The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

Whew. I finished this at the physio yesterday. I've figured it out, the physio is part of the reason I've been devouring book...I spend an hour 2-3 times a week lying on her table with the acupuncture needles or vibrating cup things or heat on my leg and that gives me a nice quite hour to read. No kid. No phone. No husband. No chores. No distractions. I also spend about 30 minutes each session on the bike and elliptical, so there's that too...

Anyway.

The Magician mostly takes place in Paris and introduces some new characters like Machiavelli and Joan of Arc. Seriously. It also provides more information on Nicholas Flamel's background and I'm beginning to wonder about him...

I've mentioned my obsession with London and how I always feel homesick when I read a book about it over there, but I also have this thing for Paris. I always wanted to go to Paris and for a while I thought I wanted to live there. And then I visited Paris and I didn't like it. And then I visited it again and I figured it would be fabulous the second time, but I didn't like it. But you know what, I visited it again and I still didn't like it.

But I still want to go back...especially after reading books about Paris (like this one) so I'm now in "Let's visit Paris" mode.

I'm still enjoying this series - I love all of the characters - the traditional mythology ones and the quirky others (Hi there Joan)...I am planning to do some background reading once my library book pile is substantially reduced.

Clockwork Prince

Ahhh...I've been waiting for this book for ages...and it came out last fall, but the waiting list was huge! I had to get it back right away too as there are something like 200+ people waiting for it after me!

Where do I start?

I really should have reread, or at least skimmed, Clockwork Angel before I started Clockwork Prince. I read it so long ago that I had trouble recalling some of the basics of the plot...I feel like this is a series (along with the Mortal Instruments) that will one day find it has a home on my bookshelves...

Will and Jem. Tessa. Jessamine and Sophie. The Fairchilds. The Herondales. Mortmain. Vampires. Shadowhunters. Downworlders. The Clave. The Institute. The Silent Brothers. I don't even know where to start.

I think I might actually like the Infernal Devices more than the Mortal Instruments, but that may just be my London obsession showing...

I like Tessa and she reminds me of Clarry - both in her innocence of a world she is part of but didn't grow up in and her overall being. I still haven't figured out WHAT she is (but that's probably the point!) or why she was in the City of Glass...

This booked was fast paced and not without some interesting twists and turns. I finished it much faster than I thought I would, which might be why I feel like I need to reread parts of it.

I'm torn between Will and Jem and I'm not sure if Tessa made the right decision...And I'm still mad about the last few pages of City of Fallen Angels. I'm itching for the next Cassandra Clare book - City Of Lost Souls is out in May.

Has anyone read any Cassandra Clare? What do you think about Will and Jem? And (totally about a different book) what do you think of the last scene in City of Fallen Angels?

The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

I have had this book waiting in the wings for so long...and I had to finish it last night because the library wants it back today. I can't wait to start the second book, but before I do that I have another book that the library wants back on Tuesday that I have to finish first. Because I know I won't be able to renew it because there were something like 200 people on the waitlist after me. But more about that book in a few days.

The Alchemyst was book number nine in February. I got off to a slow start to the month - only two books in the first seventeen days, but I made up for it with seven books in the last twelve days. I don't think that's a sustainable number for me, but whatever, this month it happened. I happened to have a four day holiday that involved a plane ride and two sick days in the last part of the month, so that likely helped me out.

I had seen the various books in this series floating around the library for a few months and finally was able to grab the first three a few weeks ago. And then, after I had them, the series was highly recommended by a couple of friends, so I figured I had chosen some winners.

This book was great - I love how modern times and mythologies of multiple cultures are interwoven. I love the characters. I do not love how these books have made me acutely aware that I have little knowledge of most mythology...but I can easily remedy that! I keep looking characters up on the internet, just like Josh.

Once I'm done this series I think I need a break from the YA Fantasy genre...Ancient mythologies might be a good choice...we'll see...

Little Blog on the Prairie

Okay, let's be honest. I picked this book up from the children's section of our library while I waited for J to choose her books a few weeks ago. I didn't expect much of it and I only picked it because, well, I'm most certainly, without a doubt, a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. No question about that one! When I was in grade three, I went through a phase where I would only wear a dress because Laura and Mary wore dresses and did farm work, so I could wear dresses and be in grade three. Oh and did I mention that I was a tom boy? My mom tells me I'm the only person she knows who could grass stain the knees of a dress.

