Blog about literature

‘Stoner’ by John Williams

What could have been an incredible boring book, wasn’t it at all. I don’t know what the book makes so interesting, maybe it’s the writing style or maybe it’s the way of how the story is told, but I loved it.

Stoner is the main character of whom the story is told. Stoner grows up in the farm of his parents, who send him to college to study Agriculture, but after a year he changes of subject and chooses to study Literature. He’s a good student and after his studies, he’s offered to teach at that college. He also meets Edith, whom he considers the love of his live. They marry and get a daughter, Grace. Like I said, it could have been a really boring story, because there isn’t much action, suspense or romance in the book, but it is a very good story.

I really liked Stoner’s character, because I had the feeling I could empathize with him. He is a stubborn man, who is going to defend his point of view even if it implies some disadvantages. For instance, Walker is a his student during his seminar. All students have to do a presentation of which the subject is imposed in advance. Katherine is the last student to do her presentation, but Walker keeps postponing his presentation, until the final weeks come. Katherine agrees to do her presentation first, but when it’s Walker’s turn he only comments Katherine’s presentation. Stoner gets angry and gives Walker a fail, but Lomax Walker’s supervisor doesn’t like that and asks to change the score, but Stoner doesn’t want to. He also didn’t let Walker pass his defense of his doctorate. At that time, it wasn’t that big a deal, but when Lomax becomes head of the department, he makes sure that Stoner only teaches the lower grades on really irregular hours.

I really liked how Stoner handled the situations, because I had sometimes the feeling that a lot of people were annoying him, like Edith, Walker and Lomax, but he did have a good friend, Gordon. I honestly think he had a miserable live, because his wife didn’t really love him and Lomax didn’t make it easy for him, but he did find temporarily luck with Katherine (who left him after a while) and he had his good friend, Gordon.

This book was a personal choice. I loved reading this book, so I would really recommend this book to others.

(Source: blogaboutliterature.blogspot.be)

‘Colorado Mandala’ by Brian Heffron

I loved reading the book. In the beginning I thought the book wouldn’t be anything for me, because I wasn’t really familiar with the subject. I don’t know a lot about Colorado, but I actually liked the book. It was fun to read the book and I especially liked the descriptions. The dialogues were sometimes less interesting, because to me they sometimes didn’t contribute to the story.

Colorado Mandala tells about the story of two friends who have a little business together. Michael survived the Vietnam War, after which he learns to know Sarah with whom he has later on a relationship. But there are tensions between Michael and Sarah, which doesn’t benefit their relationship. When they have arguments, Sarah can always rely on Paul. Does the relationship between Sarah and Michael will keep standing or will they go their own way?

I liked the story, because it’s a mix of a lot of ingredients: suspense, love, friendship, jealousy,…  Also the descriptions of how life in Colorado was back then are interesting, because I know little of Colorado. But I don’t know exactly if it was only fiction or if some items reflect the reality.

What did bother me, was the use of the Spanish. I was pleased to read some Spanish, but I must say that the Spanish wasn’t always correct. I found some grammatical errors. I only don’t know if it was the intension of the writer to make those mistakes, because Paul doesn’t know a lot about Spanish and the use of the Spanish has to reflect that or because the writer doesn’t know Spanish good enough.

I got the book in return to write an honest review.

(Source: blogaboutliterature.blogspot.be)

‘Mirror Deep’ by Joss Landry

I really liked this book. From the moment I started reading the book, I was intrigued by the story. I was always captured by the suspense and I wanted to continue reading every time to know what was going to happen. I even think I took too long to finish the book.

The story tells about Katherine Bonner who has a happy life with her horses and family, until the day Victor Horn appears. Apparently she was adopted by her parents whom she knew her whole life. Her real mother has passed away and she has to go to the funeral to meet the family. Eventually she doesn’t meet the family at the funeral, but she did get to know Caitlyn who is like two peas in a pot like her. Since she knows that she’s adopted, strange things are happening. Who is Caitlyn? How did her mother died? And how  does her relationship with Pierce evolves, now they know they’re not related?

Like I said, I liked the story. There was a lot of suspense, which made me every time curious to continue the reading. The writer knows how to set up the suspense and how to intrigue the reader. I only have one negative comment. I think there are a lot of characters in the book. I didn’t have a problem to distinguish the most important characters of the story, but I did have problems to distinguish the less important characters. I tended to confuse them.

I got the book in return to write an honest review.

(Source: blogaboutliterature.blogspot.be)

‘Stammered Songs’ by Erwin Mortier

Erwin Mortier writes about his mother who suffers from the disease Alzheimer. Writing several pieces of how he experienced the whole process, he writes little stories about his memories of his mother. I think it must be a great honor when you son writes a book about you, certainly when it’s a good writer, because the book will keep the memory of his mother alive.

When I had read the book, I had a double feeling. One the one hand I liked reading it, because it was a fast reading and I liked the little stories (I’m talking about the content now), but on the other hand, I had it hard to relate to the subject and I didn’t really liked the fact that it wasn’t a story, but little pieces (now I’m talking about the form). I was more impressed after reading his ‘Divine Sleep’, so maybe my expectations were too high?

In ‘Divine Sleep’ he writes what I would call little poems, but to me ‘Stammered Songs’ was more simplistic. I didn’t like the way he wrote the little pieces and the concept of the little pieces, but the content was interesting and I also think this is personal. I do believe there are people who like reading this book, but the book couldn’t convince me. I expected something totally different.

This book was a personal choice, because I wanted to read it, considering I loved reading ‘Divine Sleep’.

