Category: Ruminations

A Few Birthday Acknowledgments

On By cherylmahoneyIn RuminationsLeave a comment

This isn’t a full book review–just a happy birthday wish to two of my favorite authors, L. M. Montgomery and Mark Twain.

I think I own everything currently available by L. M. Montgomery in prose, including novels, short stories, letters and about 2,000 pages of her personal journals.  I’m sort of a big fan, but she was an amazing writer.  For recommendations, you can’t go wrong with Anne of Green Gables, of course, although my personal favorite among her novels is The Blue Castle.  It’s a beautiful story about a woman who stops being afraid of the people around her and goes out to seize the life she wants.

Everyone knows Mark Twain, right?  Tom Sawyer and steamboats and the Mississippi.  I love that he’s one of those authors who can tell a good story that also has a message
(even though he denies it) and neither the story or the message gets in the other one’s way.  Huckleberry Finn is my favorite of his books, and every time I see it in a bookstore I feel an impulse to buy it.  So far I’ve been resisting and only have one copy, but someday (probably when my disposable income goes up!) I may start capitulating, and will devote an entire bookshelf just to Huckleberry Finn.

As a side note, it’s also the birthday of William Bouguereau (a great pre-Impressionist French painter I’ve recently become obsessed with) and Winston Churchill (born the same year as L. M. Montgomery, he was a writer, painter, famous wit, and, oh yeah, Prime Minister of England during World War II).  Who knew November 30th was so significant?

Once Upon a Time…

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations2 Comments

And so it begins.  Welcome to the first post of “Tales of the Marvelous.”  This blog is–or will be–based around a passion for books, writing, and discussions about both.  So if you’re looking for suggestions for good books, or just like talking about them, you’re in the right place!

On Mondays and Wednesdays, I plan to post reviews of marvelous (and not so marvelous) tales I’ve read.  Young adult fantasy is a major focus, but not an exclusive one.  I’ll try to point you–or a YA reader you know–to some good books, and warn you about some not so good ones.  If you’ve read a book I’m writing about, I hope you’ll tell me what you think too–and feel free to give me suggestions on books to review.

On Fridays, I’ll share my own tales, which I hope you’ll find marvelous!  Even if you don’t, feedback (constructive, please!) is always welcome.

In between, I’ll share anything else that seems of interest, be it favorite quotes or ruminations on life.

You might wonder why I choose to focus mainly on juvenile and young adult.  For one thing, I’d like to note that I do read books for “grown-ups” too.  And I’m selective in my J and YA reading–some really are juvenile in every sense of the word.  I try to find the ones that have cross-age appeal, and the best do.  The best J and YA books are really not that different in most ways from grown-up books–except they’re cleaner, and they’re more likely to have happy endings.  Because I’m a clean humor, happy ending kind of girl, I like that.

I’m also an aspiring novelist, writing YA, so in a way it’s like research too…

So that you’ll have some idea what kind of books I’ll be recommending…I like books with strong heroines, with humor, and with at least a little romance.  I have a weakness for cocky heroes who can pull off impossible stunts.  I like a little mystery and suspense, but I don’t like anything too horrifying.  I don’t like what I call “troubled teen” books, with a few exceptions; I’m sure they have their purpose, but I’m not a fan.  I like books that tell a good story and also have a point, without letting either one get in the way of the other.  I like stories about chasing dreams.  I like that in J and YA books, you can have pirates and dragons and noble virtues, and that things tend to work out in the end.

Thanks for joining me, here at the beginning of the blog.  Whatever brought you here, welcome.  Stay a while, and I’ll try to find you a tale…