The Great Zoo of China

Matthew Reilly

This book is a great option if you want rip-roaring adventure at a fast pace.  I liked the inclusion of dragons into the action-adventure genre.  Reilly did a good job of comparing the dragons to the only animal still living on Earth that they resemble.  Crocodiles always kind of freaked me out, now I have no plans to go anywhere they may be roaming free.  The book was a little gory in parts and the pace was frantic to the point where it was difficult to follow, but overall I enjoyed the ride!

The Glass Magician

The Paper Magician Series Book 2

I was happy to be able to discover what the continuing adventures of Ceony would be, and t find out if romance would enter her life.  I enjoyed this book as much as the first installation, with one exception.  I understand that Ceony feels responsible for the situation she finds herself in.  I also understand that she wants to protect the ones she loves.  Even though I understand these two points, I was still frustrated by the bad decisions she made.  At times so mature and steady, Ceony sure seems to want to jump into dangerous situations with no, or very little, forethought.  

I am still very intrigued by the world the author created.  I know there is criticism that it isn't close enough to the "real" time and place, but suspend some disbelief, people.  I eagerly await the next book, and hope to learn more about the other characters that pop up so quickly, only to fade away.

The Bullet

Mary Louise Kelly

Caroline Cashion is not the woman she always thought she was.  She lived for 37 years believing she knew all about herself.  Funny how finding a bullet in your neck, and having no idea how it got there, can change things.  The revelations that keep coming at Caroline shakes her belief in everything she always thought was true.  The very basics of her history, her identity, were a lie.  What does she do? What would you do?  Dig.  And dig and dig and dig.  But the more she finds out, the more she is changed.

I liked the transition from the steady, comfortable life Caroline let prior to her discoveries to the frantic, troubling existence she falls into.  By the end of the book, she is a very different person than she ever thought she could be.  Very bad things happen.  Very bad choices are made.  I get the feeling that the "old" Caroline would have been appalled at some of the choices the "new" Caroline made. Trying to go blonde at home out of a box?  The horror!

The Paper Magician

Charlie N. Holmberg

The premise of this book was familiar, but the execution was so unique.  Bonding to a material for the rest of your life, only being able to perform magic with that chosen, or chosen for you, medium. There was whimsy, romance, mystery and gore, all jumbled up together.  What more could you ask for?  The main character, Ceony, was pushed from one situation to another before landing in the house of Magician Thane. She didn't want to be there.  How many times had her life's ambition been snatched from her?  In her mind, this was one more instance of getting so close, but missing the mark.  

Ceony felt, as apparently many people did, that paper magic was the least desirable.  Nothing flashy or truly powerful in paper.  But there's nothing like a bit of danger to show you what you can do with paper, and with yourself.  I truly enjoyed this book.  It kept me interested the entire time, and I wanted to find out how it would all come together in the end.  I'm glad there are more in the series, gotta love a red-headed, freckled heroine!

Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House #1)

by Mary Pope Osborne

I wish these books had existed when I was young.  I love the mix of magic and science, wonder and learning.  My daughter and I just started this book a few days ago, and she is already half-way through.  This is our first attempt at a true chapter book that she is reading to me, instead of me reading to her.  She needs me to be with her while she is reading, there are words that she isn't familiar with and concepts that she needs help understanding.  The further we get into the book, the more invested she becomes.  She is excited by the story and feels extremely proud of herself for tackling this "on her own."

I have already requested the next book in the series from the library for her to read.  She is an active seven year old that has a difficult time sitting still long enough to read outside the classroom.  I was hesitant to introduce longer chapter books to her, I wondered if she could stick with it long enough to get interested in the plot.  I wish I would have given this book to her long ago!

The Blue and the Grey: A Grand & Batchelor Victorian mystery

M.J. Trow

I have to admit that I have never been a fan of the American Civil War era in books.  For whatever reason, I much prefer mysteries that take place in the Victorian England.  This book may have changed my mind, just a little bit.  There are parts of the story that take place in England and have all the trappings of a Victorian mystery, but I found myself more drawn to the action that took place on American soil.  I enjoyed the transplanted American in London details.  World travel was much more uncommon back then, so the experience for Grand must have been nearly overwhelming.  

