Becky's Book Reviews

Library Loot: Fifth Trip in January

2012-01-28T11:52:00.001-06:00

New Loot:

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos [Newbery Winner 2012]
Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin [Newbery Honor Book 2012]
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai [Newbery Honor Book 2012]
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley [Printz Award Winner 2012; William C. Morris Award 2012]
The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson [William C. Morris Honor Book 2012]
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey [Printz Honor Book 2012]
The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen [Schneider Family Book Teen Award 2012]
The Returning by Christine Hinwood [Printz Honor Book 2012]
Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall [Pura Belpre Author Award 2012; William C. Morris Honor Book 2012]
Big Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin [Alex Award Winner, 2012]
Talk Funny Girl by Roland Merullo [Alex Award Winner, 2012]
Wheels of Change: How Women Rode The Bicycle to Freedom by Sue Macy [YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults, Finalist 2012]
Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition by Karen Blumenthal [Yalsa Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults, Finalist 2012]
Tales for Very Picky Eaters by Josh Schneider [Geisel Award 2012]
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Crossed by Ally Condie
Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver
The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge
All Good Children by Catherine Austen
If You Give a Dog a Donut by Laura Numeroff
What Will Fat Cat Sit On by Jan Thomas
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
If you Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff
If you Give a Pig a Party by Laura Numeroff
If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff

Leftover Loot:

Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration during World War II by Joanne Oppenheim
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World To War by Catrine Clay

Book Trailers For This Week's Loot:

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Pledge (YA)

2012-01-28T08:14:00.000-06:00

The Pledge. Kimberly Derting. 2011. Simon & Schuster. 336 pages.

From the prologue: The air crackled like a gathering thunderstorm the moment the girl entered the chamber. She was just a child, but her presence changed everything.

From chapter one: I gritted my teeth as Mr. Grayson's voice grew louder and louder, until there was no mistaking that he meant for the people in the congested street to hear him, despite the fact that he knew full well they couldn't understand a single word he spoke.

I just LOVED The Pledge. I did. From the very start, this one had me hooked. The prologue was great at setting the tone and atmosphere of this one. And once the novel started, it just kept getting better and better!!!

The heroine of The Pledge, Charlaina, (Charlie) has a secret, a BIG, BIG secret that only her closest family members know. For if her secret was revealed, she could be killed. Her secret? Well, she understands all the languages--both spoken and written--no matter what the class. In her world, in her society, EACH class has their own language. The classes communicate together using Englaise, but each class has their own language that is their own. It keeps everyone in place, in line. You're never to make eye contact with someone in a higher class, you're supposed to show the most formal respect at all times. And that includes NEVER looking up when someone is speaking in a different language than you're own. So Charlie has grown up having to be super-careful. She can't let on that she understands every single word uttered in her presence. But her secret is becoming trickier to hide--perhaps she's grown a little too confident? Regardless Charlie's secret becomes known to one or two others...and what they do with that knowledge, well, it changes everything...

So I don't want to say too much about this one. It's such a great book. The world created by Kimberly Derting is oh-so-fascinating. And the storytelling was quite good too. I found myself caring about these characters so much. It was almost impossible to put this one down!!!

Read The Pledge

If you're a fan of science fiction, dystopia
If you want action, adventure, mystery, drama, and a little romance in your dystopia
If you are looking for an intense read

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight (YA)

2012-01-27T23:02:00.004-06:00

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. Jennifer E. Smith. 2012. Little, Brown. 236 pages.

From the prologue:
There are so many ways it could have all turned out differently. Imagine if she hadn't forgotten the book. She wouldn't have had to run back into the house while Mom waited outside with the car running, the engine setting loose a cloud of exhaust in the late-day heat. Or before that, even: Imagine if she hadn't waited to try on her dress, so that she might have noticed earlier that the straps were too long, and Mom wouldn't have had to haul out her old sewing kit, turning the kitchen counter into an operating table as she attempted to save the poor lifeless swath of purple silk at the very last minute...

From chapter one: Airports are torture chambers if you're claustrophobic.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight has to be one of the best, best YA romances I've read in years. This one is seriously giddy-making. It was practically perfect in every way. One of those oh-so-satisfying novels that keep you happy and satisfied from start to finish. One of those that almost from the start you know you're going to absolutely love.

So. The heroine of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is Hadley Sullivan. She is ever-so-reluctantly flying to London to be in her father's wedding. She's never met the woman destined to be her stepmother. Never wanted to have to meet such a woman. But she's to be in the wedding--a bridesmaid. So no matter how much she doesn't want to go, she has to go.

The big question...did she miss her flight on purpose?! No, not really. Not intentionally. But those four minutes--the four minutes that kept her from her scheduled flight turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to her. For she happens to meet Oliver at the airport. He's on his way to London. He's actually from there, he's just studying at Yale, as to why he's going back just now...well...that's best left a surprise.

If you love romances where it is all about the dialogue, then this one will make you oh-so-happy. So much is revealed about both Oliver and Hadley through their conversations. The whole novel just covers a little over twenty-four hours. And these two are sitting side-by-side on an airplane, so that is just one reason why there is so much conversation in this one...

One thing that I just LOVED, loved absolutely about this one, was the fact that a book came to symbolize so very, very much. And the book in question is Charles Dickens Our Mutual Friend, my favorite-and-best Dickens. And the novel even quotes some of my very, favorite lines. And these lines help clarify things for the heroine. So it was just a lovely thing for me!!!

I loved everything about this one. The writing. The setting. The dialogue. The characters. How their stories unfold...it's just a GREAT book, a great romance.

Read The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight

If you want a new book, a new romance, to gush about!
If you're a fan of teen romances
If you're looking for a romance with substance, with actual character development
If you're a fan of Jennifer E. Smith

Ashfall (YA)

2012-01-27T21:28:00.000-06:00

Ashfall. Mike Mullin. 2011. Tanglewood. 476 pages.

I was home alone on that Friday evening. Those who survived know exactly which Friday I mean. Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing, in the same way my parents remembered 9/11, but more so. Together we lost the old world, slipping from that cocoon of mechanized comfort into the hellish land we inhabit now. The pre-Friday world of school, cell phones, and refrigerators dissolved into this post-Friday world of ash, darkness, and hunger.

Just in case Susan Beth Pfeffer's moon trilogy was NOT bleak enough for you, may I recommend Mike Mullin's Ashfall?!

Ashfall is a YA novel--a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel--that is incredibly intense. The America Mullin imagines after a super-volcano erupts in Yellowstone is....not quite for everyone. But. For those that can handle it, those who like things ugly and gritty and very life-and-death, Ashfall is quite the read!!!

The hero of Ashfall is a young guy named Alex. His family is out of town for the weekend. Alex had been invited, of course, but he chose to not go with his family to visit his aunt and uncle in Illinois. The event happens suddenly...and it does change everything. But as intense as it was for Alex in the first 48 hours, it doesn't even begin to come close to what the future holds for him...as he decides to travel to Illinois on his own--on foot--to try to find his family.

Ashfall highlights the best and worst in humanity. There are opportunities for great acts of mercy and kindness--as people share what little they have, as people come together and work to survive. But there are hundreds of opportunities for evil as well. Alex encounters both in his journey. For Alex, the best thing to come out of this catastrophe is meeting Darla. But you have to look hard and search deep to find the hope in this novel.

Read Ashfall

If you're a fan of post-apocalyptic science fiction
If you don't mind a LOT of blood--both human and animal. If you don't mind graphic depictions of violence, of slaughter, of rape. This one goes to very DARK places
If you enjoy gritty novels where every day presents a new challenge to survive
If you're looking for a post-apocalyptic read WITHOUT zombies

The Predicteds (YA)

2012-01-27T20:15:00.005-06:00

The Predicteds. Christine Seifert. 2011. Sourcebooks. 352 pages.

From the prologue: The rose-patterned carpet of the room reminds me of the guest room in my grandmother's house. When I was a kid there, I used to hop from petal to petal. If I landed on white space or a leaf, I had to start over again.

Even though I found this one a bit predictable, it was such an entertaining read, I didn't mind that I guessed who the 'bad guy' was so early on.

Daphne Wright, our heroine, has recently moved with her mother to Quiet, Oklahoma. What she doesn't know--at the beginning--is that Quiet is a test town for Profile, a project that her mother worked on and developed for several years. Her mother didn't like the direction the project was taking, and left it behind her. Or so it seems. But after a school shooting--the only fatality being the shooter, the rest were just injuries--things begin to change. Officials at the school decide to release the results of Profile--the names of individuals that certain tests have "shown" to be future offenders. These fall generally into two categories: potentially violent (rape, murder, etc.) and self-destructive (teen pregnancies, drug addictions, alcoholism, gambling addictions, etc.) Many "believe" that if Profile has predicted such a fate--then your failure is just a matter of time. You may not be a criminal today, but next year? five years from now? ten years from now? It's all a matter of time. As you might have guessed, once these results are made public, NO ONE wants to be near a Predicted. And the adults agree deciding that it just isn't right that Predicteds share a classroom with everyone else. They shouldn't even be in the same building. All contact between the two groups should stop. These people are designated too dangerous to know.

So. Our heroine, Daphne, has some issues with what is going on because her love interest, Jesse, turns out being one of those on the list. Her so-called "friends" urge her to dump him immediately. (Don't get me started on her "friends.") And she does let doubt stop her from using common sense there for a couple of chapters, but in the end when everything is-oh-so-obvious she regrets that she missed her chance with him and asks him to forgive her and give her another chance.

I liked this one. I did. I may not love it. But I thought it was an interesting read on an interesting topic: profiling, segregation, and discrimination. If future crimes could be "predicted" at an early age--between fourteen or eighteen, for example--would that effect how they are treated by people--not just their peers, but by everyone? Is knowing the result of a test validation to judge someone for something they haven't done...at least not yet? And wouldn't telling someone that they were going to grow up to be a certain way be a dangerous self-fulfilling prophecy? So it was a thoughtful dystopia novel with a school setting.

Read The Predicteds

If you're a fan of science fiction and dystopia
If you like books with a school setting
If you like your YA with a little drama and romance
If you're a fan of Scored

Shadows in Flight

2012-01-27T20:10:00.001-06:00

Shadows in Flight. Orson Scott Card. 2012. TOR. 240 pages.

The starship Herodotus left Earth in 2210 with four passengers. It accelerated nearly to lightspeed as quickly as it could, and then stayed at that speed, letting relativity do its work. On Herodotus, just over five years had passed; it had been 421 years on Earth. On Herodotus, the three thirteen-month old babies had turned into six-year-olds, and the Giant had outlived his life expectancy by two years. On Earth, starships had been launched to found ninety-three colonies, beginning with the worlds once colonized by the Formics and spreading to other habitable planets as soon as they were found.

I may not have loved Shadows In Flight, but I am glad I kept reading because by the end it was starting to grow on me. Shadows in Flight is a novel that essentially only has four characters. The character that fans know as "Bean" is "The Giant" to his three young children. Readers meet his three children that share his genetic fate. (Genius giants with very short life spans.) His daughter, Carlotta, his son, Andrew "Ender", and his son, Cincinnatus "Sergeant." These three may bring to mind another family of siblings: Peter, Valentine, and Ender. When readers first meet these three, they may be surprised that a six-year-old is plotting to kill his father--supposedly to their benefit claiming that his giant body is consuming more than a fair share of the ships resources and supplies. Ender does not really believe that for a moment. And he does put a stop to the nonsense.

So. This novel was not thrilling me for the first half. But then they discover another ship, a strange ship, and a planet that may just be habitable. And from there things improve considerably. For the aliens encountered--are remnants from the Formics. And this novel does examine that race once again. In a new way.

Read Shadows in Flight

If you're a fan of Orson Scott Card
If you're a fan of the Ender/Bean series. BUT. Don't expect this one to be about politics and war. Other titles in the Bean series have been about politics and war strategies. They've also had some thriller elements to them. Not this one.
If reading about the family dynamics of Ender, Valentine and Peter so thrilled you that you just have to have a repeat
If you're a fan of novels set in space, novels that star aliens

Out of the Darkness

2012-01-27T11:46:00.002-06:00

Babylon 5: Legions of Fire: Out of the Darkness. Peter David. 2000. Del Rey. 266 pages.

Prologue: Hiller of the planet Mipas had always been an enthusiast about Earth history.
Chapter one: It is with some degree of shock and personal disappointment that I must conclude that I am losing my mind. I know this because, for the first time in...well...ever, I must admit...I actually felt sorry for Mariel.

Out of the Darkness concludes the Legions of Fire trilogy. And it answers so many questions fans may have about the characters. Including the prophecies and visions of the future hinted at in "War Without End" parts one and two, and "Point of No Return" in season three. Not to mention "Objects at Rest" from season five.

So, Vir has become a strong leader. A behind-the-scenes leader, perhaps, since his movement is oh-so-secretive. If he was known to be the leader of these 'terrorists' sabotaging Centauri's plans, well, he'd pay for it with his life. But the time to act is coming...and soon. And Londo knows this as well. As does G'Kar. All the pieces are coming together for the oh-so-dramatic, oh-so-tragic conclusion. Is it a tragedy with redeeming qualities? Yes. I think so.

It was definitely a compelling read! Very emotional. Especially if you LOVE the characters. This trilogy is definitely a must read. I'm so glad I read it! It made me love certain characters even more. And it gave me a new appreciation for some other characters. Characters that we just barely saw a glimpse of in the series. (Like Londo's wives from "Soul Mates".) And it also fit very nicely (as it should) with In The Beginning.

Read Out of the Darkness

If you want to see a more personal, more behind-the-scenes look at the fate of Londo and G'Kar as seen in "War Without End."
If you want to know what happens to your favorite Babylon 5 characters (Londo, G'Kar, John, Delenn, their son, David, Garibaldi, Vir, etc.)
If you want to know the fate of Timov and Mariel. (I was definitely surprised by Mariel in the past two novels! I think you might be too.)
If you love science fiction with a little drama, a little romance.

Armies of Light and Dark

2012-01-26T08:06:00.001-06:00

Babylon 5: Legions of Fire: Armies of Light and Dark. Peter David. 2000. Del Rey. 255 pages.

Prologue: My 'masters' are pleased with me this day.

Chapter one: Vir stood before the giant, crackling energy gate. The ground around him was littered with bodies.

Armies of Light and Dark is the second in the Legions of Fire trilogy. It is definitely a must read! Once you've read The Long Night of Centauri Prime, you're going to want to continue the story. Trust me. So Vir is learning more and more about the darkness surrounding Centauri Prime, learning more about what--or should that be who--the Shadows left behind. He's learning more about the plans--the grand plans--being set in motion. And he's got a little help. True the 'help' is a bit cranky at times, and oh-so-mysterious. (He may NEVER understand technomages.) But Vir is determined--for better or worse--to battle the darkness, the evil forces that no one quite wants to acknowledge just yet.

Read Armies of Light and Dark

If you're a fan of Babylon 5, if you just have to know what the future holds for all our characters--well, most of our characters
If you're a fan of science fiction with a focus on politics, ethics, good and evil
If you're a fan of Vir, if you want to see him transformed into a hero, if you want to see him make tough, tough choices
If you're a fan of Londo, if you want to see what happens to him during his reign as emperor
If you're a fan of Senna, if you want to see how her character grows and develops

And now for the quotes,

Vir on the craziness of life:

For the men he passed in the settlement town of K0643, it seemed, the line between truth and fiction, between the easily understood and the incomprehensible, had become blurred. For Vir himself, the line had long ago been completely erased. Anything was capable of happening to him. He felt that this was the only possible mind-set for him to maintain, since anything--more or less-generally did have the habit of happening to him. (14)

Vir and Rem Lamas:

Vir quickly put up his hands and forced a grin. "That's...that's quite all right, I get the idea. I don't really need to know more than you've told me. In fact, I wouldn't have been upset to know less." He cleared his throat, and then said, "So you were going to tell me about..." (16)

Vir being profound:

That was the trouble with knowing what lurks within the shadows, he realized. One can't figure out where to look anymore. If you gaze into the shadows, you blanch at whatever may be in there looking back at you, and you jump as the shadows move. If you look into the light, not only are you blinded by its intensity, but also it serves to remind you that you should be doing everything you can to expunge the darkness. Light does not allow for excuses. (24)

And now a word from Londo:

It is not fit, or meet, or responsible for Centauri to rejoice in the misfortune of others. Throughout our history, we have dealt with other races with compassion, always with compassion. Granted, there have been races that did not see that compassion for what it was, and rebelled. The Narn, naturally, come to mind. In dealing with them, however--in dealing with any who operated in a manner contrary to the interests of the great Centauri Republic--we did exactly what we had to do. No more and no less. (68)

Londo to Senna:

"There are battles that can and should be fought, and there are battles that should not be. In the case of the former, let nothing stop you. In the case of the latter, let nothing start you." (85)

Galen to Vir:

"For every action, however, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That is an immutable rule of the universe. You are to be the opposite reaction." (98)

Londo and G'Kar

"You," Londo said, "are the single most irritating individual I have ever met."
"You see?" G'Kar replied."What could be more proof of friendship than that? Who but a friend could be anywhere near as irritating as I am?" (196)

The Long Night of Centauri Prime

2012-01-25T10:38:00.036-06:00

Babylon 5: Legions of Fire: The Long Night of Centauri Prime. Peter David. 1999.

Prologue: The Drakh felt sorry for him. Londo Mollari would have been surprised to learn that such considerations went through the Drakh's mind. Had the Drakh's sentiments been relayed to him, he would have been even more surprised to learn precisely why the Drakh felt sorry for him.

Chapter one: When Londo saw the creature emerging from the chest of the Drakh, it was all he could do not to scream.

The Long Night of Centauri Prime is the first in a must-read trilogy of books for Babylon 5 fans. For this trilogy answers so many questions! This trilogy addresses so many prophecies and visions seen in the show! Because it is a continuation of the story, the drama, I feel it is a must read for anyone who watched the show from start to finish.

Is this book all about Londo? Yes and no. It is about what happens to him after he becomes emperor of Centauri Prime. It is from his perspective--for the most part. But to say it is all about him, well, that just wouldn't be the case. It features characters we've met before (Vir, Timov, Mariel, etc.) and introduces new characters (Shiv'kala, Durla, Senna, etc.) It also reintroduces the technomages.

Centauri Prime is in very bad condition. And what they need is a good leader, a strong leader, a leader not under the influence.

I loved so many things about this one. I did. I loved how Peter David captured the characters just right. Especially in how he depicts Londo and Vir. Their separate scenes are good, some are even great, but to see these two together again, well, there's just something wonderful about it all. My favorite new character was Senna.

Read The Long Night of Centauri Prime

If you're a fan of Babylon 5
If you're a fan of science fiction
If you're a fan of science fiction focusing on politics and war, good and evil
If you want to know what happens to Londo after he becomes emperor, after his nightmarish reign begins,
If you want to know what happened to Londo's wives
If you want to know what happens to Vir. If you LOVE Vir, this book will make you LOVE, LOVE, LOVE him.
If you want to see the long-term effects of the Shadow War

And now to share some quotes:

When Londo first meets Senna...

"She simply uses words now, not stones. It is a funny thing about words. They cannot harm you unless you allow them to...unlike rocks, which tend to act as they wish." (35)

Londo and Vir speaking about Durla:

"Well, here's a late development. I do not like him, Londo. This Durla. Not one bit." Vir was speaking in a whisper, albeit an angry one.
"Durla? What is wrong with Durla?" Londo sounded almost shocked.
"Look, don't take this wrong, but...in some ways, he reminds me of you. That is, the way you used to be."
"He doesn't remind me of me at all."
"Are you kidding? All those things he was saying about what he wants us to be? Doesn't that sound like something you might have said once?"
"No. I never would have said any such thing."
Vir rolled his eyes in annoyance as Londo guided him down one of the large corridors. "Where are we going?" he asked.
"On a tour. Much work has been down on the palace since you were last here." He glanced at Vir. His vision appeared a bit bleary. "So let me understand this: you say that Durla reminds you of me, and on that basis you don't like him. I suppose I should be insulted, no?" (89)

Vir on lying:

As Zack checked through the computers, Vir's mind was racing. Lying simply was not his strong suit. He felt tremendously uncomfortable and very exposed whenever he was trying to do it. One would have thought that, working with Londo for so long as he had, he would have acquired a knack for it. The one thing he had going for him was that he tended to babble to the point where people would accept whatever he was saying, just to shut him up. With one lie, he was ineffective. With an avalanche of lies, he could squeak by. (101)

Yet another starring Vir!

"Nervous?" laughed Vir. "Why would you say that?"
"Well, when you're nervous about something, you tend to flap your hands about a bit...kind of like you're doing right now."
"What? Oh, this. No, no...I'm just having some minor circulation problems, so I'm trying to get the blood flowing." He flailed his hands for a moment, then said, "Well, that seems to have done it," and folded his arms tightly across his chest. (105)

And another...

