Tag: books

Review: The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3) by Deborah Harkness

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The Book of Life.jpg

 

Rating: ☆☆☆.5
Audience: Adult, a tiny bit of language, a few love scenes, kiss/make-outs, some violence/torture
Length: 584 pages
Author: Deborah Harkness
Publisher: Viking Adult
Release Date: July 15th, 2014
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

 

BOOK SUMMARY:

Bringing the magic and suspense of the All Souls Trilogy to a deeply satisfying conclusion, this highly anticipated finale went straight to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In The Book of Life, Diana and Matthew time-travel back from Elizabethan London to make a dramatic return to the present—facing new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home, Sept-Tours, they reunite with the beloved cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.

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FINALLY AT THE END.

Well, I’m neither happy nor sad this is over. It was an okay series.

Yet again, you can honestly skip whole chapters and have missed nothing. The story finally swung around and started focusing on the actual, Book of Life (solid pun, right?).

There was also the addition of more characters that took a front running, THAT WERE HARDLY MENTIONED THE ENTIRE TIME. Turns out, this vamp was rather important to the plot of the series. Too many side stories that only kinda helped everything.

More on the adult side, a tiny bit of language. A few semi-descriptive love scenes. Descriptions of violence and torture.

Review: Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #2) by Deborah Harkness

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Shadow of Night

 

Rating: ☆☆☆
Audience: Adult, a tiny bit of language, a handful of love scenes, lots of kisses & make-outs, some violence
Length: 584 pages
Author: Deborah Harkness
Publisher: Viking Adult
Release Date: July 10th, 2012
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

 

BOOK SUMMARY:

Picking up from A Discovery of Witches’ cliffhanger ending, Shadow of Night takes Diana and Matthew on a trip through time to Elizabethan London, where they are plunged into a world of spies, magic, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the School of Night. As the search for Ashmole 782 deepens and Diana seeks out a witch to tutor her in magic, the net of Matthew’s past tightens around them, and they embark on a very different—and vastly more dangerous—journey.

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I HATE THAT I SOMEHOW ENJOY THIS.

Alright, well, I sped-read (I mean really, flew through unnecessary paragraphs at an alarming rate) and was still able to grasp the entire book. Goes to reiterate, this book is entirely too long and with too many side plots that sway from the trilogies original intentions.

Once again I struggled with the atmosphere of vampires. I think that kind of character is just too much for me. Though, Gallowglass is definitely my favorite side character from this spectacle. I love that he calls Diana, “Auntie” and watches our for her while adding in chuckling anecdotes.

This book was spent 95% in 1590 Elizabethan London. That’s too much time y’all. I was so ready for everyone to be back in the 21st Century and actually focus on the problem at hand, Ashmole 782. The entire series is predicated on this manuscript and it doesn’t seem to even be that big of a focus throughout. The book, truthfully, focuses more on the love story between Matthew and Diana. And while I don’t have a problem with that, that’s where the synopsis and the beginning plot lines should have sprung from. I think I thought too much into where the plot was really taking me. It’s almost more a romance novel than anything else.

I still did appreciate reading about the love story. It’s tender, and Diana has more a backbone in this book at least. The human intentions and emotions from meeting people from the past gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling. It’s enough for me to speed through this last book so I can at least know what the ending holds.

Very little language. A handful of love scenes that range from a soft gloss-over to detailed (though not as erotic as we all know some books go haha). Too many vampires to not have a decent dose of violence.

 

 

Review: A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1) by Deborah Harkness

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ADOW

Rating: ☆☆☆☆ [truthfully some unknown number between 3 & 4]
Audience: Adult, a tiny bit of language, a few love scenes, lots of kisses & make-outs, some violence
Length: 579 pages
Author: Deborah Harkness
Publisher: Viking Penguin
Release Date: February 2011
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Deep in the stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

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I AM SO AT ODDS WITH THIS BOOK.

Okay y’all. The reason my star rating is “somewhere between 3 & 4” is because goodness gracious, I can’t decide what I feel about this book! Stay with me here. My thoughts may get scattered.

I definitely give points to the concept. I think it’s cool! It’s a different spin on Vampires, Witches and Daemons. Also, it spans such big time periods! I actually like that Matthew is 1500+ years old because there is so much to his background.

My issue stems from the fact that, generally speaking, I hate vampire books. I read (and enjoyed) the Twilight series, but after that I felt done. Since then, if I realize a book is about vampires it usually ends up on my DNF shelf with no remorse.

Matthew being a vampire didn’t ruin this book for me, but his dynamic occasionally bugged me. He felt too possessive, demanding, stubborn, stealthy, etc. Which then made Diana appear way too meek, submissive, and just an overall sense of: STAND UP FOR YOURSELF WOMAN.

While I felt their love story had truly good moments, the action of the book never heightened enough. I kept asking myself, was that all? Maybe that’s why I’m at odds. I kept reading expecting more, but never got it, yet enjoyed it, but also skimmed it, and this run-on sentence could just keep going. It was too long of a book, with a lot of side stuff that got in the way, so I sped-read through those bits to get to the heart of the novel.

I will pick-up the second book and reconvene here for a determination as to whether the third book is worth my time.

Book leans more towards adult, very very little language. Some kiss/make-out scenes. A few love scenes that are semi-descriptive. A bit of violence.

Review: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

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Being Mortal

 

Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Audience: Adult, one curse word, no love scenes, or violence
Length: 282 pages
Author: Atul Gawande
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Release Date: October 7th, 2014
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

 

BOOK SUMMARY:

In Being Mortal, bestselling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending

Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extends suffering.

Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession’s ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person’s last weeks or months may be rich and dignified.

Full of eye-opening research and riveting storytelling, Being Mortal asserts that medicine can comfort and enhance our experience even to the end, providing not only a good life but also a good end.

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MAKES YOU RECONSIDER.

While personally, death and all qualifying concepts still frighten me to some degree, I enjoyed the truths this book emanated.

Death is a hard conversation, and those right in the line of fire aren’t always getting the best that could be given them. NOT because of horrible doctors or anything to that affect [within regards to this book], just because, all of us are needing to learn how to ask the right questions. There’s so much more in those last few months of life that could be better handled if all of us approached it differently.

This book really opened my eyes to that line of thinking. What trade-offs are you willing to give for maybe a chance at having more time? We all will eventually have someone in our lives (or unfortunately, be this person) that wants to truly understand what’s happening. I feel marginally more prepared to handle these issues in the future. I appreciate Dr. Gawande’s take and how he addressed the topics and his own short-comings.

Hospice, assisted living, and other entities of this sort can be a lot more powerful when programs are appropriately provided and everyone understands the essence of care needed to help patients have the best day, they can at that moment.

A quick, thought-provoking read. One curse word was used. Appropriate for any audience comfortable with confronting the realities of mortality.