Helpful Score: 1
I recently had the opportunity to review Book of Days, James Rubart's upcoming novel. The book draws from Mr. Rubart's personal experience as his father, who passed away during the writing, dealt with Alzheimer's disease.
About the book:
Cameron Vaux's mind is slipping. Memories of his wife, killed two years earlier, are vanishing, just as his dying father said they would. So Cameron goes on a quest to find "the book with all the days in it" that both his father and his wife had mentioned to him. He enlists the help of his late wife Jessie's best friend, Ann, an investigative reporter who believes the book is a farce, but in spite of herself is drawn into the search. It quickly becomes apparent that others with evil motivations are also searching for this mysterious book, and are even willing to kill for it.
My thoughts:
I wanted to like this book. I enjoyed the writing and felt that the characters were well-developed and believable. But the plot? Not so much. It did keep my attention with many twists and turns...I can see that Mr. Rubart doesn't write the type of mystery that you have figured out after reading the first couple of chapters. But the entire premise was just, well, strange. An actual mysterious "book" written by God with all the days of our lives written in it? Maybe so, but not where we can physically locate it. I appreciated the point Mr. Rubart was trying to make...that God does "keep all our days"...but I just didn't enjoy the plotline he used to attempt to communicate that. Still, I felt that the book was well-written and the characters were likable. I wouldn't mind reading more by Mr. Rubart in the future.
Read more: http://homewithpurpose.blogspot.com/2010/12/book-of-days.html#ixzz1AYlhPbjC
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
About the book:
Cameron Vaux's mind is slipping. Memories of his wife, killed two years earlier, are vanishing, just as his dying father said they would. So Cameron goes on a quest to find "the book with all the days in it" that both his father and his wife had mentioned to him. He enlists the help of his late wife Jessie's best friend, Ann, an investigative reporter who believes the book is a farce, but in spite of herself is drawn into the search. It quickly becomes apparent that others with evil motivations are also searching for this mysterious book, and are even willing to kill for it.
My thoughts:
I wanted to like this book. I enjoyed the writing and felt that the characters were well-developed and believable. But the plot? Not so much. It did keep my attention with many twists and turns...I can see that Mr. Rubart doesn't write the type of mystery that you have figured out after reading the first couple of chapters. But the entire premise was just, well, strange. An actual mysterious "book" written by God with all the days of our lives written in it? Maybe so, but not where we can physically locate it. I appreciated the point Mr. Rubart was trying to make...that God does "keep all our days"...but I just didn't enjoy the plotline he used to attempt to communicate that. Still, I felt that the book was well-written and the characters were likable. I wouldn't mind reading more by Mr. Rubart in the future.
Read more: http://homewithpurpose.blogspot.com/2010/12/book-of-days.html#ixzz1AYlhPbjC
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
A well written Christian mystery. Some aspects of the plot seemed a bit convenient, but the plot moves along well. Good character development. An enjoyable read.
