Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis

A straight-forward discourse on Christianity, originally written as a series of radio broadcasts. Amazingly thought-provoking. One of those books that makes me feel like I understand something only to realize after some time has passed that I really don't. The whole point of Christianity is to become one with Christ. Makes sense. But how does one accomplish this? What can I do in my own life? How much have I done already? In a way, this kind of explains my realationship with Christianity: it oscillates between a feeling that Christianity is 'right' or 'true' and a drifting apart mostly because of unanswered questions. But that's not entirely right. It goes beyond what I can pin down with words.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that this book made me think seriously about my relationship with God and the necessity of living as a Christian. And it also answered questions that I know to ask. And above all, it made sense. This could easily be one of those books that has a profound influence on my life if only I could keep in mind what it said.

Soul Music, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: Rock music, or rather Music With Rocks In, has come to Discworld with much the same result as rock music in 1960's America. Also, Death has gone on a mission to forget leaving Susan to take over his job while he's away.

Thoughts: In much the same way that hearing Music With Rocks In made various characters wish to learn to play the guitar, reading about it made me want to make music as well. And elaboration on that topic is being carefully avoided for reasons that probably make sense if ....Anyway, once again, Terry Pratchett has created a masterpiece of amusing comments and gripping storyline and satire (if that's the right word).

Making Money, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: When Moist von Lipwig (remember him from Going Postal?) ends as head of the National Bank and Mint and applies his usual flair to the job, things start getting horribly messy.

Thoughts: Gripping storyline, amusing comments, uncertain ending, unexpected plot twists...what more could a person ask for? This really is an excellent book.

The Hidden Language of Baseball, by Paul Dickson

A history of signs and sign-stealing in baseball. Quite interesting. I didn't realize there was so much going on "behind the scenes". Maybe I should try to look for such things next time I'm at a game.

Murder on the Prowl, by Rita Mae Brown

Summary: Murder has once again come to the small town of Crozet Virginia, this time to the headmaster of a local high school. Harry and her cat Mrs. Murphy are determined to figure out whodunnit.

Thoughts: I don't really have a lot to say other than that this book resembles the other books I've read by the same author in that I had no hope of predicting who the killer was and why they did it. Or maybe I could've, but it was still a shock when they revealed it.

Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: The Hogfather has disappeared, and so its up to Susan to find him. Okay, Susan and Bilius, the oh god of hangovers. And meanwhile Death has taken over the role of Hogfather in the absense of the real Hogfather, and Albert has to keep Death from making too much of a mess of things. And meanwhile new gods are popping into existance anytime someone speculates about one that might exist.

Thoughts: Can I blame this book for my random desire to listen to X-mas music? Or does that just get attributed to its being December? Because I'm not sure I care about its being December, and I think I've given up on the X-mas music because you can't find anything worthwhile on the radio. I think it was only ever Classic Country that played X-mas music that was worth listening to.

Um, yeah. As you might've gathered, there's some bloody obvious parallels with the non-religious side of X-mas. And the book has much of the amusing stuff I've come to expect of Terry Pratchett (I seem to remember speculation that most of Earth's population actually consists of aliens who are hiding out and abducting people, mutilating crops, and making cow circles. Or something like that).

The Boy Next Door, by Meggin Cabot

Summary: Boy meets girl. They fall in love. Unfortunately there's this little matter of his claiming to be his friend that might turn out to be a problem.

Thoughts: Woot, chick lit! Um, yeah. Just what I need, a fluffy romance book. Okay, a fluffy romance book comprised of e-mails between various characters. And there's occasionally a hint of a mystery in there. And somehow, the last several pages were rather amusing, but I'm not sure that had anything to do with the actual story or anything. And of course reading a romance book made me reflect on my own love life or lack thereof. And I'm not saying more on that subject.

Okay, this time I'll try to say something analytical. I really enjoyed the style of the book, the fact that it was written as a collection of e-mails between various characters: messages to friend of "OMG we have to talk", messages from boss of "that story better be on my desk soon or else", messages between coworkers discussing the protagonist's love life (and only hers apparently), and so on. And of course there's always the heartwarmingly romantic story line of two characters who have had lousy experience in love finding someone perfect for them. Yeah, I guess that's not too analytical. At least it was actually related to the book for once?

Moving Pictures, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: Victor and Ginger and numerous other people find themselves drawn to Holy Wood, the home of the new clicks industry (silent films, Discworld style). But what is really going on? And, more importantly, how does one stop whatever sinister force is involved?

Thoughts: I love the snide commentary on Hollywood. And the counter-point of Gaspode and Laddie is pretty interesting as well. I kinda feel like Gaspode sometimes: wondering why someone else is getting all the attention. And of course this book has the complicated plot line sprinkled with amusing comments and thinly veiled social commentary that I've come to expect from Terry Pratchett.

Guards! Guards!, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: People decide to summon a dragon as part of a plot to take over the city, but something goes wrong and the dragon takes control instead. It's up to Vimes and his compatriots to save the day.

Thoughts: Perhaps a bit long for my liking. Or maybe I just had a short attention span while finishing it. After all, I'd just watched two movies and spent much time in a futile attempt to work on ATM S hw (okay, it wasn't completely futile, just really frustrating). I do believe that's driven out any other thoughts I had about the book.

Witches Abroad, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: After the death of Ella's fairy godmother, Magrat, Nanny, and Granny find themselves taking on the role. And in the process trying to deduce what's going on.

Thoughts: I rather like the cynical view of fairy tales, and how, as usual, things come together in new and different ways. Quite a lovely story, even if I might've considered it a bit long had I had a chance to read it in one sitting (or even if I hadn't read a reasonable amount of it while a) in class and b) trying to tune out some movie or other)

Eric, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: Eric fancies himself a demonologist. However, when he tries to conjure a demon, he ends up with Rincewind, failed wizard and coward extrordinaire. When he demands three wishes and Rincewind tries to demonstrate that he can't comply, things start getting wierd.

Thoughts: Squee, everyone lives happily ever after! (even the demons!) Wow, I read that quickly. Then again, I was reading during two of my classes earlier, and it's a pretty short book and I read like half of it last night. Quite a good book. Be careful what you wish for; you never know who might be pulling the strings.

The Fifth Elephant, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: Sam Vimes gets sent to Uberwald as Ankh-Morpork's ambassador for the crowning of the Low King. Unfortunately, the Scone of Stone has disappeared, as has a replica from the Dwarf Bread Museum. And a rubber maker was found dead. So of course Vimes is far more interested in unravelling the crime than in being diplomatic.

Thoughts: OMG so hard to put that book down! (and yet it still took me like a week to read because so often I didn't have a chance to pick it up again after I had to put it down) Yeah, action, adventure, mystery...what more could a person ask for in a book?

Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: Invasion of the elves from an alternate reality. Er, that makes it sound like a bad sci-fi movie. It's not like that at all. It's more of a wholey human thing except for the elves messing with people's minds and so on. Okay, and the Librarian and some other typical Discworld stuff. Read it for yourself if you really want to have some idea what went on.

