In Pursuit of My Own Library

Artemis Fowl   was fun and witty with plenty of action and development to keep the pages turning.  I went to my local library to see if the action and good humor continued in the rest of the series. The Arctic Incident  stepped the game up a notch.  The stakes were higher.  A new villain was born.  Old enemies became new alliances.   Standard spy book stuff.  A bit to human  spy, though.  The magic and fairy essence just seems to be missing from this novel despite it taking place in  the fairy realm.  I was actually quite disappointed. Unfortunately, my library only had up to book two, so I'm not going to see if the series rights itself any time soon.  (I have to hope that it must since it continues on for six more books.) Sorry for such a brief review, I just had such lukewarm feelings.  No hate, but no love either.  Makes for short thoughts.

Had quite an odd moment with this novel.  I reached a point in the story where a Bible quote is discussed.  Immediately after my morning read, I watched the funeral for George H. W. Bush where the exact same Bible quote was read.  I have never had reading so relevant to my life.  It was a very eerie day.  But it really highlighted the beauty of Madeleine L'Engle to me. To the book itself...   Polly, the oldest child of Meg and Calvin, is sent to the Murrys farm for the summer to help her education.  There she runs into a fellow she met on a random beach on a vacation in Greece--which is just down right odd.  I know the world is a small place, but it just felt forced in the book. Not only does she run into such an unusual suspect, but she also manages to walk herself right through a tesseract to ancient America.  (Remember those people we read about in ASTP?  They're kind of back.) While I did not like the premise one bit, t he book is certainly filled with excellent dr

This is most commonly cited as grand poobah when I ask people which Discworld novel is their favorite.  I'm not sure why. Now, now--don't pull out the torch and pitchforks just yet.  Terry Pratchett is preeminent in the writing of fantasy satire.  I even rank religious satire at the peak.  I'm just saying I'm not sure why Small Gods  is listed in the coveted number one slot of Discworld novels.  I mean, who doesn't love trumped up turtles?  But even the cute, shelled geniuses can't sway me. The pacing is incredibly slow, however.  It took me forever to read this novel and was honestly sluggish enough I chose to read several other novels before finishing Small Gods .  This is the first book I've struggled to complete in some time, and I was surprised it was a Discworld novel.   We clearly are poking fun at organized religion and its disingenuous past in Small Gods .  It just isn't as well handled as many of Pratchett's other works.  The satire i

A look at what the future holds.  Or does it?  That is the beauty behind this collection of short stories by Arwen Elys Dayton.  It will make you think and debate about a topic that is very real.  Are we meant for modification?  Where do we draw the line in the sand?  Are humans capable of playing God? You may remember that I reviewed the start of the "Seeker" series from Arwen Elys Dayton a few years ago.  They were an excellent set of young adult fantasies with serious depth of character.  When Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful  hit Netgalley, I had to request a copy.  (You can check out my "Seeker" reviews here and here .) This is not an anthology, but it is a series of short stories.  This novel is a timeline of human evolution.  Each story revolves around a character experiencing our transition from human to something evolved.  Their stories are relative.  Through Reverend Tadd, we even get to see how the human reaction evolves. This book will serious

I was feeling nostalgic so went looking for a fairy tale to read.  Why not one about a 12 year old evil genius looking to steal the pot of gold?  Also Artemis Fowl  is about to get a silver screen treatment. I have always had very mixed feelings towards fairy tale retelling.  I understand fairy tales were meant to be passed along and that will include its own bit of telephone with each iteration.  However.  The amount of modern retelling that abuse classics to the point I can't even find the original backbone is exhausting. Artemis Fowl  is able to take the fairies of old and insert them into the modern world because this is inspired by fairy tales as a whole without trying to retell any specific story.  Artemis Fowl plans on putting his white collar crime family back on top by robbing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. He is assisted by an intense mercenary trained from birth to complete any challenge, Butler.  He is hampered by a loony tunes mother.  He is definitel

