Blood from a Stone (2005) Donna Leon In Donna Leon’s fourteenth Commissario Guido Brunetti book, a vu cumpra is shot down on the street by hired assassins. Brunetti is (eventually) called to the scene, and attempts to unravel why a man selling fake handbags was shot in cold blood on the streets. The more Burnetti […]
Ex Machina Vol 7: Ex Cathedra (2008) Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, Jim Clark, JD Mettler I’ve been reading Ex Machina for awhile now, and I’ve been pre-ordering the collections since then. I have yet to regret these pre-orders, yet I also feel like the more I read, the less I know about Mitchell Hundred […]
The Shape of Mercy (2008) Susan Meissner I received The Shape of Mercy to review, and when I read the first couple chapters I had a sinking feeling–I don’t typically like books about young women finding themselves. But I knew I’d be getting a sub story about a young Puritan girl who was a victim […]
BPRD Vol 1: Hollow Earth and Other Stories (2003) Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Tim Sniegoski, Ryan Sook, Curtis Arnold, Brian McDonald, Derek Thompson, Matt Smith I’ve been enjoying the Hellboy comics, so I thought I’d branch out and check out the B.P.R.D. series. Hollow Earth & Other Stories takes place after the events in Conqueror […]
Poison Sleep (2008) T.A. Pratt Nathan raved about the first Marla Mason book, Blood Engines. I thought the book was good, but nothing really drew me into the story. But Michael liked Blood Engines so I bought the second book, and decided to read it while I was on vacation. Marla is called out to […]
White Corridor (2007) Christopher Fowler Once again the Peculiar Crimes Unit is in danger of being closed. After Raymond Land decided to close the until for a week’s vacation, a member of the unit is found killed, while Bryant and May are on their way to one of Bryant’s spiritualist conventions. With Bryant and May […]
Harbingers (2006) F. Paul Wilson The tenth Repairman Jack novel things are beginning to come to a head as finds Jack at odds with the entities that have wreaked such havoc in his life. Abe is still trying to find a new identity for Jack, and a way for him to reenter society. But Jack […]
Doctored Evidence (2004) Donna Leon A querulous old woman is killed in her apartment, and suspicion automatically falls upon the maid. Scarpa closes the case, but when Brunetti comes back into town, new evidence–that Scarpa wants to dismiss unheard–comes to light. This book is not just about discovering who killed a nasty old woman and […]
Uniform Justice (2003) Donna Leon I really like Commissario Guido Brunetti. I like his sense of justice and fairness. I like his intelligence and wit. And I like his wife. In fact I think I wish I was Paola. A boy is found dead in the local military school, and it’s immediately filed as a […]
Hellboy Vol 5: Conqueror Worm (2002) Mike Mignola I believe I’ve mentioned previously that I prefer Mike Mignola’s shorter Hellboy stories than the longer stories. The Conqueror Worm is a longer story. It’s not that the story is bad–it’s not. My problem is that the longer stories tend to wander more and get more confusing […]
Hands of Flame (2008) C.E. Murphy The third and (for now) final story in the Negotiator story arc finds Margrit dealing with a conflict between the Old Races that is turning into an out-and-out war. A war that Margrit inadvertently started. Although I was quickly sucked into the story, and tore through the book to […]
Cast in Fury (2008) Michelle Sagara Let me get this out of the way: I hate this cover. The scene seems to be a depiction of events from the last book, Kaylin does not once wear a dress–especially a dress that horrific–in this book, and the bracer is so badly photoshopped onto her arm her […]
Blood and Iron (2006) Elizabeth Bear I put off reading Blood and Iron because I haven’t been in the mood for epic fantasy. But I added it to the pile of books I took on my trip, and picked it up when nothing else seemed to suit. First of all, Blood and Iron is set […]
Precious Dragon (2007) Liz Williams The third Detective Inspector Chen novel, it seems as if recent activities have brought Chen and Zhu Irzh to the attention of authorities, and they are charged with escorting the emissary from Heaven, Miss Qi, through Hell. Meanwhile, an old woman arranges the marriage of her only daughter, and soon […]
The Hobbit (1937) J.R.R. Tolkein My father gave me my first copy of The Hobbit and I quite literally read it to pieces. I read it at least once a year up through my late 20s. Then I suddenly had lots of books to read, and didn’t get around to rereading The Hobbit for quite […]
Hellboy Vol 4: The Right Hand of Doom (2000) Mike Mignola Have I mentioned that I am really enjoying the Hellboy books? I am. They’re a lot of fun. Like The Chained Coffin and Others, The Right Hand of Doom is also a collection of short stories centered on Hellboy. The first story in the […]
The Shadow Roads (2004) Sean Russell The Shadow Roads is the final book in Sean Russell’s ‘The Swans’ War’ trilogy. Having escaped the Stillwater (those who survived) the children of Wyrr now prepare for battle. In the realms of the Renee and the Wills mortals prepare for war, even without Hafydd there to control and […]
