Finished 8-24-11, rating 4/5, fiction, 319 pages, pub. 2001

I must say a word about fear.  It is life’s only true opponent.  Only fear can defeat life.  It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know.  It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy.  It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease.  It begins in your mind, always. 

Chapter 56

Pi, an Indian teenager, was raised by loving parents who ran a zoo.  He didn’t feel like he had to choose between religions, he studied them all.  He was a Hindu, Christian, and Muslim and no one could convince him this was contradictory.  When his family decided it was best to leave India, they packed up all of the animals (the ones they didn’t sell) and headed for Canada.  They didn’t make it.

Pi finds himself in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat with Richard Parker.  Richard Parker is a 450 pound Bengal tiger.  Day after day he must work to survive,  and his only chance is to keep Richard Parker alive too.  From early on you know that Pi is at sea a very long time, but you also know that he survives, so it isn’t that uncertainty that keeps you reading.  The day-to-day struggle is compelling and outrageous.   If you are taking an ocean voyage this book will teach you everything you need to know about staying alive.

This is a consideration of religion, a compassionate view of zoos, and at some points, a test of your ability to listen to/read about savagery of killing, even of only for food.  I listened to the first half of this one on a road trip with Jason and Gage and read the print for the rest.   I have nothing against the audio, but I much preferred reading it.  The play-by-play of animals ripping each other apart is much easier to read than to hear.  Not that this book can be reduced to that, only that’s what made the reading more enjoyable for me.  It is a book about belief and how what you believe can make your life meaningful and livable.

I really loved Pi’s story and grew to love Richard Parker too.  I was nervous that RP would meet the same fate as Wilson in the movie Castaway and I was very nervous for him.  I won’t spoil it by telling you.  I wasn’t crazy about the ending.  Jason loved it.  I’m not sure if my opinion will change after it’s had some time to settle.  I know I’ll be thinking about it for the next several days, but these are my initial thoughts.  The imagery was beautiful and obviously thought-provoking since I know I will be thinking about it, re-evaluating the whole based on the end.

This is from my personal library and chosen by Heather (Gofita’s Pages), Carol, Staci, MsMazzola, Heather (Book Addiction), Kerri, Alita, Julie, Rebecca and Rhapsody in Books.  Here’s what they had to say…

“It will blow you away.”  Rhapsody in Books

“I thought I was the only one left who hasn’t read it yet!”  Julie

“Some people didn’t like the unexpected ending, but I did and I would love to see what you think, too.”  Rebecca

“I’m going to attempt it next year as well”  Kerri

“It is on my TBR list, so I put it on your’s too.”  MsMazzola

“My brother bought it for me and I never read it, but encouraging you to relieves some of the guilt.”  Carol

“It’s on my TBR pile and I hear it’s amazing!”  Heather (Gofita’s Pages)

Finished 8-21-11, rating 3/5, romance, 378 pages, pub. 1993

It’s 1897 and Brett McCullum is looking for a newbie who needs to be led to the Alaskan gold towns.  Paulina Wintrop is poorly disguised as a boy so she could make the journey to find a family friend from her home in Utah.  Time is short and so are tempers.  Sparks fly between the two immediately and lots of sharp exchanges do little to disguise the interest.

This book is a bit of a hot mess. I was enjoying this above average, yet somewhat typical, historical romance when at a point fairly early on I realized this was not a typical romance at all.   There was a hidden city, a prince, and an island of jewels.  I was intrigued, but confused.  Then another turn and I was disappointed but still entertained.  So everything was fine until the end.  The end was such a letdown that I felt like I’d been cheated.  As you can see it’s hard to talk about without giving too much away.

I really enjoyed the dialogue and the two main characters so I might give Bourne another chance in the future, but it won’t be soon.  Isn’t that cover awful?

This book is from my personal library (although I have no idea how it came to be here!)

Finished 8-15-11, rating 4/5, mystery, 300 pages, pub. 1981

God only knows how it all began.  After all the searching and seeking, the rationale debate and wild, intuitive guessing.  I’m not sure we really arrived at the truth.  We poor humans are so imprisoned in narrow boundaries of space and time, so confined by five meager senses.  We are like ants, running frantically back and forth on meaningless errands that consume our years, taking a few square inches of earth for a universe.

first paragraph

Grayhaven Manor, an English Gothic mansion, was moved stone by stone (graves in the basement included), to rural Pennsylvania.  When Kevin’s parents won the lottery they bought the extravagant home and asked Kevin to live there for the summer to watch over it while they traveled.  He invited his fellow college professor, Anne, so they could work on a textbook they were writing together.  And then Aunt Bea and opinionated neighbor, Roger, show up and the house seems full, especially with the ghosts that make themselves known at night.  They are ghosts, right?

This spooky story is told in first person from Anne’s perspective and she had spunk.  I enjoyed her intelligence and identified with her insecurity about her looks.  She felt very real to me and if Anne saw a ghost then I believed her.  Kevin was a hot guy who everyone woman desired, maybe even Anne, to her disgust.  I liked Kevin and his easy-going nature, but did find him a bit shallow.

There was a considerable amount of history and I did love the way the three differing opinions were shown.  This book was haunting and I really want to visit a gothic mansion to see if I can detect ghost activity.

I did feel like the end was a little rushed and I was a bit disappointed, but not enough to take away from my enjoyment of the book.

Did you know that Barbara Michaels is Elizabeth Peters?  I recomend this for cozy mystery lovers and ghost story fans.

This was from my personal library.

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