"Leviathan" Book Review

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Prince Aleksander, would-be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battletorn war machine and a loyal crew of men.

"Deryn Sharp is a commoner, disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.

"With World War I brewing, Alek and Deryn's paths cross in the most unexpected way…taking them on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure that will change both their lives forever."

Excellent book! I'm loving this series! I can't wait to get my mitts on the second book!

Usually I don't like steampunk stories - usually they rely way too much on mechanics that I cannot see to tell the story and it becomes dry just reading description after description. But this one is good and fully realized.

I am so sympathetic to Alek and Deryn is so awesome! I love this history and how it was set up for the Great War. After reading the book, even though I know this is fiction, it's hard to think the Germans and Serbs weren't just itching for a war and those two people had to be killed to start it. I wondered how the disproved that theory.

The technical machines were things I had already read and seen, so that was interesting but also kind of old hat. But the animal fabricated things were fascinating. Probably only something you would see in straight up science fiction, steampunk not quite being science fiction or historical fiction. (I don't really read science fiction, so I'm assuming here.)

I also love the artwork - it is brilliant and beautiful and exciting. And to be honest even with Mr. Westerfeld's excellent descriptions I had trouble picturing everything - so technical and weird - so that helped a lot.

I'm enjoying this immensely. I might even read Mr. Westerfeld's other books. I would compare this to the "Peter Pan and the Starcatchers" series in terms of how good it is and I loved that series.

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I give this book 5 out of 5 books.

"Alice in Wonderland and Other Stories" Book Review

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Other Stories by Lewis Carroll

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Everything that Lewis Carroll ever published in book form appears in this volume. In addition, at least ten of the shorter pieces have never appeared in print except in their original editions. Included are: "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" "Through the Looking-Glass" "Sylvie and Bruno" "Sylvie and Bruno Concluded" "The Hunting of the Snark" & all of the poetry, essays, phantasmagoria along with a substantial collection of the miscellaneous writings.

"'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Other Stories' is part of Barnes & Noble's series of quality leatherbound volumes. Each title in the series presents a classic work in an attractively designed edition bound in genuine bonded leather, with beautiful illustrations and breathtaking endpapers. These books make elegant additions to any home library."

It's a strange thing, these stories. "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There" are the more popular of Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's, better known as Lewis Carroll, writings.

They're definitely written for children but I do not think children of this day and age would enjoy it as much. There's a lot of mention of poetry and song and verse that only a child from 18th century England would get. But it's very fun either way. Probably best to read the stories to the children and act it out. It's meant to be fun, not as a commentary or anything.

A lot of people don't understand this author's work and I think it can be best explained like this: say you're with a group of children and you've asked them to help you come up with a story. Just a silly story where anything can happen. So you come up with a character to follow which the children name. And then you come with a place where he or she can be going and they want the character to ride a tyrannosaurus rex into a river of melted chocolate and then the t-rex becomes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because she's hungry. And then she becomes the Queen of Ice Cream and Marshmallow Land! That's kind of what's going on with these stories. They're utter nonsense and fun and it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that Mr. Dodgson wrote Alice word for word on a boring afternoon with the help of some children he knew.

The "Sylvie and Bruno" stories are a bit like the "Alice" stories, but the main difference is the narrator. I think he's either dying really slowly (he mentions he has a heart problem at the beginning of the story) or he has narcolepsy. Because he is constantly going to fairyland with Sylvie and Bruno or he's in the present with his mopey doctor friend who can't get the girl of his dreams. It's hard to follow at first but now it's just sort of weird. But I still found those stories interesting for all of their oddities.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get myself to read anymore. It just became too much. Maybe I will finish it another day.

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"The Hunger Games" Book Review

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book! It is as good as the excitement surrounding it has led me to expect it to be. I really wish I had the other two books; this was such a fast and amazing book and i can't wait to read the others. I was hoping to have it finished by the time the movie premiered, but I shouldn't have worried. I can't wait until i get the next book and see the movie! "May the odds be ever in your favor."


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"The Complete Sherlock Holmes Vol. 1" Book Review

The Complete Sherlock Holmes 1 by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume I, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:

• New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars
• Biographies of the authors
• Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
• Footnotes and endnotes
• Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
• Comments by other famous authors
• Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations
• Bibliographies for further reading
• Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

"All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works."
Excellent stories and excellent characters! Why have I not read these before?! They should be a part of some high school or literature course somewhere. Americans really should take more British authors seriously. There are only so many plays of Shakespeare and so many novels of Jane Austen to choke over. I find the title kind of funny though: "The Complete Sherlock Holmes: Volume 1". I would hate to see the size of the book that contained both volumes.


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Book Review: "Slide"

"Slide" by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr

I didn't actually finish the book. I have a rule of thumb: if I can't get past the 50th page of a book, generally, that means I didn't enjoy it. I got halfway through, which is better than most - I have been known to stop on the first page of a story simply because I got bored, so it was okay and I do know enough of the plot to talk about it.

This is the second in a series of books penned by these two particular authors. I didn't read the first one, called "Bust" for those of you interested. I simply picked up the book because I liked the cover. It's published by Hard Case Crime novels and I thought, "Oh, a detective story and it's short (221 pages), that's good enough for me".

So, if it was short and I had gotten halfway through why did I stop? It saddens me that I have to follow that guestion with the most lame of excuses: I just couldn't get into it and it wasn't my type of story. It wasn't that there was something wrong with it, or writing was bad or anything. It was fast-paced and about interesting, if unscrupulous, people.

Well, here's the plot up until I got disinterested: there's a man named Mac who has recently moved to an uninteresting and boring motel which is in complete contrast to where he had been living: New York city. The reason for his departure is he lost all of his money and I think somebody or somebodies were after him to kill him for not paying his due or to arrest him for being a very bad boy. But, luckily for him, he's made a friend of an adolescent youth who works at the motel and just happens to know a man who sells the best weed Mac has ever smoked. So now he sells weed to make some quick cash to get back on his feet.

The second character of this book is a beautiful, redheaded bombshell, named Angela, who happens to be a part of the reason for Mac's misery as she had been the one to sell him out. she's one of those people who would like to get through life sipping champagne on a yacht without having to work for it. While having the looks to pull this off, she seems to have an unfortunate streak of bad luck following her: she just can't find the right man. To get out of a bad situation she's moved back to her native Ireland where she doesn't quite belong anymore as her accent has changed considerably while living in America. After running out of money for a room, she takes to the streets looking for someone who will keep her for a while.

There she finds the third lead character of the story, a serial killer nicknamed Slide because of his excessive use of the phrase, "This time I'll let you slide" just before he kills someone. He's the oddest character in this book in that he's obvious;y dangerous and has no moral center ( he killed his sister because she made fun of his hair or something) but he is so lame and says very odd things which provides some more dark humor for the book. He's described as a poor man's version of Bono which is pretty apt as he wears the same shades and clothes that the lead singer of U2 would also wear. Though at first he only wanted Angela for a victim, he falls for her charms and even kills a desk clerk who was rude to her. This is followed by a scene in which they're having vigorous sex and he takes out the clerk's lips and rubs them on her without her ever realizing it. Then he says, "Loose lips sink ships" before throwing them away. Then he makes her an accomplice to help him kidnap one of the Rolling Stones.

And that's as far as I got.

This book has been compared to Quentin Tarantino movies, and I would say the same, but I think I prefer to watch Tarantino films than read something like them. It is an enticing read for those of you who like fast-paced action stories about despicable people.