Three short reviews

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Jonas is a member of the Community - a safe, enclosed society that dedicates itself to Sameness and a bland, beige kind of world.

When Jonas and the other Twelves of his Community are called to their assigned life-long tasks, which they will be trained and work in,  Jonas is left until the end, when he finds out he is to be the new Receiver of Memories - the receptacle of all human memory. A burden that is only taken on by one person in a generation, so as to preserve the Community’s bland and safe lifestyle.

However, Jonas soon finds out that even in such a safe place, dark secrets are lurking. And he has a choice to make - one that could have far-reaching implications.

I loved The Giver. I keep coming back to bits and pieces of it, like Jonas and the present Receiver, and their relationship, and how Jonas first discovers memories of such simple things as snow.

The relationship between Jonas and the Receiver itself is surprisingly warm and has a lot of depth, which gives Jonas the catalyst to take the action that he does towards the end of the book.

It’s a short book, but it packs the whump of an emotional Whomping Willow Tree.

If I Stay by Gayle Foreman

Mia is hovering on the brink of life and death, after a terrible car accident. Her parents and younger brother die in the crash but Mia is clinging on and the story is narrated from her point of view as she contemplates whether to stay, or whether to move on.

She dives into her memories - not just of the day itself, but of her family, and the very deep and great sense of loss that she has is definitely felt.

If I Stay is another short book, but it has such emotional depth that you kind of forget it’s not 500 pages long.

Moving Pictures by Mr Sir Terry Pratchett

This is, I think, the 10th Discworld novel? I’m slowly picking my way through them in publishing order.

For some reason it took me absolutely ages to read this one.

Something is coming through a small, tiny tear in the fabric of reality. That something will draw peole to Holy Wood - people like Ginger, who wants to be more than a milkmaid, and Victor - can’t sing, can’t dance, can handle a sword a little - and Cut My Own Throat Dibbler, who may not know a lot of things, but he sure knows how to sell dubious sausages.

Moving Pictures is pretty classic Pratchett humour - funny and satiric with a healthy dose of magic and absurdity. Good times.

Very short reviews

I got a bit behind and now I have five books to review so I'm just going to do a sentence or so for each.

First up is The Sorrow of Empire by David Mack - a Star Trek TOS novel of the Mirror universe.

It's a solid novel - entertaining and 100% Star Trek with Spock fighting to bring down the Empire from within. I read Star Trek novels sometimes when I need some true escapism, although I haven't read a TOS novel before. It was an easy and interesting read.

Next is Still Foolin 'Em by Billy Crystal, which is part autobiography, part musing, and part reflecting on againg. It's very much Crystal's voice, full of self-deprecating humour and wry observations about life and love. It's a quick read, enjoyable, light-hearted and funny.

And we're up to The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris. (Women's Challenge read). The Trickster God has a few scores to settle with the Norse gods - with Odin, especially and of course, Thor. Most of what I know of Loki comes from the movies and Tom Hiddleston, but Harris's Loki is hilarious - he feels hard done by and put upon and by all of the Norse gods, if he's going down then he's taking them all with them. Bring on Ragnarok.

The Wild Things by David Eggers (TBR Pile challenge) is the novelisation of Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are movie. I have to say, I liked it a lot. You have to suspend logic, and roll with it, but once you do that, and you go with Max to where the wild things are, then it works on the levels that it needs to work.

Lastly, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black. (Women's Challenge read). From the time Tana wakes up after a party in a bathtub, to the time she ends up in Coldtown, it's a pretty wild ride. I have to admit, it took me a bit to grasp hold of Black's worldbuilding with the Cold references, but once I got stuck in, I was there all the way, and Tana is a great central character - she's brave and spirited, but she also screws up and makes mistakes. Good times.

Catching up - short (probably very short) reviews

I'm on track with my reading so far. That's a first! Anyway, I have three books waiting in the wings so here are three very short and lazy reviews.

Olivier by Philip Ziegler:
Biography of legendary stage and film actor Sir Laurence Olivier.

