David Woodger
This has been a read-aloud book for my daughter and has been sporadically attended to. Making the time for it gets harder and harder. Still, we soldier on.
Anyway, this book is a sequel of sorts to the very good The Goose Girl. But we've got a new main character and she learns the ability to control fire, sort of like a medieval version of Steven King's Firestarter. Only her control of this power is tenuous and comes with its own problems. Enna, our protagonist, wants to help her country of Bayern in its war with, um, okay I forget right now. Let's call them the mucky-mucks. Well, things get a little heated with the mucky-mucks. (See what I did there?) And the plot is interesting – in parts – but it didn't really catch fire. And, yes, fizzled out in the end.
This memoir by cartoonist Roz Chast is about her dealing with her aging parents. As the only child of parents who are advancing into their 90s, Roz has many uncomfortable issues to deal with and she handles it with a healthy dose of humor. It's a fascinating look at someone navigating the issues that arise when dealing with the final months, weeks and days of your parents' lives.
I was getting bogged down in another book and needed a break. So I turned to this, a horror tale written by a son of Stephen King. It was kinduva cool, weird tale of a girl, Victoria (Vic) who can ride her bike across a certain bridge to find whatever she's looking for. But then there's an evil guy named Charlie Manx who has his own magical ride (a Rolls Royce Wraith with the license plate NOS4A2) that takes him to his nightmarish vision of Christmasland. Manx also kidnaps children to bring them to Christmasland and occasionally murders their parents. Lovely, right? Well these two cross paths and after a close call, their fates are intertwined. For a 700+ page book, this one reads pretty fast. I think I took about two weeks on it. It was fun to delve into horror again. (By the way, in case you didn't already know, NOS4A2 = Nosferatu, the German equivalent of vampire.)
When I first caught wind of this book in the New York Times Book Review some weeks ago, I added it to my wish list. Then I gifted it to myself for my birthday. (It's important to love yourself.) I intended the book as one to dip into when I wanted a break from the huge fantasy tome I'm in the midst of. But then I kept going back to this one and read it fairly quickly.
This is just the sort of science book I enjoy. Not too heavy for a layman, not so dry that it puts you to sleep, and filled with interesting things about the world, in this case, materials science. In eleven breezy chapters, University professor Mark Miodownik, explores some common and some not-so-common materials, from concrete, porcelain, and chocolate, to aerogels and implants. Fascinating stuff and told with witty verve. I wished it was longer.
The bulk of this long series was excellent. Towards the end, however, it began to fracture. In a few of the books, the main character, Tom Ward, doesn't even make an appearance. Then this book short changes the Spook and Alice's stories. Their story arcs get a big “huh?!” and “what?!?” respectively. The explanation for the strange turn in Alice's story will no doubt be expounded upon is a new series featuring Tom Ward that is advertised in the last few pages of this book. It was a good ride overall. But I'm done.
Imagine a landscape filled with rails and switches, old trains littered here and there among “islands” of civilization. Within the land of this “railsea” are giant moles, some as big as whales, digging tunnels everywhere. Plying this railsea are moletrains and salvors, hunting moles for meat and oil, and salvaging various parts for resale. This is the world where young Sham ap Soorap finds himself, apprenticed to the train doctor aboard a moletrain with a captain obsessed with locating a giant yellow-tinged mole.
Great set-up, but I was not too enthused with the writing style. It seemed very choppy and often too vague about what was going on. Sham was a nice character, but we don't get to know him all that well. Also, I was not a fan of the author's decision to replace every instance of the world “and” with an ampersand ( & ). Just annoying. The ending felt a bit rushed as well. Not my favorite outing with this author. I still plan on re-reading both Perdido Street Station and The Scar.
I've only read one other book by this author, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – which I thoroughly enjoyed. This one is a ghost story. I flew through it. And apparently he borrows both some ideas and some characters from The Bone Clocks in this story. It didn't matter to me. I thought the plot was pretty cool but now I know some key ideas behind the story of the The Bone Clocks, so it's not really on my To Read List any more. I prefer surprises. I really enjoy Mitchell's writing style. I'm sure I'll read more by him.
This is the second time I've read this. King is entertaining. Here's what I wrote the first time I read it (back in January, 2001)...
I've read about 16 of Stephen King's books and this one does two things. First, King briefly relates his early years and reveals some of the inspirations for several of his books. And secondly, he offers some straight-forward advice for neophyte writers hoping to get published. This is a breezy and entertaining read which I think might appeal even to those who have no desire to write themselves. King candidly admits that most books about writing are complete bullshit (his words) and endeavors to give advice with his own particular bias. He is also candid about his battles with alcoholism and drug abuse. He closes the book with a short bit on the accident in the summer of 1999 that almost killed him. (He was walking along a rural street in Maine when a man driving a blue Dodge van went off the road and slammed into King. The driver never saw him. He was busy trying to keep his dog's nose out of a cooler filled with meat.) Anyway, this was an always interesting and often funny book. Helpful too.
Originally this was going to be another read-aloud-to-my-daughter book, but she quickly became uninterested in it. Nonetheless, I continued on my own. But the slow pace was reason enough for me to put it aside for about six months before picking it up again. And I almost put it aside for another spell, but then I got that completist urge and I finished it. Not at any great rush either. So, the story was okay... not a page-turner, obviously... but good enough to finish it off. It also helped that it was handsomely illustrated by the author's wife.
The story concerns a girl Prue, whose baby brother Mac gets kidnapped by a murder of crows and taken into the Impassable Wilderness (outside of St. Johns, Portland, Oregon). Prue and her friend Curtis manage to get into the Impassable Wilderness and there they meet talking animals, humans, bandits, and a certain power-mad evil-doer. This is the first of a trilogy (but can be read as a stand-alone book). I spoke to one of my nieces who loves this trilogy. But I didn't love it.
The fourth Johannes Cabal novel sees the return of his brother Horst, a vampire who would rather not be. Horst takes a major role too, especially in the first half of the book and he's a fun character to tag along with. Mr. Howard has a definite way with words and often made me snicker at his droll wordplay. And The Brothers Cabal is in top form. (I may have to re-read the first two someday. The third not so much.) Anyway, I won't spoil the story for you. Suffice it to say that this outing includes steampunkish airships, zombies, and werewolves and tons of witty remarks.
Essentially Alice going through hell to get the third and final blade necessary to vanquish the Fiend. Moves at a fast clip and never flags (although that sacrifices any real character development). This book is all Alice, Tom is only mentioned in passing. There's a welcome surprise at the end. One more to go in this series!
I'm slowly working my way through the Parker novels by Richard Stark (aka Donald E Westlake). There are 24 of them. So far I've read the last nine of them and am now working my way through the beginning books in the series. This one is book 5 and not as strong a story as some others. It's about Parker teaming up with a large crew to basically hit a whole small town in a single night. FYI: My introduction to Parker was Comeback which was excellent. The 16th book is Butcher's Moon and was published in 1974. Westlake didn't get around to penning another Parker novel until Comeback in 1997. The first Parker novel is The Hunter (1963), AKA Point Blank (turned into a movie with Lee Marvin), AKA Payback (turned into a movie with Mel Gibson).
This is a curious little book that is a cross between botany and mixology. Sort of a pint-sized coffee table book. It lived on my nightstand for about two years during which time I read a few pages at a time. Well I finished it. But I much preferred the authors two other Wicked books, Wicked Plants and Wicked Bugs.
This story picks up where Sea Of Ghosts left off. I began reading this series after being wowed by the author's Deepgate Codex series that began with Scar Night. I think Alan Campbell is among my top favorite fantasy writers right now. He's right up there with China Miéville. He tends to jam many wild and original ideas into one book. I was digging the Replicating Sword. Now my 13-year-old son is reading this too. I'll be eagerly awaiting the next installment in this series. It's way fun.
Heard about this one in the New York Times Book Review section and as I was about to head off on a vacation I decided I had to have it right away and actually did the right thing by buying it from a real live bookstore in my home town. I was glad I did. I also thought my kids might enjoy it too and, in fact, I let my 10-year-old daughter read it first. She took it in her greedy little hands and dashed off to a quiet corner. She gave it back about 90 minutes later. “How was it?” I asked. “Awesome,” she said. So then I read it and discovered why I occasionally heard my daughter snickering to herself. And if you like graphic novels about spunky shape-shifting teenage girls who want to apprentice themselves to the local supervillain, you might like it too.
Mickey Wade, a newly unemployed journalist moves into his grandfather's apartment in a run-down Philadelphia neighborhood. One night, after quaffing some aspirin he finds himself transported back in time to the year of his birth. Back and forth he goes, and then he decides to thwart the kid who would grow up to kill his father. Some fun weirdness ensues and it's a super-fast read. I'm putting more Duane Swierczynski books in my To Read List.
I still own my 1979 copy of this book (first published in 1968) and needing another read-aloud book for my daughter, decided to revisit this one. This marks the third time I've read it. My daughter enjoyed it but then again she enjoys being read to, period. She's been reading plenty on her own these days too, a lot of reading in fact. When I mentioned to her that she's been busy reading to herself and maybe I would stop reading to her, she said no, I need to continue reading to her. So I've been reading to my kids for over thirteen years now. (You didn't really expect an actual review of this, did you? It's not exactly fresh material. It stands up to the test of time though. That's all you need to know.)