Time flies when you're having fun. Or when you're having...well...whatever it is that I have. (214)

Mariel and Vir:

"You made me laugh. It's not always easy for a man to get a woman to laugh, but you managed it so easily. You had a charming facade you created back then, although I could see through it rather easily, of course."
"What...facade would that be?"
"An air of barely controlled panic."
"Ah. Well," and he laughed uncomfortably, "you saw right through that, I guess. Clever you." (217)

Library Loot: Fourth Trip in January

2012-01-25T10:28:00.000-06:00

New Loot:

How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And Other Adventures in Parenting (from Argentina to Tanzania and everywhere in between) by Mei-Ling Hopgood
Sweetly by Jackson Pearce
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
Crossing Stones by Helen Frost
Walt Disney's Cinderella as retold by Cynthia Rylant
Walt Disney's Peter Pan retold by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland as retold by Jon Scieszka
The Pledge by Kimberly Derting
Away by Teri Hall
And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander
Ashfall by Mike Mullin
The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine
The Predicteds by Christine Seifert
A Million Suns by Beth Revis
The Bridge to Never Land by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card
The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World To War by Catrine Clay
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

Leftover Loot:

Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration during World War II by Joanne Oppenheim
Beyond Infinity by Gregory Benford
Psychoshop by Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
Nineteen eighty-four by George Orwell
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio; translated by Guido Waldman

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Charles Dickens: England's Most Captivating Storyteller

2012-01-24T14:44:00.000-06:00

Charles Dickens: England's Most Captivating Storyteller. Catherine Wells-Cole. 2011. Candlewick. 32 pages.

About this 'notebook':

Charles Dickens's books are known and loved the world over. From Ebenezer Scrooge and Mr. Micawber to Oliver Twist and Little Nell, Dicken's characters spring from pages that are rich with detail of life in Victorian times.
With extracts from his novels and correspondence, Charles Dickens: England's Most Captivating Storyteller leads you from the streets of nineteenth century London to the shores of the United States, revealing the lives of the rich and the poor at a time of great social reform and industrial progress. Discover Dickens's extraordinary life, times, and work in this lavish volume.

For those wanting to know more about Charles Dickens and the life and times in which he lived, this short picture book (or notebook) is a treat. Especially if you are not curious enough or patient enough or brave enough to attempt reading a full-length biography.

Each two-page spread gives you the basics, the essentials. And the facts are anything but boring.

The topics are:

Childhood
Family Life
Fame
School
Prisons
Workhouses
Orphans
London
Industry
Theater
Christmas
Social Life
America
Legacy

There are many, many details included in this book. But one of the most useful features--perhaps--are the book summaries. For one little paragraph, they're surprisingly complete. The only reason that might not be such great news is if you don't want any of the books spoiled for you. Because these summaries have big, big spoilers! Of course, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

This book was user-friendly. I think that is its greatest strength. The presentation of the facts, the details, makes this an engaging read.

Read Charles Dickens: England's Most Captivating Storyteller

If you are a fan of Charles Dickens
If you are a fan of Victorian literature
If you are a history lover wanting more details about life--for rich and poor--in Victorian England

All Our Worldly Goods

2012-01-23T15:28:00.001-06:00

All Our Worldly Goods. Irene Nemirovsky. 1947/2008. Vintage Books. Translated from the French by Sandra Smith. (French title: Les Biens de ce Monde.) 265 pages.

They were together, so they were happy.

What All Our Worldly Goods lacks in characterization, it more than makes up for in beautiful writing. Nemirovsky's novel has great atmosphere: a rich, detailed setting. The characters are more simple than complex human beings, but, I think there are enough presented to get a flavor of what life was like across the generations in the troubled decades between the start of World War I and the beginning of World War II. They're more sketched than developed.

The novel begins with the love story of Agnes and Pierre. These two aren't exactly from the same class. And his mother has arranged his marriage with someone else, a young, rich woman named Simone. But Pierre and Agnes are deeply in love, and Pierre chooses to go against his family's wishes and marry for love not money.

A few years later--after their new family has grown to include a baby boy, Guy--war is declared. Pierre becomes a soldier, and Agnes along with his family must learn to deal with the new reality. The first third of the novel, at least, deals with the first world war. We get to see the war from multiple viewpoints. There were many great scenes--including scenes from Pierre's parents' perspectives--about the war. Pierre does survive the war. Though like many soldiers, many people touched by the war, he's not quite the same innocent as before.

The rest of the novel takes us from the end of the first world war through the beginning of the second world war. When the novel ends, part of France is occupied. These chapters are sketches. Good sketches, for the most part, of how families change, villages change, how life goes on. Readers see Pierre and Agnes' children all grown up. (They also have a daughter, Colette). Part of the novel focuses on the late 1930s and captures the uncertainty of it all. Will there be another war? Can peace be maintained? Can diplomacy stop a war before it begins? Is the war inevitable?

Pierre may be too old to go to war a second time, but his son, Guy, is not. And war once again is changing everything.

My favorite quotes:

It was the very beginning of the war, when the heart bleeds for everyone who dies, when tears are shed for each man sent to fight. Sadly as time goes on, people get used to it all. They think only of one soldier, theirs. But at the start of a war the heart is still tender; it hasn't hardened yet. (55)

The other one...the other war...People said these words in a stunned tone of voice: it was a new phrase. Another war...Twice in one lifetime, it was too much. But everyone was bowed beneath the same destiny, and courage was born out of their communal ordeal. (202)

The war was already trying to create its own legend. It was understood that the women had to prove themselves worthy of the soldiers through their calmness, their courage, their blind confidence that fate would smile on them. For Agnes it was easier; she had played the role before. For four years she had lowered her head, waited, fought back her tears in silence, smiled at young and old; she had hoped. But for the younger women it was all much harder. Stubborn, anxious, passionate, they had believed until now that it was easy to control their destiny. (206)

The author's story is interesting--though tragic. Irene Nemirovsky was a French novelist of Russian and Jewish heritage who did not survive Auschwitz. I cannot imagine writing this novel at such a time. Can you?

Read All Our Worldly Goods

If you are a fan of historical fiction
If you are a fan of love stories (though this isn't exactly a traditional romance novel)
If you are interested in World War I and/or World War II
If you are interested in French village life
If you are interested in multigenerational stories or family sagas
If you like literary fiction

This was the second book I read for the War Through the Generations reading challenge.

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Sunday Salon: Watching Thirdspace

2012-01-22T07:38:00.004-06:00

I watched my third Babylon 5 movie recently, Thirdspace. And while Thirdspace wasn't as good as In The Beginning, it was a nice way to spend an afternoon! The movie occurs AFTER the end of the Shadow war but BEFORE the beginning of the war with Earth Alliance. ("Into the Fire" is the season four episode that concludes the Shadow War, and "Moments of Transition" is the season four episode that begins the war with Earth Alliance. There isn't a perfectly-perfect way to fit the movie into this sequence of episodes.)

What I liked best about this movie was John Sheridan. Season three and season four have changed him in oh-so-many ways. His character, his personality. He's got the weight of many worlds on his shoulders. And it began to show. In this movie, there is a lightness, an exuberance almost. Here I saw the John that I remembered from earlier days. The John that I first came to love--just as Delenn came to love him. The John that made her start skipping.

And. I almost forgot. It has the MOST WONDERFUL--BUT PERHAPS WONDERFULLY AWKWARD SCENE--between Lyta and Zack in an elevator. It's a beautiful but heartbreaking scene, in my opinion. (You can watch it without it spoiling the movie.)

In this movie, Susan Ivanova (and some others from a flight squadron) discover an enormous artifact in hyperspace. They don't know what it is--or just how dangerous it may prove to be--but they bring it back with them for further study. And that's when things get a little interesting on the station.

The first part of movie.

This movie felt like a good, strong episode of the show. So that was nice. Is it the best science fiction movie ever? No, it's not meant to be. But if you do like the show--or LOVE the show--I think you'll find plenty to enjoy. The only thing that would have made this movie even better would have been Marcus!!! Oh how wonderful it would have been to see Marcus again!!!

Watch Thirdspace

If you like science fiction movies
If you're a fan of Babylon 5
If you want more John Sheridan, more Vir, more Lyta, more Susan, or more Zack.
If you want to know more about the Vorlons

My Family for the War (YA)

2012-01-21T10:57:00.000-06:00

My Family for the War. Anne C. Voorhoeve. Translated by Tammi Reichel. 2012. February 2012. Penguin. 412 pages.

I would never find another friend like Rebekka Liebich. she crouched on the narrow windowsill, one hand holding tight to the frame, and held the other hand stretched out in front of her, as if that would somehow shorten the distance of almost five feet between her and the trunk of the birch tree. I stood in the courtyard three floors below and would have liked to close my eyes, but I couldn't even manage that. I stared up at her, hypnotized.

I just LOVED, LOVED, LOVED My Family for the War. I just loved it. It is beautifully written and stars unforgettable characters. I loved the heroine, Franziska Mangold. (Her nickname, in Germany, is Ziska. When she travels to England, she's renamed Frances.) I loved her narrative voice. I found it compelling and haunting. The events of the novel can be dramatic--here and there--but I never felt it was too much. I felt it was done very realistically. It made me think, but more importantly it made me feel.

So. My Family For the War opens with Ziska and her best friend, Bekka, working on their survival plans. The year is 1938. The setting is Berlin, Germany. Bekka and Ziska are Jews. Though I believe both are Christian, their families having converted to the Christian faith several generations previously. But Hitler and his Nazis don't care what a person believes, any one with even a trace of Jewish blood in their family--no matter how past, no matter how distant--is considered Jewish. And to be Jewish in Nazi Germany is a dangerous thing. It is a matter of life and death. Which is why their parents are doing anything and everything to get out of the country--filling out applications to migrate to any country still accepting Jews. Which is why their children don't exactly play. They make plans on how to survive attacks from bullies. Mapping out places to hide, mapping out different ways to get home, always wanting to find places they can disappear. They are not always successful. Ziska comes home beaten and bruised a time or two at least. But it isn't easy to "escape" Germany--not even in 1938. (Though perhaps it is easier in 1938 than it would be after the war officially starts).

One day Bekka tells Ziska about the kindertransports. There is hope for Jewish children under the age of sixteen. England is accepting Jewish children and placing them with foster parents. This option won't save entire families, but it will save some of the children at least. And some adults realize just what this could mean. That this means life, this means a future, for their child. At first, Ziska is angry that her mother would even consider--for half a minute--sending her away to strangers, sending her alone to a strange country where she doesn't speak the language. But Ziska is one of the children who finds herself being rescued through the kindertransports. Bekka is not. At least not yet...the two had hoped to go at the same time, but that didn't work out.

Most of the book follows her life...as Frances. As the young girl who grows into a young woman...in England. She's settled with an Orthodox family. The novel is about her experiences with her foster mom and dad, with her new brother, Gary. The novel is about what it's like to start a new life while being so very unsure about the old one. She is able to communicate with her mother...until the war starts. But then everything changes. Especially when the Germans start bombing England.

As I said, I just LOVED, LOVED, LOVED My Family for the War. I absolutely loved the characters. I really just loved them all. I loved Frances. I loved Gary. (I just loved him, thought he was a GREAT brother. And just the right person to start the healing process for Frances.) I loved Amanda, the foster mom. I just felt for her so much. And to see these two grow together, well, it was magical. And her foster Dad was great as well. And then there are the friends she meets--including one from the kindertransport, Walter. There was so much to love about him as well!!! This novel is just so wonderful, so well-written.

Read My Family for the War

If you are looking for a great YA book
If you are looking for a great historical novel
If you are looking for a compelling story set during World War II
If you are looking to read more about the London Blitz
If you are interested in reading Jewish books
If you are looking for an emotional, unforgettable read
If you are looking to read books in translation, this one was published in Germany in 2007

*All quotes are taken from an ARC. They may not match the final, printed version of the novel.

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Two About Cupcakes

2012-01-21T10:15:00.001-06:00

You Are My Cupcake. Joyce Wan. 2011. Scholastic. 14 pages.

You are my cupcake
My sticky little gumdrop
My mushy little sweet pea
My oven-baked cutie-pie...

The more you read You Are My Cupcake, the more you'll like it. I think. And it probably won't take you long to memorize this one! (Which is NOT a bad thing at all.) So this one doesn't offer many surprises, what you see is what you get. It is cute. It is sweet. It is fun and playful. A board book about the many, many nicknames a baby might collect from his/her friends and relations--though I wouldn't have ever thought to call someone an oven-baked cutie-pie. (Other nicknames include honey-roasted peanut and chubby little pumpkin.) I liked the art.

Read You Are My Cupcake

If you are looking to share a lovely sweet or super-sweet read with the little cupcakes in your life

Cupcake Surpise (BOB Books/Level 1) Lynn Maslen Kertell. Illustrated by Sue Hendra. 2012. (February 2012) Scholastic. 32 pages.

It is Dad's birthday.
What will Jack and Anna give to Dad?
Will they make a card?
Will they jot a note?
Will they sing a song?
Jack and Anna will make cupcakes for Dad.
Cupcakes will be a big surprise.

Jack and Anna love their Dad very much. And they really, really, really want to make him some yummy cupcakes. But things don't go exactly as planned. It starts when the two realize they are out of flour. They head to the store--with their mom, of course, who doesn't really get all that involved in the story until it's time to put the cupcakes in the oven--to buy flour...and cookies. At home at last...will these two follow the recipe exactly? What do you think?! It starts with a little assistance from their dog, Buddy, who "accidentally" adds the cookies. What will happen next?

While Cupcake Surprise won't be a thrilling reads to adults, I think it does offer something to young readers. I think that if you're looking for a simple book with simple text that kids can start reading on their own, this is a nice choice. I think it definitely works as a read aloud for much younger listeners as well.

Read Cupcake Surprise

If you have little ones that love to cook and bake this one works great as a read aloud
If you are looking for level one readers for your child to read
If you don't mind lower quality art

Born and Bred in the Great Depression

2012-01-21T09:06:00.000-06:00

Born and Bred in the Great Depression. Jonah Winter. Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root. 2011. Random House. 40 pages.

Where you grew up, on the edge of town,
next to the tracks,
you could hear the trains going by
at night.

East Texas,
the 1930s--
the Great Depression.

Set in Texas in the 1930s, Born and Bred in the Great Depression is based on the stories Jonah Winter heard about his father and his childhood during the Depression. The storytelling is simple--poetic, even. I found the text to be engaging as well. It's as if he's writing--or speaking--directly to his father. I think that keeps things interesting. I found the text to be well written. It was simple--yet beautiful. It felt honest. Like a celebration of love and family.

I also enjoyed the illustrations by Kimberly Bulcken Root. I felt they matched the text well. Beautiful, detailed, yet simple and sweet.

Read Born and Bred in the Great Depression

If you like family stories
If you like historical picture books
If you like honest, beautiful, yet simple, stories of the heart

Fire watch

2012-01-20T08:48:00.003-06:00

Firewatch. Connie Willis. 1985. Bantam Books. 271 pages.

Firewatch by Connie Willis is the FIRST short story collection I've read for the 2012 Short Story Reading Challenge.

I am SO GLAD this was not my first introduction to Connie Willis. I've discovered that I enjoy her novels so much more than her short stories.

With one little exception, the title story "Fire Watch."

Fire Watch is the FIRST story set in the world of Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Blackout and All Clear. It introduces readers to the alternate-world where time travel is the way historians LEARN their subject. Readers meet Mr. Dunworthy and Kivrin, though the narrator is another historian, one who is accidentally going to St. Paul's during the London Blitz of 1940. His original assignment had him traveling WITH St. Paul! Quite a difference! This novella is great. It won both a Hugo Award and Nebula Award. And I would recommend this story to just about anyone who likes science fiction and time travel.

There are no guidelines for historians, and no restrictions either. I could tell everyone I'm from the future if I thought they would believe me. I could murder Hitler if I could get to Germany. Or could I? Time paradox talk abounds in the history department, and the graduate students back from their practica don't say a word one way or the other. Is there a tough, immutable past? Or is there a new past every day and do we, the historians, make it? And what are the consequences of what we do, if there are consequences? And how do we dare do anything without knowing them? Must we interfere boldly, hoping we do not bring about all our downfalls? Or must we do nothing at all, not interfere, stand by and watch St. Paul's burn to the ground if need be so that we don't change the future? All those are fine questions for a late-night study session. They do not matter here. I could no more let St. Paul's burn down than I could kill Hitler. No, that is not true. I found that out yesterday in the Whispering Gallery. I could kill Hitler if I caught him setting fire to St. Paul's. (12-13)

You may read the novelette online.

Other stories in the collection include:

Service for the Burial of the Dead
Lost and Found
All My Darling Daughters
The Father of the Bride
A Letter From the Clearys
And Come from Miles Around
The Sidon in the Mirror
Daisy, in the Sun
Mail-Order Clone
Samaritan
Blued Moon

My second favorite story was The Father of the Bride. This short story is a fairy-tale retelling. It is the Sleeping Beauty story from the father's perspective. It was very enjoyable! Definitely one of the highlights of the book for me.

I would say that most of the other stories just weren't me. Service for the Burial of the Dead, Lost and Found, A Letter from the Clearys, and And Comes from Miles Around while not quite wowing me had some enjoyable qualities to them.

My least favorite has to be All My Darling Daughters.

Read Fire Watch

If you're a fan of Connie Willis
If you're a fan of short stories in the science fiction and fantasy genres
If you're wanting to read the first Willis time-travel story

All Clear

2012-01-19T14:03:00.001-06:00

All Clear. Connie Willis. 2010. Random House. 645 pages.

By noon Michael and Merope still hadn't returned from Stepney, and Polly was beginning to get really worried. Stepney was less than an hour away by train. There was no way it could take Merope and Michael--correction, Eileen and Mike; she had to remember to call them by their cover names--no way it could take them six hours to go fetch Eileen's belongings from Mrs. Willett's and come back to Oxford Street.

All Clear is the sequel to Connie Willis' Blackout. And as I mentioned yesterday, you are going to want to read these two books as if they were one. (There's a good reason these two books were the combined winner for the 2011 Hugo Awards. And the Nebula Awards. Doomsday Book also won both the Hugo and Nebula. To Say Nothing of the Dog just won the Hugo Award. I think it says quite a lot that each of Connie Willis' time travel books has won an award!!!)

So how much is it safe to say in a review of All Clear? Since even talking about the first few chapters of All Clear will spoil the drama of Blackout?! I was thinking about that yesterday as I wrote the review. Would that one review 'do' for both books? What more would I say about the second book? And essentially the only thing I thought of was that All Clear was even better, even more intense. If Blackout was dramatic and exciting, then All Clear is unbelievably dramatic and incredibly fast-paced. Almost dangerously so. In that, I was so WORRIED about the characters, about what was going to happen next, about what it all meant, about where it was all going, that I RUSHED, RUSHED, RUSHED through the chapters. I read a 645 page novel in one day. (Not to mention that it was the same day I finished Blackout.)

Together Blackout and All Clear were an amazing, amazing read. Just incredible. The characterization is great. There were just SO MANY characters I loved. The premise is interesting. And the intensity, the pace, the drama of it, well, few books can match it.

For those that may not have seen my review of Blackout, let me just keep it simple. Three historians (time travelers) have gone back in time to 1940. Each historian is researching or observing something different. Different locations--in England. Different months in 1940. But when SOMETHING happens that 'traps' them in that time period, well, they have to learn how to really live in that time period. Their research stops being research, and it becomes all about surviving.

Read All Clear

If you've read Blackout and just HAVE to know what happens next
If you're a fan of Connie Willis' other time travel books (Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Blackout. Just be sure you've read Blackout first. I've also just learned that there is a short story, Fire Watch, available to read here.)
If you're a fan of time travel novels
If you're a science fiction fan
If you're looking to read an award-winning book (Hugo, Nebula, Locus)
If you're looking for a novel with GREAT characterization
If you're looking for an intense, fast-paced plot
If you're a fan of Agatha Christie and mysteries from the time period
If you're a fan of historical fiction set in World War II
If you're interested in the details and drama of the war
If you're a fan of Shakespeare and the theatre

Blackout

2012-01-18T13:51:00.000-06:00

Blackout. Connie Willis. 2010. Random House. 495 pages.

Colin tried the door, but it was locked.

I thought I'd start with a word of warning. When you get to the end of Blackout, you're going to NEED to have a copy of All Clear ready to go. Because, chances are, you're going to want to pick it up right away. There is no 'real' ending in Blackout. There is no resolution. There's no peace to be had. Usually I might say that's not such a positive thing in a book, but in this case, I'm forgiving.

You might also find it helpful to know that Blackout can be read as part of a series of time travel books by Connie Willis. The books share some characters: Mr. Dunworthy is in Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Blackout, and All Clear. Although he is only a main character in Doomsday Book. Badri is in Doomsday Book and Blackout. Finch is in Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog. Colin is in Doomsday Book, Blackout, and All Clear. Verity and Kindle are in To Say Nothing of the Dog, but are mentioned (very) briefly in Blackout.

