Bleeding Dusk by Colleen Gleason

Okay, I'm going to post really quickly about all the books I have been reading in the last two months. I'm terrible about keeping up with my reviews but I still want to keep track of what I read and when. So here we go.

Bleeding Dusk is the third installment in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles. I didn't enjoy this book as much as I did the first two though the cliff hanger at the end annoyed me to no end that I have to wait until August for the next one. Maybe I'm getting so used to the characters and how they act that it is getting a little predictable. I don't let myself predict things so I was still surprised, but it just wasn't all that suspenseful. And okay I'll say it, the romance was lacking a little. Even when Victoria gets kissed by Max, it didn't progress anything in their relationship. Anyway, I'll keep reading the series because I'm hooked now but I can stand the wait.

Scroll down if you are interested in the other books I have read.

photo from Amazon.com

The Samurai Garden by Gail Tsukiyama

This was our February book club book. I liked this book about a young chinese man who goes to live at a family beach house in Japan when the two countries on the verge of war to recover from TB. He befriends many people there including a leperous woman and learns a lot about his family and these people who accept him into their lives. This book was very peaceful to read. Even though there is a war going on in China, it never seems to really affect the characters other than a mention here or there. It's all about the main characters getting to know each other and it's nice. It's almost like reading an interesting story from a grandparent's journal.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

I heard about this book from reading a friend's blog. I think she has good taste so I thought I would check it out sometime. My mother gave me a copy for Christmas and not quite ready to delve into the next book club book I decided to pick this one up to read really fast.

The story was absolutely amazing. It's a true story of how Jeannette Walls grew up, which was pretty much as poor as you can possibly be. The amazing thing is how the children had to take care of themselves and take care of their parents. I love how Jeannette tries to make a stand to her parents about changing the way they live but to no avail. Her parents are free spirits and probably a lot of fun at times but mostly they seemed to be very selfish and didn't want to do anything they didn't want to do even if their kids were starving and homeless. It wasn't that means weren't available to perhaps jump them into wealth either, the mother especially was completely stubborn when it came to things she thought or wanted. One of the things their parents did give them was intelligence. Their parents were incredibly smart people and relayed everything they knew to their kids.

I highly recommend this book. The way most of the kids pull themselves out of the gutter to move themselves to New York and make their own way was truly amazing. This book also made me look at poor people in different ways and how it is such a stigma in this society. The only problem is that the Walls parents chose to be that way.

photo from BarnesandNoble.com