The Five People you Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

This was just a really sweet and moving book. I think I’ve read one other book from Mitch Albom and he has quite an original style of writing. All his books have quite a mystical theme. I won’t say religious even though they are definitely dealing with religious themes as I believe that no matter whether you’re catholic, Muslim, atheist, whatever you can still enjoy this book.

Eddie is an old man nearing the end of his days. He has lead an eventful but ultimately disappointing life where he struggled to get over the long term effects of being a war veteran. He works as the head of maintenance in the same amusement park that his father worked in and meets his demise at the hands of one of the rides he spent his life looking after.

As the title gives away he then travels to a version of heaven and meets five people. Each person he meets has something to either share with him or teach him.

As I said its a sweet book and I think I’d love to read something like this after losing someone as it does give you a great sense of comfort and hope that there is something after death. Also it makes you think of the unknown effect you might have on someone’s life or that they might have on you. Its a book that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside let’s just leave it at that.

 

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Look we’ve all had issues with teenage girls at least once in our lives haven’t we? Whether it’s insults at their hands or just the mere fact of being one, there was an issue. There’s no point in lying about it, teenage girls can be the meanest of people. I think it may be because they feel so much. There’s so much going on in their little heads that they need an outlet and being catty or mean is the way a lot of them let out their excess energy.

However our teenage girl in question, Amma, takes it to a whole new level. She is scarily mean. I mean absolutely terrifying. She is thirteen and pretty much runs her school if not her town.

The book focuses on Camille, Ammas older sister but it is Amma that draws you in from the beginning. Camille has returned from Chicago to report on an apparent possible serial killer that has claimed the lives of two young girls from her old hometown of Wind Gap.

As we delve deeper into the case we learn about Camilles many issues and we also realise how completely messed up her family is. Her mother is another scary character, its no wonder Amma and Camille turned out the way they did.

I also refuse to believe that a thirteen year old girl could be that freely promiscuous without repercussions. And all the drugs, like really? I’m actually glad I have a son now and not a daughter. After reading this book I wouldn’t let her outside the door for a week!

This book is pretty disturbing. I still enjoyed it but I must say I definitely enjoyed Flynns other two novels more. They were also disturbing but just not to the same extreme. I put this book down thinking ‘what the hell?’ instead of ‘woah what a book’ so that pretty much tells me all I need to know

 

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

I just read a review for this and the reviewer had described it as ‘a perfect antidote to the pastel lyricism of mainstream novels’. Huh? You see this is why I don’t appreciate this book the way it probably deserves to be appreciated. I approach every book in the same manner regardless of genre, author or accolades it’s won. I just want to be entertained. It doesn’t matter whether that entertainment comes from being thrilled or amused or frightened or whatever. I’m just here for the entertainment value. 
Anyhow this book was kind of entertaining. It centres around Balram who comes from an extremely poor area of India and manages to work his way up to be a driver for a very rich Indian in Delhi. However Balram is not happy with this and plots his way to an even better life. This plot involves the murder of his employer. 
At times you feel sorry for Balram and can understand his plight however his employer is not the worst of people and so at times you feel yourself almost feeling a bit of empathy with him also. 

It’s a good read and it gives a pretty good insight into how life is in Delhi and India which was interesting. I don’t know if I found it the earth shattering, mind blowing book that everyone else seems to have but it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read for sure!  
 

 

Zombie Rage by JR Rain

You have to just take this for what it is and that is a fairly average zombie story. I enjoyed the first in this series more probably because having read a few tough books before it I was just so glad to have something nice and easy to read that I overlooked it’s obvious flaws. 
The flaws stood out a tad more in this book to me. It’s too short first of all. I mean realistically the three books in the trilogy could have been compressed into one large book without a problem. It’s all a little gung-ho, American for my taste but I can get over that if the writing is good. It ain’t. 

We follow Jack again as he fights the infection and eventually is cured by his brother and girlfriend by being drowned. I did like that little scenario of having a window during the infection where you could actually be cured. It put a good spin on the zombie yarn. 

