Book Review: Half-Off Ragnarok

Half-Off Ragnarok (InCryptid #3) 
By Seanan McGuire
*****

“Let's go commit senseless acts of science.” 
― Seanan McGuire, Half-Off Ragnarok

I've been reading (and loving) Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series. The first two books follow Verity Price as she works to keep the Cryptid population of NYC safe from the Covenant (Cryptids are creatures that aren't scientifically recognized as existing - think Big Foot and chupacabras. The Covenant is an organization that hunts and eliminates monsters, aka cryptids.) while trying to maintain a professional ballroom dance career. In these books, most of the cryptids are vaguely humanoid in appearance, or, at least, can hold a conversation (Aeslin mice are the BEST).

Half-Off Ragnarok took me by surprise. I assumed after reading the first two books that the series was focused on Verity and her adventures. Turns out it's more of a Price Family series. This time around we meet Verity's brother, Alex. He lives in Columbus, Ohio with his cuckoo grandmother, revenant grandfather (Alex's mother, their daughter, was adopted), and his unwell cuckoo cousin. Alex works at the zoo in the reptile house, where he's supposedly doing normal zoo-type research, but he's secretly breeding basilisks in the back room. Suddenly people are being petrified, his girlfriend may know more than she's letting on, and the local gorgons may be involved.

The switch from talking cryptids in the big city, to more animalistic monsters in the Midwest was kinda cool. I wasn't expecting the change, but it made this new book really fresh. But we also got to stick with the family, so the characters were familiar and comfortable. Another great addition to a fantastic series!

And now I really can't wait for Antimony's story.

Audio Book Review: The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot, #1)  

By The Great Agatha Christie
Narration by: Hugh Fraser
Book: ****
Narration: ****

“Sometimes I feel sure he is as mad as a hatter and then, just as he is at his maddest, I find there is a method in his madness.” 
― Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

From Goodreads: 
In World War I England, Styles mansion residents awake to find Emily Inglethorpe fatally poisoned. Guest Captain Hastings enlists his old friend, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, of the magnificent mustaches. Although evidence mounts against one family member, Poirot uses the unique deductive technique of his "little grey cells" to find the truth in his first appearance.

From Me: 
This is my first Agatha (who is just as fascinating, if not more so, as her stories) and I really enjoyed it. Her writing is very accessible, even 100 years later, and despite the very particular nature of the mystery and the solution. I completely love Poirot - I found him adorable. Captain Hastings, poor dear, was almost too stupid too live, but since he never actively put himself or his friends/comrades in danger, I'll just label him "doof."

I listened to this audio book in the course of one work day, and it made the time fly. The only thing missing was the giant wasp.

From Doctor Who episode 4.7 The Unicorn and the Wasp

Audio Book Review: Bossypants

Bossypants 
By Tina Fey
Narration by Tina Fey
Book: ****
Narration: *************

“To say I’m an overrated troll, when you have never even seen me guard a bridge, is patently unfair.” 
― Tina Fey, Bossypants

From Goodreads:
Before Liz Lemon, before "Weekend Update," before "Sarah Palin," Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.

She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon—from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy.

(Includes Special, Never-Before-Solicited Opinions on Breastfeeding, Princesses, Photoshop, the Electoral Process, and Italian Rum Cake!)

An unabridged recording on 5 CDs (5.5 Hours).


From Me:
Tina Fey reads the audio book. LISTEN TO THE AUDIO BOOK. You know how a bad narrator can make a good book awful? A kick-ass narrator like Tina Fey READING HER OWN BOOK makes a good book magic. 

Tina Fey is magic.

Book Review: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) 
By Mindy Kaling
*****

“This book will take you two days to read. Did you even see the cover? It’s mostly pink. If you’re reading this book every night for months, something is not right.” 
― Mindy Kaling, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

This book was such a joy to read. If Mindy Kaling is as charming and lovely in real life as she appears to be in this book, then I totally want her to be my celebrity BFF (along with Cat Deeley). I actually LOL'd several times in my office whilst reading over my lunch break (and I don't LOL). Now, I'm not going to say that I relate to this book - she writes and acts in some seriously funny television shows; there are very few people who can relate to this. But Mindy (and I feel like I can call her Mindy after finishing the book) feels very real and unpretentious, despite her success, and I think we'd have a great time rummaging through Anthro while I listen to all her gossip about her costars.

