Higurashi Massacre Arc

Higurashi when they cry Massacre Arc volumes 1-3 by Ryukishi07, 1472 pages (3 books)

At last we get an explanation to the series, but don't expect me to tell you what it is. Read the books, or come and ask me. But I can say that every book, except this one follows a set of rules that govern the murders and violence. If you have read multiple arcs in this series you can guess what some of them are, but since they do not give much, if anything, away I can explain some here. The first rule is that eventually someone will get overly paranoid of their friends and try to kill them all. The second rule is Rika always dies in 1983. There are a couple others, but they hint at events in the books, and are not as general.


There is a lot of talk of destiny and overcoming it in this arc, and I thought, maybe even hoped that this would be the end, that this time things would be different. They had already overcome so much that destroyed their friendship before but I did not see the end coming. It is one of those ends that you close the book, let out some swear words and quickly pick up the next arc.

Even though it takes quite awhile to build up to this explanation, some 4000 pages or so, I now think that it was worth it. Yes it was slow there in the middle, but this arc more than makes up for it. I do wish the books would stop getting thicker and thicker. Seriously this series started at like 200 pages per book and has now grown to nearly 500. And the next arc is even thicker!

Six of Crows

Six ofCrows by Leigh Bardugo, 465 pages

This book was amazing.  I liked it better than Bardugo's original series and I liked that pretty well.  A group of thieves from Ketterdam are planning to break into the Winter Palace and release a prisoner.  This prisoner has the formula for a substance that enhances Grisha's powers incredibly, but also leaves them addicted and shortens their lives as much as it enhances their powers.   This group, led by Kaz, should never be able to accomplish their task.  The White Palace is impenetrable.  But, led by the promise of untold the wealth the group is willing to try.  Each person has their own reasons and though some of them seem to hate each other they somehow manage to work together.  I really enjoyed the character development and the action in this book.  It was really terrific and teens who like fantasy will enjoy it.

The Rest Of Us Just Live Here

The Rest Of Us Just LiveHere by Patrick Ness, 317 pages

This book was an odd combination of realistic fiction and fantasy.  Most of the book is about this group of friends, with regular problems.  This is told from the perspective of Mike.  He and his sister, Mel, have both had some problems since their mother's big campaign for lieutenant governor.  Mel developed an eating disorder and nearly died while Mike developed a severe problem with OCD.  Mike is hopelessly in love with another friend, Henna, whose dad is a preacher and whose mom is a podiatrist and who plan to take her on a mission to Africa for the summer right after graduation.  Mike's best friend, Jared, is gay.  He's also part god.  And this is where some of the fantasy creeps in.  Every few years something bizarre and strange happens in their town that the adults never acknowledge but the teens all know is supernatural.  The group they call the Indie kids are always at the heart of it and at the beginning of each chapter we get a synopsis of what's happening with that story.  Jared being part god is part of one of those strange occurrences.  This might be my favorite book by Ness so far and I've liked all of them pretty well.  Something about the mix really appealed to me and he really made me care about these characters.  I would highly recommend this for almost any teen, but definitely for fans of realistic fiction and fantasy.

To All The Boys I've Loved Before

To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han, 355 pages

Lara Jean keeps a stash of love letters.  They aren't letters she's received, but letters she's written, to boys that she's had crushes o.  She writes them to help get over the crush.  She has one that she wrote to her sister's boyfriend, Josh.  Lara Jean is a year younger than Josh, and he fell for her older sister, Margot.  Now Margot is going to college in Scotland and she's broken up with Josh.  Lara Jean is terrified that she won't be able to get along without Margot.  Margot has always been in charge since their mother died and now Lara Jean feels responsible for her father and little sister, Kitty.  Suddenly, Lara Jean's world is turned upside down when her letters start turning up in the hands of the boys they were written to.  This is a really well written story about family and teen angst, and first loves.  Teen girls who like realistic fiction will probably love this book.

Higurashi when they cry Atonement Arc

Higurashi when they cry Atonement Arc volumes 1-4 by Ryukishi07, 944 pages (4 books)

Finally something different with this series! Well kind of. Someone still goes crazy and tries to kill everyone, but this time, this time everyone SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS! You can try to mouse over those words all you want but nothing will happen. There is literally no way for me to say how much different this arc is without really giving too much away.

So instead I will hark on one of the big defining moments of the books. Nearing the climax of this arc two students find themselves locked in deadly combat. With a metal bat and a machete. On top of the schools roof. While numerous adults and police officers look on without doing anything to save or stop either one. Instead they are even convinced by another student to let them fight. Seriously? Maybe that kind of stuff happens all the time in Japan but I could not help but laugh at the silliness of it.

Anyways there is such a change from the usual books I thought this might be the end. But alas not so much. Everything still fades to black at the end. The next arc doesn't sound too promising for this young group of students either. Stay tuned for my review of the Massacre Arc, immediately following this post. Or would it be before this post, since I will post it afterwards...

Murder House

Murder House by James Patterson & David Ellis, 451 pages

Jenna Murphy is a detective who was forced out of her job in New York.  She's come to the Hamptons where her uncle Langdon, the police chief, has given her a job.  A murder case comes up immediately but no one will let Jenna work the case.  In fact, they emphatically tell her to stay out of it.  On her own time, Jenna investigates anyway and uncovers several other murders that she believes are related.  Unfortunately, her endeavors could put her in a lot of hot water.  Every day it looks more like she is risking her job, her freedom, even her life.  This was a pretty good story.  The beginning was a little confusing and slow, I thought.  The story was kind of convoluted too.   But at the end, I still liked it overall.  Fans of murder mysteries and Patterson will probably enjoy this book.

