Book Reviews

[Rusty]

The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull. Nate is the new kid in town, but he soon makes friends with a few other neighborhood kids. The group becomes involved in a hunt for an ancient treasure when they check out a new candy shop in town that has magical candy which gives a variety of different powers depending on the type. The story was very entertaining and was resolved in a satisfactory manner. It would be really cool if some of the magic candy were real, though, since the effects were pretty interesting.

[Rusty]

Breaking 90 by Ernie Harwell. This is a collection of articles Ernie wrote for the newspaper, most of them from the last 4 years. For those who don't know who Ernie Harwell is, he is the legendary broadcaster for the Detroit Tigers who retired in 2002 at the age of 84. He is a member of the Hall of Fame and has tons of good stories that he shares with people on the air and off. His stories run the gamut of the baseball world and are not limited to just the Detroit Tigers. Only one chapter in the book centers around the Tigers. I read most of these articles when they were first published, but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless.


and Dave, yes, I'm sure you know who Ernie is

[Psychotic_Carp]

I know who he is but I'm surprised only one chapter is for the tigers!

[Rusty]

I know who he is but I'm surprised only one chapter is for the tigers!

He's had other books that concentrated more on the Tigers in the past, I think. Ernie's stories, though, cover the entire history of the game. He had been involved with baseball for a long time before coming to Detroit.

[Rusty]

Click by various authors. This novel is about a world famous photographer named George "Gee" Keane, who dies and leaves behind a box of seashells for his granddaughter and a collection of autographed photos of people like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan for his grandson. The book explores who Gee was by the people he touched while creating his photographs. Each chapter is written by a different author, including Eoin Colfer, Nick Hornby and eight other authors. It is an interesting book and a fairly quick read, though I didn't care too much for the last two chapter. I did like the rest of the book quite a bit, though.

[Rusty]

Dragon Harper by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey. Kindan is an apprentice Harper and he finds himself needed when a plague starts to sweep the holds and halls of Pern. I've been enjoying these collaborations between mother and son in the Pern universe. This particular story takes place almost 500 years after Landing, though a couple of thousand years before the time of the original Pern storyline.

[Rusty]

Taken by Edward Bloor. In the year 2036, kidnapping the children of rich people for ransom has become a lucrative business. Wealthy Americans have taken to living in enclosed cities with high security. When Charity Meyers wakes up strapped to a stretcher in an ambulance, she knows the drill. In the less than 24 hours, she'll be back safe with her family, provided that her father pays the ransom and follows the kidnappers instructions. If not, Charity may never see her family again. I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Bloor hasn't written a ton of books, but this on and London Calling are both very well done.

[Psychotic_Carp]

Well thats nice, did she make it back?

[Rusty]

Well thats nice, did she make it back?

nope.

[Psychotic_Carp]

Did she get whacked, sold or just find a better place?

[Rusty]

Did she get whacked, sold or just find a better place?

Read the book.

It turns out her dad was the actual kidnapper and did it so that both of them could escape their life in the Highlands where they were rich, but were virtually prisoners due to all the security and media attention. They changed their appearance and started a new life together away from all of that. He used the ransom money to start this new life and left the rest to the stepmother who he was in the process of divorcing.

[Psychotic_Carp]

Did she get whacked, sold or just find a better place?

Read the book.

not going to happen!

Spoiler:

It turns out her dad was the actual kidnapper and did it so that both of them could escape their life in the Highlands where they were rich, but were virtually prisoners due to all the security and media attention. They changed their appearance and started a new life together away from all of that. He used the ransom money to start this new life and left the rest to the stepmother who he was in the process of divorcing.

THERE IS A SPOILER TAG NOW!

[Rusty]

THERE IS A SPOILER TAG NOW!

I forgot about that. I'm so used to the other way, but I'll try to remember it from now on.

[Rusty]

Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams. Will doesn't have much in common with his family other than a love for digging and exploring tunnels that he shares with his father. When his father disappears, Will discovers a large series of underground tunnels underneath his home town and goes in search of his dad. This book is the start of an interesting series and is off to a pretty good start with the first volume. I think the setup is pretty good as I've always been interested in archaeology and exploring.

[Rusty]

Airman by Eoin Colfer. Conor Broekhart seemed destined to fly and was even born during a balloon ride. He grew up in the kingdom of Saltee, which consisted of two islands off the Irish coast. This book features a nice adventure, complete with swordplay, guns, flying machines and more. I enjoyed it even more than Colfer's Artemis Fowl series.