Jacksprat Gets Lost in Fiction

Review of Powder Mage: Promise of Blood By: Brian McClellan             In this first book, the people have broken free of their oppressors the Privileged upper class. Their leader Tamas struggles with the aftermath as he tries to figure out how to protect the people from being taken over by another king.  His son Taniel doesn’t like how he goes about things and thinks his father is cold hearted.  Taniel must protect the city from the Kez and finds himself in a battle with them on a mountain.  Tamas has assassins trying to kill spies amongst his own people, and a Godly chef.             First of all, the city setting is cool and different from the fantasy I usually read.  There is a sense of isolation and a weird feeling of coziness despite the conflict Tamas and Taniel find themselves in. The conflict is also put on a smaller sc...

Review of Six Crimson Cranes By: Elizabeth Lim             I didn’t realize this wasn’t my first Elizabeth Lim when I started this.  I had read “So, This is Love”, her Cinderella Twisted Tale.  This is a retelling of the Six Swans fairytale, but with Asian inspiration.  Princess Shiori is the seventh child of the King of Kiata and she has forbidden magic.  When she spies on her stepmother, her six brothers are turned into cranes and Shiori must not speak or her brother’s will die.  While in hiding and trying to find a way to save her brothers, she meets her betrothed, whom she refused to marry, and is now finding herself actually liking more than she expected.               This isn’t my first retelling of the fairytale as my first was “Daughter of the Forest” by Juliet Marillier.  This one doesn’t g...

This is what happens every year, I get excited about Challenges and Readathons, and planning for them, but then I see all the options.  I want to read them all, but I know I cannot because I'm not that fast of a reader. I always tell myself I shouldn't plan too far ahead, because I feel overwhelmed, but habits are hard to break.  This time I want to break it, but it won't be easy.  I still am setting guidelines Priority Genres I Don't Read Non-Fiction Science Fiction Horror Historical I will still read plenty of fantasy and classics, but there are other genres and categories I want focus on as well. Bi-Monthly Wrap-Ups instead of Monthly wrap-ups to take off pressure on finishing a bunch of books in four weeks.  I have 500+ books I want to read within the year and the pressure to get books done in the month stops me from choosing to read those books.   I started the year with horror book Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky and I'm currently reading non-fiction S...

NOS4A2 By: Joe Hill Victoria McQueen has a gift, she can find lost things with help from her bike and a magic bridge.  Unfortunately, she finds herself in the hands of another gifted person, Charles Talent Manx.  He has a magic antique car that takes him to the magical world of Christmasland, but this isn’t a nice place.  He takes children that he feels are treated badly by their parents to Christmasland while draining them of their life force turning them into malicious but “happy” children.  Vic was the one who got away and ten years later Manx wants revenge….             Joe Hill, like his famous father Stephen King, knows how to craft a story that manages to be creepy and whimsical at the same time.  The writing is similar to his dad’s and he makes references to elements of his dad’s books like the True Knot. It’s straight forward and not flowery.  It is not a fast...

Review of The Drawing of Three By: Stephen King             If “The Gunslinger” is the prologue, then “The Drawing of Three” is when the real story begins.  Roland wakes up on a beach right after his encounter with The Man in Black.  He must find the 3 doors and the 3 beings, The Prisoner, The Lady of Shadows, the Pusher/Death.  First, he comes to New York City in the 80s (I think) and meets junkie Eddie Dean.  The second door leads to the 50s (again, I think) where he meets Susannah a wheel chair bound black woman who has a dual personality.  The trio travels together on this beach in search of the third door with one of Susannah’s personalities fighting them the whole way.             If you know anything about Stephen King then you can guess that Eddie Dean probably has a bit in common with the author.  He ...

Review of Mr. Timothy A Novel written by Louis Bayard             Most are familiar with the classic Christmas tale written by Charles Dickens; whether you’ve actually read it or you have seen one of the many adaptations you probably know the story.  There is even a movie that tells a fictionalized version of how “A Christmas Carol” came about.  Tiny Tim is a secondary character at the heart of the story.  He is the crippled son of Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s underpaid clerk, and the boy is a saintly as an angel.  He says things like, and I’m paraphrasing, “I hope people will see me so they’ll be reminded of how God heals the sick”.  Of course, we have the famous ending line “God Bless us, everyone”, but this novel debunks that.  Dickens was known for writing angelic children if they were a main character, and I imagine back then it was not as big of a deal, but by today’s...

·        Middlemarch by George Eliot ·        Skyward by Brandon Sanderson ·        The Odyssey by Homer ·        Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor ·        Howard’s End by EM Forester   Favorite(s) Middlemarch by George Eliot The Odyssey by Homer Strange the Dream by Laini Taylor I'm continuing with my classics with Middlemarch, The Odyssey, and Howard's End.  Finishing MM and The Odyssey was a relief since it has taken a while with both.  Strange the Dreamer is another one that I started reading a while ago but didn't finish either.  It was a good reading month. August Current Reads The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton Moby Dick, or the Whale by Herman Melville I'm also going to read Firestarter by Stephen King, H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald, and Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates.