The Sign of the Twisted Candles (Nancy Drew #9) - Carolyn Keene

Nancy Drew needs no introduction! But I will say my daughter picked this one and #10 up thrifting one day, and I'm in charge of reading them now.

Asa Sidney is an old man celebrating his 100th birthday. The people running his inn are stealing from him, and their foster child is suffering from ill treatment. But Nancy is on the case to uncover the secrets of the inn and help shield the old man from the greedy people around him.

This Nancy Drew was a bit sadder than some of the others. My old dude passed on, but at least they never suspected murder. I think if it was a Hardy Boys, that would definitely have been on the table. I never understood the spat between the girls. It seemed petty and weird. Carol was overly fragile and kept fainting all over the place.

Once my old man left, I didn't like this one as much. They were finding his treasure, but what good did it do him? Making the thieves pay didn't help him anymore, and any secrets regarding the girl were useless to him. I mean, hooray for Nancy solving the mystery and putting her life on the line by climbing a ladder, but I was Team Asa. Sorry Nancy. I wanted more twisted candles!

Sea of Swords (Paths of Darkness #3) - R. A. Salvatore

This is wrapping up the trilogy.

Wulfgar is going to decide whether he wants to reunite with his friends and find Aegis-fang the warhammer. Drizzt and friends are seeking him by trying to locate the pirate Sheila Kree and her winter hiding spot. What the group doesn't realize is that there's an elf that is tracking Drizzt and will do anything to fight him.

This book was interesting in that it made me think it wasn't going to get everything wrapped up by the end. I kept getting closer to the end and thinking there was too much left and not enough time to resolve everything. But the end came, and everything got wrapped up. There are things I can see explored in the future, and we'll see what the next series brings. As usual, good writing, good character progression, fun story. Good Book!

The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes - Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr

This was another book my daughter wanted me to read. It was unusual, since it takes "stray" sentences from Sherlock stories and turns them into full events. There are twelve stories in the book, with half being written by both authors, and the other six being written solely by Doyle. Adrian is Arthur Conan Doyle's son.

Each story was easy to read, and you could've told me they were written by Arthur, and I would've believed you. They were clever and fit into the world of Sherlock Holmes really well.

Adrian himself was a bit of a character. He was a race car driver, big game hunter and writer. He was even granted his own coat of arms! From the sounds of it, he was interested in keeping his father's image intact after Arthur's death, so it's no wonder he was interested in expanding Sherlock's lore.

If you like Sherlock, I think these are worth checking out. You can read one of them if you have some time, and they aren't connected. I appreciated that they added the reference to the original sentence at the end, so I knew what inspired the story. Great imagination! Good Book!

Vagabond (manga series) - Takehiko Inoue

Full disclosure - I did not make it through this entire series. I only read through volume 11 out of 37. The manga itself is based off the novel "Musashi" by Eiji Yoshikawa. The theme of the manga is a fictionalized account of the life of Miyamoto Musashi, a Japanese swordsman. Coincidentally, I started reading this around the time one of my favorite bands, Sabaton, released the song The Duelist, which is about Musashi. Pretty cool!

So I pretty much already said what this was about. In the first 11 volumes, I saw Takezo (his original name) go around fighting people. He meets up with warriors and also people from his past. But for me, this manga dragged a bit too much. There were a lot of panels where nothing really happened, and in general, I wasn't as interested in the story as I thought I was going to be.

I wouldn't say this was boring. The pace was just too slow and didn't appeal to me personally. I'll move on to something else.

Smoky-House - Elizabeth Goudge

Earlier this month, we were in San Diego for a conference. While my husband spent the day at the convention center, I spent a couple days wandering the streets trying to find something cool to bring home. I actually went to a bookstore, but it was California prices ($5 for used Hardy Boys books is insane!), but I did find my jam in a comic book store. They had a bookshelf of oddball paperbacks, and I ended up bringing home five books from them.

The summary for this one is basically a Fiddler comes to Faraway and threatens the ideal life the villagers lead. The children have to save everyone, but they won't be able to do it without the help of their two dogs, Spot and Sausage, and their donkey, Mathilda. It's also going to take a bit of magic!

This book was not what I was expecting. It reminded me a bit of Narnia, with the talking animals, but the people couldn't understand the animals. I loved the magical elements, and the free traders. There's little bits of wisdom in there, and the end was super sweet.

When I picked this up, I thought the cover and the summary were strange and goofy. The inside turned out to be a pretty good book! It was unusual and entertaining all at the same time! I don't see it available in digital form, and I think that's a shame. I think it would be a neat book for kids. At least it could've been back when kids read adventure stories. I'm not as sure about today. Good Book! 

Dr. Stone #2 - Riichiro Inagaki

I read the first volume of this last June and decided I needed to put it on my list. I also recently got a chance to check out a few of the manga I was interested in on Netflix (in anime form), and I checked out Dr. Stone. I found Taiju a bit much. He's very high energy in the manga, which is fine, but listening to him shout all the time on the show was too much for me. I decided reading the manga might be a better idea.

In this second volume, the fight against Tsukasa continues. Also, there are more people alive, and Senku and the others want to meet up with them before Tsukasa gets to them. Gunpowder is the key, but will it be enough to stop such a strong opponent?

This story just doesn't stop impressing me. I love the science used, but I'm such a nerd, that's not surprising. I love the way it's used and the way Senku thinks multiple steps ahead. I'm a bit jealous of that. I've never been good at that, which is why I suck at chess.

I'm ready to dive into more of this, but I haven't quite decided how I want to do it. With Berserk, it was easy to break it up into one tome a month, but these are smaller, and there are more of them. I'm going to put some thought into it and see what I come up with. One thing's for sure - there's more Dr. Stone in my future! Get Excited! Good Manga!

The Spine of the World (Paths of Darkness #2) - R. A. Salvatore

The saga of Drizzt's friend, Wulfgar, continues in this book. It mainly focused on Wulfgar and a young woman named Meralda.

Wulfgar is still struggling with his demons and ends up in Luskan. He's basically a bouncer for an inn and has become a violent drunk. He's picked up the attention of some pretty shady characters in town, and that's going to upset his plans to stay in a drunken stupor.

In a nearby fiefdom, Meralda has caught the eye of the Lord Feringal. She's madly in love with a local boy, Jaka. When she's faced with the choice between the two men, she has to choose duty over love. Her mother's life is on the line. But Wulfgar gets caught up in the middle of her mess.

At the end, Wulfgar has a couple new ladies (one is older than the other) coming with him to Waterdeep. They're looking to find the Sea Sprite and track down something important that's been taken from Wulfgar.

While this book focused on Wulfgar, I still liked it. I was curious how Meralda was going to become relevant to the story, but I never doubted that she would. I'm looking forward to the third and final book in the trilogy, Sea of Swords. Good Book!