2022 Catch-up Review: Origins (Book 3 of Heritage of Power)

Origins by Lindsay Buroker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Trip has always wanted to fly. It has been his dream, and he is content to be left alone as long as he can do what he loves. All his life, people have considered him odd, though. Over the course of the series we begin to discover, along with Trip, that he is far more than what he seems and what he believes he is.

Chockfull of Lindsay's usual repertoire of action scenes and banter, this series started out with a five star from me. However, as I've gone into each book after the first, the stars have been steadily decreasing. I enjoy Buroker, but I am beginning to find this storyline rather disturbing. While the main characters are interesting, and the romance between the main couple has a sweet and believable development, the background story of Trip is simply bizarre, and I can't take much more of it.

I'm saying goodbye to this series!

2022 Catch-up Review: Cascade Reviews

Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow by Jerome K. Jerome
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I took my time over this book of essays, and I enjoyed them so much! There is nothing that Jerome writes that one cannot relate to, and he really does help one see the ridiculous in ordinary, everyday topics. I love how he laughs at himself, and there is always such a subtle thread of satire running through his essay, heavily cotton-wooled in fondness. There are, of course, his off-tangent forays into the poetical realm, and I loved them just as much -- perhaps even a little more than all his humour.

I know this is one set of essays I am going to be picking up again and again and again....I have done so, already!

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is heart-warming. The deep, gentle passion that it is written with spoke to me. A professor with his great love for mathematics passed on to a keenly sensitive and perceptive housekeeper and her son known as Root, throughout the novel, appealed to the teacher in me. This book if full of portions I would love to quote, and it opened up a world of mathematics to me that I have never experienced before. It is rare to find a teacher of maths who can bring out the mystery and beauty of number, and Ogawa did it so inspiringly in this novel.

Here, I am going to add a minor spoiler. The relationship between the three characters is so poignant. It took me awhile to understand how the detailed commentary of the baseball-play ranked so much importance along with the rest of the narrative. I believe, even now, I might not have understood it completely except that baseball was a common link between the professor, the housekeeper and Root, and also served as a stark reminder that the professor's memories were from before 1975, and he held none after that time.  

Escape From Java And Other Tales Of Danger by Ruskin Bond
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Stories of ordinary children caught up in real-life traumatic incidents and overcoming odds with valour. Simple yet effective writing.

 

View all my reviews Golden Curse by M. Lynn
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I skimmed through this one very quickly. It started out with a promising enough premise, and the language was fairly decent. But the characterisation fell terribly flat, especially with regard to the main characters, Etta and Alex. There was no consistency in their personalities, and every time they were on the page -- which was most of the time -- it was like going on a see-saw.

The way the details of the plot went forward could have been way better as well. I felt like pieces of the plot were just being dropped out of the middle of nowhere, almost like the writer suddenly remembered, in order to move on to the next incident, a certain piece of information must be known first and so 'pop' here is some random bit of story being thrown at you!

I find I am not interested at all in what happens next.

2022 Catch-up Review: Tales from the Café #2

Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm just done with the first story, The Best Friend. I cannot describe what feelings it has left me with. It is something similar to some anime I have watched years ago that have a very mercurial and whimsical feel to them. My experience of Japanese writers (and anime I have watched in the past), though little, has brought me to this conclusion -- they acknowledge a world that exists apart from the physical realm. The spiritual realm plays an active part in the physical, and in acknowledging it they build stories that embrace the strangeness of these two worlds mixing.
Gohtaro wants to meet his best friend from the past, and though there is trembling mention of 'spooks' it is not so strange for them after all.

The sepia tones of the cafe, both in the present and the past, create the sense of the unreal, giving the story a rather dream-like quality. There are long moments of abject silence interrupted with sudden bursts of talk and laughter and energy that can be quite unsettling (not in a bad way).

The story itself (not counting the setting) was warm, full of forgiveness and hope, and the characters were just so...Japanese. I don't mean anything by that last comment except to say I could recognise these characters of few words and in-depth feeling from the quirky anime I have seen before.

