Llew's Reviews

I’m behind the times on this one, but it works in my favor since it means the second and third sequel to it are already out so worry about forgetting details as I wait for the sequels to come out. The reason I hadn’t picked it up before is a friend had read it and scrunched her nose at it. I don’t know if I would have liked it as much as I did if I had not gone into reading thinking that I might hate it. Turns out it was a nice light (but not happy) read. It was just what I was in the mood for and I love when that happens.

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.

Spooks, boggarts, and witches - oh my!

This is the fourth in the Last Apprentice series which is a middle school level fantasy/horror series. I can’t handle scary things so a fifth grade horror book is about as much as I can handle. This is a good series that I’ve been fond of suggestion to that age of readers.

With this new addition, I’m a little weary to recommend it because it deals a lot with believing in God. I think it’s good for children this age, but I don’t think every child’s parents would agree with me.

February is my month for Science Fiction and Fantasy novels. Of course, I started this book MONTHS ago and just finished slogging my way through it. It wasn’t that it was bad - because I kind of enjoyed it. It made me appreciate his childrens book (UnLunDun) more since at least that story didn’t involve any brain eating moth monsters. However, it was just a very slow read for me. All that chaos theory and weird species and it was too much. I’ve already bought his other two so I’m going to try them as well - especially since I’ve heard the next one (Scar) is the best. But, to be honest, I’m not really excited about it. And books that don’t excite me - make me sad.

Obviously, I had to read these books before I saw the movie. To be honest, they’re kind of annoying. I realize they’re children books but each individual book is so insignificant it’s hardly worth it. The entire series counts for one book - even for a middle school reader. I mean seriously.

Of course, I read them so I could see the movie and now I’ve heard nothing but poor reviews for the film so I shall wait until it comes out on dvd. Alas, alack!

Well, if I’m going to be hauling my aging lazy bum to the bookstore to host a midnight party for a book I SUPPOSE I should have read the two prior ones in the series. So, I did. And now I’m wishing I would have waited to do so because now I have until September before Brisingr is released. Oh snap!

I confess that I really thought reading these were going to be a chore. I mean it was written by a 15 year old homeschooled boy. I don’t like talking to teenage boys - why would I want to read anything written by one? Plus, I saw the movie. That horrible terrible no good wretched movie - ugh. To my surprise, I quite liked the books. I might have liked them more than I would have otherwise because I was expecting them to be SO bad. But they were quite fun to read.  I still wish I hadn’t had to break my self imposed rule about not starting a series unless all the books in it are already out, but sometimes work is work.

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.