January 6, 2009 at 3:22 pm (Reviews)
Book: The Shadow Theives
Author: Anne Ursu
Just got finished reading the first book in the The Cronus Chronicles series by Anne Ursu. One of the reasons I love working at a library is because you are instantly surrounded by free books, the key word being free. You can take as many as you want home and not have to worry about if you can afford them or not. At this moment I have over 30 books checked out and since starting in mid December I have read over that many. Belatedly I remembered that I had thought to do book reviews on the books I read. I would like to go back and do the ones I have read before now but that’s some number of books.
At any event The Shadow Theives by Anne Ursu is a young adult book that I have enjoyed reading. It takes place in an American town, part of London and the Underworld. It’s a story about Charlotte Mielswetski (Meal-wet-ski) and her biracial cousin (at least I think he’s biracial his father is white and his mother is black but Ursu refers to him as black…so don’t know really) london born cousin Zachery Miller. Charlotte seems like a normal teen besides the fact that she has no inclination to improve her bad attitude, trying harder at anything or meeting new people. And her cousin is normal as well besides the unexplained illness all his freinds and the kids at his school and summer club have come down with, but he seems okay. So nothing should be thought of when Zachary comes to live with Charlotte and then the kids around her start getting sick. She can’t think about that right now she has to take care of the new kitten she just found.
Reading this novel I found myself smiling and laughing at loud often. My favorite part was when we are introduced to Cheron in the passage,
“Everyone knows he has the worst jon in the Underworld. He spends his days rowing back and forth along the Styx, listening to the Dead freak out because they’re Dead and they had so much to live for blah, blah, blah, and where in the heck are the pearly Gates anway?”
There’s adventure, action and a little bit of magic. Mrs. Ursu has a unique and fun style of drawing the reader into her story and ultimatley her mind. If you are looking for a story that’s garunteed to make you question everything you know about Greek mythology, or confirmation that some teachers are really weirder than they semm, or that guy down the street named Phil is really at the heart of something naferious, then by all means pick this one up at your local library.
-B.J.
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January 5, 2009 at 2:45 pm (Family, Fiction Writing, Fun Times, Job Search, Life in General)
Tags: Artemis, Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, Mom, New Books, New Year
Wow I can’t believe that it’a a new year already. I’ve been on wordpress for one whole year, and I’ve not change much since the beginning. Least I don’t think so. I mean there have been some changes since the last entry.
I got a part time job, well more like two part time jobs but I haven’t started one. The first one was for substitute teaching for my counties school. The problem was that not only did you have to pay to go to the orientation but also to have a physical and TB shot. Ofcourse I had to hear about my mom fussing about them not footing the bill, because alone the two aren’t that expensive but for anyone doctor to do both it cost an arm and a leg. Especially if you are in that group of americans who don’t have health insurance. So I borrowed the money from my sister to pay for the orientation and then my mom was going to pay for the shoot and I found a place to do the physical free. But then she started fussing about how she didn’t have any money after she gave me the money for the shoot, so I was like screw it I’ll pay for it when I have the money. Because the day I was going to go get the shot, I got a call back from a job that I wanted more than the substituting one. Which leads me to the next job, it’s a part time job at my local library. I was so estatic to be back in the library setting. It’s tiring work for someone who hasn’t been working in a while, but it feels so good to be getting back into something to look forward to do everyday.
My computer is gone for semi-good, the powerbox blew and to replace that would be the same as buying a new one. So I have no way to get online from home. I’m using one of the computers from the library now and it’s an hassle to get on one of these. Jen did buy me a Fly pentop computer for christmas, but it does me no good if I can’t hook it up to a computer. Oh well I’m saving to buy a desktop this time. I’ve done the whole laptop thing and it’s just not for me.
Since being back in the library atmosphere I get to be around books all the time which means I have a ready supply of unread books at my disposal. You don’ t want to know how many I’ve read in the last couple of weeks since I’ve started working. I’ve been hardcore looking for series to read. I’ve finally started working through the Harry Potter series. I know I’m all sorts of late for the craze but that was the point. I never jump on the wagon when everyone else is on it. I’m the one person who waits and then jumps and misses it so I have to go it alone and end up lost and confuse and arrive at the destination two years later. I’ve started another one too, Artemis, this one has been out for a while maybe since the ’90’s but it’s a good series. And yes these are both series meant for young adult but I really don’t care. Since His Dark Materials, I’ve really been more open to looking in the young adult section for reading materials. I tried going back to my adult favorites like Elizabeth Lowell and Jayne Ann Krentz, but the last book for both of them were total disappoinment. So I’ve been reading new authors, like Janet Evanovich and Sherilyn Kenyon, and some that I’ve read before like Jennifer Crusie, Lori Foster (although I read one book and stopped mid book cause it was boring me to depression.) and Carly Phillips. In some ways I’ve sort of kind of not missed not being able to surf the web….sort of…but not really.
I have managed to do some writing since being computer challenged, like finishing the short story that was waying me down since the begining of last year. And doing some research and planning for other stories. I’ve also seen some good movies lately like Eagel Eye, Kung Fu Panda, Hellboy 2 and National Treasure 2. I’ve seen some not so great ones like The Fountain…to complicated for my taste.
Gotta get going…time is almost out.
B.J.
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Bianco Jade