Book Review: The Light from my Menorah, Celebrating Holidays Around the World by Robin Heald and Andrea Blinck

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The Light from my Menorah, Celebrating Holidays Around the World  by Robin Heald and Andrea Blinck is a children's book about a boy being taken around the world via the light from his menorah. In his travels, he visits different holiday festivals. Thank you, NetGalley, for the Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of this book. I received this book for free in exchange for my honest review. I think it's important for children to learn about other holidays around the world in a fun way. However, I expected a little more description during the actual story to correspond with the illustrations instead of it being included in the author's note. I feel like the adults will have to explain the point of the book to children. With that being said, the writing was absolutely beautiful, and the illustrations are fantastic. Four out of five stars is what I gave The Light from my Menorah, Celebrating Holidays Around the World by Robin Heald and Andrea Blinck for taking the initiative to
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Book Review: Into The Water by Paula Hawkins

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into the water
When I heard that Paula Hawkins was coming out with another book called Into the Water, I was super excited. I really enjoyed The Girl on the Train so I expected her second novel to be even better. I deliberately stayed away from reviews of Into the Water because I didn't want my mind colored by anyone else's thoughts of the book. However, with that being said, I kept procrastinating on either buying the book or checking it out from the library, so the more chance there was that I'd actually read reviews or hear one of my friends talk about the book before I actually got around to reading it. 

I would have probably procrastinated even more had one of the book clubs I belong to not selected it to discuss in December. I finally bought Into the Water on November 12 while at Target and began reading it that day, but I didn't get too far into it. It just wasn't grabbing my attention. It wasn't until this past Sunday that I started to really dive into it because I was determined to finish one more book in the month of November.

With it only being 386 pages, I expected something to start happening within the first 100 pages or so, but much to my dismay, nothing at all had happened! Paula Hawkins was still setting up the story, and it wasn't until around page 150 that she even gave us a tiny morsel, and then, a few pages later, another tiny morsel. It wasn't until the last 100 pages or so that anything really happened, and even then, the ending was kind of anti-climatic. I couldn't believe that the majority of the story was so uneventful.

book review into the water paula hawkins
Despite it being uneventful and anti-climatic, there were some redeeming qualities to Into the Water. I loved how each chapter was told by a different character because it gave you a little insight to what all the characters were thinking. With that being said, I think she went a little overboard with it and used too many characters to tell the story. I also liked the concept of the book. It had so much potential, but I think Hawkins had a bit of writers block and was being pushed by publishers to finish writing the story. Overall, the book was just okay, which is why I gave it 3 stars out of 5 on Goodreads.com. Definitely worth a read, but if you loved The Girl on the Train, then you'll most likely be a bit disappointed in Into the Water.

Synopsis:  Single mother Nel Abbott is found dead at the bottom of a river in an apparent suicide after investigating the deaths of other women found the same way over the centuries. Jules Abbott, sister of Nel, is called in to identify the body and take care of Nel's daughter Lena.



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Comments

  1. Donal GuilfoyleDecember 4, 2017 at 5:28 AM

    I felt that way about Girl on a Train; it was going nowhere slowly. I got so frustrated with the repetitive pace of that novel that I haven't been sucked into the publishing frenzy around Into The Water and won't be buying it. I'm just sorry I didn't use the same criteria for Fiona Burton's The Child. Her previous novel The Widow was only alright so I should have suspected her second attempt would be worse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kara RutledgeDecember 4, 2017 at 9:29 AM

      Oh, that is good to know. I was wondering about Fiona Burton's books. I've been wanting to give her a try.

      Delete

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