Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Hollow City is the second book in the series of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and takes place the same night as the first book ended. Actually, the whole book took place in a matter of 3-4 days which was pretty cool, considering this book is almost 400 pages. And, unlike the majority of student essays, there was no "fluff" involved to make this book as long as it was.

In Hollow City Jacob and the children travel to London by boat on a mission to save Miss Peregrine's life, where she is trapped in bird form and could revert to a wild animal (think of the movie, Brave). The end is shocking. Just... shocking. I did not expect that at all and the ending changed the book for me, even though I'd already read it. But enough of near-spoilers, I digress (or do I, considering that the topic is still on the book and this is my book review?).

The creepiness level was definitely toned down in this book. Or maybe I just got used to feeling horrified at the thought of a soul-eating monster. Both are quite possible. But even though I was less freaked out from reading this book that doesn't mean it was any less good. It was wonderful, actually. I had a hard time tearing myself away from the book to go to work and I would stay up late reading it. I relived a moment from my childhood when I realized that I felt like this book was my friend, like how I feel about the Harry Potter series. And let me tell you, that's an awesome feeling to have. (However, I cannot say that this book was as good as Harry Potter.)

Seriously, this series could easily go on for another few books, we're that far away from a resolution. But now, after the high of reading it has gone down, I'm excited for the next few books! The character  development of the main character was quite apparent in how he treated the other children. He understood that the children's (if you can call them children) lives were in his hands. He stepped up and became the hero his grandfather was. It was incredible to watch his grandfathers stories turn into reality in the first book and then later become Jacob's.

Of course, as in every young adult novel (or so it seems) there is a love interest. It just so happens that the woman he falls in love with is a good 70 years older than him. But unlike a lot of YA novels, this love story was not the main dish and it wasn't sloppy, drunk love where they can't be separated.  I would absolutely recommend this book to any reader that isn't afraid of being, well, frightened. Riggs is a fabulous author with a wild imagination that thrilled me through both books and, I'm sure, will do yet again in the third installment of his series.

Tarot and the Tree of Life: Finding Everyday Wisdom in the Minor Arcana by Isabel Kliegman

There is nothing special about this book. Usually you can pick out something that makes a book unique but this book is the same as any other book about Tarot. For starters, it goes through each card one-by-one. Not terrible, but not at all enrapturing. Especially considering that almost every beginning of each description of minor arcana starts with "we move next to..." I can only take so much of the same transition before it no longer counts as one.

The book is about Kabbala and the "Tree of Life." What turned me off to this book, among a host of other things, was that the author kept bringing up Christianity. I don't want my cards to have anything to do with that Christianity. We get enough of that religion in politics and women's rights, I don't want it brought into my reading. Kliegman goes through each card individually, analyzing the pictures, making connections that I otherwise may not have made. However, my deck of cards is different than hers so it wasn't relevant to me. I tried to follow along with my cards but the similarities were too obscure.

In one section, Kliegman is downright sexist. She begins the sentence as "Not to be sexist..." Having to start a sentence with that prelude pretty much guarantees that the next thing she says will be sexist. I could not finish this book. I made it about halfway through, ending with the suite of Cups. It was not engaging, it was not interesting, nothing in it was new. All the information went in one ear and out the other and after having put it off time and time again I realized that I just needed to end it
.

But just because this was a boring, mundane book that did not have anything new to say did not mean it was a bad book. I think it's safe to say that I'm a bit spoiled when it comes to books. I've read so many wonderful ones that books that are not up to my standards receive very low marks. Perhaps someone with a longer attention span could benefit from this book. Someone who is a devout Christian would gather wonderful things from this book. I will say that it was refreshing to read a book on Tarot that didn't focus on the Major Arcana. The Minor Arcana are often neglected and this book gives them the attention they deserve.

Thank you, Quest Books, for sending this book to me in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated.  

William Shakespeare's Star Wars by Iam Doescher

I've been putting off this review. I was so bored, I was distracted, I was doing everything but reading. Quite frankly, only Shakespeare could make Star Wars boring. It's time that I put the book down and say, "Enough. I can't take anymore of this!"  All books are special, some just appeal more to one person than the other. But here's the deal: I just can't get through this book without some discomfort, not after having just gone through a semester of Shakespeare.

I requested this book from Quirk who kindly gave me a copy in exchange for an honest review and I assure you, this review is honest. I was in a Shakespeare English class that I found incredibly boring so when I saw this book I thought, Hey, maybe Shakespeare can be fun after all! Well, he can't be fun and no matter the content, he's not. I gambled when I requested this book. I try to only request books I think I'll enjoy and I really thought I would enjoy this. I've been a fan of Star Wars since I was in elementary school, watching movie after movie after movie every snow day we had in Washington.

I loved a few things, though. For starters, this book is written in Shakespeare's traditional iambic pentameter which means it has one stressed syllable and another unstressed (my English major self was so happy about this). The author truly mimics Shakespeare's style down to the syllable. And this:

Obi Wan: "--Nay, thou dost/ Not need to see his papers."
Trooper 4: "Nay, we do/ Not need to see his papers."
Obi Wan: "--True it is,/ That these are not the droids for which thou search'st."

That is just so awesome. So, I appreciated bits of the book. It was actually a really well-written book by a very competent author, it just wasn't the right book for me.

Shakespeare still isn't my guy but I assure you, if you are a fan of Shakespeare and Star Wars you will just die with happiness. This book delivers exactly what the title promises and it does so beautifully. The author took a cult classic and paired it with the style of a literary genius and made Star Wars artsy. Kudos to Quirk for publishing this and Ian Doescher for writing a new (or would it be old?) piece of literature bound (ha ha) to become a classic itself. It just wasn't the right fit for me.

Check out my review of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, another book by Quirk which I absolutely loved!

And if Shakespeare is up your alley, you can pick it up on Amazon through this link

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

So, the part of me that is almost my sister did a happy dance to this book. She's a big fan of anything horror (usually I just do zombie anything) so I thought I would give it a try. It's the summer, I feel like going crazy. So I did.  I made sure the dog slept with me and reading the book was awesome. This book is creepy. Super duper creepy. What makes it even scarier is that there are photos. Real photos of real people doing weird stuff. There are monsters and adventure and some really peculiar stuff that happens. Every time I turned the page I had a second of fear, not sure if the next page was going to have a picture that was going to scare the hell out of me. That's right, the book literally had me scared of it.

I found this book when I was perusing Barnes and Nobel, as I am known to do, and I was drawn to the cover. It's a black and white photo of a little girl levitating. What's creepy about it is her face. No smile, just looking you dead in the eye.

MP follows a boy who goes on a mission to find out his grandfather's secrets. His whole life he'd been told ... peculiar stories from his grandfather's past. As he got older he stopped believing them. Until one night, when things got weird. After that night he realized he needed to know what was going on so he traveled halfway across the world with his ornithologist father to Great Britain to do some exploring on his own.

The nice thing about this, probably why I liked it, was that there was a somewhat happy cliffhanger ending. Not so much happy as hopeful. No worries, I'm not giving anything away. I loved, loved, loved the character development, especially near the end. This boy grows and by the end of the book he's a completely different person. Have I mentioned that this book is creepy? I'm shoving this book in my sisters hand the second she gets off that plane for the summer. If I liked it, there's no question that she'll like it.

Because it's a YA novel the writing style was easy to read, something I'm craving now that college is out for the summer. I'm getting older and the characters aren't but I still enjoy young adult novels just as much as I did when I was a teen. I'm happy to have found this book and been given a good present for getting through the school year! I highly recommend this book. Read it, if only for the pictures.