Soul Destruction: Unforgivable by Ruth Jacobs

I downloaded Soul Destruction: Unforgivable during a free download weekend. It sounded good, but this book dragged on and on. I almost feel criminal with the in-depth description of mixing a hit of heroin and crack because the author goes into great detail in several chapters. I couldn't help but think "is there a point to this book?" In fact, the plot doesn't even pick up until about 70% of the way through, and even then, the author just kind of muddles through. The main character, Shelley, isn't a sympathetic character at all, and there are times when she's downright detestable. Chapters seem unfinished and for the most part left me asking "and then what happened? Why?" There was just a sense of vagueness around the whole thing.









Rated 1 star on Goodreads

"Not the One You Had in Mind," said the Lord by Gail D. Bentley

I came to know Gail professionally in late January of 2013 as she traveled to Maine to train myself (and 30 others) on a job. Over two months, I came to know this wonderful woman of God, and have finally gotten a chance to read her book. I will preface this with a few things: Gail was called upon by God to write this book, and admitted to me she is not a big fan of reading or writing in general. It's also self-published. I bring these things up because this was a labor of love on her part, and editing was not done  by a big corporate publishing firm prior to print, so there are a few errors.

The message presented-- and very candidly so-- is a clear and concise guide for anyone of the Christian faith who is wondering when that special someone will come into their life. Gail tells the story of her own rebirth into Christianity and the path she took which eventually guided her to her husband. Well-researched with relevant passages from the King James version of the Bible, "Not the One You Have in Mind" is written for the person who may not enjoy reading but is  seeking a guide to find their one true spouse. At only 90 pages, it is a quick read, which allows the reader to stay engaged, and for more avid readers, an easy opportunity to re-read and absorb the messages within.


Rated 5 stars on Goodreads

Defiant Daughters, foreword by Carol J. Adams

I received my copy of  Defiant Daughters as part of a Goodreads First Reads contest. I will preface my review with a few pertinent facts: I have not read the original source material The Sexual Politics of Meat, I am a meat-eater, and, while self-identifying as feminist, I have a general bias against many hard-core ideologies, whether they be about feminism or diet.

Disclaimer of personal bias aside, Defiant Daughters was good for what it was: the anecdotal ruminations of women who had had their lives changed by reading The Sexual Politics of Meat. I couldn't help but notice, however, that the tales told by the women seemed to smack of white privilege at times, and at one point I made a note that the subtitle should be "White Guilt, or Ethnic Shame." While some of the essays contained within the book are by ethnically diverse authors, the whole thing seemed to me to be a lot of preachy, upper-middle-class privilege, a lot of displaced anger from childhood trauma, and at times the kind of feminism I loathe: man hating.

I found the last two essays in the book to be the most impactful, as they were more about food-appreciation and treating everyone like a decent human being rather than food-shame and guilt. I had a hard time relating to the women in the book and the over-all sanctimonious air of vegan superiority of many of the authors was a turn off for me. I have friends who would probably enjoy this book more than I did.



Rated 3 stars on Goodreads

Iced by Karen Marie Moning

I really wanted to like this book. I thought the premise sounded interesting but when I started to read, my enthusiasm started to fall apart, for several reasons. First, I absolutely can not stand the protagonist of the story, Dani "Mega" O'Malley. She's 14 years old, acts like a self-absorbed, self-important, oppositional for no reason,  and a Mary Sue. She's got super-speed! Super-hearing! Super-everything! OMG! Reading her first-person narrative made me want to claw my eyes out. And something else, aside from her constant narcissism and use of the word "dude"?-- instead of using the word "fuck" she instead uses "feck," which irks me on so many nitpicky levels. I have a pet peeve about people that self-censor.

While we talk about language use in this book, let's discuss how this novel is set in Dublin, Ireland, yet the language and syntax would never give that away. Reading the narrative and dialogue, one could assume that this was taking place in, say, California. In fact, the only person that  uses any little bit of dialect is the Highlander, Christian, who utters the occasional "och" and "lass" here and there.

Speaking of Christian... He is in love with/sexually attracted to Dani. Who is 14. In fact, there are several adult males fighting over Dani's future-loss-of-virginity which is creepy and gross. Moning has sexualized her underaged female protagonist to uncomfortable proportions.

Overall, the plot was "eh," the characters are thrown at the reader (this is book 6 of one series but book 1 of another series, an annoying trend I'm seeing in series these days)  without a lot of back story or character development. Most of the characters are fairly shallow, especially Dani, and the only one that I was remotely curious about (and the reason I'm even rating this at 2 stars) was Ryodan, because he was one I honestly couldn't figure out (and I appreciated that, while the world was ending he was still doing paperwork, because hey, it's business as usual).

Rated 2 stars on Goodreads

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

I will rarely suggest to anyone to watch a film adaptation prior to reading a novel, but in the case of Battle Royale, I actually think most people would benefit from it, and here's why. There are more than forty-two characters in this novel, and while each character gets some face time in the novel, Japanese names can be very similar and therefore hard to differentiate. I found that having watched the movie first, I was able to remember characters better because I had a visual reference already in place. This also eliminates the need for note-taking (which I find tedious and made novels such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy somewhat unenjoyable for me). There are also certain scenes in the book that (I don't want to give away anything) kind of fell flat but the director of the movie, Kinji Fukasaku really brough to life. Sure, there was tension and high drama in some of the scenes in the book, but being a translation, the impact, the original author's intent, may not come across as effectively. So, my recommendation: watch the movie, it's fantastic. Watch it before reading the book or just after if you just can't bring yourself to watch a movie before reading the book, but watch it. You can stream it on Netflix.

What initially drove me to read Battle Royale (aside from enjoying the movie) were the constant lamentations by people that The Hunger Games was just a ripoff of Battle Royale. I honestly don't find this to be the case. There are similarities. Of course there are. The idea of children fighting each other is actually a pretty common theme in dystopian novels. However, in Battle Royale, the characters are living in a society with a possible shadow-puppet dictator (as theorized by one of the characters) and while the youth population is on the decline, the "games" are still held for purported scientific reasons that hold no social benefit (unlike The Hunger Games, where the objective  was winning food for the district). To say that one is wholly based off the other is really a very shallow comparison at best.

While the primary characters that you follow are Shuya, Noriko, and Shogo, each student (or group of students) gets at least one chapter told from their point of view, which I appreciated. This is not just a book about killing, but rather a book about the human condition, and what shapes us as an individual and how we make the choices we make. The personalization of each chapter also gives the reader more insight into the government and the state of society as it exists in the timeframe of the novel. This type of effective storytelling makes a dauntingly thick novel an easy, enjoyable, and quick read.

Rated 5 stars on Goodreads

Happy New Year's Reading!

Hello to those of you who do read and care to read my book reviews who don't follow me on Goodreads. I'm just checking in because I always feel a little bad when I haven't written anything in a while on my blogs. I haven't been reading as much (I got really engrossed in a video game, and then the holidays happened) but I've been plugging away at Koushun Takami's Battle Royale and I'm just under halfway through (it's a hefty 600+ pages). I probably will review it because of all the "Suzanne Collins stole Hunger Games from Battle Royale" nonsense I read all the time (and having seen the movie first, I thought to myself um, hell no she didn't and I still hold to that as I read the book. But more on that as I do the actual review.

My family have always been readers, but we usually don't buy books for each other because we have the tendency to just go out and buy them (I'm looking at you Mom) unless they are specifically mentioned. We tend to go with the much simpler gift card to a book store. This year Mom bought me Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy (not that particular set, but I didn't want to link each book individually) which I explain to people as "the, you know, dragon tattoo and whatnot books." I had planned on getting them but kept putting them back at the book store. I wasn't emotionally ready to buy them, and now I don't have to.

I have a nice stack of books to read for the new year, and hopefully I can make my goal of 50 books on Goodreads in 2013. I came close this year with 44. Not shabby for having started in May.

Upcoming books to read (which may or may not be reviewed):

• The Host by Stephenie Meyer, because the movie is coming out and I need to see if it is as mockable as Twilight
• Iced by Karen Marie Moning, which I picked up simply because I saw Susan Ee was reading it on Goodreads and thought I'd give it a shot
• Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey, because I've always been curious about these books
• I am Legend by Richard Matheson, because I heard it was way better than the movie, even though I am so over zombies

I also need to start the third book in the Song of Ice and Fire series and I've been thinking about digging into one of my boxes and re-reading some of my Dragonlance books.  I may do a series of books that were adapted to film, because having looked at what's coming out this year and next, there's a ton. At the very least, I'll add a tag or something. Anyway, if you have been enjoying this blog, and you're not on my Facebook list, subscribe so you don't miss a review. I noticed that most of my reviews have been skewed toward the romance genre, so I'm going to fix that. I read (as you can see) a lot more than that.

Shadow's Claim by Kresley Cole

Separate from the Immortals after Dark series, the first book in The Dacians series, Shadow's Claim, still maintains continuity of the original IAD storyline, with slight overlap of Cole's last book, Lothaire. While tertiary characters are still working toward the Accession (or immortal end-of-days) the major plot line here focuses on Bettina, heir-apparent to a demonarchy, and the unfortunately timed wakening of vampire Trehan Daciano's heart.

What I appreciate about Cole's books, what has kept me reading, is that they aren't all-powerful Mary Sues. Bettina has flaws. She has past trauma that triggers panic attacks, even though she's an immortal. She's struggling under the hand of an outdated patriarchy, being patted on the head by everyone in her life and is thoroughly frustrated by her lot. Even the seemingly invincible Daciano has his flaws as he wars with an inner nature that he has worked hard to suppress. There's actual conflict between characters, and while yes, it's a romance novel and there's a happy ending, you can't help but feel enmeshed in the strife and wonder how things can be worked out between everyone. That's what keeps me turning pages. That, and tastefully written love scenes with anatomical terms.

This book leaves one loose end to tie up but I'm so glad this book exists, because now means exist to tie up loose ends from previous novels. And this, too,  is something I appreciate in Cole's writing. In approximately 12-13 books, the story has been consistent, and while loose threads have been left in places, they haven't been abandoned. It's one huge story arc, but each book can be read independently without the reader feeling completely lost.

Rated 5 stars on Goodreads