5 Stars. This was absolutely amazing. I just grabbed this at the library because I remembered it was on my to-read list, but I had forgotten what it was about. Once I read the book jacket, I was so excited. I told my husband, "This sounds like a book I can sink my teeth into!" I wasn't disappointed. The best part about the book [...]
We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too! Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie's arms. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday. I don't read a lot of middle grade books. If my cousin recommends one to me, I read it and love it, but I don't generally seek them out. Luckily my cousin (or was it my aunt?) recommended The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. What a wonderful book! Five +++++ Stars! If you haven't read it, stop reading this and go pick it up now. Seriously. The heart of this heart-warming story is obviously Despereaux. He's a tiny mouse, even by mouse standards, with enormous ears. His heart and soul are enormous though. While other mice scuttle about in fear, Despereaux seeks adventure. On one of his journeys, he comes upon a book that begins with that well-loved phrase, "Once upon a time." Who can resist? Certainly not Despereaux. He reads the fairy tale and his gigantic imagination gains even more fuel. One day he meets Princess Pea, a sad little human princess. As fairy tale heroes do, he falls…
Lily Davis was only 17 when she married a boy she had known for a short time. He was shipping out to WWII soon as a supply man for Coca-Cola and it seemed like the thing to do before he went away. Three years later, her hometown of Toccoa, Georgia has scheduled a big homecoming party for all the returning soldiers, including parades and fireworks. Lily stumbles into Jake Russo, the fireworks man, as he's setting up his show and he opens up a world of possibilities for her. This just isn't my kind of book. I love the cover, I love that it's set at the end of World War II in a town that isn't that far from my own. I was a little afraid that it would have more in common with a Nicholas Sparks novel than I would like, but I took a chance on it anyway. As far as I'm concerned, it could have been written by Nicholas Sparks. Not that there's anything wrong with this book or anything that Sparks has written, it's just not my taste. Tell me that a book was "so good you cried for the last 50 pages," and I will avoid that book like the plague. Not for me. And that's the kind of book this is. I did like Lily. She's a headstrong woman living in a time and place where her opinions and actions are frowned upon. Her mother is trying to mold her into the perfect Southern matron, but Lily is chafing against that lifestyle. It's probably telling of my taste in books and Lily's character when I say that my favorite scene involved Lily assisting a black soldier passing through town. I liked Jake too. What a hottie with surprising depths! There's so much to him…
A Bit of Me(me) is hosted every Saturday at There's A Book. Every week, Danielle asks us a question that lets us get to know each other a little better. This week's question is: What is one thing you are really NOT good at? Oh, man, where do I start? :-) I'll go with the first thing that comes to mind: singing. (My husband just looked over my shoulder and said I should have gone with "getting up on time." That's true too, but I've already written this post.) Oh my gosh, I can't sing to save my life. It's odd because I'm really good with instruments (well, I was when I actually played them, but that hasn't happened since high school), but I am tone-deaf when it comes to singing. I love to sing alone in my car, I love to irritate the heck out of my family by singing "Happy Birthday" to them as loudly and badly as possible (so badly it takes talent to be that bad, I promise you), but to actually sound good? Not happening. Even if you know what song I'm trying to sing, you still can't recognize it. My husband and I both cringe when I have to attempt a "Humdinger" in the board game, Cranium. We both know he's not guessing the name of any song I try to hum. What's something YOU are not good at? I shared mine! Be sure to stop by There's A Book and see how other bloggers answered!
“Um, and what about ‘happily ever after’?” asked David, a little uncertainly. “What does that mean?” “Eaten quickly,” said Brother Number One. That should give you an idea what you’re up against with this novel. Twelve-year-old David finds himself in a fairytale kingdom one night, but this kingdom isn’t exactly the way he expected it would be after reading his favorite stories. I’m a sucker for fairy tale retellings, so I was biased in favor of this from the beginning. But this novel worked in several different ways. On the surface, it could just be read as a big adventure story/mash-up of a lot of the classic fairy tales. But David learns a lot about confronting his fears, jealousies, and all the worst parts of himself. I have to say that the tone was fairly dark throughout, so I really had no idea how everything was going to turn out in the end. There were funny moments, and Snow White’s part absolutely cracked me up. It was worth reading this for that scene alone! Apparently, some editions have some sort of appendix at the back with all the original fairy tales and how they were worked into the story. My copy, the blue one, for what it’s worth, doesn’t have any of that. I think it would definitely be worth it to look for the editions with the extra information. The red ones? I’m sure I got the obvious references, but there may have been some that I completely missed. I highly recommend this, especially if you like a well-written remake of fairy tales.
We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too! Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie's arms. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.My character this week is Olive Kitteridge from the Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name by Elizabeth Strout. Olive is a horrible person in a way. Notice I said person and not character. This is what I said about her in my review: Olive is obviously at the heart of this collection of stories. It's very easy for fictional characters to be all good or all bad. I had moments where I hated Olive, cheered her on, admired her, pitied her, and even loathed her. But if you look deeply inside all of us, isn't that the way we would really feel about everyone? We see Olive's warts, but we see that she's constantly learning, even as she ages. There's none of that business about old dogs and new tricks here. She changes and learns when she's ready to, and I think that's how we all are. Just when I would decide that there was no redeeming quality to this woman,…
Amy doesn't have a whole lot going for her in Seattle. She's just come out of a disastrous relationship and her friends don't believe her when she tells them how bad it was for her. She decides to try to get a fresh start by moving in with her great-aunt Mae in a little town called Rockville. Amy's been hurt so badly that it's hard for her to open up enough to even make friends. When she's out throwing sticks for the dog one day, Amy notices a band of fog at the back of the property that never goes away. She goes through the fog and meets Henry, a strangely-dressed boy who she immediately feels comfortable with. He becomes her only good friend in this little town, but no one seems to have ever even heard of him. I just loved this, and in a way I'm surprised. There are some fantasy elements here, but this is more of a love story and that is usually not my thing at all. No, now that I think about it, the romance wasn't even entirely the point. It's more about Amy getting past this huge hurt in her past and learning to take care of herself first. That is the kind of thing I like, and that's what the appeal was. Whew! I was afraid I was getting soft there for a minute! I obviously read my share of YA books, but I tend to stick to fantasy. In that genre, there are tons of "bad boys" that the heroines fall all over. Now, I like me a bad boy or two, but they can't be all bad, and some of these guys I've come across are all bad. You won't really find me bashing Edward, but I found Patch from…
Pam and Mark Walker are celebrating their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary by inviting their families to stay at their bed-and-breakfast for a week. As in all families, there are some underlying issues that make the prospect of spending a week together a bit...interesting. Luckily, the county fair is in town that week, so everyone has plenty to do, if Mark can just make it through all the various competitions intact! What a sweet book! Just what I needed. This is the fifth in a series. I haven't read the others, but I picked up on the story with no problems. There were a few serious underlying ideas, like redemption, a teen's need to fit in at any cost, those family issues, and how the sale of a large tract of land to the wrong person can change a community's character forever. Linking all of these together was the question of how responsible we are to each other. Mostly this was just a nice story with repaired family relationships, a community that looks out for everyone, and Mark's crazy antics to lighten everything up. Seriously, who enters a chainsaw art competition when they've never done anything like that before? Overseeing it all is the town's mascot, Hank, a plastic pink flamingo who longs to be an eagle. I loved the newspaper excerpts! They added a perfect little taste of small-town life. I have to say that the resolution to the angsty teen didn't feel drastic enough. I didn't quite buy it. But the whole book is more of an escape than anything, so it did fit with the tone of everything else. I also could have used a cast of characters. I lost track of who everyone was. This is where it might have helped if I'd read the books in the…
This review is full of spoilers if you don't know anything about Eleanor of Aquitaine. This is (obviously) the story of Eleanor of Aquitaine, from the time of her father's death to her divorce from whichever King Louis of France (that was never made clear). She plots to become Queen, goes on Crusade, and then divorces her weak, religious husband. This book was okay. I've heard of Eleanor, of course, but I didn't know much about her. I did learn some things, but the pacing of the book was all wrong for me. The part where she's trying to choose a husband who will help her hold her father's lands was pretty quick. All of a sudden, she was a queen. Then she was an unhappy, bored, unappreciated queen. That part dragged on and on. Then she went on Crusade with her husband, on his orders. This was actually pretty interesting. She meets the Emperor of Constantinople, she sees fighting, she discusses strategy with the local leaders, and then her husband grows a backbone, tells her he's doing everything his way, and she'll be quiet and like it. Flash forward about three years. We've read what feels like her every waking thought for the previous ten or so years, but just when it gets interesting and she starts to show what she's capable of, we just flash forward. I was disappointed. Then she gets divorced from the mostly spineless King Louis and outwits him to marry Henry Plantagenet. And they lived happily ever after? Who knows? This is where the author just decided to stop. For me, there was way too much of the parts I didn't care about and very little of the parts that were interesting. The character of Eleanor was very well-developed. I was interested in her…
Adrianne's father died a few years ago, leaving her and her sister, mother and aunt practically destitute. Adrianne blames herself for the family's misfortune. She works hard and tries her best to take care of everyone. One night, her younger sister runs out of the house and gets caught in a raging storm. Adrianne goes to the shore looking for her and finds her in the arms of a mermaid. The mermaid scratches up Adrianne's wrist but eventually lets Cecily go. This is only the beginning of Adrianne's entanglement with the mermaid. I really enjoyed this. It has the feel of a fairy tale, and is influenced by a few, but it was still something I truly enjoyed reading. But then, I'm a huge sucker for fairy tales. Adrianne is a great character. She's trying so hard to provide for her family, but she's only about 14 years old. Mistakes happen. She keeps trying and trying but she can't seem to catch a break. She's hopelessly in love with a boy who only has eyes for the village beauty, something that Adrianne in her dirt and rags will never be. She looks out for her sister, mothers her mom, and is a saint for putting up with her nasty aunt. She's a character that I would like to know. In fact, I wanted the story to go on just a little longer; I wanted to know what her life was going to look like in the future. I ripped through this book, but about 3/4 of the way through, the story got bogged down in description. If I were an author, I would have a hard time reining in the descriptors in a book like this too, but honestly, the story started to drag for me. I'm pretty good at…