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