Circus Mirandus is an outstanding novel and is a completely safe, appropriate read for it's middle grade target audience. Miss Beasley has achieved what we fellow writers all strive for: a wonderfully written, creative, unique, inspiring, moving book that parents can trust and kids can love. The story centers on Micah Tuttle, a young boy who has grown up id...

This is an award-winning book that's hugely popular, written extremely well, and it tells a heartfelt and inspiring story. Basically, there is nothing to lose with this one, and plenty to gain. The style of the book is unique too since it reads sort of like a collection of journal entries rather than a series of short chapters. And when I say short, I mean s...

I decided I was reading too many fantasy/dragon/magic books and was in a bit of a rut. Luckily, I had just the guy loaded up on my Kindle app to get me out of that realm and into a place much more real...and dangerous. His name...Bond, James Bond! Casino Royale is the first ever Bond novel, published in 1953. Honestly, it was not at all what I expected. The...

Is it possible for a book to have too much realism? To try too hard to emulate real life? In The Thief, Miss Turner went to great lengths to paint a completely detailed picture of all the minutia in her plot. Unfortunately, this extreme focus on the small things often bogged it all down to a nearly unbearable point and I thought it tried too hard to be overl...

Here's the best thing I can say about this fabulous book - I read The Night Circus on the kindle app on my iPad, mostly on the treadmill at the gym and several times I caught myself smiling while reading. Just lost in the story, smiling...while exercising! That doesn't happen very many times, but it happened often with this one. I believe this is because T...

The Luck Uglies is excellent from cover to cover. First off, I dig books like this one that include a map of the imaginary world where the story takes place. This is such a nice extra touch that truly shows the writer's thoughtful creativity and that he wants to fully immerse us in the setting of his novel. And yes, I referred back to the map while readin...

I have to admit right here at the top that finishing reading this book, and then deciding what to write about it, was - unfortunately - quite a struggle for me.Seeker has many intriguing elements and it seemed like a story I would normally eat right up, but I never could connect with the characters or the plot. When I did finally finish it, I decided it wou...

Stardust was a wonderfully enjoyable book. I absolutely basked in its greatness. It certainly doesn't hurt that I'm a fan of Mr. Gaiman, because of his reputation, the articles I've read about him, and because of the two excellent books of his I've read. (I previously read, loved and reviewed American Gods.) So yes, I dug this book partly because I like hi...
My write-up on American Gods also by Neil Gaiman

I knew I was going to come around to this one eventually, the first of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. For starters, I can’t help but compare Percy to Harry. It's basically impossible not to because they are undeniably similar. Both star young men with somewhat troubled upbringings who realize they have special powers so they trot off to a ...

Hollow City is the excellent sequel to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, which is also a wonderful book. The fascinatingly unique factor with these books is that the author spent a lot of time shuffling through yard sales, antique shops and curiosity stores to collect old, unusual and often times outright creepy photographs of people. Riggs th...

The Magician’s series - three fabulous books that I WILL read again someday. That is probably about the highest praise I can give to a set of books. I was constantly knocked out by Mr. Grossman’s brilliant writing and his remarkable creativity. Everything he dreamed up and included in these books was great - Brakebills, the hidden school for magicians...

If you played coin-op/early generation video games and/or dabbled in D&D games as a kid (I did both) - or at least have an appreciation for these nostalgic items (I do) - you'll undoubtedly LOVE this book. Maybe you dig 80s movies like "Wargames" or you have always bopped along to the music of that era (me like both). If so, this book is for you. Do you like...
To learn just how 80s obsessed Cline is, check out his website!

The dedication/acknowledgement to this intensely diverse collection of stories reads “for the few magicians”. First off, for the most part, these can’t be called “stories”, if you think of them in the traditional ways you’d normally define a story. Perhaps they are “creatively diverse thoughts put into words”. Or “abstract ideas gathered...
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