reviews: the mummy iii; cheaper by the dozen; the book of imaginary beasts (bk. 9)

The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: in which there isn't a mummy (or dragons, I think, although I stopped paying attention about 20 minutes in) or anything else of interest, except perhaps the surprise!yetis. The best part was the opening bit with Rick (the hero, who fought the same mummy twice) trying and failing to fly-fish. Everything after that felt very write-by-number; but I must admit that I spent most of the movie doing stuff on my laptop. I know there was an avalanche at some point, and the yetis, and a battle or something, and maybe an attempted romance, but quite frankly, the characters were so wooden and the story so . . . nonexistent that I just didn't care. A few good quips and some decent CGI simply weren't enough to make me want the characters to survive. (I kind of wished everyone had died in the avalanche so that we could watch something else that was actually interesting.)

Cheaper By the Dozen (the book, not the movie): in which there are twelve kids and two efficiency engineers for parents. Er. Two parents who are efficiency engineers. Yes. Fun. Lots and lots of fun. Um. The best part is that it really happened. Honestly, this is a case where reality kicks fiction up and down the block several times. (All I remember about the Steve Martin movie is that it's forgettable. And there was maybe football at some point or something.) I mean, they had a light house for a summer home and their dad taught them Morse code by writing things on the walls and their car was named Foolish Carriage and this book is awesome and that is all.

imaginarybeasts: book 9: steampunk
The Right-Hand Rule: I love the sense of hope and determination that runs through the whole story, although I have no idea what the title has to do with anything
The Windskipper: SO AWESOME. Honestly. I wish it were a bazillion times longer, because then there would be more of it for me to love.
The Engineers' Elephant: exactly what it says on the tin and utterly utterly marvelous and must be read now. Yes, really. Now. Why are you still here?