Well, folks, thanks to a nice deal on B&H I have upgraded from my Nook Wi-Fi (now dubbed the Nook 1st Gen or Classic by B&N) to the new, shiny Sony PRS-T1 which is not only Wi-Fi enabled as well, but has a better operating system and less fussiness than my dear old Nook. This isn’t to say that my Nook is glitchy or a bad eReader – it’s just to say that a couple of fussy issues with the Nook (like how B&N eBooks get automatically taken OFF my Nook & I have to turn on Wi-Fi to re-download them when I want to read them) made me realize that I like the line of Sony Readers more and more…

So when I had the chance to grab the PRS-T1 … I got one! Previously, my main issue with the Sony was that unless you were willing to pay extra to go beyond the basic devices (by extra I mean $100+) then you had no Wi-Fi and/or no music. The T1 has both. Issues resolved. I am in! File support and storage expansion are right on track with its cousins the Nook and Kindle (not the tablet devices, obviously, but who wants one?) and I’m about to rip this sucker out of the packaging and get it running. I’ve played with it at the nearest electronics store so I know I’m cool with how it operates…now for charging and filling with books! Woo-hoo!

These two books follow, Maggie Needs an Alibi with two interesting new murders. I will give each of them this: the murder happens sooner in each book than it did in the first. With Alibi some reviewers on Amazon complained that the murder didn’t take place until like halfway through the book. True, but the mystery started much sooner, you bloodthirsty pirates!

If they kept reading, though, I’m sure they were delighted to find that in Maggie by the Book started with malicious pranking, moved up to bodily harm, and then dished out a murder. In this, the second book, Maggie is attending the WAR (We are Romance) conference and among the luncheons, keynote speakers, workshops, book giveaways, and cover model contests someone is doing their level best to finish WAR off with pranks scaring off the guests. Alex and Sterling are along for the ride with a couple of ‘friends’ from the first book. Alex plans to solve his money troubles by winning the cover model contest, and when the pranks begin he, naturally, wants to solve the mystery. When the murders happen, even Maggie is dragged into the investigation and they start putting all the pieces together. Eventually Maggie calls her almost-boyfriend detective Steve Wendell for help, and he and Alex conspire to keep Maggie safe while they investigate.

As for Maggie Without a Clue…well, it begins with a murder and the most likely suspect is Maggie’s best friend Bernice Toland-James who, in the first book was also a suspect and is now the owner of Toland Books, which publishes Maggie’s work. Since Bernice is so close a murder victim (I won’t say who) for the second time it looks bad even if she was exonerated in the case of the first. To top things off, Alex and Sterling recently moved across the hall and it seems that the sweet old lady from whom they are subleasing the apartment has neglected to mention that she has been threatened by the mob – and they want something from that apartment. That mysterious thing will cause Alex and Sterling a world of trouble, and Maggie is stuck trying to help both Alex and Bernice.

All in all, two good additions to the series, but nothing I felt like jumping up and down over. I think they’re good light reading and the mystery is not one you’re likely to guess right off the bat since Michaels doesn’t really drop little hints and clues everywhere for you. Still, I enjoyed spinning out theories while I read. I’m looking into the other books, now: High Heels and Holidays, and Bowled Over (I think that’s right.) I’ve already read High Heels and Homicide so I’m covered on that front. Even those these may not be real prize-winning mysteries, they were really fun reads. It’s a shame they’re out of print. I will be shopping on Amazon next time I have the chance.

Borders just closed earlier this month. The #2 bookseller in this country is no more.

For a little light note about that, we go to Borders Employees.

Ode to a bookstore death

This is the first book of a series which, unfortunately, I started in the middle. You may remember my review and short rant about High Heels and Homicide when I read it, only to realize that events in that book occurred somewhere later in a series. Fortunately for me, I did finally manage to find the rest of the books in the local library system. I did have to drive across town – nearly into the next town, to be honest – and I still want them in my own library, but hooray! I got my hands on the first two books earlier this week and blazed right through them!

[Sidenote: I blame all typos on the exceedingly affectionate kitten in my lap. He's using my wrist to pet himself.]

Maggie Kelly, formerly a Regency romance writer, has recently made a career change and has begun writing a best-selling historical mystery series under the pen-name of Cleo Dooley. (She thought all the “O”s would look good on the cover.) Her main character, the Viscount Saint Just and his companion, Sterling Balder are a sort of Sherlock-and-Watson duo that solve murder mysteries.  She is working on her latest manuscript when Kirk, the owner of her publishing company (also ex-boyfriend ), knocks on the door, interrupting her train of thought and generally making a nuisance of himself by refusing to acknowledge that their personal relationship is over. A few minutes of douche-baggery later (my term, not hers) Maggie shuts him out of her apartment only to here a voice behind her congratulating her on getting rid of Kirk.