Audio Book Review: Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer

Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer 
By Katie Alender
**** (for book and narration)

“Ce n'est seulement le cou — elle veut briser le coeur.”                 

Translation: "She doesn't only want your neck -- she wants to break your heart." 

Marie Antoinette comes back from beyond to take revenge on the families who betrayed her to the guillotine. Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer was eerie without being creepy, with a dark current running beneath the Parisian setting. I do so love a book that takes place in foreign territory.

Our heroine, Colette, finds herself in the middle of a rash of serial killings where young, posh, self-centered Parisians are mysteriously beheaded. Colette feels oddly connected to the murders, though she doesn't understand why. And then she keeps seeing a woman in 18th century garb drifting through her surroundings, while her reflection is not always her own. Colette has to solve the mystery of these visions if she wants to keep her own neck.

There are mean girls (I hate Hannah, and I'm completely fine with that), and nice girls who are clearly the better choice in friends; there's a super-hot guy who's full of himself and his plans, and an endearingly sweet guy who is clearly the better choice in a love interest. There were characters I loved and characters I hated (though not really characters I loved to hate; I really think I'm going to lump Hannah in with Professor Umbridge), and the setting of the story was DIVINE. Note to self: go to Versailles.

A great book, and a great narrator (I listened to the audio format of this book). Highly recommended.

Read alikes: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins if you're jonesing for the Parisian setting. The Name of the Stars by Maureen Johnson if you're looking for a paranormal murder mystery (this one is set in London).

Audio Book Review: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
By Chris Grabenstein
Narration by Jesse Bernstein
***** (book)
**** (narration)

"Mrs. G? This is Dr. Z. What is our white Bengal tiger doing in the children's department?"

From Goodreads:
Kyle Keeley is the class clown, popular with most kids, (if not the teachers), and an ardent fan of all games: board games, word games, and particularly video games. His hero, Luigi Lemoncello, the most notorious and creative gamemaker in the world, just so happens to be the genius behind the building of the new town library.

Lucky Kyle wins a coveted spot to be one of the first 12 kids in the library for an overnight of fun, food, and lots and lots of games. But when morning comes, the doors remain locked. Kyle and the other winners must solve every clue and every secret puzzle to find the hidden escape route. And the stakes are very high.

In this cross between Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and A Night in the Museum, Agatha Award winner Chris Grabenstein uses rib-tickling humor to create the perfect tale for his quirky characters. Old fans and new readers will become enthralled with the crafty twists and turns of this ultimate library experience.


From Me:
Charming and utterly delightful. Who wouldn't want to go on a massive scavenger hunt in a library built by the ultimate maker of board and video games. This book was a lot of fun and one of the best depictions of a library (even one as impossible as Lemoncello's) I've ever read. 

I want to work in Mr. Lemoncello's library.

Book Review: Midnight Crossroad

Midnight Crossroad (Midnight, Texas #1) 
By Charlaine Harris
****

"And then Manfred realizes that all morning, throughout the camaraderie of unloading the van, neither of his companions asked the obvious questions. Why are you moving to such a godforsaken place? What brings you here? What do you do? Where did you live before? And Manfred Bernardo realizes he's moved to the right place. In fact, it's just like he belongs here."  

Midnight Crossroad reads like many of Harris's novels - there's a mystery, a quirky cast of characters, and the setting often feels like another character in the story. It was less bloody than the more recent of the Sookie Stackhouse books, though there was still a body count, and like the Sookie Stackhouse books, there was a paranormal element. One thing that was different, though, was that it didn't seem like there was one main protagonist. The focus shifted often between several characters. Manfred Bernardo (from the Harper Connelly series) was maybe slightly more front and center, but Fiji and Bobo also took up a lot of focus, particularly Fiji. And that's another thing - Harris again get's very creative with her characters' names, possibly more in this book than in any other, and that's saying something.

Harris also tied a lot of her series together within this book. There was a reference to the Lily Bard series and the Harper Connelly series, and I even caught one reference to the Aurora Teagarden series. And since Midnight Crossroad has a vampire character that no one seemed particularly surprised about (though he seems a bit different from Eric or Pam), I assume that the story is set in the same universe as Sookie's. I wouldn't be shocked to see a character from that world show up in this new series, though maybe one already has. I caught a lot of references, but it does make me wonder what I missed, since the older books aren't fresh in my memory.