Thoughts: Squee, everyone lives happily ever after and hopefully learns a lesson about believing in onesself. And of course Pratchett manages to mutilate familiar stories. Or something like that. Quite possibly the best book I've read recently, although that could be due mostly to having little enough time to read any given day that I never had a chance to get bored reading so much in one go.

Cat's Eyewitness, by Rita Mae Brown

Summary: At a convent near Crozet Virginia, a statue of the Virgin Mary is seen to be crying blood. Harry is, of course, suspicious. Later, a man is found dead praying at the statue. It looks natural again, but Harry can't help but be suspicious of this too.

Thoughts: Woot, mystery! Happy happy joy joy. Not too much else to say given that the point of a mystery is trying to figure out whodunit, so I wouldn't want to give anything away. Oh, and there's also more plot and character development in the continuing saga of these characters. I can't help but wonder whether maybe I'm missing something by reading them out of order.

Carpe Jugulum, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: After King Verence invites a family of vampires to the christening of his daughter, the vampires decide this would be a good opportunity to take over the territory.

Thoughts: I think I would've enjoyed it more it it'd been shorter. It seems to contain useful life lessons, I mean beyond how one can kill a vampire. If I could be bothered to think, I might be able to mention what some of them are.

Whisker of Evil, by Rita Mae Brown

Summary: After a man is mysteriously found dead, the usual suspects are determined to figure out why. (It's a mystery. To say more might give away something important. Or else be reiterating the back story.)

Thoughts: Squee, mystery! I'm not sure how much I can come up with to say at this hour of night. I'm half asleep right now. The lining-up-ness of some of the stuff in this book, namely rabies, and my current favorite song, "Little Fuzzy Animals", is kinda ...interesting. Yay plot twists! Yay random events in the lives of the characters completely independent of the plot line! Yay small town/country life book! Yay exclamation points!

Strays, by Ron Koertge

Summary: What, I have to summarize the book? Um, okay. Ted ends up in foster home after his parents die in a car crash. His life has changed alot and he has many new experiences

Thoughts: Yay, everyone lives happily ever after. And I'm not sure what to say about the stuff that happens before that. Besides the fact that it's loads more interesting than my ATM S textbook. And I've read far more of this book than I have that one.

Cooking Up Murder, by Miranda Bliss

Summary: After Annie and Eve witness a man's death (murder, it turns out) they can't help but try to find out who the culprit is. Well, technically, Eve wants to show up her ex-fiance, the police detective in charge of the case, and she drags Annie along. But whatever the cause, they start an investigation. And things happen.

Thoughts: Well, for starters, there was the sort of fairy tale ending that made me giggle. Besides that, I liked the fact that the narrator was completely aware of her amateur detective-ness and the idea that maybe she should leave the investigation to the professionals (not that she does, but she does mention the idea). And of course there's always the "whee mystery story I want to know whodunnit let's try to predict the outcome" thing (which totally merits a run-on sentence).

The Nature of Jade, by Deb Caletti

Summary: When Jade sees the boy in the red jacket on the zoo's elephant webcam, she feels some kind of connection to him. And once she meets him in person... Well, I'll let you find that out for yourself.

Thoughts: OMG, emotional book! (or at least the ending was.) Squee, a book set in Seattle (never mind that it appears to be slightly different from the Seattle I know, ie the Seattle that exists in what we know as the real world. Are there really any gargoyles on the UW campus?). Yeah, a moving story of changes in people's lives. And occasionally I'd get annoyed with the writing in present tense for a few pages before I'd stop noticing it.

Murder at Monticello, by Rita Mae Brown

Summary: A long dead skeleton is discovered during an excavation at Monticello, and Kimball Haynes is determined to figure out who the person is and what happened to them.

Thoughts: Woot, a mystery! An "OMG I can't put it down b/c I must find out whodunit" kind of book. Yeah, don't really have much to say, and I'm not sure why I bother in the first place.

Oh, and this is completely irrelevent, but I'm convinced that the purpose of sitting at a table to eat is so that one doesn't make a horrible mess of one's pants. Except that my desk didn't exactly help matters in the messiest case. Although I guess it likely would've been way worse otherwise. But as I said, this is completely irrelevent.

The Brimstone Journals, by Ron Koertge

Summary: A rather freaky episode in the lives of some number of high school students.

Thoughts: This book takes the form of a short ~page's worth from each of like a dozen characters. So I think I would've followed the story better had I approached it in a more methodical way, after each segment, write down what happened and what we learned about the characters and so on. Because I'm pretty sure there's alot that I failed to pick up on. Unless that was because the author didn't actually mention it.

Kill Game, by Francine Pascal

Summary: Gaia becomes an FBI trainee trying to solve a fabricated but realistic case and makes things difficult for herself in the process.

Thoughts: A tail of high action and adventure. I suppose it falls into the category of literary fluff, but I didn't read the previous books for their high literary value. And the book ends with a hugeass cliff hanger.

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup, by Ron Koertge

Summary:While Kevin is sick with mono, he writes some poetry to pass the time. This book shows the change that that has on him.

Thoughts:Not what I was expecting. Sure it's poetry, but much of it was free verse, which is bascially prose that's been reshaped so it takes up more room than it would otherwise. Still, not a bad story; I just expected poetry to be more ...poetry-like.

Son of the Mob, by Gordon Korman

Summary: Lessee how much I can say without giving away anything important. Um, well, Vince's father is a mob boss. So besides the usual sorts of high school problems, he also has some ...more unusual issues. And things get horribly complicated. Or something.

Thoughts: OMG that book is so conveluted it isn't even funny. No wait, actually it is. Or at least I was kinda laughing randomly at some of the plot twists. But that doesn't necessarily mean anything. And I'm not sure I should say any more because half the fun is discovering the plots twist and seeing if you can find them in advance.

Wyrd Sisters, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: After the king is murdered, a loyal guard spirits the crown and the young prince out of the castle and entrusts them to the care of three witches. The new king, the previous king's murderer, the duke, a man with little respect for witches or for the kingdom itself, pisses off a great many people. The aforementioned three witches decide to take action.

Thoughts: Squee, lovely story, quite conveluted, which makes it all the better. And, to some extent, a rip-off of Macbeth, but that's okay because it has so much of its own spin that it's only in the large elements and some specific lines of dialogue. Wait, no, it's like that other tragedy we had to read last quarter. Was it Hamlet? Yeah, I think it was. Anyway, it may be similar, but it's also far different, and that's what counts, unless it isn't. Um, apparently I'm incapable of rational thought at the moment. Which a) doesn't surprise me and b) means I should probably shut up now.

Equal Rites, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: A wizard about to die entrusts his staff to an eighth son of an eighth son, not realizing that the child is actually a daughter. Her being entrusted with said staff means magic happens around her. She heads off to Unseen University to learn to be a wizard, never mind that there's never been a female wizard and no one with any authority seems interested in changing that.

