The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Maureen Johnson

I LOVED the first books in this series - the Mortal Instruments.
I liked the Infernal Devices series.
I am just tired of them now.

Here is my pet peeve.

I read the books years ago - they have very detailed and intricate story lines. Magnus is an important character - but honestly I have forgotten most of the details of his part.

Now this book comes up and it makes me feel like I am on the outside of the cool kids inside jokes.  I wish there would more background - or more connections or something.

So - I did enjoy most of the later stories - the first few really fell flat. But the very last story was by far the most frustrating for me. I can't remember anything of the events.
I didn't like this book nearly as much as I did the others.
Shucks - I really wanted to because I liked Magnus!

Some Luck by Jane Smiley

image from LibraryThing

Life on a farm has never been easy.  This book proves the proverb once again.  Life on a farm in southern Iowa for Walter Langdon was not easy.  But, ease would not have been Walter's goal!  Instead, he wanted to raise a family on the land - and that is just what he did!

Smiley follows Walter's family and life from 1920 until his death in 1953 chapter by chapter, season by season, year after year.  Walter marries Rosanna and together they weather the fat years of the 20s and the con-summing drought of the 30s.  They raise their children on the acres of the farm - working long hours and feeling incredible pride for their accomplishments.  At least most of them.

I liked the format of this story. Each chapter was a new year.  The chapters didn't necessarily follow the same character throughout - but they did follow the time chronologically.  So we are able to watch as a family gets electricity or the first car. We experience the Depression in a very Iowa way - they didn't starve, but that is because they worked for every bite they got!

One of my pet peeves with farming books is the ridiculous rose-colored glasses that some writers use when they  speak of farming. Smiley doesn't do that.  It can be incredibly lonely and beyond difficult - like when Rosanna delivers her own baby by herself because she is not able to get to the field for any help.

It took me a while to get in to this book.  I kept waiting for some big moment when luck would come in to play.  The reality is that all farming is luck.  All farmers know that - you have no control over the weather or the markets.  You live on faith and luck and lots of work!

It was interesting to read about Iowa towns that I know...and the comparison between Iowa State and University of Iowa certainly rang true for me...you will have to read it to find out what I mean!

Havana Storm by Clive Cussler

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When I get a hankering for a fast page turner - I am always pleased when there is a new Dirk Pitt novel to read.

So I was really excited to see this new title in Target when I was shopping this week!  Cussler gave me a page turner - but...I have read enough of these to be able to anticipate most of the twists and turns!

Just a little background...Dirk Pitt has done to Marine Biologists what Indiana Jones did to Archeologists!  Picture Dirk as a mixture of Indie + McGyver and with the looks of Matthew Mcconaughey!  He is smart and honest and witty and strong and and and...you get the picture!!

I knew before I started reading that in this book there would be a looming oceanographic disaster that only Dirk and colleagues notice, it will include a shady figure from a foreign land and some sort of diving exploration that will go bad.  There will be explosions and gun fire and close scrapes with death.  And in the end - against all odds - Dirk will save the world with a self-deprecating flair!

And as I began reading - I was not disappointed.  There is something comforting in a formula that works!  The villians were current and rather cold-blooded.  And everything was tied up in a neat bow before the rest of us mere mortals even knew there was a problem!  Just the way heroes are supposed to work!

A fast and enjoyable read!

The Mulberry Tree by Jude Deveraux

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Lillian Manville was nothing until James Manville found her.
And she continued to be nothing unless he was with her.  She was plump and shy and unhappy and unfazed by the glitter of the billionaire life.  And that was just the way James liked it. Lillian knew that.  And she was ok with that.

And then he died.

And she became the scapegoat and the butt of all jokes. The dumpy woman behind the genius. The pitiful wife who was left out of his will. The lump in the corner that everyone loved to ignore who now was truly a nobody.



But, did James really turn his back on her?
He left her a note in the will asking her to find the answers.
And he left her a house.  A horrible tumbledown ghastly house in the mountains of Virginia outside the town of Calburn.
A hideous house...with the most incredible garden hiding in the weeds under a magnificent mulberry tree.

And that is where Lillian finds her true self as Bailey James.

She finds her voice
and her will
and the truth behind James Manville.

This was a book that I thought I had figured out a couple of times.
It is a love story - the hunky contractor who swoops in to save the newly widowed. newly beautiful stranger in town. And yes that does happen - but it's more than that.