No Such Person

No Such Person by Caroline B. Cooney, 246 pages

Miranda and her older sister, Lander, are watching a couple of boys water skiing on the river when a barge comes along and runs down the skier.  Miranda, who was watching through binoculars, is sure that the driver put the skier in the barge's way on purpose.  Lander refuses to believe it and when the driver, Jason, comes ashore, Lander goes with him to the police station.  She and Jason start dating.  Lander is smitten.  A few days later, a man is found shot in the woods.  Lander is nearby, alone, with the gun that killed him.  This book switches between Lander and Miranda's point-of-view.  Lander isn't sure what happened and isn't speaking to the police because she's afraid that she might have fired the shot that killed the person.  Miranda doesn't believe that her sister could have done this and is sure that Jason is responsible.  She sets out to prove it.  This was a good, somewhat suspenseful, mystery story.  It was really compelling and I didn't want to put it down.  This is a good pick for teens who like mysteries and mild thrillers.

Backlash

Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman, 325 pages

Lara has suffered from depression since junior high.  Now in high school, she is getting her life on track.  She has some good friends, she just made the cheerleading squad, and she's starting to feel a little bit better about herself.  Then a boy starts chatting with her online.  Christian is sweet and funny and seems to think that she is really pretty.  He's even hinted at asking her to his school's dance.  Then he posts something horrible to her public wall on Facebook, telling her she's a terrible friend, that he'd never want to go to the dance with her, and that the world would be better off without her.  So, Lara tries to kill herself.  The rest of the book is about the aftermath of her attempted suicide.  Told from the points of view of different people, including Lara, her younger sister, Sydney, Lara's former best friend and neighbor, Bree, and her younger brother, Liam, each person tells the story through their own eyes.  I thought this was a terrific story about online bullying and every teen should read it.  Teens who like realistic fiction will want to read this.

Black Dove White Raven

Black Dove White Raven by Elizabeth Wein, 357 pages

Emilia Menotti and Teodros Dupre' lived in the United States with their mothers, who did air shows until Teo's mother, Delia, known as Black Dove, was killed in a freak accident.  Delia's dream was to move to Ethiopia, where Teo's father was from before he died, because in Ethiopia, Teo would not have the same stigma that he did in the U.S.  Rhoda, who was lost without Delia, was determined to live her dream, so, within a few years, she moved herself, Em, and Teo to Ethiopia.  Teo and Em had always been raised as though they were brother and sister and Teo and Rhoda though of each other as mother and son.  But when trouble invades Ethiopia, the fact that they have no legal relationship becomes a problem, along with the fact that Teo's father was Ethiopian, which binds him more closely to their laws.  Em and Teo have always written stories featuring themselves as White Raven and Black Dove but Em isn't sure if she can come up with a way to help Teo.  Written alternately from Em's and Teo's points-of-view, this story chronicles their lives from the time they are about five, until they are sixteen, but concentrates most heavily on the time they spend in Ethiopia.  The ending of this book takes place during the time that was a prequel to WWII, when Italy was attacking Ethiopia, a part of history that I really didn't know anything about.  I really liked this story and I think that teens who like historical novels, especially about civil rights, and like a little bit of adventure will want to read it.

Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library

Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein, 291 pages

After more than a decade with no library in town, the new library is planning its grand opening.  Kyle, along with eleven other kids in his grade have won the chance to have a lock-in at the new library and get a preview before the actual opening.  Kyle is excited because the man who paid for this library, Mr. Lemoncello, is a huge gaming mogul.  He is the creator of almost all of Kyle's favorite games.  The kids have a lot of fun at the lock-in but find out the next day that the real game has just started.  They have 24 hours to find a way out of the library.  The first person to succeed will win a fantastic prize.  Then the real fun begins.  This is a fun book with several puzzle games that the readers can figure out along with the characters.  I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to any kids who like realistic fiction or figuring out puzzles and mysteries.

Bits & Pieces

Bits & Pieces by Jonathan Maberry, 577 pages

This is a compilation of several different stories about several of the characters that we have met throughout this series.  We get to see some more of Tom and Benny's story from the First Night.  We also get some new stories about how some other people survived, or didn't survive First Night.  One story is about Rachael who was at a ComicCon when the plague hit.  We see how she survived in the first story about her and we get some ore of her story later, when different people's stories converge.  Although it was sad, I liked the story about Jack, who is dying of cancer when First Night hits.  His mother, father, uncle, and twin sister are all bitten during a huge storm, right before the levees break and a wall of water starts heading their way.  This was a good collection of stories and teen zombie story fans will enjoy this addition to the series.

Higurashi when you cry Eye Opening Arc

Higurashi when you cry Eye Opening Arc volumes 1-4 by Ryukishi07, 752 pages (4 books)

In all reality this review should have gone in with the previous review of this series. It follows the same byline: retelling the same story, but with a different character going mad and trying to kill all of their friends. In all honesty I am getting tired of it. The only thing that keeps me reading this series is the fact that the story changes just enough with the different madnesses to keep it interesting, and for what I am hoping is going to be a big payoff when everything is explained at the end.


This arc was a little more gruesome than others, there was a lot of torture. It was made all the more horrifying as it is friends torturing other "friends".

X

X by Sue Grafton, 403 pages

“Perhaps her darkest and most chilling novel, it features a remorseless serial killer who leaves no trace of his crimes. Once again breaking the rules and establishing new paths, Grafton wastes little time identifying this sociopath. The test is whether Kinsey can prove her case against him before she becomes his next victim.”  I loved this book.  I’m not sure that I’ve disliked any of Grafton’s books so far, but this one was excellent.  Mystery livers and fans of this series won’t be able to put this book down.  I’m really going to be sad when she finishes this series.

History in English Words

History in English Words by Owen Barfield, 218 pages

A living language is not something manufactured, it is grown gradually over the course of centuries, with layer upon layer of accretion.  By digging back into those linguistic strata of the past, Barfield tells us, we can recover some sense of how the people of previous ages lived and thought.  Likewise, this linguistic archaeology can reveal the full significance of the words we use today.

History in English Words is nothing more or less than a journey through The Oxford English Dictionary with a particularly erudite guide.  Doubtless, more recent scholarship has invalidated some of Barfield's work, first published in 1926, but the main structure has enough redundant supports that losing a few here or there barely constitute a weakening of the whole.

Two if By Sea

Two if by Sea by Jacquelyn Mitchard
448 Pages
March 2016


"Just hours after his wife and her entire family perish in the Christmas Eve tsunami in Brisbane, American expat and former police officer Frank Mercy goes out to join his volunteer rescue unit and pulls a little boy from a submerged car, saving the child’s life with only seconds to spare. In that moment, Frank’s own life is transformed. Not quite knowing why, Frank sidesteps the law, when, instead of turning Ian over to the Red Cross, he takes the boy home to the Midwestern farm where he grew up. Not long into their journey, Frank begins to believe that Ian has an extraordinary, impossible telepathic gift; but his only wish is to protect the deeply frightened child. As Frank struggles to start over, training horses as his father and grandfather did before him, he meets Claudia, a champion equestrian and someone with whom he can share his life—and his fears for Ian. Both of them know that it will be impossible to keep Ian’s gift a secret forever. Already, ominous coincidences have put Frank’s police instincts on high alert, as strangers trespass the quiet life at the family farm.

The fight to keep Ian safe from a sinister group who want him back takes readers from the ravaged shores of Brisbane to the middle of America to a quaint English village. Even as Frank and Claudia dare to hope for new love, it becomes clear that they can never let Ian go, no matter what the cost. A suspenseful novel on a grand scale, Two If by Sea is about the best and worst in people, and the possibility of heroism and even magic in ordinary life."

A real mess of a book.  I hope that some serious editing occurs before it is actually printed.  There are so many things going on, a Tsunami,  Magical children, sinister strangers, romance, and horseback riding.  Mitchard doesn't maintain a consistent plot line and the book needs to shed some of the elements to become more coherent. 

Dirt on the Ninth Grave

Dirt on the Ninth Grave by Darynda Jones
336 Pages

"In a small village in New York lives Jane Doe, a girl with no memory of who she is or where she came from. So when she is working at a diner and slowly begins to realize she can see dead people, she's more than a little taken aback. Stranger still are the people entering her life. They seem to know things about her. Things they hide with lies and half-truths. Soon, she senses something far darker. A force that wants to cause her harm, she is sure of it. Her saving grace comes in the form of a new friend she feels she can confide in and the fry cook, a devastatingly handsome man whose smile is breathtaking and touch is scalding. He stays close, and she almost feels safe with him around.

But no one can outrun their past, and the more lies that swirl around her—even from her new and trusted friends—the more disoriented she becomes, until she is confronted by a man who claims to have been sent to kill her. Sent by the darkest force in the universe. A force that absolutely will not stop until she is dead. Thankfully, she has a Rottweiler. But that doesn't help in her quest to find her identity and recover what she's lost. That will take all her courage and a touch of the power she feels flowing like electricity through her veins. She almost feels sorry for him. The devil in blue jeans. The disarming fry cook who lies with every breath he takes. She will get to the bottom of what he knows if it kills her. Or him. Either way."

The series continues strongly after the direction change which occurred in the eight book. 

Fifth House of the Heart

Fifth House of the Heart by Ben Tripp
390 Pages

"Asmodeus "Sax" Saxon-Tang, a vainglorious and well-established antiques dealer, has made a fortune over many years by globetrotting for the finest lost objects in the world. Only Sax knows the true secret to his success: at certain points of his life, he's killed vampires for their priceless hoards of treasure.

But now Sax's past actions are quite literally coming back to haunt him, and the lives of those he holds most dear are in mortal danger. To counter this unnatural threat, and with the blessing of the Holy Roman Church, a cowardly but cunning Sax must travel across Europe in pursuit of incalculable evil--and immeasurable wealth--with a ragtag team of mercenaries and vampire killers to hunt a terrifying, ageless monster...one who is hunting Sax in turn."

I thought this was an excellent entry into the realm of vampire fiction with some unique twists that sets it apart from other vampire tales but doesn't totally discount them.   I especially liked "Sax" as a character. 

The Muralist

The Muralist by B.A. Shapiro
337 Pages

 "When Alizée Benoit, a young American painter working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), vanishes in New York City in 1940, no one knows what happened to her. Not her Jewish family living in German-occupied France. Not her arts patron and political compatriot, Eleanor Roosevelt. Not her close-knit group of friends and fellow WPA painters, including Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Lee Krasner. And, some seventy years later, not her great-niece, Danielle Abrams, who, while working at Christie's auction house, uncovers enigmatic paintings hidden behind works by those now famous Abstract Expressionist artists. Do they hold answers to the questions surrounding her missing aunt?

Entwining the lives of both historical and fictional characters, and moving between the past and the present, The Muralist plunges readers into the divisiveness of prewar politics and the largely forgotten plight of European refugees refused entrance to the United States. It captures both the inner workings of New York's art scene and the beginnings of the vibrant and quintessentially American school of Abstract Expressionism. "

I enjoyed this book and it's portrayal of the abstract art movement in the United States.  I think the book would have been stronger had the author concentrated on just one aspect instead of including the struggle of the Jews coming to America at the outbreak of war in the plot. 

