Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Chalice

by Robin McKinley

Grade: Unfinished
Read: To page 58, plus skimmings through the end

I dunno...I didn't find it terribly interesting. The Master was too obviously the love interest, I guess. I dunno.

A Beautiful Mind

by Sylvia Nasar

Grade: Unfinished
Read: To page 20

I still want to read it. It was just a little dense and thick for this point of time. But I'll still read it someday! A mind like that is too cool to not read a biography about. Plus I loved the movie.

The Dead Fathers Club

by Matt Haig

Grade: Unfinished
Read: To page 28

The style was just too weird. I'm a stickler for punctuation, and none at all? I can't stand it. Even if it's supposed to be all Modern Style and stuff. So I quit.

Misfortune

by Wesley Stace

Grade: Unfinished
Read: To page 186

It was just a bit too weirdly gender changing. And Lord Loveall annoyed me, because I think in a different book, I might of liked him. As it was, he annoyed me.

Touching Darkness

by Scott Westerfield

Grade: Good

Good sequal. Still want to read the next one. They still have superpowers. Jessica's little sister Beth is awesome.

The Secret Hour

by Scott Westerfield

Grade: Good

I liked it better than that book about fashion and stuff by him...whatever it was called. The characters were more interesting, plus they had "super-powers" of a sort, and I always find that very interesting. However, I didn't much like Dess or Melissa really. And actually, not Jessica or Jonathan or Rex either...but they had superpowers. That does make up for a lot.

I really liked the description of the secret hour that's on the back cover of this edition, with the still wet diamonds.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Mind the Gap

by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon

Grade: Good

Some great characters. The group of underground people were great. I was sad when Cadge died, but I never liked Stevie. Terence was cool, although too flirtatious for my liking. The ending was a bit disappointing.

The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets

by Nancy Springer

Grade: Good

Another excellent addition to the series. They keep surprising me by not following certain cliches. I like the not dressing up as a boy one.
I love how she adores Sherlock Holmes, and I liked how she dressed up as Miss Viola.
Looking forward to the next one.

Monday, December 8, 2008

The Club Dumas

by Arturo Perez-Reverte

Grade: Unfinished
Read: To page 94, plus some random skimmings near the end

It was a bit hard to follow. And I didn't quite like any of the characters (although La Ponte was somewhat amusing, though rather gross).
But there were some good aspects too: it mentions The Three Muskateers quite a lot, and even talks about Porthos's death! That was cool. And it seems so scholarly--it mentions books I've never heard of so many times--and it talks about books, books, books...their covers and bindings and everything. Sigh.

Things I have to research:
--What is the chapter "The Anjou Wine" in The Three Muskateers about again? (from pg. 5)
--Who is Rafael Sabatini? (pg. 6)
--What is The Charterhouse of Parma? (pg. 5)

The Case of the Left-Handed Lady

by Nancy Springer

Grade: Good

Good sequel. I still want to read the others, which is practically all that is necessary for a good sequal. I was glad that Sherlock figured out their codes, because he would in "real life". The only time I thought he might not seem true to life was in the prologue chapter. And I do wish Mycroft was a bit nicer...

The Case of the Missing Marquess

by Nancy Springer

Grade: To Own

I would like to have this in a sort of "fictionalized fiction" section. This is very similar to the Mary Russell novels, in that they both have Sherlock Holmes. I thought this was well done. She was enough younger than Sherlock to have it make sense. There's a bit of feminism, but it's not too bad.
And all her disguises and such almost get her a place among the Kay-Kay-Bay books.

The New Policeman

by Kate Thompson

Grade: All right

It was a bit too simple, perhaps for my taste. It was to be expected, though. I got it solely because the cover was really cool and the title looked promising.
But I did like the enclusion of all the fiddle tunes. It made me wish I could play the fiddle. And the way she described "eternity", basically, was fairly good, I thought.