Annette's Book Spot

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Book Review: The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, by Alan Bradley

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches is a bit different than the previous Flavia de Luce novels. This one is much more personal.

Flavia's mother, Harriet, has been found. Her body is being returned to Buckshaw for a proper burial. Many people come to pay their respects, including Winston Churchill, so it becomes apparent that there's more to Harriet's life, and death, than we realized.

Flavia, of course, would like to find out what really happened to her mother. Well, actually, that's not entirely accurate. She wants to bring her back from the dead. Flavia believes this is possible, and wholeheartedly puts her chemistry knowledge to the task.

Flavia is a different kind of detective in The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches. She isn't up against Inspector Hewett, even though there was a dead body on the tracks after Harriet's coffin arrived. Flavia is too preoccupied with her mother to worry about that accident (or murder?) She doesn't do any real sleuthing or even tick anyone off.

I'm not sure I would even call this book a mystery. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches serves to expose a lot about the de Luce's past -- all of them -- including Harriet, Aunt Felicity and a new relative, Lena. But there are still a lot of questions.

Is this book the beginning of a new chapter for Flavia? By the ending, it certainly seems so. Or perhaps it's the last Flavia book? I hope not. Bradley can write about this character forever, and I would read it.

As with all of the books in the Flavia de Luce Series, this one is appropriate for teens who are mystery fans, as well as adults. Although the order of the books hasn't been too important as of yet, I would not recommend reading The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches first. I think it would be too confusing because of the already established personalities and history in the previous books. Read them all. In order. The first book is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. It's an entertaining ride.

Also, I wanted to mention that I've listened to a couple Flavia de Luce books on audio, and they were wonderful. So if you are interested in audio books, give these a try.

Published by Delacorte Press, January 14, 2014
eARC obtained from NetGalley
336 pages

Rating: 4/5

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Book Blogger New Year's Challenge - Day 8

What is my favorite book blogger moment? Probably the same as many of you. I love when authors comment or tweet about my review! The first time this ever happened, it was A. S. King, who left a LONG comment on my blog about a review of Please Ignore Vera Dietz. I was a pretty new blogger, and I was STUNNED. I was showing everyone!

How about you? Leave me a link, and be sure to visit Parajunkee to see all the participating blogs.

The Other Side of Life - Yarn Crafts

I'm using these posts to occasionally describe other things I enjoy (besides books.) I used to post these projects on my other blog, but I posted so seldom that I decided to include them here. Feel free to skip this one, if you are strictly in it for the books.

Cold weather combined with a long Christmas break always gets me in the mood to work with yarn. After all, I can only read so much. And there's some TV to watch, which I can do while I'm knitting or crocheting. Here's what I've come up with in the last couple weeks:

I crocheted this scarf using a pattern from a book that I do not have the title of. I hate that. I'm still looking for it, and if I find it, I'll come back here and add it.

Knitted these boot toppers using a pattern from Make & Do Girl. Love them. Ready to start another pair...

How about you? Any projects keeping you busy during the break (and the snowdays)?

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Book Blogger New Year's Challenge - Day 7

Today's assignment from Parajunkee is to list book blogger pet peeves. I'm not sure if I can think of ten book blogger pet peeves, but here are a few:

Silly typos. Not proofreading. I know that everyone makes the occasional mistake, but at least use spell check to catch the obvious ones! It's hard to take a review seriously if it is rife with mistakes.
When book reviews mention this is a book in a series, but don't list the other books in that series.
When a blog posts only spotlights, memes, books tours, etc. and very few reviews. Nothing makes me stop following more quickly.
When reviewers summarize the entire book in great detail, but don't give any personal opinion except "it was good." I need to know if you liked it or not, and WHY.
When reviewers quote from ARCs. I've never received an ARC that didn't ask me NOT to quote from it. Only quote from the original. I see this violated all the time! (And I am SOOOO tempted sometimes.)
CAPTCHA. Try removing it. Just TRY it. You'll see -- it's not that bad! Use comment moderation, if you are that worried about it. And for heaven's sake, why would you use BOTH?

That's all I can come up with now. For the most part, I think bloggers are great people who try to do what is correct, have fun, and help each other out.

Book Review: The Last Dead Girl, by Harry Dolan

The Last Dead Girl is twisted! It's not at all what you think, and the story kept me guessing.

David and his fiance have separated after he discovers she has cheated on him. He picks up a girl, Jana, and spends the next ten days with her. Then....she is murdered. David, who naturally is a suspect, is obsessed with finding out what happened to Jana. He doesn't believe that the landlord did it -- which is the direction the police begin to take.

This story becomes such a tangled web! David begins to trace all of Jana's acquaintances, and it turns out she was trying to help prove the innocence of a man who is in jail for killing his wife. About halfway through the book, we begin to get flashbacks of Jana's life after she left her mother and decided to head to New York and try to become an actress. With the help of these flashbacks, things slowly begin to fall together, but it's totally unbelievable. (In a good way.)

Dolan can really spin a yarn. Who comes up with this stuff? I really didn't even realize that the "David" in The Last Dead Girl is the same David in Bad Things Happen. This book is a prequel, and I didn't catch the last name of the character. Anyway, it didn't really matter, and I've enjoyed all Dolan's books. I would recommend The Last Dead Girl to anyone who likes mystery/detective novels. Even though this is an adult book, I think teens will also enjoy The Last Dead Girl, so I'm going to make sure I recommend it to my mystery fans.

Published by Amy Einhorn Books, January 9. 2014
ARC obtained from the publisher
402 pages

Rating: 4.5/5

Monday, January 6, 2014

2013 -- Statistically Speaking

I like to do these summary posts mostly for me, so I have a record, but if you are interested, here's my reading accomplishments for 2013.

You can see the detailed list of all my reviews on my 2013 Review Archives Page.

I'd also like to mention that really I'm posting about books I reviewed in 2013 -- I think there were a couple reviews at the beginning of the year of books I actually read in 2012. Likewise, I already have a review ready to post in 2014 of a book that I read in 2013. It just gets confusing if I try to keep track of all that, and it's pretty much a wash anyway.

If you are interested in favorite books of the year, you can check out my 2013 End of Year Book Survey.

The numbers:

I read 167 books in 2013, which was actually 5 less than the 172 I read in 2012.

If you look at number of pages, I read 55,794, which is MORE pages than the 55,278 I read last year. So I guess that means that I read longer books in 2013. Average book length: 355 pages. Still less than the "all time high" 56,790 pages I read in 2011. Oh well. I really can't read any more than I do -- I do have a life, after all!

71 of the books I read were e-books, and 14 were audiobooks. Pretty close to 2012 numbers.

Average book rating (out of a scale of 5) was 3.83. This may seem a bit high, but I never give "1" ratings -- if a book is that bad, I don't finish it. And I rarely give "2" ratings (4 this year). 28 books got a 5/5 rating this year. That's about 18% of the books I read, higher than the 13% from 2012. I guess 2013 was just an awesome year for books!

Here's a link to my 2012 statistics, for comparison.

Reading Challenges:

The 150+ Reading Challenge, hosted by My Overstuffed Bookshelf: I read over 150 books, so *completed!*

The 2013 Ebook Challenge hosted by Workaday Reads: I challenged myself to read 75 Ebooks. I read 65. *fail.*

The Library Books Reading Challenge, hosted by Book Dragon's Lair: I challenged myself to read 24 library books. I read 50!! *EPIC win!*

The How Many Pages Will You Read? Challenge, hosted by Abducted by Books: I challenged mystelf to read 30,000 pages. I read 55,794 pages. *completed!*

And, the Books You Can Read in a Day Challenge, hosted my ME! I challenged myself to read 25 books in a day. I read 26. Whew! *barely completed!*

I'm hoping that 2014 will be about the same. I would always want to have bigger numbers, but I'm pretty happy with my numbers from 2013, and if I do that well this year, then I'll be happy with that!

How did your year go? Did you meet your goals? Are you surprised by anything? What about 2014? Are your goals the same, or are you making adjustments?

Thanks for visiting and Happy Reading!

Book Blogger New Year's Challenge - Day 6

No one can pick just ONE favorite for the whole year, right? I've read 167 books and gave 28 books a "5 hat" rating, and it's impossible to pick just one. So here goes:

I guess my absolute favorite is Ready Player One. I just loved that book.

To add to the dystopian list, I also have to mention The 5th Wave and The Trap.

Simply amazing books...

I also wanted to mention a contemporary by one of my favorite authors, Ask the Passengers.

And as far as adult novels are concerned, you can't beat The Light Between Oceans.

What a year! So many great books. How about you? What are your favorites? Don't forget to visit Parajunkee to see the other participants. It's not to late to join up!

Book Review: In the Shadow of Blackbirds, by Cat Winters @catwinters

In the Shadow of Blackbirds is my kind of book, you guys. Historical fiction with a little macabre twist. Yummy!

It's 1918, and the world is in turmoil. The U.S. has entered the war, and there's a world-wide flu epidemic and people are dying by the thousands. Our main character, Mary Shelley, has to leave her home in Portland to stay with her Aunt Eva in San Diego. Her mother died in childbirth, and her father just got arrested for treason.

She's is worried about her father, but excited about seeing her best friend, Stephen, who moved to San Diego.

There are so many aspects to this rich story. First, the flu. Everyone wears masks. They have all these things that supposedly keep you from catching it. Eating onions. Chewing garlic flavored gum. Drinking kerosene. Of course, none of it worked very well, and it seems only a small percent of people survive this deadly disease.

The war. When Mary Shelley visits Stephen, who wants to be a photographer like his father, it is the day before he leaves to enlist in the army. There relationship has progressed into the romantic area, and Mary Shelley is devastated that Stephen is going to war. This was the first war that had things like machine guns and horrible fighting conditions, so there were many soldiers killed or maimed. Mary Shelley eventually volunteers at a hospital for those wounded in the war.

Spiritualism. People were dying right and left. Their relatives were desperate for some consolation. So, spiritualism became very popular. Seances were common. Stephen's brother, Julius, has a thriving business taking portraits of people where the spirits of their dead relatives appear after the picture is developed. Both Mary Shelley and Stephen think this is a scam. But Aunt Eva is a believer.

Mary Shelley gets struck by lightening, and it changes her. She can now see spirits, and feel their pain. I don't want to say too much more about this, because it involves some spoilers. But this is the main element of the mystery in In the Shadow of Blackbirds.

The end involved some surprises that were unexpected and enjoyable. There's a nice resolution to the story, although not entirely happy. How could it be, with all this suffering? I learned a lot about this period in time, especially what it was like trying to avoid getting sick. The flu ended up killing more people that WWI!

In the Shadow of Blackbirds reads so easily and quickly. I couldn't put it down and when I had to, I kept thinking about it. I had the urge to wear a mask when going out! As you can tell, I was pretty immersed in the story. And I love that feeling.

If you enjoy historical fiction, I would highly recommend In the Shadow of Blackbirds. Even if you don't like paranormal stories, this is very subtle. The spiritualism "epidemic" makes the paranormal aspects of the story seem very realistic. I really need to start pushing this one to my students. I think I know many of them that will enjoy In the Shadow of Blackbirds.

Published by Amulet Books, April 2, 2013
Copy obtained from the library
390 pages

Rating: 5/5

Sunday, January 5, 2014

2013 End Of Year Book Survey

This is my third time participating in the End of Year Book Survey, hosted by Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner. I'm picking and choosing the questions that I want to answer and skipping some...

Best Books of 2013

1. Best Book You Read In 2013? (If you have to cheat — you can break it down by genre if you want or 2013 release vs. backlist)

It is, as usual, very difficult to narrow it down to ONE book. I gave 28 books a "5 hat" rating (out of the 162 I read.)

One favorite for sure is Ready Player One. I just loved that book. To add to the dystopian list, I also have to mention The 5th Wave and The Trap. Simply amazing books... I also wanted to mention a contemporary by one of my favorite authors, Ask the Passengers. And as far as adult novels are concerned, you can't beat The Light Between Oceans.

Whew! First question, and that was HARD!!

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

That would have to be Never Fade. I really enjoyed the first book, The Darkest Minds but couldn't get into the sequel at all!

3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2013?

One that comes to mind is Rose Under Fire. Excellent book. I had a LOT of trouble getting through Code Name Verity, so I was shocked at how absorbing Rose Under Fire was.

4. Book you read in 2013 that you recommended to people most in 2013?

I read a lot of sequels that I have to recommend to kids who read the first book. The Benny Imura Series is a great example of this. But, really the book I want EVERYONE to read (because it was my first choice in question number 1) is Ready Player One.

5. Best series you discovered in 2013?

I'm really enjoying The Testing series. I recently read the second book and I'm loving it.

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2013?

Because of the above question, the author of The Testing, Joelle Charbonneau, has to be mentioned.

7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?

Well, I read pretty much everything, but probably non-fiction is my least favorite. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, is one of the best books I've ever read. Once I got into it. That's why it got 4.5 hats instead of 5. But this is truly an amazing story that I would recommend to ANYONE.

8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2013?

I'd have to say The Trap. My goodness, I gripped that book so tightly that I could barely pry it out of my hands when I was finished.

9. Book You Read In 2013 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

No matter how badly I'd like to re-read some books, it just doesn't happen. Look at all the great books coming out in 2014! And all the already published books on my list! I just can't justify re-reading....

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2013?

I have to say Delia's Shadow. This is a beautiful cover that also PERFECTLY depicts the story inside. That's rare...

I also need to mention my second favorite, Going Vintage, just because it's so darn cute.

11. Most memorable character in 2013?

I love ALL of A. S. King's characters. That's why she's probably my favorite author. My favorite character this year is Astrid, from Ask the Passengers.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2013?

This is a hard one. I wish I had read an Alice Hoffman book this year, because I love the way she writes. I usually pick an audiobook for this category. I tend to listen to more epic, detailed stories on audio, and I think these are the "beautifully written" ones. So, I'm choosing Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese. I really enjoyed this slow, detailed book.

13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2013?

Never Fall Down. This short book packs a huge wallop!

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2013 to finally read?

Most of the books I read this year are pretty current, and the ones that aren't really didn't do that much for me. I'll have to say And Then There Were None. One of the teachers at school has been telling me to read this, and I finally did and really enjoyed it.

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2013?

I won't count novellas, so the shortest NOVEL I read was Twelve Things to Do Before You Crash and Burn. It's 121 pages long.

The longest book is Monsters at 688 pages. (And believe me, that was TOO MANY!)

18. Favorite Relationship From A Book You Read In 2013 (be it romantic, friendship, etc).

Beatle and Destiny, from Beatle Meets Destiny. Second place to Eleanor & Park (I suspect that will be a popular answer for this question.)

19. Favorite Book You Read in 2013 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

I read both Ask the Passengers and Reality Boy by A. S. King. I'll read anything she wants to write!

20. Best Book You Read In 2013 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else:

Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese.

21. Genre You Read The Most From in 2013?

I haven't counted, but I don't think I need to. I'm sure it's dystopian.

24. Most vivid world/imagery in a book you read in 2013?

Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese.

25. Book That Was The Most Fun To Read in 2013?

I ready two Flavia de Luce novels this year. A Red Herring Without Mustard and Speaking From Among the Bones. I love this series and this character. Great fun!

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2013?

I don't cry much, but I'm sure there were a couple. The first one that comes to mind is The Light Between Oceans.

Looking Ahead

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2013 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2014?

Champion.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2014 (non-debut)?

Into the Still Blue

The Here and Now

The Impossible Knife of Memory

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging In 2014?

Well, I really need to update my blog. It's had the same (boring) design for a long time. I hope to read AS MUCH in 2014 as I did in 2013. I'm not sure it's possible to read any more. I'm just hoping to keep up the reading/blogging pace that I've established.

Hope 2013 has been great for you and that 2014 will bring more of the same! Leave me a link so I can check out your answers!

Friday, January 3, 2014

My 2014 Reading Challenges!

I'm signing up for four reading challenges for 2014. Three have to do with how MUCH I'm reading. I don't like to sign up for things that LIMIT which books I can read.

Here's a link to my Challenge Page, where I'll keep track.

You Read How Many Books? is hosted by Book Dragon's Lair. I'm going for Level 2: 150 at Least! I've read over 160 books in 2013, so hopefully I can do this in 2014.

I love eBooks. The 2014 Ebook Reading Challenge is hosted by Workadayreads.

I read 66 eBooks in 2012, so I didn't quite make my goal of 75. I'm going to push myself again and go for Level 5 - "Hard Drive" - 75 ebooks. Wish me luck!

The I Love Library Books Challenge is hosted by Book Dragon's Lair. My goal for 2013 was 24 library books and I read 50! So for 2014, I'm going for the highest level, 50!

And, of course there's my own challenge:

There's a link to the challenge page on the sidebar also. I'm going for Level 2 again - 25 books. Here's a link to the list I've started. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for books I can read in a day.

Hope you find something interesting here that you might want to participate in!