My Brother is Dead

My beloved brother passed away suddenly at the age of 38 from a sudden cardiac arrest. He leaves behind his parents, his sister, his wife and his toddler.

These things shouldn’t happen – but they do.

May his memory be blessed.

יהי זכרו ברוך

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Thoughts on the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations

I really, really, really, really, really, really, really hope they work this time.

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The Lost Hero – Rick Riordan

It has been said before that I have the literary taste of a teenage boy. This is because I like adventure and fantasy, which is considered “not serious” literature (and Nora Roberts is?). However, I find nothing wrong with that, and this way I get to swap books with the neighbor and the neighbor’s son 😉

This book I actually got from the library (from the teen section). And it is awesome. It tells the tale of three teenagers who discover that they are demigods, of the Greek mythology type. So you’ve got teenagers with awesome powers who need to save the world. What could be bad? And even though the plot sounds old and worn, Rick Riordan manages to make it sparkling new. I’ve read so many books that try to emulate this plot with mediocre success (Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle comes to mind 😕 ). This one managed to be suspenseful yet funny, icky yet still compassionate. It made me laugh out loud. So I’ve signed on for another series of fantasy books…

Apparently, I’ve signed on for two or more series, as this is not Rick Riordan’s first series of fantasy books. I saw that the rest were of the same type: One series precedes this, and it should be interesting; another series explores Egyptian mythology instead. Definitely reading them 🙂  Rick Riordan also has an adult series, but it isn’t fantasy – it’s thrillers. Based on some of the reviews I assume it will be violent, so probably not going to try them. But anything else of his is going down in my reading list.

5 stars. Caveat: This is teen fiction. Expect teen language and potty humour.

* Only after I read it twice, it occurred to me that the the main character is a serious, moral and brave boy; whose best friend is intelligent yet comic; and their friend is a girl who is well read and yet quietly beautiful, and all of them have magical powers. But this is where the similarity ends. The entire feel of the story is completely different from the Harry Potter books, from the language to the atmosphere to the suspense. But maybe the ideal set of characters for a YA book has been found 😀

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