Waiting on Wedensday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme from Jill at Breaking the Spine.  It's a chance to spotlight upcoming releases that we wish were out nownownow!  This is my first time participating in WoW, but I'm hoping it will be far from my list.

My pick for this week is:

 

The Serpent's Shadow (Book 3, The Kane Chronicles)

by Rick Riordan

Release Date: May 1, 2012

Summary from Goodreads.com:

He's b-a-a-ack! Despite their best efforts, Carter and Sade Kane can’t seem to keep Apophis, the chaos snake, down. Now Apophis is threatening to plunge the world into eternal darkness, and the Kanes are faced with the impossible task of having to destroy him once and for all. Unfortunately, the magicians of the House of Life are on the brink of civil war, the gods are divided, and the young initiates of Brooklyn House stand almost alone against the forces of chaos. 

To find the answer they need, the Kanes must rely on the murderous ghost of a powerful magician who might be able to lead them to the serpent’s shadow... or might lead them to their deaths in the depths of the underworld...

While many don't think the Kane Chronicles are as good YA reading as The Heroes of Olympus, I still really enjoy them and can't wait for the next chapter in the Kane sibling's journey.

Review: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Rich had picked this book up from the library several weeks ago and told me that I had to read it as soon as he closed the back cover. I'd been putting it off for awhile, having several other books that were higher on my priority list (requests that needed to go back to the library). Yesterday, I decided that it was the time for me to settle in and read it.

Charlotte Doyle is a 13 year old girl, just out of finishing school in England, and on her way back to her family home in Providence, RI. Her father has arranged passage for her on a ship belonging to the company he works for, arranging for two other families to travel at the same time. But when Charlotte arrives at the boat, she finds that the other families are unable to travel and she will be the loan female on a boat full of men. What follows is a tale that moves from fear to adventure and takes this well-brought-up girl from her high society beginnings into a world she could have never imagined.

Overall a good story, the beginning seemed a bit slow to me. It took me awhile to warm up to Charlotte and her story. It wasn't until the mutiny were ready to begin that I really became enraptured and knew I would want to finish it that night.

The writing was very evocative, making it easy to mentally put yourself on a sailing ship in the 19th century. I could feel the cramped quarters, the sparseness of the cabin that Charlotte is first settled into. The main characters are very well written, each with their own quirks. The minor characters in the story aren't quite as fleshed out (many of the sailors seem indistinguishable from one another), but it doesn't detract from the overall story.

The book is a fairly quick read, one that I finished within about 3 hours. It's good for a rainy afternoon when you want to lose yourself somewhere that is far removed from your cozy chair.



View all my reviews

Review: The Black Book of Buried Secrets

The Black Book of Buried Secrets by Mallory Kass

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



When I finished this book, all I could think was, "This is The 39 Clues version of The Demigod Files." And I say that as a good thing. It was a great way to reacquaint oneself with the major players before the Cahills vs Vespers series starts, plus is a great jumping off point for learning more about certain figures in history. Now, as far as I know, there is no great family of Cahills that have been maneuvering the world for 500 years (and if there was, since I'm not a Cahill, I wouldn't know, would I?). But it is interesting to think what various historical figures would have done in their search for the clues. (I don't think it's been addressed, but I could imagine Agatha Christie's disappearance would have been because of a clue hunt.)

It's a good book for when you have short bursts of time in which to read. Each part is only a few pages long, yet it still packs a ton of information into each bit without it feeling overwhelming. Like I've said in the past, I think the 39 Clues series is a great one for getting kids interested in history and historical figures. It tells just enough about them to whet the appetite and leave kids (and adults) anxious for more. I've got several people that I don't remember hearing about that I'm going to be reading up on thanks to this book.

There were two parts of this book that I enjoyed above all others - the introduction, written by Rick Riordan and telling the story of the first face to face meeting of the Cahills responsible for putting the story of the 39 Clues out there in the hopes of protecting Amy and Dan. It was a fun read and I loved having a different look at the authors.

The other were the agent reports. Written as short vignettes rather than factual information blurbs, it helped bring the reader back into the world of the 39 Clues very easily. But then again, I really like good fiction.

I would definitely suggest waiting until after you've read the first ten books before picking up The Black Book of Buried Secrets, unless you don't mind being spoiled. It doesn't give away every little bit but it does have some pretty major spoilers throughout. It's not a necessity to read before you start the Cahills vs Vespers series, but I do think you would thank yourself for reading it.



