Anki
The VIZBIG editions of the Inuyasha manga are an excellent and affordable way to collect the series in English, plus the content is unflipped (and bigger than the original English publications to boot).
In this volume they seem to have ditched most of the dialect attempts (Jakken is no longer painful to read, for which I am profoundly grateful), but there continue to be occasional confusing bits that I can only attribute to small translation errors. All in all, a very satisfying volume.
Beat to Quarters was an interesting read, and I quite enjoyed it. It contains plenty of action and high-seas adventure and a cast of colorful and entertaining characters. There were a number of places where I wished I had a reference of nautical terminology (I am still uncertain as to the exact state of a ship that is hove-to, for instance), but this did not dramatically affect my enjoyment of the text.
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the romance element between Horatio Hornblower and Lady Barbara. It seemed almost an afterthought in some respects, and it also seemed somewhat rushed. Plus, sailor or not, Hornblower is married. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in later installments of the series.
I will admit that “Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case” was my primary reason for picking up this book. I wanted more stories based in the Old Kingdom and/or Ancelstierre. My only real complaint is that the story isn't long enough; I would love to see another novel (or two or three!).
The other stories in the collection are also good. Some I enjoyed more than others, and several of them had me laughing out loud. Definitely a worthwhile read.
I expected something...different than I got with this book. I enjoyed the descriptions of the various yarns Saskia creates, and I felt that the authors did a good amount of research regarding spinning. I also found some of the twists they put into the story to be interesting. However, there were a few things that just didn't work for me.
I am not fond of the third person present tense as a point of view for literature in general. While it can be done well, it usually feels stilted and awkward. It also makes it difficult to get any real sense of the passage of time within the story.
They fleshed out the characters of the miller and Rumpelstiltskin, but the king remains solely a one-dimensional individual, unknowable and ultimately forgettable. This isn't really different from the original fairy tale, but I still found it disappointing, largely because the authors did take time to flesh out the other characters and add new people to the story.
Finally, the ending just bothered me. The book just stops without any attempt to resolve things, without providing any sort of denouement or conclusion. I realize this isn't much different than the original fairy tale, but we're looking at a retelling, not the original. Meaning they don't have to hold strictly to type.
This is a set of three urban fantasy novellas by Mercedes Lackey. The first (and longest) is the first new Diana Tregarde story in years, and it is set when Diana is just starting college. All three stories have introductions by Mercedes Lackey, giving a short rundown of certain world-chronology elements (mostly detailing the differences between the time frame of the story and the present day; there are quite a few!).
All in all a fast and enjoyable read.
Contains spoilers
2.5 / 5.0
This book had a number of positives and negatives for me. I enjoy the setting (both place and time), and the characters were entertaining. There were a number of clever plot elements, and everything ends well. I could easily give this book three or four stars if not for one particularly jarring element: premarital sex between the main couple.
I am hardly so naive as to believe that nothing ever happened before marriage in Regency England. However, I do not need it described for me, and it wasn't even really necessary for the story. The same attempted scandal creation could have occurred without it, and it would have made a lot more sense than what ended up transpiring between two individuals who hadn't even known each other for more than a couple months, tops. They called it love in the book. It really wasn't; it was unbridled passion and lust.
I love the character development that occurs in this book. And there's some beautiful symmetry between this book and The Warrior's Apprentice.
Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens is the fourth (and currently last) installment of the Alcatraz Smedry series. Brandon Sanderson ramped up the tension while still maintaining the lighthearted, humorous tone of the series. The reoccurring use of the word “stoopid” did get a little bit irritating at times, but each previous book in the series had some element or other designed for that purpose. Definitely hope that Brandon is able to write and publish the fifth book.
The Lost Hero has a slightly different feel than the Percy Jackson books (it's written in a third person POV), but it's every bit as exciting and edge-of-your-seat adventure.
