Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

I picked this series up through PaperBackSwap.com in my search for books to entice a 7 year old. The next in my series of books-that-I’ve-purchased-for-other-people-and-read-myself.

The ideas are good. I enjoyed the mythology of high-tech fairies that is built up here (which has similarities to the Christmas special from last season, “Prep and Landing”). I appreciate the effort to create an anti-hero protagonist in Artemis Fowl. Because of the fantastical nature of the book in general, we’ll accept that he is a 12 year old super-genius criminal.

Overall, the writing is so-so, and some bits didn’t make much sense. If you translate something from a fairy language, why does it rhyme in English? Maybe the writers were just that good? Or the translator?

While I was in New Jersey last weekend, we were perusing the library, and I discovered that Eoin Colfer was tapped to write a 6th book in the Hitchhiker’s five book trilogy, And Another Thing. There it was, on the shelf in front of me, released in October 2009. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of this.

Of all the writers in the world, why Eoin Colfer, who has never written a “grown-up” book? If you can call “Hitchiker’s” a grown-up book. Maybe you can’t. It is pretty silly.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery by Alan Bradley

In searching about for a birthday gift for steakums, I turned to NPR for book recommendations. They were reading the second in this series, The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag, and said it was good, but nto as good as the first one. It seemed like a light summer read with a strong female protagonist, so that sounded right up her alley.

steakums had started with the other book I had gotten her (The Help), so I decided to check on how good my purchase was.

It’s a quick read, and not without interest, but the style of writing was a little too precocious; the author just seemed to be trying too hard to be clever. The mystery was a bit too contrived and unbelievable.
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