Leonardo’s shadow is an interesting book about Leonardo da Vinci’s servant.

It’s set in the 1400s, when Da Vinci is painting The Last Supper in Milan. Basically, Leonardo is working on his flying device instead of the painting…and racking up huge debts.

There’s plenty of funny dialog, a bit of action, and the hilarious thoughts of the servant (the book is written in a hybrid first-person style).

Leonardo’s Shadow is interesting, thought-provoking, and enjoyable to read. I’d recommend reading it. If your local library has it, try it. If you have something to say about it, fell free to comment.

Just because it’s labeled as a “children’s book” doesn’t mean it isn’t good. In my experiences, “children’s books” are better.

Look at Harry Potter. Though it’s tagged as a “children’s book,” it’s without a doubt my favorite series. After the last book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, would you seriously consider it a “children’s book”? When the seventh book comes out, you really won’t consider it a “children’s book”.  Seriously.

Plenty of books bridge the gap between “children’s books” and others. Take a look at Terrier or Trickster’s Queen by Tamora Pierce. If I didn’t tell you what the publishers classified them as, would you honestly guess correctly? The same goes for the Harry Potter series. The first couple of books may have been written at a lower level, but they went uphill pretty quick.

Please. “Children’s books” are the sort of books 1-10 year olds read. I think the term needs some revision. In recent years, new markets have sprung up in the publishing industry.

Just because it’s considered a “children’s book” doesn’t mean it isn’t good. Ignore the classification, read the book anyway.

Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen are more fantasy books by Tamora Pierce. They are…different from the rest of her books, though.

In a typical book by Tamora Pierce, the main character is focused on attaining some goal, relentlessly plowing through the plotline. In these two books, however, the heroine is more easygoing…and funnier. The storyline is no less serious than any of Pierce’s other books. It’s more serious if anything. Seeing as the character, Aly of Pirate’s Swoop, is a Spy rather than an aspiring knight/mage/whatever, it makes more sense.

The two books detail the rebellion of the native people of the Copper Isles (Aly is actually from the nearby country of Tortall, though she ends up in the Copper Isles). Three hundred years previously, the patron god of the Isles was ousted, and simultaneously the Isles’ rulers were overthrown. In the present day Copper Isles, a rebellion has started…the head spy for the operation being Aly of Pirate’s Swoop.

The books are well written and interesting, though they do take longer to read than the rest of the author’s books. Tamora Pierce has improved remarkably as an author, going from the somewhat childish Song of the Lioness series to current works like Trickster and Terrier.

The Leaky Cauldron has made yet another countdown to the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (to be released July 21). The new countdown features a rotating Deathly Hallows book and a daily trivia question. Other countdowns can be found on The Leaky Cauldron Countdown Page and The Site of Requirement Countdowns Page.

Cell: A Novel is the only book I’ve read by Steven King so far. So far, it’s the best book of his I’ve read.

In Cell, an odd happening called The Pulse (a wave sent through cellphones to their users). Basically what The Pulse did was erase all the cellphone users’ brains. Scary?

The book details the survival of a small group of people who weren’t Pulsed because they didn’t have cellphones. By survival I mean “running from insane ‘Phoners’.” Eventually th Phoners started to develop a sort of single mind resembling that of an ant colony. “Survival” is a broad term including most of the book.

Though a little…odd, it was a good book. Even though it’s really hard to describe (this is my third time trying to write this review), it’s still good. The book got going with the main plot really fast. There were only a few pages before the Pulse happened. Judging by what I’ve heard from other people, this must be one of his less-scary books.

By the way… I don’t have a cellphone (and neither does Steven King).

In 1968, a book by Anne McCaffrey known as Dragonflight was published. It was derived from s short story she published earlier on called “Weyr Search”. Dragonflight was followed by two more called Dragonquest and The White Dragon. Today there are over 20 books in the Dragonrider’s of Pern series, the latest two being co-written by her son Todd McCaffrey.

A brief history of Pern:

A few decades ahead of today (I want to say in the 2040s, but I don’t remember), a group of people are sent to colonize a planet known as P.E.R.N. They come in three spacecraft and settle there, with no way to return due to the fuel capacity of the ships.

Eventually trouble begins. Thread, an omnivorous fungus-type thing, starts to fall from the sky. It came from a cloud trailing an erratically orbiting planet (dubbed “The Red Star” by Pern’s inhabitants). Thread dissolves/eats pretty much anything carbon based, so the only safe places from it are caves, buildings made from non-carbon plastics, and underwater (not a good option). Fire burns the Thread, killing it. Unfortunately, Thread can’t be allowed to touch the ground. It starts eating the plant matter and animals, multiplying and burrowing into the ground as it does so.

To combat the Thread, the colonists (a large group of farmers, scientists, builders, geneticists, etc) at first use HNO3 devices in combination with “hoversleds” to char the Thread before it hit the ground. They continued to do this while their geneticists looked to a better solution.

Based off a native species known as a “Fire Lizard”, the Pernese created dragons. They were telepathic and could breathe fire after eating phosphine-bearing rocks. This proved to be the solution they needed until the Thread stopped.

The Thread did stop after a few decades, but it started again after. It turned out that the Red Star reliably passed by Pern on a regular basis.

Dragonriders of Pern is almost certainly my favorite Sci-Fi series. I haven’t yet found a Sci-Fi book, other than Dragonriders, that was this good. Dragonriders is very realistic as you read it (very believable), and unlike other Sci-Fi books it isn’t bleh. The complex storyline unfolds over the large number of books, ending in…well I won’t spoil it. Give it a try.