Eragon and Gone

Insomnia is back, that miserable friend. In Songbird, Lisa Samson says that anyone who suffers from insomnia should get a straight ticket to Heaven. Amen! Angela Hunt made my day yesterday. She's been discussing the writing of her new book Magdalene on her blog A Life in Pages http://alifeinpages.blogspot.com/ She posted some online reviews of the book and imagine my surprise that she had put up mine from Amazon.com. My favorite author read my review and liked it enough to use it. Whoopie! I've been telling everyone I know.

Yesterday I finished Eragon by Christopher Paolini as I promised Doogie for his birthday. There are several parallels between this book and Star Wars (as well as Middle Earth and Harry Potter), but Paolini does a great job of creating a realistic world with a rich backstory. I truly enjoyed watching Eragon grow through his different relationships with Saphira, Brom, Murtagh, and Arya. He truly grows from a boy at the beginning of the book to a almost a man by the end of the book. Eragon has a clearly defined sense of right and wrong, and while occasionally takes some rash acts, it's always in defense of someone else. This is a young man you would want at your back in a fight and definitely someone you want to get to know. I'll enjoy reading the rest of the series because of the strength of the main character. One small weakness of Paolini is his lack of dialogue. Rather than state that Saphira and Eragon had a conversation, I would like to read the conversation so I could get a better feel for their relationship. This is a good, solid book that I would recommend for any fan of dragons and magic.

Today I finished reading Gone the latest Alex Delaware novel by Jonathan Kellerman. I've read all of Kellerman's previous works, and I feel this is the strongest in some time. Delaware has been slipping down the slope into enjoying his work too much, but Robin, his moral compass, returns in this book and seems to bring him a bit back to earth. A young couple fakes their disappearance in Hollywood for the publicity and then quickly fade after their act comes to light. Soon the women disappears, and the man is the prime suspect. Milo Sturgis is on the case and brings Alex with him. Milo is his usual gruff self (but all those scenes in restaurants with thorough descriptions of his meals make me hungry!). The suspects emerge slowly with cleverly hidden clues. This is definitely a finely written mystery with much to enjoy; I was a bit put off by the ending: it seems that over the top crimes are du jour, but sometimes simpler would have been better. There were also a few loose ends about Billy that needed to be tied up, but overall this was a terrific entry in the series.


I'm currently reading three books: The Five Love Languages for Teenagers by Gary Chapman, A New Christianity by Brian McLaren (this one may be too intellectual for me), and Dark Assassin the newest William Monk novel by Anne Perry. More reviews tomorrow. Have a wonderful weekend!