The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

predictable.
yet entertaining.
but anticlimactic.


I felt like the end was anticlimactic, but I still anticipated great things leading up to the conclusion, so I still think it was a good read.  If you've read the Twilight series, I'd say it's comparable to Breaking Dawn in that way.

All in all, I think it was worth the read, and it is rumored to be made into a movie in the future.  Pick it up!

4 out of 5 stars


Also noteworthy is the fact that the prequel is coming out August 31st of 2010.

The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter

poignant.

vivid.
lacking.

 

The first chapter of this book, highly recommended by a friend, hooked me, narrated by a half-Native American child whose mother dies and is sent to live with his almost aboriginal grandparents in the backwoods of 1930s America. The conflict between mountain-dwelling "pure" Native Americans and "civilized" city-dwellers is apparent within the first few pages, when the grandfather is publicly mocked by a bus driver, but after that, the promising plot dwindles. Yes, the descriptions of the land and country are vivid, and the innocence and docility of the narrator are sweet. But while a series of events that make up the coming of age of a child caught between two clashing civilizations is certainly a great basis, there is nary a plot to be enjoyed and struggled through. The tragedy is that with the writer's undeniable talent, this book could have been great. Instead, it left me wanting.

2 out of 5 stars

Family by Pa Chin

revolution.
tragic.
enlightening.

I read this book for my world lit class. It was really difficult for me to get into it, I think because of the names; they were hard for me to pronounce and I kept confusing them in my mind because they were similar to each other.

I was downtrodden by much of the deep sadness in this book. The only good thing, for me that came out of it was to gain a better understanding of the lives of people in China before modernization finally occurred. I'm not sure who had it worse--the wealthy women, or the servant women. And the men were just that--men--trying to make good choices according to culture and the knowledge they possessed but making a mess of everything in the process. In the end there was hope but only after wading through much tragedy.

That being said, I know this piece of work was warmly embraced by the new generations in China during Pa Chin's time and I commend him for breaking the mold and shedding light on this difficult topic. I think he did a great job poetically portraying both the good and bad. It certainly isn't because of his writing that I give this book only two stars, but because of the content.  It is definitely out of my comfort zone of good ole pop fiction (;

2 out of 5 stars