I liked this a lot I have to say, but it felt like it took forever to read. Not because of the subject matter - Ziegler is a  respectful and readable biographer - but for some reason the book was really heavy, which made it hard to hold up for extended periods.

It covers Olivier's life from go to woe, with a lot of focus on his acting life, rather than the more salacious details of Olivier's private life. Very interesting.

Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks

I have very, very mixed feelings about this one. The Wodehouse estate chose Faulks to pen a new Jeeves and Wooster novel, but the question is - did the world really need it?

Jeeves and the Wedding Bells is light-hearted and full of all of the Wodehouse plot-standards: star-crossed young lovers, country estates, misunderstandings ... but that special light touch and wittiness is somewhat missing.

It's readable enough, but go for the source material. Pip pip.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

I loved loved loved The Scorpio Races. I'm still emotionally fragile because of The Scorpio Races and I approached The Raven Boys with a little trepidation.

It was not, however, half as traumatic as The Scorpio Races.

Blue comes from a family of psychics. She's not psychic herself, but she acts like a signal boost. She's always been told that she will cause her true love to die, which is enough to make Blue cautious.

Then she meets Gansey, a Raven boy from the nearby boarding school and Blue's life changes completely as she gets caught up in Gansey's quest to find an ancient Welsh king.

I loved The Raven Boys a lot, and I'm excited to read the rest of the series, but - so far - it's not as earth-shattering as The Scorpio Races was. (I'm sure the pain is coming.)

Short reviews

I'm on holiday, and making a concentrated effort to do some actual reading of books, so here are three short reviews of the books I've finished recently.

(All by women authors. I'm SLAYING this challenge.)

1) The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

YA fantasy.

I'm not even going to review this really. It's REMARKABLE. Everything about it is remarkable and perfect and joyous and heart-shattering.

Erm. Every October, the sea yields up carniverous water horses to the island of Thisby. The more foolhardy among the residents try to catch the horses and tame them for the yearly race. At 19, Sean Kendrick rules the races with four wins behind him for the stables he's employed by.

Puck Connelly enters the race out of desperation to save her family from complete ruin.

The descriptions of the island and of the water horses and their deep yearning for the sea, and of Puck and Sean's slowly-developing relationship .. everything knits together and the novel rushes at you and pulls away and rushes at you and it's exhausting and perfect.

2) Wake by Elizabeth Knox

Horror

Kiwi novelist Elizabeth Knox is best known, probably, as the author of The Vintner's Luck and the Dreamhunter/Dreamquake duo.

Wake is, if I may employ the biggest understatement ever, a departure. It's a horror novel with a lot of depth and shiveriness and all good things.

A small coastal town is suddenly shut off from the rest of the country after the population goes insane and systematically destroys itself. The opening chapter is fairly gory, and there's some truly heartbreaking scenes (no spoilers, but the daycare, and for me, Oscar and his cat, Lucy) as the fourteen survivors try to make the best of it and work out what's happened.

I said this on the twitter and it sums it up for me pretty well: "Wake is like an oil spill: toxic and beautiful, and you cannot look away."

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

YA: General (eating disorders)

I powered through this in a few hours today. It's a short novel, but it packs a pretty hefty wallop.

It starts with 18 year old Lia learning that her former best friend Cassie has been found dead in a hotel room. Lia is struggling with anorexia and self-harm, and an overwhelmed family.

Wintergirls delves into Lia's struggle with determined honesty and doesn't shy away from the difficulties of dealing with such hard to categorise disorders.

Very short reviews

Somehow I ended up about four books behind, given that I'm making an effort to, like, write reviews ..

Four books. I'm not writing separate reviews for four books, I'm far too lazy for that.

I'm going to, instead, give very short reviews for all four books.

Starting with ...

When We Wake by Karen Healey.

This is a good one to start on, as it's NZ Book Month (which I haven't blogged about at all. Um. It's NZ Book Month. You should read a book by a Kiwi author this month. They're awesome.)

