As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

Title: As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust
Author: Alan Bradley
Series: Flavia De Luce, book 7
Genre: Mystery
Published: 2015
Rating: 6.5/10

Review: I picked up the latest installment in Flavia series when I wanted to spend a bit of time with easy reading. As usual it's fairly entertaining, but this particular book had some trouble keeping my attention.

Flavia is sent to a boarding school in Toronto. There she learns more about her mother who has attended this school as well. And as usual there is murder, mystery, and mayhem afoot.

There were some pretty interesting things about the book. We get a whole slew of new characters: girls and teachers at the school. We also learn more about Flavia's mother. On the other hand, I missed the usual characters from Bishop Lacey.

The mystery part of the plot was pretty well set-up, but for some reason the book didn't engage me as much as I hoped. Perhaps, it was the new characters, for whom I didn't care as much or maybe Flavia being overly dramatic just wore a little on me. Regardless, I didn't find as much enjoyment in this book as I did in previous ones and I am rather glad that it looks like the next book will be set back in England.

Eat Pray Love

Title: Eat Pray Love
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2006
Rating: 6.5/10

Review: I took a few days vacation and went to Seattle. I finished reading Ancillary Sword on my flight over there and needed something new to read. The apartment I rented had a bookshelf full of fiction, so on a whim I decided to pick up Eat Pray Love.

The only thing I knew about the book before starting was that there's a movie with Julia Roberts and that it's "empowering" women's fiction. Not my usual genre, but I was in the mood for something off the beaten path.

Overall, it was both more fun and less fun than I expected. The story is a memoir of a single woman (Elizabeth herself) living in Italy, India, and Indonesia for a year total and her experiences there. The story begins by catching up the reader on the writer's state of mind and relationship history. Her voice is pretty entertaining and I generally enjoyed her anecdotes. On the other hand, I didn't really find her particularly easy to relate to. She sees things so differently from me that rather than pull me into the book, her inner dialogue just sort of made me quizzically look at her psyche from the sidelines.

The Italy portion was pretty fun though -- descriptions of food made me totally hungry and wishing I was in Italy. I also really enjoyed her language acquisition stories and comparisons. This part of the book was probably my favorite.

The next part of the book describes Elizabeth's experience living in an Indian ashram, practicing yoga. I do yoga myself as an exercise activity, so I have a little bit insight into it, but I don't practice it as a worldview. This part of the book involves Elizabeth searching her soul, meditating, and singing a whole lot. From my view as a reader, it's a duller portion of the book, though there are some interesting tidbits here as well.

After India, Elizabeth ends up in Bali, studying with an old mystic there. Once again, not a whole lot happens, but at least she's mostly emotionally stable for this part of the book, which is pretty nice. There are also some characters in this part whom I enjoyed reading about. The mystic that she studies with is one of them -- he really colored this part of the book for me.

All in all, this was a reasonably interesting book to pick up randomly. Some fun anecdotes, but also pretty slow in parts. Eh.

Queen of Hearts

Title: Queen of Hearts
Author: Rhys Bowen
Series: A Royal Spyness Mystery, book 8
Genre: Mystery
Published: 2014
Rating: 6.5/10

Review:  This definitely qualifies as one of the guilty pleasure  books. I needed something to read for a flight and this was a perfect book to occupy the time.

In this installment, Georgiana travels with her mother to the United States on a cruise ship. During the cruise, jewels get stolen, and Georgiana gets involved in the investigation along with Darcy, who just so happened to be on the ship. Georgiana and her mother travel to Reno to get a divorce (for Georgina's mother) and then end up in Hollywood.

I didn't necessarily like the change of scenery -- I prefer the mysteries set in England, but I guess it's nice to get some variety as this series is getting rather formulaic. I figured out whodunit pretty far ahead of time, but still enjoyed the situational comedy in various parts of the book. It was great to see Queenie stand up for her rights and then quit. Of course, she ends up coming back, but I enjoyed this sub-plot.

Queen of Hearts was a quick and enjoyable read, but at the same time I feel like the author is running out of fresh material. I am not sure whether I would continue with the series, unless I have another flight to fill.