The first few chapters, describing Lincoln’s assassination, were well written.  Having recently visited Washington D.C., I found myself remembering the street that contains both the theater and the boarding house that are now so famous in history.  All of the activity that surrounded Lincoln's assassination, the murders and attempted murders of other in the cabinet, was an education to me.  I must have learned about it in school, but I was taken by surprise reading about it in this novel.  They mysteries in the book were interesting and kept me wanting to read to find out who was responsible.  An education inside a novel that you can't put down, hooray for M.J. Trow!

Girl on a Wire

Gwenda Bond

Sometimes the belief in a thing makes it true.  When there is a rich family history of superstition and magic, even if you don't rationally think it's true, there is power.  This book was a treat for me, never having run away to join the circus.  The glimpse into the life of a wire walker and circus family was engrossing.  Sure, the treatment of the family feud and the star crossed lovers was a bit heavy handed at times, but it was never pretentious.  For all the dark motivations and shadowy mysteries in the story, the writing style was light and enjoyable.  

Get in Trouble

Stories

Kelly Link

It's a dark and twisty world out there.  Filled with unhappy, unfulfilled people.  And non-people.  The stories collected in Get In Trouble are not meant to be uplifting feel good tales.  Otherwise, the title would be misleading!  I am not a fan of Pollyanna, happily ever after tales in general, but I had to read this book in small doses.  It became a bit unrelenting after a while.  There were some stories that spoke to me more than others, which is true of any collection.  I knew a story affected me when I woke up the next morning still thinking about it.  Wondering what happened after the last paragraph, the last sentence. 

Kelly Link has a warped sense of the world, which I quite enjoy.  Having grown up reading science fiction and fantasy novels, her stories with a touch of the "other" are the ones that I found the most compelling.  I may not have liked the characters, or even how their stories unfolded, but I was interested and invested despite, or sometimes because of, this.

The Supernatural Enhancements

by Edgar Cantero 

This book was full of surprises.  I love that it took place in the early 90's, the references to pop culture brought back a lot of memories!  As an avid X-files fan from back in the day, I understand A.'s desire to believe.  I expected A. to debunk the mysteries presented, he called himself a skeptic and atheist.  He seemed to want to be the voice of reason to Naihm's  mysticism and belief in what she couldn't see, touch or hear.  The more time that went by, the less A. could explain away.  By the end of the book, we both understood that there was more at work than could be understood.

The style of writing made this book more fun than it would have been otherwise.  The way that Niahm communicated to the world and the use of different mediums to show the progress of the plot was unique.  The book kept me interested and, I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did!

We Are Pirates

Daniel Handle

I struggled with this book.  I wanted so much to like it, to "get" it.  The writing style felt jerky and incoherent.  This helped set the atmosphere of the book, but seemed overly confused at times. The family dynamics were portrayed well, especially between the angsty Gwen and her self centered father.  Gwen felt smothered and abandoned at the same time by her parents, neglected and betrayed by her peers.  She ended up obsessed with a fantasy, introduced by an unreliable, dementia ridden older man.  She felt this fantasy gave her a purpose.  She believed in this purpose so strongly, she influenced others around her to join in.  

What started as a swashbuckling adventure, turned into a warning tale of teen psychopathy.  This story was much than the clash between adolescent struggles and a rudderless mid-life.  As normal as the Needle family may have seemed on the surface, they each had a darkness that manifested in different ways.  I found little to redeem the father.  The mother was used as a prop for Gwen's rebellion.  And the violence that erupts so quickly once the "pirates" are out on the open water, seemed out of sync with the first half of the book.  The relationship between Gwen and Amber was intense, but there was no foreshadowing of the ease they would display in committing bloody, violent crimes.  Again, I struggled. The premise of the novel was unique and caught my interest, but I couldn't connect with the characters enough to make me want to find out how it all works out in the end.

Murder in the Queen's Wardrobe: An Elizabethan Spy Thriller

Kathy Lynn Emerson

As someone who studied European History in a former life, I am drawn to books written in my favorite historical period.  This book touched on all my interests.  Elizabethan era, spies, a murder mystery... There were so few ways women could be independent during this time, it was interesting to read about Rosamond and the ways she found to take charge of her own life.  Despite herself, she gets pulled into this web of political machinations and finds that she is beginning to care about the people forced into her life.  