It is a story of empowering women to be more than just the spouse.
It is about the lengths of pain one decision can inflict on others.
It is about the stories that are hidden in small towns.
It is about how hard it is to find truth when most people want life to just be.

I enjoyed this!
And I would recommend this!

The Magician's King and The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman

I am a sucker for a trilogy. So I knew I would read these all as soon as I started the first.  But - it was hard work to get through the The Magician King - the second one.  

I felt off kilter all the time.  They didn't behave the way I wanted a magical world to behave. I wanted happy magic. I know that Harry Potter was dark - but I always knew the good would win.  Here - I wasn't so sure.  It never felt like a done deal - it was always an option that the dark would just be.

On top of that I really didn't like Quentin - the main character.  He was a pompous ass and magic just made him a magical ass.  But the Magician King wasn't really his story. It was much more about Julia - Quentin's high school pre-magic love interest in the first book.  And although her story was intriguing - it was an even darker kind of magic.  It was tied up in extreme teen-age angst and I am just tired of that.

But - I am a sucker for a trilogy. So I kept going.

And then I read the last book - the Magician's Land.
And this one I liked.
Quentin was dethroned and humanized. He couldn't toss magic around as easily instead he had to really work!  And as he worked he became so much more likeable!  And he sacrificed himself for others - always a great and heroic thing to do!  And magic changed.  I like that!

So at the end of these three - I can say I am happy I read them.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

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I am still not completely sure how I liked this book.  It was hailed as a great alternative to Harry Potter.  I am not so sure I would agree with that description.  I think it is more a bored teenagers' bored view of magic and the disillusionment that can come when you get what you wished for.  Now - that doesn't sound very Harry Potterish.

Plus I feel truly sorry for any book compared with Harry - it just isn't going to measure up in my reading world.  Harry was for all ages - The Magicians seems mostly for out of sorts teens.

Even though I was not in love with the book I could not stop reading it. I wanted to know what happened in Fillory, what happened at Brakebills, what happened to Quentin.

So the basic story is a hidden magical school in upstate NY.  Quentin, a very anti-social, anti-excitement, anti-everything sort of teen gets in to his shock and hidden awe.

The book chronicles his life in Brakebills, his love for Alice and his ongoing escape into the fictional world of Fillory.  So - Fillory is a book that he loved as a kid and keeps returning to as if that is the seat of all magic. Every magical moment seems to be compared and found lacking to Fillory.

So I thought his schooling would build to a big ah ha moment - but it built to a creepy secret graduation ceremony that included personalized demons and secret codes from the head of the school.  And the book continued.

So - what does a graduated magician do in the real world - absolutely anything they want and you can imagine the problems that causes.

Then there is a quest - sort of  - and a horrible battle - way gruesome - there are deaths and there are survivors.

But - this book lacked the undertone of good vs. evil.  This was just magic for magic sake and the questions that Quentin and his friends bantied around were the meaninglessness of magic in a world where there was no need.  I found it all rather depressing and anti fun.  That is what magic brought in other stories - fun.  I know there is often a down side - but there was joy and positive energy.  That does not exist for the Magicians.

The end was a bit of a shock to my system.  Not what I expected.  But - it did make me want to pick of the next book and start reading.  So even though this was not my favorite - I have hope for Quentin!!

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell

We have no idea what it was like to be a headstrong young woman in the 30s or 40s. We can look backwards at our grandparents and believe that they grew up with the same sensibilities and realities that we do.  But - we would be incredibly wrong!

This is one of those books that force me to understand that life has CHANGED!!

Iris receives a cryptic phone call from a hospital that is closing.  It seems her great-aunt is a patient there and she has to pick her up. There is a huge problem with this phone call- she doesn't have a great-aunt.  Her grandmother spoke at length about being an only child.  Oh yeah and her grandmother has Alzheimer's and her father has died.

But - Iris feels an odd pull to this woman and agrees to speak to the doctor and eventually take Esme and help her find the next place where she will live.

This story is told in snippets between the reality of time between Iris and her step-brother Alex - interspersed with passages of Esme's memories and semi-fractured reality and disjointed bits of Kitty's mind (Iris' grandmother.)

And oh my!

Esme lived a life a bit out of step with sensible society - questioning the wearing of leather gloves and layers of petticoats.  But her deep connection with her sister Kitty kept her grounded. When that connection began to fray Esme broke loose in a heart-wrenching way.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book!
This is a haunting story of desperate decisions and retribution.
The end caught me completely by surprise!!!  Whew!!

Really interesting book!!