So this book, Little Blog on the Prairie, well, Gen's mom decides that a great, bonding family vacation would be to head to the farm for six (or so?) weeks as a family and live in 1890 in a one room cabin. Except that they don't usually spend time together. And her dad is connected to a Blackberry all the time. And none of them have ever done anything remarkably farm related.

So they go, they give up their modern conveniences and everyone is miserable. At first. But then Gen develops a crush and starts sending text messages (on a cell phone she's smuggled in) to her best friends who turn them into a blog.

And then everything goes nuts. There's a television crew and a disaster and a few heated arguments.

It was cute. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would and would certainly recommend it to the 11-14 year old crowd. I'm not sure that J will appreciate it when she's that age though...the technology will have all changed by then!

Oh, and if you'd like to read Gen's blog, it's here and it looks just like she described it in the book!

Under A War-Torn Sky

As I've mentioned before, I inherited a bizarre love of World War II from my mom - not just novels, but history too - so this story about Will, an American pilot, and his journey through occupied France after being shot down by a German plane grabbed my attention and held on. And I've just discovered there is a second book - A Troubled Peace - that I'm trying to track down in the library system.

The story of Will's journey through France and all of the people who helped (and some who hindered) his quest for freedom reminded me of how lucky we are to live in a time of relative peace. At least in North America.

The book also reminded me of a book I read when I was a kid - it was a banned book I think because it told a sympathetic story of a family on the wrong side of the war. I'm trying to track it down, but I can't remember many of the details...

Anyway, Will relies on the generosity and discretion of the people he encounters in the French countryside to find his way back to Allied troops so that he can go home - he meets a variety of resistance workers - the farming family who's young boy is Will's caretaker, Claudette, a feisty young girl who wants to be more involved than her boyfriend will allow and various groups of maquis of assorted political persuasions, but all with the common goal of liberating France from the Germans and the puppet Vichy government.

I'm on a hunt for good non-fiction about the French resistance now, so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

A Red Herring Without Mustard

I LOVE Flavia de Luce. I love these books and I can't wait to read the fourth one (my pile of library books in getting smaller and I'm now tackling them by due date...which means I have to wait a bit to read it). This time Flavia gets herself mixed up in a bloody murder, a brutal beating and a counterfeit antique business...and of course she solves most of the crimes. In this book more than in the first two, I really felt bad for Flavia - she is very isolated at Buckshaw and her only friends seem to be Dogger and Mrs. Mullet. Her sisters torment her, as older sisters do, and because she doesn't go to school, she doesn't seem to interact with the other children in the Bishop's Lacey.

I love Flavia's obsession with chemistry and I love even more that she has her own lab. I would have loved to have a my very own lab when I was 11...

I've wondered from the very beginning about the fate of Flavia's mother, Harriet and it looked like maybe this book had some clues that confirmed some of my suspicions, but no, it was just a trick Ophelia and Daphne played on Flavia that Bradley played on his readers. Hello actual red herring.

I'm so glad I discovered Flavia de Luce!

The Shadow in the North

I didn't enjoy The Shadow in the North as much as I enjoyed The Ruby in the Smoke, but it was still quite good. I found it harder to follow because Sally and Fred weren't exactly working together but were working on the same case. There was a big gap between books and I missed Rosa. Pullman did a good of explaining the changes to the business and in the characters' lives during the gap.

I loved how independent Sally was, but I wonder how realistic it would have been. The University of London was the first university in England to admit women and grant them degrees in 1878, so I guess it's possible...

I hope I like The Tiger in the Well more than this one!

The Ruby in the Smoke

I'm not sure why I picked this book up. Actually, I picked the first three of four up. I really liked The Golden Compass and have meant to read the other two books in the series His Dark Materials, but I have never gotten around to doing it. I also had a stack of about ten other library books to read when I decided to take these three books home.

