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Here are some more mini-reviews of books, thanks to summer vacation. I’m going in order of when I read them.

First up: The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Having read a couple of Terry Pratchett stories before this, I figured I should start with the first Discworld book before getting into any more Discworld stories.

I did enjoy the writing – puns and clever phrases abound. But this is not a book for the middle-grade fiction demographic, as there are some parts of the story that are more adult in nature. Do with that what you will.

Next up: The Boy Who Knew Everything by Victoria Forester

This is the second book in The Girl Who Could Fly series. And it was written knowing there would be a third book to round out the trilogy, so do not plan on reading this book as a standalone book. If you liked the first book, you’ll like this one.

Next up: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

I read the book first in case we ended up going to see the movie. We have not seen the movie. By some accounts the movie is better, because it cuts some of the rough parts out of the book. Rough as in content that young children should not be exposed to, not as in poorly written. The book was a fairly quick read, not heavy, and varying chapter lengths helped move it along.

It was one of those stories where you knew what was going to happen, but you still wanted to read to find out how.

Next up: Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

I was not looking for this book. I went to another library because they had a particular book on their shelves and it was quicker to make a trip there than put a hold on it and wait for the inter-library loan system to process it, and this library had a section of Newbery Award winners that caught my eye so I started perusing the titles.

I didn’t want a hefty tome, and this one was not. And it sounded vaguely familiar, so I checked it out. I found out later it was a Jim Carrey movie, and maybe that’s why it sounded familiar.

I’m used to middle-grade fiction, and this was probably two steps below that on the reading level scale. I don’t know what the reading level scale is, but if it’s two steps down from middle grade then it is two steps up from “See Spot Run”.

I have no plans to watch the movie to see what they did with it. But I can see why they cast Jim Carrey as the lead.

Last up: The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern William Goldman

In keeping with the theme of books and movies, I decided after all the years to finally read The Princess Bride, as it was a book first and movie later.

The only problem with this one, regarding the book/movie duality, is that the guy who wrote the book was also a screenwriter, so the book and movie are basically the same. Including even the side narration between a grandfather and grandson.

The book was fine to read, but when I was done all that happened was that I can now say I read the book. There was no greater sense of accomplishment. There were a few things in the book that were interesting, such as getting the story of Inigo’s father, and also the story of Inigo’s romance.

But in general, the end feeling was that of “never meet your heroes”.

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That’s it for this review. More book reviews coming up later this year.

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