Review: Jane Bites Back

Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford
3.25 stars

Reasons for reading: sounded fun, recommended by a co-worker, Austen-esque novel for Four Month Challenge

Best review: ""It's impossible not to love Ford's sharp-witted, sharp-fanged Jane Austen (and I'm not just saying that because she spares my life in Chapter Six)."—Seth Grahame-Smith, author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"

My thoughts: That was actually one of my favourite parts of the book, Jane's ire at Grahame-Smith and other people who have used her books and her name to gain fame. The - I hope - fictitious Jane Austen Workout book was the best one, with an empire-waisted woman holding dumbbells. The book is fluff, but it's pretty good fluff and I'm an Austen fan, so I enjoyed seeing her come to "life." The premise that Jane Austen has been rejected by 116 publishers over the past 200 years is pretty hilarious and Ford's Jane is sharp-tongued and smart but sometimes still rather bewildered by being a modern-day woman. I'm not 100% sure I'm intrigued enough to read the rest of the series as it comes out, I'd have been happy with this as a one-off, but I might if I'm in the mood for something light.

It's Tuesday, Where Are You?

Click the globe to tell Raidergirl where you are!

I'm back in Las Vegas with Brett the tattoo artist (her shop is in the Venetian's Grand Canal shops - fancy!), who's gotten herself involved in another mystery, this one involving an attack on a drag queen with a champagne cork. (Pretty in Ink by Karen E. Olson)

I'm also in Brakeston in Upstate New York at a bookstore owned by Jane Austen. Yes, Jane Austen - she's a vampire and her first new book in 200 years is about to be published! (Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford)

Review: Don't Judge a Girl by her Cover

Don't Judge a Girl by her Cover by Ally Carter
3.25 stars

Reasons for reading: I like the series; 10 in 10 YA Chick Lit Challenge

Description: "When Cammie "The Chameleon" Morgan visits her roommate Macey in Boston, she thinks she’s in for an exciting end to her summer break. After all, she’s there to watch Macey’s father accept the nomination for vice president of the United States. But when you go to the world’s best school (for spies), "exciting" and "deadly" are never far apart. Cammie and Macey soon find themselves trapped in a kidnappers’ plot, with only their espionage skills to save them.

As her junior year begins, Cammie can’t shake the memory of what happened in Boston, and even the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women doesn’t feel like the safe haven it once did. Shocking secrets and old flames seem to lurk around every one of the mansion’s corners as Cammie and her friends struggle to answer the questions, Who is after Macey? And how can the Gallagher Girls keep her safe?

Soon Cammie is joining Bex and Liz as Macey’s private security team on the campaign trail. The girls must use their spy training at every turn as the stakes are raised, and Cammie gets closer and closer to the shocking truth…."

First line: " 'We're moving.' The man beside me spoke into his sleeve, and I knew the words weren't for me."

My thoughts: I've loved the idea of Gallagher Academy since the first book and I still do, but I had a few moments where I thought I'd had just about enough of this series while reading this book. Happily, Carter added some new questions and now I want to know the answers, but this wasn't my favourite G. Girls book. Macey isn't my favourite of the girls, so I wasn't loving all the focus on her. It was cool to meet Cammie's kick-ass aunt and learn a bit more about her family history. But it was the usual stuff - Liz being insanely smart, Bex being super-brave and cool and all three of them breaking rules and using their spy skills to help someone even when they're not supposed to. And the words "my best friend(s)" seem to appear on every other page, which I found irritating. The term best friend usually means one person (maybe two), not three. And we know that they're your friends, Cammie. But, as I said, the introduction of some shadowy information about Cammie's family and Cammie herself revived my interest a bit, so I think I'll be able to stick around to find out more in the next book. I do like the books and I like Ally Carter, I just tend to get series fatigue pretty easily.

