Pond Hopper

My husband bought me this book for Christmas. Hector and the Search for Happiness is a good concept at first - being told in a simplistic manor felt a little being told a children's story. The novelty, was refreshing at first, but gradually wears out its welcome. A psychiatrist that feels like he can't help his patients, takes time off from his practice to do some traveling and to find what makes people happy. Pretty general, right? So are the realizations he comes to. His international hops are occasionally punctuated with observations on happiness that are so obvious and simple, it almost annoyed me. ie-Happiness is being with the ones you love - Really?? Hector this very basic list to two "experts" on happiness - a Chinese & and an American professor, both of whom agree with his findings with nothing substantial to add which was of it's-self a waste of time. There were parts I liked (like his description of America which I didn't see coming), but...

If you are a fan of Nicholas Sparks, you may be a bit surprised he switched gears and made this book into a suspense novel (although I didn't find it to be all that suspenseful - no real surprises or twists or turns). It may not sound like it, but I am a fan of Nicolas Sparks, but this wasn't his best work. I enjoy his books, but they never measure up to ' The Notebook ', ' Message In a Bottle ' or ' A Walk to Remember '. I think that sometimes when an author gets very popular and they release books too close together their talent comes through less and less. If they took more time, maybe they would measure up to their earlier work. All that being said, I'll keep reading his novels, but I'll save them for when I'm looking for an easy read and hope that one of them will end up being as good as they were n the beginning of his career. Get your copy at Amazon.com by clicking the book above or in the UK, click here

I really liked this book. The author tells the story in two different perspectives. I thought this was really well done because as I read, I wondered what take the other character was going to have on the that part of the story. It was funny, touching and kept me entertained. It was an easy quick read - I was done in a couple of days. Very Cute. Get your copy at Amazon.com by clicking the book above or in the UK, click here