book review
Book Reviews: Short Stories from Hogwarts
Classics Review: Framley Parsonage
Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Mark Robarts, the vicar at Framley Parsonage, has a seemingly perfect life. He has the patronage of the great Lady Lufton, and the friendship of her son, Lord Lufton. He has a darling wife, Fanny, and lovely children, and everything a man could want on a moderate income.
But Mark becomes involved with the “wrong” sort of people, gamblers, debtors, and disreputable gentlemen of society. Mark’s kindness is taken advantage of, and his generosity lands him in a difficult money situation, which will be his ruin unless his high moral standards can eventually be his salvation. Continue reading
Book Review: The Secrets of Ordinary Farm
The Secrets of Ordinary Farm by Tad Williams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Lucinda and Tyler are back for the summer at their mysterious Uncle’s farm. Lucinda is determined to become closer to the dragons, but with all the adventure and wild mystery going on, she barely has time to visit the dragons, until one of them reaches out to her in a surprising way.
Tyler continues his feud with the crusty Colin Needle, and both of them are snooping around the farm, spying on each other, desperate to find the secrets of the farm before the other. Continue reading
Book Review: The Road To Yesterday
The Road To Yesterday by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This collection of Montgomery’s short stories is not really her best work in my opinion, but still well worth the read. All the stories are connected distantly to Gilbert and Anne Blythe, since characters in each story are vaguely acquainted with the Blythes, and their names are mentioned in passing, or they play bit parts in the story. After a while, this started to annoy me. It just distracted from the main story, by bringing in other characters from a separate story, who had no real business or impact in the main story.
A few of the short stories had some structural problems in the plots, I though, and a couple of times people in the story seemed to act out of character. But these places were very few and most of the stories are wonderful, and delightfully funny! A couple of them are melancholy and have a healthy dose of pathos mixed in too.
Book Review: Ship of Destiny
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Usually I love Robin Hobb’s books, but there are so many things that annoyed me about this one. It’s entirely too long and repetitive. It could have been about 200 pages shorter. There are too many POVs flip-flopping all over the place in every chapter. I HATE it when a POV changes in the middle of a orscene! And there are about 10 or 11 different POV characters in the book. Too many! Continue reading
Book Review: The Dragons of Ordinary Farm
The Dragons of Ordinary Farm by Tad Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Tyler and Lucinda are dismayed that they have to spend the summer at the farm with their mysterious Uncle Gideon, whom they have never met. But when they arrive at Ordinary Farm, they find it full of mythical beasts and other-worldly people. The secrets go deep, and the past will threaten everyone on the farm, unless Tyler and Lucinda can navigate the mysteries of Ordinary Farm, warding off attack from the outside before it collapses from within. Continue reading
Recent Reads: Boxers& Saints, #Hobbalong, Children’s
Novella Review: Among the Nameless Stars
Among the Nameless Stars by Diana Peterfreund
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I loved this prequel showing how Kai managed to run away from the North Estate, and his disappointment that Elliot didn’t join him. All while I was reading For Darkness Shows the Stars, I kept wondering, How did Kai make his fortune? What was he doing all those years out on the ocean? How did he meet the Innovation family and become such a brilliant mechanic/inventor? And this little story answers most of those questions.
For a novella, there is a really good story-arc, with some depth and complexity, but I wish there were more seafaring in the story. I’ve always loves Kai’s character, and seeing these experiences that made him so serious-minded helped me understand him better.
