Find me on Goodreads!

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5916147
Here is a link to my profile.


This site is quite similar to librarything, but more free, and for a little while, I was able to participate in an online book club through it. But alas the attempt at finishing War and Peace fell through. Well, I have read other books since my last post there, let me tell you about it!


The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
A gift from an internet friend with excellent taste. This was a riveting, psychological mystery/horror/drama written in pre-Victorian era, cataloging increasingly disturbing events through letters and diary entries, similar to Dracula (which I had also finished within the past year.) Of course it suffered slightly from overly Dickensian descriptions, but once I settled in that language, it was very unputdownable.


In the Night Garden by Catherynne Valente
A book I bought at a library sale, another serpendipitous purchase. This is set in the form of a Scheherazade like girl telling a series of almost interwoven fairytales to a captivated young prince. Gorgeous poetic language, enchanting characters and adventures, written with a sense of childlike wonder mixed with dark humor.


Dune by Frank Herbert
One of the sci-fi books on my to-read list. Incredible world-building, with a touch of grossness, quite everything I enjoy in a sci-fi novel. I found the ending rather anticlimactic though, but the environment and action more than made up for that. I will forgo reading the rest of the series though, I am told it gets much weirder.


The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
A charming children's novel, with adorable illustrations, sensible morals and charming descriptions.


Doctor Who: the Doctor Trap by Simon Messingham
The story was all right, but the execution was rather amateurish. I would have rather seen this as an episode with the 10th doctor.


Snuff by Terry Pratchett
It's a Discworld novel with Vimes, what more needs to be said?

A few more books that I've read!

Okie, I really haven't been able to read much due to pharmacy school, but I'm gonna go ahead and record what I've read here. I've of course read the next Tiffany Aching book by Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight, wonderful as always. Other books I've read include more of A Song of Ice and Fire, more of the Wheel of Time, and also J.R.R. Tolkien's rendition of the Norse Edda, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun. I've also started Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, as well as Shadows Over Baker Street, an Lovecraftian/Sherlock Holmes anthology, but I've been too lazy to finish.


Here is a completely fictional novel I managed to finish while working at the army hospital.


By the Mountain Bound by Elizabeth Bear takes place in a re-imagined world straight from Norse mythology, in which Nordic gods and creatures are reincarnated as angels and Valkryries living amongst humans. The switching perspectives between Fenrir, a valkyrie, and an angel tell a dramatic story as a strange woman is rescued from drowning, and consequently unleashes an internal struggle that ends in tragedy. There are also undertones of romance, male-male and male-female, tasteful, well-written, though I found it a bit humorous at times. The characters themselves are rather realistic, perhaps a little idealized at times , but endearing overall. I may even read the rest of the series, Norse mythology I enjoy but it's always so DRAMATIC and well, cold. /Texan

Various intelligent young heroines

Swan Maiden by Heather Tomlinson
This imaginative novel explores the life of sweet Doucette, who lives in the shadow of her cruel and glamorous older sisters, wishing that she too could practice sorcery in the care of their aunt. The heroine then finds her own swan skin and soon discovers that her desire to become a sorceress would conflict with love. How she resolves this and becomes a stronger and wiser young woman is both harrowing and uplifting. A sweet story that does not flinch from the cruelty of the real world, but shows how one girl learned from this sad fact.

House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones
A sequel to Howl's Moving Castle, although I thought Castle in the Air was a sequel, too. Like those charming novels, this book is too clever by half, full of wacky hijinx, magical mayhem, and foolish yet still cerebrally enhanced characters. Howl had me cracking up so bad, even though he was a bit character, what a devil! Anyways, good times, just like Castle in the Air and what not.

The Snow-walker by Catherine Fisher

The Snow-Walker by Catherine Fisher is a teen novel in the form of a 3-part saga inspired by Norse mythology. In this novel, an evil sorceress from a frozen land has taken over a kingdom and sends 2 young cousins to deliver a message to her exiled and supposedly monstrous son. Basically, the cousins discover allies willing to help them fight the sorceress and there is much sorcery, mysterious events, soul-searching and travel to icy wastelands. The other two sagas deal with many of the same characters but bring the humble beginnings of the story to a glorious (yet still somewhat humble) end.

Overall, I enjoy the epic tone, interspersed with witty dialogue and charmingly realized characters who have a lot of spirit. Ancient Nordic culture is always fun to read about, even transposed to a fictitious setting. I had been meaning to check this book out and I am glad I did, there's really nothing I can say that's bad about this book.

Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer by Laini Taylor

Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer, a teen fantasy novel by Laini Taylor, is an enjoyable and fresh-faced romp through a dangerous world in which miniature fairies live in isolation, forgetting the apex of their power. An adventurous fairy named Magpie, accompanied by her crow friends, discovers that she is the fated one capable of defeating a monstrous being that swallows up life and leaves no trace. Along the way, she revives the king of Djinn, the creator of the world. With her newfound allies, 2 other young fairies with unusual magical powers, and battling traitors and other demons, she shakes the world of the fairies to the core.

What I like best about this series is the unique language style used, based on Scottish brogue or Irish dialect, I suppose. The mythology of the Djinn and Ifrit, probably unfamiliar to anyone not versed in Middle Eastern folklore, is always interesting to me. And of course, Magpie, stubborn and eventually way too over-powered, still retains a sincere and down-to-earth personality, which really impresses me in my long and jaded career of reading about stubborn and eventually way too over-powered teen heroes and heroines. Overall, an exciting read that I would recommend to anyone who won't snicker at the idea of a Tinkerbell fighting tooth and nail to save the world.

music and magic - more teen novels

I haven't updated in many moons because I've been busy with school and just haven't had access to a good library. But now that it's summer, I'm making up for lost time with my good friend, the local public library. Here are some titles that I will review later - I just wanted to note them before I forgot the authors and all that.

The Naming by Alison Croggon, also The Riddle and The Crow
A series set in a fantasy land where bards are able to perform magic. A teenage girl discovers that she is the fated one who will defeat an evil wizard. With the help of trusted friends, including a mysterious older man as her mentor, she comes into her power, finds a long-lost brother and in a race against time, they try to solve the riddles of the tumultuous past. The first book describes a typically Tolkienesque medieval world, while the second book ventures into the wild wintry north, and the disappointing third novel takes place in a burning south tainted by evil. Now where do they go next?!!

The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable, part of a trilogy
A series set in a fantasy land where chanters are able to perform magic. A teenage girl discovers she is the fated one who will defeat an evil wizard. With the help of trusted friends, including a mysterious older man as her mentor, she comes into her power... wait a minute!!! Hah hah, but seriously, both series are charming, with breathtaking adventures, adorably stupid characters and confident world building. They're just very similar to each other sometimes. This book was compared to a version of Earthsea, rich and complex with ancient mystery.

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
This is a remarkably interesting retelling of a fairy tale, set in the plains of Mongolia and told in the form of an illustrated diary. Two girls are trapped in a tower, with the princess courted by two different princes, one kind, the other evil. The clever servant-girl, who also has the ability to sing magically, struggles along with her mistress until they finally escape and end up rescuing a kingdom from a terrifying fate. I love how the author sensitively describes the thoughts of the servant girl, who narrates the story, and incorporates elements of a culture not many would know.

Standard Hero Behavior by John David Anderson
A cute, saucy parody of the average fantasy story. A young bard (hah hah, I have a theme going on) and his humorous sidekick unwittingly find themselves on a quest to save their hometown from an army of orcs and goblins. Little do they realize that they would help bring back the long-lost heroes of their father's time on their misadventures throughout the countryside. While definitely ironic, this author does not deal his sarcasm too heavily, and the moral was more sweet than cheesy. Recommended for a light-hearted read.

the Book of Flying by Keith Miller

The Book of Flying by Keith Miller is a gorgeous and poetic fantasy novel in the fashion of Alice in Wonderland. It's a short read, but so full of passionate emotion and bizarre imagery. Very rarely do I come across a book that compels me to re-read it as soon as I finish the last sentence, and this is one of them. The book is a bit... adult in some areas, since it describes a young poet's coming of age throughout his encounters with strange characters, many of them nubile young women. Like Victorian novels, you are left with a sense of "what was the purpose of all that?" after reading it, but for this book, I think it works to the advantage, and makes the ending more heartfelt and tragic. I am glad I randomly picked this off the library shelf.

