Sunday, December 28, 2014

Sunday Summary: 28 December 2014

A holiday week, vacation from work, and Christmas with the family. I couldn't ask for anything more. On Saturday, the final read-a-thon of the year started. Readers at BookObsessed are holding the "Snow is Falling and Books are Calling" end-of-year read-a-thon from the 27th of December through the 1st of January. It's an opportunity to put a final push toward finishing annual challenges.

Where I've been reading

Home. It's such a nice word. After three weeks of business trips, it was nice to be able to stay home with no particular obligations. Hubby and I relaxed, watched a movie or two, and I read whenever I wanted. My Christmas gift from Hubby was a small road trip to Paris (Texas, not France) to visit a friend. We drove up and back on Saturday and I read in the car when I wasn't napping.

What I've been reading

Book Cover: Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding Format: eBook
Source: borrowed from Denton Public Library (via Overdrive)
Completed: 23 December

★★★★☆

Airship Ketty Jay is captained by by Darian Frey who has assembled a motley group of crewmen. About the only thing they have in common is that all are running from something. Frey has previously led them in smuggling operations, but when he gets a tip about a crate of jewels being transported on an unarmed ship, he decides that one act of piracy can set him up for life. Unfortunately, things go horribly wrong and the Ketty Jay and its crew are public enemy #1.

There's adventure; lots of close scrapes and near misses. There's magic, but it doesn't dominate the story. There's simply an understanding that magic is a normal part of their world and a quiet thread of magic use runs through the entire book. There's humor and danger and romance and the occasional sad story. All-in-all, an extremely delightful book—first in a series that I intend to read to completion.

In the beginning of Retribution Falls, I found myself confused as to whether the Ketty Jay was a spaceship or just an airship. I'm sure that's because of the number of reviews I read which compared the book to the Firefly television series. Finally, when I had sorted out the environment, I settled down to one of the most enjoyable books I read in 2014.

I rated Retribution Falls with 4 stars. One of the best parts of the book was the character development. The world-building could have been better, but maybe I'm thinking so because I was misled and confused at the beginning.

I borrowed this book from the library. I had used the “recommend a book” option in the Overdrive application to ask my library to get a copy. On December 7, I received an e-mail telling me that they had purchased the book and I immediately logged in and checked it out. As I finished the book, I returned to the library's Overdrive application to get the second book and noticed that they had purchased the third & fourth books—but #2. I'm not sure how that slipped through, but I did turn around and recommend that they acquire the second book as well as the other three books. I just received notification that it's available for check-out.


Book Cover: The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord Format: eGalley
Source: review book from NetGalley
Completed: 28 December

★★★☆☆

Rafi has been sent to the Lyceum, a school for young people with psi powers. There his skills will be assessed to determine just what they are and whether he has the appropriate discipline and control to avoid being a danger to others. If Rafi had lived on a planet other than Cygnus Beta, there'd probably be no concern at all, but on his planet, there are few psionically gifted people.

As soon as he can, Rafi removes himself from the school—and from his planet. He travels to Purnatam, a planet mostly peopled by the Ntshune and where psi usage is common, along with fellow classmate Ntenman. There's something extraordinary taking place in the Academes of Punartam, and Rafi discovers that he has an unexpected role to play as tensions between the rival star-faring civilizations play out.

It seemed that it was taking me a long time to read The Galaxy Game, but when I looked back at my logs, I see that it was only 6 days from the day I started reading it. I think part of my perception was that with time off of work, I had thought I would finish the book more quickly. I was also aware of letting myself get distracted from reading by other entertainments such as watching TV and hanging out on Facebook.

The question then is...why did I eagerly put the book aside when offered other things to do? It's because the book didn't read quickly at all. For much of the first part of the book I felt confused. I was ⅔ of the way into the book before I discovered that it was the second book in a series! I don't know if my confusion was due to not having read the first book or not. I do know that as I read, I had to continually reevaluate everything. I found myself lost in the universe in which it takes place, lost as to who the characters were, and lost in the story itself.

As I read the final portion of The Galaxy Game things suddenly shifted into place. I'm still debating between 3 and 4 stars. The publisher has asked that I hold my review until the publication date, so I'll have the next 10 days to decide.


