2009 Books

A collection of short stories. Table of Contents reads: A Scandal in Bohemia (the famous Irene Adler story) The Red-Headed League A Case of Identity The Boscombe Valley Mystery The Five Orange Pips The Man with the Twisted Lips The Adventure of Blue Carbuncl The Adventure of the Speckled Band The Adventure of the Engineer’s [...]

After finishing The Obsidian Trilogy, I was looking for something lighter – or at least shorter! I am running out of time if I want to read 50 books before New years (November 21 and I have only read 32 books – starting in June not withstanding), so I turned to the shelves and found [...]

This is the final volume of The Obsidian Trilogy. I can’t decide whether I am thrilled to have read it or sad to have finished it. Its not the sort of series that ends on a huge upnote – there has been war, and lots of people have died. I also can’t say too much, [...]

Volume 3 of the series is rolicking along nicely. Rodda has a nice ability to bring up elements introduced in earlier books and reuse and expand on them later. This may, of course, be simple planning, but nonetheless, she does it well. Our heroes have defeated two Sisters and now must go after the third. [...]

Volume 2 of any series is hard to describe – its not the beginning, so explaining the characters isn’t trivial and its not the final so I can’t tell you how it comes out (even ignoring the whole ‘no spoilers’ issue). Nonetheless, I am really enjoying the read, and am hanging between reading as fast [...]

Again we return to Deltora. Leif, Jasmine and Barda have defeated the first Sister and have been dropped off by the Ruby dragon as far west as she can go and still remain in her territory. They meet up with a group of carnies – but things are more sinister than they seem. Will they [...]

This is the third and last series of Deltora Quest – and I am going to miss it so! Recap: I wouldn’t normally include kid’s books in a ‘what I am reading list’, but I am reading these aloud to my son – if it takes me more than 2 nights to read through out [...]

Its so hard to find Volume 1 in a Mercedes Lackey series, so I was pleased to find vols 1, 2 & 3 of The Obsidian Trilogy. I’ve finished The Outstretched Shadow and I have to say, I am very excited – its a great book. We start with Kelson, a young man learning to [...]

I’ve always enjoyed Asimov’s work as a ‘light read’, so I picked up Foundation’s Edge when I was last getting more books. Maybe its me, or maybe its the reading level, but I’m not finding Asimov’s works are aging well. I had problem’s with his habit of describing female character’s bodies in detail as to [...]