Enchantment by Orson Scott Card

Enchantment by Orson Scott Card: a beautiful, funny and exciting modern version of Sleeping Beauty. Lots of Russian history and culture, two brave young lovers, some diabolical villains and juicy details make this a wonderful and satisfying read. I could not ask for a better fairytale retelling. If I don't think too much about the time travel paradoxes, I would say this is one of my favorite books to read for fun. Highly recommended!

the CrowThistle Chronicles by Cecilia Dart-Thornton

CrowThistle Chronicles: The Iron Tree by Cecilia Dart-Thornton: Includes the Well of Tears and Weatherwitch. While I admire her style of lush description, they occassionally go over-the-top and it is all I can do to not skip those paragraphs. I do like how she balances her books, with so much description and yet so much action going on, very skillfully paced. These books seem determined to outdo her first trilogy in sadness, despair and doom, but unlike Bitterbynde's vaguely European medieval setting, I find this book more unique and less dependent on familiar mythology. Critics compare her to Tolkien, and like Tolkien she occasionally inserts in lines that make me burst out laughing because they feek so out of place with her lyric style. Again, these books are very dreamy and romantic, with lots of folklore, unique legends and songs to add depth to an already dazzling imaginary world.

I think if you're willing to slog through 10,000 different ways to describe rose-fingered sunsets and verdant grasslands you might enjoy the actual story and characters.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke is a HUUUGE novel probably longer than all 6 Harry Potter books put together! Starts off extremely boring, but is oh-so-satisfying in the end if you can keep all the plotlines straight. I would describe this book as intellectual, witty, and worth reading if you like British manners, books, Faerie or a delicious combination of above.

It takes place in a magical Napoleonic-era London/Europe and follows two magicians as they try to bring back "true magic" and also counter the malignant forces of Faerie that work on everyone they know. The characters are extremely well-developed if somewhat frustratingly British - think of a wizardly cast of Jane Austen's novels. The footnotes are priceless, not as funny as Pratchett's impertinent ones, but snarky in their own way. Perhaps a lot of the extra Dickinsonian writing could be cut out, but I also feel the novel would lose a lot of its British flavor that way.

The Ladies of Grace-Adieu is a charming anthology of short stories that also take place in this alternate Europe. As a wry counterpoint to Jonathan Strange, it is bitterly amusing and probably more palatable than the monster of the original novel.

the Unlikely Ones by Mary Brown

The Unlikely Ones by Mary Brown is an epic fantasy novel also starring a hideously scarred protagonist who goes through a miraculous transformation and finds best friends and true love (like Thornton's Bitterbynde trilogy.) While a little raunchy at times, this book is quite charming, with uniquely rendered characters and some bizarre adventures that are not as typical as this book's genre would signify. I am put in mind of an X-rated version of Wrede's Enchanted Forest series. My favorite part are the poor little animals who accompany the heroes and perform some helpful task, but then again, I always like the animals. The ending was kinda bitter, but overall happy and with a good sense of closure.

Warning, do not read her other fantasy novel, it sucked hardcore.

The Bitterbynde Trilogy by Cecilia Dart-Thornton

The Bitterbynde Trilogy by Cecilia Dart-Thornton is a beautifully written epic romantic fantasy novel by a talented author. The majority of her writing draw from numerous fairy tales and folk stories. The scope of the fantastic creatures she describes blows my mind, and I used to read encyclopedias of myths and fairy stories for fun. She tends to go Dickinsonian with description, like spending over a page just to describe a person's appearance, but it's elegantly and uniquely written, so I skip it only half the time, hah hah. When the action does happen, it's just breathtaking, full of danger and suspense and tragic romance. The characters are well-developed and complex. The hero/heroine strong, sensible, likeable, but ultimately doomed. And that may very well be the only thing I didn't like about this series. The main story takes place in a very compressed amount of time, with some flashback and some epilogue, so the abrupt ending seems pointless and anti-climactic, even the "happy" alternate ending. But I suppose that makes it all the more artsy and mysterious. My favorite fairytale reference was the Pied Piper of Hamelin, that was... wild, to say the least.

(briefly) various anthologies by various authors

I review various anthologies by various authors! Some of these are collections of works by one author, others are collected from different authors for a particular theme or non-theme as it may be. While my main love is series, I enjoy short stories quite a bit. I feel that they often have more impact than many novels and most series, being so succint and avoiding the trilogy traps or the bane of many a good series that languishes in ennui. My favorite short stories are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries, now that's good classic stuff right there.

The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm edited by Windling and Datlow: an anthology of faery short stories, including stuff by Neil Gaiman and people of similar caliber. I like the unusual and edgy takes on typical fairy stories and I love how each one ends on a questioning or haunting note. Which is what I expect out of a good fairy story.

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman: an excellent collection of some of his older short stories, mostly urban fantasy, some horror, some fantasy, some sci-fi. They are all written in that inexplicable Gaiman style - dark, humorous, creepy and sexy. Some are more understandable and uhh... less embarrassing than others, but overall I enjoyed this collection.

Looking for Jake by China Mieville: another collection of short stories in the urban fantasy and post-apocalyptic sci-fi realm. I decided to pick this up after reading Unlundun which I really enjoyed. Well, this was not as funny or sexy as Gaiman's anthology, it was mostly downright terrifying. A few stories refer to another book and were harder to follow. This anthology kept me up into the small hours of the night, trying to not imagine the monsters described and failing miserably.

New Magics edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden: a collection of short stories gathered from various famous fantasy authors for young adult readers (so it said.) Includes one of Gaiman's stories in the other collection, as well as Ursula Leguin, Orson Scott Card, Jane Yolen, Emma Bull and other favorites. It has a more adolescent feel, very hip and urban sometimes and brooding at other times. I found it a fast and pleasant (for a given value of pleasance) read overall, esp. since I already read two of the stories.

Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut: an anthology of his short stories. I decided to start small because I have ADD, hah hah. Some are sci-fi, others are satire of society, some are funny, others really really sad and disturbing - all well-written. I highly approve of this type of sci-fi, but then again, the first real sci-fi I read was Douglas Adams. Humor takes the edge off of the despair that sci-fi usually engenders in me. My favorite stories are about the computer that learns about love (almost made me cry) and the human chess match (frightening!).

The Birthday of the World and Orsinian Tales by Ursula K. Leguin: I was so affected by Left Hand of Darkness that I decided to branch out and read these short story collections as well. These anthologies draw from the science fiction universe that made her famous, as well as different alternative futures. Her prose is definitely beautiful, but the stories are usually so sad. I like how she can create a rich imagined world with so few words, but I think I'll hold off reading anymore of her works so I don't slit my wrists in despair.

The Goose Girl and the Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale is a charming retelling of Grimm's fairytales in novel form. This one deals with a grisly and rather arbitrary tale elegantly and sincerely. I like the little political twist thrown into the plot, which often end up as unnecessary moral lessons in other retellings I've come across. As a young adult novel, there's not much else to say about it, other than it's good.

The Princess Academy, also by Shannon Hale, is an original novel about girls from a village who are sent to be trained as potential brides for the prince. One small girl is able to rescue her town from bandits with her strength and kindness. Very simple and sweet. There may be a sequel, but I have yet to check it out.

There is a series of fairy-tale retellings in short novel format for teen girls, all romantic in nature and under the title "Once Upon a Time...". I've read a couple, both were very nice and neat, let me google the author's names... Okay here we go.

Sunlight and Shadow, by Cameron Dokey, is a retelling of Mozart's opera, the Magic Flute. A lot more forgiving than the original story, very otherworldly but entertainingly confusing and of course, romantic enough for any teenage girl. Or guy... I guess.

Scarlet Moon, by Debbie Viguie, is a very interesting retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. You wouldn't think that there was any romance in such a straightforward fairytale, but there is now! Kinda predictable, but still enjoyable and manages to totally negate the original moral of the story.

(briefly) Arthurian series by various authors

A brief review of various Arthurian series I read throughout highschool and college... To be added to when I remember those pesky other series.

the Pendragon Cycle by Stephen Lawhead, including Taliesin, Merlin, Arthur, Pendragon and Grail: I thought Taliesin was amazing, a legendary treatment of the bard combining the legends of Arthur and Atlantis, but by Pendragon, I was writhing in pain and thinking "Why am I reading such trash?" Couldn't finish it, no matter what critics might say.

the Merlin Trilogy by Mary Stewart, including Crystal Cave, Hollow Hills, Last Enchantment: a promising start, with a gritty and powerful retelling of Merlin's life as a youngster. Like most Arthurian trilogies, ended in tragedy, and I mean tragedy. The Wicked Day, a fourth book about Mordred's life, was actually rather interesting, but still unpleasant to finish.

Hawk of May by Gillian Bradshaw, also Kingdom of Summer, In Winter's Shadow: this one is a slightly more youth-friendly treatment of Arthurian legend, including views from Gwalchmai, his servant Rhys and Queen Gwynnhyfar. No mention of Merlin or Lancelot, this is a more historical and somewhat mystical retelling that ends tragically.

the Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay, including The Summer Tree, Wandering Fire, The Darkest Road: not exactly Arthurian, but drawing heavily on that legend. This is a daring and brilliantly composed fantasy series of the war between good and evil and the heavy price some heroic individuals must pay. It really affected me when I read it in high school, though that may just be me in high school. Very sad.

the Once and Future King by T.H. White: A very good series overall, but also swimming in tragedy by the end. I would definitely not recommend the last 3 parts for children, even though Sword in the Stone made for a funny movie.