"Nobody" by Creston Mapes

That I chose a book review over studying for my Spanish placement test, and a book that I finished last weekend and not the one I just finished at that, is very telling of two things.  Namely, I am procrastinating the reunion with my Spanish study, and I'm patently not too impressed by the book I just read (being Henning Mankell's "The Man from Beijing").

I read "Nobody" from my Kindle e-Reader in one sitting.  I had this book in my Kindle library for the longest time (because it was free when I came across the book so I downloaded i)t, but somehow never got around to opening it until last weekend.  Set in Las Vegas, the story's told from the perspective of this reporter whose impulsive act of rifling through a murdered man's pockets ended up getting him into hot soup, but also eventually finding God, faith and love.  The murdered man by the way turns out to be this really rich man who lost his wife in a tragic plane accident, questions his faith and left a church and wound up in Las Vegas, determining that the best way to be with God is to seek to bring those who are far from it into the faith.

Not being particularly religious myself, I thought the book went rather heavy with the elements of being a good Christian that I was comfortable with.  But setting that aside, I did think Holte's (the murdered man) character had good in him, to the point that the poem that was chosen to start the book had particular reasonance.  If you are interested in reading the poem, it's "I stand at the Door" by Sam Shoemaker, which is available to read on the W3 here. 

I'm not sure why, despite my earlier professed discomfort, this book is still stuck in my mind.  Maybe because I always had a latent curiousity about religion and faith, though not in the way of wanting to follow any particular religion, but more from the perspective of being an outsider, of how faith can be such a powerful and uplifting tenet for many people.  So while the story, which is only OK for me, did not make me go "wow", some of the themes interwoven in the story throughout is still hovering at the back of my mind.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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"Sept Jours Pour Une Eternité" by Marc Levy

Bookwormsupergeeks is still alive...right?!  I don't think the lot of us ever stopped reading, but life probably caught up with us, and we have been ignoring thinking about the stuff we read, or more accurately putting down our thoughts down on paper.

Maybe 2013 will be the revival of this blog?  I don't know if this will happen myself, but anyway it never hurts to try.

It's a bit of a cheat, but I actually read "Sept Jours Pour Une Eternité" in the close of 2012.  It was one of the books I bought in a bookshop in Bern during my February work trip, but I only got around to starting it when I went to Phuket. 

This is my second book by Marc Levy, and I was actually hesitating between this and another title (also by Levy) in the bookshop, but eventually I went with this because the introduction to the story caught my interest.

The storyline is simple.  Aghast with the way things are going on on earth, the Devil and God agreed on a seven-day challenge in which each will send their best agents to do what they do best, i.e., do good (for God's side) or do evil (patently batting for the Devil).  In seven-days, the winner will be decided and the loser will relinquish all rights to convert humanity.  What both never counted on was when both agents met each other and fell in love....

I had fun reading this story even though some parts were more heavy going than others due to sheer laziness on my part not to consult the dictionary for some of the French words that I didn't understand.  At heart this is a love story with, well, supernatural elements.  Though I did think that Lucas' abilities seem to be more "out of this world" compared to Zofia's, which seemed to focus mainly on how much of a good Samaritan she was.  The showdown between the Devil and God was rather funny too, with both of them manifesting ill temper for the way things have turned out.

The only gripe I have would be the abrupt ending to the story.  I wouldn't tell you what happened, but it did provoked feelings of being ill-used by the author, after spending time reading the story, and for the story to just end...like...that.

Book rating: 3 out of 5 stars