Tag: Books

Book Review: The Grey King by Susan Cooper

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, ReviewsLeave a comment

Reading down my list of Newbery Medal winners, I liked the sound of The Grey King by Susan Cooper. If I had realized it was part (Book Four) of her Dark Is Rising series, I might not have. However, by the time I realized that I had the audiobook sitting in my car and nothing else to listen to, so away we went. And it wasn’t terrible. But I wouldn’t have given it any awards either.

I’d read The Dark Is Rising (which, oddly, is Book Two…) and I didn’t like it much. I didn’t hate it, but I found the conflict strangely dull and the climax totally flat. Which is kind of how The Grey King turned out too. I looked up plots of all the books, to make sure I actually could start in on Book Four, and I think I pretty much could…so in a way this was a lucky mistake, since I didn’t waste time on the others.

The book centers around Will Stanton, age 11 but also the youngest of the Old Ones, ancient magical beings locked in a struggle between the Light and the Dark. The Grey King opens with Will recovering from a serious illness, and so sent off to his uncle’s farm in Wales to recover. There, he realizes he is entering the territory of the Grey King, a powerful figure of the Dark. With the help of Bran, a local boy who may have his own mythical connections, Will goes on a quest to wake the Sleepers, fighting the Grey King and his pawn, bad-tempered farmer Caradog Pritchard. Continue reading “Book Review: The Grey King by Susan Cooper” →

Exploring My Bookshelves…for Fragile Books

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations2 Comments

Exploring My Bookshelves For EveryoneI’m jumping into a new-to-me bookish meme this week, Exploring My Bookshelves hosted by Addlepates and Book Nerds.  Each Friday, bloggers are invited to post a picture of their bookshelf, and write in response to a prompt about said-bookshelf.

Today’s prompt is…a book you don’t want to read for risk of damaging it.

I actually have four books like that, so I’m taking “bookshelf” slightly metaphorically, hauled all four off of their various shelves and took a photo of the group.  Pay no attention to the carpet.

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I actually am willing to read three out of four of these…just very carefully.

The Catalogue Raisonne of William Bouguereau is by far and away my most expensive book…but it’s a gorgeous collection of paintings by my favorite artist, and is pretty much the definitive book on his work.  It’s huge and shiny and gorgeous, and it’s the only book I have a conscious, self-imposed rule about not eating while reading it.

That slim green book is Nature and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1884 edition–and it was weirdly cheap for that!  Even though it didn’t cost a lot, it feels valuable just for sheer age.  It’s holding up pretty well, but the spine is a little iffy and the pages are getting crackly, so it requires careful reading.

Poems by Browning and The Joy of Cooking are both books that belonged to my grandma, and both are a bit delicate.  Browning is holding up as readable, but I really am afraid to turn the pages in Joy of Cooking, so that one’s strictly decorative at this point.

Do you have any books you’re afraid–or at least cautious–about reading?  I’d love to hear!

Book Reviews: Stars Above (Lunar Chronicles)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science FictionLeave a comment

Finishing the wonderful Lunar Chronicles Quartet late last year could have been very sad…but happily, I already had the short story collection to look forward to!  Stars Above by Marissa Meyer came out early in February, with nine short stories letting us revisit Meyer’s delightful characters.

This was very much a supplement to the novels (Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter), and I think only really works if you already know and love these characters.  But from that perspective–it’s a lot of fun, especially the last several stories.

The first six stories are all set in the childhood of one of the major characters from the series: Scarlet, Cinder, Wolf, Thorne, Cress and Winter (with Jacin).  These are all well-done, and individually each is a great story.  All together, they started to feel a little repetitive to me.  Each character and his/her circumstances are totally different, but they all have that common theme of “formative years of a major character.”  And most of them expanded on anecdotes already discussed in the main series, so I didn’t feel like they actually added a whole lot.

My favorites of the group are “Glitches” about Cinder, and “The Princess and the Guard” about Winter and Jacin.  This is a little surprising, since Cinder isn’t one of my favorite characters, but these are the two stories that did the most to really fill in backstory and give me something new.  “Glitches” is about when Cinder first joined her adoptive family, and fills in the early part of the Cinderella story.  We see how the roles and relationships within her family are set–and we see her meet the wonderful Iko.  “The Princess and the Guard” recounts Winter’s entire childhood, from seven to fourteen (or thereabouts), and gave me new dimensions to her character and especially her relationship with Jacin–and both she and that relationship are amazing. Continue reading “Book Reviews: Stars Above (Lunar Chronicles)” →

Book/Play Review: The Comedy of Errors

On By cherylmahoneyIn ReviewsLeave a comment

Anticipating my Shakespeare reading goals, I hauled out my Complete Works and checked off all the plays I’ve read and/or seen, to see what was missing. I found out there were four Comedies and four Tragedies I’ve yet to encounter—and then I put the Complete Works away and requested a paperback of The Comedy of Errors from the library. Because I like footnotes and books that don’t weigh far too much!

