"The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise" by Julia Stuart

I ordered The Tower, The Zoo And The Tortoise by Julia Stuart from the library because of the great reviews it go in USA TODAY and our local newspaper.  The premise of the story sounded good to me.  I really wanted to like it but just could not get into it at all.  The writing is sort of hard to follow.  It was about a couple who lived in a tower with a tortoise and the queen decided to move the animals from zoo to the tower.  The tortoise got away, the couple had problems and I didn't even bother finishing it.  I just skimmed the last 50 pages. I was very disappointed in it and do not recommend it.  I guess I didn't get it.  Did I miss something?  If you liked this book, can you please explain what I missed?
(Gerard's review)

Who are your top five favorite authors? Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

Book Blogger Hop September 3-6, 2010

I missed participating last week so we'll answer both last week's and this week's questions sponsored by Crazy For books.

Do you judge a book by its cover?

Yes, I do if I am browsing in the library for something to read.  I definitely am attracted to read the summary on the cover jackets when the cover of the book appeals to me.  Gerard though pays no attention to the cover.  He goes strictly by titles and usually ones he is specifically looking for that he has heard something about.

Do you use a rating system for your reviews and if so, what is it and why?

 I only rate books when I do customer reviews on Amazon.  Gerard, however, has a sporadic rating system which changes from time to time.  Sometimes, he rates books 1-100, sometimes he becomes more traditional and used the 1-5 system but will often add plus signs when he really, really loved it.  He has also gone to a system 1-1000 for those very rare books.  For this blog, however, I have limited his highest rating to 100 stars.  Those are his outstanding books.

Be sure to visit others in this blog hop, it usually gets over 300 participants!

"Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a strange but entertaining book.

I liked the story once I got passed the first 100 pages which went into great detail about different religions and animals. The boy's father was a zookeeper in India. When the family decided to move to Canada, their boat sank and the boy, Pi, was the lone survivor in a lifeboat with several of the animals (zebra, hyena, orangutan and a tiger) that were being taking to different zoos. Of the animals, only the tiger had a name, Richard Parker. Sometimes the writing was hard to follow.

This book is baffling, at least it was to me. As I was reading, I was pretty bored with the first 100 pages where Pi tells about the zoo animals and his search for God through different religions but once Pi got shipwrecked and found himself on a lifeboat with a tiger and some other wild animals, my interest picked up. It's quite an adventure story and I enjoyed Pi's fight for survival, even though parts were very gross and at some points it didn't make sense (I wasn't sure if he was hallucinating or if it was just turning into a fantasy book).

Then, as I finished the book, I realized it is a metaphor and there was so much to look back at and try to figure out what the author's message really is. It's quite a book, a challenging read. I recommend it to anyone who likes a thought-provoking book and strange endings. It has suspense, adventure, humor and philosophy all mixed into it.
(Karen's review 4/08)

I finally got around to watching the movie on DVD and loved it!  See my review of it here.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

"Chicken Boy" by Frances O'Roark Dowell

Chicken Boy by Frances O’Roark Dowell is a YA fiction story about Tobin, a 7th grader who became neglected after his mother died.  He has a good relationship with his grandmother who blames his father for her daughter’s death.  He is pretty much withdrawn but finally makes a friend, Henry, who gets him interested in chickens.  Raising chickens and having a friend helps him feel better about himself and his school work improves.  He is put into a nice foster home when his grandmother calls social services to report the neglect on the part of the dad. 

I learned some things about chickens by reading this book but I wasn’t all that impressed with it.  I usually like family stories but there wasn’t enough character development to make me really feel like I knew this family.  It seemed like there were loose ends and although he forgave his grandmother, other things seemed left unresolved.  The book seemed to just stop. 

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

"Street Lawyer" by John Grisham

I liked Street Lawyer by John Grisham because I work for attorneys so found the main character to be interesting and quite realistic. I was pulling for him throughout the book and admired him for giving up his cushy job at the big law firm to help out the homeless and down and out people. It made me rethink my priorities some and realize how bad off some people are. This is the first Grisham book I ever read and liked it very much.  I highly recommend this.
(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?