View all my reviews

Review: The Son of Neptune

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Percy Jackson is one of my favorite characters in children's literature. And, while I enjoyed getting to know Jason, Piper and Leo in The Lost Hero, it was nice to read about Percy again. And meeting Hazel and Frank, along with the rest of Camp Jupiter (the Roman version of Camp Half-Blood) was like old friends introducing me to new friends.

The book was as exciting as the previous ones set in this world, with surprises peppered throughout the book that I never saw coming. Riordan's writing is exciting, keeping the reader anxious to hear more. Some of the lines that he had various characters say alternately cracked me up and made me want to adopt them as mantras. The characters mesh well and seem very realistic - for demi-gods.

There was only one problem I had with the audio book edition, and that was the pronunciation of Gaea. I'd always pronounced it (and heard it pronounced) Geye-ah. The reader pronounced it GE-ah. And each time he said it, I shuddered. Maybe I'd heard it pronounced wrong all this time. But it still bugged me.

I've got the paper copy of the book coming soon as well, and I'm going to reread it then. Because a) it was a good book and 2) I don't know what I may catch on the second read through. If you've loved the Percy Jackson series, you'll enjoy this one as well. If you love reading about mythology, you'll enjoy the series. And once you've read them, you'll want Fall, 2012 to hurry up and get here for the next installment of the series.



View all my reviews

Review: Odd and the Frost Giants

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



It's not secret that I think Neil Gaiman is the best writer of our generation. The man can write for anyone! Odd and the Frost Giants is one of his children's books and is just as brilliant as Coraline and The Graveyard Book.

Odd is the son of an Viking Woodcutter and a Scottish lass. After his father's death, and his mother's remarriage, a winter comes that doesn't seem to end. Needing to be on his own, he takes his father's ax and leave's for his old hut in the woods. And that's where his adventures with the Gods begin.

As you can tell from some of my other reading, I love reading about ancient Gods and the stories around them. Since reading about Loki, Thor and Odin in The Sandman, I've loved Gaiman's view of them. The book was a quick read, but a wonderful one. It's one that I'm hoping to own so my boys can read it regularly as well. And I'm really hoping that Gaiman decides to tell more of Odd's stories. Because he really is a wonderful hero.

For all that the book was wonderful, the best part was the Author Biography at the end. It was one of the funniest biographies I've ever read. So don't stop when you get to the end of the story. Remember, the end of the story rarely is.



View all my reviews

Review: The Brownie Scouts in the Cherry Festival

The Brownie Scouts in the Cherry Festival by Mildred A. Wirt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I still remember finding these books on the bookshelf of my town library. I was a Brownie at the time and finding fiction about Brownies just excited me beyond belief. I took the entire series several times to read and reread. I've thought about the books many times over the years but couldn't remember the name of the author, nor find anything like them in the libraries I visited.

I decided to check my library's Interlibrary Loan to see if I could find them in the wider world. I was in luck! Two of the books were able to be found and sent from a library in Illinois here to mine in Tennessee. I started, last night, with this one and finished it up this morning.

The Brownie Scouts in Rosedale are trying to make money for their troop, starting with sewing a quilt to be auctioned off. One of the girls, Veve, doesn't care much for sewing and instead tries to find another way for their troop to earn money. She finds an ad wanting cherry pickers at the local orchard, so she and her friend Connie travel out to the orchard to see if their troop will be hired. While the man they traveled to speak to was a horrid man and refused to hire them, they were able to be hired at the orchard across the street. The gentleman there was in dire straights since he didn't have enough pickers to get his cherries in in time. The Brownie Scouts come to the rescue! And while they're there, they help to solve a little mystery as well.

Rereading this brought me back to my youth. While many things are dated (it was written in 1950), a lot more of it fits with any age. Only a few of the girls really have fleshed out characters - primarily Veve and Connie - but the small group is a lot of fun to read about regardless. Especially with all the trouble the Veve manages to get herself into!



View all my reviews

Review: The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book One: The Amulet of Samarkand

The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book One: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I picked up the original as an audio book for one of our trips and fell in love with this series. When Rich found the graphic novelization at the library a few weeks ago and took it out for me. I'm not sure why I let it sit to the side, unread, for awhile, but I didn't pick it up until later this week.