But you should also know that it's not essential that all of these books be read in order. It is definitely essential that you read Blackout and All Clear in the proper order. But you don't have to have read Doomsday Book or To Say Nothing of the Dog in order to enjoy or appreciate Blackout/All Clear.

There are three main characters--three main narrators--in Blackout. Each is a historian, a time traveler. Each has plans for multiple assignments in the twentieth century. Each is experiencing frustration as these drops are rearranged and rescheduled. The historians are Merope who is 'observing' the evacuation of children from London to the country. She 'becomes' Eileen O'Reilly and works as a nurse or maid in one of the homes. Under her care are two very, very wild children. Of course, she's responsible for more than two children. Her employer has taken in many children--over a dozen, I think? But those two are the ones that make her life more than a little unpleasant. Her assignment is for the spring of 1940. Polly "Sebastian" is a historian observing the London Blitz in the fall of 1940. Her assignment has her working in a shop on Oxford Street. She is curious in observing how the Blitz effects people. How they are able to cope with the bombs falling over their heads. How they are able to cope with the terror of it all--knowing each and every night that they could die. The third historian is Michael Davies. Since he was supposed to observe Pearl Harbor first, he's got an implant to give him an American accent. But with the shuffling of assignments, he's now observing the Dunkirk evacuation in June 1940. His research has him observing heroes. He's looking to observe the qualities that make someone brave and heroic, what makes a person risk their lives to save others.

If all went according to plan, these three would NOT have met--in the past. Their assignments in 1940 would not have overlapped in time or place. But not all went according to plan...and now these three are going to need each very, very much if they're going to survive...

Read Blackout

If you are a fan of historical fiction set during World War II
If historical details fascinate you
If you are interested in the London Blitz
If you are a fan of historical fiction set in Britain
If you are a fan of science fiction and/or time travel
If you are looking for an extremely compelling read
If you're looking for an intense read; something very dramatic
If you are a fan of Connie Willis
If you read Doomsday Book and are interested in finding out what happens to Colin when he grows up...
If you're looking for memorable characters
If you are a fan of Agatha Christie and other mystery writers of the time
If you want a book you just CAN'T put down no matter what

I loved this one. I just LOVED it. It was so intense, so dramatic, so emotional. It just held my attention. I cared about these characters so much! And to see them in danger, well, I just couldn't stand to put this book down!!!

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Library Loot: Third Trip in January

2012-01-18T13:08:00.000-06:00

New Loot:

A Boy Called Dickens by Deborah Hopkinson
Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration during World War II by Joanne Oppenheim
Beyond Infinity by Gregory Benford
Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear
Gather, darkness! Fritz Leiber
A Boy Named Shel by Lisa Rogak
Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl
An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Girl Who Became a Beatles by Greg Taylor
Psychoshop by Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
Sylvia & Aki by Winifred Conkling
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Nineteen eighty-four by George Orwell
Redwall by Brian Jacques

Leftover Loot:

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson
Company of Liars by Karen Maitland
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Everybody Sees The Ants by A.S. King
Loving, Living, Party Going by Henry Green
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio; translated by Guido Waldman
The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

And the award goes to...

2012-01-17T12:30:00.004-06:00

As part of Fig and Thistles Dickens in January project, I thought I'd share with you my thoughts on some of the characters from the Dickens novels that I've read. (A Christmas Carol, Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend, Little Dorrit, Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield.)

MOST ROMANTIC COUPLE: John "Rokesmith" and Bella Wilfer from Our Mutual Friend

GREATEST ROMANTIC HERO: John "Rokesmith" from Our Mutual Friend

MOST TRANSFORMED HEROINE: Bella Wilfer from Our Mutual Friend

GREATEST SIDEKICK TO A HERO: Sam Weller from Pickwick Papers.

GREATEST-GUARDIAN-EVER: John Jarndyce from Bleak House.

BEST OVER-ALL HEROINE: Esther Summerson from Bleak House

THE SILLIEST OF HEROINES: Dora Spenlow from David Copperfield

THE GOODY-TWO-SHOES HEROINE: Amy Dorrit from Little Dorrit

THE MOST-SENSIBLE YET UNDER-APPRECIATED HEROINE: Agnes Wickfield from David Copperfield

THE HERO WHO TOOK THE LONGEST TO REALIZE WHO HE REALLY SHOULD BE WITH: A tie between Arthur Clennam from Little Dorrit and David Copperfield from David Copperfield.

THE ORPHAN I FEEL MOST FOR... A tie between Lizzie Hexam from Our Mutual Friend and Oliver Twist from Oliver Twist.

BEST STRONG-WILLED, NO-NONSENSE AUNT: Betsey Trotwood from David Copperfield

BEST AT SHOWING UNCONDITIONAL LOVE: Daniel Peggotty from David Copperfield

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Fault In Our Stars (YA)

2012-01-17T09:58:00.066-06:00

The Fault In Our Stars. John Green. 2012. Penguin. 336 pages.

Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death.
Whenever you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression among the side effects of cancer. But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying. (Cancer is also a side effect of dying. Almost everything is, really.)

Hazel, our heroine, is dying of cancer. When she ever-so-reluctantly attends a cancer support group, she meets Augustus Waters. After these two meet, well, both have reason to want to live. Augustus definitely loves her and wants to be with her. She's slightly more reluctant because she gets caught up thinking about the future, how there can be no future, since she could end up dying in a matter of weeks, months, whatever. She would rather hurt him now--by refusing to be with him--than hurt him later by her death. But a few things happen to change her mind, to cause her to open her heart and mind to living life in the present.

It's a bittersweet romance. But bittersweet in a good way. Much of the novel does deal with serious subjects--like death, dying, questioning the 'meaning' of life, the 'point' of it all. But it's not without its lighter moments--like the lonely swing set. It's a sad novel, to be sure, but it's not without hope.

I liked this one. I'm not sure that I LOVED it. (Peter Van Houten annoyed me greatly even when he wasn't being super-cranky. I didn't find his book, his writing, oh-so-wonderful like Hazel does. I thought he was obnoxious from the start.) But I definitely found this one worth reading. The book is very well-written. And the dialogue between these two was great.

Read The Fault In Our Stars:

If you love John Green, if you've enjoyed his previous books
If you are looking for a bittersweet all-too-realistic, all-too-heartbreaking romance
If you are looking for a good YA book with plenty of heart (don't mistake heart for cute and sweet though)

Two of my favorite quotes:

"I'm in love with you," he said quietly.
"Augustus," I said.
"I am," he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. "I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you."
"Augustus," I said again, not knowing what else to say. (153)

"What am I at war with? My cancer. And what is my cancer? My cancer is me. The tumors are made of me. They're made of me as surely as my brain and my heart are made of me. It is a civil war, Hazel Grace, with a predetermined winner." (216)

Bedtime Board Books

2012-01-16T14:50:00.000-06:00

Yawn. Sally Symes. Illustrated by Nick Sharratt. 2011. (December 2011) Candlewick Press. 24 pages.

Sean gave a yawn while sitting on his mat. Guess who he gave it to. A Scruffy, fluffy.....cat.

Yawn is probably my favorite and best of the bedtime board books I'll be reviewing today. What do I love about it? Well, it is fun and playful. There is a story to it. (It's not just describing the nightly rituals or routines of bedtime: taking a bath, brushing teeth, putting on pajamas, hearing a story, getting kissed, etc.) And board books with story are a good thing! But the thing I probably love most about this one is the rhyming! The rhyming helps little ones predict who will yawn next. I also enjoyed the ending...where readers see all the animals who've caught the yawn, snuggling up with Sean in his bed. For all these animals are his toys. I thought that was clever and fun! I also liked how baby-friendly this one was. There is a large die-cut hole that is the yawn for the characters. This book serves as a dare to parents to read it without yawning.

Read Yawn

If you're looking for a GREAT bedtime story in board book format to share with little ones
If you're looking for a great story with some predictability and repeat value to it

Noodle Loves Bedtime. Nosy Crow. Illustrated by Marion Billet. 2011. (September 2011). Candlewick Press. 10 pages.

Noodle loves to splash.
Noodle loves to drink.
Noodles loves toothpaste and brushing at the sink.
Noodle loves to snuggle with a soft, fluffy sheep.
And just like Noodle, you love to sleep!

If you're looking for a super-short, super-simple board book about bedtime routines, then Noodle Loves Bedtime might be the one for you. Noodle is a new character--a panda, of course--that will be the star in several board books.

I am not a fan of Noodle--not yet anyway. While Noodle Loves Bedtime doesn't make the mistake of being sickeningly sweet and cute, it does lack story, in my opinion. This one shares very simple statements about bedtime with children, but they're not very entertaining statements. The back of the book uses exclamation points to sell you on the idea that this is a great book because it has "objects to spot and name" with your toddler. But any illustrated book features objects that you can spot and name.

Noodle Loves Bedtime is a touch and feel book. But not all of the touch-and-feel elements are truly touch-and-feel. (Shiny isn't so much a texture to feel. Yes, your eyes can see that the bubbles have shine to them. And the bottle texture is unlike any bottle I've ever seen. The two best touch-and-feel elements are probably the sticky-sticky toothpaste and the soft, fluffy sheep. The book also includes a mirror.)

Read Noodle Loves Bedtime

If your little one just LOVES pandas
If your little one just loves touch-and-feel books
If you're looking for a quick bedtime story to share with little ones;

Good Night, I Love You. Caroline Jayne Church. 2012. Scholastic. 20 pages.

It's time for bed, so let's get ready.
Bring your bunny. Bring your teddy.
Bath fun at the end of the day!
Laugh, splash, giggle, and play!

I liked this one. I did. I liked it. Illustrations are very subjective, I know. And chances are you'll either love these by Caroline Jayne Church...or you won't. You might think they are a little too sweet, a little too cute. But. For me, they are just right. I just love the way she illustrates her books. I love the way she draws children!

Good Night, I Love You does rhyme. And it is a pleasant enough rhyme. This one does focus more on bedtime rituals than a true story. But because of all the details, because of all the descriptions--laughing, splashing, giggling, etc. I don't seem to mind it as much.

Read Good Night, I Love You

If you're looking for a cute, rhyming bedtime story to share with your little ones

Ten Things I Love About Bedtime. Trace Moroney. 2012. Scholastic. 16 pages.

I love bedtime, and these are things I love most...
I have a bath,
brush my teeth...
and put on my favorite pajamas.
Mom pretends she is a huggle-monster and chases me into bed, and gives me a great....big....hug!
I snuggle into bed with my teddy-bunny and Dad reads me a story.
Then we talk about the best moments of my day....

The Things I Love About Bedtime actually surprised me with the amount of text it has! I was expecting it to be simple and cutesy. Now, this one does have those super-cutesy moments--think Guess How Much I Love You--but it offers more than just sentimental sweetness. I was expecting it to be a little more like Jane Yolen's Good Night, Little Bunny. It is probably the longest and most complex of the board books I'm sharing today. Which might make it more appropriate for a slightly older little one. (The pages of this board book are a little thinner as well, though they are still thicker than ordinary paper in 'gentle' books.)

Read The Things I Love About Bedtime

If you're looking for a board book about bedtime routines--happy, calm, safe, gentle, sweet routines.
If you're little one loves bunnies
If you're looking for a bedtime story with a little more substance
If you're looking for bedtime books that feature both a mom and dad

A Boy Called Dickens

2012-01-16T09:48:00.000-06:00

A Boy Called Dickens. Deborah Hopkinson. Illustrated by John Hendrix. 2012. Random House. 40 pages.

This is Old London, on a winter morning long ago. Come along, now. We are here to search for a boy called Dickens. He won't be easy to find. The fog has crept in, silent as a ghost, to fold the city in cold, gray arms. Maybe the boy is down by the river--the thick, black Thames. There are ragged children here, to be sure, scrambling for bits of copper and wood to sell. Or maybe he's dashing into that schoolroom along with the other lads, their cheeks pink from the cold and crumbs of hot buns still on their lips.
Oh, look! There he is--that skinny twelve-year-old, huddled in a doorway, wearing a worn, patched jacket. He is watching the schoolboys with hungry eyes. But though he'd like something to eat, he longs for their books even more. Almost all of his own books, which he loved so well, were lugged to the pawnshop long ago.
Suddenly Dickens is gone.
Hurry! Let's not lose him in the twisting, turning alleys.
There he is, running to that run-down rickety house by the river. Are we brave enough to follow him?

A Boy Called Dickens by Deborah Hopkinson is such a fun book. It is informative, but it's also creative! There's just something so inviting, so engaging about it! I really love the narrative tone of this one.

In this picture book, readers are introduced--albeit briefly--to a young Charles Dickens. Readers see just a day or two, nothing more, from an important time in Dickens' life.

I definitely love this one! It's just beautifully written. What do you think? Do the opening pages make you want to read this one?

Read A Boy Called Dickens

If you want a non-intimidating introduction to Charles Dickens
If you're a fan of Charles Dickens and are always looking for more to enjoy
If you are interested in Victorian England, particularly London
If you are interested in what it was like to be a child during this time period

Scored (YA)

2012-01-16T09:03:00.000-06:00

Scored. Lauren McLaughlin. 2011. Random House. 230 pages.

Somerton was poor, but it was also scored, and had been for twenty-one years. It was a trial town, having signed on when Score Corp was still beta-testing the software and offering its services for free--including the smart cams, or "eyeballs," as the kids called them. Shiny black spheres two inches in diameter, they dangled like Christmas ornaments from street lights and tree branches. They weren't hidden, that wasn't the idea. You were supposed to know they were there and behave accordingly.

Imani LeMonde, our heroine, starts out with a good score--a great score actually--a 92. But the pact she made with her best friend, Cady Fazio, years before may be about to pull her down.

They made a pact to stay friends no matter what. No matter what their scores were, no matter what gang they were told to be friends with, no matter what any one thought. Friends. Forever. Everyone else is happy to stay within their peer group. Someone with a score of 98 would never ever speak to someone with a score of 92. Someone with a score of 76 wouldn't speak to someone scored 68.

Scores are required--or at least thought to be required--to function in the world. Your score determines your future. If you'll go on to college. If you'll be trained in a profession. If you'll be spending your life in the military.

It is oh-so-easy to lower your score. And nearly impossible to raise it. So they've been told time and time again.

Cady has been keeping something from her best friend, Imani, thinking that what her friend doesn't know will protect her. That Imani's score couldn't possibly be effected...so long as she doesn't know who Cady's been spending time with. So Imani is in for quite a shock...the day the newest scores are revealed.

But not everyone in town, not everyone in the school, in the system, is comfortable with the scoring system, the scoring software. And Imani's teacher, Mr. Carol, is one of them. He has his class write essays about the scores. For those scored individuals in his class, he assigns them to write about why the system is unfair and doesn't work. And for the unscored students in his class, he assigns them to write about the strengths of the system. Why the system works in society.

Imani teams up with Diego Londis, a boy without a score. And what she learns may just change her life...

I definitely liked this dystopian novel. It was an enjoyable read. Imani was a great character, a good narrator. Her friends weren't as developed as she was. And her love interest wasn't as developed as he could have been. But. It was still a good novel, an interesting novel with an interesting premise.

Read Scored

If you love dystopian fiction
If you like futuristic stories or science fiction
If you like coming-of-age stories
If you like novels with a school setting
If you're looking for books with biracial characters where race isn't an issue
If the premise of being 'scored' for who you are intrigues you. 'Who are you' meaning what you say, what you do, who you hang out with, where you go, etc. The choices you make in your day-to-day life. The cameras are almost everywhere. The score is about your character, your reputation, etc.

The Sunday Salon: Watching In the Beginning

2012-01-15T08:56:00.064-06:00

Last week I talked about the Babylon 5 movie, The Gathering. This week I'm sharing my thoughts on the Babylon 5 movie In the Beginning.

But before I do, I want to ask you a question. How do you feel about prequels? That is, how do you feel about prequels written/filmed years after the start of a series? Should they be watched chronologically--placing In The Beginning before The Gathering, before season one--or should they be watched after the first four seasons? (Since the movie aired just weeks before the start of season five). Star Wars, of course, comes to mind here as well. Should you start watching with Episode IV or Episode I?

I wanted to watch In the Beginning after viewing "War Without End". If you've seen War Without End--a two-part episode from season three which sees the ever-brief return of Jeffrey Sinclair--then you probably know why I felt it fit there beautifully. For within that episode, viewers see a forward-time-flash. We see Londo, as Emperor, seventeen years in the future. And it is this older-but-not-particularly-wiser Londo Mollari that narrates In the Beginning. Londo is telling the story of the Earth-Minbari war to two children who interrupt him on a very bad day, it is this that provides the framework for the story. But MOST of the story takes place in the past. A little over a decade before the opening of the Babylon 5 station, before the events of The Gathering.

I loved this movie. I did. I just loved it. I think one of my favorite things was seeing a young(er) Londo as an ambassador to Earth. We've had glimpses--throughout the show--of what Delenn did during the war, of what Sinclair did during the war, of what Sheridan did during the war, and I remember hearing Susan talk about losing her brother in the war, and we knew that Dr. Franklin was put in a difficult position during the war--about his medical research, his notes, but this was the first time--at least that I recall--that we learn what Londo (and G'Kar) were doing. So that was nice to learn something new. And it was nice to SEE it all come together. Not just as conversations, not just as flashes or nightmares. But to see everything all together.

The movie had some great scenes! It did. And I think, overall, it was very well done.

The prologue to In The Beginning:

Londo speaking admirably about the humans fighting the war:

The president's battle of the line speech:

Earth Force Lexington Vs. Minbari Black Star (How Sheridan got his nickname!)

One of the BEST videos ever that covers In The Beginning AND the first four seasons of B5.

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

A Diamond in the Desert (MG)

2012-01-14T14:54:00.001-06:00

A Diamond in the Desert. Kathryn Fitzmaurice. 2012. February 2012. Penguin. 256 pages.

Gila River was the place where my eight-year-old sister, Kimi, learned to go to the bathroom with a white cotton pillowcase pulled over her head. It was Mama who came up with the idea after a week of Kimi refusing to go.
The pillowcase, Mama said, took the place of the walls and doors that weren't in the latrine, and gave some privacy from others sitting close by trying to use the bathroom, too.
"No one will see you through it," Mama promised. "Yes, you'll be able to breathe. The air can get in."
Then she stood for three long minutes with the pillowcase over her own head to prove this.
"But what if it takes me more than three minutes in the latrine?" said Kimi.
Mama didn't answer. Instead, she pulled the pillowcase back over her head, sat down on the concrete floor, knees bent, shoulders curled in. Stayed there until the desert bats came out and the sky turned dark orange.
Kimi walked a circle around her, and you could see her deciding that this idea might work.
"Can you still breathe?"
And each time Kimi asked, Mama nodded. But I don't think Mama was taking all that time to show Kimi she could breathe. I think Mama was hiding the sadness she didn't want Kimi to see. (1-2)

I loved, loved, loved this book. It was such a GREAT book. I absolutely LOVED the writing--it was so beautiful, so practically perfect in every way.

I LOVED the characters. I did. As much as I enjoyed the main character--the narrator--a young boy named Tetsu, I just LOVED a minor character called Horse. Oh, how I loved him--I really felt for him. I felt for so many of the characters.

And the story itself was just wonderfully compelling. A Diamond in the Desert is set in a Japanese internment camp in Arizona during World War II. Tetsu's family is just one of many, many Japanese families forced to live in an internment camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.

At this particular camp, Gila River, Tetsu is one of many who joins a baseball team. Playing baseball is one of the ways they can still feel normal. Many, many things have changed since America entered the war, and they may not have many freedoms, many joys, in this camp. But baseball. Well, it encourages them, gives them hope.

Kyo's Papa brought a bat to the field one night. He picked up small rocks from the pile of cleared-away stones, then threw them one by one into the air like they were baseballs, hitting them as far as he could.
Kyo, Ben, and I, we started running after them.
We fielded those rocks like we were playing a World Series game, and we didn't care how many times we crashed into each other, or how dirty we got, or even about skinned elbows.
We didn't care about the mess hall closing for dinner or torn pants, or the hole in my shoe getting bigger.
We just wanted to make the greatest catches ever in the whole history of baseball. And that night, each of us did. (84)

But. This book is not just about boys playing baseball. It is SO MUCH MORE than that. This book has heart and soul. This book has depth. It is just so rich. It's beautiful, capturing your heart almost from the start. This is a book that completely wowed me.

Read A Diamond in the Desert

If you are looking for a great children's book; the quality of this one is amazing!
If you enjoy historical fiction
If you enjoy stories set during World War II
If you are looking to read more about the Japanese Internment camps in the U.S.
If you're a baseball fan
If you're NOT a baseball fan

Every Thing On It

2012-01-14T10:41:00.002-06:00

Every Thing On It. Shel Silverstein. 2011. HarperCollins. 208 pages.

Years From Now

Although I cannot see your face
As you flip these poems awhile,
Somewhere from some far-off place
I hear you laughing--and I smile.