The Isle of Battle (2002) Sean Russell The Isle of Battle is good book. However, it is a middle book in a series; although the tale continues forward, the book doesn’t have the momentum of the first book. The characters are still good, the intrigue is still good, but the characters spend much of the […]
The One Kingdom (2001) Sean Russell I love Sean Russell’s writing. I’ve read everything he’s written that I could get my hands on, including the mystery series he co-wrote as T.F. Banks. The One Kingdom and the other books he has written are very different from the supernatural fantasy that I most often scarf down. […]
Hellboy Vol 3: The Chained Coffin and Others (1998) Mike Mignola Unlike the previous two volumes, which were along the lines of novellas, The Chained Coffin and Others is a collection of Hellboy short stories. As I’m a big fan of short stories, I really enjoyed this collection. And as a fan of folktales and […]
Infernal (2005) F. Paul Wilson The next book (9th?) in the Repairman Jack series, Infernal again contains little but misery for Jack. A visit from Jack’s father turned terribly wrong turns into the visit from hell from Jack’s brother Tom. It’s actually impossible to say anything more than that, without giving away the main parts […]
Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy through Jokes (2007) Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein My dad got me this book for Christmas, and I’d been reading a few pages at a time before bed, but last night I didn’t know what I wanted to read so decided to finish this book […]
Hellboy Vol 2: Wake the Devil (1997) Mike Mignola In the second volume of Hellboy stories, it is believed that someone is trying to bring the vampire Vladimir Giurescu back to life and health, so Hellboy and several others from the BPRD are sent to Romania to find out what is really going on. Needless […]
Girl Genius Vol 7: Agatha Heterodyne and the The Voice of the Castle (2008) Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio, Cheyenne Wright It’d been so long since the last Girl Genius volume came out, I’d all but forgotten about it. So I was very excited when my copy of Agatha Heterodyne and the The Voice of the […]
Cry Wolf (2008) Patricia Briggs I really like Patricia Briggs writing, so when I saw she had a new book coming, I ordered it without knowing anything about it. CryWolf is set in the same world as her Mercy series, and many of the characters carry over, although Mercy does not make an appearance. Which […]
Hellboy Vol 1: Seed of Destruction (1994) Mike Mignola and John Byrne After starting my comic reading life with Sandman, it’s been hit and miss for me since then. I love Ex Machina and Fables. But didn’t care for Preacher or Lucifer or Constantine. Michael reads and likes almost anything he picks up, but it’s […]
Iron Hunt (2008) Marjorie Liu I picked this up partially because the story looked interesting and partially because I loved the cover. Plus I read several recommendations and thought I’d like it. And I did like it, but there is one major drawback. It’s one of those books that doesn’t really end. Yes, there is […]
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 […]
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005) Mary Roach As much as I enjoyed Stiff, I found Spook disappointing. As a scientific look at life after death, excluding the last couple chapters, it read more as a debunking than a presentation. Of course that’s partially because several chapters deal with things like ectoplasm exuding from mediums, […]
Fatal Remedies (1999) Donna Leon I started Fatal Remedies immediately after I finished A Noble Radiance, wasn’t sure about the direction the story was taking, and then picked it up again today, as I have a whole stack of Guido Brunetti books waiting to be read. What I was unsure about was how things were […]
Crisscross (2004) F. Paul Wilson Jack is still in the Repairman business, despite the fact that Gia doesn’t like the way she never knows if he’ll return safely from his fix-it jobs. And with Gia’s pregnancy (Despite the fact this is a multi-book pregnancy, Gia is only at 20 weeks. She might be pregnant for […]
A Noble Radiance (1998) Donna Leon The Commissario Guido Brunetti series continues with A Noble Radiance. A body is discovered in a field that has lain fallow for several years, and from the ring found with the body, it is likely that the body is that of a young man who had been kidnapped two […]
By Camelot’s Blood (2008) Sarah Zettel I’ve been waiting for this book since before Luna lost it’s collective mind and dropped Sarah Zettel and this series. (And if anyone from Luna reads this, it’s made me more reluctant to buy books in the Luna line, wondering if another series I like will be summarily dropped.) […]
House of Cards (2008) C.E. Murphy Book two in the Negotiator series, House of Cards, continues the story of Margrit Knight, who has stumbled upon the existence of the Old Races: gargoyles, djinn, dragons, selkie, and vampires remain hidden in the world, although their numbers are diminished. I enjoyed this book as much as I […]
