"Our Lady of the Lost and Found" by Diane Schoemperlen

This book is one of my favorite reads of 2007. I feel that it is going to have an effect on my life(something I don't say lightly) although, how I'm not quite sure yet. It made me think of religion, faith, love and having a sense of being. In short it was an amazing read.
The narrator tells the story of the week the Virgin Mary stayed with her. Interspersed with the telling of her time with Mary, the author gives us a brief background on the Virgin, concentrating on the various sightings and miracles attributed to Mary. I am not a religious person, but these chapters were fascinating and I know that I will be doing more reading about Mary in teh near future. Towards the end of the book, we get the narrator's life story which is an awakening for her and is, at times, familiar and heartbreaking to read.
I would definitely recommend this book and look forward to reading more from this author.

"The Rick Mercer Report: The Book" by Rick Mercer

Okay, I love Rick Mercer. Love him. I think he is the best political commentator out there. Period. So of course I had high expectations when I picked up Rick Mercer Report The Book. Would his rants be as funny in print? Would it just seem like a rehashing of comments I had already heard? From the first page this book had me captivated and laughing my behind off. I’m not a big fan of politics and I don’t always pay close attention to what is going on in the political world. Part of the appeal of Rick Mercer, and this book, is that he states plainly what’s what and helps those of us who aren’t that politically savvy feel like we have a bit more of an understanding of our Canadian politicians.
The rants and thoughts that found there way into the book weren’t all laugh out loud funny. Some, such as a rant about the Harper government not wanting to lower the flag on Peace Tower at half mast for the death of soldiers overseas were poignant and quite a few times I found myself shaking my head at some of the decisions that our government has made.
This book was an easy read and once I started it, I couldn’t put it down (I actually stayed up until 4 in the morning reading it). And I know that I will from time to time pick it up and read it again. I think the book could have been 1,000 pages and I still would have finished it wanting more.
If you are looking for a funny, honest and sometimes maddening look into Canada and Canadian politics, Rick Mercer Report The Book is definitely the right choice and I highly recommend it.

"By the Time You Read This" by Giles Blunt

Algonquin police detective John Cardinal has dealt with death before, but when the victim of a high rise fall turns out to be his wife, Catherine, he is devastated. The coroner rules the death a suicide. Case closed. Or is it? Consumed with grief, Cardinal has a hard time accepting that his wife has taken her own life, despite her many visits to the hospital for psychiatric treatment and her history of depression and bi polar disorder. When he starts receiving twisted sympathy cards in the mail, he decides to investigate the death as a homicide, despite being the only one who thinks so. Meanwhile Lise Deslarme, another detective on the force has joined with the Toronto police to try to catch a child pornographer believed to be working in Algonquin. Both investigation end up being related in ways both surprising and upsetting.
I really enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down. The author did an excellent job of portraying a man who had lost his wife to a suicide, but despite all the evidence, could not come to terms with it. With any storyline where the main character is overcome with grief, there is the risk of over doing it. Blunt shows us Cardinals grief and his resolve to find out what he perceives to be the truth about Catherine’s death without dipping into the realm of the unbelievable.
I also enjoyed how there was what appeared at first to be two separate cases that end up intertwining with each other. While at first you would think there would be no way for an apparent suicide and a child pornography ring to have commonality, the author connects them in surprising and believable ways. Once the connection was revealed, I didn’t feel cheated or that there was a huge leap in logic.
Now I usually don't like mysteries where the reader knows more than the characters (for example, who the killer/kidnapper/bad guy is). I find that the knowledge usually takes away some of the suspense. This was not the case in By the Time You read This. Even though we know more than the main characters do, it was still a very suspenseful book and there was some twists and turns I wasn't expecting. I have never read any of the Cardinal books by Giles Blunt before, but after reading By The Time You Read This, I will definitely be checking out his other novels.

Confessions of a Wall Street Shoeshine Boy Doug Stumpf

When I set this book down after reading it, I didn’t go “Wow, what I great book!”. I also didn’t go “That sucked.” I kinda made a noise. Hmmph. I honestly didn’t know what to think. It was well written and had an interesting story line. The first half dragged a little, but about halfway through I found myself unable to put the book down. So why the ambivalence? I wasn’t sure at first. Then, as I was describing it to my husband, it hit me: I really didn’t care for the main character. But yet I really liked the book. This is a first time occurrence for me. Normally if I like the book, I like the main character. If I don’t like the book, I don’t like the main character. This novel had me at odds.

Gils is a Brazilian working as a shoeshine boy for a Wall Street trading firm. He hears and sees things that he usually doesn’t understand. Or he misinterprets them. But he has no trouble understanding that when his friend Teddy is fired from his janitorial job after discovering a trader in the broom closet on a cell phone (a big no-no) an injustice has occurred. When Gil runs into journalist Greg Waggoner, who used to get his shoes shined by Gil, Gil tells him what has happened to his friend. Intrigued, Greg starts digging into the traders life and uncovers a whole lot of things.