Every Thing On It made me giddy. It did. I just LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it. I think it is my favorite of the later Shel Silverstein collections. It is just as worthy to be on everyone's shelves as Where The Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and Falling Up. It is so, so, so much better than recent offerings like Runny Babbit A Billy Sook and Don't Bump the Glump and Other Fantasies. If you grew up LOVING Shel Silverstein's poetry, then this newest collection is an absolute must!!!

Some of these poems are just fabulous. Just wonderful. Some are happy; some are sad. Quite a few are quirky and weird. A few are beautifully bittersweet. Some are very thoughtful and insightful. Others are just as silly as can be. I think this collection has something for every reader.

I think this is a book EVERYONE needs to read. I just loved, loved, loved it.

Here's one called The Dollhouse

You can't crawl back in the dollhouse--
You've gotten too big to get in.
You've got to live here
Like the rest of us do.
You've got to walk roads
That are winding and new.
But oh, I wish I could
Crawl back with you,
Into the dollhouse again. (151)

and here's a little one called Spider:

A spider lives inside my head
Who weaves a strange and wondrous web
Of silken threads and silver strings
To catch all sorts of flying things,
Like crumbs of thoughts and bits of smiles
And specks of dried-up tears,
And dust of dreams that catch and cling
For years and years and years.... (190)

And here is Eatin' Soup

Eatin' soup with chopsticks--
I should be finished soon.
Eatin' soup with chopsticks
While whistlin' a tune.
Eatin' soup with chopsticks
Because I have no spoon.
Eatin' soup with chopsticks
Can take all afternoon. (185)

And here's The Clock Man

"How much will you pay for an extra day?"
The clock man asked the child.
"Not one penny," the answer came,
"For my days are as many as smiles."

"How much will you pay for an extra day?"
He asked when the child was grown.
"Maybe a dollar or maybe less,
For I've plenty of days on my own."

"How much will you pay for an extra day?"
He asked when the time came to die.
"All of the pearls in all of the seas,
And all of the stars in the sky." (95)

And here's the final poem of the collection:

When I Am Gone

When I am gone what will you do?
Who will write and draw for you?
Someone smarter--someone new?
Someone better--maybe YOU! (194)

Read Every Thing On It:

If you are a fan of Shel Silverstein
If you grew up reading Where The Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and Falling Up
If your only experience with Shel Silverstein is The Giving Tree, and you've been meaning to give him another try
If you're looking for a poem collection that appeals to readers of all ages; there are plenty of poems with kid-appeal (though I didn't necessarily quote those in this review); but there are so many that will appeal to older readers as well. A few I think are meant more for adults than kids. But that's the great thing about collections--different poems speak to different people.
If you're looking to read poems that you can actually understand and relate to.

To read more poems from this collection, here's a post about the book. (Poems shared "Every Thing On It," "Dirty Clothes," "Happy Birthday," and "Italian Food.") And this site seems to share many, many Silverstein poems. Including Happy Ending?

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite

2012-01-14T08:39:00.036-06:00

Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite. Anna Harwell Celenza. Illustrated by Don Tate. 2011. Charlesbridge. 32 pages.

In Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite, Anna Harwell Celenza shares with young people the story behind this jazz legend's recording of the Nutcracker Suite. The book is set in 1960, and it follows the story of 'the nutcracker suite' from just an idea all the way to the recording studios. It is the story of how Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn make the Nutcracker their own. Much of the story takes place in the recording studio as Ellington introduces his band to the music. Emphasis is on the new song titles and their inspiration.

Overture
Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance of the Reed-Pipes)
Peanut Brittle Brigade (March)
Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies)
Entr'acte
The Volga Vouty (Russian Dance)
Chinoiserie (Chinese Dance)
Danse of the Floreadores (Waltz of the Flowers)
Arabesque Cookie

The good news? This picture book includes a recording of Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite. Readers get to hear thirty minutes of jazz. The bad news? Without the recording to accompany it, well, the text wouldn't be much. The story isn't that much of a story. Yes, it has a fictional framework to support the facts. But it's the music itself that will make this one memorable.

Read Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite:

If you like the Nutcracker Suite and are curious about how it can be jazzed up for new audiences
If you like jazz music, if you like Duke Ellington
If you like picture books based on true events

The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of A Tale (MG)

2012-01-13T23:47:00.002-06:00

The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale. Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright. Illustrated by Barry Moser. 2011. Peachtree Publishers. 228 pages.

He was the best of Toms. He was the worst of toms. Fleet of foot, sleek and solitary, Skilley was a cat among cats. Or so he would have been, but for a secret he had carried since his early youth. A secret that caused him to live in hidden shame, avoiding even casual friendship lest anyone discover--

I loved this one. I just LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it. I loved Skilley the cat. I did. I loved his secret. I loved the mice in the book. I especially loved Pip. I loved the adventure in this book. How Skilley and the mice worked together to save Maldwyn. And I loved the occasional appearances of humans in their lives--particularly that of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins!

The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale is a fun, charming children's book. It's such an enjoyable read. I definitely recommend it!!!

Read The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale

If you like OR love cats
If you like stories starring mice
If you like animal fantasies
If you like funny, charming, cute children's books
If you like Charles Dickens

His Steadfast Love

2012-01-13T12:19:00.051-06:00

His Steadfast Love. Golden Keyes Parson. 2011. Thomas Nelson. 336 pages.

The sweet, gooey peach pie filling had overflowed its crust and dribbled down the side of the plate.

His Steadfast Love is set in Texas during the Civil War. The heroine of His Steadfast Love is a young woman named Amanda. Before the war, Amanda meets a young soldier, Captain Kent Littlefield. He's attracted to her despite their different backgrounds--he's from the North, from Pennsylvania; she's from the South, from Texas. He doesn't 'like' the fact that her father owns slaves. And Amanda's father doesn't really see him as a good match for his daughter, he wants a Southerner, a Southern gentleman. So even before war is declared this courtship is problematic...

Most of this novel is rushed. Readers see all the years of the Civil War. Readers see it from Amanda's side. As a concerned sister with a brother in the Confederate army. And as a sweetheart. She knows that she loves Kent. He has told her that he loves her and that he wants to marry her...after the war...with or without her father's or brother's approval. Readers also see it from Kent's perspective and Daniel's perspective. (Daniel is the brother.) Though mainly it's focused on Amanda and Kent.

I liked this one. But I didn't exactly love it. I never really came to care strongly about the characters. It was a quick read, an enjoyable one. I just didn't find it to be amazing or wonderful.

Read His Steadfast Love

If you're a fan of Christian historical romance. In my opinion this is stronger as historical than romance, but that could just be me.
If you're a fan of historical fiction set during the Civil War
If you're a fan of fiction set in Texas

Babylon 5: In the Beginning

2012-01-12T10:50:00.002-06:00

Babylon 5: In the Beginning. Peter David. 1998. Random House (Del Rey). 260 pages.

I had such dreams. Such dreams. I dreamt of power and glory and followers. I dreamt of protecting my homeworld from dark invaders. I dreamt of restoring my great republic to its former glory. I dreamt of a noble death in battle, with my hands at the throat of my greatest enemy. I dreamt of love. I dreamt of redemption.
Such dreams. Such dreams. And I have achieved almost all of them. Who would have thought such a thing possible? For that matter, who would have thought possible that fulfillment of such dreams would leave me with nothing? Nothing. I sought to taste glory and instead found only ashes in my mouth.

Can you guess who narrates this one? Can you recognize who's speaking? Hint: It's someone with a very distinctive voice. Once you know it, you won't forget it.

It may not be a fair question--not if you've seen the movie. But just a few sentences in and I knew it was my not-so-lovable 'old friend' Londo Mollari. He is just one of the reasons why Babylon 5 is so great. If a show makes you care--really truly deeply care about a despicable person, a person with few redeeming qualities--then that is good writing, good storytelling.

The framework of this one is perhaps a little odd. Emperor Mollari--for as the prologue says, he has achieved that dream at least, for what it's worth--is approaching the end of his life. He feels the end drawing near and he's turned reflective. When two children (two young people, a brother and a sister) interrupt him, well, he turns it into an opportunity to let down his guard, to relax. Luc, the brother, wants Londo to tell a story 'about great battles, wars, and bravery, and heroes and villains.' Lyssa, the sister, adds that she wants a 'true story.' So Londo decides to tell these two children the story of the Earth-Minbari war. The great war between Humans and Minbari. (This is the war set around a decade before the start of season one. This is the war that gives Jeffrey Sinclair nightmares. This is the war that changes John Sheridan and gives him quite a nickname.)

Read In The Beginning

If you want to learn more about the Earth-Minbari war
If you want to know more about the Minbari--their culture, their caste system, their religion, their prophecies, their rituals. If you want to know more about the Grey Council.
If you want to really get to see what Delenn was like...before...
If you want to know more about John Sheridan and his part in the Earth-Minbari war
If you want to know more about Jeffrey Sinclair and his 'capture' by the Minbari; if you want to know the real reason the war stopped. If you want to know more about The Battle of the Line.
If you want to know more about what G'Kar was up to during the war; if you want to read about his first meeting Londo!
If you want to know more about Londo was doing during the war. What his 'assignment' was and how he kept accidentally or not-so-accidentally interfering in the war
If you want to know more Susan and her brother
If you want to know more about what Dr. Franklin was doing during the war...

The movie released after season four. So there are elements in the book that might spoil shows from those seasons. Obviously if you've seen those four seasons, not much of anything could be spoiled. The episodes you might want to revisit before reading this one are parts one and two of War Without End from season three. And the episode "And the Sky Full of Stars" from season one.

I loved reading this. And I've got quotes to share!!! Can you guess that I loved Londo as a narrator?!

"The center of the Humans' government is in a place called Earthdome, which is in a place called Geneva, Switzerland. Switzerland is an interesting country on Earth, noted for--not necessarily in order of importance--neutrality, chocolate, curious timepieces, and cheese. I am not entirely certain which of these traits prompted them to locate Earthdome there, although if I had to bet on any one, it would most likely be the cheese." (19)

"When one is faced with a difficult situation, it is always wisest to provide a period of silence before attempting an answer. This will buy you time to come up with the least inflammatory response, and make you appear to others as if you are very wise, your opinions worth waiting for." (25)

About the Minbari:

"They were an unknowable people. They inhaled secrets and exhaled intrigue." (25)

Other favorites:

"Ignorance, you see, can be outhought. Arrogance can be outmaneuvered. But ignorance and arrogance combined are unassailable." (27)

"If one pauses while one speaks, for the purpose of reconfiguring one's thoughts, then one looks hesitant or uncertain. However to pause before one speaks is to appear thoughtful and considerate." (54)

"Nothing breeds more rapidly than ignorance." (186)

Library Loot: Second Trip in January

2012-01-11T17:05:00.003-06:00

New Loot:

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Time for the Stars by Robert A. Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Every Thing On It by Shel Silverstein
The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright
Everybody Sees The Ants by A.S. King
Loving, Living, Party Going by Henry Green
The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston
Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann
Goldilicious by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann
Silverlicious by Victoria Kann
Purplicious by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann
School Rules by Victoria Kann
Pink Around the Rink by Victoria Kann
Pinkie Promise by Victoria Kann
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
A Birthday for Cow by Jan Thomas
The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood
Bark, George by Jules Feiffer

Leftover Loot:

The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin
Rasco and the rats of NIMH by Jane Leslie Conly
Dominic by William Steig
The Deception at Lyme by Carrie Bebris
Fire Watch by Connie Willis
Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer
The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson
From the Land of the Moon by Milena Agus; translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein
Company of Liars by Karen Maitland
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio; translated by Guido Waldman

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Shadow Within

2012-01-11T10:13:00.000-06:00

(Babylon 5) The Shadow Within. Jeanne Cavelos. 1997. Random House (Dell) 260 pages.

Anna Sheridan rested her elbow on her desk and her chin on her nested fists, studying the artifact that lay before her.

Though it's not her fault, viewers never really get to know Anna Sheridan. When we meet John Sheridan in season two, when we meet the 'new' commander of Babylon 5, well, Anna's already dead. We see him grieving her. We see him very sad and feeling guilty--like in the episode "Revelations" and at times very, very, very angry. Like in the episode, "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum."

The Shadow Within is set before season one, before the events of the pilot episode, "The Gathering." But even though it's set prior to the show, I would think it is one best read after seeing season two--at the very least "In The Shadow of Z'ha'dum." And for the full impact, you should wait until the oh-so-very-dramatic season three finale, "Z'ha'dum."

Read The Shadow Within

If you want to meet Anna Sheridan. If you want to get to know the woman John spent years of his life loving.
If you want to learn more about John Sheridan. If you want to see what he is like in action, as a commander of a ship. If you want to see him as a leader.
If you want to know more about Mr. Morden. If you are curious about WHY he is the way he is. (Viewers first meet Mr. Morden in "Signs and Portents" (season one).
If you are interested in the uncovering of alien artifacts and 'scientific' explorations.
If you are interested in learning more about HomeGuard and Psi Corps.
If you are interested in learning more about the Shadows
If you want to know more about Kosh and Delenn. (And who doesn't want to know more about Kosh?!)

If you've seen "Z'ha'dum" then it will provide you with a fuller understanding of the events leading up to that ever-dramatic finale. You'll see the how and why of it all. You'll know why that planet is so very dangerous.

If you haven't seen "Z'ha'dum" then it will still help you to understand more about the Shadows. It will help you see the tragic events all that much clearer. Knowing more about Anna--who she was in life and death--will help you connect more, perhaps. And maybe just maybe the same could be said for Mr. Morden as well. Though if you can find a way to sympathize with him--even after the novel--well, that's something that I couldn't do.

There is nothing within the novel itself that will spoil "Z'ha'dum" for you. So if you haven't seen season three yet, you can still read this one. But I think that you need to have at least seen *some* of the episodes of season two. You need to be a little familiar at least with the Shadows and Mr. Morden. And you need to have met John Sheridan and care about him.

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Three Odd Picture Books

2012-01-10T13:12:00.069-06:00

I Want My Hat Back. Jon Klassen. 2011. Candlewick Press. 40 pages.

My hat is gone. I want it back.

I'll start by talking about my favorite of these three 'odd' books. Jon Klassen's I Want My Hat Back. In this quirky but delightful picture book, children are introduced to a bear who has lost his red, pointy hat. The bear is going from animal to animal asking everyone if they've seen his hat. It takes him a little while to find the culprit--perhaps readers will spot the culprit first!!!--but his hat will be found. Was justice served?! You be the judge.

Probably my favorite scene in this one is when Bear 'interrogates' the rabbit...and walks away. The text and illustrations show that the rabbit is obviously lying. But Bear isn't exactly observant.

Bear: Have you seen my hat?
Rabbit: No. Why are you asking me.
I haven't seen it.
I haven't seen any hats anywhere.
I would not steal a hat.
Don't ask me any more questions.
Bear: OK. Thank you anyway.

Have you read this one? What did you think?! Here is the book trailer for it...

Chilly Milly Moo. Fiona Ross. 2011. Candlewick. 32 pages.

Milly Moo the cow was sad.
"What's up?" mooed the other cows.
"I'm too hot!"
Milly Moo the cow was glum.
"What's up?" asked the farmer.
"It's too hot for me to make milk."
Milly Moo wanted to churn out the finest, loveliest, tastiest, creamiest milk. But she couldn't.

Milly Moo isn't like the other cows on the farmer's farm. No, Milly Moo does NOT like the heat. In fact, she is unable to make milk because the weather is so disagreeable to her. But when the weather changes, the farmer sees that his other cows are now miserable...Milly Moo is deliriously happy...but will she be able to make milk?! Maybe, maybe not. Maybe she'll produce something colder, richer, creamier than milk. To the farmer's and reader's great dismay. (I personally had a hard time believing it...but...each reader will have to decide for themselves what to make of Milly Moo and her talent.)

This one I felt was a bit different, a bit odd, a bit out there. Not horribly so. Not unforgivably so. Just not your usual, typical picture book about cows and farmers.

My Rhinoceros by Jon Agee. 2011. Scholastic. 32 pages.

When I bought my rhinoceros, I didn't really know what I was getting into. He was a nice animal. Quiet, shy. He stayed in the yard. Kept to himself. After a couple of days, I noticed that my rhinoceros wouldn't chase a ball. Or a stick. Or a frisbee. He didn't roll over. He didn't do anything. I called a rhinoceros expert...

For those looking for picture books about unusual pets, exotic pets--and there are many, many picture books out there in this category--this one will be a treat. The little boy that stars in Jon Agee's My Rhinoceros has quite the pet. Even if he doesn't know everything his new pet can do...just yet.

The book is very, very silly. And I haven't quite decided what I think of it yet. Have you read it? What did you think?!

Here's Jon Agee talking about his new book...

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Dickens in January: Matching Game

2012-01-10T13:10:00.012-06:00

Fig and Thistle is celebrating Charles Dickens this January. And since it isn't possible to have a review each Tuesday in January--his works being usually long....long and wonderful!!! (Last week I reviewed David Copperfield.) I thought I would celebrate some of Dicken's first lines. Can you identify which books these first lines come from?!

1. In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark bridge which is of iron, and London Bridge which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in.

2. Everybody said so. Far be it from me to assert that what everybody says must be true.

3. Thirty years ago, Marseilles lay burning in the sun, one day.

4. My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip.

5. The kettle began it!

6. The first ray of light which illumines the gloom, and converts into a dazzling brilliancy that obscurity in which the earlier history of the public career of the immortal Pickwick would appear to be involved, is derived from the perusal of the following entry in the Transactions of the Pickwick Club, which the editor of these papers feels the highest pleasure in laying before his readers, as a proof of the careful attention, indefatigable assiduity, and nice discrimination, with which his search among the multifarious documents confided to him has been conducted.

7. Among other public buildings in a certain town, which for many reasons it will be prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to which I will assign no fictitious name, there is one anciently common to most towns, great or small: to wit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse was born; on a day and date which I need not trouble myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader, in this stage of the business at all events; the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter.

8. London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln's Inn Hall.

9. Night is generally my time for walking.

10. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

11. Here are not many people - and as it is desirable that a story- teller and a story-reader should establish a mutual understanding as soon as possible, I beg it to be noticed that I confine this observation neither to young people nor to little people, but extend it to all conditions of people: little and big, young and old: yet growing up, or already growing down again--there are not, I say, many people who would care to sleep in a church.

12. NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.

13. Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.

14. An ancient English Cathedral Tower? How can the ancient English Cathedral tower be here!

A. A Tale of Two Cities B. Barnaby Rudge C. Bleak House D. David Copperfield E. Dombey and Son F. Great Expectations G. Hard Times H. Little Dorrit I. Nicholas Nickleby J. Oliver Twist K. Our Mutual Friend L. The Battle of Life M. The Chimes N. The Cricket on the Hearth O. The Haunted Man P. Martin Chuzzlewit Q. The Mystery of Edwin Drood R. The Old Curiosity Shop S. The Pickwick Papers

You may have noticed I didn't include A Christmas Carol! While some of these are famous--very famous--I felt that one was just a little too easy. What's you favorite first line? Which one do you feel is best for 'hooking' the reader? Or capturing the readers' interest?

And for your entertainment....

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

To Dream in the City of Sorrows

2012-01-09T09:42:00.001-06:00

To Dream in the City of Sorrows. (Babylon 5: Book #9). Kathryn M. Drennan. Based on the series by J. Michael Straczynski. 1997. Random House. 352 pages.

From the prologue: Marcus Cole walked with a limp, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the young Minbari acolyte as Marcus entered the small temple. Marcus didn't recognize the rather chubby Minbari and briefly wondered where Sech Turval was, but as he was not in the mood for conversation, he simply made a note to seek out the venerable Minbari teacher at a later time.

From chapter one: "Alpha 7 to Alpha Leader, I'm hit!"

I am so glad I decided to reread To Dream in the City of Sorrows! I first read this one last summer, last June. And the timing happened to be perfect for me. What I was reading went so perfectly well with what I was watching. The episodes I'd just seen meant just that much more because of the reading, and the episodes were influencing how I read the novel.

There were things I appreciated *even* more the second time around. Things that meant more since I knew how the story ended.

So the framework of To Dream In The City of Sorrows--the prologue and epilogue--take place shortly after season three's "Grey 17 is Missing," and are narrated by Marcus Cole. (I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Marcus Cole!) But most of the book focuses on what was happening with Jeffrey Sinclair after he left Babylon 5. (The gap between the last episode of season one, "Chrysalis," and the incredibly intense two-part episode "War Without End" of season three. Those two episodes are so-very-important and oh-so-dramatic!!!)

IN the first episode of season two, viewers learn that Jeffrey Sinclair has been suddenly removed from his position on Babylon 5 and reassigned to Minbar. Officially he is the "ambassador from Earth" on Minbar. The FIRST human ambassador to Minbar. Unofficially, well, he's out of favor with Earth Alliance. But that may just prove to everyone's advantage.

