4 stars Archives - Page 36 of 39

Shadow of the Swords by Kamran Pasha: Book Review

The famous Muslim leader Saladin believes that he has finally driven the Christian crusaders from Israel's shores. The King of Jerusalem has surrendered, most other nobles have gone home, and there's only a small, stubborn contingent to deal with outside the town of Acre. Newly-crowned King Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart) sees this as his chance to win everlasting fame and glory. He rallies his forces to travel back to Israel and try again. With his brilliant strategies and fearless leadership, the Muslims won't know what hit them. I guess in a nutshell you could say that this is the story of the Third Crusade told from a Muslim point of view. I found it incredibly interesting. It's always a little--what's the word?--enlightening to see things from the "enemy's" point of view. This took place so long ago that I didn't go into it feeling invested one way or another. Still, if you learn anything about the Crusades in school in the Western world (and I don't remember learning much), it's probably that the Christian knights were fighting to take the Holy Land back from the "infidels." I found it fascinating to see what the Muslims thought of Westerners at that time. Of course they saw them as infidels also. But they also saw them as dirty, ignorant, and without honor. They were medically and scientifically advanced and I'm guessing that Europeans hadn't progressed past leeches and wouldn't for several hundred years. The book opens with Saladin re-taking Jerusalem. The Christians still living in the city are cowering in fear, knowing how their soldiers had treated the Muslims when they took the city earlier. Saladin makes it clear that he's not going to harm anyone. The war is over, enough people have died, and if you don't harm…

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly: Book Review

“Um, and what about ‘happily ever after’?” asked David, a little uncertainly. “What does that mean?” “Eaten quickly,” said Brother Number One. That should give you an idea what you’re up against with this novel. Twelve-year-old David finds himself in a fairytale kingdom one night, but this kingdom isn’t exactly the way he expected it would be after reading his favorite stories. I’m a sucker for fairy tale retellings, so I was biased in favor of this from the beginning. But this novel worked in several different ways. On the surface, it could just be read as a big adventure story/mash-up of a lot of the classic fairy tales. But David learns a lot about confronting his fears, jealousies, and all the worst parts of himself. I have to say that the tone was fairly dark throughout, so I really had no idea how everything was going to turn out in the end. There were funny moments, and Snow White’s part absolutely cracked me up. It was worth reading this for that scene alone! Apparently, some editions have some sort of appendix at the back with all the original fairy tales and how they were worked into the story. My copy, the blue one, for what it’s worth, doesn’t have any of that. I think it would definitely be worth it to look for the editions with the extra information. The red ones? I’m sure I got the obvious references, but there may have been some that I completely missed. I highly recommend this, especially if you like a well-written remake of fairy tales.

The Clearing by Heather Davis: Book Review

Amy doesn't have a whole lot going for her in Seattle. She's just come out of a disastrous relationship and her friends don't believe her when she tells them how bad it was for her. She decides to try to get a fresh start by moving in with her great-aunt Mae in a little town called Rockville. Amy's been hurt so badly that it's hard for her to open up enough to even make friends. When she's out throwing sticks for the dog one day, Amy notices a band of fog at the back of the property that never goes away. She goes through the fog and meets Henry, a strangely-dressed boy who she immediately feels comfortable with. He becomes her only good friend in this little town, but no one seems to have ever even heard of him. I just loved this, and in a way I'm surprised. There are some fantasy elements here, but this is more of a love story and that is usually not my thing at all. No, now that I think about it, the romance wasn't even entirely the point. It's more about Amy getting past this huge hurt in her past and learning to take care of herself first. That is the kind of thing I like, and that's what the appeal was. Whew! I was afraid I was getting soft there for a minute! I obviously read my share of YA books, but I tend to stick to fantasy. In that genre, there are tons of "bad boys" that the heroines fall all over. Now, I like me a bad boy or two, but they can't be all bad, and some of these guys I've come across are all bad. You won't really find me bashing Edward, but I found Patch from…

