March 31, 2009

Fun Easter Egg Books Just in Time for the Holiday!

Filed under: Childrens — Tags: , , , , , , — susan @ 10:31 pm

I love reading holiday books with my little preschooler, whether it’s for Halloween, St. Pat’s, or any fun holiday. It is so fun to read to get kids ready for the big day and to discuss expectations. Another fun thing I usually do is get at least one book for the easter basket, and what better than a book featuring Easter and sharing!? But so many of the Easter books piled out all over stores are LAME and only there as filler for you to buy and regret later.

Here are two classic Easter books that I highly recommend.
Both are very sweet, and have an underlying theme of kindness and sharing. Neither of these books discuss religion or family details. This might be useful if you are like me, and you don’t go to church. These books also don’t set the expectation of “sitting down for a big meal with family”, in case your family is out of town or that isn’t in your Easter plans!

Happy Easter, Davy! by Brigitte Weninger and Eve Tharlet
This is a very sweet book that starts out when the little bunnies in the woods hear that there is an “Easter bunny” who brings gifts and eggs. They wonder who it is and if they will get anything. Then later one of the youngest bunnies, Davy makes eggs and treasures to surprise all in his family. It is so special to see how hard the little one works to make his family happy, and how they appreciate everything they get. The Easter bunny also brings a surpise for the little bunny Davy, too. This sweet book demonstrates kindness, sharing, family, being considerate, appreciatiative of presents, and of course, Easter Eggs!

The Very Best EASTER Bunny by Ann Braybrooks and Josie Yee
This is A Little Golden Book featuring the characters from Winnie the Pooh. Rabbit tells the friends that he can’t be the “Easter Bunny” this year to help with the Easter Egg hunt, because he has too much work in his garden. Each character from group tries on the Bunny costume and realizes that he can’t do it. Eventually, Pooh and friends decide they will all help Rabbit in the garden together and then they all get to celebrate Easter together. This is a great way to show how being considerate to others can benefit everyone. It’s very simple, but funny and sweet and my toddler really enjoyed it.

Happy Easter everyone! Happy reading and may you get lots of great treasures from the Easter Bunny!

March 28, 2009

No Rest for the Witches, A Story Collection by Four Great Authors

Filed under: Light Reading, Paranormal Romance, Romance, Science Fiction - Fantasy — Tags: , , , , , , — susan @ 12:42 pm

MaryJanice Davidson, Cheyenne McCray, Christine Warren, and Lori Handeland combine in this short story collection which enthralls and amuses. It’s short, it’s light and funny, and yet these stories also manage to have enough depth and character development to keep the me captivated through to the end.

I’ve taken to trying to read more short stories, in order to get to sleep at a decent hour. (If I get hooked and have to read through to the last page, then it helps if the book I’m reading only has 50 pages instead of 850). Unfortunately, many story collections leave me dissapointed by their positive potential and subsequent dissapointment. This book was different!

Each story was unique, and had great strong leading ladies. Several of them made me laugh out loud. I love reading stories that make me smile, giggle, and laugh as I romp along with the main character from first battle, to blundering through to save the day.

These stories don’t have a lot in common, except that the main characters use magic in some way. One witch doesn’t know she has powers or how to use them, while in another story there is an epic battle between war-weary witches and demons. They all have great characters, good plotlines, fun love scenes, and good solid writing.

March 27, 2009

The Third Secret, by Steve Berry

Filed under: Light Reading, Thriller — Tags: , , — david @ 11:15 pm

I enjoy sweeping thrillers that involve a lot of characters and locations. Steve Berry has, for the past four or five years, been kind of in the middle of my list of liked authors for this type of book. The Third Secret jumped him up a couple of notches.

I’m not entirely sure why, but this book seemed much better to me than the others of his that I’ve read like The Amber Room and The Charlemagne Pursuit. (Of which, I liked the latter quite a bit and the former not so much.) I think it was that this book seemed better thought out from beginning to end. There were many more threads that started from the very beginning of the book and finally tied together into a single piece of cloth by the end. That’s what keeps me excited and presses me to finish a book.

This book is similar to Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons in content. It surrounds secrets in the Vatican and a power hungry pope wannabe. I don’t belong to an organized religion and I don’t usually care to spend my free time studying/learning/whatevering one. It says a lot about a book about organized religion when I can get completely sucked in.

That being said…like the Dan Brown books, The Third Order is critical of the Catholic Church. So if you’re sensitive about such topics, I’d pass on this one. Otherwise, I found it to be a great story that was well-developed and well-told.

March 18, 2009

Promises in Death by J.D. Robb (Eve Dallas Book 28)

Filed under: Detective Novel, Romance, Science Fiction — Tags: , , , , , , — susan @ 7:08 pm

The latest Eve Dallas “in Death” crime novel lives up to the rest of the series, a great detective story with a little romance, friendship, mystery, and humor wrapped in. Promises in Death by JD Robb (aka Nora Roberts)follows the futuristic storyline of NYPD’s Dallas as she tracks down the worst vicious killers in the Big Apple.

I love that these stories are set in New York in the year 2058, which is about the same as it is now, except there are a new perks like food generators and cars that can fly over traffic jams. The futuristic setting gives the story more flavor and allows Robb to expand her imagination, using “new technology” to add to the plot and action.

In any setting, I would be drawn to this gritty, tough, sarcastic cop who has a style all her own. Her gorgeous millionaire husband helps her crack cases by cracking into computer systems and alarm systems alike. As usual he helps on this case as a “consultant”. The murder victim in this book is a fellow cop, which brings a different tension to the story as the department rallies around and everyone works to find justice for one of their own.

Dallas has great relationships with the folks surrounding her, very well thought-out by the author to be humorous and heart-felt. The romance with her husband is great, the interaction adding to the story and keeping those steamy love scenes plausible and unpredictable! There is a GREAT shopping scene by the pair in this book that I won’t give away but it is awesome!

The books by now are kinda formulaic, but it’s all good to me since it’s such a fantastic equation! Great characters each with interesting storylines to follow; evil criminals up to no good; several mysterious characters that Eve needs to crack to tell who is the murderer; well-written love scenes; Eve’s struggle to mesh her poor and abusive past with her current fruitful and full life; and watching as she tries to catch and convict her killer; it all adds up to another great novel.

March 16, 2009

Article on Eric Carle

Filed under: Book News, Childrens — Tags: — david @ 11:05 pm

Newsweek has an article out about Eric Carle, the author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This book has been a favorite of kids for a long time…40 years this week, in fact. I was surprised to find that this book has sold more copies than even Goodnight Moon and Cat in the Hat.

Carle is now 80 and there are some interesting tidbits in the article about Carle’s real-life garden and its inhabitants.

Check out the article at: http://www.newsweek.com/id/189230.

March 15, 2009

Murder Game by Christine Feehan (Ghostwalkers Series)

Filed under: Light Reading, Paranormal Romance, Romance, Science Fiction - Fantasy — Tags: , — susan @ 9:52 pm

The lastest in the Ghostwalkers series is yet another romance filled with action, suspense and bullets. This book is not the best in the bunch, but the basics are still there. But depending on your wish to read pages and pages of love scenes, you may not want to pick this one up.

I love the premise of this series, it makes for some really exciting story lines and plot twists. Set in modern day, this series is about a group of people who have been experimented on to enhance their natural abilities.

Some of the men are soldiers who entered the experimental program through the government. They have been genetically altered to have different talents. Some have psychic abilities, superhuman leaping, climbing, running, etc. Some of the women who were also experiemented on (illegally) have some fun talents like firestarting, telekinesis, mind control, and more.

It makes for some interesting reading and great suspense when people are chasing after them trying to kill the lot and get rid of the evidence of their genetic experiments. There is also some solid government conspiracy, battle planning, army comraderie, and soldier mentality in thoughts and conversations.