Death's Daughter

Title: Death's Daughter
Author: Amber Benson
Series: Calliope Reaper Jones, book 1
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Published: 2009
Rating: 6.5/10

Review: I've gotta prefix this by the admission that I am a big Buffy fan. In fact, I liked the series enough to watch all seven seasons is something close to 3 weeks while preparing for exams in 3rd year university. That show is awesome and if you haven't given it a serious shot yet, go watch it now and reserve judgement until you see at least a few episodes. It starts out slow, but it's pretty amazing over time.

Now, Amber Benson played Tara on Buffy and though I've never been particularly fond of her in the show, I thought it would be interesting to check out the novel she published. This novel is her debut and since I've seen it talked about and reviewed around the blogosphere, I thought I'd check it out.

The main heroine in the book, Calliope, is Death's daughter. When Death himself is kidnapped, she is asked by her family to step into his shoes and rescue her father. In addition to Death, the book also features the Devil, God, Goddess Kali, and the Devil's Protege. Calliope mostly stumbles around, getting into various mis-adventures, and somehow still getting ahead despite being somewhat dense and prone to crying fits.

The pacing for the book was good. It was easy to read and the humourous situations came through quite well. I mostly liked Calliope as a protagonist despite her flightiness and constant emotional turmoil. However, at times the absurdity of the actions did get a bit much and I thought the writing of the book could use some work.

Altogether, not a bad airplane read and perhaps not bad at all for a first-time author, but I can't say I was deeply impressed either. I would consider picking up the next book in the series, but I am in no hurry to do so at the moment.

Changeless

Title: Changeless
Author: Gail Carriger
Series: Alexia Tarabotti, book 2
Genre: Steampunk
Published: 2010

Recommendation: An easy read for those who enjoyed the first book.
Rating: 6.5/10

Summary: Something strange is happening in London, where part of the city turns all supernatural creatures into humans. Alexia and Conall Maccon travel to investigate the strange occurrences.

Reactions: I imagine most readers who enjoyed the first book of the series would also enjoy this one. The atmosphere, humour, and characters are mostly unchanged and a few interesting additions have been made. There is adventure, Alexia solves a mystery (though a rather obvious one) and there is a resolution.

There were two things I disliked about the book. The first was that throughout the book Alexia and Conall call each other husband and wife as part of the dialogue. It's like they forgot each other's names upon getting married. There's plenty of: "What are you doing here, wife?" or "Husband, don't be alarmed" style dialogue that I found pretty irritating. My second gripe with this book is its ending. Firstly, I dislike that the author felt the need to start a new story at the end of the book. Secondly, Conall's reaction to the event is poor and there's quite an obvious explanation to the phenomenon that someone should have thought of pretty much immediately.

Changeless is a quick and entertaining read, but somewhat formulaic and predictable overall.

User Interface Design for Programmers

Title: User Interface Design for Programmers
Author: Joel Spolsky
Genre: Non-fiction
Published: 2001

Recommendation: A very simple introduction to UI design with amusing anecdotes.
Rating: 6.5/10

Summary: An 18-chapter explanation of various UI design principles with examples.

Reactions: This is the first book review on this blog dealing with a computer science publication. I don't necessarily think this would be interesting for the general readership, but the blog is all about what I read, so I decided to include the technical reading.

It actually amazed me that this is the first computer-related book I have actually read from beginning to end in last year and half. There are two reasons for it. First is that I get bored half-way through many books and stop reading them and if applicable start using them as references instead. Second is that it's much faster to learn whatever you are trying to learn from Internet articles, code samples, and documentation than by reading a book from cover to cover.

I was only able to finish reading User Interface Design for Programmers because it's thin, has high picture to words ratio, and has plenty of amusing anecdotes. On the other hand, I am straining to think what I learned from the book that I didn't know about before and I am coming up short.

There is some useful information on UI design in the book, but it's very very basic. Rules such as "A user interface is well designed when the program behaves exactly how the user thought it would" and "When you try to use metaphors, try to make them behave in predictable ways like objects in the real world." are not exactly earth-shattering revelations. In many situations the rules are just difficult to implement for your current problem.

