Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades Trilogy book 1) E L James

Anastasia Steele is getting ready to graduate from college when, on an interview for her best friend/roommate who is too sick to conduct the interview, she meets the enigmatic, beautiful, commanding and brilliant Christian Grey, CEO of Grey Enterprises and benefactor of her college. From the first, Christian is intrigued by the innocent Miss Steele and pursues her with a single mindedness that stuns not only Ana, but also Christian's staff, family and associates. He offers Ana a contract to become his submissive...a twist that Ana both can not accept and can't help but accept. The books have been called "Mommy Porn" and, yes, they are VERY graphic and erotic. I think that the reason they are getting so much press is because the sex focuses on BDSM, non traditional and taboo. The Fifty Shades of Grey books are, in my opinion, no more or less sensual, graphic or erotic than contemporary romances of today. Heck, the romances of the late 70s and early 80s, with their Alpha male "I will rape you into submission and you're going to fall in love with me in spite of me treating you like crap" focus should, in my view, be more taboo than consensual adults behaving in a manner that is less than traditional. That being said, these books are GRAPHIC in the details of sex. At one point, Christian tells Ana "I don't make love, I fuck...hard." Ana's initiation into sex is not the hearts and flowers "I love you" deflowering scenes of most romance novels. It's quick, hard and quite simply, brutal in a sense. Don't get me wrong, there is quite a bit of romance in these books. There's also a fascinating look into the psyche of Christian, is he a sadist? Is he just a Dominant? What has brought him to the place where he believes he has no heart? And what of Ana? What ticks inside of her that brings her to be so intrigued by the world Christian so desperately, and he is desperate, wants to introduce her to? Can Ana bring herself to give Christian what he needs, total submission even when he wants to discipline her? Or will the pain and fear be enough to send Ana running? I loved this book. I read it in 5 hours because I could not put it down. I had a love/hate relationship with Christian and I could empathize and sympathize with Ana. I did wish that Ms. James would have removed the "characters" of Ana's Subconscious and her "Inner Goddess". They just smacked a bit too much like Lizzy McGuire or Herman's Head and often would pull me from the story. Other than that, I recommend this book even if you're squicked out by the thought of BDSM. There's WAY more to the book than the sex and I took quite a bit from it. 5 out of 5 berries for this one. I can't wait to review Fifty Shades Darker.

Goblin Trilogy, by Jim C. Hines

The Goblin Trilogy, Goblin Quest, Goblin Hero, and Goblin War tell the story of Jig the Goblin and his pet fire spider Smudge. It's a humorous look at the Goblins of Middle-Earth and the world from their perspective.
Hines is an excellent storyteller, and you'll find many sly references to other Goblin / Middle Earth / Ogre / etc. stories, including Shrek and (of course) Lord of the Rings.
Jig is a reluctant adventurer, hero, and warrior who appears to more or less get dragged along by events -- and later, by expectations -- who really doesn't want to do anything except be comfortable and at home. Along the way he decides to select a mostly-forgotten god to worship (for the benefits) and somehow manages to blunder to victory.

This trilogy was an excellent read, well-told and the storyline keeps moving along. 5 of 5 bones.

River Marked, by Patricia Briggs

The latest installment in the Mercedes Thompson series, this is another excellent book by Ms. Briggs. Mercedes and Adam finally get married (and how that happens is an entertaining romp, which I absolutely won't spoil.)

For their honeymoon, they take a huge RV (borrowed from...Uncle Mike...eeps) and go someplace recommended by another one of the fae. Huh. Of course their honeymoon doesn't go quite as planned, and they wind up taking care of another "Mythical" monster.

Along the way we get to see a lot more of Mercedes' heritage and background, which is also very interesting - and explains some things.

The thing I most liked about it -- and about this series in general -- is that Ms. Briggs continues to write interesting stories about Mercedes doing a lot of Monster Fighting without making her "Level Up" every book. It's not a treatise in "gee, what scary new power will she get this time", it's not showing us how she defeats New Scary Monster by developing New Scary Power -- she defeats them by being herself, using her brains and courage and doing her very best. Ms. Briggs is having Mercedes "Level Out" by developing a network of friends and acquaintances (yes, some of whom do have Scary Powers) that help her, but not even they are always available, and not always certain that their Scary Powers will work.

Excellent job. 5 of 5 bones.