I look forward to reading the rest of the stories, and updating this 'review'.

UPDATE: I read through this slowly -- story by story. This book was just special and nostalgic in a way. I loved these characters. They were so quiet and yet so real. 

I've got the first book in my cart right now. Looking forward to reading that one as well! It will give me a more wholesome view of the recurring characters in this book, and I look forward to re-discovering them backwards!! That should make for an interesting experience.

2022 Catch-up Review: Stella Riley Cascade Reviews

The Parfit Knight by Stella Riley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This popped up as a recommendation and the cover drew me to check it out a little closely. As someone who has enjoyed hours and hours within the pages of Georgette Heyer's Regency romances, my interest was piqued with it looked like this book might turn out to be written much along the same lines.

It has been enjoyable.

I might try out one or two more at a later date!




The Wicked Cousin by Stella Riley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It was disappointing. After the first one I had read, that I found so reminiscent of Georgette Heyer, I was expecting much of the same. However, it turned out...otherwise.

Riley writes well. But I discovered, on reading this book, that she really is not my cup of tea.

2022 Catch-up Review: Nonfiction Cascade Reviews

Memory How to Develop, Train, and Use It by William Walker Atkinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While I hadn't gone actively looking for a book on developing memory, I had been thinking of ways in which I could improve mine. I was a little worried that my mind was getting to be a bit fuzzy, and that I wasn't able to remember details from my day. This book was a happenstance.

I happened across it when looking for something to listen to from librivox. So, naturally, I took it up to listen during my car rides to and from work.

These minutes, while listening to Atkinson's treatise, have turned out to have been productively used! I have been gradually employing some of the 'natural' suggestions given, and I have begun to see a difference.

My key take-aways are:
Interest
Attention
Impressions
Review and / or Repetition

Reviewing my day, recalling what I've eaten, worn, said, people I've met and exchanged important words with, make my brain feel a little sharper. I have my own set of 'interests' I am looking into and have begun working on. Now, I only have to stick to this like glue!

A full five because this really was not a waste of time at all!

The Choice: The Christ-Centered Pursuit of Kingdom Outcomes by Gary G. Hoag
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book has been very insightful. I am eager to read it again piece-meal, and study it along with it's study questions at the back of the book.

My biggest take-aways from the perspective of deeper insight into a couple of things in the Bible, were the passages that dealt with our Lord's three temptations in the wilderness, and the rocks that brought forth water while Moses lead the Israelites.

Apart from these, there is much about true Christian leadership that gave better understanding about much.

2022 Catch-up Review: A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't really know what to say at the moment. I think I'm still processing what I've read. I like that the book takes up big ideas and tries to simplify them into something understandable through this story. How effective it can be, I am not entirely sure. Did it move me? No, not really. But it had me interested...very much so. I believe the major underlying theme of this book is that nothing is what it seems. The sense of 'sight' and the power of words appear to be detriments in the philosophy of the story -- detriments to true or complete understanding. It would have been nice if some of these ideas had been explored further. However, there is no getting away from the fact that this is a book meant for children, and perhaps this much is a great deal in itself.

The characters were not wholesome. Each of them was created to play a role, including the protagonist, Meg, and that is that. While this might have bothered me, it did not do so much as I was a lot more invested in trying to understand where the writer was going with all these ideas. I am not able to lay them all out here, though. My thoughts will not translate to words. Words do not seem enough and might end up only complicating what appears to be so simple in my mind -- much like one of the book's themes!

2022 Catch-up Review: The Admirable Crichton

The Admirable Crichton by J.M. Barrie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The title character is a butler in the household of an English Earl. He is the epitome of butler-hood and, very 'properly', believes in the hierarchy of society even into the servants' quarters of the Earl's estate. He serves his superiors with sincerity and aplomb. But Mary, the oldest daughter of the household, is keen and sharp, and fears that Crichton's beliefs might be foreboding, for, as he keeps saying, 'nature' brings about class in a society. And the rest of this play takes us through the unfolding of how this belief works. We are introduced to role-reversals and are given much food for thought through all the humour in this play. 