Against the Country

Against the Country by Ben Metcalf
328 Pages

"Against the Country is a gift for fans of Southern Gothic and metafiction alike. Set in the Virginia pines, and overrun with failed parents, racist sex offenders, cast-off priests, and suicidal chickens, this novel challenges literary convention even as it attacks our national myth--that the rural naturally engenders good, while the urban breeds an inevitable sin.

In a voice both perfectly American and utterly new, Ben Metcalf introduces the reader to Goochland County, Virginia--a land of stubborn soil, voracious insects, lackluster farms, and horrifying trees--and details one family's pitiful struggle to survive there. Eventually it becomes clear that Goochland is not merely the author's setting; it is a growing, throbbing menace that warps and scars every one of his characters' lives.

Equal parts fiery criticism and icy farce, Against the Country is the most hilarious sermon one is likely to hear on the subject of our native soil, and the starkest celebration of the language our land produced. The result is a literary tour de force that raises the question: Was there ever a narrator, in all our literature, so precise, so far-reaching, so eloquently misanthropic, as the one encountered here?"

The style of the writing is very hard to get into but once you read for awhile you discover the snarkiness of the author in his relating of childhood in the country.  However, the language is so stilted and dated readers will tire of struggling to understand the point of each chapter or essay, especially when there isn't any point.  

Was Hinduism Invented?

Was Hinduism Invented?  Britons, Indians, and the Colonial Construction of Religion by Brian K Pennington, 189 pages

There have been extensive debates amongst scholars as to whether the religion known as "Hinduism" exists in continuity with precolonial Indian religion or whether it is an ahistorical construct built by imperialist action and colonial reaction.  According to the latter account, British governors, ethnographers, and missionaries opposed an ideal philosophical, spiritual, "pure" Hinduism to an existent superstitious, worldly, "corrupt" complex of indigenous sects and beliefs.  This concept was seized upon and internalized by Indian modernizers and nationalists.  Pennington rejects this narrative out of hand, noting that it does not do justice to the sincere beliefs of Hindus past and present who maintain that their beliefs and practices are continuous with the precolonial era, and fails to appreciate the extent of discontinuity and development present in every religious tradition.

The bulk of the book is taken up by a discussion of three journalistic sources.  The first is a British missionary publication and the second a British scientific journal, both concentrating on the subcontinent.  Pennington attempts to use these to show how British perceptions of Hinduism were shaped by domestic attitudes, particularly concerning class and Catholicism, and how the encounter with Hinduism affected those attitudes in turn.  The third source is a traditionalist Hindu newspaper from 19th century Calcutta, which he uses to demonstrate how Indians reacted to British criticism of their religion, particularly in the strong assertion of Hindu identity.  He also attempts to use these discussions to contribute to the ongoing debate concerning the nature of the relationship between scholarship, the religions it studies, and the practitioners of those faiths.

Pennington's own preconceptions sometimes creep in at the sides, as when he declares that Willliam Wilberforce could not have genuinely cared about the British lower classes because his politics were insufficiently progressive.  At times it appears that traditionalist and modernist might be better descriptors than the progressive and conservative labels he uses, which have political meanings that do not necessarily overlap with their theological meanings, creating confusion he is obviously aware of but seems unable to escape.  Then there is the epilogue, when in a desperate bid for moral equivalency he conjoins the murder of a missionary by Hindu nationalists to the publication of an insensitive anti-Hindu tract by the Southern Baptists, an offense compounded rather than excused by his immediate denial of any such equivalence.  Still, all in all, the worst thing about the book is its length, far too short for an adequate treatment of such a fascinating subject.

You're Making me Hate You

You're Making me Hate You by Corey Taylor, 243 pages

What you see above is only the shortened, for everyday use title. The full title is:

You're making me hate you : a cantankerous look at the common misconception that humans have any common sense left. In its extended form you get a pretty good idea what the book is about. For those that do not know, Corey is the lead singer in the band Slipknot and also Stone Sour. He apparently is also a novelist, seeing as how this is his third book.

 

When I picked up this book I did not make the connection that this was the same Corey Taylor from Slipknot. I blame it on the lack of a mask/makeup rather than my ignorance. It wasn't till he mentioned his time with the band that I made the connection. Not that it matters much. I certainly am not more inclined to read books by famous people, but I do tend to avoid them slightly more than normal. I blame it on how awful some are.

 

I tend enjoy books that rant about life. Books that make you take a hard look at society and think how the heck did we end up like this. I especially like them if they can do it in a humorous way. You're Making me Hate You manages to do just that. I mean he certainly hit on some of my pet peeves with humanity: walking next to someone so you block the path and do not move so people can go around you, check. Sauntering across the street and blocking traffic as the light changes, check. Thinking the world revolves around you, check. I could go on, but it is just easier to tell you to go read the book. So go read the book.

 

 Parental advisory note: there is a fair amount of cussing in this book.

 

 

Girl in the Spider's Web

Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz, 400 pages

Girl in the Spider's Web is listed as the fourth book or the continuation of the "Millennium" series, you know the one with Lisbeth Salander, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I was, when picking up this book very leery about reading it. To often I have see series destroyed and made unreadable with a change of authors, Yes I am looking at you Lustbader. But that is not the case here. Lagercrantz beautifully continued not only the characters that we know and love, but his writing style is so similar to Larsson's that at times I forgot that this was not by Stieg.

