The Lovely Bones

Title: The Lovely Bones

Author: Alice Sebold

Pages: 11 discs?

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B-

Synopsis: Susie Salmon is the victim of a brutal murder in 1973 when she is a young teenager. The story continues to follow Susie as she continues to exist in her heaven. She watches down on her family and her killer from heaven and tempers her desire for vengeance against her killer with her desire for her family to heal from the tragedy.

My Review: I know that this book generally gets pretty good reviews but it never clicked with me. I always hoped that there was something exciting on the next page (or cd in my case), but the story just seemed to slowly trudge on. I won't say that the story was predictable, but it certainly wasn't unpredictable (does that even make sense?) which left me a little underwhelmed.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Author: Jeff Kinney

Pages: 224

Genre: Children's Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Jr. High student Greg Heffley is forced to keep a diary (although he claims it is a journal) by his mother. He draws pictures and writes about his life as a junior high student.

My Review: While I don't exactly fit the target demographic for the book, it was a quick read and gave me a few laughs. The book delivered in that it reminded me of my glorious jr. high days... That being said, I doubt that I will be reading any of the other books in the series. I'll leave those to the young teens.

Life of Pi

Title: Life of Pi

Author: Yann Martel

Pages: 11 discs

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Pi is a young Indian boy whose father owned or managed a zoo as he was growing up. At a young age Pi was very interested in religion, exploring Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. The zoo was sold and the family was in the process of emigrating to Canada when the ship that they were on sank. Pi found himself in a lifeboat with a zebra, hyena and orangutan.

My Review: I enjoyed the book, but it was tough to get into it. It starts slow, but gets very interesting after the shipwreck. Amazingly, even though the story involves Pi being stuck in a lifeboat with a Bengal Tiger, I found the story to be quite believable.

Disclaimer: The book gets a bit gory as the hyena tears the zebra apart and there are other animal functions on display.