Much Ado about Masonry

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was curious to read this book, since my father was involved in the Masons, the Shriners and the Scottish Rite. It was a little bittersweet actually, because this is the type of book my father would have enjoyed reading, but I couldn’t share it with him since he passed away 3 years ago.

The book itself was a good read. It lived up to Dan Brown’s penchant for providing a lot of well researched information, often in an almost lecturing tone by different characters. There is a lot of action, a little mystery (some of which is pretty easy to guess before the end of the book), and it left me wanting to visit all the sites in the book to see things for myself.

I listened to the audio version of this book, which is well read by Paul Michael. He sets a good reading pace, and provides enough different voices that the characters are easy to distinguish.

I’d recommend this as a good read (or listen) when you’re in the mood for something fast paced and engaging.

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Maybe Young Readers will enjoy it more

Legacy by Cayla Kluver

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I had high hopes for this book when I started reading it. The author is still in her teens and I’d heard good things about the book. It started out okay, but didn’t seem to maintain it’s momentum. The protagonist, a princess who will soon have to marry so her new husband can be crowned the king of her realm, was not a very deep character. I’m sure the author was trying to make a statement about women being as capable to rule as men are, and tries to show the princess trying to change the system. But in the end she fails to thwart the rules, and seems to give in to the powers that be. Maybe subsequent books will change the story, but I didn’t find myself wishing I had the next book in the series so I could find out.

This seems like an okay first effort, hopefully the author will develop her skills and write a truly amazing story. She’s young and has time to learn her craft.

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Novels of Bleak Futures

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I read this book years ago, maybe when it first came out in paperback, and kind of remembered that I didn’t like it that well. Since it’s coming up in conversations so much, I decided to give it another try. I’m three-fourths the way through it, and still feel the same way I did before. It seems very bleak and depressing. And I’ve also decided I have a hard time reading those kinds of books. I read to escape bleak and depressing, not to find new things to be despondent over. That’s probably why I like science fiction and fantasy so much, or at least the ones that have a positive take on the future.

I don’t remember exactly how this book ends. If I change my opinion – it’ll be posted here.

Now that I’ve finished this book, my opinion hasn’t changed. I found the ending unsatisfactory, I like my stories more neatly wrapped up than this was. The author does have a nice turn of phrase, which I found enjoyable. But in the future, my future looking stories will be more optimistic, I think.

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Bones Of The Dragon By Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Bones of the Dragon by Margaret Weis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars I liked the premise of this book. It read like a Scandanavian mythology. The story is about a group of people who worship several gods, but have been told their gods were killed and new gods expect to be worshipped. The priestess knows this is partially true, but is afraid to confirm anything because it will demoralize her people as they battle their enemies. The Dragon in question is embodied in a sailing ship and the priestess is able to call it forth to help in battles. The main male character, Skylan,is young, brash, and thoughtless. He brought misfortune on himself and his people, but redeemed himself by struggling to overcome the obstacles they all faced and succeeded more often than not. I didn’t rate it any higher though because I found the reader of this book, Stefan Rudnicki, not to my liking. The story was kind of dark and bleak anyway and his narrative seemed to make it more so. This is one book I wish I’d read in regular book format, since the story itself was so intriguing. View all my reviews >>

The Amulet of Samarkand

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a YA book that was recommended to me by a Children’s Programs librarian. I fell in love with it right from the start. I actually listened to the audio book, wonderfully read by Simon Vance. He completely captured the voice of each character.

The story is about a young boy being trained as a wizard in a London very much like today’s – only wizardry and magic work there. But this isn’t anything like the other English boy wizard. Nathaniel is impatient to learn and studies ahead in books his mentor doesn’t think he’s ready for yet. Nathaniel decides to conjure a djinn (genie), which is difficult and dangerous. The djinn he summons, named Bartimaeus, is one of the best characters an author has ever written. He is mean, bullying, sarcastic, snide, and egotistical. He and Nathaniel get off to a rocky start and then the story really gets started.

Nathaniel asks the djinn to accomplish a task that even this self-aggrandizing genie is leery of accomplishing. The escapades from here are exciting, frightening, funny, horrifically sad, and eventually mostly victorious.

Jonathan Stroud wrote a wonderful book, complete with snarky footnotes by Bartimeus. Kids will love it, but adults can relish it as well. There are two more books in the Bartimaeus Trilogy; The Golem’s Eye and Ptolemy’s Gate. Both should be read to complete the tale of Nathaniel and Bartimaeus.

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