Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan and a Giveaway

Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse is the third book in this very entertaining series. I liked it just as much as the first two - it's light and fluffy with lots of cool adventures and obviously loads of mythological references. Most of which I probably don't get, but ok. Some of the dialogue has been pissing me off for sounding slightly unnatural, but I've been trying not to focus on that. It's totally worth reading for the entertainment value. I have one (or two, can't remember) left in this series, but apparently Rick Riordan has another one based on Egyptian Gods and if that's true then I will definitely be getting that next.

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Darlene from Peeking Between the Pages is giving away Take a Chance On Me by Jill Mansell and it's open worldwide! I am most certainly partial to good chick lit and this books sounds perfect for a cold evening in. Maybe you want to try your luck too? Head on over to Darlene's!

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

The second book in this fun series was just as satisfying as the first one. Percy's adventures are extremely entertaining. I had a few 'isn't this just like Harry Potter' moments (like the trying to recreate a dangerous monster from his remains thing, what's up with that?), but mostly the story is very original. Or as original as you can get when all the adventures are pretty much based on Greek mythology. :-)

In any case, when I read this series I feel like I'm inhaling the story - seriously, these books finish so fast for me, a day or two and they're over! This is strange only because I no longer have that much reading time. Must mean that they're good reads then. And that I have the same taste in books as 9-year-old boys. Ha. :-)

Anyway, these are great fanntasy stories and if you loved Harry Potter then this should definitely be your next stop. Larissa, if you still read this blog, this means you. :-)

Challenges: 2010 Countdown Challenge, What's in a Name?

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

I loved, loved, loved this book! I'm very happy indeed that it's the first in a series of many and that I get to spend quite a bit of time with Percy Jackson.

Percy appears to be a normal boy, he goes to a regular school (although he gets kicked out a lot), he plays basketball, he loves his Mom. He accidentaly vaporises his math teacher and it becomes obvious to everyone that he's more than just a boy. In this first book, Zeus, God of the Sky, thinks that Percy stole his lightning bolt. Great stuff. I can't wait to read the next one in the series, it's on it's way already.

If you like Harry Potter, Neil Gaiman and myths and legends, you'll love this! And The Sunday Times apparently said 'It's Buffy meets Artemis Fowl'. How can you lose with that?

Challenges: 2010 Countdown Challenge

Dance of the Gods and Valley of Silence

These are the second and third books in Nora Roberts' Circle Trilogy. I read the first one, Morrigan's Cross, last year and really enjoyed it. I liked these too - the whole story is about an epic battle between humanity and vampires. There are evil vamps, a good vamp (of the Angel variety), witches, princesses, fairies, dragons and lost worlds. Oh and lots of Celtic mythology, which I love. What more could I want from a quick, relaxing, fun read?

Nora Roberts is a romance writer and I'm not a big romance fan so have not read anything else of hers. In fact, the romance scenes in these books annoyed me too so clearly I haven't changed my mind. I did love the settings and the characters and all the magic though!

I'm almost caught up with my reviews! Yay! :-)

At the moment I'm reading something completely different, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. I haven't read such beautiful writing in quite some time. I'm loving all the people and the depth of characterization is truly astounding. I still have about a third to go but I think I can safely say that Strout will be added to my list of favorite authors.

Missing reviews

I want to tidy things up before the end of the year, so here are some quick thoughts on the last few books I read... and never reviewed.

Misconceptions: Truth, Lies and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood by Naomi Woolf

I was looking for something about the misconceptions about pregnancy and early motherhood, since I was finding pregnancy so different from what I expected. This book is more about the American health industry though so, although interesting, didn't do that much for me. (***)

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

This is ine of those books that I thank the blogosphere for - if I hadn't needed a U author for the A-Z challenge I would have never picked this up in the used bookstore and would have really missed out on a gem. It's a beautifully written heartbreaking story of the realities on life in India - many of you enjoy world literature, seriously, if you haven't read this, put it on your list for 2010. (*****)

Fables volume 1 - Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham

Between Nymeth and Kailana's raving, I couldn't not read this at some point. Charming and original, can't wait to continue the series. Have you watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit, by the way? :-) (*****)

A Break With Charity by Ann Rinaldi

A non-fiction book for teens, I picked this up when we were in Boston earlier this year. It's a story of the Salem witch trials - it had the same characters as The Crucible so I looked things up and it turns out that those characters actually existed! Fascinating. This book isn't exactly well-known and I recommend it for its simplicity and historical interest. (*****)

Shadows in Bronze by Lindsey Davis

The second in the mystery series set in ancient Rome. I like the idea of this series but to be honest I thought that the first book was only mediocre and I couldn't even finish this one... I'm told that it starts getting really good by about book 4. Apparently the historical aspect of ancient Rome is really well-researched and that's very attractive to me so I think I'll persevere... (**)

The Tales of Beetle the Bard

What fun! :-) Reading this short book of stories by J.K. Rowling was just as pleasant and absorbing as reading the Harry Potter books was for me. As in I was totally inside the story world and didn't care about anything else. It's nice when books do that, isn't it?

There are five fairy tales in this collection, each followed by some notes and commentary by Albus Dumbledore. I enjoyed this analysis and 'historical' information just as much as I did the stories themselves.

I won't say more, as it's a short book and you should read it. Unless you hate Harry Potter, in which case it's probably not for you! :-)

Challenges: 2010 Countdown Challenge, 999 Challenge

Morrigan's Cross - and R.I.P. IV challenge done!

Wow, that book sure was fun! I'd never read anything by Nora Roberts before, I don't read romance novels like hers, but I read somewhere that the Circle Trilogy was cool and I was attracted by the promise of Irish lore. It delivered that and it threw in some vampire action too!

Morrigan's Cross is the first book in the trilogy and basically sets the stage for an apocalypse. The Morrigan, Irish goddess of the battlefield (amongst other things) singles out a group of people to lead the battle against Lilith, vampire queen. What's not to like? Plus, being the Buffy geek that I am, I was happy to see a reference to the Slayer - actually, the whole story had many Buffy similarities, though not in an annoying way.

I know that this book isn't for everyone, but if you like Celtic myths and vampires then try it! It has the required cheesy romance bits in it too, but they're easy enough to overlook!

Challenges: 1st in a series, 2010 Countdown Challenge, A-Z Challenge, Celebrate the Author (October 30), R.I.P. IV
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This book concludes Carl's R.I.P. Challenge for me - great fun as always! Of the books I read... hey, I loved all of them! Here they are - Morrigan's Cross by Nora Roberts plus

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Linqvist
No Time for Goodbye by Lynwood Barclay
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus, volume 1 by Joss Whedon et al.


Thanks Carl, for hosting, I enjoy this challenge every single year!

How I Live Now

I thought I should probably get around to writing down my thoughts about Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now before I forget them completely!

This is a book that got loads of attention in the blogoshpere at one point, one of those that everyone was reading and it consistently got good reviews. Perhaps my expectations were set a bit too high because of this and I didn't like it as much as I thought I would, nor as much as I wanted to.

The story is about American Daisy, who is sent over to England to stay with her cousins for a while and ends up having to live through war and occupation as England is invaded by an unnamed enemy. The cousins are separated as soldiers take over their house and are all sent off to work. Obviously the situations they have to live through are horrible and they need to all do a bit of growing to manage.

The storyline is interesting and after reading and absolutely loving Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life As We Knew It, I really, really thought I'd enjoy this. But. I did NOT like Daisy at all. I thought she was whiny and two-dimensional and I didn't really care what happened to her. Or to her cousins. And the relationship between her and cousing Edmond, with whom she falls in love, just creeped me out. It just seemed implausible and stretched and, well, creepy.

The ending was abrupt and didn't explain as much as I wanted to. I ended up feeling cheated!

Maybe I missed something, but I have to admit that I was very disappointed. Anyone else??

Challenges: A-Z, Dewey's Books, It's the End of the World

Confessions of a Reformed Dieter

The subtitle of A.J. Rochester's book is How I dropped 8 dress sizes and took my life back. The memoir was my latest audio book and I chose it because I'm trying to lose weight myself and I thought it would inspire me. I enjoyed it and it did.

A.J. goes from being an obese and unhealthy woman to being a size 12 running addict. That's gotta be inspirational. She's 32 years old and an Australian comedian and performer. In fact, she lost all the weight 'in public', as part of a tv show.

Her story is realistic and has its wise moments, as well as its funny moments. Being funny is what she does, after all. I liked it, but I think you'd only enjoy it if you're also trying to lose weight. I'm sure all the 'lessons learned' by the author are simply common sense to those without weight issues.

Challenges: 888 Challenge

Witch Child

This book by Celia Rees has been on my wishlist for ages and I finally got a copy via bookmooch. It's about Mary, an orphaned English girl whose Grandmother is accused of being a witch and hanged. Mary is sent to America with a group of Puritans to escape the witch hunts. As you can imgaine, things aren't so nice and rosy on the other side either.

The story is told by Mary herself, in the form a journal. It gives the reader an idea of what life would have been like in the 1600s - the mistrust, the fear, the paranoia. Plus it doesn't paint the Indians as the bad guys, which is always a plus for me.

It's meant for young adults so it has a certain nice innocence to it. I enjoyed it, although found it a bit overly simplistic at times. But hey, it's not meant for my age group!

Challenges: 888 Challenge, Historical Fiction Reading Challenge