In the introduction, J. Michael Straczynski writes, "What you hold in your hand is an official, authorized chapter in the Babylon 5 story line. This is the definitive answer to the Sinclair question, and should be considered as authentic as any episode in the regular series."

Read To Dream in the City of Sorrows

If you want to know what Sinclair was doing in season two and three
If you want to know what became of Catherine Sakai, to learn if these two were able to make their troubled relationship work...with the added drama of Shadows and Rangers
If you want to know more even more about the Shadows' movements during this time
If you want to learn about how Sinclair became Ranger One and re-energized the Rangers (first started by Valen)
If you want to learn more about Minbari prophecies (also their culture and caste system)
If you want to learn more about the Vorlons; in particular readers are introduced to Ulkesh. (Loved Sinclair's first impression of him! And his insights about the Vorlons in general. How Kosh may not be the most representative of his race.)
If you want to learn more about Marcus. Readers meet William Cole AND Marcus Cole. Two brothers with an imperfect relationship. William is an eager ranger-in-training trying to get Marcus to join him, but, things don't always go as planned.

The Sunday Salon: Watching The Gathering

2012-01-08T08:35:00.000-06:00

This week I watched The Gathering, the pilot movie for the television show Babylon 5. I had seen this one online last year--when the WB had it on their site. (But it was not the new-and-improved edition with better music.) If you're interested in watching the show online, you might check the WB site. Sometimes they have episodes online, sometimes they don't.

It is a pilot. That's important to keep in mind because the characters don't look quite themselves. The alien characters specifically don't look how they came to look during the show's seasons. The pilot also does not have all the regular cast. Susan Ivanova, for example, is not there. There is also another doctor (Dr. Kyle instead of Dr. Franklin) and another telepath (Lyta Alexander instead of Talia Winters).

But there is enough promise in The Gathering to make it worth watching. Enough promise to make it worth watching even if you've seen all five seasons.

The Gathering begins with narration by Londo Mollari--the Centauri ambassador to Babylon 5.

"I was there, at the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind. It began in the Earth year 2257 with the founding of the last of the Babylon stations, located deep in neutral space. It was a port of call for refugees, smugglers, businessmen, diplomats and travelers from a hundred worlds. It could be a dangerous place, but we accepted the risk because Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. Under the leadership of its final commander, Babylon 5 was a dream given form, a dream of a galaxy without war, when species from different worlds could live side-by-side in mutual respect, a dream that was endangered as never before by the arrival of one man on a mission of destruction. Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. This is its story."

The basics: The ever-mysterious Vorlon ambassador, Kosh, is arriving at Babylon 5. (All Vorlons are ever-mysterious, not just Kosh). No one has ever seen a Vorlon. No one. And as Sinclair jokingly says, his government has a big-- but empty--file on the Vorlons. There are a handful of people arranged to meet him at his arrival. But minutes after his arrival, Kosh becomes ill. He could very well be dying. And the Vorlons would rather him die than for the humans to get a look at him without his encounter suit on. So what's the good doctor and the good captain to do?! It quickly becomes obvious that someone wants Kosh dead, but who?! Garibaldi, the chief of security, has quite a challenge before him.

Watch The Gathering:

If you are a fan of science fiction and are curious about the show, Babylon 5
If you are indifferent to science fiction, but love television shows with great characters and great storytelling.
If you love foreshadowing. If you like complex stories.
If you want to see quite an important conversation between Delenn and Jeffrey Sinclair
If you want an important Sinclair clue--"There's a hole in your mind."
If you want a reminder of how Londo started out...and G'Kar too! The characters change and transform so very, very much. It's interesting to see just how much!

Watch Jeffrey Sinclair talk about the Earth-Minbari war and the Battle of the Line.

The Gathering-Making Interview:

Delenn asks Sinclair, "why" Babylon 5?

Do you have a favorite science fiction show?

Here's a little video that might just inspire you to give B5 a try...

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

How To Save A Life (YA)

2012-01-07T08:16:00.000-06:00

How To Save a Life. Sara Zarr. 2011. Little, Brown. 342 pages.

"I am writing in response to your Love Grows post from Christmas day. I think I might have what you're looking for. It should be available on March 1. Or around March 1."

How To Save a Life by Sara Zarr is narrated by two teens, Jill and Mandy. Mandy is pregnant and wanting to give her baby up for adoption. She thinks Robin, Jill's mom, would be a good match. But she doesn't exactly want the adoption to go through normal, traditional channels. She wants things done her way. Robin wants a baby so badly. She is just desperate to fill the hole in her heart. You see, Robin and Jill are in grief--probably different stages of grief. Jill's Dad is dead, you see. Jill was always, always, always closer to her Dad. And she isn't quite sure how to (best) relate to her Mom. To be honest, Jill isn't sure how to relate to anybody these days. Not her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Dylan. Not her former best friends. No one. Anyone who challenges her to feel something...she runs from...until she meets someone from her past. A boy named Ravi. He may just help her see things clearly for the first time in months....

So Robin invites Mandy into their home. She welcomes her into their lives. She's willing to pay for all the expenses of the pregnancy. She is just so excited about the coming baby. Jill? Well, Jill is less than thrilled about getting a new brother or sister. In fact, she's ANGRY at her mom and angry at Mandy. What did Mandy ever do to her? Well, nothing really. But Jill is angry at her all the same. She is determined to not like her, determined to find reasons why this adoption is insane. She is sure that Mandy has more than a few secrets, has told more than a few lies...

Mandy has told a few lies...but are they justifiable? You may be the judge of that!

This is a compelling novel to be sure. It is emotional. It is well written. Of the two, I probably loved Mandy just a little bit more. Maybe because she needed to be loved a little more. I'll say no more than that. But even though Jill could be a mess, I still liked her, I still wanted the best for her. I wanted to see her wounds heal too.

I would definitely recommend this one!

Read How To Save A Life

If you're a fan of Sara Zarr and you enjoyed her previous novels: Story of a Girl, Sweethearts, Once Was Lost
If you're looking for an emotionally compelling (but not manipulative) read
If you're looking for a good story about grief and loss
If you're looking for a story about broken families that need healing
If you're looking for a realistic portrayal of teen pregnancy

The book trailer:

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

And the Soldiers Sang

2012-01-06T15:05:00.000-06:00

And The Soldiers Sang. J. Patrick Lewis. Illustrated by Gary Kelley. 2011. Creative Editions. 32 pages.

In September, three hundred gangly innocents shipped out by Channel steamer from Southampton to Boulogne. Then, wedged in by heat, sweat, and stink, we rode for hours by cattle car at cattle speed, wheels click-clacking across France. The train hissed to a stop, and its slatted doors flew open. We marched ten miles through Belgium to the Western Front--a planet away from Cardiff, Wales, and the meadows of my youth.

Is it a picture book? Is it a graphic novel? I'm not sure I have the answer to that. If it is a picture book, it is one of those 'for older readers.' This short book is powerfully descriptive. In just thirty or so pages, readers get the chance to imagine what war was like. It was not pretty. (The war in question is World War I.)

This is a fictional account of the war. The war is seen through the eyes of one young man who participated in the 'Christmas truce' of 1914. If you're expecting a happy, happy book, this isn't for you. It's more realistic than that, more honest than that. It's an interesting contrast really, seeing those moments of war and moments of peace so close together. I think this is a book that invites you to think.

This is my first book for the War Through the Generations Challenge.

Read And the Soldiers Sang:

If you love stories that are told just as much through art--illustration--as words/text.
If you are interested in war stories.
If you are interested in World War I.
If you are looking for bittersweet Christmas stories.

Death At Wentwater Court

2012-01-05T10:22:00.001-06:00

Death at Wentwater Court. Carola Dunn. 1994. Kensington. 254 pages.

"He'll come to a bad end, mark my words, and she won't lift a finger to stop him. It's the little ones I'm worried about." The stout lady heaved a sigh, her old-fashioned mantle, a hideous yellowish green, billowing about her. "Four already and another due any day now."
Daisy Dalrymple was constantly amazed at the way total strangers insisted on regaling her with their life stories, their marital misfortunes, or their children's misdeeds. Not that she objected. One day she was going to write a novel, and then every hint of human experience might come in handy.

I found Death at Wentwater Court a pleasantly cozy read. Was it the best mystery ever? Probably not. But it was an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. What I liked best about this mystery was the heroine. I just really enjoyed getting to know Daisy Dalrymple. And this novel--the first in a series--made me want to spend more time with her. I liked her personality, her character. And I also liked her love interest, Alec Fletcher, the inspector of the crime(s). Their conversations were quite fun! For those that like the lightest touches of romance with their mysteries, I think this one won't disappoint. I also enjoyed the setting of this one--England in the 1920s.

So Daisy Dalrymple is a journalist and photographer. She has come to Wentwater Court to write an article and take some lovely photographs. She is just getting to know the family--for better or worse, just beginning to make some observations about their personal lives--their troubles--when the worst happens. One of their guests is murdered. The murder isn't obvious, the body is found in such a way that it looks like an accident. But Daisy and her camera discover the truth....that a crime has been committed. What isn't obvious--to Daisy--is who did it.

Can Alec and Daisy solve this one?

Read Death at Wentwater Court

If you enjoy cozy mysteries
If you enjoy mysteries set in Britain
If you enjoy reading Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie
If you enjoy historical mysteries
If you're looking for a very light, very quick read

The Maid of Fairbourne Hall

2012-01-04T12:25:00.045-06:00

The Maid of Fairbourne Hall. Julie Klassen. 2012. Bethany House. 416 pages.

London
August 1815
He is reading my letters now too...
Margaret Elinor Macy sat at her dressing table, heart pounding. Her face in the looking glass shone pale beneath curly dark hair, her light blue eyes anxious. She glanced from her reflection to the letter in her hand. The seal had been pried open and unsuccessfully re-pressed. Her mother's new husband had obviously begun checking her post--perhaps fearful the next invitation she received would not be to a ball but rather to take refuge in another house, out of reach and out from under his power.

Did I love it? Yes. I'm not sure I would say that I loved, loved, loved it. But I definitely loved it. It was a good, clean historical romance set during one of my favorite, favorite time periods--the regency. The heroine, Margaret Macy, is determined to escape her new stepfather's influence. He wants her to marry his nephew. They're both after her inheritance which she'll receive on her next birthday. The nephew is determined to do whatever it takes to get her to marry him. So she flees her home--with her maid, Joan. (Joan was fired for 'stealing.' She was innocent.) Determined to find a hiding place, a place she can be safe from harassment until her birthday, she becomes a maid. She just happens to become a maid at the home of one of her former suitors. She didn't marry Nathaniel Upchurch--the former suitor--because she was more attracted to his older brother, Lewis. (Lewis did flirt with her, but then again, he'll flirt with just about any girl once or twice. It never means what the woman thinks it means.) She is wearing a disguise, and she does barely have contact with the family. But. Still she's curious. Will either brother recognize her now? Now that she's emptying chamber pots and such?! And if they do recognize her, will they help her?

I enjoyed this one. I did. I really thought it was great fun. A good, light romance with interesting characters. (There's even a poet pirate.)

Read The Maid of Fairbourne Hall

If you're a fan of Julie Klassen. If you enjoyed--or loved--any of her previous novels--Lady of Milkweed Manor, The Apothecary's Daughter, The Silent Governess, The Girl in the Gatehouse--then chances are good The Maid of Fairbourne Hall will NOT disappoint.
If you're a fan of Regency romances (like Georgette Heyer, etc.)
If you're a fan of clean historical romances
If you're a fan of inspirational and/or Christian romances (of the historical variety)
If you enjoy romances where the heroine wears a disguise

Library Loot: First Trip in January

2012-01-04T11:11:00.005-06:00

New Loot:

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin
The Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein
Shine: An Anthology of Near-future Optimistic Science Fiction
A Finders-keepers Place by Ann Haywood Leal
The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Rasco and the rats of NIMH by Jane Leslie Conly
Dominic by William Steig
Abel's Island by William Steig

Leftover Loot:

Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein
The Deception at Lyme by Carrie Bebris
Alanna the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated and adapted by Peter Ackroyd
Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
Fire Watch by Connie Willis
Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer
The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson
From the Land of the Moon by Milena Agus; translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein
Company of Liars by Karen Maitland
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio; translated by Guido Waldman

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

David Copperfield

2012-01-03T13:46:00.000-06:00

David Copperfield. Charles Dickens. 1850. 877 pages.

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.

I wasn't always a fan of Charles Dickens. I wasn't always fond of his writing style--his descriptions, his quirky characters. (Then again, the first few experiences were with the same book--Great Expectations.) But that began to change last fall when I read Bleak House. And since my re-introduction to him--as an adult--I've since come to LOVE him, really, really love him.

How did I feel about David Copperfield? Well....I definitely liked the novel. I did. There were times I loved it. There were times I didn't love it quite so much. I must admit that there were times I felt David Copperfield (the character) was just STUPID. I mean, completely oblivious and not in touch with reality. Like he was incapable of processing the whole truth even when it was right in front of him. But then there were other times when I actually began to like him. And even when I wasn't exactly "liking" him, the novel was still an interesting read. I wasn't bored. I wasn't tempted to give it up. There were too many characters that I cared about, too many stories that had me hooked.

I know I've said this before. But. I just ADORE the way Dickens writes his characters. I love seeing such a wide, wide, wide variety of characters. I love their oddness, their quirkiness. I love the fact that there's always a few to love, a few to like, a few to hate. Dickens was truly great at writing despicable characters. Like Uriah Heep. Like Edward Murdstone and his sister. Dicken's characters--even his heroes and heroines--have weaknesses.

The (human) character I liked least, and I'm not sure if this was Dicken's intent, was probably Dora. And the chapters where David was smitten (to put it nicely) with her and courting her were probably the most painful to read. Simply because Dora seemed so very, very silly and ridiculous. Should I have more sympathy for her than I do? Should I see past her silly vainness, her selfishness, her childishness?

One thing troubled me much, after we had fallen into this quiet train. It was, that Dora seemed by one consent to be regarded like a pretty toy or plaything. My aunt, with whom she gradually became familiar, always called her Little Blossom; and the pleasure of Miss Lavinia's life was to wait upon her, curl her hair, make ornaments for her, and treat her like a pet child. It was very odd to me; but they all seemed to treat Dora, in her degree, much as Dora treated Jip in his.
I made up my mind to speak to Dora about this; and one day whereon we were out walking (for we were licensed by Miss Lavinia, after a while, to go out walking by ourselves), I said to her that I wished she could get them to behave towards her differently.
'Because, you know, my darling,' I remonstrated, 'you are not a child.'
'There!' said Dora. 'Now you're going to be cross!'
'Cross, my love?'
'I am sure they're very kind to me,' said Dora, 'and I am very happy.'
'Well! But, my dearest life' said I, 'You might be very happy, and yet treated rationally.' (604)

I did NOT care for Jip, by the way.

There was another thing I could have wished; namely, that Jip had never been encouraged to walk about the table-cloth during dinner. I began to think there was something disorderly in his being there at all, even if he had not been in the habit of putting his foot in the salt or the melted butter. (641)

Anyway, David Copperfield is a long novel, but it is a deliciously long novel. I happen to like it more than Little Dorrit but less than Our Mutual Friend. I'm definitely glad I read it. I definitely enjoyed meeting some of these characters.

More of my favorite quotes:

'Gentlemen,' returned Mr. Micawber, 'do with me as you will! I am a straw upon the surface of the deep, and am tossed in all directions by the elephants--I beg your pardon; I should have said elements.' (708)

'Things are changed in this office, Miss Trotwood, since I was an umble clerk, and held your pony; ain't they?' said Uriah, with his sickliest smile. 'But I am not changed, Miss Trotwood.' "Well, sir,' returned my aunt, 'to tell you the truth, I think you are pretty constant to the promise of your youth if that's any satisfaction to you.' (746)

I have often remarked--I suppose everyone has--that one's going away from a familiar place, would seem to be the signal for change in it. (820)

Read David Copperfield

If you are a fan of Charles Dickens
If you are a fan of other bearded Victorians--Anthony Trollope, Wilkie Collins, etc.
If you like detailed stories, rich in description and dialogue
If you like keeping up with tons of characters: some quite fun and quirky, some that make you want to boo and hiss, some that you just love and adore.
If you like reading long books with substance
If you enjoyed the movie adaptation of David Copperfield and are looking for more to enjoy...

To Say Nothing of the Dog

2012-01-02T13:26:00.097-06:00

To Say Nothing of the Dog. Connie Willis. 1998. Bantam (Random House). 495 pages.

There were five of us--Carruthers and the new recruit and myself, and Mr. Spivens and the verger. It was late afternoon on November the fifteenth, and we were in what was left of Coventry Cathedral, looking for the bishop's bird stump. Or at any rate I was.

I gushed about To Say Nothing of the Dog the first time I read it. I did. And I'll probably gush this time too. Because some books are just that good. And if ever a book deserves to be read--if ever an author deserves to be read--it is Connie Willis and her time travel novels. Is To Say Nothing of the Dog a sequel to Doomsday Book? Well....not exactly. The two can be read separately, read in ANY order. (I read To Say Nothing of the Dog first.) Both books share the same world--the same futuristic time-traveling world. There are two characters in To Say Nothing of the Dog that were first introduced in Doomsday Book, Mr. James Dunworthy and Finch. But. For the most part, To Say Nothing of the Dog is a great standalone novel.

Ned Henry narrates the novel. And he does a great job. When we first meet him, he's suffering from time-lag. He's spent too much time--of late--jumping through time. He's not alone. There is someone doing her very, very best to drive EVERYONE in his department crazy. Lady Schrapnell is a woman on a mission--a RICH woman on a mission. And she won't take no for an answer. If Lady Schrapnell volunteers you for a job, well, you stay volunteered until the job is done to her satisfaction. And what does Lady Schrapnell want most of all? The bishop's bird stump. Her project is the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral--a cathedral destroyed/damaged during World War II. And she HAS to know if the bishop's bird stump was still in the church during the raid. She needs to know if it should be replicated as part of the 'restoration.' So Ned Henry is just one of dozens looking IN THE PAST for the answers as to what happened to the bishop's bird stump.

But that 'mission' becomes almost secondary....when it is 'discovered' that there's been an incongruity. At first they think it's simple, it's easily fixed. One of the time travelers interfered when she shouldn't. But. They'll just send another time traveler to fix that interference, and things should go smoothly. But since the time traveler they send is Ned Henry, since he's suffering from exhaustion and time-lag, since he barely heard his instructions, since he jumped into the Net to avoid being discovered by an angry Lady Schrapnell, nothing is simple. What Ned Henry soon realizes is that his arrival in June 1888 has changed things. His arrival has kept two people from meeting (and subsequently falling in love and marrying), and that's just the start.

But he isn't the only one in the past. He isn't the only time-traveler working to restore things. Verity Kindle. The beautiful Verity Kindle has a role to play as well....

I loved this one. I did. I just LOVED it. It's very different from Doomsday Book. It's a very funny book. Almost playful in a way. It's definitely science fiction. But if you like historical fiction OR mysteries, this one may appeal to you quite a bit!!! Especially if you're a fan of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. The more you love Hercule Poirot and Lord Peter Wimsey, well, the more you'll appreciate this one.
I think that's why I loved it EVEN MORE the second time around.

With my love of the Victorian period, my love of cozy mysteries, my love of historical fiction, my love of science fiction, To Say Nothing of the Dog, was just a perfect, perfect match for me. But. I don't think you have to love *all* those things to appreciate (and love) this one. I really don't.

