I’m terrible about writing book reviews. I love having written them, love being able to refer back to them later. But I tend to procrastinate on producing them, with draft posts languishing in my blog’s back end or at GoodReads and books piling up around the apartment, awaiting my having what I deem is the time to write them. So let’s see if I can stand against the tide and make a change in that regard. Let’s start with the book I finished tonight Wednesday, shall we?

The Sorceress, by Michael Scott

From the jacket: “… Sophie and Josh Newman show every sign of being the twins of legend, and Flamel had to protect them and the pages [of the book of Abraham the Mage] from the Dark Elders. But Nicholas grows weaker with each passing day. Perenelle is still trapped on Alcatraz, and now that Scatty has gone missing, the group is without protection. … If he hopes to defeat Dee, Nicholas must find someone who can teach Josh and Sophie the third elemental magic — Water Magic. The problem? The only being who can do that is Gilgamesh, and he is quite, quite insane.”

My take: Amongst the reviews that aren’t finished are Michael Scott’s first two books in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series, which I read hungrily last summer. (The Alchemyst, the first book in the series, is featured on my also unpublished Best of 2009 list.) I then picked this book up at a used bookshop shortly after it was released, started it, got interrupted in some way, and neglected to come back to it.

But Grey Kitten and I were talking about the first book and how the fourth book was due out this week, and I thought I’d better pick this up again. I’m glad I did.

Quickly, the premise of the series: Immortals Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel (who are also referred to in the first Harry Potter book) own a bookshop in modern-day San Francisco. Teenager Josh Newman works for them and his twin sister Sophie works at the coffee shop across the street. One day a limo pulls up, Elizabethan magician and political advisor John Dee steps out, and all hell breaks loose. Perenelle and a rare and valuable book are captured, and Nicholas and the two kids (and a yoga instructor) are suddenly on the run with creatures out of mythology, lore, and fairy tales hot on their trail. The first two books travel from California to Mexico and on to Paris as the twins discover they may have magical powers, a crew of “gods” want to return to earth and destroy humanity, and their existence has been foretold as the one thing that might prevent this. This third novel picks up the trio’s adventure five days later as they get off the train in London.

(This novel, as the others before it, is told in the third person, but from rotating perspectives — Josh, Sophie, Nicholas, Perenelle, John Dee, Machiavelli, and Billy the Kid. It’s an effective device that permits the story to operate in multiple spheres simultaneously.)

With the twins still reeling from battling Dee and Macchiavelli in Paris, Josh’s newly awakened powers still overwhelming all his senses, and Nicholas’ powers dwindling by the moment, what the trio needs most upon arriving in London is to avoid detection by Dee’s web of spies and get some rest before they find Gilgamesh, who Nicholas hopes will teach them how to control the element of water. Alas, the undead are waiting for them in the station and every evil magical creature in England seems to be headed their way. Luckily, they are rescued by cab driver and Saracen Knight, Palamedes, who takes them back to his junk yard fortress.

At the same time, Perenelle has escaped the Sphinx (at least temporarily) and regained some of her powers. Yet, although she has befriended a Spanish ghost and allied with the Old Spider, she is still stuck at Alcatraz, unable to reach land safely. It is only a matter of time before the Dark Elders send someone else with strong magic to deal with her on a permanent basis. She has to figure out a way to escape The Rock — and soon.

Back in London, Nicholas and the twins accidentally alert Dee, who has been sent an old and dangerous weapon to help him capture Sophie and Josh, to their whereabouts, wreaking havoc on the peaceful life Palamedes, William Shakespeare, and the Gabriel Hounds had eked out for themselves.

How the story unfolds makes for a page-turning tale with a twist at the end so clever it left my head reeling. I can’t wait to read the next installment.

Pages: 502

This is one of the books I read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

There is still plenty of time to book your tickets to come to D.C., where we’ll be hosting the 10th annual National Book Festival on Saturday, Sept. 25.

Authors are still being added, but include Martha Grimes, Jane Smiley, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, Jules Feiffer, and Katherine Paterson.

I can’t wait!

At last! A post!

This week’s Booking through Thursday asks:

What books do you have next to your bed right now? How about other places in the house? What are you reading?

I just finished The Sorceress tonight, so I am shockingly without any book in progress at the moment. I have no idea what I’ll read next — possibly another fantasy story for the Once upon a Time challenge or maybe something nonfiction for the Nonfiction 5 Summer Challenge. Or one of those top kids’ books I’ve missed out on.

