In Pursuit of My Own Library

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 fu...

      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 ...

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 th...

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 wood...

What better way to create an air of mystery in your fantasy fiction world than create your own author?  That is exactly how we came up with Pittacus Lore.  He even has his own author page on the publisher's website.  That is dedication. I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore When I spent a holiday season working in a book store as a book seller, we always kept the Pittacus Lore books on shelves.  They were very successful with the teen readers.  I, however, had invested no time in reading them myself.  Then I saw the movie and the Kindle version went on sale roughly at the same time.  I have a strong belief that books are better than their visual counterparts.  They don't have time constraints for number one.  For number two, you get to use your imagination to build the worlds and characters which will most certainly not match up to a stylist, concept artist or casting director anywhere. I was surprised at how close the movie was to the boo...

It's almost turkey time!  Almost all the leaves have come down on the mountain.  The winds are howling and I swear I saw a snowflake the other day.  This is the time of year that I hunker down with all the good books I've been storing up and spend more time reading than writing up my reviews.  Though, I guess I really haven't been too good at those all year anyway. Secondborn by Amy Bartol Sci-Fi remains a genre I'll read but not one I seek out.  I was truly excited to see a new series from Amy Bartol pop up on the free Kindle monthly.  There is a strong pull to the dystopian worlds that Bartol creates.  They are certainly space operas but they also have a touch of the fantasy that makes me want to pick it up. While the world in the "Secondborn" series is in space and time far different than our own, the characters are the same unrealistic level of gorgeous with a penchant for instantaneous love at first sight.  I could certainly live withou...

Fall is in full swing up in the mountains.  The mornings are crisp and smell like autumn harvest.  The days are perfect for being outside working without getting heat exhaustion.  The leaves are beginning to turn.  And best of all, Halloween is right around the corner! The Fifth Doll by Charlie Holmberg To get you in the spooky spirit, I highly recommend the lastest book by Charlie Holmberg.  She is quickly becoming my favorite author because no book has disappointed me yet.  I really feel like I cannot lose if I pre-order her work. The Fifth Doll has been given a horror label by the publisher, but I'm not sold on that distinction.  The entire time I was reading the novel, I was waiting for that big tingling moment that made me want to hide the book in a chest at the bottom of the ocean, and it just never came. There is a distinct creep factor to the story from several characters and the overall mechanics of the magic in the story.  ...