Blown Circuit

Title: Blown Circuit (Circuit Series #2)

Author: Lars Guignard

Genre: Spy/Thriller/Mystery

Publisher: Fantastic Press (December 12, 2012)

Buy Links: 

amazon.com:  http://www.amazon.com/Blown-Circuit-Adventure-Thriller-ebook/dp/B00AMRGX2A

amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blown-Circuit-Adventure-Thriller-ebook/dp/B00AMRGX2A

 

Synopsis: From the bestselling author of Lethal Circuit comes the long-awaited sequel, BLOWN CIRCUIT. Michael Chase is back. He survived China. Barely. But now he's got bigger problems. He has enemies. Deadly enemies. 

A pair of coordinates broadcast on an obscure frequency have brought Michael to Istanbul, Turkey where credible chatter has emerged that a terrorist group plans to use a devastating device to hold the world hostage. Designed by Nikola Tesla, arguably the greatest inventor of the Twentieth Century, the device is experimental, it is capable, and it has been missing for almost sixty years. If Michael is to prevent a catastrophe, he'll need to get to the device before the Conspiracy or risk upsetting the global balance of power forever. Of course, finding the Tesla Device is one thing, knowing whom he can trust with it is another matter entirely. If Michael is to survive, he'll have to do both. If he doesn't, what started as a bad day is about to become a disaster.

Review: Blown Circuit is a sequel, but it doesn't read like one, in the best way possible. I haven't read the first book, and I found no problems in following the story of Blown Circuit. It works great as a stand alone novel. It's an exciting adventure and while it is not a young adult novel, I feel that teens would enjoy this book as well as adults. There were times, during the action scenes, where it got a little hard to follow, but I think that's just the nature of the beast. It's hard to write clear action scenes; it's much easier to see them. Overall, Blown Circuit is a well-written adventure that many will enjoy reading. 4 Stars. 

 

Author Bio: Lars Guignard is a former film and television writer and graduate of both McGill University and the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. His bestselling novel, Lethal Circuit, has been a TOP 100 Amazon Spy Thriller since its release. In addition to the Circuit series, Lars is the author of the children’s adventure series, Zoe & Zak and the Ghost Leopard, Zoe & Zak and the Yogi’s Curse and the paranormal mystery series, Brood. 

Ever since attending high school in the Indian Himalayas, Lars has been an avid backpacker and traveler. He now makes his home in the Pacific Northwest where he is busy completing the third Michael Chase thriller for release in 2013.

For news about new releases, please join his email list here:http://www.larsguignard.com/contact/

He can also be reached at the following places: 
Blog: www.larsguignard.com 
Twitter: @Lars_Gu 
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LarsGuignardAuthor

I am a book tour host with CMBook Tours: I received a complimentary e-copy of this book for the purposeof review. All opinions are 100% my own.

Broken Bridges

 

 

Title: Broken Bridges

Author: Roy Kindelberger

Genre: Children's middle-grade 

Publisher: Black Rose Writing (August 21, 2013)

Buy Links: Black Rose Writing - Amazon 

Espresso Book Machine - Amazon UK

 

Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Rey is sent to an old rundown steel town near Pittsburgh, where he has to deal with his aging grandparents, isolated dad, missing mom, bullies, broken bridges, and horseradish sauce. While Rey sits on an airplane bound for Pittsburgh, he clutches a crumpled note. It’s been forty-one days since his mom left—no words since. Rey’s dad is sending him to Pittsburgh for the summer to stay with his grandparents, so his dad can pull his life together. Rey feels so alone. Somehow Rey has to find himself. He’s timid, unsure, yet has to make choices. These choices lead Rey to become more confident, as he makes the transition into his teenage years. Rey arrives in the middle of a heat wave. He quickly runs into trouble with some bullies and is in several difficult situations. Rey hangs out with his friend, Jason and discovers a mentor in his grandfather—bonds which are all put to the test when his grandfather becomes extremely sick and Rey has a final confrontation with the bullies. And then there are his parents. Will things ever return to normal?