Heart of Stone (2007) C.E. Murphy I inadvertently picked up the second book in this series, so being me, I had to go back and find the first book in the series, and by then I’d gotten sucked into the Repairman Jack series and the Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries, and pretty much forgot about this […]
Fables Vol 10: The Good Prince (2008) Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Andrew Peopy I’ve been reading Fables since 2005. And since then, I’ve pre-ordered the next in the series to get it the day it was released. Which tells you that this series is pretty fantastic. For those who haven’t been playing along […]
City of Bones (2007) Cassandra Clare I picked this up based on a review I read (I’m embarrassed to say I can’t remember where it was, just one of the book sites I peruse), and decided to check it out. Then I got the book and it languished on the shelf for several months. First […]
Dog Days (2007) John Levitt The only thing that made me pick up Dog Days was the blurb by Rob Thurman. As I love her writing, I decided to take a chance on Dog Days, especially since I was taking advantage of Amazons 4-for-3 deal. So looking for something light and picked it up and […]
Bad Magic (2004) Stephan Zielinski I had Bad Magic on my wish list for a long time, and finally I got it for Christmas from my brother. I put off reading it, because it’s hardback, and I just don’t find hardback books comfortable to read. But being home with the flu seemed like a good […]
The Man with the Golden Torc (2007) Simon R. Green Eddie Drood is a field agent for a family that knows more secrets than anyone else, and has magical and mechanical powers that would make mages and mad scientists drool in envy. Unfortunately for Eddie (known on the streets as Shamus Bond) there’s trouble in […]
Blood Engines (2007) T.A. Pratt Nathan raved about Blood Engines a couple months ago, so I decided to move it higher in the list, based on his recommendation. Marla Mason is guardian of Felport, but is off the ranch in San Francisco, searching for a Cornerstone–a magical artifact that will give her the power to […]
Quietly in Their Sleep (1997) Donna Leon This was a rather strange story in comparison to the previous books. Brunetti is given only a vague idea that there might be something untoward happening in a nursing home–a home that is run by the same man as the home in which Brunetti’s mother resides. It is […]
Witchling (2006) Yasmine Galenorn This book came up as recommended for me several times, and the story looked interesting, but something kept me from reading it. That something ended up being indifference. Which is really to bad, because this book had some definite strengths. The world in which the characters lived is an interesting one. […]
Acqua Alta (1996) Donna Leon In Acqua Alta we return to two of the characters that Guido met in the first mystery, Death at La Fenice. Brett Lynch is beaten in the doorway of her own apartment. When Guido discovers what has happened he goes to her hospital where he again meets Flavia Pitrelli, with […]
Death and Judgment (1995) Donna Leon In two seemingly unrelated incidents, a truck goes off a cliff, killing the driver and his unexpected cargo of lumber and women. And months later, in Venice, Commissario Guido Brunetti is given the investigation of the murder of a prominent local loyal, whose unblemished record is enough cause for […]
The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales (2007) Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling I love short stories. Aside from collections by Charles de Lint, I best love anthologies by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling best. Their books are like comfort food, and I save them up for when I’m sick or feeling low. In the same vein […]
Death in a Strange Country (1993) Donna Leon The second Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery (how I managed to read the third book instead of the second in two different series within a week is beyond me) finds Guido awakened to come down to a canal as a body was found in the water. The stab […]
The Nymphos of Rocky Flats (2006) Mario Acevedo Michael was actually the one to pick this up, and was also the first to read it. When he finished it, he said it was funny, and that he thought I would like it. Well, it is funny. And I did like it. But I didn’t love […]
Dressed for Death (1994) Donna Leon The second third Commiario Guido Brunetti mystery, Dressed for Death starts with the body of what is assumed to be a prostitute found behind a slaughterhouse in Marghera. The case falls to the Mestre police department, however due to a series of unfortunate events, they have no detectives, so […]
Serenity: Better Days Vol 3 (2008) Joss Whedon And now I have to close yet another chapter of the Firefly/Serenity story. I actually had to go back and reread the previous two, because I had forgotten some of the details, but that only drew me back further into a story and character that I enjoy. […]