The Prince of the Pond

The Prince of the Pond by Donna Jo Napoli, illustrated by Judith Byron Schachner

This is a retelling of The Frog Prince. Napoli has many other enchanting fairytale retellings, so I thought this was worth a try.
De Fawg Pin (The Frog Prince..........has a severe speech disorder since he isn't used to talking with such a huge froggy tongue) is found by a girl frog, just after he has been turned into a frog by the hag.
The story is told by the girl frog (eventually named Jade). She is a rather smart frog and takes Pin under her wing (frog leg) since he seems not to know anything about being a frog. She teaches him to hop, swim and eat! Pin also learns that frogs usually don't help each other. They are a happy species but not helpful. Things begin to change when Jade realizes that she really likes Pin. They make a ton of tadpoles, which Pin convinces Jade they need to care for........highly unusual for a frog to do..........once you are fertilized, you're on your own. They raise up 50 of their tadpoles in a well. One decides to stay with them..........Jimmy, named after Pin's father. Jade never figures out Pin is a prince and she thinks he is lying about having a family and remembering his father........and eating beef.
Eventually the hag returns and captures Jimmy. Now that Jade and Pin love their tadpoles, they can't let the hag eat him. They save Jimmy and return to their mating hole..........the well. Upon arrival they see a princess. She picks Jimmy up and is about to kiss him. Jade thinks the princess is going to eat her baby and emplores Pin to save their son. Pin jumps in the way and smooch!! He gets the kiss. The Fawg Pin disappears never to be seen again and in his place, a naked prince. The poor frog family and frog wife are left behind. Sad ending.
This is a great family read. It's cute and short (I read most of it while taking a bath after beddy bye). It also has great illustrations. Good lesson on family.
Rating 3.5 This is a good book, just not Napoli's best...........and honestly, I like happy endings.
Rating 5 Clean enough to read out loud to your little ones.

Life Expectancy

Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz

The Master of Horror, Dean Koontz, has put out a book somewhat horrific, suspenseful and funny as heck!! The book begins with the night of Jimmy Tock's birth. As his mother labors, his grandfather nears death in another part of the hospital. Just as Josef Tock is about to take his last breath...........he wakes from stoke induced coma to utter prophecy. He speaks of 5 terrible days in the life of his grandson Jimmy Tock.
The book follows through Jimmy's life up to the 5th terrible day..........through the eyes of Jimmy. As horror befalls Jimmy and his family..........I laughed out loud. Jimmy........or rather Mr. Koontz is hilarious!!
I felt like it rushed the end a little and skipped some sort of pertinent info. about ........some suff (I don't want to spoil.) But I was kind of tired of Jimmy being in peril all of the time so I was mostly okay with it.
This book is a great look at basic good vs. evil. It is also a sweet story about family and what should matter most in our lives even though we don't know in advance what our future holds.

Rating 5 Love, laughter, family life, food, evil, good, crazy, suspense, horror. It's all there. I would read it again. That's how I usually determine if I will rate a book a five.
Rating PG 13 Violence and one nasty sexual word I hate.

Possession

Possession by A.S. Byatt

This is a novel I originally picked up because it is was on my banned book list.......also the cover is amazingly gorgeous. It took me about 50 pages to even care what was happening, then I would deviate between engrossment and blind with boredom.
The book is a totally fictional account of two Victorian era poets being studied by two modern day scholars through letters written by the poets. Many parts of the book are amazing! It is amazing that Byatt was able to conjure up these two poets from imagination, plus their writings......some of which are terribly interesting.........some are hideously boring (I am possibly too daft to know any better). Byatt is also carrying off multiple story lines in multiple eras. I ended up enjoying the present day scholars more than the poets........R.H. Ash and Christabel Lamotte.
There are also completely fictitious fairy tales written by the Ash or LaMotte. These were superb. This book has been called a fabulous work of literature by others..........so I feel slightly stupid not enjoying it. As of yet I cannot complete the book. I will keep trying until the library comes calling. I have already started and finished 3 other books since the time I started reading this one.

A Distant Thunder

A Distant Thunder by Anita Stansfield

This is the second book in a three part series. It is the continuing story of Jayson Wolfe and Elizabeth Greer. Jayson leaves Oregon and sets out for the bright lights and big city of L.A. to make his way in the music business. Elizabeth has declined his marriage proposal and goes to Boston for college. The book traverses 20 years of their lives mostly apart. Jayson's career takes an abrupt rise and a life altering crash along with other harrowing events..........true Stansfield style. Elizabeth makes a life without Jayson and has the secure easy going life she always wanted, except for without Jayson, whom she still wants.
The first book in this series, I felt like deviated enough from other Stansfield books that I was pleasantly surprised. This book goes right back to super emotional and of course her writing style and wording never change.
I hate to make it sound like I am bashing Stansfield. I enjoy her books because I like the issues that she undertakes (very pertinent for our times) and I like the way they are resolved even if others find it cheesy......it gives me good ideas on how I SHOULD have handled situations instead of how I DO handle situations. As ever I am a devoted fan that must own every wit of literature she releases.
It was a day well spent reading. I am excited for book three because I am a sucker for a happy ending no matter whom you have to kill off or divorce to get it.
Rating 4 (maybe a hair under since I don't think it was up to par with book 1).
Rating G Characters have good moral standings despite the lack of religious affiliation for much of the book.

The Other Boleyn Girl

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

*This is a fictitious account of historical events...........very fictitious.*
The story of the rise and fall (crash) of the Boleyn/Howard family written through the eyes of Mary, sister of Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII is married to Katherine of Aragon. His every thought is either consumed with creating a male heir or adulterating with a member of the court. The three Boleyn children, Mary, Anne and George were birthed and bread to come to court and climb the ladder, dragging their scheming family with them.
Mary is taken as Henry's mistress at the tender age of 14. She is already married to a courtier, but once the king has his eye on her, nothing else matters to her family. Mary is able to give birth to a daughter and son for the king. As she is pregnant and birthing their son, the kings eye is turned to the darker (physically and emotionally) sister, Anne.
The Boleyn/Howard family along with Anne hatch a historically diabolical scheme to have Katherine dethroned as the queen and subplant her with Anne. Anne must use all of her energy, feminine wiles, intrigue, even incest and sorcery to keep the king and give him a male heir.
I was completely captivated by the story. I loved the historical setting and the juxtapose of the scheming Anne and the contrary and sweet Mary.
Rating 4.5
Rating R The court is wild and sexual. Sexual themes and descriptions.

