Two Dogs and a Book

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins My rating: 5 of 5 stars Wow! This was a ride... a wild train ride!! This book kept me guessing to the end. Paula Hawkins created an intricate story between complex people. The story written in three voices helps the reader get all the angles of the plot and add dimension to the book. A must read! View all my reviews

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is the next book we will be discussing in July at my workplace book club. I thought to start the book early as I did not think the subject would interest me much. Was I ever wrong?!?! I could not put it down. This is a story of defiance in times of wars and conflicts, and a story of courage coming from the most unexpected person. All schools in the world should add "I am Malala" to their curriculum and mandate all their pupils to read it. In Canada, we, women, take education for granted. We never have to look over our shoulders to see if someone will jump out of the shadows to hurt us because we are going to school and are getting an education. Malala had to do this every day of her young life because she believed that it was her right to be educated... and she got shot for it. I appreciated hearing the events of those turbulous times from the

The Fifth Gospel: A Novel by Ian Caldwell My rating: 4 of 5 stars It took me a while to finish this book. The tempo of the story was slow but the author kept me hooked enough to keep me reading to discover more. The plot was well composed and delivered. The characters were well developed and each were interesting in their own way. In a few book reviews, The Fifth Gospel was compared to Dan Brown's series featuring Robert Langdon as the main character. I did not find the books to be similar with the exception that, just like Dan Brown, it is obvious that Ian Caldwell did his research on the Catholic church and rituals before writing this story. If you decide to read this book, don't give up because the story might be a bit slow; it all comes together in the end and you will say: "Awww! This all makes sense now!" View all my reviews

Love Handles by Gretchen Galway My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was a cute and fun story. I am always leery of stories advertising that the main character is a bigger girl... she is a size 10 for goodness sake... that's not big in my book; that's normal!! For certain things, size matters... but when it comes to people, it does not. You are who you are. If you love yourself; you are healthy and you are not bothered by your size, then no one should be either. Any-who... like I said at the beginning of this post... the story was cute and funny. This is a great summer read. View all my reviews

Andromeda by Amy Bartelloni My rating: 2 of 5 stars Andromeda is the first book of a series by the same name. The story had great potential, but the author failed short to give it flow and excitement. I will not read the next books. :( View all my reviews

The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen My rating: 5 of 5 stars I received this book from Audible.com as a Christmas gift to their customers. I had never read The Snow Queen and I love other stories written by Hans Christian Andersen, so I knew I was in for a real treat. I was not disappointed!!! Such a delicate story with such depth. A masterpiece! View all my reviews

Let It Be by Chad Gayle My rating: 2 of 5 stars I did not like this book much. I kept hoping that the story would get better, but it did not. The author used long descriptions throughout the book to fill up the pages. It felt like it was written by a teenager trying to sound adult. I did not like the different voices in the book; I would rather have read the story from one perspective. It was not my thing, but it might be yours... who knows. View all my reviews