Resenting The Hero by Moira J. Moore

From the author's website:  "Dunleavy Mallorough has trained her entire life to be a Shield, and she approaches her role with discipline and a wry sense of humor she generally keeps to herself. Lord Shintaro Karish is handsome, charismatic, and the last Source Dunleavy wanted as a partner. The Pair is assigned to High Scape, a city so besieged by disasters that seven bonded Pairs are needed to combat it. But when an inexplicable force strikes down every other Source and Shield, Dunleavy and Shintaro much put aside their differences in order to defeat the unnatural and the unexpected."

Look at that stupid silly cover.  Look at that title.  I know what you're thinking, because I thought it too.  I'm sure that everyone who passes this novel in the bookstore thinks the same thing, if it's even on the shelves.  "That's a comedic fantasy."  Maybe you thought it was a childish Piers Anthony pun filled level of humor.  Maybe you thought it more mature and sophisticated humor like Pratchett or Christopher Moore.  I thought it looked incredibly silly myself and the copy on the back of the book didn't help matters.  I read the back several times at the store and passed it by each damned time.  Then, the bloggers started to chat about it and it seemed it wasn't a comedic fantasy at all and many of them seemed to either hate it or love it.

This novel is actually just plan old fantasy.  And how you like it might depend upon how much you like the main character of Lee and how well you're willing to forgive her foibles and prejudices.  As for me, I'm a forgiving sort when I like a main character, and I did.

When we're introduced to her, she's at the beginning of being forced into a permanent non-optional working relationship with a man whom has been the source of a lot of gossip, both positive and negative.  Lee is an introverted, quiet, reliable, and naive person.  She takes the gossip as gospel and it causes both her and Taro (a name I hated since I kept thinking of taro plants and now I will only be calling him Karish from here on in) a world of problems, further complicated by the fact that the two of them are both very good at their respective jobs.  Yes, there are times I wanted to force Lee to see Karish for what he was.  When she does make concessions and when she realizes that she is prejudiced, you can see her trying to force him into what she expects him to be, even though this is not to her advantage.

Humorously, the novel is really about the relationship (non-romantic) between these two people, but Karish spends a great deal of the novel out of commission, so it really comes down to Lee and her feelings about the relationship they have.  Yes, there is a mystery and there is a villain, but the important meat of the novel is how Karish and Lee get along. 

I felt the writing was a bit weak, in a tell don't show way, and I had given it a seven or eight in my head when I realized that I wasn't blogging about it or moving it off my GoodReads list because I kept enjoying picking it up to read a section from it again and I was enjoying it more than any of the other books that I was supposed to be reading.  That says a lot to me.  Mostly it says that I tried to buy the sequel at Barnes and Noble today and they didn't have it.  Hello, library.  Get me the next two, please!

Verdict:  9.  I've read many better written books, but ask many how many I've enjoyed as much?

Thoughts:  I'm still shocked at the horrifying covers they've given this series as well as the little press besides bloggers who are clearly (and deservedly) infatuated with it.

Lee and Taro books

1. Resenting the Hero
2. The Hero Strikes Back

Books My Son Loves: Zen Ties by Jon J Muth

Oh, man, oh, man!  I've read this book sooooo many times.  My son is obsessed with this book.  "Read me the daddy and baby panda bear book!"  I think I could recite this book from memory and, yet, I still like it.

Though my son, age 2, would insist differently, this is the story of Stillwater the panda, his nephew Koo, his three friends, and an elderly lady who they all befriend.  There is much wordplay that goes on in the book, and even with the title of the book.  My husband was reading it out loud to my son when he said, "Oh!  Hi, Koo!  Haiku!" and I laughed that he had only got that on the second reading.  Where as, tonight, after fifteen hundred readings of it, I realized that Koo calls a gift of balloons uplifting, and I laughed again.

There's many a theme in this book that is fun to point out to a child so that they can spot it themselves.  For instance, I pointed out in one picture that everyone in it was wearing red ties and now he excitedly points out the fact to me when we read!  Additionally, I've tried to get him to point out all the apples in the book to me because I know he can be more observant than I and he's surprised me several times.

I hope that the greater theme of the book, ties within a community strengthen each member of the community, sticks with my son as well. And now, off to buy this book which I got on loan from the library.  Because if one little boy in my house doesn't have this to read, I think he might call for my head on a platter.

Stillwater Books 

1. Zen Shorts
2. Zen Ties

Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs

From the author's website: "Ordinarily, Charleston's Indigo Tea Shop is an oasis of calm.  But when tea shop owner, Theodosia Browning, caters the annual Lamplighter Tour of historic homes, one of the patrons turns up dead.  Never mind that it's Hughes Barron, a slightly scurrilous real estate developer.  Theodosia's reputation is suddenly on the line.  Aided by her friends and fellow tea shop entrepreneurs, Theo sets about to unravel the mystery of the deadly Darjeeling and encounters a number of likely suspects.  Tanner Joseph, the fiery environmentalist, held a grudge against the developer for his misuse of land.  Timothy Neville, the octogenarian major domo for the Heritage Society, opposed Hughes Barron's election to the board.  And Barron's unsavory partner might very well profit from a cleverly written buy-sell agreement!"

