Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:

Ah, Christmas! Gemma Doyle is looking forward to a holiday from Spence Academy, spending time with her friends in the city, attending ritzy balls, and on a somber note, tending to her ailing father. As she prepares to ring in the New Year, 1896, a handsome young man, Lord Denby, has set his sights on Gemma, or so it seems. Yet amidst the distractions of London, Gemma’s visions intensify -- visions of three girls dressed in white, to whom something horrific has happened, something only the realms can explain....

The lure is strong, and before long, Gemma, Felicity, and Ann are turning flowers into butterflies in the enchanted world of the realms that Gemma alone can bring them to. To the girls’ great joy, their beloved Pippa is there as well, eager to complete their circle of friendship.

But all is not well in the realms -- or out. The mysterious Kartik has reappeared, telling Gemma she must find the Temple and bind the magic, else great disaster will befall her. Gemma’s willing to do his intrusive bidding, despite the dangers it brings, for it means she will meet up with her mother’s greatest friend -- and now her foe, Circe. Until Circe is destroyed, Gemma cannot live out her destiny. But finding Circe proves a most perilous task.

My Thoughts:

This second novel in Libba Bray's trilogy is at least as good as the first, A Great and Terrible Beauty. This has all the magic and intrigue of the first book plus more! We get to explore more of The Realms and see more of the strange and unique inhabitants. Gemma struggles to find the Temple in the Realms and bind the magic that is running rampant for anyone to abuse. She struggles to help her father with his addiction to laudanum. She struggles with her feelings about the dashing Simon Middleton as well as her feelings for Kartik. Gemma has many conflicts to face and overcome in Rebel Angels. There are characters in this book who are not who they seem to be and Gemma has to decide who she can trust and who she cannot. Libba Bray is a fantastic writer who brings her characters to life. She does a wonderful job at giving each character a distinct personality. This book has humor, romance, suspense, fantasy all blended together into a story that is fun, entertaining and will leave you wanting more!

Winter Moon by Dean Koontz

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:
In Los Angeles, a hot Hollywood director, high on PCP, turns a city street into a fiery apocalypse. Heroic LAPD officer Jack McGarvey is badly wounded and will not walk for months. His wife and his child are left to fend for themselves against both criminals that control an increasingly violent city and the dead director's cult of fanatic fans.
In a lonely corner of Montana, Eduardo Fernandez, the father of McGarvey's murdered partner, witnesses a strange nocturnal sight. The stand of pines outside his house suddenly glows with eerie amber light, and Fernandez senses a watcher in the winter woods. As the seasons change, the very creatures of the forest seem in league with a mysterious presence. Fernandez is caught up in a series of chilling incidents that escalate toward a confronation that could rob him of his sanity or his life--or both.
As events careen out of control, the McGarvey family is drawn to Fernandez's Montana ranch. In that isolated place they discover their destiny in a terrifying and fiercely suspenseful encounter with a hostile, utterly ruthless, and enigmatic enemy, from which neither the living nor the dead are safe.


My thoughts:
If you like a good scare while reading a book, then I suggest reading Winter Moon. I read this book at night and it gave me goosebumps! Jack takes his family and moves to a ranch in rural Montana. When they get there though, they are not alone. There are walking cadavers, glowing lights, messages in the electronic devices, and wild animals acting not so wild. The situation is brought to a climax during the first blizzard of the season. Will the "Giver" win out against humanity or will the imagination of an 8 year old boy be it's downfall?

The only fault I can find in Winter Moon is the divide in the story. The first half and the second half of the book are almost like two separate books. I don't really see how the first half of the story relates much to the rest of the book. The disconnectedness is easily overlooked though. Koontz sure knows how to write a spooky story!

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

Rating: 4.0

What it's about:
Luther and Nora Krank are fed up with the chaos of Christmas. The endless shopping lists, the frenzied dashes through the mall, the hassle of decorating the tree... where has all the joy gone? This year, celebrating seems like too much effort. With their only child off in Peru, they decide that just this once, they'll skip the holidays. They spend their Christmas budget on a Caribbean cruise set to sail on December 25, and happily settle in for a restful holiday season free of rooftop snowmen and festive parties.

But the Kranks soon learn that their vacation from Christmas isn't much of a vacation at all, and that skipping the holidays has consequences they didn't bargain for...

A modern Christmas classic, Skipping Christmas is a charming and hilarious look at the mayhem and madness that have become ingrained in our holiday tradition.

My thoughts:
Skipping Christmas is a fun little Christmas tale surrounding the Krank family and their attempts to forgo the holidays for a tropical cruise. After Thanksgiving, Luther and Nora Krank's only daughter joins the Peace Corp and is off to Peru for a year. The holidays just won't be the same without her. Luther, an accountant, sees that last Christmas they spent over $6,000 on the annual party, tree, gifts, cards and everything else that encompasses the Krank family Christmas. He and Nora decide to forgo everything related to the holiday and instead leave on Christmas day for a 10 day cruise in the tropics. If only it were that easy! The neighbors harass them to put up the decorations so the street can win the neighborhood Christmas contest. The Fire and Police Departments want to sell them their annual calenders and fruitcakes. Everybody is talking about them behind their backs and calling them Scrooges. Then on Christmas Eve, their daughter calls from Miami and is coming home for Christmas! The Kranks then have about 10 hours to figure out how to acquire a tree, string the lights, hang the decorations, get a turkey, plan a party and buy gifts. Mayhem, chaos and laughs ensue. Skipping Christmas is entertaining, amusing, and at times a little over the top. Although this book is silly and comical, the ending is truly heartwarming.

As a side note: Skipping Christmas was made into a movie called Christmas with the Kranks starring Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd.

Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard

Rating: 3.5

What it's about:
"Jim is separated from his parents in a world at war. To survive, he must find a strength greater than all the events that surround him." "Shanghai, 1941 - a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, he is witness to the fierce white flash of Nagasaki, as the bomb bellows the end of the war ... and the dawn of a blighted world." J. G. Ballard's enduring novel of war and deprivation, internment camps and death marches, and starvation and survival is an honest coming-of-age tale set in a world thrown utterly out of joint.
-taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
Empire of the Sun is the true story of Jim, a British boy who survives WWII in occupied China by courage and a strong will to survive. He's separated from his parents at the start of the war and is left to his own resourcefulness to become a survivor. The story itself is an amazing firsthand account of war through the eyes of a child. Jim never lets himself slip into despondency or despair. He keeps his spirit alive by watching the air strikes in wonder and awe, by keeping a pet turtle in the internment camp, by reading over and over again the same Life and Reader's Digest magazines and by trying to befriend and help guards and prisoners alike. Empire of the Sun is a great story but I find the writing to be somewhat lacking. It's boring in parts and rather slow. If you can plod through, the book is worth reading when looked back on in it's entirety. People can gain something from seeing the survival of an 11 year old boy in the face of extreme adversity.

Santa's Twin by Dean Koontz

Rating: 4.0

What it's about:

A contemporary Christmas classic for children
of all ages -- including those who pretend to have grown up!

Charlotte and Emily are determined to save Santa from his mischievous twin -- Bob Claus -- who has not only stolen Santa's sleigh and stuffed his toy bag full of mud pies, cat poop, and broccoli, but has also threatened to turn Donner, Blitzen, and the others into reindeer soup!

How the brave but foolhardy sisters fly to the North Pole and rescue Santa from his "deeply troubled" twin is an utterly charming and unforgettable story sure to add sparkle to your holiday season.

Read it aloud, preferably to someone you love to hear laugh!

This perennial yuletide favorite was written by bestselling novelist Dean Koontz in 1996 at the request of his fans and has been pleasing readers every holiday season since. Winner of an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition while he was just a senior in college, Koontz today is a world-famous author whose books have been published in thirty-eight different languages and have sold more than three hundred million copies.

Lavishly illustrated with spectacular paintings by Phil Parks, this thoroughly modern masterpiece breathes new life and warmth into the world's most beloved legend.
-taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:

This is a very cute Christmas poem along the lines of Twas the Night Before Christmas. The story is about Santa's evil twin stealing Christmas and trying to ruin it. Can two little girls rescue Santa before Christmas is lost? Is Santa's twin really evil or can he be cured of his nastiness?
The illustrations in Santa's Twin are fantastic! There is even a little game of finding the hidden snowman on every page. Dean Koontz does a very nice job straying from his usual genre, horror, and writing a truly charming Christmas tale for the whole family.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

Rating: 4.5

What it's about:
In The Hours, Michael Cunningham, widely praised as one of the most gifted writers of his generation, draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters struggling with the conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair. The narrative of Woolf's last days before her suicide early in World War II counterpoints the fictional stories of Richard, a famous poet whose life has been shadowed by his talented and troubled mother, and his lifelong friend Clarissa, who strives to forge a balanced and rewarding life in spite of the demands of friends, lovers, and family.

My thoughts:
There is one sentence at the end of The Hours that expresses the theme of the novel. "There's just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we've ever imagined, though everyone.....knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult." The Hours follows a day in the life of 3 women parallel to each other as they struggle. Virginia Woolf struggles to remain sane and writing, Laura Brown struggles to feel something and to make her husband a perfect birthday cake, and Clarissa Vaughn struggles to throw her friend Richard, dying of Aids, a party. The striving of these hours comes to climax bringing the stories of these women together. I love the subtleness of this novel. The writing is wonderful and fresh. The Hours has many layers and at the end I am satisfied.

M by John Sack

Rating: 3.5

What it's about:
Sack followed a company from the inanity of a barracks inspection at Fort Dix to the senseless killing of a 7-year-old girl in Vietnam. He has produced a gripping account, compassionate and rich, colorful and blackly humorous. -taken from back cover of book

My thoughts:
This book gives one a feel for military life. Sack followed M company from infantry training at Fort Dix, New Jersey all the way to Vietnam. He writes about the soldiers who make up M company and their thoughts and feelings about their situations. There's Mason who wants to become a Green Beret, Russo who lied to get into the army (he's only 16), gentle Morton who doesn't even want to hurt an ant and many other men. Sack writes about barracks inspections and haircuts to landing in Vietnam and M's first military operation. The writing is a little bland and boring in parts. The humor was dark and clever but too sparse. As a non-fiction novel, M
seems a little coarse but worth a read.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Rating: 4.0

What it's about:

Lily is haunted by memories-of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness.

In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu ("women's writing"). Some girls were paired with laotongs, "old sames," in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become "old sames" at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship.

My thoughts:

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is filled with sorrow with a touch of happiness sprinkled in for good measure. In this novel, Lily is recounting to us her life story and the one thing that she cannot forgive herself for. This novel is about her friendship with Snow Flower and ultimately the regret that Lily feels for a misunderstanding that threatens the love they have for one another. Snow Flower and the secret fan is suffused with hopelessness, anguish and sorrow. We see famine, plague, rebellion, death, pain and much more. This is not the book to read if your looking for a heartwarming story! The friendship we watch blossom between Snow Flower and Lily is breathtaking though. The writing is beautiful and as long as you don't let the story depress you, it's an absorbing tale.

