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Title: Slammerkin
Author: Emma Donoghue
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 2.5/5
# pages: 410
Date read: September, 2011

Born to rough cloth in working-class London in 1748, Mary Saunders hungers for linen and lace. Her lust for a shiny red ribbon leads her to a life of prostitution at a young age. A dangerous misstep sends her fleeing to Monmouth and the refuge of the middle-class household of Mrs. Jones, her mother's childhood friend. There she becomes the seamstress her mother always expected her to be and lives the ordinary life of an ordinary girl.

Although Mary becomes a close confidante of Mrs. Jones and has a catalytic effect on the entire household, her desire for a better life leads her back to prostitution. Ultimately, Mary remains true only to the three rules she learned on the streets of London: Never give up your liberty. Clothes make the woman. Clothes are the greatest lie ever told. And it is clothes, their splendor and their deception, that will finally lead Mary to disaster.

In many ways Slammerkin reminded me of older Danish books in style (like Ditte Menneskebarn and Guds blinde øje to name a couple of examples), but unfortunately that's not an entirely good thing. I've always thought those books too depressing for their own good and much to my disappointment, Slammerkin didn't buck that trend.

A shame, because I had had high hopes for it - Emma Donoghue's Room being one of the very best books I've read this year - and for a time it looked like Mary would figure out how to better her situation and make the most of what life had dealt her. I found the historical descriptions believable and interesting, which is what earned the book its average rating. As a whole, it was merely okay.
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Title: The Truth About Forever
Author: Sarah Dessen
Genre: YA
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 374
Date read: September, 2011

Sixteen-year-old Macy Queen is looking forward to a long, boring summer. Her boyfriend is going away. She's stuck with a dull-as-dishwater job at the library. And she'll spend all of her free time studying for the SATs or grieving silently with her mother over her father's recent unexpected death. But everything changes when Macy is corralled into helping out at one of her mother's open house events, and she meets the chaotic Wish Catering crew. Before long, Macy joins the Wish team. She loves everything about the work and the people. But the best thing about Wish is Wes—artistic, insightful, and understanding Wes—who gets Macy to look at life in a whole new way, and really start living it.

This book seemed quite different from the other book I've read by Sarah Dessen, and from what I expected from her from hearing from other readers. In one way it was the sane though - there's apparently always sone sort of tragedy that has occurred to the main character shortly before the book starts, and which she is coming to terms with during the book. But unlike the last book (where the tragedy was rape), here it is the loss of a parent, and somehow that made the book more rateable. This seemed like a true depiction of a summer of change in an average teenager's life. I really enjoyed it, even if I had hoped Macy would quit the info desk and confront Jason earlier.
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Title: Mad Ship
Author: Robin Hobb
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5/5
# pages: 906
Date read: September, 2011

The Vestritt family's liveship, Vivacia, has been taken by Kennit, an ambitious pirate. Captain Haven is a prisoner; his son Wintrow, who bears the Vestritt blood, finds himself competing with Kennit for Vivacia's love as she becomes a pirate ship.

Althea Vestritt, in training to become Vivacia's captain, arrives home to discover her beloved ship lost. Brashen Trell, her old friend and shipmate, proposes that they sail to Vivacia's rescue in the liveship Paragon, who has lost two previous crews and is believed mad.

Malta, Althea's niece, seeks help from her suitor, the Rain Wild Trader Reyn, whose family is the Vestritt's major creditor.

Meanwhile, the sea serpents who follow sailing ships struggle to remember their history and return to their place of transformation.

I hadn't actually expected this, but I think I might like this series a teeny-tiny bit more than the Farseer trilogy. Mostly, I think, because I'm more interested about more characters in this one. In Farseer is was really only Fitz' story I cared about. Here I'm equally interested in Althea's, Malta's, Wintrow's and Kennit's.

I do think it's a good thing that I know what to expect of a Robin Hobb trilogy. This was very much a transitional novel, which would usually have bothered me, but because I know her writing style, and know that this is the second book in a trilogy, I could just sit back and let events unfold, and stages be set, without wishing for conclusions and nice wraps, because I know they will come in the next book.

I was SO grateful to see Malta redeem herself. She frustrated me like nothing else in Ship of Magic, but really grew into herself in this book. Likewise, I'm grateful we saw so little of Kyle Haven. I assume that will change in the final book though.
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Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Genre: YA
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 262
Date read: September, 2011

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.

An amazing, exhausting and heartbreaking story. One of those books that you just can't put down because you need to know how it ends. Given the subject matter, it ought to be horribly depressing, but somehow it wasn't. Devastating, yes. Depressing, no. I can't understand why, but I'm glad, or it would have been much too difficult to read.

I liked the way the story was told - Clay's thoughts and actions interspersed with Hannah's story on the tapes. Definitely a book that told rather than showed, but for once it actually worked. The story wouldn't have been as gripping if we'd seen the events unfold as the happened - not to me anyway. In fact, it would probably have been a lot more depressing and frustrating that way, and might have meant I either wouldn't have finished the book, or would have given it a very low rating. Because the way I see it, the book isn't about Hannah. It's about Clay, and the other people on the tapes. They are the ones we are supposed to relate to, not Hannah. They are the ones whose actions we can learn from.

