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It was a long time ago that I read this book but I thought now would be a good time to talk about it. Later this year The Lovely Bones is being released as movie and although this is a great book to read I am a little apprehensive as to how it will go in cinematic form.
As soon as I picked up this book I knew it was going to be a tear-jerker. Susie Salmon was a young teenage girl with her whole life ahead of her, that was before she was raped and murdered. While coming to terms with her own death she also has to struggle watching her parents and sibling try and deal with it in their own way.
Through this story we see the pain from the points of view of both the victim and her family left behind. We also witness Susie’s frustration knowing who is responsible and not being able to let anyone know. There are so many emotions in this book but each is dealt with in a flowing, coherent way.
Death in any story is a tough subject, to write about or to read about but dealing with it in a first person narrative sense makes a difficult subject so much harder. Also the fact that the murder victim is also a child is crossing into territories most writers would steer clear of.
This is a very hard book to write about. I want to describe it better but I can’t seem to find the words, I also don’t want to give anything away. I think if you are planning on seeing the movie try and read the book first. I generally think the book is better, plus this movie is going to be a real crier so maybe prepare yourself with the book first or take lots of tissues.
I think one of the best presents you can give and one of best to receive is a book. That being said most people read slightly different books to me so I make sure they sort of know what I want first but other times you can be surprised by an amazing book that you would never have picked yourself. This book was one of my birthday presents this year.
I had been wanting to read it for a while but because I’m in Germany and this is a German book it is no always easy to find a translation (my German is not that good yet) but my friend found it. After reading it…wow, wow, wow, this book will definitely be made in to a Hollywood blockbuster. The pages just read like a action/scientific movie, think like ‘The Abyss’ just much more modern.
The story centers around Sigur Johanson a Norwegian molecular biologist and Leon Anwak a Canadian Ethologist (study of animal behaviour). After strange animals surface from the deep and wreak havoc on the land dwellers, it is up to them to sort out what is wrong with the world unders our oceans. Using actual scientific terms and facts in this book could make bit overwhelming for some (like the physics mumbo jumbo in Star Trek etc) but the interesting side were the facts about the devastation we cause to the environment. No wonder the world is going out of balance and their is really no one to blame but ourselves. I did find that the book seemed a little anti-American, well not exactly anti, just portraying them as ignorant “shoot first deal with the horrific consequences” later kind of people.
If you enjoy a good sci-fi book then this one might be for you. Like it says on the cover, if you want an easy holiday read while lying on the beach this may not be the books for you. You will think twice before diving into the deep blue and maybe consider what we are doing to our environment before we totally destroy our living breathing planet.
I think a majority of Australian people around my age read this book when they were in high school. It was hugely popular and for very good reasons. I read this book when I was in grade nine. I read more back then, than I do now. I used to curl up on my bed, book in hand and read for hours. I not only read “Tomorrow When the War Began” but I read every book in the series as soon as they came out. I guess you could say this was my “Harry Potter”.
The story begins with small group of friends Ellie Linton, Homer Yannos, Lee (whose surname is never mentioned), Kevin Holmes, Corrie Mackenzie, Robyn Mathers and Fi Maxwell who are getting ready to go on a week long camping trip to Hell (a mountainous national park). They kiss their families goodbye and head off for a week of fun only teenagers can understand. Once the week is over, the group returns to find an eerie and gruesome sight. Ellie the narrator of the book returns home to find her family missing and her pet dogs butchered. This is only the beginning of the horrors. They eventually realise with some interrogations that Australia has been invaded (by whom nobody is quite sure). Ellie and the rest of the group decide to return to Hell and start their own guerrilla campaign.
This plot may sound far-fetched but John Marsden makes you believe it. I remember lying on my bed wishing I was Ellie but at the same time knowing I could never handle being in her shoes. This is not only a story of a small group taking on a war, for me it was also a coming of age story. The teenagers realise they are no longer children and they are all their families/country have left.
This book was very intense when I read it, I’m sure if I read it now I would still feel the same. I recommend this book to everyone, young or old. Guys will like it for the action (even though the narrator is female) and the girls will enjoy it because they can relate to Ellie and the other female members of the group. Please read this book or give it to your older children to read; they won’t be disappointed.
It has been a little while between posts and I’m very sorry. The reason it has taken me awhile is that I have been doing my final exams. I also have to announce that I passed all my exams and I am now the proud owner of a Bachelor of Science. Anyway, enough about that lets get back to the books.
I decided to read ‘Angels and Demons’ after my Aunty gave it to me for a Christmas present. While everyone was caught up in the ‘ Da Vinci Code’ craze I was lucky enough to read the first book in the Robert Langdon series.
From the first moment I picked up this book I could not stop reading it. It begins with a murder and ends in a whirlwind of no stop action.
The book traces the age-old debate between evolution, creationism, the role of science and the opposing nature of religion. An argument everyone has an opinion on and one people rarely agree on.
The characters were captivating and each has there own agenda and chequered past. The character of Robert Langdon is best described as “Harrison Ford in tweed”, I have no idea who said that but it sums him up nicely. He has brains with the balls to back it up.
One thing I love about the Dan Brown books is that he manages to weave facts with fiction to create a story that you find plausible and you believe it for the truth. Many times reading the book, I wonder whether or not the Illuminati were real and if so where I can meet them. Although they are thugs in the book I was still intrigued by their secret society.
The only thing I found a little disappointing about this book and the series is that after I had read it and the ‘Da Vinci Code’ I found the plots to be very similar. Though they say stick with what you know. I hope that the supposed sequel to the ‘Da Vinci Code’ is slightly different.
