Corey's 2011 Book Review

Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
Call of the Wild - Jack London
War of the Worlds
All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience- Neal A Maxwell
The Travelers Gift
The Art of War
Fellowship of the Ring

The Hunger Games

The Great Gatsby

So my list from 2011 is pathetic. Between classes and a feeling no motivation to read anything at all for fun, I just didn’t read that much this year. But, things are looking up already this year, so I should have some more variety.

Anne of Green Gables- I grew up loving the miniseries. I still love the miniseries, but only the Anne of Green Gables one. I cannot get into Anne of Avonlea or any of the other subsequent installments. I loved the book. I am just assuming that the same rule will apply with the books though, so I’m not even going to attempt to read any of the other ones. I’d recommend Anne of Green Gables to anyone, male and female alike.

Call of the Wild- A new favorite. I don’t even like dogs and this book had me from the beginning. I haven’t read any more London yet, but I plan on it. If the rest of his work is as good as this he will be moving toward the top of my author list.

War of the Worlds- You know, for a sci-fi book written in 1898, it’s pretty cool. It wasn’t my favorite book ever, but it was pretty good. I guess I’m spoiled by modern sci-fi, with non-stop explosions, gun fire, and guts-n-gore flying everywhere. If you want to read an early 20^th century story that is borderline prophetic, read “The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster. It’s a short story, and it is nothing like A Room with a View (Katie).

All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience- Neal A. Maxwell is such an awesome person. This book affected me a lot. I will just say, “Read it.” I am actually reading his biography by Bruce C. Hafen. The great thing about Elder Maxwell is that he is a relatable figure in church history. Though in his adult life he was obviously raised to a whole different level spiritually and intellectually, as a youth he was normal and flawed. Ashlee read President Hinckley’s bio this year and it seems like he was extraordinary in every way from birth, but Elder Maxwell is someone that I can look at and think to an extent that he reminds me of myself in some ways, and then he excels and turns into the extraordinary leader and disciple (a key word for him) we all recognize him to be.

The Traveler’s Gift- This in one of those cheesy inspirational/self-help kind of books. The author puts the main character (himself) in a time travel situation where he gets to talk to inspirational figures in history. It teaches good things, but it is not really well written and is laughably self-serving. The author really must think a lot of himself.

The Art of War- Meh.

The Fellowship of the Ring- Always a great read. Boromir is still my favorite character in the whole Lord of the Rings story. Flawed, misguided, ultimately repentant and gives his life for his comrades.

The Great Gatsby- I read this after Ashlee had. This is also one of my repent-for-not-doing-any-work-in-high-school books. I liked it. I should have read it when I was 16. I think Ashlee said what needed to be said, and linked to a good resource in that YouTube video, so I won’t take up any more of your time with it.

The Hunger Games- Ok, Ashlee had been recommending this to me for a couple of years, but based on the awful failure of some past recommendations (one infamous series which shall remain nameless, and Jane Eyre) I put off reading The Hunger Games for a long time. I was pleasantly surprised. I went into it thinking that it was going to be a stinker, but I found it quite entertaining. I know that sounds bad, saying that children killing children is entertaining, but it REALLY was. I ended up getting sucked into the story and reading the entire series. Sometimes I will finish a book just to finish what I started, but with these I wanted to find out what happened to the characters. I would recommend this for some fun recreational reading for sure.