The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

This was our next stop on our trip through Narnia.  For this book, we went back to the beginning to see how Narnia was created.  I prefer to read this one second when I read the whole series as I think it helps to know what happens in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" before you read this one. That was confirmed for me when I saw the looks on the kids faces when they found out that Digory grows up to be the Professor in "The Lion...".  They were so excited.

There are some really funny parts in this book, like when the White Witch invades London, or when Uncle Andrew is planted like a tree in the new land of Narnia.  It's interesting to see how the White Witch leaves the land of Charn and ends up in Narnia, causing trouble.

All in all, we loved this book.  The kids are loving the series and I'm loving reading it again with their first-time enthusiasm.  Next we will read, "A Horse and His Boy" and then work the rest of the way through the series as they're numbered.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

I'm iffy about this one.  I started reading it on the recommendation of a friend, but I didn't read any sort of synopsis before I started.  I had no idea what was about to happen.  I really liked it at the beginning, but as it wore on, I kind of lost interest.

This is the story of Clay Jannon, a young man living in San Francisco who finds himself out of work.  He stumbles across a "Help Wanted" sign and goes into Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and gets a job on the spot.  But when he is hired, he is told not to look into the books that are available there.

Soon after starting, Clay notices that strange things are happening in the bookstore.  Regular customers come in (and he must record every detail of their visit in a log book) and borrow books, but they never purchase them.  Even though he has been told not to, Clay decides to look at the books to see what is inside.  He finds a series of symbols that don't make sense to him and stumbles across a secret society trying to crack the code.

Conveniently, his girlfriend works for Google and his roommate works for Industrial Light and Magic.  Having these two at his disposal makes it easy for him to try to find out more information and even crack part of the code that takes some of the members decades to do on their own.

From here, it lost me a little.  It was a little too convenient that he had people working for Google and ILM available to him.  Also, the secret society part seemed like it was trying to be a bit Dan Brown-y.  I don't like Dan Brown, so for me, that's not a good thing.

It was good, not great, but a fun, quick read.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I really have a hard time talking about this book.  It's so beautiful, yet so difficult at the same time.  This was a re-read for me.  I read it for the first time several years ago, and then it was the selection for my book club for this month's meeting.  I don't know if I would have read it a second time without it having been selected by my book club.

Set in Germany during World War II, I feel this book gives an insight into WWII that is often overlooked.  When thinking of that war, we often (or at least I do) just think of Germany as the "bad guys".  You don't think about the average German family at that time, people who may not have agreed with the direction their country was heading, but had to survive there regardless.  The book is narrated by Death, and he is kept very busy throughout the book.

The Book Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger, who at the beginning of the book is an illiterate girl being taken by train to live with a new foster family.  She is taken by her mother, a communist, to try to give her a safer life.  Her younger brother dies on the train journey.  Liesel in now left to start a new life alone with her new foster parents, Hans and Rose Hubermann.

After the death of her brother, Liesel steals a book dropped by the gravediggers who bury him.  It is the beginning of her love of words, books and language, which carries her through the rest of her life.  Taught to read by her foster father, words change Liesel's life in ways she never imagined.

As a lover of words and books myself, this strikes a chord with me.  I love this girl and her story.

But aside from all that, this book introduces one of my favourite literary characters of all time, Hans Hubermann, Liesel's stepfather.  Foster parents often are depicted as the villains, but nothing can be further from the truth in this book.  Hans is genuine goodness and love personified, and one of the most beautiful characters I've ever read.

It's not a light read.  You're not going to walk away from this book and think, "Wow, that was great.  I loved that!" in a traditional way.  But if you're like me, you will be challenged by what you read, you'll love the characters, and you might even gain a new understanding about how people lived during WWII.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

I'm not sure how many times I've read this book, but this past reading was definitely my favourite.  The kids and I have been reading a chapter (or two) at night before bed.  Reading one of my favourite stories from childhood with my kids was so much fun  They were so excited each night to see what was going to happen next and every night they asked me to just read a little more.  In fact, the best motivator I've ever had to get Wesley to brush his teeth was to say, "Come on, let's go so we can see what's happening in Narnia."  The teeth got brushed every time.

We loved reading this book together.  They loved the characters, the creatures from another world that they've never heard of and couldn't quite picture.  They loved the idea of being able to sneak into another world, and have asked me to buy a wardrobe in case it's one that will get us into Narnia.

