The Solitude of Prime Numbers Paolo Giordano

Paperback, 271 pages

Published March 29th 2011 by Penguin Books (first published July 1st 2008)

original title

La solitudine dei numeri primi

ISBN

0143118595 (ISBN13: 9780143118596)

edition language

English

characters

Mattia Ballossino, Alice dela Rocca, Michela Balossinno, Viola Bai

setting

Italy

literary awards

Premio Strega (2008), Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis Nominee for Preis der Jugendjury (2010), Premio Campiello Opera Prima (2008)

 

 

Mattia and Alice are scarred by incidents that happened as young children, Alice from a ski accident that left her crippled and Mattia from the dissappearance of his sister.  Yet they find each other, two prime numbers, "kindred damaged spirits."  A meeting later in life forces them to face all of their emotions, but can they find a way to be together.  

 

I have know about this book since it first debuted but something about it never quite caught my attention, until recently when I found it on a bargain book pile at Barnes and Noble,  for $3.98 I will read it.   I flew to Washington DC over the weekend and thought my time in the airports and on the plane would be the perfect time to immerse myself into this book.  I may have been wrong.  I didn't dislike this novel but I was not affected by it in the way I had hoped to be.  It is beautifully written, the translation from Italian to English is flawless and the characters are unique and fascinating in their own ways.  However, I never felt a real connection between Alice and Mattia, they seemed to only be friends cause neither one had anyone else.  

I also would have liked to have had more background into their tragedies, more details as those events shaped them more than anything that happened in the novel. 

I did find the writers characterization of Alice to be very authentic, his ability to write as a women was impressive and the stories of Alice and the mean girls was very realistic and some of the more moving parts of the book.  

Overall, I enjoyed this book, it didn't leave me with any strong feelings but was a worthwhile read.  I rated it four stars on good reads.  

 

 

Book Review: The Sixes by Kate White

Phoebe Hall is a celebrity biographer disgraced by a plagiarism scandal in New York City, fortunately, her best friend Glenda is the President of Lyle University and hires Phoebe to teach journalism.  Lyle is a sleepy New England college that has had some unusual disappearances and shortly after Phoebe's arrival a student is murdered.  Glenda and other school staff are certain a secret society "The Sixes" are behind the crime and she asks Phoebe to research and destroy The Sixes.  Phoebe must face her own demons and endure several terrifying experiences as she solves the murder and uncovers the Sixes.
This is Chic lit at its most mediocre, it's equivalent to watching a Lifetime movie on a snowy Sunday, its not good but not bad enough to take your arms out of the blanket and change channels. You are half asleep but still predicted the ending.  
The plot is weak and the Sixes do not figure into the story as much as you would think.  Of course the story needed the handsome brooding love interest with a mysterious past, Duncan Shaw. Phoebe and Duncan's affair is full of turmoil and you never really feel a connection between them, even though she is frequently weak with desire. 
The Sixes are a pretty lame secret society, the "terrorize" Phoebe by leaving six apples in her kitchen and six spoons wrapped in a Tarot card in her dish washer.  They did leave six live rats in her freezer - that was a decent prank.  Phoebe never calls in the police in any of these incidents, just campus security and Glenda.  If someone broke into my house a left rats in my freezer, I'd call the cops.  The sixes also use Phoebe's past incidents with a secret society and her trouble with plagiarism to scare her.  It's all pretty weak.
The book solves everything very neatly and conveniently, however, it felt odd because the culprits were really strung out. Several people were involved but yet they were not connected.  I felt like the author wanted to make things more complex yet it made the ending seem rushed and lets just place blame on weird characters
I would not recommend this book, its not a guilty pleasure, its not fun, its not original, it barely held my interest, it was just ok.  So if you are in the mood for a bad Lifetime movie and don't have a TV, read this. 

Hardcover, 384 pages

Published August 2nd 2011 by Harper (first published August 1st 2011)

ISBN

006157662X (ISBN13: 9780061576621)

edition language

English

Why I Hated 50 Shades of Grey.

Anastasia Steele is a naive soon to be college graduate who is volunteered, by her roommate, to interview a young sexy billionaire (Christian Grey), who is an alumni of their university. Christian becomes fascinated by Anastasia and begins to invite her into his world which is shocking yet intriguing to Anastasia.  At first their relationship is more of a business relationship, complete with contracts but slowly (ish) in evolves into a love affair. 
 E.L. James wrote Fifty Shades of Grey as Twilight fan fiction, I have never read Twilight (and never will) so I have no idea how closely these books follow the Twilight storyline.  However, these are erotic novels, which obviously the Twilight series were not.  They are the first erotic novels I have read and quite possibly the last.  
Sadly I wasted $30.00 to read this Fifty Shades on my Kindle and well at least a couple hours.  I hated them.  So, if I hated them so much why did I read them all?  I got sucked into the story, I wanted to see how preposterous it could get and how annoying.  The basic story was entertaining enough, however, the speed in which everything progressed was a bit perplexing.  In the span of about three months or a summer Anastasia and Christian embark on a whirlwind romance(?) and much more.   Lets just say a lot happens.  
Fifty Shades of Grey reads like it was written by a horny teenager, the writing is cliche, repetitive and just plain bad.  I would think that if you wrote erotic novels you would be good at finding new ways to describe sexual acts, E. L. James is not.  And for being fifty shades of #@&*ed up, Christian Grey becomes quite predictable.  Anastasia for her part is shockingly naive for a women in her early 20s.  I was sick of reading how his words became her undoing.   Additionally, you would have to be a billionaire with a full house staff in order to have that much time to have sex, no normal person has that amount of free time on their hands.  
The second most irritating part of the book was Anastasia's inner goddess's constant antics.  Nobody cared if it was doing back flips or stretched out on a chaise lounge or what other stupid things it did.  It needed to take a flying leap off a cliff.  
Ultimately,  what I hated the most about these books was the idea the Ana's love could fix Christian and %*$#'d up ways.  This was not a love story, it was a young girl being manipulated and used by a control freak who had some serious issues.  It makes me sad that women are swooning over Christian Grey and fantasizing about having a lifestyle like this.  I can't wait to read the sequel where there is a bitter divorce and many many years of therapy for Ana.  
If you want a trashy beach read, read Fifty Shades.  If you want to see what not to look for in a boyfriend read Fifty Shades. If you are looking to spice up your marriage buy some sexy undies.   If your looking for a well written engaging novel avoid this like the plague.  I gave the series one star on Good Reads.

Boxed Set, 1664 pages

Published June 12th 2012 by Vintage Books (first published January 1st 2012)

ISBN

034580404X (ISBN13: 9780345804044)

edition language

English

series

Fifty Shades #1-3

characters

Anastasia Steele, Christian Grey