Book: The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

 Book: The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

Author: Garth Nix

Pages: 432

This is my 28th read for the year

What Amazon says:

In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met.  Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn't get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outragiously attractive Merlin.  Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones), who with the right-handed booksellers (the intellectual ones), are an extended family of magical beings who police the mythic and legendary Old World when it intrudes on the modern world, in addition to running several bookshops.  Susan's search for her father begins with her mother's possibly misremembered or misspelt surnames, reading room ticket, and a silver cigarette case engraved with something that might be a coat of arms.   Merlin has a quest of his own, to find the Old World entity who used ordinary criminals to kill his mother.  As he and his siter, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, tread in the path of a botched or covered-up police invetigation from years past, they find this quest strangely overlaps with Susan's.  Who or what was her father?  Susan, Merlin, and Vivien must find out, as the Old World erupts danergously into the New.

This book was just okay.  I picked it to fit into a challenge category where a character had to be left handed.  Being left-handed myself, I thought this would be a fun one.  But this book wasn't entertaining.  The character development is just so-so, and the story dragged.  I am glad to be done with it.  I loved the idea of it, but it just fell flat for me

Stars: 3

Book: Half Way Home

 Book: Half Way Home

Author: Hugh Howey

Pages: 242

This is my 27th read for the year

Amazon says:

We woke in fire.  500 colonists have been sent across the stars to settle an alien planet.  Vat-grown in a dream-like state, they are educated through simulations by an artificial intelligence and should awaken at 30 years old, fully trained, and ready to tame the new world.  But 15 years into their journey, an explosion on their vessel kills most of the homesteaders and destroys the majority of their supplies.  Worse yet, the 60 that awaken and escape the flames are only half-taught and possess few useful survival skills.  Naked and terrified, the teens stumble from their fiery baptism ill-prepared for the unfamiliar and harsh alien world around them.  Though they attempt to work with the colony AI to build a home, dissension and misery are rampant, escalating into battles for dominance.  Soon they find that their worst enemoy isn't the hostile envoronment, the AI or the blast that nearly killed them.  Their greatest danger is each other.

I was originally excited to find this book at a used book store because I loved the Silo series by this author.  I read the back cover and it sounded right up my ally (dystopain, new world finding) but I should have paid better attention to the fact that all the characters were 15 years old.  This wasn't well written - even for a YA book.  It was childish and unbelievable.  Main character is very weak to the point of silly.  I did look this up and it was one of his earlier books, so maybe that was the problem?  It didn't seem like the same author from the Silo series.

Stars: 2

Book: Little Mushroom: Judgement Day

 Book: Little Mushroom: Judgement Day

Author: Shisi

Pages: 404

This is my 26th read for the year

What Amazon says:

"Until the day humanity falls".  In the year 2020, Earth's magnetic poles disappeared and humankind was nearly wiped out by cosmic radiation.  Within the span of a hundred years, living creatures began to mutate and devour each other while the remaining humans, numbering in the tens of thousands, struggled bitterly in their man-made bases.  In the Abyss, home to the mutated xenogenics, there lived a sentient little mushroom.  Because it had been nourished by the blood and flesh of the decreased human An Ze, not only did it take on a similar-looking human form, but a similar name as well: An Zhe.  An Zhe is determined to go to the human base to search for his spore, which had been harvested by humans.  Once there, however, he faces the omnipresent risk of discovery and certain death as he tries to keep his non-human nature hidden from the Judges, whose responsibility is to inspect for an eliminate xenogenics like himself.  And of all the Judes, Colonel Lu Feng is the most perceptive and merciless - as soon as he determines that someone is a xenogenic, he will execute that person on the spot.  But An Zhe's mutation goes undetected by Lu Feng's eyes, and so a tale of humans and xenogenics unfolds.  

This was an interesting book.  I read it for a reading challenge and it was recommended by my 22 year old daughter, so it was not something I would normally read.  But it was well translated and an interesting dystopian story.  It is imaginative and I liked how they explained how the world because the way it was.

Stars: 4.

