2015 Book 65: The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #1) by Rick Riordan; isbn 9781423160915; 497 pages; Disney Hyperion; hardcover; $19.99

The Premise: (From the Goodreads page) Magnus Chase has always been a troubled kid. Since his mother’s mysterious death, he’s lived alone on the streets of Boston, surviving by his wits, ( Read more... )

So of course, when I go to list all the books I've read, I realize: I didn't review them on here in the same order I read them in. So I had to cross-reference to make sure I'm not going to list a book twice or more importantly leave off a book. It also doesn't help that two of the graphic novels I read over the summer were self-published/ ( Read more... )

Book 34: The DemiGod Diaries by Rick Riordan, isbn: 9781423163008, Hyperion, 242 pages, $12.99

The Premise: (from Goodreads) What dangers do runaway demigods Luke and Thalia face on their way to Camp Half-Blood? Are Percy and Annabeth up to the task of rescuing stolen goods from a fire-breathing giant who doesn't take kindly to intruders? How ( Read more... )

Book 24: The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus, Book Three) by Rick Riordan, isbn 9781423140603, hardcover, 586 pages, Hyperion, $19.99

The Premise: (from the Goodreads page): Annabeth is terrified. Just when she's about to be reunited with Percy-after six months of being apart, thanks to Hera-it looks like Camp Jupiter is preparing for war. ( Read more... )

Book 22: The Serpent's Shadow (The Kane Chronicles, Book Three) by Rick Riordan, isbn 9781423140573, hardcover, 406 pages, Hyperion, $19.99

The Premise: (from Goodreads): He's b-a-a-ack! Despite their best efforts, Carter and Sadie Kane can't seem to keep Apophis, the chaos snake, down. Now Apophis is threatening to plunge the world into eternal ( Read more... )

Book 72: The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus Book 2) by Rick Riordan,  isbn 9781423140597, 521 pages, Disney/Hyperion, $19.99

The Premise:

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire the world must fall.
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

Percy is confused. When he awoke from his long sleep, he ( Read more... )

I'm trying to wrap up 2010 as succinctly as possible so I can start 2011 not feeling like I owe people reviews, etc. It's actually interesting -- in the past 2 weeks, I've had one friend tell me to stop stressing over missing reviews (his point being, he likes reading them but he'd rather miss a few reviews and talk to a less-stressed Me) while ( Read more... )

There's a new reader review of THE FIRFLAKE up on the book's Amazon page. Reader Thomas P. Ryan Jr had this to say:

Anthony has done a marvelous job creating an original and clever Christmas story that remains true to the essential meaning of Christmas. Very highly recommended!

Short but sweet review!

Also, according to the book's Amazon page, ( Read more... )

Book 30: The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book One) by Rick Riordan,  isbn 9781423113386, Hyperion,  $17.99

Having plowed through Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books in very short order (once my nephew told me I HAD to read them), I was intrigued to see what the author would do to make The Kane Chronicles different (or if, in fact, he ( Read more... )

The rest of the work day went fine.  I did squeeze in some time to catch up on some of my posts on 365shortstories  including, for those who care, some comments on stories by Edith Wharton, Joyce Carol Oates, Junot Diaz and others.  Yes, I read something by Edith Wharton that was not the dreaded (I had to read it once in high school and once in college and didn't ( Read more... )