortunate Events and makes you want to sit down on a Sunday and read it from start to finish while avoiding doing school work [this is obviously what I did, and I have no regrets].

I give this book 8.5 coffee beans out of 10. It was good, but didn't necessarily live up to my expectations. I think we should keep in mind that this is the first book of a quartet, which means it's a set up. I'm never a huge fan of the first book. "Who Could That Be at This Hour?" is also very quotable, in case you wanted to know. If you are a fan of Snicket's work I would highly recommend this book.

Book 122: Frankenstein: the original 1818 text

Normally I don't like rereading books so soon, but, alas, my Science Fiction class required it of me.

First, let me start off by saying if you don't feel bad for both Frankenstein and his monster I'm judging you. If all you think about Frankenstein is that's he's not a great guy, I'm judging you. Basically if you have negative thoughts, I'm judging you. A lot of people dislike Frankenstein because of the way he treats his monster, and if you're one of those people you're not looking deep enough. Let's take a close look starting with Frankenstein.

So, Frankenstein is a pretty sad guy. He's going to marry his cousin, his mother died because of his cousin and he really misses his mum. point. He becomes obsessed with science and the possibility of bringing dead things back to life. Connection? He succeeds and find out that it didn't work the way it wanted it to, he gets scared and runs away. Unrealistic? No. He becomes depressed and all his friends die and tries to kill the monster because he believes it's the root to all his problems.

Yeah, Frankenstein's a little messed up and he made some bad decisions, but you shouldn't hate him because of that. He tried to fix the mess that he created and when you take a closer look as to why he couldn't make a female for the Monster to love and why, after that, he felt he had to kill the Monster, you see a man who is haunted by his past and is sad and confused to how everything came to this. The Frankenstein family history is horribly tragic. Everything that led to the point of him actually trying to make a monster stems from the grief he was exposed to and experienced himself as a child.

The Monster experiences a lot of the pains that Frankenstein himself suffers. He doesn't fit in, he doesn't have any real friends, and no one understands him. The Monster's story is heartbreaking. He blames everything on Frankenstein. Does he have the right to? Probably. Does that mean that Frankenstein is a bad guy? No.

I really love this Novel. It's beautifully written and the story is so iconic. I would say that it is one of the books that everyone should read and everyone already knows the story to. I give this book 9 out of 10. Again, I reread it too soon and remembered too much so it doesn't make a ten, but it is a fantastic book and you should read it.

Book 121: Rebel Angels

I never know what book in this series is my favourite, and I doubt I ever will. Unless I am suddenly flash of inspiration during the last book and find that it or one of the preceding two are my favourite, but who knows what the future has in store for us. Anyways, I love Rebel Angels, at least as much as A Great and Terrible Beauty and maybe even a little more. 

The characters become more developed, and so do the world they live in. The girls leave Spence to go home for the holidays and a whole bunch of shenanigans takes place, even boys -gasp-. As always, Libba Bray brings Gemma's world to life with exquisite descriptions, snide remarks, and witty commentary that aptly describes Gemma's feeling, worries, loves, hates, happiness's, griefs, and everything in between.

I give this book 10 bottles of laudanum out of 10. For those of you who have read the books, you may this that this is an odd symbol to choose, but it was the thing that stuck out the most in my memory the last time I read the book and I believe that it is a very powerful symbol of the time period. I would recommend this book to anyone who is in for a good adventure. The series is beautifully crafted. Stayed tuned for the third and final installment sometime in the coming months.

Book 120: A Great and Terrible Beauty

The first time I read a great and terrible beauty was the summer of grade 8. My family was camping in Keji National Park. The book had been suggested to me by my cousin who thought it was fantastic, so I had rented it from the library to take with me to have something to read. I fell in love with the book [and Kartik].

Since then, I've been waiting for a good excuse to reread The Gemma Doyle Trilogy, and hadn't found one until the other day when I was asking one of my friends what I should read and suggested it as one of the options, she immediately said that A Great and Terrible Beauty was the book that I should read and if I didn't she wouldn't be my friend anymore. Naturally, I decided I should follow her advice.

Unlike some of the books that I've reread in the past, this one has met and surpassed my expectations and memory of how good it was. Libba Bray's description, humour, and rounded characters add excitement to ever page, as it pulls you it and doesn't let you out until you've been sitting in your room for 5 hours reading and realize that you've been very thirsty for the past hour and a half but couldn't put down your book because there was no breaking point; you were living in it.

I realize that a lot of people who may read my reviews may not like fantasy as much as I do, and although A Great and Terrible Beauty does have a heavy fantasy element, the way Bray incorporates it into her work allows even those who dislike fantasy to still enjoy the story.

I have not met someone who has read this book and disliked it, and the same goes for the series. I give this book 10 amulets out of 10. It truly is a fantastic read. This book would probably make my top ten.