Book: How To American

 Book: How To American

Author: Jimmy O Yang

Pages: 240

This is my 25th read for the year

What Amazon says:

"I turned down  job in finance to pursue a career in stand-up comedy.  My dad thought I was crazy.  But I figured it was better to disappoint my parents for a few years than to disappoint myself for the rest of my life.  I had to disappoint them in order to pursue what I loved.  That was the only way to have my Chinese turnip cake and eat an American apple pie too".  Jimmy Yang is a standup comedian, film and TV actor and fan favorite as the character Jian Yang from Silicon Valley.  In How to American, he shares his story of growing up as a Chinese immigrant who pursued a Hollywood career against the wishes of his parents:  Yang arrived in Los Angeles from Hong Kong at age 13, learned English by watching BET Rap City for three hours a day, and worked as a strip club DJ while pursuing his comedy career.  He chronicles a near deportation episode during a college trip to Tijuana to finally becoming a proud US citizen 10 years later.  

This was a pretty good book.  I listened to it and the author reads it which made the book I believe.  His story begins in Hong Kong to his immigration to the US at age 13, to 2018 when the book was written.  He does a deep dive into what made his decisions, the poor and good choices he has made, and how his parents view his choices.  It has laugh out loud moments that were probably made better with the audio verison.  Good book - glad I listened to it.

Stars: 4

Book: The Illiad Graphic Novel

 Book: The illiad Graphic Novel

Author: Gareth Hinds

Pages: 272

This is my 24th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

More than three thousand years ago, two armies faced each other in an epic battle that rewrote history and came to be knkown as the Trojan War.  The Illiad, Homer's legendary account of this 9 year ordeal, is considered the greatest war story of all time and one of the most important works of Western literature.  In this stunning graphic novel adaptation - a thoroughly researched and artfully rendered masterowkr - renowned illustrator Gareth Hinds captures all the grim glory of Homer's epic.  Dynami illustrations take readers directly to the plains of Troy, into the battle itself, and lay bare the complex emotions of the men, women, and gods whose struggles fueled the war and determined its outcome.

After reading Clytemnestra earlier this month, I wanted to read the Illiad and Odessy in hopes that she might be mentioned in the story.  I did decide to start with the graphic novel for this daunting novel series, just to get a taste until I have more time.  Sadly in the graphic novel, she is not mentioned, but I did enjoy the story.  Artwork was okay. 

Stars: 4

Book: Death on the Nile

 Book: Death on the Nile

Author: Agatha Christie

Pages: 320

This is my 23rd read for the year

What Amazon says:

The tranquility of a luxury cruise along the Nile was shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway had been shot through the head. She was young, stylish, and beautiful.  A girl who had everything - until she lost her life.  Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: "I'd like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger."  Yet under the searing heat of the Egyptian sun, nothing is ever quite what it seems.  A sweeping mystery of love, jealousy, and betrayal, Death on the Nile is one of Christie's most legendary and timeless works.

This was a pretty good book.  I have only read one other Agatha Christie book.  (I know I know).  I have seen the most recent Death on the Nile movie, and enjoyed it, and the book follows it pretty close.  I like Hercule Poirot as a detective.  Story flowed nicely and it was a quick and easy read.  I have another on my list to read this year, and I am looking foward to it.

Stars: 4

Book: Onyx Storm

 Book: Onyx Storm

Author: Rebecca Yarros

Pages: 544

This is my 22nd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

After nearly 18 months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there's no more time for lessons.  No more time for uncertainty.  Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it's impossible to know who to trust.  Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Areian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with NAvarre.  The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves - her dragons, her family, her home, and him.  Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destory everything.  They need an army.  They need power.  They need magic.  And they need the one thing only Violet can find - the truth.  But a storm is coming - and not everyone can survive its wrath.

This is a 3rd book in the Fourth Wing series and I swore to myself I was going to stop after book 2.  But Yarros is a master of cliff hanger endings so here we are. I have a personal struggle problem with stopping series even when they are not my favorite and that is what this really is.  While this is KIND of one of my favorite genres (fantasy) this truly is romantasy and that one is not my cup of tea.  Yarros is a okay world builder (she is no Rowling or Martin).  I felt like this was more like book 2 1/2.  Like she was setting up what is coming in the next book more than moving the story along very much.  This book is SPICY.  But I found it less so this time than the other two books - felt she focused more on battles and character and world building which was a plus.  Another cliff hanger ending? You bet - this is a FIVE book series, so she had to right?  And it was a doozy.  She is great an those cliff hangers and keeps people buying her books because of them.  Darn you Yarros.  

I did like one part of the book very much, and that was her dedication in the front.  It said "to the ones who don't run with the popular crowd, the ones who get caught reading under their desks, the ones who feel like they never get invited, included, or represented.  Get your leathers.  We have dragons to ride."

Stars: 3.5