Book Reviews Archive - Page 51 of 79

The Fat Man by Ken Harmon: Book Review

Gumdrop Coal has gotten the axe. Founder of the Coal Patrol, those elves who deliver coal into bad little kids' stockings, Gumdrop is out on his ear when Santa decides that every child deserves a real gift on Christmas. Gumdrop takes it hard. His methods might be harsh, but he believes they're fair and they mostly get results. He's promised Santa that he'll stay away from children, but he hasn't made any promises about parents. Let's face it--someone is responsible for little monsters turning out the way they are. After a few violent encounters, parents and children have changed their ways for the better. Then one of the parents Gumdrop roughed up is found dead. Everyone in Kringle Town thinks Gumdrop did it. Gumdrop sets out to clear his name. Can he nab the culprit before his own goose is cooked? This was fun, if a little hard to sustain over the length of a short novel. I can't say that I've actually read any noir, but I'm somehow familiar with the tropes, either through movies or the collective subconscious. Harmon stayed true to what I know. The good-looking dame with questionable motives. The hard-boiled MC. Over-the-top villains. Very cool. What was a lot of fun was seeing how Christmas lore fit into the book. There can't be many Christmas songs and stories that Harmon didn't work in here. Tiny Tim, Ralphie, It's a Wonderful Life, "The Twelve Days of Christmas"--he really covered a lot of ground. I mostly liked the way that familiar sayings had a Christmas twist. "Son of a blitzen." "I didn't know it yet but someone back at the North Pole was about to start playing reindeer games for keeps." "For a little while, things seemed too foggy even for Rudy's schnoz and the whole tale…

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman: Book Review

Nobody Owens is being raised in a graveyard. His "parents" are two ghosts. His guardian is a man who only comes out at night and who seems to be neither dead or alive. His real family was murdered and the murderer is still looking for Nobody. As long as he stays in the graveyard, he's safe. But what growing boy isn't curious about the wider world? He has lots of adventures and near-misses, both in and out of the graveyard. Honestly, I loved this. It was a fun, imaginative book with a hugely loveable main character. Think a tiny bit of "The Boy Who Lived" mixed with a slightly bigger bit of Odd Thomas but a charm that is all his own. Nobody made this book. The other characters were all slightly screwball and they each added to the book in his or her own way. For example, there's the poet Nehemiah Trot who took revenge on a critic by refusing to publish his (Nehemiah's) poems and having them buried with him. He's still waiting on the public to exhume him to publish his lost work. He's been dead over 200 years. So, mostly this book was character-driven for me. But the stories were fun and interesting too. My biggest complaint is that I could have used a little more explanation as to why Nobody's family was killed in the first place. There is an explanation, but it felt a little weak to me. Maybe there will be a sequel? This book definitely stands alone, but there's always room for a sequel. I would definitely read it if one was published. I recommend this to anyone who thinks the synopsis sounds interesting. If it sounds like a silly premise for a book, you probably will never enjoy it. Reviewed December…

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: Book Review

Wade Watts is just your average kind of guy, living in his aunt's trailer, trying to get through the last months of high school, playing video games, and trying to solve a multi-billion dollar puzzle. Yup. Billion with a b. See, it's 2044 and video game designer James Halliday has just passed away without an heir. He's left a video will for the entire world, promising his fortune to whomever can find the "Easter egg" he's hidden within the OASIS, a virtual reality video game he created that everyone is addicted to. In order to find the "egg," egg hunters, or gunters, as they come to be called, must solve riddles and challenges that Halliday designed around his favorite things, and they all center around the 80s. Wade knows he's got this. He's watched War Games something like 32 times. He can sing lyrics to obscure 80s hits. His mind is overloaded with video game history and trivia. This should be a piece of cake. But things get complicated, as they always do, when a multi-national conglomeration finds a loophole in the will and starts tempting other brilliant minds to play as a team to solve the riddles. Wade is determined that these guys will not win at any cost. What a fun book! I don't remember a lot about 80s pop culture, but I had a blast recognizing all the little tidbits Cline worked into this novel. The world of the OASIS was fully realized and I could see the appeal. My one complaint with the book is the world-building though. While I did enjoy it for the most part, I felt that Cline got a little too involved in it and that led to some unnecessary info dumps. There would be a few pages in a row of…

