All posts tagged book reviews

City of Glass was Magical

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

City of Glass coverI recently read City of Glass by Cassandra Clare.  This story was great.  I bought this book used off of Amazon.com when I realized that I was #5 on the waiting list at the library, and all the books after this on the waiting list were going to become available sooner.  So I spent a few dollars for my own copy rather than waiting for this one to become available, and then waiting several more months for this story to conclude.

While this review doesn’t contain spoilers for City of Glass, it may contain spoilers for the first two books.

My experience was probably different than someone reading it in 2009, when this book first came out, because I had the benefit of being able to look up online what was going to happen between Clary and Jace.  I won’t say here what happens because I don’t want to include spoilers, but the whole incest issue between the two of them does resolve itself.  In this book.  So if you’re thinking “eeew” as you read this book, don’t worry about it.  It will get fixed.  In about 400 pages.

When we last left these characters, Clary had discovered that there was a way to cure her mother, but it required her to travel to Idris.  Jace doesn’t want her to go, however, thinking it’s too dangerous.  Fortunately, Clary has a mind of her own and isn’t about to let her brother tell her what to do.

Due to a few things that happen, both Luke and Simon end up in Idris as well, and they’re not supposed to be there.

There are bigger things to worry about than that, however.  Valentine still has the Mortal Cup and Mortal Sword, and he still wants to use them to root out what he sees as corruption in the Clave.  At least, that’s how he puts it.  Part of him just wants to take over the world.

By the time you get to the end of this book, secrets will be revealed and people will die.  We also meet new characters.  Even though I did look up spoilers to find out what was up with the whole Jace/Clary thing, reading the books up to this point clarified quite a few things.

One of the things that I appreciate about these books, that I haven’t mentioned before, is that there is a lot of Bible and historical literature in these books.  For example, Clary wrote Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin at one point, without realizing what that meant.  I recognized it as what “the handwriting on the wall” was in the book of Daniel.  We also see lines from Milton and some Latin.  These certainly aren’t theological books, but I find the references to be clever.

I also love it when books have themes to them.  The Mortal Instruments books seem to speak about corruption.  How people use power wrongly.  How people take advantage of laws to benefit themselves, even if by doing so they are acting immorally.  Through the character of Valentine, we even see how evil can package itself in an attractive manner.  These details make me enjoy the books more.

I absolutely could not put this book down, and read it in two days, despite having to work and do other things.  If you haven’t read City of Glass yet, you should continue with this story.

City of Ashes was Outstanding

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments

City of Ashes CoverI recently finished reading Cassandra Clare’s second book in the Mortal Instruments series, City of Ashes.  I thought it was great.  You may recall that I read City of Bones a few months ago and I said that it was just good, but I expected better from books after that, since that was an early book of hers.

As this review is the second book in a series, it may contain spoilers for City of Bones.

I was correct in thinking that, because I thought that this was a great book.  My problems with City of Bones was that there were a few occasions of infodumping, and I found the reaction of the characters to some of the situations they were facing to be unrealistic.  I didn’t see those problems here.  I did see one paragraph that seemed like a little infodump, but it didn’t affect my thoughts of the book at all.

As City of Ashes begins, the character’s lives have been upended.  Clary and Jace seem to have feelings for each other but are evidently siblings, their mom is in a coma in the hospital, and their father, Valentine, is causing trouble.

Jace’s adoptive mother is having trouble believing all that happened in the first book, and calls upon the Inquisitor to find out the truth.  The Clave can use the Mortal Sword to force him to tell the truth.  But… dun dun dun!  Valentine seems to have stolen it.  Will he cause even more problems?

The Inquisitor seems to have a thing against Jace from the moment she sees him, and tries to make things difficult for him.  Unfortunately, Jace and his friends are also the only people that see what’s going on, and they have to overcome both Valentine’s forces and the Clave’s representative in order to put things right, or at least as right as they can be.

Meanwhile, Jace and Clary still obviously have non-brotherly/sisterly feelings for each other.  Clary reacts to this by forming a love relationship with Simon.  I personally didn’t like them together.  They didn’t seem to have more than friends chemistry.

I love the characters and the world in this book, and although I can’t keep all the different types of demons and blades straight, I doubt that there will be a quiz on it later.  I definitely think that City of Ashes was a great second installment to the Mortal Instruments series, and I’m looking forward to reading the next book.

