Llew's Reviews

Preparing For Christmas Season In The Harried Book World: Book #3

“What a wonderfully complicated and rich novel! Set in past and present Salem Massachusetts, the story takes off immediately, interspersing splendid detail about the history of lace makers as well as the famous witch trials, with the modern story of a family’s intricate history and the manifestations for the present generation. The novel is packed with interesting characters (including modern witches) and many plot lines which come together magnificently at the conclusion. A truly amazing and riveting read.” — Karen Frank in Indie Bound review

I read the ARC of this one a couple months ago and quite liked it. I didn’t love it, but it was interesting story that I found myself unable to stop in the middle of. It (and especially the ending) reminded me of Anita Shreve’s stories - which isn’t a bad thing.

I was pleased to see this title made it into our regional holiday catalog as I think it will be a fun book to hand sell.

In my regular blog, I detailed how due to Stephenie Meyer and “Twilight” series is gracing the top of all the best seller lists, I had bought myself a dream journal.

On her website she tells how she came up with the plot for the story from an intense dream she had one night. In fact, chapter 13 of her first book is basically a transcript of that dream. I’m fairly sure I’m among a large segment of the population who forgets their dreams within moments of waking up. So, what best sellers have I been missing out on? I mean SERIOUSLY. Coming up with story ideas is my biggest problem. Do you realize how hard it is to write without having a plot or an original story idea? I know, I know - Nicholas Sparks makes it look easy but still.

So I went and bought myself a dream journal. When I told Ben about it, he thought I mean like a “goal” journal where I would write down life ambitions and such. He has made fun of me for it so much. In fact, now if I dare to complain or ask for a favor he just replies, “Why don’t you go tell that to your Dream Journal.”

Now, the Host was not based off of a dream. It was based off of a story Meyer was telling herself to keep herself entertained on a long road trip while driving through Arizona to Salt Lake City. I’ve made that trip, but I didn’t tell stories to myself to keep myself awake. Of course, I was driving in the summer in a car that didn’t have air conditioning so any stores I would have told myself would take place in Antarctica. “Penguins, lovely.”

And unlike the dream journal, I don’t think I’m going to start taking long road trips in the desert just so I can try to come up with a good story too. This one was good. I don’t think that it has as compelling characters as Twilight (which has caused a lot of the adults to overlook some of the writing), but if you like Meyer’s other books and you’re willing to make it through the first several chapters (which are a real snoozefest) it gets pretty good. Halfway through I found myself caught up enough in the characters that I had trouble stopping until I was finished. I’m not saying it’s classic literature or that Meyer’s pen is obviously guided by angels. But it made me happy reading it.

I do love Stephenie Meyer - not just as an author but as a friend. She’s really awesome and has always been incredibly fantastic to her fans. I’ve had so many teenage girls who have written her and been astounded when she wrote back. She can’t keep up with that now, but she has always been so kind to all her fans. That’s what makes me love an author - almost as much as what and how they write. Because I love my customers and so it makes me happy when an author loves them too. Thus, I will always defend her and her books - sparkling vampires or not.

Also, if you’re still reading this - I’m having a Breaking Dawn midnight release party and it’s going to be seriously awesome. You should totally come.

Versus

Shortly after I read Marr’s first book a friend commented about what a shame it was that one was getting all the shelf space in large bookstores and so lauded when Cassandra Clare’s City of Ashes series was being overlooked. My first chapter into Clare’s work and I immediately agreed with my friend. It’s a fantastic story with compelling characters who are funny (so funny at times) and without the forced “I’m cool! Teenagers please love me!” feel that Marr (and Holly Black’s) books give off.

However, by the very end I was beginning to waver because of a huge plot turn (that I can’t even allude to without spoiling it) which is also explored more in the second book. And let me tell you it’s a big EW factor. It actually left me feeling pretty disgusted by the end of the first book, but since I was able to immediately read the second (the third hasn’t been published yet) those feelings were assuaged slightly. I think it’s going to turn out be a big hoax but still EW.

But even with the Ew factor, Clare’s books are still much better. Victory is to Clare - Knockout!

Due to being covered in hives, I’ve been trying every which way to escape from real life. So far my best bet has been urban fantasy in the young adult section.

Tithe = OK

Wicked Lovely = Pretty good!

Vampire Kisses series (I read the first three out of the four) = SO BAD. So bad it’s not even good!