Her unusual upbringing and exposure to typically male pursuits makes Rosamond the ideal spy. However reluctant she was at first, she seems to relish using her above average intelligence and education. Rosamond guarded her independence so carefully, not wanting to answer to anyone.  Not only did she help solve the mystery at the center of this novel, she learned that being her own woman didn't have to mean being cut off from the ones she loves.  A very enjoyable historical mystery!

Carrot

Vanita Oelschlager

Carrot is a sweet book, my daughter and I enjoyed the illustrations and the story.  The colors were vibrant and caught the eye.  I appreciated the message behind the story, but I struggled a little bit with some of the wording.  The author seemed to add details to the story just to keep the rhyming going.  All in all, it was charming and entertaining.  

Blue Labyrinth

Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

I have been a fan of this series from the very beginning, when Agent Pendergast was a minor character.  I, along with most other readers, always want to know more about Pendergast's life, how he thinks and what motivates him.  This information comes in drips and dribbles, pieced together from all the books written so far.  Blue Labyrinth adds more color to the Pendergast picture, but still leaves quite a bit of gray.  

Preston and Child have never been afraid of killing off characters, or at the very least landing them in the ICU.  Poor Proctor better have a good health insurance plan!  It was interesting to have Pendergast out of commission for much of the story, having to rely on others for help.  It took a team of allies to try and get in front of the man who out-witted the usually indefatigable special agent.  I was glad to see Constance and Margo join in the action and be able to hold their own.  

I miss the stand alone stories, where Agent Pendergast solves mysteries and meets new and, often, strange characters.  The last few books have certainly answered many questions about the Pendergast family history and Agent Pendergast's own back story, but I am hoping for a moody, creepy protagonist that doesn't have a personal connection to any of the main characters.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this book immensely, and can't wait to get my hands on the next one.  I just hope the future holds more bizarre and darkly fascinating mysteries for everyone involved. 

Mr Squirrel & the Moon

by Sebastian Meschenmoser

The illustrations were so charming, we had to go back several times to look at them after we had read the words.  You know your child likes the pictures when it takes three times as long to get through the book than it should.  The jail cell scenes were deceptive, there was a lot more going on than you may initially think.  

This is a good choice for bed time reading, my daughter was able to read most of it herself, with some help from me.  Having her ask me to read it again is a sure fire indication that she enjoyed it!

Humbug Witch

by Lorna Balian

We just read this book tonight, gearing up for Halloween next week.  My daughter loved the illustrations and cracked up during the potion making portion.  The story was very sweet, even though the witch wasn't successful at being witchey, she never lost her temper or seemed disappointed.  No spoilers here, but we were both surprised at the ending!  Highly recommend this book for grown ups and young witches in training. 

A Thing of Beauty

Lisa Samson

Relationships are complicated, messy things.  People don't always behave as you'd want them to, or need them to.  Fiona is dealing with her past by trying to build a new legacy, but she can't seem to make it work.  Her choices are self-destructive, but she is convinced she isn't hurting anyone but herself.  

Enter Josia.  I was pretty sure in the beginning that this would turn into a love story.  It did, but not in the way I anticipated.  There was love, understanding, and compassion.  Everything that Fiona had so desperately needed, but never received.  With no strings attached.  No romantic entanglement.  No demands for reciprocity.  It took Fiona some time to trust what Josia was handing to her, but once she started down that path, her whole world opened up.

Yes, there was romance in this book.  There were relationships that were damaged beyond repair. And there was a lot of junk.  Literally.  I enjoyed reading about Fiona's journey back from the brink. My only issue is that Josia seems too good to be true.  Are there really people out there like him?  I hope so.  

 

Tagged for Death:

A Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery

Sherry Harris

I love a good garage sale, and I love a good mystery.  Both were well represented in this book.  I found the tie in to military base living interesting, it allowed the author to introduce characters that have a forced intimacy.  To enjoy what I consider to be a Cozy Mystery, I need to like the main characters and their quirks.  There wasn't a lot of quirkiness here, but the fast pace and likable main character helped make up for that.

From the very beginning, Sarah knew she couldn't go to the police for help.  Even though she was the (alleged) wronged party, having your ex as the Chief of Police can put a damper on those emergency responses.  Toward the end of the book, Sarah finds out who she can trust and who really has her back, which surprised me almost as much as it surprised her.  I look forward to reading more about the garage sale finds, friends and past indiscretions of the main character.  Very entertaining! 