I was in the mood for a light fantasy adventure — some simple sword and sorcery and this fit the bill. Egil and Nix, our heroes, are respectively a priest of a forgotten god, and a nimble thief. They busy themselves with tomb robbing. But their latest bit of thievery lands sets them in the sights of a twisted family and Egil and Nix have a rough time of it. Good, quick read and fun enough that I'll eventually read the follow-up adventure featuring Egil and Nix as well.
It had been too long since the last time I read a travelogue. This one was a excellent choice. The author, a travel journalist who freely admits he doesn't do that much traveling, hooks up with an tough Australian guide in Peru to follow the trail of Hiram Bingham III, a Yale man who had “discovered” Machu Picchu in 1911. The narrative weaves together Bingham's history, Peruvian history, and his own trekking in the area and succeeds in telling a fascinating, well-paced story. The book includes a number of black and white photos as well.
Just for fun, here's a quote from his guide, John, when they were discussing craziest things they've ever eaten:
“I once ate a cockroach, but that was on a bet back in Australia. I also once, after quite a lot of beer, ate a kilo of butter.” He leaned forward between the front seats. “Won ten dollars on that bet.”
Sometimes it's good to take a break from fantasy set in a faux-medieval world and check out something a bit different. City of Stairs is set in a fantasy world that's technologically similar to, say, the 19th-century. It begins with spy/diplomat Shara Thivani sent to the subjugated city of Bulikov to investigate the murder of a historian. Shara is a petite, shrewd woman who brings along her “secretary” Sigrud for muscle. Sigrud is a great character too. He's a big, hulking northener who is scarily good at disarming adversaries (and would think nothing of doing that literally). Bulikov used to be a beautiful, successful city largely on account of its group of six gods (Divinities) who made it that way. But decades ago, a fabled general from Saypur known as the Kaj, killed these gods. But as Shara – who is also from Saypur – comes to learn, not all the gods may have died. Although the pacing may at times be on the slow side, this book kept me turning pages and at times was a lot of fun. Things get super interesting in the middle and the ending has some nice surprises too.
When I stumbled across this one, I thought: Yeah! I need this! And so I picked it up and went through it pretty quickly. I jotted down notes, I inserted several bookmarks of places to return to and I got a lot of inspiration from this book. Because, yeah, I too, am trying to write some fantasy fiction. This book asks some very helpful questions and makes some very good points. Glad I got it and glad I read it. And it looks great too.
Sometimes a horror story is just the thing. This one is set in a furniture megastore called Orsk, a thinly veiled version of IKEA. There's plently of sort-of-Swedish brand names of various products, a twisting maze store layout, and references to notoriously problematic assembly instructions. The stores employees have been experiencing weirdly ruined merchandise and spotted some strange characters in the store. This leads one floor manager to gather a few employees for an after hours late shift to try to figure out what's going on. Things go rapidly downhill from there. I loved the setting and the story zips along. It begins with a dark sense of humor and then gets into some typical horror stuff. Fun ride.
(Also of some amusement is that my 10-year-old daughter was very interested to hear my summary of the story. I wonder about that one.)
I finished Alan Campbell's Deepgate Codex back in 2010 and thought that it was wondrously strange and fun. Now he's got a new series going called the Gravedigger Chronicles. This first book takes place in a whole new, fascinating world. One of the things that's great about this author is that he doesn't fall back on a faux-medieval world like so many countless other fantasists. He creates a new world from scratch. The main character in this story is Thomas Granger, a colonel in an elite infiltration unit nicknamed the Gravediggers. But when he insults the emperor, he goes underground and becomes a jailor in a backwater place called Ethugra. It's here that he meets a daughter he didn't know he had named Ianthe. Ianthe has unusual psychic powers and as such is coveted by various factions. There are strange characters galore and some inventive action set pieces. I just found the whole book fascinating and cool. Campbell's' imagination is on par with China Mieville's. I've already got Book 2 on tap.
This was chosen by my daughter as the next book for me to read aloud to her. She had loved the first book and so we knew what we were in for with this one. Basically two kids deal with the evil Dean brothers (Dean D. Dean and Dan D. Dean) and a new nanny, Manny Mann, and their inventor father's newest invention, AND a cheeky, conceited Narrator who offers pointers For Further Study at the end of every chapter, not to mention footnotes about the proper way to pronounce French words the Narrator enjoys using to prove how smart he is. This book didn't disappoint.