#0022A The Magicians - Lev Grossman

I was quite disappointed with this book. I was told that this book was an older version of Harry Potter. Boy doesn't know he's a magician, boy gets accepted into a magic school, blah blah blah. He was in school for about one third of the book. (Not to mention this particular book was split up into 4 parts within the book)

The Magicians did have a few good fighting scenes, but the story jumped around a lot and the transitions were not smooth. A lot of things didn't really need to be in the story. The only way I could see this getting better is if the 4 parts of the book were split up into 4 different books and the 2-4 were expanded more, but adding more excitement instead of people just sitting around talking and drinking. Eh, the book just wasn't for me. 2 stars

#0021A Weight of Silence - Heather Gudenkauf

Bravo to Heather Gudenkauf for a great first novel! I absolutely loved this book. It had me hooked at the beginning and would not let go. I first thought that this book would be a mystery. Just by reading the back, you would think so, but this book is shelved in the fiction section. It really feels like a dark better Jodi Picoult book.

Every chapter in this book tells the story through the eyes of a different character. (Just like As I Lay Dying -Faulkner) Although it does not reenacted what has happened several times. You only get the story once. In reading the book this way make some things unknown and particular things know to the reader that other characters don't know about. So, either way it's a surprise. I feel like now, I'm not making sense.

The main character is a little girl who turns mute after a horrible accident. She doesn't grow up in the best of homes, considering her father is a total drunk, and her mom decides to stay in that unhealthy relationship. She befriends a girl that stands up for her one day at school and they become best friends ever since. Her friend turns into her voice. One morning, both mothers wake up to both of little girls missing and there are footprints outside one of the houses. An investigations goes on that brings out awkward embarrassing family secrets when all they want to do is to go out and look for the girls in the woods. 5 stars

#0035: Minor Characters, A Beat Memoir, by Joyce Johnson

Hooray for free books! This one was found at the recycling center in town.
Personal stories are always interesting to read. Personal stories within a generation that produced so much are even better. This is one such memoir. Joyce Johnson talks about life from pre-adolescence through her mid twenties and a cast of characters known to us today as the "beats". Jack Kerouac coined this phrase, claiming that the term came from the word "beatific".
Johnson dated Kerouac for a year and a half, and much of this book revolves around their relationship. It seemed to me that Johnson, nee Glassman, tried very much to fit in with this group and be independent, but so much depended on Jack. It was hard for me to pick out the things she did for herself, and the things she did for or because of him. Perhaps there was an even mix of the two, but I read it as very dependent.
That would be my one qualm with this memoir, but who am I to judge someone else's life? Times for women have changed drastically since then, and I was reading with eyes that could never comprehend how her life felt. I'm glad she shared it with me and fellow readers. I would recommend it for a quick read, but don't expect any amount of "beat-style" language.
3.5 stars
* A note on the cover used here: this is not the same edition I read. I try to be consistant in that. Online, I could not find any pictures of the editon I have. Everything I saw had Kerouac plastered all over it, which I feel is purely a marketing device. It's a little bit telling to me that the title is Minor Characters and the cover I'm posting makes it seem like Jack is a main character, pushing Joyce Johnson to the side. Do not be fooled. This is by Joyce, about Joyce.

#0034K: The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan

I'm taking more and more of a liking to science reads these days. I found The Demon Haunted World in Goodwill, and planned on getting to it "eventually". Then, a friend of a friend began talking about it, and I decided to dive in. He had said that it was a good "bathroom book" as each chapter can stand on it's own. Indeed, they can, but reading it all together did no harm. I feel like the underlying subject was the importance of skepticism. Sagan repeated this time and time again. I don't suppose that skepticism is something many of us think about as integral, but after reading this, I concur. Skeptics are needed to challenge our ideas and beliefs so that something can be proven. In the end, someone will be right and someone will be wrong-- but even the person on the winning end will need to be challenged in the future, and that's okay.
I was impressed with Sagan's writing style. It was a bit intimidating to open a book from a man with such an intellect, but he was able to speak clearly about science to a non-science audience, which is much appreciated. A lot can get lost or misunderstood when things are placed in purely technical terms. I will be reading Sagan again.
4.333 stars

#0033K: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I'm all about some Russian literature. I had read some short stories by Solzhenitsyn last school year, and found this book at the paperback exchange in Connecticut. He is well-known for this novel, as well as his other writings about gulags/work camps in the Soviet Union. The title gives a pretty good idea what the book is about. Ivan Denisovich is a prisoner in one such camp, and has been there for years. When we meet him, he is feeling ill, and tries desperately to get a doctor's order to keep him in bed all day. Unfortunately, he gets to the clinic too late and has to report to his unit for work detail anyway. Throughout the day, we see that men were made into work-horses and learn about the danger present in other prisoners. We learn a few facts about Ivan's personal life-- he has a wife and daughter, and some of his inner feelings about his personal positon.
In general, the book feels very grey, but I think it's also uplifting.
4.75 stars.

#0020 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - J K Rowling

Do I really have to review this book? This is the second time I've read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I just read it so I could remember what happened before watching the movie. I really have more to say about the movie, but since this is not a movie blog I won't bother. I just have to say that I really like Harry Potter and this book, like the rest, was amazing. Even reading it for the second time was just as good as the first. Actually, come to think of it, it was better because I understood more and got a grasp on things that I missed while reading it for the first time. I really like how they really dabble into Tom Riddle's life as a child and even his parents. It really explains how he came to be. 5 stars