Trilogies! Doesn't anyone write a stand alone popular novel anymore? Okay, you can sense I'm a little bitter. I do like trilogies, I do. But I started this novel, thinking it was a 600 page novel with a beginning, middle and end. Around page 550, I began worrying that the wrap-up was going to be a bit abrupt...just to be left totally hanging.
Sigh.
A Discovery of Witches is a romance- unadulterated, unapologetic romance and in the extremely trendy vein of Vampire lit. It is about a romance between a witch and a vamp. It is fun and except for a few pages in about the middle, essentially a clean enough romance for the teen set. Unfortunate that there had to be some descriptive hot-and-heavy in the middle, it means it falls short of a recommendation from me. Exclusion due to the "Eye of the Needle" rule. Remember The Eye of the Needle, by Ken Follett? I read that book back as an impressionable teen, and it was a dead-on spy novel, except for a few really randy pages in the middle that left too little to my imagination.
Thus, I cannot recommend it for the teen reader and lover of romance despite it's otherwise appealing tale. I bristle a bit at the idea of "romance" in the novel, as it doesn't apply to real romance, not a bit. Women somehow love the idea, in concept, of a strong man, willing to protect us, shield us, love us vulnerably and unconditionally. In reality, I'm not much for the possessive or bossy type. So, as a novel for a woman happily married to a man who is neither jealous, nor possessive- and gets reminded of who he married when he gets bossy- it is a fine piece of junk food. For a teen girl, who is still getting an idea of what is healthful romance...maybe not.
For parents who are looking for book reviews written with Teens and Preteens in mind. My kids read a LOT, and not all books(or movies, TV shows, video games etc.)are appropriate for children. I don't do much of the others, but I can read!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I suppose since it has been such a long while since I made my way to this blog, I should begin at the end.
The last book I finished.
Love in the Time of Cholera. It was a bestseller some time back and I have had friends that were weighed down by the prose before ever becoming attached to Fermina Daza, Juvenal Urbino and Florintino Azria. For, that is how they are mostly identified, by first and last names throughout the roughly 60 years the book covers in their lives, and death. But, I have always had a slight bent towards lyrical, even heavy prose- as the moments of lightness really soar. It is a love story, a love triangle even, set in the turn of the 20th century in the Caribbean. I think it would be suitable for the older teen reader, but the love, although set in the period, isn't truly Victorian. The Brontes it is not. There is some more twisted representations of sexuality, and love- and ripe with infidelity. But, at the heart it is a story of devotion and obsession that lasts a lifetime. Honestly, I think it would be a tough thing for most teens, even the romantics, to invest...but perhaps it would surprise me. I'm just not sure it's an appropriate investment.
The last book I finished.
Love in the Time of Cholera. It was a bestseller some time back and I have had friends that were weighed down by the prose before ever becoming attached to Fermina Daza, Juvenal Urbino and Florintino Azria. For, that is how they are mostly identified, by first and last names throughout the roughly 60 years the book covers in their lives, and death. But, I have always had a slight bent towards lyrical, even heavy prose- as the moments of lightness really soar. It is a love story, a love triangle even, set in the turn of the 20th century in the Caribbean. I think it would be suitable for the older teen reader, but the love, although set in the period, isn't truly Victorian. The Brontes it is not. There is some more twisted representations of sexuality, and love- and ripe with infidelity. But, at the heart it is a story of devotion and obsession that lasts a lifetime. Honestly, I think it would be a tough thing for most teens, even the romantics, to invest...but perhaps it would surprise me. I'm just not sure it's an appropriate investment.
Time to jumpstart!
Well, it has been too long since I updated here, and it might be a colossal undertaking, as I may not have been blogging about books, but I have continued to read them! So, be patient, the list is long....