Tag: reading

Book Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

melinda pic circle15 year old Christopher is pulled into a mystery when he discovers the neighbor’s dog has been killed, by someone putting a pitchfork through its body. He tries to solve the mystery in the manner of Sherlock Holmes, one of his favorite characters from fiction. At his Teacher’s suggestion, he begins to write an account of his sleuthing, among other things. A very enjoyable read!

I was pleasantly surprised by the main character, Christopher John Francis Boone. He is a very sweet kid and has a quirky way of looking at the world, and those around him. He has Autism, but he does have the ability to function and even excel in certain areas, for instance, Math or as they call it in Great Britain, Maths. He knows every prime number up to 7,057, and he explains what a prime number is. He makes several references to Maths and has a lot of equations and maps in the book. I have to admit that some of it was lost on me, but it didn’t stop my enjoyment of the book.

The best part about the book is that it gives you a look inside the mind of a person with autism. He gets overstimulated because he doesn’t have the ability to shut stimulus off that is coming at him. This not only makes him very observant and intelligent, but clever in the many ways that he tries to cope with his disorder. I could see that how he reacts to the world around him makes perfect sense.

So Many Books . . . So Little Time

I have always loved to read. I’m pretty sure it started when I was about 8 or so and I binge read every Nancy Drew mystery I could get my hands on. Summer Bookmobile and visits to the Library were always a highlight .

During my adult life, it has been a bit different. Don’t get me wrong, I still love to read; however, there are so many more things to distract me from it. Including Candy Crush and Podcasts.

In the last couple years though, I have been able to delve back into the literary world and started reading in earnest again.  I have also been able to combine my long-held love of reading with my new-found love of podcasts. I have found a couple book/literary podcasts I absolutely love (check them out here:  What Should I Read Next, Literary Disco, and  Book Riot The Podcast).

So, this blog is for my fellow bookies who like me follow the latest literary news. No, not the fact that there will not be a Nobel Prize in literature this year. I am speaking of The Great American Read. It is a list if 100 books that are deemed “most loved”. I’ve read about 19 of them and probably remember details from only about 10 of them  

“THE GREAT AMERICAN READ is an eight-part series that explores and celebrates the power of reading, told through the prism of America’s 100 best-loved novels (as chosen in a national survey).  It investigates how and why writers create their fictional worlds, how we as readers are affected by these stories, and what these 100 different books have to say about our diverse nation and our shared human experience.  “

Wondering how the top 100 books were chosen? Well let me tell you:

“PBS and the producers worked with the public opinion polling service “YouG”ov” to conduct a demographically and statistically representative survey asking Americans to name their most-loved novel. Approximately 7,200 people participated.

So, in honor of this cool event . . . I am featuring some book reviews from some of my most favorite people to share books with.  Enjoy the first installment – The Outsiders.