Tamara’s Comments (group member since Mar 10, 2009)

Tamara’s comments from the Read in 2009 group.

37. The Spook's Apprentice by Joseph Delaney // 270 pages.

A wonderful and terrifying series by a new writer about a young boy training to be an exorcist. Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son and has been apprenticed to the local Spook. The job is hard, the Spook is distant and many apprentices have failed before Thomas. Somehow Thomas must learn how to exorcise ghosts, contain witches and bind boggarts. But when he is tricked into freeing Mother Malkin, the most evil witch in the County, the horror begins..

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When I started in this book yesterday it all seemed a bit familiar. After finishing it today I'm 90% sure I've read it before when I was much younger. Still liked it though. :)
Great to see how the boy tries to make up for his own mistakes instead of asking for help right away.
Delaney's writing style also made me want to keep reading, I'm looking forward to reading more of his works.

36. Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison // 285 pages.

Helene Zaharis’s politician husband keeps her on a tight leash and cancels her credit cards as a way of controlling her. Lorna Rafferty is up to her eyeballs in debt and can’t stop her addiction to eBay. Sandra Vanderslice, battling agoraphobia, pays her shoe bills by working as a phone-sex operator. And Jocelyn Bowen is a nanny for the family from hell (who barely knows a sole from a heel but who will do anything to get out of the house.)

On Tuesday nights, these women meet to trade shoes and, in the process, form friendships that will help them each triumph over their problems---from secret pasts to blackmail, bankruptcy, and dating.

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This was fun to read, but certainly not one of my favorites. What I liked most is how different types of people get together through one thing they all love, which results in new beautiful friendships.

35. Twilight Watch/Dusk Watch by Sergei Lukyaneko // 317 pages.

Three years have passed since the events of The Day Watch. His wife and daughter spending the summer on a dacha not far from Moscow where Anton is working when his boss Gesser reveals he has received an anonymous note. An Other has exposed the truth about their kind to a human, and now intends to convert that human into an Other.

The note has been sent to Zebulon and to the Inquisition’s offices in Berne – a place whose address only the highest level of mages and sorcerers know. Now cooperating, the Night Watch and the Day Watch, along with an Investigator from the Inquisition, seek to unmask the culprit. Anton will represent the Night Watch, while the Day Watch is sending High Vampire Kostya Saushkin, once Anton’s teenage neighbour.

Installed in the apartment complex to which the letter writer has been traced, Anton begins to investigate the residents one by one. Reviewing the dossiers of the building’s inhabitants, Anton comes across a familiar – albeit much younger – face. Could Gesser be trying initiate his son as an Other?

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I still remember how hard it was for me to finish the first book in this series. When I was told it would get better I kept reading. Both the second and third book are indeed better in my opinion, even though it took me some time to really get into it both times. I still find the story fun and interesting, but somehow it's just not as good as I expected it to be. If my library ever gets the last book I'll read it, but I won't buy it to find out what happens next.

34. Zoete Wraak by Guy Didelez + Joke de Vloed // 156 pages.

Hester's new at school and looks different, they call her gothic. This is not appreciated by some classmates. If the new trainee seems to like her, one of her classmates wants revenge. Along with two others they decide to kill Hester's only friend.. Hester has also had a tough time trying to process the death of her mother and fears that she will find her father dead. This causes her to react strangely to some things, which doesn't help her at all.

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This was a very well written book for teenagers. It really shows how much harm you can do when you bully others, how much impact it can have on their lives.

33. Eeuwig Zwijgen by Guy Didelez // 111 pages.

Fifteen year old Jane is in a psychiatric institution, by her own choice. She’s not ready to talk to anyone though.. Nobody knows what's really going on. Janne would prefer to remain silent forever ...

Suddenly there is a boy sitting at my table. And while there are so many other free tables. He looks right at me.. He is not handsome, but he has something. Is it perhaps because of his dark, mysterious eyes?

It immediately clicked between Sam and Jane. Sam’s gentle jokes and small surprises make Janne happy. But it also confused her. Would he be the one person she could talk to?

32. No One Writes To The Colonel by Gabriel García Márquez // 79 pages.

The novel, written between 1956-1957 and first published in 1961, is the story of an impoverished, retired colonel, a veteran of the Thousand Days War, who still hopes to receive the pension he was promised some fifteen years earlier. The colonel lives with his asthmatic wife in a small village under martial law. The action opens with the colonel preparing to go to the funeral of a town musician whose death is notable because he was the first to die from natural causes in many years. The novel is set during the years of "La Violencia" in Colombia, when martial law and censorship prevail.

What did you think of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas? I recently got it from the library but haven't read it yet..

