The Spell Book of Listen Taylor

by Jaclyn Moriarty

Grade: All right
Story: Listen Taylor finds a spell book and loses all her friends; Cath Murphy meets a handsome 2nd grade teacher; Cassie Zing runs a lot and plays word games; Marbie Zing has an affair with an aeronautical engineer; Fancy Zing talks to the Canadian next door and sends exuberant amounts of notes to her daughter's school teacher.

Review: It wasn't quite as good as I was hoping, considering how much I've enjoyed some of Moriarty's other books (see The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie, The Ghosts of Ashbury High, Top Ten (Or So): Australian Authors and Books). In fact, I'm rather surprised I finished it at all. The plot was rather sparse, practically only consisting of my summary up above. This wouldn't be so bad if the character study was interesting (as in Hilary McKay's books), but this seemed to mostly consist of women considering having affairs. I don't like affairs, or divorce, at ALL. I would have stopped, except I was hoping if I read to the end, everyone would get back together again and it would all be lovely and ok.

But Moriarty is still lots of fun to read, and I'll definitely read any further books of hers.

Possessed

by Kate Cann

Grade: All right
Story: Rayne is overwhelmingly claustrophobic with her current life in London, so she deserts her boyfriend and mother and runs off to a job in the country. There she meets handsome boys and annoying girls and strange fire people and everything is pretty creepy.

Review: So I read this one quickly enough, but there was something missing for me. Partly it was ...

SPOILER, I GUESS

... her infatuation with St. John. It seemed perfectly obvious to me from the start that he was a totally jerk. But it seemed to take her forever. So I had to read on and on about how hot he was, etc., when I knew she would be taking it all back in a few chapters.

END SPOILER, I SUPPOSE

It may also have just been partly that nothing much seemed to happen. I don't know. Maybe it's my mood. Other book reviewers seemed to really enjoy it. (Actually, upon further investigation, bookshelvesofdoom seems to be the only one who reviewed it. But still, she's one of the best.)

But you know, besides the fact that I didn't LOVE it, there were some good points. Rayne was a good heroine, there was lots of nice creepy stuff (but not really overtly creepy, so still good for people who don't like creepy much), and I liked the fire dancer people and the descriptions of the forest.

SPOILER:
OH! And WHY is it called "Possessed"? I guess because St. John is kind of possessed by that super duper evil guy? It doesn't seem at all obvious to me, though.

Gentlemen

by Michael Northrop

Grade: All right
Story: Four highschool guys: Micheal (sic), Tommy (the nice-ish one), Mixer (the clever one), and Bones (the dangerous one). Their teacher tries a new teaching method one day at school, and all of a sudden, there's murder, mayhem, and teenage boys being teenage boys. (Ok, that last one wasn't exactly all-of-a-sudden...)

Review: I didn't actually like this one much. It's simply not to my taste. The front cover describes it as "gritty". Now, I like gritty things, but ... I don't know. A slightly different kind of gritty. More like Rage gritty. This one--well, it's all about teenage guys. Teenage guys from kind of the bottom of the heap. Anyway, I skipped some parts, but I finished it.
But I still thought it was well done. Moody, accurate, fast-paced, and funny. Mostly. Except it's not quite my type of humour either. And I appreciated that it was not a cliched inspiring-teacher-helps-low-life-boys-with-unique-teaching-method story. I actually really like those stories, but slightly guiltily, and I appreciate it when it's done a bit differently.
BUT ISN'T THE COVER PRETTY? In fact, I must admit, I think I mostly finished it because of its cover. And it's title.

Austenland

by Shannon Hale

Grade: All right
Summary: Jane is in love with Mr. Darcy. From the 1995 A&E miniseries with Colin Firth. Like, seriously obsessed. So her great-aunt sends her to Pembrook Park in an attempt to rid her of her obsession, and help her figure out how the heck to find a stable relationship.

Review: So. Yeah. What I expected.
This isn't really my type of book, but I thought, "What the heck!" and read it anyway. And hey, it was ok. I finished it! That's quite good, actually. Because it was fun.
As I expected, it was rather predictable. But I was happy enough with the ending and (spoiler, visit rot13.com to decode) gur snpg gung fur ershfrq Ze. Aboyl, gura qvfpbirerq gung gur pnfhny frk thl jnf ABG n tbbq vqrn, gura qvfpbirerq gung Ze. Aboyl jnf n terng thl nsgre nyy.

Mistwood

by Leah Cypess

Grade: All right
Story: Isabel is the Shifter--un-human and completely dangerous. She is captured in order to protect new king, because of course there is Danger! and Plots!

This was a bit weird for me. When I began, I really liked it, and then half way through I suddenly lost interest. It might be more the time of year right now. It's all I can to do to just keep everything together. It might also be (spoiler--visit rot13.com to decode) gur snpg gung V qrpvqrq V qvqa'g ybir Ebxna naq V qvq ybir Ira. Naq gura Ira qvrq. Noehcgyl. Naq gura jnf onfvpnyyl arire zragvbarq ntnva. Naq gura Ebxna orpnzr gur ybir vagrerfg. Naq nf lbh zvtug xabj, Ebznapr pna or n ernyyl naablvat vffhr sbe zr. Vg qevir zr penml, ohg gurer vg vf.