However I feel like each book now has the exact same situation arising in it. The first book saw Jacks brother Joe being infected, and then Jack was infected in the second and now it looks like Anna will be the patient in the third. I hope she actually turns completely just so it’s a different storyline. 

These books ain’t bad but they sure as hell aren’t anything fantastic either.  

 

 

Zombie Patrol by JR Rain

You’re going to have to be a fan of the zombie genre to like this. I’m not saying it’s bad, on the contrary it’s one of the better zombie novels I’ve read, but it ain’t something that will cross boundaries and encourage new readers over to this genre. Try Mira Grant for that, trust me. 
I enjoyed it though. It was exactly what I was looking for. I needed a quick, not-overly-intelligent, nicely gory, zombie novel to cheer me up after some tough reads and this was exactly that. It even had a better storyline than I anticipated to be honest which was refreshing. 

So the book centres around Jack. Jack is a park ranger in a zoo and also lives on the zoos grounds with his teenage daughter who he home schools. Jacks brother arrives to his door after going awol from the military and seems to be suffering from a mysterious illness after touching some meteor-like item that fell from the sky. He’s brought a friend just to make things more interesting. Mike is also pretty ill. 

Joe and Mike end up handcuffed to pillars in Jacks basement after apparently losing touch with reality and attacking Jack. 

Up to this point I thought the book was a fairly standard zombie yarn but the author did put a good spin on it by having this interlude in the illness. Joe and Mike apparently get better all of a sudden. Other than their red eyes you wouldn’t even know they had been sick. Of course it’s never going to wrap up nice and easy like that is it? Nope they’re better alright but they’re also very hungry. And not for a couple of weetabix. 

I liked this book it had a good twist in the stereotypical zombie genre and I liked that the author is trying to give a genuine reason for the disease and its origins. Better than I expected but not going to win any awards.  

 

 

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Did you know this was wrote in 1932? Seriously! It’s really shocking to me that Huxley was able to get away with writing something so out there and overtly sexual at a time that sex was a taboo subject in most parts of the world. I suppose Britain may have been slightly ahead of times but I do know that this book would have been banned Ireland back then. It actually probably was if I had the time or inclination to research it. 
It’s similar to George Orwells 1984 in that it’s set in the future and the government have complete control over its inhabitants using brainwashing and drugs. However where 1984 had the government making a very strict, hard life for its inhabitants Huxleys government has created inhabitants that are brainwashed to be constantly happy. It’s a stupid, naive happy however. They have no independent thoughts and do whatever they are told to do like mindless robots. 

The main characters weren’t exactly likeable but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If this book was wrote now it would have focused solely on the love triangle between Lenina, Bernard and John but thankfully it was written around eighty years ago so it instead focused on the world and its inhabitants as a whole with the love story (if you can even call it that) a very minor subplot. 
I wanted Lenina to maybe evolve a bit throughout the book and become a little more independent and less brain washed but unfortunately that wasn’t to be and she remained stubbornly stupid throughout. Bernard was instantly unlikeable and also remained that way throughout with tiny hints of a better side peeking out now and then. I suppose John was probably the most interesting but there definitely could have been more done with his character. 

I liked this book and the whole premise that it had. It was shocking to read even now as a possible future. However I do feel like it could maybe have started where in the last few chapters and gone from there instead. It was only just getting really interesting when it was over. 

Not bad though. Not bad at all.
  

 

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner (Maze Runner Series #2)

I loved the Maze Runner. I really loved it. I thought it was an original take on the whole dystopian, messed up future genre and it was a good young adult book which I alway think is a good thing. 
The Scorch Trials just didn’t live up to its predecessor I’m afraid. It wasn’t terrible but it was lacking in the excitement that was at the heart of the first book. I suppose because we had that whole element of shock and fear of the unknown in the Maze Runner that it was always going to be hard to carry that into the next novel. 

It was incredibly frustrating for a huge part of the book and to be honest it ends in an even more frustrating manner. Don’t sit down to read this book expecting any answers about WICKED and the whole Trials experiment anyway because we learn nothing. In fact it’s worse than nothing. We just end up with even more questions. 

