Books Read in 2013

For the past few years (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009) I've had a goal to read and review a bunch of books over the course of each year.

My goal has been to average a book per week and end up with 50 books read and reviewed at the end of the year. If I included the short grade school or picture books that I sometimes read with my kids (or even just on my own for fun), I'd easily hit the 50 mark...but I usually just count the books that I actually review here on my blog. I've come a bit short of 50 each year. And yet, I don't consider it a failure in the least. The fact that I feel like I continue to get more and more wonderful books read each year tells me that the goal is a success.

So I'm modifying the goal for 2013. I'm still going to have a number to shoot for but the main goal is that I get through some of the many many books waiting on my bookshelves to be read (my "to be read" pile is huge). My goal will be to read and review at least as many books as I did in 2012...which means at least 45 books. But my goal also expands to include a few more aspects: 1) Read at least 8 "classic" novels, 2) Read more books in genres I don't normally read (such as mystery, romance, poetry).

If you have any suggestions for books to read or ways I can make my reading goal more exciting, please let me know.

And now, without further ado, here's the list of books I've read so far in 2013:
(I will be updating this post each time a new book is read/reviewed)

1. The Madman's Daughter
2. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
3. Ender's Game
4. Beastly
5. The Measure of the Magic
6. Head Games (Locke & Key: Volume 2)
7. Seventh Son: Tales of Alvin Maker (Book 1)
8. Dead Men Kill
9. Mom Rules
10. NOS4A2 (Did Not Finish)
11. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car
12. The Colossus Rises - Seven Wonders Book 1
13. The Magic Circle: A Novel
14. Cleopatra's Moon
15. How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare
16. Passion Blue
17. The House of the Seven Gables
18. Utopia
19. The Man Who Knew Too Much
20. Power Play (Kingdom Keepers Book IV)
21. The Bone Season
22. A Study in Silks
23. The Call of the Wild
24. Asylum
25. The Prince and the Pauper
26. The Eye of Minds
27. Don Quixote
28. The Girl with a Clock for a Heart
29. Poe
30. Death Cloud
31. A Study in Scarlet
32. The Sign of Four
33. 
    

And for additional reference, here's a link to my "to be read" list over at Goodreads. This list includes purchased books on my bookshelves (but not read) as well as tons of books that have been recommended to me over the years. As you can see, the list is huge...and never really shrinks since there are always new recommendations coming in. So tell me...what good books have you read lately that I should add to my list? Any that I "MUST" get to ~immediately? :-)

Book Review - The Sign of Four

Similar to the first full length Holmes novel, The Sign of Four lets us get to know more about Sherlock Holmes through the unraveling of an intricate case. It gives a greater glimpse into Holmes’ drug habit and his pompous and abrasive personality. This time, Holmes and Watson are presented with a mystery at least ten years in the making when a young woman approaches Holmes with a story of her father who vanished ten years ago and her subsequent receipt of precious jewels and now an invitation to meet someone who promises to shed light on the mystery.

Many times through the story, Holmes makes it a point to say that he has a number of theories but doesn’t want to expound on any of them until he has the appropriate facts. Contrary to Holmes’ abundance of theories, the reader walks alongside Watson in confusion as more and more diverse elements pile up without having any clear indication as to their relationship to one another or to the central case. What starts off as the hope of solving a decade old disappearance turns into a case of murder and grand larceny as the crew stumbles upon a corpse and a missing treasure.

As the case grows more intricate Holmes annoyingly goes “off stage” a few times to work on some of his own theories. I found these moments annoying because Watson remains in Baker Street waiting for Holmes and as a result we only get a few sentences of explanation as to these elements of Holmes’ adventures or investigations. Some of these moments involve moments of disguise and subterfuge. It’s entirely possible, based on some of the other elements in this book and the previous novel, Study in Scarlet, that these scenes were deemed to be too dull for inclusion and if that is the case then I applaud Conan Doyle for leaving them out. Still, part of me wanted to see more of Holmes in action rather than Holmes in narrative.

As the mystery wraps up and we reach the conclusion, we once again receive a lengthy narrative retelling a story that happened decades prior. I found this story a bit more interesting to read than the story told at the end of Study in Scarlet, but I was still a little bored by the lengthy narrative. Much of the action and intrigue of the story was boiled down to its most basic elements or left out entirely as the narrator simply presented the base facts from memory.

The overall concept of this particular mystery was fairly intriguing and I liked the way that it played out. I found myself liking this novel slightly better than the first Holmes story but still felt a little underwhelmed as to the overall style and structure. The nature of his intelligent deductions is fun and while his character is abrasive, I enjoy getting to know more about Holmes. A solid sequel.


3 out of 5 stars



View all of my reviews on Goodreads.com

Book Review - A Study in Scarlet

As the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet does a good job of introducing new readers to the characters of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. In the 21st century, it’s hard to escape some general knowledge of Holmes so a lot of what is described won’t come as much of a surprise or a revelation to new Holmes readers.

What may come as a bit of a shock is the slow pace of the story and the immense amount of exposition and in-depth description of situations and actions. Many of the descriptive segments are elegant and vibrant and just a lot of fun to take in. Other sections felt rather wordy and a drudgery to work through. In particular I found the distanced narrative of life in 1840s Western United States to be very dry and boring in spite of some interesting events presented during the narrative.

I enjoy having Watson as the narrator and like the way he presents the case after the fact but in such a way that it keeps the mystery hidden until the point at which it was revealed to him. That said I felt like this particular mystery (as is potentially likely in many Holmes stories) suffers from not providing the readers with enough palpable clues to actually solve the mystery on par with the hero. When Holmes presents his revelations and conclusions he is kind enough to reveal from whence he made his deduction. However it is impossible for the reader to make the same conclusions because frankly we don’t have the same information at our fingertips. This is partly because Watson is our narrator and he doesn’t have the same eye for observation as does Holmes (“he observes but doesn’t truly see”).

Honestly though the main reason for the reader being kept in the dark is that it would be even more tedious to write a descriptive mystery where the reader has all of the same information made evident to Holmes through his observation. It’s one thing to have Holmes explain how he saw a dozen clues on the scene and used them to analyze a solution. It’s another thing to have the author describe those dozen clues in such a way that they aren’t immediately obvious clues but they are still clues that the reader could use to arrive at the conclusion. In order to adequately do so, the author would have to also provide dozens of “red herring” elements in describing the scene. Beyond presenting very detailed analysis of the depth of the scrapes in the wall to make the word “Rache” or detailed description of pocket contents, he would also have to present elements about the insignificant elements observed. So if I had to choose between being kept in the dark and having all clues presented to me, I would certainly opt for the method implemented. My only hope is that subsequent novels keep even further away from the extremely dry narrative descriptions that bear no relevance on the story at hand.

Overall I found the story engaging and I was definitely impressed by Holmes’ methods. His personality is abrasive and flippantly derisive and so Watson provides a good foil for the adventure and also acts to temper Holmes a bit in the presentation of the narrative. Not a bad start to the Holmes collection.


3 out of 5 stars



View all of my reviews on Goodreads.com

Book Review - Death Cloud

It’s the ultimate storm of literary fun. With the recent reinvigorated love of Sherlock Holmes and the huge resurgence of teen and YA fiction it’s a logical step to see a “Young Sherlock Holmes” series on the market. Death Cloud introduces us to Sherlock Holmes as the teenage student of a boarding school. It’s time for summer break but due to the war and other elements, Sherlock is being sent to live with his aunt and uncle rather than returning home or moving to London with his older brother Mycroft. Sherlock is a bit dismayed at the prospect of living in a provincial town with unknown relatives but at Mycroft’s advice he decides to make the best of the situation.

As we learn about Sherlock we find that his powers of deduction are just as present as ever but they are not yet fully developed or focused. While at school, he had used his deductive skills as a sort of parlor trick or way to influence others. He’d worked out some insignificant mysteries for other students but hadn’t really yet thought of himself as a detective of any sort.

Shortly after his arrival in Farnham to live with his relatives, a few things happen. Sherlock makes friends with a rover orphan named Matty. Sherlock sees a strange cloud that seems to move with a mind of its own out of a window and over the rooftops. He then finds that the window from which the strange cloud appeared is the window of a room in which a man was mysteriously found dead. Sherlock’s curiosity takes over and he sets off to try and find the answers.

As the story progresses it becomes very clear that Sherlock does not yet have the wealth and breadth of knowledge that are characteristic of his adult self. He is ignorant about many things that we would think as common knowledge to the Holmes we all know. For example he knows very little about geography, botany or biology. He has some interests in chemistry but is in no way adept. Essentially this book starts us off with a near “clean slate” version of Sherlock Holmes. He is very capable of connecting the dots and seeing things that others do not see, but he does not yet have the overarching knowledge yet to determine the things that are important or the dots that are to be connected.

Book Review - Poe

Even though the “back of the book” summary gives a fairly detailed overview, I still found myself a little surprised at what I got upon reading Poe. As mentioned in the synopsis, the book is centered around a twenty-something aspiring author named Dimitri. He works at a small town newspaper writing obituaries while hoping to eventually finish writing his epic novel (about how Rasputin was really a zombie). The book starts on Halloween one year after his parents’ mysterious/tragic deaths. Dimitri is given an odd last minute assignment to cover a midnight seance in a run down haunted house. He meets (and falls for) punk rocker Lisa as they wait for the seance to begin. The seance turns out to have a real touch with the supernatural and the next thing we know, Dimitri is dead…or presumed dead. He wakes up much later in the city morgue just before being presumably embalmed. From there things just go from bad to worse and life gets more and more strange for Dimitri. Bodies start turning up around town as a serial killer starts to strike. Dimitri finds himself haunted by a strange spirit he nicknames “Poe” (as in Edgar Allan). Lisa’s brother is revealed to be a crazed escapee from an insane asylum and just happens to practice dark magic and demon summoning. And on, and on.

The story had enough twists, turns and surprises to continue being compelling in spite of being very convoluted and confusing at times. The author inundates the reader with a ton of details one right after another. Initially many of these details feel unrelated and irrelevant but then later turn out to be coincidentally tied into either the central plot or some new side plot. Like an intricate weaving, we are presented thread after thread in such a way that what starts out as a messy tangle of threads and colors eventually becomes a detailed tapestry. At times I did feel the constant circling and twisting of details to be tedious but I was still intrigued by the overall story and so I persevered even through the dry and obtuse moments.

I also enjoyed the multiple different stories being laid out simultaneously. Over the days/weeks/months that Dimitri works through the mystery right in front of him, he does some investigative research in the newspaper archives and elsewhere. As he does, he discovers some interesting history about the haunted house and the community. Eventually he starts having dream visions triggered by his ghost hostess Poe in which he relives a variety of the historical moments. As time goes on we also start to learn some of the historical stories of Dimitri’s own past…his interaction with his parents and even some of their history. These additional stories were interesting to explore and I enjoyed the way they were worked into the overall plot.

