The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

Plot

Alyss Heart, heir to the Wonderland throne, was forced to flee through the Pool of Tears after a bloody palace coup staged by the murderous Redd shattered her world. Lost and alone in Victorian London, Alyss is befriended by an aspiring author to whom she tells the surreal, violent, heartbreaking story of her young life only to see it published as the nonsensical children’s sojourn Alice in Wonderland. Alyss had trusted Lewis Carroll to tell the truth so that someone, somewhere would find her and bring her home.


But Carroll had got it all wrong. He even misspelled her name! If not for the intrepid Hatter Madigan, a member of the Millinery (Wonderland’s security force) who after a 13 year search eventually tracked Alyss to London, she may have become just another society woman sipping tea in a too-tight bodice instead of returning to Wonderland to battle Redd for her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts.

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I went ahead and read the original two Alice stories, before starting on this book.  I figured it might help to have the originals fresh in my mind, before diving into the "true story" version.  It in no way helped.

That's not to say the book was bad.  On the contrary I enjoyed it.  I mean, don't get me wrong.  This was definitely not a book aimed at my age range or reading level.  There's a good reason you'll find it in the teen section of the library.  It's quite simply because it's just not that challenging of a read.  It's a fun read, but not a challenge.

To begin with, the story is a little slow.  Interesting, but not exactly action packed.  The writing's juvenile at times, but I really can't get myself to hold a book based on a children's story aimed at teenagers to a very high standard.  I know some of you may disagree, but that's just my opinion.  I'd say this falls about "middle of the road", as far as writing skills are concerned.  Not great, but by no means horrible.

One interesting thing I noticed was a strong similarity between Redd's queendom (yes...QUEENdom) and the society depicted within one of my previous reads...1984.  This could go either of two ways.  Either Beddor was paying homage to Orwell...or he was ripping him off and counting on his teenage readers to be not well-read enough to realize.  I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt here.  What can I say?  I'm in a good mood.

One thing would have made this book substantially better.  If it had no tie Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  Honestly, aside from the tie-in of having Carroll publish Alyss's story, there really wasn't much point to tying one to the other.  The Looking Glass Wars can stand perfectly well on it's own.  References to the original work are barely noticeable and not all that important in the grand scheme.  Having the books connected seems to serve more as free publicity for Beddor's work.  Like Alice in Wonderland  Why not read this book too, then?  Pointless.

Bottom line, it's a decent book.  Like I said, not great but not horrible.  Definitely a book to read if you've got an hour or so to spare and wanna give your brain a little rest.

~Missy

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Plot

Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead, subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity.  She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a story that transcends melodrama to portray a woman's passionate search for a wider and richer life than Victorian society traditionally allowed.

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Oh my god...I loved this book.  I seriously have no idea why it's taken me this long to read it (both in the length of time it took me to start and in how long it finally took me to finish).  It was, hands down, one of the best books I've ever read.

I normally don't enjoy the so-called classics that much.  They tend to be sort of...boring.  I find them way too descriptive of unimportant things and, as a result, they seem to drag on into eternity.  I didn't feel that way with Jane Eyre.  Don't get me wrong, it was definitely one of my slower reads, but it didn't have that same uninteresting feel that most slow-reads give me.

I did find the start of the book to be sort of dreary, but that just added to the overall feel of Jane's progression through life and further emphasized just how strong of a character she becomes.  The poor girl goes through all this hardship in her childhood and early adult life and still comes out with her head held high.  Very inspiring.

Don't even get me started on Rochester.  Jane and Rochester's relationship, I feel, rivals Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy.  Seriously.  I don't know why I've never heard about Edward Rochester, prior to reading this book.  Very underrated character, if you ask me.  Love him.

Bottom line, definitely read it...obviously.  You won't be disappointed.  I loved it completely,

~Missy

The Dirty Parts of the Bible by Sam Torode

Plot

It's 1936, and Tobias Henry is stuck in the frozen hinterlands of Michigan. Tobias is obsessed with two things: God and girls.

Mostly girls, of course.


But being a Baptist preacher's son, he can't escape God.


When his father is blinded in a bizarre accident (involving hard cider and bird droppings), Tobias must ride the rails to Texas to recover a long-hidden stash of money. Along the way, he's initiated into the hobo brotherhood by Craw, a ribald vagabond-philosopher. Obstacles arise in the form of a saucy prostitute, a flaming boxcar, and a man-eating catfish. But when he meets Sarah, a tough farm girl under a dark curse, he finds out that the greatest challenge of all is love.

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Came across this book, thanks to my mom.  She'd won a $25 gift certificat for Amazon.com and gave it to me.  Used the entire thing to load up on books for my Kindle.  The title of this one caught my eye (and was recommeded to me thanks to Amazon), so it made the cut and I couldn't wait to read it.  Dirty parts of the Bible?  SO THERE!!

So not.

This wasn't a horrible book.  Far from that.  I did like it.  I just didn't love it.  The characters were a little blah and the "naive preacher's son going out into the big strange world" motif's a little played out.  On top of that, it wasn't that long and, just when it started to get somewhere, it was done.  I could have done with a little less build-up and more of a payoff.

When I got to the end of the book, I found out that the book was a modern re-telling of some old Jewish story that I'd never heard of, which in no way made me all that eager to read the original tale.  I can't imagine it being even remotely more interesting than the book.

Bottom line, probably one to skip.  Like I said, it wasn't horrible, but it's not a book that would immediately pop into my head if someone were to ask me for a book recommendation.  Read it, if you want, but it's not really worth it, in my opinion.

~Missy

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Plot

As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

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To begin with, let me tell you why I chose this book.  To put it simply, I saw the trailer for the movie based on it.  Prior to that, I really hadn't given the idea of reading the book much (if any) thought, but I caught the trailer and it actually piqued my interest, so I decided to give it a chance.

