review - Jason’s Feed

Review: Cold Comfort Farm

I liked the writing in this book very much. I originally picked up Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons because it is on my BBC list. I am very glad it was. The characters of Gibbons novel are particular and quirky. I had a little trouble getting to know the family at first, but after I had everyone placed things went really well. I occasionally had to re-read a line or two here and there since the acent some of the characters has was written in a bit difficult language for me.

Women are all alike– aye fussin’ over their fal-lals and bedazin’ a man’s eyes…

I really enjoyed Flora and I loved how the Starkadders addressed her as “Robert Poste’s Child” all the time. I’m totally going to do that to my nephew next time I see him. I loved reading a Penguin Classic. There is something about these little back books that is so enjoyable! Stella Gibbons first novel was this in 1932 and I have to say she did a stellar job on her very first book! Simply amazing for a first effort. The introduction talks about how this plagued her for the rest of her life. She hardly ever talked about the book and when she did, she never mentioned it by name. Only saying that thing or something similar.

Spoilers below:

Continue reading Review: Cold Comfort Farm

Review: Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know

This picture book or coffee table book if you like has a very long title. The full title: Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know: Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And as you would assume a book with a title this long requires more than one author, four actually: Adam Bray, Cole Horton, Michael Kogge, and Kerrie Dougherty.

If you get the feeling that this books title and abundance of authors is trying to compensate for something, you would be right. First and foremost, this is a book written for juniors, DK says 8-12. It would probably be perfect for a 8 year-old boy. But I wanted more. I wanted the mysteries that the movie brought to use at least hinted at. Seeing as the target demographic is 8-12 year-old boys it makes sense that the bulk of the book deals with descriptions of characters, buildings, and droids/robots.

I did learn things I didn’t know before leafing through the pages, so it is a worth while checkout from your library, but unless you have some Star Wars fans that fall in the target age group I wouldn’t purchase this one. Keep to the books for the most part. If you have watched the Clone Wars and are watching Rebels you will already know more that what is in this book. There are only four pages or so in the back of the book that pertain to The Force Awakens, so don’t get this if you think it will reveal more about the movie.

Having said that the pictures are great quality like every DK book and there is a lot of information there.

Review: Someday, Someday, Maybe

I’m so excited. I heard via Kindles and Wine, that Lauren Graham wrote a book! Awesome for fans of the Gilmore Girls, then I read more and see that she voices her own audiobook! I know I’m going to get this right away. I’ve always been a fan of the Gilmore Girls, I think my sister-in-law Lisa introduced me to the show, I’m not sure. Anyway, I’m writing this a little early since I haven’t finished listening to the book yet, I found it on Overdrive, but I had to write down how I felt about the series coming back. Thats right, It has been confirmed by the New York Times that the show is coming back to Netflix! No solid dates, but how awesome. They are recording now!

I CAN NOW CONFIRM: it’s time for me, and this jacket I stole in 2007, to return to work.@netflix #GilmoreGirls pic.twitter.com/tBb07J9oO1

— Lauren Graham (@thelaurengraham) January 29, 2016

So, if you will excuse me I have to go back to listening to this audiobook!

Okay, all done. When I was down to the last 20 minutes it was hard to move forward, because I knew the book would end soon and the story and worse of all the sound of Lauren Graham’s voice.

I liked the story. It was a good love triangle and Ms. Graham’s wit is quick which made the whole story that much more enjoyable. The book moved fast but had a wonderful writing style that was very easy on the eyes/ears. I was rooting for one of the guys as soon as he was introduced and that was a fun way to listen to the book. This audiobook earned 4 out of 5 stars with me.

Review: Star Wars: Before the Awakening

Star Wars: Before the Awakening is really three stories one for each of the characters on its cover: Finn, Rey and Poe. This is a junior novel. Really written for 12 year-old crowd, but it is a Star Wars book the tells the story of these characters before the movie and my local library had a copy, so my decision was made for me. I grabbed this as soon as it came in. And it already has another person waiting for it. They will get their chance now as I have finished it. I loved this book and gave it four stars. It loses one star for being a little easy, written for children as it is. Maybe I shouldn’t mark it off for that since it is a junior novel, but thats just the way I am. 5 stars is perfection after all.

