kailey_luminouslibro's reviews
3794 reviews

In this last book of the Redwall series, a nasty crew of vermin pirates are heading for Redwall to plunder and kill. The hares of Salamandastron have seen the pirates traveling up the coast and are in pursuit, hoping to intercept them before they can reach Redwall. They call on the Rogue Crew of sea otters from the North Coast to help them in their mission.

I just adore all the Redwall books! What an absolute delight! This book has everything that I love about Redwall books. Ravenous hares, wise badgers, adorable moles, fierce shrews, and of course brave warriors ready to defend all good beasts.

As with all Redwall books, I made sure to have a stash of snacks on hand since the characters are constantly eating the most delicious food. They have massive feasts and parties, but even a simple breakfast will make your mouth water with all the descriptions of pastries and fruit pies and cordials.

I was laughing and giggling at Posy and Uggo and their banter with the hares and otters. It's just wonderful, and gives so much depth to each culture that we encounter.

The action and pacing in this book are really excellent. The plot is always moving forward, but there are also scenes that take the time to show our characters grieving or resting or laughing together. It builds up the emotional components of the story, so that when you get to the big battles, we really care about what happens to the characters.

There is a lot of violence in this book as some of the good guys are killed while fighting against the evil vermin. But it makes it even more meaningful that they sacrificed their lives to protect good beasts.

What is stopping you from having the life you truly want? Maybe it's time to give up on fear and doubt, and actually live your life! This book teaches you to stop reacting, and control how you respond instead. You will learn how to overcome the inner obstacles that are stopping you from achieving your dreams.
The chapters include giving up on being reactive, giving up on fear, giving up on short-term thinking, giving up on comparing yourself to others, and giving up on being so hard on yourself.

I am definitely an overthinker with a lot of anxiety. This book helped me to let go of all those negative thoughts and anxious stories in my head. I put so much pressure on myself, so I really needed the positive messages of this book. I especially liked the chapter about giving up on being so hard on yourself. I'm such a perfectionist that I just burn myself out trying to meet impossible standards. This book has a focus on being grateful for what you already have, having compassion for your mistakes, and celebrating your progress no matter how small it may be. Sometimes you just need to let yourself be on the journey, and that includes mistakes and setbacks and slow progress. And that is okay!

I like that this book goes deep into the reasons why we live in fear, and why we chase after short-term enjoyment instead of long-term benefits. When you start to really analyze your every-day decisions, you can see how even the smallest thing can make a big difference in your life. THAT is when you can start to make positive changes; just something small that is easy to start with some baby steps, but it will make a big impact on your well-being. First you have to find out what you really want from life and have the clarity to make it your own.

This book also gives practical steps to breaking down your big goals into smaller manageable tasks for each day. It's so easy to get overwhelmed with goals and dreams so that you never get anything done. But with this method, you can set yourself up for success with baby steps that turn into giant progress!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher/author in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

A little mouse named Wix is scouting through an abandoned human neighborhood, looking for food for his colony of mice. Back home at the colony, Pict cares for her ailing father, and worries that some of the mice might be planning some kind of betrayal against the council. While Wix faces danger outside from cats and other predators, Pict wonders if there is also danger from within the colony.

I really loved the setting and world-building in this graphic novel. The mice are trying to figure out why all the humans are gone. Did they all die? Are they coming back? The mice are used to scrounging for food in human houses, not in the wild. Some mice think they should move to the city, instead of the deserted suburbs. Others think they should try to survive in the woods, eating roots and berries. Not only is there a history of the human world to be discovered, but there is also a heritage and history among the animals. They have their own legends and hierarchy among the mice and rats and among other species too.

The art work is really beautiful and colorful! The designs of the animals are excellent, and they retain their wildness while also being anthropomorphized enough that the reader can relate to them.

I really liked the characters of Wix and Pict. They go on such different journeys, but in the end they are determined to do whatever it takes to help their colony. They each have character development to gain confidence and wisdom. Along the way, they make friends and find allies to help them fight their enemies, but in the end they must stand in their own strength.

The only part I didn't like was when they had to fight a snake, because I'm scared of snakes. I skipped that part. Too scary for me!

There is a lot of violence and death and blood, but it wasn't too horribly gross.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone. 

This biography follows the life of C.S. Lewis from his childhood to his death. It focuses on how his experiences led to his belief in God. He learned to value reason and think things through very carefully, analyzing every angle, and this led him to realize that the only rational explanation for the universe is the God of Christianity.

This is such a short book that it serves as a good introduction to the life of C.S. Lewis. However, because I have already read several biographies of Lewis, as well as most of his written works and letters, I didn't learn anything new or get a new perspective on his life.

I did like that the overall focus of the book is Lewis' faith in God. All his relationships and friendships, all his education, experiences in the war, personal tragedies and family turmoil, all led him to the point where he had to admit that God is real. It's a wonderful conversion story!

The writing style is good, and keeps your interest. The book is well-written and obviously well-researched.

Through the centuries, there have been Christian writers who have captured the essence of mythology to reveal spiritual truths. Their stories spark a new level of awareness in our imaginations and deeply touch our hearts. Through these Christian myths, we understand ourselves and our relationship with God in a new light.

This book explores deep insights about the works of Dante, John Bunyan, George MacDonald, Chesterton, Charles Williams, Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis. There are also shorter explorations of the works of Madeline L'Engle, Hurnard, and a few other more modern writers. It's wonderful to see how each of these authors followed in the footsteps of those who came before.

I loved the writing style in this book! It has all the scholarly research behind it, but the writing itself is powerful and inspiring. It tugs at your heart and lifts your spirit to realms beyond the world we know. It's not just about intellectually understanding the power of myth to kindle our imaginations; it's about experiencing that inner fire and refreshment of spirit.

I really enjoyed that this book continually points to God as the Author of all stories. We create stories and myths because He created us in His image, with the ability to sub-create and imagine and dream.

This book contains spoilers for all the major works of these authors, but each section is clearly marked, so if you don't want to get spoiled, it is easy to skip ahead. However, this book would be best enjoyed by readers who are already familiar with at least some of these famous authors. A major part of the book is spent in analyzing Dante's Divine Comedy, Pilgrim's Progress, The Princess and Curdie, Phantastes and Lilith, The Man Who Was Thursday, The Lord of the Rings, and Lewis' Space Trilogy and Chronicles of Narnia, as well as L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time series. If you are totally unfamiliar with those and other works by the featured authors, you will miss a lot of the insights and shrewd observations in this book.

While reading all about these authors, I got motivated to go back and reread some of their works! I want to read Pilgrim's Progress again for sure. I feel like I will come to each story with a new perspective now.
I especially want to reread Lewis' Till We Have Faces again. The first time I read it, I don't think I really understood a lot of it. But now I will be able to see the nuances and hidden meanings of the mythology in the story!

Roxy lives in the Umbrella house where her grandmother first began to live as a squatter who gained rights over the property in a co-op after the legal owners tried to evict the squatters. She and her best friend want to do a news story about a graffiti artist who vandalizes buildings without permission but whose work is considered legitimate art. The big bad conglomerate is buying up properties in the area and evicting tenants, and Roxy worries that they might try to take away her beloved home.

I didn't finish this book. I read the first forty pages and realized that the moral premise of the book doesn't quite align with my own moral compass. I think I would have just been annoyed with the moral perspective in this book. Any other time I might have continued to read anyway and been interested to explore someone else's perspective. However, I started reading this while I had a toothache, and I just wasn't in the mood for all the moral gray areas.

At the garage sale of a famous scientist, Liam finds a box labeled, "World's Worst Time Machine", and decides to try it out. He slaps together a few wires, sticks an old-fashioned telephone onto it, hooks up half an ink-jet printer, fastens it all together with duct tape, and plugs it in. His friend Elsa warns him not to mess with time travel, but Liam is too excited to listen. And of course, disaster strikes! He gets mixed up with the wrong Thomas Edison, a dastardly gang of gangsters, and a mysteriously dangerous bronze dog statue. But through all his adventures with time, it becomes apparent that Elsa is hiding some secret knowledge of her own.

I loved this funny book! It's one hilarious scene after another where everything goes wrong if someone touches that awful time machine. The machine never does what it is supposed to!

I really enjoyed the underlying mystery of Elsa and how she knows so much about time travel. She is quite the enigma. It was really cool seeing how the clues to her past begin to make sense until we get the final reveal. Although the story is told from Liam's point of view, the real center of the story is Elsa. I loved seeing how those two interact and how they work together as a team in all kinds of weird time-crisis situations.

The writing style is so crazy and funny! I really liked the narrative style. We get a strong sense of personality for each of the characters. There is a weird wildness to the story that makes you feel like anything is possible.

This book has a good conclusion, but it also sets up for a sequel, which I am hoping to read. There are a few questions left unanswered at the end, and another time adventure is sure to be forthcoming!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

Corruption and vice are rampant among the upper classes in 1870s London, and the lower classes aren't much better. Lady Carbury schemes to get her son married to the wealthiest heiress in London, Miss Melmotte. It doesn't seem to matter that her son, Sir Felix, is a selfish rascal with no heart. Mr. Melmotte flaunts his wealth and uses it to manipulate his way into politics, throwing lavish parties and befriending dukes. The only two who have some higher morals are Roger Carbury (Lady Carbury's cousin) and Hetta Carbury (Lady Carbury's daughter). They two believe in honesty and chivalry while the rest of society has degenerated into power-hungry, money-mad libertines.

I really love Trollope's writing style. He begins with a boring commonplace scene of everyday life, and gradually builds the tension until you are hanging on every word. He makes the most mundane things into something monumental! Every little gesture of the characters has meaning.
He does tend to draw things out though. This book is certainly long-winded, but there is a satisfaction in all the details as well.

The narration jumps back and forth in time quite a lot, telling what this character was doing from Wednesday morning until Thursday evening, and then jumping back again to Wednesday morning to follow a different character through the same day. I liked that the scenes were arranged topically in this way. It made it easy to follow all the different storylines.

