Book Review #24

Book: Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
Age-range: 10 and up (with the help of a dictionary)
Recommended: Yes

This has been on my to-read list since it was published back in 2001.  Until I actually held the book in my hands I hadn't realized it was not a young adult novel.  Interesting.  I also love that Mark Dunn is a playwright and this was his first novel.  Also, I usually hate books written in letters and journal entries because, by their very nature, there's more telling than showing, and it drives me bonkers.  This, for some reason, did not.  This book is all about language.  There are a lot of big words in here that I had to look up, but that was part of the fun I had with it.

In the fictional island of Nollop, off the coast of South Carolina, there is a problem.  The island was founded by Nevin Nollip, author of the famous line. "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."  This sentence uses all the letters of the alphabet with minimal repetition of letters.  The problem in Nollop is that the letters of the shrine are falling down, and the council bans each letter as it falls!  First goes the z, which doesn't seem so bad at first, but as the letters are limited one by one life gets harder and harder.

This book is supposedly a commentary on censorship and totalitarianism, but I read it a little differently.  In our lives if we justify one act, it's so much easier to justify the next, and the next, and the next, until we are someone who lacks character and integrity.  Although I do agree it makes you wonder about each limitation enforced and what will happen if you give an inch, so to speak.

All in all this is an amazing book full of beautiful words and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has a love of language!

Book Review #23

Book: Belle by Cameron Dokey
Age-range: 8 and up
Recommended: Yes

Yet another book in the Once Upon a Time series, this time a re-telling of Beauty and the Beast.  This book was VERY similar to another Beauty and the Beast re-telling I've read, but I can't remember what one it was.  My chief complaint of the story is there is not enough time spent with the Beast.  You don't even meet him until three-fourths through the book and that's just not right.  There is also a complete lack of roses in the main story and that was disappointing too.  But other than that...

This was the story of a youngest daughter named Belle with two older sisters who are beautiful with a capital B.  Her father is a merchant and he loves her best.  One interesting thing about this story is the fact that Belle carves wood.  I've never seen a female fairy tale protagonist who carved wood before, but I liked it.  Anyway, Belle's family moves from the city to the country and her father ends up getting lost in a storm and meets the Beast.  Unlike other stories, he doesn't take anything that doesn't rightfully belong to him, but he still ends up having to make the bargain with the Beast that Belle will come back in his place.

And you know the rest.  But you don't read fairy tale re-tellings for the surprise ending, you read them for a new journey to your favorite destination: happily ever after.

Theme for April

April's theme, here on The Bookish Blonde, will be Revisiting Old Friends.  During April I will be re-reading books I haven't read for a long time.  These will be books I have purported to be my favorites.  Some of my "favorite" books I haven't read in years.  I guess will see if they've stood the test of time or if I've changed too much.

Stay tuned!

Book Review #22

Book: Winter's Child by Cameron Dokey
Age-range: 8 and up
Recommended: Yes

This is a re-telling of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen."  It isn't one that you see re-written very often.  It was excellent.

I've decided not to go as in-depth with my reviews since I'm pretty sure no one reads them.  But I do want to keep the list going, if only for my own benefit.

Book Review #21

Book: The Song of the Magdalene by Donna Jo Napoli
Age-Range: 13 and up
Recommended: No

It seems Ms. Napoli's books are becoming a hit or miss with me.  This book, while there were parts so beautiful I cried, was ultimately a disappointment.  This is the second book of hers that has featured rape.  This one much more graphic and horrifying than the one in her book Hush.

So, although I loved some of it, I can't recommend this book in good faith.

Book Review #20

Book: Beauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey
Age-range: 8 and up
Recommended: Yes

Yet another book in the Once Upon a Time series.  I think I enjoy reading these because I know I can get through them quickly and they almost always give me good story ideas as I'm reading (not directly related to the book, but inspiration for the stories I'm working on).  I was able to finish this one in a matter of hours as I was flying to Pittsburgh today.

If you couldn't guess from the title this is a re-telling of Sleeping Beauty.  While there were parts that were incredibly predictable, for the most part it was an amazing take on the tale.  I didn't feel there were loose ends or quick endings, the way there are in other books in this series.

All in all, it was excellent.  Happy reading!

Book Review #19

Book: Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George
Age-range: 10 and up (younger with mama's permission)
Recommended: Yes

This is a re-telling of the tale East o' the Sun, West o' the Moon.  I've read another re-telling of this tale (Edith Patou's East), but this was much better.