Time does not flow like a river towards the sea in L'Engle's cosmos.  Many Waters  takes place somewhere in between A Wind in a Door  and A Swiftly Tilting Planet --and some 3,000 years in the past.   The story of Noah getting a fictional treatment gives me some mixed feelings.  I love that L'Engle's books have spiritual and quantum physics mixture, but taking a biblical story and making it her whole plot is a stretch for me. Yet despite my misgivings, I couldn't put the book down.  L'Engle's writing is enthralling and thought provoking.  I may not have loved the subject, but the lesson was one of her best.   The adventures of Sandy and Dennys start in the lab when they accidentally tamper with an experiment.  They find themselves in a desert with no way to return home.  Unicorns make a second appearance.  These aren't your standard fairy tale unicorns.  These are quantum unicorns that travel through space-time.  We are also introduced to water

I had really meant to put this review up in time for the scorpio races, but I missed it and the opportunity for ambiance. But everyone here already is aware of my lack of timeliness so we'll just get along to the review. On an island off the coast of what appears to be Britain of a begone era, a group of riders take on the ultimate challenge--racing water horses.  A young man named Sean has an astounding relationship with the water horses, but Kate wants to prove that it's not all about the local legends. This is a gut-wrenching tale about choices, home, and love.  The cast of characters is a vast array of usual suspects.  They have nothing extraordinary about them, and that is what makes them some of the best developed characters I've read.  I was incredibly impressed with the sense of reality even being in a fantasy island with mythical creatures. I picked this book off an Amazon sale for the horse race plot.  I want to be very forthcoming, if you are looking for a

Today is Dia de los Muertos, and I have a spooky treat for you.  This is a nice little story if you are looking for seasonal reads to enjoy with all the festivities of Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. This is a side story from Lady Mechanika's past.  There is significance in character building, but none towards the plot that has been building in Volumes 1-4.   Lady Mechanika has just lost Dallas and headed to the remote village of Santa Catarina.  She is trying to hide from her pain but has arrived in Mexico during the Dia de los Muertos festival.  The citizens convince her to participate as it will be more healing than hiding in her room getting drunk. The citizens do not know, however, that Lady Mechanika always manages to run into the wrong people when she is on holiday.  The Jinentes del Infierno have been taxing the village for years as an order of protection.  Of course, Lady Mechanika can't abide bullying, so she gets involved. The three comic set is short and s

I'm not even really sure how to write this review.  This was a rather unusual read for me.  I typically stay away from big general fiction sellers.  My mom gave me this book in our version of a book subscription box because it has a poodle on the cover and the lead character has autism.   There were plenty of factors to this story that were relative and my mom gave it to me so I had to read it.  I finished the book last year, but I have put off writing the review for all the other books I have read in between. In the end, I figured out how I feel about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time .  I enjoyed this book.  It has an excellent plot, characters, and writing.  I found nothing negative to say or dislike about the book.  But , there was nothing special.  There was no factor that made this book a favorite of mine. It is a completely average book to me.  However, it does make sense that it is getting stage treatment--which looks utterly ridiculous and horrifying-

Some are good, some are great and some I really could have gone without ever reading.  But that's just how an anthology works.  I've lately really become fond of anthologies.  It is nice to just pick up a short story between projects.  Especially with the weather taking a quick turn to the cold side, I've not been able to garden for as long as I would like in a day.  I enjoy coming in for a hot cup of tea and a quick read. Where the Stars Rise  is a collection of fantasy and science fiction stories by Asian authors.  It has been a vastly interesting collection.  The eastern mythos provides an entirely different spin than I have been raised with and gives a nice edge when I get in a fantasy slump. Some of the stories I would love to see get an entire novel based on these short prequels--such as The dataSultan of Streets and Stars by Jeremy Szal.    Some were just great stand alone stories that really make you think about life--like any good science fiction should--such

While the witches are not my favorite arc of the Discworld (that honor goes to Death), I do highly appreciate Granny Weatherwax--she is a very sensible woman--and Nanny Ogg is a hoot.  On the flip side, Magrat is starting to rub me raw.  I wish her character would trade places with Granny's hat (there is a little bit of a pun there). The satire here is all about fairy tales and happy endings.  It's fairy godmothers versus witches in a showdown for who gets to influence the city of Genua.  There is great humor--as always with a Pratchett novel--overlaying the very serious topic of predestiny and choice. Nanny Ott speaks fluent foreign, and I couldn't stop cracking up.  