I don't think I really need to say a lot about this book, it's such a classic.  If you haven't read it, you should, no matter what your age.  And if you can read it with your kids, even better.

I decided to read the series a little out of order with them.  Chronologically this is the second in the series, but I thought they'd enjoy this one more than, "The Magicians's Nephew" which is #1 in the series.  We're going to start that one tomorrow.

Now I just have to keep Darcy from reading ahead.  No easy task.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

I loved this book!  What a fun, refreshing read.  I finished it in two days (but don't ask me about the state of my house).

Professor Don Tillman has Asberger's. But he doesn't know that.  What he does know is that he doesn't do well in social settings and that he wants to find wife.  So after years of never being able to get to a second date with a woman he develops, "The Wife Project", a lengthy questionnaire he can give to women to rule out unsuitable women without wasting their time on a first date. The questionnaire involves things like smoking, drinking, vegetarianism and ice cream preferences (after one particularly horrible date), among countless others. 

Along the way he meets Rosie, who fails the questionnaire on so many levels.  But she is looking to find her biological father and Don, a geneticist, can help her with this.  As he sets aside his wife project to help her look for her father, he learns a lot about himself and about what it really means to love someone.

At times it's hilarious, others sweet, but, in my opinion, always enjoyable. Don's rigid routines, his awkward social encounters and his struggles to deal with life as he sees it are fun to read and develop a character that you really grow to care about.

I've read that this book was actually written as a screenplay that was turned into a book and of course, Sony has already optioned the screenplay.  So it's quite likely that there could be a movie version in the future.  I'm not sure how I'd feel about that, but I've also heard he's working on a sequel to the book.  I'm much more interested in that.

So, if you're looking for a funny, light read, I highly recommend this one.  It could be my favourite book of 2014 and it's only January 26th!

Best Kept Secret by Jeffrey Archer

I think this is the most disappointed I've ever been by a Jeffrey Archer book.  This is the third book in his "Clifton Chronicles" series, and having enjoyed the first two books, I was eager to read this one.  The second book ended on a bit of a cliff hanger, so I wanted to see how that resolved.

What I usually love about Archer's books is that they keep me intrigued from beginning to end.  There is some sort of mystery that keeps you guessing until the very last page (First Among Equals is a great example).  But that just didn't happen in this book.  This one read like a collection of short stories.  There's a crisis to be solved and it's solved within 50 pages.  Then we're on to the next one.  Then the next.  But there wasn't really a thread through all of them that kept you wondering what was next, they could all have been completely unrelated to each other.  While most of them were interesting, once you finished one there wasn't really anything to keep you reading the next section.

I won't say much about the story line of this one, in case you've read (or are planning to read) the first two books, and I don't want to spoil their stories. This one does end on an exciting cliffhanger again, so now I have to decide if I want to read the next one when it comes out in May. Will it be as good as the first two, or a dud like this one?

The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler

Often, by the time I get around to reading a book, I have no idea where I heard about the book in the first place.  This is one of those books.  I actually started reading the book months ago, couldn't get into it and set it aside.  I just picked it up again this week and was able to finish it this time.  (Side note, in my life, there have only been three books that I have started and not finished: "The Hobbit", "Catch-22" and "Captain Corelli's Mandolin".)

Although I finished it, I didn't love it.  And that's ok.  No one is going to like every book they read.  I just wish I remembered where I heard of this one and what it was that made me want to read it in the first place.

Set in Montreal, beginning right after WWII, this is the story of a Jewish woman who arrives in Montreal from Europe, to meet the man she had corresponded with and who had promised to marry her.  He has a bad feeling when he sees her get off the train so he leaves her at the train station and she ends up marrying his brother instead.  But it is clear that she is not who she claims to be.

The story is told in alternating chapters between her story and the story of her daughter, who grows up not knowing her mother.  The story really belongs to Ruthie, the daughter who grows up without her mother, trying to find where she belongs and how to deal with how different she feels from everyone else who has a mother.  For reasons that are never fully explained, members of her family keep what they do know about her mother from her and her small attempts at finding her mother don't work.

I just wasn't drawn into this book.  I didn't feel an emotional connection with the characters.  I didn't understand a lot of the decisions they made.  For that reason, the book just didn't sit well with me.  I usually love WWII stories too, which is probably part of what drew me to this one.

One thing I did like about the book were the familiar settings around Montreal, hearing descriptions of places I've been and seen.  That's always fun.

So, I thought this book was OK. A fairly light read, an interesting look at what defines us, but there are better books out there.