Review: C is for Cthulhu: The Lovecraft Alphabet Book

C is for Cthulhu: The Lovecraft Alphabet Book by Jason Ciaramella
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just when I thought my son is too old for an alphabet book, we found a perfect one! This one is definitely the very best! It has monsters! It has meaning for parents to quietly laugh about! It doesn't have awkward letters, where authors couldn't think of a single word and put the letter in the middle! Lovecraft's characters are good like that - plenty to choose from starting with any letter :D And the little Ctulhu is the cutest! My guess is the little one will be a Ctulhu this Halloween.

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Review: Witchmark

Witchmark by C.L. Polk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was a very good read, a real page-turner I finished in two days. I liked the setting, the world-building (without data-damps for once). I really enjoyed the author's attention to details (even though some of the details annoyed re-surfacing 40 pages later, when I forgot all about them).

As much as I enjoyed the book, minus one star for a way too blatant and straight-forward analogies, the identity of Tristan revealed too soon and boring (why couldn't he be a spy, why.... ok, no spoilers), and the mystery that was obvious to the reader to the smallest detail at 80% of the book, while the characters were still quite mystified.

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Review: Spinning Silver

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book delivers and exceeds all expectations, as always. I guess, it must put a lot of pressure on Naomi Novik, when everyone expects the next book to be even more amazing, but so far she proves herself true. I couldn't stop reading. The writing is sharp and precise, it left me in awe. Some sentences are so good, I re-read them several times out loud, just because they sound fantastic.

For those who read to the end of the short story and didn't want to continue, because 'what else could there be and on so many pages besides', the story in this book is only beginning at this point. It is also not a re-telling of Rumpelstiltskin, but rather a look at this tale from the other side. I keep wondering why people call it a re-telling of 'not only Rumpelstiltskin, but also other Slavic stories.' Surprise, Rumpelstiltskin is not a Slavic story (does this word sound Slavic?); and neither are most of the rest tales incorporated into the book.

I didn't like the ending all that much, but the offered exploration of history and family is awesome. I probably won't re-read it as often as Uprooted, but it's still one of my favorites now.

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Review: The Whale that Fell in Love with a Submarine

The Whale that Fell in Love with a Submarine by Akiyuki Nosaka
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So beautifully written. And incredibly sad.

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Review: The Freeze-Frame Revolution

The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was waiting for this book, but perhaps without the proper enthusiasm. So I didn't read any reviews, blurbs, opinions.... and was completely unaware of any secret messages in the book. And then I opened the book and found a red letter on the very first page. And then another, on the second page. So over the next few minutes, perplexed librarians watched me going through the book with a pen and a piece of paper; then googling "mitochondrial introns just downstream from COX-five" (and coming up empty-handed :( ). At least I have the link for Hitchhiker, right?

I was really expecting a full novel, for some reason, and 186 tiny pages feel more like a novella. I was also expecting that staging "a mutiny when you are only awake one day in a million" would be more complicated. It turned out disappointingly easy (maybe that's why they failed :) ). Nevertheless, I like the book, I like the science in it, I like the questions in it. It's not as dark as some of the other books by Peter Watts, but it's still dark enough for me and a very hard science fiction.

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Review: Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 96

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 96 by Neil Clarke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The only thing I read in this collection is Giants by Peter Watts; and it's the only thing I'm rating. I have no idea about the rest of the stories in the magazine, but this particular one is brilliant.

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Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love the book! And generally, I like Salvador Dali's paintings. But I must say I'm not too fond of his illustrations for this book :D They are very... Dali. And therefore very hard to explain to a kid you try to read the book to.

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Review: The Touch: A Supernatural Story

The Touch: A Supernatural Story by Robert Flynn III
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. I can't recall why I requested it; maybe I went with the crowd (again) and went for the book many people wanted to read. From the literary point of view, it's quite a disaster. Do you think in complete sentences? I don't. But the characters in this book do. More than that, all the characters in this book think and talk in an absolutely unnatural, pretentious, and what's more, identical way. There's no way to distinguish between characters or thoughts from talk. There is also very little to go by when you try to decide if this book is fanatically religious or strongly anti-religious. Who would have thought that's even possible? It's certainly styled like a religious text, but the (hint of) ideas tells otherwise.