Give the Dark My Love…

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Give the Dark My Love CoverI was recently given the opportunity to read Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis.  I received it through Penguin’s First to Read program.  It was a good book, although I can’t say that it was my favorite.

Nedra is a 17 year old girl who grew up in a poor village.  She doesn’t have many prospects in life… until she gets a scholarship to a prestigious school, where she plans to train to become a medical alchemist.  While she doesn’t feel quite like she fits in, she develops a friendship with another student there, Grey, that seems to be developing into more than friendship.

There’s a plague crossing the land, and Nedra wants to stop it, or even try to find a cure.  As the story progresses, she ends up discovering that there may be necromancy involved.  Necromancy is illegal.  Grey is not too excited about this.  At the end, there are some twists and turns, and Nedra seems to be sliding into the dark side.  Will she be a villain in book 2?  I hope to find out.

The Good

There are a lot of good things about Give the Dark My Love.  I liked the characters and the family relationships that Nedra had.  There’s some political intrigue, and it speaks a little bit about class and privilege.  The magical system is well thought out (except in this world, it’s not magic, it’s science).  I liked the plot twist at the end of the story as well.

The Not as Good

Overall, I enjoyed the book.  I would have liked to have seen more of the relationship between Nedra and Grey, and there was a lot that went on between Nedra and her professor that wasn’t shown either.  The writing style didn’t draw me in as much as some of the other books that I’ve read recently have, but it was still quite good.

Conclusion

Give the Dark My Love has at least two books to it, and I would like to continue with the series (although I’ll probably try to obtain an ARC or check it out from the library).  For me, I don’t think that this book has endless rereadability, but it I did like it.

This book is expected to go on sale on September 25th, but you can pre-order it now.

Caraval Invites You to a Magical World

By Brookelorren on 6 Comments

Welcome to the exciting world of Caraval!  That is what my library could have told me when I found out it was available for download after a short time on the waiting list.  Caraval is a book full of magic, mystery, danger, and love (mostly between sisters).

Scarlett had always wanted to experience the magic that was Caraval.  From the age of ten, she wrote to Legend, the Master of Caraval, hoping to get tickets for her and her sister Donatella (Tella).  Her grandmother had told her stories and made it seem wonderful.  It seemed like a wonderful dream, while in her own life…

Her father was abusive, he wouldn’t let them leave the island that they lived on, and she decided to get married to someone that she had never met just to escape.  One day, she finally gets tickets to Caraval, after she had given up.  She no longer wants to go, thinking that her marriage will save her from her toxic life.

She ends up going anyway; you’ll just have to read the book to find out how.  After she gets there, she discovers that it’s not quite what she was expecting.  It seems to be a magical, more dangerous version of Las Vegas, where everything that happens in Caraval is supposed to stay there.  We find out that not everything stays there, however.  Scarlett’s sister is kidnapped, and she has to find her before it is too late.

She ends up partnering up with Julian, a brash sailor who is definitely not Scarlett’s type, although deep down inside, she finds him to be devastatingly handsome.  Over the course of the search, Scarlett grows as a person, and comes to the realization that maybe she’s putting her hopes into the wrong things.

In the end, we find out the truth about what went on in Caraval.  Maybe… Scarlett wasn’t actually saving Tella after all.  Perhaps Tella was saving her.  Maybe Julian isn’t actually a sailor.  Again, you’ll have to read to find out.

What I Liked

I enjoyed this book.  The characters were likeable, and they grew as people as they struggled through the book.  Scarlett is very practical (maybe a little too much so) and protective of her impulsive sister.  Tella is a little too impulsive.  The love between these sisters is what drives the story, which I found to be a really sweet underlying theme.


There was a lot of mystery to this book, and as I read, I couldn’t help but to wonder what was really going on.  In Caraval, nothing is exactly as it seems.  The book reveals much of its mysteries by the end of the book… but then we realize that there is one more mystery to be solved.  Now I can’t wait to read the next book, which I’m on the waiting list to read at the library.

Anything I Didn’t Like?

I can’t think of anything that I didn’t like about this book.  Maybe at the beginning of the book, Scarlett seems a little hopeless and clueless, but as she grows throughout the book, she becomes a strong person in her own right.