Review: Well, I certainly enjoyed the sentiment of Broken Bridges. I found it difficult to read at some points, because the accents of the characters don't flow and sometimes don't make sense. The grandpa is often seen saying "yunz," which I have never read any any book nor ever heard-and I consider myself to be well versed on small town hick. (I grew up in a small town in Utah and spent time in the South, maybe it's something more specific to where Kindelberger grew up. I don't know. It just bothered me.) There are also a great deal of sentence fragments in the story, and not on purpose as style (which I totally get; I do it, too) but just as mistakes. The story itself is rather sitcom-y in parts and has simple typos. I feel like Kindelberger just needs a really good editor to fix the errors and tighten up the novel. I think it would be well worth the cost. But back to the story itself. Broken Bridges is a very touching story with great characters. I think it would be a very relevant read for today's children, as many have divorced parents or other family troubles. This novel would help them to understand that they are not alone in their difficulties. 3 Stars. 


Author Bio: Roy was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He loves sharing stories with his children and students. They are always looking out for a story, book, poem, or song that makes a difference in their lives. Roy taught kindergarten for fifteen years. He now teaches second grade. Roy lives with his wife, Laura and two wonderful children, Emily and Hailey in Bothell, Washington. You can reach him at: http://www.roykindelberger.com/ Author Links: Website, Blog, and Facebook. 

I am a book tour host with CMBook Tours: I received a complimentary e-copy of this book for the purpose of review. All opinions are 100% my own.

Pilate's Wife

Antoinette May takes the important tale of Christ and Pontius Pilate and puts a spin on it, telling it from a woman, Claudia, Pilate's wife, via her life story. Pilate's Wife is an intellectual read, but once the story is started, it's hard to stop reading. Truthfully, I'm not very knowledgeable about this time period in history, nor do I buy that this is the "true story" of Christ, but it's an interesting theory. Under the genre of historical fiction, I found it a very interesting read. I recommend it to any who enjoy reading about women in history. 4 Stars. 

The Kindness of Strangers

 

Katrina Kittle's The Kindness of Strangers is a touching novel about a widow and her two boys who welcome a third, and troubled, young boy into their home and their lives. The Kindness of Strangers deals with sensitive topics, but is a compelling read. Kittle's style and the story itself remind me a lot of Jodi Picoult. It's one of those books where you don't want to like it, because you don't want to like the terrible things that happen, but you enjoy reading it. It really draws you in. The characters are realistic and really stick with you. I highly recommend this novel to the mature, sophisticated young adult or adult reader. 

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

 

 

I bought Refuge for a nonfiction class at UVU (same class where I read An Elemental Thing), but it ended up not being read in class, and it took me until now to read it. Refuge is Terry Tempest Williams' female family history told alongside the story of The Great Salt Lake and her migratory birds. 

 

It was really hard for me to get into the novel. Chapters opened with different numbers, water level, number of birds, etc. Numbers are hard for me to comprehend, so the significance of the numbers at the beginning of each chapter was missed by me. It also felt like things weren't exactly in order, which was hard for me to understand. It was unclear when things were happening in the timeline. I also felt that Refuge has a very narrow demographic as to who would be most drawn to it. I know it's not something I would pick up off a shelf and take home myself. I give it 3 stars.

The Storyteller

 

The latest Jodi Picoult book, The Storyteller, is not quite a book I would classify as a "Jodi Picoult" book. I'd classify it as a Holocaust novel instead; it is very much unlike all her other works. Picoult tries to make it her own, make it thought provoking, but for me, it's simply a Holocaust novel. The Storyteller is three stories in one, the past, the present, and the allegory. I enjoyed all three aspects, and felt that they could all stand independently, in fact, I would have been fine without the "present" story. Generally, though, I feel that way about all past/present historical fiction novels. 

 

So, I did like it. The characters were real, imperfectly so. The story was compelling. I enjoyed reading it, couldn't put it down at parts. The questions of the novel, "Can you forgive the unforgivable?" and "Where is the line between justice and mercy?" did not impact me on the level I would have liked them to, nor did I bond with Sage since I feel I would have made different choices. And yet, I am not Jewish. My grandmother was not in a concentration camp. A Nazi Officer has not asked me to forgive him. This isn't a realistic question for me. I would like to think one way, but until you're in the situation yourself, can you really know how you would respond? I'm not sure. 

 

The Storyteller is not an original novel, but it is a good read. I highly recommend it. 4.5 Stars.

Zoe & Zak and the Yogi's Curse

 

Title: Zoe & Zak and the Yogi's Curse (Zoe & Zak Adventures #2)

Author: Lars Guignard

Genre: Children /Middle Grade

Published: Fantastic Press (July 23, 2013)

Buy Links: 

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Zoe-Yogis-Curse-Adventures-ebook/dp/B00E4WFG2C

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zoe-Yogis-Curse-Adventures-ebook/dp/B00E4WFG2C

Synopsis: Zoe and Zak are back in India. Again. And this time they’re attending Moonstock Himalayan Boarding School, which might seem fun except for the fact that the school is a little strange. Students ride elephants instead of school buses, snarling monkeys work as security guards, and angry parrots monitor the halls. And even when they manage to get used to the wildlife, the food is absolutely terrible.But living with a bunch of other kids their age can be a lot of fun too, or at least it seems that way until Zoe’s roommate goes missing. Following the directions written on a steamy bathroom mirror, Zoe and Zak fly through the clouds on their magic carpet to learn that the two of them have been chosen yet again. This time they’ve been asked to lift the Yogi’s Curse.It’s not going to be easy. Zoe and Zak don’t even know what the Yogi’s Curse is let alone how to lift it, but like it or not, they soon discover that a whole lot of people are depending on them. Now, if they’re going to save the day, they’re going to have to fool the monkey guards, avoid the nasty parrots, and maybe even develop a supernatural ability or two. Because lurking beneath Moonstock is a powerful new enemy. And if Zoe and Zak can’t stop him, nobody can.

Review: Adventure certainly seems to follow Zoe and Zak at their boarding school in India. Their adventures start in Zoe & Zak and the Ghost Leopard, but The Yogi's Curse can be read as an independent read. Guignard gives enough of the back story for their new adventure to make sense without it being a bore to the reader who has read The Ghost Leopard. Overall, I thought it was very imaginative and a fun read. I did have a problem with Guignard's use of the word "coolie" though. When I first read it, I thought, oh, isn't that a derogatory term? So, of course, I turned to Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolie. I think, and certainly hope, that it is an out-dated term, and Guignard mistakenly used it. I also read Zoe as being a smart girl, she, herself, appears very well-read in The Ghost Leopard, and it seems as though she should know not to use that word, or having heard it, looked it up and learned of its origin. However, "coolie" is only in the first chapter, and there is much more to the book than one word! Aside from that word choice and a few grammatical errors and typos, I very much enjoyed The Yogi's Curse and recommend it to children and adults alike, including as a read-aloud or read-together book for parents and their children.



Author Bio: Prior to writing novels, Lars Guignard wrote for film and television. As a teenager he attended boarding school in the Indian Himalayas and his experiences there provided the inspiration for the Zoe and Zak series which now include: Zoe & Zak and the Ghost Leopard and Zoe & Zak and theYogi's Curse. He now makes his home in the Pacific Northwest where he is busy completing the third Zoe & Zak adventure for release in Fall 2013.For news about new releases, please join his email list here:
http://www.larsguignard.com/contact/

He can also be reached at the following places: Blog: http://www.larsguignard.com/contact/ Twitter: @Lars_Gu Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LarsGuignardAuthor

I am a book tour host with CMBook Tours: I received a complimentary e-copy of  this book for the purpose of review. All opinions are 100% my own.

Zoe & Zak and the Ghost Leopard

Lars Guignard's Zoe & Zak and the Ghost Leopard is an exciting children's book about two sixth graders accompanying their parents on a work trip to India. Zoe is initially on a quest to take a photo to win a contest at school, but Zak's snooping gets them into trouble, which leads them on a crazy adventure. Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It is a great mid/upper-level juvenile fiction or younger/lower level young adult work. I think it's right on par with Magic Tree House and the Zak Files books. One problem I did have was the lack of editing. There were a few noticeable typos and sentence fragments. Aside from those errors, the story was well thought out, though clearly fantasy and fiction, and the characters were realistic and dynamic. I enjoyed and recommend this book to all ages and as a read-aloud or read-along parent-child book. 

The Matrix and the Alice Books: An Intertextual Study

Title: The Matrix and the Alice Books

Author: Voicu Mihnea Simandan

Genre: non-fiction / movie studies / literary criticism 

Synopsis: The Matrix and the Alice Books presents aspects of intertextuality in three primary sources: the script of the motion picture The Matrix written by directors Andy and Larry Wachowski, and the books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll. Intertextuality is a set of relations with other texts, which can include direct quotations, allusions, literary conventions, imitation, parody and unconscious sources amongst others. In The Matrix there are few explicit references to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. This book by Voicu Mihnea Simandan presents both the explicit references and the less direct ones, giving evidence from primary and secondary sources. In doing so, it makes use of a literary construction developed from Gérard Genette’s structuralist theory of transtextuality as a framework to present how a web of intertextual relationships is clearly formed between the Alice books and The Matrix. 

Review: I enjoyed reading The Matrix and the Alice Books. It was written very much like a thesis and followed thesis structure very well. While it wasn't a super original idea (what is?) it was enjoyable and well researched, as well as something I hadn't really ever thought about. All the terms were well defined and it was very clear how The Matrix and Alice fit together and to read into the intertexual relationship of the children's stories and the movie. Everything was well thought out, ideas were fully developed, and it was well presented. It was easy to read and understand, even without a thorough knowledge of The Matrix or either Alice book. I look forward to reading his upcoming novel: The Buddha Head.  I give The Matrix and the Alice Books 4.5 stars for its genre.  

Author’s Bio: Voicu Mihnea Simandan is a Romanian writer and freelance journalist who was 

born in 1978 in Arad, a small city in Transylvania. He has published short stories, non-fiction, and books for children. He has been calling Thailand home since 2002 and he has been a member of the Bangkok Writers' Guild since 2009 and a member of AP Writers since 2012. He is now teaching Language Arts and Social Studies at an international school in Bangkok. His upcoming debut novel, The Buddha Head, a suspense thriller set in Thailand, is scheduled for publication in late 2013. He loves archery, martial arts and travelling.

Author links: Facebook/ Twitter / Goodreads / Blog / Website

Buy links: Amazon.com/ Amazon.co.uk/ Kindle US / Kindle UK

Giveaways: For each tour stop, the author will give to the most engaging commenter an ecopy of The Rage of a New Ancestor, a collection of short stories set in Asia, where Voicu Mihnea Simandan also has one contribution. The author will be awarding a $10 grand prize to a randomly chosen commenter during the course of the tour.For each tour host, the author will give an e-copy of Mr. Cheng’s Silver Coffeepot, an anthology of Asian short stories, where Voicu Mihnea Simandan also has one contribution.

Tour Schedule: http://cmbooktours.com/the-matrix-and-the-alice-books-tourschedule-aug-19-25/

I am a book tour host with CMBook Tours: I received a complimentary e-copy of 

this book for the purpose of review. All opinions are 100% my own.

