Finally borrowed this from a friend so I could read it. Am on a knitting kick lately. Too bad there aren't more knitting humor books. I would buy them all.

I bought this at a book signing, where I learned that Stephanie is just as entertaining in person as she is in her books and blog. Reading this makes me feel less crazy for having a yarn obsession.

Of course, I bought this book for the story of Nicholas Sayre and a return to the world of the Abhorsen Trilogy. Not surprisingly, I enjoyed the other stories as well. I especially liked the Choose Your Own Adventure spoof, as I had a real fondness for those silly little books when I was younger (okay, and now, too).

Set against the backdrop of a real-life murder in the Adirondacks in 1906, A Northern Light tells the story of a young woman who yearns to break out of her dull life and find freedom and excitement. Many stories force a fictional character into real life events with laughable, or just bizarre results. This book stands out in its simplicity, and the fact that the historical event is only mentioned in passing. It provides an impetus for the character to follow her dreams, without seeming far-fetched or awkward. Although I sometimes found the supporting characters to be a little stereotypical and two-dimensional, the main character is nicely drawn and believable. You can't help but root for Mattie, cheer when things go right for her, and cry when they go wrong...at least if you are the sort to cry at books, which I am.

Garth Nix hooked me with Sabriel, and I have gradually managed to pick up the rest of his works, and look forward to more. The Ragwitch is a dark and intense story, and I found myself sucked into its world. Nix seems to get children, and I like it that his characters aren't the stereotypical precocious children that populate so many other books. Not to say that they aren't sometimes wise for their years, but they have flaws; they get tired, and scared, make mistakes, are lazy, and yet also manage to be brave, resourceful and for the most part good.

A fine retelling of the "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" fairy tale, which sets the story in a specific time and place, giving it a touch of realism which makes the fantastical events seem even more magical. The writing is fluid and the story is captivating. The story is told from varying points of view, and Pattou does an excellent job of keeping the momentum of the story, while bouncing back and forth between the different characters.

Another book picked up on a whim, because I liked the sound of the title, and I have long had a love of silly gothic romance type stuff. It does a pretty good job of emulating the Victorian Gothic style, and reminds me a little of Northanger Abbey, gently chastising the genre, while at the same time participating in it. I'd have liked the book to be a little more in depth, more character development, more mystery...just more. But then, I like long novels. Still, an enjoyable read, and I plan to get the sequel when it makes an appearance in paperback.

There are many things that I liked about this book. The story and characters captured my interest, and more importantly held it. The writing was more polished than most of what I have been reading lately. Perlman never gets so wrapped up in his concept that he forgets to tell the story, as sometimes happens with books which have a similar gimmick. The only thing that really bothered me was that Perlman is clearly very intelligent, I just wish he hadn't felt it necessary to "educate" me. I think of the play Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, and how there's all these bits of math and landscaping and literature sort of thrown in there. It's an exercise in ego, showing off how much you know...but Stoppard never makes me feel stupid for not already knowing these things, where at times, Perlman gets a bit, i don't know, pedantic. Still, overall, I enjoyed the reading experience.

I knew what I was getting into when I started reading this book, based on the TV series Lost. It was about as bad as I expected. Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy it. It was a quick, silly, read, which is what I needed at the time. There are no insights to be gained into the TV show characters, or the show itself, but it's kind of interesting, in a train wreck sort of way, to see how the author tries to integrate a previously unknown character into the story, interacting with the characters we know and love (or hate).

I am always fascinated by tales of natural disasters. Plague, fire, flood, blizzard, hurricane. You name it, I love it. This book provided enough factual information to satisfy my curiosity, without losing the sense of "story" which makes it readable. It was fascinating, horrifying, and ultimately a satisfying read.

I loved this book. I picked it up as something to read just before bed, and then stayed up several hours past my bedtime to finish it. Clever, and consistently entertaining, with the added bonus of confirming that I am not alone in my knitting obsession. Glad I finally got around to reading this.

There are parts of this series that I really, really like. Things that are clever, or innovative, or fun. And then, sometimes, it seems to get too wrapped up in the gimmick and kind of loses me. Overall, I enjoyed this as a nice quick read.

One of the few occasions when revisiting a love of my childhood has not been disappointing. Of course, I was spurred on, as so many others were, by the recent release of the movie. I had intended to read this prior to seeing the film, but somehow couldn't find the time for a 200 page book. Still, I adore this series, and will get around to reading the rest of it soon.

Clever, as usual. I love this series. I continue to be disappointed that the didn't do a better job with the movie, as it likely means that there will be no more. Although the plot gets more and more outlandish, and I was a bit disappointed that none of the adults since Uncle Monty has managed to be fully likable, I still enjoyed the reading, and look forward to the next book.

This book was of particular interest to me because a)I always like reading the sort of young adult literature type stories, and b) I attended a private school for 2 years while growing up, and I could identify with the subject. I actually felt like I over-identified with the main character, but she annoyed me, as well. Parts of the story felt very realistic, and reminded me of my private school experiences, and then parts of the story were...I don't know...simplistic or stereotypical. The main character was fairly well developed, but several of the important minor characters were flat and uninteresting. One of the reviews in the beginning of the book compared it to The Catcher in the Rye, but although the subject matter certainly invites the comparison, the writing style is not strong enough to sustain the story and keep it consistently interesting. There are a few very good parts, but they are overshadowed by the rest of the novel, which is, to me, just average.

A friend loaned me this book, and I am glad that she did. The book looks at death in a way which is both entertaining and insightful, and although some of the practices described may strike me as absurd, Palmer is never irreverent, but treats each custom with respect and dignity. It is interesting to me to see how much different cultures have in common, underneath the obvious differences, it is clear that we all have a great respect for the dead, and a fear of the unknown.

I will read almost anything having to do with vampires. As a result, I have read quite a lot of really bad novels. It is always pleasant, therefore, to find one that is not entirely crap. It is easy, when writing a vampire novel, to be cheesy, predictable, or merely silly. For the most part, The Historian avoids these perils with an interesting and well-developed story, plausible characters, and decent writing. A lot of the "surprise" moments are quite predictable, in my opinion, and it occasionally annoyed me that it took the characters so long to see what seemed perfectly obvious. But it is also true that often, in real life, the obvious can be a very tricky sort of thing. It does descend into silliness for a brief moment as it nears the conclusion, but otherwise, I thought it was a pretty good read.

My feelings about this book are complicated. On the one hand, the writing is excellent, the story is pretty good, and I found it to be thought provoking and interesting. On the other hand...I HATE Owen Meany. As a character, I found him to be annoying and not particularly believable. This is made particularly noticable, because I think the rest of the characters are very well drawn and lifelike. Part of the problem may have to do with the use of ALL CAPS to indicate Owen's voice. Although it makes sense to me why it was done this way, I nevertheless found myself constantly being irritated by it. Perhaps it's our modern day sensibilities which tell us that all caps is the equivalent of yelling. I did feel like the book was yelling at me...or at least preaching at me, and although there were some good points made about morality, I still found it hard to read. However, having finished this book, I am feeling somewhat motivated to pick up one of the other 3 Irving books I own (and have tried to read in the past with little to no success) and see what I can make of them.