Well, I'm glad I did. Sally Lockhart is a great, independent character. She had a very unconventional upbringing by a single father after her mother was killed in a mutiny in India. After her father dies, she is sent to live with a distant relative, Aunt Caroline. She gets mixed up in a big mess involving stolen books, opium, a cruel woman living in Wapping, a photographer and his sister, Trembler their employee, a young boy named Jim and a few other assorted characters. And with the help of Jim, Trembler and Frederick and Rosa Garland, she gets to the bottom of the mystery and finds out a few pieces of her own story that are a great surprise to her.

So, it's on to The Shadow in the North. I have a lot of reading to do before the library demands all of their books back!

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

This is the second Flavia de Luce book and I just got an email from the library that the third and fourth ones are waiting for me to pick up! I am really enjoying this young British sleuth!

In this book, a travelling puppeteer shows up in Bishop's Lacey with a broken down van and a very unhappy assistant. Two shows are arranged for the church hall and during the second one, the puppeteer is killed. Flavia noses around and collects clues and discovers a surprising connection between the pupeteer's death and a death five or six years earlier.

Alan Bradley does such a good job of weaving his mystery that I wasn't sure who did want and who was innocent and who wasn't innocent, but had no hand in either death...I love Flavia and her potions and chemistry! I'm looking forward to A Red Herring without Mustard.

Septimus Heap: Darke

Darke is so far my favourite of the Septimus Heap books. And it was dark! I did have to keep reminding myself that this is a kid's book, because there was a whole lot of "happily ever after" that happened, but it was good. Some of the key characters from the other books were noticeably absent (the Wendron Witches, the four Heap brothers who live in the forest, and Aunt Zelda and Wolf Boy conveniently arrive at the end of the book) and I missed them.

Compared the number of pages dedicated to the rest of the book, I thought the time that Septimus spent in the Darke Halls was short and not as detailed as I would have liked.

I'm also a bit frustrated that six books in, I don't really have a picture in my head of what any of them look like, except maybe Merrin (ugh). The sketches in the book don't show the characters the way I think they should be, but I'm not sure what the way I think they should be is. Confused?

With Harry Potter, I pictured this scrawny kid with messy dark hair, glasses and a lightening bolt scar. With Septimus Heap, I see green eyes, a tall teenaged boy and messy straw-coloured hair, but I see all those things independently of one another. Maybe it's because there is a picture of Harry on the front of the first book or maybe it's because J. K. Rowling is better with description, but I feel like I'm missing out on something because I can't picture the characters.

I'm looking forward to book 7...apparently it's still being written, so maybe it will be 2013 before I read it?

Septimus Heap: Syren

Oh, I enjoyed Syren so much more than Queste! I'm so glad!

I took this book with me to Guide Camp, but of course I only read a few pages. This week has been a bit ridiculous, so I was thrilled last night when J put herself to bed 45 minutes earlier than usual and I had a bit of time to do some reading.

This book had an adventure and introduced some new characters and new kinds of characters, but I felt like it also could have been the last book in the series if it wanted to be. The loose ends all seemed to be tied up at the end and there's a two year jump between Syren and Darke.

I love that the book developed Milo, Jenna's father, a bit more, but I wish there was more of Silas and Sarah Heap. The strong family relationship is often mentioned, but they don't get a lot of print themselves.

I'm curious about Syrah and what happens to her and I'm hoping that Darke will have more about her in it (the signs are good so far!)

And I've decided that this is a series that I'd like to read with J when she's older...which means I must like it!

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Quick housekeeping:

Today is the last day of January and I'm on pace to read 60 books this year. Looking back to the last two years where I kept very close track of my reading and the three or so years prior to that where I kept loose track, I am confident that I won't read 60 books (there are months when reading drops off...December, May), but I'm still aiming for 52 books. I didn't read finish any non-fiction this month, but I'm not going to force myself to do that (see the RULES)...but if you have any good non-fiction suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Okay, so do you know why I picked this book up? Because of the cover. And the fact that it was the only non-fantasy/vampire/wizard/weird futuristic novel in the turning bookcase right beside the picture books. I know: don't judge books by their covers, but the stamp drew me in. Good thing I missed the scary dead bird. But I really did enjoy this book. I also need to get out of the kids' side of the library...or not. I have a pile of non-kidlit beside my bed to read.

