Nose in a Book

White Cat by Holly Black

Cassel Sharpe’s is the only member of his family that isn’t a curse worker. And he’s trying his hardest to be normal when he finds himself sleepwalking, trying to catch a white cat. After he’s kicked out of his boarding school for nearly falling off the roof of his dorm om his sleep he begins to realize that things with his family and his history aren’t actually what he thought they were. I can’t tell more than that without giving away major plot points.

I really enjoyed this book. It was something completely new in the whole supernatural powers genre. The story was well written and captivating. I recently read Tithe by the same author (her first novel, I believe) and while I really enjoyed the story, the plot was really jumpy but she seems to have improved – a lot!

If you are at all interested in this genre, this series is a must read.

Red Glove by Holly Black

*This may contain spoilers if you haven’t read White Cat.*

Cassel is just beginning the year at school when he is taken in by the FBI, informed that his brother has been killed and they suspect the murderer has also killed at least another five people. They blackmail Cassel into helping them find the killer. The only problem? Cassel soon suspects that he actually killed most of those people, but he knows he didn’t kill his brother. He also knows that if he cooperates with the FBI he could have bigger problems than being a murder suspect. He also has to deal with the fact that Lila has been worked to love him and the curse doesn’t seem to be wearing off.

I liked this book even better than the first one. Cassel has this way of working a con and getting himself out of the most difficult situations that makes for very entertaining reading. And although the books aren’t meant to be comedic, some of the characters are pretty witty and I laughed out loud several times. I also really liked the characters, Cassel especially. He has a lot of depth. Sometimes you read a book and the hero is just so good and perfect it’s kind of annoying but Cassel is real. He’s been raised in the world of the con and the mob so you’d expect that he’d be comfortable with a little bit of lying and deceiving and he is. But he’s not evil either. He’s uncomfortable with the fact that he’s killed people and even tries to reverse it. The other characters are real and believable too. Some are likeable and some aren’t, but I think that’s the point.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy these two books as much as I did and I can’t wait for whatever happens next in this series!

So, apparently at some point in my life I knew that there was going to be another book in the Mortal Instruments series but I must have forgotten because when I found out today that the fourth book comes out in just over a month (April 5 to be exact) I was pretty surprised and excited!

I really have no idea where the next book, City of Fallen Angels, will go and I can’t wait to get my hands on this one!

I really enjoyed the first three books in the series and you can read my reviews here: City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with this series you can find out more here.

Sunwing by Kenneth Oppel

Those who read my blog regularly will already know this, but I love Kenneth Oppel.  He’s definitely one of my favourite juvenile authors.

In this novel, a companion to Silverwing, Shade Silverwing is still longing to find his father.  He begins by travelling to the human building with a few other silverwings and his brightwing friend, Marina.  And that’s when the adventure begins and doesn’t stop until the very last page.  I can’t do much more than that for a summary without giving away some major plot details!

I don’t know how many more of Oppel’s books I can review because I find myself saying the same things over and over but I do love his writing.  I read this one out loud to my son and I always find that to be a really good test for the writing.  Sometimes I read books aloud to my son and I find the wording trips me up and doesn’t seem to flow but not with Oppel, and this book was no exception.  It was so fun and exciting to read and even though this one took us quite a while to get through (because we haven’t had much time for reading, not because it was boring) we never lost the momentum of the story.  Every time we picked the book up again after a long break, we were both swept up into the story again within seconds.

And even though the story was packed with action and adventure, it never seemed like too much.  It was just fun and entertaining.  My son and I loved this book and we can’t wait to read the next one!

Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay

Read for: CBC 4

15-year-old Ned is in Provence, missing the last two months of school, while his father, a super famous photographer shoots photos for a new book.  The first morning he is wandering around an old cathedral, while his dad shoots outside.  While in the church he meets Kate, a young exchange student from New York.  As she is showing him around the church they catch a man climbing out of a tunnel he shouldn’t be in.  Over the next few days, Ned runs into the mysterious man several more times.  But it is on the evening of Beltaine when Ned and Kate are in a place they shouldn’t be, when the story truly begins.  Ned calls his father’s assistant, Melanie, for help and when she arrives she is swept into an ancient story that has been replaying itself over and over for 2500 years.  Ned and Kate and a few others must enter the world of the mysterious man to rescue Melanie before she’s lost forever.

I had a hard time getting into the book.  At times I really liked it and would be totally absorbed but as soon as I put it down that all went away.  I never had that feeling of the book calling me, needing to be read.  Because of that I had a hard time finishing it.  It also seemed to move really slowly.  I actually didn’t really like this book that much.  The only reason I ended up finishing it and not abandoning it is because I wanted to review it for the Canadian Book Challenge.  I honestly can’t say why I didn’t like this book.  The writing was good, the story was interesting, the characters were likable and well developed – there’s isn’t any one specific thing I can pinpoint that made me dislike this novel.  I think perhaps it was mostly a timing thing.  Maybe if I’d had more time to devote to reading it I would have been more caught up in the story and enjoyed it more?  Who knows.

