"Amethyst Dreams" is better described as beige

Three parts to this review: 1) The introduction is entirely charming and I could listen to Whitney reminisce for much longer. 2) The narrator, Susan Ericksen, is superb and provides the protagonist with far more personality than the text. 3) The book itself, which is disappointing.

This is supposed to be a Gothic & a mystery. It's neither. Hallie enters a world of lost people and long buried secrets and...does nothing and has nothing done to her. She's confused, people decide to spill their secrets, the book ends.

I can almost believe people opening up about long-hidden secrets--there is something to be said for throwing a stone into a pond, and Hallie serves that role. The trouble is, she has about that level of personality as well, and one wants rather more in a protagonist.

Her "detecting" consists of saying "I can't do this" alternating with asking people "What do you think happened?" and ignoring people who said things about her friend "liking to cause trouble."

There's also a lot of telling rather than showing: We are told Hallie is practical and stable and that her more flighty friend, Susan, listened to her advice. There's no point in the novel where Hallie comes across as particularly practical, stable, or useful. There are also no stories or memories of incidents in which Susan needed her help--just statements that she had.

And I love happy endings, but Amethyst Dreams consists of a sudden "Bam! Everyone is happy now!" Even someone who has spent the entire book dying of cancer is suddenly chipper and apparently well because he's regained the will to live.

I was so glad to visit Goodreads and see others saying Amethyst Dreams isn't Whitney's best because I have fond memories of her from high school and would hate to think that they were entirely based on fals premises.

Book Review: Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic by Meghan Ciana Doidge

Sometimes trusting the cover works, sometimes it doesn't. I picked up Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic because it was free (on Nook and Kindle), and I was looking for a nice, light, fluffy, low-violence read to offset some of the more violent, darker stuff₍₁₎ I have been reading lately. It is not at all light. Not that Doidge gives an excess of gory detail—she does not—but the murders and the motive here are deeply nasty.

Jade owns a bakery where she crafts elaborate and beautiful cupcakes which she gives whimsical and sometimes suggestive names like "Love in a Cup," "Bliss in a Cup," and "Sunshine in a Cup." She is a half-witch with the minor power of dowsing for magic: She can sense it in people and objects, and people with magic tend to be attracted to her. As a hobby, she collects objects with a minor magical residue and crafts them into "trinkets," mostly necklaces and sun catchers. Then, someone is murdered and drained of blood and a vampire informs Jade she's the chief suspect. Soon, there are werewolves involved as well, and Jade finds herself busy trying to solve the murders.

There are several good points about Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic. I love a main character who has and loves a craft, and Jade does love her cupcakes. Also, chocolate! And descriptions of chocolate! Mmmm. The process of making "trinkets" also sounds like a nice, relaxed hobby that creates something beautiful. Even when they gain in importance, they still sound lovely and fun to make.

Doidge writes good, clear prose, and has a good sense of timing. There are humorous moments, and the tale itself unfolds at a good pace. The opening description which helped the cover lure me in, is strong, and she keeps the pace well. The mystery itself is only mildly mysterious: The obvious suspect is, in fact, the killer. It is easy to see why Jade does not spot this, but I am surprised that the vampire and werewolf detectives do not figure things out sooner.

Jade is, like many heroines of mystery series, described as extraordinarily beautiful—blond, athletic, tanned and etc, something which is becoming a pet peeve of mine, though Jade's case is less annoying than it often is because Jade herself is quite matter of fact about it and has not found it to make her life notably better or worse and it is not bringing throngs of adoring admirers to her door.

Unfortunately, though, this is coupled with Jade learning that she is Special after all. I liked her as a low-level magic worker who found herself over her head and had to use her wits to solve things. It turns out she is not, and both vampire and werewolf know this.

Doidge has put some work into her magic system, which was consistent and balanced. The relationship between magical people and "normal" folk is a little blurry: They do, apparently, intermarry. How often or under what conditions, or who they tell about their powers and why is not entirely clear—yet. It is sufficiently clear for the story at hand, and Cupcakes is the first book in a series that will presumably develop this area further.

Bonus point: The vampire finds Jade "intriguing," but not in a romantic sense. In fact, it looks as if, if he ends up dating anyone at all, it will be Jade's mother, which is kind of fun.

The book did not end up being what I was looking for, but I can see where it would appeal to those in search of a fast-paced, magic-laced, mystery with some possibility of romance in the future and a dark strip down the middle.

---
(1) Much of it very good—the set includes a reread of Sunshine for one thing—I just needed a break.
(2) It also turns out that

SPOILER BREAK



Her mother and grandmother didn't tell her about her Special ability in order to keep her safe from those who might exploit her. Since three different people figure out her ability, two of them very quickly, it seems a remarkably foolish choice for two otherwise intelligent women. It seems like training her to use the gift—which she finds she needs and has to figure out by instinct—and protect herself would have been a much better choice.


END SPOILER

Book Review: The Brother Gardeners by Andrea Wolf

Wulf begins The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire & the Birth of an Obsession by recounting her bewilderment on moving to England from Germany and finding all the people around her were obsessed with gardening. "I went with a trendy graphic designer to a nightclub, only to listen for half the evening to the minute details of the yield of his vegetable garden," she recalls in a series of remembered encounters with avid gardeners. Being an inquisitive sort and an author, she set out to find out just why and how England had become so obsessed with gardening. The result is a lovely horticultural mystery covering England's discovery of overseas plants from the early eighteenth century through to the triumphant reign of the garden in the nineteenth century, from England's days as a gardening backwater to its emergence as a primary source of gardening advice and plants.

The book begins with a cautious hybridization as Charles Fairchild crossed a sweet William with a carnation, demonstrating that that plants produced sexually and creating a beautiful new plant at the same time. Wulf continues to profile plant breeders, plant importers, and their gardens going, moving on through Peter Collinson and his American contact John Bartram in the 1730's and on, Miller and his practical gardening advice in 1731, the irascible Carl Linnaeus with his new means of classifying plants, Banks botanical voyaging around the world, and many more. Each time she gives a sense of the people's characters, their place in the botanical world, the impact they had, and a tour of their gardens.

Garden growth went hand in hand with the spread of the British Empire as the British imported plants from each new colony and conquest, mixing and matching to create the ideal spread each gardener envisioned. Banks, in particular, also wanted solid, practical advice for growing useful plants which were transported around the world to serve the Empire's needs and whims.

The Brother Gardeners was a solid, interesting read about one of my favorite topics—gardening and gardening history (Or is that two topics? One and a half? Something like that). It won't necessarily pull people who aren't gardeners or interested in history into the fold, but it will interest those who are.