In any case, the blurb is very misleading. It's not a book about some struggling boy. It's more like a regular pandemic-themed book. A parasite spreads through the world; it's transmitted by touch; some people are more resistant than others, but it won't make a difference in the end. To better imagine this parasite think about ants and ant-controlling fungi that make them climb up to spread the spores. Just as those fungi, the parasite in question changes the behavior of its victims and creates multitudes of zombies. Pandemia, yay.

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Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lisa Mullarkey
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I'm so tired of all those translations from English to English. If a book is filled with unfamiliar and difficult words, maybe it's time to expand one's vocabulary, not to re-write the classics?

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Review: The Gospel of Loki

The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Brilliant! Knowing the original myths almost by heart and recently dealing with Neil Gaiman's "re-telling" of them, that is exactly what I needed! It also proved to be a decent bed time story.

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Review: How to Write Better Book Reports

How to Write Better Book Reports by Elizabeth A. Ryan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked up this book in preparation for my son's years in an American school: experience I don't have. And yes, it was so American :D Almost immediately I stumbled onto this gem: "...the best writing for young adults is by Edward Eager." Who? Oh, by the way, you "might also want to check out Ursula LeGuin." LOL. Of course I looked him up; turned out he's an American writer with a list of contemporary low fantasy for kids that I didn't find very special. Just the writer to place ahead of Ursula Le Guin, who's also American by the way. I wonder...

The book is written by a woman and, frankly, it feels like it's written to shape that stereotypical middle school girl, who gets all A's, very neat, and manages to graduate without actually learning a thing. Writing a book report mostly consists of making outlines and copying what you've written neatly several times. I especially liked the advice to "picture your audience": "With whom would you like to discuss your book? Your best friend?" Yeah. Right. We are still talking about students assigned to write a report, right? Let's face it, the only person who'll ever read it is the teacher who assigned it. So, picture your only audience, the teacher. Better be aware of it from the beginning.

The author somehow managed to reduce a book report to the level of "liked it/didn't like it" feeling at the end. Does that mean that American students are not taught literary analysis at all? Not taught to read deeper and get more from a book than a superficial feeling? Since I don't have the experience, I can't tell. But a whole chapter devoted to how to use a library must mean something. (It was also a mostly irrelevant chapter. Who looks through a paper catalog nowadays? But let's take into account when it was written.)

And taking one of the advises from the book and implementing it in this report... "This makes me think of..."

Smile as you think of how happy the hero and heroine will be together...

That line did make me think. How is that that all the books I read either have an unrealistic, forced, and absurd happy ending or a believable, relatable, and totally depressing they-all-died ending?

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Review: A Court of Frost and Starlight

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It all went pretty well, up to the page five, where this happened:

A year ago, I'd been stuffed into fine gowns and jewels, made to parade in front of a preening court who'd gawked at me like a prized breeding mare.

On the one hand, nothing special. On the other hand, for some time I couldn't stop thinking if prized breeding mares gawk. I just couldn't take this book seriously after that. Sorry. Waiting for the next installment. :D

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Review: Adventures of a Young Naturalist: The Zoo Quest Expeditions

Adventures of a Young Naturalist: The Zoo Quest Expeditions by David Attenborough
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

That was such a delight! Full of good humor; written in light, lacy, and very British prose - I could almost hear Sir David's familiar voice in every line. But older readers, be warned: this book may cause a few bouts of nostalgia, because it's brimming with romantic adventures (here, read "romantic adventures" as "poorly organized expeditions"). And though mine were never quite so dangerous, reading about them reminds me of recklessness I now miss.

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Review: The Ember Stone

The Ember Stone by Katrina Charman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Minus one star right away for being written after the Guardians of Ga'Hoole and not even having pictures in color. But the Guardians of Ga'Hoole actually make biological sense, here, on the very first page, we are introduced to our hero, "a young barn owl" with a recognizable picture of a Barred Owl nearby. Come on guys, Tito and Stryx actually do look different. The leader of the owls is an obvious Great Horned Owl named Grey, but he sounds like a Screech Owl. Great Horned wouldn't be caught dead saying SCREE-EEE. And those tiger bats? More like tiger Pteranodons. Why not simply admit that there are still dinosauri around in this forest? The last straw for me was the firehawk itself, which is of course a phoenix, but apparently elementary school children are not supposed to know such words. I wonder how it wasn't "translated out" of Harry Potter.

