The Child In Time & Lady Chatterly's Lover

So I finished The Child In Time, and I have to say that I was not a fan of this book.  Ian McEwan usually writes really good books but unfortunately this one was not one of them.  The plot took forever to pan out and then the ending left something to be desired and left me wondering.

Next, I went on to read Lady Chatterley's Lover, this book was full of sex.  I blushed reading it with everything I watch so I can not imagine what people thought or how they felt when they read it.  I felt it was quite lengthy and could have been shortened just a little. 

Now I have veered off the 1001 book list and have decided to pick up in a series I started a few years ago and had forgotten how much I loved them.  It is the Xanth series by Piers Anthony.  I am currently on book 8 of 20 something books.  I found this series because of my husband and I love it.  This series is about the magical land of Xanth and in this land each person has a magical talent.  The books usually tell about people in this land going on magical journeys.  This book is full of puns for example a shoe tree is actually a tree that grows shoes.

Enduring Love

Ok, so I just finished reading Enduring Love by Ian McEwan and all I can really say is that I feel like this book gave me no closure to the plot.  The book started out interestingly enough but unfortunately the climax came but there was no resolution.  If you are one that likes the types of books where you can come up with your own ending and pretending everything went one way or another you may like this one but me I like closure.  This was different from his other books because they did give closure. 

But in keeping with the author I picked up The Children in Time and hopefully this one will not disappoint like the last one did.

Atonement, A Murder Is Announced, and Lord of the Flies

As you can tell I have been quite busy since the last time I posted.  I will start with Atonement, this book was quite interesting because it was told from a few different view points.  First, from an omniscient point of view and then from the main male point of view and then from the young lady's point of view.  This story is based upon a young girl who loved to write and "publish her own books".  She writes a play when she finds out that her brother is coming home and and it just so happens that at the same time her cousins are coming in to stay because her aunt and uncle are getting a divorce.  Upon the cousins arrival things do not go as she has them laid out in her head.  As the events of the night unfold it sets up the premise for the rest of the story.  Her oldest cousin gets raped and accuses the main male and because of this he ends up in the armed forces.  The young girl's older sister also plays a huge role in the book as well.

Now on to Agatha Christie's A Murder Is Announced,  this book was definitely interesting and I look forward to reading more of her books.  This book takes place in a little English community where basically everyone knows everyone and everyone trusts their neighbors.  It starts with one day in the local newspaper there was an ad announcing that a murder was to take place at a certain address.  Even though the resident of the address knew nothing about this she decided to accept whoever decided to accept the mystery invitation.  Basically the people were preparing to play a murder game kind of like Clue.  At the designated hour the people were waiting in the study when the lights went out and a stranger opened the door and told the people to get their hands up and give them all their valuables, after that there were gunshots and the stranger laid in the floor dead, and the hostess was bleeding from the ear due to a gunshot wound.  This is when the detective comes in to play by trying to figure out who and was and why they did it.  This book was quite interesting because she leads you to believe one thing and then squashes that thought by proving it to be false.

Next was Lord of the Flies, because I assigned this to my honor students I figured it was about time that I read it myself.  This book is about a group of young boys who end up stranded on an island because of a plane crash.  Because there are no adults the children try to set up a tribe type situation.  But because there is some opposition to the "elected" ruler the tribe falls apart and there ends up being 2 tribes on the island.  The book ended in some ways the way I expected but in others not the way I expected.

Now I am currently reading Enduring Love  by Ian McEwan.

Saturday

So I finished reading Ian McEwan's Saturday.  It started slow but half to three quarters of the way through the book it starts to pick up.  The book is about a neurosurgeon who it discussing his Saturday and it goes through his day with the occasional flashback to certain events to give the reader a background glimpse of what is going on.  The setting in in Europe and is during a time where Saddam and Bin Laden where hot topics on the political front.  I hate to go into more detail without giving away too much and ruining the book for you guys. 

Then I went to the library to check out another book (I so want an ereader) and was really wanting to read Lady Chatterley's Lover but unfortunately our library does not carry it.  Then I decided I would try another Ian McEwan book The Cement Garden but they did not carry that one either. So instead I am reading another Ian McEwan book Atonement.  I have to say I enjoy his books because they are well written with tons of details.

1001 Book List

So I am reading books off the list 1001 Books to Read Before You Die.  I have read a few and seen the movie for a few so it will be interesting to see how this goes and how long it takes me.  I decided to do this because I have recently finished 98% of the coursework for my master's degree and will do the other 2% this summer.  I enjoy reading and often find myself wondering what I should read next.  Well, this list took all of the guess work out of that for me. Also, I decided to start a blog so that I could get other people's opinions about the books I am reading.  Plus, another teacher at my school infected me with the reader blog bug.  Currently I am reading Ian McEwan's Saturday.  I will let you know how this goes upon finishing the book.