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 The third book of the Tiffany Aching series, part of the larger Discworld series, finds Tiffany accidentally taking place in a Morris dance. She can’t help herself; she’s simply drawn in. Unfortunately, due to her folly, she finds that the Wintersmith is in love with her because she has taken the place of the Summer Goddess. Since Tiffany is in the mortal world, unlike the Goddess, the Wintersmith can follow her every move, and she must kill him if Spring is ever to arrive for her people. As always, there are plenty of sideplots in the mix, including a witch who sees her own death and the misadventures of the arrogant Annagramma, who finds that she needs quite a bit of help to actually be a witch.
Wintersmith was another enchanting book in the Tiffany Aching series – and a perfect read for when the world is covered in snow, as Tiffany’s is too. It’s full of the same insights and little wisdoms as the first two books were, although I would argue that it’s probably the weakest. Tiffany has much to distract her from the Wintersmith and after the beginning, which throws us into the mix of things, much of the rest of the book feels a bit slow (despite its short length). I still appreciated it all, but the plot definitely felt a bit looser than the previous ones. I did especially love the ending, though.
I probably mentioned it in my last review, but one of the things I appreciate the most about these books is how incredible wonderful all of the characters are. Pratchett doesn’t cut corners on any of them; even Annagramma, the witch who doesn’t really know what she’s doing, has several layers to her personality. She could have been a stereotype so easily, but Pratchett doesn’t take the easy route – he makes her a witch who is uncertain, who covers that up with arrogance, but who truly does want to do well. And, of course, there is Tiffany, who always has that edge of reality to her, as though she could just be a twelve-year-old I’d meet on the street. Plus, it’s impossible to not love the Nac Mac Feegles; the addition of Horace the cheese makes for some hilarious moments throughout this book.
I really enjoyed Wintersmith; it had me so eager to read I Shall Wear Midnight that I didn’t actually wait more than two days, although most of me was saying I should let the series last a bit longer. I would definitely recommend it to all fans of fantasy, but as always I think the series is best begun at the beginning (of this arc anyway) with The Wee Free Men.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 At only nine years old, Liesel Meminger witnesses the death of her brother and is sent away by her mother to live with another family. Liesel doesn’t really understand what’s going on or why she has to leave her mother. Hitler’s domination of Germany increases as Liesel grows up, comforted by her adoptive father and loved but scolded in ways by her adopted mother. Narrated by Death himself, a character with a completely different and novel perspective, Liesel’s story is a powerful one about love, war, and childhood.
I don’t give many books a five star rating on LibraryThing (I don’t rate books at all here on the blog, but I still do there). It’s incredibly rare that I find a book which works for me on all levels – that touches me, that makes me think, that gives me a new perspective on life. The Book Thief is one such book, and somehow I waited nearly two full years to actually open it for the first time. What a mistake – I hope it’s one you won’t make, if you do have this one waiting on your TBR shelf.
It’s difficult to pinpoint precisely what makes this book so special. There are vast numbers of books written in or about World War II that are very good; there is plenty of fiction in particular and it’s a number that seems to rise regularly. It’s one of those books that makes things you’ve always known somehow become real, even through fiction. Liesel’s feelings towards Max, the Jew that her family hides in their basement, do precisely this. Their relationship, so tenuous to start, expressed through books and words, becomes magical and real as the novel progresses.
The entire book revolves around the power of words. Liesel is the titular book thief; she adores books, but they’re hard to come by for a poor family in Nazi Germany. Censorship means millions of books are burned or changed, so Liesel’s treasures become fewer and far between. Simultaneously, it is words that allow Hitler and his party to take power, to persuade people that those who believe in other religions are not people, to cause the deaths of millions around the globe. This power of words is demonstrated in so many ways throughout the book; as a reader and a writer, I found so much to connect with and a vast amount of truth in this particular theme.
The book also demonstrates the merciless nature of war. It’s a hard thing to take, especially when you become so very attached to certain characters, but it makes me think of real life as well. More than anything, strangely, this part of the book reminded me of The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt, because it is another that demonstrates how war can take away people we desperately love. Like many of my generation, I’ve never had anyone I loved taken from me due to a war, despite the fact that we are fighting one and I know a number of soldiers, and I think this faint shadow of that grief is entirely necessary to remind all of us who are not involved ourselves how evil a thing these wars actually are.
I would highly recommend The Book Thief to almost anyone at all; it’s a book that is beautifully written with a number of powerful themes, yet still surprisingly different from many of the books about World War II out there. If you already own it, don’t let it sit on your shelf any longer.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book as a gift.
 The time has come for Tiffany Aching to become a witch. She leaves behind her beloved Chalk to help another witch, Miss Level, becoming an apprentice of sorts as she attempts to learn her new craft. Tiffany is frequently frustrated by her attempts to learn magic, especially her inability to ride a broomstick without being ill and her complete failure at making a shamble. But what she can do is step in and out of her body at will, which she does from time to time. She doesn’t realize, however, that leaving her body unoccupied is dangerous, especially when there’s something just around the corner waiting to seize it.
Following up on my earlier gushing over The Wee Free Men, I’m prepared to gush again about this book. If anything, this was actually better, which, I know, I sort of didn’t think could happen either. Tiffany’s out into the wider world of witches now, which threw a few more wrenches into this tale. She meets a number of other apprentice witches her own age, so we have all the rivalry and jealousy of the early teenage years to contend with, including one nasty witch who is convinced of her own importance and is happiest bullying everyone else around. It was a heartbreaking moment when Tiffany talked about her hat, which Granny Weatherwax gave to her in the previous volume, and no one believed her. I was so hopeful that she’d prove herself in the end and show off what she really could do.
As in the last, there were plenty of moments that were both funny and wise. Pratchett’s brand of humor can almost always coax a smirk out of me if nothing else. In this book the Nac Mac Feegle get a new kelda, but that also means that they lose sight of Tiffany for a short while – typically, just long enough for her to get possessed, at which point they must race to save her, if even they can do so.
What I think I actually preferred about this book was the fact that the plot was much tighter and seemed to have more purpose. There are still sidetracks, and I wouldn’t want it any other way, but there was certainly more tension here, more sense of progression. Tiffany is indeed growing as a witch. It’s incredibly difficult to resist completely falling in love with her and the entire book – and truly there is no point in doing so. I was reminded again and again that, like in many of my favorite stories, Tiffany is an ordinary girl whom extraordinary things happen to. She deals with them as she has to, but she feels like a real person in a variety of charming, human ways that truly seal this book’s appeal for me. I would definitely recommend A Hat Full of Sky to all fantasy fans – but make sure you read The Wee Free Men first.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 Tiffany Aching is a girl who lives on the Chalk. She’s good at making cheese, she misses and loved her Granny Aching, and she’s also a witch. When her brother – who is a sticky, whiny baby – is stolen by the queen of another world, Tiffany takes it upon herself to go and save him. Armed with only a frying pan and a group of tiny men with Scottish accents, the Nac Mac Feegle, Tiffany sets off to save her brother and to embrace her newly discovered witchy heritage.
I’ve never been the world’s biggest fan of Terry Pratchett. There, I’ve said it; I have set out no less than three times before this to read the Discworld books and never quite caught on. I started at the beginning first, which I was assured was a mistake, though I thought the first two books were okay. Then a lovely friend, intent on correcting my error, sent me Mort which I liked well enough but which didn’t inspire me to read more. A couple of years later another generous friend sent me the Susan books, which again I enjoyed but didn’t inspire me to keep reading. As ever a glutton for punishment, I decided to give Discworld one last try; this time I was inspired by Nymeth who mentioned I Shall Wear Midnight with enough enthusiasm that I chose to give this last arc a chance. I was further encouraged by a number of others’ reviews, so I bought all three paperback Tiffany Aching books in one go and sat down to read this a couple of weeks ago. And, finally, on the fourth try, I was enchanted.