The plot is just marvelous. If this book was written with 1st-3rd graders in mind, they were given a fabulous role model and a way to implement natural selection with a variety of tools. The book is just brimming with dangerous, stupid, and illogical behaviour of our young heroes. Very educational. Oh! I almost forgot! The Ember Stone is purple! Which of course makes so much sense semantically.

Two stars only because my first grader enjoyed it so much he even talked me into reading it.

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Review: The Ember Stone

The Ember Stone by Katrina Charman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Minus one star right away for being written after the Guardians of Ga'Hoole and not even having pictures in color. But the Guardians of Ga'Hoole actually make biological sense, here, on the very first page, we are introduced to our hero, "a young barn owl" with a recognizable picture of a Barred Owl nearby. Come on guys, Tito and Stryx actually do look different. The leader of the owls is an obvious Great Horned Owl named Grey, but he sounds like a Screech Owl. Great Horned wouldn't be caught dead saying SCREE-EEE. And those tiger bats? More like tiger Pteranodons. Why not simply admit that there are still dinosauri around in this forest? The last straw for me was the firehawk itself, which is of course a phoenix, but apparently elementary school children are not supposed to know such words. I wonder how it wasn't "translated out" of Harry Potter.

The plot is just marvelous. If this book was written with 1st-3rd graders in mind, they were given a fabulous role model and a way to implement natural selection with a variety of tools. The book is just brimming with dangerous, stupid, and illogical behaviour of our young heroes. Very educational.

Two stars only because my first grader enjoyed it so much he even talked me into reading it.

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Review: The Ember Stone

The Ember Stone by Katrina Charman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Minus one star right away for being written after the Guardians of Ga'Hoole and not even having pictures in color. But the Guardians of Ga'Hoole actually make biological sense, here, on the very first page, we are introduced to our hero, "a young barn owl" with a recognizable picture of a Barred Owl nearby. Come on guys, Tito and Stryx actually do look different. The leader of the owls is an obvious Great Horned Owl named Grey, but he sounds like a Screech Owl. Great Horned wouldn't be caught dead saying SCREE-EEE. And those tiger bats? More like tiger Pteranodons. Why not simply admit that there are still dinosauri around in this forest? The last straw for me was the firehawk itself, which is of course a phoenix, but apparently elementary school children are not supposed to know such words. I wonder how it wasn't "translated out" of Harry Potter.

The plot is just marvelous. If this book was written with 1st-3rd grades in mind, they were given a fabulous role model and a way to implement natural selection with a variety of tools. The book is just brimming with dangerous, stupid, and illogical behaviour of our young heroes. Very educational.

Two stars only because my first grader enjoyed it so much he even talked me into reading it.

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Review: The Ember Stone

The Ember Stone by Katrina Charman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Minus one star right away for being written after the Guardians of Ga'Hoole and not even having pictures in color. But the Guardians of Ga'Hoole actually make biological sense, here, on the very first page, we are introduced to our hero, "a young barn owl" with a recognizable picture of a Barred Owl nearby. Come on guys, Tito and Stryx actually do look different. The leader of the owls is an obvious Great Horned Owl named Grey, but he sounds like a Screech Owl. Great Horned wouldn't be caught dead saying SCREE-EEE. And those tiger bats? More like tiger Pteranodons. Why not simply admit that there are still dinosauri around in this forest? The last straw for me was the firehawk itself, which is of course a phoenix, but apparently elementary school children are not supposed to know such words. I wonder how it wasn't "translated out" of Harry Potter.

The plot is just marvelous. If this book was written with 1st-3rd grades in mind, they were given a fabulous role model and a way to implement natural selection with a variety of tools. The book is just brimming with dangerous, stupid, and illogical behaviour of our young heroes. Very educational.