Lumby on the Air by Gail Fraser: Book Review

Pam and Mark Walker are celebrating their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary by inviting their families to stay at their bed-and-breakfast for a week. As in all families, there are some underlying issues that make the prospect of spending a week together a bit...interesting. Luckily, the county fair is in town that week, so everyone has plenty to do, if Mark can just make it through all the various competitions intact! What a sweet book! Just what I needed. This is the fifth in a series. I haven't read the others, but I picked up on the story with no problems. There were a few serious underlying ideas, like redemption, a teen's need to fit in at any cost, those family issues, and how the sale of a large tract of land to the wrong person can change a community's character forever. Linking all of these together was the question of how responsible we are to each other. Mostly this was just a nice story with repaired family relationships, a community that looks out for everyone, and Mark's crazy antics to lighten everything up. Seriously, who enters a chainsaw art competition when they've never done anything like that before? Overseeing it all is the town's mascot, Hank, a plastic pink flamingo who longs to be an eagle. I loved the newspaper excerpts! They added a perfect little taste of small-town life. I have to say that the resolution to the angsty teen didn't feel drastic enough. I didn't quite buy it. But the whole book is more of an escape than anything, so it did fit with the tone of everything else. I also could have used a cast of characters. I lost track of who everyone was. This is where it might have helped if I'd read the books in the…

Forbidden Sea by Sheila A. Nielson: Book Review

Adrianne's father died a few years ago, leaving her and her sister, mother and aunt practically destitute. Adrianne blames herself for the family's misfortune. She works hard and tries her best to take care of everyone. One night, her younger sister runs out of the house and gets caught in a raging storm. Adrianne goes to the shore looking for her and finds her in the arms of a mermaid. The mermaid scratches up Adrianne's wrist but eventually lets Cecily go. This is only the beginning of Adrianne's entanglement with the mermaid. I really enjoyed this. It has the feel of a fairy tale, and is influenced by a few, but it was still something I truly enjoyed reading. But then, I'm a huge sucker for fairy tales. Adrianne is a great character. She's trying so hard to provide for her family, but she's only about 14 years old. Mistakes happen. She keeps trying and trying but she can't seem to catch a break. She's hopelessly in love with a boy who only has eyes for the village beauty, something that Adrianne in her dirt and rags will never be. She looks out for her sister, mothers her mom, and is a saint for putting up with her nasty aunt. She's a character that I would like to know. In fact, I wanted the story to go on just a little longer; I wanted to know what her life was going to look like in the future. I ripped through this book, but about 3/4 of the way through, the story got bogged down in description. If I were an author, I would have a hard time reining in the descriptors in a book like this too, but honestly, the story started to drag for me. I'm pretty good at…

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer: Book Review

Unless you've been hiding deep, deep, deep under a rock, you know that Eclipse comes out today. Well, tonight, actually. I thought I would post my review of the book. Let me say first of all that I've become a reluctant Twilight fan. You won't find me shouting my love for Edward, Bella, or Jacob from the rooftops. You're most likely to find me rolling my eyes as I listen to co-workers whom I've never seen reading anything else talk about what an amazing writer Meyer is and drool over Edward. But whenever I've read one of these books, I (mostly) haven't been able to bring myself to put it down. For the record, I haven't seen any of the movies, nor do I intend to. Although I have admired my share of pics of Jacob's abs. :-) I have wrestled with my rating for this brick of a book. On one hand, Meyer really is not the greatest writer out there, and I noticed it here. And Edward really is so controlling that it's frightening at times. And Bella can be nauseatingly gushy. Yes, I'm looking at the sentence, "I wrenched the door out of my way--ridiculously eager--and there he was, my personal miracle." Ugh. Cue the eye-rolling and gagging. But once I just sort of let that go and went with the story, I read most of this 629-page book today. I couldn't look away. So it would be 3 stars for all the things that irritated me, but I'm bumping it up to 4 stars for being compulsively readable. And that really sums it up. That and I think the epilogue was a cheat to keep all the Jacob fans reading the series. I'll declare myself to be a member of Team Jacob right here. Edward, when…

The Magicians by Lev Grossman: Book Review

Quentin Coldwater is the top in his class. He's also in love with his best friend's girlfriend and unhappy at home. One day, he receives a manuscript that looks like an unpublished addition to his favorite fantasy series, set in a fantasy world called Fillory. In a roundabout way, this manuscript leads him through a portal to a school called Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy and Quentin thinks he's found the happiness he's always been searching for. Let's get the obvious out of the way. I've seen the reviews that call this a Harry Potter rip-off. There's a boy in a school of magic, and a few intentional winks sent Harry's way, but this story felt like much more of an homage to Narnia than Hogwarts. Since it fell into Narnia territory for me, I started reading it and looking for the "deeper meaning." I don't know if I was exactly supposed to but I did; I couldn't help it. It worked that way for me. If you're looking for it, there's all kinds of stuff about childhood dreams and disillusionment, how there are so many distractions in life that really don't help you in any way, and how you won't find happiness externally until you find it internally. One character tells Quentin, "I will take some chances. If you will, for just one second, look at your life and see how perfect it is. Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there's nothing else. It's here, and you'd better decide to enjoy it or you're going to be miserable wherever you go, for the rest of your life, forever....{You} can sure as hell decide to be miserable." All that stuff aside, this worked as…

