The Moorchild

The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw

This book is an old favorite; I read it first when I was still in elementary school, and feeling distinctly out of place. Back then, I was still the odd little shy girl who felt more comfortable curled around a book than playing with the other girls my age. There is something to about the wild magic in this book that calls to me. Add to this a protagonist who inherently belongs no where, but still finds a destiny of her own making, and I think this a delightful read.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

I once asked my husband if we could get a bundle of reeds put up in our yard for Mason Bee's. For those of you who don't spend all day thinking about gardens and the pollinators that go with it, Mason Bees are little blue bees that come together to mate in the spring, after which the female goes on a huge pollinating/nest building frenzy. She lays a considerable number of eggs, then dies and leaves the next generation to carry on the work. I'm no expert by any means, but when I asked my husband if we could have bees, somehow this translated over to, "Dear, can we have some Honey Bees?"

A simple misunderstanding, but it didn't end there. My husband had a talk in sacrament meeting the week after. The talk was on diligence, and the study material used the industriousness and productivity of honey bees as an example. This made him reconsider my request, and so he promptly informed the entire congregation of his change in heart at the beginning of his talk. I remember sitting there in those hard wooden pews feeling completely baffled. What was he talking about???

Well, we had a good laugh about it afterwards, but the members of the ward sure got behind the idea. I thought that this too was funny, so the next Sunday, I joking announced over the pulpit that "Operation Honey-Bee was a go!" I just needed my landlord to approve the idea.

Well, my landlord happened to be in the audience that day, and thought it was a great idea, as did a lot of other people...well, I was new to the ward, and when I realized how excited everyone was, I didn't have the heart to tell them that I'd only been joking. One fine sister even brought me some literature on the subject that she had happened to spot in a local garage sale and thought I might like.

Which brings me to this novel. The Secret Life of Bees. A beautiful tale about a young motherless girl who yearns desperately for love, set in the 1964 in the middle of the civil-rights movement. It involves overcoming loss, learning to accept and even love those different from yourself, and learning what it is to forgive oneself. It's language is beautiful, its message poignant. And yes, it does talk a good deal about bees.

So read it. Enjoy it.

And no, I'm not planning on starting a beehive any time soon (sorry everyone!).

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

This book skips away from my preferred light-hearted fantasy track to a far more serious, but decidedly intriguing, read. Nothing To Envy is a biography that captures the lives of 6 people who at one time lived in North Korea, and eventually escaped. It starts before the death of Kim Il-sung, and spans more then a decade of time. The people featured in this book are ordinary--from a young school girl who meets her first real love, to a mother who finds herself selling food on the black market...to a school teacher who watches her children grow thinner and sicker as the country goes through a massive food shortage. I had always been curious about North Korea, and I think that this book does an amazing job of dispelling many of the assumptions I had about these people, as well as providing me far more fodder for thought then I would have originally guessed.

I listened to this book while training for my marathon (actually, I listened to it during a very long 4.5 hour run...it kept me good company), and would recommend this form of media to anyone with a long commute. I think you'll be surprised by how captivating it is...and having someone to read the occasional Korean words aloud certainly is helpful. (:

Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn

Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn

I'm a sucker for a well written romance. And a romance where the chick gets to throw fire at people? Even better!

I appreciated this novel because a) there were many well developed characters, not just the main two, b) the "romantic tension" keeps up for the entirety of the novel with out seeming forced, and c) I like both the hero AND the heroine in this story...which doesn't always happen!

Truthfully, it's hard to say if this book is a heroic fantasy with a romantic subplot, or a romance dressed up like a heroic fantasy...I'm leaning towards the latter. However, for my gentleman readers, there's still some sword fighting, shape shifting, and other good manly stuff, so don't feel too put off...

I'm do something for you guys a little later, I promise.

Characterization: 7/10
Fun level: 8/10
Cleanliness rating--I would put this at a PG-13...but one of the later books in the series deals with an affair (that comes to a suitable tragic end). You have been warned.
Plot: Good to fair.

P.S. Yes, my rating system is based on what ever comes to mind when I'm typing each post. Deal with it.

The Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan

The hook: two thieves break into the castle on a last-minute=job to steal a sword, and discover the freshly dead body of the King. You guessed it--the guards who are too happy to pin the murder on them!

This book (or series, really, there are three of them) is romping good fun. The author does a marvelous job of foiling the two main characters (Hadrian Blackwater and Royce Melborn) against each other (and I totally love their names...love them). Hadrian is the kind of guy who you wouldn't mind walking your teenaged daughter to her car at night (he carries three swords, what could go wrong?)...while Royce is a cynical sour pickle of a man who I somehow still find deeply endearing. While there is nothing original in the world building, or perhaps even in the plot, this is a remarkably well executed book. So if you like fairies, dwarfs, dragons, big swords, and humorous dialogue, pick up this book.

Genre wise, the first books is heroic fantasy...by the end of the third book, it has safely morphed into epic fantasy.

Dialogue: 10/10...should make you laugh a goodly bit. Especially when the characters start arguing like an old married couple.
Plot: 7/10...predictable, perhaps, but not trite. I found myself guessing a great deal more in the later books then I did in this first one.
Characters: 8/10...The main characters are fabulous, but the prince is a little flat. This changes as the series progresses.
Content: 8/10--Watch out for the opening scene with the prince (it's brief, and the only explicit scene of that nature in the series). Beyond that, there are are obviously a number of people who die (and yes, bad stuff does happen to good people), but this is a fairly light hearted book.
Magic System: 5/10...pretty basic stuff.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson



The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Epic Fantasy has always been one of my great loves, and no one in modern fiction does it better then Brandon. (Disclaimer: I actually know the guy. He was my professor at BYU.)

While I think it's safe to say I've enjoyed all of Brandon's novels, but none has quite the "wow!" factor that this novel did for me. He's a prolific writer--it might take you a while to read everything he's produced in the last ten years--but if you're not afraid of a BIG BOOK OF AWESOMENESS, start with this one.

(For the less ambitious, go for his Mistborn Series...more on that later).

Pros: Solid characters, wonderful world building, a fascinating (and highly original) magic system. Brandon also consistently has the ability to have lovely twists and turns in his plots...not predictable, but not highly erratic either. This is someone who knows how to guide his readers through the garden of story with out getting them lost on a side path...and with out making them want to sit down and whine cause they're "tired."

Warning: my sister and perhaps a few others had a hard time getting into this book at first...it's a hefty novel, and its intro is likewise a little hefty. But I promise, it'll be worth it. Just don't blame me if you're up till 2am reading it...for a week straight...did I mention it was a big book?

Oh, and it is the first of many, and ends on a cliff hanger. I hear the next one will be out sometime next year. Don't pick this up if waiting for a sequel for a protracted amount of time bothers you.

Story Quality: 10/10
Themes explored: Leadership. Determination. Trust. Honor. The just war theory.
Characters: 9/10
Content: 9/10
         Warning: this is a book that deals a lot with war. While never explicit or graphic, a good number of people die in this book, and to some degree, war is glorified (and then questioned...by a few characters).
Dialogue: 8/10
Magic System: 11.5/10
Heft and Weight as you throw it at your annoying little brother: 20/10
(NO, WAIT! Don't do it! It's a first edition!!!)