I knew vaguely that The Comedy of Errors was Shakespeare’s twins story…and that was about all I knew. Sure enough, the story is about two sets of identical twins, each separated from his brother at birth. Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant Dromio of Syracuse arrive in Ephesus, looking for their lost brothers…and are swiftly mistaken for Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant, Dromio of Ephesus. There follows a great deal of confusion and mix-ups as all four twins keep encountering the same people but not each other.

I think this is basically Shakespeare’s slapstick comedy. Both Antipholuses keep beating on both Dromios, and the whole thing is far more farcical and far-fetched than Shakespeare’s usual fare. Though in a way, that’s impressive—that the same person wrote a play this absurd, and wrote, say, Hamlet. Continue reading “Book/Play Review: The Comedy of Errors” →

Books That Lie

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations3 Comments

I raided the Broke and the Bookish for a topic idea again, and found this one that seemed quite intriguing: Top Ten Books That Are Totally Deceiving…

1) How I Stole Johnny Depp’s Alien Girlfriend by Gary Ghislain – I am sorry to say that my buddy Johnny was not in this for even a cameo.  He only came up in references–and the book had bigger issues anyway.

2) Dating Hamlet: Ophelia’s Story by Lisa Fielder – It really is Ophelia’s version of Hamlet, but the title (and cover) make it sound much sillier than it is.  It’s actually a reasonably dramatic retelling, and quite good.  The same deception is being cast by the companion novel, Romeo’s Ex: Rosalind’s Story.

3) Rejection Proof by Jia Jiang – You cannot explore rejection if you take all the vulnerability out of the experience, and after doing that, you cannot claim to be an expert on the topic.  Period.

4) Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs – Burroughs has his flaws, but he writes an exciting story–except for the first few chapters of Tarzan.  After the apes show up, it’s all good, but before that it’s astonishingly dull.  I wonder how many people have never got past chapter two?  If they do, they’re set up for a new deception at the end…because Tarzan doesn’t win Jane until the end of the second book, yet many “Classic Editions” fail to note a second book even exists…

5) Starcrossed by Mark Schrieber – You cannot claim to be writing a retelling of Romeo and Juliet if there is no feud parting the lovers.  And just because the heroine has a crack-pot theory about how Romeo and Juliet is her love story…no.  Just no.  As her boyfriend observed (really!), they’re about as much like Romeo and Juliet as they are like Hamlet.

6) Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C. Wrede – It’s probably just the particular edition I read that is deceptive.  The tagline was “Could his magic be real?”and the answer, revealed by maybe chapter three, is yes, of course it is, and it’s not even very shocking.  The edition offered a completely inaccurate summary of what the actual plot of the book is–and the book was wonderful!

7) The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom – An enjoyable read, but it didn’t really examine its premise.  The inventor of time must help two people who have issues with time…except they don’t.  One has messed-up priorities, one is depressed and suicidal.  Neither is really about time.

8) Wicked by Gregory Maguire – Deceptive because I am sure loads of edition have “The inspiration for the wildly successful musical!!!” blazoned across their covers.  This is true–but it gives you absolutely no concept of what you’re going to be reading, because the two bear shockingly little resemblance to each other (yes, they’re both about Glinda and the Wicked Witch at school…but that’s about the extent of the connection).  See the musical.  Do not (do not) read the book.

9) The Frog Princess by E. D. Baker – Similar deception to above, many editions claim this was the inspiration for Disney’s The Princess and the Frog.  True, I guess…but the entire, complete sum total of similarity is…a girl kisses a frog and turns into one.  That’s it.  Circumstances, characters, setting–all different.  Also, not a good book.  Watch the movie–or read Frogged, which has just as much in common with it but is better.

10) Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson – I have rarely been so irritated by a book, and this prompted what was probably my most scathing review ever (although Underworld is a contender).  There’s the title: the kid’s name is Alcatraz, the book has nothing to do with the prison.  And there’s the opening scene: Alcatraz is tied to an altar of encyclopedias, about to be sacrificed by evil librarians…but he’ll get back to that later.  And many chapters later, he reveals…that scene’s actually in the next book, not this one.  I think that makes this a book that literally lied to me.

Have you encountered books that, in their cover or plot description or marketing campaign (or even in their narration…) are totally deceptive?  I’d love to hear!