When We Wake is also one of my favourite genres (though for some reason I haven't read as much in it as I'd like to have) - YA Dystopia. Sixteen-year-old Tegan pretty much has it all - a loyal best friend, a cute new boyfriend, and her future looks bright. That, is until, she's shot in the chest, is cryogenically frozen and woken up 100 years later to a very different world ...
MMm ... yes, good. Strong female protagonist? Check. Believable dystopic future? Check? Kick-ass friends? Check. Cute love-interest but no love triangle in sight? CHECK CHECK CHECK :D

Next up is Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I've had this book for a few years, but finally made a concerted effort to read it, and I'm glad I did, and this won't be a revelation to anyone who HAS read it but it's so good.

It focuses on Thomas Cromwell, who  was an adviser (I think? To be honest my English history is extremely shaky) to Henry VIII and apparently all up in the whole marriage thing. This is the kind of historical fiction that I love because it makes my brain go OM NOM NOM NOM NOMMMM

I honestly can't remember all that much about this book. Something about a woman who'd been in prison for shooting her husband after he'd shoved her hand in a box of rattlesnakes at gunpoint or ... something?

When she's parolled, she ends up living above the garage of a single professor at the university she starts attending and then ... uh ... stuff happens?

It was fine, I remember reading it in a day, so it wasn't bad. I just haven't retained very much about it at all.

Last but not least: The Shining by Stephen King. Well. IT gave me a fear of clowns. Now, I have an irrational fear of topiary animals. Thanks for that, Stephen King.

Jack takes his wife and young son to the Overlook hotel, where they're going to act as caretakers for the winter off-season.

The Overlook is, of course, haunted ...

The Shining is vintage Stephen King. Don't read late at night, or on your own, or get it wet or feed it after midnight ... wait, that's Gremlins.

Three short reviews

Three short reviews

Another short reviews post so soon? Well, yes. I’m on holiday, and also on a bit of a reading streak, so I’m getting through some books at a pretty steady clip.

And, I believe I’ve said before, I’m lazy. So short reviews it is.

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion.

Ah, the zombie love-story with a twist. In that it’s the zombie, R, who falls in love with the living girl, Julie … after, that is, he eats her boyfriend’s brain.

Zombies, remember?

Something big and bad has happened, and the world is divided into the Living and the Dead. The Living are confined to large Stadiums (actual sports stadiums), with occasional foraging trips into the dead city, where, of course, the Dead tend to be waiting.

R is slightly different from your average zombie. He seems to still have goals and aspirations, despite well, being dead, and also not remembering anything about his life. And then he meets – and rescues – Julie, and everything changes.

I did enjoy Warm Bodies. I liked it a lot. Lol that’s profound, isn’t it?  There’s lots to consider in such a short book, of course there is, especially given the subject matter, but at its heart, it’s a zombie-meets-girl love story, and although it hints at some profound changes beyond the scope of it, that story is the heart of it. (Could my sentence structure BE more awkward?)

Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth

I always forget – until I read another one – what a weakness I do have for fairytale retellings.

Rapunzel gets the treatment in Bitter Greens, which is set in 16^th and 17^th century Italy and France.

In 1697, Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been sent to an isolated convent by the King of France, for licentious behaviour. Charlotte-Rose – used to a life of luxury – has a difficult time adjusting, until one of the older nuns begins telling her a story of a girl called Margherita, who was locked in a tower 100 years ago by a witch …

Bitter Greens weaves the stories of the three women – Margherita, Charlotte-Rose, and Soeur Seraphina – in a truly compelling tale of magic, love and redemption.

Recommended. And then recommended again. :D

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by  Brian Selznick

Hugo Cabret is unusual, in that it’s really part novel, part graphic novel, with about half the book taken up with pictures and sketches, which you do have to pay attention to because they fill in for part of the action.

I’m torn on Hugo Cabret, to be honest. I really want to see the movie, because in the book, neither Hugo nor Isabella, are particularly appealing characters. The story itself – of Hugo being fascinated with clocks and automatons without really knowing why, until he meets an old toymaker – is interesting, even though, for me, it feels a bit rushed.

Overall, good, but for me, not great.

Short reviews

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

I love the premise of this one. It’s essentially every good thing about Jane Austen novels – satire, sisters,  social commentary, with the addition of magic.

Sisters Melody and Jane Ellsworth are very different from one another – at 28, Jane is heading for spinsterhood while Melody, who is a good 10 years younger than her sister – is flighty and never thinks past the end of her own pretty nose.

Jane Ellsworth is particularly skilled at ‘glamour’ – the use of magic and Melody is… pretty.

I loved the premise so much, and I enjoyed Shades but I wanted to like it more than I did. I think it would have been more cohesive if Kowal had focused on one Austen novel, rather than trying to force elements of all of them into the book. Still, a fun read and an intriguing premise.

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

A young woman wakes up in the rain. She has  no memory of herself at all, and she’s surrounded by latex-glove wearing corpses. There’s a letter in her hand, and she opens it to read “The body you are wearing used to be mine.”

So begins The Rook, a very thinky sci-fi novel by Daniel O’Malley. I have to admit, like the heroine of the story, I spent large parts of it massively confused. But O’Malley’s worldbuilding, and the idea that there’s a tradition-steeped, super-secret organisation like The Checquy watching over us, were fascinating enough to keep me going.

I really liked the main character, Myfanwy, who is literally a brand-new person, and the way she sets about finding out what happened to her predecessor.

Confusing and mind-bendy as it is, I would definitely recommend The Rook.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

I joined up at https://www.worldswithoutend.com/ in order to take part in this: https://www.worldswithoutend.com/authors_wogf.asp and Beauty Queens was the first read for that challenge.

The contestants for Miss Teen Dream have crash-landed on a desert island on their way to the competition. After some Survivor-style in-fighting, the remaining girls figure out how to survive in the hostile environment of the island.

However, not everything is as it seems …

I loved Beauty Queens. Absolutely loved it. The satire – while a bit obvious at times – was incredibly sharp and it’s good to see a book with girls being completely, 100% kick-ass. Even when the sexy pirates show up.

Fun, great stuff. :D

Short reviews

I’ve finished three books in relatively quick(ish) succession – for me, at least so I’ve decided to do a bit of a review-dump and kind of lump them all together.

Partly also I’m not entirely sure how  I feel about The Magicians by Lev Grossman and don’t really know what to say about it, so I sort of waited till I’d read a couple more books so I could go “hey, short reviews” and coward out that way – lol.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

This is magic, but not as we know it. Quentin accidentally stumbles across a magic school in the middle of Manhattan, and finds out he has a real gift for it.

Seventeen and already somewhat disaffected, Quentin falls easily into the world of Brakebills.

I have many and varied feelings about The Magicians. I’m just not sure what they are. The obvious comparison, of course, is Harry Potter,  but there’s little resemblance between the world J K Rowling created and Quentin’s world at Brakebills and beyond, where he finds just how difficult it really is living in the real world while keeping most of your life secret.

There’s a quest, of sorts, that goes rather badly, after Quentin discovers that Fillory – the world of a favourite series of children’s books – is real.

Then things really go to hell in a handbasket.

The Magicians is, I don’t even know. It’s certainly not sunny and optimistic. It’s rather grim for the most part and honestly Quentin is kind of unpleasant and self-absorbed but I couldn’t stop reading.

So. I liked reading it. I just kind of felt like I’d set my fingernails on fire.

From one cheerful little read to another …

Burial by Neil Cross

Oh, Neil Cross. You made Luther and therefore I love you because Luther is awesome. And then you write these awesomely chilling novels that are designed to do nothing so much as make the reader go what the – and then check and make sure ALL THE DOORS ARE LOCKED.

A young girl dies at a party. The two men who were present at the time, agree to hide the body and cover up the crime. And swear NEVER TO SPEAK OF IT AGAIN.

Which, you know, never goes well.

When Bob, one of the men turns up on the doorstep of the other, Nathan, things start to spiral downhill rather fast.

Burial is just the right amount of creepy – enough to keep you reading and to double-check your doorlocks. Maybe sleep with a teddy bear but that’s between you and Mr Snuggles, I don’t judge.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

To me, you are perfect. And I will love you forever, Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth.

