Karma Girl, by Jennifer Estep

isbn: 9780425222829

I saw this months and months ago and thought: that looks cool, but slightly dorky. But since it was in the romance section, I put it back. Mistake! It was tons of fun. I want to read the second one now. Carmen, our heroine, finds her fiancé boinking her best friend on her wedding day. AND they are superhero and the corresponding evil nemesis. Ouch. She snaps pictures and ousts them, and starts on a crusade to expose all heroes. This of course goes horribly wrong and funny bits and superhero sex ensues. This was a quick read I ate up in about 2.5 hours after work. Well worth the fun.

4/5

The Curse of Mousebeard, by Alex Milway

isbn: 9780571234349

Wee, the second book. Short story: I bought the first one during a trip to London and ate it on the train ride back to Nottingham. I wanted the second one, but oh no! They didn't have it in Nott! Could I get it in Canada when I got back? Curses, not till next month! I couldn't wait that long! So I searched left, then right, and finally found it in a WH Smith! Hurah! And the second one I kept carefully till the plane ride home, to distract me from the screaming baby sitting in the seat next to me. Worked, too! End of short story.

This one was even more epic than the first one, with huge hidden temples and uber baddies. God I hate Miserly, the horrible evil Mousehunter girl. Arg! Had tons of fun with the mice again, and I cannot wait till we get the second one in Canada so I can sell it to kids. Wee!

On another note, Alex Milway commented on the blog which led me to his blog. Anyway, he has a rather clever little bit about the trend of overweight, extra long kids' books. Harry, I am looking at you, you little bastard. Click through for the full text.

5/5

The Economic Naturalist, by Robert H Frank

isbn: 9780753513385

Since I enjoyed Freakonomics, I thought I would pick this up too. The British cover, seen above, is way more appealing than the Canadian one. Oh well. Most fantastic fact in the book: Why is milk stored in rectangular containers and pop in cylindrical ones? It all has to do with wasted space between the cans and the price of keeping milk refrigerated. If you have to keep it cold, you may as well minimise the space between cartons to have no wasted space. Clever and ridiculous, eh? The book is full of little gems that sometimes get repetitive but often are eye openers into the weird world we live in.

3/5

The Mousehunter by Alex Milway

isbn: 9780571234332

An epic tale of pirates, mousehunting, giants, sea monsters, golden mice, hangings, stabbings, dung mice, elephant mice, nosferatu mice, messenger mice, moon howl mice, mice mice mice! Despite my bias in favour of rodents, this was an excellent book. It is suitably dark and spooky but silly at the same time. It has steampunk elements, pirate elements, fantasy elements... The whole package has a nice end, if a bit cliffhangery. The second book, The Curse of Mousebeard, looks even more fun.

5/5

Dogfish, by Dan Taylor and Gillian Shields

isbn: 9781416910435

Absolutely the cutes book about a fish I have ever read. Blurb from the book:
"Everyone has a dog, except me. So I say to my mum, "I need a dog." But my mum says, "Why do you need a dog when you have such a nice goldfish?" The little boy in this book is desperate to have a dog as a pet. After all, what's the use in having a goldfish when they don't catch sticks, they don't wag their tail and they don't go for walks? Can a goldfish EVER be the perfect pet?"
The illustrations are the sweetest thing ever and this little goldfish grins!!

5/5

Button Button, by Richard Matheson

isbn: 978-0765312570

Another collection of short stories that are dark, spooky, and very inspiring. The title story is especially excellent, short and snappy and hits you in the face. There is something in these stories that reminds me of "lamb to the Slaughter", by Roald Dahl, arguably the best short story ever written. Yes yes yes.

4/5