Harry Potter

We finally finished book 6.
(For those that don't know, Matt and I are reading/ listening to them together. I had read through 6 before, but I have been waiting to read 7 with Matt.)
I can't say my reaction on the blog, but I know Laurel for one will be talking about it with me.

The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey

As you can probably tell by the title it's a fantasy book that I found in the regular (not teen) section. It's the first in a series-that's-not-really-a-series called Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms. I haven't read any of the other ones yet, but from what I gather it's a same world different characters kind of series. Anyway...
This is a different take on the Cinderella story, but before you groan about the millions of them out there read on. The "Cinderella's" name is Elena and she has all the traditional problems at the beginning of the story. The only problem is that the prince she's supposed to marry is only 11 years old. In this world there's a thing called The Tradition, that magically forces you to fulfill a traditional story if your life fits one at all. But since she can't fulfill her traditional story the magic keeps gathering around her. That's when a godmother shows up and takes her on as an apprentice. The rest is all very fun, and a new view on godmothers and how "destiny" works.
I really enjoyed reading this. I couldn't put it down, and spent an entire night at work finishing it. The characters are good, the story is compelling, the writing is engaging. However there are two or three "scenes" in this. They are sexual in nature and made me slightly uncomfortable. One I just skipped entirely it was about half a page.
SO in short I recommend this book with a few reservations. (Bonnie I don't think you'd be able to get past the "scenes.")

Who's Shannon Hale?

In a comment to an earlier post, Emily asked, "Who's Shannon Hale?" That is a question worth answering. Shannon Hale is a relatively new author. Her first novel, The Goose , came out about 4 years ago. I love this book; it's in my top 5. It's the retelling of a Grimm fairy tale. There are two sort-of sequels, Enna Burning and River Secrets. These are all Young fiction (my favorite kind). She published a stand-alone original novel called Princess Academy, which is wonderful. She's also published a novel for s, called Austenland, about a woman obsessed with Jane Austen. And her most recent book is Book of a Thousand Days. Wow, she's been busy! She's a young LDS mom of two kids. I cannot imagine how she's had time to get this many books out this quickly. Impressive! Anyway, she's an imaginative, skillful, fun writer. Some of her books work better than others. My favorites are The Goose and Princess Academy. Enjoy!

1776; David McCullough

So I have finally slowed down in my reading. I think my day to day routine has been evolving since Amy was born. And I had that stage of ferocious reading late into the night. The last couple of weeks, I've read at a more casual pace. I have been listening to 1776 on CD for some time. It took quite a while because at first Matt and I were listening to it together just when we got the chance. But we were never going to finish in time if I waited for him. (It was due today!) I really enjoyed this book, obviously about the Revolutionary War. I recommend listening to it on CD rather than reading it because it starts a little slow in my opinion (and Matt's). But it is interesting and insightful. It shows a lot of what George Washington was like and what many others on both sides were like. I highly recommend it. And so does President Samuelson. At his beginning of Fall Semester Devotional this year he encouraged students to read a few books. This was one of them. Even though I am not a student any more, I figured that if President Samuelson thinks this is an important book. I want to read it too. So I did. The end.

Hello All

I'm Nancy and I'm finally posting my introduction. I'm in Bonnie's ward here in Orem. My little girl, Rachel, is exactly 6 weeks older than Amy, so they hang out a lot which means Bonnie and I often get to see each other as well.

I don't actually get a whole lot of reading done because Rachel is one of those very active children. But I have good intentions. I have some very interesting-sounding stories checked out of the library right now and my husband just finished another of his textbooks, No god but God, so that's all mine now!

Let's see...my husband is majoring in Arabic. I majored in Linguistics. We love languages, we love to travel. Our first 6 months of marriage we went to 4 different continents and a plethora of countries. So when I'm stuck at home in Utah, I like to read books that are set in foreign lands.

I grew up in Canada. I like mint white chocolate. I can often be found running around barefoot. My house is a mess.

I think that just about sums me up!

How do?