(Okay, that’s not really a review, it’s a paraphrased quote from Love Actually. LOOK, KITTENS!)

Short reviews

Somehow I got six books behind with my blog reviews. So these are going meant to be short-shorts.


The Screwed-up Life of Charlie the Second by Drew Ferguson:
This was kindly sent to me by Chris of http://www.dreamstuffbooks.com/blog/ Charlie is a 17-year-old misfit: he's too tall, too skinny, and he's worried about the size of his penis. (Actually Charlie is REALLY focused on his penis. Never having been a 17 year old boy, I can't say whether it's normal but I kind of felt like I needed to wash my hands after reading the book). Charlie stumbles and bumbles along, picking through the minefield of high school and  his over bearing father. When a new boy starts at Charlie's school, and joins Charlie's soccer team, things really start to look up.


The Screwed-up Life of Charlie the Second is funny and insightful without being mawkish or sentimental. Charlie's kind of an asshole, but he is a 17 year old boy, so I suppose that's sort of a given. Being an openly gay 17 year old boy is never going to be an easy ride, and Charlie has a habit of making things more difficult for himself than they need to be. But with a little help from his friends, and family, things might not be as bad as Charlie thinks they are.

8/10 That movie that you've watched 100 times and you never get tired of

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
This really deserves a longer post and a review of its own but ... six books. We Need to Talk About Kevin is a series of letters written from the mother of a boy who killed nine people in a school shooting. 


She's writing them to her ex-husband, and the letters range from musings about parenthood - and their own failures with Kevin - to Kevin's upbringing, to family and beyond.


Eva is unsparing and unflinching as she examines Kevin's life up to - and including -  the shooting. 


We Talk About Kevin is a harrowing read, no question. But it's a thought-provoking and compelling one as well; especially reflecting on the nature of motherhood, and what it can really take from you.

8/10 That movie that you've watched 100 times and you never get tired of

The Raven's Heart by Jesse Blackadder

Alice Blackadder has spent her formative years in disguise as a boy, her family hounded into obscurity by the more powerful Hume clan. She and her father have been living in hiding for many years, until they return to Scotland from France with Mary Queen of Scots, and court shenanigans ensue.

Jesse Blackadder reached into her own family history for the source material for the story, and it's an interesting read, although I found the first person, present-tense style of the narration a bit jarring. Get past that, however, and you have a solid historical novel. Plus it had the added advantage of making me want to read everything ever about Mary Queen of Scots.

7/10 Someone else cooks dinner – yay!

Genesis by Bernard Beckett
This is a http://kiwiyachallenge.blogspot.com/ read. Genesis is 142 pages of philosophical science fiction, and there's a lot going on for such a short book.


Anaximander is applying for a place at the prestigious Academy; an application that takes the form of a gruelling, four-hour examination. Her chosen topic is  the life of Adam Forde, a long-dead hero of Anax's, who was, in a lot of ways, the catalyst for the society Anax is living in now. 


Genesis is packed to the gills with ideas and philosophy, and the whole book takes place over the course of Anax's examination, with flashbacks to key events in Adam Forde's life.


The dystopic, futuristic and Platonic society that Anax lives in, and that Adam Forde's time was moving towards - is barely hinted at; just sketches through Anax's eyes as she takes the Academy examination. There's more going on than Anax realises , and Genesis packs an unexpectedly emotional punch.

8/10 That movie that you've watched 100 times and you never get tired of

True Grit by Charles Portis

I always seem to do this the wrong way around with adaptations. I actually saw the Coen Brothers' True Grit before I read the book. It's a faithful adaptation, though, and the Coens do an excellent job of making Mattie the front-and-centre voice of the film.

Anyway, the book. Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross is on a mission. Her father has been murdered, and no one is on the trail of his killer, Frank Chaney, who has escaped into the Indian Territories.

Mattie - a single-minded, somewhat prim and humourless but smart - girl enlists the help of Federal Marshall Rooster Cogburn, a man she believes has 'grit'. Along with a flashy Texan ranger, the three set off into the Territories on Chaney's trail.