I’d like to think that Dashner has this all planned out and it will all come together brilliantly in the third book but I have my doubts. It has that feel of rushed panic about it as if the author himself wasn’t quite sure what the hell was going on at the best of times. Let’s make her betray him but not really but really you know? No. I do not. 

And why? Why for the love of God does every young adult author feel that they have to introduce a love triangle? Why can’t there just be two people who fall in love and maybe have one or two challenges that they must overcome before living happily ever after? I blame Stephanie Meyer entirely for this. It was her stupid Team Edward/Team Jacob thing that started the whole trend. Just another in a long list of reasons to dislike her. 
Anyway look, I’ll be reading the third instalment for sure to see what happens but this definitely wasn’t as good as the first in the series. 

  

 

The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald

My immediate thought when I finished this book was okay I’m obviously just not intelligent or cultured enough to truly understand what was going on here and then I thought no. I’ve read Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte and loved them. I’ve read Dracula and Frankenstein and understood everything that was going on. This was just not good.

I really don’t get what the big deal about this book is. Maybe when it was written it was a very brave and different novel to what was out there at that time but then why has it lasted through the ages as such a classic? It had nothing truly gripping about it. In fact most of the characters are extremely unlikeable and impossible to connect with.

Maybe we, as a society, have just become so jaded to the possibility of a drug dealer living next door. And then the love story is just plain weird. Daisy seems to have extreme mental issues but then so does Gatsby so I suppose they’re well matched.

I don’t know. I don’t think I ‘got it’ but to be honest I’ve no inclination to either. It was boring and weird and just.. bad.

 

Prisoners of Birth by Jeffrey Archer

For what this is it’s pretty good. For a crime thriller I mean. I’ve only read one Jeffrey Archer book previously and I remember not being a huge fan of it. This was definitely better but it still lacked a certain something.
The story centers around a man who is wrongly convicted of the murder of his best friend and future brother-in-law and sentenced to life in prison. A series of events lead to him escaping prison and seeking revenge on the four men who were the real culprits of the murder in question. It was exciting for sure if not a tad unbelievable. But hey, I read fantasy all the time and don’t give out about he unrealistic factor so I don’t think that’s the thing that really bothers me. It’s the characters.

The four hoity-toity murderers were suitably horrible. They’re the stereotypical ‘my daddy’s rich’ posh side of London, arrogant assholes who think just because of who they are they can do whatever the hell they like and get away with it. Including kill someone.

My problem wasn’t really with them it was with the main character Danny. He bothered me for some unknown reason. I don’t know whether it was the fact that he seemed so uninterested in his child whenever he was around her or the fact that when he did get out he slept with some randomer instead of contacting Beth. He kind of irritated me.
It was still a good book and it was definitely gripping. To be honest I’m not even sure what truly made me dislike this book even a little but I did.

 

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Look I’m obviously a very ignorant person because I hadn’t a clue what this book was ‘really’ about until I looked it up afterwards. I guessed because of the fact that its premise and story are so stupid that it had to have some kind of political or controversial hidden meaning to it to make it onto nearly every Best Books list I’ve ever seen. Yep nail on the head for me it’s based on the Russian Revolution.

So being the ignorant person that I am I have very little knowledge of the Russian Revolution and any of the main players in it. If I did know more then I think this book would have made buckets of sense but as of now I put it down thinking ‘What in the hell did I just read?’ I’m going to look at it as just a story with a good moral I think. I’m going to forget about the whole political meanings and that crap and just look at it for what it is. A story.

It’s kind of depressing to be honest.

The pigs are evil, the horses are hardworking and abused, the sheep are brain washed fools, the dogs are the tough guys and so on and so forth. You know you could kind of apply all these animals to groups of people within society during any time period not just the Russian Revolution so that’s what I did and yes it was scarily correct in a lot of ways.

It was also pretty boring and depressing and I’m sure I sound very ignorant and stupid by saying this but, ya I didn’t like it. At all.