We've dealt with coercion, deception of honor, sodomy, and pedophilia.  Why not move onto rape and women's rights?  I'm starting to wonder if Perry's need to shake up the social cauldron is just ruining this series. A nurse that Hester knew in the Crimea is found stuffed into a laundry chute at Royal Free Hospital.  All the staff are suspects, but everyone certainly looks with more scrutiny at the nurses than the respectable doctors.  We get into yet another status argument of women's capabilities --ad nauseam .  The debate of man versus woman is the sole purpose of the entire case, which again spends most of the story being a courtroom drama with very little detective work.  In fact, being a nurse's death, we have Hester at the front of the novel and Monk barely present. Not that I'm not grateful to be away from the amnesic suffering of Monk, but this is "A William Monk novel."  I really expect there to be more detective work and less legal

There is an extravagant time skip between A Swiftly Tilting Planet  and A Wind in the Door .  Meg is now married to Calvin and very much pregnant.  I'm actually happy that an author didn't waste sequels on developing romance and dragging us through Meg's angsty teen years. She is home for the Thanksgiving holiday--where only Charles Wallace remains at home--since Calvin is overseas at a lecture.  Her mother-in-law is suddenly drawn to attend when she has never participated in Murry functions previously. L'Engle has taken us through the cosmos to determine what is reality, shrank us to minuscule farandolae to determine size is relevant, and now she is sending us careening through time to determine inter-connectivity.  Charles Wallace must learn that when you ask Where your are, you should really be asking When. What would a children's fantasy be without mythical creatures?  We've met aliens, stars, and dragons.  Now, we get unicorns.  Such beauty and glory

Perry certainly isn't afraid to tackle any social subject.  That is what drew me to start this mystery series.   I was hoping for a good mystery that I didn't solve right away but have failed in that mission.  What keeps me renting these books is Perry's unforgiving delve into social niceties.  For all of that, Defend and Betray  went too far off the soapbox for me.  Some subjects are naturally abhorrent to a rational human.  They don't need attention drawn to them.  While you may be trying to help the victims, you are just shining a spotlight on a behavior that could be given unintended consequences for all the attention. The only redeeming factor to this book--after skipping chapters at a time when I figured out why Alexandra killed her husband--was the court scene at the finale.  I was only too happy to have missed the unnecessary dissertation on the immoral acts of the Carlyon family as well as the always too lengthy rambling of Monk trying to figure out his amn

Madeleine L'Engle took science and made fantastic stories for children.  She combined the modern sciences with the magic of faith and tradition.  A Wrinkle in Time presented children with string theory, stars, and the power of love.  Now we get to explore identity, mythology, and biology. While I'm sad we've left behind Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, we have a new and fascinating set of characters.  And dragon fewmets.   Proginoskes and Sporos join Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin at school with Blajeny.  The trio have traveled the vast universe to save their father from IT and learned about the dark stain spreading through the cosmos.  Now they must learn that size is relative and darkness can taint everything. We are introduced to the true villains of the series.  The Echthroi are fallen angels, whose goal is to stain the song of the cosmos, and they are very determined to destroy Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin.  They do not want the students to graduate

Monk number two was certainly an improvement on number one, but it didn't have a high bar to jump.   We are back in aristocratic Victorian England to solve the mystery of a young woman found dead in her bedroom with the only suspects living in the house.  Nothing but class politics and home bound intrigue here.  Exciting (image my sarcastic eye rolling). While I love Victorian England because of the many moral debates that can arise from it, this go around it was too on the nose.  The whole novel is servants versus gentry, man versus woman.  Sigh. Also, the author still lingered on Monk's amnesia for too many pages.  It is frustrating to slog through so many unnecessary paragraphs.  I can't figure out if it is the author's attempt at burying the clues or just some really poor editing decisions to make this book 368 pages.  I feel this could have been a 200 page book easily. The mystery was marginally better hidden this time.  While I knew the cause of death by t

I decided to reread A Wrinkle in Time because husband and I just watched the movie, and it seriously irked me.  It has been a considerable time since I first read the "Time Quintet." I couldn't remember the exact details of the book, but the message of the book had always lingered.  The movie just screamed that something was severely off kilter.  After the reread, I managed to get even angrier at the movie. I don't expect a movie to be an exact visual representation of the book--because cinema has proven they have no idea how to do that.  I do, however, expect you to stick to the source material in a few basic ways.  Keep the plot, keep the characters, and keep the message.  Disney managed to throw all three categories out the window. A Wrinkle in Time  is a beautiful story of string theory and astrophysics.  It has an amazing moral dialogue to help children think about their impact in the world and just how small they are in comparison.   Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which,

I decided to depart from my usual reading list again for a change of scenery.  I pulled a list of LDS authors and found Anne Perry.  She writes in the mystery genre, and I thought this would be a good chance to try a mystery that could be more than just the murder.  I wasn't disappointed on that front.  The story wasn't just about the murder of Joscelin Grey.  There was a bigger argument going on with the characters.  I was also very smitten with the Victorian setting; the hansoms, the elite, the urchins.  It was all reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes. What I did not find entertaining, and almost made this novel impossible to read, was Inspector William Monk.  The major premise of his introductory novel revolves around a London detective waking up in hospital with amnesia.   And he deals with that tragedy through the whole  book with feet dragging, whining, blubbering annoyance.   This was very much a case where the author told too much instead of showing the reader th

Halloween decorations and candy are filling the store shelves.  Pumpkin spice has been spotted in its staple foods.  Fall is getting ready to gear up, and I'm getting ready for my favorite season. I have never been one for seasonal reading.  Beach books, fall favorites, spring flings have never really made a difference to me.  I read what I'm feeling at the given present and be damned if it is out of season. However, this fall, I have a couple of stories that really just go with the weather too perfectly.  I didn't read them in the fall, but I'll recommend them for fall reading. Reaper Man  is one of those fall books.  You can certainly read this book whenever you feel like; because as with any Pratchett novel it is good for time immemorial.  This is a satire of consumerism and the life of Death. It revolves around the harvest in plot and motif, which makes it an exceptional fall novel. Death has been given the chance to Live, which makes the perfect

I read Tangled Tides  and Dangerous Depths in 2014.  Somehow I only managed to review one of them for the blog.  Whoops.  The conclusion of the trilogy took four years to make it to print, so I reread the first two novels one weekend to catch myself up with the characters before starting in on the finale. You can read my thoughts on Tangled Tides here .  Sorry you can't read my thoughts on novel number two.  I remember now that the story was good, but not great.  I  was never inspired to write a review, and then time happened. I have waited four years for the conclusion, plus I bought it--and I read every book I spend money on no matter what.  Now that I had reimmersed myself in the world of Yara and company, I was ready to start Sacred Seas.    On rereading them, I still enjoyed the first novel and its fresh look at mythology, but my interest in the story has paled quite a bit.  I'm in a different point in my life.  These novels do not resonant in the same manner they di

We have, today, the fourth installment in the world of Lady Mechanika.  You can catch up with Vols. 1-3 here , here and here . Our steampunk mystery for today revolves around Mr. Lewis's past colliding with his present.  There is a dark secret behind the work of Blackpool engineers, and Lady Mechanika is the leading suspect for their crimes (insert dramatic mystery music). The first volume suitably pulled me in with its steampunk Holmesian heroine, Lady Mechanika, and her endearing drunk engineer, Mr. Lewis.  The original duo are back in action, and we get to figure out why Mr. Lewis is always drunk. I must admit, I almost lost my way with the truncated Volume 3 and non-arc short  La Dama de la Muerte .  But I persisted.  The short wasn't related to the main story and was kind of like those holiday specials of your favorite show--you watch them but wouldn't mind if they didn't find their way to the DVD release.  I wasn't going to be deterred from returning fo

This whole novel is just page after page of tension.  I really didn't even care that this is just a repurposed Kricket series.  The world and characters are different enough to make this an entirely different read.  The author found a plot formula that works for her writing style and created another success. While this is a book about political intrigue and love at its heart, there is something about the world and characters that make me want to read more.  Sure, the male characters are all identical in appearance and personality--and Roselle seems to fall in love with them at the drop of a hat despite having fallen in love with someone else 10 pages ago.   Sure, the plot has been done and done again in YA novels presently--it's a badass young woman who is learning how to be herself while contending with being a badass.  The action scenes are fast-paced and thrilling while being completely unrealistic.  So many cliches! But, that just doesn't seem to matter as I kept t

