I have been reading a lot this week. All thanks to the great new Scribd app and subscription package, which lets you read on your phone and computer and has a great collection of popular fiction. They even have a newly added audio book section which I haven't tried out. Now I do not prefer e books to real ones, mainly because I miss the smell of books- old, new, dusty et al. But this is convenient and lets me extend my reading time to my commute without lugging around weight and risking motion sickness and if you save books to your library you can read them on your train/bus/flight journeys. So in short, I am a fan.
Anyway the books I have been reading are mostly children's books. I read a bunch of books by Andrew Clements. They are books for tweens I would say, they are not dumbed down for children. They are very well written, exciting, have great plots and 'wait for it' are set in the real world. No fantasies well maybe just a bit,but for the most part real life problems that children face everyday and how they handle them smartly. None of the children are particularly goody-goody, they all have their faults. What they do have in common is a mix of intelligence, street smarts and courage to face everything thrown at them. This makes reading about them anything but tedious. In fact, we may learn much from them
Great Adventure story, interesting twist on small town versus large corporates. Reading second book of this series now.
Other Books by the author:
- The Landry News- Interesting discussion of rights and amendments, Great book about the freedom and power of the press
- The Report Card- An intrepid heroine, who makes you wish you thought of her rebellious ideas, talks of the pressure of grades and living up to expectations
No Talking- Simply loved this one. I wouldn't have survived a day in this no talking contest, being personally an unshushable
This was a strange, strange book. Not in a good way. The premise seemed okay, a little far fetched but okay. The book was very off putting and not at all good to read. Felt they took the whole empathy thing too far, it was sort of weird. The sliding bit was contrived. The only good thing was the suspense, but it was hurried along and that ruined it for me.
Book along similar lines which was surprisingly good was 'Reconstructing Amelia' by a first time author. She handles several sensitive issues with unusual tact and there is hardly anything that makes you uncomfortable about the book. It makes several strikes against the over sharing that everyone does in social media today and it's consequences.
Reconstructing Amelia was a particularly dark book primarily because it exposes things that could quite plausibly happen in real life. Other darkness this week comes from watching American Horror Story. This show is really really scary, not because of ghosts, but because of all the scary people. It has some really great actors, who are particularly convincing. This show has made for quite a few nightmares for me. The other creepy show on my watch list is Stalker. A very under dramatized, sober investigative series, it's about a division which catches stalkers obviously. It's interesting because the characters have more depth than the usual one dimensional investigators we see. It has Dylan Mc Dermott, who also acts in American Horror Story, one of my favorite actors after being "Bobby" from the practice. I haven't missed an episode and this show is sure to have you checking your locks at night. The only movie I managed to catch last week, did not inspire any optimism either. Stonehearst Asylum has plenty of movie heavyweights- Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley namely. The movie is a little slow, but picks up pace along the second half. It treads on the fine line between black and white. The end is not as unexpected as you would like it to be. You realize it somewhere in your brain along the way. Excellent flip side view at mental illness and it's treatment.
Anyway the books I have been reading are mostly children's books. I read a bunch of books by Andrew Clements. They are books for tweens I would say, they are not dumbed down for children. They are very well written, exciting, have great plots and 'wait for it' are set in the real world. No fantasies well maybe just a bit,but for the most part real life problems that children face everyday and how they handle them smartly. None of the children are particularly goody-goody, they all have their faults. What they do have in common is a mix of intelligence, street smarts and courage to face everything thrown at them. This makes reading about them anything but tedious. In fact, we may learn much from them
Great Adventure story, interesting twist on small town versus large corporates. Reading second book of this series now. Other Books by the author:
- The Landry News- Interesting discussion of rights and amendments, Great book about the freedom and power of the press
- The Report Card- An intrepid heroine, who makes you wish you thought of her rebellious ideas, talks of the pressure of grades and living up to expectations
No Talking- Simply loved this one. I wouldn't have survived a day in this no talking contest, being personally an unshushable
This was a strange, strange book. Not in a good way. The premise seemed okay, a little far fetched but okay. The book was very off putting and not at all good to read. Felt they took the whole empathy thing too far, it was sort of weird. The sliding bit was contrived. The only good thing was the suspense, but it was hurried along and that ruined it for me.
Book along similar lines which was surprisingly good was 'Reconstructing Amelia' by a first time author. She handles several sensitive issues with unusual tact and there is hardly anything that makes you uncomfortable about the book. It makes several strikes against the over sharing that everyone does in social media today and it's consequences.
Reconstructing Amelia was a particularly dark book primarily because it exposes things that could quite plausibly happen in real life. Other darkness this week comes from watching American Horror Story. This show is really really scary, not because of ghosts, but because of all the scary people. It has some really great actors, who are particularly convincing. This show has made for quite a few nightmares for me. The other creepy show on my watch list is Stalker. A very under dramatized, sober investigative series, it's about a division which catches stalkers obviously. It's interesting because the characters have more depth than the usual one dimensional investigators we see. It has Dylan Mc Dermott, who also acts in American Horror Story, one of my favorite actors after being "Bobby" from the practice. I haven't missed an episode and this show is sure to have you checking your locks at night. The only movie I managed to catch last week, did not inspire any optimism either. Stonehearst Asylum has plenty of movie heavyweights- Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley namely. The movie is a little slow, but picks up pace along the second half. It treads on the fine line between black and white. The end is not as unexpected as you would like it to be. You realize it somewhere in your brain along the way. Excellent flip side view at mental illness and it's treatment.
