Category: Reviews

Book Review: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Young Adult1 Comment

HatchetI haven’t been reading exclusively rereads lately, but I seem to be reviewing all of those…and today continues the trend.  I recently reread Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, one of my favorite survival stories.

Thirteen-year-old Brian was the only passenger on a flight into the Canadian wilderness on a small bush plane, when the pilot suffers a fatal heart attack.  Brian manages to crash-land the plane on a lake and scramble out of the wreckage with no serious injuries.  But he’s far off of the original flight plan, rescue is uncertain, and he has no resources but what he’s wearing–including a hatchet hanging on his belt.  With courage and ingenuity, Brian learns to survive in the wilderness.

I find this book hits a nice balance between focus on character and details of wilderness survival.  Except for the very beginning and (spoiler…) the very end, Brian is the only character.  The book remains always centered on him, and whatever else happens or whatever he does, it all hinges around how it affects Brian, or how it’s an outgrowth of his character. Continue reading “Book Review: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen” →

Book Review: The Witch of Blackbird Pond

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Juvenile, Reviews3 Comments

I seem to be starting my year of rereading with classic children’s books.  Along with Little House in the Big Woods, I also read another book about simple living in the woods: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare.

Set a couple hundred years before Wilder’s book, in 1687, the book focuses on Kit Tyler, who leaves her comfortable life in Barbados when her grandfather dies and goes to live with her only relatives, in Connecticut.  Used to luxury, fine clothes, and books (!), Kit struggles to find her place in the severe, hard-working Puritan community.  She doesn’t know how to do any work and the neighbors look askance at her high spirits.  Then one day she meets Hannah, who lives apart out in the meadow.  A kind, elderly woman, Hannah is a Quaker and therefore an outcast.  The rumors of her being a witch seem like nonsense–until an illness sweeps through the community and people look for someone to blame. Continue reading “Book Review: The Witch of Blackbird Pond” →

Book Review: Little House In the Big Woods

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Juvenile, Reviews5 Comments

I’m starting my year of re-reading well, with a beloved childhood book I haven’t read in…15 years?  18?  I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, but somehow they have not been ones I revisited as I got older–until now, as I just listened to the audiobook of Little House in the Big Woods.

I’m betting most of you know the basic concept here (and there isn’t much of a place).  Five-year-old Laura lives in a little log cabin in the Big Woods, with Ma and Pa, older sister Mary, and baby Carrie.  The book follows them through a year, talking about daily life and about events like Christmas, harvest and a trip into town.

There’s a lovely charm and sweetness to this book.  Maybe it’s only that I know Wilder was writing about her own childhood, but I very much can feel a warmth and love within the book for the characters and for the time–not so much the historical era, but the era within Wilder’s life.  On this read, I think that warmth was my favorite part, and it’s something I doubt I could have articulated last time I read this book, though I think I felt it then too. Continue reading “Book Review: Little House In the Big Woods” →

Book Review: Who Is The Doctor?

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction1 Comment

I may have reached a new geek achievement by reading Who Is The Doctor? by Graeme Burns and Robert Smith? [sic – I don’t get the question mark in his name at all]. Billed as the “unofficial guide to Doctor Who: The New Series” it’s an exhaustive look at each episode of the first six seasons (series, for the Brits) of Doctor Who.

First of all, there is no point in reading this unless you’ve seen the episodes. As River Song would say: spoilers! And also, I can’t imagine this would be very interesting. 🙂 This isn’t a collection of essays about the themes of the show, the development of characters, behind-the-scenes stories, etc, which might be of interest to a fan who had seen some of the show, or was simply interested in the show in general. Instead, it’s a (sometimes overly) detailed discussion of each individual episode, with mini-essays on each episode…so it does end up covering most of the above, just in a way that’s probably much better if you know what episodes they’re talking about. Continue reading “Book Review: Who Is The Doctor?” →

Movie Review: Arsenic and Old Lace

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews11 Comments

Arsenic and Old Lace 2I spent New Year’s weekend watching favorite movies, and among them, I dusted off my copy of Arsenic and Old Lace, starring the wonderful Cary Grant, directed by the equally wonderful Frank Capra.

Cary Grant plays Mortimer Brewster, whose two aunts are simply the kindest, sweetest, loveliest little old ladies you could ever want to meet. They collect toys for children, they give a hot meal to anyone who needs it, and they poison lonely old men as a charity, by putting arsenic in elderberry wine. They just want to give the poor dears peace, you see. Mortimer is stunned to find a dead body in the windowseat, and tries valiantly to explain to his aunts that this is not a nice thing to do. Happening almost in real time, the rest of the movie covers one night as Mortimer tries to get control of a situation that increasingly unravels around him.

This is black comedy at its best, macabre and ridiculous, and so absurd that you can’t be horrified. And the laughs come pretty constantly. Continue reading “Movie Review: Arsenic and Old Lace” →