(Source: blogaboutliterature.blogspot.be)

‘Fix by Force’ by Jason Warne

‘A good story though, is just that, a GOOD STORY. It’s often written hastily and driven by emotion. It compels the reader to continue, and makes him feel like part of the experience. A good story, even complete fiction, delivers a truth of some kind … even if it’s one that the reader isn’t comfortable with. That’s why this is such a good story, because it’s written for the reader; it’s written so he keeps reading. It’s written for truth, and that’s what he can understand. That’s what can be forgiven. Truth is what we can all appreciate, Mr. Shane, and it should be what we continue to live. Well done, Spencer.’

Wow, that was the first word that was crossing my mind when I finished the book. I will explain why.

I read the book on one day. I started reading ‘Fix by Force’ yesterday afternoon (the 22th of January 2013) and that same evening I finished the book. I just couldn’t stop reading. The author knows how he has to keep the story exciting. Every time I had read a chapter I wanted to know what was going to happen next.

I also like books that are telling about certain problems in our society and personal problems. The story is about Spencer who is bullied at school by Zack. The bullying was in a certain way founded, because Spencer’s dad killed Zack’s mom in a car accident. On the other hand Spencer doesn’t have to pay for his father’s actions. The bullying goes so far that Spencer gets expelled and has to go to a special school for expelled kids. There happens a lot in that school. Spencer wants to become feared and popular and he starts taking steroids, but everything gets out of hand.

I like reading books about problems, because you can identify yourself with a character. I also had a period that I wanted to be more intelligent, so I do understand his urge to become feared.  And that what makes the story realistic. You can recognize certain situations, you can understand how people feel and you can feel sympathy with the characters.

The only disadvantage I can say about ‘Fix by Force’ is that I think the expulsion school wasn’t conform with the reality. I expected something else when I read that he had to go to an expulsion school. I expected severe teachers, worse fellow students,… It just didn’t match with my idea of an expulsion school.

I choose a quote to start my review, because I consider this book as a good story and the quote embodies ‘Fix by Force’, because as a reader I wanted to continue reading and I felt part of the experience. So I would heavily recommend this book to others, because it is a good story. My compliments to the author!

I got the book from the author in return for a honest review.

(Source: blogaboutliterature.blogspot.fr)

Review: ‘The Evolution of the Human Intellect: Discover the Information that Schools and Religions Aren’t Yet Teaching’ by L.N. Smith

The title of the book is ‘The Evolution of the Human Intellect: Discover the Information that School and Religion Aren’t Yet Teaching’. Reading this title I had high expectations of this book, but my expectations aren’t fulfilled.

Judging the title and the short content on Goodreads, I expected an informative book, instead it was a story told by Sarah, the guide who leads us through a ride in Disney Land explaining the evolution of the human intellect. It was difficult to imagine such kind of ride and I was also confused at the beginning, because sometimes the listeners were sitting in a boat and other times they were in a plane. After several chapters the boat or plane appears to have the ability to change.

I didn’t like the first chapter, because there is no link with the other chapters, according to me. Maybe the first chapter has to create the feeling like you are in the ride yourself, but to me it was confusing. If the first chapter didn’t exist, I wouldn’t have missed it.

The story tells about the history through the ages, but at times I had the feeling it was more like a history lesson than an explanation of the evolution of the human intellect. I do understand that explaining the history is necessary to explain the evolution of the human intellect, but I just expected more about that last part.

What I did like, was the story. Even though I expected an informative book, I liked the approach to explain the evolution of the human intellect. It was original and it makes a dry subject more vivid. Because of that the book reads very easy and quick, according to me. Furthermore the information that was given, is interesting.

I received this book in PDF from the author, so thanks to that. I don’t know if I would recommend the book, because I’m a bit divided by the positive and negative aspects, but that’s maybe because I had other expectations of the book. 

(Source: blogaboutliterature.blogspot.fr)

Review: ‘Order of the Dimensions’ by Irene Helenowski

When I got the book, I first leafed through the book and my first impression was ‘this is a book for people who have a bad vision’, because the letters of the book are really big. But don’t judge a book by his appearances! First I was planning to finish an other book I already started, an e-book, but I couldn’t wait to start this book. So even though I was reading something else, I first read this book.

I must say, I’m impressed. I had little expectations, because I just didn’t know what to expect. It’s the first time I read a book to review and normally I read more famous books. It’s also a long time ago I’ve finished so quick a book of 300 pages. The writer asked me to finish the review at least in February and I thought that would be difficult considering the fact that the book was about the 300 pages, but I finished it in nearly four days. The reason for this fast reading, is because the book is really exciting to read. I wanted to know every time I read the book what was going to happen next, so I couldn’t stop reading it.

The story is also really original. I can’t think about other books with such kind of story. Jane, a physicist, knows the algorithms to use the Multiverser which brings you through different dimensions. Her life is just fine until the day she met Anton. Anton appears to be a mastermind who is in charge of the Order of the Dimensions, but little Jane knows when she first meets him. After Jane met Anton the story takes you through the different dimensions in an attempt to escape from the tyranny of Anton. Jane tries to stay with her loved ones, but Anton succeeds every time to destroy  her plans and to tear her family apart.

The dialogues are somehow a bit simplistic at times, but that doesn’t really matter in this story, because the action and what happens really compensate this. That’s also what makes sure the story is exciting and you want to continue reading the book. What was a bit confusing were the characters who appear in the book. I didn’t have any problem with the main characters, but there was a lot of help from other characters which made it sometimes confusing. I sometimes asked myself, do I now that person from an other dimension or not yet.

So in general I can conclude this is a very good book, I really recommend this book to others, because of the originality, the excitement and the fact you rush through the book.