Month: October 2009

Library Loot

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Library LootSome good finds at the library today.

 

 

 

 

The Haunting of Hill House

 

 

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. It’s Halloween today and it seemed a very appropriate read.

 

 

 

 

Cleopatra's Daughter

 

 

Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran. I’ve been wanting to read this one for a long time. I loved The Heretic Queen and have high hopes for this one too.  She’s got a great writing style.

 

 

 

 

The White Queen

 

 

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory.

 

 

 

 

Shiver

 

 

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.

 

 

 

 

Heretic

 

 

Heretic by Bernard Cornwell. Lately it seems I’ve been on a Cornwell kick. I like his writing a lot and decided to peruse the stacks to see what other books of his the library has. I picked up Heretic and now after taking a closer look at it — it’s book 3 in a series. I don’t like to read books in a series out of order so I may have to make a trip back to the library next week to see if they have 1 and 2.

 

 

Kristin Lavransdatter II: The Mistress of Husaby

 

 

Kristin Lavransdatter: II the Mistress of Husaby by Sigrid Undset. Eva at A Striped Armchair reviewed this series recently and it sounded wonderful. I put a hold on it and the library gave me book 2. So when I go back to pick up the other Cornwell books, I’ll have to see if they have book 1.

 

 

 

 

I have a long trip for work coming up and, with the addition of a few more books, should have enough to see me through a long work trip.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Dracula The Un-Dead

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Dracula The Un-Dead

Dracula The Un-Dead

By Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt

Dutton

ISBN: 978-0525951292

3 stars

Since Saturday is Halloween, I thought this would be a good book to talk about.

In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. Below is a short summary of my review of Dracula The Un-Dead which can be found on their website in full here.

Dracula The Un-Dead re-introduces us to the original characters — Dr. Jack Seward, Jonathan and Mina Harker, Arthur Holwood, and Dr. Abraham Van Helsing — 25 years after their heroic battle against Dracula in the Carpathian Mountains. We find out that Dracula is still roaming the earth and so is a new evil — an evil more cunning and diabolical than Dracula himself. The next incarnation of the undead is committing gruesome murders and terrorizing residents of London and Paris, leaving one individual to stop the carnage.

Dracula The Un-Dead is written by the great grand nephew of Bram Stoker, Dacre Stoker, and is billed as a sequel to the original written in 1897 using Bram Stoker’s notes. All in all, it’s a fast read and exciting in parts but I think too much is asked of readers of the original in having to forgo old beliefs of who and what Dracula is. In the end, enjoy it for what it is, another vampire story for October.

If you are interested in my review of the original, it can be found here.

Booking Through Thursday

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Booking Through ThursdayBooking Through Thursday asks — Something I’ve been thinking about lately: “What words/phrases in a blurb make a book irresistible? What words/phrases will make you put the book back down immediately?”

For me, any of the following words used to describe a book will get me to pick it: historical fiction, fantasy, magic, mystery, thriller, paranormal, romance, ghost, and sometimes horror (as long as it’s not completely gory, I’m in). Even charming, fast-paced, exciting, and new take on…will usually get a book past the immediate inspection phase.

What will make me drop a book: anything religious based (I find I just don’t have the interest), biography (not a big fan), anything sports related (as my husband can attest, not a big fan of anything sports related), chicklit (I’ve read a few but not a huge fan) and erotica (I don’t mind romance but I think characters should have pants on for at least part of the story).

Oh, I forgot, anything self help related.  Just NO.

How about you? What words make a book an absolute must read?

The Killing Way

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The Killing Way

The Killing Way

By Tony Hays

A Tom Doherty Associates Book

ISBN: 978-0-7653-1945-6

4.5 stars

CSI meet Arthur; Arthur meet CSI. The Killing Way is a murder mystery set to Arthurian legend mixed with modern ideas of investigation techniques.

At Castellum Arturius, shortly before Arthur is to be elected ruler of Britain, a murder is committed putting Arthur in an awkward position when Merlin is accused of the crime. Arthur turns to Malgywn to investigate. A former soldier, the one armed Malgywn is not fond of Arthur. He would have preferred to die fighting the Saxons who had taken his wife’s life but all they got from him was his arm. He hates Arthur for rescuing him when death was all he craved. Malgywn, now a drunk who prefers to spend his time whoring and waiting for an early death, is not thrilled with the investigator role Arthur assigns him but has no choice. When he finds out that his dead wife’s sister, Eleonore, was the one found murdered, the case takes on a personal tone for him.

With his leadership role at stake, Arthur is in a hurry to have the murder solved but Malgywn tells him at the start that he’ll take as long as he needs to finish his investigation and won’t be swayed when it comes to the guilty. Although he doesn’t believe Merlin capable of murder, he keeps going back to him letting Arthur know things won’t be as clean and easy as he wants them to be. When a second woman shows up dead and a suspect goes missing, Malgywn gets pulled deeper into a world he tried for many years to fade out of.

The story moves fast and so does the investigation giving readers a look at the political landscape and the battles Arthur faces as the new leader of Britain. I liked the character of Malgywn, he’s gruff, mean-spirited, but fair. He also turns out to be kinder than one imagines; an old farmer, widower, and soldier who cares more than he wants to admit or believe. He doesn’t think he has much to gain but knows that Arthur has a lot to lose. In the end, he only wants to find the truth knowing he can’t let down either Eleonore or the memory of his wife.

It’s a short book, 264 pages only, and moves incredibly fast. It’s entertaining and the mystery takes a few turns before all is revealed in the end although for hard-core mystery readers, you’ll probably figure things out fairly quickly. I don’t read many mysteries but I did enjoy this one and the setting which was a nice change from the rather Sherlock Holmesy feel I get with most mysteries.