All in all, I really enjoyed Harris's latest. If you enjoy her writing style and world building, this one fits that profile.

Book Review: For Darkness Shows the Stars

For Darkness Shows the Stars (For Darkness Shows the Stars #1)
By Diana Peterfreund
****

“In every letter, in every line, she saw him. He hadn't changed - he'd only grown into the man he'd meant to be.” 
― Diana Peterfreund, For Darkness Shows the Stars

For Darkness Shows the Stars is a futuristic dystopian/post-apocalyptic retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion. It kind of blows me away that I just typed that sentence. (In a good way!)

Here's the deal: some time ago (in the future - her past, our future) humanity got a little out of control with the DNA engineering and splicing and whatnot sciencey stuff, and while trying to make a better human, ended up making a "reduced" human. Pretty much any baby born at this point was severely mentally handicapped. According to the lore, the folks realized that the world was going down the crapper, so they decided to just destroy everything. Enter the Luddites, who were anti-technology/anti-screwing-around-with-natural-stuff. Because they were au naturale, they weren't affected by the genetic engineering gone wrong, and survived the destruction by hiding away until it was over.

Fast forward to present day. The Luddites are in charge of things, including the care and maintenance of both the Reduced and the land. It's been a while since they came out of their hidey-holes and things are running again, though according to the Luddite traditions, which are basically don't screw around with nature and don't do anything that hasn't been done before. Another change is that the Reduced have started having babies that weren't mentally challenged. These folks are called Posts, or Post-Reduced. They're not so happy with the status quo, because they're mostly treated like property.

Enter Elliot North and Kai (aka Captain Malakai Wentforth). This is a YA novel, so the Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth love affair timeline has been moved up. Elliot was born a Luddite, the daughter of the Baron, and the only member of the family working to keep the farm and its workers thriving. Kai was born a Post to another Post on the North estate, and grew up as an apprentice to his mechanic father. Kai and Elliot grew up together and were best friends. They also fell in love when they were only 14 years old. Things got bad after Elliot's mother died and there was no one to curb Baron North's bad and negligent habits. Kai cut and run; Elliot was supposed to go with him, but she realized she couldn't leave the people under her care alone under the thumb of her father.

Four years later, Kai returns with money and some other Posts to stay at Elliot's grandfather's estate to build a ship that will allow them to explore what's left of the world beyond their island (which I believe is supposed to be New Zealand, or at least New Zealand-esque, I'm not entirely sure). Romantic tension ensues.

The twists from the original story are really interesting. Peterfreund created an interesting world, one that balanced a futuristic dystopian society, but also blended with events in Persuasion in a way that made them plausible in this setting. She captured the romantic angst that so engaged me in Persuasion, but in a way that seemed (mostly) realistic to two 18-year-olds. The moral questions of genetic testing and experimentation in people, animals, and food sources should have felt heavy handed for all the attention it received, but it felt mostly part of the crisis in the plot rather than moralizing.

I loved Persuasion. It's hands-down my favorite Austen novel, and this book really made me want to pick it back up for another read. Anne and Frederick's love story...just...unngg! I love it! I felt a lot of that same gut-clenching emotion over Elliot and Kai's love story. I'm normally not a big fan of post-apocalyptic/dystopian stories, but this story takes place when the world is rebuilding itself and change is underway, and without the hero and heroine being the major catalyst for that change, though they were a part of it. I liked that a lot. Things I didn't like included Baron North, though not the way Peterfreund wrote him, but the way a reader dislikes the villain. Seriously, Baron North takes on Professor Delores Umbridge style loathing.

All in all, I really enjoyed this novel. While there is a sequel, I think Peterfreund has been rather ingenious with the way she's going about the series: For Darkness is a stand-alone novel. The sequel has new characters who live in the same world, and this one based on The Scarlet Pimpernel. I kinda love that. I'm also loving that she's retelling classics that haven't been retold a gazillion times. And while this novel doesn't get the same level of love that I reserve for Persuasion, it still gets rather a lot from me. Highly recommended.

