The Subtle Knife

Let me just start things off by saying that this cover kind of terrifies me a little.  I know that monkey-dogface creature in the background is likely meant to be Mrs Coulter's daemon, but it looks more like the stuff of nightmares.  So it's a good thing I finished The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman in one night, straight.  This is the second book in the His Dark Materials trilogy.  

We start off first thing with a new character, twelve-year-old Will Parry, who lives in the England of our world.  Some men are after something in his house, and it's tormenting his mother, so he stashes her with his old piano teacher and takes off with the thing he suspects the men are after.  He makes it to Oxford and finds what looks like a window, but in the middle of the air.  Not a regular window, though...you can only see into it from a certain angle.  Well, he's basically on the run and trying to disappear for a while, so obviously he goes on through this thing and finds himself in another world entirely.

Now I know what you're maybe thinking, but this isn't Lyra's world from The Golden Compass, either.  If you recall from the end of that book, Lord Asriel was looking into the matter of Dust, and all kinds of crazy shit happened, and Lyra decided to try and follow him through the portal or whatever it was that he'd managed to open.  Anyway, so this place Will stumbled into isn't Lyra's world because she's found her way into it, too.  This is where they meet each other and sort of team up.

It's almost serendipity that the two have found each other, because she wandered into this world trying to follow her father, and Will is hoping to find out about his own father, who went missing when he was just a baby.  John Parry was an ex-Marine-turned-professional-explorer, and it's possible there is a connection between his father and the men who have been harassing his mother.

So Will and Lyra kind of go back and forth an awful lot between Will's Oxford and the almost-deserted city in the world they came into.  Lyra of course gets them mixed up in all kinds of trouble when a man notices her with the alethiometer in a museum and she meets with a physicist to discuss Dust.  All the while, though, there are great changes happening in all worlds, and Will is about to find out that it may be more than mere chance that brought him through that astral window and into the path of Lyra and Pan.  He may have a much bigger role to play in what's about to come than he would ever have imagined.

New Moon

So I've finally gotten around to reading New Moon by Stephenie Meyer.  I'd seen the movie more than a few times, but hadn't really got the chance to read it - once I started, though, it only took me two nights to finish.  The same as Twilight, I know this book doesn't really need an introduction, but here is a refresher anyway.

We are, of course, still in the tiny town of Forks, Washington.  It's been about a year, and Bella and Edward are still together, which is probably a surprise to no one.  It's Bella's birthday, and she's all kinds of moody about it since now she is, for all intents and purposes, now one year older than Edward, and she is not thrilled at the fact that she's aging.  You might recall from the end of the first book that Bella wants Edward to turn her into a vampire so they can truly be together forever, but Edward isn't so keen on the idea, so she's still human (so far).  Anyway, against her wishes, Edward's "sister" Alice has put together a party for Bella at the Cullen house.  Bella, accident-prone as ever, can't get through the thing without a little blood being inadvertently shed, which as you can guess did not go well in a house full of vampires.  Jasper has the hardest time, if you remember, with the whole "vegetarian" lifestyle, and he reacts pretty quickly.  Edward reacts quickly to Jasper reacting quickly, and the party is basically ruined.

There are no hard feelings from Bella since hey, Jasper can't help it, but Edward convinces himself that he really is too much of a danger for her, and the Cullens pack up and leave town in kind of a hurry.  

Bella becomes deeply, deeply depressed and stays this way mostly for the rest of the book, and all of her friends except Jacob Black give up on her.  Bella becomes an adrenaline junkie, and then shit just starts hitting one fan after another.

The Magician's Nephew

The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis is actually not the first book that was published of The Chronicles of Narnia - it was the second to last to be published.  It's usually presented as the first book in the series, however, because it is first chronologically.  Since "Book 1" is printed on the spine of the copy I have, and the omnibus I have has this one first, I can't bring myself to read them in order of publication.

Probably The Magician's Nephew is one of the least known of all seven books, since most people only really know of the books which feature the Pevensie children.  The children in this book are Digory and Polly, a young boy and girl who live next door to each other in London.  Digory's mother is very ill, and his father is in India for work, so he and his mother have come to London to live with her brother and sister in their home.  Digory thinks his Uncle Andrew is straight crazy, and is a little wary of him, and he finds he had good reason to feel this way when one day, he and Polly accidentally get into his upstairs study while exploring a tunnel which runs the length of all the houses.

Uncle Andrew, as it turns out, is a magician.  He is convinced he's unlocked the secret to moving between their world and other worlds, but rather than go himself (he's quite old, you see, this sort of thing is really only fit for someone still young), he tricks Polly into being sent from their world, leaving Digory no choice but to go after her (well, really he does have a choice, but he's not a douche, so he goes).

