Paperback Archives - Page 24 of 27

People of the Sword by Neil O’Donnell: Book Review

The powerful wizard Crarnock has decided to wipe out humanity with the combination of his magic and his goblin hordes. In order to mount a resistance, the people opposing him must put aside their prejudices, band together and work as one. My huge problem was that this needed a lot more editing. I'm not talking about just a few typos here and there, I'm talking about lots of typos, incorrect word usage that spell checker will always miss, characters saying gonna when their speech has otherwise been very formal, formatting mistakes, and more. It could also have used a general tightening up of the story line. I did read a finished copy, not an ARC. I would have had a hard time overlooking all of this even if it had been an ARC. There were about three gigantic info dumps. I will say that O'Donnell has obviously spent a lot of time thinking about this world he's created, from the history and mythology right down to the smallest details, but my eyes glazed over as I read about the religious history and shifting power between the knights and druids. One character was supposed to be telling another the history, but when that one character talks for pages and pages, I have to call it an info dump. The story itself was okay. I couldn't help but compare it to The Lord of the Rings. I don't want to go into that too much and give anything away, but I think even from my brief synopsis you can see that there's going to be a little similarity. There was a lot of similarity in the overall arc of the story, but the details were different, if that makes any sense. I honestly never managed to finish The Lord of the Rings,…

Night by Elie Wiesel: Book Review

Honestly, I can't help but feel that for me to sit in judgment of a memoir of the Holocaust would be terribly presumptuous. We can't ever forget the Holocaust, and any work that reminds us of what happened is important and should be read as widely as possible. The style is a little sparse for me, but do we really need lavish descriptions of crematoriums? I didn't think so. What is important is that Wiesel laid out his thoughts and feelings for all the world to see, an act of unimaginable courage. It is amazing to me how quickly he and the other prisoners were stripped of their very humanity. It is also amazing how tiny acts of kindness stand out in his memory. But we all know those were too few and far between. Just read this. Today, April 11, 2010, is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Six million Jews were killed in WWII. Six million. How do we even begin to wrap our minds around that kind of loss? It's as if everyone in the cities of Los Angeles and Chicago were gone. No longer there. Because of violence and ignorance and prejudice. We cannot forget the loss of these people. The Jewish people are the chief mourners, but we should all mourn their loss. The victims weren't "only" Jews, they were citizens of the world. My world. Your world. Our world. Who knows how things might be different now if such a staggering loss hadn't occurred then? Read Elie Wiesel's 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. Visit the US Holocaust Museum's Days of Remembrance page. Visit the US Holocaust Museum's Holocaust Encyclopedia. Here are links to other books I've read, both fiction and non-fiction, that focus on the Holocaust. Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds HistoryMaus II:…

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin: Book Review

This book, the first in a series, is too big to easily sum up the plot and do it justice. Basically, Robert Baratheon led a revolt against the old king of the Seven Kingdoms when he was a young man. Now that he's middle-aged, he's found that he was more interested in fighting for the throne than he is in sitting on it. He calls on his oldest friend, Ned Stark, to take the office of the Hand of the King, and effectively leaves him to run the kingdom while Robert hunts, womanizes, drinks and has a good time. But people have noticed that Robert isn't truly a king, and his throne is vulnerable to vast conspiracies. That synopsis does this no justice. There are so many different plots woven into this epic, it's incredible. The characters are wonderfully depicted and complicated. The story is told through the eyes of many different characters. From Ned's daughter, Sansa, an 11-year-old girl who is too romantic and prim and proper for her own good, to the cynical dwarf, Tyrion, who is the king's brother-in-law, each character has something to say and a unique voice to say it in. But it never gets confusing. Just in case, though, there's a "family tree" of characters at the end to help keep everyone straight, but I never had to use it. For an 800+ page book, I really ripped through this. I picked it up to read just a little one night and I was over 60 pages into it before I realized it. For such a huge book, it really was hard to put down. I got sucked into each character's story and lost track of the time. And this happened every time I picked the book up. It's hard to maintain that kind…

