Book 11: The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

I wanted to get a little bit of non-fiction into my rotation of books and this will be the first.  I've seen bits and pieces of the movie version of this book, but have never seen the whole thing.  It is considered one of the best non-fiction books around and I've always been interested in air- and spacecraft so it seems a good fit.  My copy of the book has 436 pages so I need to read 63 pages a day to finish in a week.

REVIEW:  This was a really interesting non-fiction book.  It read more like a novel with the characters introduced, the story building to an exciting climax and the denouement at the end.  It tells the story of the birth of the Space Age in America, starting with the fighter jet test pilots and progressing through Project Mercury and the first human spaceflights.  The astronauts and test pilots of the book all appear as heroes in the classical sense, "single combat warriors" as Wolfe calls them.

All-in-all I really enjoyed this book.  I feel like I learned something about an era that I didn't really know much about.  It dragged a bit in some places but, since it is non-fiction, it is inevitable that some  parts will be more interesting than others.  I'd give this one a 9 out of 10.

Book 10: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

I'm worn out from the last couple books, so I want something quick and easy this time.  At about 300 pages, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd should allow me to take my time. Besides, I've never read anything by Ms. Christie and, I assume, she must be famous for a good reason, right?  This one came up on a lot of lists as the best of her works, so I thought I'd give it a try.

REVIEW:  I expected this one to be pretty good based solely on the reputation of the author, but it exceeded my expectations by far.  The writing was very entertaining and had me hooked from the first chapter.  It was, pretty much, exactly what I want from a mystery novel.  The clues were all presented before the reveal, allowing you to make guesses as to "who dunnit" throughout.  In fact, it was complicated enough that I revised my own personal list of suspects at least 3 times before the end.  And I still got it wrong.  Mostly this is due to the great twist at the end.  I didn't see it coming at all.  I'm not going to spoil it, of course, but it got me good.

9/10 - one of the best of the genre and definitely one of my new favorite books.

Book 9: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

This one was recommended by a friend of mine at work who just finished it.  She said it was a great, classic adventure story and, having enjoyed Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island, it sounded pretty good.  It's also part of a trilogy, which I didn't know, including this novel, Twenty Years Later and The Man in the Iron Mask.  Throw in The Count of Monte Cristo and that's 3 more books to add to my reading list.  Bonus!

673 pages this time, so that makes about 97 pages per day.

REVIEW:  This one kicked my butt.  My sister dared me to read it in French.  Unable to turn down a challenge like that, I tracked down a copy and did it.  It took me a few extra days but I managed it.  I'm not entirely sure if it was just my rusty French or if it was the book itself, but I found it to be rather shallow.  There was little to no character development and very little nuance in the plot or characters.  It wasn't a bad story and it was rather entertaining in parts but it felt a little cliché fairly often.  It may be because this book set the mold and others copied it (too often) but it was hard to ignore.  It got so bad at one point that I laughed out loud.  Chapter 65 begins thus: "C'etait une nuit orageuse et sombre."  Literally, "It was a dark and stormy night."  Wow.

So, that's it, a good bit of fun and decent story but a bit shallow and cliché.  Dare I start a rating system?  6 out of 10.

Book 8: "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" by J.K. Rowling

Enough of this high-brow stuff!  It's time to get back to where I left off with Harry Potter.  I found the first one to be a really good children's book.  Right up there with some of the classics.  The next two were also quite fun and addictive.  So, on to book 4.  734 pages, but they're very easy to read.  105 pages per day.

UPDATE:  At first, I didn't find this book to be as addictive as the third in the series "Prisoner of Azkaban", in fact, I fell behind a bit in the middle of the week.  But as I got further into it, I became progressively more interested. In fact, I stayed up until 1AM reading the last 200 pages because I just couldn't put it down.  This book was the first in the series where I felt that there was a large amount of substantial content left out of the film version.  To me, this is a big plus, because even though I'm reading the book 6 years after the film was released, and 11 years since it was first published, there is still a lot of material left to explore.  This is also the point in the series where things take a dramatic turn toward a darker storyline.  The final few chapters are very tense and, even knowing the ending from the film, you don't really know how everything happens.

With all the publicity and fanfare surrounding the Harry Potter franchise it is tempting to dismiss the phenomenon and try to distance yourself from the frenzy.  But, I truly believe that the series will stand the test of time and I am sure that I'll be revisiting it from the beginning when my little ones are old enough to enjoy it.  Thanks Harry, for another fun adventure.