Introductions please... I'm Emily Lund. I think I've met everyone on this blog (although I'm not too sure about Nancy.) I've been friends with Bonnie since high school, just a little after she moved to Manti. I work at a group home for troubled youth called Heritage School in Provo. I live in Orem and am trying to convince myself that I want to go back to school. I'm completely addicted to YA fantasy, and am expanding my horizons recently with some classic literature. (NEVER read Bram Stoker's Dracula if you are at all annoyed with pontification.) I'm also addicted to movies so if any of these books have a movie to go with them, or it reminds you of a movie or whatever let me know. (Or I could just start an LDS friends movie blog so we could do the same things with movies we're doing with books... food for thought.) I'm also interested in history, psychology, and above all music. That about sums me up. I hope to read more about everyone soon.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

"It is seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, and one of the first African novels written in English to receive global critical acclaim." - Wikipedia
So yeah, it's heralded as a great literary work, but to be entirely honest, I'm not really into "the arts" and what critics say about things, so here's my two bits. The book is full of simile's - like FULL of them. Everything is like something else. Everything. I'm not trying to overly criticize - in fact I think this is actually one of the reasons that it's so acclaimed, but it did get a bit old to me. Overall the book was really quite interesting and good. The plot is about an African tribe and Christian missionaries who come. It's been a while since I read it but I remember that I liked it until the end, which was not bad, but it was just really weird. I hope that's not telling to much. Anyway, I give it a "If you decide to take the time to read it, you'll probably enjoy it" rating.

The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull

I just finished this book 15 minutes ago and I loved it. A war over candy? Of course! No, actually, it's about magical candy that lets a team of 4 children participate in a war between magicians. They get really cool powers that last as long as the candy does. The ending rocks!

There seem to be some borrowed elements from Harry Potter, but I think that's inevitable. Practically every fantasy writer since Tolkien has produced a variation of one of his themes and Harry Potter has surpassed the popularity of Lord of the Rings. I'm saying that it's going to be hard to not copy Harry Potter, or even to avoid being accused of copying Harry Potter if there are any plot elements in common with a Harry Potter book.

Wow, was that a tangent! Anyway, the feel of Candy Shop War reminded me very much of the Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld (author of the Uglies series). I loved Midnighters (and Uglies!), so this is a good thing.

Brandon Mull (author of The Candy Shop War, which is, after all, the book I'm trying to write about here) also wrote the two Fablehaven books, which I also highly recommend. There is a serious spate of quality fantasy fiction coming from LDS authors recently. Brandon Mull and Brandon Sanderson (author of Elantris, which I intend to blog about soon) are joining the ranks of Shannon Hale and Stephenie Meyer, who have joined Orson Scott Card in writing exceptional fantasy.

Well, I've been talking all around this book and not much about it, but that's because I don't want to give anything away, but I'd love to discuss it with someone who has also read it. OK, to be fair, here is a link to the Amazon summary of The Candy Shop War, so go over to Amazon and read about The Candy Shop War if you still need convincing.

Hi my name is...

Emily Roundy! I live in Omaha, Nebraska with my husband Jon and my two beautiful kids Sarah and Ben. Jon is in his second year of law school and I'm a stay-at-home mom (the best job in the world!). I also teach piano and voice lessons, but I don't have very many students right now. Bonnie and I met at Snow College where we were in several choirs together and partied pretty hard (in the non-drunk, Mormon sort of way). We had such a blast in those days!!! I studied choral conducting at Utah State University after I finished Snow College and before I got married. I never finished my degree, but someday I'm going to go back. When I do, I want to study to be an editor or a librarian, instead of finishing up in music. I love my family, music, reading, writing and laughing! I want to do a little bit of everything in my life. I'm completely insatiable when it comes to trying new things. My favorite authors are Jane Austen, C.S. Lewis, and Shannon Hale (for the moment, at least). I devour Childrens and YA Lit for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (Literally. Sometimes the only way I get a couple quiet minutes to read is to do so when my children are happily occupied at the table.) My literary fetishes are alliteration and parenthetical side comments (I hope you'll oblige me as I opt for the opportunity to use parentheses since the occasion occurs often.) I am completely, 100% and in every way possible, a nerd. Come see my family's blog! (Click here to see my blog.) Nice to meet you!