I liked Sedia so much that I’ve ordered two other titles by her but they haven’t come in yet. I also have a couple of Charles De Lint titles on order as well. I’m pacing as I wait and welcome any suggestions for light reading in that genre. It doesn’t necessarily have to be young adult oriented.

I don’t think I blogged about Dave Ramsey’s ‘Total Money Makeover’. Perhaps, I did. It certainly seems to be many people’s personal finance bible and contains good advice - especially for those mired in debt. However, it made me twitchy. I had all these questions and felt slightly uncomfortable with some of Ramsey’s instructions so I turned to this book which seems more complete in it’s information. It’s less of an personal instruction to finance and more informational, although it certainly offers some advice. I found it incredibly helpful and really liked it. I’ve already made a couple of changes that should have been obvious to me that I hadn’t thought of (example: I switched the emergency fund to a high interest savings account.)

Plus it is a really good overview of things I always hear about but I don’t know exactly what they are. You know annuities and whatnots. I keep trying to get Ben to read this one too because I think it has a lot of information that *all* adults should know — whether they’re ready to implement them or not.

This was recommended to me as the Russian version of Neil Gaiman’s “Neverwhere”. In fact, it even has a quote by Gaiman on the cover of the book saying the same thing. The quote makes Neil seem a little cocky.

“A lovely, disconcerting book that does for Moscow what I hope my own Neverwhere may have done to London.”

While I was a little meh about Neverwhere, I really enjoyed this book. In fact, I’ve been thinking that it’s only fantasy on a young adult level that I like, but I think it’s really this sub-genre known as Urban Fantasy that tickles my fantasy. I can relate and get into that kind of story more so than a full out unbelievable fantasy land. Although with all of the Russian fairy and folktale characters which I was completely unfamiliar with, it might as well been an unbelievable fantasy land for me.

I quite liked the characters, the writing, and the storyline in this one. The ending WAS disconcerting and unhappy which sealed the deal for me.

After enjoying “Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac” so much I decided to look into Zevin’s first book, “Elsewhere” which is also a young adult title. The twist to this one is the main character is dead and has gone onto the afterlife which is known as Elsewhere. In Elsewhere, people age backwards from the age they died at until they become babies again. At that point, they’re reborn on Earth.

Although the storyline was a lot more unusual than Memoirs, it was just engaging. I really liked this one as well - maybe even moreso than Elsewhere. It’s light reading but at the same time not complete fluff.

Although this was Rash’s first novel, it’s the last of his novels that I’ve gotten around to reading which was stupid of me considering it is by far his best work. It’s like a vintage crime novel taking place in Jocasse (which is now a man made lake). In fact, it ends with the valley being flooded to make the lake, covering up the good and the bad. Beautiful story and I adored it.

It made me even more excited for his novel, Serena, coming out in September. Oh! And if you can ever make it out to one of his readings I highly suggest it. He’s quite entertaining and lyrical just in conversation.

On a recent hike along the trails of Carl Sandburg’s old house in western North Carolina, I brought along a guide book. Under “suggested readings” “Zoro’s Fields” was listed along with a biography on Sandburg. Since I wasn’t familiar with this title, I decided to check it out.

It’s the story of how author decided to move back to WNC when he was 30 and live in a cabin (that didn’t have electricity or plumbing) to eek out a living from the land. He befriends a couple of older gentleman who impart their wisdom when it comes to working the land in exchange for help with some of the more laborious chores. Less than a page is dedicated to Crowe’s relationship with the Carl Sandburg homestead - which is ten miles from his cabin and where on days the farm is closed to the public he clears out the goat barn to use the manure for his fields. It’s an Appalachian Walden’s Pond only not nearly as well written.

Each chapter ends with one of his poems. Evidently, his poetry has been published in various magazine but I don’t know why. Most of it is wretched wretched stuff. And while the book is thought provoking in it’s themes of being self sufficient and discovering yourself through nature, it’s not well written enough to be inspiring or a book for the ages. Plus on the “About The Author” page at the end of the book it describes Crowe as a “baby beat” of the 1970s San Francisco renaissance. Baby Beat? That makes me throw up a little in my mouth. I mean, seriously.

Talk about the wrong book to give a couple of Newlyweds. Ouch!

This was the first book I’ve read by McEwan and in reality was just something to do until I could get my hands on “Atonement” which I had left at work. It’s a quite short story that I couldn’t really relate too. Well told, sad - but just a little off. Didn’t do much for me one way or another. I can see liking some of his other work though.