Lindsay

Kit Pearson tries to go meta with a dream that represents a book, within the book that we are reading... get it? No? Hmmm, maybe you have to read it to understand.

Awake and Dreaming is basically a story of a young girl, Theo, who imagines herself into her ideal family... with a little (unknowing) help from the neighbourhood ghost.

I always love reading tales about local geography (this book is set in the Vancouver/Victoria regions).

The idea is solid (this novel even won an award), but at the end, I was left feeling like it was wrapped up a little too neatly... not that Theo couldn't be happy with her family and friends, but were the people around her really prepared to change that quickly?

ALSO, Kit Pearson seems to have this obsession with moons. It's mentioned in A Handful of Time, The Daring Game, Awake and Dreaming, and of course, in the famed “Guests of War” trilogy, the second book is titled, Looking at the Moon. It becomes very noticeable if you read a number of Pearson's books one after another.

As read to me by Carley on April 14, 2012.

Whereas in other Tana French books, I felt like I was experiencing the story as it unfolded, in her fourth book, I felt like I was being read the police report by the main character, and being subject to his musings, interjections and personal commentary along the way. Despite the insights, it was rather dry. As others have pointed out, it also requires a suspension of disbelief.

Better than “Lemony Snicket” or “The Spiderwick Chronicles” but in the same vein of clever children battling evil. Very enjoyable!

Godin oversimplifies the idea of when and why to quit. He tries to preach economics but fails to acknowledge the nuances and logistics of applying this mindset to everyday life decisions.

Thankfully, this book is concise; there are a few good ideas, and a couple of baffling concepts that Godin tries to sell us. I, for one, am not buying it.