Introductions

Hi Everyone.
I was talking to my sister (Large Marge), and she was wondering who the other people on the blog were. She just likes to know about who she is discussing books with. So I thought maybe it would be good for everyone to do a little introduction post. As of right now, I know that everyone posting knows Matt and me. But that could change if any of you have friends who want to join us. So here is my intro:
Matt (Daddy Parks) and I live in Orem, Utah. We just graduated from BYU in August 2007. Two weeks later our first daughter was born. That makes Amy 2 1/2 months old now. She's beautiful. Matt works as a software engineer for a company called SirsiDynix which makes library software. I think it is very fitting as I am obsessed with the library. If you get any of your books from the library and use their software, check and see if it is from Dynix. Lots of libraries use it. I stay at home with Amy. I love to read while I feed her and lots of other times. Often I read to her whatever I want to read myself. We like to go to playgroup and book club and often just stay home all day. That's us. (Unless Matt wants to add something.)

LDS Book Reviews

My father-in-law recommended an author names Betsy Brannon Green. I haven't read her books yet, though I want to. But I was looking on her website this morning and I found a link to LDS book reivews that she has hosted and others found on other sites. I haven't looked into these reviews myself, but I want to. I just wanted to let you all know in case you were interested in checking it out. I put the link to her site on the blog. Just click on lds reviews on her page. (I found it at the bottom of the page on some of her pages. Hope that makes sense. Anyway, enjoy.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

I love this book and recommend it to everyone, so I thought it appropriate that it be my first post here. This is a YA/Children's fantasy book. Diana Wynne Jones is my favorite "junk food for the brain" author and this is one of her best works. The main character is Sophie who lives in a hat shop in a small town that is suddenly beset by a moving castle owned by the Wizard Howl. There are some magical mishaps and a little bit of a romance, but mostly it's just fun and witty. There are too many twists and turns in this book to adequately sum it up, but each twist makes you want to keep reading. It's an easy read and completely clean so enjoy!

The Secret Journal of Brett Colton; by Kay Lynn Mangum

This is the book I finished last night. I loved it! LDS fiction again, but this book is told from a different perspective. You find out early on that while it is an LDS book, the main character and her family are not LDS. So you see it all through her eyes. I like that. I thought the plot was interesting and original; it has elements of common storylines but still is unique. Warning: it is a tearjerker. My overall reaction was that this book helped me to not one to take my blessings for granted. I'm really happy about every aspect of my life and need to realize what wonderful things God has done for me. Especially I am grateful for every day that I get to spend time with Matt and Amy (which is every day, lucky me). So read this book.

Perfect Timing; by Michelle Ashman Bell

This is a cute book. LDS fiction romance. I had a good time reading it. At the beginning there was something about it that just bugged me a little bit, something about the characters' personalities. I can't really explain it because I don't really get it. You might not feel that way at all, and that would be good. My only other complaint would be that the narrator repeats herself in her thoughts quite a bit. I wanted to move on from that. But I really did enjoy the book, especially the ending. That's all I'll say. Have fun reading!

I'm hooked

Funny story sidenote: On Friday we spent the night at my in-laws'. My mother-in-law knows I love to read so she lent me a pile of about 10 books or so. I was in between books right then and didn't even have any library books at home ready to start so it was perfect timing (no pun intended with the title of the book). I started this book on Saturday, read some on Sunday, finished it Sunday (very early Monday morning technically). When I saw my mother-in-law on Monday she teasingly asked if I had read all her books yet. I said no, but I finished one. She was surprised that I was serious about that. Then I started another book Monday during the day. So Tuesday some people come to lay carpet at our house. There was only one chair in a small area of the house that was cleared off for me to sit on. I didn't have much access to other places or things in my house. So I just sat on the chair taking care of Amy and reading for 3 1/2 hours or so. I finished that book late last night (again, technically early this morning). Tonight is book club, and I hadn't had the chance to read the book yet because I'm on hold to get the book on CD from the library. It hasn't come yet so I just borrowed a copy of the book. I have to read it all by 7 tonight. No problem. The whole point is, I am out of control reading, and I love it. One of these days I am going to have to calm down in order to be able to put my house back together from all that carpet laying. Sorry this is long and maybe kind of boring. I love reading!

