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!