The Christmas Sweater

The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck



Conservative radio talkshow host Glenn Beck, offers up his first novel The Christmas Sweater. The books idea comes from Glenn's childhood. Eddie, the young main character receives an ugly handmade sweater for Christmas instead of the Huffy bike he had been praying to God for and dropping hints as heavy as bricks to his mother for. His father has died of cancer and his mother has taken on four jobs which are barely getting them by. Beyond this point there are spoilers***



Eddie and his mother travel to his grandparents for the remainder of Christmas day. Eddie makes things miserable because he didn't get the bike he wanted. Because he is being such a puke he and his mother drive back home instead of staying at his grandparent's farm. Since his mom has been working straight for years she is exhausted........falls asleep and dies in a car wreck. Eddie's bad attitude and ungrateful nature..........'victim' attitude only get worse as he moves in with his grandparents. He is able to make one friend but Taylor's family only makes matters worse. They show Eddie all he is missing in his life, mainly material goods. Eddie's life begins a tough downward spiral that he chooses not to stop despite the love of his grandparents. He blames everyone including God and his grandparents for everything that has gone wrong.............he never can see that he is the only one making himself miserable. Eddie also meets a mysterious neighbor that tries to teach him the lessons he needs to learn in order to lead a happier life. Finally Eddie can take no more and runs away. He finds himself in a stormy, dark and desolate corn field with a raging storm moving his way. Between the storm, corn field and the suspicious neighbor Eddie is able to see his transgression and turn his life around.



I liked the book. I didn't like Eddie. I felt like the book gave me a good chance to see how I could choose to make my own life happier. A good book about taking responsibility for your own actions no matter what situations you may find yourself in.

Rating 4

Rating G

Enchantment

Enchantment by Orson Scott Card



Card, better know for his sci-fi (Ender's Saga) has pulled off a lovely fairtale retelling. Enchantment is the story of Sleeping Beauty combined with Russian history and myths plus a lot of magic. Ivan and his parents leave Russia in the early 80's to seek a life in the U.S. On their way out they stop in the Ukraine to wait for passports and visas. They stay with relatives near the Carpathian Mountains. Ivan enjoys running which is strange for a boy of his age and background. As he is running through the forest he comes upon a clearing full of leaves, a sleeping woman, and something guarding the sleeping woman. In fear, Ivan turns and leaves. Years later he is still comsumed with thoughts of what he saw at the age of 10.
In 1992 Ivan returns to the homeland engaged to an American and ready to do work for his college dissertation on Russian fairytales. Just before his return to the U.S., Ivan visits his Ukrainian uncle. He decideds while he is there, he will put a rest to what he thought he saw years ago. Ivan finds the clearing, the princess and the bear that guards her. He is able to overcome the bear and kiss the girl.
Most of this story takes place after Sleeping Beauty (Katerina) wakes up. The now betrothed couple return to 9th century Russia where Katerina's village is in danger from the witch that enchanted her. Card is able to balance the viewpoint of multiple characters in various countries and times with incredible depth.
I so enjoyed the retelling........or rather what happened 'ever after'. I liked the historical aspect and the fact that Katerina and Ivan return to modern day American and we see how the differing cultures and times come together. The magic and fantasy are just enough that even if you aren't normally a Card lover you will still enjoy the novel. Coming from Slavic ancestry, this made me want to read the real Russian fairytales, which are supposed to be much more gruesome and tragic than our modern day ones.
Rating 5 Romance, magic, history and witches yum!
Rating PG 13 Some swearing, some violence, sexual language.

Breathe a Ghost Story

Breathe a Ghost Story by Cliff McNish

Jack (what an awesome name!) is a severely asthmatic boy living with his mum in an old haunted farm house. Jack is able to sense things from objects and has been touching things to gather the stories of the farm house he just moved into. Soon he realizes that he is not only able to sense things he can actually see things. He begins to see the Ghost Mother. A woman that had lived in the house long ago. She and her daughter lived there. The Ghost Mother did not go to the great beyond but has stayed in the house. There are also ghost children. The children have come into the house at different times and are different ages. The haunting gets pretty creepy. The Ghost Mother has evil intentions. The descriptions of the Nightmare Passage, where you go if you don't go to heaven, are frightening. The Ghost Mother steals the energy of the ghost children and this leaves you feeling semi violated. She also possess Jack's real mother at one point.
Rating 4 I did like the book quite a bit. I wasn't really scared, but I can see that it would be scary for the age group it is aimed at.....4-8 grade.
Rating PG Clean language but scary and the scenes of stealing energy seemed creepy and violating but not really violent

The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He is dying of pancreatic cancer and decides to give a 'last lecture'. He wants to leave some kind of legacy for his very young children and share some of the things he has learned throughout his life.

For a final farewell this book is uplifting. He had some great advice and nuggets of thought to get you thinking of better ways to live out the rest of your days, no matter how many you have.

Rating 4 I enjoyed Pauch's attitude. He was always an adventurer and seemed to get the most out of life. It made me think of ways I could be different find the more joyful aspects of life.

Rating G

Eat Pray Love

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert







Liz Gilbert, in a time of crisis, decides that she will travel the three I's, Italy, India and Indonesia learning about pleasure, meditation and balance. She has just come from a nasty and long divorce, intermingled with an on again off again, highly emotional relationship with a boyfriend.

In Italy Liz eats herself blind. She indulges in pasta, pizza and gilato. She also learns to speak the lovely language....Italian.

In India she lives in an Ashram with learning to meditate. She struggles through learning to calm herself enough to be able to meditate.

In Indonesia Liz hooks up with an elderly medicine man and a young medicine woman. She tries to learn about balance in her life. She also takes a lover.

Liz is witty, hysterical and so personable. I love her 'voice' and writing style. This book was so easy to read. I had my doubts though considering how popular it was and most of the time I disagree with the general population.

Like most of America Liz is a little warped with selfcenteredness. She definitely travels the three I's meaning she really thinks A LOT about herself. I know most of us tend to do this, but it was strikingly apparent that most of her problems stem from only indulging in herself.
I enjoyed her time in Italy almost as much as she did and her humor always won me over. I loved learning so much about the countries she traveled to, which surprised me a little. I'm not much of a travel log reading kind of girl.

I had a harder time with India, but then, so did she. This is where I really started to realize that she was looking for God, but only if He would let her abide by her own set of rules. There were some deep thought provoking moments though. Her emotional struggle really intensified here. She needed to think about someone else besides herself for awhile and I think she would have pulled through a lot faster. As it was she spent all of her time completely in her head and torturing herself. This is why I don't meditate. I would make myself miserable. I think she did hit upon some good advice and 'truth'.

Indonesia is where it started to unravel a little. She went to spend time with this wise old sage she had met a few years previous. She literally just showed up in Bali to hang out with him for four months after having met him once. Gutsy. I have to say that was something I really admired her for. She flew by the seat of her pants and experienced so much, in so many places. Liz hung out with the old man and also met a medicine woman that she had a lot in common with. For a brief second Liz thought about someone else and helped this woman and her children in an awesome way...........although she didn't have to work too hard to do it. She also finally succumbed and took a lover. She seemed pretty happy about it, but that is where the discovery and 'truth' finding sort of fell apart.


Rating 4 I did really like Liz and her sense of humor. I learned about three countries, religion, meditation and yoga. I felt like there were some good nuggets to think about.


Rating PG 13 A situation of 'self discovery' that I wasn't wild to read about.

