"Bushfire" by Bindi Irwin - a book review by Paul

This book review is by my about-to-be 3rd-grade son who had to read this book for school in August of 2012.  Yes, I'm a mean homeschool teacher who assigns books and book reports all summer long.

Bushfire by Bindi Irwin

The book Bushfire by Bindi Irwin is about a group of people who have to help animals from a fire. The people in the story are Richard, he is a vet who is Rosie's dad. Bindi is the daughter of Steve Irwin and she owns the Australia Zoo. Rosie is Bindi's best friend.

At the start of the book, Bindi, her friend Rosie, and Rosie's dad Richard were hiking in the Australian mountains. They saw smoke in the distance so the rushed back home to help out at the animal hospital that Richard works at. Then they went to help out at the fire line. While at the fireline someone brought in a burn echidna and a burnt pregnant koala. The girls brought those two and other animals back to the hospital where they helped take care of them.

In the end, the fire got put out by rain. The momma koala died from her injuries but the baby survived and so did the echidna. Bindi and Rosie worked as hard as the grown-ups to save the animals. The animals were important to them so they were willing to work hard. Bushfire was a good book and I would like to read more of Bindi's Wildlife Adventures.

Good Reads

Hey, I've got all my book reviews posted over on Swap.com and Goodreads.com if you have any interest in reading them.  It's all in the Dark Urban Fantasy and Paranormal and Paranormal Romance genres, both adult and Young Adult.

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OK, I'm feeling good about books again.  That whole City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass trilogy by Cassandra Clare really sucked the life out of me - by the 3rd book I was reading every 50 pages so that I could find out what was going on without having to slog through the other stuff.  My last skim was 50 pages before the end so I didn't spoil the whole book for myself.  Then I went back and read every page to have picked up all the details of the story.  That was tiring!  I finished them up on the 26th.

The next books that I read from the 26th through the 29th were the first 2 in the Sookie Stackhouse Novels by Charlaine Harris, Dead Until Dark and Living Dead in Dallas.  I loved the books and put the next 5 books of the series on hold at the library for me but only 2 of them have come in so far; I'll pick those 2 up tomorrow while the kids are at art class.  You may be familiar with this already as they are the books that the HBO series True Blood is based on.

Then I next read the first book in an awesome series that's at least 8 books long, of which the library system only carries the first and the last 2 books.  The Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine (she of The Morganville Vampires series) starts off with the fantastic book Ill Wind. I went to Half-Price Books to get the other books in the series but couldn't find any of them except for one of the most recent ones.  I did end up buying most of the books in the Broken Heart Oklahoma series by Michele Bardsley.  Next time, maybe on Wednesday while the kids are at PE I'll hit up the local Goodwill store; maybe I'll have better luck finding the books I want there and for cheaper.

I also picked up at the library a disappointing book by Patricia Briggs called Iron Kissed.  It's book 3 of the Mercy Thompson series but I gave up on it about halfway through the 287 pages.

But in my last library run I also picked up 2 winning books by Barbara Bretton.  Casting Spells and Laced With Magic; these books combine 2 of my favorite things - knitting and paranormal romance.  I finished Casting Spells about 30 min ago and once I finish this post I'll be starting on Laced With Magic (book 3 comes out next month).

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I just finished City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, book 1 of The Mortal Instruments.  I'm not feeling very happy about the book right now; the plot twist that happened after the plot twist that I saw coming from a mile away is NOT settling well with me.  I'm anticipating another plot twist back in the direction that I want in the next book in the series which I'll start reading momentarily.

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I'm liking City of Bones so far.  I'm at page 174 and I LOVED the mention of 2 of Holly Black's characters that just happened.  Clary and Jace (City of Bones main characters) are going through NY City and see a group of homeless kids that includes Val and Luis (Valiant main characters).  I just LOVE when two different worlds overlap each other like that!!
Back to reading on this rainy day!

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OK, I just finished Strange Brew, a collection of paranormal short stories written by various authors.  Some of the stories were really good, some were OK, and some I skimmed through because they were just eh.  I was surprised that I didn't enjoy the Harry Dresden short story more.  I liked the TV show pretty well, so did Joe, but this story at least didn't grab me like I thought it would.  Oh well.
Now I'm starting on the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, it looks to be good.

Oh, I started reading a funny book to Paul while he was in the MRI machine this evening.  I picked it out at the library today while they were at Art Class.  It's The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy by William Boniface.  He liked it a lot and I think that Giselle may enjoy reading it on her own too.

Oh well, back to the books!

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Oh, I finished Holly Black's Ironside; A Modern Faery's Tale several days ago.  I just hadn't gotten around to posting it although I did update my personal reading lists.  LOVED it!  I kind of hope there's a sequel of sorts because I've enjoyed the series so far.  I do hope that there aren't any more Kaye and Roiben because I want them to have a 'happily ever after'.  But Ms Black did write a short story related to them that was published in the Poison Eaters collection that I've already read.  Since I finished Ironside I've been reading a collection that I'm not done with yet due to a reading glitch called "my 6-yr old damaged his LCL playing soccer and I've been tending to him a lot".
Time to call the Orthopedist again and find out why they haven't called me back yet.

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About an hour ago I finished Holly Black's Valiant, book 2 in her Modern Faerie Tales series.  Good book, not great.  I don't regret reading it, especially since it took me less than a day to read the 314 pages. I guess I'll start on the 3rd book in the series, Ironside, tonight.  My eyes are feeling fuzzy but I think that's from all the mold in the air from all the rain last week.  More rain supposedly this weekend.  I hope it stays away until after Saturday's soccer games.

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I finished Rachel Cain's Kiss Of Death about 15 min ago.  I'm really glad that I only have to wait 1 month until book 9 comes out.  I'm probably going to have to buy it since I'll be so far back in line on the hold list at the library.
Right now I'm number 6 in line to get the recently released Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare from the library but a friend of mine owns it, she told me at church Wednesday night, and said she'd loan it to me.  Although I think I'll wait to read it until after I read the sequel books.  See, it's like the Star Wars movies from when I was a teen - there were the first 3 Star Wars movies.  Then George Lucas made the 3 prequel movies and then the movies that WERE 1, 2, & 3 became movies 4, 5, & 6.  Well the new book, Clockwork Angel is part one of a trilogy that precedes the events in the first books City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, and City of Fallen Angels. 
So I'm not sure which of the 4 books I currently have checked out of the library I'll read next; I'm thinking it'll be the two Holly Black books, maybe.

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I just finished Rachel Caine's Fade Out, book 7 of The Morganville Vampires.  Intense would be the correct word for this one, less WOW than the last 2 have been.  I'm about to see what book 8 has in store for me - I bought it last night and got it autographed too.  I think that there's only going to be another 3 or 4 books written in the series and they aren't out yet so after book 8 it's on to my next library books.

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I finished Carpe Corpus by Rachel Caine 30 min ago.  Once again, all I can say is WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW!!!!!  And just 3 hours ago I actually met the woman who wrote the book and got her to autograph my reading list.  I'd stick around and post more but I've already spent the last half hour updating my reading list and this blog.  Now I've got to get to reading book 7 in the series; I bought book 8 earlier tonight at the Smart Chicks Kick It book tour stop here in Austin.
We've got a field trip in the morning to a local US Post Office; that should be fun!

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OK, just a quick post to state that I just finished Lord of Misrule by Rachel Caine, book 5 in The Morganville Vampires series.  WOW, WOW, WOW!  That's what I'm saying about this book in the series, just WOW!  Gotta leave and get on to book 6.  I'll be sure to buy book 8 at the book signing TOMORROW NIGHT and I'm sure that I'll be eagerly waiting to get book 9 when it's published at the end of this October.
See ya!

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I finished Feast of Fools by Rachel Caine this morning and have already moved on to book 5 of the series.  This series is great, I don't want to stop reading it!  But real life calls and we've got shopping for cleats and groceries to do this afternoon so it won't be until tonight that I'll finish book 5 and start on book 6.

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OK, I probably actually finished the book just before midnight but I had to edit my reading lists first before making this post.  I just finished reading Midnight Alley by Rachel Caine, book 3 in The Morganville Vampires series.  Book 3 was just as good as the first 2, maybe even a little better.  I love all the subplots that run through each book and how they thread each book together.  The final 2 twists at the absolute very end blew me away!  The only thing I missed in this one was that there was no recap of the book and teaser of the next book in the form of Eve's journal entries like at the end of the previous 2 books.  Oh well, just a minor thing.  Now I'm off to read book 4, Feast of Fools.  I doubt I'll finish it tonight but maybe before church in the morning...

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Just finished a 30 min break for dinner prep and eating.  I had only gotten to page 60 before the dinner break but I had to take an earlier break in there to refill the pool for the dog to soak in.  He's exhausted himself by running around the backyard non-stop while I was out there reading all afternoon.

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I just finished The Dead Girls' Dance by Rachel Caine, book 2 in The Morganville Vampires series.  At about 250 pages each, I'm taking 5 hours to finish each - my standard reading rate is 50 pages per hour.  So if I start now, even with a break for dinner, I should finish book 3 tonight and get a good start on book 4 before I go to bed.  Depending on how much caffeine I drink this evening, I just might finish book 4 too!  I think it's looking good for getting all 7 read before Monday night.  I'll still be short two books but that's ok, maybe I'll buy those there at the signing.
Wish me luck!
Wow, in my rush to start on the next book I almost forgot to mention the one I just finished.  Well, I guess that my enthusiasm for reading the next book is actually a really good review - The Dead Girls' Dance was so good that I'm eagerly rushing to read the next in the series, Midnight Alley.  I 'm not doing full reviews of any of these books, if you want that kind of information you're welcome to read all the reviews at the Amazon.com link I post for each book.
Now, I'm off to refill my quart cup of ice water and then head back out to the back porch where I'll be reading until the kids make me feed them dinner.  Hey, I DID wash all the dishes this morning before I started reading for the day.  And I took Giselle to soccer practice, and I returned some shin guards to Target, and I got my eggs and veggies and bacon and sausage at the farmers market, and I picked Giselle up from soccer practice (I surprised her with a lemon/pina colada Jim Jim's).  So I haven't been sitting around all day just reading.

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We're about to head out to the park for the rest of the day but I just finished book 1 of The Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine, Glass Houses.  WOW!  I am SO glad that I've got the next 6 books already checked out of the library because this is a good one!  It doesn't hurt that it takes place in Texas  :)  I love that the school the main character goes to is Texas Prairie University, aka TPewwww!    I'm looking forward to after dinner tonight when I can get to reading book 2, The Dead Girls' Dance.

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I finished Holly Black's White Cat earlier this evening.  Wow! What a really good book!  Twists and turns in the plot abounded, and a great twisted ending that made me want to scream because the 2nd book in this new series won't be released until APRIL of next year!!
Now on to the Morganville series.  I've got the first 7 in the series and they look to be quick reads so I should be able to finish them all before The Smart Chicks Kick It! book tour comes through Austin on Monday night.  I feel that it's only proper to have read as many books possible by all of the authors who will be there on Monday night.  In this case Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Holly Black, Rachel Caine & Cassandra Clare will all be in attendance.  I've read books by them all except Rachel Caine since my holds on her books haven't come in yet at the library.  Rather than get any of my books signed, I'm going to get my reading list signed by them all.

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I finished The Poison Eaters by Holly Black yesterday afternoon.  It's a collection of 10 of her short stories that have previously published in other places and 2 new ones written just for this book.  Most of them were really good compared to what some other writers put out but I think that Ms Black is more in her element in full-length stories. 
I'm now reading the first book in her newest series, The Curse Workers.  I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around the story but I think that's because I've read about too many alternate realities over these past several months and I'm getting some of them mixed up.  It's either that or this sinus headache that I've had for the last 3 days.

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I gave up on reading The Returners by Gemma Malley this evening.  After 100 pages I found myself skimming forward to try to find interesting parts and kept not finding any.  I think I'm going to start another book by Holly Black after the kids go to bed.  She's another of the authors who'll be at the Smart Chicks Kick It! book tour stop in Austin next week.
We're back to reading the Percy Jackson series before bed as a group.