Overall, if you've read about any basics of UI design, you can probably pretty safely skip this book unless you are interested in Joel's anecdotes about how various Office UI features and mishaps came around. It might be almost worth reading the book just for that.

Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand

Title: Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand
Author: Carrie Vaughn
Series: Kitty Norville, book 5
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Published: 2009

Recommendation: A fine beach read for anyone already following the series.
Rating: 6.5/10

Summary: Kitty and Ben decide to elope in Vegas. The studio schedules Kitty to do a TV show from Vegas at the same time. Upon arrival the couple finds that a Gun Show is being hosted in the hotel where they are staying. And some of the attendees are not werewolf friendly. Will Kitty have time for her wedding with all the excitement?

Reactions: There isn't a whole lot to say about this book. It was a typical Kitty style adventure with all the usual suspects in place. If anything, it seemed more cliche than usual in terms of plot and pacing. It was pretty obvious what's going to happen and how the book will end. Still, it was a decent read for when you want something cheesy and easy to read.

The Vegas setting had it's nice touches and obligatory jokes on Vegas vampires. Some of them were perhaps a little obvious. All the typical facets of Vegas were covered: gambling, cheating, mafia, weddings, strip clubs, Elvis, magic, etc. Overall, reading the book was quick fun, but the story did not leave me particularly impressed.

Black Magic Sanction

Title: Black Magic Sanction
Author: Kim Harrison
Series: The Hollows, book 8
Genre: Urban fantasy
Publish: 2010

Recommendation: More of the same from Rachel Morgan: running, fighting and general mayhem.
Rating: 6.5/10

Summary: The coven of moral and ethical standards takes an interest in Rachel after the shunning and tries to bring her in. Rachel fights back while dealing with Pierce, Nick, and Aligapert at the same time as Trent demands Rachel to sign a life-long contract with him.

Reactions: Overall, I was mostly disappointed with this installment in The Hollows series. The book is not necessarily a whole lot worse than the previous seven, but I feel like the series hit somewhat of a wall.

The plot of the book seems awfully similar to the previous few books. Rachel is in danger, she kicks, bites, threatens, and cajoles until she gets her way and then off she goes to meet the next danger. The number of not-so-smart moves on her part is starting to bother me and I felt there was little to none character development in this book. Everyone acts their usual -- Ivy vamps out, Pierce protects, Aligapert threatens.

The plot didn't hold my attention particularly well. While I've finished previous books in one sitting, this one took me over a week. The ending wasn't particularly spectacular either. Rachel manages to avert some danger, doubtlessly just to be haunted by someone else next book.

Overall, I think the series is hitting the point where it needs to go in a new direction, otherwise it's just not worth reading. I am not even sure if I want to pick up the next book in the series. Perhaps I'll read the reviews first.

The Orphans Tales: In the Night Garden

Title: The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden

Author: Catherynne M. Valente

Series: The Orphan's Tales, book 1

Genre: Fairy Tales

Published: 2006

Recommendation: Only for those who really want to read a long series of fairy tales.

Rating: 6.5/10

Summary: A girl left all alone in Sultan's garden because of her strange eyes, by night reads the magical stories off her eyelids to the Sultan's son.

Reactions: I don't remember how this book ended up on my Amazon wish list, but it did and I ended up receiving it as a gift on my birthday last year. I finally gotten to reading it in the last few days, but was rather disappointed.

I think partially my disappointment comes from the book being not quite what I expected. In the Night Garden is a collection of fairy tales. And while I like fairy tales, I found it had to stay interested in pages and pages of somewhat disjointed stories.

The format of the book is quite unique. The best description for it is that the story telling is recursive. The girl in the garden tells the story, the story character tells the story, the character that the story character met tells their story and so on, sometimes it goes 5 or 6 levels deep. In addition, each story is told from the first point of view of each narrator which makes for some confusing switches in the story telling. The confusion is alleviated by chapter headings each time the narrators switch and eventually I got used to the format though it was hard to grasp at first. The biggest downfall of the format for me was that it kept interrupting the thread of the story and I found it difficult to get back into the original story once the diversion was over.

Part of the reason I didn't enjoy the book is the style in which it's written. There is a lot of very flowery prose with some rather strange similes. For example:

Sigrid's smile crept away from her face like a cat through a door left ajar.

or

And so it went like this for many years, while thirteen summers like fat orange roses sprang and withered.

Some may enjoy this type of stylistic story-telling, but I mostly felt bewildered by the fact that summers were like fat orange roses and it took me some time to get to used to it. By the end of the book, I found myself reading more easily, but still not a huge fan of the style.

Finally, I guess my problem was that I really enjoy character driven stories, while in these fairy tales the characters were colourful and varied, they were usually exactly what they seemed to be. You could know everything you needed about them from the first character description. In fact I enjoyed the second tale of the of the book more because one of the characters was more surprising than the rest.

Overall, I found it hard to keep reading and was rather tempted to put the book down when I came to the end of the first big tale. But dislike leaving any book unfinished, so I persevered and found the second story to be somewhat more enjoyable, partly due to content, partly due to getting more used to the style and format. I imagine those who like fairy tales would enjoy the book, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to a reader of fantasy.

Flashforward

Title: Flashforward

Author: Robert J. Sawyer

Genre: Science fiction

Published: 1999

Rating: 6.5/10

Recommendation: Middling science fiction novel with few interesting ideas.

Summary: Lloyd Simcoe and Theo Procopides schedule their Large Hadron Collider experiment for 5pm sharp. Except instead of producing the Boson particle they expect, they find the whole world displaced 21 years into the future for a little over 2 minutes. Everyone experiences their lives 21 years from today. But how did this happen and what do the visions really mean is left to the interpretation of the world.

Reactions: I thought the premise of this science fiction novel was pretty neat. Being able to see what happened to you in 21 years and then return to deal with what you have seen can open many avenues for discussion. Robert Sawyer picks up one of the more obvious themes: predestination vs free will. Though there are some interesting discussions present, I felt the author didn't go in depth on many of them and didn't contribute anything particularly new to the discussion. His physics explanation for the phenomenon didn't interest me too much and I felt a lot of time was spent discussing various physics particles.

My biggest problem with the book though were the characters. I didn't particularly like the scientists in the novel, though I somewhat warmed up to them by the end of the book. But at least for the first third of Flashforward I struggled to keep my interest because I didn't like the characters too much.

Overall, it was an okay read. I was a little disappointed with the lack of interesting ideas and characters. But I did enjoy some very realistic glimpses of Toronto described in this book.

Blue Diablo

Title: Blue Diablo
Author: Ann Aguirre
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Published: 2009

Recommendation: Fun read, but nothing out of the ordinary for the genre.
Rating: 6.5/10

Summary: Corine Solomon has a special gift. She is able to touch items and know their history. She is hiding in Mexico when her ex-boyfriend Chance finds her and enlists her help in finding his kidnapped mother. The search will lead them to the underworld of dark magic, demons and sorcerers.

Reactions: I picked up this book for the flight during my vacation. I've read Grimspace before and had a good idea what to expect. And indeed Blue Diabolo is a quick, fun romp and was great for a long flight.

There is quite a bit of romance in this book, as Corine straightens out her relationship with Chance. Both characters are pretty likable -- Corine is not a pushover and Chance is a dashing alpha male. They make a fun couple to follow and the supporting cast are quite colorful.

Unfortunately, most aspects of the book are rather standard. The magic of the world has a couple small twists, but it's mostly unexplained and typical. The adventures are what you'd expect and the ending is not particularly surprising. But if you are looking for a book that's easy to read with fun character dialogue and a detective-like romp, this is the book for you.

Plum Spooky

Title: Plum Spooky
Author: Janet Evanovich
Series: Stephanie Plum
Published: January 2009
Genre: Mystery novel, humour

Recommendation: Good for fans of the series who want to see more Diesel action.
Rating: 6.5/10

Summary: Stephanie gets to babysit Carl the Monkey, Diesel shows up hunting for an Unmentionable named Wulf. On top of it, Stephanie needs to bring in Martin Munch, a quantum physicist who smashed his manager's nose with a mug and stole a cesium vapor magnetometer.

Reactions: I look forward to some light reading whenever I pick up a book by Janet Evanovich. Stephanie Plum novels tend to be quick, fun, and completely absurd. She destroys at least several cars in any given novel, gets attacked by lunatics, and eats at least a dozen donuts. Plum Spooky doesn't veer off course.

I think the biggest disappointment in this book is the fact that we don't see a whole lot of Ranger. He is the guy who makes things interesting, whereas Diesel just doesn't have the same appeal to me. Since the relationship plotline is almost nonexistent in this novel, Evanovich makes up by adding a dozen monkeys and the Jersey Devil.

A little excerpt:

Carl was in the kitchen, feeding cereal to Rex, when we got home. Carl would drop in a Fruit Loop, Rex would rush out of his can, stuff the Fruit Loop into his cheek, and rush back to his can. Carl would repeat the drill.

“Cute,” I said. “Carl has a pet.”

“Either that or he’s fattening him up for the kill.”

“Do monkeys eat hamsters?”

Diesel shrugged. “They eat pizza with pepperoni.”

Mental note: First thing tomorrow, take Rex to stay at parents’ house for duration of monkey visit.

Overall, Plum Spooky was entertaining, but some of the Diesel jokes seemed a little old and there weren't a whole lot of events that stood out too much for me. An evening worth of relaxation, but hardly the best in the series. Yet, there's something about Stephanie Plum novels that will make me pick up Finger Lickin' Fifteen when it comes out this summer.

One More Bite

Title: One More Bite
Author: Jennifer Rardin
Series: Jaz Parks, Book 5
Genre: Urban fantasy, novel
Published: 2009

Recommendation: Read if you enjoyed previous books in the series, but don't expect much beyond another round of ass-kicking.
Rating: 6.5/10

Summary: Jaz, Vayl, Cole, and Albert travel to Scotland where they pretend to be participants in GhostCon. The real mission is to protect the head of a coven, Floraidh, from a mysterious assassin named Bea in order to protect the balance between various factions vying for the spot opened with the death of Edward Samos.

Reactions: Jaz Parks series has been going downhill in the last two books. I enjoyed the first 3 books of the series. They introduced the characters, developed relationships, and provided lots of action for the readers to enjoy. One More Bite is the latest installment of the series, but it seems like Jennifer Rardin has fallen into a predictable grove with her series and left me with mixed feelings at the end of the book.

I think my beef with the book is the fact that it followed the pattern of previous ones and lacked novelty. The four characters who come on this assignment act exactly the same way as they did in previous books. Cole is charming women left and right while professing undying love for Jaz. Vayl is getting it on with Jaz and provides muscle and orders whenever necessary. Jaz is killing everything in sight. Albert is doing the old tough bastard act, while being caring and sensitive underneath. We've been through all of this before, and the characters don't really develop or reveal any new facets now. We learn a few more details about Jaz's childhood and her mother, but it doesn't change a whole lot in my perception of the main heroine.

One Bite More does have its share of witty dialogue along the lines of:

"Swear to God, dog, if this doesn't turn out well I'm buying you generic food for the next month!"

and plenty of situational humor; a disaster at GhostCon is caused by a jeweler attempting to grope and ancient warrior ghost. It is an easy book to read and it didn't have much trouble holding my attention on the action.

I also find it really strange to have Jaz freak out about losing her job all the time. Every time something happens to a car or a plan derails she just goes into overdrive over getting fired. But when the bad guys are trying to kill her, she is fine, she will kick plenty of butt. It seems irrational to be trembling before her boss after that, and I don't really buy the argument that this is the only paying job she could get with her skills. So I just shake my head when this comes up over and over in these books.

