Okay, I think this should catch me up. I missed "Twisted" by Sara Shepherd a few weeks ago. The 9th PLL book finds the girls friends again after Ali tried to kill them, and they take a spring break trip to Jamaica. While there, they meet a girl who reminds them of Ali, and a horrible thing happens that separates them again for fear of spilling their dark secret. A year later, things are going along seemingly perfectly for all four girls, until they start getting texts from A, who knows what they did in Jamaica. Whoops. I'm surprised at how much I enjoy these books, but they really are addicting.
"Artemis Fowl: Opal Deception" by Eoin Colfer is the fourth book in the series and finds the inhabitants of Underworld needing Artemis's help with the dangerous Opal, who has escaped and started a goblin rebellion.
"Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern was very beautifully written and utterly charming. I was actually enchanted by the world she spun, a world of mystery and magic that cannot be easily explained. Celia and Marco are pawns in a game much bigger than themselves, fated to duel their unique brand of magic at a circus created just to showcase their talents. Celia and Marco reach the point where they refuse to play the game as it was intended to be played any longer and they find a way to pass the delicate balancing act onto someone else so they can be together. It was an all around lovely book, and I think I'm going to buy the hardcover, something I so rarely do anymore once I've read a book. But this is one I want to own.
"Maine" by J. Courtney Sullivan told the story of a family with issues like any other, who have a summer home in Maine they visit every year but no longer together. The three children: Patrick, Kathleen, and Clare, divvy it up so they don't have to put up with each other. The story is told from four points of view: their mother, Alice, the owner of the house, Kathleen, Patrick's wife Ann Marie, and Kathleen's daughter Maggie. What Sullivan did beautifully was paint the story from each perspective: when you're in Alice's mind, you like her, you feel sorry for this seemingly sweet, sad little old lady who has nothing in the world except her faith in the Catholic Church to keep her going since her children and grandchildren rarely pay her any mind. Then when you read from Kathleen's perspective, you realize Alice isn't really all that benign but you can't help but think she's not quite as bad as Kathleen thinks she is, either. You feel like you'd hate Ann Marie's goody two shoe-edness, but when you read from Ann Marie's section you find you like her, she's trying so hard to please everyone and is not perfect, not really. Sullivan did a nice job showing how people are more than one dimensional, which really isn't as easy to do as it seems.
And finally, Carolly Erickson's "The Favored Queen". She paints a highly fictionalized but fun account of Jane Seymour. Jane is usually portrayed as very pious and plain and perhaps a big dull, but Erickson re-imagines her as having had a broken engagement, an affair with a married man, and having a part in Anne Boleyn's downfall, which made Jane much more interesting. It was quick read.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
American Gods; Like Judgement Day; Still Missing; Size 12 is Not Fat
Okay, I think I'm missing a whole bunch of books because, instead of writing them down immediately after finishing them, I think "oh, I'll remember", and then I never do. Luckily I have a paper back up, I just have to consult it and get caught up. Anyways...
"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman was very good, hard to describe but I really enjoyed it. Shadow is released from prison and takes a job with a sketchy guy called Mr. Wednesday after his wife is killed in a car accident and he realizes he has nothing to go back home to. He kind of wove in ancient mythology and gods with the idea of people bringing their old gods over from the old country but then there also being new gods created or already here? Not sure, I was a little fuzzy on the details. But it held my attention better than most sci fi/fantasy books do, so yay for that!
Moving on. I saw the film "Rosewood" a few weeks ago and wanted to know more about what took place in the small Florida town in 1923. "Like Judgement Day" by Michael D'Orso didn't really tell so much about Rosewood and its residents as it explained the nuances of Florida legislation (fascinating stuff). I guess it's nearly impossible to know what happened nearly a century before for sure, of course eye witness accounts are spotty at best, but what it boiled down to was that an angry mob burned down the town, killing many black residents and displacing the entire remaining citizens. Seventy three years later, the survivors and their descendants were awarded compensation for their loss from the state of Florida. The movie was actually very good, if not sad.
"Still Missing" by Beth Gutcheon took place in 1980, so it felt a bit dated but it was interesting. It was inspired by the Ethan Patz disappearance and there was a movie which I've never seen called "Without a Trace" that was based on the book. Boy, that sounds way more convoluted then it needs to be. At any rate, Susan Selky kisses her six year old son, Alex, goodbye one morning and watches him walk off to school. He doesn't return home that afternoon and she discovers he never made it to school, he simply vanished. At first the police and neighbors and friends are eager and gung ho to help her find him, but after the weeks go by and there's still no trace of him their eagerness starts to wane and Susan finds herself fighting to keep attention focused on finding Alex. When a man who used to clean their house is arrested for homosexual activities, the police try to pin Alex's disappearance on him and wash their hands of the whole deal, but Susan isn't convinced he is guilty.
