Wings series by Aprilynne Pike

I've gotten into the bad habit of waiting to blog until I've read several books so that by the time I get around to blogging, I can hardly remember what I read. Such is the case this time. I read this series by Aprilynne Pike, recommended by my fellow book worm friend Katie, a couple months ago.

Wings starts off with a girl named Laurel who finds out that she is a faerie, sent to live in the human world to protect the gateway to Avalon, the home of all faeries. She also finds herself in a rather complicated love triangle, torn between the enticing and passionate faerie Tam and the grounded, human best-friend Mike.

I found this series to be enjoyable and entertaining but somewhat predictable. I was never surprised by anything that happened, even her eventual resolution of the love triangle. It was fun to read about faeries; I've never read any faerie stories before. I would definitely recommend these books if you're looking for a light, pleasant set of books in which you could easily be lost.

3 out of 5 stars for the first three books
4 out of 5 for the last

Deerskin by Robin McKinley

This book was....interesting. Not what I expected, but I enjoyed it for the most part. When I was looking for books after my awesome dream I found this on the shelf next to the book I was looking for. The synopsis looked promising so I checked it out.

This is a spin off the fairytale "Donkeyskin", which I had never heard of so I'm guessing many other people haven't. It's about a princess who is the daughter of the beloved and extraordinarily conceited king and queen. Her mother is known to be the most beautiful woman in seven kingdoms, and her father, along with the rest of the kingdom, is smitten with her. She dies when Lissar (the princess) is 15 and her father loses his mind with grief. Lissar grows up to be beautiful like her mother and those around her begin to notice. On her 17th birthday her father declares that he will remarry and that Lissar will be his bride. She is horrified (as well she should be) and locks herself in her room. Her father breaks in and rapes and beats her until she is close to death. She manages to escape with her one friend, her faithful fleethound Ash (who was also injured in her father's attack), away from the kingdom and finds solitude for the winter in an abandoned cabin in the woods. Here she blocks her memory of the horrors of her past and seeks a way to move forward with her life.

This story was a lot darker than I expected (not knowing about the rape/beating beforehand) and I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone without them knowing that it gets, not necessarily too graphic, but very realistic dealing with ugly topics. Overall I enjoyed the story and earnestly wished for Lissar's happy ending, which she got, but perhaps not as happy as I would like fairytales to end. This book had the same problem as Robin McKinley's last book I read, Beauty, in that the main character's journey and life is painstakingly described in detail, but the ending is rushed and left me unsatisfied. When I read a fairytale, I want a mind-blowing, weak-at-the-knee, unforgettable happily ever after, where there is no doubt that the prince and princess WILL be happy together after all their struggles. Lissar had to go through some serious trials and she deserved the best happy ending imaginable, not a wishy-washy, rushed, semi-sweet ending. My only other criticism is that things got a little weird at the end and I found myself not really believing what the characters were doing because it all seemed so far-fetched, but maybe that's just me.

Overall: I would recommend to others, but perhaps not for the faint of heart. It gets a little gruesome.

3 out of 5 stars

Beauty by Robin McKinley

Last week I had this really awesome dream that I was reading a book that had adventure and magic in it and a great love story on the side. When I told my husband about it he said "You dreamed you were reading a book??" in a tone that said he thought I was a complete nerd. But it was a great dream and it made me want to find the perfect book to read. After searching through Goodreads for recommendations, and cross-referencing with my local library, I finally settled on Beauty, by Robin McKinley. Not exactly the adventure-romance I was looking for, but a fun read nonetheless. Fairy tales are fun.

A retelling of Beauty and the Beast, this version goes into pretty good detail of Beauty's family and her life before she meets the beast. I've only ever known the Disney version of the story (I know Disney is not the best source of info, but don't judge) so I was interested in the back story. This was a really fun, interesting, and quick read, and I was overall pleased with all but the ending. McKinley took her time describing Beauty and her sisters and father and their whole life together in great detail, and all of the sudden the book ends after a page and a half of resolution. Wha??? I can't figure out why the ending was so rushed after so much thoughtful storytelling. Didn't make sense to me and I felt robbed of my (I mean, Beauty's...) happily-ever-after.

With a good ending this book could have earned a 4 out of 5 from me.

Unfortunately it only gets a 3.

Not bad, but not great.

The Alchemyst series by Michael Scott

Forgive the picture, it was the only one I could find that contained all 6, that's right, 6 books. You can understand why I didn't want to upload 6 individual photos, especially since the covers are all essentially the same. In fact, the similarity of the book covers could reflect the uniformity of the story as well, and not in a good way.

The Alchemyst, by Michael Scott, is about the legendary Nicholas Flamel who became immortal through is discovery of how to produce the elixir of life, found in a book called the Codex. Flamel has been the keeper of the Codex for centuries and protects it from many who desire it, especially a man named Dr. John Dee. Contained in the Codex, along with many powerful spells and enchantments, is a prophecy about powerful twins who will save and destroy the world. Flamel spent his life searching for these twins of legend and finally finds them: Josh and Sophie Newman, two ordinary teens living in San Francisco. Dee attacks Flamel in San Francisco and captures his wife Perenelle, while Flamel escapes with the twins and takes them around the world to be trained in the various magics. Josh and Sophie have to discover for themselves which is the twin that will save the world, and which is the twin who will destroy it.

