Love in the time of Cholera- Marquez

I don't get it. I just don't get the love for this book. It is beautifully written. It has some amazing insights. BUT- I don't connect with ANY of the characters and I find their reasonings and motives strange. This is a novel about a man Florentino Ariza who is in love for over half a century with a woman who chose to marry a wealthy doctor instead of him. After fifty years they meet once more and try their second hand at love. The bulk of the story lies within the fifty year wait. I was heavily disappointed. This is a novel that teaches me that one can write beautifully but if I cannot connect with the story, I cannot love the book.

The Blood of Flowers

What an interesting book this was! This is historical fiction set in olden days Iran during the time of Shah Abbas. I enjoyed reading the stories interspersed throughout and the major story of a young unnamed girl and her quest to survive after her father died and her prospects for marriage grew dim. The story is about life in those days, so you can just immerse and feel as though you are there, but it is also about hope and the power it has. For that reason alone it is worth a read.

The World According to Bertie- Smith

This is the fourth installment in Smith's series of "44 Scotland Street". The series peeks into the lives of the residents of 44 Scotland Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. The book is actually the compilation of daily fictional installments in the local Edinburgh newspaper. The first of the series was good but the story line just got better and better with each installment, and this one was the best of the series by far since it focuses a teeny bit extra on Bertie, my favorite character of the series. I love how simple the story lines are, and how beautiful the writing is. I plan to buy this one and read it several times, particularly when I'm feeling down.

Twilight- Meyer

Eh. I felt curious to read this book due to all the buzz and comparisons to Harry Potter, but I was extremely disappointed. This is a story of a girl in a small town in Seattle who falls in love with a vampire. The writing is atrocious and the storyline is just okay. I do get that this was not written for my generation, but I do enjoy YA material usually and this was definitely subpar at best.