The Good Earth

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
This novel is a Pulitzer Prize winner and the first in a trilogy. It is set in turn of the century China. Wang Lung is a poor farmer caring for his aged father. As the book opens he is on his way to the rich lord's house to basically buy one of the slaves to take as a wife. The story follows Wang Lung and O-lan and their land. They soon conceive a son and are extremely proud of their good fortune. Then because of the popularity of opium, the rich lord falls upon hard times and Wang Lung is able to purchase a piece of his land. The sun seems to be shining on the pair as they have two more children and their land produces richly.
A famine takes place one winter just as their fourth child, a girl is born. O-lan kills the baby and the family sets off for the southern city to beg for food and do what they can to make money. Wang Lung knows with certainty that though they are in the midst of hard times, the land waits for their return. The tide begins to turn for the family when a mob of people hardest hit by the dwindling economy raid the home of a rich lord. Wang Lung is able to make off with gold coins and return to his land and buy seed.
The land and the family prosper. O-lan gives birth to twins. At one point Wang Lung has so much money and too much time on his hands. He becomes obsessed with a prostitute in a tea house, buys her, or marries her and brings her home. O-lan and the aged father both die. Because Wang Lung has saved money and bounty from his harvests no longer is he at the mercy of the weather and he prospers no matter drought, flood or war. He also is able to buy the rest of the land from the rich lord and eventually the home that the rich lord lived in, where O-lan grew up and served as a slave.
I had my doubts about being able to enjoy this book since it has become an Oprah's Book Club choice. I truly did though. I loved Wang Lung and just when he was about to make me so mad I wanted to stomp on his foot, I would end up loving him again. He took great care of his 'poor fool'. (Their first daughter never progressed mentally probably from the famine and complete lack of food as an infant.) I did feel great sorrow for O-lan at times. I also feel liked I learned a lot about a culture which I am hardly familiar. I believe this book may have been used in the early part of the 1900's as a kind of propaganda, with which we were supposed to feel some kinship with the Chinese culture in order to see them as allies. By the end I can't stand Wang Lung's children. The land has been their whole lives. It has done everything for them, been everything to them and they plan to sell it off once Wang Lung dies. I know I'm probably not doing this book justice........it sounds pretty boring......but following these humble people from the beginning of their lives together at a young age, until their death, you really get to know and love them.
Rating 5
Rating PG The murder of the baby was HORRIBLE! Actually you just know it happens, it's not a play by play.

Keeping Faith

Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult

The book begins with an uptight Mariah White finding out that her husband is a cheat. Divorce quickly follows and on its heals the divine undoing of their seven year old daughter Faith. Mariah is in a deep funk. She has previously suffered from suicidal depression at which time Colin (her husband) had her institutionalized. As Mariah struggles with depression, divorce, and feeling like she is less than perfect as a mother..........Faith begins singing snippets of scripture, talking to God and healing the sick and dead. Faith up to this point has not had religion in her life. Faith and Mariah become trapped in their home as only modern day media have the ability to do. Ian Fletcher a self proclaimed atheist and TV personality shows up to discredit Faith's religious experiences. Colin quickly learns of the media frenzy from television........(criminy) and begins a custody battle.

I have always enjoyed the writing of Jodi Picoult. She did not let me down this time either. I was kept guessing the whole time whether Faith was having some kind of religious experience or not.........even though I felt like there was pretty solid proof. Picoult made a good case for both sides. I ended up enjoying Mariah as a mother and reading about her change from an uptight, obsessive, depressed woman to being a great mom. She stopped dwelling on herself and was able to pull through into a good life. I think that is key for anyone feeling imperfect and sad.....a good dose of thinking about someone else for awhile. (I'm not Tom Cruz here.........I never said not to medicate suicidal depression.)

I also enjoyed watching the 'doubting Thomas' and his personal struggles and changes throughout the experience.

Rating 4.75

Rating PG 13 Adult relationships but not graphic, F word infrequently used and I wish they wouldn't have.

Bunnicula

Bunnicula by James Howe and Deborah Howe

This tale is told by the family dog Harold. The Monroe family find a suspicious little bunny. He is abandoned at the movie theater. After bringing him home and struggling over a name, they decide to keep him and name him Bunnicula.........since the movie they were watching was Dracula. Quickly enough strange happenings! The vegetables are turning white. Is it a blight? Mrs. Monroe thinks so. Or is Bunnicula a vampire? Chester the cat is convinced. He and Harold come up with a plan to rid the family of the blood sucking (veggie juice really) little bunny.

I have to admit that when I read this book when I was little...........I was the itty bitty bittest convinced that this was a real story written by the dog. I was also a little afraid. The book is cute and not at all scary these days. It has a little vampire lore but not enough to freak anyone out. The animals are funny and the family is a nice sweet family all functioning fairly well in society............well except for the mom is a lawyer.

Since we read this as a family I will let my eight year old be the one to rate it.
Rating 5 She liked the vegetables turning white, the antics of the cat (frequently freaked out), and the dog trying to save the bunny.

Rating G

The Pupil

The Pupil by Henry James

Originally this was published in a magazine in the late 1800's as a short story. Pemberton has recently graduated from Oxford. He is looking for work in order to make some money. He finds the Moreen family is in need of a tutor for their 11 year old son Morgan. Morgan has a weak heart, which is one of the reasons he is schooled at home.

The Moreens are American but live in Europe. They spend all of their time, money and energy gallivanting around Europe wracking up hotel bills and trying to fit into popular society. Since all of their money is spent on extravagance, the Moreens never pay Pemberton.

Morgan, having a flaky family and spending all of his time with Pemberton, becomes quite attached. Eventually Pemberton needs some money (he and Morgan have devised a plan to run away from the Moreens) to live on. For a short time he takes another tutoring position. He returns to Morgan upon hearing that the boy's health is declining. When he reaches the newest hotel where the Moreen family has been staying, he finds the Moreens evicted and willing to hand over Morgan just to get him off of their hands. Morgan, in a state of euphoria over his good fortune..........has a heart attack and dies. Tragic!!

Rating 3 Great short read, felt for the position of Morgan against his rat fink family..........but not my favorite thing I have ever picked up.

Rating G

Animal Farm

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Manor Farm is taken over by the animals after the old pig Major has something of a prophetic dream. Farmer Jones is run out and the animals have a dream of taking over the world. They want the animals to be free. Soon enough the pigs emerge as leaders of this small budding nation, because they are the smartest. They have an anthem which they sing and try to spread as propaganda to other farms. The Seven Commandments of Animalism are painted on the barn wall and eventually they even have their very own (somewhat suspicious) flag with a horn and hoof I believe.

The pigs, in a place of power, eventually abuse it. The animals are taught to be fearful, suspicious and many of their previous rights are gradually taken away, supplanted by the pigs power over them. The pigs even begin to erase memories and change thoughts, all the while breaking the Seven Commandments themselves and finding ways to justify their actions.

Truly a political satire easily read and understood. Puts a great spin on historical events and helps you see what to look for in the future.

I found this little gem at a book sale and thought that for 50 cents I couldn't pass up the opportunity to own such a great classic. Orwell is possibly better know for his book 1984 and having read that multiple times I knew it was time to pick this one up. Also, this is one of the only books that my dad mentions that he read while he was younger. I can't believe it took me this long to read it!

