Four Mrs. Bradwells

Ugh...this book was a chore.  Should have been called Four Pretentious Women who complain A LOT!  There was a mystery in there somewhere, but lost within a whole bunch of complaining.  Was happy to finish.  1/5 Stars

Ape House - Sara Gruen

A very bit disappointment after Water for Elephants.  While Gruen's writing style is still quite open and engaging (hence I finished the book), the story itself was somehow unusual and cliché.  Essentially, she tells the story of apes from a language lab who are kidnapped and made to perform on a reality television program.  Unusual, right?  However, the characters just seem so "stock".  The beautiful, insecure wife; the doting husband, the evil villain, the journalist who will do it all for a story etc., etc.

Elephants on the Edge

Title: Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us about Humanity
Author: G. A. Bradshaw Page
Publisher: Yale University Press (October 26, 2010)

ISBN-10: 9780300167832
ISBN-13: 978-0300167832
ASIN: 0300167830

I bought this book with great expectations for enjoyment. I was stepping out of my comfort zone in that it wasn't another book on skepticism, or a book about quantum/theoretical physics, but I still was looking forward to reading it as it was one of Scientific American's top picks.

Unfortunately, I found that I just couldn't get into it.  So much so, that I just couldn't finish the book.  It isn't that the subject matter was uninteresting, it is more the writing that the author delivered.  I just didn't find it compelling.  Wait, that isn't entirely true. There were bits and pieces that I found quite interesting, but on the whole, I found the writing boring.

I personally, would only give this book 1 out of 5 stars.

To anyone who disagrees with me, I do like elephants, but I found it boring...sorry.

Liars and Saints - Maile Meloy

My desire to do this blog post seems to match the feeling I had while I was reading this book.  Ugh...just don't want to do it.  However, in the interest of completeness, here goes.  This is a multi-generational family saga, which in theory sounds fine.  I've read and enjoyed many a book of this ilk.  Mercy Among the Children comes to mind.  My problem with this book seems to have been the religious undertones.  They took me right out of the story.  I didn't find a lot of joy in any of the characters and the incest thing was just plain creepy.  All in all, glad it was a short book and I have it behind me.

1 out of 5 stars.

The Passage - Justin Cronin

Just couldn't get through this one.  The first three-hundred pages weren't bad; in this section, you learned about the evolution of the so-called virus.  After that, I just lost all interest.  It resembled this frontier-type story, where the characters were protecting themselves against the virus-carriers.  So, I skimmed the last four-hundred pages and called it a day.  I can't fault the writing of the author, it's just a story that failed to capture me.  It reminded me, in some ways, of Stephen King.  So, if you enjoy his books, it may be worth picking this one up.

1/5 Stars