Introverted Reader

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott: Book Review

Josh and Sophie Newman have settled into a summer in San Francisco, living with their elderly aunt as their parents work an archaeological dig, and working summer jobs to save up for a car. But one day, a very sinister man pays a visit to the bookshop where Josh is working. The man appears to be some kind of wizard and he attacks the owner of the bookshop, who fights back--with more magic. What is going on here? The bad guy gets away with a book that seems to be valuable, but not before Josh manages to tear a few pages out. The bookshop owner turns out to be the infamous alchemist, Nicholas Flamel. He lived about 600 years ago. Turns out he and his wife, Perrenelle, are immortal, and their self-imposed task was to keep the stolen book safe. In the wrong hands, the book could lead to the end of humanity. Saying that the children aren't safe now that the evil wizard knows about them, Flamel takes them with him as he sets out to get the book back. This was good, it really was, there just wasn't anything that made it a stand out for me. I did like Scathach a lot and wish she'd had a bigger part. Hecate (spelling? I listened) intrigued me, and I loved her part of the world. The twins were a little boring. They were pretty generic teenagers. I saw the drama between them coming from miles away. Flamel--eh. There was supposed to be more to him than meets the eye, but he seemed to be pretty straightforward to me. I would have liked to have seen more of Perrenelle as well. Hmm. I think I would have liked a more female-centric storyline, now that I look back at this! The…

Bookish Miscellany

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Over the past week I've Reviewed:Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar Read:Linger by Maggie Stiefvater Currently Reading:The Color Purple by Alice Walker The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson, read by the author Up Next:I'm not sure. I do like The Color Purple, but I'm definitely going to need something lighter after reading it. What are you reading this week? I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore, and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.

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June 27, 2011

The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar: Book Review

Heather and Morag are two punkish thistle fairies on the run from Scotland. Unfortunately, in a drunken stupor, they seem to have stumbled onto a jet bound for New York. Heather and Morag try to acclimate to the huge city, along with the help of their friend Kerry and the ever-reluctant Dinny. Heather and Morag and the other fairies set about trying to improve the lives of everyone around them, because that's what good fairies do, and in the process manage to get what seems like the entire underground population of New York upset with them and each other. I was hugely enjoying myself through the first half of the book. The plot was different, there were fairies, the story was funny, and did I mention that there were fairies? But then it just got to be too much. The story turned into a farce. That's really just not my kind of thing. Everybody was mad at everybody else, except for the ones that Heather and Morag had apologized too, but then even those would get upset again, and it was just too much to keep up with. I liked the idea, it just got old. And there's this whole underlying storyline about redemption. Normally, I'm a sucker for redemption stories. But this one just wasn't really believable for me. I know, I'm talking about believable in a story in which the two main characters are fairies, but there you go. Readers who enjoy farces will probably like this one. Readers who love fairies might or might not like it, but it is a different take on fairies. Reviewed September 20, 2008 Read an excerpt. Find author Martin Millar on his website, his blog, Twitter, and Facebook. Buy The Good Fairies of New York at Malaprop’s | Better World Books…

Introverted Reader Features

Character Connection: Lucía Álvarez

Lucía Álvarez is the main character from The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez. Through Lucía's eyes, we experience the terror of the Cuban Revolution and the uncertainty of making a new home in a new country away from your parents. Lucía is the perfect protagonist for this story because there is something in her that most of us can relate to. She's not anyone particularly special. She's a teenage girl who is looking forward to her first dance, loves to watch movies and hang out with her friends, and I believe she tries to sneak makeup and nail polish past her mom. She loves looking at teen magazines and she has a crush on the cutest guy on the class. Her younger brother can be a huge pest. How many teen girls does that describe? So when she is confronted with the Revolution and the changes in her friends, her reactions feel very real because we've connected with her. She's worried about her parents, who disagree with Castro. That's not a safe stance to take. She sees things start to go horribly wrong in her community and she sees neighbor turn against neighbor. When she's alone with her brother in Nebraska later, she feels like such an outsider. She doesn't speak much English and she's worried about fitting in. She feels set apart by her accent. She also feels a little like her problems are bigger than her classmates. She's worried about whether her parents are still alive and they're still in the state of innocence where their biggest worry is who's going to ask them to the dance. I just loved Lucía. She has such a story to tell and she's the perfect person to tell it. Go meet her for yourself and see if you don't relate…

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June 23, 2011

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan: Book Review

It's show time. The battle between the Olympians and the Titans, thousands of years in the making, is finally here. Kronos has had ample time to prepare his plans while Zeus and company have been having their own quarrels and parties. He strikes at multiple fronts, almost simultaneously, and no one knows what his true objective is. Percy knows that it can only be Olympus, the seat of the gods' powers. No one will really listen to him though, so it falls to the Half-Bloods to guard Olympus against the worst that Kronos can throw at them. This book takes a decidedly darker turn than the others. It begins with a death and doesn't get much brighter from there. That's not to say that it's depressing, exactly, but it's definitely more serious. The campers are injured and killed right and left and it seems that there's no possible way they can withstand Kronos. Percy himself makes a choice near the beginning that had me worried for him throughout the book. This move didn't work out so well in classical mythology, so I was worried about its impact on Percy as well. Annabeth is still insanely jealous, but she's doing her best to move past it and support Percy. And she's just Annabeth with all her mad skillz and plans. Love. Her. But, while I'm talking about them, they definitely felt older than 14 or so. Maybe Harry Potter conditioned me to think that the last book should be about 18-year-olds, but everyone feels a little too grown up and mature and serious. I never read series books back-to-back because I tend to get a little sick of the characters, and the small explanations of what went on in earlier books drive me crazy because they feel repetitious. I made an…

Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint: Book Review

"Every time it rains a ghost comes walking." Dreams Underfoot introduced readers to de Lint's fictional city of Newford. Magic is on the streets of Newford if you just know where to look for it. It's usually in the most unexpected places. Man, I love the Newford books. This book started my re-read of them all in order. They aren't really a series, so I've skipped around, reading them as I find them, but I'm curious to see my favorite characters grow in a more natural progression. I really don't remember what order I read these in initially, but this was definitely one of the first. There are some true gems in here. I'm going to pull most of this review straight from my GoodReads status updates. Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Fair--"Jilly, Christy, Professor Dapple, Goon, and even a crow (not a Crow Girl, mind you, but a crow nevertheless)--I don't love this first story but de Lint laid one hell of a foundation for Newford here." The Stone Drum--"Liked Stone Drum, although it reminded me how curious I am about the Kelledys. I wonder if there is a book about them that I haven't read yet? Would be nice to know their backstory in full. And Goon's a skookin. I've been thinking of him as a goblin because I couldn't remember the right name." Timeskip--"Starting Timeskip! I remember it as my favorite of de Lint's stories. I hope it holds up. With an opening sentence of "Every time it rains a ghost comes walking," it is off to the perfect start....Such a perfect, bittersweet story. So important to "Geordie, me lad"'s story arc. Love. It." "Freewheeling is too sad for me. I probably shouldn't see it that way but I do." That Explains Poland--"A fun yet thoughtful story. It is…

Bookish Miscellany

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Over the past week, I've Reviewed:Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland Plant Life by Pamela Duncan Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny Read:The Dreaming Place by Charles de Lint Travels With Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann, read by Mark Deakins Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons Currently Reading:Linger by Maggie Stiefvater The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson, read by the author Up Next:The only book I might get through this week is Linger. I'm leaning toward reading a banned book to start getting reviews ready for Banned Books Week in September, so The Color Purple by Alice Walker might be next. What are you reading this week? I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore, and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.

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June 20, 2011

Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny: Book Review

This is a tough book to summarize. Let’s just say that Mr. Corey wakes up with amnesia after a nasty car crash and sets out to recover his memory and then to take back what he sees as his. Starting this was a leap of faith. Corey tells the story and since he doesn’t know anything about what’s going on, neither do we. He’s confused, we’re confused, and I for one was left wondering if it was worth the effort to continue on. Luckily, I decided that since I’d heard so many good things about this author and since the book was only about 150 pages, I really had nothing to lose and possibly a lot to gain. Once I got going with the story and started getting tantalizing pieces about the story behind the story, I was hooked. Even after finishing, I have some questions, but I know that this series has to be worth the ride. I love Zelazny’s writing. He has a unique voice and some of his descriptions were incredibly original. Of course I didn’t do anything useful like mark them, but here’s one I did find again: “his skin was as porous as an orange rind and the elements had darkened it to resemble a fine old piece of furniture.” Can’t you just picture this guy’s skin? As much as I liked it, there were a couple of things I didn’t care for. There’s a big old deus ex machina at the end. (Here’s hoping I got hold of the correct phrase) Maybe it will tie in later, but right now it just felt like an easy way out after he had painted himself into a corner. This isn’t really anything to do with the story, but my copy is chock-full of typos. It’s easy…

Introverted Reader Features

Character Connection: Christopher Boone

Christopher Boone is the main character in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. I'm going to cheat a little this week and throw a big chunk of my review at you because I said everything I wanted to say in it. "Fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone is something of an autistic savant. He can work out amazingly complex math problems, yet if his own family touches him, it sets him into a screaming frenzy.... He knows that he's different, he just doesn't know how to be any other way. He can't read people's faces or body language. He says "I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them." He has certain triggers that severely hamper his ability to live what we would call a "normal" life. There's the touching thing. And the body language thing. He loathes the colors yellow and brown. He can disappear inside himself for hours at a time. He loathes strangers. But throughout the book, we watch Christopher make progress and grow, and even see his own perceptions of himself, his abilities, and his goals change. These changes would seem small in another character, but we see inside Christopher's head so well that we're right there with him, cheering him on as he makes another gigantic step in his personal development." Who did you connect with this week? Link your post on Mr. Linky, then be sure to go check out the other Character Connections! Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them. I would love to know about the characters…

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June 16, 2011

Plant Life by Pamela Duncan: Book Review

Laurel Granger lived for her husband, Scott, then he left her for another woman. Depressed, rootless, and alone in Vegas, Laurel decides to head back home to Russell, North Carolina. Without telling her parents what happened, she moves in with them. Well, it becomes obvious that Laurel isn't going back to Vegas and she needs a job. The only place that will hire her is the plant (factory) where her mother has worked for umpteen years. Laurel isn't happy to be going to work there, but at least it's a desk job. She finds herself a part of a group of women who have been friends and helped and hated each other for years. With their help, she starts to finally heal and move on. I had never even heard of author Pamela Duncan until I saw her speak at a book festival I attended last year. I loved her. I agreed with everything she said and felt like she could be me talking. Plus, Lee Smith, who wrote one of my favorite books ever, was her teacher. I bought all three of Ms. Duncan's books, had her sign them, and actually had a delightful, short conversation with her. (Me at most signings: "How are you? My name is Jennifer. Yes, it's spelled the normal way. Thank you.") I couldn't really justify buying three books for myself, so I gave this one to my mom. She has worked in a plant for about as long as I remember. I need to ask her more about what she thought of it, but from the outside looking in, this book looked like it was spot on. My mom has spoken of the same women for years and years. They mostly love each other. Some days, they do get on each other's nerves.…