2 Quotes About the bishop's bird stump:

"Perhaps it was removed for safekeeping," he said, looking at the windows. "Like the east windows."
"The bishop's bird stump?" I said incredulously. "Are you joking?"
"You're right," he said. "It isn't the sort of thing you'd want to keep from being blown up. Victorian art!" He shuddered. (7)

I must be getting light-headed from lack of sleep. No one, even badly shell-shocked, would steal it. Or buy it at a jumble sale. This was the bishop's bird stump. Even the munitions scrap iron drive would turn it down. Unless of course someone recognized its potential as a psychological weapon against the Nazis. (12)

About time-lag:

One of the first symptoms of time-lag is a tendency to maudlin sentimentality, like an Irishman in his cups or a Victorian poet cold-sober. (9)

And isn't this the truth:

There is nothing more helpful than shouted instructions, particularly incomprehensible ones. (153)

Verity Kindle on mystery novels:

"Of course they're usually about murder, not robbery, but they always take place in a country house like this, and the butler did it, at least for the first hundred mystery novels or so. Everyone's a suspect, and it's always the least likely person, and after the first hundred or so, the butler wasn't anymore--the least likely person, I mean--so they had to switch to unlikely criminals. You know, the harmless old lady or the vicar's devoted wife, that sort of thing, but it didn't take the reader long to catch on to that, and they had to resort to having the detective be the murderer, and the narrator, even though that had already been done in The Moonstone. The hero did it, only he didn't know it. He was sleepwalking, in his nightshirt, which was rather racy stuff for Victorian times, and the crime was always unbelievably complicated. In mystery novels. I mean, nobody ever ever just grabs the vase and runs, or shoots somebody in a fit of temper, and at the very end, when you think you've got it all figured out, there's one last plot-twist, and the crime's always very carefully thought out, with disguises and alibis and railway timetables and they have to include a diagram of the house in the frontispiece, showing everyone's bedroom and the library, which is where the body always is, and all the connecting doors, and even then you don't have a prayer of figuring it out, which is why they have to bring in a world-famous detective--"
"Who solves it with little gray cells?" I said.
"Yes. Hercule Poirot, that's Agatha Christie's detective, and he says it isn't at all necessary to go running about measuring footprints and picking up cigarette ends to solve mysteries like Sherlock Holmes. That's Arthur Conan Doyle's detective--"
"I know who Sherlock Holmes is." (205)

Well, it wasn't exactly the ending of an Agatha Christie mystery, with Hercule Poirot gathering everyone together in the drawing room to reveal the murderer and impress everyone with his astonishing deductive powers. And it definitely wasn't a Dorothy Sayers, with the detective hero saying to his heroine sidekick, "I say, we make a jolly good detectin' team. How about makin' the partnership permanent, eh, what?" and then proposing in Latin. (431)

Verity and Ned:

She peered at me. "It isn't fair, you know."
"What isn't?" I said warily.
"Your boater. It makes you look just like Lord Peter Wimsey, especially when you tilt it forward like that." (254)

"The first time I ever saw you, I thought, he looks just like Lord Peter Wimsey. You were wearing the boater and--no, that wasn't the first time," she said accusingly. "The first time was in Mr. Dunworthy's office, and you were all covered in soot. You were still adorable, though, even if your mouth was hanging open." (254)

"Lord Peter took a nap," she said. "Harriet watched him sleep, and that's when she knew she was in love with him."
She sat up again. "Of course, I knew it from the second page of Strong Poison, but it took two more books for Harriet to figure it out. She kept telling herself it was all just detecting and deciphering codes and solving mysteries together, but I knew she was in love with him. He proposed in Latin. Under a bridge. After they solved the mystery. You can't propose till after you've solved the mystery. That's a law in detective novels."
She sighed. "It's too bad. 'Placetne, magistra?' he said when he proposed, and then she said, 'Placet.' That's a fancy Oxford don way of saying yes. I had to look it up. I hate it when people use Latin and don't tell you what they mean..." (259)

Read To Say Nothing of the Dog

If you like science fiction
If you like Victorian literature or historical books (romances, mysteries, etc.) set in Victorian England
If you like to laugh
If you like reading about time travel
If you like Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot
If you like Dorothy L. Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsey
If Strong Poison and Gaudy Night are among your favorite books
If you like your romances on the light side
If you like historical fiction
If you like cats
If you like well-developed characters
If you're looking for a book you don't want to put down...

Sunday Salon: Watching Jane

2012-01-01T08:30:00.091-06:00

Have you seen the adaptation of Jane Eyre starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine? If you have, what did you think of it? Not only as an adaptation. But as a movie. I think it is important to distinguish between the two: you can have an entertaining movie that is charming and delightful but isn't all that faithful in the details of the original novel.

I liked this movie. I did. I really liked it. Is it a faithful adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's novel? Not exactly. It is an interpretation of the story, changes have been made for better or worse.

For example, Mr. Brocklehurst's role has been emphasized. And his villainy can't be missed. Not just in announcing Jane Eyre a liar. Not just as a strict disciplinarian. There's a scene in the movie where Helen Burns' hair is cut because it is curly--naturally curly. Brocklehurst feels that curly hair would encourage vanity--not only in Helen but in the other girls. To 'save her soul' it must be cut. Jane protests. And the result is Helen and Jane being forced to walk around outside in the rain carrying signs that say vain and rebellious. Helen becomes deathly ill as a result of her punishment. Mr. Brocklehurst's villainy was not balanced out by the presence of a kind teacher, Miss Maria Temple. The movie eliminates her role in Jane's life. Instead Brocklehurst's cruelty is balanced out by the fair judgment and tender kindness of a Dr. Rivers. (He's played by John Sutton.) (Mr. Brocklehurst video.)

I was tempted to call this adaptation of Jane Eyre natural. But that would take some explanation! Especially if you've seen it. You know that some of the scenes are OVER-THE-TOP dramatic, nothing natural to them. (I'm thinking especially of when Mr. Rochester is repeatedly telling Jane to say that she will marry him.)

So when the film isn't being super-dramatic, when it's not emphasizing the gothic, I feel there is something natural to the film. In its pacing. In its dialogue. In its character development. In its romance. The film is only 97 minutes long. Too short to hope to capture everything from the novel. But instead of feeling rushed, it feels complete. The abridged story stands perfectly on its own. There are no holes in the story or in the characters.

The romance. I thought it was very well done. I could see Mr. Rochester falling in love with Jane Eyre. And it was easy to see why he was drawn to her. Because the movie captured who Jane was. And I could see Jane Eyre falling in love with Mr. Rochester. So much of Edward's character is revealed through dialogue, so any time it's abridged there is a risk that the essentials will be lost. I didn't feel that to be the case here. Does Orson Welles capture ALL the essential elements of Mr. Rochester? I'm not sure that he does. I mean every adaptation tends to interpret his disposition a little differently. Is this Rochester too dramatic? I wouldn't say that. I mean one or two scenes come to mind that are a little over done. But then again, I think the same could be said of the more recent adaptations. (I'm thinking of Rochester reacting to Jane's leaving him after the big reveal in RAGE.) I happened to love how this Mr. Rochester reacted to Jane's goodbye.

All but the last twenty minutes of the film take place BEFORE the big reveal. At this point I thought Jane stumbling across her cousins and staying in hiding for months a bit unlikely. How could she even have time to get there, receive her inheritance, and return to Edward in such a short amount of time?! And I was right. It wasn't attempted. Instead the movie has Jane taking refuge somewhere else, somewhere perhaps a little unexpected at first. But the more I thought about it, the more the change worked for me. If you've seen this one, I'd be curious what you think of the changes!

Jane and Edward Meeting.
The ending.

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Year in Review: My Favorites of 2011

2011-12-31T09:40:00.001-06:00

I read 442 books in 2011! I am pleased with that number. It is not as much as in previous years, but I am fine with that.

My top five picture books are:

Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator. Mo Willems. 2011. HarperCollins. 72 pages.
Is Everyone Ready for Fun by Jan Thomas. 2011. Simon & Schuster. 40 pages.
My Side of the Car. Kate Feiffer. Illustrated by Jules Feiffer. 2011. Candlewick. 32 pages.
The Princess and the Pig. Jonathan Emmett. Illustrated by Poly Bernatene. 2011. Walker. 32 pages.
The Best Birthday Party Ever. Jennifer LaRue Huget. Illustrated by LeUyen Pham. 2011. Random House. 40 pages.

My top three children's books are:

Clementine and the Family Meeting. Sara Pennypacker. Illustrations by Marla Frazee. 2011. Hyperion. 164 pages.
Should I Share My Ice Cream: An Elephant and Piggie Book. Mo Willems. 2011. Hyperion. 64 pages.
Toys Come Home. Emily Jenkins. Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky. 2011. Random House. 144 pages.

My top nonfiction picture book is:

If Rocks Could Sing: A Discovered Alphabet. Leslie McGuirk. 2011. Random House. 48 pages.

My top poetry picture book is:

Emma Dilemma: Big Sister Poems. Kristine O'Connell George. Illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. 2011. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 47 pages.

My top five middle grade books are:

Doggirl. Robin Brande. 2011. Ryer Publishing. 269 pages.
The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic. Jennifer Trafton. With illustrations by Brett Helquist. 2010. Penguin. 352 pages.
Small Acts of Amazing Courage. Gloria Whelan. 2011. Simon & Schuster. 224 pages.
The Light Princess. George MacDonald. 1864. 110 pages.
Heidi. Johanna Spyri. 1880/2009. Puffin Classics/Penguin. 320 pages.

My top five young adult books are:

Divergent. Veronica Roth. 2011. May 2011. HarperCollins. 496 pages.
Pathfinder. Orson Scott Card. 2010. November 2010. Simon & Schuster. 662 pages.
Withering Tights. Louise Rennison. 2011. HarperCollins. 288 pages.
I'll Be There. Holly Goldberg Sloan. 2011. Little, Brown. 392 pages.
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (#1 Heroes of Olympus) 2010. Hyperion. 576 pages.

My top twelve adult books are:

The Help by Kathryn Stockett. 2009. Thorndike Press. 722 pages.
The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb. Melanie Benjamin. 2011. Random House. 425 pages.
Strong Poison. Dorothy L. Sayers. 1930/1995. HarperCollins. 272 pages.
Our Mutual Friend. Charles Dickens. 1864/1865. 880 pages.
The Sunne in Splendour: "A fascinating portrait of the controversial King Richard III--a monarch betrayed in life by his allies and betrayed in death by history." by Sharon Kay Penman. 1982. 944 pages.
The Woman in White. Wilkie Collins. 1860. 672 pages.
The Virginian. Owen Wister. 1902. Penguin Classics. 370 pages.
Some Buried Caesar. Nero Wolfe Mystery. Rex Stout. 1938. Random House. 288 pages.
Kinfolk. Pearl S. Buck. 1945/2004. Moyer Bell. 408 pages.
The Small House at Allington. Anthony Trollope. 1864. 752 pages.
North and South. Elizabeth Gaskell. 1854-1855. 452 pages.
The Moving Finger. Agatha Christie. 1942/2007. Black Dog & Leventhal. 208 pages.

My top five Christian fiction books are:

The Colonel's Lady. Laura Frantz. 2011. Revell. 412 pages.
City of Tranquil Light. Bo Caldwell. 2010. Henry Holt. 304 pages.
Mine is the Night. Liz Curtis Higgs. 2011. Waterbrook. 464 pages
Bathsheba. (The Wives of King David #3) Jill Eileen Smith. 2011. Revell. 350 pages.
The Merchant's Daughter. Melanie Dickerson. 2011. Zondervan. 285 pages.

My top five Christian nonfiction books are:

Jesus + Nothing = Everything. Tullian Tchividjian. 2011. Crossway Books. 220 pages.
Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself. Joe Thorn. Foreword by Sam Storms. 2011. Crossway Books. 144 pages.
Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ. John MacArthur.
Through Gates of Splendor. Elisabeth Elliot. 1956/2005. Tyndale. 296 pages.
Lit: A Christian Guide to Reading Books. Tony Reinke. 2011. Crossway Books. 208 pages.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Year in Review: 12 Books of the Month

2011-12-30T14:39:00.005-06:00

January: Strong Poison. Dorothy L. Sayers.
February: Our Mutual Friend. Charles Dickens.
March: The Small House at Allington. Anthony Trollope.
April: The Ropemaker. Peter Dickinson.
May: Kinfolk. Pearl S. Buck.
June: The Golden Spiders. Rex Stout.
July: City of Tranquil Light. Bo Caldwell.
August: The Colonel's Lady. Laura Frantz.
September: The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb. Melanie Benjamin.
October: The Woman in White. Wilkie Collins.
November: The Sunne in Splendour: "A fascinating portrait of the controversial King Richard III--a monarch betrayed in life by his allies and betrayed in death by history." by Sharon Kay Penman
December: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Year In Review: 52 Book of the Weeks

2011-12-30T14:20:00.083-06:00

What I've done is gone through my 'Sunday Salon' posts of the past year where I shared my week's reading. I picked my favorite-and-best from each week. These books may not have ended up in that month's top five, but these are the best books I read week by week by week. I chose to focus on middle grade through adult.

1. Dash & Lily's Book of Dares. Rachel Cohn & David Levithan.
2. Five Flavors of Dumb. Antony John.
3. Strong Poison. Dorothy L. Sayers.
4. Murder at the Vicarage. A Miss Marple Mystery. Agatha Christie.
5. Pathfinder. Orson Scott Card.
6. Mrs. Mike: "The Heartwarming Classic Story of the Boston Girl Who Married A Rugged Canadian Mountie." by Benedict & Nancy Freedman.
7. Divergent. Veronica Roth.
8. Our Mutual Friend. Charles Dickens.
9. North and South. Elizabeth Gaskell.
10. Little Dorrit. Charles Dickens.
11. The Small House at Allington. Anthony Trollope.
12. Nightlight: A Parody. The Harvard Lampoon.
13. Mansfield Park. Jane Austen.
14. Persuasion. Jane Austen
15. Matched. Ally Condie.
16. The Pilgrimage: The Unforgettable SF Masterpiece of the Strangers Among Us: The First Book of The People. Zenna Henderson
17. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. C.S. Lewis.
18. The Land of the Silver Apples. Nancy Farmer.
19. East Wind: West Wind. Pearl S. Buck.
20. Kinfolk. Pearl S. Buck.
21. The Pickwick Papers. Charles Dickens.
22. The Virginian. Owen Wister.
23. The Golden Spiders. Rex Stout.
24. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards. Lilian Jackson Braun.
25. Doggirl. Robin Brande.
26. The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic. Jennifer Trafton.
27. To Dream in the City of Sorrows. (Babylon 5: Book #9). Kathryn M. Drennan.
28. Trauma Queen. Barbara Dee.
29. Withering Tights. Louise Rennison.
30. The Light Princess. George MacDonald.
31. My Theodosia. Anya Seton.
32. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. E. L. Konigsburg.
33. The Colonel's Lady. Laura Frantz.
34. Into the Parallel. Robin Brande.
35. Wrapped. Jennifer Bradbury.
36. The Five Red Herrings. Dorothy L. Sayers.
37. Home to Harmony. Philip Gulley.
38. Mister Creecher. Chris Priestly.
39. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
40. The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. Ree Drummond.
41. The Woman in White. Wilkie Collins
42. Wonderland Creek. Lynn Austin.
43. Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow. James Rollins.
44. Alice I Have Been. Melanie Benjamin.
45 The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus #2). Rick Riordan.
46. The Sunne in Splendour: "A fascinating portrait of the controversial King Richard III--a monarch betrayed in life by his allies and betrayed in death by history." by Sharon Kay Penman.
47. The Two Towers. J.R.R. Tolkien.
48. Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte.
49. The Nine Tailors. Dorothy L. Sayers.
50. Doomsday Book. Connie Willis.
51. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
52. The Future of Us. Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

December Reflections

2011-12-30T06:18:00.007-06:00

I read 26 books in December.

Children's Books 3; Middle Grade: 2; Young Adult: 4; Adult: 12; Christian Fiction: 2; Christian Nonfiction: 2; Nonfiction: 1.

Review copies: 3; Library Books: 21; Books I Bought: 2.

My top five:

The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
The Merchant's Daughter. Melanie Dickerson.
Busman's Honeymoon. Dorothy L. Sayers.
Doomsday Book. Connie Willis
Clementine and the Family Meeting. Sara Pennypacker.

Reviews at Becky's Book Reviews:

The Death Cure. James Dashner. 2011. Random House. 324 pages.
All These Things I've Done. Gabrielle Zevin. 2011. FSG. 354 pages.
Eve. Anna Carey. 2011. HarperCollins. 322 pages.
The Secret History of Tom Trueheart. Ian Beck. 2006. HarperCollins. 345 pages.
Gideon The Catpurse. Linda Buckley-Archer. 2006. Simon & Schuster. 405 pages.
A Shilling for Candles. Josephine Tey. 1936. 240 pages.
The Nine Tailors. Dorothy L. Sayers. 1934. 312 pages.
The Fat Man: A Tale of North Pole Noir. Ken Harmon. 2010. Penguin. 275 pages.
The Return of the King. J.R.R. Tolkien. 1955/1965. Houghton Mifflin. 311 pages.
Hercule Poirot's Christmas. Agatha Christie. 1938/1939. Black Dog & Leventhal. 272 pages.
Doomsday Book. Connie Willis. 1992. Random House. 592 pages.
I Am Half Sick of Shadows. Alan Bradley. 2011. Random House. 300 pages.
Busman's Honeymoon. Dorothy L. Sayers. 1937. HarperCollins. 403 pages.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett. 2009. Thorndike Press. 722 pages.
Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen. 1813. 386 pages.
The Future of Us. Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler. 2011. Penguin. 356 pages.
Thrones, Dominations. Dorothy L. Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh. 1998. St. Martin's Press. 312 pages.
A Presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh & Dorothy Sayers. 2002. St. Martin's Press. 384 pages.
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England. A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century. Ian Mortimer. 2008. Simon & Schuster. 345 pages.

Reviews at Young Readers:

Clementine and the Family Meeting. Sara Pennypacker. Illustrations by Marla Frazee. 2011. Hyperion. 164 pages.
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Dead Bodies, Funerals, and Other Fatal Circumstances. Lenore Look. 2011. Random House. 198 pages.
Hound Dog True. Linda Urban. 2011. Harcourt. 152 pages.

Reviews at Operation Actually Read Bible:

The Mercy. Beverly Lewis. 2011. Bethany House. 310 pages.
My First Read and Learn Countdown to Christmas. Dr. Mary Manz Simon. Illustrated by Siobhan Harrison. 2009. Scholastic.
God With Us: Divine Condescension And the Attributes of God. K. Scott Oliphint. 2011. Crossway. 303 pages.
The Merchant's Daughter. Melanie Dickerson. 2011. Zondervan. 285 pages.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Future of Us (YA)

2011-12-29T15:53:00.051-06:00

The Future of Us. Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler. 2011. Penguin. 356 pages.

I can't break up with Graham today, even though I told my friends I'd do it the next time I saw him.

I enjoyed this one. I'm not sure I loved it. But I can say that it held my attention. And it made me smile more than once. And it has a very interesting premise.

The Future of Us is narrated by two teens. Emma Nelson and her former best friend Josh Templeton. After a misunderstanding, he tried to kiss her at the movies, these two stopped speaking together. But these two are about to become close again. And all because of AOL.

The year is 1996. Josh has received an AOL CD in the mail. He doesn't have a computer, but Emma does. She has a brand, new computer. A gift from her Dad. She may not have a good relationship with him, but her new computer is awesome.

So. This novel is about what happens when these two discover something puzzling and amazing. After signing in, the computer goes to a facebook sign-in page. Emma and Josh have the opportunity to read their facebook pages....from fifteen years in the future. They get to 'see' who they married, how many children they have, where they work, where they live, who they're friends with. Even what meals they're eating. It seems their future-selves SHARE every little detail about their lives.

But Emma isn't content reading about the future. She wants to change it. Josh isn't so sure that's a good idea. Emma just can't see why Josh always ends up happy and content and drama-free...and why she always ends up unhappy, complaining, worried. No matter where she lives, who she's married to, what job she has or doesn't have.

Can Emma learn how to live in the moment, for the moment? Can Emma learn how to like herself?

The Future of Us is an interesting coming-of-age novel. It's fun and playful, in a way. (Much more so than Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why.)

I think this one will appeal most to adults. To those that were teens in the nineties. If you were in high school around this time, then this one is for you. There are dozens and dozens of references just for you. Things that only you will appreciate it. Like all the references to Crash Into Me. Though it's never mentioned, I wonder if Emma and Josh's children would listen to this lullaby...

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Presumption of Death

2011-12-28T10:12:00.001-06:00

A Presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh & Dorothy Sayers. 2002. St. Martin's Press. 384 pages.

'Whoever, for example, Lady Peter,' said Miss Agnes Twitterton, 'is that?"
'You do have a point, my dear,' said Mrs. Goodacre, the vicar's wife, who was standing with the two women behind a trestle table at one end of the Village Hall, pouring out Miss Twitterton's parsnip wine into rows of assorted sherry glasses. 'There was a time, as you say, and not so long ago, when we would have known everybody we could possibly meet here--when any stranger was a seven-day-wonder--and now here we are organizing a village hop, and we don't know half the people here. They could be anybody, indeed I expect they are.'

A Presumption of Death is set in 1940. Lord Peter and Bunter are in Europe on a secret-mission. Lady Harriet is in the country at Talboys with the children. Her and Peter have two small sons, Bredon and Paul, and she's also taken Charles and Mary's three children, Charlie, Mary, and Harriet. Harriet is not the only woman thinking of the safety of her children, no, many families are trying to send their children to the country for safety. The villagers are opening their homes, and, are willing to their duty for the war. The village IS preparing for war. They've been working on air raid shelters and organizing themselves to prepare for the worst. It is during the rehearsal of an air raid that a murder is committed! A woman is found dead. Almost everyone was accounted for in one of the two shelters. But someone murdered the young woman...can the local police with a little aid from Lady Harriet solve this crime?

