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Reading 2008: Week 19
Will you look at that? One of those rare installments where I enjoyed everything on the list!

58. 05/05/08: Don't Hex With Texas by Shanna Swendson
59. 07/05/08: The Unhandsome Prince by John Moore

Texas ruled this week, with favorable results. Even before I subscribed to her blog, I knew that Shanna Swendson hailed from there from her author bio at the back of each book. After trying to use my Awesome Google Powers to find John Moore's website (he has none save a Wikipedia page and an SFFnet listing of his published titles) and pray that perhaps he also had a Livejournal, about all I discovered was that he a) is an engineer, b) appears to be single, and c) lives and works in Texas. Darn; I think I would have enjoyed his blog.

Don't Hex With Texas was Swendson's fourth installment in the Katie Chandler / Enchanted, Inc. series. The books are urban fantasy, with romance and humour to keep them peppy: they've aptly been described as "Harry Potter for grown-ups". The fourth tale undergoes a change of pace, as the location moves from New York to Small Town Texas, but the energy remains. I was happy to be reunited with the characters, and the story was fantastic.

The only dark cloud on this horizon is the uncertain status of Book 5, which may never make publication ... and Book 5 needs to be published to make the series complete. That being said, the novel ended in such a way that even if Book 5 never comes along, I as a reader feel at peace. (I'm good at playing the "imagine what will happen" game. My brain likes to rationalize how a story/series is going to end if I have to wait any serious length of time for the conclusion.)

The second book this week was John Moore's The Unhandsome Prince. What happens when you kiss a frog and he turns out to be a dork? Once again I got to read a humourous, satirical fairy tale. John Moore's good at those. I still say Bad Prince Charlie is the best of his books so far, but that's like saying I enjoy chocolate ice cream to vanilla. They're still both ice cream, after all, and equally delicious.

The Unhandsome Prince did leave one or two things unexplained, and the ending was a wee bit rushed. I think the story had more potential that wasn't properly explored, and it could have been done better. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed it, enough to put it in the "recommends" pile. Moore does a good job with witty one-liners that comment on society today while still making sense in his pseudo-medieval fantasy context.

-Eleika, 12 May 2008

Spring Again!
Not much to report, but boy, am I glad Spring has come again. While there's the rain to contend with as usual, we've had some delightfully sunny days already, and I'm looking forward to summer. I have a new job and a busy life with its challenges, but I'm feeling very optimistic about this year. I hope to see some real progress in my career as a writer.

You may have noticed the "Reading 2008" posts of late. It doesn't take much brainpower to figure out that as the weeks go by this year, I'm making an effort to record every book I read. This is so I can teach myself about what I like and don't like in a good book. That's an important lesson for a writer. It also makes a girl feel productive, when she can already count having read 36 books this year. ;)

-Eleika, 24 Mar 2008