The Pillars of the Earth

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story opens with the hanging of a jongleurs, or a traveling storyteller, and it is essentially the story of why and how that happened and the characters involved in that scheme. The story is told like a jongleurs might tell it, with characters that are either very good and wise and others that are evil and cruel, though none of them essentially change. There is love and death, epic battles and amazing miracles. There is witchcraft and politics, pious monks and ruthless nobility. There is much hardship and suffering, small triumphs and dissappointments. But in the end, like every good story, everyone gets what he deserves. Oh yeah, and during this all a cathedral is built...a framework to hang the rest of the story on. If you are looking for a good story, this is a good story...but don't expect much else.
What I liked about the story: the clever and sometimes unexpected ways that the characters were able to overcome trials, especially Prior Phillip; that some of the men of God were rewarded with inspiration and miracles for their faithfulness and were portrayed as smart, clever, and compassionate.
What I didn't like: the sex scenes didn't need to be so detailed, in my opinion; there were several pages of descriptive architecture language that was hard to get through. An illustration here or there could have helped.

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City of Bones

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This was a typical teen fantasy with romance thrown in. It reeked of Harry Potter...see flying motorcycles, boys as rats, magic wands...mixed in with Twilight...see werewolf showdown with vampires. But then it goes to places no teen book has or should go...gay lust, crushes with your brother. And I am not a not a fan of the trend of romanticizing tattoos. BTW the movie was better and made more sense. Skip this series.

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Taps on the Wall

Taps on the Walls: Poems from the Hanoi Hilton by John Borling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book. What can you say critically about poetry written by an pilot shot down and in an Hanoi war prison? All alone in a cell with a bucket, the only way to keep sane was to be mentally active. So he created poems and shared them by tapping them on the walls to the other prisoners. It is a great story in of itself. And the poems, with strokes of brilliancy here and there, are interesting enough. My main bone of contention is with the set-up. So many of the poems require insider knowledge of the airman's lingo and while there was a glossary in the back, it was a pain to constantly flip back and forth--plus there was no telling if a phrase was part lingo or poetry or what. It would have read MUCH better with footnotes. And, honestly, as much as I wanted to like and be inspired by his poetry, except for a few lines here and there, I was underwhelmed. I think it was more his incredible story rather than the merits of his poetry that got him published. But see, I feel like a cad even admitting that much...

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Loving Frank

This was a very interesting book about Mamah Borthwick's affair with Frank Church. I liked that it was based on a real person, especially since no novelist could have gotten away with the shocking ending. The thoughts from the women's movement were interesting. I thought it was interesting that she clamped onto the ideas that justified her actions. I do like the idea that housewives should be valued more...even though Mamah thought that idea was setting the movement back. I couldn't help comparing the actions of Mamah with Anna Karenina's, even though one is based on fact and one is purely fictional. Good, solid, interesting read.

The Passage

The Passage by Justin Cronin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ok. I can't believe I picked out another apocalyptic novel by choice. Or one having to do with vampires. But I did. And I loved it. Cronin does an excellent job of introducing you to characters and developing them deeply in a matter of pages. He also does an excellent job of developing a story full of mysticism, violence, and love that you actually believe. The only reason it is not 5 stars is that there are some chapters where the violence is really hard to read, but it helped to understand the desperation of the situation. I can't wait til the paperback version of sequel, the twelve, comes out on the July 30th. I'll be tucked away in the reading room, wondering how the handful of humans left will survive...

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Unbroken

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was one of my favorite books of all time. It was incredible what he went through--His story is extraordinary, unbelievable, inspirational on so many levels. And Hillenbrand is a perfect biographer: she disappears behind her subject, letting the story tell itself. When she does peep in from time to time, her comments help the reader appreciate the dire situation he was in and his incredible resilience and optimism. Truly an inspirational story!

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