The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C. W. Gortner: Book Review

Catherine de Medici. I picked this up not knowing exactly who she was, knowing only that if she was "de Medici," there would be lots of the drama that make the best historical fiction. Her parents died when she was young; she was held hostage in a convent in Florence when the Medicis were overthrown; and her uncle, Pope Clement VII, married her off to the second son of King Francis I of France when she was only fourteen years old. Her life in the French court was not easy. Catherine is fascinating. I found myself Googling her to find out more once I finished because I just hadn't quite gotten my fill yet. These are her "confessions," so we are given full access to her thoughts. I loved watching her grow from a slightly spoiled girl, to a frightened girl, to a young wife, to a woman in her prime and at the height of her glory. Gortner took the approach that some of the bad things that happened during her reign were due to others' actions rather than any complicity on her part. That made it easier to understand her motivations, but it also made her seem like a bad ruler. She had no control over her court, she ignored threats when she should have taken preemptive action, and she didn't think through all the implications of what she did. Politics play a fairly large part in the book, and I didn't always follow why things were happening. I don't think that I'm someone who would ever be good at intrigue. At most I might think one step ahead of where I am. So when Catherine was making deals, or she all of a sudden had to support one faction over another, or she chose whether to assassinate…

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters: Book Review

Miss Amelia Peabody is a confirmed spinster. Her father died and left her a comfortable inheritance and she has decided to start traveling to those ancient sites they both loved. She acquires the lovely yet troubled Evelyn as a companion in Rome and she sets off to visit Egypt. There, she meets the Emerson brothers. Younger brother Walter is a nice lad, but the older Emerson? Has a towering temper. The group accidentally fall in together and begin investigating some mysterious appearances around the Emersons' archaeological dig. I loved Amelia! In real life, I would probably chafe against her decisiveness and take-charge attitude, but safely on the page, she was great! She just ignores facts, people or attitudes that don't fit with what she's trying to do and goes about her business of leading everyone around. Fortunately, she's an intelligent woman, so her plans generally do work out for the best. Of course, she has a good heart under her tough exterior, and I was glad to see her friendship with Evelyn softening her up a little bit. I do love how she writes about Emerson. She calls him a big, hard-headed, stubborn bully every chance she gets, but when she gets close to him, she physically melts a little every time. She admits to it in her writing in moments of softness, then she goes on her merry way, arguing with him again. Emerson was great too. I didn't feel like I got to know him quite as well as I would have liked in this first book of a series, but he's a good match for Amelia. He's just as stubborn, but he's also passionate about archaeology and quietly yet fiercely loyal. Amelia exasperates him to no end, but he acknowledges her as an equal companion. The mystery…

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson: Book Review

Bill Bryson is back and this time's he's tackling the question of "Where do we come from?" in a very accessible kind of way. He gives an everyman's scientific explanation of the creation of the universe, the world, the atmosphere, evolution, human evolution, you name it. Pretty much all the sciences are covered, from astronomy to physics to geology to biology and plenty more that I can't think of at the moment. I'm not really a non-fiction person. I'm just not. But Bill Bryson usually keeps me entertained with his witty writing style. He didn't really manage to be witty while writing about science, but he was interesting. Probably some of my favorite parts were back stories about how odd some of the most famous scientists were (Did you know that Sir Isaac Newton, probably one of the most brilliant scientists that has ever or will ever live, decided to shove a big needle into the back of his eye one time, just to see what would happen?). I also got my biology degree once upon a time, so he did get around to covering stuff that does obviously interest me. There was absolutely no mention of creationism in this book, so I wouldn't recommend it to people who would be offended by that. He did get a little environmentally preachy right at the very end, but that didn't bother me. If you're interested in how things work--or, sometimes, just how scientists think things might work--this book is for you.