Book Review - The Girl with a Clock for a Heart

The Girl with a Clock for a Heart is described as an “electrifying tale of romantic noir.” The book is the story of a man named George Foss and his interactions with a mysterious woman who seems to always be in the middle of some intense trouble. George first met Liana in college and had an intense relationship with her for one semester after which she completely disappeared from his life. Even now, two decades later, he still can’t get her out of his mind and is constantly watching for her and comparing other women to her. When she finally shows back up in his life and asks for his help, the logical part of him knows she is dangerous and warns him to run away. But George has built up a nostalgic fantasy in his mind and finds he cannot say no to Liana even with all of the alarms ringing in his face.

The book has three main narrative timelines. We have the story of when George and Liana meet in college and how their relationship progressed and eventually ended with her vanishing without a trace but with indication of her involvement in some crime. We have the present-day story of Liana walking back into George’s life with a random meeting at his local bar followed by a string of dangerous intrigue and adventure. And we have the intermediate story told in flashbacks and flat dialog telling the story of what each of them has been doing over the past twenty years.

I really enjoyed the narrative style of this book. The way the story is laid out sets for a pair of mysterious thrillers to be solved. First there’s the case of Liana’s disappearance twenty years ago and whatever strange crime she may or may not have been involved with back then. Second we have the thrilling adventures that Liana and George are working through in the present day. Because we have these two stories, the author is able to bounce us back and forth between them and keep them both pacing along nicely while keeping the answers just out of reach. The college mystery is less a suspenseful thriller than a methodical mystery to be solved. The “modern day” mystery is definitely a suspenseful thriller with strange and interesting characters and motives driving George deeper and deeper into danger.

As I read, I was often distracted/annoyed at the use of vulgarity…primarily the F-bomb. I know that I’m somewhat in the minority as a person who doesn’t swear and doesn’t approve of swearing. I fully acknowledge that some people swear profusely and I’ve been briefly around people who can’t seem to communicate without vulgarity. I also acknowledge that in some of the intense situations that George finds himself in, it is likely that a person like that would curse. I tried to overlook it and just skip by it, but even in fairly normal, low intensity conversations the F-bomb was dropped again and again and just felt extraneous and unnecessary as it didn’t (to me at least) make the characters or situations any more believable or intense in any way.

The story had its share of violence and murders and I was pleased that they were not overly graphic in the depiction. I also liked that even though this was presented as a thriller and our protagonist was in the center of the action much of the time, the author kept us distanced enough to pose a good mystery as to what was going on.

Book Review - Don Quixote

Often called the most influential work of Spanish literature, Don Quixote is another classic novel that I've always meant to read but never made the time. Nearly two decades ago while living in a Spanish speaking country, I picked up a Spanish copy of Don Quixote with the plan to read the book as a way to reinforce my language studies. At that time I only made it through about 30 pages. Interestingly, I felt like I had read a sizable portion of the overall book. The copy I had purchased was only about 130 pages so I figured I'd read about one-fourth and promised myself that I'd eventually go back and finish. What I didn't know was that the Spanish copy I had purchased had been very significantly abridged and summarized and was not a true representation of the overall heft of this story. I recently picked up an English copy and found it weighing in at just under 1000 pages of text with another 50 or so pages of end notes and about 20 "roman numeral" pages of introduction prior to the story. I was shocked and at that point decided that I'd do better to tackle the book in English rather than returning to the Spanish knowing that it would take me at least double or triple the effort to read that many pages in Spanish given the slightly antiquated language and abundance of unfamiliar terminology.

So I dove headlong into reading Don Quixote. I found out that the English volume contained two "Parts." Evidently the first part was published by Cervantes in 1605 and the second part was published as a sequel 10 years later in 1615. Apparently about 8 or 9 years after the successful publication of the book, an unidentified author wrote and released an unapproved sequel to the story. This anonymous author directly insulted Cervantes in the text and blatantly modified the character, behavior and motivations of the central characters of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. It's unclear exactly when Cervantes started writing his official sequel but he was definitely spurred on by this derogatory piece of literature defaming his own story. In the official "Part 2" of Don Quixote we have some very over-the-top meta fiction in which all of the characters are familiar with the first official book as well as the spurious unauthorized sequel. There are numerous sequences of dialog between characters where they discuss the unauthorized book and condemn it as slanderous drivel. Don Quixote is especially offended and wants to do all he can to make the world know of the false nature of this second book and the true nature of himself and his adventures.

As is likely the case of most readers approaching Don Quixote, I didn't know a lot of the details of the overall story. Naturally I'd heard about the "tilting at windmills" scene through countless allusions elsewhere. And I've long been a fan of the musical "Man of La Mancha" and so I knew some general story aspects from that as well. Certainly not enough to know the entire 1000 page story but I knew that Don Quixote was a man who read a lot of fantastic literature about knights and chivalry and somehow got it into his head that not only were all the stories real but that he was called by divine right to be one of these knights and to ride into the world righting wrongs and fighting for justice. He has sworn his heart to the lovely Dulcinea, also a figment of his troubled mind…a conglomeration of a real woman he knows and a fantasy maiden he idealizes. He takes his friend and neighbor Sancho Panza as squire and the two of them set out into the world looking like the most pathetic knight and squire you can imagine.