As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

A Flavia de Luce Novel

Alan Bradley

Who else could get away with saying, 

"Low clouds, reddened to the shade of inflamed intestines by neon advertising signs..."

Flavia, Flavia, Flavia.  On your own, far from home.  You don't even know what those odd Canadian coins are worth.  How are you going to  survive?  Quite nicely, thank you.

Just give the girl a dead body and a mystery and she feels right as rain.  I feel taking Flavia out of her comfort zone really helped her grow and stretch her wings.  Yes, she was homesick.  Yes, she felt overwhelmed by her mother's legacy.  Yes, she was thrown into a situation she couldn't quite parse out. But true to her nature, she rises to the challenge and finds the answers to her questions in her own unique manner.

I love this character.  I love this series.  I was not disappointed in this new adventure.  A must read!

I had a lovely discussion about, surprise, books over lunch yesterday.  I was sitting in my work cafeteria, discussing the movie version of Gone Girl.  Personally, I feel the translation into film was well done.  I find it hard to watch movie versions of books I've loved, as I'm sure a lot of people do. You either love it or are left disappointed and bitter.

So, we were talking about recent books we've read and what we would recommend to someone else. I found myself thinking about how I would definitely tell my co-worker to read some books, but not my Mother.  Know thy audience!!  This is not to say my Mother wouldn't like the books, I just don't want to think about her reading them.  Think 50 Shades of Gray.  Get my point?

Books I would tell everyone, and have told everyone, to read?  Here goes...

Out of the Easy
The Scent of Rain and Lightening
The Storied Life of A.J Fikry
Where'd You Go Bernadette
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

And soooo many more.  These are the ones that popped into my head at lunch yesterday, so that must mean I consider them must reads.

The Walled City

Ryan Graudin

I honestly expected this to be a young adult dystopian novel.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  I've read quite a few in my time.  I didn't know that the premise of the book was based on a real city, one that actually existed much the way the author described it.  Once I did know, I had to re-think the whole book.  This truly could have happened.  Those people could have lived, loved, suffered and died in the same world I grew up in.  A sobering thought.

The use of three points of view worked for me.  It was easy to see that these three people were going to come together at some point, but nothing unfolded quite the way I expected.  The inner monologues of the three main characters created an intimacy, a sense that I knew them well enough to care what happened to them.  I should say the four main characters, since the city is as much a part of the story as the people.

The story relied on the contrast of a clean life  and making piece with the grunge, living in safety and surviving in jeopardy.  There are people who prefer the devil you know as opposed to taking a chance to change your circumstances.  Graudin played on these themes well, creating tension and intrigue.  I truly enjoyed the ride.

Life is too short to read a bad book!  I spend so much time reading about books, picking the ones that sound like they would appeal to me.  I troll the library website, look at editorial reviews and customer reviews.  When I start reading a new book, I always go into it biased toward loving it.  It is painful to me when I realize I don't like it.

At this point, I tell myself, give it one more chapter.  If that doesn't work, I turn into one of those awful readers who skip to the end.  I figure if I know how it ends, I may become more involved with the characters and plot.

The older I get, the less time I seem to have.  Waking up early on a Saturday morning, I make my coffee and shuffle to the living room to read.  I have, maybe, an hour before the rest of the house wakes up.  Call me selfish, but that time is MINE.  When I don't have to clean, answer questions, wipe noses, make breakfast, snacks, snacks, snacks...

So, life is too short to read a bad book.

The Pierced Heart

A Novel

Lynn Shepherd

Third time’s a charm?  After three books, I am beginning to have a feel for the author’s writing style.  I enjoyed this book most in the Charles Maddox series, so far.  Weaving a new tale using famous literary figures and novels adds interest, especially when Lynn Shepherd uses such iconic and well known stories.  I enjoy the re-branding and how she is able to weave her own mysteries into the mix. 

I had to come to terms with the fact that I will not “get” all the literary allusions she places in her books.  If I stopped reading to fact –check and search for the back story of every reference that went over my head, I would never have finished the book.  It didn’t make me enjoy the story any less, I’m just not sure I would have enjoyed it more had I understood all the references.