Graphic Novelizations are things that are usually hit and miss with me. Sometimes the writer pulls out my favorite parts and the artist brings the characters into view the way I saw them in my own mind. Other times, I find a part I was looking forward to was nowhere to be found and the artwork doesn't work for me. This was one firmly fits into the first category. The layout and artwork fit perfectly with what I'd remembered from the original. It was beautifully done and the story included the humor along with the more serious moments that had been in the original.

If you have a reluctant reader, I'd suggest handing them this one - particularly if they enjoy fantasy. It is a great introduction to a wonderful series.



View all my reviews

Review: Bitten

Bitten by R.L. Stine

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This is a compilation of the two books thus-far written for this series. The first book, Dangerous Girls, introduces the reader to Destiny and Livvy Weller, twin sisters ending their jobs as summer camp councilors before the start of their senior year of high school. After all the kids have gone, the councilors and the junior councilors have one last good time together, and Destiny finds herself walking in the woods with the gorgeous head life-guard, Renz Angelina. Little does she know, but Renz is a centuries old vampire and, even more, thinks that Destiny is the reincarnated soul of his long dead love. He wants to be with her again, so he prepares to make her into a vampire so they can spend their lives together. Before he has a chance to do more than bite her himself (since the ritual recalls mingling their blood by each biting the other under the full moon), they are interrupted. He temporarily erases her memory of the night thus far and she heads home with her sister.

When things start feeling strange around her - most noticeably her overwhelming hunger for blood - she starts to get worried. And it's both better and worse when she finds out that she is not the only one who has been bitten. Livvy is showing the same powers that Destiny seems to have. And then their friends start dying around them. They need to find someone to cure them, before the next full moon. Otherwise, they'll go crazy.

The second book, The Taste of the Night, ends a couple of months after Dangerous Girls. Livvy has embraced her vampire-self, while Destiny has been cleansed of the blood lust. Livvy has distanced herself from a family that she doesn't think understands, making new friends among the growing vamp community in their hometown. Regardless of the pleas of her sister, father and brother, Livvy is determined to live a life that she wants, regardless of what the rest of the family has to say. When a new vampire arrives in town, things start to go bad for both girls - again, losing friends that were an integral part of their lives. Can the sisters put aside their differences long enough to save the people they care about?

My Thoughts: I picked this book up in the discount bin at my local grocery store. I've been pretty heavily into paranormal lately, and the back cover intrigued me. So I figured $3 wasn't bad for an omnibus and brought it home. While it's far from the best paranormal story ever written, it wasn't a bad read for a teen novel. The characters were pretty easy to care about, though at times they did seem to act a bit more irrational than others. The story had me turning pages, curious what answers they would find for the mystery that their lives had become. It may not have been the best read that I have had this week, but it wasn't a bad one. I'd say that if you're a fan of the Twilight series, you'll probably enjoy this one as well.



View all my reviews

Review: Bloodlines

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Bloodlines is set in the same world as Richelle Mead's popular Vampire Academy series, this time looking at things from the point of view of Sydney, the human Alchemist that (somewhat reluctantly) helped Rose when she was on the run from a murder rap. Now the Alchemists, who are charged with making sure that the rest of human-kind doesn't know that vampires actually do live among them, have sent 18 year old Sydney back to school - as the supposed older sister of Moroi (or living vampire) Jill Masterson. Jill's life is in danger, since she's the only thing that is keeping her half-sister on the Moroi throne. So it's decided that it's best to get her out of the Moroi world all together. And the best place for that is Palm Springs, CA - where most Moroi wouldn't be able to handle the sun.

Of course, nothing is as easy as it could be. Sydney is under suspicion because of her assistance of Rose months earlier, Jill is feeling the strain of having to be so closely watched, and Sydney not only has to deal with another Alchemist that she hates, but mysterious tattoos that are showing up in school giving the humans with the tattoos some pretty impressive powers. Oh, and the bodies that seem to be showing up around the group as well.

It was wonderful to come back into the world of the Moroi, dhampires and Alchemists. I really liked the character of Sydney when she first came on the page so seeing her get a series of her own was fantastic. Also having some other favorites - particularly the super-sexy Adrian - was a plus as well. I'll admit that I'd expected that Keith (the other Alchemist) had something to do with something happening in Palm Springs, but the identity of the murderer threw me for a real loop.

If you've read the Vampire Academy series, then you'll definitely want to check it out. And if you haven't, but enjoy paranormal, you'll want to check out the Vampire Academy series and then read Bloodlines. I really can't wait for the next book in the series to come out!



View all my reviews