Scumble is the sequel/companion novel to Newbery Honor book [b:Savvy 2133795 Savvy Ingrid Law http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1202851100s/2133795.jpg 2596626], and is set nine years later. A number of the characters from Savvy make appearances, but the main character and narrator is just-turned-thirteen Ledger Kale, cousin to the Beaumonts.I enjoyed reading Savvy, so I had high hopes for Scumble. It did not disappoint! Rather, Scumble takes all the good things from Savvy and makes them even better. Characterisation and pacing are tightened up. Distinction between character voices is improved. And we get to see how the various Beaumonts grew up in the nine intervening years.There definitely seems to be room for more books about these delightful families, and I really hope there will be.
This is another one of those “childhood classics” that I managed to miss reading when I was actually a child. I'm still trying to decide whether or not this is a good thing. I think that, had I tried reading it as a child, I would have been just a bit bored by the story overall. But as an adult reader, I find I am probably less forgiving of things I perceive as flaws in the writing.
Coming to it as an adult reader, I can see why it is viewed as a classic, and I enjoyed reading it, but I also don't think it would really be publishable today. The pacing is somewhat uneven–it seemed that just when things would start to pick up a good pace we would be treated to another “now gentle reader” moment, highlighting the moral lessons we should be learning from the story, and also bringing the forward momentum of the story to a halt.
I had problems with Beth as a character, mostly because I don't feel she really was a character. Of the main characters, she is the only one whose viewpoint we don't really see. We are told she is sweet and perfect and wonderful and beloved, but the only real evidence we have of these things is circumstantial at best: Beth is wonderful because we are told she is wonderful. Consequently, the major plot points that hinge on Beth all struck me as a little bit fake, which was rather unfortunate.
I liked John and Laurie and Professor Bhaer, and I enjoyed the romances that came with them (though again, it seemed like we got an awful lot of preaching and moralising whenever something interesting was about to happen).
I'm glad I read it, and I may very well read it again at some point, but probably not for several years.
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Some edition-specific notes:
The Barnes & Noble Classics ebook edition is, for the most part, quite good. It comes with quite a bit of supplementary material in the form of a biography of the author; historical background of both when the book was written and the time period in which it was set; and approximately twenty pages of endnotes and footnotes, all hyper-linked within the book itself.
I would have preferred to see the information about the author and her history placed at the end of the text rather than the beginning. Ditto with the introduction, which, like most such introductions, assumes the reader is already familiar with the text.
The proofreading of the ebook text is...spotty. As far as I can tell it was typeset by scanning an existing print copy of the book, using OCR technology to render the text. On the whole, this works perfectly well, but there are a number of places where words are split oddly (e.g. “beg inning” instead of “beginning”), or specific letters were not translated correctly, leading to spelling errors (e.g. “tor” instead of “for”).
I enjoyed this retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and I absolutely love the cover illustration. I do have to say that it is a pretty quick read, and there isn't necessarily a great deal of depth to it. But it holds up well, and younger audiences especially should enjoy it.
2.5 / 5.0
The concept of a library that lends out objects rather than books is very fun, and it makes a very good setting for any number of stories. Adding in the fairy tale elements just makes it more intriguing.
When it comes to characterisation, however, this novel falls rather flat. None of the characters really seem to have much depth, even Elizabeth as the narrator. Additionally, several things are just quickly glossed over in the telling, and a number of things got solved too quickly, in my point of view.
Still, it's a quick, fun read. And a good way to spend an afternoon.
Magic Below Stairs is a companion novel to the Cecelia and Kate books by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. It has a slightly younger target audience, and it is not written in a letter/journal format the way the Cecelia and Kate novels are.
I definitely want to see more of Frederick, and I really hope that Caroline Stevermer continues writing stories about him. The ending of the book definitely seems to leave that possibility open.
There's a lot of good information on hand spindling to be found in this book, but at times I found the author's insistence that a high-whorl spindle is the best of all possible spindles to be a bit frustrating. Not surprising–the book's subtitle makes it clear the focus of the text will be on high-whorl spindles–but still a bit frustrating.
