And, occasionally, I review books

Hmmm... it turns out it's been, like, over a week since I actually reviewed a book. We'll say I've been too busy. Last Tue-Thur night last week, I slept. So sick. Luckily, it was the sleepy kind, so I didn't have to be consciously miserable all that much. Then we had company for the holiday weekend and then... well, hi! I'm blogging!

Plus, I have been reading A TON. And, I've been really crabby this week. And who wants to review books when they're crabby? Plus, I don't have any books for upcoming review that deserve a crabby review. Wait, I take that back, I do, but they were so bad that just thinking about them makes me even crabbier and then my head threatens to explode, so I just have Dan make me a mojito instead.

Anyway, this is a very special blog post WITH A CONTEST! It's my first contest, so I hope lots of people enter. Anyway...

Playing with Fire Derek Landy

In this action-packed sequel to Skulduggery Pleasant, we say that there are still attempts to raise the Faceless Ones and rain death and destruction upon the world.

But, Valkyrie has some training under her belt, so they're ready for the challenge.

We have new villians! The main one is Baron Vengeous wants to bring the Grotesquery back to life. The Grotesquery is a Franken-monster that contains a bit of Faceless One. The Baron has waited for year for the last two ingredients before he can shout "IT'S ALIVE" and now he has them. Plus, he and Skulduggery have a few unsettled scores.

But the Baron has lots of help--including a vampire that keeps infecting innocent bystanders and a Southern Gentleman who can move through the Earth itself.

And, in the end, Landy sets us up perfectly for the next book in the series.

Overall, if you liked the first one, you'll like this. You have cool monsters, a wise-mouth skeleton, and more than one girl who kicks ass, or is starting to. Plus, there are a few characters whose loyalities are unclear--both to the reader and the characters. China Sorrows, for instance, is on no one's side but her own, so it's always a gamble asking her for help. I like moral ambiguity in a few characters-- so often in literature, characters are good or bad, and sometimes they change, and they often have good or bad qualities to round them out, but... so rarely is a character so clearly both good and bad. AND when they aren't clear, they're often clear to book characters, but not the reader, or to the reader, but not the other characters...

Anyway, it's a solid sequel that doesn't disappoint.

AND! Now, for the contest, I have a copy to give away. It's open world wide and to enter, you must email me at kidsilkhaze at yahoo dot com with the subject line "Playing with Fire." If you blog about this contest, email me the link with the same subject line and I'll enter you another time for every time you spread the word. All emails must be received by Wednesday, July 16th at 9pm, US East Coast Time. At that point, I'll throw everyone's name into some sort of container (like my pasta pot) and have Dan draw a name. Unless he's out of town, then I'll just close my eyes and do it myself.

Good luck!

Library Books

First things first, there's a new banned books list over in the sidebar.

Second things second, I read a whole bunch of library books this weekend, so here we go:

After Hamelin Bill Richardson

It is a special day when you turn eleven. On their eleventh birthday, girls go too see Cuthbert, the hermit in the cave to learn of their gift.

But, on Penelope's eleventh birthday, she wakes up suddenly unable to hear. It is the only thing that saves her, for on Penelope's eleventh birthday, the Pied Piper returns and charms all of the children out of Hamelin.

Penelope must use her gift, the gift of deep dreaming to find and rescue her sister, her neighbors, and her friends.

A wonderful story with a gentle prose that captures you-- I found it very hard to put down. I especially liked the Tolavians that Penelope meets on her journey.

The story is told in the frame as Penelope turns 101 and is facing death, she looks back on her life, writing it down for the next generation. It's really well done.

Skulduggery Pleasant Derek Landy

One of the Top 10 Best Books for Young Adults, Skulduggery is a detective. Of course, he's also a skeleton with a sharp sense of style who can hurl fireballs.

Stephanie is stunned to discover that she's inherited her uncle's house after his sudden death. She's even more stunned with people start attacking her in order to get a key. When Skulduggery rescues her, she demands to be his partner and learn the magic he knows.

It quickly becomes apparent that magic is real and under our feet, and that myth and legend might actually be fact. Of course, if Stephanie and Skulduggery can't figure this out fast enough, it'll be a moot point when the world is destroyed.

Hilarious and suspenseful, I loved Stephanie and Tanith (ok, I'm a fan of girls who know how to wield a sword.)

This is really well done urban fantasy. I also liked the illustrations on the first letter of each chapter. I can't wait for Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire, which comes out at the end of April.

Ok, I was going to do more, but Blogger's going down soon, so it'll keep.