The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King
A friend of mine recommended I read this book ages ago but I either could never find it or kept forgetting who wrote it. This is about Sherlock Holmes and his partner Mary Russell. This book is about them meeting and Mary becoming his apprentice and eventually his partner. It focuses on Mary and her relationships. I'm sad that I waited this long to read this book! It was awesome. I was happy to read something exciting and fast-paced. It was definitely one of those books where you want to curl up on the couch and spend the entire night reading. It was a nice break after reading Bryson's Shakespeare book. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.
Physik by Angie Sage
This is the third book in the Septimus Heap series following Magyk and Flyte. The series follows Septimus Heap, the seventh son of a seventh son and his training as the Apprentice to the ExtraOrdinary wizard. In this book Septimus discovers alchemie and gets tricked into traveling back in time to assist an alchemist. But now he must figure out how to get back to his Time. Yes, this series is for kids, but it's very interesting. Each book gets better and better. The story is very well told and each one leaves you anticipating the next one. There is a lot of depth in the stories even though they are for kids.
M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton
Won the Newbery in 1975. There is a lot more depth to this story than the simple plot. I'm not going to try and explain all the deeper meanings to it. It tells the story of M.C. who's family lives on a mountain and M.C. dreams about leaving and having a better life off of the mountain. Two visitors arrive at the mountain and through them we discover M.C.s thoughts and feelings. There was a lot more to this book than I expected, and it was written wonderfully. The reader is really able to feel what M.C. goes through, his loneliness, his desire for a better life and his anger towards his father. An excellent book.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Christopher discovers his neighbor's dog in the backyard, and everyone believes he is the culprit. Christopher decides to become a detective and try to find out who really killed the dog. In the course of his investigation he uncovers more mysteries then he planned for. The book is read as written by Christopher, a fifteen year old who has "development disorders," which is never actually stated what he has but the signs point to autism or Asperger's. I really liked the way the book was written, everything was blunt and to the point, stated as a fact. He really likes prime numbers so the chapters were all prime numbers (which confused me at first cause I really wondered where chapter 1 was). It was a really quick read, and an interesting story.
Newbery books read/out of: 46/86
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
reviews, reviews
Whoa, it's been forever, of course I have tons of books I've read in the past couple of weeks, so away we go!
The Mark of Zorro- Johnston McCulley
Ah, the original Zorro book, and what a great book it is! This is the story of Zorro and his first adventures and how he fell in love. I really enjoyed the swashbuckling parts, although the way the book was written, there was no way to have sequel after sequel since Zorro reveals who he is at the end. If you were unfamiliar with the story of Zorro then this book would amaze you, it really keeps you guessing as to who Zorro really is and if you were reading this book when it was first released then it would be suspenseful. But still, it was a great book. Although, I read Zorro by Allende first and that may have been a mistake because I had a picture of Zorro in my mind and I have to admit the two do not fit together very well. But of course, Allende's work was written WAY after McCulley's so she was in the wrong I suppose. If you're in the mood for an adventure read this!
Prep- Curtis Sittenfeld
This is the story of Lee, a teenager from Indiana who secures a scholarship to the prestigious boarding school, Ault. It follows her through her 4 years at school, focusing only on school life and mostly explores her emotions dealing with the fact that she is poor and almost everyone else is rich. I liked the beginning of this book, I thought it was interesting. When I was younger I dreamt of going to boarding school, it always sounded so exclusive and neat so I thought it would be like my dreams realized, or something like that. But alas, I quickly grew tired of how incredibly annoying Lee was. She really didn't try to make any friends there, and acted like she despised the school the entire time she was there. She really made me mad with the way she acted. The book itself was pretty interesting, but the main character annoyed me. This book recently caused some controversy in the news after a 12 year old brought it home from school. Now I thought it was an interesting book, but it has no place in a school, not even a high school. This is an adult book and the sex scenes in it are very graphic. What were they thinking?
The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo
Won the Newbery in 2004. Like the title says this is a story about a mouse. This is about a mouse who doesn't act like a mouse, he gets banned from his pack and sent to survive in the dungeons, where the rats are. While in the dungeons he discovers a plot to kill the princess and he decides he must save her (cause he's in love with her). A very cute story. It was divided into 3 different points of view so you end up with a similar story from different points of view and eventually they meet up. I was really worried this would be like Redwall which I loathe with a passion. But the story was very interesting and I can see how kids enjoy it.
The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
14 year old Lily lives with her father on a farm with just her nanny to keep her company. She longs for her mother and a happy life. All she has to remember her mother is a black Madonna with Tiburon, SC written on the back. So she sets off to find out more of her past. She and her nanny end up at a beekeeper's house living with 3 sisters trying to learn more about her mother. I enjoyed this book and the relationships in it. I loved reading the interactions between the three sisters. I also liked how Lily didn't seem to see color when she looked at people and didn't really understand why it mattered so much to other people.
The Panama Hat Trail - Tom Miller
I discovered this book through National Geographic, and since I like travel writing, bought it. The author decides to follow the production of panama hats. He believes that writing a travel writing book is more interesting if you have a particular topic to focus on (plus a little weird writing an entire book about hats). And yes, Panama hats are made in Ecuador, not Panama. Anyway, I thought it was a good look at the culture of Ecuador and I learned way more than I ever wanted to know about Panama hats.
The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
#42 on the ML Rival List. Set in NY in the 1870s this is high-society at its best. Basically it's about Newland Archer, set to marry his sweetheart May, but falls in love with her cousin Ellen and must decide whether to follow his heart or live up to everyone's expectations. I think I thought I would like this book more than I actually did. I've always enjoyed Austen's books and the Bronte's so I figured this would be similar in style. The story was kind of interesting, but it seemed really slow even for this kind of novel. I just felt like nothing really happened. It was pretty frustrating getting through it.
Falling Leaves - Adeline Yen Mah
I read Chinese Cinderella, which tells mainly of Mah's childhood, a while ago and enjoyed it so I thought I would read the whole story of Mah's life. This is a memoir of Mah's life. Her mother died giving birth to her, her father later remarried and had 2 more children. Pretty much everyone in the family disliked her. While growing up Mah was treated different from her siblings, especially her half-siblings. This provides a good look into what a horrible life Mah led and all the trials she endured while growing up. Then when she was an adult, thinking all the problems had gone away they appeared again with the death of her father. You can't help but feel sorry for Mah when you read the book, especially as an adult when she continually tries to please her father and step-mother. A good book, but I liked all the little stories from her childhood in Chinese Cinderella that didn't make the cut in this one.
A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos
Won the Newbery in 1980. Another journal style Newbery winner, this one about Catherine Cabot Hall living with her father and sister in New Hampshire on their farm. During the novel Catherine encounters death, runaway slaves and the remarriage of her father. I think it was written well, it read like a child wrote it. And like a child, she picked random things to write about that most adults wouldn't think were important, so it was "realistic" as a journal. Not the best Newbery winner, it was kind of a slow read. I'm noticing a lot of historical fiction books winning the Newbery.
American Born Chinese - Gene Luen Yang
Won the Printz Award in 2007. It created a controversy when it won cause it's *gasp* a comic book (graphic novel, whatev.)! It's good to see that awards aren't being restricted so much anymore. By the way, the Printz Award is the award for best literature written for young adults. It's also fairly recent, the first award being given out in 2000. American Born Chinese is 3 stories that at first seem to have nothing in common but at the end they tie together. There's 3 plots, the story of the Monkey King in Chinese folklore, the story of Jin Wang a the only Chinese American in his class, and the story of Danny and his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee who comes to visit once a year and ruins Danny's life. It's a very interesting book and the illustrations are awesome. I think I was surprised how much I enjoyed it, I don't usually go for comic books but I just love controversy.
Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson
I wanted to read this mainly because it's written by Bryson, whom I love. I figured it would be different from most of his books being as it is a biography but I thought I would still be able to find a lot of his humor in it that I love. The bio was interesting, there's not a lot of known facts about Shakespeare but it was interesting finding out things I didn't know previously. But overall it wasn't very Bryson-y, not much of his humor and wit present. But it was informative so it's all good.
A Handful of Herbs by Barbara Segall
A book all about herbs and herb gardens. It covers some popular herbs, where to plant them and what they are most used for, how to plant herbs and what you can use herbs for. It also has some recipes at the end. This book has made me incredibly excited to plant my herb garden this spring. It also makes me want to be "homely" than I really am and make sachets and oils and creams using herbs. Yea. That's going to happen.
Whew!
I need to update this more often, that was long!
Newbery books read/out of: 45/86
The Mark of Zorro- Johnston McCulley
Ah, the original Zorro book, and what a great book it is! This is the story of Zorro and his first adventures and how he fell in love. I really enjoyed the swashbuckling parts, although the way the book was written, there was no way to have sequel after sequel since Zorro reveals who he is at the end. If you were unfamiliar with the story of Zorro then this book would amaze you, it really keeps you guessing as to who Zorro really is and if you were reading this book when it was first released then it would be suspenseful. But still, it was a great book. Although, I read Zorro by Allende first and that may have been a mistake because I had a picture of Zorro in my mind and I have to admit the two do not fit together very well. But of course, Allende's work was written WAY after McCulley's so she was in the wrong I suppose. If you're in the mood for an adventure read this!
Prep- Curtis Sittenfeld
This is the story of Lee, a teenager from Indiana who secures a scholarship to the prestigious boarding school, Ault. It follows her through her 4 years at school, focusing only on school life and mostly explores her emotions dealing with the fact that she is poor and almost everyone else is rich. I liked the beginning of this book, I thought it was interesting. When I was younger I dreamt of going to boarding school, it always sounded so exclusive and neat so I thought it would be like my dreams realized, or something like that. But alas, I quickly grew tired of how incredibly annoying Lee was. She really didn't try to make any friends there, and acted like she despised the school the entire time she was there. She really made me mad with the way she acted. The book itself was pretty interesting, but the main character annoyed me. This book recently caused some controversy in the news after a 12 year old brought it home from school. Now I thought it was an interesting book, but it has no place in a school, not even a high school. This is an adult book and the sex scenes in it are very graphic. What were they thinking?
The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo
Won the Newbery in 2004. Like the title says this is a story about a mouse. This is about a mouse who doesn't act like a mouse, he gets banned from his pack and sent to survive in the dungeons, where the rats are. While in the dungeons he discovers a plot to kill the princess and he decides he must save her (cause he's in love with her). A very cute story. It was divided into 3 different points of view so you end up with a similar story from different points of view and eventually they meet up. I was really worried this would be like Redwall which I loathe with a passion. But the story was very interesting and I can see how kids enjoy it.
The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
14 year old Lily lives with her father on a farm with just her nanny to keep her company. She longs for her mother and a happy life. All she has to remember her mother is a black Madonna with Tiburon, SC written on the back. So she sets off to find out more of her past. She and her nanny end up at a beekeeper's house living with 3 sisters trying to learn more about her mother. I enjoyed this book and the relationships in it. I loved reading the interactions between the three sisters. I also liked how Lily didn't seem to see color when she looked at people and didn't really understand why it mattered so much to other people.
The Panama Hat Trail - Tom Miller
I discovered this book through National Geographic, and since I like travel writing, bought it. The author decides to follow the production of panama hats. He believes that writing a travel writing book is more interesting if you have a particular topic to focus on (plus a little weird writing an entire book about hats). And yes, Panama hats are made in Ecuador, not Panama. Anyway, I thought it was a good look at the culture of Ecuador and I learned way more than I ever wanted to know about Panama hats.
The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
#42 on the ML Rival List. Set in NY in the 1870s this is high-society at its best. Basically it's about Newland Archer, set to marry his sweetheart May, but falls in love with her cousin Ellen and must decide whether to follow his heart or live up to everyone's expectations. I think I thought I would like this book more than I actually did. I've always enjoyed Austen's books and the Bronte's so I figured this would be similar in style. The story was kind of interesting, but it seemed really slow even for this kind of novel. I just felt like nothing really happened. It was pretty frustrating getting through it.
Falling Leaves - Adeline Yen Mah
I read Chinese Cinderella, which tells mainly of Mah's childhood, a while ago and enjoyed it so I thought I would read the whole story of Mah's life. This is a memoir of Mah's life. Her mother died giving birth to her, her father later remarried and had 2 more children. Pretty much everyone in the family disliked her. While growing up Mah was treated different from her siblings, especially her half-siblings. This provides a good look into what a horrible life Mah led and all the trials she endured while growing up. Then when she was an adult, thinking all the problems had gone away they appeared again with the death of her father. You can't help but feel sorry for Mah when you read the book, especially as an adult when she continually tries to please her father and step-mother. A good book, but I liked all the little stories from her childhood in Chinese Cinderella that didn't make the cut in this one.
A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos
Won the Newbery in 1980. Another journal style Newbery winner, this one about Catherine Cabot Hall living with her father and sister in New Hampshire on their farm. During the novel Catherine encounters death, runaway slaves and the remarriage of her father. I think it was written well, it read like a child wrote it. And like a child, she picked random things to write about that most adults wouldn't think were important, so it was "realistic" as a journal. Not the best Newbery winner, it was kind of a slow read. I'm noticing a lot of historical fiction books winning the Newbery.
American Born Chinese - Gene Luen Yang
Won the Printz Award in 2007. It created a controversy when it won cause it's *gasp* a comic book (graphic novel, whatev.)! It's good to see that awards aren't being restricted so much anymore. By the way, the Printz Award is the award for best literature written for young adults. It's also fairly recent, the first award being given out in 2000. American Born Chinese is 3 stories that at first seem to have nothing in common but at the end they tie together. There's 3 plots, the story of the Monkey King in Chinese folklore, the story of Jin Wang a the only Chinese American in his class, and the story of Danny and his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee who comes to visit once a year and ruins Danny's life. It's a very interesting book and the illustrations are awesome. I think I was surprised how much I enjoyed it, I don't usually go for comic books but I just love controversy.
Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson
I wanted to read this mainly because it's written by Bryson, whom I love. I figured it would be different from most of his books being as it is a biography but I thought I would still be able to find a lot of his humor in it that I love. The bio was interesting, there's not a lot of known facts about Shakespeare but it was interesting finding out things I didn't know previously. But overall it wasn't very Bryson-y, not much of his humor and wit present. But it was informative so it's all good.
A Handful of Herbs by Barbara Segall
A book all about herbs and herb gardens. It covers some popular herbs, where to plant them and what they are most used for, how to plant herbs and what you can use herbs for. It also has some recipes at the end. This book has made me incredibly excited to plant my herb garden this spring. It also makes me want to be "homely" than I really am and make sachets and oils and creams using herbs. Yea. That's going to happen.
Whew!
I need to update this more often, that was long!
Newbery books read/out of: 45/86
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