The illustrations contained within this book are, without exception, drawings. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it can make a book less accessible to modern audiences than one that uses photographs to illustrate various concepts.
This is my first experience with the Hannah Swensen mysteries by Joanne Fluke, and overall I enjoyed it. Because it is later in the series it was difficult at first to keep track of the side characters (which characters are there just for the one story, and which are recurring cast members), but overall I think it stood fairly well on its own. I'll have to go back to read more of the series to pick up on some of the book to book plot threads.
I particularly liked that the murder investigation wasn't the only mystery within the book, and I'm really looking forward to trying a number of the recipes.
2.5 stars
Overall I would say I liked this book–there are a lot of interesting ideas, and Cassel is a decent narrator–but there were enough elements that rubbed me the wrong way that I am currently uncertain as to whether or not I will seek out the other books in the series. It shaded just a bit too negative for my tastes, in general.
One of my friends from college told me about this book and told me I just had to read it. I'm always looking for book recommendations, so I found a copy and read it. I promptly fell in love with the characters and the story–whimsical and practical all the the same time. As soon as I finished reading it I think I started again, and I've read it many times since then...when I'm not lending my copy out to people to introduce them to the wonderful story!
This is an excellent reference covering the basic properties of yarn and various fiber types. I'd recommend it for any knitter who wants to know more about how and why various yarns behave the way they do. It also covers at least some of the basic history behind our most common fiber friends.
The Maltese Falcon is probably one of those quintessential mystery/detective novels. I found the writing to be rather spare, and a touch misogynistic. This is definitely a “boys book” in that at the time it was written the target audience was most likely men, and men of a certain temperament as well.
I enjoyed reading this as an example of the genre and as a period piece, but I don't know that I am likely to reread it any time soon.
This book is in the same general vein as the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz: a capable and resourceful teenage boy from England travels to some sort of exotic locale and faces a variety of dangers before saving the day. Lots of action and gadgets, and Gilman introduces a mystical element with the inclusion of African shamanism. If you are looking for high-stakes adventure and plenty of action it may be worth checking this book out, but you will also need to be able to overlook some aspects of the writing that I found distracting.
Gilman is rather obviously accustomed to writing scripts for television shows. I counted at least fourteen distinct viewpoint characters while reading, and the book is just under 400 pages in length (American hardcover release). That makes for a lot of jumping around, even within scenes, and whenever it happens the story turns rather clunky. A television show is better designed for quick changes in viewpoint, and it can accommodate more viewpoints in a single episode than a novel can. (It did not help matters for me that some of the jumps seemed solely for the purpose of explaining why the adults in the story were keeping vital information from the teenagers, even when giving the teenagers that information would have vastly simplified matters for everyone involved. In other words, it felt very artificial as I was reading it.)
It was also just as obvious to me that one of the goals of this story is to impart information in order to educate the readers about environmental and social issues. When information and issues are so obviously presented as such in a novel – when the main purpose and goal is not to tell a good story – I tend to resent it, since I was expecting a story and not a lecture or lesson. Including morals and information and serious discussion in a story isn't bad – it's actually quite important – but they don't have to be blatant, and it is probably better if they aren't. For one thing, slowing (or stopping) the story in order to explain something can contribute to clunky writing, and in an action/adventure/thriller type story you really don't want to put a high-speed chase on hold in order to describe the countryside. It tends to throw the reader out of the story.
I am not in the target age group for this series, and I knew that going into it. However, I am usually able to keep that in mind when reading books intended for younger audiences, and typically manage to select titles that are enjoyable for adults as well as children.
Overall this wasn't a bad read. It just wasn't really spectacular either. It lacked a level of substance that I want in my reading material. At least in the stuff I'm going to buy. I think even when I was in the intended age group for this book (and the sequels) I would have had some issues with the worldbuilding (or rather, general lack thereof).
Book of Signs is the second book in the Diadem: Worlds of Magic series. The pacing in this book is still pretty rough, and there are cuts away to the villain's perspective in order to introduce said villain to the readers. This disrupts the continuity and flow of the story.