This book is probably of limited interest to my readership (assuming I know my readership.) But – just so you know what took so very much of my reading time the past several weeks, here you go:
Homeschooling: a Patchwork of Days by Nancy Lande This book contains essays from 30 different homeschooling families, detailing one day in their lives. Usually, it’s also accompanied by some of their homeschooling and education theories, and a follow-up a year later.
( Read more... )While interesting, the homeschool book took a very long time to go through, and I felt in need of some extra light reading to follow. This one, passed on by a friend, has already been promised to two others wanting to read it. Maybe I should print out a
Book Crossing tag for it.
The Very Virile Viking by Sandra Hill The year is 1000. Magnus Ericsson is a simple Viking man who likes plowing both fields and, um, women. He’s not ashamed of either of those, but with 11 living children, he’s become a laughingstock. He decides to take his nine youngest children and head for the New World, where his two older brothers had gotten lost years earlier. Going to a land without women and taking a vow of chastity should keep him from fathering any more children. But while sailing through a fog, he sees a vision of an old woman with prayer beads, and ends up in a very strange place called Holly Wood. The first woman he meets is, alas, beautiful and wearing clothing a lot skimpier than Vikings are used to. The last thing Angela needs in her life is another creep like her ex-husband, but Magnus might just have a good heart buried under all that macho bluster. And the Blue Dragon, her family’s struggling vineyard is certainly in need of help – in fact, her grandmother had been praying for a man for Angela and lots of children. There might be a bit too much praise for Wal-Mart and order-in pizza, but the romance is sizzling and the story highly amusing.
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Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen Two estranged sisters forge a bond they never had as children in this new book of magical realism. Older sister Claire Waverly grew up living in her mother’s car, while Mom shoplifted a living and slept around. When her mother took her to the family home in North Carolina just before her younger sister’s birth, Claire vowed never to leave home. Sydney Waverly, however, followed in her mother’s footsteps, down to running back to Bascom with a young daughter in tow. The whole town knows that Claire has the Waverly touch – dishes cooked with the flowers from her garden will do strange things. But Sydney never thought she was a real Waverly. Claire learns to expand herself and Sydney finds her roots; they both find a little romance, as well, though that’s not the main point. I really enjoyed the relationships and the magic; the dialogue caught me the wrong way just a couple of times. The character names seemed like they were pulled right off our library storytelling roster, which was quite amusing. And for all these small flaws, this was one I ignored chores to read, a rare occurrence.
California Demon by Julie Kennon I must confess that I couldn't get through this second book about a Buffy-like demon hunter mom. It's just that it's a little too personal at this time. I can't really enjoy reading about a mother dealing with potty training and demons, when just potty training feels like too much just now. Maybe in 5 or 10 years I'll be able to joke about it. Meanwhile, if you're a Buffy fan and are not involved in toddler rearing, you might very well enjoy this.
Demon's Kiss by Eve Silver Clea Masters always thought her parents died in a car accident twenty years ago. She doesn’t know why she survived. Ciarran D’Arbois, a sorcerer sworn to protect the boundary between the human and demon worlds, remembers the dying eight-year-old who managed to draw on his power to heal herself very well. The crack in the boundary she opened up left him with a demon permanently struggling to escape its prison in his left hand. He just didn’t know she would be so irresistible 20 years later, and still able to siphon of his power without knowing it. But now, someone has betrayed the Compact of Sorcerers. Someone seems to think that Clea is the key destroying the boundary and letting demons have free reign on earth. Meanwhile, Clea and Ciarran can’t keep their hands off each other. Will this dangerous attraction prove to be their salvation or their downfall? OK, so there were some parts of this that made me snort – our sorcerer has an evil hand, for goodness’ sake, and it seems to draw a bit uncomfortably on Renaissance thinking about sex to have our heroine just leach power from our hero. However, the plot is fun, our heroine smart and capable, the sex steamy, and the author an anatomist who does not feel the need to use silly phrases like “woman cleft”. If you want some hot lovin’ with actual sparks, this is a good choice.
Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman Comic geeks, take note! This genuine no-pictures novel puts a fun and realistic spin on the world of superheroes and supervillains. Our antihero is Dr. Invincible, pondering on what separates villains from heroes, remembering key superheroes as they all attended the same high school for the gifted, and plotting again to take over the world. Our heroine is Fatale, a cyborg with only shadowy memories of her former, fully human life. She’s the newest member of veteran superhero team the Champions. As she never feels that she quite fits in, she watches the other team members closely, giving us as readers insight into them. The reflections fit in between showdowns in a book whose characters, setting, and plot are all compelling.
The Sweet Potato Queens' First Big-Ass Novel by Jill Connor Browne with Karin Gillespie. Read by the author. I've been a fan of the Sweet Potato Queens for several years now, and heard really good things about the audio novel from a colleague. Well, I think it's a good first novel, and funny as novels go. It's just that novels are inherently less funny than a book of straight comedy. I remember my grandfather complaining about the Cosby Show for the same reason. The novel is a change from the books, aside from being fictional, in that the queens have different names instead of all being called Tammy. In the fictional world, Jill and friends Mary Bennet, Patsy, Gerald and Tammy form the Sweet Potato Queens in high school, to help Tammy get over being rejected by the Key Club. They have a highly successful debut in the homecoming parade, outshining the elected homecoming queen and president of the Key Club. The book proceeds to follow the Queens from high school in the 60's through to the 90's, with romances, career changes, and some painful misunderstandings between friends. It's all very southern, very soap-opera like, crude-mouthed and sparkly, like the Queens themselves, and very much for women.