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games trilogy consists of:

Book 1 - The Hunger Games
Book 2 - Catching Fire
Book 3 - Mockingjay

These books are riveting. Brutal at times but absolutely amazing.

In a future where the United States has fallen and a new country, called Panem, has risen, Katness Everdeen steps into the place of her little sister to participate in The Hunger Games, a reality show where the contestants, 1 male and 1 female from each of the 12 districts of Panem, go to compete - to the death.

Chosen to go with her (via lottery) is Peeta, a boy from District 12's town. His family are bakers by trade and Peeta really has no skills to survive in The Arena (where the Hunger Games takes place). Katness, however, has been "training" most of her life by illegally hunting and gathering in the forest to support herself, her mother and younger sister, Prim. (and Prim's cat, Buttercup)

The story, over the three books, tells of the discontent of the districts against the Capital's rule. No Capital children are ever selected for the Hunger Games, which grew up as a way to remind the Districts of the folly in revolt against the Capital.

Very powerful, often tear inducing, these books will continue to give me food for thought for a very long time.

5 out of 5 berries for all three books.

In the Company of Vampires by Katie MacAlister

I have been waiting for this book for YEARS. Yes, literally, years.

In the Company of Vampires is the third book in Ms. MacAlister's Ben and Fran Dark Ones (slash)Goth Faire books which started with Got Fangs? and Circus of the Darned. Can't find them because they're out of print? Never fear, Katie Mac is here! She recently received the rights to the books back and her new publisher, Signet, has reprinted them in a handy omnibus edition under the title Confessions of a Vampire's Girlfriend. My well worn original copies can now be retired to my "well loved and most favorite" book shelf. Hooray.

Okay, the review...

Ms. MacAlister has delivered another winner with this book. She made me laugh, she made me cry. I gasped, I sighed and when it was all over, I turned it over and restarted it. I'm currently half way through my second reading and it's still wonderful. I can tell that this will become, like the first two, a comfort read for me. Something I can pick up and delve into just to be with beloved friends.

The book opens with Fran, now 22, living with a roommate in Oregon where she is working for a web development company. She and Ben have broken up and she is miserable but adamant that she wants to make her own decisions about who she should be with, not be a "pawn of fate".

There is much hilarity in this book and, because Fran is officially an adult, much more naughtiness as well. Which is good and actually really clean. (One reason I like Ms. MacAlister's books so much is that there is rarely any cursing or taking the Lord's name in vain. It's refreshing!) Fran ends up going back to Europe to the Goth Faire to retrieve the Vikingaharta from Imogene. Eirik, Finnvid and Isleif are also in on the retrieval having been sent by Freya to help Fran send Loki to the Akashic Plane.

The reunion scene with Ben made me weep. My heart broke, was healed and broke again. The misery that both Fran and Ben endured over the 5 years Fran had been gone from Europe, the utter despondency that engulfed them during the year of their complete breakup, made me ache with loneliness. Then the joy began but was shattered only to give birth to hope.

And that hope was not in vain.

Needless to say, I loved this book. I ached for this book for so long, I was afraid I had built it up too much in my mind but I was wrong. This book is, if not quite a perfect conclusion, a very satisfying semi-conclusion to Ben and Fran's love story. There are many threads hanging at the end but, as Ms. MacAlister has promised that this is the begining of a new series, I'm very hopeful that there just MIGHT be another B&F centric book among them.

We do learn what Loki took from Fran ("I will take that which you value most") in Circus of the Darned and it actually was close to my hypothesis that Fran lost her feeling of acceptance, her feeling of belonging, that I was well satisfied with Loki's denouement.

5 of 5 berries for this one. Read it! You'll fall in love with Ben and Fran as well!

The Stepsister Scheme - Jim C. Hines

Absolutely a fantastic book! There are few books that I can't put down and must burn the midnight, early dawn and into daytime oil to finish in one sitting. This was one of them. The Princess' stories are straight out of Grimm and NOT Disney. If you're looking for sweet and light, look elsewhere. If you're looking for good plot, good writing and good character development, look no further, The Stepsister Scheme has it all. Light humor and Dark delights, this book will draw you in and won't spit you back out until you're finished. 5 of 5 berries for this one. You DON'T want to miss it!

Isle of View

I have been reading Isle of View-A history of South Manitou Island by Charles M. Anderson. It gives a personal history of the South Manitou Island in Lake Michigan. It tells of life on an island in a different era. There are stories about how life was both from historical, practical day to day and personal point of view. It is from an era when people lived on the island instead of it being a part of the national park system. Some of the personal stories are very funny like when the author's sister's soup exploded at the one room school house they went to. For those of you who love local history, this is a 5 out of 5 Pith helmets.

