Paperback Archives - Page 15 of 27

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson: Book Review

Review of I Am Legend Several GR friends have read this and raved about it recently. I've been doing a lot of Halloween-related books this month, so I decided to give it a try. It somehow wasn't exactly what I expected, and I mean that in a good way. I've seen bits of the Will Smith movie (and what I've seen has very little in common with the book), I've read my friends' reviews, but it's still something that I think you have to experience for yourself to understand. I would definitely call it a horror book, but not exactly for the reason that I expected. There are the vampires, and there are a couple of intense scenes with them, but that wasn't what made the book scary to me. It was more about the absolute aloneness that Neville experiences. He truly is the last man in the world. How would you deal with that? Would you give up? Would you keep fighting? Would you start searching for others? Would you search for the reason behind the horror that has become your life? Matheson explores all of these avenues and more. Neville's reactions felt very real to me. I experienced all of his emotions with him. The vampires were scary at first, and then they just sort of become background noise. Then there's the rage, despair, curiosity, really the whole gamut of emotions that you would feel in that position. There's even one scene that just broke my heart. It's all in here, it all feels very real, and I am very impressed. Highly recommended. Review of the other stories I finished out the other stories and they were pretty good. They weren't on a level with I Am Legend, but there were some genuinely spooky pieces in here. My…

East of Eden by John Steinbeck: Book Review

Synopsis from GoodReads: In his journal, John Steinbeck called East of Eden "the first book," and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks and the Hamiltons--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new, rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives, nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness, enveloped by a mysterious darkness. First published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis. I am surprised by how much I liked this book. I had to read Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath for school, and I pretty much hated them both. Of course, I hated almost everything I had to read for school, so I don't know if that says more about Steinbeck or about me. Either way, I was left with bad memories of Steinbeck. I have several friends on GoodReads comment on how much they love this book, so when I found this edition with this cool…

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston: Book Review

Janie Crawford is only 16 years old when her grandmother decides to marry her off to a man who is well-respected in the community. Nanny has had to work hard all her life and she wants Janie to have an easier life. She marries her off as soon as she notices boys noticing Janie. It comes from a place of love, but Janie wants to live life, not just settle for comfort. So she sets out to live the kind of life she wants to live. You just have to admire Janie. My gosh, does she just take a big bite out of life and chew it with gusto! She does not have an easy time of it by any means. But she weathers the hard times and she wrings every drop of sweetness out of the good times. She learns early on that she shouldn't be too concerned about what others think of her choices. She's the one who has to live with her decisions, so she's the only person she needs to please. And besides, you can't make everybody happy, so why even try? I already knew a little about the town of Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated all-black town in the US, from reading Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon. That was getting a little out of order, but I did like reading this and seeing where some of Bond and Simon's ideas about the young Zora came from. The town and the alligator stories were especially interesting to me. I did have a little bit of a hard time with the dialect that the book is written in. I think for about the first half of the book, I was laboriously sounding out each word and translating it in my head. I finally…

The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey: Book Review

George Beard and Harold Hutchins are the 4th grade pranksters at their school. They change school signs around to say funny things, they fill cheerleader pom poms with black pepper, and they fill footballs with helium. Perhaps their favorite pastime, though, is writing comic books. They steal into the school office and make copies to sell when the secretary's back is turned, then sell their comics to the other kids at the school. Their best superhero is Captain Underpants, who fights with Wedgie Power. "Tra-la-laaa!" Their mean school principal, Mr. Krupp, really dislikes Harold and George for all the chaos they cause in his school. He blackmails them into behaving, but George and Harold find a way to fight back. Mr. Krupp never knows what hits him. Oh my goodness. What a fun book! I was giggling away reading this by myself at the age of 33. I would have laughed to the point of tears as a child. But then, I've always loved a good fart joke. Unsophisticated, I know, but farts happen. Might as well get a laugh out of them. George and Harold are a couple of comic geniuses. They have a talent for getting into trouble but their real talents lie in getting out of trouble. Their imagination and creativity seems to be limitless! And what they do to Mr. Krupp... I loved it! What kid, no matter how well-behaved, doesn't dream of rebelling against some authority figure? If we're honest, we never lose those dreams. It feels so good to see someone acting out like that, even if it is just in the pages of a book. There is one chapter that features flip-o-rama. I had such a good time with this! The book has reached a crashing climax and all of a sudden you…

The Color Purple by Alice Walker: Book Review

Celie is only a young teen when her stepfather marries her off to their widowed acquaintance, Albert. Celie is little more than a slave to the family. Albert has several spoiled children who terrorize her and he regularly beats her himself. Celie just puts her head down, writes letters to God, and tries to go unnoticed. As time goes by, Celie loses contact with her beloved sister, Nettie. She starts writing letters to Nettie as well, but she never hears back. Then Albert moves his ailing lover, blues singer Shug Avery, into the house and expects Celie to take care of her. Far from feeling jealous of Shug, Celie is relieved that someone is there to deflect Albert's attention from her. The women become friends and Celie realizes how much more there is to life than what she's getting out of it. I read this in order to have a review ready for Banned Books Week. I'm not sure what on earth possessed me to buy it at a library book sale. I've always been a little afraid of it, ever since hearing my grandmother talk about the movie years ago: "Oprah wasn't going to let that man beat on her." Wife abuse. Not exactly my cup of tea. I was surprised to find myself loving the book. I was taken aback in the very first pages, I'll admit. Rape and beatings and killing babies, and all of this happening to a 14-year-old girl. I didn't know if I was going to be able to finish it. I'm so glad I stuck with it. You see, Celie is not obviously a strong person. She is a survivor, but she doesn't really thrive. She just gets by. Watching her come into her own and become a woman to be reckoned with…