Rating 4.5

Rating PG..........the animals are pretty cruel but I don't want to spoil any surprises.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

This book takes place at the end of WWII.........1940's. A spunky, young author, Juliet comes to know the people of the Channel Islands. Historically this was the only part of Great Britain occupied by the Nazis. The book is written through letters between Juliet, her friends, her publisher, and the people of Guernsey Island. She learns so much about the people of the island that she decides to write her next book about them. As a defense against the smothering Nazi occupation some of the island people have made their own literary group........an escapism for the dreary and sometimes hellish occupation.
I think it must have been the title that first turned me off. All it brought to mind was the way potato peels turn rusty and starchy. It made we want to gag and I felt strangely depressed. Nevertheless the book came well recommended. I was able to masticate it in a day.
Juliet is spunky, witty and quite humorous in personality. She at times reminded me of ....me. The other characters are very engaging. I enjoyed that the book was written in letter form, allowing me the luxury of feeling like a bit of a voyeur. I also really liked learning so much about history in story form. I feel compelled to find out more about the Channel Islands and their occupation during WWII.
The literary society twist allowed the authors to bring in other classical authors and their stories in a meaningful and fulfilling manner. I am convinced I need to read Charles Lamb and the lesser known Brontes.
Rating 4 I enjoyed the writing style, the story and the historical information. I am not in love with this book, but it was an easy and stimulating read.
Rating G

The Turn of the Screw

The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James

An unnamed narrator listens to a male friend reading a manuscript written by a former governess whom the latter claims to have known and who is now dead. The manuscript tells the story of how the young governess is hired by a man who has found himself responsible for his niece and nephew after the death of their parents. He lives in London and has no interest in raising the children. The boy, Miles, is attending a boarding school whilst his sister, Flora, is living at the country home in Essex. She is currently being cared for by the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose. The governess' new employer gives her full charge of the children and explicitly states that she is not to bother him with communications of any sort. The governess travels to her new employer's country house and begins her duties.
Miles soon returns from school for the summer with a letter from the headmaster stating that he has been expelled. Miles never speaks of the matter, and the governess is hesitant to raise the issue. She fears that there is some horrid secret behind the expulsion, but is too charmed by the adorable young boy to want to press the issue. Shortly thereafter, the governess begins to see around the grounds of the estate the figures of a man and woman whom she does not recognize. These figures come and go at will without ever being seen or challenged by other members of the household, and they seem to the governess to be supernatural in nature. She learns from Mrs. Grose that her predecessor, Miss Jessel, and Miss Jessel's illicit lover Peter Quint both died under curious circumstances. Prior to their death, they spent most of their time with Flora and Miles, and this fact takes on grim significance for the governess when she becomes convinced that the two children are secretly aware of the presence of the ghosts. (Plot taken from Wikepedia. Sorry for the copycatting........I wanted to have a clearer recollection when I come back and read this later.)
At first I was convinced of the realness of the ghosts and the danger of the children. As time went on I began to think the governess was a bit hysterical. I never thought she was completely bonkers, but by the end I did think she was at the least, the only one seeing the beings. The story went from scary to weird. By the end I was ready for it to be over.
Henry James has an elaborate writing manner. He is very wordy and tends to digress and use copious amounts of synoymns in just about every sentence. It is beautiful writing, but at times I felt like it began to detract from the story. Nevertheless I will press on..........and continue to read the rest of the collection that I just bought.
Rating 3.5 Scary to weird depending on how you take the story.......do you believe the governess or do you think she is bonkers? I would like to see it on stage. I bet it would be much more thirilling.
Rating G

The Mermaid Chair

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

Jessie is a fortyish woman going back to her hometown (small island) after her mother purposefully severs her finger. While she is there caring for her mother and uncovering the truth to her father's death when she was nine, Jessie falls in love (I use that term loosely) with a monk. Unfortunately for Jessie's family, she is still married to her husband Hugh.

I liked Brother Thomas the monk. He seemed genuine. I find cloistering yourself away from the world for your whole life unfathomable, so I was glad that he had reactions that I felt were normal and real. Jessies mother was intriguing. Understanding why she would cut off her own finger and what that had to do with the death of her husband so many years ago was a wonderful part of the story.

Like Sue Monk Kidd's other book The Secret Life of Bees, this had a group of women as main characters, Jessie's mother's friends. I'm not sure what really turns me off about books that are about sisterhood. Maybe because I don't have sisters myself. But I find them exclusionary and unbalanced. So that was one large part of what I didn't like about this book.

The biggest thing that I really didn't like about the book is Jessie's moaning and waahing about boredome, losing herself, and needing to rediscover herself. Of course like so many people that means leaving your life and everything important behind and having an affair. Lust somehow makes you true to yourself. In the end all she did was commit a grievous sin and tear out the hearts of loved ones, including the unassuming monk, just to discover that wasn't what she really wanted after all.

I did enjoy the journey of the book and it was an entertaining read.

Rating 3.5

Rating PG 13 sexual content and swearing

Garden Spells

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

This book sounded intriguing.............many people have likened it to Practical Magic. The writing reminded me a lot of Alice Hoffman.

This book is about the Waverly sisters. Waverly family members often have magical gifts. Sydney has a way with styling hair and understanding what the styles mean. Claire uses food to evoke feelings. Their Aunt knows items that people will need in the future, but not what they will need them for. Bay, Sydney's little girl has the gift of knowing where things or people belong. The Waverlys' also have an enchanted apple tree. Eating an apple from the tree will show you the most important event of your life.

Each sister is hiding from something in their life and trying to build a life where they are comfortable with themselves and their past. The characters were truly enjoyable and the touch of magic added depth.

Rating 4 Quick, happy read with some romance.

Rating PG 13, sexual content

Blind Side

Hmm, Strangely small picture.........

Blind Side by Clair M. Poulson

The book was about Noletta, a law school student. She is a victim of a random shooting, after stumbling upon a crime scene. After being shot in the head and left to die, she recovers, but is stricken blind. About 2 years later the book continues with Noletta back in law school and living with her guide dog Taffy. (She had Taffy at the time of the shooting. Taffy attacked the shooter, but was not injured herself. Taffy had been Noletta's pet, but was later trained to be her guide dog.) The person that shot Noletta knows she is still alive and tries to find out what she remembers and then kill her. Also, since the dog was a witness, the killer dog naps the dog.

A Salt Lake City detective, Martin, begins working her case.

*Spoiler* He and Noletta become very close as the case begins to climax.

Noletta is also involved with Walton a fellow law student. Creed, Walton's cousin is also vying for the affection of the lovely Noletta.

The book was more interesting than I thought it would be. It was a book club choice, not made by me. These are books that I generally read. I was hoping for one that I wouldn't normally pick up. The writing style is very simple, which bothered me at times. I would find the characters saying things that didn't seem like conversation normal people would have, like I thought they used names too frequently during dialog, instead of either pronouns or not saying the name at all. The dialog was not detracting, but noticeable to me. Also, the author's choice of names cracks me up. Some of them are quirky. I simply attribute that to the author living in rural Utah. Utah seems to have it's own unique names.

Although this is published at LDS fiction, the LDS faith was brought up maybe 3 times and only in passing. It seemed like it was an attempt just to get it published by an LDS publishing house. So if you don't want to read LDS fiction, don't be put off, it really never came up.

Rating 4 Entertaining enough. I liked the main character and the cop (of course). I enjoyed the characters enough that I would have liked to know more about them as time went on.

Rating G I am again, glad to be able to pick up a book that I know will be clean.

Blood and Chocolate

Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause

Unfortunately for Blood and Chocolate, the title was the best part. It sounded intriguing and I wanted something to read for Halloween. The book is about a teen girl/ werewolf......Vivian. I kept getting the sense that there was a book before this one because there were a lot of references to things I felt like I should have already known. I still can't figure out if this is true or not, although this book has been made into a movie. Vivian falls in love with a human (meat boy) and wants to reveal herself to him in hopes that he will understand her. Her pack meanwhile is also having problems. They are trying to get a new leader, find a place to settle down, and control maverick werewolves that are endangering pack existence.

The descriptions of a werewolf changes were interesting and well articulated. I wanted to know what would happen between Vivian and Aiden (the meat boy). Besides that this book was basically trash. The family situation that Vivian comes from is disgusting to even have to ponder on.....although I feel like it might be common in some homes. Vivians' mother is only concerned about her own sex life and cares nothing for her daughter. Vivian is overtly sexualized for a teen. It's mostly all she thinks about......actually I think that is what the whole book is about. Strangely though she isn't actually having any.

Rating 2 ........I finished it because I wanted to know what happened in the end, but it was a waste of time when I could have been reading something better, or doing laundry.

Rating R swearing, murder, violence, sexual content, poor family relationships (the mother wants Vivian to drink and have sex as long as it doesn't interfere with her drinking and having sex).

One Tuesday Morning

One Tuesday Morning by Karen Kingsbury

This book is written by a Christian writer, which I did not know when I picked it up. I grabbed it from the library and the cover looked new and in good shape.........so that's how I ended up with it. Once I figured out it was written as Christian literature I was interested to see what it would be like. I heard that Christian pulishers were sticklers for cleanliness.

The book is about two families whose lives entertwine during the events of September 11th. One family's father/husband is Eric. He is a high powered business man that has let work take over his life. He loves nothing more than power and money, which he freely admits. The other family's father/husband is a firefighter for New York City. This part really hit home for me and that is why I was interested. The fireman (Jake) is an awesome dad and husband and a dedicated Christian. Both men end up in the towers as they are about to fall. They bump into each other in a stair well, Eric fleeing the building and Jake going up the stairs to rescue victims of the tragedy. Eric stumbles into Jake and his helmet falls to the ground. The two men look at each other and realize they look like twins. Eric sees into the top of Jake's fallen helmet, which contains a picture of Jake's little girl. Eric realizes that Jake is climbing to his death. Each man resumes their direction. Eric knowing that Jake is climbing to his death, begins to be repentant of the way he has been leading his life. He begins to pray to make it from the building alive so that he may have one more chance with his family.

*Spoilers*

Jake dies praying with other firemen and victims, knowing that he is going to meet his maker, but having peace with that.......the only regret is that he won't be with his family.

Eric makes it out of the building just as it collapses and blows him under Jake's firetruck. A little far fetched, but it makes the story go.

Eric is found near the fire rig and is thought to be Jake, because they look so much a like. Even more far fetched. He is taken to the hospital with head injuries and burns and Jake's wife is called to come be with him. When he wakes he remembers nothing. Convenient.

To help him remember his life Jake's wife Jamie gives Eric Jake's journal and Bible. Eric learns how to be a good husband, father and Christian by trying to become Jake in hopes that his memory returns. Jamie is also converted to Christianity through this as she has not been a believer up to this point.

Finally Eric/Jake remembers who he is. He is reunited with his family as the man that they always hoped he would eventually be.

This book was pretty good. It was hard to read at parts, knowing what was going to happen......the World Trade Centers, and the fact that you knew Jake was dead and Eric was Eric. I really did enjoy the characters. I didn't feel like the book was too preachy, although if you are not Christian I can't imagine why you would want to read this anyway.

I give the book a 4.

Also the book is rated G. I was happy to see that the book was entirely clean yet you still had great emotions for the love between the couples.

The Thieves of Heaven

The Thieves of Heaven by Richard Doetsch
This book is about Micheal St. Pierre, a thief with morals. The opening is enough to reel you in. He gets caught thieving, even though he is a great thief, because he stops to help the victim of another crime. Michael is later released from prison and has sworn off thieving. He opens his own business and life is going well for he and his gorgeous wife Mary. Events quickly turn for the worst when Mary is diagnosed with terminal cancer and Michael has no way to pay for the treatments. In steps August Finster, tempting Michael with a heist and enough money to care for Mary. Michael carries off the heist and finds that he has stolen the keys to heaven for the devil himself. Michael then tries to return the keys to the rightful owners, the Catholic church, as his wife's life slips away. Time is running out because if Mary dies before Heaven's gates are unlocked again, she will remain in purgatory for eternity and her soul will be lost.
Very entertaining in a Dan Brown kind of way. I really enjoyed the premise. It was completely fictitious and running completely against my own beliefs, but once I made myself stop comparing the two things I was ready for the ride. I was very entertained and loved the characters......Michael, Mary, (not the devil so much), and Paul (Michael's best friend and parole officer. Who doesn't just LOVE cops? I can't think of anybody!!), and Simon the sniper priest (A good sniper priest really comes in handy when dealing with evil.)
Rating 4
Rating PG 16 There was swearing, the F word, and some sexual content.

Life At These Speeds

Life At These Speeds by Jeremy Jackson

Wow did I enjoy this book. The writing was so witty and the characters so smart that I wanted to know them in real life.........or have to book go on. A HUGE downside is that by page 4 the F*** word showed up and didn't back off. I am so disappointed! This book is aimed at teens, about teens. I would surely not want my teen having profanity flashed in their face every page. It shows a true lack of ingenuity and creativity amidst awesome writing. If your characters are that great and smart, I'm sure they could think of a few better things to say.
The book is about an 8th grade track runner. Nearly his whole class at school belongs to the track team (small town). After a track meet one night Kevin (main character) rides home with his parents, while the rest of the team travels home in a van. The van crashes into a river and the whole team, coach, friends, and girlfriend of Kevin die. After this Kevin kind of loses touch with reality for sometime. But the tragedy also is some kind of catalyst that turns Kevin into a track phenom. He begins breaking records at his new school. (There wasn't a grade left for him to attend at his old school.) Sounds kind of lame if you aren't into sports. But the character development is quirky and witty. The supporting characters have really out there names, which I found odd and funny (Bobolink, Henny, Andanda, and Umber).
I can't recommend the book based on the truly crappy language for the audience it is aimed at....but if you don't care about that then give it a try.
Rating 4. I would have given it higher but I am SO disappointed in the language.
Rating R for the unwarranted use of serious swearing.

Fablehaven Rise of the Evening Star

Fablehaven Rise Of The Evening Star by Brandon Mull

This is the second by of Fablehaven. I think that we may have enjoyed this one even more than the first. The characters (Kendra and Seth) seemed better developed. Kendra didn't seem as flat to me. She was more mature. The opening of the book was something my kids and I both enjoyed. We felt like it was a much better intro. The book does follow the same pattern at the last, where there is a big 'OH NO!' sort of moment and then the children are left to once again rescue Fablehaven. The satyrs are still funny characters. The supporting cast is better. The magic and fantasy are better. The ending is a total set up for book 3.
I will give this book a 4. It was a great book but I'm not head over heels in love with it.
Also I still think it's a G. There are some scary moments but they didn't bother my three year old.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
A National Book Award Finalist

A very unique work of children's fiction. The book appears huge (533 pages) for children's lit. Once you open the book you realize nearly half of the book is dedicated to 284 pages of original drawing by the author. Also, many of the printed pages are not full pages so don't feel daunted.
The book is about an orphan, clock keeper turned theif out of necessity. Hugo (the child) lives in in Paris in the walls of a train station. He lost both of his parents and has been taken in by a drunken uncle. The uncle is the clock keeper for the train station. The uncle disappears one night, never to return. In an attempt to not be taken away and put in an orphanage Hugo begins tending the clocks so that the station inspector doesn't know that the uncle has gone missing. His father was a clock maker and between the uncle and father, Hugo is able to fix and keep the clocks running. Hugo's one passion is an automaton. A small man filled with tiny gears that is able to write or draw, once wound up. Hugo's father first found the automaton in the museum where he worked. The museum burned down, along with Mr. Cabret. Hugo recovered the automaton from the ashes of the museum. His only connection to his father and his previous life. His desperate attempt to fix the automaton and keep his father alive in memory leads Hugo on an amazing adventure.
A quote that I really liked from the book...."I like to imagine that the world is one big machine You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too." Hugo is and his friend are wondering what their place in the world could be.
I am not a huge adventure fan. The drawings were wonderful and I am glad they took up so much of the book because I just wasn't into it. My 8 year old on the other hand......loved the book. It is a good book and I don't want to disuade anyone from picking it up. It is a great family book and a great book for young readers with a lot of illistrations to keep their interest piqued. The book has won awards and received great reviews. I have to say that part of that may be because of the amazing amount of pictures for a novel. I'm not sure what it was that made me not love it.
I rate the book a 3.5
Also the book is G

Banned Books Week

Banned books week is this week Sept. 29th through Oct. 6th. I guess it intruigues me a little because I don't always like to do what I am told. Books are usually banned or challenged due to sexual content, language and content for the audience written to.
Here is a list of banned books.
I am going to bold and color the ones I have read..........
and *** I have read part of



1. The Bible
2. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
3. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes***
4. The Koran
5. Arabian Nights
6. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
7. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
8. Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
9. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
10. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
11. The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
12. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
13. Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
14. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
15. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
16. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
17. Dracula by Bram Stoker
18. Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
19. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
20. Essays by Michel de Montaigne
21. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (All Steinbeck leaves me feeling despondent, yet not a reason to ban.)
22. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
23. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
24. Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
25. Ulysses by James Joyce
26. Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
27. Animal Farm by George Orwell
28. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
29. Candide by Voltaire
30. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
31. Analects by Confucius
32. Dubliners by James Joyce
33. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
34. Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway***
35. Red and the Black by Stendhal
36. Das Capital by Karl Marx
37. Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
38. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
39. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
40. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
41. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
42. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
43. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (Why would you ban this unless you yourself were a meat packer???)
44. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque***
45. Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
46. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
47. Diary by Samuel Pepys
48. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (this was probably banned for being written by Hemingway)
49. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
50. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Ironic)
51. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
52. Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
53. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
54. Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
55. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (TBR to be read)
56. Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
57. The Color Purple by Alice Walker (I hated this book and would never recommend it because sometimes I just don't want to know the world is like that)
58. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
59. Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
60. Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Did not enjoy. Oprah and I have seriously differing views on good literature.)
61. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
62. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
63. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
64. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
65. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
66. Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau
67. Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
68. Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
69. The Talmud
70. Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau
71. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
72. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
73. American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
74. Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler (I read this when I was about 15. It is awful!)
75. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
76. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
77. Red Pony by John Steinbeck
78. Popol Vuh
79. Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
80. Satyricon by Petronius
81. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
82. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
83. Black Boy by Richard Wright
84. Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu
85. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
86. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
87. Metaphysics by Aristotle
88. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder ( I can't figure this one out.)
89. Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin
90. Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
91. Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
92. Sanctuary by William Faulkner
93. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
94. Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
95. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
96. Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
97. General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud***
98. Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
99. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown
100. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
101. Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines
102. Émile Jean by Jacques Rousseau
103. Nana by Émile Zola***
104. Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
105. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
106. Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
107. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
108. Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
109. Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
110. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
111. Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (Okay, I refuse to believe that Judy Blume's book Forever isn't on this list somewhere!!! I distinctly remember this book in like 6th grade, being handed from girl to girl with the pages dog eared on the nasty parts. I can't even say or think the name Ralph without recalling this book. I'm not saying it should be banned but I wouldn't want my tween to read it! Yes, even though I did. All you Westridge Middleschool girls out there, you know who you are. I will refrain from naming you......for now.)
112. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
113. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
114. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
115. The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatly Snyder

Well I guess I am not as much of a rebel as I would like to think. I would love to hear about any of these you have read!! I challenge you to read something banned this week! By coincidence I am just starting the Harry Potter series again......so I am covered.

Private Peaceful

Private Peaceful by Michael Maorpurgo

This novel is a juvenile historical fiction account of a young British soldier in WWI. The first half of the book deals with Thomas Peaceful and his brother Charlie growing up in the English country side during the turn of the 20th century. Quickly we learn of the harsh realities of Thomas' life. His father is killed in a logging accident when Tommo is very young. He struggles with bullying, classism, adolescent love, and an older brother Big Joe that is 'special' (as his mother puts it) because of a bout with childhood disease. Largely though, Tommo seems quite happy, especially because he always has his big brother Charlie with him.

In their teens, World War I breaks out. The home they live in is owned by the rich man in town. Most of the people work for this man (The Colonel). Tommo's mother, father, and sister-in-law have or do work for him. The Colonel tells Tommo's mother that in order for her to stay in the cottage that he so willingly provides for her, she must send her boys off to war.

Thomas and Charlie sign up even though Thomas is too young. During this time that was a common occurrence. They are shipped off to the front lines.

A running theme through this book is the struggle with authority. Not really in the way we think of it most of the time where youth don't like to be told what to do by anyone. It is the struggle to go against authority when the authority figure is bigger and more powerful, yet they don't have your best interest at heart.

A quote from the book that I want to remember, "Charlie was swiping at the wasp, and the wasp wasn't just stinging him, he was stinging all of us. Charlie was was beginning to be thought of as a bit of a liability in the company, a bit of a Jonah." I really enjoyed this quote because it drew a very clear picture. Charlie is the protector and the one that stands up for himself and Tommo. But as we all know, standing up for yourself many times brings greater struggle.

I really liked this book. It was descriptive and captivating. I read it in about 2 hours. I wasn't necessarily hanging on every word and biting my nails, but it seemed like nearly every chapter ended in a way that I just had to read the next to find out what happened.

Rating.........4
Rating.........G It does take place during war time, but it is geared toward a younger audience so it isn't overly graphic.

The Sound of Rain

The Sound of Rain by Anita Stansfield





This is the first book in a new trilogy by Anita Stansfield. Jayson Wolfe is a musically gifted teen. He has just moved to a new state and is making lasting relationships with those he meets through his music. Jayson thus far, is not an LDS character. Nor are any of the other characters........for those of you not wanting to read LDS fiction. Jayson has had some very hard times in his upbrining and is facing many more as the book continues. The relationships are sincere and clean.


The author has a distinct writing style throughout all of her books. You can always tell that you are reading her material. She seems to use the same phrases or words such as; perfect or perfect joy, peruse, buffer. She uses the same adjectives a lot. Her characters are always talkers. Sometimes they talk too much. They are also always thinkers. Sometimes they think too much. She seemed to strike a better balance in this book than some other her other recent endeavors.


I have taken a lot of flack for reading this author, among friends and relatives. Guess what? I don't care. I enjoy that Anita is a clean, yet romantic author. She deals with some timely issues in most of her writing (death, divorce, illness, mental illness, blended families, pornoghraphy, premarital sex, addiction, abuse, responsibility............). Her female characters are strong yet not femenists. A character trait I detest. Her male characters are strong, good role models, gentlemen and emotional. I realize she is no Bronte sister, but she is still entertaining and uplifting.
I am excited to see what the next book holds in store for the characters.

I rate this book a 4.

I also give it a G +. It is clean, clean, clean language wise. She does deal with sexual issues (ie. chastity) so I wouldn't hand this book over to my little kids. But it is totally clean.

The Big Read

The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of their top 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six.

Here’s what you are supposed to do:
*Look at the list and bold those we have read.
*Italicize those we intend to read.
*Underline the books we LOVE. (I have no clue how to underline on this thing???!! So I guess I will ** double star my loves and * single star the likes)



1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen**
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte**
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling**
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee**
6 The Bible**
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte**
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell*
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (I have to admit I didn't finish this one)
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott*
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (does MOST of Shakespeare count?)*
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger**
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger**
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck*
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen*
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis*
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini*
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden**
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown**
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery*
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding*
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel*
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen**
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley**
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon**
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold*
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt (hated it)
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens*
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker (If I had a code for HATED it, don't bother yourself, it would go here)
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White*
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom*
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (didn't like it)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare*
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl*
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Holy Crow, I've only read 49.............I guess I have some reading to do!! If you have read any that I haven't and have suggestions on where to start, let me know!!

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Well the front of the book pretty much says it all..........bleak, bleak, bleak. The first time I read Wuthering Heights was a long time ago and I hated it. This time I loved it. It was easier to get into the characters. I think that came with age. They were all nearly unredeemable, yet I could better understand how they came to be the way they were.
Most of this book is a flash back. It is told to a newcomer to the area by the servant Ellen or Nelly. It is a sordid, evil tale. It speaks of jealous love and the wicked lengths people will go to, to get what they want or die trying. The characters are mean, black hearted people. The love story is wretched. Not a one of them is ever happy.
The wrtiting style is lovely and very descriptive. I did have a hard time reading the parts of Joseph, the wretched old religious man. He spoke in broken cockney or something, with a tough accent to follow unless I read it outloud to myself. Though if you do not like English Literature you won't enjoy the writing style. Very wordy, yet beautiful.
I give the book a 4.5. I really enjoyed it this time. It truly stirs feels and emotions, although they usually aren't good ones.
The book is rated PG. The characters are mean, manipulative and violent.

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

Right off I want to say that although this is set up as historical fiction, it is NOT. Do not start reading this book thinking that these are events that actually occured.
This book takes readers back to the late 1800's when a Cheyenne Chief actually asked for 1,000 white brides for his warriors. The women were supposed to help cross the cultural bridge between the whites and the natives. (This part really did happen. A Northern Cheyenne Chief did ask the U.S. Army at Fort Laramie for 1,000 white brides. But of course, the U.S. government never allowed that.) Because in Indian culture the family follows martiarchal lines, the natives hoped that any children bred by this union would help assimilate their culture to the white man's.
I have to say I was truly intrigued by the premise. May Dodd of whose journals we read, was resued from an insane asylum to enter the BFI (Brides For Indians) program. She was originally incarserated for promiscuity by her family. Meaning she had two children out of wedlock with the man she lived with but did not wed.
May and a group of other women (not all 1,000 were ever delivered) were the first convoy to head out to Indian territory. The group was very ecclectic and likeable although they did strike me as 'characters'. There were two Irish twins that were released from jail for this program. A mannish woman named Helen that wanted to study bird habitat and was a great artist of nature. The secretary from the asylum where May was kept. She left with May. A huge Swiss girl that wasn't very pretty but longed for her own family. (By the way........all of these women volunteered for this program.) A Christian evangelist that was uppity, snooty, judgemental and gives you the full understanding of why people hate organized religion. A jilted Southern belle that had been left by her lover after her father lost all of his money. Phemie an escaped slave. These are just a few of the characters. All very likeable and believable enough.......sort of.
It seemed to me like there was a lot of stereotyping going on. This could be because there was or because I don't know enough about Indian history to know if this was true. Another thing that didn't really ring true for me was that May was such an outspoken woman. Truly ahead of her time. I guess that I always imagine women of this era to be a little more demure. This must not always be the case or we would not have had the women's sufferage movement or anything else like unto it. Still even though I mostly like May, it still seemed a little too contrived for me.
There were some horrifying moments in this book. Some rapes, not really graphically depicted, yet you full understand what is happening. Of course murder and mutilation since we are reading about 'savages'. And frankly, May is promiscuous even though she feels like she has good reason. So there are some sexual scenes. They aren't Harlequin graphic but descriptive enough to know what is going on.
I rate this book a 4 for likeability. I was slightly turned off by some of the violence.
I rate this book maybe a PG 16 for some swearing, sexual violence, violence against children, violence against mankind, and sexual content. I would have given it an R except that I felt like the sex and violence had their place. It's not like they were maming bodies in some nasty movie just so they could kill people. Also the sexual parts were there to describe acts of marraige and not overly descriptive.