It’s hard to pin down just why this particular book was different. I recognized Pratchett’s sense of humor, which is always mildly amusing but never laugh-out-loud funny, so it wasn’t like this book was a vast step outside of the others. It could simply be that I’m older, that I’ve got a better handle on British culture after living here for over two years. Or, as I’m leaning towards, it’s Tiffany herself, a wonderful female character if I’ve ever encountered one. She’s clever, gutsy, strong, wise, but still human, still a little girl, still prone to confusion. She’s annoyed by her little brother, doesn’t want to take care of him, but she loves him and recognizes his importance all the same.
So much of this book struck a chord with me and I found I couldn’t stop reading. Tiffany’s feelings about her grandmother, the amusing Wee Free Men, the little ways in which Tiffany knows she’s a witch; I loved the series of thoughts in particular on this. She has thoughts about her thoughts, and then thoughts about those thoughts, which apparently only witches can do, and which somehow Pratchett manages to make not at all confusing but rather humorous. Tiffany is a heroine I think everyone girl could embrace; I kind of want to give them this instead of books like Twilight and the vampire romances that are so popular these days. All I know is, when I finished this book, the first thing I wanted to do was read A Hat Full of Sky, which I promptly did, and the only reason I’m writing this review instead of reading Wintersmith is because I didn’t want the stories to run out. I haven’t felt this way in a long time, and I missed it.
So anyway, now that I’ve gushed away, if you like fantasy or young adult literature at all, I highly recommend you read The Wee Free Men.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 Andi’s life hasn’t been right for two years, ever since her little brother Truman lost his life on a Brooklyn street. She’s convinced it’s her fault, and in the wake of his death, her family has fallen apart. Her father has moved to Boston and begun a new life; her mother spends her days painting portraits of her dead son. Meanwhile, Andi is failing out of school and can only take refuge in one thing: her music. Unexpectedly, Andi’s father decides she must graduate from high school. He sends her mother to a mental hospital and whisks Andi off to Paris, insisting she write her senior thesis outline under his watch. In Paris, Andi discovers a diary inside an old guitar case, and a surprising connection to a girl from the French Revolution who watched over Louis-Charles, the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
When I finished this book, there was just one word in my head. Wow. Jennifer Donnelly has some talent going on and it’s in full force with Revolution. I can say I was uncertain for about the first hundred pages, but by the time Andi discovers the diary, I was completely rapt and managed to finish the rest of the book in less than half a day. I just couldn’t put it down. I knew the outcome but I still felt like I had to know what happened, to Andi, to Alex, even to Louis-Charles. Donnelly melds history, music, and the pains of growing up amidst tragedy in ways that are almost indescribably beautiful and moving.
What most stood out to me was Andi’s character. Faced with incredible difficulties, she’s on the verge of falling apart. Unfortunately the death of a loved one seems to be a recurring theme in my reading lately – subconscious choices as I get closer to a day like that for me perhaps – and Andi’s struggle is difficult. I could completely feel for her and can’t imagine how much harder it would be if I had a reason to blame myself for a loved one’s death. Resisting the urge to fall apart isn’t easy. Donnelly masterfully sketches out her character in the space of just a few chapters; the first were hard to take and you could argue that the story takes too long to get going, but Andi’s character is one thing she gets perfectly correct.
I also thought the music angle was a very cool line to take and the perfect message for the book’s target audience. So many teens and young adults use music to express themselves in a way – the rest of us do too, but it’s difficult to recapture that frenzy and desperate energy that teenagers seem to have (I know, I speak like I’m way older than I am here, but this is long gone for me). Andi’s discoveries and musical passion make her interesting for all age ranges, in my opinion, and I loved the fact that her historical experiences and her academic experiences tied in so awesomely by the end.
All in all, Revolution was a pretty amazing book. I don’t think it matters if you’re a teen or an adult, this is truly excellent reading. I know it’ll stick in my memory for quite some time to come.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free for review from the publisher.
 Tacy’s life in Gettysburg is thrown into turmoil by the Civil War. Two of her brothers are off fighting and her father, a doctor, is doing all he can to save soldiers on both sides; at home with her is her brother David, crippled just enough to be ineligible for war service, and her mother. David loves Tacy but is bitter about his inability to fight, meaning that tensions often run high in the family home. Things only get worse when the Confederate army invades the town and Tacy has to hide her free black friend Marvelous and her family from the soldiers. The Battle of Gettysburg, when it occurs, shocks the town and changes Tacy’s life forever.
I’d only ever read one book by Ann Rinaldi before, when I was much younger, but I knew she wrote great historical fiction for young adults. I’m not normally a fan of Civil War fiction, but I knew I liked In My Father’s House, so I thought I’d give this new book a try, which turned out to be a great decision. The Last Full Measure is not a story about a girl who does extraordinary things for the war effort; instead it’s about a girl who just tries to get by, who is affected by the war just as deeply as everyone else, who reacts in perfect human ways to circumstances which could tear some of us apart.
In Tacy, Rinaldi creates a wonderful, real heroine who is forced to question the world around her due to a war. She gets confused and she struggles, but her core values are the same as all of ours. She adores her family and her friends, and even fighting with one of these cherished few makes her desperately unhappy. Her joy when her brothers arrive safely for a visit is transformed into the reader’s joy as we can’t help but feel for her and her pain. She doesn’t go onto the battlefield and save lives, but she does what little she can to protect those who she loves, which is more than others have done in the past. In fact, I think that was what I liked most about it, that Tacy was very ordinary but strong-willed and loving. I could imagine myself in her shoes, both in good and bad ways. This book is written for a younger audience and I do think that Tacy matches that description. In some ways, she is wise, but in others, she is still very much a young girl with a young girl’s thoughts.
I also really liked that, in her mission for the book, Rinaldi tried to aim for something that wasn’t really covered in most fiction books about the Civil War; namely, that Gettysburg had a reasonable population of free blacks and what happened when Confederate soldiers invaded. By making it personal and giving Tacy a close friend whose family was facing these very challenges, Rinaldi made the struggle personal and both educated me about the situation in Gettysburg and moved me as Tacy tried desperately to save her friend from slavery.
The Last Full Measure is an excellent young adult book about the Civil War. It deals with important complex historical situations but its best feature is its heroine, because Tacy is a believable, fully fleshed out young girl that many readers will find easy to relate to.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free for review from Netgalley.
 Nick and Alan’s life has been unsettled for as long as Nick can remember. The magicians are after their mother, so they’re constantly moving. Their mother is mad and can’t stand the sight of Nick, though she can sometimes carry on ordinary conversations with others. To make things worse this time, two kids from Nick’s school show up, one of them with a demon’s mark on him. Jamie has no idea what to do, and his sister Mae is determined to protect him. Though Nick is quite happy to throw the other kids to the wind, Alan does his best to help, imperiling his own family in the process.
I wasn’t sure about this book at the start. It opens slowly. We know the family is in danger, but the why of it is a bit shaky, and it’s difficult to relate to Nick. He’s very cold and unemotional, especially at the beginning. He very obviously loves his brother, but he seems to have no feelings for anyone else. Mae and Jamie’s arrival is met with bitter distrust and even anger; he’s quite happy to leave Jamie to die and doesn’t really care how Mae feels about that.
As the book progresses, however, secrets are revealed that really do make everything start to come clear. In large part these revelations made the book for me, as I found myself speeding through to find out the truth. Alan has been hiding secrets from Nick. I knew there had to be some answer behind the myriad dropped hints, but I didn’t manage to guess all of it, and I quite enjoyed the way it was revealed.