The Invisible Ring by Anne Bishop: Book Review

Jared is one of the more powerful members of the Blood, the vaguely aristocratic magic-wielding rulers of the lands he lives in. After a life-alteringly bad choice in his teens, Jared has become a pleasure slave for the Queens and Witches of Hayll. After nine years of bowing to sadistic whims, he does something that has him headed for a short, brutal life in the salt mines unless some fool decides to buy him at the semi-annual slave market. Enter The Gray Lady. She is one of the few Queens that has refused to bow to the demands of affiliation from Hayll's Queen. The Gray Lady sees that the balance of power has shifted dangerously in Hayll. The Queens who are meant to care for their people and their land are instead abusing both. The males who are meant to protect the female Blood are instead breaking the stronger of them in order to eliminate competition for the leaders. Hayll's Queen wants The Gray Lady assassinated. The Gray Lady buys Jared and a handful of other cast-off slaves at the slave market. She then makes some puzzling choices. Instead of putting everyone in a coach and riding the Winds home, a trip of hours, she buys a cart and heads over land, a journey of days, if not weeks. On the journey, the group faces many dangers together and starts to feel a confusing loyalty to their new owner. Jared is the most torn of all. As a pleasure slave, he has had more than his fill of women, so why is he attracted to this Lady who is old enough to be his grandmother? I might be finished with this series. I loved the first one and liked the next two, but now that new characters are taking center…

Graceling by Kristin Cashore: Book Review

I'm having a hard time summarizing this without either giving away the story or making it sound like something it's not. Katsa is a fighter with almost supernatural abilities. This is the story of how she grows into her power and herself. Not the greatest summary, but at least it doesn't sound like a book about a woman who does nothing but fight. That's what I got from the "official" summary, and that does this wonderful book no justice. I'm so glad I listened to Allison and gave this a shot! I loved Katsa. What a great name for this character! She seems to be so strong and self-reliant, but really she's kind of clueless, insecure in some things, and afraid of herself. I loved watching her grow past all that and realize that she's more than just a fighter. I loved seeing her realize that she was living her own legend. Whether it was a good story or a bad story was entirely up to her. And then there's Prince Po. Wise, funny, mostly humble, lovable, sometimes cocky, Prince Po. I adored him. My one problem? His name. I could not get past Po in Kung Fu Panda. I did finally stop seeing a fat panda in my head whenever I read his name, but that was replaced with Chow Yun-Fat. Not too bad, but I got the feeling that Po was supposed to look more Spanish, or maybe even like a gypsy. Not so much Asian. But I could not get past that name. I did have a few minor problems. Katsa's amazing fighting abilities come from her Grace. Not everyone in this world is Graced. I would have liked something, even if it was some sort of mythology, explaining why some people have an ability that makes…

The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw: Book Review

"'I think this is the greatest generation any society has ever produced.' I know that this was a bold statement and a sweeping judgment, but since than I have restated it on many occasions. While I am periodically challenged on this premise, I believe I have the facts on my side." So writes Tom Brokaw in the introduction to this book about the World War II generation, and he proceeds to make his case by telling individual stories of survival, courage, leadership, and trail-blazing. I pretty much loved this book. I have always liked reading books centered around WWII, but I haven't actually read much non-fiction, and especially not exactly like this. I got what I expected and more. I expected stories about the heroes, both celebrated and unsung, and their exploits in the war. I may have even expected stories about the women on the home front. I did not expect Brokaw to tackle some of the issues this generation had to overcome. He did not shy away from segregation, both in civilian life and the military. He confronted the issue of the Japanese internment camps. He took a close look at the women in uniform during the war and the paths they had to forge to get anything that even resembled equality. I was impressed that he included those topics, and I learned a lot from the personal stories he used to make his points about these issues. I also didn't really expect the personal stories to dwell so much on life after the war. I was a little disappointed at first; after all, the war was what drew me to the book. But I quickly got over it and realized that this generation didn't let one major event define their lives completely. They moved on and shaped…

The Odyssey by Gareth Hinds

Gareth Hinds undertakes the task of adapting The Odyssey, the tale of Odysseus's long journey home after the Trojan War, into graphic novel format. I wish this had been around when I was wading through The Odyssey in high school (and maybe college? I can't remember). I don't know what translation we read, but we needed a translation of it. I think most of us had only vague ideas about what was going on, and we probably only figured those out after the teacher spoon-fed them to us. The Odyssey is perfect for this format. It's a very visual story, with the sirens and Scylla and Charybdis, a journey to the underworld, the cyclops, and Circe's spell. I did like the illustrations, although they veered a little too close to the bulging muscles and gravity-defying breasts that most people think of when they hear the word, comic. Still, it's a manly tale, so they fit. I was a little surprised by the translation. I expected the writing to be very modern, but it's not. It's still very readable but formal at the same time. From page 4, Zeus speaking to Athena: "My child, what strange remarks you let escape your lips. Could I forget that wily hero Odysseus? You know I bear him no grudge--but Poseidon does, hates him for blinding his son Polyphemus the Cyclops. But come now, let us take up the matter of Odysseus's return. Poseidon must relent; he cannot thwart the will of all the other gods." I had forgotten much of what happens in the story, so it felt a lot like I was coming to this for the first time. I enjoyed it more in this format than I ever have before. This is a fabulous (re-)introduction to this timeless classic. Teachers, take note…

Queen of the Darkness by Anne Bishop: Book Review

**Possible spoilers for the first two in the series, Daughter of the Blood and Heir to the Shadows.** The evil queens, Dorothea and Hekatah, are trying to force a war and so gain control of Jaenelle. But they have no idea how strong she is or the lengths she is willing to go to in order to protect her people. Or of the lengths her people will go to try to protect Jaenelle. Either these aren't quite living up to the promise of the first book, or I'm not quite as enchanted by this new system of magic and these characters, but I'm not quite as in love with this series now. Don't get me wrong--I still read this 400 page brick in a matter of hours, frantically turning pages, and eager to see what happens next. But somehow Daemon wasn't the same sexy unknown that he was in the first volume, Jaenelle isn't quite as charming as queen, and there wasn't much of Saetan, whom I adore. But there was more of Surreal, and I loved reading about her. Jaenelle doesn't put in an appearance for several chapters, and once she finally did, I remembered a peeve of mine from the other books--the phrase "midnight voice." Oh my gosh, I'm irritated just repeating it! It's used to show when she means business as queen, but a more creative author could surely find another way to do that without beating that phrase to death. And then there's Karla's "kiss kiss." Ugh. My husband stumbled onto that phrase as I was reading this and never even saw what hit him coming. What a coy, pretentious, fake, supercilious little habit! But, really, I do love these books and the characters and look forward to reading more of them. Which reminds me of…

A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin: Book Review

I just couldn't write this review without getting some big spoilers off my chest. I kept it safe for everyone though. If you're not worried about spoilers and it looks like something is missing, just highlight and you'll see what I wrote. You'll get it. Just when I thought this series couldn't get any more twisty-turny, (spoiler) I started to like Jamie Lannister. A lot. How the hell is Martin doing this? No, seriously. Not only is he keeping up with 50 pages' worth of characters without bogging the story down in names, but he has twisted this story in every conceivable direction without turning it back on itself. I keep thinking that I have made my peace with losing characters that I love, but I am enraged every time another gets knocked off. I cheer when a bad guy gets it. I want to reach inside the pages and bitch-slap an awful lot of people. They are asking for it. Trust me. Watching the series on HBO made me brave enough to pick up this one. Much as I love these, they are monsters. I need some courage to tackle them. Watching the series is giving me a better idea of how good Martin actually is. I am a slow series reader, so I do lose a lot of details between books. Seeing how things from the first book tie directly into the third book, about--oh, 3000 pages later, is amazing. It's also making it hard for me to keep my mouth shut as I watch with my sister and husband. They would never forgive me if I let a spoiler go, but it is so. freaking. hard. Like that spoiler up there. I want to tell them all about it and hash out exactly what happened where. I…

Big Cherry Holler by Adriana Trigiani: Book Review

**Very minor spoilers for Big Stone Gap** Ave Maria has been married for eight years now. She and her husband have a beautiful daughter, but they've also had some very difficult times. Now Ave feels that they're growing apart. Everyday life has gotten in the way of love, and it's time for both of them to make some decisions about what they want out of life. I like Ave a lot, I really do. So this melancholy book was hard for me to read. She is so unhappy. She has ample reason to be; she really has been through some things that no one should have to go through. But I wanted some moments of grace for her. She has some mostly carefree moments, but those felt wrong and my stomach was in knots, afraid she would make the wrong decision. The quirky characters that I loved in Big Stone Gap do, of course, make an appearance in this book. But they aren't being all that quirky. They're mostly sticking their noses into Ave's business and giving her advice that just seems to confuse her. Ave ends up in Italy for a while, and I did love the descriptions of the countryside there. I want to see that field of bluebells. Ave is in a very different place emotionally than she was in Big Stone Gap. I still liked checking in on her, but other readers should be ready for this more introspective, somber book. Read an excerpt. My review of the first in the series, Big Stone Gap. Find author Adriana Trigiani on her website, Facebook, and Twitter. 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…