Book Chatter

I know that summer is not over just yet, but it feels like it to me. We didn’t get to take a vacation this year and I’m sure that has a lot to do with it. It’s made me a bit blue and well…rather crabby but I’m trying to rise above it.

Last week we did the back-to-school clothes shopping and although The Boy is pretty easy, The Girl is anything but! She is very particular with sizing. It has to fit just so and so we tend to get into it while in the dressing room. I don’t think that her jeans need to be painted on but apparently I am un-cool and don’t know. Oh and the shoes!! How many shoes do kids need??? BOTH of my kids have really large feet and they just keep growing and now with cross country for The Boy, I have running shoes to invest in as well. I need a second job just to pay for these shoes!

And during all of this, my husband who was walking behind me stepped on the heel of my shoe (flat tire) and broke my shoe while we were shopping. Who does that??? I had to buy shoes for myself while my shoe was just dangling off of my foot. I felt like an idiot. Of course, the shoes I bought have given me nothing but blisters all week. That’s what happens when you buy shoes out of desperation. You get the shaft.

The good note?

All of this fall shopping has made me anxious for fall. I love fall. Warm sweaters, candles, the holiday drink menu at Starbucks. I love it all. So although I sort of skipped over summer, I am looking forward to fall and my son’s first year in high school!

What about reading?

As for reading, my summer list never really looked much like a summer reading list anyway but I’ve read five out of the original nine listed and a bunch of other books in between.

This stack that you see above? This is what happens to be staring me in the face at the moment. Two of those books are for tours and I have checked Divergent out four times and still haven’t gotten to it! It’s due next week, with holds, so if I don’t read it this weekend, I will once again be turning it in.

Right now, I am halfway through Gone Girl and wondering where the WOW is. Well, I might be a little further along than that but I keep waiting for the WOW that everyone talks about. I am also reading Norwegian Wood. I am nearly done with it. It’s definitely one of Murakami’s quieter novels. I am enjoying it for its peaceful simplicity.

Not much going on this weekend. I’d like to just watch a bunch of movies and read and maybe grill something but other than that, I don’t plan on doing much. Sounds just fine to me. Do you think it will happen?

The Prisoner of Heaven
By Carlos Ruiz Zafon
(Harper, Hardcover, 9780062206282, July 2012, 288pp.)

The Short of It:

A mystery, familiar characters and the lure of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books is why I quickly snatched this one up.

The Rest of It:

When I read The Shadow of the Wind years ago, I considered it a stand-alone novel. It was a magical story, beautifully written with a fantastic setting and wonderful, memorable characters. Plus, it introduced me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books which was, to me, such a wonderful invention. Imagine a large library of forgotten titles, all lovingly preserved…never to disappear from existence. Sigh.

Several years later, Zafon came out with The Angel’s Game which was, at the time, advertised as a prequel to Shadow but the author has said numerous times, that all of the books are stand-alone novels and not meant to be read in any particular order and in the case of Angel, I’d say that fits. However, The Prisoner of Heaven is a follow-up to Shadow in that our main character is now all grown up, married and a father. But once again, although we get to know a little more about these wonderful characters, it has its own story to tell.

Daniel and his father continue to run their bookshop, but times are tough and the business has not been doing well. One day, a stranger walks in and buys a very expensive copy of The Count of Monte Cristo, signs it and tells Daniel to give it to his old friend, Fermin Romero del Torres. When Daniel opens the book, he sees that the inscription that the stranger left, is signed Fermin Romero del Torres which is the same name as Daniel’s long time friend. When Daniel shows the book to Fermin, the man has no choice but to share his secret with Daniel and in doing so, is forced to remember a different time, when his days were spent behind bars with a mysterious prisoner by his side.

The book is short so I don’t want to tell you too much about plot because if I do, you won’t read it. What I can tell you is that it isn’t as enthralling as Shadow but it was a solid installment to the series. I enjoyed it much more than Angel. My only quibble was the obvious lead-in to a fourth installment at the end. I knew from reading some other reviews that a fourth book is coming, but I didn’t expect the lead-in to be so obvious. That was really the only thing that stuck out for me.

If you could only read one book, I’d highly recommend Shadow but if you end up falling in love with the characters then you’ll be like me and read all of them just because they are all tied together in some way. This is one series where the setting has you coming back for more, too. Barcelona. Old streets. Gothic structures. Mysterious, sinister characters. Yep, quite enjoyable.

Source: Sent to me by the publisher via Edelweiss.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Chatting with friends about books and life…