Overall this book was not too different from the previous one, there is plenty of sneaking around and kicking butt action. There's humorous dialogue and chemistry between Jaz and Vayl. There are baddies, but I never felt the whole crew was in too much danger based on how all the previous plots worked out. The book lacked originality and character development and I am not sure I care to pick up the next book in the series.

Storm Front

Title: Storm Front

Author: Jim Butcher

Series: The Dresden Files

Genre: Urban fantasy, novel

Published: 2000

Recommendation: An interesting read for those who appreciate dry humour and noir detective stories.

Rating: 6.5/10

Summary: Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a wizard, under W in the yellow pages. Things are slow and he is behind on rent until a couple is found murdered by a magical force. In the same afternoon, Harry is threatened by a mob boss and hired to look into disappearance of a husband. Suddenly things start moving much faster...

Reactions: I have heard a lot of praise for this novel and overall was a little disappointed. Perhaps it just did not fit the mood, but I found myself often distracted while reading the first part of the book. The action just failed to keep my interest and it was unclear how everything was going to be tied together.

The biggest problem for me was actually the main character, Harry. The story is told from first person point of view where Harry narrates his adventure. After being in Harry's head for 300-some pages of the book, I found him to be too inconsistent and didn't find him particularly likable though there are some very well narrated amusing scenes in the book. This is the main reason I did not enjoy the book as much as I might have with a different character.

Most of the time Harry was on an emotional roller-coaster. One moment he would be super-powerful kick ass wizard, ready to take on the whole world. The next he will be tired and defeated, ready to lie down on the side of the road to die. It would not be so bad if these drastic mood changes did not oscillate continuously throughout the novel. In a way it made Harry predictable and irritated me because I knew that on the next page he will somehow recover his resolve and suddenly become hyper again.

The novel is also a little odd in how it mixes the mundane and magical. There are some very stereotypical words and figures when it comes to magic: wizard, white council, wizard's staff and wizard's skull.  Many other urban fantasy authors bring modernity to their characters when they mix magic with 21st century technology. Harry, however, is anything but modern due to the twist where any technology he comes in contact with almost immediately stops working. Magic combined with his old-fashioned car, candles, etc, felt at odds to me.

I found the second part of the book to move quickly and be more satisfying. The plot resolution lacked a good twist, but there was enough of a mystery for Harry to power through in the book. The wry humour made the book worth reading and some of the comic scenes were absolutely brilliant. I imagine many people might enjoy the book more than I have.

Favourite Quote:

Yet there was something about her that revved my engines, something about the way she held her head or shaped her words that bypassed my brain and went straight to my hormones.

Bloody Bones

Title: Bloody Bones

Author: Laurell Hamilton
Series: Anita Blake Vampire Hunter, Book 5

Genre: Urban fantasy, novel
Published: 1996

Recommendation: Still worth reading as part of the series.
Rating: 6.5/10

Summary: Anita gets hired to raise a whole cemetery worth of corpses to figure out the land ownership. At the same time, a number of vampire killings happen in the area and Anita is called to investigate. Anita, Larry, Jason (a werewolf introduced in the previous book), and Jean-Claude take a stand against vampires and the fey.

Reactions: This book is in many ways similar to other ones: there is a mystery, there are murders, there is a powerful villain, and plenty of other monsters. As usual, there is a romance/sexual tension angle with Anita and Jean-Claude. However, the biggest change I felt during the book is how far Anita slipped from the principles she held in the first few books. It used to go along the lines of "I will not betray humans to monsters", but became more of, "You have tried to go against me, you deserve to die." Hamilton juxtaposes Larry's moral stance to make this very clear. I have a feeling Anita will just continue to deteriorate in the future books. Is it really good to have a hero, who is not so much a hero anymore? It's not about flawed characters, Anita had enough flaws to start with, but she seems to be moving across the line where I am starting to sympathize with her enemies a little.

So far it is still a fun read. However, several other reviews of the series I have seen mentioned that the series is only worth reading until book 7 or 8. I will still be reading the next book in the series, but I feel this book is the first warning that I will not be reading the whole series.

First Lines: It was St. Patrick's Day, and the only green I was wearing was a button that read, "Pinch me and you're dead meat."