I first read this play back in senior high school and enjoyed it then, but with a recent re-read I found that so much I did not understand back as a teenager, makes so much more sense now -- and I enjoyed it again!

Definitely worth a read!

2022 Catch-up Review: Prince Caspian

Prince Caspian: Book Four: The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm reading this series out aloud to my sons and am discovering it for the first time along with them. I'm beginning to find that I am not so much a fan of C.S.Lewis' writing style. While he is wholly imaginative and there are bits of writing that stand out to me, on the whole I do not find his style particularly captivating. Sometimes, it feels a bit tedious, but my boys appear to be paying the stories a great deal of attention. Knowing the allegorical nature of the series, my boys enjoy discovering the connections, and are sometimes quicker at finding the connections than I am!

They are enjoying the series, and were prompt in pulling out book number 5 the moment I was done with Prince Caspian. I'm not ready for it, though, so we're moving onto something else for awhile before we return to Narnia.

2022 Catch-up Review: The Horse and His Boy

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My sons and I are reading The Chronicles of Narnia in chronological order, and we're enjoying the series together as I discover it for the first time with them.

The Horse and His Boy is the third book in order. Our main character is a young boy called Shasta. He is the adopted son of a fisherman, and lives in a country quite far from Narnia and where the latter is just a rumour. He finds himself, unwittingly, in the middle of an adventure with a talking horse called Bree. Along the way, Shasta and Bree collect another horse and its rider, on their journey toward Anvard and onward to Narnia. Queen Susan, King Edmund and Queen Lucy make cameo appearances; and there is a case of mistaken identities and a battle.

It was slow-going for a long while, and my boys and I had to sort of 'push onward' at a particular stage in the storytelling. To be honest, we had dropped the book for awhile, and only recently picked it up again to finish it. However, it was when we picked it up again that we came to the events that made the rest of the story move swiftly to its conclusion.

The allegorical nature of this particular book lies in the quiet, unassuming, yet protective and pro-active nature of Aslan. More cannot be said without spoiling the whole.

My favourite thing about this story is when Shasta asks Aslan about something he had done to his female companion, Avaris, and Aslan tells him that it is not his story to know. That is such a tangible truth! Each of us has our own story, our own spiritual journey, and it is for us to know ours and for us to not poke our noses in the journeys of others. A beautiful truth!

I do believe, it is this exchange that bumped my stars for this book up to four. Otherwise, I was going to leave this at three.

The boys and I are now looking forward to Prince Caspian!

2022 Catch-up Review: Broken by Magic and Chosen for Power

Broken by Magic by Lindsay Buroker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My reviews of the first two books stand for this one too, for the most part.

(Spoilers are in my review on Goodreads.)

I wasn't all that satisfied with how things turned out at the end of the book. There was a 'wholesomeness' missing. Perhaps we shall get it at the end of the series? ...

 

View all my reviews Chosen for Power by Lindsay Buroker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When one is the fourth book into the series, I'm not sure how this can stay a review any longer. Review wise, Buroker keeps up the pace. There isn't a boring moment! The mages and mercenaries in Torvil are just as constantly engaged in a fight for survival as are Jak, Jadora, Malek, and whoever gets to go exploring the other worlds with them. The plot thickens, the characters grow, the snark is less prominent, but in a more fitting way. There is plenty more to intrigue one even further.

Now, for just a few of my thoughts on things that happen -- not for those who haven't read the book as yet! (Spoilers on Goodreads.)

2022 Catch-up Review: Art of the Hunt

Art of the Hunt by Lindsay Buroker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just couldn't put this book down, and put off quite a bit of my work to simply complete it.

There is just one goal - to set up the portal. Jak and Jedora want to get help from the 'kindly' dragons to help save the terrene humans from slavery, King Uthari wants it to get a plant that would make him something of an immortal, and all the other kingdom rulers are out to get the portal...just 'because'. However, there is another set of people - the druids - who is out to destroy anyone who does set up the portal. For some as-yet-to-be-revealed-reason, the portal only ever responds to Jak, and its revelation of visions makes the mother-son duo a little wary of what they might be up against should the portal begin working again after ten thousand years. They get to find out.