Two stars only because my first grader enjoyed so much he even talked me into reading it.

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Review: Dragonborn

Dragonborn by Toby Forward
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

At page 144 I give up. We made it almost to 50%, but it's not only not getting better, it's actually getting worse and worse. My son is at the stage where he can read picture books himself, but they no longer interest him. So we moved on to bigger novels and read a few pretty books about dragons. The first three Harry Potter books were swallowed in a blink. But this... The plot is way to scratchy to interest a kid. The characters are... Were there characters? Some dirty and amazingly not-self-aware kid that moves around with no obvious intention. Some mysterious "evil" lurking in a huge prison. And a bunch of idiotic wizards so easily swayed, it's amazing. And yes, a dragon we know nothing about. The motives of any of them are unclear. And that's only the beginning. The biggest downfall of this book is descriptions, which are non-existent. And kids' books should be all about descriptions! In this particular case even my, fully developed, imagination was not enough to picture what's going on in any detail. The most I can say is I can follow the plot more or less (and I cannot say that about my son), but I can't imagine that world. This is one of those books that seems designed to kill a reader in a kid. So get rid of it before it's too late!

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Review: Allegiant

Allegiant by Veronica Roth
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

There are always good guys and bad guys. The good guys are obviously the ones who won, since they get to write the history. In this particular book, this is the only trait distinguishing the good and the bad. They use the same methods, want to achieve more or less the same outcomes... There should be a fourth book in the series, the one that takes the action even father away from the city and explains at last how is it possible to keep a country in ruins for two hundred years. I mean, yeah, the war, the rebels, the damage... Ten years? Maybe twenty? Or even fifty? And how do they keep themselves fed and otherwise well-supplied? I feel like it's all an experiment, including the burro and the fringe; and someone is sitting looking at it all and laughing. In any case, the solution is so ridiculous, it's painful. Let's just start again and everything will be just fine, we can build a better world just like that.

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Review: Norse Mythology

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I like the myths. No. I love those myths!! However, it is not Gaiman's fault. As for this particular retelling, I didn't like too much. It reads more like a collection of translator's notes (and I read the sources, thank you very much). Gaiman's style is too clipped for this purpose. Dryness really doesn't suit a myth, it needs a flourish.

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Review: The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As a cultural experience this book is worth the time it took me to read (or rather to listen). So I'm glad I read it. Other than that... I guess I have high standards for science fiction, especially the 'harder' versions of it. There are several interesting ideas in this book, that would be nice to explore more. There are also several ideas that I couldn't care less about, but ok. The one thing I didn't like from the very beginning, and it haunted me the whole book, is the way the author describes how scientists think. Based on what I know about scientists, they usually don't commit suicides when an experiment doesn't go as predicted. Or if the results can't be easily explained. Really, they are a bit more curious than that.

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Review: How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing

How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing by Paul J. Silvia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book. It's short and to the point. And right now I'm writing a very short review on a book about writing a lot :) Without further ado, I'm proceeding to actually writing a lot. My first scheduled session is in 10 minutes. Maybe I'll come back here in a year or so and add something on how much it actually helped.

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Review: Flight of the King

Flight of the King by C.R. Grey
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and I'm sorry to report that I didn't like. It supposed to be a middle grade novel, and they are often simplistic, but here a simplistic plot is combined with a not-thought-through world-building. Like, yeah, people love animals and bond with all kinds of animals.... and keep farm animals. Apparently, just because they love them, not for eating of course. Any 10 yo would surely believe that. So in essence, it's just a naive version of fighting for a throne, where a rightful (but oh, so evil) heir must loose to her very nice little brother, who makes others fight for him. There is very little world building, absolutely no character development. And the author has no sense whatsoever of the space-time continuum. The map makes no sense; the "kingdom" is apparently smaller than an average city, surrounded by wild (!) areas; the same distance is traveled in two days or five, depending on the mood; people going somewhere important for them arrive an hour late without any mention of what kept them, even though they started in like five-minutes walking distance. I don't even want to know how exactly they are going to live happily ever after in the next book.

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Review: The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals

The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals by Missy Chase Lapine
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

For some inexplicable reason the author seems to think that if you take some food, that has nothing to do with eating healthy, and add a table spoon of a vegetable puree, the dish as a whole suddenly becomes healthy. Unfortunately, I don't share that opinion, hence the low rating from me.

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Review: Legacy of the Claw

Legacy of the Claw by C.R. Grey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Fantastic! I like this world with humans bonded for life with some creature or other. It's so novel and refreshing... Wait. Ah, yes, there was that strange story with humans and their daemons, which makes much more sense technically, but who cares. And there is that lost king with regrettable memory gaps... Anyway, this story about yet another prophesied chosen one, who behaves stupidly at every turn and destined to save the world, is so interesting. I'm still not sure what role Harry Potter, I mean Bailey Walker with his White Tiger (should be all capital letters probably) must play in this power struggle for the throne, but it will undoubtedly be clear later on. After all, there is not much else in the story, other than the power struggle between an unmistakable evil and a thoughtful good. At least the characters themselves are hinted at, as well as some friendship between them.
Overall, it was a marginally enjoyable read, more or less typical for a nothing special middle grade novel.

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Review: Dragons at Crumbling Castle: And Other Tales

Dragons at Crumbling Castle: And Other Tales by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

5 stars - Dragons at Crumbling Castle - Love this one!
3 stars - Hercules the Tortoise - Poor snake.
3 stars - The Great Speck - Pratchett overdose on this one.
5 stars - Hunt the Snorry - Let's go hunt the Snorry!
1 star - Tales of the Carpet People - Way too long and way overboard with satire.
3 stars - Doc the Caveman.
4 stars - The Big Race.
2 stars - Another Tale of the Carpet People.
4 star - The Great Egg-Dancing Championship.
4 stars - Edwo, the Boring Knight.
5 stars - The 59A Bus Goes Back in Time - Buses and time-travel! And I got a chance to introduce the little one to Romans, knights, Merlin, and giant dragonflies. He knew all about dinosaurs of course.
4 stars - An Abominable Snowman
5 stars - The Blackbury Monster - Poor little monster!
5 stars - Father Christmas Goes to Work.

Annnnd since the average is 3.78, the overall raiting from me is 4 stars. But I'm now overdosed with Pratchett, so keeping the dosage manageable, the next book will be next year.

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Review: City of Ashes

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Looking at other reviews it seems I'm not the only one, who would prefer to see more of Alec and Magnus, instead of teenage-style boring Clary and Jace. At least some scenes from their perspective, please?

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Review: Catullus' Bedspread: The Life of Rome's Most Erotic Poet

Catullus' Bedspread: The Life of Rome's Most Erotic Poet by Daisy Dunn
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I think the author misjudged her audience. This book is not a "vivid narrative" it claims to be. It is very well researched, interesting, somewhat controversial, but definitely not vivid. Paragraphs feel disjointed from one another. The narrative behaves more like a solid than a liquid, and a living solid at that: it jumps like a cricket from one paragraph to the next, instead of flowing seamlessly as I would expect it. The whole biography resembles a workbook, with a lot of extensive notes. And there is also a decisive lack of original Latin poems. I know, the interested reader is supposed to go out there and find them. But it would be really nice to at least have a few examples, even if only to see first-hand the rhythm the author talks about.

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Review: The Fantastic Flying Journey

The Fantastic Flying Journey by Gerald Durrell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was a very good first encounter with Gerald Durrell for my little one. For me it felt like a condensed, toddler-friendly version of all Durrell's adventures in one book. I would appreciate more details on the flying house itself (but I'm a big fan of exploring tiny little nooks) and an illustrator who actually saw at least some of it. I mean, Graham Percy was obviously trying, following the text and all that, but when you draw ancient pine forest as a Christmas tree farm, you know something has gone wrong.

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Review: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves by Anonymous
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The Thousand and One Nights is one of the important and influential piece of cultural heritage. And I believe that acquaintance of young readers with this book plays an important role in personal development. Despite all the violence in this story, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, I don't remember it being traumatic all those years ago, so I decided that a children's edition should be a good choice for my son's first encounter with it. But my, I was wrong. And not because of the violence. All the violence is still there, while the story itself changed quite a lot to my surprise. So no, I didn't like this particular version.