Book Cover: Kris: The Legend Begins by J J Ruscella Book Cover: Shadow of Freedom by David Weber It should be obvious now that I've set aside Kris. I was enjoying it, but found that there were books I would rather read. I'll get back to it eventually, but won't bring it up again in Sunday Summary until I have finished it. I'm reading Shadow of Freedom to complete my 2014 Series Challenge. It's the last book on my list and I will finish it before the end of the year.

This Week on the Blog

I posted

  1. Review: As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust
  2. Book Blogger Hop: 26 December - 1 January
  3. Bout of Books 12
  4. Stacking the Shelves (16)

And, as usual, I'm linking up with The Sunday Post, hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on the blog, showcase books and things received. Share news about what is coming up on the blog for the week ahead.


Saturday, December 27, 2014

Stacking the Shelves (16)

'Twas the week of Christmas and all through the house,
no one was working, not even the spouse.
The books were stacked on the shelves with care,
ready to be taken to the reading chair.

With two weeks off of work and an end-of-year Read-a-Thon coming up, I went “shopping” at the library. Still not spending money on books, but it's not been terribly painful because of the terrific access I have to books through my local libraries. Yes, libraries—plural. At the beginning of the year, the library in my town was offering eBooks only through Freading. I found quite a few books that I want to read in their catalog, in particular backlist titles. But, to get the most recent releases, I needed to get a card at a library in a nearby town so that I'd have access to Overdrive. I was quite excited to find out that the library in my town has joined a consortium in order to offer books through Overdrive. But, I'm not giving up my card in the nearby library because these two libraries have different books in their catalogs.

And, for future book purchases, my two sons each gave me gift cards to Amazon.com for Christmas presents. I'm going to have fun next year!

Book Cover: The Leper of Saint Giles by Ellis Peters Book Cover: The Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club by Wanda E Brunstetter Book Cover: Rest You Merry by Charlotte MacLeod Book Cover: Echo Burning by Lee Child Book Cover: A Spy in the House by Y S Lee

So how did you do this week? Any new books? You're invited to tell us all about it by joining the fun at Stacking the Shelves. According to the reviewers at Tynga's Reviews who host the meme:

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Friday, December 26, 2014

Bout of Books 12

Bout of Books

It's that time again! Bout of Books 12 is coming up in just over a week. If you like to read and talk about what you're reading, join me in Bout of Book 12. You need to sign up by midnight CDT on Tuesday, 6 January.

What is Bout of Books? Well, the sponsors provide this explanation:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 5th and runs through Sunday, January 11th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 12 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.  - From the Bout of Books team

With Bout of Books 12 starting on the Monday morning that I return to work, I'm hoping that I'm not overwhelmed with stuff that's piled up while I was enjoying this lengthy end-of-year vacation.

If you've followed my blog for any time, you'll note that I participate in a number of read-a-thons. Bout of Books is one of my favorites because of the mix of social media—particularly Twitter—in the usual reading and visiting the sites of other readers. Even when I have to be away from my computer (as when the read-a-thon is taking place during one of my cross-country road trips), I can post status updates on Twitter and check in on how my reading friends are progressing.

Book Blogger Hop: 26 December - 1 January

Book Blogger Hop

This week's question for Book Blogger Hop comes from Elizabeth at Silver's Reviews:

Do you have a book with a location that you just HAD to visit after reading the book?

This question is similar to a past Top Ten Tuesday prompt. The prior post lists 10 places I want to visit as a result of reading about them, but the #1 place I just had to visit was Mt. Shasta from Assignment in Eternity by Robert Heinlein.

In “Lost Legacy”, the longest story in Assignment in Eternity. a group of academics discover how to use telepathy. They feel drawn to Mt. Shasta in California, and once there, they discover a colony of adepts who train them in many paranormal capabilities and recruit them to help rid the world of power-seeking evil. Since reading the story as a teenager, I had longed to visit Mt. Shasta and I finally had the opportunity in August 2007.

I'm linking up with other book bloggers at Book Blogger Hop which is hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. Come see what others have to say and join us if you wish.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Review: As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

Book Cover: As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley
Published 6 January 2015 by Delacorte Press
Source: eARC from NetGalley

Hard on the heels of the return of her mother’s body from the frozen reaches of the Himalayas, Flavia, for her indiscretions, is banished from her home at Buckshaw and shipped across the ocean to Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy in Toronto, her mother’s alma mater, there to be inducted into a mysterious organization known as the Nide.

No sooner does she arrive, however, than a body comes crashing down out of the chimney and into her room, setting off a series of investigations into mysterious disappearances of girls from the school.

My Thoughts

I kept wavering between 4 and 5 stars for As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust. I'm a real fan of Flavia de Luce, the young protagonist in Alan Bradley's series of mystery novels. The prior book was released in January 2014, and I checked it out of the library the day it arrived. In fact, I put myself on the reserve list before the library had even received their copy. I flew through that book, reading The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches in only two days.

Browsing through NetGalley, I was excited to see that a new volume in Flavia's story was due in January 2015. You can imagine how thrilled I was when my request to receive a review copy of As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust was approved. Due to business and family commitments (“life” ?) it actually took me four days to read this book and I enjoyed every minute of it. As I have time to think about it, however, I don't think this was the very best of the series, so let's settle for 4 stars.

So, what is As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust all about? Flavia has been bundled off to boarding school in Canada—the very same school that her mother had attended as a girl. In her usual style, Flavia pretty much does her own thing rather than falling in line with the schedule of school and dormitory life. Of course there's a murder and Flavia is leading the charge to identify the dead woman and determine how she died. Along the way, it is revealed that a number of students have mysteriously disappeared from the school. There is also a secret society (or two?) operating in the boarding school. More mysteries for Flavia to solve.

As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust contains the usual Flavia quirks: her passion for chemistry, obsession with the processes of decay and decomposition, and application of scientific method to problems of any type. Those who have been reading the entire series will enjoy seeing Flavia mature through her new experiences. Readers will also miss the setting of Buckshaw, the village of Bishop's Lacey, and the inhabitants of both.

I said that I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I did. But I found myself feeling dissatisfied—particularly in the second half of the book. For example, Flavia is very lonely and perks up a little bit when she finally gets a letter from Dogger, six weeks after leaving home. But, nowhere does the author tell us that she is sending off letter after letter to her family. No. Instead, Flavia says, “After queuing day after day at the wicket, and being turned away each time letterless, I had simply given up waiting,” concluding “...no one on this particular planet gave a rat’s whisker for Flavia de Luce.”

Fortunately, her loyal readers do care, and care deeply for Flavia. I'm hoping that this book is the launching pad for further episodes of Flavia's story.


★★★★☆

Note that I received a free copy of As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Sunday Summary: 21 December 2014

This week began with a business trip to the NYC area. Unfortunately, I had very little time to read and therefore only finished one book during the week. I've met my basic reading challenge goal for 2014 and have only one more book to read to complete the other. From now until the end of the year, I'll be on vacation from work, so I expect to find lots of time to read.

Where I've been reading

Last business trip for the year. I traveled to the NYC area on Monday and worked there Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I was really glad to get back home on Thursday evening. It was a fairly typical trip—crowded airplanes, and average hotel room. I did, however get a bit of a shock when I realized that I have 5 days until Christmas. Somehow I was convinced that there was a full week plus some before Christmas Day. I'm not ready!

What I've been reading

Book Cover: The Root of All Evil by Ellery Adams and Elizabeth Lockard Format: eGalley
Source: review book from NetGalley
Completed: 15 December

★★★☆☆

When browsing the available books on NetGalley, I saw a book that looked familiar—The Root of All Evil. It was described as the fourth book in the Hope Street Church series. But the author's name didn't ring a bell. I found a note from the author mentioning that she had edited and re-written the first three books of the series, released them with new titles and under her own name instead of the alias, Jennifer Stanley. Looking through my reading logs, I saw that in a period of 10 days in November 2010, I read all three books in Jennifer Stanley's Hope Street Church mysteries. I even posted to an online forum that I was enjoying the books. And now, here was another volume in the series.

The Root of All Evil is a cozy mystery with a small Bible study group providing the cast of characters. Things seem to be going well for Cooper Lee: she's received a promotion at work, she has a boyfriend that she loves, her sister is expecting a baby. When the art teacher from Hope Street Christian Academy is found murdered in the pastor's office, Cooper and the members of her Bible study group plunge into investigation.