Review: A Northern Light

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

4 stars

Reasons for reading: I love Donnelly's adult novels; Book about a real person for Four Month Challenge

From School Library Journal: "Mattie Gokey, 16, a talented writer, promised her dying mother that she would always take care of her father and younger siblings. She is stuck on a farm, living in near poverty, with no way of escaping, even though she has been accepted at Barnard College. She promises to marry handsome Royal Loomis even though he doesn't appear to love her. Now, Mattie has promised Grace Brown, a guest at the Adirondack summer resort where she works, to burn two bundles of letters. Then, before she can comply, Grace's body is found in the lake, and the young man who was with her disappears, also presumably drowned. This is a breathtaking tale, complex and often earthy, wrapped around a true story. In 1906, Grace Brown was killed by Chester Gillette because she was poor and pregnant, and he hoped to make his fortune by marrying a rich, society girl. Grace's story weaves its way through Mattie's, staying in the background but providing impetus. The protagonist tells her tale through flashback and time shifts from past to present. Readers feel her fears for her friend Weaver-the first freeborn child in his family-when he is beaten for being black and his college savings are stolen, and enjoy their love of words as they engage in language duels. Finally, they'll experience her awakening when she realizes that she cannot live her life for others."

First line: "When summer comes to the North Woods, time slows down."

My thoughts: At first I thought I wasn't going to like this book, I almost stopped reading it. It seemed so gloomy and I really missed Donnelly's usual setting of late Victorian London. Life is really hard for the people in the tiny logging towns of the Adirondacks at the turn of the century and Donnelly doesn't shy away from it. There's hope at the end of the book, but a lot of sadness along the way. Mattie's mother has just died, her brother has left the farm after a fight with their father leaving her and her 3 youngest sisters to help their desolate, angry father to run the farm. Mattie's friend Weaver (their "word duels" are great fun) loses his temper when he feels he's being treated as inferior, and unjust as it is, this gets him into a lot of trouble. Mattie's best friend barely survives giving birth to twins and then is trapped in a cabin with the babies, housework, and a husband who wants to impregnate her again immediately.

But I kept reading and I'm glad I did. I really liked that it was based on true events but that the centre of the story was Mattie's journey rather than the murder itself. Through letters she gave to Mattie to burn right before her death, the events surrounding the murder are revealed and Grace's tragedy is what ultimately convinces Mattie that she needs to live for herself and not be limited by what her father or her fiance (who is clearly only marrying her for her father's land) think she should be.

Donnelly's notes show that she did a ton of research, which shows and I really liked that she got the details of life both for lumberjacks and for life working in the area's summer hotels from members of her family. She obviously feels a deep connection to the story and it shows.

Review: Victory of Eagles

Victory of Eagles (Temeraire, book 5) by Naomi Novik
4.5 stars

Reasons for reading: I'm addicted to this series; Fantasy for the Four Month Challenge

Summary: "For Britain, conditions are grim: Napoleon’s resurgent forces have breached the Channel and successfully invaded English soil. Napoleon’s prime objective is the occupation of London. Unfortunately, the dragon Temeraire has been removed from military service–and his captain, Will Laurence, has been condemned to death for treason. Separated by their own government and threatened at every turn by Napoleon’s forces, Laurence and Temeraire must struggle to find each other amid the turmoil of war. If only they can be reunited, master and dragon might rally Britain’s scattered resistance forces and take the fight to the enemy as never before–for king and country, and for their own liberty."

First line: "The breeding grounds were called Pen Y Fan, after the hard, jagged slash of the mountain at their heart, like an ax-blade, rimed with ice along its edge and rising barren over the moorlands: a cold, wet Welsh autumn already, coming on towards winter, and the other dragons sleepy and remote, uninterested in anything but their meals."

