Books I've read so far this year...

[nekosensei]

1. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
2. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
5. The Once and Future King by T. H. White
6. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
7. Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog
8. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
9. The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
10. We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
11. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
12. Ouija: The Most Dangerous Game by Stoker Hunt
13. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

14. The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger -- So far, out of all of the books I've read this year, this one is my favorite. It's about a man with a genetic mutation called chrono-displacement. In other words, he gets unstuck in time for minutes, hours, and even days. He usually shows up in the nude during events having to do with his past or his future. Of course, the story focuses on the life he and his wife shared together. It brought up some interesting themes on free-will versus determinism. I definitely recommend this one!

An aside...I wish I could read more. My neck keeps getting pissed off and I can only sit with a book for limited amounts of time. Pooh! :(

Comments

[kiwikat.livejournal.com]

I read that book last year, it was so incredible. I would read anything else she writes based just on that one.

[soulofajedi.livejournal.com]

Ooo, fun! That sounds neat! I really like time-travel/unstuck-in-time books. There's a reason Desmond is my favorite character on Lost. And a glowing recommendation from two friends!

/added to her "To Read" list.

[tanyareed.livejournal.com]

I love the Time Traveler's Wife!! I read it last year, and completely adored it. Henry and Clare are love. :)

The rest of your books from this year are interesting too. I've read The Colour of Magic, and The Once and Future King is on my to be read pile. Right now, I'm reading another Terry Pratchett book called "Making Money".

[butterflymama3.livejournal.com]

I started Time Traveler's Wife but had to put it down. Must go back to it.

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

The Once and Future King by T. H. White - currently on my to-read list but probably won't get around to reading it until 2009.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - Read this for the first time in 2007 and really liked it.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - One of my all-time favorite books.

The Time-Traveler's Wife - I've picked it up in the book store several times, but every time I read the first part of the book it seems long winded and wordy to me. Yet, I hear very many people talking about what a great book it is. I wondered, is there a place in your lj (or elsewhere) where you have written a spoiler-free review? If not, could you let me know your opinion of 5 really strong parts of the book (character development, plot, intriguing) and 2 really weak points?

Again, no spoilers. If one of the points is "Really great ending", no elaboration please. : )

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

Personally, I didn't really think it was too wordy.

Strong Parts:
1. The character development was very strong. It was easy to imagine who Henry and Clare were and it was easy to identify with them.
2. The plot of the book mimics the life of Henry, in a sense in that it's not in chronological order. It's starts with how they meet, and then jumps back to Henry and Clare's childhood. After that, there is a tendency to go from past to future, but like Henry, you have jumps into the past or the future. The chronology of the book also made you stop and think a bit. Sometimes, you had to go back a chapter and re-read to get some of the finer details the other character pointed out.
3. I also like how the book is narrated from both Henry and Clare's point of view. You often see two different retellings of the event. One has Henry's reactions to and interpretation of major events and the other has Clare's.
4. Like I mentioned before. I really liked the major theme: free will versus determinism. I'd like to say more here, but I think I'm going to keep my mouth shut.
5. The way the story flows in general. It was a book that just sucked me in and I often had a hard time putting it down.

I can't really think of any weaknesses off-hand. Maybe the length? It was over 500 pages. But mostly, that's because my neck sucks and I can't read for long periods of time anymore.

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much for the review. I'm not wary of long books and at the point when I picked it up last, I believe that I wasn't fully treated for my depression so being in that heavy everything feels too hard state coupled with pretty much zero motivation to get anything done (including even checking a book out at the book store to see if I'd like it) must have skewed my opinion and for whatever reason stuck with me afterwards.

Sounds like the book is my style completely. I love books that are organized a bit different from the standard and I love so much getting to know a main character of a book that moving that up to two characters sounds absolutely awesome!

In other words, putting it on my Amazon wish list (which I print out every other weekend to take to the used book store) and going to read it for my read 50 books challenge in 2009 (I already have the rest of my 2008 schedule planned out).