Seeing as Maggie roommates are two cats named Napoleon and Wellington, she is frightened and busily starts unbolting her front door. Only to realize that the voice sounds somehow familiar… When she finally turns around she is reluctantly introduced to a figment of her imagination. Viscount Saint Just AND Sterling Balder have appeared in her apartment. The disturbing part is that after about two days of steady denial, Maggie realizes that her two main characters are really here and, to top it off, they’ve taken her ideas for her next book with them!

As Saint Just and Sterling try to adjust to modern-day Manhatten, Maggie is battling Kirk’s persistent and unwanted advances. After agreeing to have dinner with him at her place, so she can finally tell him that it’s OVER and make him believe it, Kirk is poisoned and dies. Seeing that Maggie is Suspect Number One, Saint Just – now just plain Alex – steps in to solve the mystery and clear Maggie’s name. Maggie, who feels guilty over Kirk’s death, even though he was a total jerk, reluctantly goes along with this because frankly, going down for murder is nobody’s idea of a good time. Especially when the real killer is probably lurking about nearby.

This book is, unfortunately, out of print so any copies left reside in hard-to-find ebook formats, local libraries, and the world of Amazon. (Or used book stores, I suppose.) It may not really be worth an extensive search, but if you are fortunate enough to get your hands on a copy…SEND IT TO ME! Okay, fine. Read it. It’s good light reading, a fairly decent mystery, and it’s amusing to see Maggie deal with her fictional characters come to life. Saint Just is an amusing character, since we get to see his point of view and Sterling is exactly what Maggie (via Kasey Michaels) wrote him to be: sweet, not-too-bright, exactly the right balance to the seriousness of a murder, and the sometimes outright grumpy hostility of Maggie and Alex.  I can, sadly, see why this book is no longer in circulation, but it’s still a good story – better than some of the crap I’ve seen published lately – and I do plan to get my hands on the series for my personal library as soon as I can.

Heartless is the fourth book of the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger. In the previous books, we’ve discovered that Alexia Maccon (previously Tarabotti) is a preternatural. This means that, like her father before her, Alexia has no soul. Knowing this, Alexia has done her best to develop sound ethics and cultivate good manners. She has to keep her lack of a soul from many people, but fortunately not from her husband, a werewolf pack Alpha or one of her dearest friends, the loner vampire Lord Akeldama. The rest of the world, including Alexia’s mother, half-sisters, step-father, and her friend Ivy must remain in the dark.

Over the course of the last three books, Alexia was married to Lord Maccon, and shortly thereafter was offered a position working for  Queen Victoria. This position has enabled Alexia to get into quite a bit of trouble and, incidentally, save Britain once or twice. Now, in book four and in the last months of Alexia’s pregnancy, she discovers that there may be a plot to kill the queen. With the help of her husband and friends, Alexia intends to uncover the plot and save the queen from danger. In doing so, however, she may open up some old wounds for her husband and the pack since there appears to be a link between this most recent attempt on the queen and the last – which was instigated by Lord Maccon’s former pack. After all, it is an Alpha’s job to keep the pack in line and hatching plots to poison the queen is not considered good behavior among a pack of werewolves, for a variety of reasons. Even if they are in Scotland.

I was prepared to be sort of put off by Heartless because, well, how many pregnant heroines does one encounter in literature? Especially in a Victorian-era steam-punk mystery. Right. Probably this would be the first. However, I was wrong to expect disappointment. Even with all the references to the pregnancy (which were actually pretty funny) this turned out to be just as good as the last three books. The plot, in hindsight, seemed a little weak because Alexia is looking in the wrong direction to solve the mystery for a good half of the book. But – and this is a big but – what she does uncover while chasing after the wrong angle is a bit of information that could easily play a larger role in the next book. Or even in the next several books. It was sort of disappointing, though, to realize I’d read all that to come to the conclusion that it had nothing to do with the situation at hand.

There does seem to be an interesting development with Alexia’s baby, too. In the last book it became clear that someone – and we’re pretty sure we know who – is intent on seeing that the baby does not live. Alexia’s death seems to be considered collateral damage, but since she is the only thing keeping the baby alive until he or she is born… But a solution is presented in the beginning of the book which will theoretically take care of the whole people-trying-to-kill-Alexia-and-the-baby issue.  The solution itself seems like an invitation to comic relief and so it proves to be in various places throughout the book.

All in all, this was another enjoyable addition to the series, though I wasn’t quite as enthralled by it as I was by the previous three. (Then again, that’s 3-to-1 odds.) I am definitely looking forward to book five of the series, and I’m hoping to see more of the subplot of this book in the next. I’m hoping that Carriger wouldn’t just dangle a morsel like that in front of reader only to yank it away! Still…I’m stuck waiting a year or so for the next book, aren’t I? That should be torture enough.

I am not a fan of much in the world in Sci-Fi. I mean, I love the original Star Wars trilogy – episodes 4,5, and 6 – and Firefly is surely one of the quickest ways to my heart, but when it comes down to a choice between reading a science fiction novel and watching paint dry I’m more likely to be found staring at the wall the next couple hours. I have read only a limited amount of science fiction and most of that was not by choice. However, I’ve been thinking lately that I need to stop reading the same fantasy and historical romance novels over and over again just to be sure that what I’m reading is “safe.” So, I picked up a science fiction novel entitled Foreigner. What drew me to this book?
For one, it was on sale because Borders was finally down to 90% off its stock in the last few days of its demise. Two, the cover of one of the later books in the series caught my eye and the storyline, as outlined in the little blurb on the cover, seemed even more promising. Three, I had decided to challenge myself, right? But why not challenge myself with a book that seemed to be a series? I enjoy reading a series for one very simple reason: I read very, very quickly. If I read standalone stories I’m done in a day and disappointed that it’s over. I didn’t want to take the chance that I might like the book and find that there was no continuation of the story.

As it turns out, I did like the book and I’m thanking my lucky stars that it’s only the first of the series. I will admit that I was put off at the beginning of the book. Not only does the story seem to start in media res, but it also starts with two seemingly disparate pieces of a timeline. Book 1, only a few chapters long, documents the event that leads to a vessel full of humans being lost in an unknown part of the universe. The error that led them there is never pinned down by the crew of the vessel, and a very distorted account leads us to believe that they make one last ‘adjustment’ to save the lives of the humans aboard. Book 2 is similarly short and tells us that humans have made it down from a space station to the earth-like planet below. It is approximately 200 years from when they were first stranded in space. They know that the planet is inhabited by intelligent life-forms, and initial contact is made – an overture by the natives to the planet rather than by the humans.

Book 3 is where the story actually begins. In fact, I think it’s possible to skip the first two and still have a complete story. It is approximately 500 years since the first group of humans were lost in space. The survivors, generations later, have made arrangements with the natives to live on their own island separate from the ‘alien’ society that they don’t quite understand. The only human allowed onto the mainland with the native race is a sort of ambassador and translator. He is never allowed to be armed, and his job is to be a sort of mediator between the races and a scholar to study the language and culture of the ‘alien’ race. Low-profile is they way the role is carried out. Advise, yes. Sit in on meetings and discuss political issues or scientific advancement, but don’t become a public figure.

Which is sort of thrown out the window when an assassin appears in the private apartments of the human ambassador (called paidhi) and said human shoots said assassin. With a gun from between his mattress…that he was never supposed to have. The tricky part is that,  when guards come bursting in, he explains that the gun was a gift. He was told to “keep it close.” He never thought he’d need it, or use it. Now, he’s used the firearm to defend himself and he has to wonder how much the people around him know, since they obviously had the foresight to arm him.

It can be a little confusing, and the plot is a little elusive since we see this all from the only human point of view and he is mostly left in the dark about what is happening. What made it readable and interesting for me was that it focuses very much on social interactions and questions of motivations. What motivates humans, what humans feel, and think, and how humans act is a  foreign concept to the race that surrounds our lone human character. They can’t understand human thoughts, feelings, and motivations and humans can only try – sometimes futilely – to understand the atevi that inhabit, and rule, the planet. Atevi solve disputes more often than not through legal assassination. Humans are more likely to argue, debate, and take things to court. Humans are isolated on their island with human government and human mores. The idea of assassinating someone over a dispute is foreign to them. Assassination is treachery, and humans find treachery distasteful…

So the question becomes this: What fundamental difference between humans and atevi has lead to a misunderstanding so profound that someone is trying to kill the only human – a mediator and interpreter; a peacekeeper -  allowed into atevi society?

I have recently been plowing through the House of Night series by P.C. and Kristen Cast. The first thing that strikes me about the series is the feeling of “Oh. Great. Another vampire series. Whoop-dee-doo.” The language and storytelling aren’t bad, though, so I kept reading after the first book thinking that this could get good. And it did. Sort of. Without giving anything away – and really I’m not even going to discuss much plot – I have to say I am sort of disappointed after all.
The story has some intriguing points – it’s set in Oklahoma, which isn’t “vampire story” territory for many authors, and it also creates an alternate reality where becoming a vampire is a whole different process from what is traditional in literature – mainly in that vampires are pretty commonplace in society, through they do sort of self-segregate when they are making the transition from human to vampire. Part of that is going to the nearest House of Night – a move that saves the “fledglings” a painful death from the lack of closeness to a vampire who has fully changed.
What I dislike is that this book is marketed “Young Adult” or “Teen” and the subject matter quickly becomes far too mature for that age group, in my not so humble opinion. My husband and I had a talk about the fact that many authors writing for the teen audience say that the stories get blatantly sexual, or otherwise age-inappropriate because “that’s how teens really are.” Um, well, not really. No. I remember being a teen not so long ago, and I know a few teens and trust me while there have been and always will be “wild” kids who do go out and do indulge in questionable behavior, it’s not as commonplace as one would think. It may, however, become commonplace when the kids who read have role models who go around making bad choices.
Don’t get me wrong, main characters shouldn’t be perfect little angels, but they should show the same amount of common sense and judgement that I would expect to see from a normal teen. Social gaffes? To be expected. Miscommunication and trust issues between friends? Heck yeah. Normal teen behavior. Cheating on your boyfriend, with whom you’ve remained chaste, by having sex with a teacher ( to cite an example)? Um. Red light. Even if the world tilted on its axis and vampires were real this would not be “normal” teen behavior. The proof is in the way the media, schools districts, et al go up in arms over the sex-with-students issue. It’s not a commonplace behavior. It’s not appropriate for teens to read that junk, and I see no reason such a – we’ll say mature for lack of a better term – subject should ever make it into fiction targeted for anyone under 20. (If I had my way it’d be like 40 or something, but maybe that’s ’cause I plan to have kids in the future and I wouldn’t want my daughters – or sons -  reading that kind of smut.)

I will grant that it’s portrayed as a bad move, and the character involved in this little affair pays a price, but despite the moral “justice” involved I just don’t think sexual themes should be in fiction aimed at our youth. It’s not just the House of Night series, either. There have been several so-called “teen” books that I’ve picked up and then gotten rid of because, let’s face it, there was more smut in those books than in any of the racier romance novels I’ve come across. And yes, I do read romance novels that have sex in them (mostly ’cause I can’t find them without sex scenes), but people I’m old enough to know what the heck is going on with my own sexuality, and I don’t have a raging batch of hormones and teen drama encouraging me to rebel and otherwise get myself into improbably sticky situations.

I’m not  a raging conservative, but I can’t condone have sexual themes – or just outright sex – in books aimed at kids between the ages of 12 -17+. (And believe me, 12 year old kids have probably come across this stuff because it’s not sorted into sections that give age ranges like 12-14, 15-17, 18+ or anything – thought maybe they should be sorted that way.) At this point, I don’t know what the authors are thinking, why the editors are letting this stuff stay in the books, and why publishers are getting away with sending out such a vast quantity of low-quality print.

There are good teen books out there, and some of them are even enjoyable for the older teens. None of them need sex, drug abuse, alcohol, or even the high-school-kid-at-a-frat-party to make them good or enjoyable reads. One thing I can assure you is that, for the safety of my children (assuming I have any) and for the sake of instilling in them some sense of moral compass, I will be reading any book they pick up in the “Young Adult” or “Teen” section before they get the OK to read it.

As for the House of Night series…it’s not a bad set of books – not groundbreaking, but good. I just wouldn’t want it in the hands of anyone under 21. No kidding, folks. I hate to say it, but when it comes to issues of age-appropriateness some books should be either censored, or moved into the Adult section. Even in fiction, one has to consider the real world implications of a character’s choices. We use literature as a vehicle for learning, exploration, and self-discovery. For young minds (especially those that are laden with hormones, social issues, and other concerns) we should not market misbehavior and sexual themes as appropriate reading for either enjoyment or learning.