However, I don't think that was all of it. I don't know what it was. Maybe there just wasn't enough there to keep me going. And yet Tamora Pierce and Megan Whalen Turner both recommended it! So there must be something awesome about it. I do think Isobel was a great character, and I loved the descriptions of her and her fleeting memories of the past.

Story Time

by Edward Bloor

Grade: All right/Unfinished
Read: To page 196, plus a bunch of the end (enough that I think it can be "All right" instead of "Unfinished").
Story: Kate and George are sent to a school where tests are the teaching style, and ghosts and weird things abound.

I was rather disappointed in this one. The cover was great, the title was great, it was about a weird school and its awful tests, and there was an uncle who was younger than his niece.

But it didn't quite do it for me. I generally like stereotypes that are funny or awesome, but not humiliating, like the parents, or evil, like Cornelia and her children. It quite bugs me actually. Especially the parents. I mean, how do the kids possibly get so intelligent with such dumb parents? It doesn't really make sense. And I don't mean intelligent as in IQ, I mean intelligent as in social awareness.

I probably could have got around it if something else grabbed me enough, but nothing else did. I don't really know why.

Among the Ghosts

by Amber Benson

Grade: All right
Story: Noleen meets some ghosts, and they start to disappear, and that's bad.

Well, that was a bit surreal. Firstly, I got this book from the library SOLELY based on its cover, which is by the AWESOME Jason Chan (who also did my copies of The Girl Who Could Fly and The Kneebone Boy). I don't usually do that. And I almost never pick up random books which I haven't checked out on book review sites yet. But I did this time. And THEN I turned to the back and read the author bio, and it turned out to be the girl who played Tara on Buffy!!!!! (I miss you Tara! You were awesome!) Anyway, apparently she's one talented lady. As well as acting and writing novels, she's also directed, produced, and written scripts.

The book itself was pretty good, but definitely for younger peoples. A bit too young for me, I think. And sometimes it felt a bit disjointed. Benson also has a book called Death's Daughter which I want to check out. I suspect a novel for older people might not feel so disjointed.

The Egypt Game

by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Grade: All right

I think I would have liked it if I were younger. Probably quite a lot. But it's not one of those children's books that is so wonderfully awesome that you love it when you're 21. At least, you don't if you're me.

Also, I probably shouldn't get annoyed about this--maybe it shows that I'm evil or something. But it really goes out of it's way to be PC. There is very carefully one of each of the major races for the three girls, and then one of each for the three boys too. (Caucasian, Asian, African.) Other races is GOOD. There should be MORE other races and all that. BUT... it shouldn't be so obvious. It should just happen. Anyway, enough on that.

The Diary of Adam and Eve

by Mark Twain

Grade: All right

At first I thought the forward guy (John Updike) was speaking rubbish when he talked on and on about "[h]is quarrel with God" and all that. But actually, it does get a bit like that in "Eve Speaks". But it's an understandable emotion, at least, even if not accurate to the meaning of Genesis.

 "Passage from Eve's Autobiography (Year of the World 920)" is very strange indeed. I don't quite see its point.
"The Diary of Adam and Eve" is my favourite, and is quick and amusing without being irreverent.
The rest are ok, but not worth writing about at this time of night.

Before I Fall

by Lauren Oliver

Grade: All right
Story: Sam dies, and she's forced to live the same day over and over. A bit like "Groundhog Day" except better, and in highschool.

BOY am I glad I didn't have to go through highschool. It sounded utterly horrible. I guess that was partly the point. Anyway, this is a book I almost put down in the first chapter, and maybe I should have. I don't know. It was so very much immersed in the culture that popular highschool students have. But it was gripping, and I wasn't feeling well, and I wanted to know if Sam got any less insufferable. And she does.

Oh, and the love interest! I actually liked him! That was cool. I think it was because he was obviously not the superior handsome boy that so many heroines fall in love with. He was sweet and a bit geeky. (And he wore a cool hat!)

Winter's Child

by Cameron Dokey

Grade: All right
Story: The Snow Queen.

Well, I got through this one. I liked the Winter Child, kind of. But...meh...

The Exiles

by Hilary McKay

Grade: All right
Story: Four sisters stay at their grandmothers and learn to do without reading.
Next books in the series: The Exiles at Home and The Exiles in Love.

Good, but a bit young for me. I'd like to read the sequels though, and it was amusing enough to get through. I loved Big Grandma.

Troll's Eye View

ed. by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Grade: All right

Some of these stories were really clever, but all in all, I would have liked a little more substance to this book.