Book Cover: Kris: The Legend Begins by J J Ruscella Book Cover: Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding I still haven't finished reading Kris. While it is a lovely story about a young orphaned boy who grows up to be Santa Claus, I felt that I needed to spend more time on other books. In addition to finishing The Root of All Evil and getting a review posted, I needed to read Retribution Falls which I checked out of the library. This fantasy novel has been compared to the TV series Firefly, and I can see the resemblance. I'm nearing the end of the book, and it's a good thing too, since the library loan is about to expire.

This Week on the Blog

This week I spent a lot of time thinking about reading challenges for 2015. In 2014, I decided to avoid committing to too many challenges and that worked well for me. But it's so tempting to sign up for challenges because they look like so much fun. This week's posts are all about challenges—past and future.

  1. Top Ten Tuesday: 16 December 2014
  2. Review: The Root of All Evil
  3. Book Blogger Hop: 19-25 December 2014
  4. Stacking the Shelves (15)

And, as usual, I'm linking up with The Sunday Post, hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on the blog, showcase books and things received. Share news about what is coming up on the blog for the week ahead.


Saturday, December 20, 2014

Stacking the Shelves (15)

I'm still restraining myself and avoiding buying books. Well, books for myself, that is. I have purchased a couple of books to give as Christmas gifts. So this week, the only new books at my house are two review books from NetGalley.

In 2015, I'm going to emphasize books for the 10- to 20-year old. I'm calling it my year of Tween/Teen reading. One objective is to read classic mid-grade and YA fiction as well as recently released books. In that vein, I picked up two young adult books from NetGalley. How to Fly with Broken Wings is a contemporary story about Willem who wants to make friends and Sasha who teaches him how. The Firebird Mysteries is the first in a steampunk adventure series by Darrell Pitt. It's already available for the Kindle, and will be released in paperback in May 2015.

Book Cover: How to Fly with Broken Wings by Jane Elson Book Cover: The Firebird Mystery by Darrell Pitt

So how did you do this week? Any new books? You're invited to tell us all about it by joining the fun at Stacking the Shelves. According to the reviewers at Tynga's Reviews who host the meme:

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Friday, December 19, 2014

Book Blogger Hop: 19-25 December 2014

Book Blogger Hop

This week's question for Book Blogger Hop comes from Samantha at Bakey's Book Blog:

Do you write a review for every book you read or only review copies from publishers?

A good question. I always write a review for books received from publishers. That's the promise I made to them in exchange for the free book. While I do post a mini-review of every book I complete in my Sunday Summary, I only post a full review of books received from publishers and NetGalley and those books that I really like or really hate. I don't like writing luke-warm reviews, so the only time there's one on my blog is when I read an ARC that just didn't measure up.

I'm linking up with other book bloggers at Book Blogger Hop which is hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. Come see what others have to say and join us if you wish.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Review: The Root of All Evil

Book Cover: The Root of All Evil by Ellery Adams and Elizabeth Lockard The Root of All Evil by Ellery Adams and Elizabeth Lockard
Published date by Beyond the Page Publishing
Source: eARC from NetGalley

Cooper Lee has never been happier. She has terrific friends at Bible study, a great boyfriend in Nathan, and best of all, a new niece or nephew on the way. But storm clouds are gathering when a string of church robberies comes to Hope Street and an art teacher is found dead in what appears to be a robbery gone wrong. With Halloween approaching, Cooper’s beginning to think there are far more tricks than treats coming her way.

No sooner do she and her friends step in to help the police unearth a killer than they discover a con artist among their flock. Lost in a morass of confusing clues—and even more confusing signals from Nathan—Cooper’s not sure which way to turn. With the stakes so high, she sends up a prayer for some divine guidance, because Cooper knows that sometimes it takes the help of a higher power to bring down the lowest form of evildoer.

My Thoughts

Someone is breaking into churches in Richmond and stealing AV equipment and money. Cooper Lee and the members of her Bible study group are hoping that Hope Street Church doesn't become one of the victims. But something worse happens—one of the teachers at Hope Street Christian Academy is found murdered in the pastor's study.

With their usual enthusiasm, Cooper and friends jump in to interview the teacher's friends and even fellow teachers, hoping to help the police determine who killed the art teacher. Other things are happening in Cooper's life as well. Her sister has been confined to bed rest for the last two months of her pregnancy and needs cheering up. Nathan, her boyfriend, seems perfectly content with the casual dating that has been going on for a year, while Cooper is looking for a permanent relationship and marriage. A new member of the Bible study group turns out to be a con artist and Cooper is torn whether to expose her to the others or not. And, to top it all off, some equipment and supplies have been stolen from her work and she has to find out if the thief is one of her employees.

I was particularly interested in this book when I saw that it was an addition to a series that I read a while ago. I read all three books of Jennifer Stanley's Hope Street Church mysteries in November and December 2010. I posted this observation in an online forum:

I'm currently reading the 3rd book in Jennifer Stanley's Hope Street Church Mysteries, The Way of the Guilty. I almost quit in the middle of #1—it was awkwardly written with stilted dialog. But the plot was good and the author was developing the characters well enough, so I stayed with it. #2 was much better and I'm just flying along in #3. (I've read 170 pages since I started it at lunchtime yesterday!)

I don't know much about the publishing industry. It's a shame that the author wasn't sent back to "fix" the first book after she landed the contract for all three. She's obviously improved and future books—in this series or not—are likely to be extremely well written. But the first one here can ruin the entire series for an unsuspecting reader.

Well, it looks like the author received similar feedback from others. She has released the first three books with new titles (and under the author name of Ellery Adams rather than Jennnifer Stanley) and updated and improved the text. And now there's this new volume in the series. I hope there will be more.


★★★☆☆

Note that I received a free copy of The Root of All Evil from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday: 16 December 2014

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week this group of college aged and twenty somethings provide a prompt so that other book lovers can join in with their own top ten list.

This week's theme is “Top Ten Books Read in 2014”.

As the year's end approaches, I know I'm going to be asked to rank the books that I read and select the top book or books. I suppose I could go by the ratings that I assign to the books, starting with a list of those books which I felt deserved five stars. There are two problems with this: first, I haven't reviewed every book and assigned a rating; second, sometimes one of my favorites for the year might not be a five-star book. What? A favorite or “best” book that didn't rate five stars? Sure. Sometimes the story sticks with me, but there are some flaws in the book which cause me to withhold a star. So, this list will consist of the better books I read during 2014 rather than the highest-ranking ones.

Another thing I want to do is highlight a couple of series that were outstanding. While the individual books themselves weren't candidates for “Best of 2014”, the series collectively falls in to that category.

I will point out that the order of appearance in this list is the order in which they were read. There is no ranking of the books against each other.

  1. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley
  2. Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear
  3. The Martian by Andy Weir
  4. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
  5. The Gauguin Connection by Estelle Ryan
  6. Nightmares! by Jason Segel & Kirsten Miller
  7. The Paper Magician by Charlie N Holmberg
  8. Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
  9. Phryne Fisher Mysteries (series) by Kerry Greenwood
  10. Diana Tregarde Psychic Detective (series) by Mercedes Lackey

Books mentioned in this post: (links lead to Amazon.com):

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear The Martian by Andy Weir Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford The Gauguin Connection by Estelle Ryan Book Cover: Nightmares! by Jason Segel Book Cover: The Paper Magician by Charlie N Holmberg Book Cover: Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Phryne Fisher Mysteries (series) by Kerry Greenwood

Ruddy Gore by Kerry Greenwood Raisins and Almonds by Kerry Greenwood Murderin Montparnasse by Kerry Greenwood Unnatural Habits by Kerry Greenwood

Diana Tregarde Psychic Detective (series) by Mercedes Lackey

Book Cover: Magic 101 by Mercedes Lackey Book Cover: Burning Water by Mercedes Lackey Book Cover: Children of the Night by Mercedes Lackey Book Cover: Jinx High by Mercedes Lackey

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Sunday Summary, 14 December 2014

Business travel sure gives me a lot more time to read. This week I had three flights as I hopped from Dallas to Detroit to Louisville and then returned to Dallas. That probably contributed to me completing more books this week than last. And, as usual, I'm linking up with The Sunday Post, hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on the blog, showcase books and things received. Share news about what is coming up on the blog for the week ahead.


Where I've been reading

My week started with a business trip from Dallas to Detroit on Monday for meetings on Tuesday. From there, I flew to Louisville, KY, for another meeting and then back home on Wednesday evening. Thursday, I spent most of the day in hospital waiting rooms as I accompanied my husband for knee surgery. The weekend, I was at home. It's a nice respite before my trip to NY next week.