Thanks to all those who labor and sacrifice so the people in their lives have an easier existence.  To the farmers and ranchers who work long hours so we can eat.  To the technicians and operators who destroy their health so we can have manufactured products.  Thank you one and all.  You are underappreciated and often unrecognized. The Plastic Magician by Charlie Holmberg My absolute go-to author when I need a perk in my reading list.  I have yet to be disappointed by a single story she has written. The Plastic Magician  is a continuation to "The Paper Magician" trilogy.  Ceony's story was wrapped up wonderfully at the end of The Master Magician , but the world still exists and time keeps on ticking. We are now a few years along when we meet our new protagonist, Alvie Brechenmacher.  She is a character near and dear to my heart as we are identical twins.   Alvie is an American girl heading across the pond to take an internship in Polymaking--plastic magic.   In

I was disappointed in this one.  Another grab on Netgalley that didn't pan out quite they way I was hoping.  Picking new books is tough.   When I have high hopes for a story from the synopses and it doesn't deliver on the premise advertised, I find it very hard to support the novel. This novel plus  The Queen of All Crows  really put me in a bad place when trying to write helpful, objective reviews.   Even when I dislike a book, I try to remain objective that others may find what I consider faults to be entertaining or essential to their reading experience.   Now that I have recuperated with some very excellent reading--reviews on those in the next couple days--I feel ready to write about  The New Dark .  This is a book about an EMP future.  There are no electronics, there is no grid; there are only mutants.  That was the hook that made me pick it off the "shelf." I am really attracted to the idea of a world without the grid.  I gravitate towards books that ha

When we moved to the mountains, we inherited a landscape I knew very little about.  With an increased liking to be outdoors, I endeavored to spend more time outside this spring.  I learned about all the local plants and what was growing in my garden.  I revitalized the things I wanted growing and rooted out what I didn't. It all kind of fit in with my revitalization towards reading.  Modern authors were really starting to bum me out.  I wasn't falling in love with series they way I once did.  I read a few new books this spring--and those reviews will be following in the coming days as all my plants start to go dormant and I head back indoors--but mostly I reread old favorites or got my humor back with Terry Pratchett. What I read in the lull of gardening: This just cracked me up.  Dragons and old people love story.  Prime satire of epic fantasy.  Just when I thought I was tired of epic fantasy, I just needed to read something that poked fun at to love it all again. Not my

      After a soul crushing read of The Queen of All Crows  by Rod Duncan, I was really in the mood to backtrack to some classic authors that made me a bookworm.  I needed to reassert that there are good authors out there.  There are good novels of magic and wonder and epic awesomeness. I went back and reread the "Mistborn" trilogy by Brandon Sanderson.   I fell in love with the series immediately and they left a very lasting impression with me.  They are what all these modern authors should be aspiring to do when they create these dystopian worlds and female protagonists. I was not disappointed in the reread.  While this time around I knew everything that was coming, I was able to absorb even more goodness from the story.  This is the absolute hallmark of a master author.  No matter how many times you read a story there is always a new angle to view and new lessons to learn.   Vin is amazing, but she is not the story.  She is merely part of a lesson to be learned.  T

I actually ended up finishing this book at the end of last year, but I needed to step away before writing my review.  When I "closed" the book, I was antagonistic and aggressive towards it.  If it hadn't been on my Kindle, I probably would have thrown it out the window, down the mountain.  Now that I am sitting down to finally write up the review a lot of that emotion is coming back so I will be keeping this review incredibly brief.   To say I am disappointed by this novel would be an understatement.  I truly enjoyed The Bullet Catcher's Daughter immensely.  The trilogy was strong, but the first novel was something new and exciting that pulled me in from the first chapter.  The series lagged a little in the middle, but it finished strong and I continued to have high hopes for the author.  I even bought Kindle and paperback copies of each.   I knew The Queen of All Crows  was going to be a new trilogy.  It would have the same protagonist and some supporting charact

2017 was a big year for Slavic influence--I read  The Bear and the Nightingale, Uprooted,  and  The Fifth Doll ; I also played several video games that centered around Slavic myths.  When Penguin sent me an ARC for  The Girl in the Tower , I was ready to close out my year with more cheryti and snow. The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden The holidays kept my reading time somewhat limited, but The Girl in the Tower  was a tale that just kept pulling at me to read chapters whenever I could squeeze them in.   I was more impressed with this novel than I was with  The Bear and the Nightingale.  I don't often enjoy the second novel in a trilogy more than the first because it often seems like the author is trying way too hard to write a second novel.  Those forceful pages were not present here.  There was a growth in writing that made the cohesion of storytelling better this time around. While Vasilisa wandered the woods and mingled with cheryti in the first novel, she was