ReadingAdventures

Or.....the kind of things that show the way my brain works when it isn't fully occupied!



I took my son and his friend to the drive in tonight....yes, we still have drive ins here, although not many! My son and I enjoy going, although now that we have moved from being about 10 minutes away from it, we don't go as often as we used to, despite the fact that it is much cheaper than going to the cinemas! Anyway, tonight I had the good fortune of kind of seeing TMNT - the current incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! What a load of rubbish!! Fortunately, I don't think that I am really the target demographic for this movie...the 8 year olds loved it.

I have to admit though that I did go prepared not to really like it. I took my MP3 player with me, tuned it into the footy (yay...footy's back!) and was listening to that, but I could both hear and see TMNT. I tried to close my eyes for at least some of it, but it is hard when you are not tired to keep your eyes closed in the face of two lots of loud noise!

Anyway, a sign of how uninspired I was by this movie is the fact that I had sufficient time to analyse how the current version of TMNT has characterised the turtles in such a way as to echo some of the romantic stereotypes for heroes. And then I even came home and thought about it some more.....why? I don't know! So anyway...here's my take:




Leonardo - started the movie in a jungle deep in South America tormented and tortured by the fact that he had failed his brothers = classic tortured hero









Michelangelo - doing kids parties, and generally having a good time = classic nice guy hero







Donatello - electronics specialist/computer geek = classic geek/nerdy hero







Raphael - starts the movie disguised as a lone crusader for justice, trying to ensure the safety of the world without letting anyone know who he really was - dressed in lots of black leather and armour = classic bad guy with a heart of gold!





Too much time to think! Absolutely! Then again, I went to the official website page for this movie, thinking that I would get a picture of each of them to put up - just for fun- only to find that each of the turtles have their own Myspace page! Maybe I am not the only person around with too much thinking time!

I noticed when I was on Amazon UK tonight that the new Thursday Next cover and blurb is now up for the UK version. This is the version that we will most likely get! Can I just say.....I cannot wait to get this!!! It doesn't come out until July though.

Fourteen years after Thursday Next pegged out at Superhoop '88, her Jurisfiction job has been downgraded due to a potential conflict of interest, since her previous adventures are now themselves in print. Thursday's time is spent worrying about her teenage son Friday and tutoring new recruits. This being fiction, however, jeopardy is never far away. Sherlock Holmes is killed at the Rheinbach falls and his series is stopped in its tracks. Before this can be righted, Miss Marple dies in a narratively inexplicable car accident, bringing her series also to a close. Thursday, receiving a death-threat clearly intended for her written self, realises what is going on - there is a serial killer is loose in the Bookworld. Meanwhile, Goliath have perfected a 22-seater Prose Portal Luxury Coach, and plan on taking literary tourists on a holiday to the works of Jane Austen. Thursday alone realises the true intent of Goliath's unwanted incursions into fiction, but she can't fight all these battles on her own. She must team up with the one person she really can't get along with - the written Thursday Next, currently starring in The Great Samuel Pepys Fiasco. But it's no time to be picky...

Reading that blurb makes me want it NOW! Good thing it is already on request at the library and I am no. 1 in the queue!

History takes flight....Naomi Novik's deliciously addictive Black Powder War skilfully layers the history of the Napoleonic War with breathtaking imagination.

After their adventure in China, Capt. Will Laurence of His Majesty's Aerial Corps and his extraordinary flying dragon, Temeraire, gratefully anticipate their voyage home..

But before they set sail, they are waylaid by urgent new orders. The British Government, having purchased three valuable dragon eggs from the Ottoman Empire, now require Laurence and Temeraire to make a more perilous over-land journey instead, stopping off in Istanbul to collect and escort the precious cargo back to England - and time is of the essence if the eggs are to arrive before they hatch.

A cross-continent expedition is a daunting prospect, fraught with countless dangers. The small party must be prepared to navigate frigid mountain passes and cross sterile deserts to evade feral dragons and Napoleon's aggressive infantry. And they will also have to endure an unexpected menace, for a Machiavellian herald precedes them, spreading political poison in her wake.

Lien, the white celestial dragon, absconded from the Chinese Imperial Court shortly after the humiliating death of her beloved princely companion. Fervently believing Temeraire to be the architect of her anguish, she has vowed to ally herself with his greatest enemy in order to exact a full and painful revenge upon everything and everyone the black dragon holds dear.

This is the third book in the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik, following on from Throne of Jade and on the whole it is a pretty good read.

In some way it felt like a book of two parts as opposed to one whole book. The book follows on from the closing events in the previous book, with Laurence, Temeraire and the rest of the crew waiting for the opportunity to start the long journey home to England. After a disastrous fire on board their ship, Laurence receives orders to make his way to Istanbul to pick up two eggs and make their way to England. It will not however be an easy journey, making their way across China and through to Turkey. Along the way they face hardship and feral dragons amongst other things. Their arrival in Istanbul isn't quite as warm as they may would like, and there are several occasions where the clash of cultures is explored to a degree.

After taking desperate action, the journey towards home continues, but unfortunately this means going through Austria, a land where the Prussians are currently experiencing a fight for their very survival against the might of Napoleon. Laurence and Temeraire soon find themselves forced to take part in the Prussians defence, at great risk of danger and death to themselves and their crews.

With the first half of the book concentrating on the journey from China to Turkey, there was, in my opinion, a stark contrast to the events in the second half, which were very political and more strategically based than we have seen before. It was interesting that Novik took the known facts of the Napoleonic War's 1806 offensives and tweaked them just enough to fit the dragons in, whilst still staying true to the main historical points and outcomes.

If anything, I would say that there was a little less humour in this book, although the addition of a new dragon named Iskierka (a very feisty young lady indeed!), there were still plenty of humourous moments to be had in amongst the darker parts of this book. I was, however, relieved to see that there was less evidence of Laurence referring to Temeraire as "darling" in this book. Not that it didn't happen, but just not as regularly and annoyingly as I found this term of endearment in the previous books. Lien once again provides a looming dark presence within the story, and the alliance that she forms, and her subsequent actions were interesting of themselves.

I would say though, that it does appear as though Novik has backed away from some of the themes that she started to introduce regarding the rights of dragons. I will wait to see whether or not this is a theme that she picks up and follows through with in the next book or not.

The fourth book in the series is out in September, and is to be called Empire of Ivory. Can't wait to get to read it!

Rating: 4/5

Other Blogger's Thoughts:

Finding Wonderland

Danielle posted about an article that appeared in one of the Australian newspapers in the last couple of days, about a new school that is opening with no books in the library.

I used to live in the area where this school is and I can tell you that I wouldn't have been best pleased if my child had gone to a school with no library books. Yes, I understand that most of the information that children require is available on the net, but to have no books at all seems completely unbelievable to me! Or maybe, just maybe, it is the way of the future. What do you think?

Read the full article here.

Butch O'Neal is a fighter by nature. A hard living, ex-homicide cop, he's the only human ever to be allowed in the inner circle of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. And he wants to go even deeper into the vampire world to engage in the turf war with the lessers. He's got nothing to lose. His heart belongs to a female vampire, Marissa, an aristocratic beauty who's way out of his league. If he can't have her, then at least he can fight side by side with the Brothers...

When Butch sacrifices himself to save a civilian vampire from the slayers, he falls prey to the darkest force in the war. Left for dead but found by a miracle, the Brotherhood calls on Marissa to bring him back, though even her love may not be enough to save him.

Never let it said that I don't come late to the party! Weeks after everyone else has done their reviews I am finally ready to do mine! There are a couple of factors as to why I am so late. The first is that my book took a week more to get to me than it did to everyone else (or at least that is the way it felt!) and then it took me just under a week to actually pick it up. Then when I did pick it up, I did so on a night when I was really exhausted, and had gone to bed at 8.30pm. I thought that I might just read a couple of chapters...you know...just a few pages. At 1am I put the book down having read 400 pages, and then I finished it the next morning on the train!

Enough on the preliminaries! I will start by saying that I wasn't really a Butch fan before I read this book, and whilst he was fine in this book, there is no way that this book surpasses Lover Awakened for me. The highlights in this book for me were to see what is going to happen with Vishous, to see the development in John Mathew's story, and to see the continued development of Zsadist! So those were the highlights, but I did think Butch was okay. It was interesting considering the bond between Butch and V how they ended up being vital to each other in the bigger scheme of things.

For once, I do think that we saw some development in the female characters, prompted by Marisa. I was particularly glad to see this for her because otherwise her role would have been limited to shallow high society woman, and I love the idea of the women sticking together.

Butch and Marisa seemed to fall in love very hard and very fast, but their chemistry was pretty good. The fact that Butch is human and Marisa not was resolved in a pretty obvious way, although the events that happened to him earlier in the book made me wonder how the author was going to manage to resolve the issues, but she did it well in the end!

I have to say that I didn't notice the language as much this time round as I have in other books in this series, but the proliferation of label names, even in one of the love scenes, seemed to be more full on this time around.

Once again, this was a really hard to put down book, as they all have been, and the story arc that is going throughout the series was definitely developed more this time round.

So...is it too early to start counting down to Vishous' book? The excerpt and all the little titbits that have been said whilst JR Ward has been guest blogging around the place really make me want to read his story NOW!

Rating 4/5

Beneath the glitter of dazzling nineteenth-century London society lurks a bloodthirsty evil...

Vampires have always lived among them, quietly attacking unsuspecting debutantes and dandified lords as well as hackney drivers and Bond Street milliners. If not for the vampire slayers of the Gardella family, these immortal creatures would have long ago taken over the world.

In every generation, a Gardella is called to accept the family legacy of vampire slaying, and this time, Victoria Gardella Grantworth is chosen, on the eve of her debut, to carry the stake. But as she moves between the crush of ballrooms and dangerous, moonlit streets, Victoria's heart is torn between London's most eligible bachelor, the Marquess of Rockley, and her enigmatic ally, Sebastian Vioget. And when she comes face to face with the most powerful vampire in history, Victoria must ultimately make the choice between duty and love.

You may remember a few weeks ago I was off work with my sick son. This book was one that I tried to read while I was off work. What I don't understand is why can't I read when I am not working. When other people go on holidays they say things like "I am going to get through so many books" or "I am just going to read and read", but I just can't seem to get through many books at all when I am not going to work. Very strange.

Colleen did such a great job of raising the profile of this book, and in making sure that it was out there, with even non romance readers reading it and enjoying it. I was so excited about getting this book but maybe because I was feeling sick and tired it wasn't really grabbing my attention. I did enjoy many aspects of the story - the colour coordinating stakes that doubled as stakes were particularly ingenious and a lot of fun! I did like the two mysterious men that are part of the storyline. I am sure that we will get to see a lot more of Max and Sebastian.

Interesting that there were multiple hero possibilities but it wasn't really a romance in my opinion, and I think that that was something that the author was very clear about when talking about this book. There were romantic elements but not exactly a HEA, I think partially because this is planned to be a true series and there is therefore a longer story arc...not just books that are connected by recurring characters.

I'm not sure that I can verbalise what exactly it was that didn't work for me during this read. In a way it felt like I was reading the surface of a really good story, but didn't really get the depth that I would like to read normally. Having said that, I will definitely be getting the next book in the series, Rises the Night, when it comes out in June, so I was sufficiently hooked to want to go on with the series!

I guess this is definitely a case of where my mood has definitely put a dampener on a book that I probably would have enjoyed more had I been feeling better.

Rating: 3.5/5


Other Blogger's Thoughts:

Stephanie - Confessions of a Book-a-holic
Book-A-Rama
Bold Blue Adventure

Dreams to see, find dreams to sell...

Dream Angus comes to you at night and bestows dreams - you may spot him skipping across the hills, his bag of dreams by his side. Just the sight of him may be enough to make you lose your heart , for he is also the god of love, youth and beauty. Divine Angus is adored by all, but fated to love only the beautiful Caer, swan maiden of his own dreams.

Five exquisite fables of modern dreamers unfold alongside Angus's search for Caer. Mesmerically weaving together the fairy tales of the Celtic Eros and his contemporary alter egos, Alexander McCall Smith unites dreams and reality, leaving us to wonder: what is life but the pursuit of our dreams.

This book is part of the Canongate myths series, which is focusing on the retelling of some myths and fables, and features some pretty big names. Some of the books that are part of this series include The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (the story of the Odyssey from Penelope's point of view), Weight by Jeanette Winterson (about Atlas and Hercules), The Helmet of Horror by Victor Pelevin (Theseus and the Minotaur), Lion's Honey by David Grossman (the story of Samson), with more books coming from authors like Donna Tartt and Chinua Achebe. More details can be found here.

Enough about this series, and more on the book! Angus is apparently a big deal in Celtic myths - the god of dreams and love. This story tells the story of Angus' birth to a water nymph who is tricked into making love with a god, and then from his childhood through to his own romantic chase the lovely girl Caer, who is cursed into turning into a swan. Interspersed amongst the stories about Angus, are 5 short stories which feature people whose lives have been touched by Angus in their dreams. Sometimes his influence is subtle, but other times not. The stories themselves are almost fable like - a young lady who falls in love with a man who works in a test laboratory and he refuses to let one of the pigs be killed, a tale of love gone wrong, another of two brothers separated through circumstances.

As I was thinking about what to write about this, I thought that an Alexander McCall Smith, no matter what it is about, is like a glass (or bottle!) of good red wine. It is a smooth read, and it goes down easy, and this book is no exception. It is very short but very well written. I am hoping that I might read more in this series in due course!

Rating: 4/5


Other Blogger's Thoughts:

Valentina's Room

Are the books in the In Death romantic suspense, or more mystery? How would you classify them?

I've labeled them as both, but I am thinking that they really are mystery.

Zoe is an interior designer with a unique sense of style. But even more uncanny is her sense of what's going on under the surface, the secrets a house can hold.

At the moment, though, Zoe is more concerned about what's going on in her own house in Whispering Springs, Arizona, where she lives with her new husband, private investigator Ethan Truax. Thrown together by murder, they've gambled on commitment after a whirlwind courtship, hoping that their powerful attraction can help them learn to live together despite their opposite personalities.

But newlywed life is suddenly interrupted when a shadowy figure from Zoe's past shows up in Whispering Springs, and her closest friend is put at terrible risk. For Zoe and Arcadia Ames share a shocking secret. And as they seek to protect the truth, they must join together, and with Ethan's help, accept a very dangerous dare...

This is the follow up book to Light in Shadow which I read last year, and to be honest my feelings about this book was pretty the same. I know that there are lots of Jayne Ann Krentz fans out there, but the three books that I have read so far have been kind of underwhelming for me! I am not sure if that is because I am not really a romantic suspense reader, although I have read and enjoyed some RS before.

That doesn't mean to say that I didn't enjoy reading this book, because I did. It just means that I am waiting to be completely blown away by one of her books as so many other people have been. Maybe the next one will be the one to do it for me!

Given that this was a sequel a lot of the threads of storyline did flow onto this book. The main focus was once again the relationship between Zoe and Ethan, a relationship very much still at the beginning despite the fact that they had already gotten married in the previous book. Ethan in particular struggles to try and ascertain whether this is a true marriage or if Zoe is going to leave him because it was convenient to get married at the time! His insecurities were nicely written, not only about that, but also about the death of his brother.

In addition to that storyline, there were also threads featuring Ethan's sister in law Bonnie and the bookstore owner/internet expert Singleton, as well as Zoe's friend Arcadia and Harry. The friendships and relationships angles were well done, but I didn't feel as though the suspense angles were that great in this book.

Overall, a pleasant read...and next time I am actually going to read one of the books that I was told to read in the first place, and see how I go with that!


Rating 3.5/5

The girls from Dear Author have started a forum for romance readers!

So if you want a place to chat about romance and other stuff, check it out! Not that I need another group to check in all the time....but I've signed up already, along with quite a few others! LOL!

As with previous In Death books, Kailana from The Written World and I have done a joint review for this book. Kailana's thoughts are in red, and mine in black.

