My Book Reviews

Me And Mr Darcy by Alexandra Potter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first book by Potter that I read was 'Who's That Girl', and I liked her witty style of writing. When I came across this book, I was intrigued as was about a topic of my interest; Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice, and Mr Darcy. And who doesn't love Mr Darcy?
This book was interesting, with the little visitations by 'Mr Darcy' himself. However, what I wasn't too happy about was the ending. I had hoped for more 'closure' about the Mr Darcy visits, as well as the whole Mrs Steane thing.
And I dunno if Potter had intentionally done it so, but the eventual plot line for Spike, Ernie, and Emily had been a tad bit too obvious.
I really wish I could've given this book more stars, as it would have been a double whammy had the ending be a bit better.

Zom-B by Darren Shan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I admit I've never heard of Darren Shan before. And on the front cover, they did not forget to put 'The Master of Horror' to remind readers who he is. I'll also admit that the descriptions are graphic, but not too much so. Maybe because it was not really a book for adults; rather, I'm guessing, maybe teens.

However, it touches on the subject of racism and domestic abuse, which I think deserves applause. It would have been a great story and probably deserves another star had it not ended in a cliffhanger. I like books to properly end, regardless if they've got a continuition or not. Otherwise, it just doesn't feel complete to me because there was no close.

Other than that though, I thought this was a good book. Darren described the hoards of zombies well, and their creepy characteristics. I really wish he'd have 'closed' the story of B, though.

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is common for me to feel attached to a book after I've finished it. It is also rather common for a book to make me cry. It is a bit common for a book to make me rethink my choices and path of life, but it is very rare for a book to affect me so much that I change my thought process completely.

I relate to Sarah Lemon. I think quite a few of us would be able to. Perhaps some would relate to VIctor instead. I'm not sure if Victor's story affected you as much as Sarah's story did to me, but either way, it is a lesson to learn.

As is common with Mitch Albom's books, I was left in tears towards the end. I won't go so much into detail here, but I will explain in my blog later.

The bottom line is, if you're not already a fan of Mitch Albom, I suggest you pick up one of his books. Now. Mitch is a brilliant storyteller and his books always has some brilliant lesson layered in it. His books also have the ability to touch your heart in a special way.

So 5 stars for this. Definitely a brilliant read!

Being Extraordinary: How to Live Life on Purpose by Ian Lock
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Let me start off by saying that I love reading self-help books. Not because I need help, but more so because I'm always looking for more ways to improve my life. I bought Ian's book with the hope that it would add to that knowledge.

However, I was disappointed. A huge part of that was due to the amount of punctuation errors in the book. There were some passages I had to re-read because I couldn't understand it the first time. Reading the book also felt like reading someone else's blogpost, rather than a book about 'how to live life on purpose'.

Many times in the book when Ian asks to state our 'purpose' or our 'impact', for example, he gives readers examples by extensively writing about his purpose or impact. While that is good to some to serve as an example, it was not my cup of tea. In my honest opinion, people buy self-help books to be taught to think and explore their unique, different ideas, rather than be told how it should look like.

Then again, I may be wrong too, but that's just me putting my two cents in. If I had the choice, I wouldn't have bought this book. In the beginning, I tried scanning the barcode using Goodreads' app, and it couldn't detect the barcode or ISBN no matter how many times I scanned it. I even typed the title and author manually to no result. It was when I started throwing random keywords from the title that I even managed to come across this.

Anyhow, I have never given a book a one-star rating before, I think, but ah well... First for everything I guess, eh?

Seriously...I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Let me start off by saying that I LOVE Ellen. I love her show and the way she exudes positivity and everything you could wish to be. To be honest, I didn't know she had 2 other books before Seriously... I'm Kidding. Heh. So shoot me. =p

Truth be told I kinda expected this to be some sort of inspirational book about her life and journey and whatnot. And it was far from it. The book turns out to be just random stuff that popped into her head (probably), laced with the humour she's so famous for. The first few pages already had me chuckling.

To be brutally honest, I was a liiiiiiiittle bit disappointed with it. If I was re-presented with the decision whether to buy the book or not, I probably wouldn't. No offense at all, but while I still would have wanted to read it, I'd have rather borrowed it from a library or something rather than purchase it.