The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.

This improbable story of Christopher’s quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.

I thought, while tiny, this description from the back of the book was okay to use, instead of creating my own. It's what caught my attention in the first place, so I figured it would catch yours. Well, that, and the cover and title. And I'm so thankful it did, because I really really really loved this book.

It doesn't blatantly tell you in the novel, but Christopher has Asperger's Syndrome, which is very similar to autism. This made the narrative unbelievably interesting, as he can't comprehend emotions. There aren't any unnecessary descriptions that many novels have. Everything was simple and plain as day written there on the page. I like the simplicity of the narrative and how there were tons of interesting facts throughout. Plus, Christopher, besides being a good narrator, is a great, dynamic character. At the beginning, he's never walked farther than the shop down the street by himself, and he's never really gone anywhere other than school, home, the shop, and France. And he hates strangers. But in his search to find Wellington's killer, he brings himself to question people he's never talked to, and when he discovers the truth, it pushes him to travelling all the way from Swindon to London. By himself. This change makes his character so strong, which is a great change. His character develops really well throughout the novel.

I also enjoyed the illustrations in the book, which make it really interesting. And there are aspects of it that make it almost like a mix of Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines (and not in a copyright suing kind of way. Just in the capitals of countries, and the maths parts), which, of course, is the opposite of a negative comment. There are footnotes, an aspect of some books that makes them clever, and an appendix (all about math, and that I surprisingly understood all of). It's a witty, charming novel that I won't forget until I'm old and have dementia and can't even remember if I put on my shoes.

Plus, I'm very partial to British novels, because I love the style of writing and the language. I enjoyed Mark Haddon's writing and hope to be able to buy his other novel, A Spot of Bother.

Definitely 5 out of 5 delicious steaming cups of coffee. In little red mugs.

Heather

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson

When I first picked up Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, I literally squealed in delight. I had been dying to get my hands on this elusive book. But after the first moment of sheer joy, I became...well, not skeptical, but...disturbed. This is one of those blurb books. One of those highly recommended, #1 bestseller types. And I've found, in my years of reading books, that those little, pocket-sized (Actually, not really pocket-sized. I don't know why they call them that, they can't fit in my pockets...I'll call it compact) novels with the raised, shiny titles and the blurbs all over their front and back cover tend to fall just a tad short of my expectations.

Don't get me wrong, I usually like them, sometimes lurve them, but never really love them. Especially the ones with the bad, cheesy, pun-filled blurbs on the front. The cheesy pun of today is: "Buckle up. This is a ride that starts fast and gets faster." --CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

But this, this is one very huge, 134-chaptered (plus and epilogue) and 413-paged (with extras at the end) exception to that particular rule of thumb. I find that CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER is right. This ride does start fast and get faster.

The first book in the Maximum Ride series tells the story of six unforgettable, unique kids living together with no parents, no homes, no families. They are their families. Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel are running and fighting for their lives.

Their one advantage? They can fly. They have wings.

Being chased by Erasers and facing being put back in a cage--a place no child should ever be--is not easy when you have no idea what you're doing, what you're facing, who you can trust. They don't know where they came from, so how should they know where to go? The one place they won't go is back to the School (not if Max can help it).

But their perilous journey becomes more difficult and confusing as they develop new powers and learn new secrets.

I don't think a single book has pulled me in harder with the first sentence, the first word than Maximum Ride did. And, by sentence five, I knew it would be one of my favorite books forever.

There is definitely a reason that, in the book alone, there are 31 positive book reviews, and that it was #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for twelve straight weeks. James Patterson describes the story of Max and her friends--her family-- with fantastic imagery, compelling suspense, insane action (like a video game or movie except...better) and outstanding dialogue. I fell in love with each and all of these believable characters from the start. The plot is realistic enough to be believable, but fantastical enough to force it into a state of unique where it can never be touched. There could be billions of spin-offs of this series, and they would never come close to even .0000000001% of this novel's pure perfection. Patterson's writing is excellence.

I give this book 10 out of 5 delectable cups of coffee (I would, in fact, give it more if I didn't think that would be overdoing it and I think get the picture with just the 10)

trying to keep herself from reading the excerpt from the next book in the series until she has her hands on it, falling (ok, I fell at his first mention) for a certain blog-writing, angel-like, made of awesome guy,

♥Heather