In this novel we find go along with Finn through some of this training and on his first real mission. I had thought the one we saw in the movie was his first, but not so. Rey’s story I don’t want to tell you about. It concerns her scavenger life before the movie. Her story is so excellent, its actually the reason I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5. I loved her story so much, I thought there was more the author could have done with it. Poe’s story is also good. The second best story in the book after Rey’s of course. In it Poe meets general Leia Organa Solo for the first time and goes on a very thrilling mission. If you are a Star Wars fan, young or old, you will enjoy this book!

Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens Incredible Cross-Sections

Incredible cross-sections is a beautiful book! Not only are all the images “incredible”, but there are short articles on every page. The articles tell you a little about each vehicle. For example, did you know that Rey built that speeder herself? Even Han’s new freighter is in this book and so are the Rathtars.

I am very glad that my library had this book. But honestly, if my kids were a little more into Star Wars I would not hesitate to buy this for $20. As it is, I don’t have the room for this and I’d be the only one looking at it. Click on the image above to see a larger version. Can you find Finn?

Review: The Alchemist

34% of goodreads users gave The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho 5 stars. I’m not sure I listened to the same book as these people read. Maybe there is some deep philosophical meaning that this book contained and my tiny mind just didn’t gasp it. I have no idea. To mean this book “read” like a children’s book. It was not written poorly. The story just didn’t appeal to me. There was nothing that grabbed me. There was no foreshadowing that I wanted to hang out for and see how it went. Therefore, I fall solidly in the only 9% of goodreads users that gave this book a measly 2 stars.

Review: The Stranger

This was a strange book. The Stranger (aka The Outsider) by Albert Camus is an odd book. The main character seems completely apathetic. I gave this book 3 stars. It was well written and the story was interesting, but that was the extent of it. I’m not sure what the author wanted us to take away on this novel. In trying to review this book I ran across this video review. You have to watch it.

Review: The Power of Reading

The Power of Reading by Stephen D. Krashen is a very through book. I first got interested in reading books about books when I read Book Lust by Nancy Pearl, which by the way is worth having a copy. I can’t recommend Book Lust enough! But, back to The Power of Reading.

This has tons of citations from studies conducted in the 1990s and 2000s. Because there are no recent studies the book is a little dated in its citations. The copy I read was published in 2004, but the book was first published in 1993 and it seems not a lot of the references have been kept as up-to-date as a reader like me would have liked.

This book reads like a research paper so be prepared for that. If you want something that is a little easier to read I would highly suggest you read The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. His book is mentioned in any good study of reading books and the positive effects.

I gave The Power of Reading 3 out of 5 stars. Not great, but if you are doing a paper on the importance of reading or reading to improve english as a second language (ESL) then this is the book you need to check-out, but I wouldn’t recommend buying it.

Review: Jude the Obscure

Liked this classic a lot. It is on my BBC100 challenge list. I thought at first it was going to be a great romantic novel, but it turns into a sad depressing novel. While I still liked this book, I was disappointed in the sadness of the novel. I was looking at reviews online about this book and Mark Goacher nails it with this you tube video review on Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.

I think this is a great classic and worth reading. I like the drive that Jude shows throughout the novel. I listened to this novel read by David Case on audio. Mark in the above video even talks about the films that were made of the book including the 1996 film Jude. I can’t wait to watch this movie and hopefully do a review on the movie part of the book. I’ve always like Kate Winslet and she plays Sue in the movie.

Review: Anthem

This is a very original novel. It is super short. My copy was only 105 pages. Anthem, originally called Ego, by Ayn Rand is a dystopian story. It follows one person who has a hard time falling in line with other people. The story is in the future but somehow humans have fallen back into the dark ages. They use candles and all technology is no longer used.

I was curious how other people were reviewing this book so I did a quick search and found this very interesting take on the book:

I really like the book and would recommend if for other lovers of post-apocalyptic stories. A great place to find more post-apocalyptic books is a goodreads book club that I belong to.