- if you’re interested in strange stuff found in books
- if you like old stuff
- if you’re looking for an interesting book of photographs and letters
181 pages.
Very Good! I would recommend this book! |
31 Thursday May 2012
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in181 pages.
Very Good! I would recommend this book! |
30 Wednesday May 2012
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inFrom “Snow”: When she was born her mother was so young, still a girl herself, didn’t know what to do with her. She screamed and screamed- the child. Her mother sat crying in the garden. The gardener came by to dig up the soil. It was winter. The child was frost-colored. The gardener stood before the cold winter sun, blocking the light with his broad shoulders. The mother looked like a broken rose bush.
As you can (obviously) tell from the title, this is a book of retold fairy tales by Francesca Lia Block. I love fairy tales, especially with new twists or different endings, so this was the perfect book for me-or so I thought. Block is known for writing dark stories, and these fairy tales are as well. Perhaps a bit too dark. They are very different from the original. Block’s writing style is very distinct too. In fact, many of the blurbs on the back of the book commented about Block’s language. I’m not sure if I liked it though. Kind of flat. And really, reflecting back, the stories were really grim. And not just in the Grimm sense of the word. Grim. One M. I mean, I know that fairy tales aren’t all skipping in meadows filled flowers, and I enjoy reading slightly dark fairy tales, but not this dark. Read Angela Carter (The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories) if you want some darker fairy tales. Not this.
Read The Rose and The Beast:
229 pages.
Okay book, but it left me wanting more! |
29 Tuesday May 2012
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in Eilis Lacey, sitting at the window of the upstairs living room in the house on Friary Street, noticed her sister walking briskly from work. She watched Rose crossing the street from sunlight into shade, carrying the new leather handbag that she had bought in Clerys in Dublin in the sale. Rose was wearing a cream-coloured cardigan over her shoulders. Her golf clubs were in the hall; in a few minutes, Eilis knew, someone would call for her and her sister would not return until the summer evening had faded.
Eilis Lacey grew up in a small town in Ireland. A priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor her in America, and she decides to go, leaving her mother and sister behind. Eilis works in a department store, and finds unexpected love in the form of Tony, who loves the Dodgers. He slowly wins her over, but a family tragedy back in Ireland threatens her future.
I mainly decided to read this book because of the title; I really love New York. This book, however, did not impress me. The characters felt flat and unreal; I barely cared about them. The narration was sort of passive and basically nothing happened. Even when something did, I didn’t get too excited about it, because the way it was told was boring. I only finished it because it was fairly short and I thought I might as well to see if it ever picked up. But it didn’t
Read Brooklyn:
262 pages.
If the library doesn’t have it, don’t worry about reading it! |
28 Monday May 2012
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inFrom the prologue: We came home because we were failures. We wouldn’t admit that, of course, not at first, not to ourselves, and certainly not to anyone else. We said we came home because our mother was ill, because we needed a break, a momentary pause before setting off for The Next Big Thing. But the truth was, we had failed, and rather than let anyone else know, we crafted careful excuses and alibis, and wrapped them around ourselves like a cloak to keep out the cold truth. The first stage: denial.
When their mother gets cancer, the three Andreas sisters return home: Rose, the shy homebody eldest sister, can’t seem to leave her hometown for the man she loves, the glamorous Bean or Bianca comes home from New York City, and the youngest Cordy suddenly resurfaces. The Andreas family is kind of eccentric: they love books and TV is something that other families watch. Their father is a Shakespeare scholar and communicates using Shakespeare almost all the time. Even the three sisters are named after Shakespearean characters. They are all grappling with their problems and trying to come to terms with their relationship towards each other. And meanwhile, their mother is very ill and Cordy is pregnant.
The narration of The Weird Sisters was very interesting. It was really narrated by all three sisters at the same time. No “I’s” or “me’s” are every used; instead “our’s” and “we’s”. It was a bit confusing, but effective. It really emphasizes the way the sisters are connected, though they may seem different and not always get along. As it says on the cover, “See, we love each other. We just don’t happen to like each other very much.” This isn’t really my favorite type of fiction: family relationships and problems, but it was an enjoyable read.
Read The Weird Sisters:
318 pages.
Very Good! I would recommend this book! |
27 Sunday May 2012
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inWhen I walk into a bookstore, any bookstore, first thing in the morning, I’m flooded with a sense of hushed excitement. I shouldn’t feel this way. I’ve spent most of my adult life working in bookstores, either as a bookseller or a publisher’s sales rep, and even though I no longer work in the business, as an incurable reader I find myself in a bookstore at least five times a week.