Audio Book Review: Dangerous Women

Dangerous Women
Short Story Collection edited by George R. R. Martin
Read by various narrators
****

“A woman could be strong without having the emotions of a brick.” 
― Brandon Sanderson, Dangerous Women

From Goodreads:
All new and original to this volume, the 21 stories in Dangerous Women include work by twelve New York Times bestsellers, and seven stories set in the authors’ bestselling continuities—including a new “Outlander” story by Diana Gabaldon, a  tale of Harry Dresden’s world by Jim Butcher, a story from Lev Grossman set in the world of The Magicians, and a 35,000-word novella by George R. R. Martin about the Dance of the Dragons, the vast civil war that tore Westeros apart nearly two centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones.

From Me:
Fantastic collection of short stories with kick ass women taking the lead. I listened to the audio book and the narrators were amazing, particularly Claudia Black (who should read All The Things). So many great authors and great stories packed into a beast of a book! Most of the short stories aren't stand-alones, so if you're a reader of any of the original series, these additions will be very exciting; if you are not, most of the stories will work well without knowing the world behind them; that being said, if you DO read the original series, but you're NOT caught up, you may run across the occasional spoiler. Highly recommended.

More from Goodreads: 
Stories and Narrators (in order of appearance):“Some Desperado” by Joe Abercrombie; Read by Stana Katic
“My Heart Is Either Broken” by Megan Abbott; Read by Jake Weber
“Nora’s Song” by Cecelia Holland; Read by Harriet Walter
“The Hands That Are Not There” by Melinda Snodgrass; Read by Jonathan Frakes
“Bombshells” by Jim Butcher; Read by Emily Rankin
“Raisa Stepanova” by Carrie Vaughn; Read by Inna Korobkina            
“Wrestling Jesus” by Joe R. Lansdale; Read by Scott Brick
“Neighbors” by Megan Lindholm; Read by Lee Meriwether
“I Know How to Pick ’Em” by Lawrence Block; Read by Jake Weber
“Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell” by Brandon Sanderson; Read by Claudia Black
“A Queen in Exile” by Sharon Kay Penman; Read by Harriet Walter
“The Girl in the Mirror” by Lev Grossman; Read by Sophie Turner
“Second Arabesque, Very Slowly” by Nancy Kress; Read by Janis Ian
“City Lazarus” by Diana Rowland; Read by Scott Brick
“Virgins” by Diana Gabaldon; Read by Allan Scott-Douglas
“Pronouncing Doom” by S.M. Stirling; Read by Stana Katic
“Name the Beast” by Sam Sykes; Read by Claudia Black
“Caregivers” by Pat Cadigan; Read by Janis Ian
“Lies My Mother Told Me” by Caroline Spector; Read by Maggi-Meg Reed
“Hell Hath No Fury” by Sherilynn Kenyon; Read by Jenna Lamia
“The Princess and the Queen” by George R. R. Martin; Read by Iain Glen

The introduction by Gardner Dozois is read by Fred Sanders and the interstitial author biographies are read by Karen Dotrice.

Book Review: Discount Armageddon

Discount Armageddon (InCryptid #1) 
By Seanan McGuire
*****

“A proper lady should be able to smile pretty, wear sequins like she means it, and kick a man's ass nine ways from Sunday while wearing stiletto heels. If she can't do that much, she's not trying hard enough.” 
― Seanan McGuire, Discount Armageddon

This book was so FUN! Verity, our unconventional but completely awesome hero, is a ballroom dancing, free running, strip club waitress/cryptozoologist who is trying to save the local NYC cryptids from the visiting Covenant man and pursue her ballroom dancing career. Verity is sassy, a complete BAMF, and has talking mice as roommates (and I seriously LURVE the talking mice).

Full of quick comebacks, quirky characters, and lots of action, I got incredibly annoyed any time I had to put the book down for inconsequential things like work and sleep.

Bonus content:

1) Dancing! Verity is pursuing the "family business," "but all she want's to do is dance dance dance." She's a professional ballroom dancer trying to make it in NYC after a stint on Dance or Die, a reality competition along the lines of So You Think You Can Dance (Which is a major obsession of mine. I can't dance, but I certainly wish I could.). She uses her powers of dance against the forces of *things that want to eat you.*

2) A romantic interest that doesn't pull focus from the story. There's chemistry and making out, but more importantly there's character development and fight scenes.

3) Did I mention the talking mice? They've very religious and say "hail!" a lot. I kinda want a colony of Aeslin mice in my closet, but I'm sure my dog would disagree.

In conclusion: Love Love Love, Gush Gush Gush, Read it! Read it! Read it!