Girl in the Spider's Web like the rest of the series focuses on Lisbeth and Mikael. Mikael has been living off the fame generated by the events previously, but Millennium, his newspaper company, is slowly sinking. So when a person calls with a story of vital importance Mikael jumps at the chance. He soon learns that Lisbeth has been investigating the same story and turns to her for help. But what they uncover are secrets that people are willing to kill to protect.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed the previous volumes in the Millennium series. I would, however, caution that this book does not work as a stand alone, it needs the series and the backstory to fill out the plot.

The Millennium series, often called the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, ranks among my all-time favorite books/series, and I think is the only series of which I have a complete set. I look forward to eventually adding Girl in the Spider's Web to my shelves.

Secondhand Souls

Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore
335 Pages

"It seems like only yesterday that Charlie Asher took on a very dirty job--collecting souls and keeping the Forces of Darkness at bay. The new gig came with the Big Book of the Dead and a host of other oddities: creatures under the streets, an evil trinity of ravenlike Celtic death goddesses, and one very bad Underworld dude attempting to conquer humanity. Along with a cohort of other oddballs, Charlie faced off against these denizens of darkness--and met his own end. But thanks to Audrey, his Buddhist-nun boo, his soul is still alive . . . inside a fourteen-inch-high body made from lunchmeat and spare animal parts. Waiting for Audrey to find him a suitable new body to play host, Charlie has squirreled himself away from everyone, including his adorable seven-year-old daughter, Sophie, who enjoys dressing up like a princess, playing with her glitter ponies, and--being the Luminatus--spouting off about her power over the Underworld and her dominion over Death. Just when Charlie and company thought the world was safe, some really freaky stuff hits San Francisco. People are dying, but their souls are not being collected. Someone--or something--is stealing them and no one knows where they are going, or why, but it has something to do with that big orange bridge. Then there's the Taser-wielding banshee keening about doom who's suddenly appeared while Sophie's guardian hellhounds, Alvin and Mohammed, have mysteriously vanished. Charlie is just as flummoxed as everyone else. To get to the bottom of this abomination, he and a motley crew of heroes will band together: the seven-foot-tall, two-hundred-and-seventy-five-pounds-of-lean-heartache Death Merchant Minty Fresh; the retired policeman-turned-bookseller Alphonse Rivera; the lunatic Emperor of San Francisco and his dogs, Bummer and Lazarus; Mike Sullivan, a bridge painter in love with a ghost; a gentle French-speaking janitor named Jean-Pierre Baptiste; and former Goth girl Lily Darquewillow Elventhing Severo, now a part-time suicide hotline counselor. With little Sophie babbling about the coming battle for the very soul of humankind, time is definitely not on their side. . . . Irresistibly zany, rich in humor, heart, and spirit, Secondhand Souls is vintage Christopher Moore. "

It was Moore's first book  of the Grim Reaper series "A Dirty Job" that made me read other books by him.  This entry continue the irrelevancy he embraced in the first book, with a little girl who is the Ultimate Death.  I enjoyed this novel much more than Moore's previous 2 books.  

Updraft

Updraft by Fran Wilde
364 Pages

 "Welcome to a world of wind and bone, songs and silence, betrayal and courage. Kirit Densira cannot wait to pass her wing test and begin flying as a trader by her mother's side, being in service to her beloved home tower and exploring the skies beyond. When Kirit inadvertently breaks Tower Law, the city's secretive governing body, the Singers, demand that she become one of them instead. In an attempt to save her family from greater censure, Kirit must give up her dreams to throw herself into the dangerous training at the Spire, the tallest, most forbidding tower, deep at the heart of the City. As she grows in knowledge and power, she starts to uncover the depths of Spire secrets. Kirit begins to doubt her world and its unassailable Laws, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead to a haunting choice, and may well change the city forever-if it isn't destroyed outright."

An original fantasy novel, Wilde creates a world where we never really learn the back story of the civilization that is being portrayed.   I did enjoy the book. 

Try Not to Breathe

Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon
368 Pages
Out February 2016


"Amy Stevenson was the biggest news story of 1995. Only fifteen years old, Amy disappeared walking home from school one day and was found in a coma three days later. Her attacker was never identified and her angelic face was plastered across every paper and nightly news segment.

Fifteen years later, Amy lies in the hospital, surrounded by 90’s Britpop posters, forgotten by the world until reporter Alex Dale stumbles across her while researching a routine story on vegetative patients.

Remembering Amy’s story like it was yesterday, she feels compelled to solve the long-cold case.

The only problem is, Alex is just as lost as Amy—her alcoholism has cost her everything including her marriage and her professional reputation.

In the hopes that finding Amy’s attacker will be her own salvation as well, Alex embarks on a dangerous investigation, suspecting someone close to Amy.

Told in the present by an increasingly fragile Alex and in dream-like flashbacks by Amy as she floats in a fog of memories, dreams, and music from 1995, Try Not to Breathe unfolds layer by layer to a breathtaking conclusion."

I liked how the narrative switched among the characters without losing the reader and maintains the mystery through at least half the book for me.  

House of Thieves

The House of Thieves by Charles Belfoure
 412 Pages

"In 1886 New York, a respectable architect shouldn't have any connection to the notorious gang of thieves and killers that rules the underbelly of the city. But when John Cross's son racks up an unfathomable gambling debt to Kent's Gents, Cross must pay it back himself. All he has to do is use his inside knowledge of high society mansions and museums to craft a robbery even the smartest detectives won't solve. The take better include some cash too --the bigger the payout, the faster this will be over.
With a newfound talent for sniffing out vulnerable and lucrative targets, Cross becomes invaluable to the gang. But Cross's entire life has become a balancing act, and it will only take one mistake for it all to come crashing down --and for his family to go down too."

The historical parts of this book are very interesting and Belfoure sprinkles architectural information throughout the novel.  It is a little farfetched to think an entire family will readily turn to a life of crime because they are bored.   

