July Reading Round-Up
Posted 1st August 2010
Category: Round-Ups Genres: N/A
1 Comment
July was a slow month for me. The book I was sent for review, Prep, was quite long and although I enjoyed it immensely it took me some time to finish it. When I realised it was already mid-July I decided that to make myself feel better I should go back to Narnia for a couple of outings, the short books making it look as though I’d read more than I had.
All books are works of fiction.
The Books
C S Lewis: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader (The Chronicles Of Narnia) – Edmund, Lucy, and their cousin Eustace are pulled into Narnia by a picture and sail with Caspian, now an adult, across seas rarely ventured to search for the seven lords exiled by his treacherous uncle. Featuring a variety of places, this book is a nice easy read.
C S Lewis: The Silver Chair (The Chronicles Of Narnia) – Eustace and his classmate Jill walk into Narnia while trying to escape bullies at school. Caspian is now an old man and his son, the heir, has been missing for years. The children must find him, following the scant information provided by Aslan, a journey that will lead to the lands beyond Narnia. Rather boring for all the time spend underground.
Curtis Sittenfeld: Prep – Having gained a place at a prestigious school on scholarship, Lee discovers, apart from the various usual coming-of-age discoveries, that someone’s class can be difficult to shift – but only because she makes little effort to fit in. This is a good book filled with issues many experience, if a little long and frustrating when the character doesn’t help herself.
Janice Y K Lee: The Piano Teacher – Split between now and then, this is the story of a number of people in Hong Kong at the time of World War 2. The present day being the second setting allows for issues from the past to come to light. A baffling title and not much to recommend the characters to memory, but good historical information.
Lauren Kate: Fallen – A girl sent to a rehabilitation school for supposedly killing her boyfriend falls in love with an angel. At the same time there’s another, bad, angel after her life. In one word: Twilight. It might have been good had it not been a complete rip off.
I mentioned a few months ago that I had had trouble finishing The Chronicles Of Narnia as a child and in reading The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader this was brought back home to me. I did enjoy the voyage but found The Silver Chair rather monotonous. I positively lapped up The Piano Teacher even though I didn’t enjoy it all that much; it had been two months since I’d read anything set in that era (I’m counting Lisa See’s On Gold Mountain here) and I’ve missed historical fiction immensely.
Quotation Report
I’m afraid I have no witty quotations to make use of this time round.
I’m not hoping for much next month. August sees the arrival of a new family member as well as a lot of work for myself. And I’ve still the tome I mentioned in the last post to finish. One thing I do have, however, is the beginnings of the author promotion I’m planning. Watch this space…
1 Comment
Comments closed
August 1, 2010, 6:05 pm
Prep wasn’t a book I could finish fast either. I’m sorry to hear that Fallen was such a rip off, I was hoping to enjoy reading it if I ever came across it.
Charlie: I think you might enjoy it if you start it knowing it’s basically Twilight, but yes, some of it is pretty much word for word. It’s made me want to read the sequel – to know if it’s like New Moon.