Favorite Slayers Handbook
Lay the Favorite, by Beth Raymer
I really liked this book. Partly because it's a very well-told story, but also because a lot of it takes place in Vegas at the beginning of the 2000s, which is the time I used to visit it the most, because one of our best friends lived there. I kept expecting him to turn up in one of her stories :D. I liked it so much I'm now watching the movie, which is mostly not nearly as good except that her youth and goofiness and naivete comes across more clearly than it did in the book. And also, you know, Bruce Willis. I <3 Bruce Willis.
(117)
The Diary of Mattie Spencer, by Sandra Dallas
This was a very compelling read, hard to put down, but it rang a bit hollow for me - I kept having the experience I'm used to from reading REAL diaries and travelogues, thinking "OOH, I know where that is, neat to read about it in the past.... ohwait. Right. Novel." And also I felt that a lot of the sad things near the end of the book were clearly telegraphed at the beginning, to the point where I just sort of spent the whole book in dread of their eventual unveiling. And yet, I did like it. Just not as much as I hoped I might.
(118)
Handbook for Dragon Slayers, by Merrie Haskell
I started out a little wary of this one - it's hard to read books of people you already know(ish) and think highly of - but I LOVED IT. The set-up was maybe a bit slow, but not in a bad way, just in a not-quite-revealing-how-incredibly-in-love-with-the-book I would soon become. And as for the meat of the book, well! I loved the characters. I liked their flaws. I *really* appreciated that the heroine has a bum leg, given my own sometimes-bum-leg - it was amazing to read a tween adventure story that articulated that so well. It articulated A LOT of stuff really well. So well that I am singularly NOT articulate, trying to describe it. Reduced to arm-flapping-so-fun-best-middle-grade-novel-I've-read-in-ages expostulations, I am! Also I am bolstered.
(119)
I really liked this book. Partly because it's a very well-told story, but also because a lot of it takes place in Vegas at the beginning of the 2000s, which is the time I used to visit it the most, because one of our best friends lived there. I kept expecting him to turn up in one of her stories :D. I liked it so much I'm now watching the movie, which is mostly not nearly as good except that her youth and goofiness and naivete comes across more clearly than it did in the book. And also, you know, Bruce Willis. I <3 Bruce Willis.
(117)
The Diary of Mattie Spencer, by Sandra Dallas
This was a very compelling read, hard to put down, but it rang a bit hollow for me - I kept having the experience I'm used to from reading REAL diaries and travelogues, thinking "OOH, I know where that is, neat to read about it in the past.... ohwait. Right. Novel." And also I felt that a lot of the sad things near the end of the book were clearly telegraphed at the beginning, to the point where I just sort of spent the whole book in dread of their eventual unveiling. And yet, I did like it. Just not as much as I hoped I might.
(118)
Handbook for Dragon Slayers, by Merrie Haskell
I started out a little wary of this one - it's hard to read books of people you already know(ish) and think highly of - but I LOVED IT. The set-up was maybe a bit slow, but not in a bad way, just in a not-quite-revealing-how-incredibly-in-love-with-the-book I would soon become. And as for the meat of the book, well! I loved the characters. I liked their flaws. I *really* appreciated that the heroine has a bum leg, given my own sometimes-bum-leg - it was amazing to read a tween adventure story that articulated that so well. It articulated A LOT of stuff really well. So well that I am singularly NOT articulate, trying to describe it. Reduced to arm-flapping-so-fun-best-middle-grade-novel-I've-read-in-ages expostulations, I am! Also I am bolstered.
(119)