Etruscans by Morgan Llywelyn and Michael Scott

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:

In the early days of the Roman Empire, the noble Etruscan civilization in Italy is waning, Vesi, a young Etruscan noblewoman, is violated by a renegade supernatural being. Outcast then from Etruria, Vesi bears Horatrim, a child who carries inexplicable knowledge and grows to manhood in only six years. But a savage Roman attack leaves Vesi unresponsive and Horatrim homeless and vulnerable. He travels to Rome where his talents confound powerful businessman Propertius, who arranges to adopt Horatrim as a son, changing his name to Horatius.

And all the while his demon father is seeking him to kill him, for Horatius is a conduit through which the demon might be found and destroyed.

My thoughts:
Etruscans is a great result of the collaboration between Llywelyn and Scott. Vesi is raped by a demon. When her child Horatrim is born, he attains manhood in only 6 years! When Vesi is kidnapped and eventually possessed, Horatrim has to cross the river Styx and venture into the depths of the Netherworld to find her. But Horatrim's demon father is hunting for Horatrim. A demon's spawn is too dangerous to the demon to be allowed to live. This novel takes the reader from the Earthworld to the Otherworld to the Netherworld. We encounter humans, demons and gods. We see spirits beneficial, benign and also malicious.

The authors do a fantastic job of making the environments tangible. Whether it's the streets and palaces of Rome or the plains of the Netherworld, I was able to clearly visualize the environs. Etruscans is a fantasy not soon forgotten!

The Mask of Red Death by Harold Schechter

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:
Suspense, intrigue, atmosphere, and vivid historical detail combine into a thrilling ride through nineteenth-century New York City in The Mask of Red Death. Harold Schechter delivers both a wonderfully accurate portrait of a city in turmoil and an irresistibly appealing depiction of his amateur sleuth Edgar Allan Poe, mirroring the master's writing style with wit and acumen.

It is the sweltering summer of 1845, and the thriving metropolis has fallen victim to a creature of the most inhuman depravity. Found days apart, two girls have been brutally murdered, their throats slashed, viciously scalped, and-most shocking of all-missing their livers. Edgar Allan Poe, despite what the tenor of his own tales of terror might suggest about his constitution, is just as shaken and revolted by these horrendous crimes as the panic-stricken public. Suspicion of the scalper's identity immediately swirls around the most famous "redskin" in New York, Chief Wolf Bear, one of the human attractions at P.T. Barnum's American Museum. Certain that Chief Wolf Bear is innocent, Poe has deduced that the city is concealing a cannibal somewhere in its teeming masses, one with an ever-growing appetite for human prey.

Before he can investigate his theory further, Poe stumbles onto the scene of a third gruesome murder. Poe recently met William Wyatt when he agreed to look at a document for Wyatt to determine the authenticity of the purportedly famous handwriting on it. Now Poe finds Wyatt in a pool of blood, his scalp removed. How, Poe muses, are Wyatt and his document connected to the two slain girls?

As frenzied emotions over the murders reach a fevered pitch, Kit Carson makes an appearance. The famous scout has been tracking the "Liver Eater" since the man killed his wife months ago. Together, Carson and Poe make an odd sleuthing team, but their combined wits are formidable. The trail they uncover reveals a dark secret more powerful than anything they could have imagined- one that may reach the upper echelons of politics and privilege.

My thoughts:
Like the two previous Edgar Allan Poe mysteries, this third installment is fun and thrilling with an entertaining mystery at it's center. In The Mask of Red Death, Mr. Poe teams up with the renowned character of the west, Kit Carson, to solve a series of murders in the city of New York. Like the preceding Schechter mysteries, this novel is full of interesting and memorable characters.

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:
All the beautiful people live in the idyllic village of Stepford, Connecticut, an affluent suburban Eden populated with successful, satisfied hubbys and their beautiful, dutiful wives. For Joanna Eberhart, a recent arrival with her husband and two children, it all seems too perfect to be true -- from the sweet, accommodating Welcome Wagon lady to all those cheerful, friendly faces in the supermarket checkout lines. But just beneath the town's flawless surface, something is sordid and wrong -- something abominable with roots in the local Men's Association. And it may already be too late for Joanna to save herself from being devoured by Stepford's hideous perfection.

My thoughts:
At the heart of this novel is a mockery of conformity and a satire of "the oppressors and their desires". After Joanna and her family move to Stepford, she sees that something about the women isn't quite right. All they do is smile and clean their houses. They are pleasant but very distant. They are all the same. Except for two other women who are also recent arrivals in the too perfect town of Stepford. Those two other women eventually conform to the domesticity of the Stepford women. Joanna is left to wonder at the conversion her two friends go through. Did they conform by choice or is there something in the water that changes the women of this town or worse? Is it something the men are doing to their women to make them especially beautiful and diligent in their housework? The Stepford Wives is highly readable, witty and clever. To quote Peter Straub in the introduction of this book, "Like everything else he [Ira Levin] has written, this book resembles a bird in flight, a haiku, a Chinese calligrapher's brushstroke. With no wasted motion, it gets precisely where it wants to go."

Whiteout by Ken Follett

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:

Like no other suspense author in his genre, Follett reinvents the thriller with each new storyline. But nothing matches the intricate, knife-edge drama of Whiteout.

A missing canister of a deadly virus. A lab technician bleeding from the eyes. Toni Gallo, the security director of a Scottish medical research firm, knows she has problems, but she has no idea of the nightmare to come.

As a Christmas Eve blizzard whips out of the north, several people converge on a remote family house. Stanley Oxenford, the research company's director, has everything riding on the drug he is developing to fight the virus-but he isn't the only one: His grown children, who have come to spend Christmas, have their eyes on the money it will bring; Toni Gallo, forced to resign from the police department in disgrace, is betting her career on keeping the drug safe; a local television reporter, determined to move up, has sniffed the story, even if he has to bend the facts to tell it; and a violent trio of thugs is on its way to steal it for a client already waiting-though what the client really has in mind is something that will shock them all.