31. Oesters Of Merguez by Omar B. // 136.

With a father who was sergeant in the Moroccan army Omar has an adventurous, but not an easy childhood. When the person to whom he looks up to disappear from his life, the 19-year-old Omar is in a deep crisis. He emigrates to Belgium to get on with hisd life. Initially everything runs smoothly, but then he starts a secret double life. He must avoid his secret coming out. It would mean an unacceptable outrage in the Moroccan community where he belongs and for his family in his home country.

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In this book there are some events that contain gay sex and also a little bit of self-injury. Just so you know. ;)

2114840 Currently reading Oesters Of Merguez by Omar B. Just a short book, after this I'm going to start in Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko.

30. Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko // 351 pages.

The second book in the internationally bestselling fantasy series, The Day Watch begins where The Night Watch left off, set in a modern-day Moscow where the 1,000-year-old treaty between Light and Dark maintains its uneasy balance through careful vigilance from the Others. The forces of darkness keep an eye during the day, the Day Watch, while the agents of Light monitor the nighttime. Very senior Others called the Inquisitors are the impartial judges insisting on the essential compact. When a very potent artifact is stolen from them, the consequences are dire and drastic for all sides. The Day Watch introduces the perspective of the Dark Ones, told in part by a young witch who bolsters her evil power by leeching fear from children’s nightmares as a counselor at a girls’ summer camp. When she falls in love with a handsome young Light One, the balance is threatened and a death must be avenged.

Read 112 pages in Day Watch today. Now at 237/351, so I'll probably finish it sometime this week. Going to start in third book of the series after this one, the fourth book isn't available in the library yet though, unfortunately.

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29. 2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. // 12 pages. Ebook.

2BR02B is a science fiction short story by Kurt Vonnegut, originally published in the pulp digest magazine Worlds of If Science Fiction, 1/1962. The title is pronounced "2 B R naught 2 B", referencing the famous phrase "to be, or not to be" from Wm Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In this story, the title refers to the telephone number one dials to schedule an assisted suicide with the Federal Bureau of Termination.

28. The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving // 29 pages. Ebook.

The chief part of the stories, however, turned upon the favorite specter of Sleepy Hollow, the Headless Horseman, who had been heard several times of late, patrolling the country; and, it was said, tethered his horse nightly among the graves in the churchyard. The story was immediately matched by a thrice marvelous adventure of Brom Bones, who made light of the Galloping Hessian as an arrant jockey. He affirmed that on returning one night from the neighboring village of Sing Sing, he had been overtaken by this midnight trooper; that he had offered to race with him for a bowl of punch, and should have won it too, for Daredevil beat the goblin horse all hollow, but just as they came to the church bridge, the Hessian bolted, and vanished in a flash of fire. All these tales, told in that drowsy undertone with which men talk in the dark, the countenances of the listeners only now and then receiving a casual gleam from the glare of a pipe, sank deep in the mind of Ichabod.

Still reading Day Watch. Read a few pages today while waiting in the hospital and will read some more later today. :)

Just read Follow Me! by Mark Tinney, a short ebook. :)

Right now I'm on page 52/351 of Day Watch. Still loving the series.

27. Follow Me! by Mark Tinney // 34 pages. Ebook.

Mark Tinney explores the impressions of his first season as a tour manager in 1976, in an industry where surprise, excitement and challenge are constant companions. If you are thinking about a career as a tour manager or just interested in life “on the road” in the tourist world, then this book is for you.

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I'm currently studying tourism and reading this once again showed me why. Unfortunately I can never work as a tour guide, even though that was the reason I chose this study. Still a fun book to read, too bad it was so short.

26. Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko // 363 pages.

Set in modern day Moscow, Night Watch is a world as elaborate and imaginative as Tolkien or the best Asimov. Living among us are the "Others," an ancient race of humans with supernatural powers who swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. A thousand-year treaty has maintained the balance of power, and the two sides coexist in an uneasy truce. But an ancient prophecy decrees that one supreme "Other" will rise up and tip the balance, plunging the world into a catastrophic war between the Dark and the Light. When a young boy with extraordinary powers emerges, fulfilling the first half of the prophecy, will the forces of the Light be able to keep the Dark from corrupting the boy and destroying the world?

So, now I don't have to study anymore, it's time to read again, finally! :D Finished Night Watch.

Read about 11 pages in Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane on my way to school. Also read 18 pages in Day Watch so far, will read more tonight. :)

Just read 15 pages, but I'm just too tired to keep reading.

I remember you saying something about me not joining your group, so I asked which group is yours, but you never told me. ;) Can't remember anything about stalking though. :P