Tag: Books

Book Review: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Reviews2 Comments

I don’t usually pick up the latest sensation in books, but I couldn’t resist Go Set a Watchman, the new manuscript from Harper Lee. Especially after The New York Times ran a good half-dozen articles about it! I love To Kill a Mockingbird (though I admit it’s been several years since I read it) and after all the hoopla and mystery around this one, I was pretty curious. And in the end…I have to highly recommend To Kill a Mockingbird.

Go Set a Watchman tells the story of Jean-Louise Finch, twenty-six and visiting her hometown of Maycomb, Alabama after living in New York. In between childhood reminiscences, she discovers a disturbing trend towards racism in her childhood friend and boyfriend Hank (also called Henry), and even more alarmingly, in her sainted father Atticus.

That’s a really bad plot description—but to be honest, it’s not much of a plot. For a good quarter of the book I had no idea where this was going (I mean, apart from what I’d read in those NY Times articles), and once it gets into the meat of things, it’s largely Jean-Louise freaking out…only to never really come to a meaningful resolution on the primary issues. Continue reading “Book Review: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee” →

Book Review: The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult1 Comment

After reading the Roman-set Mark of the Thief, I was happy to turn to another Roman-inspired book…and one I had more confidence in!  The Mark of Athena is Book 3 in Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series, modern demigods who have to save the world from monsters and villainous gods.  I enjoyed and reviewed the first two books (The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune) and was happy to find the third book equally satisfying.  Some spoilers to follow for the first two books…

This third book opens with the Percy/Annabeth reunion I felt cheated of in Book 2, so that was a good way to begin the story!  The Greek and Roman heroes of the first two books are finally united here, to set off in their flying ship, the Argo II, towards the ancient lands of Rome and Greece.  This will be the battleground to try to stop the waking of Gaea, a very unmotherly Mother Earth who wants to destroy humanity.  Obstacles come thick and fast, from tensions within the group and from monsters at every turn. Continue reading “Book Review: The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus)” →

Book Review: Mark of the Thief

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Juvenile, ReviewsLeave a comment

I loved Jennifer Nielson’s False Prince (and liked its two sequels reasonably well), so I really wanted to love Mark of the Thief.  And from that, you already know it didn’t go all that well, right?  There were a lot of good things in here–but somehow I could never quite get into this book.

The story is centered on Nic, a slave in a Roman mine a few centuries after Julius Caesar.  Nic is sent into a secret chamber deep in the ground to seek Caesar’s bulla, a kind of amulet.  Not unlike Aladdin, Nic manages to take possession of the bulla himself, and finds that it grants powerful but unpredictable magic.  Soon Nic has a price on his head, with powerful Romans from the Emperor down chasing him, and the fate of the Roman Empire at stake.

Ancient Rome is an era I enjoy, and I like the concept of a scrappy, defiant slave seizing power and freedom.  There’s lots of conspiracy and mystery in here, with neither Nic nor the reader always sure who can be trusted.  We also get a cool griffin, a tough girl Nic gradually builds a relationship with, and plenty of displays of magic.  Because also, magic in ancient Rome?  Very cool.

So.  Where did I run into a problem?  It never quite felt like ancient Rome.  Continue reading “Book Review: Mark of the Thief” →

Blog Hop: Bookmarks

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop3 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Do you use bookmarks? If so, do you match them to the book you’re reading or do you use random scraps of paper?

I have a bookmark collection, and have been mostly using the same ones for ten years or so.  They’re all home-made, and I remade some just a  few months ago because they were getting rather tattered around the corners.

My bookmark collection, essentially, reflects some of my very favorite characters…

Bookmarks (1)Mostly, it’s the characters I wrote stories about in my fanfiction days–and so they continue to live in my head (and the books I read) in a way that other much beloved characters do not.  The exception to that rule is the Doctor Who bookmark, which I created new when I was refurbishing the others.  That’s also my only two-sided bookmark…

Bookmarks (3)When I’m thinking about it, I like to match characters to the book I’m reading (a couple of recent reads involving Rome were definite Kirk books, for instance, while Peter Pan usually lands in the kids books).  But I don’t always think about it, and end up using the same one for weeks!

Do you have favorite bookmarks you like to use?  Any particular habits around them?

Blog Hop: Hearing a Story

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop5 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Do you listen to audiobooks?

I do!  I only started in the last few years, which I largely account to reading other bloggers’ accounts of listening to audiobooks.  I also started a new job a few months ago with a longer commute, so I get more audiobook time in.  I only listen to audiobooks in the car, and out of respect for the fact that I am, after all, driving, I tend to listen to rereads rather than new books.  And preferably ones that won’t be too suspenseful.

Though I also have a habit of listening to Agatha Christie novels, which are both new to me and suspenseful so…I can’t explain that. Continue reading “Blog Hop: Hearing a Story” →