As the storm worsens, the emotional sparks-jealousies, distrust, sexual attraction, rivalries-crackle; desperate secrets are revealed; hidden traitors and unexpected heroes emerge. Filled with startling twists at every turn, Whiteout rockets Follett to a class by himself.

My thoughts:

Once I picked this book up I had a hard time putting it down! It's thrilling and suspenseful but it also has a great warm familial feel to it too. The director of a big research facility has his children and grandchildren to the family home in secluded Scotland for Christmas. On the same day, a deadly virus is stolen from his research facility by a band of 3 thugs and that's where the action is. They all converge at the directors home in the middle of a blizzard and everyone has to use their wits as well as strength to survive the night. A couple parts might have been slightly unbelievable but it really didn't detract from the story. The characters in Whiteout are diverse and authentic. Whiteout is a great atmospheric book for the Christmas season.

City of God by E.L. Doctorow

Rating: 2.5

What it's about:
In his workbook, a New York City novelist records the contents of his teeming brain--sketches for stories, accounts of his love affairs, riffs on the meanings of popular songs, ideas for movies, obsessions with cosmic processes. He is a virtual repository of the predominant ideas and historical disasters of the age.

My thoughts:
This novel was very hard to follow. It's supposed to be like a notebook filled with different ideas and thoughts of a NYC novelist. I had a hard time distinguishing the characters and who was saying what. The story was incoherent, unorganized and disjointed. I didn't have any feelings about any of the characters. The only segment that was interesting was the ghetto in WWII. I had a difficult time finishing this book and it turned out to be a disappointment.

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:
It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?

My thoughts:
This book is magical! It's one of those stories to get lost in. At it's center is Gemma, a 16 year old girl at a boarding school in England. This novel has a hidden diary, magical realms, a secret Order, malevolent beings and much more that makes A Great and Terrible Beauty a very enjoyable read! The two main themes I found in this book are forgiveness and the choices we have to make. To quote Mrs. Moore (the girls' teacher) "There are no safe choices.....Only other choices. Every choice has a consequence."
A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first in a series of books meant for young adults. I am eager to continue the saga. Don't let the young adult label turn you off of these books if you are an adult. Libba Bray does a wonderful job making her books accessible to both adults and young adults.

A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg

Rating: 4.5

What it's about:
Deep in the southernmost part of Alabama, along the banks of a lazy winding river, lies the sleepy little community known as Lost River, a place that time itself seems to have forgotten. After a startling diagnosis from his doctor, Oswald T. Campbell leaves behind the cold and damp of the oncoming Chicago winter to spend what he believes will be his last Christmas in the warm and welcoming town of Lost River. There he meets the postman who delivers mail by boat, the store owner who nurses a broken heart, the ladies of the Mystic Order of the Royal Polka Dots Secret Society, who do clandestine good works. And he meets a little redbird named Jack, who is at the center of this tale of a magical Christmas when something so amazing happened that those who witnessed it have never forgotten it. Once you experience the wonder, you too will never forget A Redbird Christmas. -taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
This is a charming story that's perfect for a light holiday read. Oswald leaves Chicago after his doctor tells him this will be his last Christmas. He ends up in a small southern town full of interesting and delightful characters. This town and the people in it help Oswald reverse his medical condition and he becomes part of the community. This book is a year in the life of Oswald and the small town of Lost River. The characters in this book are truly memorable and the story is heartwarming. This is a wonderful light-hearted holiday tale for all seasons.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Rating: 2.5

What it's about:
Heralded as Virginia Woolf's greatest novel, this is a vivid portrait of a single day in a woman's life. When we meet her, Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party preparation while in her mind she is something much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house, she is flooded with remembrances of faraway times. And, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa reexamines the choices that brought her there, hesitantly looking ahead to the unfamiliar work of growing old. -taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
Mrs. Dalloway chronicles a single day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway. The novel itself reveals the thoughts and ruminations of Clarissa and her friends. I found the book to be dull and lifeless. None of the characters were interesting with the exception of Sally Seton who is a very minor character. They seemed shallow and boring. The only thing that was at least mildly appealing was the language itself. At times the sentences ran on and were tedious but some of the time the language was very enjoyable. I do like the first sentence. It really draws the reader in. "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." Mostly I was relieved to be finished with Mrs. Dalloway!

Coldfire by Dean Koontz

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:
Reporter Holly Thorne is intrigued by Jim Ironheart, who has saved 12 lives in the past three months. Holly wants to know what kind of power drives him, why terrifying visions of a churning windmill haunt his dreams, and just what he means when he whispers in his sleep that an enemy who will kill everyone is coming. -taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
Throughout the whole novel we are kept guessing as to what drives Jim Ironheart to save certain lives. Jim seems like a very troubled fellow but likable. We root for him when he races across the continent to save some 10 year old boy. We root for him when he's wandering in the desert looking for himself. We root for him when the plane he is on is about to crash. And we root for him when he finally sees his past and his world comes tumbling down.

Coldfire is both a supernatural and psychological thriller. At parts it is downright terrifying! We wait to see what the horrifying nightmares of the windmill suffered by both Holly and Jim mean. There is a twist at the end that I never saw coming. I don't think I'll ever look at a windmill again without remembering this book.

