In Pursuit of My Own Library

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