The Radio Murders: The Collectors

The Radio Murders: The Collectors by Chuck Collins jumps right into the action from page one. Sometimes this is a great storytelling tactic, but I found it unsavory in The Radio Murders. It was a little hard to follow and I felt lost for a bit. I also found this novel to be a little too adult for my taste: lots of vulgarity in language as well as sex scenes. Aside from that, I found the story enjoyable, yet hard to follow with too many indistinct characters. It was a very tangled web of deceit  mystery and action. It was intriguing, mysterious, and action packed. It ends with a cliffhanger, making the reader want to know what happens next. Unfortunately, this reader won't be finding out. It's an okay book, but not for me. 2 Stars. 

I am a book tour host with CM Book Tours: I received a complimentary e-copy of this book for the purpose of review. All opinions are 100% my own.

An Elemental Thing

I initially read An Elemental Thing by Eliot Weinberger as assigned reading for a non-fiction class in college. It is in a short-story/prose format, with each piece able to stand on its own. I didn't find the reading to be quite poetry, nor do I ever really find myself liking poetry, but it was more like "Interesting Facts Weinberger Knows (and now you do, too)", which was okay by me. It's a fairly easy, semi-quick read, and I liked learning all the random facts. But at the same time, It wasn't especially meaningful. It isn't necessarily a book I'd recommend, but it's not a book I'd stop anyone from reading, and it's not a waste of time. So, three stars. 

The Book Without Words

Avi's The Book Without Words is a unique tale about a man who wants to live forever and his journey to do so, while not really being about him at all. So much is about Sybil's internal conflict of using the magic herself. 

It's not an amazing, can't-put-down novel, but The Book Without Words is an easy Juvenile/Young Adult novel that anyone with an interest in a little mystery and magic during medieval times would enjoy. Three and a half stars. 

Watership Down

Goodreads recommended Watership Down to me, and since it was a book Cass brought to the marriage (doesn't that sound funny?), it was convenient to read. It tells the story of a few rabbits who choose to leave their warren because one of them, Fiver, has a premonition that something bad is going to happen. Though his vision isn't clear, he is trusted by a few rabbits. The book is basically about these rabbits and their journey to find, and make, a new home, as well as to bring some female rabbits into their warren so that they can procreate and make their arduous journey worth it. 

Some parts are pretty exciting, but other parts drag on and on.  Adams also uses a lot of made-up rabbit language, which you eventually get used to, but is kind of annoying.  I would have liked Watership Down  a whole lot more if it was about half as long. It was an okay book, but not great by any means. Three stars. 

Savvy

One of Matthew's books, Savvy by Ingrid Law is a cute idea of a novel for the younger YA reader. It's sort of a fantasy, but not overly so.  it tells the story of Mibs and her siblings as they go on a coming-of-age road trip style adventure to "fix" Mibs's ill father. It's a cute book, but definitely more for the younger reader. It's not quite enough for an adult. I recommend as a read-with-your-child or for a younger YA reader. Read on, friends!

The Leviathan Trilogy: Leviathan, Behemoth, Goliath

In Scott Westerfeld's best work, the Leviathan Trilogy featuring Leviathan, Behemoth, and Goliath,we meet some great characters and go on an exciting adventure through alterna-history's WWI with both an Allied and an Axis perspective. The trilogy has elements of both steampunk and fantasy as well as threading in truths and actual people from history (Westerfeld includes an afterward correcting some of his alterna-history).  It was a lively exciting read that I highly recommend to any reader. I give it five stars. Westerfeld, you hit your mark with these works. Read on, my friends.

Virgin Earth

Virgin Earth, the free-standing sequel to Earthly Joys by Philippa Gregory, tells the story of John's son, John. The two men have never seen eye-to-eye, especially in the turmoil of England, but they have been able to make it work because they need to, because they are both gardeners for the king. And so John the younger goes to Virginia (remember, this is pre-United States of America. This is early Jamestown days) to collect new plants and escape the pain of his wife's death. While there, he falls in love with his young Powhatan guide. But the story doesn't end there! John travels back to England, then back to Virginia, and back to England again. Similar to Earthly Joys, yet slightly more enjoyable, there are nice aspects to Virgin Earth. It's neat to learn about the way of the Powhatan and the changes England goes through prior to and during it's civil war. But it has the same problems as Earthly Joys, too. I didn't connect with this John, either. It was like Philippa was trying to cover too much ground and couldn't get into enough depth for me to enjoy it. I'm not sure that I recommend this book, but it really wasn't a terrible read. I just expect more from Ms Gregory and didn't love Virgin Earth. 

Earthly Joys

Well, Philippa, ya win some, you lose some. And you just didn't win me over with Earthy Joys, either time I've read it. The historical backdrop of the switch from the Tudors to the Stuarts was interesting, as was the tulip crash. And sometimes I even liked John (the main character), but I didn't always get why I was reading about him. Nothing was pulling me forward into the story.  it covered almost John's whole life, instead of being a story about X,Y,Z. There wasn't necessarily a conflict, or even a climax to the novel. I couldn't draw this out as a plot line diagram, as they have students do. It was a long, long novel and didn't seem like one unified story. Maybe I just didn't get the love story between John and his "masters" well enough. Maybe I didn't get his love for his plants. So, I don't really recommend this, unless you're like me and determined to read all of Philippa Gregory's books so you can honestly say she's your favorite author (I need to be researched and legit, ya'll. and I have to read everything!!) or a lover of botany. And if you do choose to read it: warning & slight spoiler -- there is one gay sex scene. 

Attack the Lusitania!

When I first saw my mom borrow this book from my grandpa, I was really excited to read it. Grandpa likes war books and this looked super exciting and about a topic I didn't know much about. Of course, it took me a while to get to reading Attack the Lusitania! amid the moves and book shuffles and the fact that I always want to read about 500 books, but I finally banned myself from the library and got to reading the books we have at home. 

I really wanted to like this novel. But no. I didn't like it at all. First of all, why even make the characters LDS? Is that a requirement for being published by Covenant? Because the characters being LDS didn't seem to have much of tie-in other than getting some of the characters to talk, but that could have been done in another way. And why were there all these different perspectives? The novel is barely over 200 pages, and I'm supposed to follow three different story-lines, one of which disappears halfway through? It made it so hard to get to know the characters and feel for them. There was no character development and I didn't feel attached to any of them. 

It was interesting to learn more about the Lusitania and the circumstances under which it was attacked, but I learned just as much about the Lusitania from The American Heiress, and I'm going to recommend that book to you instead!

Water for Elephants

I first read Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants many, many moons ago. I love the idea 

of the old circus, the glamour and the sparkle and the majesty, even though I've never 

actually been to the circus! 

Once the movie came out, I meant to read Water for Elephants again to refresh my memory, but life got busy and books get packed (and moved and moved again) and other books get read instead and the movie was never seen. But it finally made it to the top of my pile! 

I enjoyed Water for Elephants as much the second time as I did the first. It encompasses the magic of the circus along with the devastation of The Great Depression.  It's a love story, love for a woman, an elephant, and the circus. It's a touching story with characters who come to life. I really felt like I knew the characters and I cared about what happened to them. 

The only thing I don't like about this novel is the bookending of the past by the present.

 Of course, I always say that about books like this. I don't feel the need for the small story

 of the present. I'm happy with the story of the past. It's enough for me. It's a great story 

and I think you'll like it too! Enjoy! 

Of Two Minds & More Minds

Carol Matas and Perry Nodelman's Of Two Minds and More Minds, the sequel, are about Princess Lenora and her betrothed, Coren, while Lenora's stubbornness takes them on an adventure. I read these, and liked them better, when I was younger, but they're still a fun quick read with a good moral. These are best for upper elementary/middle school readers both in level and demographic. Happy reading!