Saturday, August 09, 2008

When I said "tomorrow"

Well, I meant to post the last four one-paragraph reviews, but I was lazy and didn't. Heh.

So, catching up now while I wait to find out which US woman wins the fencing crown...

The Rites of Spring (Break), by Diana Peterfreund is another perfect beach read. Following the previous two books in the Ivy League/Rose & Grave series, we find Amy and the rest of the Diggers (get it, Grave, Diggers? Yeah) on their way to their island off the Florida coast to enjoy their spring break, following a long winter. See, there are these other secret societies and while the Diggers were almost successful in pulling off a heist, Amy was "caught" and then WW3 broke out, all directed at her. But, she gets to go to a semi-private island and it'd would be great if not for three things. One, her mortal enemy from the first book is also at the island; two, someone is trying to hurt/kill/embarrass the Diggers, focusing again on Amy; and three, the guy she loves to hate...yeah, he's there too. And Amy will be damned before she admits she likes how he looks in a pair swimming trunks.

Oh, hey, Zagunis won fencing. Congrats!

The Host, by Stephanie Meyers (yup, two books by this author so far this summer) was much better (in my opinion) than Breaking Dawn, although it took me a while to get into this story. Basically, Earth has been taken over by alien parasites and it's pretty much a done deal before anyone has any idea what's happening. However, some humans realize what's going on and form rebellions; Melanie is one of those rebellious humans, and when she realizes she's been found out, tries to kill herself to protect the others. However, the "souls" as they call themselves, manage to save her and Wanderer is placed inside Mel to try and find out where the others are hiding. Mel is tougher than anyone expects though and Wanderer is forced to share Mel's body and memories with her. I don't want to say much more about this, since that would give away some of the amazing plots in this story, but I will tell you that nothing happens the way you think it will, that Meyers made me cry three times, and that if she doesn't write a sequel to this story (I've heard she will) I will be very mad.

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett was hysterically funny. I have a real love-hate relationship with Gaiman (as in I love his children's books and short stories, but don't really like any of his adult novels), so I put off reading this book for the longest time. (I've never read anything by Pratchett, so right now, nothing but love.) If you like dry humor, satirical humor, and British humour, then you're going to love Good Omens. Angels and demons are collaborating together to stop the apocolypse and enjoy a good meal or two, the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse are running around causing havok where ever they go, there are witch(es) and WitchFinders, a book of amazingly true prophecies floating about, and a young boy called Adam, who, as it turns out, is the Anti-Christ. And in seven days he's going to bring about the apocolypse, whether he wants to or not.

Also, there is Dog. I like Dog. Dog is a hell hound. I always wanted one of them as a pet.

Ink Exchange, by Melissa Marr is the sorta-sequel to Wicked Lovely. I say sorta-sequel because it's not, not really, a sequel, but it involves characters from her first book and some of the plot lines from there, so if you haven't read Wicked Lovely first, you might be a bit lost. Or maybe not. Leslie is trying to salvage what she can of her now-horrible life by getting a tattoo. She's spent months looking for just the right one, and it isn't until Rabbit (the tattoo artist) pulls out a book of "special" tattoos that she finds herself called to a particular one. Only what Leslie doesn't know is that this isn't just a tattoo, but an ink exchange, where, at the end of the tattoo Leslie will find herself unwilling bound to Irial, King of the Dark Faries. She's his know, to do with as he wills, and no matter how she feels about it or who she'd rather be with. (Basically, Leslie goes from an admittedly horrible situation into an even worse one, and it's going to be up to her to find the strength to not only survive, but to get herself out of it.)

Ta-da! Only a day later than I'd planned, so it's really a win compared to my previous track record. Now, I think it's time to eat something (hello 12.30) and maybe get ready for the day. It looks nice outside, although it looked nice yesterday and I still got caught in the rain. Brooklyn is turning out to be a lot like Seattle, except for this God-awful humidity.

Also, I totally lied. I haven't started Victory of Eagles yet; instead I'm reading Looking For Trouble by Leslie Cockburn and it's great. It's a memoir from one of the first women to break into "boys-only club" reporting the Third World.

No comments: