Book Review: City of Fallen Angels - Cassandra Clare

City of Fallen Angels - Cassandra Clare

The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her.  She's training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power.  Her mother is getting married to the love of her life.  Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last.  And--most importantly of all--she can finally call Jace her boyfriend.

But nothing comes without a price.

Someone is murdering Shadowhunter, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second, bloody war.  Clary's best friend, Simon, can't help her - his mother just found out he's a vampire, and now he's homeless.  When Jace begins to pull away from her without explaining why, Clary is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: she herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves.  Even Jace.

4/5 stars (really liked it)

This story takes off after the end of the third book.  Clary and Jace are happy together, Simon is a vampire with the mark that Clary put on him to protect him as well as being a Daylighter.  But not all is a happy as it seems.  Jace is plagued with nightmares, which he's too afraid to share with Clary and begins to pull away from her.  Simon is an outcast and there are other Downworlders out to get him and he needs to come to terms that he is no longer human.  Also there is Alec and Magnus who are happy on vacation.  This story is filled with many of the characters we have grown to love.  I can't wait to read the next one.

Book Review: Still Alice - Lisa Genova

Still Alice - Lisa Genova

Genova's debut revolves around Alice Howland - Harvard professor, gifted researcher and lecturer, wife, and mother of three grown children.  One day, Alice sets out for a run and soon realizes she has no idea how to find her way home.  It's a route she has taken for years, but nothing looks familiar.  She is utterly lost.  Is her forgetfulness the result of menopausal symptoms?  A ministroke?  A neurological cancer?  After a few doctors' appointments and medical tests, Alice has her diagnosis, and it's a shocker--she has early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

What follows is the story of Alice's slow but inevitable loss of memory and connection with reality, told from her perspective.  She gradually loses the ability to follow a conversational thread, the story line of a book, or to recall information she heard just moments before.  To Genova's great credit, readers learn of the progression of Alice's disease through the reactions of others, as Alice does, so they feel what she feels--a slow building terror.

3/5 stars (liked it)

This book was very emotional.  You get to know Alice so well and see how the progression of the disease affects her daily life as well as her relationship with her husband, co-workers and children.  In a sense it bring her closer to her children but in another it takes her farther away.  A very sad story in the sense that you know you will lose the Alice you met in the beginning.

Testing

My pets Ares the cat and Apollo the dog.  Just trying out the blogger app on my phone.

Book Review: Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab – “Science Bob” Pflugfelder & Steve Hockensmith

Nick and Tesla’sHigh-Voltage Danger Lab – “Science Bob” Pflugfelder & Steve Hockensmith

Nick and Tesla are bright 11-year-old siblings with a knack for science, electronics, and getting into trouble.  When their parents mysteriously vanish, they’re sent to live with their Uncle Newt, a brilliant inventor who engineers top-secret gadgets for a classified government agency.  It’s not long before Nick and Tesla are embarking on adventures of their own—engineering all kind of outrageous MacGyverish contraptions to save their skin; 9-volt burglar alarms, electromagnets, mobile tracking devices, and more.  Readers are invited to join in the fun as each story contains instructions and blueprints for five different projects.

In Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Lab, we meet the characters and learn how to make everything from rocket launchers to soda-powered vehicles.  Learning about science has never been so dangerous—or so much fun!

4/5 stars (really liked it)

I received a copy for review from Quirk Books.  My 9 year old, who read at a middle school level actually plucked this from my hands and read it first.  He carried the book around for the day and bookmarked all the projects for us to do.  At the end of the book I asked him what he thought of it and he said he really enjoyed the story, the characters and the projects.  After prying the book away from him (as he likes to read books more than once) I was able to read it.  I thought it was a fun book and perfect for kids.  It had mystery and science combined into one book.  I love how the ending still leaves you with some questions.  

Book Review: Nick and Tesla's Robot Army Rampage: A Mystery with Hoverbots, Bristle Bots, and Other Robots You Can Build Yourself - Pflugfelder & Hockensmith

Robot Army Rampage: A Mystery with Hoverbots, Bristle Bots, and Other Robots You Can Build Yourself - Pflugfelder & Hockensmith

When a rash of robberies hits the town of Half Moon Bay, 11-year-old sleuths Nick and Tesla are determined to catch the criminals--but to do so, they'll have to build a host of new gadgets and gizmos!  In this robot-themed follow-up to Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab, the brother-and-sister duo build four different droids out of ordinary household objects--and illustrated instructions are included throughout the story, so you can build them, too!  Can Nick and Tesla catch the criminal mastermind--and foil his army of rampaging robots--before it's too late?

4/5 stars (really liked it)

I received a copy of this book from Quirk Books.  My 9 year old son was very excited to be receiving the second book in this series since he really enjoyed the first book.  He liked this book even more than the first one.  I was able to read this book after him and it was an enjoyable book.  I had my suspision on who the bad guy was and I was actually wrong.  I love how creative Nick and Tesla are.  I was glad to see the introduction of a love interest for Uncle Newt.  I love the kids' reactions to his new friend.  I will definitely and I think my son agrees that we will read the next book as well.

Book Review: The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

It is 1939.  Nazi Germany.  The country is holding its breath.  Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist--books.  With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

4/5 stars (really liked it)

I have had this book on my to-read list for quite a while and finally decided to read it.  This book is told from the point of view of Death, which I thought was a very interesting concept.  I wasn't sure how the narrator would work but the author made it work very well.  Not only did we learn about the life of Liesel but we also learned about what was going on at that time.  There were many interesting characters in this book, such as Liesel's best friend Rudy, her foster parents, Max the Jewish man hiding in their basement as well as all the neighbors she interacts with on a daily basis.  I got so attached to some of the characters that when they died I was sad.  We follow Liesel from the time she arrives at her foster home until the day she dies.  Wonderfully told story!

Book Club: Crow Lake - Mary Lawson

 Crow Lake - Mary Lawson

Crow Lake is that rare find, a first novel so quietly assured, so emotionally pitch perfect, you know from the opening page that this is the real thing-a literary experience in which to lose yourself, by an author of immense talent.

Here is a gorgeous, slow-burning story set in the rural "badlands" of northern Ontario, where heartbreak and hardship are mirrored in the landscape.  For the farming Pye family, life is a Greek tragedy where the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons, and terrible events occur-offstage.

Centerstage are the Morrisons, whose tragedy looks more immediate if less brutal, but is, in reality, insidious and divisive.  Orphaned young, Kate Morrison was her older brother Matt's protegee, her fascination for pond life fed by his passionate interest in the natural world.  Now a zoologist, she can identify organisms under a microscope but seems blind to the state of her own emotional life.  And she thinks she's outgrown her siblings-Luke, Matt, and Bo- who were once her entire world.

In this universal drama of family love and misunderstanding, of resentments harbored and driven underground, Lawson ratchets up the tension with heartbreaking humor and consummate control, continually overturning one's expectations right to the very end.  Tragic, funny, unforgettable, Crow Lake is a quiet tour de force that will catapult Mary Lawson to the forefront of fiction writers today.

3/5 stars (liked it)

This book is told from the point of view of Kate and has many flashbacks to her childhood.  Her parents died when she was about 7 years old and she was raised by her two brothers, Luke and Matt.  Throughout the story we know that something occurred to cause a drift between herself and Matt but things unfold slowly throughout the book.  The thing I liked about it is that even though things are not revealed right away the author writes the story in such a way that I want to continue reading it.  I was happy with the conclusion of this story.

Our next book:  Fun Home - Alison Bechndel