The Knockoff

The Knockoff by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza
338 Pages

"An outrageously stylish, wickedly funny novel of fashion in the digital age, The Knockoff is the story of Imogen Tate, editor in chief of Glossy magazine, who finds her twentysomething former assistant Eve Morton plotting to knock Imogen off her pedestal, take over her job, and reduce the magazine, famous for its lavish 768-page September issue, into an app. When Imogen returns to work at Glossy after six months away, she can barely recognize her own magazine. Eve, fresh out of Harvard Business School, has fired "the gray hairs," put the managing editor in a supply closet, stopped using the landlines, and hired a bevy of manicured and questionably attired underlings who text and tweet their way through meetings. Imogen, darling of the fashion world, may have Alexander Wang and Diane von Furstenberg on speed dial, but she can't tell Facebook from Foursquare and once got her iPhone stuck in Japanese for two days. Under Eve's reign, Glossy is rapidly becoming a digital sweatshop--hackathons rage all night, girls who sleep get fired, and "fun" means mandatory, company-wide coordinated dances to Beyoncé. Wildly out of her depth, Imogen faces a choice--pack up her Smythson notebooks and quit, or channel her inner geek and take on Eve to save both the magazine and her career. A glittering, uproarious, sharply drawn story filled with thinly veiled fashion personalities, The Knockoff is an insider's look at the ever-changing world of fashion and a fabulous romp for our Internet-addicted age."

I did enjoy this book despite the unbelievable premise that Imogen Tate is so technologically backwards she can't even handle email at the grand old age of 42.    A modern retelling of "All About Eve"

Miss Ruffles Inherits Everything

Miss Ruffles Inherits Everything by Nancy Martin
307 Pages

"Rich and flamboyant Honeybelle Hensley, the most colorful character in Mule Stop, Texas, dies a suspicious death and enrages the whole town by leaving her worldly fortune to the most undeserving recipient-her dog. The incorrigible Miss Ruffles is a Texas Cattle Cur, not a cuddly lapdog, and when Honeybelle was alive, Miss Ruffles liked nothing better than digging up Honeybelle's famous rose garden after breakfast, chasing off the UPS man before lunch and terrorizing the many gentleman callerswho came knocking at cocktail hour. But now Miss Ruffles is in danger, and it's up to Sunny McKillip, the unwilling dogsitter, to keep her safe. Sunny is new to Texas, and sometimes she feels as if she's fallen into an alien world. If it isn't the pistol-packing football fans and the sweet-talking, yet ruthless ladies of the garden club who confound her, it's the rowdy rodeo hounds and the tobacco-spitting curmudgeon at Critter Control who have her buffaloed. With a killer on the loose and a cowboy lawyer keeping a suspicious eye on her every move, Sunny needs all the help she can get understanding how Texans think. There's more to Honeybelle's death than meets this Yankee's eye, and Sunny has Miss Ruffles to protect, too. It's a bucking bull ride of an adventure for Sunny, and if she's not careful she might just get killed . . . or her heart lassoed."

It was obvious by the cover that this was not going to be a deep book but I was disappointed that it wasn't more engaging.  I think Martin attempted to created too many colorful characters, so that no one character stood out and engaged the reader.  There were moments I really enjoyed but Martin had trouble with the overall plot moving along and presenting the reader with a mystery.  

Career of Evil

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
497 Pages

"When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman's severed leg. Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible--and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality. With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them... Career of Evil is the third in the highly acclaimed series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott. A fiendishly clever mystery with unexpected twists around every corner, it is also a gripping story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives."

The series continues to develop the characters of Robin and Cormoran as well as tell a mystery story that is engaging.  I enjoyed the book and look forward to the next one.  

Resurrection Science

Resurrection Science: Conservation De-Extinction and the precarious future of wild things by M.R  O'Connor

266 Pages

" In a world dominated by people and rapid climate change, species large and small are increasingly vulnerable to extinction. In Resurrection Science , journalist M. R. O'Connor explores the extreme measures scientists are taking to try and save them, from captive breeding and genetic management to de-extinction. Paradoxically, the more we intervene to save species, the less wild they often become. In stories of sixteenth-century galleon excavations, panther-tracking in Florida swamps, ancient African rainforests, Neanderthal tool-making, and cryogenic DNA banks, O'Connor investigates the philosophical questions of an age in which we "play god" with earth's biodiversity. Each chapter in this beautifully written book focuses on a unique species--from the charismatic northern white rhinoceros to the infamous passenger pigeon--and the people entwined in the animals' fates. Incorporating natural history and evolutionary biology with conversations with eminent ethicists, O'Connor's narrative goes to the heart of the human enterprise: What should we preserve of wilderness as we hurtle toward a future in which technology is present in nearly every aspect of our lives? How can we co-exist with species when our existence and their survival appear to be pitted against one another?"

After reading this novel you can't help but have despair that mankind will ever be able to stop the mass extinction of all large mammals in the world with our impact on the environment.  Each chapter explores possible solutions and illustrates the drawbacks to each solution.  

Our Endless Numbered Days

Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
386 Pages

"Peggy Hillcoat is eight years old when her survivalist father, James, takes her from their home in London to a remote hut in the woods and tells her that the rest of the world has been destroyed. Deep in the wilderness, Peggy and James make a life for themselves. They repair the hut, bathe in water from the river, hunt and gather food in the summers and almost starve in the harsh winters. They mark their days only by the sun and the seasons. When Peggy finds a pair of boots in the forest and begins a search for their owner, she unwittingly unravels the series of events that brought her to the woods and, in doing so, discovers the strength she needs to go back to the home and mother she thought she'd lost. After Peggy's return to civilization, her mother begins to learn the truth of her escape, of what happened to James on the last night out in the woods, and of the secret that Peggy has carried with her ever since."

