The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst

This book was seemingly normal at first - the whole first half.  Then this really upsetting bizarre and weird occurrence took place which almost made me not like the book at all.  This man was very sad that his wife died and there are flashbacks throughout the book explaining his relationship with his wife as it had been.  The man drops out of work as a university professor on a sabbatical to teach his dog to speak as he thinks this will help him understand how his wife died.  He suspects suicide.  The bereaved  man, in his desperation, writes to a horrid dog abuser in jail to consult him concerning his work operating on dogs and disfiguring them in horrible ways in order to make them speak.  The jailed man gives one of his underground dog-abusing cohorts the bereaved man's address and the bereaved man eventually becomes involved in this club but is horror-stricken by their actions and he must leave.  When he returns home to find his dog missing, he knows it is the crazy animal abusers which did it.  The dog is eventually found with her essential vocal organs removed, but alive.  The man thinks he found out how his wife died in the end.  The poor dog scenario was too much for me to take though.  I don't think I'll read another book... too gross.  Most of the book was totally OK though.  5/10

One Day by David Nicholls

I didn't want to like this book because the morals were quite low concerning the main character Dexter.  Emily and Dexter are the main characters of the book.  The description David Nicholls uses in the novel are interesting.  I enjoyed reading it, but the characters' actions were disgusting. 

I found myself really wanting to know what was going to happen to Dex and Em and their relationship.  I didn't realize I was so involved in their characters until I got to the ending and the surprising twist of fate made me emotionally upset.  I am now the same age the characters were in the book at the ending of the book (mid-40s) so in that way I related to the book as well. 

I don't know England very well and I feel I got to know it somewhat through the novel.

The author was a good storyteller.  I would give this book a 6 1/2/10.

Home Another Way by Christa Parrish

I found Home Another Way by Christa Parrish more entertaining than most books.  It seemed like a Christian novel, but the ending wasn't as tidy and predictable as I would have thought a Christian novel to be.  The main character was also more risky than I would have thought a Christian writer would have portrayed.  I suppose it is more realistic though.  The way Sarah Graham lives her life and questions situations is, perhaps, how a lot of people really would go about doing things when invstigating their own belief in God.  I don't know how she got away with her behavior at times and why everyone was so kind to her, but perhaps I can see it, especially if the town loved her father even though he is said to have murdered his wife, Sarah's mother.

The description in the novel was unusual to me.  I'm too tired right now to look them up.

And sentences seemed to need periods such as the ending part of the following sentence towards the beginning of chapter 22 which states, "...keeping my passenger-side tires in the snow, for traction, I hoped."  There seems to be a period in need after the word "traction."  Also the sentence shortly after the previous one which states, "I jammed my foot down, spun to the right, jerked the steering wheel to the left." strikes me as a comma splice.  I don't know if it is the author's intention for this to happen and I don't get it, or if grammatical errors are throughout the novel.  It seems the latter.

However, I enjoyed it and the unusual descriptions that made me in some way uncomfortable, like they were forced, or too thought out and strategically placed instead of a natural flow of the novel, did help and worked in aiding me to understand the picture a bit better of what it was like there in the small town of Jonah.  I would give this novel a 7/10.

Loverboy by Victoria Reed

As I read the first few pages of this novel I came across instances where I was disturbed by the storyline.  The disturbing instances continued to get worse until the end of the novel where it was the worst. 

A child who was neglected emotionally grew up and her goal was to have a child who would love her and be loved.  The relationship between the mother and child is weird.  The child seems healthy, but the mother doesn't. 

The way the story is written is somewhat interesting.  There are flashbacks and the story is told in jumbled patches which isn't discernable until the end of the novel.

I would give this book a 5/10.

I enjoyed Daughter's Keeper by Ayelet Waldman.  I would rate it a 5/10.  It was good.  A woman named Elaine never really had a great relationship with her daughter Olivia, but she was a proficient mother.  Elaine provided for her daughter, but cut herself off emotionally.  She would not hug her and was disgusted by her when the daughter went to her for affection or help from the time she was a baby.  Olivia was a good child and grew into a good person (in my perception anyway). 

Olivia met a man named Jorge on a trip to Mexico and had a wild love affair with him.  Jorge showed up on Olivia's doorstep one day and they started living together because Olivia didn't have the heart to tell him she wanted nothing further than their relationship in Mexico where after their first intimate encounter she realized she didn't really love him. 

Jorge eventually became involved with drugs and Olivia ended up having to go to jail for four years.  She discovered she was pregnant before the trial began, gave birth to the baby and acted as it's mother for a couple of months before she had to begin serving her sentence. 

The book was sad and a random pick from the library. I just wanted a light book for entertainment and this book was good for that and not boring.  If it were a movie it would be rated R for sexual content and language.

Although it was well-written (to me at least) and not boring, it just didn't grab my heart strings as something that I became completely emotionally swept up in, but this is just my taste.  A different person may just really enjoy this book.  It's just a matter of taste.  There was something morally not far-reaching enough for me.  I don't have the words to describe it nor do I fully understand what it is myself... just my taste is all I can think of.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith was an entertaining book reminding me of Jane Austin's novels.  The Heroine wrote the entire novel as a diary entry, which normally I find tedious, however, in this novel I found that I couldn't wait to see what she would write next.  The novel was published in 1948, two years before my mom was born, but I think the setting was actually around 1930 or so.  The book also reminded me of D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love but wasn't as slow moving.  I didn't feel quite the pitch of excitement as Jane Austin's novels when reading I Capture the Castle, but it was still very engaging in a more modern way.  I can see why one review stated that I Capture the Castle was the segway into writings such as are published by James Joyce, although I find James Joyce much more complicated and less enjoyable.  I was disappointed at the ending of the book, but explaining why may ruin it for other readers.  Ok, I'll ruin it.  If you read further, you own it, not me.  Cassandra doesn't end up with Simon!  Grrrrr.  After all that.  The possibility is open, but I don't like possibilities, I want the satisfaction of seeing it come to fruition.  I would rate this book an A.