The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown Review

Professor Robert Langdon receives a late-night call while on business in Paris, the curator of the Louvre has been brutally murdered inside the museum. Along side the body are a series of baffling codes and with the help of a French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, Langdon begins to sort through the riddles that lead to the works of Leonardo Da Vinci. The clues suggest the answer to a mystery that stretches deep into the vault of history.

I shall be making this a relatively short review.
Overall this was a fantastic book, I do have a few qualms though believe me they are small. To begin - I found this book to be extremely engaging every chapter ended on a cliff hanger meaning that it was almost impossible to put down, I was actually starting to feel the fatigue of the Langdon and Neveu. I also enjoyed the snippets of internal monologue we got from the different characters throughout, these were written in italics and gave that little bit extra that seemed to make the book that little bit more fascinating. The characters were smart and seemed to have quite a clear head on them.
Due to my previous travels to the Louvre and my general curiosity of Da Vinci's work I have seen the Mona Lisa in person and know quite well the painting of The Last Supper - these both were referenced in the book and because of my previous excursions I could easily picture them in my minds eye.
A 'qualm' (great word) I did have about this was the extent of the references to the church, religion and God. Not that I have anything against ant of these subjects but I am an atheist and know very little about Christianity so a lot of what was referred to did go over my head a bit. But then again the internal monologue and description that Brown included throughout the book was very helpful.
Some enjoyable extracts: (no spoilers I promise)

P 343 - History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books - books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, "What is history, but a fable agreed upon?"

P 440 Teabing's manservant Rémy appeared in the doorway at the top of the stairs. 'I  feel like a hostage working for Sir Leigh, but he assures me I am free to go.'

Although this is the second book in the Robert Langdon series I have been assured that this can be read before the first one Angels and Demons if you are in the situation of having this one but not the first. I felt like I didn't miss anything in terms of previous context. Except for various references to the Vatican (but none of them seemed to be particularly important to the plot of this book).

I would recommend this to anyone who loves a good page-turning crime novel.

8/10

xo

A post shared by El in wonderland (@book.monkey) on Apr 9, 2018 at 9:34am PDT

Book first published 2003

All page number referenced are from my copy - ISBN 9780552149518

Sneaking Out by Chuck Vance Review

Thank you to I am a Reader for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Luke Chase a national hero, and sneaking out to the woods with his best friend to meet the new hot British girl at St Benedict's is not something he would normally do. Little did he know someone would end up dead right next to their rendezvous spot and best friend and roommate Oscar would go down for it. Using his past Luke applies he survival skills to find the real killer before its too late.

Luke and Oscar are best friends who couldn't be less alike, Luke being an average student in grades but never once breaking the rules while Oscar is one strike of expulsion. I find a dynamic like this with in friends to be rather common, as they say opposites attract.This I found to be quite relatable making this a good start to this book. Pippa moved from England to the US and has a cool girl persona that sent a wide range of mixed signals to Luke, I found Pippa's situation of moving away from everything you love to start again to be very relatable as well although I didn't move for the same reasons she did, so there being a second fairly relatable theme in this book.  The characters were all very realistic with a wide variety of people that you would except to find in a private school in North America.
The storyline - fantastic, I loved how Vance was able to get Luke to use his history in order to try and save his best friend. Although there wasn't much character development within Luke's character, there was development within the mystery itself, which in my opinion is what counts in a YA mystery novel. Luke used his history to follow the clues he discovered well, but kept underestimating himself. I understand the need to underestimate yourself believing that what ever has happened is just luck because if you didn't maybe you'd have to admit something about yourself. Mr Tadeckis saw that in Luke and although crazy, was definitely my favourite character. (But I think I relate well to crazy, but don't let me go too much into it.)
One issue I did have with this book is that since the teachers are such as big part of this book (being set in a school and all) they need to be slightly more distinguishable, I often got mixed up when Luke was talking to different teachers and I would have to stop and wrack my brain to remember why Luke went to that specific teacher and talked about those specific things. However, this may have simply been how I personally read the book.
Overall the mystery developed well and I am very excited for whenever the next book my be written.
8.5/10
xo

Book Published 6th March 2018

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin Review

Well I must admit the title of this post is quite a mouthful. In memory of Le Guin who died only a few days ago (22nd January 2018) I decided it was about time I read one of her books, starting with one I already had in the house. I remember watching the Studio Ghibli adaptation of Tales of Earthsea (the 5th book in the Earthsea Cycle series) and loving everything that it was, this book was just as beautiful.

Ged, the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, was called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth. 

Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.

I found the imagery in this book to be beautiful, I found that with every scene that Le Guin set each detail became clear in the picture in my head. I felt shivers when cold winds blew and a warmth when Vetch and Ged were together that felt almost as if they were brothers. Le Guin was also very good at describing the emotions of Ged as well as his desires and ambitions, giving the impression of someone who understands people and perhaps how they work in great detail.

I really liked the development of Ged's character throughout the story, from an ambitious young boy to one who has learnt from mistakes and become wiser because of it. The way Ged treated others during the beginning of the book also developed as the story continued, this again gave me the impression that Le Guin understands people. That they can change, move on and learn.

(I have found this isn't always something writers understand.)

Now as well as finding the development of Ged to be accurate in how "people" develop, and although this is clearly fiction, I found Ged to be quite a realistic character, if you discard the whole sorcerer thing. And not just Ged, but the majority of characters (besides the "SHADOW") all felt to be realistic with very human qualities including unconditional love, jealousy and courage with different characters showing each different qualities. (Not one character showing them all.)

Le Guin seemed to have a knack at making me feel what the characters in the book felt like I had previously mentioned with the scenes and imagery. This made everything feel that little bit more realistic. I did however have one problem with Le Guin's writing and that was simply her style of writing, I found sentences dragged and sometimes in less dramatic scenes I'd read a whole page without taking in a single word. (If you are a reader you might know what I mean.) Not to say she was by any means a bad writer, just some aspects of her writing style in this book wasn't my cup of tea. (Stops typing to take a sip of said tea, shout out to Yogi Tea - Throat Comfort... I'm poorly.)

The storyline overall was fabulous, with magic, dragons and adorable creatures such as an Otak, with them how can it not be. I really enjoyed this book and I am definitely going to continue reading the Earthsea Cycle. I am curious to see what Le Guin will do with Ged and due to mentions in A Wizard of Earthsea about The Tombs of Atuan (the title of book 2) how can I resist.

8.5/10

xo

A post shared by El in wonderland (@book.monkey) on Jan 26, 2018 at 2:47am PST

Book Published 1968