Glass Sword - Victoria Aveyard (Red Queen #2)

The problem with reading the first book and then waiting for the second is that 1) you forget details of the first and 2) your enthusiasm tends to go to another source.

This is the second book on the Red Queen series and I have to admit that my glowing review of the first one to a friend didn't trigger my enthusiasm for this one.  If I had of read them back to back I would have been fine and enjoyed it more but as it was this one was a bit of a chore for me.

Victoria picks up right where she left off in Red Queen.  Mare being pursued by Maven with all her friends by her side.

Lots of action and some angst but all in all not too bad.

Read if you read the Red Queen.

Stars Above - Marissa Meyers - A Lunar Chronicles Collection

Mercy me but Marissa Meyers is giving us more!!  I was so excited! 

I love how she is "filling" in the story - but from other perspectives.  There are 9 short stories in here - only one is of a character you've never met in the Lunar Chronicles. 

The Keeper: How Princess Selene came to be in the care of Michelle Benoit and how Scarlet while living there never knew.

Glitches:  This is a prequel to Cinder and shows how the plaque affect Cinder when she went to live with the Linh's.

The Queen's Army:  This is Wolf's story - how he came to be a solider.

Carswell's Guide To Being Lucky: 13 year old Carswell Thorne's story.

After Sunshine Passes:  9 year old Cress's story.

The Princess and the Guard:  Young Winter and Jacin's story.

The Little Android:  This is a retelling of the little mermaid in the Lunar Chronicle world. 

The Mechanic:  Retelling of Cinder and Kai's meeting form Kai's perspective.

Something Old, Something New:  Takes place after Winter book.  Old friends gather for the wedding of the century.

Once again Marissa has delved into the stories and her writing shines through.  This book is an absolute must for those that have already read the series.  I felt The Little Android was a little out of place with the other 8 stories as they are all prequel type stories and that one is a random one off.  It's beautifully written but just seems out of place here.

But yes read this one for sure!

The Commoner - John Burnham Schwartz

I became interested in this book because once again it was listed under reading material under "Japanese reading".  You know the one thing I love about books is the that they still have the ability to surprise me and spur my curiosity about the world around me.

John Burnham Schwartz basis this book loosely on Empress Michiko, current Empress Consort in Japan.  She was the first non-aristocratic woman to marry into the Imperial household. 

Haruko was born into a well to do family (her fathers was nicknamed the Sake King) in the late 40's.  In 1959 she meets the current crown prince in a tennis match and they start spending more and more time together.  Eventually this leads to a marriage proposal...then 3 more.  Finally she accepts and it's her story of adjusting to imperial life.

The whole book is told through Haruko's eyes.  While not used to reading about Japan in the latest centuries I still found the story itself intriguing.  And the fact that John speaks as a woman throughout the whole book, while it threw me a bit in the beginning, it still got the story told.  The first part of the book was interesting enough - Haruko's life and relationship with her parents as an only child.  Her relationship in particular with her father mirrors the same relationship I have with my father and that endeared them to me much more so.  After she marries the crown prince I found the book to almost lose heart like Haruko herself, the life seems to leave the book and it ends abruptly.  Like the last 5-6 chapters jump in time considerably with no concept of telling the story anymore.  Almost as if the author either didn't have the time to finish telling it, or lost interest.  The ending left me feeling like I still wanted to grasp at the story.  Which prompted me to start researching the real Empress Consort and her daughter-in-law. 

I dunno maybe that was the point of the book, to reach out to the reader and say hey, this is an interesting story and delve deeper into what it takes to live as royalty in our modern world.

If you don't pick up the book, at least Google Empress Michiko.  And who knows maybe that will prompt you to read the book to gain a better understanding of what it truly means to have that fairytale romance with royalty...

Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones

I was interested to learn that Hayao Miyazaki did his movie from this novel.  With some changes of course.

Diana did a fantastic job writing about the characters and bringing them to life.  There isn't as much "action" per say as the movie but there is intrigue and if you've never seen the movie then you'll enjoy it.  If you have seen the movie you'll still enjoy it but you'll just know some plot points before they happen.  However because there's no war going on it's different and it will still be fresh.

Sophie is the oldest of 3 sisters and works in her family's hat shop.  One day a customer comes in a curses her so that she looks "old" like a 90 year old woman.  Since Sophie has always felt this way it wasn't hard for her to feel it.  She leaves her family's hat shop to find work elsewhere so she won't be a burden to her family and step-mom.  She wanders into the hills above the town and comes upon Howl's moving castle.  She sets herself up as his old cleaning lady despite Howl's young apprentice's protests.  Soon she's drawn into a very different world than she knew and learns things about herself she didn't realize before.

I quite enjoyed it.  It's a very fast read as it's young adult.  AND another interesting fact is it's a trilogy!  The second and third books have Howl & Sophie & Calcifer in them but they aren't the focal point.  It's an interesting concept.