One of the books I have on my to-read list is The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving. It’s average rating is 3.89, which is not so bad and was first published in 1981. It is listed in the lists of best books of the 20th century and best books by John Irving. People wonder about the history of the story, because the author himself grew up in New Hampshire. It is tagged as literary fiction, contemporary and a classic.
The Girl On The Train Review
I really loved The Girl On The Train. The only other psychological thriller that I think I’ve read is Gone Girl and there are many similarities with the author trying to trick you or only giving you a part of the story. I loved Gone Girl too so I think I should look more into this genre.
I thought the plot of this book was interesting. It was exciting and it kept me drawn in but what I think I liked most about these books is the characters.
I like reading books where characters are not considered likable. I don’t think that many of the characters in this novel were very likable, but I do believe that the characters are multidimensional and I like that. One example of this comes from Anna, because while many parts of her are unlikable, her cheating and her lack of empathy and sympathy for Rachel, she still ended up being a character I liked.
In addition, for me, the books pace was perfect, it was not too fast where everything is happening at once but was also fast enough for me to stay interested.
Overall, I really liked this book and hope to read the author’s other novel.
The Circle: Review
Originally, I believe I would have given this book 2 stars, but after seeing the movie I did appreciate it more, because I think that the movie dropped some messages that the book had. One message that I did get out of the circle that I didn’t think was super obvious from the premise on the back, was that when everything is transparent, then one loses the ability to become their real self. I didn’t really see that in the movie, but I do think that was a part of the book and something that does make me appreciate the book a little bit more.
For me personally, The Circle didn’t bring anything more than what was on the back cover. It’s message was very strong from the beginning, and that didn’t help it seem like a convincing or intelligent argument. The characters seemed to black-and-white for it to be realistic- everyone working at the Circle seemed to be all for transparency, while Mercer and Ty were basically completely against. The only person that seemed to be in the gray area was maybe Mae, but even Mae didn’t seem to have much thought to her. I feel like it would have been more realistic if the characters had more
While black and white characters don’t necessarily always bother me, I think my major problem with The Circle was that the book seemed to desperately want to come across as something deep and profound and I missed that. For example on Mae says, “I want to be seen. I want proof I existed… Most people do. Most people would trade everything they know, everyone they know – they’d trade it all to know they’ve been seen, and acknowledged, that they might even be remembered. We all know the world is too big for us to be significant. So all we have is the hope of being seen, or heard, even for a moment” (490). I feel like the author felt like he was making a deep profound statement while I don’t even see how this makes sense for what Mae is arguing.
Overall, The Circle was entertaining to read, but I feel like the author’s intent didn’t truly come through.
Genre: Psychological Thriller
I am under the impression that I like the genre of Psychological Thriller because even though I haven’t read that many books in this genre, I have greatly enjoyed every single one of them (Gone Girl, The Girl On The Train ect.) and movies I have watched under that Genre such as Silence of The Lambs and Black Swan.
According to this blog: Elements of Thrillers. Psychological Thrillers never have coincidences (everything has a purpose), always tie up loose ends and a plot that features a turning point and a climatic battle.
The Girl On The Train: Paula Hawkins
The Girl On The Train is Paula Hawkins debut novel and what she is most well known for, but it is not her only book, she also had another book that came out on May 2nd of this year called Into The Water, which follows the murders of a younger protagonist’s mother and friend. It looks interesting and hopefully I can read it some time this summer.
To look at the more personal stuff about Paula Hawkins, she was born in Zimbabwe (which is super interesting) but lives in London now, which makes sense based on her setting and language in The Girl On The Train. She also used to work as a journalist, which doesn’t seem like a far off job from being a writer.
A Dog’s Purpose Review
It took me a day to read a Dog’s Purpose and then I cried for an hour afterwards. I loved the book for so many reasons. Over the summer, my 12 year old dog died while I was at camp being a counselor. I didn’t know it at the time, but I started reading “The Art of Racing in the Rain” By Garth Stein the day he died. When I started reading that book, I was convinced my dog was dead and had to stop reading it, knowing early on the events of that book. “A Dog’s Purpose” Is a similar book because it comes from the dog’s perspective. But the story behind the novel explains the books power to help with dealing with the loss of a pet; the author told the story to his girlfriend (now wife) after her childhood dog died and that helps the care and the emotion in the story come through. Overall, I gave this book 5 stars because it helped me deal with emotions I had already thought I dealt with and it made me care about it’s characters.
Girl On The Train: The Movie
After watching the movie, I think they did a good job with adapting it to film. However, they changed a lot of what i Imagined such as the characters and the way I imagined their street (I imagined the houses much smaller and closer together). One big thing that stuck out to me was that I imagined all of the characters being British, based on the words used like pub and the names of the towns. So I was surprised that they only made Rachel British. They also did the point-of-view switch like they did in the book, but it seemed a lot choppier in the movie. I did like how they used the therapist to try and trick the audience into thinking what might have happened to her and there were also quotes from the book directly in the dialogue so you could tell that the producers but a lot of thought in the adaption.
Girl On The Train: First Impressions
When this book first came out, I remember it being really popular and my Aunt telling me that I had to read it. I didn’t end up reading though, probably because I was reading other books or was busy and forgot about it. I also remember the movie coming out, but I didn’t see that either, so it is nice to finally have the chance to read it.
I read one of the blurbs on the back relating this book to Gone Girl and saying that there is an unreliable narrator. I liked how Gone Girl switched things up half way through and changed the entire perspective of the wife so I am interested to see how this turns out. I’m expecting the unreliability to come from Rachel, not Megan, because she is an alcoholic. So far nothing has really happened much in the book, but I believe that once it gets going and starts making connections to the parts of what I”m currently reading I will enjoy th book.
First Impressions (Forgot to Publish)
After getting a choice book to read I am not quite as excited to read The Circle. It seems interesting but I am also afraid that the author is going to force his own belief’s down the readers throat as I can already see that it has a very strong message.
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