Thoughts: Squee, I like the civilization of ants. And the dreadful battle followed by everyone living happily ever after was nice too. I think this book falls into the category of books I don't mind reading but might not read again on account of there being better books and unknown books out there.

Good Omens, by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman

Summary: The Apocalypse is about it happen. This book follows the lives of the Antichrist, an angel and a demon stationed on earth, and assorted other individuals.

Thoughts: Squee, amusing comments, happily ever after, commentary on nature vs nurture, and the necessity of conflict in one's life. All in all, a highly amusing book. I rather enjoyed it.

The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: Um, most of the action involvs gods creating continents and wizards making a mess of things and Rincewind being an unintentional hero. And I'm not sure what else I can say except that it takes place in a country not entirely unlike Australia.

Thoughts: Aww, isn't that nice, the bumbling fool manages to live happily ever after thru no fault of his own. It's all so convenient. In an "I don't follow" sort of way. And, of course, lots of satirizing Australia.

I think the trick to not killing my attention span is to not try to read the entire book in one day if it's over 250 pages.

Mort, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: Mort is Death's apprentice. But when he botches a job, things start getting complicated.

Thoughts: Aw, they all live happily ever after. Quite a lovely book. I can't be bothered to think at the moment. It's probably worth rereading. And I'm not going to say that's because it was ~250 pages rather than ~350 like some of the others where I lost interest before I finished. I like learning more about Death and how thinks work on the Discworld.

Jingo, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: When a new island suddenly appears in the middle of the sea between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch, both states wish to claim it for their own and are willing to go to war over it.

Thoughts: It all wraps up quite nicely, I must say. Amazing how everything fits together after going off in so many different directions and attempting to cover its tracks. Maybe not the best book I've read, but not bad at all (then again, that seems to be my usual reaction: "not bad. What's next on my far too large pile of library books?")

Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: Waddaya mean I have to summarize that book? People interact and wierd stuff happens. Okay, I'll try. Jeremy is determined to make a glass clock. But said clock will be so perfectly timed that it will stop time (no, I don't quite understand that bit either). So various other characters are hoping to prevent this from happening. And I'm not sure I can say anything more without either giving away major plot twists or taking a very long time to do so.

Thoughts: One of those books where by the time I got to the last 20 pages or so, I just wanted to find out what happened and be done with it. But I think that reflects more on my attention span than on the book itself. Especially considering that when I was reading it last night, I couldn't put it down, or at least doing so was a challenge once I quit reflecting on various things that were preoccupying my mind. Anyway, quite a lovely book, like any Pratchett book, really. It's amazing the random stuff that gets fun poked at it in this and other books.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon

Summary: After Christopher discovers the death of his neighbor's dog, he's determined to figure out whodunit. But the truth is not at all what he expected.

Thoughts: A thoughtful book, a different book. But still interesting. It was a bit of an eye-opening experience reading a story narrated by an autistic kid. I think it's best if one doesn't start out with any ideas about what the book is like because then one can experience it without continually comparing it to expectations.

Feet of Clay, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: Two people turn out to be dead and the Patrician is being slowly poisoned. It's up to Sam Vimes and his Watchmen (and Watchwomen and Watch dwarves/trolls/gargoyles) to figure out what happened.

Thoughts: Squee! Wonderful book, really. Quite enjoyed it--the mystery, the feminine dwarf sub-plot, the random amusing comments, everything. Even if it is one of those books where you know that something seemingly insignificant is going to turn out to be important. Unless it's just there to be amusing/random/interesting. This is another book that I'm threatening to buy a copy of so I can have it on my bookshelf. I really should make a list somewhere of all those books.

Amusing Quotes: (Yes, I actually thought to write some down this time)
-"People look down on stuff like geography and meteorology, and not only because they're standing on one and being soaked by the other. They don't look quite like real science <footnote> That is to say, the sort of thing you can use to give something three extra legs and then blow it up </footnote> But geography is only physics slowed down and with a few trees stuck on it, and meteorology is full of extremely fashionable chaos and complexity." (p4)
-"You can't shoot servants for putting your shoes the wrong war round, you know. It's too messy. He'll have to learn right from left like the rest of us. And right from wrong, too." (p10)
-"We're all lying in the gutter...But some of us're looking at the stars..." (p176)

The Truth, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: William de Worde writes a newsletter to leaders of nearby cities. Or at least he did until he encountered a newfangled printing press, and one thing lead to another and a mysterious crime also popped up, and voila, a conveluted plot.

Thoughts: Squee, good book. Amusing comments. Random plot twists. Stuff happens and seems to have impaired my ability to comment on it.

Maskerade, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: People are dying under mysterious circumstances in the Opera House, and people are claiming it's because of the Ghost. Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax, Agnes aka Perdita, and/or other various characters hope to unmask the Ghost before anyone else dies.

Thoughts: Yay, mystery! I won't pretend Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax don't get on my nerves, exspecially when they're together, but still, it's a mystery. And it's got plot twists. And that means it can't possibly be a bad book (okay, maybe it is possible, but it would take some effort on someone's part. Kinda like failing band). *thinks a little more* I guess there being clues is also important. And of course the making fun of opera stuff doesn't hurt either.

Catch as Cat Can, by Rita Mae Brown

Summary: Something's rotten in the state of Denamrk city of Crozet, and various people (this series's ameteur detectives as well as the police) are determined to learn the truth. (Um, yeah. So far the only thing that separates this summary from that of any mystery is the location. That narrows it to one of about a dozen books. Maybe more. Lessee if I can come up with a summary that doesn't give away anything important. I suppose first I need to figure out what's important. Do I really need to say anything more? I've told you it's a mystery after all (or at least I will)) 

Reaction: Whee, mystery! I kinda knew who did it thru most of the book, but I had no idea how (and there's ~no way I would've guessed the truth). The solution in this book is similar to the one in the other one of this person's books that I've read, but knowing that doesn't exactly help me any in trying to solve things. And it's a general enough similarity that it can be chalked up to the constraints of a mystery series about a small town. All in all, this book was a reminder of how much I enjoy well-written mystery stories. And, better yet, this book had the feel of any random novel except for the fact that the main action was centered around crimes and trying to solve them. In short, I enjoyed this book immensely and want to read the rest of the series. And maybe it would be better to read them in order so that I wouldn't have to try to figure out little details of what the situation is (who is/isn't married to whom, for example), but it's not that important and I don't think I'd have the patience to do that, so I doubt I'll bother.

The Color of Magic, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: The adventure of failed wizard Rincewind and tourist Twoflower in a world where the tourism industry in non-existant.

Thoughts: This book seemed almost like several short stories all of which had a climax and a near-death situation for the protagonists. It was, quite possibly, way too much action for my liking. Also, this being the first book, the author apparently felt he had to try to make sure everyone understood exactly what his universe was like and went out of his way to tell the reader about it. But other than that, it was a pretty good book. Course it ends with an enormous cliff-hanger, but that's another matter entirely.