With the precision of a surgeon, a serial killer preys on the most vulnerable souls of the world's city streets. The first victim: a sidewalk sleeper, found dead in New York City. No bruises, no signs of struggle. Just a laser-perfect, fist-sized hole where his heart had once been. Lieutenant Eve Dallas is assigned to investigate. But in the heat of a cat-and-mouse game with the killer, Dallas's job is suddenly on the line. Now her hands are tied...between a struggle for justice - and a fight for her career.

Conspiracy in Death is following on from Midnight in Death if you read the short stories, or Holiday in Death if you do not. (Click on the titles for links to the earlier reviews!) It is still the winter months, as snow is mentioned several times through the course of the book, there is even one scene where Dallas and Roarke make snow people! Very cute little scene. Anyways, so a few weeks have passed since the last time Eve found herself in trouble, and she is on the move again.

This is the story of a very unusual case for Dallas. She responds to the death of a street sleeper, not exactly the high profile case that Eve normally finds herself on, but this is Eve and she speaks for the dead. She is determined to put this murderer to rest, and when other similar cases start popping up, she finds that she has a lot of dead to speak for. Only she did not bargain with the power of the murderer, he knows how to push the right buttons and take away the thing that Eve needs most.

Another In Death story...another great read.

For me the most interesting part of this novel was the effect on Eve when there was a chance that she could no longer be a police officer. It was very emotional to read this strong woman basically falling apart as the thing that she thinks makes her who she is taken away from her. There have been times in the earlier novels where we have seen Eve's feelings hurt, but this time it was more than that, it was a complete collapse that Roarke had to try and fight both for her and with her. This book is a growing book for Eve. She had a troubled childhood, and being a cop is the way that she has rose above her past. To Eve, her badge is who she is. If Roarke was not also a part of her life, it would be hard to see her surviving this aspect of her life, but Roarke knows the buttons to push to get her back up kicking butt.

I think it was interesting that the author chose to use Eve's professionalism as a police officer against her in this novel, especially in relation to the inept policewoman who makes the allegations against Eve. I have to admit that when a young policeman called Troy Trueheart entered the story, I actually thought that he was going to be a murder victim, but in the end it didn't happen! I guess it doesn't mean to say that he won't make appearances in future books! Troy Trueheart is a pretty funny name to include, but it offered a laugh. It was interesting for this book to show attacks on Eve's methods because she has been on the job something like eleven years, and this is the first time anything has ever happened to mark her record. It is hard when you reach the top and people resent you for it. I think Eve wrestled with a lot through this book.

This was very much an interesting book to read. In the other books, Eve might have her problems, but she is always at the top. In this book, she finds herself a very different one, and we see her grow as a person. It is impressive to see just how close she has come to the people that she works and interacts with after spending so much of her life alone and fighting to survive. This book is a typical Eve Dallas book, but at the same time, it more sentimental and inspiring than previous ones.

I look forward to reading the next one. Me too!

Rating: 4/5
Rating: 4.5/5

Not only is the Orange long list out today, also out this week was the long list for the Miles Franklin Award, which is the most prestigious Australian literary award.

The long list for the Orange award is as following:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun
Clare Allan - Poppy Shakespeare
Rachel Cusk - Arlington Park
Kiran Desai - The Inheritance of Loss
Patricia Ferguson - Peripheral Vision
Margaret Forster - Over
Nell Freudenberger - The Dissident
Rebecca Gowers - When to Walk
Xiaolu Guo - A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
Jane Harris - The Observations
M J Hyland - Carry Me Down
Lori Lansens - The Girls
Lisa Moore - Alligator
Catherine O'Flynn - What Was Lost
Stef Penney - The Tenderness of Wolves
Deborah Robertson - Careless
Rachel Seiffert - Afterwards
Jane Smiley - Ten Days in the Hills
Anne Tyler - Digging to America
Melanie Wallace - The Housekeeper

The only one of those I have read is The Tenderness of Wolves, although there are several others on the list that I have been wanting to read for a while!

The long list for the Miles Franklin is as below:

Beyond the Break by Sandra Hall
Careless by Deborah Robertson
Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
Dreams of Speaking by Gail Jones
Silent Parts by John Charalambous
Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey
The Unexpected Elements of Love by Kate Legge
The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan



I have actually only heard of a couple of those. Interestingly enough, last year all of the shortlisted books were Historical Fiction. This year, I don't think any of these books are HF!

The plan is to read the shortlists of some of these awards as the year goes on! We will see how we go.

A woman of unexpected passion

England 1663: The sexual games at the Restoration Court of King Charles have turned Marcus, Viscount Marlbrooke, into a cynic. While he doesn't believe that love lies within matrimony, he does need to secure his claim to Winteringham Priory.

Marriage to the spirited Puritan Katherine Harley is the key and, given his unexpected response to her, perhaps their marriage needn't be as bleak as he fears. Because, beneath her solemn exterior, he senses a bride of surprising passion.

When I realised that this book was set during the reign of Charles II (the Restoration) I was quite pleased. After all it was an unusual time setting. On reading the book, that was not the only element. There was also, witchcraft, ghosts, echoes of the wars of the mid 1600s, family betrayals, a duel just as the highlights!.

The hero, Marcus, Viscount Marlbrooke is anxious to marry Katherine Harley to secure his ownership of Winteringham Priory. Originally the priory was the home of the Harleys, until they fought on the wrong side of the the Civil War and had their land taken off of them. The land was given to Marcus' family, and due to his friendship with Charles II he has been allowed to keep it when Charles is instated to the thrown. The only thing left to do is to get permanent ownership transferred to him, and the only thing that can stop that is if the true heir to Winteringham Priory makes a claim. Given that the will of Katherine's father, advising who the true heir is, has never been found, and is rumoured to have been hidden within the Priory itself, the race is on between several possible heirs to find the will and to state their claim.

To complicate matters, Katherine believes herself to be in love with her cousin Richard, and yet she is basically given no option by her uncle but to marry Marcus when he offers for her. She is fleeing to her strange aunt's home to try and get some answers when she has an accident and as a result has amnesia. Marcus is the one who finds her, and not recognising her as his fiancee, takes her into his home, christens her Viola, and she gets to know both Marcus, his mother and her grumpy maid, becoming an integral part of the family. Once her true identity is revealed then things become a little more complicated.

The fact that Kate is a Puritan really forms no real part of the plot, other than to explain why she was overwhelmed by the glamour of the Restoration court when they visited London. Of course, the fact that she was a Puritan was one of the things that she could not remember when suffering from amnesia! The occasional question about is it wrong to be enjoying this or to feel pleasure is about the strength of the puritan part.

The fact that the heroine had two names during the novel became quite annoying after a while. When she had amnesia, they decided to call Katherine Viola. Once she knew who she was again then they would sometimes still call her Viola and sometimes Kate. The other thing that I actually didn't like was when Marcus called her little one....it's one endearment that I find really difficult to deal with between two adults. Yes, she was supposed to be extremely petite and he well built, but please don't call her little one. Totally squicky!

Other than that, I did like Marcus. He had a fairly strong sense of honour. I did feel as though maybe he fell too hard, too quickly for Viola, but I guess he's not the only romance hero ever to have been guilty of that! There was one moment between Marcus and Katherine/Viola where I wondered how far the author was going to take things but that possible confrontation was stepped back from before it went too far.

In the end I would classify this as an okay read. It didn't help that the book was overlong, and there were probably too many plot lines that the author was trying to resolve quite quickly at the end, adding unnecessary drama in my opinion.

This was actually the other book that was in the Quills book along with The Reputable Rake by Dianne Gaston.

Rating 3/5

The lovely ladies over at Twisted Kingdom are relaunching the blog, and to celebrate they are having a couple of competitions.

The first couldn't be easier....just help spread the word of the relaunch on your blog and you could win a book.

The second gives people the opportunity to be a guest reviewer over there! Be sure to go on over to Twisted Kingdom and have a look!

With a novelist's grace and a historian's power, critically acclaimed author Manda Scott brings her immense storytelling gifts to an epic work of historical fiction. Dreaming the Eagle breathes life into history, creating a vibrant portrait of the early years of the Celtic queen, Boudica. With haunting images and unforgettable characters, Scott draws us into a completely different world...a world of myth and heroism, beauty and brutality...where a young woman journeys to greatness at the crossroads of history...

She is Breaca nic Graine, born to the Eceni, a tribe of dreamers and hunters, s