Teaser Tuesday

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Tuesday TeaserTeaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

1.) Grab your current read

2.) Open to a random page

3.) Share two teaser sentences from that page

4.) Share the title and author so that other participants know what you’re reading.

Be careful not to include spoilers. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!

My Teaser this week:

“In looks he was tall, thin, and gray, with bifocals that forced him at all times to lean slightly forward. These made him particularly unpleasant to talk to at parties, where one felt inspected and analyzed at every conversational turn.”

The Fleet Street Murders

The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch, pg. 4.

I love this description. It’s perfect imagery — at least for me. 🙂

Haunting Bombay

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Haunting Bombay

Haunting Bombay

Haunting Bombay

By Shilpa Agarwal

Soho Press, Inc.

ISBN: 978-1-56947-558-4

3 stars

Pinky Mittal is being raised by her grandmother after her mother’s death when she was just a baby. Her life in the large bungalow in one of Bombay’s most desirable neighborhoods in anything but happy. Her grandmother treats her kindly and the two have a loving relationship but her extended family is another matter. Her uncle is an alcoholic, her aunt makes her feel unwanted at every opportunity, the servants don’t treat her badly but don’t seem to care much for her, and her three cousins, all boys, are, well, boys.

One night, after humiliating herself in front of one of her cousins, Nimish who she secretly loves, she does something that throws the whole house into chaos. Pinky unlocks a bathroom door that is bolted each night unknowingly releasing a ghost that has remained dormant and hidden for years. When the monsoon season arrives, the ghost uses the water to escape and torments the family fully intending to take revenge for the years of being ignored and shut away.

I had trouble getting into this book. I wanted to like the characters but couldn’t become attached. The family is dysfunctional but not any worse than one would expect with their history. It’s easy to see why Pinky’s aunt would be hostile towards her and why her uncle would be drowning himself in alcohol. I thought the ghost idea was a nice way to showcase the family’s problems, but, honestly, I didn’t really care what happened to any of them.

However, I’m glad I finished it. The story has a strange redeeming quality to it and after the last page, I did feel something for these people and the sad state of their lives. In the end, I was happy to see Pinky find herself and the courage to stand up to her aunt. It was also nice to see the family start to pull itself back together. I do wish I would have experienced more of the redeeming affect while I was reading; it would have made it much more enjoyable. In the end, it was an okay read but not a book I will go back to.

Library Loot – little by little

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Library LootIt seems all my holds are coming in slowly but surely. Two more books this weekend.

The Killing Way by Tony Hays

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

The Killing Way

The Killing Way

The Pillars of the Earth

The Pillars of the Earth

I’ve already finished The Killing Way (enjoyed it and hope to have a review up later this week) and glanced at the first few pages of The Pillars of the Earth which looks really interesting. A woman on the Metro saw me flipping through the book and told me that she just finished it and loved it.  What more can I ask for?!  Happy reading everyone.

As a side note, congratulations to everyone that participated in Dewey’s Read-a-Thon yesterday! I’m sure you’re all happy to be sleeping today. 🙂

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

The Magicians

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The Magicians

The Magicians

The Magicians

By Lev Grossman

Viking

ISBN: 978-0-670-02055-3

4 stars

Quentin Coldwater is a brilliant high school student who is bored with life. He’s always looking for something in the way of entertainment or satisfaction that seems just out of reach. As a means of escape, he constantly re-reads a fantasy novel set is a mythical world called Fillory. He doesn’t think magic is real but when he finds himself at a school for the magically gifted, he’s forced to change his whole belief system about the world and what he thought it was.

After passing the grueling and somewhat enlightening (for Quentin anyway) entrance exam, he’s admitted to Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy and begins partaking of the college life which according to this book is all about booze, sex, and love. The years fly by and Quentin finds his little niche at the school becoming part of a small, tight-knit group of students deemed the physicals due to the magical discipline they specialize in. When graduation approaches, he finds himself once more bored with the hedonistic life he’s living — that is until a school friend finds a way into Fillory. Quentin doesn’t immediately believe they will be able to get to Fillory but when his debauched life catches up with him, he makes the call and they embark on a journey none expected.

I was so looking forward to this book and while I wasn’t disappointed (in fact I liked the book a lot) I was sort of annoyed. The book was billed as Harry Potter for adults and there are a lot of small jibs at the story and a lot of little similarities that you can’t help but notice even if you’ve only seen the movies. Brakebills is Hogwarts complete with a high astronomy tower, school uniforms, and right at the beginning, Quentin is teamed up with another boy, Penny, and a girl, Alice, in his class. They don’t get along as famously but they do find themselves together for better or worse. Grossman does take a few shots at Rowlings world and the magic. For instance, practicing magic with a wand is looked down upon. He doesn’t stop there — the world of Fillory and the “quest” they set upon is Tolkien and C.S. Lewis inspired, and, wait for it, he also throws in a bit of Star Wars at the end. (That part is a nice bit of irony that’s actually quite amusing though.)

Why mention this? Well, I like my Harry Potter. There I said it. Now, I’m not trying to defend, I’m just pointing out the obvious comparisons in this book to that work and many others. He takes a bit here and there and makes it his own and it works. What annoyed me was the slightly mean-spirited way in which some references were made.

THAT SAID, I thought this book was great fun and even stayed up way too late to finish reading it. I had to know if they would get out of Fillory alive and what would happen if and when Quentin made it back to the real world.

The characters are great and even if you hate what they are sometimes doing and becoming, you still want to be one of them. The magic is thrilling and seems so very real that you too want to find Fillory. It’s a good book, entertaining, amusing and worth the read.