Title: Gifts
Author: Ursula Le Guin
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 2.5/5
# pages: 278
Date read: October, 2009

Orrec is the son of the Brantor of Caspromant; Gry the daughter of the Brantors of Barre and Rodd. They have grown up together in neighbouring domains, running half-wild across the Uplands. The people of the domains are like their land: harsh and fierce and prideful; ever at war with one or other of their neighbours, raiding cattle, capturing serfs, enlarging their holdings. It is only the gifts that keep a fragile peace. The gifts are powers, given to protect the domains: they run from father to son and from mother to daughter. The Barre gift is calling animals. The Caspro gift is the worst and best of all: it is the gift of undoing: an insect, an animal, a place.

Orrec and Gry are the heirs to Caspro and Barre. Gry's gift runs true, but unlike her mother, she will not use it to call animals for the hunt. Orrec too is a problem, for his gift of undoing is wild: he cannot control it - and that is the most dangerous gift of all.

Ursula Le Guin writes well, but the plot in this novel is just about non-existing. She spends 90% of the book setting the scene, so the actual story seems to be told in very few pages. Had it been a stand-alone book I wouldn't have understood the point of it at all, but as far as I can make out, it's supposed to be the first book of a longer series, so I guess this is more of an introduction than anything else.

I liked Gry and Orrec, but the other characters weren't described in any great detail, and it was therefore difficult to get a proper 'read' of them.

It was a quick read, and kept me well enough entertained, but certainly wasn't a pageturner in any sense of the word.

Title: Who Do I Talk To?
Author: Neta Jackson
Genre: Christian fiction
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 393
Date read: October, 2009

Gabby Fairbanks's husband locks her out and disappears with her sons, leaving her homeless and stunned. With her frail mother and a mutt named Dandy, Gabby must take refuge at the women's shelter where she works, trying to salvage the shattered pieces of her life. There, her new friends-including Lucy the bag lady and sisters from the Yada Yada Prayer Group-prop her up.

But a midnight intruder brings unwanted media attention to the shelter and threatens to undermine Gabby's chances of getting her sons back. Still hoping to put her family together again, Gabby puzzles over what to do with the warm attentions of a sympathetic lawyer who rebuilds her confidence and soothes her wounded spirit.

Neta Jackson redeemed herself in this second book in the House of Hope series. I had been extremely disappointed by Where Do I Go?, because it ended on such a depressing note, and had seemed pretty pointless - using the entire book to get the main character down as low as she could get.

In Who Do I Talk To? it becomes apparent why Neta Jackson did this. I still think it's an extremely risky venture to write the first book in a series like that. If I hadn't already been introduced to her writing through the Yada Yada series, I think I would have given up on her then and there. As it was, it was with some reluctance I picked up the second book, and for once, I didn't start reading it immediately.

But thankfully the atmosphere was completely different. Still not as upbeat as in the Yada Yada series, but taking the topic into consideration, that would have been completely inappropriate. However, it was a lot more positive, and I ended up laughing and crying together with Gabby.

The characters were better fleshed out (especially Gabby's father-in-law) and I enjoyed getting to know them better, and seeing them interact with Gabby and her mother. And I LOVED the ending.

Still nowhere as inspirational as the Yada Yada series, Neta Jackson has "won me back", and I'll definitely be purchasing Who Do I Lean On? once it comes out... which unfortunately won't be until June 2010.

Title: And Another Thing
Author: Eoin Colfer
Genre: Sci-fi
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 344
Date read: October, 2009

Arthur has finally made it home to Earth, but that does not mean he has escaped his fate.

Arthur's chances of getting his hands on a decent cuppa have evaporated rapidly, along with all the world's oceans. For no sooner has he touched down on the planet Earth than he finds out that it is about to be blown up... again.

"And Another Thing" is the rather unexpected, but very welcome, sixth installment of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. It features a pantheon of unemployed gods, everyone's favorite renegade Galactic President, a lovestruck green alien, an irritating computer, and at least one very large slab of cheese.

The ultimate fanfiction. And I have to say, Eoin Colfer did a much better job than one could have feared. Following in the footsteps of as unique a writer as Douglas Adams is a thankless and probably intimidating job, but Eoin Colfer succeeded quite admirably in capturing his distinctive writing style.

Unfortunately. Eoin Colfer captured the writing style of Douglas Adams as he exhibits it in "Mostly Harmless", which has always been my least favourite of the trilogy, and definitely the weakest of the lot. Like in "Mostly Harmless", the plot of "And Another Thing" is pretty thin, but amazingly enough, like Douglas Adams, Eoin Colfer managed to carry it off through odd persona and witty commentary. I was gratified to find myself laughing out loud more than once. The only sections where Colfer fell a bit flat was in the Guide quotes, which lacked some of the spark of the original.

All in all a decent follow-up, even though of course nothing will live up to the original BBC broadcastings. However, if this is supposed to be The End(tm) I could have wished for it to be a happier one for Arthur.

And I did miss Marvin.

Title: While My Sister Sleeps
Author: Barbara Delinsky
Genre: Chick-lit
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 318
Date read: October, 2009

Molly and Robin Snow are sisters in the prime of their lives. So when Molly learns that Robin - an Olympic athlete and the favorite child - has suffered a massive heart attack, the news couldn't be more shocking. At the hospital, the Snow family receives a grim prognosis: Robin may never regain consciousness.

Feelings of guilt and jealousy flare up as Robin's family struggles to cope and their relationships are put to the ultimate test. It's up to Molly to make the tough decisions, and she soon makes discoveries that destroy some of her most cherished beliefs about the sister she thought she knew.

What I enjoy most about Barbara Delinsky's writing is that though she writes chick-lit, it's not fluff, and she actually dares take up very serious subjects.

I don't know if it's standard for her work, or just a coincidence that the two books I've read by her have both been coping with a loved one in a coma (this one and "Coast Road"), but they've handled it in very different ways, so I didn't feel like I was just reading the same book all over again. The characters were well fleshed out, and you got to appreciate - or at least sympathise with all of them. The story was very poignant - I had a hard time putting it down and it made me cry more than once.

I think I may have found a new author to add to my favourites.

Title: The City of Dreaming Books
Author: Walter Moers
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 456
Date read: October, 2009

In this Zamonian adventure, Optimus Yarnspinner, a young writer, inherits from his beloved godfather an unpublished short story by an unknown author. His search for the author's identity takes him to Bookholm--the so-called City of Dreaming Books. On entering its streets, our hero feels as if he has opened the door of a gigantic second-hand bookshop. His nostrils are assailed by clouds of book dust, the stimulating scent of ancient leather, and the tang of printer's ink.

Soon, though, Yarnspinner falls into the clutches of the city's evil genius, Pfistomel Smyke, who treacherously maroons him in the labyrinthine catacombs underneath the city, where reading books can be genuinely dangerous.

Walter Moers created a fascinating universe and stayed true to it all the way through. I'm not sure the plot is so spectacular on its own, but the story was made so by all the details and all the descriptions that he included. It took me awhile to get used to his way of writing, so I wasn't hooked from the very first page, but the further into it I got, the more quirky it became, and I just had to know what happened next.

The City of Dreaming Books uses the book media as a way of telling the story, and I'm always totally charmed by books that dare do that - e.g. write things with smaller font when people are whispering etc. So far I've only seen Walter Moers and Jasper Fforde do this efficiently.

Absolutely brilliant book. I laughed out loud more often than at practically any other book - not counting Douglas Adams obviously, but then he's in a category of his own, and honestly Walter Moers' humour often reminded me of DA.

Title: Dune
Author: Frank Herbert
Genre: Sci-fi / fantasy
Rating: 4/5
# pages: Audiobook ~21 hours
Date read: October, 2009

This novel tells the sweeping tale of a desert planet called Arrakis, the focus of an intricate power struggle in a byzantine interstellar empire. Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, the "spice of spices." Melange is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and longevity, so whoever controls it wields great influence.

The troubles begin when stewardship of Arrakis is transferred by the Emperor from the Harkonnen Noble House to House Atreides. The Harkonnens don't want to give up their privilege, though, and through sabotage and treachery they cast young Duke Paul Atreides out into the planet's harsh environment to die. There he falls in with the Fremen, a tribe of desert dwellers who become the basis of the army with which he will reclaim what's rightfully his. Paul Atreides, though, is far more than just a usurped duke. He might be the end product of a very long-term genetic experiment designed to breed a super human; he might be a messiah. His struggle is at the center of a nexus of powerful people and events, and the repercussions will be felt throughout the Imperium.

I first started reading Dune in February 2007, but got stuck about 70-100 pages into it, and left it hanging. I always planned to finish it someday though, but just couldn't bring myself to pick it up again. Finally, last month I felt that it was time to finish it, and as I'd just found it as an audiobook, I thought I would try that way of getting through it instead.

Honestly, I don't think it's the book most suited for audio presentation, and I would probably have liked it better if I'd read it rather than listened to it, but this way I got through it, discovered that I enjoyed it, and am therefore more likely to pick it up again at a later stage.

I enjoyed all the characterizations and the intrigues. I did think that perhaps Paul was a bit of a Gary Stu in that he was constantly able to do everything he set out to, and that the ending was a bit abrupt, but when looking at the big picture, that didn't bother me. I appreciated that Frank Herbert didn't pull any punches, but killed off people I hadn't expected him to.

I got the audiobook from Audible.co.uk. It was read by (I think) 5 different people, which worked well, once I got far enough into the book to know the voices and tell them apart. Until then I would rather have had just one narrator and more of "he said", "she said".

But definitely a great book, and I'd recommend it to others who enjoy a good fantasy/sci-fi mix.