Mattie's voice in True Grit is strong, clear and never, ever wavers. The story itself  is commonplace enough, but the narrative is so compelling that it doesn't matter as Mattie tells the tale of riding into the wilds in search of revenge or justice - whichever comes first.

9/10 So good, you'd take it to meet your Mum

August by Bernard Beckett

Tristan and Grace - relative strangers - are in a car accident. Their car rolls, and they find themselves trapped upside down in the car on a nameless cliffside.

At first glance, they appear to be prostitute and client, but Grace and Tristan have a much more complex relationship, and a sort of shared history that comes out over the course of the night as they wait to either be rescued - or to die.

Like Genesis, August is a deeply philosophical novel, although more dystopic than science fiction. Actually, I wasn't expecting the dystopic element, but it made the story that much richer. 

Tristan and Grace tell each other their stories - how they both came to be in the car on this night, on this cliffside - and there's a lot of suffering in both their backgrounds. The crash might be their last night, ever, and Tristan and Grace have a lot of baggage to work through. Sigh. This is an inadequate description of an awesome book, but I'm about tapped out on reviews. Six. Books. O.O

8/10 That movie that you've watched 100 times and you never get tired of

Short reviews

Quillblade: Voyages of the Flying Dragon Vol 1 by Ben Chandler

Lenis and Missy are twins – and slaves. They’re working aboard the airship the Hiryu, which belongs to the Emperor. When the captain of the airship steals it out from under the Emperor’s nose, Lenis and Missy find themselves on a completely unexpected adventure.

And when Lenis starts getting messages from the Blue Dragon _ one of the last totems against the demons threatening to engulf everything _ begging him to save her daughter, the airship, the captain and crew and the twins find themselves on an entirely different kind of quest.

Quillblade is a readable YA steampunk novel, that doesn’t flinch or spare its targeted audience from the more unpleasant aspects of life. Having said that, it also has moments of transcendent joy, and Bestias, which may be my new favourite fictional characters after Phillip Pullman’s Daemons.

7/10 Someone else cooks dinner – yay

My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme

I loved this so much. It’s basically a sort of meandering memoir of Julia Child and her husband Paul’s life in France during the 1950s.

In about 2004, Julia sat down with her nephew Alex to pull together many, many years of photos and correspondence to bring the book to life, and My Life in France is the rambling, charming, engaging result.

It describes, in the course of the book, the process of getting Julia’s seminal cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking published, and a thousand and one details of what can only be described as an extraordinary life.

9/10 So good, you'd take it to meet your Mum

Murder at the Laurels by Lesley Cookman

I found this an odd little crime novel. It’s the fourth in a series that I’m not familiar with, and references previous novels, so I was confused (although, of course, that confusion was on me), but I found the whole thing slightly … futile.

Libby Sarjeant is an artist, living in  Steeple Martin. She gets caught up in the death of an elderly woman at a rest home, the aunt of a friend of hers.

For me, Murder at the Laurels sort of … meandered about. Libby and her friend Fran spend a lot of time dithering and waffling. And … they don’t really actually seem to solve the case. The police do.

I’m failing to see the point.

5/10 A very nice day

Short reviews and my top five of 2010

Somehow I ended up being backed up by about seven books. I'm still not sure how that happened.

My final total for 2010 was 44 books, which I'm aiming to at least double. In fact, I think one of the challenges I joined for 2011 is related to that but more on challenges in a later post.

Given that I have only read 44 books, here are my top five, in no particular order:
1) Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness - the final book in the Chaos Walking trilogy. Perfection, Mr Ness. Now, what are you working on next?
2) The City & The City by China Mieville - Well aren't you a clever author then Mr Mieville? Yes you are. (Disclaimer: sleep and coffee-deprived blogging)
3) Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey - Kiwi YA at its very, very best.
4) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert - Heartbreaking.
5) The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson - Smart mystery.


