Super Reads from Superdoug

I thought I would start my own thread to do book reviews. Feel free to ignore them or whatever. PoP guys, feel free to use any of them you like on the website. Just send me a hunky but easily manipulated intern once in a while.

I just finished The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart.



First, the blurb from the back:

"Are You A Gifted Child Looking For Special Opportunities?"

When this peculiar ad appears in the newspaper, dozens of children enroll to rake a series of mysterious, mind-boggling tests. (And you, dear reader, can test your wits right along with them.) But in the end, just four very special children will succeed. Their challenge: to go on a secret missionthat only the most intelligent and resourceful children could complete. With their newfound friendship at stake, will they be able to pass the most important test of all?

As you might surmise from the blurb, this is a book aimed at younger readers. I wouldn't say it's for young children, although they will definitely enjoy having it read to them. (There are some parts that might be a bit scary for the very young, so I would caution prudence in story hour.) The 'main' character is a gifted young man named Reynard Muldoon, who is an orphan and (as you might imagine) quite miserable in that his genius sets him apart from his fellow orphans. When he responds to the strange ad, he is introduced to a wild world that's sort of the love child of Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling, with a tiny dash of Edward Gorey tossed in. While the setting is most definitely modern (television and cell phones are both mentioned at various points), the story has a classic feel that puts it right up there with Tom Sawyer and Peter Pan. Each of the four children is unique in their own way and, as the titular character notes, are each essential to the success of the mission...even if you don't see it to the very end, which I admit I didn't.

The storytelling is tight, and very easy to read, either to yourself or out loud. The puzzles are at once challenging and easy enough that the keen reader (or listener) will be able to figure them out with little difficulty. The customer reviews on Amazon talk about how folks enjoy reading this with their kids, and I certainly wished that I'd had my nieces and nephews around when I was reading it, because I really wanted to see if it had the same effect on them that it had on me. Namely, transporting me back to a place where I was ten, and reading a really good book in the back yard.

There are two more books in the series: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey and The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Prisoner's Dilemma. While I haven't read the other two yet (note that I said YET), all three are each hefty reads at 400+ pages. They're worth the time. Get your kid, either offspring or inner child, and get this book and enjoy some quality time together with a new gem*.



*If you do voices when you read out loud, you'd better be Rich freaking Little. Every single character talks in this book. EVERY ONE. Often, and some times at length.

No other suggestions?

Let me get caught up. I've been on a real reading jag, lately. I've got a couple more to recommend.

I HAVE to recommend this book.


Hero, by Perry Moore




The blurb:

Thom Creed is used to being on his own. Even as a high school basketball star, he has to keep his distance because of his father. Hal Creed had once been one of the greatest and most beloved superheroes of The League-until the Wilson Towers incident. After that Thom's mother disappeared and his proud father became an outcast.

The last thing in the world Thom would ever want is to disappoint his father. So Thom keeps two secrets from him: First is that he's gay. The second is that he has the power to heal people. Initially, Thom had trouble controlling his powers. But with trail and error he improves, until he gets so good that he catches the attention of the League and is asked to join. Even though he knows it would kill his dad, Thom can't resist. When he joins the League, he meets a motley crew of other heroes, including tough-talking Scarlett, who has the power of fire from growing up near a nuclear power plant; Typhoid Larry, who makes everyone sick by touching them, but is actually a really sweet guy; and wise Ruth, who has the power to see the future. Together these unlikely heroes become friends and begin to uncover a plot to kill the superheroes. Along the way, Thom falls in love, and discovers the difficult truth about his parents' past.

Simply put, this book is AMAZING. It's the best superhero prose I've read since...well, ever. The characters are solid, three-dimensional people that you grow attached to very quickly, and sympathize with almost constantly. I dare anyone not to fall in love with the supporting members of Thom's probationary team. Ruth alone is worth the price of the cover.

Moore's done more than craft a superb coming-of-age story that anyone can relate to; he's created an entire world populated by superheroes who are so close to their inspirations that you'll have little trouble picking out who's who. (Thom's dad is sort of like Captain America/Batman, while his mother...well, I'll let you read and try to figure it out.) Thom's troubles in his life with his burgeoning sexuality tend to run concurrently with dealing with his emerging superpowers and his father's not-so-secret shame as a superhero, and it's all handled with the delicate grace you'd expect from one of the costumed heroes within the story.

I recommend this book to any fan of stories about capes and their private lives. Thom's sexuality, while central to the book, is hardly a featured player (at least, not in ways that would make you straighties gag), and his plight is one we can all relate to.

WARNING: This book is marketed as 9th grade and up in reading level...but there's a lot of very adult language in the book. So, if you're offended by shit like that, don't read the fucking thing.

I loved Hero! I think I recommended it somewhere on here ;op

Under the Dome by Stephen King




The blurb:

Stephen King ups his own considerable ante once again in Under the Dome, the chilling tale of a small Maine town inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field.

Planes crash into it and fall from the sky. A gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it. Cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, and when—or if—it will go away.

Iraq vet and short-order cook Dale Barbara joins forces with a few intrepid citizens to get to the bottom of the mystery. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even murder—to hold the reins of power. But their main adversary is the dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.