I say this now without any irony, I love the fact that mystery series are so popular that you can get one about almost any interest or hobby you have.  You want a mystery series about scrapbooking?  No problem!  How about one about knitting?  There must be three or four such series!  Gardening, wedding planning, coffee drinking, or birdwatching?   Yes, yes, yes, and yes.  Vampires?  Sure!  Witches?  More than one such series.  The only problem is weeding out the bad series.  

After recently deciding that I loved Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and Sarah Caudwell too much to stop at just them, I've been looking over some of these series to see if any of them could be enjoyable.  Unfortunately, I don't think the Tea Shop Mysteries from Laura Childs will be it.  While the book was inoffensive and decently written, it didn't thrill me or even make me want to read more than the first chapter which is not a great sign in a book.  I didn't have trouble powering through it to get it done with, but neither did I think it was a particularly memorable book other than about two seconds after introducing the killer, I thought to myself, "That person is the killer."  If I, a person who can almost never guess mystery answers, is able to do that based on nothing other than a character description, it's a little too obvious.

Additionally, I felt a few too many sub plots were not wrapped up properly.  There was no denouement that wrapped up those characters or plots which were left hanging.  I suppose this is because Childs had planned a series, but I really hate when that type of thing occurs because there is no guarantee that I'd like to continue to read the next book in the series.

Lastly, a great deal of enjoyment of the book comes from whether you like the main character of Theodosia, who is clearly an old soul.  I did not.  I found her to be boring mostly, with uninteresting interactions with most people around her.  The only people I liked to see her interact with was her romantic interest and the detective Tidwell.  Perhaps I found the other characters boring as well, but those two had enough strength to their personalities that they made Theodosia interesting as well.

So, why isn't the rating on this book even lower, you ask?  Because it is competently written and because someone who is more interested in tea might like the descriptions of the tea house.  In fact, those were the parts I was particularly interested in.  Perhaps it is time for me to go buy a book about tea and tea houses.

Verdict:  4.  I say on my rating page that a 5 book is one that makes me say, "Well, that was a book.  It sure was."  And that is exactly how I feel about this book, but I disliked it just a little bit more than that!

Thoughts:  I can't help but think with so many books in this series it must get vastly better.  I'm going to give one or two more books in the series a try.  I have book twelve or thirteen sitting on my shelves due to a kind neighbor, so I might give that a try to see if I like Childs's writing style or plotting better.

Betsy-Tacy and Tib by Maud Hart Lovelace

From Amazon:  "Betsy and Tacy are best friends. Then Tib moves into the neighborhood and the three of them start to play together. The grown-ups think they will quarrel, but they don't. Sometimes they quarrel with Betsy's and Tacy's bossy big sisters, but they never quarrel among themselves.


They are not as good as they might be. They cook up awful messes in the kitchen, throw mud on each other and pretend to be beggars, and cut off each other's hair. But Betsy, Tacy, and Tib always manage to have a good time."


 After reading the first book,  I decided to immediately get the second book from the library.  While I'm happy that I've continued to read, I wasn't as into Betsy-Tacy and Tib.  I think with the addition of Tib, I realized something -- I didn't really enjoy Tacy as much as I adored Betsy and Tib!  Betsy's imaginative nature and Tib's pragmatic nature are extremes that play off well against each other and make them fun to read.  Tacy's defining trait of shyness isn't as enjoyable to read though I did identify with it!

But, to jump back, Betsy-Tacy and Tib takes place about three years after Betsy-Tacy and the change in age does a bit to refresh the story.  Now, the girls realize that growth is constantly coming at them, and they even see their first glimpses of mortality (which would have been more real to a child back then) in Tacy's prolonged illness.  While they react to these ideas childishly and humorously, it's still a change from the previous book in which growing up meant being as old as their sisters who were then eight.

As I said, part of the thrill of the story was off for me when I realized I was getting irate with Tacy's actions or when I found the section on the flying woman not to fit into the story, but at other times, such as when the group decided to cook everything pudding, I felt happy I had picked up the second book so quickly.

I will definitely be continuing on with this series!

Verdict:  6.  Not as charming as the first book, but I still enjoyed it. 

Thoughts:  How about that scene in which Betsy doesn't understand why Tib can't grow up to be an architect but must be a housewife?  Maud Hart Lovelace pointing out the injustice of it all back in the Forties from the viewpoint of a girl growing up in the Nineteen Hundreds! 

Betsy-Tacy Books 

1. Betsy-Tacy
2. Betsy-Tacy and Tib

That's What He Said: Song of Susannah by Stephen King

First things first.  I'm introducing yet another new feature on my blog -- "That's What He Said".  I know, a silly title, but it's a play off of a silly joke between my husband and me.  In this little series, I'll give you my husband's reviews on books.  We have some overlapping tastes (mainly in nonfiction, sci-fi, and fantasy), but he likes a good horror, military novel, and thriller as well.  I plan on getting a small video memo of what he says and translating it into a shortened version of my usual review, verdict, and thoughts.  I hope you like this new feature!

