Friday, December 21, 2012

Catch Up Day


Although I haven't been posting any book reviews lately, it doesn't mean I haven't been reading! I have three books to share with you today.


For forty one years, Samson Brown has been caring for Hannah, the lone elephant at the down-at-the-heels Max L Biedelman Zoo. Having vowed not to retired until an equally loving and devoted caretaker is found to replace him, Sam rejoices when smart, compassionate Neva Wilson is hired as the new elephant keeper. But Neva quickly discovers what Sam already knows: that despite their loving care, Hannah is isolated from other elephants and her feet are nearly ruined from standing on hard concrete all day. Using her contacts in the zookeeping world, Neva and Sam hatch a plan to send Hannah to an elephant sanctuary - just as the zoo's angry, unhappy director launches an aggressive revitalization campaign that spotlights Hannah as the star attraction, inextricable tyle Hannah's future to the fate of the Max L Biedelman zoo.

The Good: The characters are really well developed and you get a good idea of what they are all thinking and feeling. Also the author has the book flip flopping between the current time period and back 40 years before when Sam first starts caring for Hannah.

The Bad: I don't have much to say bad about this book, aside from the fact that it leaves me wanting to know what happens in the end. I want one of those chapters that says how things end up 10 years down the road, ya know?

Overall this is a great book for people who like books about animals and I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.


To five year old Jack, Room is the world. It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where Jack is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.
Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it's the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven foot space. But Jack's curiosity is building alongside Ma's own desperation - and she knows that Room cannot contact either much longer.

The Good:  The author wrote a book unlike any other I've ever read. It's suspenseful and I found myself holding my breath sometimes, not knowing how things would turn out. It also had extra little details popping up all through the story that gives you even more information than you thought you needed.

The Bad: It's very hard to get into the book because it's written from this little boys POV. Since he doesn't know anything other than the inside of this room, everything is written as proper nouns, like Bed, Toilet, Wardrobe and they are referred to almost as if they are people. It makes it really hard to read at first, but you get used to it.

I give this one 3 out of 5.


Stephanie Plum has a way of attracting danger, lunatics, oddballs, bad luck... and mystery men. A no one is more mysterious than the unmentionable Diesel. He's back and hot on the trail of a little man in green pants who's lost a giant bag of money. Problem is, the money isn't exactly lost. Stephanie's Grandma Mazur has found it, and like any good Jersey senior citizen, she's hightailed it in a Winnebago to Atlantic City and hit the slots. With Lila and Connie in tow, Stephanie attempts to bring Grandma home, but the luck of the Irish is rubbing off on everyone: Lula's found a job modeling plus-size lingerie. Connie's found a guy. Diesel's found Stephanie. And Stephanie has found herselve in over her head with a caper involved thrice-stolen money, a racehorse, a car chase, and a bad case of hives.

The Good: It was short.

The Bad: I honestly feel bad writing a bad review about this book because i know a lot of people LOVE the Stephanie Plum books. But I've never read one before, so it was really odd to read this one without having read any of the back story. The characters seemed goofy and unreal. I feel like the story was supposed to be suspensful and keep you on the edge of your seat, but when I read it, it almost seemed more like a comedy. I didn't really think anything bad was going to happen because it all seemed so weird. There was a leprechaun who wanted a horse and they kept it in an RV and an apartment... there was a guy who apparently can disappear and scramble computers... there's an angry mobster who looks like a toad. It just didn't entertain me.

I'd give it 1.5 out of 5 stars. I feel like I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had read the series from the beginning.



2 comments:

Shoshanah said...

I don't think I've seen Hannah's Dream before, but it sounds really interesting. I definitely want to learn more about it, and hope to eventually read it.

Janie said...

Room was hard to get through and it also didn't have a very good ending (for me).

Stephanie Plum is really awesome. I haven't read Plum Lucky, but I do imagine it's odd to jump right in the middle of the series on a novella and like it.