Trollope was a genius in his characterizations. He had a special insight into human nature that really shines in his realistic characters. None of the baddies are all bad; even the worst ones have one or two decent qualities. And none of the good guys are all good; they have their foibles and faults too. It made it so interesting to gradually discover the hidden depths in each character, because there really IS so much there to dive into.

There is one instance of two characters, a man and woman, who are quarrelling; and later his friend tells him, "If you had been unkind she could have forgiven that; but as you were good-natured and she was cross, she can't forgive that." (vol. 1, pg. 432) Isn't that so true of human nature?! If you lost your temper, but the other person took the high road, it's very difficult to swallow your pride and admit you were in the wrong. But if you had both lost your tempers, it would be easier to forgive each other.

There is another place (vol. 1, pg. 442) where Trollope talks about people who act like a doormat, always giving way to others. He says that sometimes it is not that the person is shy or afraid of someone else with a more dominant personality. Sometimes the person is just so soft-hearted that they can't bear to cause anyone else discomfort or pain. They give up their own comfort or their own desires, because they have "an incapability of seeing or even thinking of the troubles of others with equanimity..." Such a great insight into this particular character's personality!

The plot mostly focuses on people swindling each other, grabbing for money or political power, lying about everything, or scheming to get married to someone. Out of all the marriages and engagements in the book (of which there are many), only four people actually wish to get married for love. Everyone else is grasping for money or status and using marriage as the means.

I can't say that I have a favorite character. By the end of the story, I was frustrated with everyone for making dumb choices. Even the good guys are not so smart in all their decisions, and I got annoyed with them at times. But I was never bored! I really cared about each of them and was fascinated with the intricacies of their relationships with each other.

The scope of the plot is colossal. There are so many different groups of people who are all connected by their acquaintances and family, and each action they take ends up affecting everyone through these networks of connections. And at the center of that web of lies is Mr. Melmotte, a colossal character himself.

I enjoyed this classic so much! I adore Trollope's writing and this is definitely one of his best works.

Nancy Drew is dead. She was tracking down the last remnants of a criminal gang, when her car ran off the road into a river. The Hardy brothers, Frank and Joe, are arguing about whether her car crash was accidental or whether they should be investigating her death. Nancy's ex-boyfriend, Ned, is now the new mayor of River Heights. Nancy's father, Carson Drew, is disgraced and unemployed. But it is the rich Bobbsey family and the Bobbsey twins, Freddie and Flo, who are definitely hiding something. As layer upon layer of the mystery unravels, everyone seems to have their own reasons for wanting Nancy dead, but who is actually responsible for her death?

This graphic novel is full of mystery! There is a secret drug cartel, an assassin hiding in plain sight, and shady deals behind every door. The plot takes a lot of twists and turns, and there is danger lurking everywhere.

I love that the nostalgia for old Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries is mixed in with the Bobbsey Twin characters and a lot of references from classic noir movies. Fun little Easter eggs are hidden throughout the story if you know where to look.

I really liked how the main characters band together through their adventures. They have to be careful who to trust, so their little group is very tightly connected. They always have each other's backs and are extremely loyal.

There is one instance of people using the word a**, but other than that it's a clean story with clean language.

I really liked the art work! The art style is perfect for the noir tone of the story.

The only thing that I didn't like was that the narrator kept changing between the two Hardy brothers and other characters. I would have preferred if there had been only one narrator. Although the boxes of the different narrator's words were in different colors to show whose head we were in, it was still not quite clear all the time, and it got confusing after awhile. It either should have been more clearly marked to show who the narrator was, or it should have just been one narrator for the whole story. However, it didn't ruin the story or anything. It was fine. I just get annoyed with multiple POVs.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

Working from home has its own list of benefits and troubles. It can be tempting to waste your time with distractions when you are at home and keep reaching for snacks in the kitchen. This book has advice for how to remain focused and succeed with a good working routine at home.

I really like that this book includes sections about eating healthfully, staying active, getting enough sleep, and taking care of your hygiene. There is a lot of excellent advice about mental health, and making sure you get enough social time with friends and don't get isolated at home. Working from home includes a lot more than just the actual work. It changes your entire life balance!

Some of the book was focused on employees of companies who work from home, and some was for employers who want their employees at home to succeed. I am self-employed, running my own business from home, so a lot of that did not apply to me. I also have clients come to my home, so I have a business space set aside in my home for meeting with clients. The book did not really offer any advice about that aspect of having a business in your home. It was mostly focused on communications through technology, which is also part of what I do, so some of it still applied. Overall, even the particular advice that did not apply to me was still excellent advice, and I could draw on the underlying principles to apply it to my particular situation.

I liked the writing style. It's concise and helpful, and the sections made it easy to follow each topic. It's well researched too! There are a bunch of different statistics that give you a broad picture of the struggles people have with working from home and how many industries are changing with new technology that makes it possible for more people to work from home.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.