The Sunday Salon - A Review and a Happy V-Day!

Happy Sunday Salon and a very happy Valentine's Day to everybody! I'm getting ready to transition from one crazy-ass work week straight into another one, but I took the morning to enjoy some reading, and I can't stay away from the blogginess any longer! I can't do it, I say!

I'm almost finished with Marilyn Johnson's This Book is Overdue, and I cannot wait to review it for you all. The further I get into it the more new stuff I learn and the more charming the book becomes. Marilyn Johnson is one of those people I'd like to have coffee with and discuss just about everything.

My review of The Lightning Thief is long overdue. This is one of the few books I've ripped through like a madwoman lately. I think it took me all of a grand total two days to read it, and I just loved it (if you hadn't already noticed). Harry Potter comes to mind, but only because this is one of the more immersive juvenile adventure stories I've read since the Potter series. It's not as detailed, by any stretch of the imagination, but it carried me away and made me feel all whimsical and floaty again.

Plot: Boy has a troubled childhood, boy gets kicked out of yet another boarding school for iffy behavior and grades, boy finds out he's a demi-god (son of Poseidon) and barely makes it to Camp Half-Blood, his new training ground, before he's attacked by a psychotoic Minotaur. After a brief stay at the camp, he and two buddies (daughter of Athena and a satyr) are sent off on a quest to the Underworld. No biggie, right?

I loved the way Rick Riordan reimagined the gods and goddesses and placed them in the contemporary American landscape. Mount Olympus is situated high above New York City. Where else? Many of my favorite characters made an appearance: Medusa, Cerberus, Ares, Hades, the Furies, and the Fates...to name a few. It was really exciting to wait and see who would turn up next and what kind of havoc they would wreak. Good times all around.

I went out looking for the second book in the series, Sea of Monsters, a day or so after I finished The Lightning Thief, but I didn't have a bit of luck finding it. It seems everyone is snatching this one up in anticipation of the movie, and now I NEEEEED the second book. I think everyone else had the same idea.

Hmmphf.

For now I'm off to finish up This Book is Overdue!, and I'm also engrossed in Franny and Zooey. Wish me luck finishing it up before the craziness kicks in at work tomorrow! Happy Sunday and hugs and virtual smooches for all of ya!