The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

This is Book 2 of the Percy Jackson series. I am reading the series with my 10 year old son, so we are reading it out loud, alternating every chapter (or couple of pages, depending on the evening). I am starting to really like the main characters, Percy, Tyson, Annabeth, Chiron and Grover. I am still not as invested as I was in the Harry Potter series, but I am enjoying it. I would guess that the farther we get into the series, my investment will grow however. It usually does with series of books.

The prophecy is what intrigues me the most of course. I assume that Percy is the the half-blood, or demi-god, that the prophecy refers to, but introducing Thalia into the mix gives it an interesting twist. She also, being the daughter of one of the Big Three, Zeus, could be the demi-god referred to in the prophecy. I am not sure how old she is (yet), but Percy has a couple of years before he turns 16 years old. I did like reading about the Sirens - and Annabeth's desire to hear them without killing herself, as well as the island of the Cyclops. I really don't remember much of Greek mythology at all, so I have been entertained reading about each god or monster and the characteristics which make them unique.

It also doesn't hurt that some parts are funny. Tyson is a character. He shows his "youth" by the comments he makes and the way he looks up to Percy as a "big" brother. The story actually takes place in the United States. Mortals cannot be killed by the weapons of the gods & monsters; and the gods & monsters can't be killed by mere mortals. Of course Percy is both, so he can find himself in dangerous positions as half mortal, half god. This story takes place in New York and Miami, which is weird if you think about it! Anyway, Percy & gang is able to accomplish their quest - or actually Clarisse's quest - to recover the golden fleece, which was the main goal of Book Two. They needed the golden fleece to stop the poison from killing Thalia's tree. The ultimate goal of the series however is to save Mount Olympus from the titan Kronos, who we discover is Chiron's father. (Luke/Darth Vader similarities anyone?)

Wendy's Rating: ****

The Language of Sand by Ellen Block

This is a story about grief, how to work through it and get beyond it so that you can maintain a life on the other side of losing someone you love. At the end of this book, Abigail, who is a lexicographer by profession, is stuck between the objectivity of the word "grief" and her own feelings of grief. On page 242: Dictionaries were intended to be impartial and exact, yet the act of defining a word reflected the passions and prejudices of the definer. A dictionary is supposed to be beyond subjectivity, yet the best dictionaries had come from those with the strongest personalities, the zealots and idealist who sought to teach and to preach, to politicize and to moralize. Abigail could try to be objective about her grief and acknowledge it for what it was, or she could define it by her own biases and feel it as it came.

Abigail leaves her home to become the lighthouse caretaker on Chapel Isle. She isn't as much running from her grief as she is searching for comfort in a place that her husband treasured. It's a huge change for her, to say the least. I like how she stuck it out, despite the "lighthouse ghost", the island thief, the hostility shown towards her by some of the islanders. There were some unique personalities on Chapel Isle, some of them dealing with their own grief. I thought they were very helpful to Abigail in the end. Abigail will never be "Abigail the Boston lexicographer" again, the way she was before the fire. After spending time on the island though, with it's eclectic population, she is able to re-invent herself into "Abby the lexicographer who reads romance novels and tends a broken down lighthouse".

I didn't really like or understand the story surrounding Sheriff Larner. It's the only element of the story that doesn't sit right with me. I get that Abigail doesn't report him because she wants him to let Nat go, but Sheriff Larner was in the wrong and Nat wasn't. So why can't the truth prevail over all? I am glad that Nat was released, but Sheriff Larner should have gotten what he deserved.

I sensed a relationship growing between Abigail and Nat, but I am glad that there was still so much distance between them in the end. Abigail needs to spend her time grieving, and although Nat isn't as rough around the corner as perceived by many, I didn't want the author to slap a relationship on them in this book. It does say that she is writing a sequel to this book though.... Of course this book was published in 2010, so if she wrote it, I am sure it's out there. I will have to research that. I would read it too.

Wendy's Rating: ****

The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian

I really like this author. I have only read a few of his books, but I have decided I need to read more of them. They are mysterious, yet not like a "murder mystery" or anything like that. His characters have some sort of disorder, mental health issue or just something "internal" going on - at least in the books I have read. It makes the stories very intriguing and unpredictable.

I did not know very much about parasomnia. I know that some people sleepwalk, but I didn't realize how dangerous it can be. It was hard to know who to trust; who to believe in this story. I thought the journal entries (the paragraphs in italics between each chapter) were incredibly informative about the writer's "journey" as a sleepwalker. Of course I thought I knew who was writing the entries. It was just one thing that I had wrong! I also didn't realize that sleepwalking could be "contained" or a sleepwalker could go into a sort of remission through the use of medication. Yet another use of Clonazepam. Who knew?

I didn't know what to think of Gavin Rikert. I didn't trust him, but I wanted to. I just wasn't sure if he was telling Lianna the truth about his relationship with Annalee. I didn't understand what had interrupted his relationship with Annalee if he wasn't initially involved with her sexually. Yet, I wanted to believe that he was telling Lianna the truth about that. Lianna obviously was falling in love with him, so I didn't want her to be involved with someone that may have been involved the death of her mother. In the end, Gavin was in-tangled in ways I did not predict. I was definitely worried about Lianna spending the night with Gavin! I thought it was interesting that Lianna figured out a way to "manage" Gavin's sleep-sex.

I felt sorry for Lianna's father. First he has a sleep-sex sleepwalker for a wife. He had to deal with the sleep-sex, but also Annalee finding what she needed whenever he was out of town. I would not like to know that my spouse was having sleep-sex with anyone else, that's for sure. He must have loved her a lot to put up with that. Lianna's wonders about her father being the biological father of her sister. I was so happy that in the end she realizes that her sister is her father's daughter, regardless of who contributed the sperm. 

So, I learned a lot about sleepwalking, SRV, SBS and how a polysomnogram works. I learned that I am glad I am not a sleepwalker and that no one in my family is!

Wendy's Rating: ****