Next to my bed are a rather dusty pile of books:

• L. Frank Baum’s Queen Nixi of Ix (a fairy tale finished last week and awaiting a review)
• The Hobbit (read)
• Love, Rosie (put down part-way through over the winter)
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (re-read at Christmas)
• Revisions Of (unread)
• Lloyd Alexander’s The Book of Three (read)
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard (unread)
• The Olive Farm (unread non-fiction)
• A Moveable Feast (unread)

Elsewhere in the house are similar commingled piles of read and unread tomes, waiting for me to sort them out.

How about you? What are you reading?

This list of Top 100 Children’s Books from the School Library Journal offers plenty of inspiration for summer reading. Bolded are the ones I’ve already read:
(more…)

Surprise, surprise, it was not all reading all the time here at the Burrow this weekend.

This morning Rudi and I headed to the market where there were carrots, nettles, asparagus, and ramps to be had, amongst other things. We used every dollar we took with us, down to the last one that I used to buy a single yellow tulip to cheer our kitchen. It looks great atop the fridge nestled next to (but not in the same container as) the asparagus.

We spent midday up in Columbia Heights where Sarah was kind enough to invite us to celebrate her birthday with brunch and some hanging out. Everyone agreed that the food was quite tasty even if our waitress seemed a bit … distracted.

We came back home where I laid down for a teeny before we headed to the garden to dig. We weeded our plot, turned over the soil, envisioned where our square-foot garden sections might go, improved the soil, and planted cabbage babies, which despite sitting in my gardening bag for a week, did not seem to be too worse for the wear.

It’s been a quiet night at home since then with lentils and ice cream (although not together; that would be gross), Chuck and Bones (we’re still a week behind on the latter), and knitting. Shortly, we’ll be taking some ibuprofen (hoeing is hard on the back) and heading to bed.

Seems like a nice way to finish a weekend to me…

What did you get up to this weekend?

A few final thoughts on Saturday’s readathon:

After writing the last book review and leaving a few encouraging comments for fellow participants, I did take my book to bed to try to read there, but decided within minutes that it’s hard to read through closed eyelids. I turned off my book light and went to bed — probably sometime around 4 — and didn’t wake up again until after the 24 hours had concluded.

In the end I completed three books and the first three chapters of a fourth book for a total of 1,072 pages. I probably only read for 12 of the 24 hours, but it did prove that I would not like to read all the time, despite what I always thought as a kid.

I’m definitely feeling it now. Would it be cheating and self-defeating to go read in bed?

Kwaïdan, by Jung and Jee-Yun

From the jacket: “In 12th Century Japan, one sister’s spiteful jealousy begins a complicated web of revenge and redemption that spans two centuries. Ghostly encounters, samurai swordplay, undead armies, beautiful landscapes, and strange demons are brought to life by Jung’s lush, expressive artwork. The lost spirits of two unlucky lovers may still find freedom in the supernatural birth of a strange girl … and her ability to unravel the secrets of the restless ghosts that haunt her, the Kwaïdan.”

My take: I believe this was a gift from a representative of Dark Horse Books who was a fellow vendor at an ALA show several years back — the year we were in Orlando. Bill of Overdue Media introduced me to Thea and when I expressed interest in learning more about manga, she suggested this was a good gateway title.

I’m tired so my review is going to be a bit jerky, but basically this is a Japanese ghost (kwaïdan) story. Two sisters are in love with the same man. The homelier, Akane, scars the pretty one, Orin, with burning oil, who then drowns herself out of what would seem to be preemptive self pity. The guy returns from war, learns she’s dead, and gouges out his eyes on the bank of the lake. The sister, too, eventually ends up at the lake, but we later learn it’s so she can achieve some sort of twisted immortality. Confused yet?

Well, it turns out that after several centuries, Orin is able to temporarily escape the lake and imparts a portion of her soul to an about-to-be-born child, whose mother is then murdered by Akane’s demon army. The baby, Setsuko, is born, but missing a face, a symbol of her fragmented soul. Tormented as a child, the masked girl ends up in a brothel but later leaves to follow a blind artist who is known for perfectly painting the face of a beautiful woman he has never met. The two of them embark on a journey to the lake, where they hope to unravel the mystery of what has brought them together.

There’s an army of demon children. There’s a friendly ghost (named Toshiro, not Casper). There are creepy golem-type creatures that serve Akane and act as Orin’s prisoner.

It was good, but not great. But if you know of someone you’d recommend The Woman Warrior to, this is probably a good companion to that novel.

Pages: 144