Apr 30, 2012

Review - Wake by Lisa McMann

Janie is a girl who suddenly starts finding herself in other people’s dreams while she’s awake. She doesn’t know why or how this happens. The only things she knows are that she can’t avoid it and that she can’t do anything during the dreams.

Janie is a normal child until she starts visiting people’s dreams. This new ability affects her life, as in school many people fall asleep during boring classes and in the library. She also fears class trips and sleepovers and is nervous about having to drive. Finding herself in a dream while she’s driving could be very dangerous.

Janie feels lonely because she can’t tell anybody about what is happening to her and she can’t tell her mother, the only family she has, anything in general because she is usually drunk or sleeping. Basically, her life is not very good.

This changes throughout the book. Janie finds out more about her power with the help of a new friend and learns how to use it to help people.

Wake is the first book of a trilogy, so most of this book is probably an introduction to the trilogy. I say probably because I haven’t read the other two books yet but this is how Wake sounded to me. There is more mystery than action and the plot moves ahead without rushing the answers but also without there being many situations other than the everyday life of an almost normal high school girl: classes, friends, boys and a job to be able to go to college. At the end it is hinted that this is going to change, but saying more about this would be spoiling the end.

Each chapter is divided in many small parts with a date and a time as a title of each part. You can usually skip these second titles (I don’t think it really matters if it is 9, 10 or 11 am) though they are useful at the beginning of the book. The first chapter tells Janie’s childhood until high school, so knowing the year is necessary.

If you’re expecting great action and danger you won’t find them here. This book is just the normal high school life with mysterious dreams added. It gets better towards the end and it looks like the next two books are going to be much more interesting.



Apr 26, 2012

Review - Deadline in Athens by Petros Márkaris

Costas Haritos, a Greek police officer, has to solve the murder of two Albanians, who were found dead in their home. At first, the case is closed quickly after somebody confesses the crime but when somebody else is murdered it is clear that the case is more complicated than it looks.

The novel starts with the murder of two Albanians and Haritos’ investigation. When it seems that the case is closed because the murderer confessed, a journalist is killed and everything gets much more complicated. She obviously learned something that she shouldn’t have and it looks like it is related to the dead Albanians, but their killer has a great alibi for the new murder: he was in jail.

There are some great plot twists. When you think you know who the murderer is and/or why the journalist was killed, you find some new piece of information that points in a different direction.

Costas Haritos is an interesting character. He is underpaid, works too many hours, is not very happily married and wants to close his cases quickly (he even looks for a "usual suspect" to blame for the murder of two Albanians). Nothing too strange here.

But there are things that make his character different from what you expect: he reads the dictionary, and I mean he reads it like a novel, as a hobby, and has a dark past. When he was younger he worked in one of the "interrogation" facilities in Athens. This is the first book in the series of this detective, so some questions about his past are not answered. We know that he didn’t like it there and that he tried to improve the conditions of the prisoners as much as he could without getting caught, but we don’t know how he got the job (or more likely how or why he was assigned the job) and exactly what he did there.

Haritos is human, so even though he doesn’t seem to be a nice man, not everything is bad or mysterious. He really loves his daughter and wants to make her happy and he feels good when he does something nice to his wife. He is also very good at his job and doesn’t like how the police is affected by political decisions, like how some people are almost untouchable, even though they’re clearly either guilty or hiding something important about the case.

The Greece shown in this novel is not the one you see in tourism brochures. There is a clear difference between the people who have money and power and the people who don’t. The course of his investigation takes Haritos to several poor parts of Athens that are well described. Also, things like blackmail seem completely normal and nobody seems surprised.

All in all, a good crime novel where not everything is what it looks like and where all murders are linked in a way you probably won’t predict.


Apr 21, 2012

24 HOUR READ-A-THON, APR 21, 2012


Read-a-thon time again! Sadly this time I won't have that much time for reading, as I have exams to study for (well, that's also reading, but not really fun). I could add the pages I read for my exams. That would make the final count of pages bigger and as far as I know it doesn't say anywhere what kind of books we can read and I know not everybody reads fiction.

Instead of putting several posts like last time, I'll keep updating this one.


