Angels and Demons

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Click the title to go to the Amazon page to purchase

By far Dan Brown's most suspenseful book, this book had me biting my fingernails. The chase was haphazard, dashing from famous Italian place to famous Italian place. The whole time I found myself thinking of who the killer was, jumping from idea to idea. Another interesting thing is the involvement of CERN--a huge scientific facility that my family members used to work at.

This book made me wince, then stare in awe. It was similar to The Lost Symbol, another book that I blogged about, yet different. It takes place on another continent and, besides Langdon, has a different set of characters. In a way, I missed the characters that were in this book. They died or disappeared, their absence in The DaVinci Code going unexplained.

Although the book contained some scenes that may be considered disturbing, it was amazing. It kept me entwined in its words, lost in its story. I was urging Langdon to do certain things with that extra knowledge that a reader always gains. It made me want to jump into the book and help him first save the cardinals, then save Vittoria. It pained me to be unable to do that.

The ending and revealing what had actually transpired was heartbreaking. I felt my heart go out to the "bad guy," although we're supposed to dislike him. Faith and shock had clouded his logic, and the revealing of this shadowy, evil figure was definitely surprising and unexpected.

If you've read any of Dan Brown's other books, this one has the same general style. Unlike many other Dan Brown books, though, this one involves the public, making it easy for you to imagine that you were witnessing it. People flock to the crime scenes. It makes for a wonderful read, and I would definitely recommend it to people.

The Lost Symbol

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Click the title to go to the Amazon page to purchase


This book, like so many other Dan Brown books, is filled with suspense and kept me on the edge of my seat. The return of Langdon and the normal, twisting plot of Dan Brown's books seemed to welcome me. The involvement of the Freemasons and the CIA piqued my interest, completely wrapping me up in the story. I was enthralled by the harrowing adventures of Katherine Solomon and Robert Langdon as they were pursued by the mysterious Mal'akh, a figure whom we learn more and more about as the story progresses.

The ending of the story gave my heart an unexpected squeeze. It was a spin on the plot that I hadn't expected from Brown. I was used to his changes in the stories, but not one of that nature.

The change in location made the story closer to home. The location moved from Europe--Brown's other two Langdon books (Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code) had taken place in Italy, France, and England--to Washington D.C, a place not too far from my own home that I had visited before. Many landmarks I remember seeing in field trips and various visits, and my brain often went off on tangents about my memories of locations mentioned in the book. Other readers who live near D.C may enjoy looking at the supposed location of "the Word" the next time they visit our capitol.

Just like all of Dan Brown's books, this book was filled with suspense and absolutely wonderful. It was well-written and very cleverly planned out, making a great read.

The Life of Pi

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

click the title to go to the Amazon page to purchase

So, after watching the movie, I decided to read the book. The movie itself moved me; the story was absolutely touching. I know from experience that books are often better than the movies, so I immediately dove onto the book.

The beginning seemed to move fairly slowly. The narrator spoke a lot about zoology for many chapters, although a lot of facts were amusing and/or interesting. Pi, whose nickname sprouted from a mispronunciation of his full name, Piscine, describes his life in India and the decision that his father made to move to Canada.

He knew that moving to another country would change things, but he had absolutely no idea how drastically.

Pi is revealed to be an eager-to-learn boy, very spiritual and wrapped up in religions--plural. This spiritual mindset differed from his father's ideas. "The Greater Good and the greater Profit are not compatible aims, much to Father's chagrin." While his father believed in monetary power and science, Pi turned to God.

This book reveals the strength of faith, and, although I'm atheist, it moved me. Besides that, for those of you who don't want to even have a brush with spiritual ideas, it also shows how much living beings depend on each other. Richard Parker is a full-grown male Bengal Tiger, who got swept off of a sinking ship onto the lifeboat that Pi was trapped on for the next... eternity, it seemed. Without Richard Parker, Pi's morale would have sunken very quickly. He had lost everything; it seemed as though he would be stuck on a lifeboat with an ugly, evil hyena. On top of that, his family was at the bottom of the Pacific in a drowned, dead zoo of a ship. Both his salvation and his ever-present source of fear came in the form of this tiger that paddled through the sea to get to the lifeboat.

It made me think about how much I loved my home. Home is "Strange in a familiar way, familiar in a strange way." Plain can be beautiful, and complicated can be dull. It helped me appreciate what I have more than I already do, and I'm glad that I don't have to abandon my ideas and struggle to survive like Pi had to during his 227 days at sea, stranded on a lifeboat with a hungry, terrifying tiger.

This book was absolutely amazing, and just seemed to get better and better as I read.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to someone.