Total Money Makeover

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

Okay, I know this isn't a novel. I really don't enjoy reading things I have to work at. Dumb kind of. But reading is almost always purely for enjoyment for me. Well guess what? I enjoyed this book. It was FUN to read. Not only did I learn a lot. I loved every minute. Dave Ramsey got me all pumped up about money. I know I was probably snookered by some psychological something.......but so what.
This book is about how to rethink what money means in your life. Everything is broken down into baby steps. You are shown how to get rid of debt and live a life free of the slavery of credit cards, loans, even a home mortgage. Dave honestly and intelligently points out the myths our society lives by as a religion built on money. Then he breaks them down and shows us how they are so wrong. His motto is "Live now like no one else so later you can live like no one else." Meaning if you sacrifice a little now you can live free and wealthy in the years to come. Dave has included worksheets to help with a budget, debt snowball, retirement and showing how much you are BLOWING in interest on your home loan. (Just for kicks I did a financial calculator on his website daveramsey.com and found that if I go haywire on my finances I can retire with 3-8 million dollars. I was feeling pretty good, considering I am po'. And you aren't so nutty with your money that life sucks until you retire.)
There are 7 Baby Steps..........1) $1,000 emergency fund which can go to nothing but dire emergency, not wants. 2) Debt Snowballing , list your debts from smallest to largest and begin by paying off the smallest. Then take the money you were paying on that debt and move it up to the next one. By doing it this way you feel a sense of accomplishment (yay!) and are able to keep going because you see progress. These debts do not include your home loan. 3) Build Emergency Fund. Build up enough money to cover 3-6 months of living expenses. This doesn't mean 3-6 months of income, but 3-6 months of essentials. Probably around $10,000. 4) Invest. Begin investing 15% of your income for retirement. 5)Save for College. He also shows you other ways to pay for college than just forking out the cash. 6) Pay off the mortgage!!! He also cautions never to get into a 30 year mortgage. Try if you can to only lock into a 15 year. 7)Build wealth like crazy........invest and make your money work for you.
I rate this book a 5. I loved the information. I even took notes. Also, it was a great read for me because it was emotional. That is usually what pushes me from a 4 up to a 5, great emotion. The book is also a G. Clean as clean can be. Good for a 3 year old and up. I recommend it to everyone.

The Mysterious Benedict Society

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

This book makes it cool to be smart, Yay!! First off I want to say I had to be coerced a bit to read this book. I wanted to read it. It just wasn't an urgent want. So it took required reading (book club) to finally convince me to put aside everything else and pick this one up. Sounding a little lack luster, isn't it?
Reynie, Kate, Sticky and Constance are all orphans in some manner, that are brought together by answering a strange add in the newspaper. The add asks for gifted children looking for special opportunities. Each child is shear genius in one way or another. They come together and form the Mysterious Benedict Society. They have a secret mission, which as you journey on with them, you can also try to solve the puzzles put forth to the children. This was really fun. I have only read the very beginning to my kids and so far they love it. The characters become endearing rather quickly. The book is paced quickly enough and quirky enough to keep everyone's attention. It is a great read for a family, for 9 year olds and up (on their own) and for any adult.
I rate this book a 4. I wasn't in love with it. I didn't cry and didn't mull it over for very long after I finished it. There were some surprising moments and fun brainy puzzles. It is out of the ordinary and fun. I would surely give it a G also. Incredibly clean with no parts you will have to worry about for kids reading it on their own and no parts you will have to edit if reading aloud.

Fablehaven

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

This is a young adult/juvenile fiction book. I read it out loud to my four children (ages 8,6,3, baby......but he didn't listen, he just bit me until I paid attention to him)
The story is about a secret preserve which houses fairytale creatures. Awesome premise. The caretaker's grandchildren come to visit and eventually find out the secret. The grandchildren are Kendra and Seth. Kendra seemed a bit flat and Seth drove me nuts. He was the catalyst for most of the events, so I see that it was necessary that he was irritating and extremely disobedient. I felt like the book moved slowly at the beginning. This could have been because it did or because I was reading aloud and therefore could not read at my normal pace. Once it gets moving though, the book is truly magical. The children take part in fun, scary, wonderful, empowering experiences. There are fairies, magic milk, demons and other outrageous creatures.
I can see how the kids can really get into this. The story shows how powerful and brave one child (person) can be. This is a definite recommend for anyone. It is a fairly good read aloud book also.
I will rate Fabelhaven a 4. It was great at parts, and slow at the beginning. It is a definite G for language and such. Neither I or my children found it scary.........although for the tender and faint of heart, there is a festival night where scary things happen.

Lost Boys

Wow, okay the book picture turned out bigger than I expected!!

This is Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card.

OSC is LDS. He is an author. I don't think that makes him an LDS author though. (He's better known for his Sci Fi series 'Ender's Game" which is also really good.) With that said............

I was absolutely shaken by this book. It is one of those things you read and then it sort of stirs about your brain for awhile after. Step and his wife DeAnne have 3 kids and one on the way. Step is a computer programer. He moves his family to a small southern town for his job. In the town, there have been a rash of disappearing boys. How the family ever overlooks this and doesn't know every single fact, including the missing children's favorite color is beyond me. I mean........ maybe I'm a nut, but I am a mother living in a small town. We obsess about these kinds of things. The Fletchers don't. Many crudy things befall this family. It seems for a bit that the book isn't addressing what you think it is supposed to be about. Then at some point I realized the whole story is what the book is about. How bad things happen to good people, even the ones that pray and go to church. (The family is LDS and that does play a part in their characters. I would say that it doesn't detract from the book, for anyone not wanting to read LDS fiction. This IS NOT LDS fiction.) The oldest son Stevie has an incredibly rough, even painful time at the new school. He begins haning out with what the family assumes are imaginary friends. The friends just happen to have the same names as the 'lost boys'. (Hello parents, get a clue.) Beyond the fact that the parents seems to be missing a screw and not worrying themselves into a good mouth foaming................I LOVE this book. I totally identify with Step's personality. He's a little mouthy and totally defends his child. Yeah Step, you're the man. Way to whoop some tail! DeAnne is okay too, very motherly. I like her. Great story line, not too many holes. Characters you can totally get into. Then you get freaked out. Then you bawl your eyes out. That is what I call a wicked good read. Make me FEEL something!
So I give this book a 5. I would rate it between PG and PG 13. Step has a mouth on him. Remember.............I have a high threshold for language. I really don't remember much of it, but I do know DeAnne gets mad at Step for his language, other wise I probably wouldn't remember anything. Sorry about any vagueness, I don't want to spoil any parts of the book. Go read something wicked good!

Reading is in My Blood

Well, this is my stab at blogging about books. I've often wondered what talent, if any, I possess. I still haven't come up with an answer. But, if being literate were a talent........then that's about all I've got.
I read for pure enjoyment. It is the only way I can relax or zone out. So.....don't expect this to be a blog about classic literature. I don't read to pick apart the writing. I don't read to edit. Sometimes I read to learn. Lots of times I read to experience something I never will any other way. Mostly reading is just FUN!!
I will grade the books on my taste. I will also try to warn of explicit language and content, because I always wish someone would do that for me. Be forewarned............I have a high threshold. I don't like to read nasty content or lots of cursing for no reason. I really don't like the F word. But, because I read a LOT and I read fairly quickly, I don't always pick up on some things that would offend others.
Also, I am no book editor. I usually read for the way it makes me feel. I may not give a great synopsis. I may ramble about how I felt. I'll try to give some sort of overview, otherwise I guess this would be sort of pointless. Mostly though, this is just my own personal book journal. I like to see what I have read in the past because frankly I read so much I often forget. Plus if I'm not going to do the laundry, I have to get my sense of accomplishment somewhere else. So instead of stacking all of the books up to the ceiling..........I'll log them here.