Heir to the Shadows by Anne Bishop: Book Review

Definite spoilers for Daughter of the Blood. At the end of the first book, Jaenelle is broken and Daemon isn't in much better shape. Jaenelle has to heal in this book and come to terms with what she is. Luckily, she's surrounded by caring friends who are willing to protect her and push her as needed. I truly wanted to give this one 5 stars. Again, it grabbed me and just did not let go. But there were a few more things that I couldn't overlook. To start with, I was a little more aware in this book that the writing could have been more polished. I can't think of an example, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Also, this one felt more like a young adult book. The focus of the first book was mostly Daemon, a grown man. The focus of this one is a teenage Jaenelle, so the tone has gone backwards a little bit. As happens sometimes in trilogies, this second book felt like filler. The author wrapped up a few threads from the first book and set up the conflict for the third book, but there wasn't a whole lot of actual new, necessary stuff going on in this book. The big thing was that the book felt very episodic. There wasn't a great flow. I would finish one chapter/story, and in the next chapter, two years had passed and another little story was being told. It would take me a page or two to figure out when the story was happening. That was the bad stuff, but there was still lots of good things going on. I love these main characters. Daemon wasn't seen as much in this one, but we did get to see more of Lucivar. I do…

Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs: Book Review

**Possible spoilers for Moon Called** Mercedes Thompson is a mechanic who just happens to walk in two worlds. There's the mundane world where she spends her time fixing VWs, and there's the supernatural world that she was born into. See, Mercy is a walker. She can shift into coyote form at will. She's not as physically strong as a werewolf, but she has other strengths to make up for it. So when local vampire Stefan needs some unobtrusive help in sniffing out a new vampire in town who is poaching on his seethe's turf, he asks Mercy to shift and go with him. They both get more than they bargained for. This vampire is unknown, and so must be fairly young, but his strength is unimaginable. He is wreaking havoc in the Tri-cities, and it's going to take more than one vampire and a shifter to bring him down. I like Mercy a lot. (And I loathe these covers. Loathe them, I tell you.) It would be very, very easy to fall in with the local werewolf pack and start to lose her independence. She has fought hard to gain that independence and she fights hard to keep it. It's just so hard to keep fighting when the werewolves are so damn sexy. I would purr if that were appropriate when talking about werewolves. Adam is hot and a great alpha. He doesn't just throw his weight around and beat on those who are submissive to him. He cares for them and tries to be is a true leader. Samuel is a little outside the local pack, for some very complicated reasons, but he is every bit as dominant as Adam is. And he's Mercy's roommate. And they have a history. *Arching of the eyebrow here.* *Shakes head* Anyway. Enough…

Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith: Book Review

Three Bones, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone, are run out of Boneville after Phoney Bone tries to pull a scam on the townspeople. They get separated in a desert. Fone Bone, the most honest of the bunch, eventually finds marooned in a beautiful valley. All is not as peaceful as it appears, however. There are rat creatures trying to eat Fone Bone and an enigmatic dragon who keeps saving his skin. This has potential, but it didn't really get anywhere in this first installment. I had more questions when I finished it than I did when I started it. I can't think of one question that got answered. That's the biggest reason I rated this three stars. I did like the artwork. It reminded me of the cartoons I watched as a child. I don't really have anything else to say. I don't feel like I know enough about what's going on to add anything else. Readers more patient than I am will probably like this more than I did. I just want to have something explained. Find author Jeff Smith on his blog and Facebook. Buy Bone: Out from Boneville at Malaprop’s | Better World Books I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse: Book Review

Alice Tanner is helping out on an archaeological dig in the south of France when she finds a cave that obviously has some significance. She finds an altar, a labyrinth, and two skeletons inside. Unbeknownst to her, she has stumbled on a secret that a lot of people have been searching for, most who would do anything to find it, and she's caught right in the middle of it. Centuries earlier, Alaïs Pelletier is caught up in even bigger events. Her beloved city of Carcassonne is the object of a Crusade. The tolerance that makes her city so vibrant has drawn the wrath of the Catholic Church. A vast army from the northern part of France is marching to stamp out the heretics. Amidst all this turmoil, Alaïs finds out that her beloved father has a secret that must be kept safe at all costs. Ugh, I'm having a hard time getting my thoughts about this down. This just never grabbed me. It's supposed to be some sort of Grail-literary-thriller thing and I just kept looking for the thrills. I finally found them about 30 pages from the end. The rest of the time I was just kind of waiting on the characters to catch up to what I had already pretty much figured out. That's not even exactly right. What was going on was so obvious that I kept wondering what the point of the whole thing was. Now that I've finished I'm still kind of wondering. I did a little better with the storyline set in the past. It was moving a little too slowly for me, but at least I could see where the characters were coming from, I understood the tension, and I felt like they were reacting to it realistically. I couldn't really buy Alice's…

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher: Book Review

4 Stars. I have to admit that this book spooked me a little. Not too bad, but I wasn't expecting to be spooked at all. There are, I believe, four different kinds of werewolves running around Chicago, each scarier than the last. And holy cow. The worst is just--man. He's a monster. So after finding myself out [...]