Naked without a Hat, by Jeanne Willis

Summary: Will moves out of the house on account of not getting along with his mother. This leads to meeting some new people, and it sort of leads to a new job where he meets a girl. ...I can understand why they didn't bother putting a summary on the back of the book: no one wanted to write one and/or it's a large challenge trying to write one without saying anything vital to the plot that one thinks the reader ought to discover for him/herself.

Thoughts:I wasn't sure what to expect, but it certainly wasn't this. I only picked up this book because it had the word "hat" in the title and the first paragraph or two didn't look too bad (there was no summary for me to judge it on). It's kinda like Catcher in the Rye only not nearly so lousy (I'm probably only making the comparison because my brother is reading Catcher in the Ryefor summer reading (and complaining about how bad it is), but there are some definate similarities. The lots of talk about sex, for example. And the against-the-norm protagonist). But no matter what happened, I couldn't put it down because I wanted to find out what happened to the characters and whether they lived happily ever after (I don't think that question was really answered, but the author made me think it was). I'm not sure I'd call it a good book, but it certainly wasn't a bad book. I guess it exists outside of the realm of good/bad. It wasn't the kind of book that makes me extraodinarily happy and wanting to talk about how great the book was, but maybe I'm a better person for having read it. I guess it's mostly just a book with a point to it.

Sourcery, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: A sorcerer has been born, and under the guidance of his father, very nearly causes the world to end (three of the four horsemen of the apocalypse getting totally plastered and losing their horses, not necessarily in that order, probably also helped). Also, Rincewind, Conina, and Nijel work against the bad stuff going on.

Thoughts: Well, besides getting horribly distracted throughout the last part of the book because I had (and still have) "Hardware Store" running through my head and any time I managed to ignore it, it occured to me that it was lurking and was suddenly stuck in my head again, it was quite a lovely book. As most of them are. Lots of amusing comments, as might be expected. Some real-world stereotypes twisted into something Discworld can include. Um, yeah. That's all I got at the moment.

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, by E.L. Konigsburg

Summary: After the City Council declares that her uncles' towers must be demolished due to nitpicky details of the law (really because they're hurting property values, but who's to judge), Margaret is determined to save them. But it sure won't be easy saying as the law is technically against her...

Thoughts: This book as a style of writing that requires one to read it patiently and thouroughly because one couldn't possibly go back and read it again. It just isn't done. And somehow that's an asset, because it takes skill to write a book that makes such demands.

This book reminds me of another, probably by the same author, where people use roughly the same tactic to achieve their end. That's ~all I remember about it, unfortunately.

There's something about the book that's just wonderful: the planning, the way everything comes together in the end, ...whatever it is, it makes me happy. Actually it doesn't; it seems to have made me thoughtful. But close enough. I enjoyed it, in a thoughtful kind of way. Maybe that's the point I was trying to make. And if that doesn't make sense, blame the fact that it's after 2:30 am and words are escaping me with regards to describing my reaction to the book. Why do I bother with this anyway? Because I can? I guess that's as good a reason as any. I guess I should get some sleep at some point, too.

Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: Moist von Lipwig is a thief. Not the usual "thief in the night" type. No, Moist is a master of making people think what he wants them to think. And a few slight of hand tricks don't hurt either. After his capture and subsequent execution at the hands of the Ankh-Morpork Night Watch, he is offered a job as Postmaster General. But there might be a slight catch: 40 years worth of backlog and stiff competition from the clacks (a semaphore/telegraph type operation).

Thoughts: Ah, a classic good vs. evil book. Except in this case, good is personified by a criminal working on the right side of the law. Takes some creative thinking to bring down a bad guy, ya? Plus this book is sprinkled with the kinds of random amusing comments that dot all Pratchett books as far as I know (although I'm not sure anything can beat "Better marching had been done. And it had been done by penguins")

I think I've figured out why I've gotten so annoyed around the endings of most of the books: When I get near the end, someone nearby invariably distracts me and I fail to ignore them and return to my book to a sufficient degree to enjoy it. Well, now that I know, maybe I can avoid it, ya?

Hot on the Trail, by Jane Isenberg

Summary: After the death of one of her students, Bel Barrett starts investigating why and comes to a surprising conclusion.

Reaction: Woot, mysterious mystery! I wasn't too interested in some of the stuff related entirely to the personal life of someone ~my mom's age, but other than that, I enjoyed it. The ending was such a surprise I'm still not sure how Bel figured out who the murderer was even knowing all the facts.

I guess mysteries aren't really books one rereads because the whole point is trying to figure out whodunit, and there's no point to that if you already know.

This is an example of a book where the irrelevent personal life stuff fits into it nicely. There's plenty of stuff that serves no purpose in terms of the mystery story, but it doesn't draw attention to itself that way (historical narratives are kept to a page or two and everything fits nicely in the continuing saga of the characters (it seems to be a series, so this is another chapter in the personal lives of the characters in addition to being a self-contained mystery) Hey, that's a good idea for how to deal with my inability to come up with a decent plot for any story I'm trying to write: I can integrate it into a series of mysteries. Except that means I'd have to come up with crimes and clues and try to imagine the mindset of someone, or several someones, who doesn't know who was responsible for whatever crime. Never mind.)

Reaper Man, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: After Death gets forced into retirement for having a personality, things start getting really wierd in Ankh-Morpork as a result of all the life force that wouldn't be there if Death was still in business. Meanwhile, Death is rather enjoying himself off somewhere else.

Thoughts: There's too many other people-based distractions around here. I could've enjoyed the last 50 or so pages a lot more if I'd been able to continue reading right after the preceeding however many as opposed to being forced to either put up with the TV or go somewhere else.

Why is it that I take a liking to the really random characters? Actually I can't think of any from this book at the moment. But I could've sworn there was at least one. Besides the Death of Rats. Or maybe he was the one I was thinking of.

*tries to come up with comments not related to distractions or lack of sleep* Why do I get the feeling that the circumstances of my reading a book color my opinion of it afterwards? Right now I'm rather frustrated and that doesn't seem like a reasonable response to the book even if I am a bit annoyed by the whole Death's romance thing. There's too much amusing stuff to dislike this book regardless of what one thinks of the plot. Although I must admit, it is quite a nice plot.

Enter Three Witches, by Caroline B. Cooney

Woot, this time I'm bothering right after finishing the book. What a surprise!

Summary: The story of Shakespeare's Macbeth, as told by an assortment of minor characters, many of whom didn't make it into the play. Much of the story centers around Lady Mary, the daughter of the thane of Cawdor (the one before Macbeth) and companion to Lady Macbeth.

Reaction: I rather enjoyed it. I think it was helpful to know what happens in the play so that I could compare the two plots. This book made it clearer that Macbeth's court kept migrating, first to Scone, and then to Dunsinane. Shakespeare, if I remember correctly, glossed over that point. I rather liked finding out about what was going on in the background of Macbeth's adventures in kingship and murder: gossiping servants, rebellious soldiers, other people roaming the castle at night, everyone speculating on who Duncan's murderer(s) really were, etc.

Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: After Tiffany joins in in the dance to usher in the winter, the Wintersmith falls in love with her and things get kinda wierd.

Reaction: I suppose there's a lesson to be learned about facing your problems. And having friends who can help you out when you're not looking.

Ok, I'll admit that I finished the book last night and have since forgotten most anything I had to say about it. Except for the cheese. The cheese was amusing.

Gilbert and Sullivan Set Me Free, by Kathleen Karr

Summary: Libby is in Sherborn Women's Prison, never mind why, when Mrs. Wilkinson shows up and decides to organize a chior. It's amazing how much that changes things.

Reaction: First, there's always the fact that the book takes place in a prison (a WWI era prison, at that), which intrigues me. Isn't it natural to be curious what prison life is like?

Then there's the fact that the book includes random snippets of songs, most of which I recognize, which is rather cool.

Third is the story itself, a moving account of the influence one person can have on the lives of many, especially the protagonist. I'll admit I almost started crying at/near the end of the book.

Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: Sam Vimes finds himself in the midst of a past he already experienced, as someone else. And now he has to figure out how to survive and not get his past self killed and hopefully when the time comes to bring the criminal who arrived with him back to their own time.

Thoughts: I probably could've enjoyed this book more if I had had some kind of reasonable length attention span. I wonder if there's another book that tells this story from the perspective of the Sam Vimes who belongs in that time. But apparently what happened here and what happened in Sam's memory are a little different and they gloss over the effect of that.

Oh, I should say something about my reaction to the actual book besides trying to enjoy it when I wanted to do something else but wasn't sure what. Well, it was definately action-packed, and I kept feeling a need to look up things that happened or were mentioned earlier. Yeah, that's all I can think of.

The Quest of the Fair Unknown, by Gerald Morris

Summary: When Beaufils sets out to find his father, a knight of Camelot, he has no idea what to expect, having spent his entire life in the forest with his mother. Along the way he meets many interesting people and has a variety of adventures.

Thoughts: When I first started the book and saw that there was likely to be an awful lot of culture-shock, I figured I wouldn't like the book because such things tend to get on my nerves (ever see the movie Elf? Much of that movie annoyed me alot because they seemed to be playing up the "dude does stupid stuff because he doesn't know any better" aspect, which is kinda sad, because what little I remember of the actual plot suggests that if they had cut most of that it would've been a good movie. Even if it would have been about 2/3 shorter... But I digress). But the culture-shock was mostly Beaufils not knowing what life was like and asking questions most people wouldn't and being determined to think the best of people no matter how horribly they might act. Maybe the Middle Ages had a higher tolearance for unusual people.

Then I read further and saw that it was Arthurian legend of some kind, and wasn't sure I was interested. I guess I'd rather read about times I know something about, yano?

But I ignored both those issues and continued reading (basically because a book has to be /really/ horrible for me to actually put it down. I think the only book I've started recently and not finished is the Bible (or more correctly, the newest one I've gotten. Not that I've finished any of the others I have), and that has more to do with having way too many library books to read to bother with a book I own than my not wanting to read it. That, and the fact that it's incredibly thick, but more that books I own tend to get put off until I've finished all my library books (which is usually never. The only time I remember that happening recently I managed to get thru all the books I'd gotten for Christmas that year before getting more. How did I get so off-topic? *looks over paragraph* I think I should start a new paragraph to finish this particular thought))

In the end, I ended up enjoying it. It's got this lovely message about everyone having their own quest and some people have no idea what theirs is, but they manage anyway. I'm not sure it can be elaborated into our here and now considering that there was a sorcerer type guy who was helping to point people in the proper direction and there were several different worlds that they traveled between at various time. But still, everyone has some quest in life.

A Friend at Midnight, by Caroline B. Cooney

Summary: After her brother is abandoned at the airport by her father, Lily has to learn to cope with the situation, and perhaps even forgive her father.

Thoughts: I think this might be the author responsible for every single random reference to band that I've ever noticed in a work of fiction.

I wasn't expecting God to be mentioned at all, and certainly not play an important part in the storyline.

This is kind of a downer of a book. It's more reflective than most of the stuff I've read recently, possibly even moving into the realm of depressing. But I think everything works out as well as it can in the end, so it has what passes for a happy ending within the framework of the book.

Size 14 Is Not Fat, Either, by Meg Cabot

Summary: When a girl is found dead in the dorm where Heather Wells works, she can't help wondering why. And trying to find out more. And putting herself in dangerous situations. While trying to deal with various other facets of her life.

Reaction: Yes, this sounds like a fluffy book. And it kinda is, but there's way more to it than self-pity over weight gain and going "omg I'm fat. I think I'll eat an entire cheescake now even tho I'm so bloody fat" (I'm not cynical, really) (not that there isn't some of that; not that that isn't annoying. Why are some people so obsessed with their weight? I could understand it for someone who's actually fat, but most of the people who come to mind aren't. Anyway, that has nothing to do with the topic at hand, and little to do with the book...)

Mystery! Yay! This is the second in the series, and based on the few vague references to the first book, I think I know who the murderer in that one was. I suppose now I have to read it and see if I'm right. Although there's a reasonable chance I would've read it anyway. Or at least added Cabot's adult books to my list of books to look for when I'm at the library *refrains from long rant about her book reading habits, which are pretty much that she collects so many impulse books at the library that she has little time for reading books she owns and doesn't feel like she can put books on hold without really stressing herself out over how bloody many books she has to read* *remembers perhaps a little guiltily several recent instances of having one or more books that she was desparately trying to finish because she couldn't renew them any more times* *realizes that she's gotten horribly off-topic again* *is happy that she's capable of writing a long post* *decides that this isn't the best place for it and returns to trying to write a review of sorts*

Midway thru, I suddenly noticed that the book was written in present tense and it was mildly annoying for about a minute and a half until I quit noticing it. And there was one sentence that jumped out at me as ackward because it was using the word "can" in conjunction with stuff it implied happened. And a couple sentences that I thought might be candidates for the Dark And Stormy Night Contest (or whatever it was. The contest for most random f-ed up sentences to start a book.), although the sentences weren't actually at the beginning of the book, but whatever.

The Real Deal: Focus on THIS!, by Amy Kaye

Summary: Fiona is a New York City girl who finds herself stuck in a small New Jersey town after her parents get divorced. Not only that, but her new school is the subject of a reality TV show. How can she survive with all those cameras tracking everyone's every move?

Reaction: At first I thought it was yet another book of "transplanted teen feeling sorry for self", but by the end, I had seen that there's a lot more to it than that. I'm debating whether to call it fluffy or insightful and concluding that it's too early for me to come up with something significant. Whatever it was, I enjoyed it, after I got thru the first chapter or two.