Book Review - The Eye of Minds

I had a lot of fun with Dashner's Maze Runner series so I've kept an eye out for new projects from him. I was intrigued by the premise between The Eye of Minds (even if the title left me a little confused). To some degree the story shares commonality with quite a few books and movies that have come out over the years. While it leverages a lot of similar ideas in terms of the way the technology works the book still takes the plot and the mechanics in a fresh and fun new direction.

The high level plot puts us in a future where technology has advanced to the point of having a hyper-real virtual reality game called VirtNet. The VirtNet involves gamers lying down in a technologically advanced sort of sensory deprivation box (lovingly called the "coffin" by gamers). Once inside the box, the gamers are locked away from the real world and are quite literally plugged into the VirtNet via a series of tubes and wires. The technology directly plugs into the gamer's mind and provides very realistic sensations to the point of literally triggering muscle response. It accounts for necessary bodily functions, provides a certain degree of nutrition and support but also allows the gamer to physically experience the sensation of many of the virtual events they experience. In other words, the gamer will feel pain. The only limitation is that within the VirtNet if the gamer "dies", they respawn in the system and their body does not die.

As the book opens and we fall into the plot, we learn that a cyberterrorist named Kaine is hacking his way through the VirtNet to capture and manipulate gamers and has found a way to remove the failsafes and cause serious real world physical damage to players ranging from severe brain damage to actual death. The hero of our story is a teenage gamer named Michael. Michael and his three gamer friends are expert gamers and are also adept at hacking through the code of the game to manipulate elements within VirtNet to their advantage such as providing themselves with extra armor or weapons during gameplay and other such cheats. Michael and his friends are recruited by a covert agency to hack their way through the VirtNet and track down the cyberterrorist.

Book Review - The Prince and the Pauper

The Prince and the Pauper is one of those books that part of me always thought I had read because I had seen so many movie adaptations of the book. Some were intended as direct adaptations and others took some significant leeway but they all sort of had a similar vibe. I've always enjoyed Mark Twain but in recent years I've re-realized that I haven't read as many of his novels as I feel I should have. So with that background, I sat down with Prince and the Pauper.

In case there are any people unfamiliar with the story, the basic idea is that we are in ~1600s London and there is a young prince who happens to meet a pauper who has an uncanny twin-like resemblance to the prince. Through some unintended circumstances, the prince ends up kicked out of his own castle while the pauper is set up as the prince in his place. Each boy tries to acclimate to his new surroundings and deal with the extreme change in social class. Further complications arise when the King dies and it is announced that the prince is to be crowned King of England.

The first thing that struck me with this book was the style. Twain has always been one who is noted for his rhetoric and his use of dialect and style in such a way as to portray the era and culture he is trying to represent. As such, he writes this book with a somewhat stilted and formal narration filled with "thy"s and "thou"s and "wherefore"s. I had no problem with the language, I just wasn't expecting it. Whether or not it actually added to the tone and nature of the book, I'm not quite sure. I don't think it painted the scene quite as much as do the dialog of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer but I was still impressed with his use of vocabulary and style to help convey a certain time period.

I also naturally discovered quick differences between the book and the various movie versions. In most of the movie adaptations I've seen, the Prince and Pauper decide to switch places as a sort of game and they are both excited at the idea of swapping roles. In the book, the prince notices their similar appearance and suggests they exchange clothes to see just how similar they might look. The concept of actually exchanging roles never really entered into the discussion and each boy is in fact quite frightened and upset when the exchange occurs.

Not being an avid historian, I can't fully speak to Twain's portrayal either of royalty or poverty of the era, but I did feel both a disgust and a compassion upon the poverty stricken of 16th century London. The squalor they were forced to live in was truly unspeakable. What struck me as interesting was the way Twain presented the reality of the situation. Even though the lifestyle was miserable and unhappy, the people had a sense of acceptance and made the best they could out of bad situations. As the prince tried to fit in and adapt to his new circumstances, each time he complained or worried about the filth and poverty he was chided by those around him and they seemed to be accepting and perhaps even unconsciously ignorant of their plight. It's an interesting social idea and seems to push the idea that those who haven't ever known better never really aspire to better or those who see no opportunity for social mobility are content to stay where they are, no matter how awful. I personally think that mindset may be somewhat true but I think more likely is that those living in poverty were frankly just too exhausted and overwhelmed with trying to survive that they seldom had energy to think about was to escape their situation, let alone to devise a method to climb the social ladder.

Book Review - Asylum

After some bad bouts in "adult" horror novels, I was intrigued to jump into this YA suspense/thriller. Asylum is set in a mental-hospital-turned-college. It is summer and instead of being filled with college students, the asylum/college is being used as a summer program for gifted high school students. As promised by the synopsis and the creepy art scattered through the book, a suspenseful ghost story thriller ensues. The book was also touted as a "photo experience" with a number of "vintage" photographs and images from the asylum to increase the creepiness factor. The concept really drew me in and I was excited to read this.

The first few chapters went pretty smoothly. The writing definitely felt like it was aimed for younger readers, potentially even middle graders, in spite of the heavier/scarier topics promised to come. I quickly decided it wasn't a book for terribly young readers when the teenage characters started swearing with moderate frequency. I acknowledge that teenagers do swear and many of them do so awkwardly as they experiment with it almost as a form of rebellion, but I'm not going to pass a book to a youngster if it's got swearing. Just my personal taste.

Aside from their language, the characters seemed interesting at first. The main character is a boy named Dan. He's smart (a requirement for this school program) and a bit of a loner. He also has some undisclosed psychological problems for which he seems to have a therapist on speed dial. This doctor is referenced numerous times but never called. On arriving at the school Dan meets his roommate for the summer, a boy named Felix. Felix is also smart and definitely socially awkward. Dan immediately feels a bit put off by Felix and his semi-neurotic tendencies. Frankly I felt like Dan's dislike came on a little too sharply especially considering they were going to be rooming together and also because Felix's actions may have been a bit odd and off-putting but they certainly weren't offensive. Still, Dan decides to avoid Felix and instead searches out new friends. He meets an artsy girl named Abby and immediately falls in crush with her. He's quickly jealous of any other guys talking with her, even Jordan the gay math genius.

Book Review - The Call of the Wild

I vaguely remember reading The Call of the Wild while I was in elementary school. I remembered it being a story about a sled dog in the cold wilderness of Alaska. Beyond that, I had forgotten nearly all of the plot and most of the characters and so it was with fairly fresh eyes that I reproached this book.

The first thing I noticed that the book was told from a close 3rd person view of the DOG's perspective. I'm sure this point of view is one of the characteristics that made this book initially interesting to critics and educators. Fortunately there is a lot more to the book than a novel or quirky idea of telling the story from a dog's point of view. The perspective change didn't come off as cheesy or manipulative. Rather the narrative choice allowed us to see the story in a new mindset and brush away stereotypical thoughts and ideas. By stripping away our human perspective it leaves us open to seeing ideas and principles in a new light.

Even though we are tied very closely to the dog Buck and his cohorts, the story doesn't become an animated cartoon or other scenario where the animals are humanized and given thoughts or speech. This choice was surprising but as I thought about it I found myself really appreciating the fact that even though the story is being told "through" Buck, we don't find Buck as fully anthropomorphized as you might see in other stories. While we read some of his general thoughts we don't "hear" him thinking or speaking in a human sense. I really liked this distinction as it keeps his animal self a bit more distance and less invaded by human traits seen in something like Animal Farm or other animal fiction tales. Still I can see the argument that we really can't know what an animal is thinking or feeling and so it is still certain that London has placed some human thoughts and motivations onto Buck that may not be wholly natural.

As to the high level plot, we follow the life of Buck the dog from the time he is stolen from his warm, comfortable home in California and taken to the Yukon to be a sled dog during the gold rush. He is confused, angry and belligerent but he also quickly realizes the nature of the situation and the reliance on the humans for food, protection and care. Buck learns which humans to trust and how to behave around them and he also gets to know the other dogs on his team and in his camp. Over time Buck works in a variety of teams and for a variety of different people but the more and more he lives in the cold wilderness, the more he realizes there is something out there calling to him.

I really enjoyed seeing Buck learning to navigate the harsh new world he'd been thrown into. Not only did he have to learn how to manage the cold snow (which he'd never seen before) and the bitter environment but he also had to deal with men and dogs who didn't respect him or care for him in the same way he was used to. He had to learn the ins and outs of a whole new social structure. by dealing with the new pack mentality of fighting for food and learning which dogs were leaders, which were followers and which would stand by neutrally. It also showcases his struggle between domestication or subservience to humans and the fight to return to his primitive nature and animal instincts.

Overall I really enjoyed this story and can see why it's recommended reading for younger readers, especially younger boys. The story is fast paced and has some exciting action sequences. It deals with the life of dogs, adventurers and the unknown wilderness. Beyond its basic appeal to the readers, the book does a good job teaching about different aspects of the world. Even though it focuses on the life of a dog it can teach readers a lot about the nuances of social interaction, dealing with hardship, making difficult choices, loyalty, trust and love. There are some violent scenes that could trouble younger readers, especially animal lovers, but otherwise I see this as a great book for elementary kids or middle graders to read and I think adults can have a lot of fun with this as well.


4 out of 5 stars




View all of my reviews on Goodreads.com

Book Review - A Study in Silks

The past few years we've seen an insurgence of popularity for Sherlock Holmes. We've also seen a growth in strong female protagonists in all sorts of literature. A Study in Silks brings those together. The story follows the adventures of Evelina Cooper as she comes of age in London Society while also trying to solve a murder and other mysterious that may or may not be related. In addition to catering to the newly invigorated popularity of Sherlock Holmes and female heroines, this book also covers the Steampunk fascination as well as dabbling in magic and mysticism of the urban fantasy genre.

The book quickly and elegantly establishes the relationship and character of Evelina Cooper as the niece of Sherlock Holmes who grew up in a circus, has magical abilities at her fingertips, enjoys tinkering with gears and motors and is now living as a guest in the home of Lord and Lady Bancroft. A lot of details that come together to make an interesting character. Due to her circus upbringing, Evelina is not likely to have a chance in high society. But the more "respectable" nature of her Holmes relations and her friendship with the daughter of Lord Bancroft has given her the possibility of at least socializing in higher circles with the remote chance of eventually being admitted as a member of that higher echelon of society. Of course, that all hinges on how respectable Evelina keeps herself and whether or not she can hide the fact that she possesses magical talents (a force which is shunned and despised in society) or that she has unladylike desires such as going to school or inventing machines.

Since we are in a "Steampunk" alternate London. the book sets up a new form of political and economic influence known as the Steam Barons. Essentially London is segmented into neighborhoods each beholden to a different Steam Baron for the energy to run their households and businesses. The Steam Barons provide electricity, heat, water and even a degree of "protection" to those who respect them and pay their dues. This group is very wary of magic for its defiance of science and they definitely don't take kindly to amateur tinkers coming up with their own inventions outside of control of the Barons. Naturally this means that Evelina's natural tendencies may not fit well in this society.

Before too long, the book has thrown us a few mysteries to be solved. First, Evelina stumbles across evidence of a mixture of "dark magic" and mechanical inventions within the Bancroft home. Second, a young woman is found murdered in the front foyer of that same home. Even worse, though no one else can detect it, Evelina discovers traces of magic on the corpse. The murder and the presence of magic could both mean ruin for the family. With this in mind alongside her innate curiosity, Evelina sets out to solve the mystery.

Book Review - The Bone Season

The Bone Season is an interesting work on many levels. Long before its release, there was a TON of publicity. Apparently the publisher has a lot of faith in the story and the author. Apparently they've signed her to turn this into a seven book series. They've been touting her as the "next J.K. Rowling" and the book as the "next Harry Potter." I read the book blurb before I heard the rest of the hype and I must say I did find the synopsis intriguing.

I'll dive into the synopsis in a minute, but first let me just warn readers both of this review and of the book….there is a TON of information in this story. Probably the biggest page filler in the book is the amount of intricate details laid out to create some extravagant and creative new/alternate worlds. In many instances, the flood of details was overwhelming and confusing and made the reading slower than it should have been. During the first ~third of the book, there were times when I felt a little strained at the amount of new information coming my way. A lot of it was coming through good storytelling, but it also felt like a lot of the information was just presented through blocky narrative or descriptive text as though I was reading an encyclopedia (or wikipedia) article on Scion London. I suspect that this "tell not show" was part of what bogged down the reading for me, but even in the "show" sequences, there was still a lot to digest.

That said, for some reason I feel like I should give a glimpse into the intricate world building you can expect from this book. Most of this is hinted at via the "back of the book" synopsis, but it really doesn't give you a feel for what you're in for. If you're not interested in the details of the plot/world/setting, go ahead and skip down to the last few paragraphs of my review to get my overall feel for the book.

Book Review - Power Play (Kingdom Keepers 4)

I dove into book 4 of the Kingdom Keeper series expecting some fun but not really anticipating many differences from the previous books. I generally enjoyed the first three books but was left hoping for something more. The writing is fairly simplistic and definitely geared towards kids. I acknowledged and overlooked that. Where I was left wanting more was in terms of the plot. The concept is actually pretty cool and has a lot of potential but there are times that it feels a bit strained. A large part of that is due to the imaginative yet complex technologies that allow the kids to transport into the parks. Even more than strains in the plot elements, I felt like plot elements were missing. In my mind, I felt like there was a lot of potential that just wasn't being used. I suspect that the omission was partly a conscious choice to keep the plot simpler and to gradually introduce the elements, but I really felt like there were some lost opportunities. That background aside, I opened the book with the expectation of a fun, lighthearted adventure and that's what I got.

The book starts out by quickly suggesting that the stakes have changed or, at the very least, that new elements are in place that have changed the rules of the game. In the first few pages, the kids spot some of the "Overtakers" in the real world running around and interacting with other humans. I was a little confused as to why this was so shocking. In the previous books, the kids had interacted with Maleficent and Chernabog in "the real world" so I wasn't sure why it was such a big deal to see other characters among mere mortals. The difference came in the fact that the Overtakers weren't just staying in the parks. They were first seen in Downtown Disney (which I felt was acceptable) but then they were seen at various places throughout the city. The kids also made the leap (somehow) and decided that the Overtakers had created their own DHI Server (so they could create their own holograms).

Even more threatening though was the fact that the Overtakers had begun recruiting other human kids to help them out. The Kingdom Keepers started to notice some strange behavior from other kids at school. As they investigated, they found that the Evil Queen had cast spells on them and had them working for the Overtakers. Others seemed to have joined of their own free will. In any case, the Kingdom Keepers now had to be on their toes wherever they were. They also found that they couldn't be sure who to trust since the Evil Queen could cast a spell even on a member of the Kingdom Keepers and get them to spy for her or carry out other schemes. Everything pointed to the Overtakers getting more powerful and the Kingdom Keepers were woefully uninformed and unprepared for whatever was happening.

Book Review - The Man Who Knew Too Much

Apart from knowing that The Man Who Knew Too Much was a detective story and that it was written by G.K. Chesterton, I didn't know much about this book going in. I've read some of the Father Brown stories by Chesterton and really enjoyed them so I was looking forward to sinking my teeth into a Chesterton novel. Sadly, this isn't a novel in the proper sense. Rather, this book is a collection of short detective stories centered around Horne Fisher, the "man who knew too much." Even though it wasn't a complete detective novel, I was still excited to have fun reading the stories.

As mentioned, the main protagonist in the stories is a man named Horne Fisher. At the beginning, we know very little about Fisher but as the stories progress, we learn more and more about him and find out he is related to or family friends with a number of very influential people in politics and business. It is presumably through these connections that he obtains a fair amount of his extra knowledge. The rest of his "knowing too much" comes from being hyper-observant in the same sense as another famous detective, the illustrious Sherlock Holmes.

Book Review - Utopia

Thomas More's Utopia is nearly five centuries old yet it's still quite relevant and poignant today. It's somewhere between a fictional travelogue and a philosophical political treatise. I found it especially interesting that many of the complaints presented still ring true 500 years later. The sixteenth century writing can be a little dry at times but the narrative style and presentation are readily accessible and sometimes rather humorous.

As I dove into this book I knew very little about it other than it was supposed to be More's outline of the "perfect city/state." Interestingly (as pointed out in some of the notes and introduction I read), the word "Utopia" is derived from Greek words and means both "good place land" and "no place land" simultaneously. So strangely it suggests that this is both a "good place" and that it doesn't (or can't) exist. That paradox was an interesting starting point for me as I read.

The book is divided into two parts. The first "book" starts with letters between More and other real-life characters. This epistolary method of writing was quite common especially when trying to frame the reality of the situation. The letters work to introduce the characters and discussion that follows and to emphasize the significance of the information we are about to read. It also serves to introduce us to a character named Raphael who has apparently journeyed to the land of Utopia and has a great deal of expertise and respect for their customs and practices.

The rest of "book 1" consists of a dialog between the recipients of these letters. The dialog includes criticisms of various political policies (primarily European) ranging from wars and international relations down to property rights, poverty and punishment of criminals. It is suggested that perhaps Raphael should go into politics as an advisor. The reply seems to be rather cynical in suggesting that the kings or rulers wouldn't listen to Raphael and that the current flaws of the system will simply be allowed to perpetuate rather than be healed. The best result Raphael could see would be that the leaders may be depressed at the knowledge of the flaws but wouldn't be willing to fix them. A worse result would be that Raphael would be run out of court as a wicked corruptor of society.

Book Review - The House of the Seven Gables

The House of Seven Gables is another one of those "must read" classics that has sat on my "to read" list for years. I actually read and enjoyed The Scarlet Letter in High School (and have read it a few times since then). I've read a few of Hawthorne's short stories and generally enjoyed them, though I can honestly admit to finding some of them exceedingly dry. Unfortunately, I also found Seven Gables to be a bit dry for my taste.

The premise of the book sounded very promising to me. A centuries-old house haunted by ghosts of generations following greedy land grabbing and mysterious deaths/murders. An old spinster and a young girl/lady work together to try and revitalize the house and the family. The setting and the backstory work to bring the Gothic Horror genre to early America. In spite of the Gothic tone suggested by the synopsis, Hawthorne touts the story as a Romance. In fact, I found very little "Gothic Horror" or "romance" in the story. I suppose it could be deemed a "romance" in the more broad sense of romanticising an idea or an era. There were possibilities of conventional romance between the young Phoebe and the boarder staying at the house. In fact the book seemed like it tried to swing in that direction once or twice but was repressed by the situations.

The book begins with the building of the home in colonial times by Colonel Pyncheon, a renown soldier who helped in the Salem witch trials and other similar events. The Colonel receives the property for his house in what some claim to be ill-founded circumstances and shortly after the home is completed, the Colonel is found dead in his study. Generations later, the story picks up with the spinster Hepzibah Pyncheon opening a penny store out of the side of the house. She has also taken on a boarder to try and bring in some income. The boarder is a mysterious daguerreotypist (a precursor/cousin vocation to photography) named Holgrave. It is suggested that Holgrave is a wizard or some other practitioner of "dark arts." A teenage cousin Phoebe Pyncheon shows up out of the blue to stay at the house and shortly afterwards Hepzibah's brother Clifford also shows up. Phoebe is naive, optimistic and innocent. Hepzibah is grizzly, reticent and gloomy. Clifford is eccentric and confusing...he seems to be mentally struggling due to some earlier trauma. Together, the three of them make for very interesting residents to the home. From the other end of town another cousin, the Judge Pyncheon, visits from time to time to try and convince Hepzibah to essentially give him the house and property and for the three of them to come and live with him. We're not told why, but Hepzibah vehemently abhors the suggestion and constantly throws the Judge out of the house with whatever insults she can come up with.

Book Review - Passion Blue

Passion Blue is an interesting YA mix of historical fiction and fantasy. Granted, the "fantasy" element is less prominent than the book synopsis may lead you to believe. In fact, to those who go into this expecting fantastic magical elements you will likely be disappointed.

The story is set in Rennaissance Italy and focuses on the life of a teenage girl named Gulia. She's the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman. Gulia and her mother are both servants in the nobleman's household but eventually both the nobleman and Gulia's mother die and her fate is left in the hands of her father's wife. While alive, her father had arranged a small dowry for Gulia. His wife is obviously not happy at the arrangement and twists the law to get rid of Gulia by "marrying" her of to a convent. Naturally Gulia is dismayed, but as a young girl in Italy with no family and no money, her life is not her own. She sells what little she can to purchase a magical charm to try and help change her fate but reluctantly heads off to the convent.

From the beginning, I was impressed with the vibrant writing and the portrayal of historic Italy. The descriptions of the city, the households and the social environment just felt very real and really drew me in. As the book progresses we wander from the home of a nobleman through the streets of various Italian cities into the hidden rooms and cloisters of a convent and back through the streets to the bustle of the market and the intensity of an artist studio. The many settings were each rich in description and tone.

Book Review - How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare

For summer vacation this year, we've decided to (finally) return to the Utah Shakespearean Festival. We haven't been since we had children but have decided that they are old enough to be introduced to Shakespeare and enjoy it. In prep for that vacation, I picked up a copy of How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig hoping to find practical tips and advice for introducing Shakespeare to the kids before we arrived at the festival.

Before reading the book, I didn't know the name Ken Ludwig but it was clear from the text that he does have some definite authority on Shakespeare. Looking up his biography I found that I'm actually familiar with some of his other works as a playwright. He's written and directed a number of plays for Broadway, London and other regional and touring shows. I'm not sure if he has done any "professional" teaching of Shakespeare but I can say that a lot of his commentary and information reminded me a lot of some of the Shakespeare classes I attended at college. While his close readings aren't as in-depth or extensive as the close readings I did in class the readings and commentary in this book had great high level introductions to the plays mixed with wonderfully informative explanations of some of the more obscure text and explanations of some of the symbolic or peripheral relationships that wouldn't be apparent on a first read.

The primary teaching technique that Ludwig suggests is to have your children memorize passages of Shakespeare. The book sets forward over two dozen primary passages for you to memorize with your children. While you could certainly memorize the passages in any order, the book is laid out in such a way as to provide a logical framework for bringing your children through the works of Shakespeare from the lighter and more accessible to the heavier and more difficult. The book starts with passages from lighter works like A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night and works over to more intense works like Hamlet and The Tempest.

I must admit that my initial reaction to his teaching proposal was one of skepticism. I sincerely doubted whether or not I could get my children interested enough to take the time to memorize 20+ passages of Shakespeare. In fact, when I suggested the idea, my two boys shrugged and walked away. My daughter showed some interest but it seemed to be more an interest of spending daddy-daughter time than in doing anything with Shakespeare. As such, we won't have any passages fully memorized before our trip to the Shakespeare Festival next week. Still, I am impressed with the method and details he presents and I am hopeful that over the course of the summer I may be able to teach my kids at least one or two passages.

The book has a companion website at howtoteachyourchildrenshakespeare.com. The website includes PDF printouts for each of the passages to memorize. The PDFs are ~large font cue cards to hang up or hold up while memorizing the passages. While you could certainly type up your own documents, it is nice to have the work already handled for you. Granted, I personally would have been willing to increase the font size even a little more (though that would mean using more paper).

Book Review - Cleopatra's Moon

I've always been drawn to the history and stories of Ancient Egypt and yet I've never done very much in terms of in-depth studies. It's one of those periods and cultures that I always intend to learn more about, but never seem to make the time. That's the main reason I was drawn to read Cleopatra's Moon. It's most definitely a work of fiction set in the era leading up to and immediately following the death of the famed Cleopatra and Marc Anthony. The book relies on historical information but fictionalizes the day-to-day actions of the daughter of Cleopatra…also named Cleopatra.

The book begins with a foreshadowing prologue featuring young Cleopatra Selene on board a Roman ship bound for some unknown location. We learn that her brother has died on board the ship and she is trying to convince the Roman captain and sailors to allow her to perform the Egyptian burial rituals. In spite of obviously being looked down on by the crew as a lesser citizen, she puts forth a strong argument and they eventually relent. During this opening segment, we are taken into the head of Cleopatra and learn of her absolute heartbreak and dismay as she prepares to bury the last member of her family. She is hatefully angry at the Romans for taking away her home and her family. She seethes with rage at the thought of all that she's lost over the past few years.

After this initial segment, we flash back in time to the childhood years of Cleopatra Selene and her two brothers in Egypt. Her mother Cleopatra and father Marcus are still alive though they are on the brink of battle with Rome. We are given some lush and vibrant descriptions of royal life in Egypt and the amazing culture, education and wealth of the Egyptian empire. We see the love and respect that exists within Cleopatra's family. We watch as each child is raised to be mindful of their heritage and their potential. They are reminded that they possess both Egyptian and Roman royal blood and as such they need to hold themselves to a higher standard.

The book progresses through history and takes us past the deaths of Marc Anthony and Cleopatra to the years when their children were taken captive to Rome. Rather than killing the children, Caesar takes them into his own home as his wards. There are numerous political reasons for this as outlined in the book and the fiction of the book makes the status seem logical and tense. The majority of the book focuses on the time the children spend in Rome. Cleopatra Selene grows from a young girl to a young woman. She is constantly on the lookout for a way to escape back to Egypt where she can hopefully raise an army to oust Rome and avenge her parents deaths.

The book is aimed at the Young Adult audience and likely at girls. As such, it wasn't surprising to find a love triangle brewing in the middle of this story of political machinations and vengeful desires. As the years go on, Cleopatra finds herself fighting with feelings of attraction towards some of the young men she deals with in Rome. In spite of any romantic inklings, she stays focused on her desire to return to Egypt and she tries to look at these relationships as tools she may be able to use to her advantage in escaping. Many times the author uses moments like this to not only give us insight into the character of the young Cleopatra but also to compare her to her mother and to try and paint a vivid picture of what kind of woman she was. I wasn't really keen on the love triangle aspect but I felt like it was well presented and it factored well into the history and the story.

To any history buffs who know the history of Cleopatra's family, the trajectory and ending of the novel will come as no surprise. Since I'm not an avid history buff, I felt the tension building and was unsure as to which direction things would take in the end or even which direction I wanted them to take. The author did a good job of keeping us as confused and frustrated as Cleopatra Selene as we worked through the struggles and difficulties she faced.