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:
The actors, singers, and patrons of the Paris Opera House say that a ghost haunts the labyrinthine chambers beneath its stage. While there are those who laugh off such superstitions, they always do so nervously, in the bright light of day. Nearly everyone connected with the Opera House in any way has felt the phantom's vague, troubling presence. But beautiful, talented young singer Christine Daae will soon experience a terror far more acute than any vague feeling of unease. For she is about to learn the secret of why the man who has made the tunnels beneath Paris his private domain must forever hide his face behind a mask.

Part horror story, part historical romance, and part detective thriller, the timeless tale of a masked, disfigured musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opera House is familiar to millions of readers, as well as to movie and theatre-goers. At the heart of the story's long-standing popularity lies its questioning of a universal theme: the relationship between outward appearance and the beauty of darkness of the human soul.

My thoughts:
This gothic novel does a wonderful job with crossing genre lines. It mixes elements of romance, horror and mystery into a fantastic piece of fiction. We, the reader, travel from the very roof of the Paris Opera House down to the lair of the "Angel of Music" beneath that same house of music. The Phantom of the Opera contains an underground lake, a torture chamber and a graveyard. And yet this novel is fundamentally a love story. A heartbreaking one at that!

This novel by Gaston Leroux has been adapted to the stage and film many times. It is considered to be a French classic of literature. It is very deserving.

The Hum Bug by Harold Schechter

Rating: 4.5

What it's about:

Having proved his deductive brilliance solving Baltimore's notorious "Nevermore Murders," Edgar Allan Poe turns his investigative eye to the streets of mid-nineteenth century New York City. A young beauty with a shadowy past has been savagely murdered; her hideous wounds mirror a gruesome tableau in P.T. Barnum's wax exhibit -- and it is in defense of his own innocence that America's greatest showman has come to Poe for help. But neither the writer nor the huckster has anticipated the jagged maze that is the soul of a madman....

Harold Schechter, whose historical fiction "keeps the finger of suspicion wandering until the very end" (The New York Times Book Review), adds a wry, pitch-perfect, and suspense-laced dimension to the fascinating life and times of the literary master of morbid, criminal motivation -- Edgar Allan Poe. -taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
This is the second of the Edgar Allen Poe mysteries written by Harold Schechter. They are such fun! In The Hum Bug, Edgar Allen Poe and P.T. Barnum work together to solve a gruesome murder. Some of Barnum's "Human Curiosities" make up part of the colorful cast. Some of my favorites are the bearded lady, the human skeleton, the alligator boy and the changeling baby. Schechter goes into great detail about P.T. Barnum's fascinating American Museum. It's as if the reader is actually there! The details of the mystery itself will keep the reader guessing as to who the perpetrator is and what the motives were for the murders. It all comes together in the end. The reader watches as everything slowly falls into place. Part of the charm of Schechter's Poe mysteries is the actual writing. He writes in the first person as Edgar Allan Poe and does a fantastic job of capturing the feel of Poe. The Hum Bug left me eager to read the next in the series!

The Cider House Rules by John Irving

Rating: 4.5

What it's about:

The Cider House Rules is set in rural Maine in the first half of this century. It tells the story of Homer Wells, an orphan who is raised and mentored by Wilbur Larch, the doctor at the orphanage. Dr. Larch teaches Homer everything about medicine. Yet though his capacity for kindness is saintly, Larch is also an ether addict. He and Homer come into conflict, which is typical of many father-son relationships, but in this case their conflict is intensified by their disagreement about abortion. The result is that Homer leaves the only family he has ever known.

Homer's new life provides more excitement than he could have imagined, especially when he falls in love for the first time. But, when forced to make decisions that will change the course of his future, Homer realizes that he can't escape his past. The Cider House Rules is ultimately about the choices we make and the rules that are meant to be broken.

My thoughts:
This is a heavy-hearted novel. The dreams and wishes go unfulfilled for most of the characters. The Cider House Rules takes place mostly between the 1930's and 1950's. It's about rules. It's about how society has rules for people but those rules aren't always the right rules.

This is a story about Dr. Wilbur Larch, the "saint" of St. Cloud's, the head of an orphanage and an abortionist in a time when abortions are illegal. But it's even more about Homer Wells, an orphan who is never adopted and becomes a sort of son to Dr. Larch. This novel touches on some delicate issues besides abortion: incest, interracial relationships, lesbianism, child and spousal abuse and ether addiction.

I really like the writing style which makes The Cider House Rules a good read. The content of the book is deep. The characters are believable and Irving provides a lot of background. I will absolutely be looking forward to reading other John Irving books in the near future!

The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs

Rating: 4.0

What it's about:
A hilarious, intelligent-trivia-packed story from a man who read the entire ENCYLOPEDIA BRITANNICA. Early in his career, A. J. Jacobs found himself putting his Ivy League education to work at ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY. After five years he learned which stars have fake boobs, which stars have toupees, which have both, and not much else. This unsettling realization led Jacobs on a life-changing quest: to read the entire contents of the ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, all 33,000 pages, all 44 million words. Jacobs accumulates useful and less-so knowledge, and along the way finds a deep connection with his father (who attempted the same feat when Jacob's was a child), examines the nature of knowledge vs. intelligence, and learns how to be rather annoying at cocktail parties. Part memoir/part-education (or lack thereof), the chapters are organized by the letters of the alphabet.

My thoughts:
The Know-It-All is interesting, entertaining and funny. It's filled with tidbits of useful and not-so-useful information from the Encyclopedia Britannica. Some highlights for me are when A.J. interviews Alex Trebek from Jeopardy and when he gets to go on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Incidentally, A.J. couldn't be a participant on Jeopardy because he interviewed Alex Trebek at Trebek's home. Every few pages or so I would read something out of the Know-It-All and say to myself "wow! I didn't know that!" This is quite an enlightening book about knowledge and one man's quest to obtain it.

