I completely ADORED My Lady Jane a few years ago. It was so refreshing and funny and unique, with such a great audio narrator. I had high hopes for this next book in the series and HALLELUJAH it delivered. It’s not quite as shockingly quirky as My Lady Jane (nobody’s fiance regularly turns into a horse for one), but what it lacked in quirk, it made up in literary references and jokes. Most of the Bronte family gets roped into the narrative here and it’s […]
Glass & Steele: A wasted idea
From the description on the back, this book has everything I want: plucky heroine trying to make it in Victorian London, mysterious magical artifacts, danger lurking on every corner. In short, the kind of book that I gobble up on a plane. And yet I had to force myself to continue to the end. You guys, this book is soooooo boring. I just wanted something light and fun to read on a plane, and this book couldn’t even meet that standard. The book begins with […]
Biking in a Winter Wonderland
The Chirri and Chirra books are surreal. You can hear the translation as sometimes the wording does not flow naturally on the ears. You will enjoy the story, but you probably should suspend belief. If you are looking for realism, Kaya Doi’s books are probably not what you are looking for. However, if you like a casual, somewhat natural mix of fantastic and realism, the Chirri and Chirra books are perfect. And the illustrations are very sweet with soft, happy colors, a lot of detail […]
A strong finish to this series about magical oppression.
Worth slogging through book two just to get to this one. (And I’m still not convinced my reaction to that book wasn’t just me trying to read it at the wrong time.) This is the third and final book in the original Bartimaeus Trilogy (he wrote a prequel in 2010 but I think I’m going to pass on that one). It takes place three years after the events of The Golem’s Eye. Nathaniel/John Mandrake is high up in government now, in charge of what is […]