Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

I started Hero's Song while waiting around for...I think for Wayne to get done with class so I could take him home. It was slow to start with, and I didn't touch the book again for well over a week. But the next time I picked it up, I finished in two days. I admit it wasn't as well executed as another Edith Pattou book Wayne and I both loved, called East. But it was a fun world and I enjoyed some of the characters. What's not to like about a girl disguised as a boy who fools everyone she meets until she joins the journey, and then proceeds to fool only the main character.  read more »

I don't know much about investing, or retirement plans, or buying a house. These all seem like good ideas in theory, and I thought some general book about making wise financial choices would help me at least define some terms and help me know what I want to learn more about. This book did that pretty well. David Bach has several books all along this "finish rich" train of thought. I can only assume that Smart Couples Finish Rich and Smart Women Finish Rich have similar lessons.  read more »

What banal mediocrity.

While Eragon was a mediocre book which entertained, it followed a somewhat intelligent path of least resistance to create an enjoyable experience. Eldest was a pretentious long-winded entry into fantasy which can only be categorized under the term: forgettable. Gosh, this was a long book.

Why even write it about Eragon? After 300 pages, the only interesting things were happening to other characters  read more »

Douglas Adam's potency as a satirical/humor writer of science fiction novels (read: Hitchhiker's series) could be attributed to the mainstream understanding of science fiction as a genre. Because of films like Star Wars and others which permeated the consciousness of the American popular arts, Douglas Adams' works of humor captivated a higher level of social experience than had he written a mystery novel.  read more »

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is one of Douglas Adams' best books. A highly overlooked novel, due to the Hitchhiker stardom, it surpasses many of the books in this famous series in wit, charm and Adams' brilliant humor. But this review isn't about Holistic. Nope. It's about the sequel.  read more »

Over Sea, Under Stone
by Susan Cooper

This is definitely not a good book for reading aloud. We struggled through about a third of it, where Wayne kept complaining that "nothing was happening." He was right, of course, but I decided to finish the rest of it by myself, so I could skim. There was just too much...detail...and not enough character development or plot development.  read more »

Sunshine, by Robin McKinley  read more »

Eragon (pronounced EHR-uh-gahn) is your average dragon/fantasy tale which follows after the J.R.R. Tolkien legacy. I have avoided this book because of the huge negative press around the relationship between this novel and the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars series. People have claimed the book is cliched and derivative.

And I have to say, it's all true.  read more »

Ever wonder how to teach children that they won't be happy getting everything they want? This story would definitely scare that lesson into them.

Coraline is a short book by Neil Gaiman about a little girl and the nightmare world she falls into, and how she tries to escape. A great story about overcoming fears, nerves, what it means to be brave and ultimately that getting what you want can be a very scary thing.  read more »

I stayed up really late last night finishing this book and so I'm really tired while writing this review. It is a short read, approximately 4-5 hours; and it definitely is not for children.

I've been trying to pick up some Neil Gaiman books lately and see if I do or don't like his writing. His style and flow is a bit choppy for me (just different, not bad) and so it was a bit hard to get the cadence of this book until after the first chapter... but then, I was unfortunately hooked.  read more »