Now, before I hear cries of 'Simpsons did it!' (Darn you, General Disarray!), let me set your mind at ease. According to King, this premise first surfaced in his twisted mind in the 70s, only to be tabled when the first chapter didn't really come together. That out of the way, let's get to the reviewing.

Under the Dome is probably the best Stephen King book I've read since The Stand. Granted, I liked It a lot, and The Bachman Books will always hold a special place in my heart, but my favorite books are when King shies away from the supernatural and delves into the dark heart of humanity itself. Under the Dome is one of those works, and King outdoes himself with it.

The Dome comes down just a scant few days before Halloween, heralded by its collision with a single-engine plane and other tragedies. Trapped among the residents of Chester's Mill is Dale Barbara, a short order cook with a military background who had been planning to vacate town when the dome fell.

There's no indication where the dome comes from, and that leads to some mild alarm among the residents: was it terrorists? Is their town part of some military experiment? What about their loved ones on the other side of the dome, who'd left town hours or even moments before the dome fell? There's a lot of real, human fear here, and King is in his element as he plays his characters like a fine violin.

The de facto leader of Chester's Mill (though not officially) is a man named Big Jim Rennie, who is probably the most brilliant villain that King's ever created. Just reading passages with him made my flesh crawl, and I found myself wishing for the moment when he would get what was coming to him.

Casualties among the civil servants, along with other circumstances, leave gaps in the town's political infrastructure that Rennie exploits with measured skill. Add to that the sudden lack of propane to power critical emergency generators, and the panic in the town becomes almost palpable on the page. In the meantime, Barbara (who's Rennie's personal thorn in his side) is appointed the Head Man In Charge by the military forces gathering outside the dome in an attempt to free the citizens within.

There's a thousand pages of book here to review, so it's hard to get into what I loved about the book without giving out major spoilers. King is a bit heavy-handed at times with the political allegory (Rennie facilitates chaos and disorder with carefully worded lies and flimsy evidence, and even tells a fellow civil servant that he's 'doing a hell of a job' in response to how poorly he's handling the situation), but it kind of works in this 'fishbowl' sort of narration. There's real pain and anguish to be found in these pages, and that's something that I haven't felt from King since It.

And, before you worry that King's lost his sense of the bizarre, let me set your mind at ease. The last ten chapters or so bring it all home in a way that reminds us that, no matter how chaotic the ride, King can always throw in a last-minute hairpin turn that threatens to throw you off completely, but instead leaves you smiling like an idiot at the end.

Five exploding pacemakers out of five.

superdoug wrote:
Now, before I hear cries of 'Simpsons did it!' (Darn you, General Disarray!), let me set your mind at ease. According to King, this premise first surfaced in his twisted mind in the 70s, only to be tabled when the first chapter didn't really come together. That out of the way, let's get to the reviewing.

Under the Dome is probably the best Stephen King book I've read since The Stand. Granted, I liked It a lot, and The Bachman Books will always hold a special place in my heart, but my favorite books are when King shies away from the supernatural and delves into the dark heart of humanity itself. Under the Dome is one of those works, and King outdoes himself with it.

The Dome comes down just a scant few days before Halloween, heralded by its collision with a single-engine plane and other tragedies. Trapped among the residents of Chester's Mill is Dale Barbara, a short order cook with a military background who had been planning to vacate town when the dome fell.

There's no indication where the dome comes from, and that leads to some mild alarm among the residents: was it terrorists? Is their town part of some military experiment? What about their loved ones on the other side of the dome, who'd left town hours or even moments before the dome fell? There's a lot of real, human fear here, and King is in his element as he plays his characters like a fine violin.

The de facto leader of Chester's Mill (though not officially) is a man named Big Jim Rennie, who is probably the most brilliant villain that King's ever created. Just reading passages with him made my flesh crawl, and I found myself wishing for the moment when he would get what was coming to him.

Casualties among the civil servants, along with other circumstances, leave gaps in the town's political infrastructure that Rennie exploits with measured skill. Add to that the sudden lack of propane to power critical emergency generators, and the panic in the town becomes almost palpable on the page. In the meantime, Barbara (who's Rennie's personal thorn in his side) is appointed the Head Man In Charge by the military forces gathering outside the dome in an attempt to free the citizens within.

There's a thousand pages of book here to review, so it's hard to get into what I loved about the book without giving out major spoilers. King is a bit heavy-handed at times with the political allegory (Rennie facilitates chaos and disorder with carefully worded lies and flimsy evidence, and even tells a fellow civil servant that he's 'doing a hell of a job' in response to how poorly he's handling the situation), but it kind of works in this 'fishbowl' sort of narration. There's real pain and anguish to be found in these pages, and that's something that I haven't felt from King since It.

And, before you worry that King's lost his sense of the bizarre, let me set your mind at ease. The last ten chapters or so bring it all home in a way that reminds us that, no matter how chaotic the ride, King can always throw in a last-minute hairpin turn that threatens to throw you off completely, but instead leaves you smiling like an idiot at the end.

Five exploding pacemakers out of five.

Thanks for the great review. I am SO getting this book!

just requested Hero from the library... doug why no more reviews?