I love how Buroker completes this arc.  However, there is no telling, with absolute accuracy, where this main plot is taking us -- and I am enjoying that! Buroker has several strands of threads that need to come together at some point or another, and they all point to so many more intrigues to come.

As always, Buroker does such a wonderful job with her characters. Even if they are up only for a few pages or less, they have so much character, that you remember them for a while yet. Every single one of them stands out from the pages as real people -- it doesn't matter if they are black or white or an in-between grey. The banter is amusing, though, the similarity of it sprinkled from the mouths of any character that matters, does make it obvious that this is simply Buroker having a good time.

I am left with so many questions that are to be answered. I'm really looking forward to reading Book 3!

2022 Catch-up Review: The Elf Tangent

The Elf Tangent by Lindsay Buroker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a fun, binge-worthy read. I love that Buroker went off at 'a tangent' in the middle of the couple of series she is currently working on, and took the time to get this stand-alone novel involving elves. We have a princess who loves solving maths problems and is a secretly aspiring economist bound by her princess duties and the fact that she is a woman. Then we have this elf mercenary who strongly believes she is the sole person to help solve an elf-problem that has been taking place for centuries by then.

I find it interesting that Buroker worked with the usual princess story tropes. It was rather unusual for her, but I believe it worked. One gets the sense that she thoroughly enjoyed herself with this one, and I suspect that playing with the tropes made her absolutely gleeful.

Her characters, as usual, were spot-on, and the main ones are endearing. There is her usual dose of light-hearted banter, but always, beneath the surface, there is depth to each of her characters that drifts to the surface in their expressions, tones and mannerisms.

This was an easy 5 stars to give!

2022 Catch-up Review: Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

When I picked up this book, I wasn't particularly prepared to love it. But I was definitely expecting something magical and something that explained Mary Poppins since she is such a mystery in the Disney film.

While it was 'magical' in terms of the extraordinary flights of fantasy the writer takes us off into, it did not feel magical. For the most part I found it quite disturbing. There was so much about it that was dark, and there was so much that was so 'secret' that the children constantly questioned themselves about the true-ness of the things they saw and experienced.

When I was done with the book, I felt it had been strongly lacking in some sort of theme or something (a plot, to be exact) that tied the whole thing together. But now, as I write this review, I realise that if there was a theme, it was that little children should keep quiet about what they 'see' and 'hear' -- grown-ups wouldn't believe them anyway, and yes, they would forget these things themselves. Did I say this book was disturbing already? -- incredibly so, the more I think about it.

Mary Poppins was this mysterious stranger who walks into the lives of the Banks children, just like that. She does what she pleases with them without rhyme or reason. Then she leaves. She is not likeable at all. She is snooty, vain, bad-tempered, uncommunicative and unapproachable. It makes one wonder how the children could possibly like her. Perhaps, it was not so much that they liked her but that they constantly hung about her and tried to please because she had them by the nose (so to speak). Unusually interesting things always happened around Mary Poppins. What child would not be curious and excited?

Another reviewer suggested that the syrup she gives them when she first meets them might be something of a hallucinatory drug or something that keeps the children by her side and quiet. Whatever it might be, that sounds like a likely theory because really this story is INCREDIBLY disturbing!

I might have harped on about how this might have spoilt the movie for me. But while the film had been a favourite as a child, whilst watching it several times as an adult with my children, I had discovered that I didn't really like the character of Mary Poppins at all. I have now discovered that Julie Andrews played the character according to the book for the most part. Of course, she was a pretty Mary Poppins, and she could be charming. But there was nothing charming about the original.

Where the writing was concerned, I found it rather bland and flat. There was nothing striking or charming or whimsical or poetic or literary about the writing. I ended up finishing the book only to get it over and done with.