A Great and Terrible Beauty

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was an interesting book with a good cast of characters. Some of the characters were well developed others didn't have a big enough part in the story to justify further development.

The settings and locations are described in wonderful detail making it easy to go there with your imagination.

The plot has enough twists and surprises to keep it interesting.

In spite of all of this I only gave this book 3 stars. This is for two reasons:
1. The ending was rushed and not very convincing
2. There are parts of this book that are risqué but there is one part that is downright racy putting the book well beyond a PG-13 into a mild R rating. The worst part of this is that the racy scene did not add anything to the book at all. It only seems to be there to add some sexuality. Lame...

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The Witch of Portobello

hmmm...

I'll have to think about this one.

Let's just say "Coming Soon" for now.

Sideway Stories from Wayside School

A very fun book to read to your kids and enjoy yourself at the same time. It's very imaginitive and interesting. I felt it was a little rude at times and I did need to censor/edit/bleep some things on the fly as I read this.

Motor Mouth

I picked up this book from the library thinking that an author with so many New York Times best sellers must write good books. My, what a mistake!

What can I say, the characters are paper thin, the language is juvenile, and the plot has holes big enough to drive a NASCAR hauler through it!

The story is about a famous NASCAR driver and his female, ex-girlfriend mechanic caught up in a web of cheating and murder. The plot rushes from one unlikely scenario to the next preposterous one and the story tumbles to an unbelievably fairy tale ending.

In spite of all my criticism, I have to admit the book was (just barely) mildly entertaining. I will not voluntarily read another of Ms. Evanovich's books, but if you are stuck in a long flight without a book and find this one in the seat pocket in front of you, go ahead and give it a go.

VITAL STATS:
Title: Motor Mouth (A Barnaby Novel)
Author: Janet Evanovich
# Pages: 312
Published by: Harper Collins (New York)
Year: 2006
ISBN #: 0-06-058403-3

the other Shulman

Let me start by saying that this is a very entertaining book.

A fictional autobiographical account of a fat man with a stale marraige and a failing stationary business who takes on the New York Marathon as a whim.
The book is broken into 26 chapters, one for each mile of the marathon.
Each chapter not only describes Shulman's experience running that particular mile, but also a simultaneous chronology of the events leading up to the actual race.

The language is casual and the story is well woven together.
I really enjoyed this book and if you are looking for a light read that is interesting and entertaining, I would reccommend this book without reservations.

VITAL STATS:
Title: the other Shulman
Author: Alan Zweibel
# Pages: 288
Published by: Villard Books (Random House)
Year: 2005
ISBN #: 1-4000-6266-7

Tales of Beedle the Bard

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
What a complete rip-off. Can be read in about 20 minutes.
My 4th grader writes better and meatier stories than this.
Shameless exploitation, even if some money goes to a non-profit. JKR has enough to give without selling out like this.


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World War Z

This is a fantastic and well written fictionalized book about the memories of different people during the Zombie War. The period of time between the early infections and through the period when the entire Earth was almost overrun by undead Zombies, and humanities fight to regain control of Earth is covered. The book implies that the war is not over and there is still work to be done to eradicate the Zombie menace from the world.

This is a very well "researched" book and it feels very real. The situations and scenarios presented feel like they could happen if humans could indeed turn into Zombies when bitten by other Zombies. The great "research" for the book is not limited to the US, but feels real for all the parts of the world that are covered in the book. I did feel like the end of the book was a little weak, but that does not take away from the great first 335 pages of the book.

If you enjoy fiction of this type, I would definitely recommend this book. My ThanX to my friend Kelly for keying me onto this book, and Nate for letting me borrow his library copy.

VITAL STATS:
Title: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Author: Max Brooks
# Pages: 342
Published by: Crown Publishers (New York)
Year: 2006
ISBN #: 0-307-34660-9