Sunday Salon: Reading Half Magic (1954)

Half Magic. Edward Eager. 1954. 192 pages. [Source: Library]

I enjoyed discovering Edward Eager's Half Magic. I had heard wonderful things about it, and I was not disappointed. Half Magic begins simply: "It began one day in summer about thirty years ago, and it happened to four children. Jane was the oldest and Mark was the only boy, and between them they ran everything. Katherine was the middle girl, of docile disposition and a comfort to her mother...Martha was the youngest, and very difficult." One day, Jane is given what she thinks is a nickel; she makes a wish and the wish comes true. It was no ordinary "nickel" as examination and experimentation shows. It is a small object with magical properties--to a degree. Or should I say percentage! It grants half of every wish. So you get what you wish--partly. So you've got to be doubly careful what you wish for. And wish for MORE than what you want. The children take turns wishing, they almost always do their wishing together--all share in the magical adventures. One wish inevitably leads to other wishes in an effort to "fix" what goes wrong and adjust the circumstances so it's just right. Even so, wishing can be TRICKY. But then again, it can work unintended magic: bringing a new love into their mother's life.

I definitely enjoyed this one!!!

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Week in Review: July 7-13

The Year of the Book. Andrea Cheng. Illustrated by Abigail Halpin. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 160 pages. [Source: Library]

A Big Guy Took My Ball. Mo Willems. 2013. Hyperion. 58 pages. [Source: Library]
 The Case of the Cautious Coquette (Perry Mason #34). Erle Stanley Gardner. 1949. 230 pages. [Source: Bought]

Death on the Nile. Agatha Christie. 1937/2007. Black Dog & Leventhal. 352 pages. [Source: Library]
Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The Story Behind An American Friendship. Russell Freedman. 2012. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 128 pages. [Source: Review Copy]
I Saw Esau: The Schoolchild's Pocket Book. Iona and Peter Opie. Illustrations by Maurice Sendak. 1947/2012. Candlewick Press. 160 pages. [Source: Review Copy]
Fatherless. James C. Dobson and Kurt Bruner. 2013. FaithWords. 448 pages. [Source: Bought]
Heaven: Priceless Encouragements on the Way to Our Eternal Home. J.C. Ryle. 92 pages. [Source: Bought]
Love Takes Wing. Janette Oke. 1988. Bethany House. 240 pages. [Source: Own].
Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart. J.D. Greear. 2013. B&H. 128 pages. [Source: Library]

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Library Loot: Second Trip in July

New Loot:

• The Cherry Cola Book Club by Ashton Lee
• Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
• Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey
• The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer
• The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
• Pride and Prejudice and Kitties by Jane Austen, Pamela Jane, and Deborah Guyol

Leftover Loot:

• The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne  
• New Spring by Robert Jordan
• Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
• Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie
• Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie
• Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie
• Here's a Penny by Carolyn Haywood
• Two and Two are Four by Carolyn Haywood
• Penny and Peter by Carolyn Haywood
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• The Measure of Katie Calloway by Serena Miller
• A Promise to Love by Serena B. Miller
• A Wreath of Snow by Liz Curtis Higgs
• Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
• Mary Poppins Comes Back by P.L. Travers
• Mary Poppins, she wrote: the Life of P.L. Travers by Valerie Lawson

 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.  

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Watching Les Miserables

Earlier in the year, I read Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. It was LOVE. I knew I wanted to see several film adaptations. I've since watched four adaptations: the 1935 adaptation starring Fredric March (Jean Valjean), Charles Laughton (Inspector Javert), Cedric Hardwicke (Bishop Bienvenu), Rochelle Hudson (Cosette), Florence Eldridge (Fantine), and John Beal (Marius); the 1952 adaptation starring Michael Rennie (Jean Valjean), Robert Newton (Inspector Javert), Edmund Gwenn (Bishop Courbet), Debra Paget (Cosette), Sylvia Sidney (Fantine), Cameron Mitchell (Marius); the 1998 adaptation starring Liam Neeson (Jean Valjean), Geoffrey Rush (Inspector Javert), Peter Vaughan (Bishop), Claire Danes (Cosette), Uma Thurman (Fantine), Hans Matheson (Marius); the 2012 musical adaptation starring Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean), Russell Crowe (Inspector Javert), Colm Wilkinson (Bishop), Amanda Seyfried (Cosette), Anne Hathaway (Fantine), and Eddie Redmayne (Marius).

Essentially, I wasn't satisfied with any of the adaptations I saw of this film. There were things I enjoyed about each of the adaptations. But there wasn't one definite version I'd recommend above the others. My least favorite was the musical; the musical was tedious and required you to suspend your disbelief for hours. (Who would really sing a song WHILE being chased by the police? Who would sing when trying to hide?) My favorite characters in the musical would be Eponine (Samantha Barks) and Fantine (Anne Hathaway). In some ways the musical was truer to the book than the others.
I am glad I watched it once, however. The two black and while film adaptations I saw were quite pleasant. The story is horribly condensed in both, and everything is so rushed, but, they were pleasant experiences. They don't do justice to the book...at all. The 1998 film was very nice. I thought Geoffrey Rush was great as Inspector Javert, and Liam Neeson was believable as Jean Valjean. IF this adaptation had followed the book, been a bit longer perhaps, then it could have worked for me.

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Ten Visions of the Future

I've selected ten books to represent different visions of the future. Some of these are children's books, some are YA, some are adult.

Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury. 1953. Random House. 190 pages.

First sentence: It was a pleasure to burn.

Unwind. Neal Shusterman. 2007. Simon & Schuster. 336 pages.

First sentence: "There are places you can go," Ariana tells him, "and a guy as smart as you has a decent chance of surviving to eighteen."

 

Rash. Pete Hautman. 2006. Simon & Schuster. 272 pages. 

First sentence: Gramps, who was born in 1990, once told me that when he was my age the only way to wind up in prison in the USSA (back when it had only one S) was to steal something, kill somebody, or use illegal drugs.

 

Wool Omnibus. Hugh Howey. 2012/2013. Simon & Schuster. 528 pages.  [Review coming very soon!!!]

First sentence: The children were playing while Holston climbed to his death; he could hear them squealing as only happy children do.

 

Surviving Antarctica: Reality TV 2083. Andrea White. 2005. HarperCollins. 336 pages.

First sentence: What chance did Stephen Michael have of winning his Toss? In the year 2080 there were so many fourteen-year-old kids and so few scholarships. And if he lost--he hated to think about his choices then.

Uglies. Scott Westerfeld. 2005. Simon & Schuster. 432 pages. 

First sentence: The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.

Never Let Me Go. Kazuo Ishiguro. 2005. 288 pages. 

First sentence: My name is Kathy H. 

 

Among the Hidden. Margaret Peterson Haddix. 1998. Simon & Schuster. 160 pages.

First sentence: He saw the first tree shudder and fall, far off in the distance.

 

Fatherless. James Dobson & Kurt Bruner. 2013. 448 pages.

First sentence: I didn't expect the person killing me to yawn in boredom.

 

The Book of Revelation. Adapted by Matt Dorff. Translated by Father Mark Arey and Father Philemon Sevastiades. Illustrated by Chris Koelle. 2012. Zondervan. 192 pages.

First sentence: Indeed He sent signs through His angelic Messenger to His servant John...who declared his faith in God's word and in the testament of Jesus Christ..bearing witness to all that he saw.

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews