Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

I love books about magic, but I've never figured out why.  I'm sure there's some deep dark psychological meaning that I'm deeply flawed.  Oh well, too late now.

 In some ways this story line has been used many times: Young girl finds she has a special talent, family and friends are uncomfortable with this talent, girl is brought to a "school" for special training, teachers and training are too confining, schoolmates are jealous of her talent, girl breaks out on her own.

And yet, and yet, it was a very good read and I had no idea where it was going. The story is told from two different narratives, now (events being related by another) and then (the girl telling her story to the other). The Now narrative is much darker and the reader knows from the first that something has gone terribly wrong in her life. There are castles and dragons and monsters, kings and princes and knights, there is magic, both good and bad. There is flirtation and love, life and death and something in between. Don't be surprised if it's optioned for a movie.

Not Quite States of American by Doug Mack

Author quote from the chapter of Guam: "You cannot write an honest narrative of the United States of America without including the territories as key components. And you cannot write an honest narrative of the territories without feeling acutely uncomfortable about the United States and its continuing struggles to live up to it's own ideals."

This is a fascinating travel work about the U.S. territories. It's entertaining and educational, and raises a lot of questions about America's goals around the world. American territories are a small but important part of our history as a country, but can you name all of them? If someone even mentioned their name would you even recognize it as a U.S. possession, and ruled under the U.S. constitution? I know I couldn't, There is rarely news about them, but you as a U.S. citizen can travel there without a passport or re-locate there as if you were moving to another state, if......and that's a big IF. If you are at all interested in world affairs this should be on your reading list.

Etitle provided by Netgalley in return for a review.

Chasing Embers

I love the website NetGalley where I can find books about to be published and read them (and review, of course)  but I get too greedy and then I have to suspend all other household activities (poor me) and read, read, read.  This one was fun and not quite what I expected.

As a first time novel, it's pretty good, tho the author gets carried away in some of his plentiful use of adverbs and adjectives, but I hold out hope he'll tone it down in his following novels. It's a fun read about dragons and magic, and fairly well reasoned out to its use in this alternate earth. I found it interesting that the author talks about conservation of resources and the earth's changing climate, and the devastation of war as seen from a dragon who has the long view. I was impressed with this addition. There's lots of action, and a bit of romance. Lots of introspection on the part of the dragon, and growth in the character, which was somewhat unexpected on my part.

Reader's Advisory: Urban Fantasy. First in the series. This is a great What to Read Next for followers of the Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey, the Dresden Chronicles by Jim Butcher, or Simon Green's Nightside series.

Where I am Now by Mara Wilson

I love autobiographies.  There's something sort of naughty about them peeking into someone else's life, and not minding my own business.  I suppose it's a manner of wondering if I'm doing my life right, because for sure it's doesn't seem to be going as I would prefer.  However, I really enjoyed Mara Wilson's new autobiography Where I am Now.  It's a parody of those click bait sites we see at the bottom of articles, that tell you the celebrities you've grown up with are now completely disgraced, old, fat or whatever.  Like we're not all human.  Anyway, my review:

Autobiographies; where we peek into someone else's life with no shame. Wilson's story was a thoroughly enjoyable read, even though I empathized as Ms. Wilson discusses her personal anxieties and obsessions, and later discovering that they are treatable. But I particularly like how she discovers that her true love is telling stories and doing stand-up story telling. She speaks to how being a very young actor sets up expectations in later life, within herself and with others who saw her movies. And she talks about, even though she was considered |cute" by casting directors in her youth, she is not considered "pretty enough" as she grows into her teens, giving no credit to her acting talent. I mean, really, how many of us were pretty in our teens? She speaks of some of the people she worked with, especially her love of Robin Williams. She takes these stories as her stand up material giving them a wry, comedic twist, making the folly of our human experiences comparable.