Bliss by O.Z. Livaneli

I've totally been slacking on updating this blog. It's too much effort to go back and update on what I've read the past several months (er, half year), so let's just start fresh and new where I am now, okay?

Bliss is excellent. It is set in Turkey, and the author is Turkish. The book is beautifully written, though painful to read because of what happens to the main characters, the 15-year-old Meryem in particular (she is raped by her uncle and has thus "shamed her family"), though her cousin is also traumatized by war. However, it ends with hope.

The novel is a fascinating look at Turkey, where modern and traditional worlds clash. It was a quick read for me, and I found the language flowing and enjoyable.

I highly recommend this book

10th Grade by Joseph Weisberg

Pretty good. It’s a young adult novel, which means I’m not really the target audience, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The lack of punctuation and the rampant run-on sentences did give it an authentic feel (first person of a 10th grade boy), but it make it a bit slower to read. Still, I remember a lot of high school feeling that way – lots of uncertainty and just sorta making everything up.

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

Excellent. Highly recommended.

The Gospel of Food by Barry Glassner

Excellent. Highly recommended.

The Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

Meh. Fairly interesting, but they were wrong on a couple things (like the names of subatomic particles; minor, sure, but still), which means I can’t trust them on everything else in the book I knew nothing about. Which means it's a waste of time.

Don’t Try This At Home by Hunter S. Fulghum

Very fun. I admit… I’m tempted to try some of the things….

Fried Eggs With Chopsticks by Polly Evans

An enjoyable, fairly mindless romp that I read while myself traveling. I’m not dying to seek out her other books, but it was pleasant and fairly interesting to read nonetheless.

Blood Music by Greg Bear

Very good. Kinda scary, but in a fun, interesting way. I haven't been reading much sci-fi lately, so it was good to get a sci-fi book in.

David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism by Gregory A Prince

Excellent. A fascinating look at DOM and the church during his administration.

Dream Country (Sandman, Book 3) by Neil Gaiman

Meh. I was disappointed because the second one was so good. It was really short, only three tales, and none of them thrilled me.

The Doll's House (Sandman, Book 2) by Neil Gaiman

Excellent. Definitely much better than the first one. It was fairly disturbing, but I liked it.

The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

I'm not really into comics, but I've read everything else by Neil Gaiman (quite possibly my favorite author), so it was time to give his Sandman series a try. It took a while to get into it, but I enjoyed it.

The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark

Very interesting. I plan to look for more books by this author.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

SPOILER WARNING! DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED!

So good. Very good. Book 6 kind of sucked. I didn't object to Dumbledore's death; I objected to how boring the book was. Therefore I worried that the conclusion to the saga would be a disappointment. I'm glad I was wrong.

Fred's death is the saddest to me, followed by Lupin's. I was not shocked by Lupin's death, but I honestly was not expecting Fred's. I was actually kind of glad that Dobby died just because he's so annoying, and yet I cried as I read of his burial and small memorial. I'm glad to see depth to Dumbledore, and am glad to see that Snape really isn't evil, and I'm glad Ron and Hermione lived (though surprised the both made it). I'm surprised Harry lived. I love that Neville is a hero.

I generally don't like epilogues that jump years into the future, and this was no exception. We are given every indication that Ron and Hermione will end up together and Harry and Ginny will end up together and, hey, what do you know, that's what happens. Why bother jumping into the future to show that? It should have ended with Harry wanting to go to the Gryffindor tower to lay down. If she wanted the epilogue, she should have actually shown info we didn't already basically know.

All in all, this was a very good conclusion to the saga. It's been a lot of fun. I would be very happy if JK Rowling writes another series in that same world - not about Harry and Ron and Hermione, but other new characters unrelated to them. I really, really love the world she created.

Psion by Joan D. Vinge

I read this in high school and loved it, so I wanted to reread it to see if it was as good as I remembered (though I remembered nothing about it other than I loved it). The conclusion? It is indeed an excellent book.