"Size 12 is Not Fat" by Meg Cabot was light and fluffy fun. I've read a few of her YA novels and found them entertaining. I really liked "Avalon High", I thought it was very clever the way she wove in Arthurian mythology. But anyway, "Size 12" deals with a former pop star who is dropped by her record label and her ex-fiance and forced to take work in a college residence hall (an uppity name for a dorm) after her mother runs off with all her money. Heather is surprising optimistic about the whole thing, at least until girls start turning up dead. Their deaths are ruled accidental, caused by a dangerous hobby known as elevator surfing. Heather doesn't buy it, and it turns out she's right: someone is murdering the girls and now the killer is out to silence her, too. While the mystery bit was pretty predictable (I figured it out way in advance, which almost never happens) it was still a cute read and I couldn't help but like Heather. She was so nice but not in a "gag me, she's too good to be true" kind of a way.
"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman was very good, hard to describe but I really enjoyed it. Shadow is released from prison and takes a job with a sketchy guy called Mr. Wednesday after his wife is killed in a car accident and he realizes he has nothing to go back home to. He kind of wove in ancient mythology and gods with the idea of people bringing their old gods over from the old country but then there also being new gods created or already here? Not sure, I was a little fuzzy on the details. But it held my attention better than most sci fi/fantasy books do, so yay for that!
Moving on. I saw the film "Rosewood" a few weeks ago and wanted to know more about what took place in the small Florida town in 1923. "Like Judgement Day" by Michael D'Orso didn't really tell so much about Rosewood and its residents as it explained the nuances of Florida legislation (fascinating stuff). I guess it's nearly impossible to know what happened nearly a century before for sure, of course eye witness accounts are spotty at best, but what it boiled down to was that an angry mob burned down the town, killing many black residents and displacing the entire remaining citizens. Seventy three years later, the survivors and their descendants were awarded compensation for their loss from the state of Florida. The movie was actually very good, if not sad.
"Still Missing" by Beth Gutcheon took place in 1980, so it felt a bit dated but it was interesting. It was inspired by the Ethan Patz disappearance and there was a movie which I've never seen called "Without a Trace" that was based on the book. Boy, that sounds way more convoluted then it needs to be. At any rate, Susan Selky kisses her six year old son, Alex, goodbye one morning and watches him walk off to school. He doesn't return home that afternoon and she discovers he never made it to school, he simply vanished. At first the police and neighbors and friends are eager and gung ho to help her find him, but after the weeks go by and there's still no trace of him their eagerness starts to wane and Susan finds herself fighting to keep attention focused on finding Alex. When a man who used to clean their house is arrested for homosexual activities, the police try to pin Alex's disappearance on him and wash their hands of the whole deal, but Susan isn't convinced he is guilty.
"Size 12 is Not Fat" by Meg Cabot was light and fluffy fun. I've read a few of her YA novels and found them entertaining. I really liked "Avalon High", I thought it was very clever the way she wove in Arthurian mythology. But anyway, "Size 12" deals with a former pop star who is dropped by her record label and her ex-fiance and forced to take work in a college residence hall (an uppity name for a dorm) after her mother runs off with all her money. Heather is surprising optimistic about the whole thing, at least until girls start turning up dead. Their deaths are ruled accidental, caused by a dangerous hobby known as elevator surfing. Heather doesn't buy it, and it turns out she's right: someone is murdering the girls and now the killer is out to silence her, too. While the mystery bit was pretty predictable (I figured it out way in advance, which almost never happens) it was still a cute read and I couldn't help but like Heather. She was so nice but not in a "gag me, she's too good to be true" kind of a way.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Flash and Bones; Ready Player One
Kathy Reich's latest Temperance Brennan novel "Flash and Bones", has Tempe investigating a murder at the Charlotte speedway during race week. Well, actually, the original murder took place long before, the story starts with a body encased in asphalt trapped in a barrel that has probably been there for over a decade. It was pretty good, shorter than most of her previous stories and without as much convolution so I was able to follow along. Yay me! Unfortunately no detective Andrew Ryan, though, I have high hopes for a reappearance soon.
"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline was really a lot of fun, one of the best books I've read in awhile. It takes place about 30 years in the future, in a world where most people live out their lives in a virtual world called the OASIS. OASIS's founder, James Halliday, dies, and in his will stipulates that his vast fortune and control of OASIS will go to the first person who is able to solve his puzzles, find three keys, and open three different gates and win the challenges within. For five long years egg hunters (or "gunters") have been searching for the clues and keys with no luck. A dedicated young man named Wade manages to find the first key and the race is on. A group called the sixers are hot on his trail, using all the power of their corporation, IOI, to cheat their way into winning the game. It was a great story with lots of fun action and wonderful characters to root for. I was literally cheering at the end.
"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline was really a lot of fun, one of the best books I've read in awhile. It takes place about 30 years in the future, in a world where most people live out their lives in a virtual world called the OASIS. OASIS's founder, James Halliday, dies, and in his will stipulates that his vast fortune and control of OASIS will go to the first person who is able to solve his puzzles, find three keys, and open three different gates and win the challenges within. For five long years egg hunters (or "gunters") have been searching for the clues and keys with no luck. A dedicated young man named Wade manages to find the first key and the race is on. A group called the sixers are hot on his trail, using all the power of their corporation, IOI, to cheat their way into winning the game. It was a great story with lots of fun action and wonderful characters to root for. I was literally cheering at the end.
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