Tag Archives: book

The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

 

Writing something new for a sequel of a book is always hard, when it comes down to it you’ve got to start at the beginning.

In this case the beginning is The Name of the Wind you can go back and look at my review, but basically it says you should read it and now I think you should read this one too.

Reasons to continue reading the Kingkiller Chronicles:

Secondarily:  Seriously, why wouldn’t you? There are so many unanswered questions, don’t you need to find out what happens next???

Sixth and lastly: There is no coddling of the reader. I hate books that spend the first 30 pages bringing you “up to date” with information from previous books. This effectively treats readers like idiots who can’t be bothered to remember what already happened. Not to worry,  you’ll be treated like the brilliant reader you are when you open this book up!

Thirdly:  He’s gets people. I don’t know how better to say it without being cheesy and corny. The characters make the books, the characters make the story, Rothfuss has got dang good characters.

And to conclude: Then you can go to a reading/signing it will be fun, and your book could also look something like this:Would I recommend it? Yes!

I Don’t Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson

This isn’t really my kind of book but I read it because the Maladjusted Book Club was reading it and I wanted to check them out.

Then I lurked in an interesting conversation about blancing motherhood with work.

Would I recommend it? No, I didn’t like it much and I didn’t think it was a very novel, novel – if you get my drift.

I did have multiple interesting discussions with John and friends on the topic but I bet you could find a better book with the same idea.

Here is where you can find the Maladjusted Book Club and their discussion: http://anattitudeadjustment.com/category/maladjusted-book-club

 

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by DueBose Heyward and Marjorie Flack

One of my favorite parts of reading to the girls is being able to share books I remember loving with them. So every Easter we’ve dug out The Country Bunny, and I’m happy to see that Ivy seems to enjoy it just as much as I did.

It’s also possible that I might like this book more now that I’m a mother myself. There are somethings in it that I find to be funny that I never would have as a kid. “Now we are going to have some fun”  as a precursor to teaching all her children their chores makes me smile. And of course the appeal of  Mother Cottontail realizing her life dream after she has 21 children, is undeniable!

Would I recommend it? Yes. It was first published in 1939 and Ivy still loves it now, it’s certainly got something going for it!

What’s your favorite Easter/Spring children’s book?

Science Verse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

Scieszka and Smith have written many other classic children’s books( maybe not, but they should be) such as The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Stinky Cheese Man.

I also hear that these two have a fairly well known book called Math Curse. But because the word “math” is in the title I have never touched it.

Science Verse now that’s a whole different ball game.

A funny ball game.

Here is a little excerpt:

Mary Had A…
Mary had a little worm.
She thought it was a chigger.
But everything that Mary ate,
only made it bigger.

It came with her to school one day,
And gave the kids a fright,
Especially when the teacher said,
“Now that’s a parasite.”

Would I recommend it? Of course! It has parasites, water cycles, states of matter and black holes all set to vaguely familiar rhymes and poems.

The Wideacre Trilogy by Phillipa Gregory

Wideacre

The most wonderfully written car crash of a book I’ve ever read. I couldn’t look away and I couldn’t stop reading even when I wanted to.

Would I recommend it? No. It’s well done, but I just can’t recommend a book full of incest, I can’t do it.

The Favored Child

One of those books where you know the end.  Right from the beginning you know the chances of a happily ever after are slim, very, very, slim. Then it gets worse, and you see the character falling into trap after trap and then end is coming and all of a sudden it’s back to the car crash that you just can’t look away from.

Would I recommend it? No.  See recommendation above and add in verbal and physical abuse and a barn owl that says “whoo, whoo”

Meridon

Wow.

Would I recommend it? Well, you can’t just go read the last book of a trilogy, it’d make no sense whatsoever.  This one almost made the rest worth it.

The end result:

While this won’t be a trio of books I’ll be highly recommending, my lack of recommendation is only due to the content. While they are clearly not for everyone I believe that they are remarkably well written, go read something else of Gregory’s I doubt you’ll be disappointed!

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

With all of the books that I review I hardly ever feel the need to either push a copy into your hands and compel you to read it or snatch it out of your hands if I’ve hated it.

But sometimes I do.

If I was into writing lengthy reviews, I’d go on about how this is a fantasy, but don’t judge it by the genre.That even regular fantasy readers will find it to be something beyond the ordinary. That the book has depth… deep, dark, depth. That it’s the first of three and the second came out this week. That it is the first of a trilogy; sequels I love, never ending sagas I do not, trilogies are perfect. That Pat Rothfuss is a Wisconsin local and Stevens Point Alum. That of all my favorite authors, he’s the only one who’s blog I follow because he’s a darn funny guy. That I’d love to sneak into your house and place it on all your nightstands and then steal the rest of the books in your house forcing you to read this one.

But I don’t really do that sort of thing.

Would I recommend it? Yup.  If you’d like to check out Pat Rothfuss’s website just click the image of the book.

Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb

Usually  I like to snap a photo of the book I read because personally if I’m browsing at a book store a cover I have seen is far more likely to catch my eye than a title. I can’t remember authors to save my life (that was never my job in the Battle of the Books) and I’m iffy on names, but I can usually spot a familiar cover. Hopefully it’ll help someone else out one day as well.

But today I’m refusing to share.

I think I’ve mentioned this before so forgive me – but seriously. Do the cover artists even READ the books?

Would I recommend it? Yes, but with the same spiel (which I thought you spelled schpeil until tonight, who knew?) as last time, so I won’t get into it again!

P.S. Usually when I read before bed I get sleepy after a few chapters and go to sleep. All of Robin Hobbs books have had the opposite effect on me. This has resulted in much less sleep than planned on. It’s dangerous, just thought I should warn you!

Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond

Have you visited The Pioneer Woman‘s website? She makes me want to eat large amounts of food, take better pictures, laugh a lot, and add a few more kids and dogs to my life. In addition to her very active blog she also writes books, first a cookbook and now this one:

Black Heels to Tractor Wheels is her and her husbands own true love story.  It’s funny, in a neurotic, cute, lovable sort of way.

Would I recommend it? Yes, although if you’ve read all her website there isn’t too much new here though it is fun to read it all at once.

The Bucolic Plague by Josh Kilmer-Purcell

This book just wasn’t quite what I expected.

Which begs the question of just what was I expecting from “an unconventional memoir” of “how two Manhattanites became gentlemen farmers.”

I think the answer to that is that I was expecting more farming and less about the balancing act of relationships and life in general. Then I was disappointed and didn’t feel like being all introspective.

Then I found out that one of the men worked for Martha Stewart, in the words of my friend Katie, “Hilarious.”

Would I recommend it? Yes. It was funny, and introspective and it’ll do you good to read about gay farmers.

No. It was at times laugh out loud funny but at the end of the day it is a book about gay men (one an ex-drag queen) who start a small farm.  I think the nich of people who would enjoy such a book is too small to give it a full recomendation.

Heck, I’ve got no idea if anyone should read this, but I admit, I mostly liked it. If you want a peek at their lives you can check out their website here: http://beekman1802.com maybe it’ll help you decide!

The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory

Geeze Jessie couldn’t you read a new author?

I know, I know, there are already three of Gregory’s books I’ve done my tiny reviews on. What can I say? I love her!

For whatever reason reading about the royal families plotting to destroy each other and take the throne while using their children as pawns never gets old for me.

Would I recommend it? Yes.

On a different topic altogether in the background of the picture you can notice Piper sleeping on the couch (because as Johnny pointed out that is where she is usually to be found) and my stereo in the hole in my wall, (just because Corky asked).