Snowflakes and Spider Silk

Title:  The Well of Ascension Author:  Brandon Sanderson Genre: Fantasy, science fiction My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads summary: They did the impossible, deposing the godlike being whose brutal rule had lasted a thousand years. Now Vin, the street urchin who has grown into the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and Elend Venture, the idealistic young nobleman who loves her, must build a healthy new society in the ashes of an empire. They have barely begun when three separate armies attack. As the siege tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows. It may just be that killing the Lord Ruler was the easy part. Surviving the aftermath of his fall is going to be the real challenge. This book is so slow . I was bored through the middle, but I still trudged on. I'm so glad I did. The last fifty pages of this book had me at the edge ...

Title:  The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry Author: Gabrielle Zevin Genre: literary fiction My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads description: On the faded Island Books sign hanging over the porch of the Victorian cottage is the motto "No Man Is an Island; Every Book Is a World." A. J. Fikry, the irascible owner, is about to discover just what that truly means. A. J. Fikry's life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island-from Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who's always felt kindly toward Fikry; from Ismay, his sister-in-law who is hell-bent on saving him from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who keeps on taking the ferry over to Alice Island, refusing t...

Title:  In the Woods Author:  Tana French Genre: mystery, psychological thriller, adult fiction My rating:  4.5 of 5 stars Goodreads summary: As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours. Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of t...

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme: Top Ten 2014 Release I'm Dying To Read I could only come up with 8 from next year that I really want to read - a lot of the books I want to read were published this year :) Ruin and Rising (Grisha #3) Cress (Lunar Chronicles #3) Mortal Heart (Grave Mercy #3) Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of smoke and bone #3) Ruins (Partials #3) Sinner (Wolves of Mercy Falls #4) Burn (Pure #3) We Were Liars

Allegiant by Veronica Roth My rating: 2 of 5 stars Strangely, I wasn't bothered by the capital E Ending. In fact, I really liked it. What bothered me was pretty much everything else. Let me start out by saying that I loved Divergent. It was one of the better YA dystopian novels, and what I respected the author for in that book remains true for this one - bad things happen to the main characters. There is no almost-but-not-quite-in-harm's-way business here - people take a beating physically and emotionally, and you really can't say that a character is going to magically get through something just because they are an important/main character. No one is safe, and I really liked that since it seems like a lot of YA books tend to pull out all the stops to magically keep characters from ever actually getting hurt or dying in situations where they should (Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series being a prime example). This is one of the reasons I really liked the ending tha...

Title:  A Feast for Crows Author:  George R.R. Martin Genre: high fantasy, adult fiction My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: With A Feast for Crows, Martin delivers the long-awaited fourth volume of the landmark series that has redefined imaginative fiction and stands as a modern masterpiece in the making. After centuries of bitter strife, the seven powers dividing the land have beaten one another into an uneasy truce. But it's not long before the survivors, outlaws, renegades, and carrion eaters of the Seven Kingdoms gather. Now, as the human crows assemble over a banquet of ashes, daring new plots and dangerous new alliances are formed while surprising faces—some familiar, others only just appearing—emerge from an ominous twilight of past struggles and chaos to take up the challenges of the terrible times ahead. Nobles and commoners, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and sages, are coming together to stake their fortunes...and their lives. For at a feast fo...

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme: Top Ten Books I'd Recommend To X Person This one is a little hard, since I just posted my list of science fiction recommendations for people who don't usually read sci-fi. There are books I really love and recommend to almost everyone I meet, but those books are the ones on my favorites tab and you can find those any time. Hmmmm... I think I'll recommend fairy tale retellings, because everyone has read and loved fairy tales at some point in their lives! Here goes... 1. Beastly by Alex Flinn - This is a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and it was pretty entertaining. Alex Flinn always manages to work in a lot of humor into her retellings, and this one also featured a main character who went through quite a transformation as the book progressed. I really enjoyed it! 2. Cinder by Marissa Meyer - This is a retelling of Cinderella and features a plagu...

In case you're just joining, November is Sci-Fi month! I'm part of a bunch of blogs that are putting the spotlight on science fiction, hosted by Rinn Reads . Today's post takes a look at elements of science fiction that have now become a reality. Jetpacks  - We don't have the kind that can power off and take you across the country yet, but we did develop the Bell Rocket Belt in the 1960s, a jetpack that is powered by hydrogen peroxide. Unfortunately you could only fly for 20 seconds at a time. Currently there's a Martin Jetpack, developed by Glenn Martin from New Zealand, which can fly for half an hour. The catch? It weighs over 100 pounds. Cell phones - Star Trek featured futuristic hand-held communication devices to talk to people all over the world. And now cell phones are a reality! It's hard to imagine that they were ever even the stuff of fiction. Teleportation - Like the jetpack, we technically have the technology for teleportation - just ...

This is for all of you who are scared to dip your feet into the ocean that is sci-fi. Whether it's because you aren't into spaceships or aliens, or if it's because you think it's too technological, intellectual, or depressing, I have something for you! Science fiction is just so varied that there really is something for everyone. If there's anything in particular you are looking for, just ask and I'll do my best to recommend something for you! Biological sci-fi (for those of you who don't like spaceships or physics or robots, but don't mind medical terms or think genetic engineering is cool) This one is set in a world where people are born with two souls and one fades away over time. But what happens when your other soul never really goes away? The story is very character-centric and there's a bit of medical terminology, but I would call it sci-fi lite. If you are really not deterred by medical jargon and virological/biological r...