39 clues catch-up

Since it doesn't take me long to read these books, I decided to wait until a few more came out and catch-up on them. I read 6, 7, and 8 and there are only two more left! The 9th is actually out and I have a hold on it at the library, but there's a long line, so I'll probably have to wait. These books continue to be what they started out as... fun, adventurous, mysterious... but not spectacular. The plot does continue to thicken, but I'm ready to know how it ends and move on. I think these books are great for kids, though (both boys and girls, which is nice), and I definitely recommend them to people who are looking for books for their kids (ages 8 or so on up, depending on the maturity of the kid - there are some scary/intense moments).

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Yes, I'm a twilight fan, but I wasn't really sure what to think when Stephenie announced the release of this novella. Is she just cashing in on her wild success? Will it actually add anything to the story? Will the writing be any good or will it be rubbish? Well, I read it this afternoon (didn't take too long, it's quite short) and if you're interested it's available online here for a short time. I read it online, because I wasn't sure I wanted to own it. Now that I've finished it, I'm pretty sure I will want to buy it, if for nothing but to put its pretty matching cover up on my bookshelf with Stephenie's other books. :D

So...I think it does add something to the story. But not much. My biggest problem with this book is that it's a vampire book. "But aren't all Twilight books vampire books?" you ask? Well, not really. The Twilight series doesn't much go into the gory aspects of non-vegetarian vampires, but Bree does. There were way too many descriptions of Bree gorging on human blood without feeling a bit of remorse. Yuck.

Other than that, the story is short and boring and the romance is practically non-existent. I never felt like I really got invested in Bree as a character (or Diego for that matter). There's one great character named Fred that's introduced, and there are some worthwhile moments at the end when the Cullens show up. There's a short mental communication between Bree and Edward that I particularly thought added to the story. Other than that, not much to say. We all know how it ends.

If you're a Twilight fan, I recommend reading it online, unless you're like me and have an obsession with owning completed sets. :D

The Red Pyramid

I was very excited to start a new series by Rick Riordan, as I'm a huge fan of his Percy Jackson books. This new series is based on Egyptian mythology (another favorite of mine) and this first book is a great start to a new adventure. I really enjoyed the whole ride. I have a feeling that this series is a little more serious and heavy and a little less fun that the Percy books, but Egyptian mythology is by nature more serious than Greek. It suits me just fine, so I'm not complaining, just saying. The book had all of Rick's signature traits, though, from clever chapter titles to great dialogue to fantastically described action sequences. He really makes this mythology come alive and makes it more accessible for kids, teens, and adults to understand. I'm really looking forward to the next book in the series!

My Antonia

I read this for one of my classes this semester and several people prepared me for it, telling me it was the most boring book they'd ever read. I don't know, but I think a couple of semesters of studying literature have prepared me to actually like this book. I'm pretty sure if I'd read it before I started school, I would have found it more boring. As it was, I thought it was beautifully descriptive and full of all sorts of cool symbolisms and ironies. I read with the intent to write a 4 page paper on it from a feminist point of view, so I spent most of my time looking for where this book portrays female stereotypes. While it does have some strong female stereotypes, I'm not really a feminist myself so I actually really agreed with the portrayal of women in this book. Anyway, this book has some great features, if you're in the mood for 20th century immigrant literature taking place on the Nebraska plain (a place I happen to feel a connection to).

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

This little beauty was a Newbery honor book for 2009. I have to agree with a friend of mine who recently told me she thought it should have won the medal. When You Reach Me was interesting and had a cool plot, but Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is spectacular. It is moving and has an incredible message. In a way it reminded me of The Tale of Despereaux because of it's profound simplicity. I loved everything about it.

Evelina

It's a new semester and that means neo-classic British literature for me! This book was recommended to me by my good friend Kristen as well, so when I saw it on our reading list I was excited. I loved it. LOVED it. I don't think I've enjoyed reading a book this much in ages (and I have read a lot of really great literature!). I don't know if it was the fact that I broke in my new couches by spending a day in them reading this with my fireplace on, but something about reading this book was extremely enjoyable. This is my kind of book. It's pre-Austen, but contains a lot of the Austen elements that I enjoy. It's a totally different writing style than Austen, of course. Fanny Burney is a fantastic writer, and I really loved the format of this book (it's told in letters). I'm going to start petitioning PBS to make a movie version of this for Masterpiece Theater. If you are an Austen fan, you will love Evelina.

Oroonoko

More lit for my British lit class. Oroonoko is, to be frank, gruesome and horrible. There's no getting around that fact. All the same, it is an interesting piece of history. It's a good reminder that not all slaves were poor workers; some slaves were princes. This story has love, suspense, mystery, slavery, and a violent (really way too detailed in my opinion) ending.

Fablehaven 5

Talk about action-packed! Holy cow! This book picks up fast and kept me engrossed until the end. It was a spectacular ending to the series, and I think it did a great job of wrapping up all the plot lines. It had everything I love in a book. Really, it was brilliant. I won't say much more, but if you're a fan of the series, you will love this.

A Countess Below Stairs

I read A Company of Swans by Eva Ibbotson last year and liked it, so I decided to try something else by her. I have to say, I enjoyed this book much more than A Company of Swans. It has a plot that's been done before, but it was done well and with beautiful writing. Also, one of the things I really liked about this is that it's a romance that's clean. It's so hard to find good, clean romance anymore. I definitely recommend this one.

The Little Prince

You'll probably be able to tell from my next few posts, but there was a period in-between semester when I had nothing to do, and no books from the library, so I randomly pulled children's books off my shelf to read. I have this goal of reading all the Newbery books (winners and honors), so I worked on that. Of course, The Little Prince is not a Newbery, but it's a classic, and I haven't read it in years. I think that, as an adult, it was even more interesting that it was when I first read it (not sure when that was, but a really long time ago). Kids miss all the philosophical/moral messages this book is trying to make and focus on the prince's fun adventures.

In fact, the same day I read this (it was actually Earth Day) I watched some special Earth Day movie on PBS and one of the people in the documentary reminded me very much of the business man in The Little Prince. Basically, there was this guy who has spent his entire life trying to calculate how long it will be before the earth is destroyed because of lack of food/clean air/fuel etc.. for all the people on earth. Remind anyone else of the business man in The Little Prince who wastes his whole life counting? It was definitely a reminder to me to not waste my life worrying about inconsequential things and to instead go out an DO SOMETHING!