What I read in the Outer Banks

The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In this installment of the Percy Jackson series, Percy must rescue his friend Annabeth from the clutches of the power hungry Kronos. He teams up with many old and new characters in his quest which takes him across the United States. This book is just as entertaining as the ones before it. The series is thoroughly enjoyable and readable. I love that Riordan does not really water down a lot of the violence. People die in this book and sometimes they are the wrong people. Some of the good guys go down and some of the bad guys don't. It's very real but still very kid friendly.




The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In this book, Percy Jackson and his friends must navigate through Deadalus's underground labyrinth to stop the Titan Lord Kronos from invading their precious Camp Half-Blood. The growing tension and danger is obvious in this book. Kronos is getting closer and the heroes' actions are getting more desperate but they are also getting stronger. This is an interesting series because the books usually take place over a very action-packed week or so. The next book then usually picks up about a year later so the reader does not witness all the growing up the characters go through. The characters grow nonetheless and it truly becomes obvious in this book that they are no longer children just getting immensely lucky (although Percy has a knack for getting immensely lucky).




The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In this final book in the Percy Jackson series (though not Riordan's final book, thank goodness) the evil forces have descended fully upon the United States. The gods battle in the Midwest while the young demi-gods take their fight directly to New York City, the ultimate destination of the monsters and Titans. My first impression while I was reading this book was how wonderfully competent Percy had grown to be. At the very beginning of the book it becomes obvious that he is no longer relying on luck or assistance from those more capable than he is. Now he is the capable one. I read these books in quick succession, especially the last three. This changed how I experienced them, as compared to books I've had to wait for like the Harry Potter books. At times I was a little surprised at how much the characters had grown but I had to remind myself that time had passed and they had had time to plan and develop their skills. I loved this entire series, have recommended it to others, and will continue to recommend it as long as people will listen to me!




Great Classic Stories 3 by Various

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I listened to this collection while falling asleep every night and many nights I was sleeping before the story had ended so it took a long time to get through this playaway. Even so, I really enjoyed it. The stories are entertaining and I had not heard or read any of them before except "The Cheshire Cat" which really isn't that surprising since the number of short stories I read is very low. The narrators for this collection are also excellent. A couple of the tracks had some sort of interference in the sound and it created a buzzing sound under the narrator's voice. I didn't even finish "The Cheshire Cat" because the buzzing was so annoying. I don't remember which other story I noticed it on because it wasn't too bad and didn't really affect my enjoyment of the story.




It was pretty much a Percy Jackson love-fest for me last week. I am all about Rick Riordan right now but I'm hesitant to read his new series (there are 2 new ones!) because only the first two books have been published. I don't want to read one and then be restless for a whole year for the next one. I played that game with Harry Potter and it made me angsty. Of course, I'm thankful that I had that experience with the Harry Potter series because I think it added something to the wonderful mystique of it but that was a once in a lifetime thing. I don't think the world will see anything like Harry Potter again for a long, long time.