I'm glad I did.  I really enjoyed it.  It was a lot like The Green Mile (one of my favorite books) in the structure of the storytelling: An elderly man in a nursing home, reflecting back on an important time in his life.  I only just now realized that simialrity.  Subliminal messages luring me in, perhaps?  The book was a pretty fast read.  I mean, I do tend to breeze through books, when I enjoy them, but even I was surprised by how easily I read this (12 hours off and on).

The subject matter was fascinating.  The fact that Gruen actually took the time to heavily research travelling circuses just made it even more interesting, because it was accurate (allegedly.  Can't say I've been involved in too many circus acts, so kind of have to take her word for it).

Complaints?  The plot was a little lost on me.  It just seemed like there were events that occured but nothing really pressed the story forward.  That's not to say it was boring, but it just seemed a little flat.  No real rise and fall.

Bottom line, I'd recommend it.  Especially if you plan to see the movie.  I've heard they're changing the ending (to what, I don't know), so it presents a good opportunity to see whether or not Hollywood can manage to change without ruining.  In my opinion, the ending doesn't need changing, but...we'll see.

~Missy

Heat Wave by Richard Castle

Plot

A New York real estate tycoon plunges to his death on a Manhattan sidewalk. A trophy wife with a past survives a narrow escape from a brazen attack. Mobsters and moguls with no shortage of reasons to kill trot out their alibis. And then, in the suffocating grip of a record heat wave, comes another shocking murder and a sharp turn in a tense journey into the dirty little secrets of the wealthy. Secrets that prove to be fatal. Secrets that lay hidden in the dark until one NYPD detective shines a light.

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So I liked this book.  I really did.  For anyone that's a fan of the show Castle, it's definitely am emjoyable read.  If you follow the show closely like I do, you'll know that "Richard Castle" drew inspiration for the Nikki Heat books from his own experiences tailing detectives of the NYPD and each of his police characters are inspired by a "real" NYPD detective.  Rook's relationship with Heat almost mirrors Castle's relationship with Beckett.  Almost.  It was well-written, considering it's supposed to come from an author that doesn't technically exist.

That being said, this book was pretty much an episode of Castle in book-form.  That's not exactly a bad thing, but if you're going to essentially turn your show into a book, you might as well just write a Castle tie-in novel and market it as such.  Don't try to sell it as a seperate entity.

Bottom line, if you like Castle, you'll like this book.  If you've never seen Castle, you'll probably still enjoy and, as an added bonus, you might feel compelled to watch the show, which is a must-see.

~Missy

Night Shift by Stephen King

Synopsis

In places where fear swells and blood runs cold, sinister forces and unspeakable things are working the night shift.


From the depths of darkness, where hideous rats defend their empire, to dizzying heights, where a beautiful girl hangs by a hair above hellish fate, this chilling collection of twenty short stories will plunge you into the subterranean labyrinth of the most spine-tingling, eerie imagination of our time.

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I love Stephen King.  I really do.  He is without a doubt one of my favorite authors...if not the favorite.  He never fails to completely captivate me and suck me into his stories.

With that in mind, it pains me to say that I didn't really like this book.  I think my main problem was the fact that it was completely short stories, which yes I knew going into it.  The thing I love most about King's writing is the constant build-up and release of tension.  The suspense is the best part and, when it comes to short stories, there's usually only one build-up and one release.  That's not enough for me.

Now, it wasn't all bad for me.  Of the twenty stories, I did really enjoy three of them.  "Trucks", "Sometimes They Come Back" and "Children of the Corn" were all really good.  Why, you might ask?  Because all three were made into movies that I had already seen and so I already had an appreciation for.  Even then though, the stories weren't nearly as suspenseful for me as the movies were.  One of the rare occasions where the "book" falls short of the movie.

Bottom line, it's not a completely horrible collection of stories.  If the author had been anyone other than King, I would fully give it two thumbs up.  Because it was King and I had these huge expectations for mini-Shinings, I'll give it one and a quarter thumbs.

~Missy

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

Plot

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government.


But he has no idea just how explosive the story will be until, on the eve of publication, the two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander.


As Blomkvist, alone in his belief in Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation of the slayings, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all.

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A lot of hype comes with this book, as well as with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.  With that much expectation, a book is almost certainly doomed to fail.  Fortunately, that didn't happen here.  I completely enjoyed this book (Side note: The first book I got to read on my brand new Kindle).  Even more than I enjoyed reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, something I didn't actually realize until I sat down to the write this review.

While reading, I found myself feeling that the story didn't progress as quickly as it did in the first book (and even in the first book, it took a while to get going).  As I got to the end, I almost felt like it was rushed.  It seemed like everything suddenly got wrapped up within the last few pages (or "pages" as far as the Kindle is concerned).  Now, that I'm typing this review, I can honestly say it had a nice pace.  Sort of an abrupt ending, but that's to be expected with the middle book of a trilogy.

Larsson has (had?) an insane ability to really give his less desirable male characters these disgustingly misogynistic traits.  If I didn't already know his inspiration for writing the Millennium Trilogy, I'd be tempted to think that he honestly harbored that attitude toward women.  His writing is that good, in my opinion.  Another thing I enjoyed about his storytelling was that he would plug in references to actual events in Swedish history, within the story.  I don't know.  Maybe other authors do it too and I just never noticed, cause I subconsciously understood and didn't have to actively look them up, like I did with the references in this book (and also in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

So...bottom line, I would definitely recommend reading this book.  Obviously, you'd need to read The Girl Who Played with Fire first, but it's definitely worth the read.  I look forward to reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.  Unfortunately, that will not be next.  These books cover subject matter that just leave me needing a happy little break between stories.

~Missy