First in the Alex Rider series, teen Alex is recruited to save the world, or at least the U.K., from free poison computers. Quite a lot of graphic violence, I thought, for a teen book. Get off my lawn, you kids!
A thirteen-year-old lad and his somewhat dim older brother run a rather unsuccessful detective agency. Somewhat bloody for middle school, I thought. But then, thousands are killed in The Lord Of The Rings.
Primrose lives in a small fishing village in Canada. Her parents are lost in a storm, but she never gives up believing they are still alive. Several interesting recipes. Cherry Pie Pork chops sounds the best!
A series of staggeringly brutal events recounted by a man from Afghanistan. I can't say I would care to see the movie, but I do feel like going kite flying.
Fictional story inspired by real people, an American quack doctor builds a radio antenna for his radio station in a poor Mexican border village. I liked it very much!
Quote:
Corinthian leather seats. -- "Corinthian leather" is an advertising term invented in the 1970s, I think it was.
Quote:
-- This, the doctor proclaimed, -- is a South American rhino.
Quote:
Love, in other words, was in the air. -- The 83 (or so) word sentence which precedes this is a perfect lead in!
Blue has to decide whether to fund PBS in broadcasting Fawlty Towers to a new generation of viewers, or help his girlfriend pay the rent. He makes the right choice!
Words I Had To Look Up:
Running-head (pg. 84) -- Text that appears in the top margin.
Contumacious (pg. 100) -- Willfully obstinate; stubbornly disobedient.
Quote:
On several occasions car doors had opened unexpectedly while he was riding past, but this was the first time the door was attached to a Mercedes 500 SLC. I must be coming up in the world, he thought wryly, and it's about time.
Edited by William Dean Howells and Henry Mills Alden.
I read the Project Gutenberg e-book edition.
Eleven stories about the "American Girl", except one of them is British.
Quote:
Sometimes when she leaves her alone for a few moments in her chair, she laughingly bends over and says, "Promise me that you won't run away to heaven while my back is turned." -- from The Little Joys Of Margaret I took this phrase out of context a bit, but it struck a chord with me. I turned away for a while, and she was gone.
A collection of stories mostly having the first Iraq War as a theme. Thought it was going to be humorous, wasn't. A couple of stories were interesting, but not really my cuppa.
This volume contains the novels Valors Choice and The Better Part Of Valor. I enjoyed both novels. Gritty military-in-the-future stories. I TOTALLY did not get the final sentence of Better Part Of Valor. Last sentence in ROT-13: Ab bar abgvprq gur gjryir ynetr terl pnavfgref fgnpxrq nybat bar ohyxurnq. I feel a dolt, someone please explain it to me.
Quote:
...and a diTaykan, who looked remarkably depressed for a species who invented flavored massage oil before the wheel...
Witch takes over the junk store for her missing/possibly dead aunt in Calgary. Dragons, a sorcerer, and even a leprechaun don't begin to convey all the weirdness that goes on. Not to mention her romantic problems.