Anyway.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. That's what I'm supposed to be talking about.

It was really good. So good that when I discovered, by turning  the last page, that there are at least two more novels featuring detective Flavia de Luce, I knew I'd try to track them down.

Just another momentary aside. It drives me bananas that paperbacks aren't catalogued by title and author at our library. So if I find something I want that either the library only bought in soft cover or was only printed in soft cover, I just have to keep searching the (unalphabetized) turning shelves for the titles I want and hope that maybe someone got the book at another branch but returned it to one of the two we visit.

Back to the book. Flavia is an eleven year old English girl, living in a crumbling manor house in the English countryside in 1950. She has no mother (although maybe her deceased mother isn't actually dead?), an eccentric father and two horrid older sisters (aren't all older sisters horrid from an eleven year old's perspective?). She is also a chemistry prodigy and has a wild imagination. She's smart and she's nosy curious, which makes for a good detective.

I quite liked this book. It had enough twists and turns to keep me on my toes and was very well written (and is a Canadian novel...I wrongly assumed it had a British author). I was particularly impressed that a retired man could capture the essence of an eleven year old girl so well!

I just discovered there are six Falvia de Luce books, four released with the fifth to come in 2013...guess what will be gracing my bedside table next! (oh wait, one more update. An additional four have been added...that make ten [ahem, yay math skills])

Oh, and bonus points. Alan Bradley lives(d) in Kelowna.

If you hadn't already figured it out, I highly recommend this book. And I'm a geek.

Septimus Heap: Queste

Book four. Not my favourite. This book took so long to get to the actual Queste and then I felt like the Queste was rushed and, quite frankly, a little bit too easy. The House of Foryx confused me. And maybe it was supposed to confuse me because the House of Foryx was confusing.

Ugh.

I don't know. I'm into book five now and I'm already enjoying it more than Queste, so it's all good...

PS The horrible picture is a cell phone shot...sorry. I really should know by now that my real camera takes far better pictures!

Septimus Heap: Physik

I'm on track for 52 books this year...so far...but January was one of my better months last year too!

Physik is the third Septimus Heap book and so far I think it was my favourite. It introduced new characters like Snorri, the Northern Trader and Marcellus, the Alchemist and there was time travel (hmmm...there was time travel in the Prisoner of Azkaban too).

I quite liked the way the book ended with a bit of a surprise, especially from Marcellus. My favourite part of this book? Even though there is an evil Wizard that Septimus probably needs to focus on, he didn't really feature in this book. He was there and acknowledged, but the excitement and action and danger came from some else, just as evil. As much as I love Harry Potter and I understand why battles with Voldemort (or because of Voldemort) are so important to the story, it's too bad every year for seven years was focused on escaping one villain. I haven't quite figured out the time line of the first three books...I think maybe it's about two years (can anyone help me out?) but I know that the third simultaneously covered just a few days of present time and a few months of other time, so that might have something to do with it too.

I already started Queste and I'm having trouble keeping the two books apart in my brain, so that's all for now!

Septimus Heap: Flyte

After leaving this at work two nights in a row, I finally brought it home with me last night. And finished it. I enjoyed it, but, as with the first book, the foreshadowing was a little too obvious for me (I'm still chalking it up to being a grown up reading a books written for 9-12 year olds)...

I have started the third book, Physik, and I'm already enjoying it. I'm looking forward to when J is old enough to read these books with me. Chapter books are fun!

Septimus Heap: Magyk

A few years ago we gave Magyk and possibly Flyte to our nephew. I wanted to read them then, but I never got around to it. Last winter, J took gymnastics at the Community Centre and the gym happens to be right next to the library. So we would go to the library after gymnastics and this library is a lot bigger than our library. I kept finding Flyte and Physik, but I could never find Magyk. Well, I lucked in last weekend. I found the first five hanging out in the racks and I scooped them up. Fiona was over tonight and told me it was a good thing I read quickly - I think they all have over 500 pages in them...

Anyway.

