Discovery of Witches

The first in the All Souls Trilogy, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness is another book recommended by the Phenomenally Decisive Book Club. Although I'd checked it out before and never made it past the first little bit, Jules' recommendations haven't let me down so I decided to forge ahead. I ended up LOVING this book and agreed with the comparison to a 'grown up Harry Potter and Twilight'. Similar in the 'lore', witches, vampires and daemons mingle with humans.

Diana Bishop comes from a long line of witches but tries to deny her power until the supernatural world ends up coming to her. Armed with a great vampire, she learns about her true history, family, and priorities in a fight for her life. This book was very smart and well written and researched (the author is a professor). The historical, cultural and scientific references were even entertaining to my husband and we both really liked this book. I always think the supernatural rules and worlds are fascinating. In this 'world', vampires can eat food (but have diets more like wolves), supernatural creatures aren't allowed to mingle or mix races (making a vampire-witch relationship tricky!), and witches have varying gifts that were really interesting. This was a really great read and I can't wait for the last one now (dang sequels!)

Favorite quote:
"Somewhere in the center of my soul, a rusty chain began to unwind. It freed itself, link by link, from where it had rested unobserved, waiting for him. My hands, which had been balled up and pressed against his chest, unfurled with it. The chain continued to drop, to an unfathomable depth where there was nothing but darkness and Matthew. At last it snapped to its full length, anchoring me to a vampire.

The Time Traveler's Wife

I posted about The Time Traveler's Wife last year but since I intend this blog to be a sort of personal reading log I'm posting again. Last night I was stashing something in the hall book case and saw this book and thought I should reread it. So I started, put in two or three hours last night and then finished this morning. I didn't mean to have a marathon session (particularly since I knew the ending already and easily started to tear up at all the foreshadowing) but I couldn't put it down. I love the characters and this reading I really saw a lot of my husband in Henry. I know it's easy to project when reading but I normally feel that way. This was another book that reminded me to treasure my life and my husband, to appreciate the everyday and not stress over the little things. A beautiful book to treasure and read again and again.

See it on Amazon.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

I wasn't in a huge rush to read this book (having recently neglected laundry and more devouring the Outlander series) but figured I might as well put The Hunger Games on hold and read it eventually- I was number 300 in line so it would probably be next year or something. Apparently, though, people devour these books and the library has a million copies because it came up for me not two months later. After reading thick, historical, adult-oriented books, I flew through this YA novel in about four hours. The story of 17 year old Katniss Everdeen, struggling to survive and protect her family in post-apocalyptic North America was very interesting. I couldn't wait to see how the author would resolve some of the issues presented. Although some of the story was predictable, I still enjoyed watching it unfold. The underlying issues of hunger, desperation, growing up, corruption were difficult and made me think about my own life and how I would react. After I finished the first one I read the next two the next day (unlike Outlander, it actually only takes a couple hours to read one of these, so that was nice). Some of my predictions did come true as the story resolved itself but I was mostly pleased with the way the story wraps up, particularly the resolution of the love triangle between Katniss and Gail and Peeta. I liked the way Katniss explained her final decision and felt it was realistic. Reading the story from her perspective was entertaining, as well- lots of action and good insight into her thoughts.

Did these books change my life? No. They were engrossing but at times I felt like the pace was off- too fast at the end, making me wonder if I had missed things. I felt like the ending flew by. There is a ton of symbolism (often kind of blatant- like she wanted people to rip the books apart and find things barely hidden) and lots to think about. I'm not sure I would want my 12 year old to read them (though I did appreciate that there wasn't a blatant sex scene like I almost expected). I haven't seen the movie since I wanted to read them first but I'm not sure how disturbing the teens killing teens theme would be on screen. For now, I am grateful for my docile, uneventful life.