Mini Reviews #1

Okay, so this a new thing for me this year. I'm going to save up several reviews and do them all at once rather than doing a long review on each book. If they are just books I've picked up to read, I'm going to do a mini review. I like to be able to look back at what I've read and see if it was something I enjoyed or an author I liked, so I still want to document it... just not clog up my blog with millions of reviews!


If they're for a publisher review or ARC tour, then obviously then they will get their own lengthy one. =)


Click the Goodreads Summary for a summary of each book.

Title: 51/50: The Magical Adventure of a Single Life

Author: Kristen McGuiness

2010, Soft Skull Press

ASIN: B00440D824

Genre: Non-Fiction

Goodreads Summary

My Review:

This was the first book I read on my Kindle. I started it thinking it was kind of a weird fictional book about a recovering alcoholic trying to discover herself... only to realize that it was actually more of a memoir written by the author about her own weird life. At that point I was too far in to quit, but I thought it was a strange and not very uplifting book.

Title: Paradise Valley (Daugthers of Caleb Bender #1)

Author: Dale Cramer

2010, Bethany House Publishers

ASIN: B004EPYYDQ

Genre: Christian Fiction

Goodreads Summary

My Review:

I'm always a sucker for a good Amish story, so when I saw this one for free on my Kindle I was pretty happy. This book is about a father who moves his Amish family to Mexico to avoid  a government that is attempting to force their children to attend a conventional school 5 days a week. Apparently this was based on some true events, which made me like the story even more. This was really a great novel, with intelligent and interesting characters. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series to see what happens to the Bender family in Mexico.

 Title: Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart

Author: Beth Pattillo

2010, Guideposts Books

ISBN: 0824947932

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Goodreads Summary

My Review:

This is my least favorite of my books I'm going to review today. There was something lacking about the storyline of this novel. It was cute, it was nice, but for some reason I wasn't too excited about it. It's a little unfortunate, because I looked back at my view of Jane Austen Ruined My Life by the same author, and I really liked it. I felt like the author was really grasping to make the story work with the whole Mr. Darcy/Jane Austen theme for this one. 

Title: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side (Jessica #1)

Author: Beth Fantaskey

2010, Graphica

AISN: B003UV91AQ

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Goodreads Summary

My Review:

This was another free Kindle download. I'd never even heard of it before. I really enjoyed this book. I always like a unique vampire story and this one delivered. Main character, Jessica, is a smart, interesting and fun American teenager and her counterpart, the vampire prince she's betrothed too (surprise!), Lucius, is complex, mysterious, charismatic and brooding all at once. Makes for an interesting relationship and story line. If you like paranormals I'd suggest picking this one up. I'm looking forward to the sequel!

Book Review: The Glass Castle

Book Details
Title: The Glass Castle
Author: Jeannette Walls
2005, Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 9780743247542

Summary (from the back cover):
The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing - a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.

My Review:
Wow. That about sums it up. Amazing story. I'm usually not much of a memoir reader. I like happy books - preferably novels. I've only read a handful of memoirs in the past and they were generally assigned reading for college classes. I was given this book to read by a friend to read. I probably never would have picked it up on my own.

Jeannette Walls tells her remarkable story of growing up with totally irresponsible parents. You can tell that her parents love their children, but they are completely selfish. There are times when they are homeless, don't have heat, food or indoor plumbing. I kept having to remind myself that this was a true story, not just something made up because it is so mind-boggling that people live this way - AND that basically, they choose to live this way. Her mother had a teaching degree and her father was a talented electrician, but neither one of them was willing to keep a job long enough to provide well for their children. You can also see her father has he spirals from a fun-loving, free-spirited person into someone who is (I think) disappointed in himself and unhappy with how his life is turning out and becomes "the town drunk."

What really was amazing is the tone in which Walls tells the story. She just tells it - she's not asking for sympathy or making it an excuse for anything - it's just the way life was for them. And between the four of the children, three of them have become successful at whatever they've chosen to do. Only the baby of the family seems to have turned out like her parents.

Like I said, I'm not usually one to read memoirs, but I would recommend this book to anyone. It was interesting and kept my attention. I would have read it straight through if I'd had the time!