books
Book Review: Entwined
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh my goodness, I love this book so much! Based on the cover, I thought it was going to be this sweety cutesy teen romance, but it was so much more and had so many levels to the story. Blew me away! Plus, I always love fairytale retellings, and this one is the ‘Twelve Dancing Princesses’.
Azalea is the eldest of the princesses, who have just lost their mother. Since their grieving father is so distant and cold, the girls turn to dancing to remind them of their mother and comfort them in their grief. But the strict rules of Mourning won’t allow dancing, and the girls have to search the castle for a secret place to dance. Continue reading
Shakespeare Review: Pericles
Pericles by William Shakespeare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
King Antiochus declares that any suitor for his daughter’s hand in marriage must first answer a riddle, and if the suitor answers incorrectly, he forfeits his life. Everyone has failed to answer the riddle, until Prince Pericles comes along, and figures out that the riddle means that Antiochus is committing incest with his daughter.
Enraged at being found out, Antiochus tries to have Pericles assassinated, and Pericles flees to the sea. A storm wrecks his ship and he is cast ashore with only his armor at Pentapolis, where King Simonedes is holding a tournament for his daughter’s birthday. Pericles wins the tournament and weds Thaisa. Continue reading
Classics and Fantasy
Book Reviews: Short Stories from Hogwarts
MKs in Ukraine
These MKs in the Ukraine love to read! You can donate to help these children and other MKs get the books they need! Donate Now at http://www.gofundme.com/booksformks
Classics Review: Framley Parsonage
Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Mark Robarts, the vicar at Framley Parsonage, has a seemingly perfect life. He has the patronage of the great Lady Lufton, and the friendship of her son, Lord Lufton. He has a darling wife, Fanny, and lovely children, and everything a man could want on a moderate income.
But Mark becomes involved with the “wrong” sort of people, gamblers, debtors, and disreputable gentlemen of society. Mark’s kindness is taken advantage of, and his generosity lands him in a difficult money situation, which will be his ruin unless his high moral standards can eventually be his salvation. Continue reading
Book Review: The Secrets of Ordinary Farm
The Secrets of Ordinary Farm by Tad Williams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Lucinda and Tyler are back for the summer at their mysterious Uncle’s farm. Lucinda is determined to become closer to the dragons, but with all the adventure and wild mystery going on, she barely has time to visit the dragons, until one of them reaches out to her in a surprising way.
Tyler continues his feud with the crusty Colin Needle, and both of them are snooping around the farm, spying on each other, desperate to find the secrets of the farm before the other. Continue reading
Book Review: The Road To Yesterday
The Road To Yesterday by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This collection of Montgomery’s short stories is not really her best work in my opinion, but still well worth the read. All the stories are connected distantly to Gilbert and Anne Blythe, since characters in each story are vaguely acquainted with the Blythes, and their names are mentioned in passing, or they play bit parts in the story. After a while, this started to annoy me. It just distracted from the main story, by bringing in other characters from a separate story, who had no real business or impact in the main story.
A few of the short stories had some structural problems in the plots, I though, and a couple of times people in the story seemed to act out of character. But these places were very few and most of the stories are wonderful, and delightfully funny! A couple of them are melancholy and have a healthy dose of pathos mixed in too.
MKs in Japan
These MKs in Japan are thrilled with their package of free books! They enjoy reading together as a family, and even loved the bookmarks that came with the package too.
There’s nothing quite like opening up a package from your home country when you are far away across the globe. And receiving books to read is even better!
This missionary family loves to read together, and having books in English is important for the MKs education!
DONATE NOW to Books for MKs so we can send more books to missionary kids all over the world! You can donate at http://www.gofundme.com/booksformks