What I've been reading

Book Cover: Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger Format: eBook
Source: borrowed from Denton Public Library (via Overdrive)
Completed: 7 December

★★★★☆

Waistcoats & Weaponry is the third book in Gail Carriger's Finishing School series. This is a YA series set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate. Sophronia Temminick is a student at Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. Her mother thinks it's a simple finishing school, but Sophronia has learned that she and her fellow students are actually a school for espionage. Yes, she'll learn etiquette along with how to curtsey, how to dress, and how to dance. But she'll learn the skills of subterfuge, diversion, and spycraft.

In this episode, Sophronia and friends leave school to attend a ball and from there sneak aboard a train as they assist Sidheag return home to her werewolf pack in Scotland.

Yes, it's paranormal steampunk all the way. A glorious combination of steam power, dirigibles, corsets, clockworks, vampires, and werewolves.


Book Cover: Peter and the Startcatchers by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson Format: audio
Source: freebie from SYNC YA giveaway, summer 2014
Completed: 10 December

★★★★☆

Although I've had a paperback copy of Peter and the Starcatchers in my TBR stack for several years, I never got around to reading it. Then, the SYNC audiobook program included Peter and the Starcatchers as one of the free titles they gave away in the summer of 2014. I have to say that the recording was so well done that I'm sure I actually enjoyed the story better listening to it than I would have by reading the text.

Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson have written a prequel to the original Peter Pan story by J. M. Barrie. In this episode, we meet Peter as an orphan being transported to the court of King Zarboff as a servant. Along with four other orphans, he is loaded onto the Never Land, a sailing ship also carrying passengers Molly Aster and her governess Mrs. Bumbrake. And, there's a mysterious trunk locked up in a lower hold.

When strange things start happening around the trunk, Peter sets out to find out what's inside. He's thwarted, however, when pirates raid the ship. The trunk is knocked overboard, Peter falls overboard, and most everyone winds up on a desert island.

It's a rollicking adventure, read particularly well by Jim Dale. The mermaids, the natives, and even the crocodile put in their appearances. I can't wait to listen to the next book in the series.


Book Cover: Saint Peter's Fair by Ellis Peters Format: eBook
Source: borrowed from Sanger Public Library (via Freading)
Completed: 11 December

★★★☆☆

In his fourth appearance, Brother Cadfael has been assigned the role of interpreter for a Welsh merchants for the duration of a 3-day market fair held on the grounds of the Abbey of Saints Peter and Paul. Recent fighting in the civil war has left the town of Shrewsbury in dire need of repairs to roads and walls, and the leading citizens of the town are disgruntled that the Abbot won't agree to designate a portion of the fair's proceeds to the town.

When a gang of boys converge upon a wealthy merchant demanding that he hold back part of the tariff from the Abbey and give it to the town, the confrontation results in a brawl along the river's docks. Later that night, the merchant is murdered and suspicion falls on the son of the town's provost, leader of the young men. It's up to Brother Cadfael to help the sheriff's deputy expose the murderer and assist the merchant's orphaned niece in conducting her uncle's affairs.

Saint Peter's Fair is a well-written and well-researched historical fiction—another excellent addition to the series. It keeps getting better and I've selected this series for one of my challenges in 2015.


Book Cover: Kris: The Legend Begins by J J Ruscella Book Cover: The Root of All Evil by Ellery Adams and Elizabeth Lockard I'm reading two very different books right now. Kris is a lovely story about a young orphaned boy who grows up to be Santa Claus. I'm about 1/3 of the way into it and enjoying it very much. The Root of All Evil is a cozy mystery with a small Bible Study group providing the cast of characters. Both should be completed early next week. Check back next Sunday for reviews.

This Week on the Blog

This week I spent a lot of time thinking about reading challenges for 2015. In 2014, I decided to avoid committing to too many challenges and that worked well for me. But it's so tempting to sign up for challenges because they look like so much fun. This week's posts are all about challenges—past and future.

  1. 2015 Reading Challenges - Part 2, 42 SF Challenge
  2. 2015 Reading Challenges - Part 3, Finishing the Series and Eclectic Reader Challenges
  3. 2014 Challenges: An Update
  4. Book Blogger Hop: 12-18 December 2014