Books I recommend

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
This is an interesting story about a young girl who employs a lawyer to gain medical emancipation from her parents.  That means she wants to be able to make decisions about any medical treatment she receives by herself, instead of her parents being able to choose for her.  The story is well written in a way that explores the different points of view of a number of characters.  I like that I got to see things from various angles and it made it challenging to side with any one character throughout the story.  The novel also raises some interesting ethical issues that wouldn't have been around until fairly recently.   The story has some pretty emotional aspects to it, but I remember reading this book a long time ago and it led me to purchase a lot more books by Jodi Picoult.

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

I've been home sick this week which was not pleasant.  However, the bonus was that I got to spend a lot of time reading my books.

I managed to finish Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling.  This is the third book in her detective series and I have thoroughly enjoyed them all, although they are a little gruesome at times.  I wouldn't recommend them to students because of the detail around the murders in the books.  However, parents who like a good mystery would definitely enjoy them.

I spent the whole time trying to figure out who the bad guy was in this book and although I guessed the culprit at one point, I had shifted my focus onto another suspect.  I think it was very clever the way clues could tie in more than one suspect and the whole story was woven together really well.  I'm definitely looking forward to the next in the series.

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett.

In need of something light, I decided to dig out one of my many Terry Pratchett books to re-read.  I chose The Wee Free Men which introduces Tiffany Aching.  Tiffany lives on a farm and has a strong attachment to the land.  Her role model was her Grandmother who was known as an expert Shepherd and was highly respected in the area.

This story sets up the fact that Tiffany is a powerful 'witch' in the making - not the magic jiggery pokery type of witch, but the kind who is in touch with nature and has second and third sight and thoughts.  She takes on monsters with a frying pan and has to fight her way out of dreams.  

I love the way Terry Pratchett combines humour with his story telling.  He takes things that we are all familiar with and gets us to look at them from a different point of view, all while being entertained.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a bit of adventure mingled with a bit of 'magical thinking'.