This store is written from the perspective of Gil and sometimes Greg. I found the chapters with Gil a bit hard to understand. The English was a bit broken and the thought process jumped around. I think it was brilliant to write it as a running dialogue from both character, but it was sometimes hard and tedious to follow Gil. And I really didn’t find him a likable character. He was very into looks, name brands and all about having fun. He was striving to fit in by being popular which sometimes spilled over to obnoxiousness. And he changed his opinion about events and characters so much it was confusing. Yet despite this I still found myself rooting for him. I found Greg a more likeable character and wanted to know more about him. But all we got was a quick peek into his life.

I would recommend this book, but with a disclaimer.

The Burnt House Faye Kellerman

A commuter plane crashes into an apartment building. All officers that are available to help are called to the site, including Lieutenant Peter Decker. It takes months to shift through the wreckage and try to piece together what had happened and also to account for all those that were on the flight.
One person who was listed as one of the dead was flight attendant Roseanne Dresden. But her parents swear she wasn’t on the plane and her body had never been recovered. Decker looks into this and everyone is relieved when a female body is discovered at the bottom of the wreckage site. The remains have to be the unaccounted for Roseanne, right?
This is my first Faye Kellerman book and all I can say is it won’t be my last. Upon finishing this book I immediately hopped on line and order a few more from her Peter Decker series.
I really enjoyed this book. The plot was intriguing and the twists and turns were believable. The characters were all likeable, and while Decker is the main character, the story wasn’t told strictly from his view point. Other detectives were involved and we got to get a feel for Decker’s family.
I read a lot of mystery books. This is the first one that I’d read that actually goes into some detail about the day to day running of an investigation. And it was this aspect of the book that I enjoyed the most. A lot of time with murder mysteries, you get the feeling that the lead character is simply brilliant at what they do and everything falls into place in the matter of a few days. They get one clue and bam! mystery solved. This is not the case in The Burnt House. While Decker is brilliant at what he does, there is a lot of foot work and team work and waiting around. And for me, this was a very realistic portrayal of police work. I also like that Decker didn’t do it all himself. It took teamwork. His detectives helped break the case. Even his wife had a small part in it. Average people coming together to accomplish extraordinary things.
I highly recommend The Burnt House.

Everyone Worth Knowing Lauren Weisberger

Okay I LOVED the Devil Wears Prada. Loved it, loved it, loved it! So when I spotted Everyone Worth Knowing on a trip to the book store it was a no brainer. Of course I picked it up. And immediately started reading it. (Okay, well not immediately. I might have read a few others first.) I really should have liked it. After all it was almost exactly the same basic story as the Devil Wears Prada. Don't believe me? Here's a quick rehash of the two books.
The Devil Wears Prada: Dorky girl takes a job at a fashion magazine. Becomes a basic slave (although stylish one) and consumed with the fashion world. Neglects her friends over and over for her job but feels real bad. Realizes in the end she doesn't like who she's become and tells the fashion world to go screw itself. Makes up with previously mentioned friends and gets an awesome job writing at another magazine.
Everyone Worth Knowing: Dorky girl quits bank job and gets a job at a PR company. Becomes a basic slave (although fashionable one) and consumed with the PR world of who’s who. Neglects her friends over and over for her job but feels real bad. Realizes in the end she doesn't like who she's become and tells the PR world to go screw itself. Makes up with previously mentioned friends and decides to become a romance writer.
Now, there were a few plot twists in Everyone Worth Knowing, but they weren't very clever or original. The romantic interest? I think I knew who it would be before the author knew. And through out there is a vicious gossip columnist called Ellie insider who seems to be out to ruin our main gal. If you read this book and can't figure out in five seconds who it is, you deserve to be slapped. Or kicked. Or made to read this book over and over.

The Septembers of Shiraz

In The Septembers of Shiraz, Isaac Amin, a rare gem dealer is arrested in a post revolutionary Iran as a spy. Blind folded and taken to prison he has no idea where he is or if he will ever see his family again. At first his wife Farnaz tries to find them, but soon realizes that she herself might be in danger. Their children Shirin and Parviz each deal with their father’s incarceration in their own way. Shirin, still at home tries to save others in her own way and Parviz, sent away to New York deals by not dealing, growing more apathetic towards everything each day.
While I didn’t necessarily find this an easy read, it was definitely an enjoyable one. The plot was intriguing and the story weaved effortlessly between characters. But, for me, it was the writing style that held my attention the most. By describing very emotional events in a very non-emotional way, Dalia Sofer made the characters and what was happening to them more real. And more tragic. In the post revolution state that they find themselves, where their friends and family are disappearing only to appear some time later on the executed list in the newspaper, you get the sense that while they are devastated by his imprisonment, no one is surprised. The almost neutral writing style really brings forth the desperation that the characters are feeling and the numbness that all the horror is causing them to feel.
I enjoyed this book immensely and would definitely recommend it.

A quick hello

Hello one and all. As the name says, I'm a book addict. And I figured it was high time to let people know what I think of some of the books I've read. I read pretty much anything (except romance). Popular fiction, literary works, non fiction, some crap from time to time. I will be posting book reviews on recent reads but will every once in a while try to delve into my memory on long ago reads. If you are looking for an academic take on books, then you should really go somewhere else. My reviews are straight forward this is why the book was good/sucked.
I'm new to this blogging thing, so have patience. I'm a quick learner but not a genius.
And this is my page. I might decide to rant or bitch about something besides books. If you don't want to read it, then don't.

And with that wonderful hello, welcome to my blog.
CelticAura