In this interesting book, Lewis Buzbee, who worked in bookstores for many years, tells about not only his experiences and fascination with books, but also the history of books and bookstores. This book could have been made into something very boring, but I was continually entertained and didn’t find it at all dull. The book intersperses personal ancedotes along with historical notes, a perfect balance. Buzbee also offers his opinions on new reading technologies, such as e-books and amazon.com. If you like to read, this is a great book to offer some insight on bookstores and what happens to books before you buy them. I really liked hearing about the two independent bookstores that he worked in in California, and the people he meet there. I also got more book recommendations from this one.
Read The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop:
216 pages.
Very Good! I would recommend this book! |
26 Saturday May 2012
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inTime is many things, her father told her. Time is a circle, and time is a great turning gear that cannot be stopped, and time is a river that carries away what you love.
Steampunk is a really interesting genre, a mix of science fiction and fantasy. And it can be set in all sorts of places, as well illustrated in this great anthology. There are some pretty famous writers, including Cassandra Clare, Garth Nix, Kelly Link herself, Libba Bray, and Holly Black. There were also two comic stories, which I didn’t like as much. I think my favorite story was Steam Girl, by Dylan Horrocks, but The Last Ride of the Glory Girls by Libba Bray was also. And The Summer Girl. So basically I liked all of them. Some were scary, some were funny, and some had both. I would really recommend these short stories. The cover was cool too.
Read Steampunk:
412 pages.
Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf For Rereading (jf I own it)! |
25 Friday May 2012
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inLong ago and far away in the land of ice and snow, there came a time when it seemed that winter would never end. The months when summer should have given the land respite were cold and damp, and the winter montsh were snow filled and colder still. The people said the cold had lasted a hundred years, and feared that it would last a hundred more. It was not a natural winter, and no one knew what witch or troll had caused the winds to howl so fiercly.
Jessica Day George is a really good writer; her stories feel like fairy tales. This is another retelling of the Norwegian folktale East of the Sun, West of the Moon, and I liked it just as much as East, another retelling by Edith Pattou. If not more. The main character of the story is just called “the lass” or “the pika” (pika means girl.) She agrees to go to live with a white bear in his ice castle for one year to help her poor family. But she realizes that the bear is under an evil enchantment, and when she endangers him, she sets off on a quest to learn the truth. The writing was great in this book; it was absorbing all the way through. Even though I sort of knew what was going to happen already from other retellings, I still wanted to keep reading. There are great characters, and as Jessica Day George studied Scandavia, the setting felt very real.
Read Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow:
317 pages.
Very Good! I would recommend this book! |
24 Thursday May 2012
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inI’ve heard it said that girls can’t keep secrets. That’s wrong: we’d proved it. We’d kept ours for years and years, ever since we came to live at Piscul Dracului and stumbled on the way into the Other Kingdom.
I just loved, loved, loved this great fantasy book set in Transylvania. Jena is the second eldest of five sisters. They live with their father near the Wildwood, where the Other World is. On the Full Moon, they secretly go to visit the fairy land and dance the night away. But when their father falls ill and must go away for his health, her controlling cousin Cezar begins to take over the castle. Plus, there is trouble in the Other World. It’s complicated, but in a good way.
This book had mystery elements in it and was so suspenseful. I read it in almost one sitting. I loved the characters, both in this world and the other. And in the in, everything fit together perfectly. I loved the ending too, though it was slightly cheesy. Just slightly, mind you, and the rest of the book more than makes up for it. And it had interesting cover art.
Read Wildwood Dancing:
400 pages.
Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf For Rereading (jf I own it)! |
23 Wednesday May 2012
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inThe net was green. The handle was wood, and the grip was uncomfortably thick, like that of a tennis racket borrowed from an older player.
Those first two sentences were from the first essay in this book, “Collecting Nature.” I was interested in this book and delighted to discover that the Timberland Library had it. Anne Fadiman writes about familiar things: her crush on Charles Lamb, her habit of catching butterflies, her ice cream obsession, and some more serious ones as well. Her writing style is really engaging and witty, whether she’s writing about a serious thing or just something that she enjoys. I really loved this book and all the topics that Fadiman chose to write about. I think my favorite essay was the one called “Night Owl”, which talked about her sleeping habits. It was really interesting. I also, of course, liked the one about ice cream. I would really recommend this book.
Read At Large and At Small:
196 pages.
Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf For Rereading (jf I own it)! |
22 Tuesday May 2012
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inThe windows in my study are wide open; I am looking down at the garden. The cherry tree is in full bloom and from above it looks like a very light white cloud. I remember when we planted it thirty years ago. Juliette, my daughter, wanted a small cherry tree for her birthday. We planted what we believed was a miniature cherry tree. To our surprise it grew nearly sixty feet high and produced great, dark Bing cherries. Juliette loves the tree and thinks that when and if we sell the house, she will cut down the tree and use its wood to make furniture.
Wow, that beginning is just typical of people. If you can’t have something anymore, you have to destroy it. Anyway…
227 pages.
Very Good! I would recommend this book! |