Books #4-8
All summaries, because I'm bad at them, taken from barnesandnoble.com.
Title: Which Witch?
Author: Eva Ibbotson
Genre: JF/Fantasy
Date Completed: 6 January
Review: "Arriman the Awful, the Wizard of the North, needs a wife, and, naturally, the only woman a wizard can marry is a witch. But which witch will Arriman choose? Warty, wicked, or just plain rude witches galore enter his spell-casting competition. Poor Belladonna doesn't have a chance. Her spells conjure up pink begonias or ice-cream sundaes, not a single viper or toad. But with the help of a mysterious orphan and a worm named Rover, Belladonna just might do something really sinister."
This is one of my all-time favorite books. I've read almost everything she's ever written, and I rarely regret reading them. This was not such a case. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a light read.
Title: So Now You Know...
Author: Harry Bright and Harlan Briscoe
Genre: Non-Fiction
Date Completed: 7 January
Review: "Curiosity may have killed the cat but it fuels the human spirit. Now you can feast on the most delectable stew of peculiar facts, exotic notions, and incidental information ever gathered together!"
I am well known for having a store of completely useless trivia (did you know that Isaac Newton's dog's name was Diamond?), but this book really took the cake. I already knew some of the information (for example, that pink flamingos are pink because they eat exclusively shrimp; flamingos that don't eat shrimp are white), but there was some information that was new to me (for example, there are more plastic flamingos than real flamingos in the United States). Fun to read and good to impress your friends with.
Title: A Baby By Christmas
Author: Linda Warren
Genre: AF/Romance
Date Completed: 8 January
Review: Okay. Yes. This is a Harlequin Superromance. They're kind of my guilty pleasure books. I usually skip over the smut and just read the plot, and this has a good one. Jake McCain and his wife Elise have been trying for a baby, when CPS springs the news on them that Jake is already a father to a three-year-old boy with developmental delay. The rest of the book centers around Jake and Elise fighting over Ben, reconciling, and proving to the courts and CPS that they can raise this boy and make him into a happy, healthy toddler. If you can gloss over--or don't mind--the smut (which really isn't that bad in this book), I definitely recommend this book.
Title: The Neverending Story
Author: Michael Ende
Genre: YAF/Fantasy
Date Completed: 10 January
Review: "Small and insignificant Bastian Balthazar Bux is nobody's idea of a hero, least of all his own. Then, through the pages of an ancient, mysterious book, he discovers the enchanted world of Fantastica, and only Bastian himself can save the fairy people who live there."
I have never seen the movie (I must be one of the only people my age who hasn't), but the book was amazing. Bastian annoyed me somewhat, but I got the idea that that was rather the point; as Fantastica changed him, as he forgot his old life, he was getting away from his real self and getting too involved in his fantasies, something I think Ende was attempting to caution against (talk about an Author Aesop). I think my favorite thing about the book is that every so often it would start to describe something, then stop and say "But that's another story and shall be told another time." It leaves a lot up to the reader's imagination, and I like that in a book.
Title: Expecting Someone Taller
Author: Tom Holt
Genre: AF/Fantasy/Humor
Date Completed: 20 January (had to wait for my dad to finish it first)
Review: "All he did was run over a badger... sad, but hardly catastrophic. But it wasn't Malcolm fisher's day, for the badger turned out to be none other than Ingolf, last of the Giants. With his dying breath, Ingolf reluctantly handed to Malcolm two Gifts of Power and made him ruler of the world. But can Malcolm cope with the responsibility?"
I'm third-generation American; my mom's grandparents came over from Norway, so you better believe I'd heard the Ring Saga before. Tom Holt took the Saga, did not alter it one bit, and created a hilarious story around it. I started to think that the end was something of a deus ex machina, but then I realised...these are gods involved. Of course it ended with a god who resolved the entanglements. I definitely recommend any Tom Holt book to anyone (I will be attempting to scrounge up a copy of Snow White and the Seven Samurai before the year is up).
Title: Which Witch?
Author: Eva Ibbotson
Genre: JF/Fantasy
Date Completed: 6 January
Review: "Arriman the Awful, the Wizard of the North, needs a wife, and, naturally, the only woman a wizard can marry is a witch. But which witch will Arriman choose? Warty, wicked, or just plain rude witches galore enter his spell-casting competition. Poor Belladonna doesn't have a chance. Her spells conjure up pink begonias or ice-cream sundaes, not a single viper or toad. But with the help of a mysterious orphan and a worm named Rover, Belladonna just might do something really sinister."
This is one of my all-time favorite books. I've read almost everything she's ever written, and I rarely regret reading them. This was not such a case. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a light read.
Title: So Now You Know...
Author: Harry Bright and Harlan Briscoe
Genre: Non-Fiction
Date Completed: 7 January
Review: "Curiosity may have killed the cat but it fuels the human spirit. Now you can feast on the most delectable stew of peculiar facts, exotic notions, and incidental information ever gathered together!"
I am well known for having a store of completely useless trivia (did you know that Isaac Newton's dog's name was Diamond?), but this book really took the cake. I already knew some of the information (for example, that pink flamingos are pink because they eat exclusively shrimp; flamingos that don't eat shrimp are white), but there was some information that was new to me (for example, there are more plastic flamingos than real flamingos in the United States). Fun to read and good to impress your friends with.
Title: A Baby By Christmas
Author: Linda Warren
Genre: AF/Romance
Date Completed: 8 January
Review: Okay. Yes. This is a Harlequin Superromance. They're kind of my guilty pleasure books. I usually skip over the smut and just read the plot, and this has a good one. Jake McCain and his wife Elise have been trying for a baby, when CPS springs the news on them that Jake is already a father to a three-year-old boy with developmental delay. The rest of the book centers around Jake and Elise fighting over Ben, reconciling, and proving to the courts and CPS that they can raise this boy and make him into a happy, healthy toddler. If you can gloss over--or don't mind--the smut (which really isn't that bad in this book), I definitely recommend this book.
Title: The Neverending Story
Author: Michael Ende
Genre: YAF/Fantasy
Date Completed: 10 January
Review: "Small and insignificant Bastian Balthazar Bux is nobody's idea of a hero, least of all his own. Then, through the pages of an ancient, mysterious book, he discovers the enchanted world of Fantastica, and only Bastian himself can save the fairy people who live there."
I have never seen the movie (I must be one of the only people my age who hasn't), but the book was amazing. Bastian annoyed me somewhat, but I got the idea that that was rather the point; as Fantastica changed him, as he forgot his old life, he was getting away from his real self and getting too involved in his fantasies, something I think Ende was attempting to caution against (talk about an Author Aesop). I think my favorite thing about the book is that every so often it would start to describe something, then stop and say "But that's another story and shall be told another time." It leaves a lot up to the reader's imagination, and I like that in a book.
Title: Expecting Someone Taller
Author: Tom Holt
Genre: AF/Fantasy/Humor
Date Completed: 20 January (had to wait for my dad to finish it first)
Review: "All he did was run over a badger... sad, but hardly catastrophic. But it wasn't Malcolm fisher's day, for the badger turned out to be none other than Ingolf, last of the Giants. With his dying breath, Ingolf reluctantly handed to Malcolm two Gifts of Power and made him ruler of the world. But can Malcolm cope with the responsibility?"
I'm third-generation American; my mom's grandparents came over from Norway, so you better believe I'd heard the Ring Saga before. Tom Holt took the Saga, did not alter it one bit, and created a hilarious story around it. I started to think that the end was something of a deus ex machina, but then I realised...these are gods involved. Of course it ended with a god who resolved the entanglements. I definitely recommend any Tom Holt book to anyone (I will be attempting to scrounge up a copy of Snow White and the Seven Samurai before the year is up).