This is the story of a youngest daughter who's picked on (I can completely relate).  She's so unloved that she's never even given a name!  The person who loves her most in the world is her brother Hans Peter, who is haunted by an event in his past that he won't talk about.

It's well-written, beautiful prose, and if the characters are not as fleshed out as I would have liked, I didn't notice until the book was finished.  So, if you get the chance, and want something that will only take a day or two to read, pick this one up.

That Overwhelmed Feeling

I keep a list of books I would like to read.  These are books suggested to me, books I've heard of and found interesting, books that concern the genre I write in, or are writing books in general.  I have almost filled 2 red Moleskine notebooks worth of books.

The other day, after checking 8 books out from the library and crossing them off my list, I got really overwhelmed with how many are still on my list.

There are just too many books.  Even if I stop reading all the crappy ones at page 50 (if I can tell they're crappy by then, read my last book review) I won't be able to get through them all.  And there are more books being written every day, released every month.  I tried to think of solutions to my overwhelmed problem.  I could stop writing down books I want to read, but I that would probably stress me out more.  I could nothing else but read, but I'm not sure how my husband or baby would feel about that.

Do you have a solution to my problem?

Book Review #18

Book: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Age-range: 16 and up
Recommended: No

I love National Public Radio (NPR).  In Pittsburgh the radio stations are so random, they all play anything.  There's no oldies station or rock station, they will all play whatever they feel like.  This makes listening to the radio there an irritating experience for me, so I would listen to NPR pretty much all the time.  One thing I love about them is the interviews they do with authors.  I have learned about a lot of really wonderful books on NPRs shows.

Shanghai Girls is not one of them.

Not that it wasn't well-written, because it absolutely was.  Her prose is lyrical, descriptive and beautiful.  So much so that there were times when I would skip whole passages just because I as curious what would happen next.  And, as with any well-written book, she inspired some good writing in me that I probably would not have done otherwise.

I heard an interview with the author, Lisa See, on NPR and I heard why she wrote the book.  Unfortunately, I didn't learn enough about the actual plot to realize it was not a book for me.  It wasn't until three-fourths into the book that I realized it.  By then it was too late and I just finished it.  But I did not enjoy the ending.

Pearl and her sister May are beautiful girls in Shanghai.  Fate intercedes and their lives go from glamorous and fun to absolutely wretched... and then the book ends.  Seriously, it was so depressing to see how far they fell and it wasn't even a justified fall.  I think the author was making a point about the average Chinese person that came to America in the 1940s, but it was not good.  The story is told from Pearl's point of view and she goes from being an interesting, lovable character to being a superstitious, somewhat crazy (if you ask me) woman who's terrified of everything.  And NOTHING good happens to her.

So skip this book, but do look more into the history of beautiful girls in Shanghai in the 1930s.  Fascinating!

Book Review #17

Book: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Age-range: 12 and up
Recommended: Yes!

So many people I love have read this book and recommended it to me.  I had been planning on reading it for a long time, but there was always something else on my list ahead of it.  Anyway, I finally did it and I loved it!  The premise is not something I would have been interested in, but this book does well with it.

This is a science fiction book for people who don't care for science fiction (kind of like Nancy Farmer's House of the Scorpion).  It's set in a dystopic future where children from ages 12 to 18 are randomly selected to compete to the death - all televised.  See, it doesn't sound too great, does it?  Well it is!

I don't want to share too much because I don't want to ruin the surprise of the story.  Anyway, go out and read it right now!

Book Review #16

Book: If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland
Age-range: 15 and up
Recommended: Yes

This book is excellent.  It changed the way I write, not only that, it changed the way I read.  That is one of the reasons I am no longer going to rate books.  Instead I'm going to say whether I would recommend the book or not. That seems more fair and more accurate, so there you have it.

There were whole sections of this book that were so thick I had to sludge my way through them, but it's surprisingly pertinent for a book written in the 1930s.  She's honest and doesn't shy away from applying religion to her writing, the way most writers would be now.  For instance, she believes that inspiration is the Holy Ghost, something I've always firmly believed in.

As far as actual suggestions of how to write, there aren't many, but it gives you confidence in your writing ability, which is something every writer needs to have.  You can't write when you're afraid of making it perfect, and this book helps you get over that.

So if you're a writer, or want to be a writer, go to the library and check this book out.  It might give you that boost you need to finish one more book, one more story, one more page.