Cursor's Fury

Cursor's Fury (Codex Alera #3)

Jim Butcher, 2006

In the world of Alera, everyone has some form of furycrafting, which allows for abilities such as faster healing, longer endurance, better swordfighting, and other. Those with more powerful abilities can even being the elements to life, developing a small amount of control over one aspect of nature. Everyone comes into their crafting abilities by age 13 - everyone except Tavi, who has no crafting skills at all. Because of this, Tavi - who in this book is undercover in one of the fighting legions - has to find a way to keep his identity hidden while at the same time doing what needs to be done without the abilities that others possess. In another area of the realm, the First Lord's reign is threatened, a mysterious enemy's existence is questioned, and a war begins. 

Out of the three Codex Alera books I've read so far, this one was definitely my favorite. There was a ton of action in this one, one storyline featuring Tavi and the ever-likable Max, the second centering around most of the other characters, including Amara, Bernard, and a number of questionable allies. I also really liked the way that Tavi's character is developing and can't wait to see where his story goes. In addition, we're finally given information in this book on Tavi's parents and how the heck Fade fits in to this whole mess. 

A great addition to the series and I look forward to following these characters through the last three books.

This Time Together

This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection

Carol Burnett, 2010

Not so much a memoir and more a collection of stories and anecdotes, this book brings together stories about the life of Carol Burnett, both her attempts to break into show business and her life in the spotlight. 

(Side note: The audiobook is read by the actress, and is therefore highly recommended, if only for the Tarzan yell.)

I love Carol Burnett. I used to watch her comedy show in re-runs all the time when I was younger and I can rarely remember ever laughing as hard as I did when I watched her show.  So I was excited to find out about her more as a person as well as listening to stories about what life was like filming the show. 

I wasn't disappointed. I thought that Burnett was funny and she seemed honest in the stories she told. At times I found it a little amusing that whenever she would talk about actors or singers that she worked with they always ended up being long-time friends, but honestly, I think if I ever met her I'd want to be her best friend, too. I'm glad I picked this one up and was able to find out a little more about one of my favorite performers. Now I just want to sit in front of my computer and pull up re-runs and blooper reels of The Carol Burnett Show on YouTube....

UnWholly

UnWholly (Unwind Trilogy #2)

Neal Shusterman, 2012

In this world, first established in Unwind, abortion is illegal. However, parents can decide on retroactive abortion for teens. For troublesome teenagers or orphans in group homes, anyone from the ages of 13 to 17 can be 'unwound' - the teens are not killed, but are broken down into individual parts and transplanted into those who need their organs. This is called a 'divided state' and is supposed to be a good thing - you know, except for those who are selected to be unwound. After one of the Harvest Camps was destroyed by runaway unwinds in the last book, a new law was put into place that 17-year-olds could not be unwound and a number of runaways have set up a safe haven at an old airplane graveyard. But things are not all good. Connor, the leader of the Graveyard, is trying to keep everyone safe and alive while worrying that they could be raided at any minute. And a new character, Cam, emerges, who puts a whole new spin on what unwinding can create.

I wasn't sure how I felt about this book when it first started, because I thought that Unwind did a decent enough job with the story that a trilogy wasn't absolutely necessary, and I wasn't sure what this book had left to cover. Despite a somewhat slow beginning, however, this one ended up being, in my opinion, better than the first book. I loved the characters in this book - the old characters were better developed and the new characters were really interesting and/or I wanted to punch them in the face (because they were written to be evil bastards). I also loved the direction the plot took. Can't wait to see what happens in the next book.