Recent Reads

33. Amulet, Vol.5: Prince of the Elves
This is Volume 5 in the series of a fun YA story. Love the illustrations - total eye candy. Rating: 4 stars.

34. The Black Box
You know that period of time when you know a relationship is over, but you still hang on hoping for some of that old spark that drew you together in the first place? But then you realize that the love is truly gone? I'm there with Harry Bosch. Well, I was there with the last book, but I tried to patch things up one more time. This is #18 in the series, and is the last one I plan on reading. Bosch is an old love, which prevented me from leaving him at the bar and stiffing him with the tab. Ah well, all good things must come to an end sometime I suppose. Rating: 2 stars.

35. Season of the Sandstorms
My 8 year old nephew, Jonah, is cruising through this series. He visits the library, comes home with a stack of books, and then calls to show me what he will read next. Love that. I read the first 32 books in this series with his older brother, and I've waited for Jonah to get old enough so we can read and discuss the remainder together. There are a couple of things I really love about this series:

1. Annie is braver than her older brother Jack
2. The short stories expose kids to history, different cultures and mythology in a really fun way. 

In this book for example, Jack and Annie head to Baghdad, ride camels, and help rescue a priceless book by Aristotle. I've got the next several loaded on my nook. Rating: 3 stars.

36. The Sisters Brothers
My Dad was a huge fan of Westerns, so as a kid I probably watched all of them. Several times over. I'll even go so far as to admit that I thought all Americans lived lives that either resembled a Western, or the characters of St. Elmo's Fire. Imagine my shock when wheels touched down at JFK! I bring this up, because after seeing all those movies, and dabbling with a few Zane Grey books as a kid, I believed myself to be all Westerned out. I was wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed this funny book. Yes there is the expected violence, and unshaven unclean men, but I smiled through most of it. I listened to the audio book wonderfully narrated by John Pruden. I found myself rooting for Eli and ol' Tub. And is this not the best book jacket cover ever? Rating: 4 stars.