Book Lust by Nancy Pearl

Rating: 3.0

What it's about:
Seattle librarian Pearl lists and describes books she would recommend. The material is organized into some 175 thematic entries. Themes chosen are either arbitrary or whimsical, depending on one's point of view, with entries devoted to novels written by women named Alice, Cold War spy fiction, American history nonfiction, King Arthur, New York, and Zen Buddhism being a few examples. -taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
This is a good book for those readers who are looking for some recommendations on what to read. Nancy Pearl has her recommendations broken down into different categories according to topics, her favorite authors and moods. I have not read most of the books she suggests but I found a handful that I want to read in the near future. She doesn't go into detail on many of the books as to what the book is about. She may say it's about mother-daughter relationships or something vague. Needless to say, I was on the computer looking up a more detailed description of some of these books. I also noticed that I frequently ran across the same book title in several different places in Book Lust. Pearl might list the same book in Mexican Fiction and First Novels for example. It got a little redundant for me but I understand Book Lust is probably not meant to be read from cover to cover like I did. If you are looking for some ideas on what to read, Book Lust could be helpful.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:

At the age of eight, Scout Finch is an entrenched free-thinker. She can accept her father's warning that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, because mockingbirds harm no one and give great pleasure. The benefits said to be gained from going to school and keeping her temper elude her.

The place of this enchanting, intensely moving story is Maycomb, Alabama. The time is the Depression, but Scout and her brother, Jem, are seldom depressed. They have appalling gifts for entertaining themselves—appalling, that is, to almost everyone except their wise lawyer father, Atticus.

Atticus is a man of unfaltering good will and humor, and partly because of this, the children become involved in some disturbing adult mysteries: fascinating Boo Radley, who never leaves his house; the terrible temper of Mrs. Dubose down the street; the fine distinctions that make the Finch family "quality"; the forces that cause the people of Maycomb to show compassion in one crisis and unreasoning cruelty in another.

Also because Atticus is what he is, and because he lives where he does, he and his children are plunged into a conflict that indelibly marks their lives—and gives Scout some basis for thinking she knows just about as much about the world as she needs to.

My thoughts:
Perfect. Flawless. Supreme.
To Kill a Mockingbird is and will always remain my favorite book. I am confident of that! It's so moving to watch as Scout and Jem grow up in the space of a few years. Innocence is lost and lessons are learned. The stage that these lessons are played out on is in a very segregated Alabama. The reader gets to see racism from a child's perspective. Atticus Finch, the father of Scout and Jem, is one of the most human characters in literature. He's so honorable and genuinely good. To Kill a Mockingbird is full of characters that are not easily forgotten

Animals by John Skipp and Craig Spector

Rating: 4.5

What it's about:

Wild things.

They've been with us forever - prowling the smoky roadhouse dives that are their watering holes and hunting grounds. Predators, lurking amidst the human herd.

Changing shape at will. Lusting for blood and meat. They are gods in the wild. Gods in disguise. And they feed on the spark inside each of us.

Syd was just another lonely working-class guy singing the steel-town blues. Then he met Nora. She's sensual. Erotic. Amoral. A creature of the night. And she's luring Syd across the line that few can cross - and fewer survive: the line that separates man from beast.
-taken from back cover

My thoughts:
This book is ultimately about a man who learns to let go. He learns to let out his inner self that he suppressed his whole life. His animal nature is freed. This is more than just an average story about werewolves. It's erotic, raw, carnal and full of emotions! It's about relationships and how far people will go to hold on to them. But beware the high body count and seemingly endless gore. This book is very descriptive!

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

Rating: 3.0

What it's about:
In one of the most entertaining and brilliant essays ever written on the importance of freedom for women, Woolf brings her literary imagination and defiant wit to bear on the relationship between gender, money, and the creation of works of genius. -taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
I can concede that the theme of this essay is noble...but...the content is a bit boring and dry. I will say that Virginia Woolf had some poetic ideas! There are two main ideas that I particularly liked in this essay. The first being Shakespeare's Sister.

Woolf points out that if Shakespeare would have had a sister who was born with the same genius that is Shakespeare, she would not have been remembered because her artistry would have been allowed no outlet.....because she was a female.

The other point I took away from this essay ties in with Shakespeare's Sister. Women need "a room of one's own" and freedom from the worry of everyday living in order to write fiction. Woolf illustrates how these needs were not met throughout history for women. That is why there is no Shakespeare's Sister.

This essay is not the most exciting book I've read lately. But taken for what it is, Virginia Woolf does make her point heard.

The Picture of Dorian Gray and other stories by Oscar Wilde

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:
Spellbound before his own portrait, Dorian Gray utters a fateful wish. In exchange for eternal youth he gives his soul, to be corrupted by the malign influence of his mentor, the aesthete and hedonist Lord Henry Wotton. The novel was met with moral outrage by contemporary critics who, dazzled perhaps by Wilde's brilliant style, may have confused the author with his creation, Lord Henry, to whom even Dorian protests, 'You cut life to pieces with your epigrams.'. Encouraged by Lord Henry to substitute pleasure for goodness and art for reality, Dorian tries to watch impassively as he brings misery and death to those who love him. But the picture is watching him, and, made hideous by the marks of sin, it confronts Dorian with the reflection of his fall from grace, the silent bearer of what is in effect a devastating moral judgment.
-taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
This book contains 5 stories, all fascinating! The Picture of Dorian Gray is a gripping tale about the evils of being superficial. It was intriguing to see how the portrait changed to reflect the heart and soul of Dorian. Dorian was able to remain young and beautiful while his sins were reflected on canvas for the whole world to see. Dorian locks the portrait away to try to hide his shame from the world which is a very human impulse! I wonder, if it hadn't all been to much for him to bear, would he have been immortal? Could he truly have stayed young forever? Dorian must never have heard the old adage, be careful what you wish for because it may come true!

