fiction

Book Review: The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home

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The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home
The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Quite by accident, September has been crowned as Queen of Fairyland – but she inherits a Kingdom in chaos. The magic of a Dodo’s egg has brought every King, Queen, or Marquess of Fairyland back to life, each with a fair and good claim on the throne, each with their own schemes and plots and horrible, hilarious, hungry histories. In order to make sense of it all, and to save their friend from a job she doesn’t want, A-Through-L and Saturday devise a Royal Race, a Monarckical Marathon, in which every outlandish would-be ruler of Fairyland will chase the Stoat of Arms across the whole of the nation – and the first to seize the poor beast will seize the crown.

A perfect ending to this magical series! I am, as always, enchanted with Valente’s writing style, and surprised by the plot twists, and utterly in love with every character!

I don’t understand why the GoodReads description says “A-Through-L and Saturday devise a Royal Race… in which every outlandish would-be ruler of Fairyland will chase the Stoat of Arms across the whole of the nation…”
That’s completely opposite to what actually happens in the book! No one chases the Stoat of Arms, and it is NOT A-L or Saturday who think up the race. That makes no sense. Who wrote this description?

One of the best things, of course, is all the little bits of wisdom and philosophy peppered through the story. There’s a sweet pathos and melancholy through all the series. Continue reading →

Book Review: Little House on the Prairie

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Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my umpteenth time reading this book, and I enjoyed it just as much as I did when I was a girl! There’s a simple charm to these stories of pioneer life that invites you in.
As always, Laura is my favorite character because she is spunky and brave and hilarious, while her sister Mary is prim and boring. Continue reading →

Book Review: Black Water

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Black Water
Black Water by D.J. MacHale

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In this exciting, fast-paced book, Bobby Pendragon is once again fighting against the evil Saint Dane, this time in the jungle territory of Eelong. Bobby is half-killed, nearly eaten by wild animals, thrown into jail, starved, beaten up, and nearly poisoned, so you know…. just a normal day for him.

This book, like all the others in this series, had me on the edge of my seat, clutching the book with white knuckles. The action just keeps coming, and the mystery unravels little by little. Just when you think you have it figured out, something smashes through the plot and turns everything upside down. Continue reading →

Book Review: Far from the Madding Crowd

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Far from the Madding Crowd
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This classic tells the story of Bathsheba Everdene, a young farm owner, and the three men who are in love with her. She has to make some difficult choices, some of which bring tragedy to her life, but ultimately she finds true love.

As with most classics, there is a lot of setup in the first chapters, but once the story gets going, it really moves along! Towards the middle and end, I was gasping and crying and laughing my head off. It’s definitely a wild story at times, and so brilliantly written.

Hardy has a reputation for writing depressing stuff, and there were some terrible depressing scenes that had me crying and horrified. But the ending is happy, so I was buoyed up again. Continue reading →

Book Review: The Winter’s Tale

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The Winter's Tale
The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This story is all over the place, but I loved the random plot and the clueless characters! I can’t figure out if it’s a hilarious tragedy or a dark comedy, but I was certainly never bored.

In this play, King Leontes is suddenly struck with the erroneous belief that his wife, Hermione, is cheating on him with his childhood friend, King Polixenes. He descends into a form of madness, trying to assassinate his friend, publicly accusing his wife of being unfaithful, and sentencing his actual child (who he believes to be illegitimate) to death by exposure in the wilderness. And of course, all sorts of trouble ensues, because he has angered the god Apollo, who predicts that he will never have an heir to his throne until he finds his lost daughter again, who did not die of exposure. Continue reading →

Book Review: Sanditon

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Sanditon: A Novel
Sanditon: A Novel by Jane Austen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am so pleased with this uncompleted last novel of Jane Austen’s that was finished by “another lady”. It tells the story of Charlotte Heywood who is visiting friends in a seaside town called Sanditon. Charlotte meets all the respectable society of Sanditon, and spends most of her time observing their characters and deciding if she should laugh at them, pity them, befriend them, or scorn them. She herself is very unassuming and sensible, but when the charming Mr. Sidney Parker comes on the scene, her self-possession begins to slip and Charlotte finds herself wrapped up in intrigue, deceit, and gossip of the worst kind.

I couldn’t even tell where Jane Austen’s original work left off and Marie Dobbs writing began! I’m usually very skeptical about other authors trying to recreate or imitate someone else’s work, but wow! She perfectly captures the sweet laughing mockery of Austen’s writing. Austen made fun of everybody with little biting remarks, but also forgave them their faults in the next sentence. This writing style, the wording, the dialogue, and even the descriptions are perfectly blended together throughout the book in Austen’s own way. I could have sworn she wrote the whole thing! (And I am very picky and critical about all things Austen, let me tell you.) Continue reading →

Book Review: The Sculptor

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The Sculptor
The Sculptor by Scott McCloud

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

When David Smith makes a deal with Death, he gains power over stone and metal to create his sculptures, but the deal involves more than he knows, and his artistic talent is the only thing he has left to carry him through. As he comes to grips with his own art, his friendships and relationships begin to suffer and he has to lose everything to find himself.

This is the most depressing thing I’ve read all year. Ugh. I can’t deny that it’s very powerful, but I didn’t like the way it made me feel. And I didn’t like the smatterings of profanity. At least the profanity wasn’t on every page, so I was able to mostly ignore it and read through the entire book. And then there was some nudity towards the end that got on my nerves, so yeah. bleh.

The thing is… it’s really very well-written and the artwork is so incredible! The story line, the characters, the relationships, and dialogue, and mood and tone and everything… it’s genius! But I didn’t LIKE it. I didn’t like how it made me feel. I thought it was depressing and grotesque and hopeless. The art is so beautiful, but it depicts such ugly things. It made me uncomfortable. Continue reading →