Misfits & Heroes: West from Africa

Misfits & Heroes:  West from Africa, by Kathleen Flanagan Rollins, takes place around 12,000 BC, and as you may have guessed, starts off in Africa.  Naaba is an outcast from his village and a wanderer.  It has been a long time since he's been part of a village, so when he comes upon one, he is drawn to it and watches a weaver at her work.  While in this village, he finds Asha, a woman being held captive, and he frees her.  She is drawn to water, and follows it even when it cannot be seen, and she decides to join Naaba in his wandering, so that she may follow the water without being punished.

Naaba and Asha follow the river until they see a circle of standing stones.  Naaba especially is curious, and this is the point where the book really takes off.  Naaba and Asha fall in with a group of people and become a part of something that will change forever the course of everyone's lives.  The Black Rhino, a power-hungry leader, has a grand vision of uniting all the people and all the villages as one.  The campaign to bring this into being, however, is violent, and opposition is not met with in a diplomatic way.  One of his main concerns is another leader, Dwyka, the She-Eagle, and it is between these forces and the conflicts that arise that Naaba and Asha find themselves.  They know they must find a new place.  They become thrown together with a group of people, some they are familiar with, and some strangers, and they all set off together down the river and out into the sea, where none of them have ever been.

A Sort-of Relaunching!

So!  I think it's safe to say that the blog's transition from Les Livres to Here Be Bookwyrms is, for the most part, complete!  There are a couple of things here and there that still need to be tweaked, but those will be updated once I'm able to.  Old followers may notice that in addition to the new layout, I've added a few things to the sidebar!  You can now follow via Networked Blogs or Linky Follower, instead of just with GFC or by email.  I hope this makes following the blog a bit more convenient for some of you!  I've also added a search box, since I know the index of labels is fairly extensive, so anyone looking for something specific should have an easier time of it.

Obviously, I'm not a web designer, but I am pretty pleased with the new look here!  I hope you all like it, too.  I think it's a lot cleaner than my last layout, with only two columns and a more simple background.  I really felt like my last layout was a bit too cluttered, with everything so close together.  I was hoping to manage a nicer signature for my posts, but this one is fine for now!

I would really like to do a giveaway to celebrate this rebirth of sorts, but I'll have to wait and see what my funds are like after I pay my bills and such with my next check!  Sooner or later, though, I'll be doing one, so keep a weather eye out!

Ch-ch-changes

So when I first decided to start a blog, I couldn't think of a name that I really, REALLY wanted so I just picked something that didn't feel incredibly lame to me.  After a while, I thought of something I wished I'd used.  I thought it was too late to change the blog title since by then I already had followers and a few social networking accounts for the blog.

BUT!  I recently decided that to make myself happy (and I still have under 200 followers anyway, so it hopefully won't be too confusing at first), I'm going to just go ahead and make the switch.  Please bear with me during the transition!  I'm not sure how long it'll take to make the change, but I hope you all won't mind it too much.

So!  I appreciate each and every one of you visiting Les Livres, and I hope you'll continue to visit the blog in its new incarnation as Here Be Bookwyrms!  I feel like this first year of this blog's life it was a little egg, and now it's starting to really grow and develop into the blog I hoped I could make it into.  Dragons are one of my favorite mythical beasts, and who doesn't enjoy a nerdy play on words?  

Again, thanks for sticking with me everyone, and I hope you stick around a while longer!

Transition progress:
- My accounts on Goodreads and Amazon have both been updated, as has the email address for the blog!
- Accounts updated for Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Formspring, Youtube, Foursquare, and Networked Blogs.  Submitted new blog info to Book Blogger Directory. Cross-posted reviews updated as much as possible. =]
- In the process of updating Flickr. Changed the blog appearance.  Moved some things around.  Changed the blog's URL! Added widget to follow via Networked Blogs. Changed the LibraryThing widget, even though LibraryThing seems to be having some issues right now with changing my username.
- Internal links have been updated!
- Signature updated and added to each post. =]

RAK: April Sign-Up

Okay, so it's been a while since I've actually participated in RAK, but things are starting to settle back into some kind of a groove, so I'm definitely going to be able to send at least one book out this month!  I'm really glad for this, because Random Acts of Kindness, hosted by the ladies over at Book Soulmates, is a fantastic monthly event.  Basically, you pick someone from the list and send them something from their wishlist, and someone else might send you something from yours!  Yes, there are months where you might end up not receiving anything, but it still doesn't hurt to brighten someone else's day and rack up some bookish karma!  It's also a great way to check out some other blogs and maybe make some new bookish friends in the community. So stop by and sign up!