"Wizard's Apprentice" was good.
"An Unwelcome Guest" was a clever twist on Rapunzel. I think it was one of my favourites simply for the twist.
"Faery Tales" was an interesting poem.
"Rags and Riches" was not my favourite. I guess partly because the fairy tale it's based on (The Goose Girl) has never been my favourite. Also I didn't quite get it.
"Up the Down Beanstalk" was clever and amusing. One of my favourites.
"The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces" was all right. Not exactly a "Troll's Eye View" though.
"The Boy Who Cried Wolf" was creepy and clever and I loved it.
"Troll" was good enough.
"Castle Othello" was ok. I didn't love it. I wonder how much of that rascally pope stuff was accurate? Plus--polygamy?
"'Skin" was good enough.
"A Delicate Architecture" was strange and clever. I liked it a lot.
"Molly" was ok. She sure made me annoyed with Molly. I guess that was the point, but I think she succeeded a little too well.
"Observing the Formalities" was disappointing only in that it was Neil Gaiman, so I was hoping for a strange and clever short story, instead of a poem.
"The Cinderella Game" was also creepy and clever. Another of my favourites.

In fact, now that I go through all of them, I realize that I liked it better than I thought. "The Cinderella Game" and "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" were both marvellously creepy. "A Delicate Architecture" and "An Unwelcome Guest" were both very clever. "Up the Down Beanstalk" and "A Wizard's Apprentice" were both  very good and amusing.

So that's 6 out of 12 stories. I guess it keeps it's label of "All right".

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex

by Eoin Colfer

Grade: All right
Story: Artemis has a psychological problem, but still has to stop an evil guy from getting out of jail so he can see his beloved wife again.

I loved Artemis's psychological problems. They were quite amusing. And although reviewers I'd read previously said that there was weird romance between Artemis and Holly, I didn't there was really. In fact, it was a lot weirder in the previous book. In this one, it was all his psychological problems that caused it.

The problem I did have with it is the rather boring side stories--the ones that didn't include Artemis. I skipped them. So I ended up not reading a lot of the book. However, I'll definitely still read the next book if/when it comes.

A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories

by Robin McKinley

Grade: All right

Not my favourite selection of Robin McKinley.

"The Healer": Good enough, I guess. Not much to say about this one.

"The Stagman": Perhaps my least favourite. In the end, the woman leaves her wife and children for a half-stag man.

"Touk's House": Didn't do anything particularly for me.

"Buttercups": My favourite. The image of the buttercups was cool, and I liked the unusual love story.

"A Knot in the Grain": Good enough. I didn't quite get what happened at the end. Probably because I wasn't really bothering to pay attention. However, it was good. I did like it. So I shouldn't be too crabby.

Mirrorscape

by Mike Wilks

Grade: All right
Story: Boy becomes apprentice artist in a strange world where you can travel into the paintings. He has two friends who go with him on a dangerous adventure.


It was certainly different and imaginative, and I believe well written. Maybe I would have liked it more if I were younger. Although some things I think would always have freaked me out somewhat, like the house that looked like a person, and the weird animal mixes. Certainly not my style of art, at any rate.

But I liked the positive portrayal of a priest! (The equivalent of a Catholic one too, I think. Although this is a different world.)

The Changeover

by Margaret Mahy

Grade: All right

I was hoping it would be better. These two characters were one of the favourite romantic couples of someone who also loved Eugenides and Attolia, Kitty and Freddy, and Sophie and Howl. So I did have hopes. And it wasn't only because the tension of not knowing wasn't there either. Partly it was the sexy aspect of it.
I did like Sorry's name, though, and his stuttering. And it was definitely well written. I easily got through it despite my not great liking for the central romance.

The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak

Grade: All right

SPOILERS

Way too stylized for my personal taste. And of course it was depressing. But not in the good way. I did feel slightly like crying when Rudy died. But that was the only part that was really emotional for me.

And did I mention the stylized part? I mean, what the heck is "breakfast-coloured" sky??? I guess I'm not deep enough to appreciate it. Although, I think not, because I like unusual metaphors. It just seems like he's doing them for the sake of having lots of weird metaphors.

And children SO do not use metaphors like he wrote them to.

Tam Lin

by Pamela Dean

Grade: All right

There was a lot of talk about contraception and stuff. Quite feminist. And the last eighth of the book was quite drastically different than all the rest.

But the literature stuff! Was awesome! E. Nesbit, Madeleine L'Engle, Tommy and Tuppence, "That Hideous Strength", "There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.", rephrased Chesterton quote...
I love it.
Plus there's all the Greek stuff and Keats and poetic stuff I haven't studied enough to be familiar with.

So it could be "To Own", so that when I learn about things, I can read this book again and understand more. Plus it's a good Shakespeare resource.
But ONLY for those reasons.

Over Sea, Under Stone

by Susan Cooper

Grade: All right

It was good, but I think it would have been better if I'd read it when I was younger. The children--Simon, Jane, and Barnabas--were very much English school children of that time period. Like the Pevensies.
Anyway, I want to start on the next book, The Dark is Rising, because that seems to be the important one, and so is maybe more interesting.