Alison Reads

In this third book in a projected series of five, half-god half-mortal Percy and his friends search for missing Aphrodite, whom they must rescue within one short week before the winter solstice and an important meeting of the gods on Mount Olympus. As good as the first two. Now we’ll have to wait until the […]

The second of a projected series of five, this is a delightfully imaginative book about Percy, a half-god, half-mortal boy of 13. When Camp Half-Blood is threatened by the treachery of one of its campers, Percy and his friends go on a quest to rescue Zeus’s thunderbolt and restore the balance of power among the […]

[Of course I read this in the first few days, but I’m behind in reviewing.] This was an entirely satisfying end to the series. My husband was insufferable for having correctly predicted Snape’s role. I liked the whole book and the ending, but thought the epilogue was unnecessary.

Ginny’s eccentric artist aunt dies and leaves her 13 sealed envelopes. The first one tells her to fly to London alone with only a backpack and some cash. She is not to communicate with anyone in the US and is to open each envelope in turn and follow its instructions. She meets people her aunt […]

This is a wonderful retelling of the Grimm fairy tale about a princess who becomes a goose girl and eventually regains her crown. At the age of 17, Princess Anidori-Kiladra (Ani for short) is betrothed to the crown prince of the neighboring kingdom. She and her servants set off on a four-month journey through the […]

The fourth and last of the “Sisterhood of the traveling pants” series. The girls are now 19, the summer after their freshman year in college. Carmen goes to drama camp, Bridget joins an archaelogical dig in Turkey, Lena takes art classes, and Tibby stays in New York. I didn’t like the constant switches from one […]

Nine-year-old David’s mother has recently died in a fall at work and he has gone to live with his grandmother, seeing his father only on weekends. Thirteen-year-old Primrose lives with, but despises, her flaky fortune-teller mother. They become friends, sneeking out each night for adventures. Over the course of a summer they heal from their […]

Parallel stories of two boys abandoned by their fathers told in spare blank verse. One story is the biblical one of Ishmael and the other is about modernday Sam, whose father has a new wife and son. Both boys rely on their faith in God to help them adjust to their new status. A quick […]

Sixth-grader Percy Jackson discovers that he is a demigod (father a Greek god, mother a mortal). He escapes several killers and arrives at Camp Half-Breed, where he is assigned a quest to find Zeus’s missing thunderbolt. He and two friends, a satyr and Athena’s daughter, go on a cross-country trip, dodging enemies and descending into […]

I first read this book in one marathon session the night it came out. I didn’t retain much of what I read, so I decided to listen to it in order to be ready for the next book. For the two people in the world who don’t know, this is the 6th of 7 Harry […]