There were also random bits of "I never thought of that." For example, and I should blush to admit this: I have always thought of Botany Bay primarily in terms of Star Trek₍₁₎. It never occurred to me that here, on this planet, in this history, it was called Botany Bay because when Banks landed there, it was a great place for botany, and he gathered a lot of plants there.

---
₍₁₎ "Botany Bay?! Botany Bay! Oh no!"

Book Review:Uncanny Avengers Vol. 1: The Red Shadow

Sometimes, I expect to enjoy a book, and then I just don't. Uncanny Avengers: The Red Shadow is one of those times. In an attempt to change the world's view of mutants, Captain America has put together a new team of Avengers, one that mixes mutants and "regular" Avengers. Their first foe in this issue is the Red Skull who has grafted Xavier's brain onto his own and is using his new ability to whip up anti-mutant frenzy and rioting as—I guess—a step toward taking over. Essentially, the new team is faced with their worst nightmare: Captain America's long-time foe, Xavier gone bad (again), and anti-mutant rioting. Rick Remender has written some really good stuff in the past₍₁₎, and the Uncanny Avengers holds the potential to take the X-folk off into some new territory, so I was ready to enjoy the book.

Sadly, I spent most of it wishing everyone would just shut up. Alex Summers makes a speech. Rogue and the Scarlet Witch snipe at each other. The Red Skull talks. And talks. And talks. He now has the power to influence people's minds directly, and while he does that, he apparently cannot resist making endless speeches. I ended up skimming a lot of his verbiage which left the rest of the book rather slim pickings: oodles of fight scenes as waves of rioters turn on the Avengers, the X-Men, and each other.

I was disappointed with the main plot as a whole: The team mixup also provides an opportunity to do something new with the X-Men. Instead, they're still facing the same old "World-that-hates-and-fears-them."

So, no go here. X-Men enthusiasts might want to read the first bit where Alex makes his infamous "Don't call me a mutant" speech. Otherwise, read X-Men: Battle of the Atom instead.

₍₁₎The not too distant past: I cannot begin to say how much I loved Black Science, though I do try over onFanboyNation. Seriously, that book is incredible.

Publication Information
Hardcover, 136 pages
Published April 24th 2013 by Marvel
ISBN 0785168443 (ISBN13: 9780785168447)
Uncanny Avengers (Marvel NOW!) Vol. 1: 1-5

Book Review: The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Obsession, Commerce, and Adventure by Adam Leith Gollner

Warning: It is dangerous to read this book if you also receive seed catalogs; it is especially so if you are getting rare seed and heirloom catalogs.

While on a trip to Brazil, Gollner stops at a local market and buys a bag full of unfamiliar fruits, discovering a whole array of new tastes. This sets him on the road to exploring the world of fruit and fruit enthusiasts, ultimately taking him on a series of trips and interviews as he learns about the kinds of fruit not typically available in American supermarkets, the way fruits have been altered to fit the supermarket model, and how and why some flavored fruits are coming back to consumers.

I'm of two minds about this book. On the one hand, Gollner can write, and write well. His descriptions of tropical fruit are mouth-watering; I want to try them all. He also does a lot of interviewing and travelling to far-flung places to try his new fruits and meet with fruit enthusiasts, many of whom are quite eccentric. On the other, some of the earlier facts he cites seem to have been chosen more for being spectacular than for being actually factual, and that means that I put question marks next to anything he didn't directly experience or that I cannot verify through other reading.

The opening chapter or so has a medley of fruit facts. They're all quite interesting, but they include things like Gollner casually relating that plants "even possess a form of intelligence: bananas and oranges connected to lie-detecting polygraphs have been shown to respond to mathematics questions in experiments by by Dr. Ken Hashimoto and Cleve Backster. Aked how much two plus two is, the plants emit a hum that forms into four peaks when translated into ink tracings." No. Just--no. Plants do not have nervous systems or ears. Lie detectors are not a good way of measuring their knowledge₍₁₎. I think this was pretty clear by 2008, the book's publication date. Similarly, he makes the occasional blithe statement about prehistoric man as though we really, truly, clearly knew what said individual thought and did. We have ideas, but full awareness of ritual? Not so much. Complicating this last is the absence of any sort of footnoting or clear works cited. There's a "Further Reading" list that looks interesting, but not an "All my research is here" list. So, lots of things had to have question marks beside them.

That said, I still enjoyed the book a lot. Much of Gollner's information comes from interviews and directly trying the fruits in question, which ups the reliability quotient of the book as a whole. And, as I said, he can write. Take this description of dragon fruit "crisp white flesh dotted with small black seeds, like a solidified milk shake...shocking pink rinds and black and white interiors.... The delicate flavor is vaguely reminiscent of strawberries and concord grapes" Don't you want to try it now? Or mangosteen "Each self-contained section is just firm enough to suspend the incomparable juice in a perfect degree of tension. I could say that it tastes like minty raspberry-apricot sorbet, but the only way to truly know a mangosteen is to try one." His writing throughout is lively and engaging, making him good company for arm-chair traveling through the world of fruit.

And the whole project of Fruit Hunters--tracking down as many fruits as possible and meeting with as many fruit enthusiasts as he can, is appealing. Gollner meets with quite an array of guides and eccentrics as he talks to fruitarians (people who live only on fruit), the creator of Grapples (artificially grape-flavored apple (Yuck!)), a fruit photographer who describes Gollner as his groupie, the owner of a hotel willing to share his rare lady fruit, and others.

On the whole, I recommend The Fruit Hunters to folks who like slice-of-life reading, eccentrics, or gardening. But I repeat: Don't read this and any sort of garden catalog, email, or website at the same time. Just don't (see below for why).

A partial list of things I want to grow now so that I can taste them--only, I don't really have room for an orchard!

Mangosteen (a tree)
More kinds of figs (I have a Brown Turkey fig tree that just started bearing. They are good).
Longan (Tree again)
Dragon Fruit (Cactus)
Kishu (a variety of mandarin)
Mara de Bois strawberries (Those I might be able to fit in somewhere).
Chocolate vine (Maybe I could fit it in? Though I wonder how many kinds there are--Gollner's source makes it sound desirable; I just read a how-to on flowers.about.com calling it "not very palatable." Then again, I am growing Wonderberry, which is either delicious or insipid, depending on who you ask, just to find out what I think, so the discrepancy doesn't rule out the vine; "rampant growth, on the other hand, might prove a problem. I already grow passion vine, which is quite rampant enough)

At least I'm already growing Charanteis melon! I even have a few extra plants needing re-homing.

--
₁ For a much better and thoroughly fascinating look at the sorts of things plants know and can do, plus a good look at plant science, try What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz.

