Stars: ****
Publisher: Yale University Press
Release Date: March 31st, 2015
I received this book from Yale University Press through Netgalley.
I requested this book because I have always loved Dragonflies. Despite loving them I didn't really know much about them but after reading this book I know a great deal. As the author states in the book this is not a field guide and does not go into too much depth about the different species of Dragon and Damselflies but looks over their shared characteristics.
This is a delightful book with some truly stunning photography. I now know the difference between a Dragonfly and a Damselfly (I hadn't even previously known they where two different species) and have a good grasp as to the particulars of their life cycles.
While this book is a great introduction to Dragonflies and Damselflies I found myself wishing there was more information on the different species and even more of their history besides the brief blurb mentioned.
I recommend it or anyone who enjoys nature, bugs and photography.
Release Date: May 2nd 2015
Publisher: Dundurn Group
I recieved a copy of this book to review from NetGalley.
Stars: ***
I was so excited to read this book but felt it could have been so much more.
This book follows three characters, two natives of Loas and one Canadian. Cam is an 18 year-old with some pretty extreme anger issues who moved with his mother from Canada to the country of Laos. Nok is the masseuse he befriended and even started dating, Sheng is her brother who is a bit of a dim wit. When Nok ends up killed everyone blames Cam and it's up to everyone else to do the right thing.
This story takes place in Loas and Tailand, after reading the first few chapters, where Cam admits he has no idea how Loas is pronounced I realized, I had no idea either. So I tracked down this:
Then I realized I only knew vaguely where Laos is actually located. Asia somewhere so I looked it up:
Over all this book taught me quite a bit about Laos culture. It's not a place that you hear a lot about so it was nice to read something set there. I fell in love with the setting and looking at pictures on Google I believe it is the type of place I would like to hike around in.
Cam has a very bad relationship with his mother when they moved to Laos for her job, a common theme in Young Adult books. What was so refreshing about this particular relationship though was that they actually worked things out, which is also pretty rare in YA. So it definitely had that going for it!
At the back of the book it mentions that a breathing technique used in the book (The 1 minute breath) is a real technique and the book has been checked and approved by Kundalini Research Institute and is used in Yoga. This technique is something that I picked up and now use on a regular basis.
While there are a lot of really great things about this book there are also a lot of not so great things about this book.
This book talks about Merit and Karma and has many great philosophies mentioned but when it plays a part as important as it is in The Merit Birds you really need more depth. The information we are given is shallow and almost cosmetic in it's brevity which I found very disappointing.
The whole thing felt rushed and while it was concluded at the end it somehow felt unfinished and the end was really abrupt. One moment Seng was in Thailand and the next he was in prison, Cam finally learned to gain Merit and then that's it, the end. WTF? How does he continue? Does he continue? Did his lesson really stick or will he forget about it when he returns to Canada? I feel that Cam learned a lesson but we as readers where not given long enough to know that it is more then temporary.
Now I did want to make something clear, I did enjoy this story, but it could have been so much better.
4.5 stars. I received a copy of this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
When I received this book to review I wasn't sure when I would get to it. The synopsis was enough to make me interested but I felt no real rush to start. I am so glad that I jumped right in!
E.C. Myers uses the world around us. Snowden, Anonymous, the fight for the privacy and freedom on the net, all of these things are real. He takes them and turns them into a nightmare. Panjea is a social networking site like Facebook and twitter and he shows us exactly what can happen when we put all this information about ourselves online. It is some truly scary premises.
One of the most infuriating things I found about this book was the emotional detachment I felt from Max. Max watched his friend commit suicide and he manages not to react in front of hundreds of kids. He's a teenager for crying out loud, not some sociopath! There is a difference between keeping your head in tough situations and what happened in the beginning of this book. Then there is his girlfriend who goes full blown reporter not even an hour after Evan is dead! What a bitch! Other then this I found the rest of it plausible and understand his cool head is the only reason he made it out of there.
Other then that Max and the others seemed like a pretty solid character, he wasn't contradictory or full of holes to be poked at and wondered over. Getting involved in a world you thought you had left behind is no small feat, especially when it comes to hackers. (Every time I read a book that has hacking and or virtual worlds it makes me wish I was better with computers, unfortunately it is all I can do to keep my laptop operational) but Max and his friends will do whatever it takes to make sure Evan's story isn't buried, that his life wasn't for naught.
Overall I loved this book. It was full of danger and excitement and even political intrigue.
Recommended if you like: Ready Player One By Ernest Cline
I received and
excerpt of this book from Tor Books on Net Galley and boy am I glad I did.
This excerpt got me
hook, line and sinker from the get-go.
Four different
versions of London, two people who can walk among them. Both are used as pawns for their magic to
'deliver messages' with varying degrees of freedom. One illegally transports trinkets between
the worlds, considered Treason, and the other is trapped in a horrible situation!
Then there is Lila,
a cross-dressing, pick-pocket who aspires to be a pirate. What's not to love? Add a magic with a Dark history, and the fact
that one of the London's is dying and you have the melting pot of mysterious
intrigue that is A Darker Shade of
Magic.
Magic is dangerous,
it needs to be treated with care, but is it?
I simply can not
wait to get my hands on the full text!
The characters are interesting in their ambitions and drives and even
just the general circumstances of their being combined with the amazing world
building that Victoria Schwab has done leaves me craving more!
This is definitely
one of my most anticipated books in the history of my reading career!
I got a Galley of
this book from Riverdale Avenue Books for review.
I was drawn to this
title because it was recommended for people who where looking for a more adult
version of Harry Potter. This was
nothing like an adult Harry Potter. This
book was listed as New Adult and Sci Fi & Fantasy, but that is missing one
very important marker, Erotica.
I was so excited to
start reading what they hailed the 'American Harry Potter' and on the second
page I wanted to gouge my eyes out, and it just got worse from there. First off, the main character Kyle was
suppose to go to his senior year of high school but because he's such a special
snowflake he gets to skip his senior year and jump straight into the magical
side of Harvard. From here he remains
pretty damn clueless about everything.
"So… Magic
people eat Spanish food?"
"Magic people drink soda?"
No, Kyle, they only drink the blood of innocent animals and potions with
eye of newt.
Now, at this school,
he falls in love with the very first girl he meets. She is saving her virginity for 'esoteric
studies' but they do date and get each other off, in vivid and horrifying
detail. In fact, that is pretty much the
first half of the book.
The second half is
where the plot gets involved, Alex, Kyles best friend is attacked by the Siren
that haunts the library and put into a coma.
Which means clueless little Kyle is going to try to find the Siren.
The end part where
he may or may not find the siren was the only real part that I enjoyed. It was a surprise I didn't see coming but the
ending was also horrific. ' Yes, you can now have sex with your girlfriend to save
someone's life, but she's no longer your girlfriend because she found the man
she dreamed of when she was a little girl.
Oh and you have to make her come twice. '
Not to mention the
detail to the sex scenes… Odd wording and too detailed about weird aspects of
it. Not to mention it was like 75% of
the book. Honestly I've read better erotica
in fanfictions. This was just
horrible.
Needless to say I
will not be continuing this series.
In a few hours will begin the biggest book challenge of my life. It is a two month challenge to complete as many book series that you have previously started but as of yet, remain unfinished. I have so many books that fit for this challenge, in fact, I made a list on GoodReads. There are 76 book on that list and I'm sure if push came to shove I could find a bunch more to go on it. Now admittedly quite a few of these books are Middle Grade and Young adult, but still, that's a lot of reading!
Plus I'm already reading a large amount:
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Dracula's Guest and Other Tales of Horror by Bram Stoker
Misery by Stephen King
This Star Won't Go Out by Esther Earl
Guns. Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
Throne of Glass and This Star Won't Go Out I'm not too worried about. I should be done with both of them in about two days, but Misery and Dracula's Guest are another story. Dracula's Guest is going to take some time as I am only reading one short story a day and am only about a third of the way through. Guns, Germs and Steel I'm only reading a few pages at a time but will probably read more once I am back in school next semester.
Anyway, that's what I'm currently reading. I already have a few books from unfinished series that I am reading as soon as I finish a few of those. In retrospect I probably should not have agreed to participate as challenges and TBR's tend to stress me out pretty bad, but I also couldn't pass this opportunity to knock some of these books off my list...
Recomended Halloween Reads:
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dracula's Guest and Other Tales of Horror by Bram Stoker
Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
Carrie by Stephen King
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
If you can't tell, this blog is about Books that I have read, will be reading, recently bought, hated, loved and so on. My name is Andy, this is me last year
I read and review books for pleasure and for pain (read here 'publishers') on Goodread's and on Amazon, but I always feel like I'm holding a lot back because I am unable to put it into an acceptable review format.
So here I am. I have Read 70 books this year so far and plan on reading a bunch more before the end. These are my thoughts on these books, unstructured, unparalleled and equal to none.