The one thing I can pick out that I really liked was the dialogue.  The characters were comfortable with each other and had a witty dialogue going on that had me laughing out loud several times.  Although I didn’t love this book, I will definitely be giving Guy Gavriel Kay another chance.  I’ve heard plenty about him and it’s all been good.

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

I picked up this book at the library because it won the Teen Survivor contest (the local library picks a few books each year and then they vote off a new book each week) this summer.  It beat out Airborn by Kenneth Oppel, which I loved.  I figured it had to be good.  Well, I was disappointed – very disappointed.

Stephanie’s rich uncle has just died, leaving most of his money and property to her.  When she is staying at his (her) house one night she is attacked by a strange man demanding a key.  Just before he kills her Skulduggery Pleasant (a strange man she met at the funeral) bursts onto the scene and saves her life.  He then introduces her to a world where magic exists and the bad guy, Serpine, is searching for the ultimate weapon which apparently belonged to her uncle.

First off, I’m pretty sure I went into this book with unfair expectations.  Because it won the contest, I was hoping for something GREAT and it wasn’t.  But if I had just picked it up without those expectations, I might have enjoyed it more.

It actually wasn’t a bad story and the writing was pretty good.  I just found that the story jumped around a lot.  I felt like the author was trying to build excitement and suspense but it just came off as a little hyperactive.  It just didn’t seem to flow very well.

What I liked about the book though was the dialogue.  Stephanie and Skulduggery had these funny little conversations which I found very entertaining.  I don’t plan on reading any more Skulduggery books but I’m sure that lots of people will enjoy this book.

Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville

Jeremy Thatcher, grade six, spends his time drawing and avoiding girls and bullies.  One day as he is doing just that, he stumbles across a magic shop.  Once inside, the strange proprietor, Mr. Elives, sells him a marble-like object that he later discovers is actually a dragon egg and he is expected to hatch it and then care for the dragon that it produces!

I didn’t particularly enjoy this book but I’m not exactly the target audience so I’m going to turn this review over to my seven year old son and he can tell you what he thought of the book.

Isaiah:

“I liked this book because of the dragon.  There was a really funny part where the dragon chased the cat into the dining room and caused a lot of trouble.  I liked that the book was about magic.  At the beginning, I didn’t like the book because it started out kind of boring.  My favourite character was the dragon because it burned the art teacher’s foot.  My favourite part of the book was the ending (which we aren’t going to tell you about because we don’t want any spoilers!)”

I thought this book had a lot of potential but I think I’ve been spoiled by all the really great children’s fantasy out there.  (Harry Potter, Fablehaven etc.)  I just found that it moved too slowly and there wasn’t a whole lot of excitement.  But my seven year old seemed to enjoy it.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series by Rick Riordan

I’ve just finished reading this series with my seven year old son.   I’m going to get him to help me with the review.

First of all, I’m not sure I need a summary or how to go about that with an entire series so I’ll just give you the basic premise.  So, Percy Jackson is a half-blood, meaning that one of his parents is a Greek god.  Because, the Greek gods do exist and are still around.

I really enjoyed reading these books to my son.  I was worried that they would get too old for him as the series progressed but they didn’t.  (They were getting there.  My son is pretty mature for his age and I’m not sure my second son will be able to appreciate them at that age.)  I really liked this about them.  I would love to read Harry Potter to my son but I think they just get too dark in the last few books but I would like to read him the whole series at once so I’ll be holding off on them.  That’s one thing I really appreciated about these books.

They were definitely entertaining.  And sometimes I find that a series of books like this gets old or tired by the end of the series and I’m just reading to find out what happens, but that wasn’t the case with these.  In fact, I think they got better over the series.

We also learned a lot about Greek mythology.  It also made me realize how much Greek mythology is still present in our society today.  Isaiah (my son) has started noticing Greek letters everywhere and names of the gods also.   He’s also given everyone in the family a godly title.  For example, I’m the goddess of books and reading!

Here’s what Isaiah had to say about the books:

“I liked them because there were lots of battles and quests.  They were exciting.  I learned lots about the Greek gods and some letters from the Greek alphabet.”

“My favourite book was the 4th one (The Battle of the Labyrinth) because they went into the Labyrinth and time went by really fast.”

“My favourite character was Percy because he was the main character.  My favourite god was Zeus because he can control the sky.  He shot lots of lightning bolts at the bad guys.”

Overall, this was a great series for us to read together.  Now, I just have to find something else for us to read.  Any suggestions??

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle

The third book in L’Engle’s Time Quartet.  I remember loving these books as a child.  I didn’t like this one as much as the first two this time around.  I still enjoyed it but I still like A Wrinkle in Time the best.

This book has skipped a lot of time since the last one.  Meg is now pregnant with her first child and Charles Wallace is 15.  As they are all enjoying Thanksgiving dinner, Mr. Murry receives a phone call from the president informing him that a South American dictator plans on starting a nuclear war the next day.  The Murry family spends the rest of their evening worrying about the end of the world as they know it.  After they all go to bed, Charles Wallace and Meg (through kything – a kind of mind to mind communication.  She just stays in her warm bed with the dog the whole time.) travel through time making small changes that they hope will change the future and prevent the nuclear war.

Each of the times they visit are almost like short stories and I’m still not sure how I felt about this.  The characters in each time were all descendants and ancestors of each other and their names were the same or similar in each story.  Also, they didn’t appear in chronological order and I have to admit I found it a little hard to keep everybody straight.

Even though time travel is a huge part of this novel, I found it to be less science fiction-y (is that a word?  It is now!!) than the previous two which is something that I loved about them.  I also found the good vs. evil theme to be more subtle in this one (still it’s not that subtle) and somehow I liked the more obvious approach in the first two.  And lastly, it wasn’t really about the Murry’s because Charles Wallace actually goes “Within” (becomes a part of the individual) the other characters in the story.  And I like the Murry’s.  I don’t typically choose character driven stories over plot driven ones but in this case, I’ve fallen for this family and I wanted to read more about them.

After having said all that, it probably sounds like I didn’t like the book at all but actually I did.  In fact, as a childhood favourite I think it stands up pretty good to the adult reading.  It’s just in the comparison to the other books in the series that it doesn’t do so well (for me)!  I can’t wait until I can read these books to my seven year old.  We started reading A Wrinkle in Time about a year ago and it was a little bit over his head but I think that he might be getting there.  I’m almost afraid to read him some of my childhood favourites because I’m worried he won’t love them as much as I did!

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Read for: Banned Books Challenge

I’ve been meaning to read this book for a very long time.  It’s been sitting on my night stand (where I keep my TBR in the next month pile) since September because I planned to read it for Banned Books Week.  But I just never got around to it.  But then a friend told me that I had to read When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, but that I should probably reread A Wrinkle in Time first.  So I finally picked it up.  I remember loving this book when I was younger.  In fact, I remember it as one of the books/series’ that made me love reading!  I read it several times and loved it every time, but I was worried that I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as an adult.  But I did!  I think I may like it even more now because I think I have a deeper understanding of the novel now.

I’m surprised that this book has been challenged/banned because it apparently has anti-Christian ideas.  I found it just the opposite.  I think it has very strong religious themes.  People may have been offended by the “witches” and I’m not sure that if this book were published today it would have any problems with it.  They have their hands full with all those evil Harry Potter and Twilight novels!

There were a few things that bothered me about the book but I think it’s mainly because I am not the target audience.  The pacing of certain events were a little too fast for me, with not enough character development but I know it’s perfect pacing for a younger audience.  I think children need the story to happen faster, but they also have a better ability to accept the characters relationships without a whole bunch of lead-up.

I’m so glad I was able to enjoy this book as much as I did as a child and I can’t wait to reread the rest of the series.  I also can’t wait until my oldest is mature enough to read it to him.  I love reading to him my favourites from when I was young and I really hope that by doing this I can teach him to love reading and books as much as I do!  (This is the cover of the copy that I had as a child.)

Read for: Orbis Terrarum Challenge – Ireland

Artemis Fowl Series by Eoin Colfer, read by Nathaniel Parker.

The first five books of this series were read by Nathaniel Parker and I really enjoyed them.  Parker did an excellent job reading these books.  He did all different voice and accents for each character (even minor characters got their own accents).  I don’t know how he kept all the accents straight but he did, consistently, through all five books.  I loved listening to these books.

Artemis Fowl begins the series as an extremely intelligent 12 (?) year old boy whose father has gone missing.  The family fortunes are in ruins so Artemis cooks up a scheme to make some serious cash so the family can go one living in the manner to which they are accustomed.  Artemis has discovered the existence of a complete society of magical being, just below the surface of the earth.  He’s also discovered a way to extort money from this society.  He kidnaps a fairy named Holly Short, a captain in the LEP, the underground police organization.  As the story continues, we are introduced to all kinds of magical creatures, Foaly, Commander Root and Mulch Diggums.  Each of these characters and many more return for the following five books.

These books were fun and entertaining and full of suspense.  I also really liked the characters.  Sometimes a book can be interesting but the characters aren’t well developed or all that likable (even the ones that are supposed to be) but that is not the case in these books.  Even the villians were fun to read about!

I got the sixth audiobook out of the library and started to listen to it, but there had been a change in the reader.  I’m not sure why this happened, but I didn’t like the new guy.  He tried to do accents too but he got them all mixed up (in relation to the accents Parker had used for each character) and it was confusing for me.  I only listened to a short part of it before giving up on the audiobook.  The book happened to be at the library the last time I was there so I picked it up.  I have to say that I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as listening to the books.  I found that the cheesiness of the previous books, that I’d been able to overlook was not as easy to ignore.  These books were definitely made for a younger reading audience than me, but when I was listening to the books, I was able to forget that.  I still enjoyed the book though, it was full of the same adventure and suspense as the first five and once I got over the disappointment of not being able to listen to it, I really enjoyed it, almost as much as the previous books.