That said, this latest in a long series is a bit of a stretch. There was a limit to the new concepts introduced, and it just wasn’t as interesting in reading about the characters’ supernatural abilities.

I found the development of the romance story weak in Murder Game, and really lame that the author tried to make this up with sex. Who in the world needs to read an eight page sex scene!? And that followed up by many more scenes that go on way too long.

I get the concept of showing love through actions, and feeling insecure unless you are touching or loving your new partner. However, this book is so over the top! It took moonlight and roses and “valentine be mine” into psychotic creepy “you are my possession and must submit”. Obsession is not love and treating a person as a possession is worse. All I could think of as I read this is that some women out there think that this is a normal romance, and are staying with their abusive husbands after reading this.

I would recommend skipping this latest in the series and re-reading an older one instead.

Inanimate Alice - Chapter 4

Filed under: Book News, Technology, Thriller — Tags: — david @ 7:17 pm

I blogged recently about Inanimate Alice, an online story interactively presented in a web browser. It combines the story with images, video, music, and interactive games to tell the story of a young girl named Alice who is 8 in the first chapter and 14 by the fourth chapter, which my daughter and I just enjoyed today. There are scheduled to be a total of 10 chapters, of which 4 are currently available.

As the chapters progress, the technical improvements in the story presentation are clear. The first two chapters have minimal user interactivity; the third and fourth introduce full games built directly into the story. What impressed me the most about the fourth chapter was that the presentation of the story has improved dramatically. Don’t get me wrong–I’ve liked the presentation in chapter 1-3. Chapter 4 just really takes it up a couple of notches. An example is that the text of the story appears, moves, and disappears along with the scenario. For example, in one scene the text moves up the stairs in the user’s POV, then turns left at the top of the stairs and disappears behind the wall. Very cool.

One other interesting thing in this chapter was a pseudo-marketing-tie-in. I say pseudo because while the product was in the story, there was no marketing, per se, in the story. On the credits screen at the end of the chapter, there’s a link to a website with more information. Unfortunately, the product in question seems to be tied to an Education system that requires previously gathered identification. Too bad…I was actually interested in it.

Again, if you like interactivity stories, I recommend you check it out: www.InanimateAlice.com.

Curious George: Frolicky Fun or Irresponsible Irritant?

Filed under: Childrens — Tags: , , , — susan @ 6:58 pm

I think everyone would agree that Curious George is a childhood classic. But some “classics” just aren’t right for today’s kids (some are downright scary that our parents ever read them to us!). When I first started reading Curious George with my child I was a bit apprehensive; this monkey just can’t stay out of trouble! And there are never any consequences.

Is this irresponsible, reckless, inconsiderate primate something I want to feature for my little one? For instance, in “George and the Birthday Surprise” this monkey menace splatters the kitchen all over with frosting. No consequences or punishment follows, because George has the neighborhood dogs in the house to lick it all off! From a parents perspective, I groan and envision my kids trashing our kitchen “cooking” like George or even feeding random messes to the dog (oops, we spilled the glue)!

But over time George and I have come to understanding.
As a parent, it’s up to me to use George’s fun-frolicking craziness to showcase what NOT to do. That’s part of watching him get into trouble story after story. And my little girl LOVES how George is always so silly. She shakes her head at him, because she knows better than that curious little creature!

As we read George, I periodically ask my daughter, “Uh-Oh, what did George do?” and “Is that something that YOU would do?”. My little daughter loves to laugh at George and tell me what he has done wrong. What a great way for her to learn!!

In contrast to not having any punishments for his antics, there are often natural consequences. George never gets put in timeout unless you count the time he spent in the slammer. That’s right, this primate has been to prison. But often the consequences work themselves out. In “Big City” George must wrap boxes for customers to make up for the mess he made at the department store.

Even when the story doesn’t show the reality, as when George runs off by himself in New York in the book, Curious George in the Big City. As parents we can still ask the question, “What do you think will happen next, because he did that?”. Or, even better, “What would happen if YOU did that?”. It’s a great way for children to feel smart and to test limitations and learn consequences through the story, instead of doing these nefarious deeds in real life.