HOURS 1 - 3

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Spain.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
I don't know. I'm starting with the crime novel I've already started reading and continue from there.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I don't usually eat snacks. Maybe a biscuit or a gummi bear between meals. I always have shortbread and chocolate in case I'm starving and lunch or dinner is still a couple of hours away.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I'm a student who loves crime novels and thrillers.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
It's the second time I participate. Sadly I'm studying for final exams, so I'll read more "useful" pages than fun pages today and I won't stay up for 24 hours as that would have negative consequences on tomorrow's studying time XD

Lunch: the read-a-thon started at 2 pm my time.
Read: pages 43 - 165 of Deadline in Athens by Petros Markaris: crime novel set in Greece.


HOURS 4 - 6

Back to studying :(


HOURS 7 - 9

Studying
Dinner
Read: same book pages 165 - 191 (reading while listening to the second half of a football match is not the best thing to do, but it was Real Madrid - Barcelona, so...).


HOURS 10 - 12

Studying
Read: same book pages 191 - 242


HOURS 13 - 20

1) How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired?
Sleepy; it's 2 am here.
2) What have you finished reading?
Nothing yet. I'm still reading my first book.
3) What is your favorite read so far?
The one I'm reading.
4) What about your favorite snacks?
Didn't eat any snacks today.
5) Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love!
I've found a few, but haven't really look through them yet.

And now I'm going to sleep because I don't want to be a zombie tomorrow (or later today).


HOURS 21 - 22

Woke up and started reading after breakfast.
Finished the book!


HOURS 23 - 24


Started Wake by Lisa McMann: pages 1 - 52
Went back to the class books.

1) Which hour was most daunting for you?
Hour 12.
2) Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
That would depend on the reader, but I think any book that you don't want to put down is a good idea: for me that means good thrillers, specially spy thrillers.
3) Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Maybe rotate the starting hours every read-a-thon, so that it is not always the same people who start in the middle of the day.
4) What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
I can't think of one thing that worked much better than the rest. I think in general it worked good.
5) How many books did you read?
One and started another.
6) What were the names of the books you read?
Deadline in Athens by Petros Markaris and Wake by Lisa McMann.
7) Which book did you enjoy most?
The first one.
8) Which did you enjoy least?
The second one. It's not bad and I'm enjoying it, but with only two books once I've chosen the one I liked the most, the other is automatically the one I enjoyed least.
9) If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
I wasn't a Cheerleader.
10) How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
It would depend on the day, but I want to participate again. As a reader.

Apr 19, 2012

Review - Play Ball (graphic novel)

Writers: Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir
Artist: Jackie Lewis

I got a copy of the book through NetGalley.

From Goodreads: Most girls, when they get to a new school, just want to fit in. But Dashiell Brody isn't like most girls. A natural at softball, Dashiell discovers her new school has a championship level baseball team - and Dashiell wants to play ball. One girl's quest to play the national pastime with the boys will turn her family, her school, and her state upside down.

This graphic novel has an easy straightforward plot. Girl goes to new school and wants to do what she likes, which in her case is baseball and not softball. It is interesting to see how she fights for what she wants and to break people’s stereotypical view of girls.

Dashiell grows up during this school year. On top of having to fight for her dreams she also has to come to terms with her father not being the person she thought he was.

Although I liked it, I found it a little short. I would have liked to know why the father, who is playing with Dashiell at the beginning (in a childhood memory), is suddenly not interested in his daughter’s life. This is something that is never really explained and as it plays an important role on Dashiell’s actions I think some more background information would have been nice.

All in all, Play Ball is a good graphic novel, both written and drawn, with a believable plot.


Apr 15, 2012

In My Mailbox (8)



In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.


I'm with final exams since before the Easter holidays, so there won't be many updates for the next two weeks: not much time for reading + not much time for writing = hopefully one review = :(.

These are the books I got to enjoy on short study breaks after the exams:


  • Deadline in Athens by Petros Markaris: First novel in the series of a Greek detective. It's easy to read and not very long. I haven't finished it yet, but I've already started.
  • The Guards by Ken Bruen: I read a review of another book in the series of the Irish detective Jack Taylor in Jonathan Wilhoit's blog and I was curious because I hadn't read any crime novels set in Ireland, so I got this one from the library.
  • Roman Blood (Roma Sub Rosa #1) by Steven Saylor: This is a crime novel set in ancient Rome. I haven't read anything by this author yet, but I've heard good things about this series.


What's in your mailbox this week?