Book 119: Stardust

I've been really excited to read this book for a really long time for a lot of different reasons. Firstly, I've heard many great and true things about Neil Gaiman's writing and how fantastic it is; secondly, I've also heard what a great story Stardust is; finally, I really loved the movie so the book could only be better, and it was. In my screen there's three I'ves in a row and I don't like it, but to continue on with the review.

For those of you who are familiar with the movie and my taste in both books and movies, you'll understand why I found the plot very attractive, for those of you who aren't here's the bare bones: A young man (Tristran Thorn) falls in love with a young women (Victoria Forester) and the feelings are not mutual, she tells him that if he brings her back the fallen star (Yvaine) that they just witnessed she will grant his wish no matter what it may be (see marriage). The Young Man goes on a quest to a magical realm to find the star and has an epic journey and find true love. I'm sure you can all see why this is an awesome story.

Neil Gaiman's writing only makes it better. His flowing descriptions and amusing dialogue make this book impossible to put down (I read it over two days and I would have had it finished sooner if not for the fact that it was New Year's Eve and I wanted to socialize with my family).

I give this book ten glass flowers out of ten. It's truly fantastic. For those of you who aren't really into fantasy, never fear, this book is definitely for you too. Although there is bits of magic and mostly takes place in a world of fantasy, it really is an adventure and a sort of coming of age story, so no matter what your preferred genre is I guarantee that you will find enjoyment in this novel.

Book 118: 2001: A Space Odyssey

So I was really excited to read this book because it's a science fiction classic. Little did I know about the ending. I had never seen the whole movie before I had read the book, so I was kind of surpised by part one, two and six. Needless to say, I love this book and I think it's fantastic.

Arthur C. Clarke weaves a wonderful world in the prehistoric and future areas and really allows his characters to bloom and come to life with beautiful flowing descriptions of every aspect of the scenery, and actions that the characters live in. There is nothing that is two dimensional in the story. Although I wasn't a huge fan of the ending I really like the promises it holds.

I give this book 8.5 tubes of coffee out of 10. It's a really fantastic read, I could hardly put it down. I'd recommend it to anyone who loves science fiction or is trying to get into it, with its set back pace and relatable characters, it would be a great gateway book.

Book 117:The Concise Canadian Writer's Handbook

So, obviously this was a required text for school, because although I love to learn, I don't love it enough to pick this book up by myself. I cannot begin to describe to you how much I hate this book. I hate it more than I hate spider. I hate it with such an unfathomable passion. It feels good to get that out of the way. Now let's explore why I hate it:

1. My prof for the class that I had to read this book for was crazy and I didn't like her at all.
2. Knowing the contents of this book was worth 16% of my final grade.
3. Basically, I suck at writing and my grammar is beyond terrible.

and I like to think that these are all very good reasons for hating something. But, in all fairness to the book, aside from the fact that it's boring to just sit down and read 40 pages at a time for two and a half weeks, it's a wonderful reference and I learned a lot from it. I hope that you had tell the ladder from my writing style now as compared to that of earlier reviews.

So I give this book a decent rating, 6 out of 10. I'm glad I own it, I'm glad it's on my shelf. I still don't understand sentence structure, punctuation, and  grammar, but it's a work in progress.

Book 116: The War of the Worlds

After reading The Time Machine I decided that I loved H.G. Wells, and though it may sound like I changed my mind about this because of the way I started this, I do still love him, but The War of the Worlds was a little disappointing.

I loved the first half of the book. I thought it was brilliant. It brought up a lot of good philosophical questions like I expected from Wells, even the last half was good. It was the ending that killed it. It was just weird, and to avoid spoilers that all I'm going to say about it.

I give this book 8 cigars out of 10. It was good and I enjoyed reading it, it just wasn't what I expected.

Book 115: The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA

Last year when I was in The Introduction to the History of Science this was one of my required readings. Unfortunately, a the time I was extremely disinterested in reading it so I hadn't picked it up until the end of November. Needless to say, it was a fantastic read.

I had never done biology in high school and I'm never really be that interested in it. I'm more of a physics person. When I started reading The Double Helix I was really unsure about whether I'd like it or whether it would be worth reading. I found James Watson's account of the discovery of DNA quite amusing. He's a good writing and fairly funny. One of the major criticisms of the book; however, is that he is rather sexist, which I understand to a point. James Watson is sexist and he admits to it in his epilogue where he apologizes, but one this that he is not given credit for is the fact that he wrote this novel and didn't leave out the part where he did think that one of the people involved in the story wasn't as component in her work because she was emotional which he attributed to the fact that she is a women. As it turned out, he wouldn't have been able to do what he did without her and he admits that he was wrong to assume such things. He gave an accurate account of his part in the discovery of DNA; he could have left that bit out, but he included it and I appreciated it.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading The Double Helix. It wouldn't be something that I would have thought to read. I give it 8 dinner parties out of 10 and highly recommend it to anyone with any interest in science.