Books

Book 49: The Warlock – Michael Scott

The Warlock - Michael Scott[For an updated response from when I re-read the book in 2016, click here.]

The Warlock is the fifth book (plus a short story) in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicolas Flamel series, and what a series it is. I thought I reviewed at least two of the books earlier in the series, but I’m now assuming my logic was that I would want to re-read them prior to each new novel’s release (and I should have).

It took a few chapters before I remembered enough details from the previous four novels to figure out what was happening, but I quickly jumped back in to the historical characters alive and still meddling in the affairs of the world.

Although the series is about Nicholas Flamel, it actually centers around Sophie and Josh a set of legendary twins who in the first book are awakened a world of Immortals, like Niccolo Machiavelli, Billy the Kid, Virginia Dare, Shakespeare and Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel, Next Generation and the Gods and Goddesses (I think there is another name but I can’t remember them) of Danu Talis.

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Books

Book 48: The Secret Fruit of Peter Paddington – Brian Francis

The Secret Fruit of Peter Paddington - Brian FrancisWhen I picked up this novel the back cover read as follows, “Peter Paddington is your typical thirteen-year-old paperboy with a few exceptions. He’s 204 pounds, at the mercy of an overactive imagination, and his only friend is a trash-talking beauty queen reject from across the street. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Peter’s nipples pop out one day and begin speaking to him threatening to expose his private fantasies to an unkind world.”

So of course I had to purchase it and at only $2.99 it was a bargain.

Overall I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to find a copy, but if you stumble across it and it’s cheap you might enjoy reading it. It was a fun book to read, especially if you’re a ‘fat kid’ questioning your sexuality, or once were. And although my imagination is nowhere near as overactive as Peter’s and my nipples never talked to me, I couldn’t help but identify with Peter’s struggles and triumphs.

Click here to read the review…

Books

Book 46: Hero – Perry Moore

Let’s just say that any book that assumes superpowers are commonplace in society is already off to a good start. As usual I’m not sure when I added this book to my list of books to read, but I know I added it because Hero is a conglomeration of the various types of books I like to read—Young Adult, LGBT, Super Heroes, Coming of Age and Coming Out.

Hero is the story of Thom Creed a high school basketball star who volunteers in the community. Thom is a closeted gay teen who just happens to have superpowers. So while other kids think about prom dates, acne and school work, Thom has greater issues (seemingly) such as the fear of people discovering his (non hetero-) sexuality, his father discovering his superpowers and the strange things that happen around him.

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Books

Book 41: Room – Emma Donoghue

Room - Emma DonoghueI finished reading Room in three days. Now that might not sound like much of a feat, but it was actually closer to 48 hours (which if you know me still isn’t much of a feat, but with a full-time job and a million other things to do, it sounds like a challenge). After hearing Emma Donoghue read a portion of the first chapter (Oh Hey, Big City…), I of course had to start reading immediately. Her reading was perfect and the Irish tilt of her American accent gave voice to the characters in my head as I was reading.

From the various Booker Prize winning novels I must say that I feel those that make the shortlist and those that ultimately win are distinctly different. For me it is much easier to read the shortlist novels and they are almost always invariably more enjoyable. The one exception so far is Margaret Atwood’s Blind Assassin (Book 27: The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood), but perhaps that is because I thoroughly enjoyed the uniqueness of the three distinct stories weaving into one.

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Books

Book 37: The Atlantis Complex (Artemis Fowl, Book 7) – Eoin Colfer

So this is the most recent book in the Artemis Fowl series and I have to say it was a bit of a let down. Colfer does once again show off his mastery of random knowledge and creativity with the genius world of Artemis Fowl, but overall the book seemed rushed and somewhat tangential to the other novels. As I haven’t read the graphic novels or the additional material I’m not sure if that covers a lot of what I feel is missing, but it is still a bit of a random book.

The novel starts off with Artemis meeting Foaly (which yes I’ve misspelled in every other post), Holly, and Commander Vinyaya in a remote region of Greenland to show them his newest invention in an attempt to stave off the melting of the polar ice caps, the Ice Cube. Similarly based off Faerie technology and his own genius which produces micro mirrors and has the sun reflected back into the sky and they’re designed to look like snowflakes.

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