Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Over the last few months I've once again slacked on my book reviews...so heres the rundown

In April we read Life of Pi by Yann Martel.  I have to say this is probably my least favorite book I've ever read. It ranks right up there with The Good Earth which I was forced to "read" in high school. It was confusing. Hard to follow and way too imaginative for me. I'm all for using my imagination when I read but this was out there. I mean it really is a true tale of survival. Overall you get the gist of whats going on and it's interesting to see what happens to the human psyche when it is deprived for water and food for so long. But the part that really made me mad was the end...You begin to believe that Pi went though all of these things until the end...Then you're like WTF...its all just very very confusing. Maybe it would be better if I enjoyed the story line and could pay attention a little better, (I tend to zone out when I'm reading something the bores me), but I honestly can't understand why this book was made into a movie. I completely understand why my friend chose this book because I myself thought I wanted to read it. But don't waste your time...its horrendous!
Rating 3/10...or lower....


In May We Read, Until I say Goodbye, My year of living with Joy by Susan Spencer-Wendel. This was a very different book than one that my bookclub typically reads. It was an autobiography about a woman who was diagnosed with ALS. Being in the medical field I feel like a have a little bit of knowledge on what ALS is and how it affects you. This was a very interesting perspective into a woman's world of going through the diagnosis and living with the disease day by day. The most interesting part is that she wrote it on her iphone using only her thumb for most of it because it was the only finger she still had control of.  This book is hard to rate for me because it's so different than many of the books we've read and/or ones that I choose to read myself. But over all I enjoyed this book. It was hard to follow at first, I feel like there needed to be a little more of a clear direction when it came to her thoughts and how she went back in time to tell her story, I felt it jumped around a lot, but once you figured out her writing style it got easier to read and follow. I admire this woman for putting her story on paper so that her children will know what she went through and how she fought to stay in their lives and how much she loved them. I would recommend this book to anyone but I feel like it's something you have to be in the right frame of mind for. You have to be prepared to cry and feel things and think about things you may not have wanted to.
Rating 7.5/10


In June we read Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. This book was a nice transition from the previous book that was so heavy. This book is a young adult novel, and I believe was written by the same authors of Nick and Norah's infinite playlist. This book was an easy, light hearted read which was perfect for the time of which we read it. I found the story line fun and sassy and easy to follow (maybe I'm just not made for adult books). It's about young teenagers who meet through a notebook where they dare each other to play along and give clues about different things. In the clues each of them learns about the other person and then they end up meeting by chance and the story just takes off from there. It was a fun read and funny and takes you to a place when life was easy and have few responsibilities. Nice easy read.
Rating 7/10

In July we read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith. I have to say that although this book was a challenge to read at the start it was a great book. It was hard to get into the first few chapters which was probably compounded by the fact that it's nearly 500 pages. But being someone who enjoys history and I often for some reason fantasize about what it would have been like to live in the early 1900's this book was a wonderful portrayal of what people went through before the great depression. It takes place at the turn of the century and goes up until around 1918 I believe. Its a book that tugs on your heartstrings and gives you an accurate account of what life was like for people who were in the working class of New York City during this time. It's hard to imagine as a mom leaving your children who are only 8 or 9 alone all day while you work and trusting that nothing would happen to them. It's amazing to see how different and really more simple life was back then. It's even more interesting to see how much life changes in those 20 years  and how people and their mindsets change. The most interesting part to me is that you know most of it is probably true because the author lived through this time period. This truly just fascinates me. Like I've said thought sometimes I find myself fantasizing about a simpler time in many ways but what really got to me in this book was how hard life was for the working class and how they got by on so little. They truly were able to live off less than a dollar a day and how the mother in this story is able to make life seem fun and carefree at times for these children and how hard she worked so that her children could have an education and have a life that was better than the one she had. I really have to say that although it was hard to get through at times due to the nature of how it was written (a lot of unneeded details in my opinion) it was a really really good book :)
Rating 9/10


Finally last month, August, We read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I don't even know where to start with this book, other than it was interesting. It wasn't a hard read, it wasn't an easy read it was just different. This book is about a young boy on a quest to learn more about his grandfather and how he died. This book takes on a very imaginary feel to it one that I'm not particularly a huge fan of. Although I've never read it, it reminded me of A bridge to Terabithia. While I enjoy non-fiction, books about a fantasy land and mythical creatures and circumstances aren't really my thing. I often found myself thinking "oh give me a break". However I will say that if you enjoy books about mythical things and places go for it, this book will be right up your ally. But for me I just couldn't get into it. There is a sequel to it coming in January and I have to say I doubt I will read it but who knows...maybe. I will give this writer points for creativity and originality because this book in many ways was so far out there, that I never could have imagined this place myself.
Rating 6/10

Happy Reading :)