So George is always welcome in our house, as an example of what NOT to do. In the process, he makes us laugh as we learn.

A Great Economical Choice I would recommend for any parent for years of good reading, A Treasury of Curious George , includes 8 great titles:
Curious George and the Dump Truck
Curious George Goes Camping
Curious George and the Birthday Surprise
Curious George Visits the Library
Curious George Takes a Train
Curious George Visits a Toy Store
Curious George Goes to a Costume Party
Curious George in the Big City

Nightseer by Laurell K Hamilton

Filed under: Paranormal Romance, Science Fiction - Fantasy — Tags: , , — susan @ 12:32 pm

Of course I picked up this book because of my love for Laurell K Hamilton’s other books. The Anita Blake books are about as good as it gets; vampires, violence, sex, fantasy characters, magick, and great writing. But this book is Hamilton’s first book, or her first published book, which came way before the Blake series.

I found this book to be action-packed and captivating. It is very different from the Blake books in that it is straight fantasy. The setting is not modern day; this story is set in another world entirely, a Renaissance type land filled with sorcerors, vampires and prophets.

The story is choppy and has issues with the beginning and end. The plot is a bit confusing, as if the story starts in the middle. The back story is so complicated, there needs to be a whole nother first book. But the writing takes the cake and the characters are fun and interesting.

Laurell K Hamilton is just a superb writer. In short, this seems a typical debut novel - what it lacks in polish it makes up for in a great story with depth and interesting characters and action-packed plot!

March 11, 2009

Inanimate Alice - Evolving, Online Story

Filed under: Book News, Thriller — Tags: — david @ 8:41 pm

I ran across this site today: Inanimate Alice. It’s a short story told via short blubs of text, music, images, and some basic interactivity. It’s presented as a Flash animation and tells the story of a young girl named Alice and her imaginary friend. It is cleary set in modern time as reflected by Alice’s constant need to plan with her digital companion. So far, there are four chapters available, there are to be ten in all.

The music/sound effects are good and the graphics/images are effective. If you don’t click on the “move forward” arrows immediately, you’ll see an effect on the text similar to what you see in a horror film. There are little bits of interactivity, not enough to be challenging, but enough to be interesting. Like clicking the correct icon on the phone or taking pictures of flowers outside the car window.

The first chapter, “China,” is a bit  simplistic, as told from the POV of a 8 year old girl. I found the simplistic language distracting at first. I found the same in the second chapter, but maybe not quite so distracting. It’s hard for me to get into the story deep enough in such short segments for the voice to stop being distracting.

Alice is 10 in Chpater 2 and the text blurbs get longer accordingly. There are also tidbits that start to stand out like “…snow is falling like a heavy curtain between me and the rest of the world.” Is this type of metaphor in the vocaulary of a shut-in 10 year old girl? Seems like maybe the author is trying to find their voice…but again, maybe it’s just the short blurb format that makes it seem a little disjointed to me.

By Chapter 3, I’m completely hooked. The narration is much more developed and the blurbs are long enough to sink your reading teeth into. There’s also much more interactivity and the option to turn it off. If you play the game in chapter 3, it’s like one of those old “Choose Your Own Adventure” books…you can’t complete the story until you find a doll in every section.

I haven’t read Chapter 4 yet (my daughter wants me to save it for tomorrow) and chapters 5-10 aren’t available yet. But this is definitely a story I’ll follow. If you like the story, you should register for the news letter so you’ll know when the next chapter comes out.

 

On a side note…This reminds me of a web-story I read a long time ago called “Dead Kelly.” This was probably around 1998-9. It was a brilliant story about a recently deceased woman still walking around the city. Sadly, I can’t seem to find it today. I even tried the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine. If anyone happens to remember this, post a link; I’d love to re-read it.

Surprisingly, I found that I wasn’t terribly impressed with the story after Chapter 1 — there are high expectations in my head from my memory of Dead Kelly — but the second chapter drew me in. I’m quite looking forward to the rest now.

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