The Golden Compass (and The Subtle Knife and the Amber Spyglass)

Yay! First post! I'm really excited about this book blog idea because...well...let's be honest. I love reading! I recently read The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman. Or in other words, the His Dark Materials trilogy. I was excited to read The Golden Compass because I'd heard good things about it, it's in my favorite genre (YA or Children's Lit with lots of adventure and in a cool fantasy world) and it's being made into a movie that has a really cool looking trailer. That said, I felt that The Golden Compass really delivered for me. It was exciting, intense and marvellously written. Now if only it could stand on its own. It ends (predictably) at quite a cliff-hanger and you feel like you won't breathe again until you have the second book in your hands. Unfortunately, and in my humble opinion, the other two books are trash.

Now, when I say trash, I don't really mean that they are poorly written. Pullman is still a fantastic writer, but the unfortunate truth is that Philip Pullman is a very decided atheist and has taken upon himself the task of being a missionary for his beliefs (or lack thereof) in the second and third books of this series. Without giving too much away (and believe me, these objectives are clearly outlined in the beginning of book two) the culminating purpose of this series is to kill God. (Is that too big of a spoiler Bont? I hope not. It really is all they talk about in the second and third books. Sorry if I broke the rules, I thought it was a worthy cause.)

Along the way you will be littered with all sorts of trash about the wickedness inherent in religion of all sorts. I wish I hadn't read them, to tell the painful truth. I was driven to finish by curiosity about the characters (whom I had come to care for after book one) and by the impelling action in the books. It's just too bad, really. It didn't bother me too much, since the God being described in the book (you know, the enemy) is nothing like the true God that I, thankfully, have a solid knowledge of. Maybe I should send Pullman a Book of Mormon. :D Maybe after he converts he'll rewrite the series! Then it might just be one of my favorite works of all time!

So, the conclusion is this: I will not own these books. Despite the moving emotions and great characters, they are full of baggage I don't think my kids should have to deal with when they are old enough to read. There's enough garbage in this world already. If you read The Golden Compass, do yourself a favor. Imagine a new ending and don't read the other two books!!!

Maniac Magee; Jerry Spinelli

I've loved this book for ages. I think I read it the first time somewhere around 7th or 8th grade. I think I read it at least 20 times during 7th and 8th grade. I would pick it up, open it wherever, and start reading from there to the end. It didn't matter what I had to do and it didn't matter where I opened the book to - wherever I opened it, I read from there to the end.
A bit about it, it's set in a very segregated town where an orphan boy runs away to. He's innocent and wonderful. He sees no one black, he sees no one white, and he decides that the only "white" part of him are in his eyes, which everyone has no matter their colors. This story inspired me to love the morning, to run outside in the morning, and particularly the very very early morning. The "before-the-town-wakes-up" early morning. And it even made me try to learn to run on a railroad-track rail while on my mission (there was a railroad close to some investigators in one of my areas).
Anyway, sorry for the personal note, but yes, I love this book! :)

Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood; by Fatima Mernissi

This is actually one of Andrew's textbooks for the semester. Apparently my life is boring enough that I peruse my husband's textbooks. Sigh.

I really enjoyed the book. It's kind of like the Middle Eastern version of The House on Mango Street, which I also really enjoyed.

Mernissi really sheds some light on what life is like for the typical woman in the Middle East...well, the typical woman who actually lives in a harem. Few do nowadays, although I have visited one and actually kind of lived in one, by definition...

Although I think Mernissi is really speaking out against harems (she's a feminist--in the extreme way), she kind of puts a more positive spin on them than we are used to hearing about here. Harems are typically communal dwellings which is not what the entertainment business would have us believe.

Anyway, Mernissi shares a lot of her childhood memories, and I enjoyed rediscovering the world through a child's eyes once again.

The Painted Veil; by W. Somerset Maugham

A few of my friends, whose opinions I highly value, recommended this movie, so Andrew and I rented it a few weeks ago. It was very good, but, as my friend says, "for a PG-13 movie it is extremely sensual and you will see Edward Norton's bare bum."

The book followed along well with the plot of the movie until the end. And then, let's just say that I like the movie better. The ending of the book was a little depressing--not the ending-ending, per se, but the beginning of the ending.

The book is about adultery. Fair warning. But nothing is described in detail (it was written in the 20s). The book starts in the thick of an affair--but then Kitty, the unfaithful wife, is whisked off to a cholera-stricken village deep in the heart of China.

It's there that she goes through a repentance of sorts, and really seeks to find herself through service.

It's a bit of a tear-jerker, really, and made me very happy to have the beliefs that I do. The book deals in depth with death, the question of an after-life, finding happiness in this life, and so on.

Having been the wife of a scholar studying abroad, I was able to relate with the boredom that Kitty faced, although, I must admit that is really all I saw of myself in Kitty.

And, just a movie pitch, too...BEAUTIFUL! It made me want to go to China so badly. It was filmed on site and they showed so much of the landscape...ugh. I want to go to China. The book was descriptive, but mostly of emotion, not landscape. So if you want to see the beautiful Chinese country side, and like us can't afford to just go, the movie does a great job.

Goose Girl, Princess Academy; by Shannon Hale

My sister, Laurel (who you will soon know on here as Large Marge) recommended these books to me. I'm sure we aren't the only ones who have read them. Shannon Hale writes fairy tales in novel form. These two books are geared towards young adults technically, but they are wonderful. They are quick, intriging, and fun. By the way, I have no idea how to spell intriging.

Children of the Promise, Hearts of the Children; by Dean Hughes

I've wanted to read these books for years but never did. I finally read them and loved them. It's important to read the Children of the Promise Series first and the Hearts of the Children. I read the wrong series first which bothered me quite a bit. Still I loved these books. Children of the Promise was my favorite of the two series, but both were good. A few of the characters that showed up in Hearts of the Children just drove me nuts sometimes. Because they are so good, and because between the two series there are 10 books with about 500 pages each, by the time I was done, I was very sad to have to say goodbye. In fact, soon after I finished the last book, I dreamed about the Thomas family. I was there at one of their family get-togethers. Children of the Promise takes place a little before, during, and a little after World War II and focuses on how the war affects all the members of the Thomas family. Hearts of the Children series is from the point of view of the oldest child of 4 of the main characters of the Children of the Promise series starting in their teens and covering 10 years or so. They are LDS historical fiction. I only have one bad thing to say about the overall experience of reading these wonderful books. At times it was very difficult for me to get anything done as I could not put these books down. Read them if you haven't.

New Book Blog

Hello Friends!
I decided that it would be fun to have a place to recommend books to each other. My idea for how this should work is this: contact me about becoming a contributor (or whatever they call it) for the blog so you can post on it. When you read a book, include in your post the name and author, a brief description of the book, and your opinion. I'm afraid that I do need to set one very important rule in order to personally enjoy this blog at all. No giving anything away under any circumstances. In your description you can include the genre and a brief look into what the book is like, but no big summaries or spoiling of endings. I hate that. If multiple people have read the book and want to discuss it in enough detail that it would spoil the book for others, they can have their own little google chat about it. I hope I am not sounding mean. I just want to make this enjoyable. I also thought it would be fun to have a list of authors' websites on the blog so we could learn more about them if we choose. Also, I imagine most of us are hoping to avoid books with bad language, sex, violence, etc. If you want to recommend a book with those things in it, please note them in your description. Then those of us who would like to can avoid those books. Or if you started reading a book but put it down because you found it too offensive, please let us know that so we can avoid reading that book. Thanks!