Fly Away Home by Maggie Myklebust

(Cover picture courtesy of Maggie Myklebust’s blog.)

Clean freak’ [sic] Maggie tries so hard to keep her life in order but is foiled at every turn. The descendent of second generation Norwegian immigrants to America, she grows up in New Jersey, spending her summer vacations on an idyllic island in Norway.Later, in the wake of an abusive marriage, she and her three young children leave America and return to the Nordic Island of her ancestors, where she rekindles a relationship with her childhood sweetheart. Pulled between two worlds, her life continues as she seeks meaning, identity and happiness.

With her true love by her side and three more children to care for, Maggie discovers her traveling days are far from over. Life’s unexpected twists see her return to America before being catapulted to the Netherlands. At last she can begin to make sense of her experiences until, that is, she is on the move again.  In the process she learns that life comes full circle, from the hopes and dreams of her forebears to the place where she can finally find peace and come to terms with her past.

Follow this Jersey girl as she flies back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean looking for love and a place to call home.

Blurb courtesy of Maggie Myklebust’s blog.

I have to admit that I had an excruciatingly hard time getting into Fly Away Home.  I’ve read memoirs before, and they often do start off with an explanation about the writer’s family, but the introduction was overly detailed for my liking, especially since most of the people mentioned it in do not really appear in the narrative.  Yes, it gives us important background information, but there are better ways to give information than such an enormous info dump in the beginning before we even care about the writer’s life story.  However, once I finally got past the introduction, I began enjoying the memoir itself.

Maggie Myklebust’s life was certainly not an easy one or a boring one.  Her memoir chronicles her imperfect and unhappy first marriage, the struggles after the divorce and during her subsequent marriage to Harry Myklebust, which eventually turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to her.  Readers will feel the sorrow and stress she went through and will cheer for her at her triumphs.  The way she wraps up the story brings her memoir full circle and gives readers the sense that it was definitely a happy ending after so much pain.

What I don’t like is that there are grammar errors, especially in comma usage where there should be semicolons.  I caught an apostrophe that was pointing the wrong way and on page 34, I even caught this error: “…with the fowl smelling cream…”  You would think that even with a small publishing house, the editors would be more careful than that, seeing as how catching mistakes is how they make their living.  Despite these small errors and the info dump at the beginning, Fly Away Home is a pretty enjoyable memoir.  However, when Ms. Myklebust contacted me to review her book she said that teens would enjoy it because ‘The most predominant part of my book is my teenage years…’ This is not true.  I feel that it really is more suited to adults because most teens would end up supremely bored after the first few pages.

I give this book 3/5 stars.

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Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Image Courtesy Of Goodreads

Synopsis: Beyond the Village of Wall lies the enchanting and mystical land of Faerie, where all beings live and breathe magic. Tristran Thorn, a young boy from the village is hopelessly in love with the beautiful Victoria Forester and would do anything for her; including crossing the wall to fetch the fallen star she so desires. As Tristran ventures into the land of Faerie, he will encounter strange and beautiful creatures. Will he find the fallen star and bring it back to the village? Will he be able to make it out of Faerie in one piece? 

Cover Gushing Worthiness: The cover of Stardust is beautiful with a doubt. The colours used in the cover of the edition I read (pictured in this review), along with the ivy like designs gives it a magical and whimsical feel.

May Contain Minor Spoilers 

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Eon by Alison Goodman

Hooray!  Today is finally Wednesday!  And you know what that means: guest posting over at We Heart Reading.  What am I posting today, you may ask?  Well, a friend of mine highly recommended Eon by Alison Goodman to me, so I read it and reviewed it in my usual fashion.  He doesn’t normally read that much, so I was both skeptical and interested.  Want to know what I thought about it?  Go over and check it out!

Also, Savindi over at The Streetlight Reader will be guest posting over here tomorrow.  She’s reviewing another Neil Gaiman book, which probably means I’m going to end up buying it when I go to my local bookstore on Saturday.

Blackout by Mira Grant

(Cover picture courtesy of A Dribble of Ink.)

The conspiracy that rules post-zombie America is alive and well.  The same can’t be said of the bloggers who dared to tell the truth as they found it.

Now, with too much left to do and not much time left to do it in, Shaun Mason and his team must face mad scientists, zombie bears, and rogue government agencies—and if there’s one thing they know is true in post-zombie America, it’s this:

Things can always get worse.

Being the snarky, rather opinionated person I am, I am rarely lost for words.  But after reading Blackout,the last book in the Newsflesh trilogy, there’s only one thing to say.

Wow.

After that enormous cliffhanger at the end of Deadline, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Blackout and when I did, I wasn’t disappointed.  Funny, dark, suspenseful and full of plot twists, Blackout was no disappointment.  And it even had a satisfying, if not entirely happy, ending.  What else could I really ask for?

In Deadline, Mira Grant explains the Kellis-Amberlee virus itself so we can understand things like reservoir conditions and spontaneous remissions.  But in this last book, we find out pretty much everything about the virus, including why mosquitoes have suddenly become a vector.  As you have probably guessed, this new vector is manmade and Dr. Abbey has her hands full figuring out the structure of this new threat before time runs out.

One of the recurring themes throughout the trilogy is the importance of the truth, but this features even more prominently in Blackout.  Shaun, Becks, Alaric, Mahir and a character I won’t mention because it’s a spoiler have some very tough choices about whether the truth is really the best thing.  I had serious doubts about their resolve, especially near the end, but the team stays true to themselves.  Sadly, one of my favourite characters dies, but at least they go out in a blaze of glory protecting those they love.

And now, to lighten things up, here’s one of my favourite parts of the whole novel (Warning: language not suitable for younger readers):

“I, Shaun Phillip Mason, being of sound mind and body, do hereby swear to poke dead things with sticks, do stupid shit for your amusement and put it all on the internet where you can watch it over and over again.”  (Pg 4)

That pretty much sums up Mira Grant’s sense of humour, doesn’t it?

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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Deadline by Mira Grant

(Cover picture courtesy of Orbit Books.)

Shaun Mason is a man without a mission.  Not even running the news organization he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to.  Playing with dead things just doesn’t seem as fun when you’ve lost as much as he has.

But when a CDC researcher fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun has a newfound interest in life.  Because she brings news—he may have put down the monster who attacked them, but the conspiracy is far from dead.

Now, Shaun hits the road to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun.

After Feed cured me of my irrational zombie fear, I decided to read the second book in the Newsflesh trilogy: Deadline.  I’m really glad I did because it builds on things hinted at in the first book very well.  If you don’t want to read any spoilers, I suggest you stop reading right now.

It’s been a year since Georgia died, but since Shaun talks to her in his head constantly, it feels like she’s a major character.  Shaun talks to her aloud and accepts that he is mentally ill because he doesn’t want to let go of his adoptive sister.  His point of view is very different from George’s because he’s more reckless and unsure of himself and what he’s doing.  I guess that’s a natural response to shooting your sister in the spinal column after she’s been injected with live Kellis-Amberlee.  Deadline follows Shaun’s quest for the truth and throughout the journey he has a lot of character development as each new, horrible revelation comes to light.

The focus of Deadline isn’t politics like it was in Feed.  Instead, it focuses a lot more on the Kellis-Amberlee virus itself.  The level of detail Mira Grant has put into her world-building is fantastic and, unlike a lot of zombie novels, she explains what causes people to turn into zombies.  Truly, this is science fiction at its finest because it has a fast-paced plot while paying attention to character development and world-building.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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