Monday, October 17, 2011

The Visconti House

by Elsbeth Edgar

Grade: Good
Story: Laura Horton lives in an old Italian house in Australia with her artistic parents. She meets a boy, and together they discover the secrets of the old house, and the reclusive man who lived there.

Review: This is the sort of Middle Grade fiction that perhaps really is better enjoyed by someone in Middle Grade. I mean, it was good--very good. I liked it. But I think I would have liked it better at age 14, or younger. In some ways, it was simply a story of children (teenagers, in this case) and discovery, somewhat like E. Nesbit and such. The mood and atmosphere made it worth the read, though.



Saturday, October 15, 2011

The Throne of Fire

by Rick Riordan

Grade: Unfinished
Read: To page 304.

Review: I tried. I tried and tried. Hey, I got to page 304! But I couldn't quite finish. Ah well. Son of Neptune was excellent, so I know I still like Riordan.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Top Ten (Or So): Fictional Canadians


I always like finding fictional Canadians, and I know there are more of them than one might expect. There's some sort of automatic elevation of a character when I find out they're from my country. So without further ado, here's my list of Favourite Fictional Canadians (that I can remember), in no particular order.



--Rodney McKay, from the TV series Stargate Atlantis. By far the funniest Canadian in the history of fictional Canadians. Scientific genius and terribly egotistical.

--Wolverine, from X-Men. Grumpy, gruff, and much older than he looks. Plus the cool claws.

--Anne Shirley, Emily Starr, and other L. M. Montgomery characters. Montgomery is one of our best authors, and her characters are almost always awesome and unique, without falling into the "kick-ass feisty female" or "beautiful wilting wallflower" tropes that SO MANY heroines tend to fall into.

--Box, aka Madison Jeffries, from the X-Men. I don't know a lot about him, and I must admit that most of the reason why I like him is because he IS Canadian. But still, his powers are cool, and I definitely like what I've seen of him so far.

--Saul Greenius, from the Evil Genius series by Catherine Jinks. A detective who, as with most fictional detectives, is somewhat smarter than one might expect. I really like him, and I'm not totally sure why. Perhaps because he's so calm under pressure, and because he ends up having a very good marriage, and I like married people.

--Frank Zhang, from the book just reviewed: The Son of Neptune. Cool powers, cool history, the awesomest father.

--Charlie Wilcox, from the books by Sharon E. McKay. Awesome WWI books. Read them. Especially if you're Canadian.

--Lester Patel, from the TV series Chuck. Because of Jeffster! and "Imagine David Beckham! Lester's a shorter, feminine version of his wife".

The Son of Neptune

by Rick Riordan

Grade: To Own
Story: Percy Jackson has lost his memory, and somehow found his way to Camp Jupiter. Then there's Romans,  quests, awesome displays of water power, Death, the Canadian Forces, and lots and lots of deadly diamonds.

See the first book in the series: The Lost Hero, as well as the next in the series: The Mark of Athena. Also there's the whole "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series which comes before this series.

Review: The new demigod characters were pretty cool, though I think Percy, Jason, and Nico are still my favourites. The Roman side of things was awesome (I love Romans), and I hope the exact relationship between the Greek and Roman side of things is explored fully in future books.

Thanatos was an awesome Death. I still don't know whether Hades or Nico could be added to my list of favourite Deaths, because technically they're only in charge of Death, not Death itself. But I like them well enough to add them, if they DO count. Do they count??

P.S. See Top Ten (Or So): Fictional Canadians.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Haunting Violet

by Alyxandra Harvey

Grade: Unfinished
Read: To page 50.

Review: Still planning to finish this one. I was really not in the mood for it while I was working in the summer, which is when I started it. Plus the love interest was obvious, which always seems to put me off. However, there was some promising stuff with her best friend. I always like friends in books. So, as I said, still planning to finish this one.