Bloodhound

Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce


My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book 2 in the Beka Cooper series picks up a few months after book 1 leaves off. This time, Beka is no longer a trainee "puppy" but a real "Dog" (i.e. police officer) in the middle of unraveling where all the counterfeit money is coming from and halting the spread of it. It's a pretty good read, as with all of Pierce's books.

If you're recommending it to teenagers, be aware that there is some sexual content (more than the first book). Nothing graphic, but definitely some hormones happening, and Beka does actually have sex a couple of times. (Frankly, I wasn't all that impressed with the guy she chose, but for a teenager, she handled it maturely.)

According to the Find a Book website, Bloodhound is categorized as "High/Low," meaning that it's high interest but low reading level (for vocabulary). I don't think I agree with that because so much of the story is told in what Pierce--via Beka--calls "street cant." Think: fictionalized fantasy version of Cockney. It's fun to read, and Pierce does include a glossary at the end of the book, but someone who struggles with reading in general may have trouble with the made-up words and phonetic spelling.

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The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick


My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First, let me clarify that actually I'd give this book 3 1/2 stars, and second, it's not strictly a graphic novel. It's a big, thick kid's book that reads really fast because probably 2/3 of the pages are pencil illustrations, and some of the pages of text have only a few lines on them. The result is a very fast-paced story about an orphaned boy living in secret in a train station in 1930s Paris, France. The illustrations move the story along and remind me of a filmmaker's storyboard...which makes sense, given how the story turns out. (I won't ruin the mystery for anyone who hasn't yet read it, though.)


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Eclipse

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars, actually--if the characters had figured out what was going on as soon as I did, I might have given the book 4 stars. (That would have dramatically shortened the novel, though.) It was still a compelling, fast read, despite my impatience.

One thing that puzzled me, however, was why in the world nobody saw the parallels between Sam & Emily's "imprinting" and Bella & Edward's connection. Unless I'm missing something, it seems to me to be the exact same type of thing. ...Which means that Jacob should fully recognize and accept the implications. The fact that he didn't makes me wonder if Stephenie Meyer realized that it would necessitate a major re-write of the end of the book, and she was unable or unwilling to do that? Maybe she knew teen fans love angst and didn't want to deprive them of so much of it?


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Kosher Sex

Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy by Shmuley Boteach

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

This would make a great book club book because there is so much room for discussion and disagreement. I swung back and forth between totally agreeing with what Boteach said and completely disagreeing, experiencing nearly every point in the "agreement spectrum" along the way. I found myself really wishing I could discuss what I was reading with someone else who had just read the same thing. (I would LOVE to get my boyfriend's take on the book.) There is just so much to talk about!

For example, when I read the chapter on using sex to mend bridges, I REALLY wanted to argue with Boteach: how can he possibly think that sex can be used to end a fight?! Make-up sex, absolutely, but not until the real issues are uncovered and the fight is over because I have yet to meet a woman who wants to be touched like that while she's still angry. It just fuels the Rage Monster. Boteach advocates using sex to halt all but the biggest, most serious arguments, but I think that if the underlying issues aren't addressed promptly, they will fester and cause more arguments. (I did agree with his point about a higher frequency of sex overall being likely to prevent many arguments from beginning in the first place, though.)

On the other hand, I also wanted to be able to discuss the places where I completely agreed with Boteach, such as the chapter on adultery and the pain it causes: When a man cheats on his wife, "she experiences a pain equivalent to death. Her former marriage goodwill oozes out slowly, and she finds every reason in the world to quarrel. Her friends see her and will hate you for snuffing out the fire in her soul" (p.223). He really nailed that description.

These are just two of many many examples, so I really do recommend this book for reading in book groups.

Something else I'd love to see? Rabbi Boteach and Alison Armstrong (of PAX programs) discussing these issues!


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Goodbye, Evil Eye: Stories

Goodbye, Evil Eye: Stories by Gloria Devidas Kirchheimer

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars

I picked this book up because of the title. I'd just returned from Egypt, where the Evil Eye is still a strong concept. Turns out that this book isn't really about evil eye stories so much as it is a book of...short vignettes? I am not sure how to classify it, really. The book is thin, and the stories seem to have nothing to do with each other except that they all feature Sephardic Jews in America. (The Sephardim are Jewish people "whose multilingual roots lie in Spain, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, [and:] the Middle East," according to the book's cover.)

Frankly, reading this book was difficult. I never finished. I got all the way to page 108 (out of 150), but in all that time, I never really liked any of the characters in the stories. The tone often felt slightly disrespectful rather than amusing, as though the author was trying to be funny but harbored resentment toward the older generation(s), and that translated into a condescension which trickled through in the narrative. And I never figured out whether the stories were supposed to have any basis in fact--although the book is catalogued as a 974.71, which is in the Dewey range for history.


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Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment by Steve Harvey

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

I put this book on hold at the library because I saw Steve Harvey on Oprah a couple of times, and I thought he had some useful advice for women. Steve's voice jumps off the pages of the book, making it an entertaining read. It's maybe a bit more targeted for single moms--especially African-American ones--or fast-track career women than it is for me personally right now, though. I'd rate this book 4 stars for anyone who has NOT already attended or listened to a PAX workshop, and 3 stars for anyone who HAS, simply because it won't really be new information. I didn't always totally agree with Steve, but most of the time, he was right on the money.


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Running Hot

Running Hot by Jayne Ann Krentz

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another entertaining volume in the Arcane Society series. This one is set in modern day, so Krentz thankfully avoids the use of the word "psychical," which I greatly appreciate. Our hero & heroine are both off-the-charts in terms of psychic talent, of course, but they always are. The thing I appreciated most was that this book moved the story a little further along in terms of revealing details of the Nightshade Organization. On the other hand, if you hadn't already read the previous four volumes, you might be a bit confused by ongoing plot lines.


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