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Review: The Mystery Boxes

The Mystery Boxes by Kazu Kibuishi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Indeed, escape is never an option.

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Review: Assassin Fantastic

Assassin Fantastic by Martin H. Greenberg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don't usually read short stories collections and don't really know how to rate them. Reading one short story at a time, I'm giving the book a grand total of 2.8 stars, which is the average of the 15 stories and gets rounded to 3.
Death Rites by Tanya Huff - 4 stars - An ok story, but nothing too special.
Green Stones by Stephen Leigh - 5 stars - I maybe, possibly, probably found a new author I want to read.
Coin of the Realm by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - 3 stars - Or even less than 3 stars.
The Svedali Foundlings by Fiona Patton - 3 stars - Marginally interesting.
History and Economics by Anna Oster - 2 stars - Boring.
Never Say... uh... Die? by Josepha Sherman - 4 stars - Why did it have to be Koshchei?
Dying by Inches by Teresa Edgerton - 1 star - More than boring.
Darkness Comes Together by Mickey Zucker Reichert - 1 star - Hmm. That wasn't even mediocre.
Raven's Cut by Lynn Flewelling - 3 stars - A good story that would get 4 stars from me, if only it wasn't the reason I picked this book. I was waiting for so much more, but what I got was Rhiminee with a distinct Ankh-Morpork-ish flavor.
Myhr's Adventure in Hell by P. N. Elrod - 4 stars - Not overly well written, but I'm interested to get to know Myhr and Terrin better.
He by Leyte Jefferson - 1 star - Exemplary bad.
War of the Roses by Rosemary Edghill - 4 stars - There was at least some suspense, which is always good in a short story.
On my honor by Bernie Arntzen - 2 stars - Off to a very good start, but ends without a resolution.
A touch of Poison by Jane Lindskold - 3 stars - A reasonably interesting read.
Echoes by Michelle West - 2 stars - Kind of interesting, but I'n not sure I understand half of it and it seems I'd need to read a few other books about this character to understand.

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Review: Which Way to Witch School?

Which Way to Witch School? by Scott Santoro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If only the rhymes were more rhymy, especially those two last lines, that break the rhythm and more or less ruin the impression.

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Review: Merry Christmas, Little Witch

Merry Christmas, Little Witch by Lieve Baeten
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love those illustrations!!! They are so detailed and thoughtful! We spent so much time looking at them, discussing them, and finding new things there! And the story is also good, even though not as marvelous as the illustrations.

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Review: The Book of Mistakes

The Book of Mistakes by Corinna Luyken
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I especially liked frog-cat-cow thing.

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Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

!!! The illustrations are even better than before (and they follow the text more closely). And it's always been my favorite Harry Potter novel. Can I possibly give it more than just five stars?

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Review: Chainbreaker

Chainbreaker by Tara Sim
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As a whole, I liked this installment much better than the first book, Timekeeper. It was more of a real novel with some great elements of historical fiction. Not a schmaltzy ballad, not too syrupy, less pink snot smeared on the pages. But. This is not a stand alone in any sense. It had the potential to be a great book, but the author failed to see it to any reasonable, even if unstable, ending. And given that the next book will be out in almost a year from now, I just cannot forgive that huge cliffhanger. Too cheap a move.

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Review: Artemis

Artemis by Andy Weir
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I am not impressed. For multiple reasons. I'm not so sure that quitting a career in software engineering and becoming a full-time writer was such a wise move for Andy Weir. The Martian is gorgeous. I read it twice and it's still gorgeous. Technical enough, interesting enough, believable enough. I know the author wants his heroes to solve problems they themselves created and it's executed brilliantly in the Martian. Here? I think it went well overboard. That last part about poisoning the whole city? Was it really necessary? Besides, this is where it becomes not so believable. I'm afraid in real life there would be casualties. Someone was bound to die. Like the toddler our hero passes in a corridor. And not just this one, but all the children actually. Lower body mass, same concentrations....