This book also contains:
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime - A story about free will versus destiny.
The Canterville Ghost - A not-so-scary ghost story. Humorous with just enough depth!
The Sphinx Without a Secret - A story about the desire to seem mysterious.
The Model Millionaire - A short story with a lot of heart!

Nevermore by Harold Schechter

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:
Harold Schechter, the brilliant author of the true-crime books Deviant and Depraved, brings us Nevermore, a novel about the father of mystery and horror fiction, Edgar Allan Poe, on the trail of a killer. You remember what the raven said, but Schechter takes Poe on dark and disturbing byways as he investigates the murder of an elderly widow. Hooking up with Congressman Davy Crockett, Poe finds more evildoings as a puzzle of murder and darkness comes together in 19th-century Baltimore. -taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
Nevermore is an enthralling mystery! I couldn't put it down. The story was great but it was the interaction between Edgar Allen Poe and Davy Crockett that made the story so fun. The chain of events and close calls that lead Poe and Crockett to the close of the case, are in the end, a source Eddie Poe uses to write his own stories. At the end of the novel, we find that Poe has used the incidents of the fire at the Asher house (Fall of the House of Usher), his suspension over a bottomless pit(The Pit and the Pendulum), finding a corpse under the floor boards(Tell-Tale Heart), and many more such adventures as material for short stories.

I am an enthusiastic re-reader of books and Nevermore is one I will visit forever more.

Insomnia by Stephen King

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:
Ralph Roberts has an incurable case of insomnia, but lack of sleep is the least of his worries. Each night he stays awake, Ralph witnesses more of the odd activity taking place in Derry after dark than he wants to know. The nice young chemist up the street beats his wife and has delusions about beings he calls "The Centurions." A madman with a knife is trying to kill him, he's sure. And on the night May Locher died, one of the two bald men coming out of her house had a pair of scissors in his hand. What does it all mean? Ralph doesn't quite know. But the bizarre visions he's been having keep getting more intense, the strange deaths in Derry have just begun, and Ralph knows he isn't hallucinating.

Returning to the town of Derry, Maine, the setting of one of his most critically acclaimed novels, It, Stephen King combines bone-chilling realism with supernatural terror to create yet another masterpiece of suspense. -taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
Horror and suspense at it's best! It's hero and heroine are in their old age. King gives great insight into the pathos of the golden years. The book is very descriptive of what it might feel like to become old. Insomnia takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions. This book has it all, from laughter to tears. And being a Stephen King novel, it also has thrills and horror aplenty. This is one King book you don't want to miss!

Everything's Eventual by Stephen King

Rating: 4.0

What it's about:
From the stunningly fertile imagination of perhaps the greatest storyteller of our time, here are fourteen intense, eerie, and compelling stories, including one O. Henry Prize winner, stories from The New Yorker, and "Riding the Bullet" which, when published as an eBook, attracted over half a million online readers. -from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
Stephen King is great at what he considers the (almost) lost art of the short story. In Everything's Eventual there are 14 examples of this art. Most of these stories are really good. And they are very diverse! The first story, Autopsy Room Four, is sort of a comic take on the fear of premature burial. Then there's the story (The Death of Jack Hamilton) about depression era gangsters which isn't really a horror story at all but a testament to friendship. There's a story in here, In the Deathroom, where the reader can almost feel the pain in this South American interrogation room. And of course there are the down right scary stories in this book like 1408 (haunted hotel room) and The Road Virus Heads North (picture that changes). King fans won't be disappointed!

Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King

Rating: 4.0

What it's about:
The first scream came from the snowbound railwayman who felt the fangs ripping at his throat. The next month there was a scream of ecstatic agony from the woman attacked in her snug bedroom.

Now scenes of unbelieving horror come each time the full moon shines on the isolated Maine town of Tarker Mills. No one knows who will be attacked next. But one thing is sure.

When the moon grows fat, a paralyzing fear sweeps through Tarker Mills. For snarls that sound like human words can be heard whining through the wind. And all around are the footprints of a monster whose hunger cannot be sated...
-taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
How cool! An illustrated short horror novel about werewolves. This is a good story (what Stephen King story isn't good though?) about what happens every night of the full moon in Tarker Mills, Maine. You can even see how it ends in one sitting. The book is so short you don't have to wait in suspense for too long. It's well written and jumps right into the story. This is one book that's short and not-so-sweet!

Lost by Gregory Maguire

Rating: 4.0

What it's about:
Winifred Rudge, a bemused writer struggling to get beyond the runaway success of her mass–market astrology book, travels to London to jump–start her new novel about a woman who is being haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper. Upon her arrival, she finds that her stepcousin and old friend John Comestor has disappeared, and a ghostly presence seems to have taken over his home. Is the spirit Winnie's great–great–grandfather, who, family legend claims, was Charles Dickens's childhood inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge? Could it be the ghostly remains of Jack the Ripper? Or a phantasm derived from a more arcane and insidious origin? Winnie begins to investigate and finds herself the unwilling audience for a drama of specters and shades –– some from her family's peculiar history and some from her own unvanquished past.