Random side note: This book appears to have several covers. On the whole, I like the second one (the one on the copy I read), best of what I've seen.

Book Review: Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann

First of all, this wins the award for most misleading cover ever. It suggests a light, steampunky, adventure sort of book; the color-scheme and overall goofiness of the metal bird says there might even be puns.

Peculiar is dark, dark, dark. When the back cover suggests that changelings (halfbreeds) should hide lest they get hanged? It means it. This is the sort of world where kids are hung, where a woman is possessed by a dark, nasty sort of fairy and made to kidnap children, and where the faeries have neither forgiven nor forgotten the not-so-long-ago war they fought with humans.

Bachman knows how to keep a reader's attention, and I'm not at all sorry I read Peculiar, but it isn't the book to listen to while falling asleep that I had expected.

Peculiar is the story of a young half-human, half-faerie boy who has been living in hiding all his life; changelings aka peculiars have very short lifespans if discovered by most full-blooded folk of either species. He's been taught that safety comes from not being noticed. Then his sister is kidnapped, and he sets out to hunt her. At the same time, Arthur Jelliby, a nice young man with lots of wealth, a beautiful wife, and a comfortable political position, finds himself overhearing secrets that make him very uncomfortable, being asked for help by beautiful women, and generally ending up acting like a hero. Both of them risk rather nasty deaths and face some thoroughly desperate, very determined opponents.

Bachman is good at world building, creating a land where faeries and humans live together in uneasy peace, where there are regular precautions against magic but where it creeps in at odd moments anyhow.

The prose is mostly good, and the majority of the descriptions are evocative. The Prologue is nicely chilling, with the Bath being destroyed in a night. "There were no flames. No screams. Everyone within five leagues disappeared" and the city is left a ruin, starting a war "called the Smiling War because it left so many skulls, white and grinning, in the fields."

There are, however, the occasional clunkers such as "the word fell like a furry ball to the floor" or "The word flittered up the staircase, through the silent passages..." which served to effectively yank me right out of the book and set me to wondering how words could be like balls of any sort and whether the words flew on bat or butterfly wings and which would be more efficient and other such imponderables.

There are also bits of the plot that made me as an adult ask questions but might not bother a middle-grade reader. My biggest question was: Why haven't these people cooked up some good birth control? Peculiar makes it clear that it's not a matter of whether a changeling child will die but when--one family has seven children; six are hanged, one is kidnapped. Both humans and faeries find the children revolting, so you'd think that either the faeries or the humans would have come up with a way not to have them.

And, yes, it bugged me that the half-fairy, half-human children were called changelings, though there is a sentence sort of hand waving this. On a more nitpicky level, it also bothered me that the protagonists bought and ate food (bad pies, at that!) at the Goblin Market without ill-effect and that, later, one of them drinks tea in a faerie's home, and one refuses, and it doesn't matter. Traditionally, eating and drinking fairy food is a Bad Idea, but it doesn't seem to be in Peculiar

On a larger level, though, Bachman is very, very good at atmosphere. His Faery-haunted world is pretty scary, and there are lots of nice touches, like the possessed woman's clothing slowly deteriorating as she isn't caring for it any more or the way church bells are now ringing every five minutes in an effort to keep fairy magic from working around the towns.

Also, the main villain's plot makes sense. He has a very good reason for his schemes and is being quite methodical about getting what he wants. He's not quite human sane, but he shouldn't be, so that's just as well.

Bachman follows two protagonists, altering between Bartholomew and Arthur Jelliby quite deftly. The two different points of view--adult (ish: Arthur has to do a lot of growing up here!) and child make for a good pairing, and the chapter breaks and shifts in view keep suspense going quite nicely. Also, like the villain, the heroes have good, solid motivation and both grow into the role of hero quite satisfactorily.

Peculiar isn't a perfect book, but it's a book I quite enjoyed reading--or rather, listening to. I'm not sure about the audience: Some middle-graders would enjoy it, some might find it far too dark. I suppose it's a matter of "read the prologue and decide from there." As for adults, some may be able to forgive flittering words for the sake of smoky cities and creepy, plotting faery people, some might not.

I'm sort of at the mid-point myself, but I do have The Whatnot, the book's sequel, on hold at the library.

Oh, and the audio version has some very good music to it, including a good, long stretch at the end by Bachmann himself.

Publication Details
Published September 18th 2012 by Greenwillow Books
ISBN: 0062227696 (ISBN13: 9780062227690)
series: The Peculiar #1

Additional Reviews and Pages
Stefan Bachmann's Page
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The Urban Naturalist Getting an Update!

Almost two years ago, I posted a review of The Urban Naturalist by Steven D. Garber in which I commented that, while it was very good, it was also pretty outdated and I would like to see an update.

Today, I got an email from Garber saying that he is planning on updating it and confirming something he mentioned in an earlier comment on that review and giving me permission to place the comment in the blog proper as a shout-out, so--if you like books on urban nature, and if you're interested in seeing an update to The Urban Naturalist, here's a chance to let Garber know about your interest!

Now that it's 25 years since The Urban Naturalist first came out, I'm working on a new edition, featuring how the newest, fastest growing, most important ecosystems in the world keep on changing and growing at breakneck speed. If there are topics you want me to cover in the new edition, please let me know: stevendgarber@gmail.com

I got all excited and sent in my wish list, which I'll post below. It'd be awesome if you'd post your questions here in addition to writing to Garber, because I'm curious about what everyone else is curious about.

Wishes and curiosities

• I'd like more pictures! In color, if possible. I'm not a naturalist, just someone who walks around looking, and the book's descriptions aren't enough to help me identify chicory or know what a tree of heaven looks like. This isn't Garber's fault: no one's descriptions would be up to the task! I have to study images pretty hard to get an idea.
• Maybe a bit more West Coast stuff? A lot of the book's focus is New York, which, while interesting, is a long way from anywhere I've been. It also tends to be the default city for people who write about nature in the city, and I can't help but feel that the critters wandering around in an East Coast city might vary in kind and hapbit from the ones who wander through a West Coast area
• An updated "for further reading" list. Reputable websites would be a big help, too, because they tend to publish more recent information than books do. However, it's always a little hard to evaluate them.
• Also (and this wasn't in the email) I wonder about freeways and wildlife. On the one hand, all those cars surely kill a lot. On the other, some of the ones nearest my house have long strips of relatively undisturbed land next to them. Not wide, but long. How many animals use them as corridors? I know the local hawks hunt them. Do coyotes?

So, a good book is going to get better--which means a good day just got better.

Rereading Astro City

The Astro City books are not books on my forever-and-always-reread shelf (yet, anyway); they're books I keep wandering back and rediscovering. "Oh, Astro City," I'll say to myself as I wander through the library, "I rather liked those."

And then I'll pick them up, and wham! There I'll be, immersed in them, admiring them, and daring anyone to say bad things about them—or even ever-so-slightly-critical things₁.


Why do I love them? For starters, they're about the city, the whole, big, wonderful, bustling place. That means I get to wander around and find all sorts of places, and even better, the narrative wanders. Various stories are told from the point of view of: a doorman as he watches city life go by, speculates on which of the tourists might come back to live, and remembers the time he was a hero (not the super-powered sort; the other kind); the boy who becomes the Confessor's sidekick; a former would-be super-villain trying to build a new life; a grumpy alien trying to decide whether or not his people should invade Earth; a heroine who looks like a fashion doll and cannot remember who made her—you get the idea. It's a varied list, and it has texture. Oh, and I love Shadow Hill, a place so strange even most Astro City folk look at it sideways.


For another, Busiek knows how and when to go small: The alien is grumpy when he shows up. Not menacing, not overwhelmingly powered or mystical, but every day, common grumpy. He kind of likes Earth, but then again, people can be so annoying… He's an ordinary alien, just someone doing his job. That doesn't make him harmless, but it does make him—real? Relatable? (Kind of scary, when you think about it, but pretty awesome, too). And Crackerjack, one of the superheroes, is just plain old vain. A friend (the one who introduced me to Astro City, in fact) once asked why I liked that so much. It's because then—and even now—most heroes tend to have outsized personalities; they brood more intensely than anyone else; they don't just get a bit touchy, they have berserker rages; on bad days, they destroy cities. Even the modern, "realistically" flawed superheroes tend to go overboard in a movie-star kind of way. It's nice to see someone who is just plain vain, a nice, ordinary, annoying kind of flaw.

Also, they're beautiful. The superhero designs are as varied as the heroes themselves, picking up a variety of backgrounds, times, and purposes. The art is lovingly, lavishly, carefully crafted. These are people here, not archetypes. They have different body types, varying postures, different expressions, and a variety of ages. It's a one-of-a-kind series.

So I don't know why Astro City is not on my forever shelf. It probably should be. On the other hand, it's kind of nice this way. I get to fall in love with the series all over again, every time I find it.

Edit:Somewhere in an early draft, I mentioned I was borrowing the Sparkly snuggle hearts category from Gin Jenny at Reading the End. Then I edited. Now I'm editing it back in. It's a very good category.

The complete list:

Astro City Vol. 1: Life in the Big City by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, Brent Anderson

Astro City Vol. 2: Confession by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, Brent Anderson

Astro City Vol. 3: Family Album by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, Brent Anderson

Astro City Vol. 4: The Tarnished Angel by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, Brent Anderson

Astro City Vol. 5: Local Heroes by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, Brent Anderson

Astro City Vol. 6: The Dark Age Book One: Brothers and Other Strangers by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson
On GoodReads, at any rate, this does not show up in the regular "Astro City" search; neither does Vol 7. Shining Stars, however, does show up as Vol. 8, leading to a "huh?" moment. I have not read this one yet, nor Volume 7. I plan to remedy this lapse as soon as possible.

Astro City Vol. 7: The Dark Age Book Two: Brothers in Arms by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, Brent Anderson

Astro City Vol. 8: Shining Stars by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson (Illustrator)

Astro City Vol. 9: Through Open Doors Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson

Astro City Vol. 10: View from Above by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson (Illustrations) Coming Sept 2014.

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

I love the idea of this book--more than one of the ideas. There is a mysterious school out in the woods that trains fairy tale characters in the ways of Good and Evil. Once a year, two children between the ages of twelve and sixteen from the village are kidnapped and taken there; at the beginning of this book, the chosen pair are Agatha, who wears black and is perpetually grumpy and Sophie, who loves pink and wants to go to the school to find her happy ending. The thing is, they end up in the "wrong" schools, and only their friendship can save them.

Before I get started: Lots of people appear to have liked this book. According to the its Goodreads' page, the book is a "New York Times Bestseller * Indie List Bestseller * Soon to be a Film from Universal Pictures * A Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2013" and etc, so clearly not everyone had the same allergic reaction I did. As for myself, I think I'm allergic.

Problem the first: What friendship? Sophie has only befriended Agatha as one of her "good deeds," and Agatha knows it. She sticks to Sophie more out of desperation than anything else, and this holds true through most of the book--Sophie keeps trying to ditch Agatha, except when Agatha's help is convenient. Agatha never makes any other friends, either. There are people who comment on their friendship, but in action? Not so much.

Problem the second: The book can't really decide how much internal beauty really matters. Oh, sure, Sophie looks good but acts evil (more on that later), but Agatha's "goodness" ultimately manifests in everyone discovering that she was beautiful all along and just needed to smile more, stand straight, and wash her hair. After that, people love her. So much for internal beauty being what matters.

Problem the third: Sophie's evil mostly consists of liking pink, trying to stay beautiful, and wanting to get away from the village. She gives facewash to orphans! The horror! She worries about her weight (gasp!) and so doesn't cook fattening meals to her father (Dreadful!). This, by the by, in a world at least as fixated on beauty and slenderness as our own.

She picks up some more recognizably evil as opposed to purely gendered traits later, courtesy of the school insisting on it (as in, severely punishing people who don't live up to their traits) but... Oh, I get angrier every time I think about Sophie's initial "evil," so I'll stoop now.

Problem the fourth: The book is dull. I started skimming after the first hundred pages or so and never did settle back down or get drawn into it. The behind-the-scenes plotting of the thoroughly pointless teachers and school owner never did draw me in, nor did the sort-of romance(s) that developed. No one other than Sophie and Agatha got more than cursory character development and theirs was, as I've mentioned, thin.

The sequel appears to focus on gender wars. I think...not.



Publication details
Published May 14th 2013 by HarperCollinsISBN 0062104896 (ISBN13: 9780062104892)

Other reviews found via Fyrefly's Book Blog Search Engine

The Literary Omnivore
A Backwards Story--who liked it a lot.
Books with Bite
So I Started Reading
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Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control by Jessica Walliser

I love bugs and I love gardening, so it should come as no surprise to anyone that I read books that combine the two. Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control by Jessica Walliser is the best I've read so far. Walliser explains clearly why organic gardening involves not just avoiding pesticides but also inviting bugs to live in your garden. The goal is to create a miniature ecosystem where while the "bad bugs" are never completely gone (there has to be something for the "good bugs" to eat), there is a thriving population of bad-bug predators to keep things in check.

Walliser gives a short introduction about this practice plus several essays on various aspects of insect growth and kind, giving portraits, both verbal and visual, of several of the insects so the gardener can get to know them. There is also a large section on plants that attract beneficials with notes on which specific types they attract—many attract several—together with photographs of the plants. She also includes suggested garden arrangements for folks who want some help planning their beneficial additions.

Two incidental details that made me happy: She answered a long-standing question of mine: Is the nectar of different plants different, or is it just sugar water as some have told me? (Yes, It is different; the Walliser gives several points about where and why). And, she gave me an excuse to keep Feverfew, even though I don't actually use it for anything. Not that I needed an excuse, but it's nice to have one.

Recommended for gardeners, insect lovers, and, especially, insect-haters.

A Garden of Marvels by Ruth Kassinger

A Garden of Marvels: How We Discovered that Flowers Have Sex, Leaves Eat Air, and Other Secrets of Plants by Ruth Kassinger is one of this year's great discoveries. Kassinger expertly weaves together history, botany, and personal experience to create a book that enlivens the garden by enlightening the gardener.

Kassinger starts with the Greeks, talking about the various misunderstandings that began with them (except for Theophrastus, who apparently had a pretty good idea that plants weren't just like animals) and persisted for centuries and moving on through to the present day with studies of plant genetics and cloning. Mixed with these historical and character sketches is information about what this means for the gardener today often framed in discussions of Kassinger's own clearly much-loved garden.

The prose is lively and clear, and Kassinger is good at sharing her interest with others; I will be looking for more of her work. As a side note: after everything I learned about petunia genetics, I am definitely buying some seeds next year. Those plants are crazy strange! I'm tempted to buy a black petunia, also, because the original plant was a one-time miracle and I'm entranced.

I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys gardening and/or history and/or just plain good writing

Publication Information
Hardcover, 416 pages
Published February 25th 2014 by William Morrow
ISBN 0062048996 (ISBN13: 9780062048998)

Other Reviews, found through Fyrefly's Book Blog Search
Pages of Julia's Blog
A guest post/the book's intro by Ruth Kassinger on Book Club Girl
Did you write a review I should include? Let me know!

Book Review: The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley

Verity Grey is hired by an eccentric archeologist obsessed with finding out what became of Romes lost Ninth Legion. He's sure it disappeared in Britain, on the ground he now owns, inf fact. Working with him is Verity's ex, her employer's daughter (and ex's current fling), and a handsome local archeologist who is initially elusive but very attractive. Verity is won over by her employer's enthusiasm, but not as thrilled with his evidence: He's basing his theories on a young boy's second site. Still, Verity agrees to stay for a time, and finds herself troubled by ghosts, fog, and the sound of horses galloping by at night in an area where no horses live.

The Shadowy Horses reminded me quite a bit of the Mary Stewart mystery/romance stories. This is both good and bad: It's good because I like Mary Stewart, and I have read all of her other books, so it was nice to find a potential read alike. It's bad because it wasn't quite a read-alike. Kearsley does some good atmosphere work, and the ghostly centurion, still on guard after all these centuries, and still trying to right old wrongs is a great character. There are also plenty of intrigues and troubles in the present-day crew, enough to make anyone nervous.

The trouble is, Verity Grey lacks some of the spunk of Stewart's heroines. Sure, they all end up turning to the nearest handsome male for help, but they usually don't quaver at the very first sign of ghostly chills. Grey's convinced there's a ghost, and terrified of it, well before there's any real evidence of any actual ghost. Also, I would have liked to see more archeology going on. Kearseley introduces Verity as a well-established, respected archeologist in her own right, but once she reaches the site, actual digging seems to give way to ghostly visitations, romance, and alleged second sight.

Ultimately, I found it fun, light reading, and I'm not sorry to have picked it up, but I thought it needed more oomph. I kept wanting Verity to assert herself more, to turn around when there were ghostly rustles, to show just a bit more backbone.

Random side note one: I think Kearsley also reminds me of Phillippa Whitney, but this is more a memory of some late, late nights reading Whitney's books during my high school years than any other real feeling. And, as those nights spent quietly reading, with no one else up, are treasured memories, I probably won't risk revisiting Whitney and discovering I don't like her any more. That, of course, risks not reading an author I would like now, but all the same, I think I'll let her be.

Random side note two: The Lost Legion caught my attention because of Andre Norton's The Last Planet, which really has nothing to do with the story here, but is one of my favorite books ever, and has had perpetual place on my bookshelves wherever I may be.

Other Reviews

A Book a Week This is where I first learned about it. Kiirstin Maki likes it loads more than I did, so you may want to read her review as well!

Melissa's Bookshelf
A Good Stopping Point
The Eclectic Reader
Lots more results from Fyrefly's Book Blog Search

Got a review I should include? Drop me a line and let me know!

Links of Interest
The Shadowy Horses on Amazon Gracious! It's a 2012 book! Here I was thinking it was written back when...whenever Mary Stewart was writing. I should look that up, I suppose, but Stewart's one of those writers whose just always been there on the shelves, you know? Something of a legend I'm not sure I'm ready to look up her bio and put her in the real world.

Anyway.

Susanna Kearsley's home page, where you can read her blog, catch up on her book lists, and generally find more stuff!

Book Review: Superman: Grounded vols 1 & 2 by J. Michael Straczynski (Author), Chris Roberson (Author), Eddy Barrows (Illustrator), J.P. Mayer (Illustrator)

When Volume 1 of Grounded begins, Superman has just suffered the loss of Krypton, all over again, and has, in the process, lost the trust of some of Earth's people because he appears to have cared more about the Kryptonians than about Humans. Saddened by the double loss, Superman decides to walk across America, reconnecting with the people of his adopted world (and country) as he does. He also promises to fly when needed and resume his walk later. As he travels, he mourns, meets old friends, and solves problems on a smaller scale than usual.

I am told this wasn't well received when it came out, and I wonder if that might be the difference between getting this fairly leisurely story one book at a time, spread out over months and getting to curl up with it and read it in one go. As a series of vignettes, it works very well. It also works very well as a crisis for someone who is, at base, a good man: He stops to reexamine his priorities before things hit super-crisis mode and he's done something stupid like destroy a city or get possessed by a demon (not to name any names here...). He and Lois have a good marriage, with her supporting him but also willing to call him out when needed (Now I'm mad at the New 52 and I haven't even read any of it yet!).

The two different Batman encounters, with Dick in volume 1 and Bruce in volume 2, were also highlights: He's friends with both men, but in a different way. Dick is more respectful of someone who has been a mentor, but still blunt. Bruce has a lifetime of friendship to draw on when he analyzes the situation. It is telling, though, that both versions of Batman approach the situation analytically and try to talk Superman out of his depression with the facts.

Insofar as they are separate stories at all, volume 1 of Grounded is the crisis issue and Volume 2 is the warm and fuzzy one, the one where Superman's friends all rally round to tell him that what he does as Superman is worth it. He spends a good half of it depressed himself, but there's never really much doubt what will happen in the end.

I do wish the whole "future Superpeople" storyline had been left out. If I have a complaint about the DC universe as a whole it's the sheer boiling number of alternates, future selves, and family members that are perpetually cropping up. Also, I think the major villain of the piece needed more character development. I can't say much without spoiling things, but unless she gets more backstory and care in a future issue somewhere else, she's a wasted opportunity, and she should still have gotten a bit more here.

The tale as a whole gets bonus points for the including the story of Bruce and Clark's first meeting back when they were both trying to hide their abilities and plans from the world and each other. I enjoyed the brief encounter with Straczynski's Wonder Woman as well.

The art? Gorgeous. The books would be worth picking up even if there were no story, just for some of the images.

Verdict: It's a solid entry into the Superman mythos and worth reading, even if it never happened in the current continuity.

I know, I know: I gripe because existing continuity is too complicated to keep track of and I also gripe because it has been un-happened. I'm also still reading the books.

Other Reviews
Superman: Grounded vol. 1 on Goodreads
Superman: Grounded vol. 2 on Goodreads

My Usual Suspects haven't written any reviews. Got any I should include? Contact me and let me know!


Links
My review of Straczynki's Wonder Woman: Odyssey

Superman: Grounded vol. 1 on Amazon
Superman: Grounded vol 2 on Amazon.
@straczynski

Book Review: The Secret of the Stone Frog by David Nytra

The Secret of the Stone Frog is a gorgeous, graphic novel children's fairy tale.

Two children go to sleep in their rooms and wake to find that they have been transported to a mysterious forest. To get home again, they have to follow the directions of a stone frog (or a series of stone frogs?) that they find

The intended readers are children. The dialog is kept to a minimum and the words are shorter, easier for beginning readers. Also, while there are some situations that are scary for the brother and sister protagonists, there is nothing here that is intended to provoke nightmare or provide more than a very slight shiver to the beginning reader.

Nytra's portrayal of the sibling relationship is a delight. The two children clearly love one another and take turns protecting, and occasionally exasperating one another. Leah is clearly the protective older sister with Alan being the somewhat irresponsible "baby," but he'll help when she needs it.

The book is full of the unexpected, the bizarre, and the beautiful. There are suited lantern-fish men waiting for a train, enormous, word-eating bees, friendly giant rabbits the children can ride, and at the end, a city comes gloriously, terribly to life as the children leave the land.

I have to confess to twoo minor disappointments. One is that, right at the end, the book breaks its one of its own rules: The frog tells them early on that the way home is "always behind me." The actual exit turns out to be to the frog's left. Fairy tales tend to be very, very literal and to keep their rules rigidly, so I'd have been happier of Nytra had remembered his own instructions. Also, I admit to being slightly disappointed in the "It was all a dream (maybe)" ending. I prefer trips to other worlds to have happened! The art work there, though, is beautiful as the shapes in the garden echo the shapes and places the children visited during the night.

My complaints--and they are tiny complaints--aside, this is a gorgeous book suitable for reading with kids, giving to kids, or just enjoying on ones own for the lavish and lovely black and white artwork.

Book Review: Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Happy New Year! And happy old book--I'm still erratically and happily working my way back through McKinley's books.

Sunshine is one of Mckinley's Beauty and the Beast retellings, though it departs further from the tale than, say Beauty or even Chalice. In fact, Sunshine, the "Beauty" of the story tells the tale to Constantine, the "Beast" quite early on in the novel.

Sunshine is set sometime in the near, non-specific future, in a land where vampires, werewolves, triffids, zombies etc are entirely real and where a recent magical war has left scars across the land. It begins Sunshine is abducted by vampires and taken to a deserted mansion. Once there, finds herself allying with a vampire, Constantine, and has to learn to use magic she barely understands to survive a vampire war and takeover attempt. The trouble is: She hates vampires. Everyone hates vampires, and rightly so. They're predators and, unlike the other supernatural beings, there is no way of making peace with them or sharing the world with them. Sunshine is sure, and with reason, that if any of her other friends find out about the vampire, Constantine, they will never forgive her.

Sunshine has deeper world-building and is darker than most Mckinley, which is why it is both one of my favorites and one of my least favorites. I've read it before, but I'm still surprised by the amount of gore and despair that there is in the book₍₁₎. Also, I'm not a fan of vampires though for Mckinley, I'll make an exception, just as I do for Hambly. It's just that I keep managing to pick it up expecting a nice, quiet read like Beauty or Chalice and instead I'm immersed in this dark, tangled, dangerous, suspenseful novel wondering what happened.

There are significant alterations to the "Beauty and the Beast" story here. For example, Sunshine already has a perfectly good human boyfriend who stays steady, strong, and reliable all through, and Constantine is, and will remain, a vampire and that is a predator, even if a reasonably honorable one. The relationship Sunshine and Constantine have can't really be described as romantic, either. Also, this one is, as I've mentioned already, very much a suspense-veering-toward horror story. There are monsters out there and they have to be fought, often violently, and it takes all of Sunshine's courage and then some to face them.

Like Mckinley's other Beauties, Sunshine has a real-world passion that keeps her grounded in the middle of all the insanity. Hers is baking: She is the Cinnamon Roll Queen, maker of Sunshine's Eschatology and other deserts. There are lavish, loving descriptions of baking that I could lose myself in quite happily.

I'm sure I will be reading Sunshine again, and I can't help wishing there were a sequel. I like Rae/Sunshine, the heroine and I love her world. I want to find out what happened to the Blaise family, to find out how the humans win (We will win, right?) in the end, and to see what becomes of Sunsine as she furthers her studies of the magical, and to find out more about Mel, and to meet all of the coffee shop folk again. Mckinley is quite, quite definite about the absence of sequels, and the book does end quite well in its own right, and the loose ends are the perfectly respectable sort of loose ends that imply that, yes, there's a world out there, and it's still going, but the author hasn't chronicled all of it, and it works just fine. I'm greedy, that's all.

---
(1) This really shouldn't surprise me. I have read Deerskin which is one of the more visceral descriptions of the aftermath of rape and incest I've ever come across. It is very, very good, and a book someone absolutely had to write, and I am never reading it again.

Other Reviews
Tales of the Marvelous
Love Vampires
The Eclectic Review

Links of Interest
Robin McKinley's Blog
Robin Mckinley's entry on why there will probably never be a sequel to Sunshine, so please stop asking
Sunshine on Amazon.

Book Review: Miss Dimple Suspects by Mignon F. Ballard

Miss Dimple, a teacher in a small town during WWII has to help a Suzy, a young Japanese woman, prove her innocence after the woman she has been nursing is murdered.

Miss Dimple Suspects has all the ingredients for a good cozy mystery: It's historical, set in a small town, and has an unexpected and intrepid sleuth. I expected to like it a lot more than I did. As it is, I enjoyed it, but not to the extent of wanting to run out and find more books in the series.

Its primary strength is also its great weakness: It's very much a community book.

On the plus side, there's room for a lot of friendship and sharing. Miss Dimple knows most of the town and several different people help her in her quest to clear Suzy's name. There's almost always at least one person willing to drive her out and to stand guard while Miss Dimple searches. Miss Dimple herself is nice enough and sensible enough that I could easily believe these people would listen to her and be willing to give the Japanese woman the benefit of the doubt, even in the middle of World War II's paranoia.

On the negative side: There are a lot of women in this book, and, although past events are mentioned, none of them gets a very clear introduction. I had a hard time keeping track of everyone, and I found the peripheral players particularly hard to track, and sometimes got quite annoyed when yet another person bearing jam and gossip walked through the door.

There's also one persistent side-issue that keeps popping up and is eventually solved through an unbelievable coincidence. I might try an earlier volume sometime, or I might not. The book never really reached the "I must find more of these books" level of interest, more the "I'd like to be fair and give Ballard another chance" level. We'll see.

Other Reviews
Dru's Book Musings

Got one I missed? Let me know and I'll add it to the list!

Links of Interest
Mignon F. Ballard's Home Page
Facebook.com/mignon.ballard
Miss Dimple Suspects on Amazon.

Book Review: Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Princess Ben : Being a Wholly Truthful Account of her Various Discoveries and Misadventures, Recounted to the Best of Her Recollection is the story of how Princess Benevolence learned to become a proper princess and saved her kingdom in the process. Ben is a slightly spoiled child living happily with her parents. Then, they are killed and she finds herself heir to the kingdom and subject to the queen's kill-or-cure re-education and makeover process. She rebels, runs away, and eventually figures out how to actually be a princess.

By the end, it's kind of charming: I enjoy a good tale of hidden passages, mysterious passages, secret magic lessons, and (possibly) dragons. The political intrigue finally comes into focus and starts to matter, and some mysteries are cleared up. There are even hints of an eccentric castle here: The magic room only gives lessons when it wants to, it only lets her open the book to certain pages, and it insists she clean it.

The trouble is Princess Ben spends about three-quarters of the book being a nearly intolerable brat. I knew she'd straighten out eventually, that was the kind of story it is, but she took far too long. Even once she starts learning to use magic, she spends most of the book using it for small, selfish things. I mean, she sneaks around and steals stuff rather than learning useful things. The one Useful Thing she does overhear, she has to have explained to her later in words of one syllable, and even then she doesn't actually do anything about it until much, much later in the book.

I only managed last long enough to reach the charming bits it because a) secret passages and b) It was on my MP3 player and I was busy. Also, I had a hard time believing that the, by all appearances, politically savvy queen could come up with such a stupid re-education program. I could believe in one Ben wouldn't like (there was not much she would like at that point), but not one that featured such an inept tutor.

The pseudo-archaic dialog bothered me too. I can only handle so many inverted sentences at a time, and "wherefore" is not an old-fashioned way of saying "where." It really isn't.

Verdict? Only for the truly die-hard Princess fans. Tuesdays at the Castle is a much better eccentric castle book with a much more congenial set of orphan heirs.

Other Reviews by other reviewers some of whom liked it rather more than I, and some of whom did not:
Teen Book Review
Small Review
Pica Reads
The Story Siren

Wonder Woman Vols. 1&2 by by George Pérez (Author), Len Wein (Author), Greg Potter (Author), Bruce Patterson (Illustrator)

I tend to circle Wonder Woman stories cautiously. Part of the problem is she's the heroine everyone talks about, the one I'm absolutely supposed to like, the way I like Batman or Superman, someone who's just there--but who is a woman, and who is holding the "prominent woman superhero" status all on her lonesome. That's a huge load for one character to carry. Add to that, she's supposed to be both peaceful and a warrior. No tension there!

Anyway, emboldened by my enjoyment of J. Michael Straczynski's Wonder Woman, I decided to try Perez's earlier retelling. My reaction is decidedly mixed.

Wonder Woman Vol 1: Gods and Mortals
The gods are in deep trouble. Mars is getting way out of hand, threatening to destroy the human race with his hijinks and thus destroying the gods, who need human worship to survive. For reasons that are not quite clear, they can't fight Mars themselves but need Wonder Woman to defeat the god of war and (hopefully) bring him to his senses.

The bad (and it's very bad): Rape as backstory. For an entire race. Honestly! Hercules tricks the peaceful (yet skilled in war) Amazons into trusting them, takes them into captivity where they are systematically raped. They escape and are sent by the goddesses (and god: Mercury had a role) who created them to live in isolation on Themyscira, guarding against the escape of evil imprisoned under the island. There are hints that this is for their protection, but equal, and somewhat contradictory, hints that this is something of a punishment for their failure to teach the world how to live peacefully, and for their anger at their rapists. This is a very strange, very mixed message.

The good: In the modern day, there are a lot of strong friendships between women and they ring true. One of the keys to Wonder Woman's success is a Harvard researcher, a librarian, and her subsequent friendship with Julia and her daughter, Vanessa, remains a strength throughout both volumes. I also enjoyed the way that Diana's relationship with Steve Trevor becomes one of friendship rather than romance, and that Etta now has a major role, a lot of backbone, and the ability to plan on her own.

Wonder Woman needs her mortal allies in challenging the god, which is a definite plus: I do prefer team heroes to soloists. The byplay among the godly onlookers doesn't add a lot to the tale (Who cares what happens to Aphrodite?), but does give some backstory when needed.

Verdict: Entertaining, but hasn't really hooked me on reading more Wonder Woman, and I'm still finding the superheroes the least interesting of the graphic novels I've picked up during the Summer of the Graphic Novel (Yes, I know, it's now the Winter of etc, but the "half year of..." is really lame sounding, and the Summer of the Dragonfly is still going on, and that started last year)

Wonder Woman vol 2: Challenge of the Gods
As with volume one, the friendships are strong, and The individual challenges and battles are entertaining enough, but once again the Amazons are threatened with destruction if Wonder Woman doesn't prove her worth. For a group of immortal warriors, they're awfully vulnerable. Oh, and once again they are threatened with rape. The bulk of the story is shaped by Zeus planning on an extended vacation down on the island full of beautiful women; he's angry when Diana refuses his initial offer of "blessing" and presents her with a series of challenges to prove her worth and preserve her, and the island's, safety from his lust. This is not out of character for the god, really, but this is the second book in a row where rape has been a major plot point.

Also, the whole Hercules raped the Amazons story is continued. While I am quite sure that there are valuable tales to be told about a woman forgiving her rapist, and I'm sure that they could (perhaps have) been told in comic book form, I am also certain that these stories shouldn't involve magically resolving the issue by tying rapist and victim together with a magic lasso of truth. That whole "magical insight" and "instant understanding" completely undermines and ignores the trauma of rape. Having Hercules declared more of a man because he realizes women can be equal to men? Not bad. Rewarding him with a kiss from his victim? Very bad.

Again, there are some good bits here: The friendships remain strong. I liked the Etta and Steve romance--I'm a sucker for a good romance. Also, though I probably wasn't supposed to, I loved the rapacious, over-the-top publicity agent, Myndi Mayer. Here jeweled heels and refusal to take no for an answer were wonderful.

All in all, though, I wouldn't say this was one of my more enjoyable forays into the world of superheroes.

The bit that interests me most is almost a throwaway bit: The first arc in here concerns the Cheetah and her attempt to lure Wonder Woman in by promising her evidence of the lost Amazons, the ones who didn't take the gods offer/exile of life in isolation on Themyscira. Nothing, other than a fight scene, comes of it, but I can't help thinking that there's more to tell of that tale in the future.

So, it's a mixed bag, and of course Perez's reinvention has now been trumped, or at least enfolded, by Straczynski's which has in turn been wiped from continuity by the New 52.

Other Reviews links of interest

Gods and Mortals on Goodreads
Challenge of the Gods on Goodreads

Got a review you think I should link to? Let me know!

Gods and Mortals on Amazon
Challenge of the Gods on Amazon

Book Review: The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines

I like a good fairytale mashup, and this one is very good. Hines goes back and draws on the Grimm version of the fairy tales, complete with the stepsisters cutting off parts of their feet to fit the shoe and the birds attacking at the wedding, and updates and blends them together to tell a new tale of intrigue and romance.

Cinderella has already won her prince. She is ready for a happy ending, and the marriage is happy. Adjusting to palace life, however, is proving challenging; she keeps having to repress the urge to clean things and having people remind her that she is supposed to be the one in charge is difficult. Then her stepsisters kidnap her husband and smuggle him over the border to fairyland. Now, she has to team up with Talia (Sleeping Beauty) and Snow (White) to get him back, battling magic, trolls, evil shadows, and political schemes along the way. She has to learn how to be in charge, how to handle a sword, and, hardest of all, when to be nice and when to go for the kill.

I picked up The Stepsister Scheme because I liked the title, and it proved a good call. The book is like its title: A little offbeat and fun. It's got some spy stuff, some neat fairy tale twists, some spunky princesses, a prince worth rescuing, and a complicated and interesting fairyland.

I've read the "innocent expecting a happily ever after learns its not that easy" before, and it's not my favorite plot, but there is enough else going on here to keep things new. Also, while Danielle has to learn to be a little more cynical, she helps Talia learn to be a little less so, so there's some balance there. Do be aware that, though I persist in describing this book as "fun" that doesn't mean it doesn't go some dark places. The story of Snow and her mother, in particular, is quite nasty and there are parallels there with Cinderella's stepmother. Hines is using the early Grimm stories as the basis for his tales and, as many people lately have been saying, these were not always "nice" or "pretty" in their details.

Verdict: Not up there on the "must hand it to everyone I know" level, but certainly on the "I want to read the sequels" list.


Other Reviews
Fantasy Book Critic
The Mad Hatter's Bookshelf and Book Review
The Good, the Bad, and the Unread

Links
Jim C. Hines' web page
@jimchines on Twitter

The Stepsister Scheme on Amazon.

Book Review: Wednesdays in the Tower by Jessica Day George

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George was a tremendously fun book about an eccentric castle and the people who lived in it (see my review here). The sequel, Wednesdays in the Tower, is even better. In Tuesdays, Celie and her brother and sister had to deal with missing parents, conniving councilors, and a takeover attempt by a neighboring prince. They're aided by an eccentric, unpredictable castle who nudges them in the direction they need to go. In Wednesdays in the Tower, the family is back home, but there is now a strange wizard intent on researching the castle, and the castle has presented Celie with a baby gryphon that it wants her to hide from everyone else. The castle's behavior is even stranger than this, though, as it starts adding new rooms in a seemingly arbitrary fashion, puzzling and worrying the Glower family who, in addition to ruling by its grant, love their strange home.

I loved the castle in Tuesdays in the Castle. I think I love it even more now that it's being somewhat selfish, even putting its favorite people in danger. It makes it seem even more real and alive now that it is truly desperate and needs help and, since it cannot communicate clearly, is now being downright manipulative. Part of what makes this appealing rather than evil is that Celie still loves the castle. The other part is that we learn that the castle used to be more, and it's entirely possible that at some point in the past it really could communicate with its caretakers/people/friends so that its current, rather fractured and imperfect method is probably frustrating and worrying it at least as much as it does Celie and her family.

I was slightly disappointed that Lilah, Celie's older sister, got less page time in this book. Mostly, Celie is busy caring for a truly delightful young gryphon and working with her brothers, Rolf and Bran. Bran, Celie's older brother, was absent for most of Tuesdays in the Castle, and I'm pleased to say he makes a fine addition to the sibling group. He's just finished his training as a wizard and is balanced between being an adult and being the familiar older brother. Rolf and Celie are a great brother-sister pair, and Pogue, the blacksmith's son gets an expanded role.

The castle's unpredictable behavior makes Wednesday's in the Tower more of a page turner than Tuesdays in the Castle. While Tuesdays was delightful, and I wanted to see some more peaceful days with the castle, its care for the children meant things were probably not going to get too bad for them. Now, their ally has turned strange, and they are left more to their own devices in figuring things out. Their other opponent here has a more complicated motivation that helps keep matters unpredictable. All of this means that Wednesdays in the Tower is a sequel better than its predecessor and I'm definitely eager for the third book in the series.

Publication Information
Hardcover, 235 pages
Published May 7th 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's (first published May 1st 2013)
ISBN: 1599906457 (ISBN13: 9781599906454)