As a final note: all comments must be approved before they’re posted. Any foul language or anything that qualifies in my opinion as outright stupidity will be banned. I am the autocratic dictator of this blog and will weed out comments, or publish comments as I see fit. So if you’re just here for a fight, go elsewhere. If you’re here for a discussion, we’ll discuss.

For those of you who have been visiting NeoLibrarium for a while, you may recognize this look as the original layout for the site. I’m actually not planning to keep it, which may be sad for those of you who liked this theme, but I’m planning to try and update WordPress soon – which is the way I manage the site, if you aren’t already familiar with it – and I think the simplified page will help detect any nagging issues that may occur when I can finally make the changeover.

Also, I’m going to say – again – that life has really gotten in the way of me updating. I know this is more for my non-book-related blog, but the story is this:

My husband and I are into web design. We’ve both been sort of passively designing websites for ourselves since the mid-to-late 90s (which sounds longer ago than it actually is) and lately we’ve experienced a mutual renewed interest. So, we’ve taken on the project of redesigning a website for a friend of ours so we can brush up on our skills and figure out how much we enjoy doing web design. (For example, do we like it enough to offer to do it for others, and are we okay with making sites to please people besides ourselves?) Since I stay at home, I’ve been doing the bulk of work on learning the updated standards for coding in CSS/CSS3, HTML, XHTML, the basics of HTML5, and recently JavaScript and PHP. (After I’m comfortable with those I also want to dig into AJAX, SQL/MySQL, and some other goodies.) CSS is still fairly new to me, and my knowledge of HTML is a little outdated (I’m okay with HTML4, but I started learning HTML way before then so I made early mistakes of using outdated code.) CSS/CSS3 is pretty straightforward and I’ve got a handle on that…but that means my reading has been un-reviewable, and filled with technical jargon. (Though not as much as you would think.)
I’ve also discovered that, though I enjoy being a housewife, it takes a lot of effort and management to keep even our small household running. Every day there’s the cooking, the cleaning, feeding the cats – which results in cleaning the litter boxes, looking over our budget, etc. Somehow when I lived alone all these things took up only a few minutes of my day, but then when I lived alone I was also sort of a slob. I’ve been surprised to find myself still in the middle of cleaning the apartment when my husband gets home from work (probably ’cause I like to “deep clean” once a week, and “maintenance clean” every day), and I haven’t taken a break to read, or nap, or anything, but now it’s time to make dinner! WAH!

Anyway, I have been sneaking in more “me” time and reading time, and I imagine the inspiration – such as it is – to review some of my recent reading exploits will return, but for now expect radio silence. I know this isn’t a heavily trafficked blog so I’m probably not disappointing the masses – but for those of you who do stop by I recommend the archives for now. I’m not sure when I’ll have the time to update again, but I don’t plan on abandoning Neolibrarium, either. So, please don’t totally give up on me!!!

Well, folks, the new kitten did slow me down quite a bit. It also turned out that my adult cat was having some problems with his front paws due to an autoimmune problem. Add to that the fact that I’ve been having to go to the Chiropractor for my back and neck with regularity, and I am the one who manages our household, and you’ve got yourself a fairly busy Poobah.
I have been reading. Truly. I just finished an Agatha Christie mystery yesterday. I’ve also been re-reading quite a bit, which means that I’ve already reviewed much of the material I’ve had my hands on in the past few weeks. I almost always re-read old books when I’m busy, because when I have a new book I hate not being able to sit down and read it through without interruptions. Lately, life is chock-full of those. Pesky life, getting in the way of my reading, and blogging again. I’ve even seen sunlight every single day for the past two or three weeks, it seems. (And it’s been over 100 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside every day, too.)

I’ve also been reading some technical material that would review rather dully. It’s “HTML, XHTML, & CSS for Dummies”, including mini-books on HTML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, and AJAX. That’s right. In addition to being a book nerd, I’m also a Web nerd. Just when you thought you knew me, eh? Eh?!

I will promise you this: since I have been reading, I will sit down and make some notes on what I’ve got in my mental catalogue here and I will ask my husband to get me at some point to stop reading, or coding, or cleaning, or whatever it is I’m occupied with so I can sit down and write about what I’ve read. I miss the reviews. I do. I promise I haven’t totally blown off NeoLibrarium. I’ve just been so darned preoccupied.

So…that’s where I am right now: Busy. I hope to soon be busy, but with reviews in addition to everything else. It’ll be good for all of us, right? Right. That’s what I thought you’d say. Thank you for agreeing with me.