In the spirit of A. S. Byatt's Possession, with dark echoing overtones of A Christmas Carol, Lost presents a rich fictional world that will enrapture its readers. - from the editor

My thoughts:
I really enjoyed the mystery of this story. There are actually two mysteries evolving as we read. There is the mystery of the ghost in the chimney and also the mystery of what happened between Winnie and John. It was so much fun traveling to London with Winnie and seeing the mystifying events unfold. The parallel story of Winnie and John made Winnie seem more human. It reveals she's sort of a broken heroine with her internal problems as well as the external problem of the ghost in the chimney. The characters are unique and loveable in their own ways from the crazy old cat lady to the gay reader of tea leaves. I won't soon forget this book or it's colorful cast!

Attila's Treasure by Stephan Grundy

Rating: 3.5

What it's about:
From out of the icy steppes they came, the fiercest and most feared warriors the world had ever known. At their head was the wily and ferocious Attila of the Huns, and behind him lay a trail of pillage and carnage. To forge peace with the mighty Attila, a young Burgundian prince is sent as a foster son to the merciless warlord. Here young Hagan learns the fighting arts of the Huns as he develops an uneasy relationship with his unpredictable new foster father. But it is during his first battle that Hagan learns the most important - and most dangerous - lesson of all. A gasp away from death, he discovers the pathway to the otherworld - a knowledge he must guard carefully for it makes him a dangerous adversary of Attila himself. -from Barnes and Noble

My thoughts:
This book has many different elements. Forbidden love, war, magic and spells are just a few of those elements. As the reader follows Hagan to the war camp of the infamous Attila of the Huns we get a glimpse of what it may have been like to live there from the perspective of both males and females. Stephan Grundy is good at describing the environment and making the reader feel he/she is a part of it. The only downfall of the book that I can see is the author leaves some issues unresolved at the end. When I turned the last page I found myself asking a lot of questions. One being what happened to Hagan and his new bride? Did they find happiness together or just toleration? But questions aside, the book is a good one.

State of Fear

Rating: 5

What it's about:
Once again Michael Crichton gives us his trademark combination of page-turning suspense, cutting-edge technology, and extraordinary research. STATE OF FEAR is a superb blend of edge-of-your-seat suspense and thought provoking commentary on how information is manipulated in the modern world. From the streets of Paris, to the glaciers of Antarctica to the exotic and dangerous Solomon Islands, STATE OF FEAR takes the reader on a rollercoaster thrill ride, all the while keeping the brain in high gear.
-from Barnes and Noble

My thoughts:
I loved this book! This book is so intense and edge-of-your-seat I had a really hard time putting it down. The characters in this book travel all across the globe and we, the reader, get to go along for the ride. From Los Angeles to Antarctica to the Solomon Islands and more we are on a thrill ride! This book has a lot of scientific and technical sounding words but I think Crichton does a good job making them understandable.

This book basically asks the question of how much politics and money influences the media. Crichton uses the example of global warming to hit his point home. And let me just say here that no, he's not against the environment or anything. He just shows how the media is manipulated. I guess you'll have to read the book to see what exactly I'm talking about.

This book is believable and down right exciting!

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Rating: 4.0

What it's about:
William Golding's classic tale about a group of English schoolboys who are plane-wrecked on a deserted island is just as chilling and relevant today as when it was first published in 1954. At first, the stranded boys cooperate, attempting to gather food, make shelters, and maintain signal fires. Overseeing their efforts are Ralph, "the boy with fair hair," and Piggy, Ralph's chubby, wisdom-dispensing sidekick whose thick spectacles come in handy for lighting fires. Although Ralph tries to impose order and delegate responsibility, there are many in their number who would rather swim, play, or hunt the island's wild pig population. Soon Ralph's rules are being ignored or challenged outright. His fiercest antagonist is Jack, the redheaded leader of the pig hunters, who manages to lure away many of the boys to join his band of painted savages. The situation deteriorates as the trappings of civilization continue to fall away, until Ralph discovers that instead of being hunters, he and Piggy have become the hunted: "He forgot his words, his hunger and thirst, and became fear; hopeless fear on flying feet." Golding's gripping novel explores the boundary between human reason and animal instinct, all on the brutal playing field of adolescent competition.

My thoughts:
What a story! It's like a car crash. It's horrible and shocking but you just can't turn away. It's eerie reading as these boys slide further into savagery and downright barbaric behavior. This is one story that will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

The only complaint I have about the book deals with the writing itself. During the conversations it's hard to follow who is saying what.

"As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods, — They kill us for their sport". (King Lear Act IV, Scene 1

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Rate: 4.0

What it's about:
Aldous Huxley's tour de force Brave New World is a darkly satiric vision of a 'utopian' future - where humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically anesthesized to passively serve a ruling order. A powerful work of speculative fiction that has enthralled and terrified readers for generations, it remains remarkably relevant to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying entertainment.

My thoughts:
At first, Huxley's Brave New World doesn't seem so bad. Drugs and promiscuity are encouraged while solidarity and fidelity are frowned upon. If you're having a bad day, just drop some soma and all your troubles will go away. There's no violence, old age, disease. Everybody seems so gosh darn happy. In fact, you've been conditioned from a very early age to appreciate your role in this society whether you are high or low man on the totem pole.

After a while, the reader sees how these people are not really living at all. How can we truly live a life without experiencing the bad as well as the good. Sometimes we need to see the the awful things in this world to truly appreciate our own lives. But in this Brave New World, if you start questioning society, you may just get yourself a one way ticket to Iceland, or some other island where you can't incite others to start questioning their own roles in society.

This book gets the reader thinking about society today and our own roles in it. Can there really be a Utopia? Is it possible? Somehow I don't think it is. Utopia always seems to turn to dystopia eventually. This book is well deserving of it's status as a classic. I wish it were on a required reading list when I was in high school as it opens up lots of room for good discussions.

"O wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beautious mankind is!

O brave new world

That has such people in't!"

-Shakespear's The Tempest