The Light Fantastic, by Terry Pratchett

Disclaimer explaining my forgetfulness: I probably should've done this right after finishing the book Thursday afternoon, but at that point I thought I'd get a chance either Thurs evening or Fri (which maybe I could've, but not with my engrained computer habits)

Summary: The Discworld is on the verge of being destroyed unless all eight Spells are said together some specific day. Unfortunately, one of the spells is stuck in the head of failed wizard Rincewind (I think that's his name), so they have to find him first. Unfortunately, he doesn't know what's going on so he tries to evade capture. Meanwhile, things are going strangely as a result of the visible signs of this potential doom.

Reaction: I rather like the Luggage. Um, yeah. This book has many amusing comments (like, for example the druid complaining about incompetent computer users (the computer in this case being something like Stonehenge)). As do all the Pratchett books I've read. Other than that, nothing really stands out right now.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling

Operation Typhoon Shore, by Joshua Mowell

Summary: Doug and Becca and the rest of th ecrew of the Expedient find themselves stuck on an island after their ship gets damaged by a typhoon on top of whatever damage they had at the end of the last book where they were fighting Sheng-Fat. This might not have been so bad if it weren't for the massive mining operation on the next island over, run by the guy they came to arrest and staffed by 500 or so warriors.

Reaction: A gripping plotline and several "So this is it, they're going to die?" moments make it hard to stop reading. I think if I wrote my comments right after I finished the book I'd have a better time finding things to say. Never mind that it's usually late enough that that's probably a bad idea. Or I could go to bed at a more reasonable hour, finish the book in the morning, and then write my comments. But I want to know what happens and couldn't possibly put the book down for something so ...unnecessary as that. I'm not sure I had enough of an attention span left last night to really appreciate the book.

The Cat Who Knew Shaekspeare, by Lillian Jackson Braun

If this post ends up sounding wierd, it's due to the fact that I'm rather wound up, in a screwy mood, and unable to concentrate for very long.

Summary: Qwill goes about his business in a small town with a rich cultural heritage. Strange things happen, and Qwill finds out the details of any wrongdoings thru talking to the right people. His cat shows an affinity for some random book that predicts (Nostradaumus style) certain plot events. Oh look, I could've been describing any book in the series!

Summary on the back of the book [plus ranting from me]: There's something rotton in the small town of Pickax--at least to the sensitive noses of newspaperman Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum. An accident has claimed the life of the local paper's eccentric publisher, but to Qwilleran and his feline friends it smells like murder. They soon sniff out a shocking secret [if by "sniff out" you mean talk to random people that they probably would've talked to anyway, peolple who happened to have heard something from sombody], but Koko's snooping into an unusual edition of Shakespeare may prove CATastrophic [um, what? The cat's actions accomplish nothing except making him seem smart in a Nostradaumus sort of way.]...because somewhere in Pickax a lady loves not wisely but too well, a widow is scandalously merry, and a stranger has a lean and hungry look. The stage is set for Qwilleran, Koko, Yum Yum, and the second act of murder most meow [um, that line makes no sense]...

Reaction: Well at least this one had some plot to it. It wasn't too hard to predict who the murderer was. This book was an improvement over the other Cat Who book I read, but only enough to make me wonder if maybe they're not so bad after all, and to predict that that's unlikely to be the case...

Player Piano, by Kurt Vonnegut

Summary: The story takes place in a somewhat distant future where machines do many of the jobs once held by humans. More correctly, it's a 1950's view of such a future, so there's much importance placed on vacuum tubes and punch cards and no idea of gender equality. But that's not the point. The point is that machines are taking over all the jobs people had done previously. And there's a high premium placed on protocol.

Reaction: He's got a point, that progress for the sake of progress isn't necessarily a good thing and that one ought to actually, like, look at the system once in awhile to figure out who it's really helping and what kind of effects it's having on the people it's supposed to be helping. Whee, this time I can actually get a handle on what the point was. Some of his other books were mostly good for the "wtfwtfwtf aha" effect. Altho I guess Galapagos did have a definable point as well.

I think Galapagos was a bad place to start when it comes to getting a handle on what Vonnegut's writing is like because that one featured a narrator who knew everything that was going to happen and sometimes referred to it, but only gave the reader those facts on a need-to-know basis. It was a rather intreguing stream-of-conciousness that for the first some amount of the book raised more questions than it answered in any given paragraph. But that all is irrelevant.

I guess Player Piano isn't so good at the entertainment, altho it certainly made me want to find out how the various characters were going to react to things, but it certainly excells at making one think about the way things are going, even if vacuum tubes are pretty much a thing of the past.

A Hat Full of Sky, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: Tiffany is a witch-in-training. But after she goes away from home in order to recieve said training, she meets up with a hiver. And that's what drives the plot.

Reaction: Mostly I was just trying to get it finished so I could return it because I couldn't renew it and it was due yesterday (and I couldn't possibly return it without reading it). And now I can't think of anything to say about it. Reflection suggests I could say it has a moral and a happy ending, just like all the other Terry Pratchett books I've read so far. So I guess I'll just say "Um, yeah, I guess it was a good book."

Monstrous Regiment, by Terry Prachett

Summary: Polly decides to go join the army to find her brother. In the mean time, she meets an interesting group of people and has some adventures.

Reaction: The short version is "OMG best book EVAR". The long version would explain that I probably shouldn't say that because of the high probablility of that phrase getting attached to multiple books, and you can't really have several "best" books unless there's some other adjective in there. Regardless, it was still a wonderful book, between the plot twist, the amusing comments, the happily ever after, the moral, etc. I really should have written down some of the amusing lines I came across so I can add them to my collection of amusing quotes. Oh well, I can do that next time. And of course there will be a next time because it was that good of a book. And I think I need to buy a copy so it can live on my bookshelf and I can read it whenever I want (not that I will, but that way I can).

Oh look, I didn't actually post this because I got distracted looking for books about the Andrews Raid. In particular, Wild Train, but also anything else I could find... I think this has something to do with "books to stick on my bookshelf".

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett

Summary: Maurice, Keith, and their rodent friends are running a pied piper scam. But when they come to Bad Blintz, things start getting real interesting real quick.

Reaction: I rather liked the talking rats, some of whom are distinctly ratty and others of whom almost resemble people. I think I liked the ending the most because it suggests that humans and animals could live in harmony if only we could communicate with each other. Altho I guess the rats are kind of an exception because their not-normal-rat-ness was the result of some kind of magic or something. Also, Sandines was rather amusing. Tap-dancing rat FTW!

Airframe, by Michael Crichton

Summary: The book opens with a mysterious aircraft disaster. Now it's up to Casey and her colleagues at Norton Aircraft to figure out what went wrong before news of the disaster has a chance to destroy the future of the company...

Reaction: Very "I want to know what happened!", some exciting plot twists, even a couple chase scenes (which seem kinda gratuitous, but doesn't every Crichton book have/need some chase scenes and near disasters?)

Oh look, I don't have time to finish writing a proper review <--this is mostly an excuse for the fact that I'm failing to come up with anything else to say.

Deception Point, by Dan Brown

Summary: NASA has just made a shocking discovery with major ramifications for the presidential election. Someone tries to kill some of the people vaguely connected with the discovery. They find themselves running for their lives hoping to share their similarly shocking conlcusion with the world. Ha, I had enough vague details to make an entire summary this time.

Reaction: I enjoyed it. Up until near the end when I started getting kinda distracted by what I was going to write here and the fact that it was kinda late. But of course I couldn't wait until today to finish it (ok, technically I did finish it this morning very early; that's not the point). The second half of the book has several narrow escapes (by the last gunfight I was getting rather tired of such things and wondering if maybe instead of the high suspense/drama drawn-out battle they could instead just give me a summarized version: "After much fighting, a kills b after b has shot c. However c still manages to shoot d who spent the entire fight hiding behind something large waiting for a chance to kill a, and meanwhile e and f have disappeared to parts unknown" (This summary is not meant to reflect actual events in this or any other book). Although come to think of it, it was only that large scene where people were getting shot. Mostly. Er, I guess there was another one. Never mind.)

I think one of the things I enjoyed most about this book, much like with The Last Templar (which incidentally I keep getting mixed up with The Da Vinci Code, I think), is the characters. Each character has their own set of motives for what they do and there are no clearly defined battle lines between good and evil. Okay, maybe the protagonists are good and the people trying to kill them are evil. But besides that, one needs another category for, I don't know, unpleasant. Er, maybe one needs two categories so that one can sort the political figures into two rival camps. Anyway, you probably get my point.

Comment about female chraracters: It seems like all female characters in books get referred to by first name and many male characters get referred to by last name. Either that or sometimes first, sometimes last. *gets distracted looking something up* This particular book has a female character referred to exclusively by last name and a male character always referred to by first name (I'm talking only about what name the author uses to refer to said character, not how various characters refer to each other). One thing I noticed about the female character, however, is that she could be replaced with a male character and it would make no difference in the story. Most of the rest are/were involved in some kind of romance with another character, which means that the reader must be continually reminded that the character is female. Or something like that. Uh, yeah. No idea where I'm going with all this.

Comparision with Angels and Demons: 

Criss Cross, by Lynne Rae Perkins

Summary: A segment in the lives of 5 teens. I'm not sure there's any kind of overarching plot or resolution, although some people do change throughout the course of the book and they do set it up for a couple Events Yet To Come, or possibly a sequel. So, yeah. Stuff happens and life goes on.

Reaction: In spite of that rather cynical summary, I did actually enjoy this book. I'm not going to try to make something Big and Important out of it because it seems like basically a pseudo-fluffy book that one reads to pass some time. Hey, maybe I should write a pseudo-fluffy book about bunnies! It couldn't possibly turn out any worse than the ideas my brother and I had about a story starring weasels. Um, yeah. Moving on now...

I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak

Summary: Ed Kennedy has a fairly unexciting life before he starts getting playing cards, all aces, in the mail with cryptic instructions on them. Things get a lot more interesting after that, and he learns something about himself in the process, too.

Similarities: I'm pretty sure there's another book I've read about a guy who's hopelessly in love with his female close/best friend, but I have no idea what. This book shares with Deadeye Dick the idea that life continues after the story ends. Also, I now want to read Sophie's World again.

Reaction: Captivating. I kept wanting to know with each task what Ed's supposed to do and how he does it. Roughly 3/4 of the way through the book I notice that it was written in present tense, and that proceeds to annoy the heck out of me for awhile (not that I'm not guilty of doing that. I seem to recall a US history essay that's completely irrelevent to this review where I wrote the entire thing in present tense, and then had to go back and change it because the Boston Tea Party and events around that time are not at all present (unless they're taken in the context of the planet as a whole or even European history.) Wow I'm gotten really off-topic. Um, anyway...) I rather like the message of making the world a better place, one person at a time.

Deadeye Dick, by Kurt Vonnegut

Summary: Um, stuff happens, more stuff happens, the narrrator refers to things that are going to happen later, no real plot that I can discern. It's bascially the life story of this one guy. (and this time the lack of definable plot doesn't bother me because it's not bloody obvious; it's hidden behind the fact that the story is bascially a string of anecdotes that sometimes bear resemblence to being in chronological order.)

Response: I liked this book, probably because it was random and the guy's experiences were so far from anything else I've seen/heard/read before. With the single exception that the book initially reminded me of Galapagos in that the first few chapters have a bunch of background information as well as giving you an idea what's going to happen later ("These are the characters. The ones marked with a asterisk will be dead by sunset"). Not surprising, considering they have the same author...

I enjoyed this book, but wouldn't recommend it to anyone who expects books to have a reasonable amount of logic in them.

Skeleton Coast, by Clive Cussler

Summary: Lessee, how do I describe what happened without giving anything away? Problem is, random plot events keep popping up throughout the first part of the book and then they all turn out to be connected after all. Basically the story follows the adventures of the Oregon's crew as they try to save the world. Only that's not their original objective. Originally, they were trying to find the headquarers of an African rebel group and then save a kidnapped billionaire.

Comments: the phrases that come to mind with regards to this book are "a wing and a prayer", "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things", and "flying by the seat of your pants". There's an unbelievable amount of convenient coincidences and things going badly until the last possible moment when they suddenly achieve victory. Great adventure, gripping storyline, but how they heck do they have that much luck on their side (yes, I realize there's alot of skill and planning ability involved as well, but honestly), and perhaps a few too many "well that's convenient" moments (especially regarding the Chairman's prosthetic leg). Yes, last minute victories are very exciting and all, but honestly, how do they manage to get every single victory at the last possible nanosecond? It seems like sometime the odds would turn out to be against them.

The Cat Who Talked Turkey, by Lilian Jackson Braun

Summary (at least in theory): There's this guy, and he lives in a small town somewhere in the north, and stuff happens in this small town. And there's even a couple murders that this guy ends up solving purely by accident (This isn't like the books where someone is like "I want to solve this crime, let me just go put myself in a dangerous situation where the killer is likely to show up and then s/he will confess and I'll miraculously escape and capture/kill him/her"; this is the killer shows up at his house and casually mentions it over dinner.). In other words, I have no f-ing idea what the plot was meant to be, and no idea how the turkeys are relevent. Granted this is the 26th book in a series, so maybe it makes more sense as a continuing saga of this dude and his town? That's the only explanation I can come up with. Still, I'm pretty sure every cynical comment my mom has ever made about The Babysitters Club books counts for this series as well, only instead of developing the characters, this book focuses exclusively on the setting. Really, I couldn't care less about the 10 page transcript of this person's fictional radio broadcast about the Great Storm of 1913.

