H.P. Lovecraft's Book of the Supernatural: Classic Tales of the Macabre: 2 Stars

H.P. Lovecraft's Book of the Supernatural edited by Stephen Jones

H.P. Lovecraft, often considered the king of horror, put together a bunch of his favorite supernatural tales that eventually ended up in a book. These stories ranged for the scary to the bizarre. Some of the tales were well known wives' tales and others were scarce stories. I am not sure how he found all of these tales, but they were all very different and unique. 

Considering the one who chose the stories, I was rather disappointed. They were, for lack of a better word, boring. I found very few of them even mildly intriguing. Perhaps these tales were better in a different time, but I was not impressed.

One interesting thing about this book is that the audiobook had several different readers.  One of the readers was Bronson Pinchot.  He did an excellent job of reading, although I was somewhat disappointed he didn't use the voice of Balki from Perfect Strangers.   

Rating: PG

Recommended for those who enjoy: mildly scary, short stories, and thrillers.

The Lost Hero: 4 Stars

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

I promised someone I would get all caught up on this series before the final book came out in October. This is the first book in the second Percy Jackson series, The Heroes of Olympus.  

Thinking that this was like the previous Percy Jackson series, I was shocked to find one thing missing from this book: Percy! As it turns out, the "Lost Hero" of The Lost Hero is indeed Percy and Annabeth is searching for him.  But Annabeth is not alone. Annabeth discovers three unknown demigods in the world and wonders why they were not claimed by their parents before. First, there's Jason, who has no recollection of who he is or where he came from. Then there is Piper, Jason's girlfriend, or so she thought, but with his missing memory, it looks like that may be a lie. And finally there is Leo, Jason's best friend with a sense of humor and dark past. The question is, where did these three come from and where is Percy? 

Considering I am not much of a series reader and this is the second series for the same character, I was shocked to realize that I liked this book more than all of the first series. Not only are Percy and Annabeth older and more mature (making it far more enjoyable for me to read), but the addition of Leo was well done. It took about half of the book before I knew that Leo was going to be my favorite character of the entire Percy Jackson world. He's clever, funny, and loyal. He's a brilliant side character with excellent character development and a deep past that makes him so much more then just the goofy sidekick. 

Well done Riordan! 

Rating: PG

Recommended for those who enjoy: action, adventure, humor, and mythology.

Top Ten Book Characters That Would Be Sitting At My Lunch Table

It's time for Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and The Bookish! 

This week's theme is back to school oriented with:  Top Ten Book Characters That Would Be Sitting At My Lunch Table

I decided to pick characters based on who I would have wanted to hang out with in high school, rather than now, because, you know, I don't sit at a lunch table anymore. But as an added bonus, I decided to include a picture of myself in high school with my best friend, who made sitting at lunch all the more fun. 

Me and my best friend on our way to greet our dates for prom

Without further ado, here is my list:

1. Fred and George Weasley from Harry Potter: I realize that these are two people, but how much more fun would high school have been with these two hanging around? 

2. Daniel from The Shadow of the Wind: I want to be his friend so he'll take me to the Cemetary of Books; is that shallow? 

3. Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird: She'd be loyal to a fault and always tell you the truth.  You can't ask for more than that.

4. Craig from It's Kind of a Funny Story: I think he and I would've gotten along well in high school because we had a lot in common.

5. Mattie from True Grit:  She had spunk and that would've made for a fun friendship.

6. Leo from the Heroes of Olympus series: He is funny and genuine.  Plus the whole fire and speaking to machines thing may have come in handy.

7. Jasper from I Hunt Killers:  Since his dad is a serial killer, he would be a good friend to have around. Who wants to mess with him?

8. Pat from Silver Linings Playbook: Maybe if he and I were friends, we could have been there for each other and I could have helped prevent his later break down.

9. Zelda from Z:  Because she's awesome. She'd be so much fun and keep me on my toes!

10. Veronica Mars from Veronica Mars: Ok, so I am actually thinking of the high school Veronica from the TV series, but seriously, she would be a very handy friend to have around because if anything bad happened, she'd get to the bottom of it and then seek revenge on the foes.