I recall reading Dracula in college, and how much moodier and darker the tale was than the watered down and cleaned up versions I had been exposed to in movies and television.  The feel of The Pierced Heart keeps the moody, dark roots and adds a scientific twist.  Blood letting and cupping was common practice and medical experiments were often gruesome and painful to those being experimented on in those days.  Tying the subjects together was clever.

The character development of Charles is continuing at a glacial pace.  I feel I know more about the secondary characters and their motivations than I do about the main character. 

Finally, the last chapter… without giving too much away, I found myself with these phrases running through my head:

It’s a small world!

Well, isn’t that convenient?

And others along those lines.  I understand that this is fiction, and the need to move the story to a satisfying conclusion is extremely tempting, but this may have gone just a little too far.   Would I recommend this book?  Yes.  Will I read the next book in the series?  Yes.  That is what counts in my… ahem… book.

Maddy Kettle Book 1: The Adventure of the Thimblewitch

Eric Orchard

I received this book, pre-publication, from Net Galley for an unbiased review.

I have to say, I loved the illustrations and how this had the feel of a graphic novel.  I wish there would have been a little more discussion of what the cloudscape was.  The concept was interesting, but only mentioned in passing.  My daughter loved the pictures, and spent an inordinate amount of time looking at the illustrations which were used to fill in the blanks of the spartan dialog.

The story was charming, the characters likeable.  My only complaint is that the introduction of new characters was rather abrupt, and my daughter was left confused.  As the first book in what I assume will be a series, the ending left us wondering what would happen to Maddy and her friends.  I would recommend the book to mid-grade readers, especially as an introduction to graphic novels.

The Capture (Guardians of Ga'Hoole #1)

by Kathryn Lasky

As the Mom of a seven year old girl, I struggle to find "appropriate" books for us to read together.  She reads her own books, geared toward her reading level, but we always try to have a book that I read to her on the our plate.  These books are typically for older kids, but I feel exposing her to  ideas and words beyond  her reading level can only do her good!  My struggle is... I am tired of princesses and fairies!  She would never admit to it, but I have a sneaking suspicion she is tired of them too.

The Capture is the perfect compromise.  A book about kids (owlets) facing extreme danger and trying to solve a mystery with no help from adults (grown up owls).  If fits in with my daughters need for identifiable characters and an exciting story line.  I worried, at times, when I was reading this book to her, that she didn't really understand what was happening.  I would finish the chapter and ask her if she still liked the book.  Almost every night.  

Her answer was always, YES!  She asked questions about the characters, wondered what certain words were, and became righteously angry at a few plot points.   Soren and Gylfie became friends to her.  What more could I ask?  Well, I could actually ask for a book that I, as an adult, would enjoy at the same time.  Is that so hard?  From the choices I have seen out there, apparently it is.  But The Capture, pun intended, captured my interest and made me want to read each night.  We are looking forward to the next book, which I hope will enthrall my daughter as much as this one has.

The Solitary House
Lynn Shepherd

What struck me first when I read this book, was the similarity in opening scenes to Anne Perry's Callander Square.  To be fair, I've been a bit of a Victorian Mystery bender, so the parallel may not have been noticeable to anyone else.  Dead, buried babies are not something you aren't likely to forget, though.

I actually enjoyed the fact that there was no romance in this novel.  The flirting and falling in love can be distracting!  Lynn Shepherd spent a lot of time describing the seedier, dirtier parts of London.  I found this to be both interesting, and off-putting.  Having studied history in a previous life, I know that the living conditions for the majority of the world at this point were less than ideal.  I also know that the author used the descriptions to illustrate the difference between the classes.  I had the feeling that some of the descriptions were used as fillers, without a purpose behind them.  Shock value can be used, but if it is over used, it loses it's power.

The mystery in the novel kept my interest.  What were these men hiding?  What brought them together?  The answer to those questions at the end of the book actually surprised me.  That's not easy to do!  Without giving anything away, knowing where the babies discussed in the opening scene came from closed the case satisfyingly.  I wish I had gotten to know the main character, Charles, a little better along the way, though.  We get snippets of information, but not a true understanding of personality or motivations.

All in all, I enjoyed the book.  Would I recommend it to my bibliophile friends?  Probably not.  It's not really book club material, but I don't need every book I read to be so.  I would recommend the book to those who like a Victorian mystery.  I hope to become better acquainted with Charles Maddox in the next few books.