9-20-09 Just Another Judgment Day by Simon R. Green – Fiction

5 – I love the Nightside.  It has quirky characters, dripping sarcasm, dripping blood, gods and heroes and demons all in one place.  In this installment of the series, John Taylor matches wits and weapons with the Walking Man, God’s wrath in human form.  The Walking Man has come to the Nightside to punish the sinners and everyone in the Nightside is guilty of something.  So everyone is in a bit of a panic.  John Taylor picks up another working partner by the name of Chandra Singh, a monster hunter and khalsa, a holy warrior, from India.  John Taylor’s kinda like Dr. Who with picking up new working partners for each adventure.  Of course he still has Suzie Shooter as his permanent partner but each new character brings forth even more of the Nightside for the reader’s enjoyment.  I’m eagerly awaiting my next fix.

9-20-09 The Siege of Macindaw by John Flanagan – Fiction

4 – A great continuation of the Ranger’s Apprentice series, The Siege of Macindaw reunites Will and Horace as they attempt to rescue their friend Alyss from Castle Macindaw and discover a plot against the kingdom in the process.  Flanagan has progressed his characters through the books so now Will and his friends are in their early twenties but his writing is still accessible to the young reader his books are for.  Even for adults, this is a very enjoyable series with wonderfully written characters and well written intrigue and battle strategy.

Sorry I’ve been gone so long

I’ve been a little depressed lately and when that happens I have no desire to read anything new and prefer the comfort of well enjoyed and familiar books.  So in the time I’ve been gone I’ve re-read the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, the House of Night series (which has a new installment coming out in October – Yay!) by P.C. and Kristin Cast, the Ranger’s Apprentice series (including the new installment which will have a review in my next post) by John Flanagan, and the Freedom series by Anne McCaffrey.  I am doing a little better now but I think I’m going to be re-reading the Twilight series and The Host by Stephenie Meyer, the Rachel Morgan series by Kim Harrison, and the Twelve Houses series by Sharon Shinn next.  Since I’ve read and reviewed these all prior I’m not going to be writing new posts on them but I do recommend all of these series to everyone since I obviously find them very enjoyable.  I have read 2 new books and their reviews follow this.  But I just wanted to let you know that I haven’t forgotten you readers and I absolutely have not stopped reading.  I’m sure that I will soon be back up to speed with new (at least to me) books and will be writing back at my usual speed of two to four books a week again.  In the meantime, check my prior posts for book ideas or revisit some of your favorite books.

8-4-09 Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett – Fiction

3 – This book was recommended to me by another Christopher Moore fan.  It does have some of the snarky absurdity of Moore’s books (how do you lose the Antichrist?) but was a little more dry and drawn out than I would like.  The Antichrist was switched at birth with the wrong baby and the dark angel responsible for his protection is in a world of shit for losing him.  He joins forces with an angel of light, who is a rabid bibliophile, and they enlist the assistance of a witch hunter to stop the Apocalypse because neither of them really want to start over as they do love their luxuries.  Definitely absurd and pretty humorous as well.

7-26-09 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne – Fiction

5 – I’d seen the movie and decided to read the book especially since it seems to turn up on a lot of school reading lists.  The book is completely written through a child’s eyes, no separate explanations to clarify anything he sees.  But as an adult familiar with the history of the time and subtle clues of behavior, so much more is clear to the reader making Bruno’s innocence much clearer and more painful.  His doomed friendship with Shmuel, a boy in the concentration camp behind Bruno’s home, is a joyous example of childhood innocence which makes the end of the story so much worse.  This is a book that will stick with the reader far beyond its end.