Though I definitely enjoyed the book, and understood why it was so, I found that Nick’s coldness put me off really loving it. He’s meant to be exactly as he is, but I think I’m one of those readers that needs to at least relate to the protagonist of a book to love it. I can like it just fine, but I couldn’t bond with Nick. He’s not the main character in the next book of the series, however, so I think I may get on with that one better and might fall in love with it as I thought I should have fallen in love with this one.
If you’ve been enjoying a lot of paranormal YA, you can’t go wrong with The Demon’s Lexicon. The main character is a bit cold, but the story is entrancing. I loved that this focused on a relationship between two brothers, rather than a romantic one like so much YA in this genre does; it’s nice to have a change sometimes. I’m looking forward to the next volume in the series!
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 This is the fifth book in the Vampire Academy series. See my review of Vampire Academy if you haven’t yet read the series. This review will contain spoilers for the first four books.
After searching all through Russia for Dimitri and finally escaping still determined to save him, Rose has returned to Vampire Academy to finish her training and finally become a Guardian. Even if she can’t guard her best friend, Lissa, she knows her duty to the Moroi and wants to get where she’s been planning her whole life. Almost as soon as the trials are over, though, Rose is determined to find out how to save Dimitri – even if she does have to release a condemned criminal and ostracize her new boyfriend to do it.
This was the first of the Vampire Academy books that I read completely on its own, so I hope I can do it the justice of a full review. I read this book immediately after a non-fiction book, so my first reaction to it was simply how remarkably teenage it felt to me. YA books are great but I could never only read them; I can only take so much teenage drama, and I kept feeling like the book discussed what Rose was wearing way too much. Some adult fiction has this issue, too, but it stood out in vivid contrast in this instance. Luckily, the adjustment period didn’t last long before I got sucked right into the story and absorbed with what was going to happen next. That’s the other great thing about YA – amazing storytelling, and Richelle Mead definitely knows how to do that.
The major focus of this book is Rose and her relationships. She’s determined to rescue Dimitri. He’s her first love and she clearly still remembers and almost idolizes that time they had together. In the meantime, however, she’s gotten together with Adrian, the queen’s nephew, and is enjoying the time she’s having with him. Naturally, he isn’t thrilled that she’s still so obsessed with returning Dimitri to life, but no one believes she can actually do it. Much of the conflict here is based around her internal battle between them.
Of course, Rose is also off having numerous adventures and usually getting into trouble for them. After she sneaks herself, Lissa, and her friend Eddie out of the royal court, she gets into trouble, and then she just keeps on misbehaving. Her adventures form the plot of the book, which really does feel as though it’s racing along as we get further into the book. Of course, it ends on a massive cliffhanger, and I’m already having trouble waiting for the sixth book to come out so I can finally discover what happens next.
The Vampire Academy series is a wonderful escape, the perfect fall read. I really enjoyed Spirit Bound and can’t wait for the sixth and final installment. If you’re looking for a YA series with a bit of magic, a bit of romance, and a whole lot of adventure, you can’t go wrong here.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 Mattie dreams of being a writer, filling notebooks when she can get them and choosing words of the day to expand her vocabulary, but since her mother died and her brother left she’s been more like a housekeeper to her father and three younger sisters. She longs to move to New York and make a go of her talents at Barnard College, so she starts slowly saving for the day when she can escape her rural life. She takes a job at the Glanmore, a fancy hotel for tourists, to get enough money to go, but her attention is distracted when she discovers an unsettling truth about a capsized boat and a death that once looked innocent.
Told back and forth over two different time periods in Mattie’s life, Mattie’s story quickly gains suspense while retaining its literary bent. I loved the fact that each chapter has a word before it and the author works the word into the story over the course of the chapter. Mattie herself loves reading and adores writing, and she’s supported in that by her school teacher, who firmly believes that she can make something more of herself than becoming a simple farm wife. Mattie is torn between her ambitions and the attention paid to her by a handsome local, which adds another dimension to the story as she struggles with immediate infatuation and long-term dreams and desires.
I also just loved the setting. In rural New England, life is not easy, and Mattie’s father and uncle experience all the risks of a country life. Mattie herself endures the hardships of it, with backbreaking work constantly and reluctant days missed off school – which she adores – to help out around the farm. But there’s also a beauty to it which shone through in Donnelly’s writing, really rounding out the book. I got such a feel for the time period that I immediately wondered why more books aren’t set in early twentieth century New England; it’s in such stark contrast to the rest of the nation.
Finally, there was the suspense of the murder, and the slow reveal of precisely what happened and why. We begin to understand why Mattie holds the secret, what she fears, and this laces the entire book together as it heads toward its conclusion, both towards her decision for her future and the final discovery of why a girl drowned in the lake. It was surprisingly gripping at times and I got through it very quickly. Mattie’s character, despite her fervent desire for independence, was completely believable and I appreciated both her literary mind and her romantic impulses. She felt like a real teenager and I was anxious for her to make what I considered the right choice.
A Northern Light is a beautiful and enthralling book, with a main character to root for, a fantastic setting, and a curious and heartbreaking mystery. This is the kind of book teens should be reading, and I would have loved it even more had I been one.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 This review contains spoilers for the entire Chaos Walking series. Don’t read this, read them!
War makes monsters of men, and Todd and Viola are discovering just how true that saying is. Separated once again, Todd has remained with the mayor to keep him calm while Viola has gone with the Answer and her new shipmates to broker a compromise. Into the mix we’re thrown a third character with his own perspective on events, set to radically change both the way Todd and Viola think about their new world and their strategy for the forthcoming war.
Everything about this book is basically awesome. Patrick Ness has taken on enormous issues in this series and executed them perfectly, without a hitch, sending out clear anti-war themes but at the same time showing just how humans are so susceptible to dictatorships and strong personalities.
First of all, what struck me as so eerily true to life is the way that Mayor Prentiss can simply take charge, how he can twist reality to suit himself without ever suffering any flack for it. It reminded me most of the way that the media can twist things as they wish, but most people don’t bother to research (or watch more than one TV channel) so they’ll never know the truth of the way the world works. Even Todd and Viola know vastly more than they’re told, but they still find it easier to settle into the same grooves they’ve known their whole lives. Todd himself finds it easiest to dehumanize the Spackle because they aren’t exactly the same as him even though they are thinking, speaking beings like he is, just because he’s committed atrocities against them and needs a reason to do so. The introduction of the third character throws a wrench into those plans, both for readers and for Todd.
Throughout the book my heart ached most for Todd and I simultaneously feared for him. He gets far too close to the Mayor and is convinced he’s acting for good, but I knew he couldn’t be, that the mayor was a force for dissent and fear. But as we learn by the end, even that’s not entirely true. The worst character in the series is himself multi-faceted with surprising reasons for how he works, which don’t excuse him but help us understand him. Each and every character with page time in this book is a complex human being with believable motives and actions. It’s a genuine work of art.
The entire book is sobering in its depiction of war, especially as Todd is growing up in the midst of it. It’s evident from both his actions and even from the text itself as the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors slow down drastically in this third installment. He’s becoming a man, but how I feared he wasn’t going to live to get all the way there. The constant battles and struggles speedily mature him, so much so that it was easy to forget his true age. Not all that much time has passed since he first discovered Viola, that pocket of silence amidst the Noise. And I keep talking about Todd, but it was Viola who became my favorite character, for her strength and reason and love.
I wish I was talented enough to articulate clearly the many ways Monsters of Men – and the rest of the series – made me think and feel. I borrowed this book from the library but I know it’s one that I’ll need to own and reread in its entirety. It’s incredibly powerful in so many ways and I truly think is literature at its finest; it’s a series with a lot to say about the world, not only Todd’s but our own, and with a fantastic story to go along with it. What more could any reader ask for?
I am an Amazon Associate. I borrowed this book from my local library.
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