A Good Month of Reading

I completed thirteen books in April, and am back on track for 100 for the year. I've already blogged about Stephen King's Cell and Lance Armstrong's biography. The last book of the month, finished late last night is Beka Cooper: Terrier by Tamora Pierce. I enjoyed it immensely. As young adult fantasy goes, it is easily one of the better stories I've read in quite a while. Not surprising then to find that it is a Missouri Gateway Award nominee for 2008-09. My wife, the librarian, tries to read all of the upcoming years nominees (and has done this for the last several years), and I pick through the stack to find the good ones. This was a good one.

Here's my April list:
1) The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters; the next book in the Amelia Peabody series. My wife read one of these books a while back and I guess she just doesn't appreciate the dry humor as much as I do. I find Amelia Peabody to be hilarious. Mix that with the strong archaeology background (after all, Peters has a Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago) of the stories...what's not to like? I'm just glad that there's 19 books in the series, and thus will keep me snickering for years to come.

2) The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio by Alexander Kent; another young adult book, written by an author who's pretty well known. This is the first of his I've read however. The story was ok... I probably won't go out of my way to find and read more books by this author. I did like the cover art of this book. Cover art is a whole 'nother topic for another time...

3) It's Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong
4) Cell by Stephen King
5) Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer

6) Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian; again a series that I really enjoy, and one that will keep me reading for a good long while. This episode was nothing spectacular, although I did very much enjoy looking up Desolation Island on wikipedia.

7) Ranger's Apprentice 4: The Battle for Skandia by John Flanagan; go here to this fun website to read more aobut this Australian authors excellent fantasy world. My son and I can hardly wait for each new installment.

8) Stone Cold by David Baldacci; the finale in the Camel Club trilogy. Baldacci really has a low opinion of Washington politicians. But as they say, finding something to criticize about politicians is like shooting fish in a barrel. Stone Cold wraps up the series in a satisfying (yet unsatisfying.. but isn't that the goal?) way. I liked it.

9) The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich; I should do a whole post on this one book...and I might. Set in Wyoming, where I spent three summers working and playing, how could I not love this book? More later...

10) Grave Peril by Jim Butcher; why am I always exhausted whenever I finish one of these stories? Maybe it's because Harry Dresden gets beat up, burned, mentally and physically tortured, slashed, etc more than any other 'tough' guy I know. Every book is the same, the only thing to change is the monsters doing the damage. This time it's vampires and a rogue sorcerer's ghost demon. Not a series to read straight through for sure.

11) A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray; another fairly new author to appear on the young adult scene aiming at girls. Set in a victorian England girls finishing school.. I was suspicious of the language, did a little research and found that Bray grew up in Texas. Hmmph. Not a bad story, it's been nominated for some awards and I'll read the other two books in the trilogy, but... if I can spot the flaws...

12) Sharpe's Rifles by Bernard Cornwell; here's another book deserving of it's own post. Bernard Cornwell's first Sharpe book written in 1988. He essentially wrote two different series concerning Richard Sharpe. If I had it to do over, I would have read this book (and series) first instead of starting with chronological first book set in India (which Cornwell wrote much later).

13) Beka Cooper: Terrier by Tamora Pierce; I'm beginning to think that I've got a thing for female protagonists... um no, Harry Dresden, Oliver Stone, Will the Ranger's Apprentice, I've got plenty of male characters in there too. I just wonder if the girls are more noticeable now because they were neglected for so long. For whatever reason, it's a good thing and I look forward to the next book set in the world of Tortall.

Well that wraps up a good month of reading and reviews. Welcome May and warmer temperatures!!