She-Rain by Michael Cogdill: Book Review

Frank Locke is the son of an opium addict in the 1920s in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. He's quit school to work in a cotton mill and take care of his parents' and grandparents' farms. He's bitter about his father, but he's found a good woman to love. Then some big family drama hits the fan and he discovers a world whose existence he'd never even dreamed of. I'm a Blue Ridge mountain girl, so I'm a little predisposed to love books set at home anyway. But this was just gorgeous, both the writing and the story. It's not a book to rush through; it's a book to take your time over, savor, and wring every last bit of meaning out of. Here, this paragraph that explains both the title and very basic premise of the book will show you what I'm talking about. "In the rise of crickets and peep frogs, Granny spread out her mountain mystic view of things again, and the whole wagon treated it as sacred for a moment. She'd often speak of how a little scrap of fog tears from a rain cloud. Floats on the waves of blue ridge as if a wisp off a bride. Granny and others called it she-rain, I suppose for its womanly drape, white as a wedding gown. Common legend, though Granny took the vision further. Said she-rain was like us all--little scraps torn off into the world, given to the wind, and meant to find a paradise. As she saw things, no human scrap of this life is made for the trash. Even the most ragged are fit to beautify somewhere. Fit for some quilting into the finery of creation." And that's the hope. No matter your background, no matter what you've done, its never…

Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler: Book Review

Jane True is practically an outcast in her small town of Rockabill, Maine. She finds solace in swimming in the ocean, dangerously close to the whirlpool known as The Old Sow. When she finds a body in the water, her world changes beyond all recognition. The big draw for me was the cover. I love it! It does make the book like it might be YA though, and it is not YA. Sex. Lots of sex. Need I say more? This was a lot of fun, and I really liked Jane, her problems and her world. There's such a wealth of supernatural beings to choose from out there, it's nice to see an author taking advantage of that rather than dwelling on the vamps and weres. I don't know if I just had to get used to Peeler's style or if the beginning really was an info dump, but I was a little disappointed when I first started. I've been looking forward to reading this for a while, and I did not expect to be less-than-thrilled at the beginning. Jane's Libido killed me. It was practically a character, hence the capitalization I gave it. It's pretty clear what part of Jane is thinking, "This guy's super-hot!" without being told that it's her Libido. Or her Lady Bits. Or whatever. There should be a supernatural rock band called "Jane's Libido" worked somewhere into the series! Hee hee! I obviously think I'm funny. ;-) Jane is pretty funny. I laughed out loud pretty consistently throughout the book. Her descriptions of some of the "supes" she meets are hilarious, and I could appreciate her self-deprecating sense of humor. When she meets Trill the kelpie, my husband finally gave up and asked me what I was laughing at. Mostly he tries to ignore me…

Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund: Book Review

Synopsis from the book cover: From the opening line--"Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last"--you will know that you are in the hands of a master storyteller and in the company of a fascinating woman hero. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby-Dick, Sena Jeter Naslund has created an enthralling and compellingly readable saga, spanning a rich, eventful, and dramatic life. At once a family drama, a romantic adventure, and a portrait of a real and loving marriage, Ahab's Wife gives a new perspective on the American experiences. I have to confess that my aunt handed me this, telling me that it was the story of that Ahab's wife, and I quailed a little. My junior year English teacher didn't even make us read Moby-Dick and instead let us get away with watching the movie version with Patrick Stewart. No way did I want to read a book about his wife. But I trust all my aunts' reading recommendations, so I gave it a shot. And I fell in love. Ahab has only a very small part in this book, and Una is very much her own independent, strong-willed woman. She has her own adventures and heartaches and she's a character you will never forget. I highly recommend this for historical fiction readers and those who like their women to be ahead of their time. It's amazing.

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull: Book Review

Eddi McCandry is a rocker with a big heart. She attracts the attention of the Seelie Court and her life is turned upside down. I absolutely loved this. If you know me, and maybe if you don't, you know that Charles de Lint is my favorite author. This is something very much in the same vein as de Lint's best work. I don't mean that it's a knockoff, it's just something that I enjoyed for a lot of the same reasons that I enjoy de Lint. These characters were awesome. They're people (or not) that I would love to know in real life. Eddi is a talented, creative musician with a true gift. She's not perfect, but she's big enough to apologize when it's necessary. She can take charge when that's necessary too. She gives her all for her friends and refuses to give up even when everyone else is telling her that what she wants to do is impossible. Her friend Carla is much the same way, except possibly even more loyal and more likely to give her friends a figurative kick in the pants when they need it. Willy, oh Willy. What a heart breaker. And that's all I'll say about him. But the star of the show is the Phouka. Can you say book crush? He's funny, sarcastic, dashing, romantic, a rebel, strong, tough, just enough of a bad boy, and he's learning more about what it means to be human. I adored him. I wasn't too sure about him at first, but he grows throughout the book, and we get to know him better, and I was a fan for life by about the halfway point. Love him. Even aside from the characters, the story was a page-turner. I was supposed to be training a new…

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot: Book Review

I don't have a review written up for this book, but I have loved it since the first time I read it. It was summer break, I must have been in high school, and I had finished all the books I had checked out from the library. I didn't feel like re-reading anything, so in desperation I checked out my parents' bookshelves. Why I looked on my dad's, I will never know. He really only ever reads westerns, which I had no interest in at that point of my life! Anyway, after quite a bit of digging, I found this little gem. I sat down to read, and I had tears of laughter rolling down my face within the first few pages! I was hooked. On a non-fiction book at that! James Herriot was a vet in Yorkshire and he mostly writes about the early years of his practice, around the time of WWII. This was before the days of antibiotics, so there really wasn't all that much vets could do. But Jim, his boss Siegfried and Siegfried's brother, Tristan made their rounds, doing the best they could for their patients. They also date the local women and play pranks on each other. James' dating stories are hilarious! And Tristan will be one of your favorite people ever. The Mad Conductor scene should be a classic and required reading for everyone. I couldn't breathe, I was laughing so hard at that one. James is a natural storyteller and reading the pages of his book, I laugh, I cry, I celebrate the small victories, get angry at the injustices, and just generally experience everything that makes us human. I can't recommend this series enough.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel: Book Review

Piscine Molitar Patel's family owns a zoo in India. When they decide to immigrate to Canada, they sell all the animals, book them all on a cargo ship, and head off to deliver them en route to their new home. The ship promptly sinks and Pi is left alone in a lifeboat with some of the surviving animals. I didn't get it. I got that there's something about choosing to have faith. I got that there's something about each person following their own path to God. But that's all I got. I kept waiting for the blinding epiphany, flipping to the end, worried that there weren't many pages left for an epiphany to happen, and it just never happened. So many people have rated this highly that I know I'm showing my own ignorance, but there it is for all the world to see. I Didn't Understand Life Of Pi. As for the surface story, without looking for any hidden meaning in anything--it wasn't my thing. A boy in a life boat, endlessly trying to survive is just boring for me. Even the animals didn't liven things up. I just didn't care. It was fiction that read like non-fiction, and that is not a compliment coming from me. I'm so clueless about this that I don't even know who to recommend it to. I guess if you like stories about one person battling the elements you'll like this. If you're willing to work harder than me to understand some sort of allegory about faith and religion, you might like it too. But if your taste is consistently similar to mine, you should probably steer clear.

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen: Book Review

4 Stars. This wasn't exactly what I expected when I started it. I was expecting a typical shy-girl-meets-handsome-guy story. But it wasn't exactly like that. This was more about finding the courage to get to know yourself. The importance of female friendships. The jealousies between mothers and daughters. Surrounding yourself [...]