My primary criticism with this series is that, while I enjoyed it, the whole story could have easily fit into 3-4 books, not 6. I found the premise of the story fascinating; it's filled with legends and magic and I love that stuff. But the story draaaagged and I found myself skimming chapters just so I could get to the good parts. Poor John Dee spends 5 (or was it all 6?? I can't remember...) books chasing Flamel and the twins and never really gets what he wants. Granted, his motives are all kinds of mixed up, but you can't help but feel bad for him. I think the series would have been a lot stronger if it were condensed, but they were probably trying to stretch it to make more money. I'm just glad I didn't spend a penny reading these, otherwise I'd be thoroughly annoyed. What I would do without a public library I can't even guess.

I would recommend these on the condition that the reader understands that they will be reading a lot of unnecessary information that sort of makes you feel like your life is draining away... Overall, mostly entertaining, interesting storyline, just TOO LONG.

The first and last book get 4 out of 5 stars -- the last book is especially good, full of action and the reader is rewarded for putting in the hours reading the previous 5 books.

The middle four get 3 out of 5 stars

Though I think one of those middle ones deserves a 2, but I can't seem to remember which one; they all start to blur together... Odd.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart

The second installment of the exciting Mysterious Benedict Society novels, I found the Perilous Journey to be delightful. I started listening to it on cd during a long drive through Wyoming, though my husband hadn't read the first and had a hard time following along, so we didn't finish. I then had to wait a week or so for my library to get the book transferred from another location. When I finally had the book in my hands, I had a hard time putting it down. I read on another book blog that it was a typical #2 in a series, not living up to it's predecessor. I have to say that I disagree. I found the characters even more charming; their gifts are developed, particularly Constance's, and I loved to see how the children grew both individually and closer together. The plot was fun, suspenseful, and entertaining. Definitely a good read!

The story picks up about 6 months after the last book ends. (For more info on book one, see my previous review here.) Mr. Benedict has planned a reunion for the children on the year anniversary of their first meeting. He plans for them to follow clues that will lead them on an adventure around the world. However, their long-awaited reunion is ruined when Mr. Benedict and his assistant are kidnapped by his evil twin (who is also the bad guy in book 1). The children decide to leave the adults behind and follow the clues left by Mr. Benedict in hopes of finding him and and rescuing him from his captor.

As mentioned above, I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read the next one! It's next on my list of books to read. Hopefully I can get it transferred soon from the library.

4 out of 5

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

Ella Minnow Pea: a progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable

This was one of the most cleverly written books I've ever read. Unfortunately, I've become delinquent in my blog updates and thus it has been several books since I read this delightful tale, but I will do my best to recall my literary experience.

Ella Minnow Pea is a girl who lives in the island nation of Nollop, just off the coast of South Carolina. The book is a series of letters sent amongst fellow Nollopians during a crisis in which certain letters of the alphabet become banned from use. The country is named after Nevin Nollop, the creator of the pangram "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." He is forever revered for creating a sentence that uses all 26 letters of the alphabet with as few repetitions as possible, and the sentence is preserved on a memorial statue. One day, a letter falls off the statue and the government officials must gather to decide it's meaning. It is decided that the fallen letter is a sign from the Great Nollop from beyond the grave that it should no longer be used. The first letter to fall is "z". Punishments for using the banned letter are a 3-strike system: first offense is a public reprimand, choice of lashing or stocks on second offense, and banishment from the island as the third and final offense. As letters continue to fall and subsequently banned from use, the letters written in the story become more and more creative in their word choices as citizens try and figure out a way to prove that Nollop was not omniscient. This can only be done by creating a sentence that uses all 26 letters but with fewer repetitions than Nollop's pangram.

I very much enjoyed this book. By the end of the story the last 5 letters remaining are L, M, N, O, and P. Ella Minnow Pea. The language becomes extremely flexible, kind of how today we communicate through text messages, using numbers and odd spelling. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the English language, or simply takes pleasure in words. Fun fun read!

4 out of 5 stars

The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi

I just finished this short little book and it was an interesting read. My friend recommended I read "The Alchemist" because it was "amazing." So I go to the library and look it up and find it on the shelf and am surprised by how small it is. I figure any great book has got to be longer than 95 pages, but I check it out anyway. Only now when I looked up an image for this blog do I realize that I'm pretty sure she was recommending I read "The Alchemist" by Paolo Coelho. How was I to know the difference? Shoot, they have the same title and are even both written by Paolo's. What are the odds?

Regardless, this was an interesting little story. Quite short, so difficult to get a whole lot of character or story development, but worthwhile. It's about a man, an alchemist (go figure), who is searching for a way to fight back a dangerous plant, bramble, that is taking over his city. Bramble grows in response to magic, so whenever anyone performs any small or large bit of magic, it grows and takes over crops and homes. Oh, and it's poisonous and can easily kill you if it touches skin. So he creates a machine that can fight the bramble and takes it to the mayor and head magic guy, hoping to get a nice payout for saving the city. Problem is, the mayor and magic guy are evil and use his invention to hunt down anyone who uses magic and kills them. They lock him up for 2 years and make him create more cool inventions for them under the threat of killing his daughter and lady-friend.

I think this could be a really excellent story if it were developed more. The magic world our hero lives in is intriguing; I wish it had more background. The characters were good but I feel like I hardly got to know them. Also the ending felt rushed, I wish there was more detail.

Overall, interesting book but probably not "The Alchemist" everyone is raving about.

2.5 out of 5 stars