The Cuckoo’s Calling by “Robert Galbraith”

Title: The Cuckoo’s Calling 
Author: “Robert Galbraith” (J K Rowling)
Paperback: 464 pages
Pub Date: April 2013
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Rating: +++++

Summary:

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, thelegendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

You may think you know detectives, but you’ve never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you’ve never seen them under an investigation like this.

Review

I have been meaning to read this since we found out who Galbraith really was. I have owned it since it came out in paperback, but I was nervous. Harry Potter is so much to me, what if this was bad? I haven’t read Casual Vacancy either because of that. What is Potter was a fluke and would be the only Rowling books I ever loved?

Yeah I don’t need to worry about that because she is as brilliant of a mystery writer. When I say I want to represent turning mysteries with great characters, this is exactly what I mean.

I got lost in this book. i feel like I know Robin and Strike so well and can’t wait to read the second book. Strike is a great detective. He has his issues, but isn’t a stereotypical detective. His family history adds so many complexities. His injury from the war impacts him every day, it isn’t something that is a plot device, it is part of who he is, which is something I look for in particular. Robin is really great too – she sticks up for herself, is really smart, and is has problems that readers in their 20s and 30s can relate to. She struggles with figuring out what she wants to do with her life and feels pressure from many people around her and doesn’t have full support when she start to figure it out.

The mystery is really great too. I won’t give any spoilers, but it feels like a natural investigation. The suspicious people are not stupid and Strike really has to do some detective work and look between the lines of what people are saying.

Now i have to go get The Silkworm!

Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson, Illustrated by Adrian Alphona

Title: Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal
Author: G Willow Wilson
Illustrator: Adrian Alphona
Paperback: 120 pages
Pub Date: Oct 30, 2014
Publisher: Marvel
Rating: +++++

Summary:

Kamala Khan is an ordinary girl from Jersey City — until she’s suddenly empowered with extraordinary gifts. But who truly is the new Ms. Marvel? Teenager? Muslim? Inhuman? Find out as she takes the Marvel Universe by storm! When Kamala discovers the dangers of her newfound powers, she unlocks a secret behind them, as well. Is Kamala ready to wield these immense new gifts? Or will the weight of the legacy before her be too much to bear? Kamala has no idea, either. But she’s comin’ for you, New York!

Review:

My review may not convince you to  read this, but you need to see what Swapna had to say on S Krishna’s Books because she is the one who convinced me to rad this and her review is amazing.

I have wanted to read graphic novels for a long time but have had some mixed luck. I had been hearing about Ms Marvel since it came out. Several of my friends would talk about it every single week there was a new issue and I was super interested. A friend let me borrow their graphic novel and I am hooked.

This is amazing. The art is fantastic, there is so much in the background that adds to the story. And the story – this is a comic for our time. Kamala struggles with identity – she wants to be what she sees as a “normal American teenager” but wants to be a good Muslim.

And she also deals with her new identity as Ms. Marvel. It is a learning process and while she has the best intentions, things don’t always work out. I love that she learns from every mistake and does better the next time. She is smart and an amazing friend. I love that not only do we have a new female superhero, but we have a diverse female superhero, which is so awesome.

I would love to see Marvel use this amazing superhero more. I know I will be reading more and you should check it out if you haven’t..

The House of Hades by RIck Riordan

Title: The House of Hades
Author: Rick Riordan
Hardcover: 597 pages
Pub Date: Oct 2013
Publisher: Hyperion
Rating: ++++

Summary from goodreads:

Review:

These books are some of the most read books in my husband’s middle school and I can see why. They are action packed, they are funny, and they are just so great to read. So many people read because of these books.

This is right up there with the rest of the Heroes of Olympus books. i like this series even more than the Percy Jackson series, there hasn’t been a dud yet.

I still have the same favorite character, but I think everyone got a little more depth in this book, which make me even more excited to read the final book in the series. I am glad I waited to read this book until now, because it does not end in a nice little bow. I bet I will read the last book pretty soon.

If you have never read a Rick Riordan book, i think you should. They are do much fun and show great middle grade writing.

Texts from Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg

Title: Texts from Jane Eyre
Author: Mallory Ortberg
Hardcover: 226 pages
Pub Date: Nov 4, 2014
Publisher: Henry Holt
Rating: ++++

Summary from goodreads:

Hilariously imagined text conversations—the passive aggressive, the clever, and the strange—from classic and modern literary figures, from Scarlett O’Hara to Jessica Wakefield.

Mallory Ortberg, the co-creator of the cult-favorite website The Toast, presents this whimsical collection of hysterical text conversations from your favorite literary characters. Everyone knows that if Scarlett O’Hara had an unlimited text-and-data plan, she’d constantly try to tempt Ashley away from Melanie with suggestive messages. If Mr. Rochester could text Jane Eyre, his ardent missives would obviously be in all-caps. And Daisy Buchanan would not only text while driving, she’d text you to pick her up after she totaled her car. Based on the popular web-feature, Texts from Jane Eyre is a witty, irreverent mashup that brings the characters from your favorite books into the twenty-first century.

Mini-Review:

This book is a lot of fun and is laugh of loud funny. As long as you have read the source material (or at least know it). It is so creative and fun. My personal favorites were probably Jane Eyre and Gone with the Wind, but all of them are good.

My one wish is that it would have been longer. When each entry was over, I always hoped there was more.

It is the kind of book you need to own, so when you have read the books that are referenced that would didn’t know before, you can appreciate Ortberg’s brilliance.

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

Title: The Blade Itself
Author: Joe Abercrombie
Paperback: 536 pages
Pub Date: Sept 30, 2007
Publisher: Pyr
Rating: ++++

Summary:

Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he’s on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian – leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies.

Nobleman Captain Jezal dan Luthar, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.

Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it.

Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he’s about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glotka a whole lot more difficult.

Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood.

Review:

This was probably my husband’s favorite book of 2014 and he has been telling me to read it, daily. I started it at the end of last year and could only read about 50 pages at a time. Even though I couldn’t read a lot at once, it was captivating. The writing in it is amazing and makes it worth reading, even if it is slow at times and some of the characters were…irritating to say the least.

As irritating as they were – wow were they irritating – the characters were so well-defined and had vastly different voices. The chapters go between the different characters stories and after about 100 pages, I always knew which it was immediately. I had my favorite characters – Ninefingers is great and Bayaz is really entertaining at time. There was also a lot of creativity in the book.

My one big issue with the book is that there weren’t very many female characters and the ones there did exist were not as well-developed as the males.

It is still a good read and I will rad his other books since he is such a good writer.

2015 Goals

I don’t like the word resolution because it is so often associated with being broken or being extreme. I prefer the terms goals. So here are my goals for 2015.

Bookish:

Read 100 books. This will be harder this year than any other.

Read the 48 books in my reading assignment challenge. These have all been on my list for a while and I want to get to them!

Read 5 non-fiction books.

Health:

Get down to 150 pounds. Trying again.

Get a hip doctor. I really need one.

Random:

Finish two cross stitch projects.

Cross three things off my massive bucket list

Put away money every single month for our hopeful Mediterranean cruise in 2017.

Let’s hope that I can complete them!