A captivating novel with a twist.  It certainly puts into perspective any desire to become a survivalist.  

Heart Goes Last

The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
308 Pages

"Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of an economic and social collapse. Job loss has forced them to live in their car, leaving them vulnerable to roving gangs. They desperately need to turn their situation around--and fast. The Positron Project in the town of Consilience seems to be the answer to their prayers. No one is unemployed and everyone gets a comfortable, clean house to live in . . . for six months out of the year. On alternating months, residents of Consilience must leave their homes and function as inmates in the Positron prison system. Once their month of service in the prison is completed, they can return to their "civilian" homes. At first, this doesn't seem like too much of a sacrifice to make in order to have a roof over one's head and food to eat. But when Charmaine becomes romantically involved with the man who lives in their house during the months when she and Stan are in the prison, a series of troubling events unfolds, putting Stan's life in danger. With each passing day, Positron looks less like a prayer answered and more like a chilling prophecy fulfilled."

 As a whole I found this to be an odd novel.  I never got the sense of desperation implied in the description and instead found the end chapters to be almost comedic. 

Affinities

Affinities by Robert C. Wilson, 304 pages

Affinities was recommended to me by our librarian in the Teen room, Carrie. While she hasn’t joined us in our blogging quest to reclaim a trophy, she does recommend good books. Affinities is about a futuristic society in which people, if they choose to, can get sorted into niche groups based on their personalities. It that regard it is very Divergent like, but a lot less strict.

The story follows one Adam Fisk. A man who can no longer afford college and is adrift in life. With nothing else to lose he takes the affinity test and gets matched with one in his area. Suddenly his life has meaning again, he is meeting new friends, has a steady job and everything is coming up roses. But a dark truth is lurking just under the surface that could bring everything he has come to know and love to a bitter end.

Affinities is very good and I really enjoyed it. I would have to go back and check copy write dates but I think this book came out before Divergent and in my opinion should be read instead. It doesn’t have the explosions and teenage love, but it has some crucial life lessons and a hard hitting message. I think everyone should read this book, as it might only be a matter of time before society heads this direction.

London Steampunk

Kiss of Steel, Heart of Iron, and My Lady Quicksilver by Bec McMaster, 437, 423, and 425 pages

All three of these titles are part of McMaster’s “London Steampunk” series. The series was recommended by Goodreads based on the fact that I liked the “Parasol Protectorate” series by Gail Carriger. While I can certainly see some similarities, both being steampunk, taking place in London, and with supernatural elements like vampires and werewolves, there is none of the silliness and lightheartedness that I was initially expecting.

However, this series was still worth reading on its own merits. I enjoyed the detailed portrayal of a subjugated human population always on the brink of a losing war with the vampires, the rich description of a Victorian London, and of course the fantastic steam inventions that somewhat define the steampunk genre.

Throughout the series we follow various people with the majority of them being strong willed women who are trying to make a better life for themselves without selling out their dignity or blood. Somewhat like a romance novel, they are always wooed by a strong vampiric figure who is not like the rest. Together they strive to change society’s ingrained mentality and struggle for equal rights. The books tend to contain wisps of erotica, and can get kind of heavy, but it is not as bad as Kenyon’s books.

I would encourage people who like the steampunk genre to give this series a try, but while it has those elements it is more of a supernatural/vampire series.

A quick after review note: My Lady Quicksilver was read online through Ovedrive, the page count was taken from Goodreads.

Enthusiasm and Divine Madness

Enthusiasm and Divine Madness: On the Platonic Dialogue Phaedrus by Joseph Pieper, 103 pages

It is true that Phaedrus is sometimes regarded as one of Plato's lesser dialogues, but Joseph Pieper (Leisure: The Basis of Culture) did not share in that view.  In Enthusiasm and Divine Madness he guides the reader through the dialogue step by step.

In Pieper's interpretation, the central theme of Phaedrus is in the conflict between a reductionist sophism which seeks to manage life according to purely rational principles and a recognition of the divine nature of some of the rapturous passions which transcend reason and rational control.  Beauty, even the imperfect beauty of the physical world, can draw the soul involuntarily upwards to higher realities.

Ironically, it is the superficial beauty of the sophists' rhetoric that sways the clever young men, while the deeper beauty of truth offered by Socrates can only be perceived by the wise.

Phaedrus

Phaedrus by Plato, from The Dialogues of Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett, 96 pages

Phaedrus begins with the title character enthusiastically describing to Socrates a speech he has heard from a great rhetor, Lysias.  The speech was intended to persuade a young man to take a disinterested older man as his lover rather than a passionate suitor, denigrating romantic love as irrational and undependable.  Socrates responds with a speech of his own in the same vein, which leads into a dialogue on the nature of love, reincarnation, rhetoric, and the shortcomings of the written word.

This is sometimes regarded as one of Plato's lesser dialogues, and it is easy to see why.  It lacks a strong focus, and the great metaphor for the soul which Socrates presents is muddled and hard to grasp.  Phaedrus is not much of an interlocutor - after initiating the dialogue he does little except agree with Socrates or encourage him to continue.  Still, Plato is laying out great ideas here, from the explication of love as a madness given by the gods, akin to poetry and prophecy, to the fable of the judgement of Thamus.

This edition was translated with commentary by the great Oxford don Benjamin Jowett, the prime mover of the 19th century English Platonic revival.

The Lake House

The Lake House by Kate Morton
495 Pages

 " Living on her family's idyllic lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented sixteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure... One midsummer's eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest child, eleven-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. What follows is a tragedy that tears the family apart in ways they never imagined. Decades later, Alice is living in London, having enjoyed a long successful career as an author. Theo's case has never been solved, though Alice still harbors a suspicion as to the culprit. Miles away, Sadie Sparrow, a young detective in the London police force, is staying at her grandfather's house in Cornwall. While out walking one day, she stumbles upon the old estate--now crumbling and covered with vines, clearly abandoned long ago. Her curiosity is sparked, setting off a series of events that will bring her and Alice together and reveal shocking truths about a past long gone...yet more present than ever."

Kate Morton doesn't disappoint in her latest book.  The reader is transported between the past and present and it kept guessing at an ages old mystery.  Of course if you read a lot of Morton's book you would be led to believe that England is chock full of old, abandoned manor  houses (with all their furnishings of course).

Japanese Lover

The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
321 Pages

"In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco's parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family's Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family--like thousands of other Japanese Americans--are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government. Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world. Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past, meets the elderly woman and her grandson, Seth, at San Francisco's charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home. As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years. "

Certainly a greatly hyped book, Allende fails to deliver memorable characters.  The quality of her writing is such that you will finish the book but it is definitely not something you would buy friends to read or make any best books ever list. 

Spirit of Early Christian Thought

The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God by Robert Louis Wilken, 321 pages

It is highly significant that this book is titled The Spirit of Early Christian Thought and not The History of Early Christian Thought or A Compendium of Early Christian Thought.  Through the writings of the Church Fathers, returning most frequently to Origen, St Gregory of Nyssa, St Augustine, and St Maximus the Confessor, Wilken attempts to enter into the minds and hearts of the early Christians, to hear them as still living voices.

Wilken succeeds admirably in bringing the moral, ritual, and intellectual world of early Christianity to life.  He convincingly demonstrates how the early Church, far from paganizing Christianity, baptized elements of classical culture, offering the world something authentically new and still vital two thousand years later.

The Bird Sisters

The Bird Sisters, by Rebecca Rasmussen, 304 pages

Milly and Twiss are elderly sisters living in a small town, who don't see many other people unless someone stops by with an injured bird. But when they were young, they had dreams of something more; one pivotal summer and a visit from their cousin changed everything.  This was a tough book to get into- the story alternates time periods and there are some family dynamics that were hard for me to get past; but around the half-way mark, the story picks up and the ending is a very emotional one.  This was the author's first novel.

Lumberjanes, vol 1: Beware the Kitten Holy

Lumberjanes, vol 1: Beware the Kitten Holy, by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke A. Allen (Illustrator), Maarta Laiho, 128 pages

Five gal pals at a summer camp for "hardcore lady types" encounter foxes with three eyes, a river monster, and a boys' camp full of weirdly well-behaved young men.  Oh man, I loved this! It had the charm and innocence of Adventure Time, mixed with humor and friendship and hardcore lady types.  And I love seeing female talent in the graphic novel world! And there's a Pungeon Master badge! You can't beat that!

The Uncommon Reader

The Uncommon Reader, by Alan Bennett,  120 pages

The Queen of England is out for a walk, runs across a bookmobile, and realizes she has never really read.  So begins her discovery of books and literature, but can the world handle a Queen who is learning to think for herself?  I don't know about this book- novella, really; maybe it's witty, in a British way?  But it just felt like an endless string of name-dropping authors that sound good on paper to have read.  The ratio of corgis to pages was also dismally low.

Fangirl

Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell, 438 pages

Cath is having a rough introduction to college.  Her twin and only friend, Wren, has decided that they need to have some space; her roommate barely talks to her and has a boyfriend who never leaves; and school is sort of getting in the way of her writing her epic work of fanfiction for a sort of Harry Potter knockoff that will soon be ending.  I don't think this was very story-driven, but just a sweet and occasionally funny work of fiction about growing up.  Personally, Cath was a (sometimes painfully) relatable character for me.  It did make me super excited about Carry On, the newest Rainbow Rowell book, because it's basically the work of fanfiction that Cath is writing during Fangirl.

Odes of Horace

The Odes of Horace by Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), translated by David Ferry, 160 pages 

In the sixth ode of the first book, dedicated to Augustus' general Agrippa, the victor of Actium, Horace protests that to sing his subject's virtues properly would require an epic poet in the manner of Homer and Virgil, whereas

     It falls to me to make up easygoing

     Songs about such battlefields as parties,

     Epic encounters between young men and women.

So David Ferry renders it.  Contrast this with John Conington's Victorian era translation:

     Feasts are my theme, my warrior maidens fair,

     Who with pared nails encounter youths in fight.

Or A.S. Kline's more contemporary translation:

     I sing of banquets, of girls fierce in battle

     With closely-trimmed nails, attacking young men.

Obviously Ferry's translation is more equivalent than literal here, and on that level he succeeds admirably.  His rendition of Horace's poetry has an ease and a confidence that makes it seem effortless without being superficial, to the point where it is easy to imagine the odes being performed or even composed at one of the poet's dinner parties.  Unfortunately, it also misses some of Horace's gems, like the girls fighting with their nails in amorous combat, an image, so striking in itself, that also echoes his earlier references to "the wrath that filled Pelides' breast" and "crafty Ulysses' long sea-wanderings" better than "epic encounters between young men and women".

On the other hand, Ferry translates the thirteenth ode of the fourth book more literally

     ...your graying hair and yellowing teeth

while Conington transformed that description

     The white has left your teeth

     And settled on your brow.

Ferry is not deaf to metaphor, but he clearly prizes accessibility over ornament.  Whether the readers' values agree will determine their reception of this translation.