Okay. Short reviews:

Juno of Taris and Fierce September by Fleur Beale:
Kiwi YA dystopic novels about a young girl living in a biodome with 500 other people; sent away when it looked like the world was going to crumble around them. Juno is rebellious and outspoken, questioning everything. The world of Taris is a kind of careful, not always benevolent dictatorship, but the dome is failing ...
A very readable duo of books, and I'm hoping there's more in the Juno series :-)

8/10 That movie that you've watched 100 times and you never get tired of

Enchanter's End Game and Guardian of the West by David Eddings:

Mr Eddings, I still have nothing but much love for you <3

9/10 So good, you'd take it to meet your Mum

By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham:

When Peter Harris's wife's younger brother Mizzy comes to stay, Peter knows that his world is going to be turned upside down. Mizzy is young, charming - and a drug addict. It's a recipe for disaster waiting to happen. By Nightfall is good, but there's something at the core of it that left me slightly cold.

7/10 Someone else cooks dinner – yay!

The Wench is Dead by Colin Dexter:

Detective Chief Inspector Morse finds himself in hospital with a perforated ulcer. When someone visiting another patient drops off a self-published book about a 19th-century murder,  Morse finds himself intrigued - and bored enough to do a little investigating of his own. It's a good premise, but The Wench is Dead didn't quite live up to its summary for me.

6/10 Leaving work 30 minutes early

Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie:

When Luka's father falls ill, Luka travels to the magic lands, searching for a cure. Everything there is something from a story his father has told him, and Luka finds himself on a quest with a very disparate group. Luka has a certain charm to it, but once again, there's something lacking at the core of it for me - a certain warmth. 

7/10 Someone else cooks dinner – yay!

Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie:
I've read this so many times - lol. Hercule Poirot investigates the murder of a very old, very rich man, whom no one liked. It's a classic locked-room mystery, and there is a lot of blood. Perfect Christmas reading!

8/10 That movie that you've watched 100 times and you never get tired of

How did that happen?

Somehow I have seven books on my read list that I haven't done blog reviews for. That's ... so very much not going to happen.

So welcome to the first ever edition of Maree's super-short book reviews. One paragraph, or your money back. 3o day guarantee.

1): Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare: I was lukewarm mostly on The Mortal Instruments- http://justaddbooks.blogspot.com/2009/04/city-of-bones-by-cassandra-clare-review.html & http://justaddbooks.blogspot.com/2009/04/short-review-books-2-and-3-of-mortal.html and I'm happy to say that I enjoyed Clockwork Angel a lot more. Clare's starting to settle in, I think, and it's a fascinating read - very atmospheric and olde Londony and all that jazz. - 7/10 Someone else cooks dinner – yay!

2): Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson: This deserves a full review. It really does, but I just don't have time right now to do it justice. Speak is brilliant. Brilliant and moving and heartbreaking, and basically everyone should read it. Melinda starts her new school year as a complete social outcast. Something happened at a party over the summer that Melinda is unwilling - and unable - to talk about. Melinda's struggle with what happened to her, and high school itself with its carefully delineated cliques is so vividly realised. It's a short book, but I had to stop reading a couple of times, because it's just so raw. - 10/10 Could not be improved on, even by angel dust and a basket of kittens

3): The Belgariad: I'm just going to throw these all into the same short-short - lol. I used to eat up series like The Belgariad as a teen, and it's been many, many years since I revisited. But thanks to #teamsilk on twitter, I've been taking a trip down memory lane and going on an old-school fantasy quest. (This isn't really so much a short review as ... nostalgia - lol). Next up: The Mallorean ... #teamsilk - 8/10 That movie that you've watched 100 times and you never get tired of

4): American Gods: I can cheat! I've already reviewed this one, and my opinion hasn't changed :D http://justaddbooks.blogspot.com/2008/04/american-gods-review.html 8/10 That movie that you've watched 100 times and you never get tired of

5): Hell House by Richard Matheson: I'm still not sure how I feel about this one. I really want to read The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, to see how well it compares. Hell House is your classic haunted house plot, but I'm shaky on whether Matheson really pulled it off - his characters are a bit flat; especially the one guy who's supposed to be the most talented psychic of them all - and the big ending ... isn't. BUT it is well-written and it is spooky. So ... - 7/10 Someone else cooks dinner – yay!

This is totally cheating, but at least I'm all caught up now. :D