Important to note is that my husband and I rate things very differently, so until he gets a guideline on how my rating of 10 works, I won't be including these reviews in my rating counts.

From the author's site:  "Susannah, now pregnant, has yet another taking control of her.  The demon-mother, Mia, uses Susannah and Black Thirteen to transport to New York City of 1999.  Jake, Oy, and Pere Callahan must rescue Susannah while Eddie and Roland transport to the Maine of 1977.  A vacant lot in New York is the prize that must be saved and ties these together."

Excerpt at USA Today.


It's hard for me to write this review, because I'm going off voice notes and my husband is asleep.  In fact, this one will be mostly a series of thoughts on the novel.
 
To sum up, this story focuses on the group that has been separated into three subgroups, each with their own story line.  My husband picked the Eddie/Roland story as the one he discussed the most, but that might have been because I prodded him about King's use of himself as a character.

In the Dark Tower Series, Steven King is a character in his own book because Roland and his crew realize they are characters written by Steven King.  He's written the first book and it's sitting in his garage when Roland comes in.  My husband applauded King for the skill in using himself in the books convincingly, which we both agreed was a good conceit for this long series and for King's love of meta and shared universes (see Flagg).

My husband stated that  especially like it for a latter King book, though it is not as good as Carrie, Cujo, or Salem's Lot.  He also mentioned that though the pacing of the book definitely gives it the feeling of being a good penultimate book, curiously, very little actually happens in the book.

Verdict:  7.  An above-average score for this last book which is one of the more coherent, less scattered of the latter books of this series, which were written and published very quickly.


Thoughts:  Probably best not to start here, but if you've made it this far through the series, why not keep going with this decent continuation?

Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace

From Amazon: "There are lots of children on Hill Street, but no little girls Betsy's age. So when a new family moves into the house across the street, Betsy hopes they will have a little girl she can play with. Sure enough, they do—a little girl named Tacy. And from the moment they meet at Betsy's fifth birthday party, Betsy and Tacy becoms such good friends that everyone starts to think of them as one person—Betsy-Tacy.

Betsy and Tacy have lots of fun together. They make a playhouse from a piano box, have a sand store, and dress up and go calling. And one day, they come home to a wonderful surprise—a new friend named Tib."

I  love classic children's stories, especially those about young girls, such as Heidi, Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, and Little Women.  I'm always pleasantly surprised when I find a new series (as I recently did with Little House In The Big Woods) but these discoveries get rarer and rarer over time.  One day while cruising the Classics section, I came across an intriguing book titled Betsy Was a Junior and I excitedly almost picked it up before noting it was part of a series.  When I got home, I did some research and discovered the Betsy Tacy series, which starts with a children's book about two five year old girls!

I was thrilled.  The series seemed to have a following and it was based on a friendship.  After getting it from the library, I read it in minutes and then went to add Betsy-Tacy and Tib which is the next book to my library queue.

This is one of those rare, sweet stories that is aimed at children but pleasant to read as an adult.  The topics it touches on such as friendship, growing up, death, imagination, and going to school could be enjoyed by a very young girl AND a slightly older woman.  A friend mentioned that she planned to read these with her baby girl when she was old enough and I envied her.  This is exactly the type of book I'd love to share with a daughter.

It's full of the every day lives of a couple of girls from the turn of the century and it easily shows that imagination is timeless.  Betsy's ability to tell a story that creates a way to play for her and Tacy is fun and their little serious conversations on topics such as the death of a loved one are both heartwarming and amusing.

Verdict:  8.  I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it stood up for my reading.

Thoughts:  I have already started to continue with the series, but I'm quite excited for the later books in which Betsy is slightly more grown up and the story is less childish.

Betsy-Tacy Books 

1. Betsy-Tacy
2. Betsy-Tacy and Tib

Books My Son Loves: Zen Shorts by Jon J Muth

After reading a quiet but favorable review of this series, I decided to give it a go with my son.  Now, two months later, he is obsessed and I'm terrified because I have no renewals left on this book and its sequel (which I'll probably discuss in the future). 

This children's book is both gorgeous and intelligent.  It teaches zen lessons with a deft hand, applying a child's thought process to them.  The teacher is a large panda bear named Stillwater who has moved into a house next to three young children.  He is large, but gentle and sweet.  The story around the lessons is my favorite part as the children do things like take tea with Stillwater, fly paper airplanes with him, or go swimming with him.

One of my favorite sections is one in which Michael, the eldest, and Stillwater fly paper airplanes.  It's simply some of the most beautiful children's text I've ever read.  My son, on the other hand, is a large fan of the illustration on the page which shows Michael and Stillwater in a tree throwing two paper airplanes.

Being only two, my son cannot appreciate the sentiment behind many of the pages, but I'm happy to introduce them at a young age as he can grow to understand them.  In the meantime, he's simply happy to be reading a story about a panda bear playing with children.

Stillwater Books 

1. Zen Shorts
2. Zen Ties