Dracula by Bram Stoker

My podcast has decided to do a little book club and now I’m into reading another book every four weeks. The good part of this one is that I get a bigger say into what is read and I might actually like the books chosen. Although, I had my doubts when we first chose this one.

I’m pretty sure everyone knows this story. Young lawyer goes to Castle Dracula on business and it turns out his client is a member of the evil undead. This walking fiend has plans on relocation to London and wreck havoc on its citizens. Wackiness ensues.

I had started this book before, ages ago and didn’t finish it. The first time I tried reading this book, I gave up after about the third chapter. Really boring. This time I stuck with it and realized it got really good once we get some good supernatural action. During the first go, I likely wasn’t responding too well to the diary like way the story was told. This time, I’ve been so desensitized by the world of blogs that it didn’t bother me that much.

The most interesting thing I got out of this reading was the fact that they have changed Mina’s character in every movie I’ve seen her in. In a lot of the movies, she is portrayed as someone who is in love with Dracula. In the book, she is an example of the modern woman, smart, articulate, and not afraid to work to carry out what needs to be done. That part was quite refreshing to read. She was definitely the brains and the strength behind the group of merry men banding together to kill the little nuisance.

Anyway, it was good to read and if you are low in money, a copy of it can be downloaded from Project Guttenberg.

Wanderlust by Chris Dryer

Hopefully, this will be the quickest review ever written… here goes… I’m going to keep track of the time. (Start time 1:44am)

Wanderlust is a book about a travel writer who has a love for travel and is lucky enough to be able to make a living at it. Luckily, she is able to have friends and family at home to keep her grounded back into reality. You see, she, the protagonist, Kate Bogart, doesn’t like to be tied down and can rarely stay in the same hotel room for more than two nights in a row. Although that is quite useful as it allows her to review a number of different hotels for her job… but then, we are getting into reality that rarely fits into her world. You see, (and I’ll try to say this with as little jealousy as possible,) she has men falling in love with her no matter where she turns. First is a fellow travel journalist that she meets at the first of the book. This right after her affair with the Spanish bull fighter at the opening of the story. Not to mention her ex-husband that still has a torch burning for her and perhaps their marriage isn’t over after all. Of course they are all gorgeous. Nope, I’m not bitter…

The real problem I had with this book is that is written all in emails; emails back and forth between her friends, mother, boss, men, etc. Nothing is written or explained or detailed like you would get from a book written by a real literary author. It is just emails. I deal with emails all day. I hate them. And it took me forever to get through this book. Mostly because every time I picked it up to read before going to bed, it would put me to sleep. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like chick-lit as much as the next person. This one, was just too much. Perhaps it just could have used more work to make it a tighter story with sharper wit.

Oh well, that’s life. There is always next time. (Stop time: 1:56…. Wow, twelve minutes, that has to be a personal best.)

My rating: :-P

A Telling of Stars by Caitlin Sweet

Review by Greta Dean

I stumbled upon this book entirely by accident. Most books I read tend to be the high recommendation of a friend/acquaintance/family member, but this one is entirely my fault. A Telling of Stars is about the journey of a girl, Jaele, on the cusp of womanhood to avenge the murder of her family. It is a coming of age story tinged with blood-rage.

Through her travels, Jaele meets a series of people who seem to want neither to help nor hinder her, although most of them try to persuade her that revenge killing is not a good idea. The characters range from the normal human variety to such alien creatures as exiled sea people forced to live on their ravaged desert homeland, and captive, cave dwelling, horned and taloned Iben, to whom the story is being told.

All in all, it was a good book, although the style was sluggish at times. It had the feel of a book written for teens (and for all I know, it was) and still trying to be enchanting to a more "mature" reading group. I recommend it on the sole basis that it is not set in some mid-western one-horse town that is visited by a big city kid, or vice versa.

And that is all I have to say about this...