Dangerous Book for Boys

This book has been out for a while and even though I am a bit old for it, I was curious about the book. It is an interesting book and a fantastic idea book for boys and girls. I put in both since I think ther is stuff in it that would interest boys and girls even though it is aimed at boys. It is a combination of information abd activites for boys. It covers a lot of area and would serve as a way to get boys interested in the world around them. I was impressed with the reading list, the activites and the whole book. I was also impressed that it dared have the ten commandments in it when they have lost some of their popularity.

5 out of 5 Pith Helmits.
Read it with a boy that is in your life.

Egyptian Book fo the Dead.

The Edition of the Egyptian Book of the Dead I will be reviewing has been translated by Raymond O. Faulkner and has an introduction by James P. Allen. It was copyrighted in 2003 and published by Barnes and Noble. This edition is a beautiful and well done coffee table edition full of pictures of both original texts but also artifacts from the era. Both text and pictures shed light on the ancient Egyptian culture and religion. It was an enjoyable read and a book i would leave out for people to look through. Due to its vignette nature. This book is best read in short snippets.

5 out of 5 pith helmets

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aiden

This is actually a trilogy consisting of An Assembly Such as This Duty and Desire and These Three Remain

If anyone was ever wondering just what was going on in Mr. Darcy's head during Pride and Prejudice, Pamela Aiden gives us a wonderful look inside that august man's head.

Starting off the night of the Assembly where Mr. Darcy and the Bingleys and Hursts descend on Meryton society, Ms Aiden takes us through the journey of Darcy's growing love for Elizabeth and the warring emotions of duty and desire that follow until his final realization of his love and the resulting rejection and rebuilding of his character.

Achingly lovely at times as well as frustratingly beautiful (you want to kick Darcy sometimes but you can't because the book is just so well crafted. *G*) this trilogy is a wonderful testament to the enduring Jane Austen. Ms. Aiden does a spectacular job of making the characters real as well as invoking the spirit of Ms. Austen so that you feel you actually ARE reading a true account of what Darcy was thinking in Jane's head as she was writing.

5 of 5 berries. I can't wait to have my very own copies of these.

The Tao Te Ching

This is a review of The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu and translated by John H. McDonald. The unique thing about this read was that it was on my Palm Zire 31 PDA. I read it using palm reader. It was reading it as a doc file. I was able to download it for free from memoware.com. You can check the website out here.

It was an interesting read. I have read this classic piece of literature and enjoyed this translation. The experience of reading on a pda was novel. There were some distinct advantages and disadvantages. One of the big advantages is that you can carry quite a large library with you at all times. It is even easier than carrying even one book. Palm reader was easy to use and took littler to get use to. Some of down sides were small print and getting use to an e-version versus using a book. Another advantage is that since the pad screen is back lit, you can read this in low light.

The reading material itself was enjoyable. It has wisdom in it that is still relevant today. It's proverb format made it ideal for a PDA read. I often read small sections of it during downtime during the day. Over all a neat experience.

4 out of 5 pith helmets for the reading experience.
5 out of 5 for convience of format.

Regie Gets a New Friend

This book was both written and illustrated by Anthony J. Emberton and published by Nation Wide Publishing, Inc. . It was interesting to see how Tony used the interaction of two dogs he knew and turned it into a story that children would enjoy. With both word and drawn line, he was able to get the dogs personalities and interactions down. Very well done. Keep the creative juices flowing Tony.


5 out of 5 Pith Helmets.



5 out of 5 Pith Helmets

Captain's Fury

SPOILERS AHOY, so if you haven't read the book yet, and you'd like to remain spoiler-free, just kinda wait on this till you're done. This is book 4 of the "Codex Alera" series by Jim Butcher. The entire series thus far:

Furies of Calderon
Academ's Fury
Cursor's Fury
Captain's Fury

REVIEW:
Now this is how to write an ongoing series! Each book has a setup, a crisis, and a resolution. ALL of these contribute to the ongoing story, without either hijacking it or being hijacked by it. We don't have to wait till the next book or two or three to see how Tavi's going to handle the Canim - we see it here, in this book. Lots of development of the ongoing plot, as well: Tavi discovers who he really is, who his parents are, and decides to own his heritage. Isana and Rari finally declare their love openly...and Bernard and Amalda do too. Lots of surprise twists in this book as well! Who ever heard of a Marat having furies? Interestingly, Kitai has them - and nobody can quite believe it (well, except her. The Marat pretty much accept everything, don't they?)