The whole set up feels false somehow. I'm willing to bet the author grew up in a big city. And he doesn't even know what he doesn't know. He tries to apply his personal social experience on a situation where it's not applicable. The whole Artemis is about 2000 people. Tourists come and go, but there are two thousand residents. Have you ever visited villages with two thousand people in them? Everybody knows everybody. And when I say knows I don't mean just faces and/or names. People living in small communities know pretty much everything about each other. The most anti-social person there would be more connected (and protected) than an average outgoing human being in a big city. Our hero is not the most anti-social one, she can't be. It takes a lot of communication skills to be a smuggler. Yet she somehow driven everyone else out of the profession and at the same time has troubles managing customs. She also lived almost all her life there and can come up with only a handful of friends, all of whom are in a some kind of a relationship crisis with her. So now we have a successful smuggler, a very socially-oriented profession, who somehow doesn't talk with anybody.... Yep, totally believable.

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Review: The Adventure of Feluda : The Emperors Ring

The Adventure of Feluda : The Emperors Ring by Satyajit Ray
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I can very well imagine how kids were waiting for the next volume of their favorite journal to get to read another adventure of Feluda. Those short stories fit that format quite well. Everything else though leaves a lot to wish for. I read this book as part of the challenge and I was struggling to find a book by an Indian author that would unquestionable fiction and with a rating above 4. Different Feluda adventures were literally the only books to choose from with those requirements. So I guess it is quite unique for Indian literature, but... It is quite unoriginal in the world literature. References to Sherlock Holmes border on plagiarism. Three stars only for a bit of local flavor.

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Review: The Golden Compass Graphic Novel, Volume 1

The Golden Compass Graphic Novel, Volume 1 by Philip Pullman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

As much as I love The Golden Compass, I absolutely disliked the drawing style in this graphic novel. The illustrator is ok making brown smudges, but is not doing so well with everything else, especially faces. Was it really Lyra? Was that Lord Asriel?!

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Review: The Green Bicycle

The Green Bicycle by Haifaa al Mansour
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was challenged to read a book by an author from Saudi Arabia. And it really was a hard challenge! Mostly because it was really hard to find a book by a Saudi Arabian author. I would really prefer to read fiction, but 1) The Green Bicycle was the one and only Saudi Arabian book in my library; 2) Even if I wanted to ask for a book from another library, there is nothing to ask for. All I found were several stories about the fate of girls in that country written by female authors who happily escaped. I guess the same zeal that was underlying the plot in this book is the reason for the poor literary heritage. The story itself is written well enough and pleasant enough to read, even though it's not overly consistent in terms of tenses and points of view. The plot, however, is not too exciting. Besides, it doesn't seem finished. After the heroine rides off into the sunset on her new bicycle, the should be religious police and repercussions. There is just no other way it could go.

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Review: There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom’s Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids

There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom’s Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids by Linda Åkeson McGurk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked the idea, I liked the writing. This is book is supposed to be inspirational, I think. It would have been, it almost was. After every new idea I started to wonder how can I implement it, why I haven't before, because that's what I was doing myself up until quite recently. But each of these thoughts was interrupted by a sudden realization. Oh, that's why. There is literally nowhere to connect with nature in the middle of Iowa. There is not much nature left. A 50 by 20 m park composed of dying trees, without any young growth, doesn't really count. I mean I probably can walk there with a toddler, and I did, but it lacks the sense of wonder I felt tracking the wilderness. And as much as I tried, I couldn't find "like-minded parents" to share my concern. There is even a forest preschool in our town (where kids can have a change in scenery from indoor play with parents), and a Walk It Baby group (they like to walk in the mall). So after a while, all I feel was desperation. But I guess I'm inspired to move, to some other country probably, until it's too late.

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Review: Divergent

Divergent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Another book about a bitchy judgmental girl in a post-apocalyptic society where maniacs wanna rule the world. Decent writing, but minus a star for being written after the Hunger Games (come on, there must be some new ideas somewhere). Minus another star for a completely unnecessary cliff-hunger. I recently read a monster book that could easily be split in three, but this trilogy is a reverse case. It's apparently a one one-idea book, split into three for mysterious reasons.

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