The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Deck the Halls Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark, 2000 Crossposted for Mainlining Christmas I found this book on a list of books tagged “Christmas” on goodreads. Apparently the Clarks, mother and daughter, have written a list of novels together all set at Christmas. Premise: Two successful novelists decide to cram all their popular characters together in the space of 200 pages. For Christmas. This book was an absolute mess. As I said above, it appears to be that both women took the protagonists of their successful suspense series and put them in a book together. This book is so short that you don’t get a sense of any of the characters, just told “this is person X and they are a Y” and the fact that you should care about them is assumed. The villains are petty and boring, the heroines sort of useless and bland. There are really useless, dull red herrings, and none of the sundry investigators do anything productive that actually leads to the resolution. On a certa...

I’m going through my collection of holiday-themed back issues, looking at two issues every week until Christmas! Crossposted for Mainlining Christmas The Tick’s Big Yule Log Special 1999 Concept: Ben Edlund, Writer: Marc Silvia, Penciller: Gabe Crate, Inker: Tak Toyoshima In this holiday story, The Tick and Arthur head to New York for a Christmas party at the Superheroes-only Comet Club. Meanwhile, Barry (the wannabe Tick) hires a villain to crash the party so he can ‘save’ everyone and show up the Tick. This is a funny story, although I could have used maybe a couple more pages; it felt quite short. It was a great read though, with a downright heartwarming-ish speech from Tick, and ninjas hiding in the party decorations. The Tick’s Big Yule Log Special 2000 Concept: Ben Edlund, Story: Clay and Susan Griffith, Pencils: Gabe Crate, Inks: Tak Toyoshima The story in this one is called It Came From Outer Space to Ruin Yet Another Christmas. Tick brings Tunn-La (not of this Earth) home fo...

The Battle for Christmas Stephen Nissenbaum, 1996 Crossposted for Mainlining Christmas Premise: Non-Fiction book tracing the origins of American Christmas traditions, with emphasis on the shift from a more public-focused carnival Christmas to a more child-focused domestic holiday. I found this book really interesting, if a bit long. Nissenbaum is a little too enamored of his own narrative, and sometimes doesn’t completely back up his proposals with evidence That said, all of the stuff that is corroborated is really interesting. I most enjoyed the accounts of how Puritans fought the celebration of Christmas and then later, in the early 1800’s, how gift-buying became fully central to the expectations of the season. It was fascinating reading about the creation of “Gift Books”, which became popular very quickly in the mid 1820’s. They may be one of the first products produced specifically to be purchased as a gift, and one of the first items sold to specific demographics created by ma...

The Christmas Basket Debbie Macomber, 2002 Crossposted for Mainlining Christmas Premise: Girl met boy, lost boy, left hometown in a terrible snit, returns years later successful but lonely career woman to face boy, their feuding moms, and Christmas. Wow. Romance is silly. I mean, anyone who says otherwise is just deluding themselves. It's not necessarily bad, but it is darn silly. Particularly this light bit of fluff from noted romance author Debbie Macomber. Apparently Ms. Macomber writes a Christmas book every single year, so a friend suggested she'd be a good choice to spotlight for Mainlining. Why did I read this one? It was available at my local library and it won an award. Simple as that. I flew through this book in a single evening, and most of the details have left my brain already, but for romantic fluff, it wasn't bad. Sure, every single character was a sitcom-level moron and they all deserved the stupid pits they’d dug themselves into, but it was ...

Hear ye, Hear ye! The holiday season is upon us once more, which means that all the lovely books and comics and galleys languishing in my queue to be posted are going to have to wait for a while. Because it’s time for Mainlining Christmas once again! (If you're just joining us now, Mainlining Christmas is the yearly event wherein my husband and I consume potentially lethal amounts of Christmas themed movies, specials and music, and blog about it.) While I’ll be spending the majority of my blogging energy there, never fear! Holiday books and comics will be cross-posted here on the regular schedule. I’ve got a weird bunch of books lined up this year, but if you’re eager, here are some links to holiday-themed reviews of Christmases past: The Atheist's Guide to Christmas A Christmas Carol A Clockwork Christmas Hogfather Holiday Comics Special!

  52 Volumes 1-4 Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucks, Mark Waid, Keith Giffen, et. al., 2007 Collects 52: Issues 1-52 Premise: After the Infinite Crisis, the world is saved, but not without cost. A year passes in the DCU, a year that sees new and old heroes rise to the challenges of a more complex world. 52 was a bit of a grand experiment for DC. It was a weekly book that came out consistently for an entire year, written by a team of their top writers. At the same time that this was coming out, most other books were labeled “One Year Later”, and took place a year after the Infinite Crisis crossover event. 52 aspired to tell the story of the “missing year”, a year in which the big three (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman) went a bit walkabout to find themselves, and meanwhile other heroes rose to prominence. 52 is a complicated book. Main plotlines include Steel struggling with Luthor’s project to turn teenagers into controllable superheroes, the JSA dealing with same,...

The Element of Fire Martha Wells, 1993, gently revised 2006 Premise: Set in the same world as The Wizard Hunters   and its sequels, but takes place centuries prior. In the kingdom of Ile-Rien, the Captain of the Queen’s Guard goes to rescue an academic sorcerer from a dangerous foreign wizard. It seems simple enough, but with power-hungry sycophants circling the young king, who himself seems disinclined to care about the kingdom, everything is part of someone’s plot and everyone will be drawn into the battle for the future of the country. I really enjoyed this book. Wells seems to have a knack for characters who I find likable because of their abrasive ways. In this book, it’s Kade Carrion, half-fay bastard sister to the king. She’s all sorts of awesome. She could be powerful, but chooses to mostly skate by on her luck and trickery. She’s snarky and sad and simply delightful. The Dowager Queen Ravenna is pretty spectacular as well. Just because her weak-willed son has re...

Master and Commander (Aubrey-Maturin, Book One) Patrick O’Brian, 1969 Premise: In 1800, two men meet at a concert by being terribly rude to each other. Jack Aubrey is a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, currently without a post. Stephen Maturin is a physician, currently without a patient. Their friendship will change both their lives, as well as the lives of everyone around them. This is a re-read for me, because I recently bought the whole series for my Kindle. Huzzah! Now I can dip into the adventures of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin any time I want! I had forgotten how utterly delightful I find these books. I love the style, the way it’s grounded in the time the story is set while still being accessible. I love the characters. I love Jack’s bluster and good humor, and Stephen’s wit and wisdom. I love them together, Jack stumbling upon the doctor’s curious blind spots or Stephen wincing at Jack’s overbearing humor. There’s a good deal of humor in the writing, much of it su...

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance (Vorkosigan Saga) Lois McMaster Bujold, 2012 BRAND NEW BOOK! WOO! Premise: Ivan Vorpatril’s settled into his life. He likes his job, he’s found a certain peace with most of his relations, his old girlfriends are all married, and he’s okay with that too. That is, until assignment on Komarr brings him into contact with one sly ImpSec informer, one angry blue-skinned dancer, and one lovely woman in danger. It’s Ivan to the rescue, although he has no idea how far his gallant impulses will bring them all! Yay! A new Vorkosigan Saga book! (This is either book 16, 15, or 14, depending on how you count them.) I loved this; it was completely adorable. Getting to spend an entire book with Ivan is downright restful in some ways, and you can really get into his subtle strengths as a character. Tej is delightful as well, although in the middle of the book I sometimes had moments where it was harder to relate to her. That’s just the kind of person she is, thou...

Peter Panzerfaust Volume 1: The Great Escape Story by Kurtis J Wiebe, Art by Tyler Jenkins, 2012 New Release! I received an electronic copy of this book from Netgalley for the purposes of review. Premise: It’s a reimagining of Peter Pan set in France during WWII. Many years later, a man who had been an orphan stranded in Calais during the German invasion tells the story of how he and a group of other stranded boys were rescued by a strange American named Peter. I expected to enjoy this book, but I had no idea how fascinating it was going to be. The blend of history and literary allusions is gripping, the art is dynamic and amazing. It’s grounded and bloody and definitely set in France, but still completely recognizable as Peter Pan. There are moments when the art slips; it gets a little too stylized and some unnatural anatomy throws me out of the moment. But the moments when the writing and the art come together and just sing are breathtaking. There’s some mystery yet to ...

Maggie For Hire Kate Danley, 2011 Copy received from BookRooster for review. Premise: Maggie is a tracker, but now someone’s tracking her. Her life of tracking undead and other nonhuman bail jumpers is upset when she’s caught between a group of strangely powerful vampires, an elf who wants her services on behalf of the elven queen, and a mysterious figure who wants Maggie’s power to walk between worlds. This was a fun read that started really strong, but there’s not much supporting the fun. The style of the writing is the most striking thing about this novel. Maggie’s voice is conversational and funny, with a decent turn on humorous phrases. The supporting cast is interesting and sometimes silly. The plot is pretty thin, though. It doesn’t end up amounting to much, and while the climax works, it wasn’t as strong as it could have been. The friendship between Maggie and Killian works right up until it feels forced, and while the style starts adorable, it eventually got a sm...