Princess Stories

I know, it's been forever. Does anyone check this anymore?? :) But I recently read two books that I enjoyed, both fairy tale retellings by Jessica Day George (how did I not know she existed until now?).

Princess of the Midnight Ball -- This is a retelling of the 12 dancing princesses story. I liked the setting a lot, and the main character is really the boy in this one. He was great. And he knits. How about that?

Princess of Glass -- This is a companion book, written about one of the younger sisters from the first princess story. I won't tell you which tale she's rewriting; see if you can guess! I think I liked this one even better than the first.

They're pretty easy reads with well-developed characters and they're both fun worlds to fall into for a while.

Still Alice

I know I just published like two minutes ago but I forgot a book.

For book club we read this one, Still Alice by Lisa Genova.
This one was interesting, that is to say, not on my typical reads list.  This one is about a professore at Harvard, very smart, very accomplished and in her hey day when she is suddenly diagnosed with early onset Alzhiemer's disease.  Throughout the book Alice is faced with challenges that to use are as simple as using the restroom but because of her illness are a major difficulty.  The tragedy is that fifty year old Alice loses her memory, her brilliant intelect, and her ability to understand language in it's more complex forms.  However she gains a much stronger relationship with her children and finds new ways to show love and comprehension for every day events.
It's like she goes from the mind of an intelligent fifty year old to an infant with a mental dissability and has to re-learn how to communicate and understand.
This a great cry book.
anna-banana

Romeo's ex

Out of my latest book wave my favorite was Romeo's ex by Lisa Fielder.
For all those Shakespear lovers like myself, this tells the story of Rosaline, the girl Romeo is in love with at the beginning of the play.  Even if that isn't familiar, if you have seen the movie(s) or read the play you'll figure it out.  The book is funny and uses rennaisance language very creativley mostly they just add "eth" or "st" to contemporary phrases that we use today. 
anna-banana

The Boxcar Children The Guide Dog Mystery #53

Author: Gertrude Chandler Warner

Benny, Violet, Jessie, and Henry used to live in a boxcar. Now they live with their Grandfather.

The book is about Benny, Violet, Jessie, and Henry going to a guide dog school. Someone breaks

into a kennel and also steals a guide dog. The kids try to figure out who did it and where the dog is.

My favorite part is when Benny sees mysterious lights in a dormitory room. I like this part because it's mysterious and you never know what will happen next.

Ian

Scott Westerfeld

I recently finished the Midnighters series and the Uglies/Pretties series. I read the series back to back and both were awesome! Matt has read his Levianthan series and liked that one.

Midnighters is about five teens that are awake during a secret hour that happens at midnight. Monsters also exist during that one hour out of 25. It is action/horror/mystery. There are 4 books in the series.

Uglies is a futuristic story where at the age of 16 you go under the knife and become "pretty". It's conspiratorial and keeps you guessing to the end. There are 3 books in the series but he just came out with a 4th that is about a different character, I haven't read the latest one yet.

There have also been several picture books that Natalie and I have both enjoyed. Here's one of them.
The Black Book of Colors
At night we read Shel Silverstein which she loves. We've read Falling Up, A Light in the Attic, Runny Babbit, Lafcadio. Next of the list is Where the Sidewalk Ends. Not long after we started reading his books she started to ask me if different words rhymed. Also if I am talking and happen to rhyme on accident she immediately notices and says, 'this word and that word rhyme'.

The end of a series

Have you finished the Leven Thumps series yet?
I did and I have to say that I loved it!
The first book was written perfectly at my age...Leven is thirteen
Over the corse of the rest of the books Leven grows from thirteen to between sixteen and eighteen in about a month.  Strangely relateable...
           

            

                                           

I really don't know how else to say how truly awsome these books are!
anna

Hello, all

I have two for you, one is fiction and one is non-fiction. First the fiction, The Westing Game is quite entertaining. Do I remember the author, no I do not. This would be good for Regan also, it is an easy read and a good mystery. It was our book club book this month.
The non-fiction was last month's book club book. I had to go out of town for a funeral and so I missed the meeting, which angered me beyond words. I did  everything possible to be back in time, but my transporter just wasn't working. You are now wild to know what this book is. I can tell. Once again I can't remeber the author, but the book is The Tipping Point. I would love for some of you to read it. We could arrange an online discussion if anyone was interested. Jim is reading it now and also finds it very interesting.
Love to all
Beth

Two more

I haven't had time to read much for fun lately, but here are a couple of novels that I liked:

Sabriel, Garth Nix
This is YA fantasy in an imagined world where Death is a place, not an event. The world he created was fascinating and frightening both. The title character is the daughter of a necromancer whose job it is to make sure the dead stay in Death. He disappears and she sets out on a quest to find him - or figure out what happened to him. I really liked the main character and her father. It was a bit too violent for me in a few parts though, especially for a YA novel. It's the beginning of a series, if you end up enjoying it. I haven't read on.

The Changeling Sea, Patricia McKilip
The heroine in this story is an ordinary girl who ends up doing extraordinary things. I always enjoy stories like that! Peri lives in a small town by the coast and has a love/hate relationship with the sea which has taken her fisherman father and left her mother helpless with grief. It read almost like a fairy tale. The writing was beautiful, and the story was well-developed, too.

Two for One Post!

My Man Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse

This is a collection of short stories (I love short stories, so I'm not tempted to stay up all night reading....) written in the early 20th century. I thought they were HILARIOUS! Wodehouse knows how to turn a phrase. They were so funny. If you're interested in a little break from reality, check him out.

44 Scotland Street, Alexander McCall Smith

This book came from a serialized novel, originally published in The Scotsman. It's a novel, but basically a series of short stories written about the same characters. It is set in Edinburgh and I thought it was fun to get a better look at the city I thought was so beautiful! The nice thing is that if you like it, there are at least 3-4 more books. The novel was so popular, he just kept writing.