I liked this one. I can't really say too much about it. It is a mystery after all. And the less you know, the better it will be! But I enjoyed it. I think Jill Paton Walsh has done a good job with the characters, keeping them true to the originals, yet giving readers more of what they love.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Library Loot: Fifth Trip in December

2011-12-28T09:15:00.000-06:00

New Loot:

World Without End by Ken Follett
Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
Fire Watch by Connie Willis
Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer
The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
From the Land of the Moon by Milena Agus; translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein
Company of Liars by Karen Maitland
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio; translated by Guido Waldman

Leftover Loot:

Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein
The Deception at Lyme by Carrie Bebris
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated and adapted by Peter Ackroyd
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Alanna the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

2012 Challenges: European Reading Challenge

2011-12-27T19:35:00.000-06:00

European Reading Challenge 2012
Hosted by Rose City Reader
January 1, 2012 - January 31, 2013

Essentially, "The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour."

I am signing up at the five-star (deluxe entourage) level:

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Right now, I'm thinking my countries will be: Great Britain, France, Russia, Sweden, and Italy. I am also thinking that I'll try to read more than that. That I might try to read ten books. Other countries I might visit include: Greece, Poland, Spain, Austria, Germany. Or Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium. Of course, I might change my mind as to the countries. But I am SO EXCITED about this challenge!

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Top Ten MG/YA Fantasy OR Science Fiction

2011-12-27T16:31:00.003-06:00

The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic. Jennifer Trafton. With illustrations by Brett Helquist. 2010. Penguin. 352 pages.

Divergent. Veronica Roth. 2011. May 2011. HarperCollins. 496 pages.

Pathfinder. Orson Scott Card. 2010. November 2010. Simon & Schuster. 662 pages.

The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus #2). Rick Riordan. 2011. Hyperion. 525 pages.

Wither. Laura DeStefano. 2011. Simon & Schuster. 368 pages.

The Light Princess. George MacDonald. 1864. 110 pages.

No Passengers Beyond This Point. Gennifer Choldenko. 2011. Penguin. 256 pages.

Matched. Ally Condie. 2010. Penguin. 369 pages.

All These Things I've Done. Gabrielle Zevin. 2011. FSG. 354 pages.

A Year Without Autumn. Liz Kessler. 2011. (October 11, 2011). Candlewick Press. 304 pages.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Top Ten Historical Fiction

2011-12-27T16:27:00.000-06:00

City of Tranquil Light. Bo Caldwell. 2010. Henry Holt. 304 pages.

Mine is the Night. Liz Curtis Higgs. 2011. Waterbrook. 464 pages.

The Colonel's Lady. Laura Frantz. 2011. Revell. 412 pages.

Wonderland Creek. Lynn Austin. 2011. Bethany House. 400 pages.

The Help. Kathryn Stockett. 2009. Thorndike Press. 722 pages.

The Sunne in Splendour: "A fascinating portrait of the controversial King Richard III--a monarch betrayed in life by his allies and betrayed in death by history." by Sharon Kay Penman. 1982. 944 pages.

The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb. Melanie Benjamin. 2011. Random House. 425 pages.

A Heart Most Worthy. Siri Mitchell. 2011. Bethany House. 384 pages.

Mrs. Mike: "The Heartwarming Classic Story of the Boston Girl Who Married A Rugged Canadian Mountie." by Benedict & Nancy Freedman. 1947. 284 pages.

A Most Unsuitable Match. Stephanie Grace Whitson. 2011. Bethany House. 336 pages.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Thrones, Dominations

2011-12-27T09:01:00.003-06:00

Thrones, Dominations. Dorothy L. Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh. 1998. St. Martin's Press. 312 pages.

'I do not,' said Monsieur Theophile Daumier, 'understand the English.'
'Nor does anybody,' replied Mr Paul Delagardie, 'themselves least of all.'

Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet return to London after their honeymoon, Harriet hasn't been unconditionally accepted by all of Peter's family--at least not yet. And let's be honest, she may never be welcomed by Peter's sister-in-law, Helen. But she is happy as a new wife. Though she'd admit it feels strange to not have to write detective stories anymore. She still wants to write, but her writing is not prompted by absolute necessity. And so she's still trying to figure out what that means to her writing, how to get focused on her work--or should I say stay focused on her work. She's being introduced to new people all the time. Some of these new acquaintances she welcomes, some are more forced upon her. The Harwell couple, for example. Neither Lord Peter or Harriet "enjoy" spending time with Laurence Harwell and his wife, Rosamund Harwell; and it should be said that Laurence Harwell and Rosamund Harwell don't truly "enjoy" spending time with them either. But. Society is society and the connection may prove useful at some point.

Thrones, Dominations provides an intimate (not that kind of intimate) look at two marriages. Peter and Harriet and Laurence and Rosamund. The two marriages do share certain similarities. Husbands who at some point in the past 'rescued' their wives. The husbands being of higher social class than their wives. But a closer examination proves the differences outweigh any similarities. For it becomes clear that Lord Peter and Harried LOVE each other truly--with a forever-kind-of-love. And for Rosamund and Laurence, what love might have existed is buried under disinterest, neglect, and manipulative games. She wants her husband to be jealous of her, possessive of her, to want her to be his and his alone. And he just doesn't care who she talks to, who she dines with, who she goes about with in town, etc.

Halfway through the novel, once the reader gets a chance to know both couples and the society they share, the mystery begins. Lord Peter is once again called upon to solve the mystery and find the murderer.

I enjoyed this one. I did. I particularly liked seeing Harriet and Peter together. I thought she did a great job with their dialogue and the development of their relationship. I would recommend this one to those that can't get enough of this couple!

Harriet and Lady Severn

"Well, how do you like it?"
"Like what, Lady Severn?"
"Being part of the Wimsey Estate."
"Peter doesn't treat me as part of the estate."
"I suppose not. He always had good manners. An excellent bedside manner, too, or so they tell me."
Harriet said gravely, "I don't think they ought to have told."
In spite of herself, the corners of her mouth twitched and the vulture chuckled again.
"You're quite right, my dear, they oughtn't. You won't tell, I can see. Never tell me anything; I always repeat it. Are you in love with him?"
"Yes. I don't mind having that repeated."
"Then why didn't you marry him sooner?"
"Obstinacy," said Harriet, and this time she grinned openly.
"Humph! You're probably the first woman that ever kept him waiting. What do you do with him, now you've got him, hey? Lick his toes, or make him sit up and beg?"
"What do you advise?"
"Honest dealing," said the old lady, sharply. "A man's none the better for being fretted to fiddle-strings. You're going to amuse me. Most of these young women are very dull. They either take offence or think I'm a scream. What do you think?"
"I think," said Harriet, feeling she might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, "you are behaving like a character in a book. And I think you are doing it on purpose."
"That's rather shrewd of you," said the vulture.
"When I put you in a book," pursued Harriet, "I shall make that aspect of your psychology quite clear."
"All right," said Lady Severn. "I'll take six copies. And I'll promise to live till it's published." (41-42)

Lord Peter to Harriet on her writing:

"How I envy you your capacity to take facts or leave them," said Peter. (51)

Harriet to Mr. Amery:

"You should never say thank you for a good review," said Harriet. "That would imply that one had done a favour to the author, whereas one has simply done justice to the book." (101)

Lord Peter and Harriet:

"It is perfectly possible, I suppose," said Lord Peter to his wife, over breakfast, "for someone to be murdered while doing something she does not usually do, or behaving in a way unaccustomed to her. But it is an affront to the natural feelings of a criminologist, all the same."
"It has a feeling of lightning striking twice in the same spot, you mean?"
"It does rather. I would greatly prefer it if in every tiny break in precedent was in some way connected to the crime. And therefore could be constructed as a clue by a brainy enough person."
"Well, if this were a work of fiction, one would certainly make sure that was the case," said Harriet. "But in real life, Peter, don't people usually do unusual things? Aren't they always going to places for the first time, mildly surprising their friends by little switches in behavior, suddenly getting bored, or headachy, and dashing out to parties, or going early to bed, or buying a red dress instead of a blue one, or suddenly marrying, at the age of forty-five, a highly unsuitable person?"
"Do you mean that unpredictable behavior may simply reveal the secret truth of someone's inner man or woman?"
"In a novel, of course, it would. Things have to be connected or the reader would not believe them."
"It's odd, that, isn't it?" said Peter. "If unconnected and spur-of-the-moment things keep happening in the real world, why shouldn't they be plausible in novels? Shouldn't the most plausible picture of life be a portrait of reality in all its bizarre and incoherent confusion?"
"I think a novel has to deal in a different kind of truth," said Harriet. "For example, if poor Rosamund's death were in a novel, readers would know at once that the Sunbury attacker who so alarmed Laurence Harwell could not have done it. If a wholly unconnected stranger arrived in a story just in time to commit the crime and disappear, there would be no plot."
"But in real life random things occur, and there may actually be no plot, in that sense of the word," said Wimsey, thoughtfully. (137-38)

Lord Peter to Inspector Parker

"I wish you wouldn't get so obsessed by motives, Charles. Motives are ten a penny. There's always a motive for anybody doing anything. Just find out who had the opportunity, and you can make up the motive."
"I don't really agree with you," said Charles. "Juries like motives, you know." (141)

Lord Peter and Harriet

"Frivolity can give a good deal of pleasure," he said, mildly. "But I don't like to hear you call detective stories frivolous."
"But aren't they? Compare to the real thing?"
"What do you call the real thing?"
"Great literature; Paradise Lost; novels like Great Expectations, or Crime and Punishment or War and Peace. Or on the other hand real detection, dealing with real crimes."
"You seem not to appreciate the importance of your special form," he said. "Detective stories contain a dream of justice. They project a vision of a world in which wrongs are righted, and villains are betrayed by clues that they did not know they were leaving. A world in which murderers are caught and hanged, and innocent victims are avenged, and future murder is deterred."
"But it is just a vision, Peter. The world we live in is not like that."
"It sometimes is," he said. "Besides, hasn't it occurred to you that to be beneficent, a vision does not have to be true?"
"What benefits could be conferred by falsehood?" she asked.
"Not falsehood, Harriet; idealism. Detective stories keep alive a view of the world which ought to be true. Of course people read them for fun, for diversion, as they do crossword puzzles. But underneath they feed a hunger for justice, and heaven help us if ordinary people cease to feel that." (151)

Dowager Duchess in a letter:

Sent Franklin to Hatchards for copy of War and Peace, thinking today good time to start long book...Silly woman came back with Anna Karenina, saying it was the nearest thing she could find. Got as far as first sentence, then stopped to think. "All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Great author has got that the wrong way round. I think unhappiness is much the same whatever the reasons for it, and happiness is a quirky odd sort of thing... (312)

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England

2011-12-26T15:02:00.026-06:00

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England. A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century. Ian Mortimer. 2008. Simon & Schuster. 345 pages.

It is the cathedral that you will see first.

Is this book as promising as it sounds? Is it dry and boring? OR is it actually FUN?

I found The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England a fun and delightful read. It was written in a way that I wish all history books could be written. If history textbooks read like this one, perhaps more people would like studying it!

The text was very engaging. The author is speaking directly to readers as if they were actually going to be visiting the past. The past feels very real, very much alive.

The premise is fun and unique. As the jacket flap says, "The past is a foreign country. This is your guidebook." And..."A time machine has just transported you back to the fourteenth century. What do you see? How do you dress? How do you earn a living and how much are you paid? What sort of food will you be offered by a peasant or a monk or a lord? And more important, where will you stay?"

It is divided essentially into eleven chapters:

The Landscape
The People
The Medieval Character
Basic Essentials
What to Wear
Traveling
Where To Stay
What to Eat and Drink
Health and Hygeine
The Law
What to Do

My favorite chapter was "Health and Hygiene." "What to Wear," "The People," and "Traveling" were also quite interesting. (My least favorite chapter was "The Law.")

Overall, I found the book fascinating. I did. I think it's a great companion read for those who love historical fiction. There are so many great books set during this time period, and reading this book can help you appreciate the time period even more, I think.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Top Ten Dorothy Sayers' Quotes

2011-12-26T09:23:00.001-06:00

These are the Dorothy Sayers' mysteries I read in 2011!

Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club. Five Red Herrings. Strong Poison. Have His Carcase. Murder Must Advertise. Gaudy Night. Nine Tailors. Busman's Honeymoon.

And one of my favorite things about the series--besides, of course, how giddy-making Lord Peter Wimsey is--is how quotable the books are! So here are my TOP TEN (not in any order) quotes from the series:

From Whose Body?

1. "One demands a little originality in these days, even from murderers," said Lady Swaffham. "Like dramatists, you know--so much easier in Shakespeare's time, wasn't it? Always the same girl dressed up as a man, and even that borrowed from Boccaccio or Dante or somebody. I'm sure if I'd been a Shakespeare hero, the very minute I saw a slim-legged young page-boy I'd have said: "Odsbodikins! There's that girl again!" (123)

2. "Look here, Wimsey--you've been reading detective stories; you're talking nonsense." (29)

From Clouds of Witnesses:

3. "Mother said--well, I told you what she said. By the way, how do you spell ipecacuanhna?"
Mr. Parker spelt it.
"Damn you!" said Lord Peter. "I did think I'd stumped you that time. I believe you went and looked it up beforehand. No decent-minded person would know how to spell ipecacuanha out of his own head. Anyway, as you were saying, it's easy to see which side of the family has the detective instinct."
"I didn't say so--"
"I know. Why didn't you? I think my mother's talents deserve a little acknowledgment. I said so to her, as a matter of fact, and she replied in these memorable words: 'My dear child, you can give it a long name if you like, but I'm an old-fashioned woman, and I call it mother-wit, and it's so rare for a man to have it that if he does you write a book about him and call him Sherlock Holmes.'" (97)

From Strong Poison:
After the *first* proposal

4. "Why? Oh, well--I thought you'd be rather an attractive person to marry. That's all. I mean, I sort of took a fancy to you. I can't tell you why. There's no rule about it, you know."
"I see. Well, it's very nice of you."
"I wish you wouldn't sound as if you thought it was rather funny. I know I've got a silly face, but I can't help that. As a matter of fact, I'd like somebody I could talk sensibly to, who would make life interesting. And I could give you lots of plots for your books, if that's any inducement."
"But you wouldn't want a wife who wrote books, would you?"
"But I should; it would be great fun. So much more interesting than the ordinary kind that is only keen on clothes and people. Though of course, clothes and people are all right too, in moderation. I don't mean to say I object to clothes." (45)

5. "If anybody ever marries you, it will be for the pleasure of hearing you talk piffle," said Harriet, severely.
"A humiliating reason, but better than no reason at all." (128)

From Have His Carcase:

6. "Darling, if you danced like an elderly elephant with arthritis, I would dance the sun and moon into the sea with you. I have waited a thousand years to see you dance in that frock."
"Idiot!" said Harriet (151).

From Five Red Herrings:

7. The essence of detection is secrecy. It has no business to be spectacular. But you can watch me if you like. (218)

From Gaudy Night:

8. "Do you find it easy to get drunk on words?"
"So easy that, to tell you the truth, I am seldom perfectly sober. Which accounts for my talking so much." (330)

9. "I don't know. I have a reputation for flippant insincerity. You think I'm honest?"
"I know you are. I couldn't imagine your being anything else." (382)

From Busman's Holiday:

10. "I am always trying to say something too silly to be believed; but I never manage it." (256)

Pride and Prejudice

2011-12-25T16:18:00.001-06:00

Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen. 1813. 386 pages.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Pride and Prejudice is the first Austen novel I remember reading. And it's such a lovely, lovely read. There is something wonderfully satisfying about it. The characters, the dialogue, the letters.

I reread it this month hoping to recapture some of the joy of that first experience. I don't know if that's even possible. To reread something with new eyes, to seek to feel exactly the same way about it as you did before, but I tried my best.

Did I love it? Yes. Of course. It's Pride and Prejudice. But while other Austen novels have improved upon rereads--me liking them more than I did before, there is no improving Pride and Prejudice.
That's not a bad thing.

Is Pride and Prejudice your favorite Austen? It probably isn't mine. Mine would probably be Persuasion. I love and adore Persuasion. I do. There's just something oh-so-magical about it for me. But Pride and Prejudice though it isn't my favorite it is definitely special. Would I have gone on to read other Austen novels if I hadn't loved Pride and Prejudice? Would I have sought out every Austen movie adaptation if I hadn't loved it so much? Probably not.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Sunday Salon: Week In Review #51

2011-12-25T10:02:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas!!!!

Reviews at Becky's Book Reviews:

I Am Half Sick of Shadows. Alan Bradley. 2011. Random House. 300 pages.
Busman's Honeymoon. Dorothy L. Sayers. 1937. HarperCollins. 403 pages.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett. 2009. Thorndike Press. 722 pages.
All These Things I've Done. Gabrielle Zevin. 2011. FSG. 354 pages.
Eve. Anna Carey. 2011. HarperCollins. 322 pages.
Hound Dog True. Linda Urban. 2011. Harcourt. 152 pages.
The Secret History of Tom Trueheart. Ian Beck. 2006. HarperCollins. 345 pages.

Reviews at Operation Actually Read Bible:

God With Us: Divine Condescension And the Attributes of God. K. Scott Oliphint. 2011. Crossway. 303 pages.
The Merchant's Daughter. Melanie Dickerson. 2011. Zondervan. 285 pages.

Reviews at Young Readers:

Clementine and the Family Meeting. Sara Pennypacker. Illustrations by Marla Frazee. 2011. Hyperion. 164 pages.
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Dead Bodies, Funerals, and Other Fatal Circumstances. Lenore Look. 2011. Random House. 198 pages.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Top Ten Mysteries

2011-12-24T18:01:00.000-06:00

I have read seventy mysteries in 2011! (Before January 1, 2011, I'd only read eleven.) These are the mystery authors I've read this year:

Agatha Christie
Dorothy Sayers
Rex Stout
Alan Bradley
Carrie Bebris
Lilian Jackson Braun
Wilkie Collins
Jill Paton Walsh
Gyles Brandreth
Josephine Tey
P.D. James
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Elizabeth Peters
Kathy Lynn Emerson
Marilee Brothers
Robert J. Randisi
Helen Grant
Anya Seton
Ken Harmon

And these are my top ten books:

The Intrigue at Highbury: Or, Emma's Match. Carrie Bebris. 2010. Tor. 317 pages.

The Woman in White. Wilkie Collins. 1860. 672 pages.

A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel. Alan Bradley. 2011. Random House. 399 pages.

Sad Cypress. Agatha Christie. 1939/2007. Black Dog & Leventhal. 256 pages.

The Moving Finger. Agatha Christie. 1942/2007. Black Dog & Leventhal. 208 pages.

Some Buried Caesar. Nero Wolfe Mystery. Rex Stout. 1938. Random House. 288 pages.

The Golden Spiders. Rex Stout. 1953. Random House. 206 pages.

4:50 From Paddington. Agatha Christie. 1957/2007. Black Dog & Leventhal. 288 pages.

Gaudy Night. Dorothy L. Sayers. 1936/1995. HarperCollins. 512 pages.

Eve (YA)

2011-12-24T12:52:00.000-06:00

Eve. Anna Carey. 2011. HarperCollins. 322 pages.

By the time the sun set over the fifty-foot perimeter wall, the School lawn was covered with twelfth-year students.

Eve is an intense dystopian novel. It's very dark, very harsh. Carey has created a world with very few happy endings. Especially if you're an orphan like Eve.

The world has been devastated, and I do mean DEVASTATED by plague. And it has left the world in an ugly, ugly mess. Eve is an orphan, she is just one of many, many orphan girls being raised and educated by the school. She's been taught so many things, so many extraordinary things, really, when you think about the condition of the world.

But the night before she graduates, she realizes that something is wrong. That the promising future is NOT so promising after all. She learns that they are essentially sows. That they're existence will consist of giving birth to future generations. And this means multiple births each pregnancy. (She sees a room full of teenage girls--she recognizes some of them as former classmates--tied down to beds, each in a different state of pregnancy.)

She is determined to escape no matter the cost. She's recently heard of a place called Califia that offers a safe place to women just like her. But can she get there?!

This is further complicated--in a GOOD way--when she meets a guy. She's been taught to hate guys her whole life. Taught that they can't be trusted. That they are mean, violent, cruel, incapable of love and goodness. But what Eve sees in Caleb is undeniable. He is a good, good man. He's honorable and brave and good. What she wants is to be with him, to stay with him, but can they find a safe place to be together...or is the world to dangerous for true love?!

This one is exciting and oh-so-realistic. The ending may leave you wanting more...

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

All These Things I've Done (YA)

2011-12-24T12:50:00.000-06:00

All These Things I've Done. Gabrielle Zevin. 2011. FSG. 354 pages.

The night before Junior year--I was sixteen, barely--Gable Arsley said he wanted to sleep with me.

I enjoyed this one. It wasn't quite what I was expecting. Which wasn't a bad thing at all. It was different, yes, but in a good way, a unique way.