I enjoyed Caraval quite a lot and am looking forward to reading the next book, Legendary, as it becomes available.  If you haven’t read it yet and choose to check it out, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Origin: Not as Good as I Originally Hoped

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Origin by Dan Brown coverThe other day I was at the library and I found Dan Brown’s book Origin on the shelf.  When it came out last year, I thought it sounded interesting, so I decided to pick it up.  I really enjoyed the puzzles in his book  The Lost Symbol, and I was hoping for a book that had a similar feel to it.  Sadly, I was disappointed in this book.

Our main protagonist, Robert Langdon, is a professor who was invited to an event by a former student and friend of his, Edmund Kirsch, who promises to unveil earth-shattering news that would destroy religion forever.  Unfortunately, the event ends with a horrific crime, before the earth-shattering news could be delivered.  Professor Langdon and the future queen of Spain, Ambra Vidal, need to find out a way to release this information to the world… before it is too late.

I didn’t feel the whole sense of puzzle-solving and excitement in this book that I thought I would.  There was some symbology and some poetry to decipher, but there wasn’t as much in this book as I would have hoped.  There were some drawings in this book, but the symbols printed weren’t really critical to solving the character’s problems.

The future queen, Ambra Vidal, didn’t really seem to be that interesting of a character, I thought.  I just didn’t connect with her.  When they finally are able to make the big reveal about the origin of life that was supposed to be so earth-shattering?  That was a little disappointing as well.  Rather than being an amazing discovery, it seemed to be something that futurists have been talking about for years… and as part of the presentation, the author made jabs at more conservative religious people, which I found to be unnecessary.

At the end, we find out who the criminal was that orchestrated the crime, and while it was surprising, it wasn’t incredibly shocking.

I did like some things about this novel.  Since the novel is set in Spain, I like the liberal use of Spanish throughout the novel.  It’s used in such a way that even if you don’t know Spanish, you can still figure out what is going on.  I enjoyed translating it.  If you’re an art lover, there is plenty of art talk.  I found the buildings, description of architecture, and some of the concepts in here that are real (like the inclusion of the Palmarian church, for example) to be interesting as well.  Even though the overall plot didn’t grab me, there were some elements that I found to be intriguing.

Although Origin wasn’t my favorite Dan Brown book, I think that there are people that will like it.  It just wasn’t my favorite.

When Elephants Fly Was Good, But I Could Have Gotten More

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I recently received a copy of When Elephants Fly, by Nancy Richardson Fischer.  I forgot that I had entered a sweepstakes to win it, and I was pretty excited to see it in my mailbox.  It is a wonderful story about a girl, Lily, whose mother had schizophrenia and tried to kill her.  She just turned 18 and thinks that if she just keeps a stress-free life between now and the time she’s 30, then she’ll be able to prevent getting it herself.

Unfortunately, life doesn’t quite work out that way.  Living a life without stress means that you also miss out on a lot of good things in life.  She’s reluctant to apply for any college other than her local community college (her therapist convinces her to apply for a good college anyway, and she decides to apply to the best college out there, USC).  She had been reluctant to apply for the internship at the local newspaper as well, but as our story begins, she had already been accepted and is working there.

At the internship, Lily gets to write little pieces for her local newspaper on local interest events, like the new baby calf being born at the zoo.  Unfortunately, after the baby calf is born, its mother rejects the calf and tries to kill it, which brings up her own memory of when her mother tried to kill her.  This triggers a series of events that changes Lily’s life forever, as she tries to save the baby elephant.  It brings more excitement into her life for sure, but also causes the risk of mental illness to increase.

I thought this book was pretty good.  I really enjoyed Lily’s friendship with her best friend, Sawyer, which unfortunately becomes strained during this book.  Sawyer is going through his own problems with detached parents, and Lily doesn’t see that for a while because of her own problems.  I would have liked to have seen more of their friendship though.

Lily meets a guy in this book that she develops a relationship with, but I don’t particularly feel it all that much.  Maybe if they would have spent more time together, I would have shipped them more, but as written, they were just okay together.  This part of the book could have gotten a little more attention.

The ending of the book leaves a lot unresolved.  Does Lily get into USC?  Does she develop schizophrenia?  What happens to her friend?  What happens to her and her new boyfriend?  What happens to the baby elephant?

Overall, I thought When Elephants Fly was good.  The subject matter is really important; there are so many people these days dealing with mental issues, so this book will be helpful for a lot of people.  The story was good, the characters were interesting, and the friendship in this book was represented well.  It goes on sale on September 4th, but you can pre-order it now.

Strange the Dreamer is Like a Beautiful Dream

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Strange the Dreamer CoverJust recently I finished reading Strange the Dreamer, by Laini Taylor.  Her writing has been described as beautiful prose.  If you’re unfamiliar with her writing, you’ll just have to read her works to see it.  I didn’t want to put down this book, and I’m looking forward to reading the second half of this duology, Muse of Nightmares, later on this year.

Lazlo Strange is an orphan.  He was originally raised in a monastery, but he is drawn to stories.  When he gets the opportunity to deliver books to the library, he decides not to leave.  He becomes an apprentice librarian, reading books in his spare time.  With his head in a book and his mind in a fairy tale all the time, he becomes known as Strange the Dreamer.  Above all other stories, he is fascinated by the story of a city called Weep.  Or at least, that’s what everybody calls it now.  Lazlo knows that it had another name… once.  He felt it disappearing from his mind.

Lazlo would have continued this life indefinitely, living out his life as a lowly librarian, until fate intervened.  He decides to take a chance and do something bold, which is a move that will change his life forever.

In the city of Weep, there is a girl called Sarai.  She lives with a few other people, isolated from the rest of the world.  Until the day that she finds herself in Lazlo’s dreams.  This is the beginning of an unlikely romance.

Lazlo and Sarai are from two different worlds that don’t understand each other.  Will their relationship ever evolve from anything outside of dreams?  You’ll have to read the story to find out.

The characters in this story are outstanding.  Lazlo is not particularly handsome on the outside, but he’s an interesting character that more than one avid reader will probably be able to identify with.  In contrast to Lazlo’s rough exterior and beautiful insides, the people that are beautiful on the outside aren’t always the most beautiful people on the inside.  Our other main protagonist, Sarai, is also a wonderfully complex character, who has changed over time as she gains understanding about the people around her.

Like the prose of this story, the world of this story is also beautiful.  Ms. Taylor’s writing is wonderfully descriptive, which makes the deserts and cities and library come alive.  Even though this world contains creatures and magic not present in our own world, it’s not hard to imagine.

Strange the Dreamer seems to have underlying themes to it.  Revenge and hate is not the answer.  Good people sometimes do bad things.  Often, both sides of a conflict have good reasons to have grievances against the other, but if we let hatred simmer forever, it hurts everyone.  If those aren’t messages that we need more than ever, I don’t know what are.

If you’re looking for a beautiful story in an imaginative world that you won’t want to put down, consider getting this book.

George Whitefield: Evangelist for God and Empire Paints a Realistic Portrait

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

I recently was given a copy of George Whitefield: Evangelist for God and Empire, written by Peter Y. Choi.  Like a lot of people who know a lot about the history of the American colonies or of religious history, I knew who George Whitefield (pronounce WIT-field) was.  Whitefield is often portrayed as a preacher who played a huge part in the Great Awakening.  He’s often painted as a saint.  This book seems to paint a more balanced portrait of the preacher.

George Whitefield:  Evangelist for God and Empire tells of the life of Whitefield, not just as a preacher, but as someone who also was a flawed individual, like all of us.  Yes, he preached to the masses during the Great Awakening, but he also owned slaves, had questionable practices with regards to his orphanage, tried to found a college, and involved himself in politics during the War of 1812.

Even though I knew some things about Whitefield before reading this book, there was a lot more to this book that I didn’t know.  Although a lot of things in this book (looking from a 21st century perspective) were not good, like pushing for slavery in Georgia, it was good to learn about these other aspects of his life as well.

The book was a fairly scholarly book, so it wasn’t one that I could read straight through.  It wasn’t a book that I couldn’t put down, and I did read a few other books while I was working on this one, but the information in this book was interesting.  The book is worth reading if you want to learn more about this preacher.

I realize that there have been several non-YA book reviews over the last week and a half, and unfortunately, that’s just how it worked out… I really couldn’t move the dates of my reviews because I wanted the ARCs to get out in a timely manner, and I also wanted to keep my upcoming Throne of Glass and Red Queen reviews together.  On Thursday, we will resume our normal YA reviews with Strange the Dreamer.

Friction Won’t Rub Your Business the Wrong Way

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I was at the library the other day and I picked up Friction: Passion Brands in the Age of Disruption.  I remember Glenn Beck talking about it a year ago.  At the time, it seemed like a book for larger companies with physical products, but it looked like a quick read, so I picked it up.  If you are a small business owner, I recommend you pick it up.  It’s not just for big businesses.  It’s for bloggers too.

I’ve been writing on the internet since college (and earning money from my writing for almost as long), but I still don’t earn enough to equal my pay at Walmart.  It doesn’t help that some of the places that I used to write for no longer exist, so that money is gone.  At least personal blogs don’t go away unless you want them too.  Anyway, I always feel that I can be more successful at what I’m doing.  Friction actually has pretty good advice for small businesses like bloggers.

One of the main premises of the book is this: people don’t like commercials.  Do you ever pay attention to banner ads?  Do your eyes glaze over like mine when you scroll past sponsored Tweets and Facebook posts?  I thought so.  Getting the word out about your product today is a lot different than it was 10, 15 years ago.

People like getting value for their time.  They don’t want to watch commercials.  They want personalized content.  They don’t like popup ads.  Removing the “friction” from a user’s experience will cause people to want to come back.  This is good advice, whether you are running a physical business where you want to make it easier for people to shop at your store, or if you’re running a blog and you’re hoping that people will want to come back.

The book is really easy to read.  I read it in a few hours.  The type is big and there are a lot of pictures.  Even though it’s not a densely packed book, it will get you to think, what can I do to reduce friction with my customers/readers/etc.?  That question that you will walk away with is probably the most important part of the book.

Whatever your business goals are, Friction is a helpful book to read.

My Mother, Barack Obama, and the USA

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments

My Mother Barack Obama coverAbout a month ago, I received an advanced review copy of Kevin Powell’s My Mother, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and the Last Stand of the Angry White Man.  It’s a long title for a book that’s only 281 pages long.  I think I won it in a contest.

For a book like this, it’s probably important to know a little bit about my political thoughts, because it might shape my perception of this book.  I’m a conservative libertarian.  While I think that Donald Trump’s policies have been a mixed bag, as a person, I think that he is an adulterous, racist, sexist, compulsively-lying braggart; I don’t like him as a person at all, and didn’t vote for him (I voted for Darrell Castle).

I didn’t know how I would feel about this book when I entered the contest to win it; however, I believe in listening to the opinions of others.  How are you going to learn if you live in a bubble and only read books by people that agree with you?  Nevertheless, I did find this to be an enjoyable book, even though I don’t agree with him on several issues.

This book is a collection of essays written by Kevin Powell over a period of several years.  It covers a variety of topics, including racism, sexism, music, and sports.  Evidently, Mr. Powell is a former cast member of The Real World, as well as a staff member of Vibe magazine.  I didn’t know that when I started the book, but I guess some people may recognize him from those sources.

I found this book an interesting view into another person’s thoughts.  I’ve never been the victim of sexual harassment before, but his mother has, and he speaks about her experiences, and about the experiences that he had, growing up and thinking that sexual harassment and domination was a normal thing.  His thoughts on racism from the perspective of a black man growing up in the ghetto was also interesting (my husband is also black and grew up in a poor neighborhood with a single mother as well, but his experiences were quite different).  His essays on music brought back memories.

I rated this book more highly on Goodreads than I did Harbor Me, which I reviewed last week.  They both cover similar topics, but I think that My Mother, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and the Last Stand of the Angry White Man did a better job covering the subjects than Harbor Me did.  Of course, this is a collection of essays, while Woodson’s Book is a fictional Middle Grade book, but I think that this book just seemed to work better.

Powell’s unique perspective did cause me to see things from a different perspective.  Although I don’t agree with him on everything, I can understand how he feels about the political situation that the United States finds itself in today.  I felt for his mother, who was abandoned by her baby’s daddy years ago, and never really found love in her life.  As I read about his mom and how he one day discovered how old she had gotten, I had to call my mom (I talked to my parents for over an hour this evening).

More than anything, I could imagine the cycle of despair that his family had grown up in, and I imagine how things like that continue to this day.  There are families where the kids grow up without a parent, and they are told that they are worth less for one reason or another.  I see how people might take someone’s ignorant or malicious comments personally.  I don’t know how we end this cycle, because children growing up under these difficult circumstances can sometimes grow up to become angry adults whose children have the same kind of childhood, but I do know that we can do our best to treat everybody with respect, and do our part to try not to contribute to the hate in the world.

At any rate, Powell’s book was good.  If you’re looking for a book that could potentially challenge your opinions, you might want to take a look at it.

This book is scheduled to be released on September 4th, but you can pre-order it now.