Reaction: I think I already covered most of that in the last section, hehhheh. The book has very little in the way of plot or characters (I mean, there are people and events, but the main thing that kepts me reading the book was that I was waiting for something interesting to happen. And, for the most part, nothing really did. I'm not sure I can come up with a better summary than "stuff happens". I mean, there's a 200th aniversary celebration for the neighboring town, but while that is the closest to a focus I can find for the book, it hardly counts as plot. And I know very little about any of the characters besides the occupations of a couple of them.). It's basically focusing on the town and provides some stories of town history and uses some of the characters to illustrate what the town is like. Oh, and apparently the guy's cat is psychic or something, but nothing ever comes of that. Yano, reading the description of this book, or possibly one of the others in the series made me think that either this series was a rip-off of the Rita Mae Brown series I mentioned in a previous post or vice versa. And it's now very clear which is which. Look at it: both have a protagonist solving a series of murders (this one purely by accident), intelligent animal(s) who try to help (at least in the other one they explained what they were doing), a small town (that used it more for atmosphere; in this one, it basically was the book. I'm not interested in reading a history of a fictional town when said history is being passed off as a novel only they're not going to tell you that.), even the authors' names are similar (Brown vs Braun).

Basically, I consider reading this book to have been a waste of time. Maybe I would've enjoyed it more if the book jacket hadn't implied that something was actually going to happen. But no, most of the book served no purpose to the plot. Er, I shouldn't say that. That implies that I have some idea what the plot is. According to the book jacket, it's the murders and the turkeys. I believe those two between the two of them cover maybe a quarter of the book. Maybe. More if you include the previous scenes involving the people responsible. Ok, looking at it from that angle, I can see how many of the scenes are an attempt at introducing the people responsible and dropping hints about their suspiciousness. But that still means that there was approximately 20 pages (out of less than 200) that were basically setting up a less than 3 sentence exchange. And I still have no idea how the turkeys have any connection whatsoever to anything else in the book other than the cat being special.

Um, yeah. I totally meant to end this after the first sentence of that last paragraph or maybe the second, but I guess my cynicism and irritation with the book kinda took over. Oops?

The Last Templar, by Raymond Khoury

Summary: The story opens with a robbery at the Met by a group of horsemen who steal a variety of objects. The FBI is called in to investigate because many (all?) of the items taken were on loan from the Vatican. The book follows the subsequent unveiling of what happened and why, including many potentially deadly situations for many of the characters. It's kinda like The Da Vinci Code only more dangerous (much higher body count).

I'm not sure how much of the story I can comment on without spoilers, so I'm hiding the rest of my comments.  Be warned: I'm pretty much dropping events left and right, so if you haven't read the book it might not make sense, and if you want to read the book there won't be much surprise left if you read my comment, and I think the surprise is one of the best parts. I will say one thing, though. Quite possibly the best part of the book is the characters and how they interact and struggle with moral dilemmas (or don't). I'm not sure how to explain what I like about it. Possibly the fact that I'm pretty sure you couldn't come up with a mold that it fits into without an awful lot of work (and possibly a custom-made mold).

Operation Red Jericho, by Joshua Mowell

Summary: The short version is that Becca, Doug, their uncle, his crew, Master Aa, and his followers are trying to defeat Sheng-Fat. No, scratch that. They're trying to destroy his store of Zoridium aka Daughter of the Sun. If that means defeating him in the process, so be it. The longer version would mention the Honorable Guild of Specialists and the fact that Becca and Doug were supposed to be headed to San Francisco to live with their aunt after their uncle got tired of their disobendience. It might also mention their sneaking around trying to figure out what their uncle wasn't telling them in hopes that it would give them some idea what happened to their parents, who disappeared in the Sunkiang.

Reflections: I rather like the style of this book--besides the normal narrative, there's also some of Becca's journal entries and Doug's sketches and little bios of some of the characters tucked into the margians and maps of various places and boats and random (relevent) pictures.

Similar stuff: Doug keeps reminding me of a character in some other book that also has a younger brother who asks too many questions and befriends everyone in sight, but I still haven't figured out what book that might be. The second half of the story in general reminded me of most Clive Cussler books, where the characters miraculously escape a whole chain of sudden death situations by a combination of luck and inginuity (which could be why I like them--it's hard to put down a book where you keep thinking that the main character is about to get killed off by the bad guy (or where you would think that if you didn't know that said character returns in the next book. I think at least one of Cussler's books went so far as to have a funeral for the guy before he turned up again in the last page and a half. But I digress.))

Wish You Were Here, by Rita Mae Brown

Summary: The small town of Crozet Virginia is shocked by several stunning murders, and Harry and her pets are determined to figure out who is responsible. ...That sounds like the kind of summary that would come off a book jacket. But I'm not sure how much more there is to say.

Reaction: Yay, a mystery! A gripping storyline, amusing randomness from the cats and dogs and the small town interaction, and an unexpected killer (not that I had any expectation who it was). What more could I ask for in a book? And better yet, there's a whole series of them!

2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke

Summary: No idea how to summarize it without sharing something important. Basically wierd improbable stuff happened interspersed with someone's view of the future. The very short version is that it's about a space voyage to Sarturn plus some background info [slash] notable events in the fictional past.

Why I read the book: This probably isn't going to be a common heading, but it seems necessary here, considering that I probably never would've read this book had one of my friends not recommended it to me. Or more correctly had I not been at the library the day one of my friends recommended it to me. And I'm now struck by a sudden urge to analyse the grammer elements of that sentence, but that serves no relevent purpose so I shall refrain. Aside from calling it a past contrary to fact conditional statement.

General response: The first part, in which a force from somewhere messes with the minds of primitive man-apes, was rather wierd and unexpected. I thought the book had to do with humans exploring space, not humans evolving by the intervention of something. And I was right; it's just that that doesn't cover the entire book, just most of it.

I'm not sure whether I'd call it a good book. Certainly it was well-written. It does a good job of explaining everything important, but not such a good job of holding my attention. I finished reading it because I wanted to know what happens, not because I was pretty much incapable of putting it down. Maybe that was because I didn't always have that much time to read, but I'm pretty sure I could've gotten it finished alot faster had I really really wanted to.

Response to the ending: 

Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown

Summary: I'm not sure how much I can say without giving away anything important, but I'll try. Basically, there's a scientist who gets murdered and branded with the seal of an ancient brotherhood that wants to destroy the Catholic Church. And the sizable sample of anitmatter that he'd created gets stolen. And then this other guy, an expert in, among other things, said ancient brotherhood, and the scientist's daughter have to find the missing antimatter before it blows up the Vatican. And just to complicate matters, conclave is going on and the 4 cardinals who are by far the most likely to become the next Pope have all been kidnapped by someone who claims that he's going to kill them at various churches. So they have to try to save people and stop the person responsible and figure out wtf is going on and it's all very exciting.

Reflections: