The Necromancer's House

One of the ways I pick out library books is to stand next to the "new" shelf at the Dakota County Library and peruse by cover and title.  Not a particularly good way to select books, but I've modified it a bit to ensure a better success rate:

1. Look at the books...
2. Is there an author I recognize - take a look.  Maybe I want it.
3. Does it look interesting even if it's not an author I want?
3a. Look it up on my smart phone - what are the ratings?
3b. Ratings look good?  Check it out, take it home.
3c. Check the reviews at home - is the rating better than skin deep?
4a. If not, take it back to the library.
4b. If it is (or I checked it out via step #2).  Read it.

I find some things I wouldn't otherwise get my hands on that way.

That's how I ended up reading The Necromancer's House by Christopher Buehlman.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and I recommend it to Mean Mr. Mustard who was the person who recommended The Magicians to me.  He described The Magicians as Harry Potter for Grown Ups (I'm excited to see the third one is coming out end of this year).  The Necromancer's House fits squarely in that genre.  At first the writing put me off a bit because it seemed pretentious.  But the more I read, the more that style was an absolute fit for the main character, Andrew Ranulf Blankenship.  The writing was sharp, smart, sometimes challenging, often witty, didn't pull punches in any manner (definitely not a book Eryn can read despite my new rule that she can pretty much read whatever her library card will give her access to, including shopping female werewolves who have "hot sex" - I just refuse to recommend this one to her, so she'll never find it on her own), and was fast.  Very different from many things I've read in writing style.  An excellent and relatable Russian mythological/folktale base to book.

For Amelie - A Magic Show!

Eryn wanted to do a magic show for Amelie. After discovering Eagle Magic Store was now just down the road from Tesseract, we've been there twice to visit and pick up a few items Eryn can play with. I think Eagle runs a little on the expensive side, compared to purchasing items off the internet, but Larry's very good about giving a demo and teaching Eryn some patter while we're there, as well as suggesting appropriate items depending on what she wants to do.

So without further ado, Eryn presents the following for her cousins.

The Handkerchief:


And, The Coloring Book: