Boy goes to wizard school. Didn't appeal to me. Too cutesy. I recommend So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane, A Wizard Of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin, The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper and even The Winter Of Magic's Return by Pamela Service. Read it again in 2012, it seems to have improved a bit. Now I'm reading book two! Interesting that Nicholas Flamel is in there!
After escaping the tentacled bounty hunter Kenneth, Cole ends up being the reluctant sheriff of a village beset, or soon-to-be, by outlaws. Bad Men. Some pretty funny stuff.
Words I Had To Look Up:
amuse bouche (pg. 263) -- A small complimentary appetizer offered at some restaurants.
Quote:
It had been that way since the WikiWars a century ago, when Wikipedia became self-aware and began vengefully reediting its contributors with remote-controlled heavy weaponry. (pg. 18)
This one is several books into the Queen & Country series, of which I have not read but one, this one. Spy thriller, starring Tara Chase. Lots of action!
P.I. Stuart Winter is hired to find out what happened to a deaf girl. An interesting charactor works at the S.F. P.L. Interesting info about the deaf, and gorillas, and birding
QUOTE:
"I have observed in htis world that there are three types of people. There are the cleaners, and there are those that make a mess, and then there are those who are weathervanes." "Weathervanes?" "Spinning whatever direction the wind blows." [sic] Weathervanes constitute the bulk of our race. They wait for circumstance to change them. They never change circumstances. They never even think of changing it. They'll march for peace. They'll also be part of a lynch mob."
Crime writer Maryelizabeth Line comes to San Diego to find out if someone is recreating the murders from her first book. A highly recommended crime story.
Hotelier Am Caulfield takes on murder and Japanese at the Hotel California. A very good story! Just as good in the second reading, too! Just as good in the third reading, too!!
Read:
4/2001
Read:
3/2006
Words I Had To Look Up:
truckle (pg. 284) -- Yield to out of weakness. kusou (pg. 274) -- Kuso is a Japanese curse word. Mispelled?
Rooster Franklin goes to Kansas City to restart romance with old lover. Fourth book in series. Rooster doesn't seem to remember he already knows Rick Meza from book three, at least...
Police Chief Raymer is still trying to come to terms with the death of his wife Becka some months before. Sully has some bad medical news. There's smelly yellow gunk coming out of the ground. Great story!
Quote:
"You probably just remind her of someone," one nurse speculated, to which Sully replied, "Yeah, but the person I remind her of is me."
Quote:
"narrative disruptions," -- I think I may be having those, too!
Quote:
"...And of course I'm armed. People do respect that, especially in a Negro male." -- The whole paragraph is even better!
Quote:
He'd worn briefs his whole life until he disrobed in front of Becka that first time and she'd reacted to them with startled revulsion. "Well," she said, "that's going to have to change."
Quote:
He didn't know much about cobras, but he was pretty sure they didn't have three eyes.