It’s a terrible feeling to hear praise heaped upon a new book, read it yourself and…not get it. Your mind starts playing games with itself: Everyone else liked this book, what’s wrong with you? Do you just not understand it? Is that it, you idiot? You focus on the book a little harder, maybe if you squint at the freaking book, all of this praise will make sense. But still…it’s just not there for you. That was my experience with Kelly Link’s collection of short […]
Magical Babysitter-Check, Clueless Parent-Check, Crazy Adventures-Check
This recently re-issued classic children’s book is damn delightful. John, Janey and Pete are children growing up in 1950’s midwest. Their babysitter, Mr. Pudgins, has a magical pipe, a flying car and a pet Dodo. The children have a series of magical adventures, until Mr. Pudgins has to leave to share his magic with a new group of siblings. This book was re-issued as part of the Nancy Pearl’s Book Crush series for NPR. It’s a really sweet book with only a few issues. […]
Just Another One Martin’s Procrastination Projects
I just finished this book last Friday and instead of adding it to my ever growing stack of books to be reviewed, I thought I move it up in my queue because of today’s finale of Game Of Thrones season 6. The World of Ice and Fire contains information about the novel series, however. Martin’s co-authors, Elio M. Garcia and Linda Antonsson, are the people behind the fan-site Westeros.org; they even advise Martin on lore when he becomes stuck. He actually approached them about the […]
But how does a dragon feel about going into battle?
Back into battle with Laurence and Temeraire! Napoleon’s the bad guy! Easy and fun to read! But wait, first we have to get Laurence and Temeraire back together, because Laurence has been sentenced to death for treason for saving all the dragons in the world (<cough>Mary Sue<cough>), and Temeraire is moping in the breeding grounds in Wales. This is an opportunity for Novik that she jumps all over, and I think the reader is the big winner: we finally get to read from Temeraire’s POV. […]