Runaways Vol 8: Dead End Kids (2008) Joss Whedon, Michael Ryan, and Christina Strain
Finally! The next installment of Runaways! And boy have things changed.
First and foremost, Brian K Vaughan gave up his writing duties on Runaways to Joss Whedon. Second, the format changed, and instead of the little tiny book, Dead End Kids was published [...]

Runaways 7: Live Fast (2007) Brian K Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, Mike Norton, Craig Young

After ordering and reading volume 6, Parental Guidance, I was able to read volume 7, Live Fast, and I have to say that the beginning made a lot more sense. The Runaways are dealing with their losses, and attempting to adapt to [...]

Runaways 6: Parental Guidance (2006) Brian K Vaughan, Adrian Alpohna, Craig Yeung

I somehow missed publication of volume 6 of Runaways, but saw when volume 7 came out. Considering the events in Parental Guidance, I was quite confused when I started to read volume 7, and quickly realized I’d missed several important events. Luckily, Amazon ships [...]

Mister Monday (2003) Garth Nix

I absolutely loved Sabriel. The following two books were also excellent, but I just adored Sabriel. I also liked his collection of short stories, Across the Wall. So when I saw he had another series, The Keys to the Kingdom, I… hesitated.
Sometimes when an author has written a book (or series) [...]

Runaways Vol 5: Escape to New York (2006) Brian K Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa

Escape to New York is the fifth volume of the Runaways series. The Runaways are still trying to clean up the mess they created when they took out their parent’s crime syndicate, and for now they’re allowing Victor to remain [...]

Swan Sister (2003) Ellen Datlow & Terri WIndling

I don’t think I’ve come across a short story collection put together by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling that I didn’t like, and Swan Sister is no exception to the rule.
The stories are fairy tales retold, by a variety of authors–many some of my favorites.
The collection opens [...]

Ptolemy’s Gate (2006) Jonathan Stroud

The final book of the Bartimaeus trilogy, in Ptolemy’s Gate Bartimaeus and Nathaniel discover the conspiracy that has been plotting to overthrow the government. We also discover what Kitty Jones has been doing since we last saw her. John Mandrake may have risen in the government, but Kitty has been struggling [...]

The Amulet of Samarkand The Bartimaeus Trilogy (2003) Jonathan Stroud

Bartimaeus is a djinni who has been around for thousands of years. He even spent time in Ancient Egypt, a culture that he seems to have some slight fondness for. However, when he’s called this time, his Master is an eleven year old apprentice with revenge [...]

Kingdom of the Golden Dragon (2004) Isabel Allende
Translated by Margaret Sayers Peden

Alexander Cold asks his grandmother, Kate, if he can accompany her on her latest expedition for International Geographic, this time to a remote country in the Himalayas. A country nicknamed The Forbidden Kingdom, because of its far location and the fact that very few [...]

Where’s My Cow? (2005) Terry Pratchett
If you like Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, then you will definitely want to read this book.
First of all, it has an award, “Children’s Winner of the Ankh-Morpork Librarians’ Award. OOK!”
Also, it has blurbs on the back, “‘…wonderfully instructive’ Tuppence Swivel, the Times of Ankh Morpork” and “‘…Are we not all, in [...]

A Circle of Cats (2003) Charles de Lint Illustrated by Charles Vess
I received this book for my birthday from Brian and Stacie. (THANKS!) I’d placed it on my wish list solely because it was written by Charles de Lint, and as usual, I wasn’t disappointed.
A Circle of Cats is about Lillian, a girl who loves [...]

A Wolf at the Door (2000) edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
I love folk tales and fairy tales, and I love the idea of stories that have been told and retold, and then finally captured on paper. The problem of course, is finding an author who is good at translating stories from an oral [...]

The Old Man Mad About Drawing Francois Place Translated by William Rodarmor
I got this book solely on the recommendation of Jim at the Bookshelf, who said he thought I would like it (several years ago I had been looking for the story “The Boy Who Drew Cats” which I remembered from a reading book in [...]

A Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
Harper Collins (1999)
I really liked this book. It may have only taken me 45 minutes to read, but it was a very enjoyable 45 minutes.
A Bad Beginning begins the tale of the Baudelaire children, who, in the first few pages of the book, are orphaned and lose everything except the [...]

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Another children’s/young adult book, and a pretty good one at that, although I didn’t find it quite as interesting as either Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials or Garth Nix’s Sabriel. It was still good, and I liked the fact that the protagonist is an antihero. Ostensibly, no good qualities, although the [...]

Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen by Garth Nix
I’d been looking Sabriel for awhile but hadn’t picked it up to read, mostly because I already have too many books I’ll read when I have time to get around to it, but I read some positive comments about the books, and decided to read them over the break.
The books [...]

The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman
I picked these up because I had heard good things about them, because they were supposedly ‘Young Adult’ books and thus a fast read for me, and because all three books of the trilogy were out and available. Importance not necessarily in that order.
The [...]