The Amber Spyglass

I've just, at long last, finished reading The Amber Spyglass, the final book in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. I refused to read it until I had some time off because I wanted to sink right in and live in the book for a while without having somewhere else I needed to be. It's hard to believe the series gets better and more complex as it goes on, but it does. I am too stunned to write any kind of a review of this book (not that the world needs another one) except to say that it's one of the best I've ever read. It's been a long time since I felt that bereft at having to close a book and leave a world behind. If you haven't read it (and you like fantasy even a little bit), I'm jealous.

What a lovely lovely treat. I hope the movie doesn't suck, but the movie website is fun (although a little hard and slow to navigate). Plus you can find out what your daemon is. I did. What do you think? See the post below...

(I'm not sure about the modest part.)

Meet my daemon...

I had to ask myself if this was for real

Ghouls Gone Wild? This made me laugh out loud at the library. This is officially my favourite title for a kids' book. In a very unprofessional kind of way. As this recent installation in the Mostly Ghostly series for young kids by massively popular (and prolific) author R.L. Stine made its way through the publishing process, I can't help wondering whether everyone along the way understood the porn reference. And if so, how did that conversation go? Do kids not watch late-night TV too?

A quick google search will show that Stine wasn't the first one to think up this pun, so don't get confused and start telling kids there's a movie version of this book coming out this year....

Another CM review

My review of The Royal Woods by Matt Duggan is up on CM: Canadian Review of Materials. I liked some of the messages in this story (and the explicitly Canadian setting) but wasn't wild about the book overall. Find out why...