Well written and powerful book. I'm glad I've read it, even if it does leave me feeling emotionally drained.
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Title: Ship of Magic
Author: Robin Hobb
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 880
Date read: September, 2011

Bingtown is a hub of exotic trade and home to a merchant nobility famed for its liveships - rare vessels carved from wizardwood, which ripens magically into sentient awareness. The fortunes of one of Bingtown's oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia.

For Althea Vestrit, the ship is her rightful legacy unjustly denied her - a legacy she will risk anything to reclaim. For Althea's young nephew Wintrow, wrenched from his religious studies and forced to serve aboard ship, Vivacia is a life sentence.

But the fate of the Vestrit family - and the ship - may ultimately lie in the hands of an outsider. The ruthless pirate Kennit seeks a way to seize power over all the denizens of the Pirate Isles...and the first step of his plan requires him to capture his own liveship and bend it to his will....

It took me a surprisingly long time to finish this book - especially considering I ended up giving it 4.5 stars! But I find that's often the case when a book has many different storylines. I end up being so wrapped up in each of them, that I get almost disappointed when a new one takes over and it's therefore easier to put down the book, rather than just read on.

But Robin Hobb does spin a good yarn. I loved the Farseer trilogy, and so far this one hasn't disappointed me. I enjoy getting to know the characters (even if I wouldn't mind less of Kyle and Malta - those two infuriate me!) and am interesting in seeing what happens next.

It does frustrate me a bit that this first book was so obviously just seeing the scene for the two others - many issues were raised, but few (if any) were resolved. Fortunately I was aware that this would be the case before starting the book, so it didn't annoy me as much as it would otherwise have done, but it might have been a factor in how long it took me to finish the book.

But now that I have finished it, I can't stop thinking about it, and want to start the next one straight away!
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Title: Forever
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Paranormal
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 480
Date read: September, 2011

In "Shiver", Grace and Sam found each other. In "Linger", they fought to be together. Now, in "Forever", the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in.

Better than "Linger" but not nearly as good as "Shiver". It really is a huge disappointment that Maggie Stiefvater couldn't live up to the expectations she, herself, set in the first book. I think a part of it may be that she's just a tad too fond of open endings. Not that everything has to be tied up in nice little bows, but I do prefer that there aren't enough loose threads left hanging to risk the whole thing unravelling.

Also, I found it a shame that I ended up being a lot more interested in Isabel and Cole than in Sam and Grace. The two latter had become caricatures of themselves, with their Great Tooby Love(TM) being the only thing that defined them. Isabel and Cole were a lot more complex and interesting.

I did appreciate Grace's confrontation with her parents though. It was high overdue, even if there was a bit of it in "Linger" as well.
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Title: Esio Trot
Author: Roald Dahl
Genre: Childrens
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 62
Date read: September 2010, September 2011

A tender story of authentic love between two elderly people, Mr. Silver and Mr. Hoppy, and nothing less than 140 turtles.

Another childhood discovery. Not too bad, but not amazing either. I can definitely see what attracted me to it when I first read it at age 10, but unlike many of Roald Dahl's other books, it really doesn't offer much to the adult reader. I AM glad he thought to tell us what happened to Alfie though, as that was one thing I was actually wondering about.
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Title: In the Hand of the Goddess
Author: Tamora Pierce
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5/5
# pages: 209
Date read: August 2007, October 2010, September 2011, April 2020, July 2024


Disguised as a boy, Alanna of Trebond becomes a squire -- to none other than the prince of the realm. But Prince Jonathan is much more to Alanna; he is her ally, her best friend, and one of the few who knows that she's really a girl. Now it will take all of Alanna's awesome skill, strength, and growing magical powers to protect him from the mysterious evil sorcerer who is bent on his destruction--and hers!


Probably my all-time favourite Tamora Pierce book... although it's subject to change whenever I reread one of the others ;-) When writing this series, Tamora Pierce still stuck to the 'keep it simple' policy (something which she dropped in later books) making her earlier series both more accessible and more charming.
goodreads: (Peanut: Book geek)
Title: Alanna
Author: Tamora Pierce
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5/5
# pages: 216
Date read: August 2007, October 2010, September 2011, August 2014, November 2015, April 2020, July 2024


Call it fate, call it intuition, or just call it common sense, but somehow young Alanna knows she isn't meant to become some proper lady cloistered in a convent. Instead, she wants to be a great warrior maiden--a female knight. But in the land of Tortall, women aren't allowed to train as warriors. So Alanna finds a way to switch places with her twin, Thom, and take his place as a knight in training at the palace of King Roald. Disguising herself as a boy, Alanna begins her training as a page in the royal court. Soon, she is garnering the admiration of all around her, including the crown prince, with her strong work ethic and her thirst for knowledge. But all the while, she is haunted by the recurring vision of a black stone city that emanates evil... somehow she knows it is her fate to purge that place of its wickedness. But how will she find it? And can she fulfill her destiny while keeping her gender a secret?


The first quartet written by Tamora Pierce, and while "Protector of the Small" has overtaken it as my favourite series, the two first books of this quartet are definitely my favourite books. I love reading about how Alanna fits into life at the palace - her lessons and the friends she makes. I read it for the first time when I was 12'ish and have reread it regularly ever since.

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