SYNOPSIS: Tavi gets involved in politics in this one - and not just "politics", but POLITICS. He fends off political attacks as well as assassination attempts, while trying to be the Captain of the Legionnaires he's been entrusted with. The Knights Pisces and the Battlecrows get some good workouts as they work to save lives with the rest of Tavi's Troops.

Isana is told by Rari that Tavi needs to know the truth. She tries to tell him, she really does, but ultimately she can't. She doesn't want him to hate and mistrust her. Rari eventually realizes that she didn't tell Tavi his heritage, so he does. Tavi is understandably upset that Isana's been lying to him (and suppressing his talents!) for his entire life, but eventually comes to accept her reasons.
He's still having problems with his talents' manifestation, though. He still can't call any Furies, although he can call the abilities of furycraft - enhanced strength, healing, precision, etc. However, until he can manifest Furies, he won't be accepted.
The conflict with the Canim comes to a head, and Tavi once again sees what needs to be done, and goes and does it. He smuggles Varg out of his incarceration, and gets him back to the Canim main force. The deal: if he returns Varg to the Canim, they'll build boats and go back home to fight the Vord. (One of the best lines of the book occurs during this operation. They're on board a ship for a couple weeks. Varg expresses his relief to finally be off the ship, saying, "it smells like wet human." *snicker*)
During the jail-break, Isana notices Kitai using Fury-power, and realizes that Kitai's "bonding" with Tavi has resulted in Kitai's ability to "share" his abilities. Kitai is the first, and only, Marat to ever have furycraft.
Unfortunately, one of the Lords of Alera has other ideas, and launches an attack that the Canim interpret as a betrayal. Now Tavi has to deliver the traitor to them, and anyone else that was involved. Tavi does so in inimitable style: he openly declares his heritage, challenges the traitor-Lord to the juris macta, and (of course) succeeds against the Champion that was sent to defeat him. Not with Furies, but with his brains.
His brains come to his aid shortly thereafter, as well, as he confronts Gaius Sextus after all is said and done. He suggests that a mass amnesty be declared for anyone that helped rid the country of the Canim, and that his name be slid in with the rest of the group, rather than a single amnesty being declared simply for him. He also suggests he go to the Canim homeland and help them defeat the Vord, to give himself time to further practice his furycraft and to give people a chance to "forget" him as he was and for Sextus to rally support for him in absentia. Sextus agrees this is a good idea and thus the stage is set for the next book.

COMMENTS: Excellent book. This is definitely a series that I want to own rather than just borrow from the library. That way, not only am I personally supporting the author and his work, but I can read them again and again, whenever I want to. (I recommend buying the hardcover, though - that way they'll last through more readings. I can see the paperbacks needing to be replaced within a couple years.) I want to read the next one, and the next, and so on - not because the book ends with a "tune in next time for the next exciting chapter in this plot!" but because Butcher writes in such a way as to make me care about what happens next. Each of the books is a single story in itself, and can easily stand alone. However, the elements of a Story Arc are definitely there, and I want to see how it ends! Not only that, but I want to see how the "stuff I've already guessed" gets handled by the characters.
VERY well done.
5 bones for this one! CRUNCH!

Grave Peril-Audio Book

Grave Peril is written by Jim Butcher and read by James Marsters. The audio book is put out by Buzzy Multimedia Publishing. I will be reviewing both the story and the reading performance.

The story is a great piece of mind candy. It is not a great piece of literature but you don't need great literature to be a fun ride in reading. The universe of Harry Dresden is an interesting, fun place to visit. There are rules to his magic are consistent or at least not jarring you out of the moment. One of the great things is that what happens in one book follows through the rest of the books. There are too many series where you can read them in any order because although things happen, they have no long term effects in most cases. With the Dresden Universe there is.

I also found it interesting how it was developed about Harry"s relationship with his God Mother. There was also progress with him and his love. I also enjoyed the fleshing out of the universe of how the wizards deal with the vampires.

About my only complaint with this one is that it had a little bit of a feel of reading a Hardy boys book, in the sense that Harry was getting either knocked out or pushed to the very limit just to be pulled back in the nick of time. Guess what, it is still a fun ride. I also can never get enough of Bob. Bob the Skull for president.