I finished Magyk tonight and have already started on Flyte. I really liked it. I had figured out some of the twists pretty early on, but it is classified as ages 9 and up, so that is probably more to do with me being an adult than the plot devices being too obvious.

The book started with Silas Heap's seventh son, Septimus, dying not long after birth. Silas and his wife raise a baby girl born the same day who turns out to be the princess. On her tenth birthday, the Supreme Custodian tries to take her from her family, but the ExtraOrdinary Wizard saves her. And then everyone is on the run. And there are ghosts. And yucky Magogs and Brownies. And Boggarts. Although these boggarts are different from Harry Potter's boggarts. Somehow in my multiple readings of Harry Potter, I never looked up boggart. Apparently I should have!

I'm ready for book two...two chapters in and there are already twists and turns. Probably a good choice for my first book of the year!

Fifty-two books in 2012?

What was I thinking...I must be INSANE. Fifty-two books in 2012 is a book a week and it's 18 more books than I read in 2011.

I think it's possible. Look over there to left at my stats. I came flying out of the gate in 2011 - I read twelve books in the first three months of 2011. That was half of my 2011 goal and if I had managed to maintain that pace, I would have devoured 48 books last year. That's just 4 short of my goal. I guess I better get moving and finish my first book for 2012 before I go back to work on Tuesday.

There are no restrictions on where I get my books this year (the book diet ended in the summer). I have to read at least 26 NEW books. I can read more, but at least 26 should be new reads. That's to get me to move away from my old favourites (hello Harry Potter series). And I'm going to try to read more non-fiction. I don't know what that will look like, but I'm going to try.

I'm hoping to make it through the six shelves of books in my bedroom that are either new, borrowed or I read so long ago I can't remember if I want to keep them or not...

As always, I'd love your recommendations. Heck, I need your recommendations. See number 56 of my 101 in 1001 challenge. I need 5 recommendations and no matter what they are, I will read them.

What are your reading goals for 2012?

Wrapping up 2011's reads

How many books read in 2011? 34 + 2 that I gave up on

Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio? 28:6

Male/Female authors? 5 male, 18 female, 1 unknown

Favourite book read? Room

Least favourite? Crazy Love (didn't finish it)/Goddess For Hire (did finish it)

Oldest book read? The Courilof Affair (even though the translation wasn't published until 2008, the original was written before 1942)

Newest book read? When We Were Strangers

Longest book title? Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Shortest book title? 29

How many re-reads? 12

Books in translation? 1

Most books read by one author this year? 7

How many books were borrowed from the library? 13 (+ 1 reject)

Name a book you've read this year which was recommended by a blogger? Clutter Rehab

So 2011 was a success for me in terms of my reading habits. I made my goals. I read a few more non-fiction books than I thought I would, although I seemed to stay within my comfort zone of memoirs. I read a few horrible books. I skipped a couple of hideous books (those aren't included in my totals, but they were a victory for me since I tend to have trouble putting a book down even when I hate it). I found some new authors.

What fun!

The Woman's Book of Simple Delights

Santa left this in my stocking. It's one of those miniature books. I'm going to stick it in my bag because it has some great suggestions. I love that each page has two sort of related suggestions:

Spend an afternoon at an art gallery

OR

Go to a small neighborhood branch library and browse all afternoon (don't you love that old book smell?)

I guess Santa is trying to tell me to slow down and smell the flowers a bit...probably something I need to be reminded of a little more often.

And with that, step two of my challenge is complete. I'll recap in the morning. Or on Monday. We'll see.

Happy New Year!

Memoirs Are Made Of This

Okay, I enjoyed this. It was kind of fluffy and light, but it was what my brain needed before bed this month (Yay, I'm into December and even though it's now barely January, I'm still in December). I liked Venus. I liked the story. It reminded me of a cross between The Devil Wears Prada and The Nanny Diaries. It reminded me of my life when I worked for the downtown corporate office. I had just come back to Vancouver and was figuring out my life - my job, my friends, what exactly it was I was doing...

It hasn't been donated yet, so if you're in Vancouver and you want it, I'll give it to you. Or if you're heading this way sometime in the next few months, I'll keep it. It's hard cover, I'm not mailing it. I hate how expensive postage is.