Book Review: "Emily The Strange: Dark Times"

Emily The Strange: Dark Times is another novel in the Emily The Strange series; the newest one to date that's been released, I believe. This time, Emily has moved to another new town (as usual) and soon builds a time machine, with intentions of learning about the past through firsthand experience. Emily also enrolls in homeschooling this time around, which quickly leads to her mother teaching her a course about the family history - especially the Dark Aunts. There happens to be quite a mystery about her aunt Lily's premature demise that just doesn't add up, so she decides to go back in time to find out what really happened - and to try and save her life, if she can. However, she runs out of liquid black rock (the magical substance she runs the machine with) and gets stuck in the 1700's - how will she get home? You'll have to read it to find out.

I liked this book because it had a much more in depth plot to it than the last Emily the Strange book I read. It was totally gripping, and I found mysef having read the entire thing in 2 or 3 days because I just couldn't put it down! Very, very good. 5 stars!

Book Review: "Emily The Strange: Stranger and Stranger"

I must confess; when I saw a couple of Emily The Strange books on the shelf at my local library recently, I inwardly squealed with glee. I didn't know there were any books about this girl; I thought she was just a fashion logo. I'd been very intrigued by her when I was about 14 because I felt she looked like a cartoon version of myself. Anyway. Needless to say, I grabbed the books. They're not the first in the series, so I'm sure there's some backhistory I missed out on, but that's okay. It's still pretty straightforward.

The first of the books I read was Emily The Strange: Stranger and Stranger written by Jessica Gruner, Rob Reger, and Buzz Parker. The book is written in the style of a tween journal. A dark, semi-gothic and almost sociopathic journal, but a journal nonetheless, complete with drawings all over the margins. The story basically goes on to tell how Emily has moved to another new town, and in getting settled, invented a duplication device. Her initial ideas for purpose was to clone everyone in town and sit back to watch the pranking begin. However, she accidentally clones herself, and chaos ensues. She quickly comes to learn that this is not a perfect clone of herself; oh no. By outward appearances, yes. However, as a person... the device split her good and bad sides into two different people. So she herself has stayed good, and then there's basically an evil twin of herself running around rampant. How will she manage to remedy this? You'll have to read on to find out.

As far as quality goes, this is an incredibly easy read since it was intended for a tween audience. Had I have had the time to do so, I could have read this in a single sitting. So, if you're looking for a 'silent reading' book for school, this probably isn't the best pick, but if it's just for fun, I'd recommend it. Anyway, I'd rate it maybe a 3 and a half out of 5 stars. It's not bad, but it's not some fantastic amazing piece of literature. That said, it IS a fun read!

Book Review: "Island of the Sequined Love Nun"

At the recommendation of both one of our neighbors and one of my long-time best friends, it was advised that I check out the works of the author Christopher Moore. (No relation to Dudley Moore, before you ask, given if you know me. ;)) It just so happened that our neighbor owns quite a few of his books and loaned a few of them to me. After fighting the mass distraction of procrastination, I finally got around to reading the first of these, and it happened to be Island of the Sequined Love Nun. It had me at the title alone, which sounded (to my mind anyway) like an odd combination of Liza Minnelli, Keith Moon's character in Frank Zappa's 200 Motels (where he plays a suicidal, roller-skating nun), and Sally Field's iconic Sister Bertrille. Knowing full well it wouldn't have anything to do with any of these, but intrigued by the mental image it conjured up anyhow, I immediately dove into it and wasn't sorry.

From page one, I was hooked. The main character, Tucker Case, is a ancoholic womanizing pilot for a large cosmetics conglomerate. One day, his appetite for both liquor and women gets him in trouble as he decides to steal a plane and join the Mile High club in it. Needless to say,he crashes, and nearly dismembers himself (emphasis on the latter half of that word...), and has his life in the balance of whether he'll be sent to prison, excommunicated, or what will happen to him. Having had his flying license revoked, and having not much else to offer the world he can do with himself as a career, he's sunk. But along one day comes an offer from a doctor out in the island of Alaulu offering him wealth beyond his wildest dreams, and all he has to do is fly a plane "for medical supplies" for him. What he doesn't know that he's getting himself into is an island dictated by a cargo cult, and his 'supplies' he'll be flying and harvested organs of the clueless islanders.

All of the characters in this story are intensely unique and colorful, and I LOVE it. Not one is your typical cookie cutter image of anybody. They're incredibly memorable, as is the storyline itself. It's unlike anything you'll probably ever read elsewhere, and I would highly recommend this book to you no matter what sort of genre you enjoy, because it has it all included. You won't be disappointed. A huge thumbs up, props, and 5 stars to Mr. Moore for this fine work!