Set in the future, in 2083, our heroine, Anya, is the daughter of a mobster. Her family business? Chocolate. Yes, in Zevin's futuristic society, chocolate and caffeine are illegal substances. And just like prohibition, the ban of chocolate has led to a rise in crime and crime families. There are a handful of families--world-wide--who deal in chocolate and the like. And it can be a dangerous, dangerous game. Just ask our heroine. For she's lost her mother, her father, and in a way her brother. Her parents were both killed--murdered. And her brother has not been the same since the accident that took his mother's life. Anya knows he may never be grown up enough to take care of himself, to take care of his younger sisters, to take care of the family business. And she's accepted that. She has. She knows that even though she's not technically the oldest, it is her responsibility to take care of everyone. And that everyone includes her grandmother, Galina, who is confined to her bed and kept alive by machines.

So what happens when she falls in love with the Assistant D.A's son...quite a bit! Because even though she's not actively in the family business, even though she's not a 'real' criminal, her life has its dangers and risks. For even if she doesn't want a part of her family legacy, there's no escaping it either.

As I said, this is an interesting read. And I am glad I read it.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Hound Dog True (MG)

2011-12-23T14:44:00.000-06:00

Hound Dog True. Linda Urban. 2011. Harcourt. 152 pages.

Uncle Potluck said when he talked to the moon, the moon talked back.

I just loved, loved, loved A Crooked Kind of Perfect. (I've read it three times!!!) And I wanted to love, love, love Hound Dog True too. Did I? Well. For the most part. What I loved about A Crooked Kind of Perfect--the humor--was missing a little in Hound Dog True.

Hound Dog True feels more serious perhaps. The heroine, a young girl named Mattie, is extremely shy. And she's super-super nervous about starting school at a new school after yet another move. She has never really had a friend--a close friend. And while she can manage being friendly, she has yet to find a friend. So she's scared and nervous and unsure and oh-so-lovable. She's afraid of rejection, afraid of being laughed at, afraid of not belonging, of never belonging. And I, for one, could never laugh at this situation.

Hound Dog True is charming and quirky. In its own way. I just loved, loved, loved Mattie's writing. The way she carried around a notebook. And the developing friendship between Quincy and Mattie was great. Just very, very sweet.

There were so many details that made this one work well. I would definitely recommend it.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Help

2011-12-22T14:51:00.001-06:00

The Help. Kathryn Stockett. 2009. Thorndike Press. 722 pages.

August 1962
Mae Mobley was born on a early Sunday morning in August, 1960. A church baby we like to call it. Taking care a white babies, that's what I do, along with all the cooking and the cleaning. I done raised seventeen kids in my lifetime. I know how to get them babies to sleep, stop crying, and go in the toilet bowl before they mamas even get out a bed in the morning.

Have you read The Help yet? What did you think?! I thought it was one of the best books ever. It was incredibly intense, very emotional, fascinating, disturbing, thought-provoking and unforgettable. I could go on and on. It's just one of those books that I know I'll never forget. One of those books that I just have to recommend.

If you're looking for great storytelling, you'll find it in The Help. If you're looking for great characters--very well-developed, unforgettable characters--you'll find it in The Help. If you want an absorbing, fascinating, can't-put-down book, you'll find it in The Help.

The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early sixties. To be precise, 1962-1964. The story is narrated by three characters. Two black maids, Aibileen, who works for Miss Elizabeth Leefolt, and Minny, who works for Miss Celia Foote, and a young white woman, Miss Skeeter, who dreams of becoming a journalist or novelist. (Miss Skeeter's 'real' name is Eugenia Phelan.) Each narrator has their own story to tell. Each is very human, very memorable, very unique. Each voice matters in The Help. In fact, that could be one of the themes perhaps, that each person has a story to tell, but not every person has the freedom to tell it--well, not without taking risks.

So, one day Miss Skeeter is playing bridge with her friends. She is shocked by the turn of conversation. Is shock the right word? Maybe not. Perhaps made uncomfortable is a better fit. The disturbing conversation is about how horrible, how dreadful it is that Miss Leefolt does not have a separate toilet for her maid, Aibileen, to use. How horrible it is--the group is actually repulsed--by the idea that a black woman uses the guest toilet. Miss Hilly Holbrook, the bossiest woman in town--take my word for it, wants not only to help her friend out, but wants to start a movement (get an initiative) so that everyone will build separate bathrooms--in their garage, in their sheds, etc--for the help to use. As I said, Miss Skeeter is uncomfortable with this. It's not like she knows Aibileen well, though she does see her--maids aren't invisible to her like they seem to be to others. But the way the ladies are talking--with Aibileen in the room--makes her squirm. She begins to ask herself, how does Aibileen really feel about this? Does this talk of her (and other colored people) being disease-ridden make her angry?

About this time, Miss Skeeter is trying to find a writing job. She's very ambitiously written to a publisher in New York, Harper & Row, I believe. And a very kind, very generous editor has taken a few minutes to tell her the truth. She just doesn't have the experience needed, not yet anyway. If she wants to be somebody, she's going to need a big story. She's going to need to be creative and tell a story like no one else. Writing about the experiences of maids isn't her first idea. But it is her best idea. If only she can get volunteers for interviews.

But where can she find maids willing to talk to her about their lives? About their experiences--past and present--in working for white families. How can they trust her? Wouldn't they be risking their jobs and maybe even their lives by talking to her?

Aibileen and Minny are two of the women that are brave enough to work with Miss Skeeter. And between the two of them they might just encourage more to join the secret project. But will it be worth it in the end?!

This book is so wonderful. It really is. It's so intense, so powerful, so well written. Each of the narrators is so well done, so unique, so persuasive. I cared about each one. I could write so much about each woman, each story. But not without spoiling it, not without saying too much. It's just there is so much to say!!!

Here is just one of the dramatic decision-points in the novel. Miss Skeeter has to choose whether to publish this item in the League's newsletter. She's put it off 'accidentally' for many months. But now it's time to make her choice...

Hilly Holbrook introduces the Home Help Sanitation Initiative. A disease preventative measure. Low-cost bathroom installation in your garage or shed, for homes without such an important fixture.
Ladies, did you know that:
99% of all colored diseases are carried in the urine
Whites can become permanently disabled by nearly all of these diseases because we lack immunities coloreds carry in their darker pigmentation
Some germs carried by whites can also be harmful to coloreds too
Protect yourself. Protect your children. Protect your help.
From the Holbrooks, we say, You're welcome! (257)

2011 Challenges Completed: Fall Into Reading

2011-12-22T09:36:00.000-06:00

My goal was to read six to eight books.

The original list:

The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman.
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
And Be A Villain by Rex Stout.
Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers.
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin.
Agatha Christie: An Autobiography.
Claudius the God by Robert Graves.

What I actually read:

The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus #2). Rick Riordan
The Sunne in Splendour: "A fascinating portrait of the controversial King Richard III--a monarch betrayed in life by his allies and betrayed in death by history." by Sharon Kay Penman.
Murder Must Advertise. Dorothy L. Sayers.
The Woman in White. Wilkie Collins.
Wonderland Creek. Lynn Austin.
Frankenstein. Mary Shelley.
The Nine Tailors. Dorothy L. Sayers.
Busman's Holiday by Dorothy L. Sayers
Hercule Poirot's Christmas. Agatha Christie.
Doomsday Book. Connie Willis.

The Fellowship of the Ring. J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Two Towers. J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Return of the King. J.R.R. Tolkien.

My thoughts: I didn't exactly stick with my list. (Six are from the original list; seven are not). But I am pleased with what I was able to read. Some of these books were just wonderful like Woman in White and Sunne in Splendour! And it was so WONDERFUL to finish the Lord Peter Wimsey series by Dorothy Sayers!!!! That was a big goal of mine. And I've been meaning to read The Lord of the Rings since 2007-2008. So it was so satisfying to read those!!!!

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Library Loot: Fourth Trip in December

2011-12-21T14:34:00.000-06:00

New Loot:

Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein
The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
The Merchant's Daughter by Melanie Dickerson
Hollow Crown by David Roberts
No Graves As Yet by Anne Perry
The Deception at Lyme by Carrie Bebris
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
And the Soldiers Sang by J. Patrick Lewis and

Leftover Loot:

In A Dark Wood Wandering by Hella S. Haasse
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
A Tournament of Murders by P.C. Doherty
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated and adapted by Peter Ackroyd
The Humming of Numbers by Joni Sensel
The Nun's Tale by Candace Robb
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer
Alanna the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce
Mistletoe and Murder by Carola Dunn
Styx and Stones by Carola Dunn
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
Bigger than a Bread Box by Laurel Snyder
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
Bigger than a Bread Box by Laurel Snyder
Veil of Lies: a Medieval Noir by Jeri Westerson
The Pemberley Chronicles #1 by Rebecca Ann Collins
An Assembly Such As This by Pamela Aiden
Duty and Desire by Pamela Aiden
These Three Remain by Pamela Aidan
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Farwalkers Quest by Joni Sensel

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Busman's Holiday

2011-12-21T09:00:00.000-06:00

Busman's Honeymoon. Dorothy L. Sayers. 1937. HarperCollins. 403 pages.

My dear Honoria,
So Peter is really married: I have ordered willow-wreaths for half my acquaintance...

There were parts of this mystery novel that I just LOVED. I mean there were scenes that made me giddy, absolutely giddy. (So many Harriet and Peter scenes!!!) And scenes that had me smiling! (I love Peter and Bunter, and we were introduced to a lovely Chief Superintendent, Mr. Kirk, his scenes with Peter were quite fun!) So I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who loves Lord Peter Wimsey, to those excited to read about his marriage to Harriet. The writing, as always, was great. And their is something almost magical about the way Sayers does dialogue...

Anyway, this novel is about their busy honeymoon. They've only been married a brief time--maybe two days?--when they discover a body in the basement of their new home, the home they've chosen to honeymoon in. And the case isn't an easy one to solve....

I really can't begin to express how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Peter Wimsey. And how much this whole series has meant to me. These books are so good, so wonderful, so worth reading!!!

Harriet:

Whatever fantastic pictures she had from time to time conjured up of married life with Peter, none of them had ever included attendance at village concerts. But of course they would go. She understood now why it was that with all his masking attitudes, all his cosmopolitan self-adaptations, all his odd spiritual reticences and escapes, he yet carried about with him that permanent atmosphere of security. He belonged to an ordered society, and this was sit. More than any of the friends in her own world, he spoke the familiar language of her childhood. In London, anybody, at any moment, might do or become anything. But in a village--no matter what village--they were all immutably themselves; parson, organist, sweep, duke's son, and doctor's daughter, moving like chessmen upon their allotted squares. She was curiously excited. She thought, "I have married England." (98)

Lord Peter:

"When I'm investigating a murder, I hate to have too much sympathy with the corpse. Personal feelings cramp the style." (130)

Lord Peter:

"Murders go to my head like drink. I simply can't keep them off." (130)

Lord Peter, Harriet, and Mr. Kirk:

"Enter the obvious suspect," said Peter, lightly.
"The obvious suspect is always innocent," said Harriet in the same tone.
"In books, my lady," said Mr. Kirk, with a little indulgent bow towards her, as who should say, 'The ladies. God bless them!'" (143)

Mr. Kirk:

"Reckon there's several kinds of truth, my lord. There's truth as far as you know it; and there's truth as far as you're asked for it. But they don't represent the whole truth--not necessarily. (170)

Lord Peter:

"I don't know what to think. The fact is, we've got dashed little material for thinking with. It's probably too early for thinking." (231)

Lord Peter:

"I am always trying to say something too silly to be believed; but I never manage it." (256)

Lord Peter and Harriet:

"How can I find words? Poets have taken them all, and left me with nothing to say or do--"
"Except to teach me for the first time what they meant."
He found it hard to believe.
"Have I done that?"
"Oh Peter--" Somehow she must make him believe it, because it mattered so much that he should. "All my life I have been wandering in the dark--but now I have found your heart--and am satisfied."
"And what do all the great words come to in the end, but that?--I love you--I am at rest with you--I have come home." (293)

This is the eleventh novel featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.

Others in the series:

Whose Body (1923)
Clouds of Witness (1926)
Unnatural Death (1927)
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1928)
Strong Poison (1931)
Five Red Herrings (1931)
Have His Carcase (1932)
Murder Must Advertise (1933)
Nine Tailors (1934)
Gaudy Night (1935)

I Am Half Sick of Shadows

2011-12-20T14:38:00.000-06:00

I Am Half Sick of Shadows. Alan Bradley. 2011. Random House. 300 pages.

Tendrils of raw fog floated up from the ice like agonized spirits departing their bodies.

If you love Flavia de Luce, if you've enjoyed following her adventures, then you MUST read this one! If you haven't met this quirky eleven-year old yet, well, you need to give the first novel a try. You may just find yourself charmed because there is something so fun, so quirky, so lovable, so just-about-right, about this little heroine!!! (The first novel is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. The second is The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag. The third is A Red Herring Without Mustard.)

In this holiday novel, Flavia finds herself almost a stranger in her own home. Her family in desperate need of money has rented out their home for movie production! It's just a few days before Christmas and everyone has started to arrive--including a very famous actress. But this holiday may not go as planned....

I just LOVE this character. I am not sure this is the best Flavia de Luce novel in the series. But. It is so much fun to spend time with a character that you love. And the novel certainly keeps you hooked!

If cooking were a game of darts, most of Mrs. Mullet's concoctions would be barely on the board. (35)

I'd been spending so much time sitting halfway down the stairs that I was beginning to feel like Christoper Robin. (61)

Theater, I suppose, is a form of mass mesmerism, and if that's the case, Shakespeare, despite his chemical shortcomings, was surely one of the greatest hypnotists who ever lived. (129)

2012 Challenges: Award-Winning Reads Challenge

2011-12-19T17:19:00.000-06:00

I am signing up for Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing's Award-Winning Reads Challenge. The 'award-winning' books being celebrated are Newbery winners, Newbery honors, Pritz winners, and Pritz honors.

I am thinking I'll try to read

1) TBA: Newbery Winner 2012
2) TBA: Newbery Honor 2012
3) TBA: Newbery Honor 2012
4) TBA: Newbery Honor 2012
5) TBA: Printz Winner OR Honor 2012
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Secret History of Tom Trueheart (MG)

2011-12-19T12:06:00.000-06:00

The Secret History of Tom Trueheart. Ian Beck. 2006. HarperCollins. 345 pages.

Once upon a time, long ago, near the Land of Stories, lived young Tom Trueheart. He was the youngest of the famous Trueheart family of adventurers.

I liked this one. I even really liked this one! I'm just not sure it's love for me.

Tom is the youngest in a long line of adventurers. All of his older brothers have already had plenty of adventures in the Land of Stories. All of his older brothers regularly are sent on missions by the Story Bureau. But for Tom, well, he's always the one left behind. True he isn't quite old enough, he hasn't had 'the birthday' yet. (I believe it's 12?) But his birthday is fast approaching. All of his brothers have promised--their mother--to be back in time for Tom's birthday. That will give them several weeks at least to finish the stories and report everything so that it can be written down and enjoyed by one and all. But Tom's birthday comes and goes, and there is still no word on his brothers. What could have kept them in their stories so long? Should they be worried?!

In this first adventure, Tom Trueheart receives his FIRST assignment. Enter the Land of Stories and find out what happened to his older brothers--I believe there are six brothers. It's not an easy mission, for something must be seriously wrong to keep all six brothers away from home so long. Does the Trueheart family have an enemy?!

As I said, I really really liked this one. I thought it was fun. Perhaps not quite as fun and clever as A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz. Perhaps not quite as funny as the first few books in The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley. But I think the book is a fun treat all the same.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

2012 Challenges: Short Story Reading Challenge

2011-12-19T10:31:00.000-06:00

I am signing up for the 2012 Short Story Reading Challenge hosted by Library of Clean Reads. I am signing up for 'Tell Me a Story' which is 1 to 3 books.

1.
2.
3.

I am not all that good at finishing short story collections. There are a few that look really great--really fun. It will just be sticking with the book from start to finish.

These are a list of potential possibilities:

The Stories of Ray Bradbury
Miss Marple the Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie
Lord Peter: A collection of all the Lord Peter Wimsey short Stories by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Harlequin Tea Set and Other Stories by Agatha Christie
The Under Dog and Other Stories by Agatha Christie
The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories by Connie Willis
The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Life On Mars edited by Jonathan Strahan
Straw House, Wood House, Brick House by Daniel Nayeri
Brave New Worlds edited by John Joseph Adams
Steampunk edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
The Best Short Stories of Mark Twain
The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Oxford Book of English Short Stories
The Monster's Corner edited by Christopher Golden
The Oxford Book of Scottish Short Stories
The Best Short Stories of O. Henry
Patricia Highsmith: Selected Novels and Short Stories
The Doll: The Lost Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier
The Sunny Side: Short Stories and Poems for Proper Grown-ups by A.a. Milne
Shine edited by Jetse de Vries
The end of the world edited by Martin H. Greenberg
The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Vol. 1
The Dreaming Sex edited by Mike Ashley

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

2012 Challenges: Time Travel Reading Challenge

2011-12-19T09:55:00.001-06:00

I am so happy I discovered the Time Travel Reading Challenge hosted by Library of Clean Reads. I am signing up for 'great adventure' which is four to six time travel books. (I was so tempted to commit to more than that--since time travel is one of my favorite, favorite, favorite things to read about.)

1. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

I KNOW I want to read these three:

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

Blackout by Connie Willis

Sunday Salon: Week In Review #50

2011-12-18T17:07:00.002-06:00

This week I reviewed at Becky's Book Reviews:

Gideon The Catpurse. Linda Buckley-Archer. 2006. Simon & Schuster. 405 pages.
Hercule Poirot's Christmas. Agatha Christie. 1938/1939. Black Dog & Leventhal. 272 pages.
Doomsday Book. Connie Willis. 1992. Random House. 592 pages.

At Young Readers, I reviewed:

Clementine and the Family Meeting. Sara Pennypacker. Illustrations by Marla Frazee. 2011. Hyperion. 164 pages.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

2012 Challenges: Science Fiction Experience

2011-12-17T17:38:00.006-06:00

I have been anticipating this one for a while now. So when I saw Carl post a sign-up today, well, how could I resist? Why would I even try to resist?! (January 1, 2012-February 29, 2012) The reviews are shared at this site.

The Books I Read:

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Babylon 5: To Dream in the City of Sorrows by Kathryn M. Drennan
Babylon 5: The Shadow Within by Jeanne Cavelos
Babylon 5: In the Beginning by Peter David

These are the books I'm planning on reading.

Babylon 5: The Shadow Within by Jeanne Cavelos

Babylon 5: To Dream in the City of Sorrows by Kathryn M. Drennan

Babylon 5: Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi Corps by J. Gregory Keyes

Babylon 5: Deadly Relations: Bester Ascendant by J. Gregory Keyes

Babylon 5: Final Reckoning: The Fate of Bester by J. Gregory Keyes

Babylon 5: Legions of Fire: The Long Night of Centauri Prime by Peter David

Babylon 5: Legions of Fire: Armies of Light and Dark by Peter David

Babylon 5: Legions of Fire: Out of the Darkness by Peter David

Babylon 5: In the Beginning by Peter David

Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

Blackout by Connie Willis

All Clear by Connie Willis

The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov

Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Library Loot: Third Trip in December

2011-12-17T15:37:00.000-06:00

New Loot:

Miss Dimple Rallies to the Cause by Mignon F. Ballard
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
Hound Dog True by Linda Urban
Clementine and the Family Meeting by Sara Pennypacker
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Dead Bodies, Funerals, and Other Fatal Circumstances by Lenore Look
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
Bigger than a Bread Box by Laurel Snyder
Veil of Lies: a Medieval Noir by Jeri Westerson
Nine Men Dancing by Kate Sedley
The Pemberley Chronicles #1 by Rebecca Ann Collins
An Assembly Such As This by Pamela Aiden
Duty and Desire by Pamela Aiden
These Three Remain by Pamela Aidan
A Mind to Murder by P.D. James
In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce
Mistletoe and Murder by Carola Dunn
Styx and Stones by Carola Dunn
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffers and Annie Barrows.
The Farwalkers Quest by Joni Sensel
Eve by Anna Carey
All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

Leftover Loot:

All Our Worldly Goods by Irene Nemirovsky translated from the French by Sandra Smith
Miss Dimple Disappears by Mignon F. Ballard
Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman
Matilda Bone by Karen Cushman
Alanna the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester
In A Dark Wood Wandering by Hella S. Haasse
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
A Tournament of Murders by P.C. Doherty
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated and adapted by Peter Ackroyd
The Humming of Numbers by Joni Sensel
The Nun's Tale by Candace Robb
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

2012 Challenges: New Author Challenge

2011-12-16T19:46:00.002-06:00

I'm signing up for Literary Escapism's New Author challenge. I love discovering new-to-me authors. I'm signing up to read twenty-five new-to-me authors.

1. Carola Dunn. Death at Wentwater Court. (Daisy Dalrymple #1)
2. Jeanne Cavelos. The Shadow Within
3. Peter David. In the Beginning
4. Golden Keyes Parsons. His Steadfast Love
5. Carmen Agra Deedy. The Cheshire Cheese Cat.
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7.
8.
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25.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews