Non-Fiction Five Challenge

I have decided to participate in Thoughts of Joy's Non-Fiction Five Challenge taking place from May to September. The Five Non-Fiction Books I have decided to read are:

1. Sidney Poitier - Measure of a Man

2. Jon Krakauer - Eiger Dreams

3. Mireille Guiliano - French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure

4. Sarah Ban Breathnach - Something More - Excavating Your Authentic Self [completed May 5th, 2007]

5. Barack Obama - Dreams From My Fathe

I really enjoy reading memoirs however wanted to try to include other types of non-fiction books into the challenge and I think the above is a good mix.

Next by Michael Crichton

Next by Michael Crichton

Finished Feb. 24th, 2007

General Fiction

Rating: 5/10

Last night I finished reading "Next" by Michael Crichton. I found that there were too many story lines going on within the book and although they all dealt with genetics, for me the stories didn't really come together as much as I would have liked at the end of the book.

I learned some interesting things about genetics and the book raised some thought-provoking ethical issues about genetics however the fiction part of the book was lacking as it seemed that the author just wanted to write a story about genetics and threw the fiction part in as an afterthought.

It was an average book and definitely not as good as some of his past works.

First Post

After reviewing all the great book blogs I decided it was time for me to create my own. I love to read and over the last several years I have been trying to expand my horizons by reading books that cross different genres as in the past I tended to read only thrillers/mysteries.

I created a book spreadsheet in 2002 to begin tracking the books I read and also provide the books with a rating so I thought it would be good to share my ratings and thoughts with other book lovers.

I have found that I am reading a lot more these days as my husband has been traveling quite a bit. I read on average about 4 books a month which I thought was pretty good until I compared to other book bloggers who seem to double this number. I have seen a number of great book challenges posted and hope to participate as I think these challenges will help me gain exposure to new authors.

I hope that those who visit my blog find it useful. Enjoy!