I (heart) Books

I love to read! I love Books! I read an average of 30 books a year. I know that is not much by some standards but for this mother of two who also works full time 30 is a lot. I learned to read and write at the age of 3 and haven't stopped. Sadly, I only read 5 books last year.

I know! I am disappointed in myself, I have no excuse and I have resolved to do better. This year, I have already read my first book and am working on my second as we speak. I am a little behind on my reading but I will be catching up soon.

Even though I have only read 5 books last year, I enjoyed every one. So here they are (in no particular order) Honey's 5 books from 2010!

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, By Stephenie Meyers-

Grade: B+

I love the the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyers!! So of course I had to buy The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. Plus a $1 donation was made to the American Red Cross for each book sold. BONUS!!

This is a short novella that is apart of the Twilight Series by Meyers. Meyers has a way of sucking people into her stories (no pun intended). She is an extremely anti-climatic writer and carries that flawlessly through this story. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is told from the point of view from a newborn vampire. Reading the first part of the novel, I didn't feel like I was reading another Twilight novel; until I got the end, when the story of Bree collides with the third book in the series, Eclipse. This is where I felt Bree ended and I was reading another Twilight novel. It is a quick read and I recommend this novella. Warning: If you haven't read any other of the Twilight books you will be lost.

The Millennium Series by Steig Larrson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest

Grade A+

This series first caught my attention while I was shopping at Costco one day. Upon the stacks of thousands of books laid out before me, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest was what caught my attention. It was a brand new book and it's silver jacket was loud. I picked up the book and haphazardly looked through. I didn't give much more thought to any of it but I kept seeing the series everywhere. How could you not with a cover as bright and loud as those? Curiosity got the better of me one night when I discovered that The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was on the instant play on Netflix. It was the Swedish version and I am not one to snub a foreign film too quickly. I loved the movie and decided to read the books.

A few weeks later I was in the Portland Airport waiting for my flight home. I strolled the kiosks and found an inexpensive copy of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I won't lie, I found the first 60ish pages hard to get through, then I hit a point in the story where I couldn't put the book down. I had the book finished within the week.

I ran out immediatly and purchased The Girl Who Played with Fire. I read it in 6 hours on a Sunday. The next day I purchased Hornets Nest; but due to my busy schedual, I only had my half hour lunch break to read and finished reading in about two weeks.

Larrson has a fourth book in the series but due to his death, it was never finished. Rumor has it though that a college of Larrsons could finish the book but the world isn't holding their breath.

Larrson created one of the most brilliant characters ever, Lisbeth Salander. She is enigmatic, brilliant and empowering. She was made a victim and Lisbeth refuses to be that victim. Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist who enlist Lisbeths help to solve a mystery. Mikael character is one that if I am ever accused of murder, I want this man on my defense team.

Larrson is an amazing author! He created characters that draw you in; a story line where you want more and you want to keep reading. The story is great, the characters unforgettable and a series you will want to read over and over again.

(Warning: The foul language is minimal in all three books; the sexual content, though brief, does get graphic.)

Rough Country by John Sanford

Grade B

I picked up a copy of Rough Country while waiting for a flight to Seattle. I knew that I wouldn't ever fill my quota of books to read for the year but was looking for something to read. I was in the mood for a good mystery thriller but didn't know what I wanted to read. I had seen John Sanfords name before and thought I would give him a try.

Rough Country is a Virgil Flowers Novel that is a really good mystery novel but I didn't find myself wanting to keep reading for the story line, I wanted to keep reading because of Virgil Flowers. Sanford created a great series character. Sanford writes Flowers as if the reader had never met Flowers but you still know everything about him. I found the book to be more character driven than story line driven. But I walked away wanting to read more novels by Sanford and solve a few more mysteries with Virgil Flowers.

It is a good travel book and I found it was enjoyable and recommend it to anyone.