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I enjoyed this book. The characters are believable, some I liked, other no so much. It's a good mystery with an array of scenes, places and characters that will keep you reading at a fast clip. I highly recommend it as a lose-yourself-in-the-plot book.

This is a memoir that's oddly touched something deep within me. Walls is now a contributor to MSNBC. With that said this story of her childhood, pushes the limits of what you could imagine a child's experiences could be and come through it with grace and strength. A father who believes once they strike gold with a gadget he's inventing, then the family will be set to begin building their glass castle. Okay then...

This book has some understated and not so understated humor. Vampires are real, they live in a segregated community, humans judge them and dating them is weird. Another person who read the book asked why someone who's 200 yrs. old would want to return to high school and why someone 17 would want to date a guy old enough to be her great and them some more greats grandfather. Good question?

The plot's tightening. Something's happening beyond the weird transference at the wife's death. The wife who's now the daughter has talked about this being a new opportunity to live a more independent life. She's making plans to get into a top level junior high, to study and to become self sufficient. She's also admitting that she wasn't satisfied just being a wife. Ummm - wonder where this is leading?

I recently finished reading two Higahino mysteries and love them. This one is very different. The premise is that Heisuke who is the main character has lost his wife and nearly his daughter in a horrible accident. When the daughter wakes from a coma, she has taken on the personality and characteristics of her mother, believes she is her mother. Heisuke thinks his wife somehow transferred into his daughter's body.

I am reading this book at race car speed. It's an end-of-the-world scenario - bad guys, good guys who are angels, an ad hoc military formed to fight against the forces of evil with one breathless moment after another. Penryn's living in the end days trying to protect and care for her sister who cannot walk and a mother who isn't sane. She's a strong willed teenager trying to defend those she loves. Back to the book!

I spent a week in Paris and was literally a gawky, awkward adult. I know my eyes were huge trying to take in everything. So far, I love reading about Anna discovering Paris. It's almost like traveling there.

Haven't read the first word - yet. Am going from here to the book. Someone whose taste I respect recommended it, my daughter!

I'm bound by Shadow Bound! It's a gritty but fascinating thriller, mystery, some romance and flat out compelling story telling. I'm going back to reading my book but wanted to say I'm loving it! Haven't even had a moment to finish my review of Blackbringer. Will do so though. Onward to Shadow Bound for now.

The imagery and color are beautiful. This book's difficult to write about as it's more of an experience. The plot simple but the execution is not. Magpie, the faerie who does not realize her own powers, finds herself experiencing abilities that seem to come from nowhere. I see Magpie as a savior or Christ-like figure who hold's the fate of Blackbringer on her petite yet strong shoulders. "Dreams spun in fire..."

I've always loved Disney's Fantasia. In the book world, Blackbringer can be compared to it. The plot's developing but as much as anything is the experience of the imagery. "The moonlit Gardens were the faeries' next world, a clam silvered land . . ." Love getting lost in the beauty of language.

I've wanted to find a book I could lose myself in, one with beautiful images, language and a metaphysical beauty. As soon as I read the first paragraph, I knew I'd found just that. The final sentence in the prologue had me! " So much depends on this tiny faerie whom dreams had at last made real." Magpie Windwitch, a whimsical and tough faerie will lead me through the pages with imagery to beguile the senses.

I am feeling a bit angry reading about the mother and daughter's dysfunctional relationship. Manipulation in any relationship destructs whatever good can be found. Frances wants to discover and follow her own desires, talents and interests. Her mother's made an art out of manipulation and guilt. You must become a doctor, give me things, take care of me. Look how I sacrifice for you, the mother says. Ugh - awful.

Early on. a line stands out . The mother says to her daughter, "If you eat bitterness all the time, you will get used to it. Then you will like it." I can see where the conflict lies and will fester. Frances, the daughter, doesn't want to learn to like bitterness. She yearns for sweetness. Reaching for it will make for much dissension in their lives, this lone mother and daughter living together but separate.

This is a must read! I love its complexity and its human qualities. Werewolves are not simply wolves. They are wolves and they are human. Bryn, the pack alpha, deals with what it means to be a human leading a pack, how to balance her human qualities with her wolf upbringing and finding the line to walk as a leader with humanity and love for her pack. It's about indecision and decision. Its quirky characters beguile!

This mystery of wolves is so good. This line deserves sharing . "His tone was deceptively pleasant - rat poison dipped in chocolate." It gets even better, but will save it for you to read. What a line! I've heard people like that speak but would never have come up with such an apt description.

I like to read while allowing my mind to make connections to life beyond the book. Werewolf pack rules aren't all that different from societal rules for humans! We've got an abused wolf-boy who wants to leave his pack and enter a safer, more protected one. Wow! The complexity and rules to make such changes are like dealing with any bureaucracy, rigid and difficult to see how it helps the victim.

I really enjoyed the previous book Raised by Wolves, so was delighted when I was given this one as a gift. Bryn's character continues to delight me. She' one tough alpha, she's a gentle human and wolf, she's smart, humane and a fabulous badass! Now she's facing a vendetta against her by another pack leader who's jealous of the females in her pack. The fascination for me, is how human the packs are, varied and unique.

I began reading "Dragons" and couldn't keep myself focused. I decided that perhaps I need a break and will read another book - to be announced!). Then i will come back to Michaelis. I do love her work, so it's all about my focus, not the book. Cheers!

I read this some time ago but never wrote a review. It's an amazing graphic book that gives you the sense that you're right there, experiencing the personal and the political times. Am reading it again to write a review and hopefully encourage others to pick it up.

Just getting ready to open the book. I consider it a treat! I love Michaelis!

There's a senior boy who Anke sees after school in his basement. They take naps together there and sometimes he kisses her. At school, he doesn't acknowledge her. Suspicious behavior. I don't like or trust this relationship and am afraid she's oh-so-very vulnerable.

This is a book in verse. A fourteen year old girl feels that she is furniture in her house and is actually glad of it. The father abuses her mother, her brother and her sister. For the sister it is sexual as well as physical. The others it is all physical. She's grateful that he doesn't pay much attention to her. The verse genre really gives depth and intensity. It's awful to read about such horror.

This is not about teenage angst! Deeper into the book, its depth and BIG questions startled me. Colby muses that "we will forget all the things we used to want and adjust to the lives that we're given". From then on the books gets more and more thoughtful with each turn of the page. Questions about life, love and what the heck are we humans doing flow page after page. If I weren't danged sleepy, I'd keep on reading!

Interesting to me that I sort-of met the author. I went to an event where Nina LaCour participated in a Q&A presentation and later a signing. So far, the book has a great deal of angst. Can't say I wouldn't be feeling the angst too as Colby, the narrator, has been dealt a bad hand. Long term plan to go to Europe for a year with his dear friend is foiled by said friend. She's going off to college. He's adrift.