Two Quickie Reviews

First up is Death Masks by Jim Butcher. Death Masks is book 5 in the Harry Dresden series. I finished it a couple weeks ago, but haven't had a chance to review it until now. (Read: Lazy) When I finished book 4, I really thought the series was getting stronger, but this one took me MONTHS to finish so perhaps not? I did like it, I just felt no need to return to it every time I took a break. Because I read so many books at once (at least 4, usually), breaks are often long.

I didn't think that this installment did very much to advance the characters. There was very little having to do with any of my favorites from previous books and way too much to do with Susan. Michael had a nice, if brief, role. I much prefer it when Harry has his gang around him. In this episode, Harry is looking for the Shroud of Turin, which has been stolen and brought to Chicago. There is a flimsy little reason why it's the Shroud of Turin and NOT just say, a rock. The plot line doesn't really do much beyond be exciting. In spite of this, I have already moved book 6 to my bedside table.

The other book I want to mention is Goodnight Bush: A Parody. This is one of the books from my Hachette Books Group books. It's a short book, as anyone who is familiar with Goodnight Moon could probably tell you. The illustrations are similar to the original, with both color pages and black and white. I'm not a big fan of Bush (I voted for change), but even so I really disliked this book. It's mean and unfunny (is that a word?) and exactly the kind of humor I hate. I wouldn't even mention it here, except that I feel some obligation to say if I read the books I won or not. I have already passed it along to someone who appreciates it more than I. There is a website, if you want to know more.

Bermudaonion has posted a guest review of Goodnight Bush that is much MUCH better than my review. Check it out!

TBR Day: Summer Knight by Jim Butcher

Summer Knight is the fourth in the Dresden Files series. After it's slow take off for me, I think this series is really picking up. It almost seems like the first one or two were warm ups and Butcher has hit his stride. Harry is much less whiny, much less needy, and his need to be a hero has acquired a little common sense.

In this installment we see Harry working for the Winter Queen to find out who killed a rival faerie. The vampires are going to war with the wizard's White Council because of what happened in book three. Harry has been called before the Council for his part in those events, and if he can't disarm the coming war with the vampires his career as a wizard is over. Unfortunately, the war between the Faerie is much more imminent and much more dangerous. Like the others, the action is non-stop. I'm pretty sure Harry doesn't sleep for days.

The recurring characters are mostly good. Murphy isn't overwhelmingly "you HAVE TO TELL ME, Harry!" The werewolves are back and in good form. Lea is great. Bob isn't in it nearly enough. The person from Harry's past was good, but I don't know that I like the idea of bringing them in just for this storyline. Almost made it TOO easy to make Harry get involved by throwing them into it. Overall, I think this was the best one yet.

On a related note, series books are almost impossibly hard to review. There's not a lot you can say without giving away the plot to the previous books. I almost hesitate to even mention the plot summary off the back of the book for fear it will spoil something for someone. I find myself reading more and more series books lately, so this is getting to be more of a problem. Off the top of my head, unfinished series waiting on my shelves include: Kim Harrison, Rachel Caine, Laurell Hamilton, J. D. Robb, Charlaine Harris (ok, the last one isn't on my shelf, yet), and Janet Evanovich (ditto), and the rest of the Dresdens. Soon this blog will turn into: "Yep, it was good."

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

Grave Peril is book 3 of The Dresden Files. In this installment, someone is stirring up ghosts causing them to become violent and deadly. Ghosts are attacking people, specifically people that have recently worked with Harry on another case. Harry is brought in by the police department when one of their own is attacked. As you might expect, the instigator turns his attention Harry's way.

Like the previous two Dresden books, Harry is a little bit arrogant and a little bit wimpy. He both has no confidence in himself AND an overwhelming need to take care of everyone that crosses his path because he HAS POWER. And with great POWER comes great RESPONSIBILITY. As he tells us over and over. Despite this annoying trait, these are still good books. They aren't great literature, but they are full of interesting characters and fairly unique plot lines. Each book takes place in the span of a couple of days and leaves you completely exhausted by the end. These are easy, brainless books at a time when "easy" and "brainless" is about all I can handle.

Weekly Recap. (On Thursday) (the parenthetical version)

SO busy and tired at our house this week! Saturday we went to the Home Show to browse hot tubs (not that we're in the market, just that 75% of the show is hot tubs) and lawn tractors (also not in the market, unless you are a two year old.) We hit up Target and the mall with the small boy to see what he was in the mood for when it comes to toys (his party is this Saturday) and to purchase more socks (the checker at Old Navy told me that they were retiring navy and khaki little boy socks for the summer, and that they do it every year, thus the $.49 socks. While I appreciate the price, I think she's mistaken as the monkey has only ever worn the ON socks and navy and khaki are always available.) By Saturday night the muscles holding up the giant belly were very angry, and even now on Thursday, I am still paying for this excess of walking.

What else? Preparations for the Pirate party are well underway (unless you count cleaning, and I'd rather not, thanks.) The baby's room is 90% done (or 90% of what I had hoped to be done is done, not counting the other stuff we haven't done. God I love that sentence.) The quilt is done (100%!) The pillows are done (ditto.) Just need a little more shelf straightening and it will be ready to go for the party. Eventually, I'd like to make some little canvas baskets for toys, and some pillows from the leftover quilt pieces, but neither of those were on the original list.

I spent Sunday evening in bed reading (see above for bellyaching) and managed to get a decent chunk of The Battle for God read. I also read the first 1/3 of Toddler and 5 or 6 chapters of Fool Moon by Jim Butcher. I'm not so sure about Harry Dresden. He's a bit annoying in his superiority (false modesty? something annoying about him though. I'm up to chapter 15 or so now, and the annoyance has not yet abated.) I'm also still reading Heat Stroke, and the other morning added Take Me by Bella Andre. None of the others were at hand and I NEEDED something to read. One day I might actually finish a book. (Ha.) (And no, I don't get them confused.)

This weekend is the party, and then the monkey turns 3 on Monday. Seems crazy. My offical due date for the baby is 38 days away. Things are happening too fast these days!

Notes of what I'm reading

Rather than cross post every review to both blogs, I have decided to post little notes here and the actual reviews over there.

This begs the question, what AM I reading?

Last weekend I read all of Storm Front by Jim Butcher and really enjoyed it. I finally got my review of it up tonight. Then on Monday night I picked up Perfectly Plum and started it. I got about two essays in before deciding that perhaps I wasn't in the mood for it. It's a much more technical style than the last few books of essays I read, and I wasn't enjoying it at all. The only other book on my end table (and heaven forbid I get up) was Literacy and Longing in L.A. by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack. I've read about 80 pages and so far I am underwhelmed. Bloggers are loving it all over the place, but I can not relate to the lead character at all and the writing style doesn't grab me either. I finally picked up Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs and, as expected, sank right in. I should finish it up in the next day or two.

I've spent a lot of time this weekend moving books around (still making room for a baby in our house!) and have found tons of books that I Really! Want! to! Read! so hopefully I can make more time for reading in the next few months.

What are you reading? What are you looking forward to?

Randomness

Lots of things to post about here today. The monkey and I are both off today and had big plans for shopping and lunch, but woke up to being snowed in. So I guess we'll hang out at home instead!

I blogged about my two most recent reads over on We'd Rather Read, be sure to stop by and check it out. I'm currently reading Storm Front by Jim Butcher. It's a really fast book and with this snow I'll probably finish it today. I'm not sure what's up next. I have the next Dresden book, but I also have Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs. And several hundred other possibilities.

We've started the huge task of turning our guest room into the new baby's nursery. My husband built some shelving in the closet that is custom sized to accommodate those square cloth boxes. We'll be using those instead of a dresser. The closet is 54 inches wide and he built a waist high shelf all the way across that we'll be using as a changing table. I need to find a cream or tan shower curtain to use as a door. I started removing all our books from the two floor to ceiling shelves and dispersing them to other parts of the house. I decided to leave all the "classics" in there on the theory that kids eventually need to read the classics. Right? I also left all the kid books, even the ones that are way too old for either child (Little House on the Prairie, Harry Potter, Inkheart, etc.) If we end up buying another set of shelves I'll probably move the classics out.

We bought one large set of shelves to put in the living room, but it only holds part of the books. I like to mix framed pictures and stuff in with my books so part of the shelves aren't books, but I like the way it looks. I've dealt with most of the non-fiction, but still need to address fiction. As it turns out, my husband is resistant to getting rid of any book he's ever read, so while most of the books are mine, most of the already-read books are his. The shelves in the living room have five shelves. Because this is a bookish blog, I will bore you with what made it out here-
Top Shelf: religion, books and authors, current event stuff like The Tipping Point
Second Shelf: Travel books- Bill Bryson, my growing collection of Italy books, a statue of Don Quixote, a picture from our Mexico trip
Middle Shelf: History, largely WWII and Stephen Ambrose
Fourth Shelf: Baseball
Bottom Shelf: Random mix of large hardcovers

There will eventually be more odds and ends mixed in, I'm getting the books here first. We have shelves in the basement for overflow.

I bought fabric for the new baby's quilt this weekend, so that will be underway soon. We have the curtains ready to be hung once the giant desk is moved out of the way. Then it's largely a matter of moving the daybed across the room and clearing out the rest of the odds and ends. It's so much more real this time than with the Monkey. This time we KNOW what's coming. Two kids. Yikes.