James Marsters does a great job of reading this book. He has a good voice and reading style for presenting books on audio. He sounds like Harry Dresden which helps with the performance. I think he also looks like Harry Dresden except I imagine Harry as being either dark brown or black hair rather than the blond the Mr. Marsters is. That really does not affect the performance but it does make for a comment.

The audio book itself can be gotten in MP3 format which is really nice. The whole book on one CD. From a clutter around the house factor, that is nice. It also makes it easier if you like taking things to listen to on the go. You can take a lot more on the road to listen to when it takes less space.

Final review
The story itself is a 4.
Reading Perfomance is a 5. You could not get a better reader for this series.
MP3 format is also a 5.

New Moon by Stephanie Meyer

I bought this last night, got home around 8:30 and headed to bed around 9 to start reading. I was finished by 3 am. Could NOT put it down.

New Moon picks up on Bella's birthday. She's not happy about turning a year "older" than Edward but agrees to go to a birthday party that Alice has planned for her out at the Cullen's house. She promises Edward that she'll "behave" (read: won't be grumpy and sarcastic) because this is the first real birthday the Cullen family has been able to celebrate for 70 some years and they're all excited.

Of course, being the klutzy Bella, while she is opening her presents she gets a paper cut. The family, reluctant "vegetarians" that they are, go nuts over the smell of just a little drop of blood. Uproar takes place and, in the end, the Cullen family decides to leave the tiny town of Forks. Edward breaks it off with Bella, believing that she'll be better off without him, stating that it's been fun but...yeah...and tells her "it'll be as if I were never here" and leaves her taking all memorabilia from their time together so she has nothing but her memories...

Bella spends the next few months in emotional withdrawal from everything she loves. She pulls away from everyone, her father, her mother who has flown up from Florida, her school friends. She finally begins to recover when she renews her friendship with Jacob Black, an American Indian living on the reservation outside of Forks.

Then, just as everything starts to come alive for Bella, Jacob gets sucked into a "cult" and begins to change.

The themes in the book might seem trite and over done but Ms. Meyer has once again taken the familiar and made them hauntingly new.

I ached for Bella as I read this book. I cried when Edward and the Cullen family left her. I wanted desperately to be there, to hold Bella while she cried, while she was having the never ending nightmares that stalked her through the months of her absolute desolation. The end of the book...again starting around the last 1/3...gave me hope, made me happy and sad again.

Once I finished this book, I cried. Not because it was over, although I did want it to continue forever, but because it was beautifully done. Hope was not in vain and the book continues to weave itself into my thoughts and even my dreams.

I'm giving this one 5 of 5 berries as well.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

I bought this book 6 months ago because everyone was telling me how wonderful it was and of course, my library had book 2 and 3 of the series but not book 1. Then, when it came from Amazon, I set it aside. I'm not sure if I was afraid that it wouldn't be as good as everyone assured me it was, or if I wanted to savor the discovery of a new author or what, but I'm very glad I did wait.

Because the wait was so worth it.

Twilight starts out with17 year old High School Junior, Isabella "Bella" Swann moving from sunny Scottsdale,AZ to Forks, WA where it rains pretty much 362 days of the year. Her first day at school she meets Edward, a beautiful mysterious "boy" who seems to hate her. Intensely bothered by his apparent hatred, Bella tries to ignore him. But it's already too late. She's attracted to him and he to her. The revelation that Edward is a vampire (of the "vegetarian" variety...they dine on animals instead of humans) is almost anticlimactic, Bella's apparent nonchalance is more compelling given Edward's insistence that they not become friends. Again it's too late. They fall in love and Bella is introduced to the vampiric world by Edward.

Ms. Meyer has beautifully recreated the vampire mythos in this book. While it is a book aimed at the YA crowd, it is surprisingly sensual in its delivery. I've read much smuttier (much much smuttier) books than this and have been "meh" about them. With Twilight, I found myself a bit aroused by the tender love story between Bella and Edward. This is not to say that the book is unsuitable for the younger audience, (although I probably wouldn't give it to anyone under the age of 15) and I also wouldn't say that it is a "romance" novel either. There is action, almost terrifyingly so, toward the last 1/3 of the book.

I will be going out and buying the next two novels in the series (in hardback!) and will report on them here. I truly fell in love with this book. It gets, and deserves, 5 out of 5 berries.