My thoughts: My husband (who got me into the series) teases me about me calling these books "scrapey" - but it's because Laurence and Temeraire get into scrapes that I just can't imagine they'll be able to get out of! And this time was no different. Laurence has been charged with treason and the only reason he hasn't been executed is to keep Temeraire in line. But when Temeraire decides he's tired of sitting around in the breeding grounds and wants to fight, he leads the other dragons off to harry French troops in the British countryside. When Laurence is called in to find him, the reunion is a happy one, but Laurence is a changed man. He's always been stoic, but now he's broken and sure that he'll soon die. He's not even sure anymore whether or not he was right in committing his "treasonous" act of saving the lives of Europe's dragons by providing France with a cure for a deadly illness. But Laurence and Temeraire do their duty and fight Napoleon - once Temeraire has convinced Wellington that dragons should be given ranks and pay. (And also huge, garish epaulettes to mark their rank - that was one of my favourite parts, I love the dragons' charming vainness.) The book ends with an alternate-reality battle of epic proportions.

I think this book marks a turning point in the series. Temeraire's dreams of dragons' rights are briefly recognized, but one gets the sense they won't last out the war. Temeraire is still clever and jealous and vain and sweet, but he's slowly starting to learn the ways of men and how things really work. Laurence has literally lost everything except his dragon - he tries to cling to his old touchstones of honour and duty, but finds he can't. The very end of the book sees to duo being exiled to Australia because Temeraire is seen as too "dangerous" with his ideals but the team are too valuable to simply eliminate. I'm really looking forward to their adventures in wilds of New South Wales!

Review: The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
3.25 stars

Reasons for reading: Have always meant to; Carnegie Medal winner for Book Awards Challenge

From the back cover: "Maurice, a streetwise tomcat, has the perfect money-making scam. Everyone knows the stories about rats and pipers, and Maurice has a stupid-looking kid with a pipe, and his very own plague of rats - strangely educated rats... But in Bad Blintz, the little con suddenly goes down the drain. For someone there is playing a different tune and now the rats must learn a new word. EVIL. It's not a game any more. It's a rat-eat-rat world. And that might only be the start..."

Best line: "Of course, there weren't just rat plagues - sometimes there were plagues of accordian-players, bricks tied up with string, or fish - but it was the rats everyone knew about."

My thoughts: I wanted to like this one more than I did. I didn't even dislike it, I just...couldn't quite get lost in it. I haven't read any other Terry Pratchett books, so I don't know much about him, but I felt as though there was this sort of veneer over the book that I think must be his distinctive style. That doesn't make sense, really, but I can't do better than that.

There are very funny bits, to be sure, like the line above. Very British-humour bits. I loved that the rats had taken their names from stuff at the dump, so they're called things like Nourishing, Big Savings, and Sardines (who tap dances). There's a lot of scatalogical humour, which many boys would like and some rat swear-words. And a lot of dumb adults, always a good thing in kids' fiction. Keith the stupid-looking kid turned out not to be stupid at all, which I was pleased about. Malicia the girl who wishes life was a story was irritating but funny. I enjoyed her enormous bag filled with supplies for just about any emergency a young adventurer might encounter (including being faced with a giant squid), if they lived in a storybook. The nod to/jab at Beatrix Potter was a good joke, as the rats wish that animals and humans could get along (and all wear clothes) like they do in the twee Mister Bunnsy books.

I just couldn't quite suspend my disbelief enough. I didn't feel like the change that enabled the rats to think was explained well enough, just that they ate some enchanted stuff at the dump and the ability of the "king rat" to get inside people's minds was never explained at all.

The verdict: There's a lot that's funny and clever and even fairly deep in this book, so I can see why it won. Maybe I'm just not a Discworld-world girl. But I do still want to read Good Omens.

It's Tuesday, Where Are You?

Click the globe to tell Raidergirl where you are!

I'm in the hamlet of Bad Blintz with Keith the stupid-looking kid, Maurice the talking cat, and the educated rodents trying to figure out what's going on with the town's sinister rat-catchers.

And I'm also back at Gallagher Academy and out on the campaign trail with Cammie and the other Gallagher Girls since one of their own, Macey, is in danger while her father runs for Vice President. Or is it Macey that the bad guys are after....? (Don't Judge a Girl by her Cover by Ally Carter)