It's been ages since I've posted anything on here, so I guess it's about time. I'm not even going to try to cover all the stuff that has happened - birthdays, Ellen's graduation, vacation, hospital visits, other stuff good and bad - and instead I'll just go on from here. I'm not enjoying blogging as much as I was, just too much going on and it feels like too much work, but at least I'm back for now.
And knowing me, you could guess that I'd start with a book review! Or several book reviews. Here goes.
The Seance by John Harwood
Themes: family heritage, the supernatural, curses, love,
Setting: a good old Gothic story, Victorian England
Constance Langston is drawn into a creepy little series of events when she learns that she has inherited a 'haunted house.' Wraxford Hall has been the scene of a few disappearances and mysterious deaths, and now the house is falling down. But it has a horrible history, and the book jumps back into time and explores some of those events. What really happened and who was to blame is the real question of the book. Is there a supernatural force at work, or is there a more logical, but still sinister explanation? As the book continues, it revolves around the story of Magnus and Eleanor. Which one was the murderer? Constance wants to get to the bottom of things, but it may be much more dangerous than she expects.
I enjoyed this book. It didn't start exactly how I expected, but it was a compelling and creepy read. 4 stars.
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Themes: Death, War, fairy tales, sibling jealousy, stepfamilies, mothers,
Setting: WWII England and the Other World
It starts with the death of David's mother. David retreats into a world of books, reading their favorite fairy tales over and over. Then his father remarries and David gets a new stepmother and a baby brother all at the same time. He also moves to a new house, a house with a passage to the Other World. And the Crooked Man is there, beckoning David to enter and search for his lost mother. David steps into the Other World, and finds that it's not so easy to get back home.
This creepy little story features some not so pleasant twists on Red Riding Hood, Snow White, werewolves, trolls, harpies, and lots of other nasties. None of the stories are quite the way you would expect, and most of them have a sting in the tail. David remains a great character, a young boy who is almost a man and who is learning to move on with his life.
One of the things that bugged me about this book is that all the female characters are rather one-dimensional, until the end. David's mother is a saint, but all the rest are nasty, rapacious, hypersexual or violent or greedy, or even a combination of all three. I think that's meant to represent David's rather confused views on womanhood as an adolescent boy whose mother has died and whose stepmother has arrived with her aura of sexuality. There is nothing explicit, it's just a recurring theme that is easy to pick up on without being graphic.
However, there is a lot to like in the book. I would recommend it to older teens and adults. It is a clean book, but has adult themes. Really good story. 4.5 stars
To Draw Closer to God by Henry B. Eyring
Themes: religion, prayer, faith, devotion
Sometimes a book comes into your life at just the right time. With all the stuff going on in my family right now, this book was just what I needed to read. I love President Eyring and his calm, sweet faith that just permeates everything he says and does. In this book, I found just what I needed to help me deal with some personal heartaches. It gave the strength and the understanding to keep going just a little longer, and with God's grace, that's when things began to look a little less grim. It wasn't so much the words themselves, as the spirit that filled me as I read them. It was a very personal experience, but I am sharing it here because I am so grateful that it happened. Much of my reading is just for fun, or for a little enlightenment, but sometimes I need to read something that feeds my soul. This was just what I needed. 5 stars
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
Themes: family - especially dysfunctional ones!, Vietnam war, school, Shakespeare, romance, growing up, religion
Setting: Long Island, 1968
Holling Hoodhood - what a name! - is stuck. Half his 7th grade class attends bar mitzvah lessons, the other half attends Catholic class. But Holling is Presbyterian, and that means when everyone else gets out of school early on Wednesday afternoons, he is stuck at school. With his teacher, Mrs. Baker, who can't stand him. First she tries having him clean the erasers, but that gets old. So they turn to Shakespeare. Over the course of the year, they cover everything from dealing with bullies to the Vietnam war to parental pressure to escaped rodents to winning the Olympics and all courtesy of the Bard's finest.
I really loved this book. I couldn't put it down to go on vacation today, that's how into it I was. Fortunately it's a short book, so it only took a couple of hours to read the whole thing from beginning to end. Partly it was because I loved Holling. He's such a weenie at first, but he sure grows over the course of the book. His family is a mess. His dad is a control freak of legendary proportions, while his mother is completely passive and his sister is ready to rebel.
Mrs. Baker is a great character too. At first, all we know of her is what Holling can see, and that's a strictly no-fun teacher. But as they spend time together, he comes to see her as a worried military wife, a former Olympian, and even a friend.
I strongly recommend this book. I hope it's not the kind that only adults will read. I think kids would get a lot out of it too. It is very, very funny in parts, and then surprisingly sober in others. Just great. 5 stars
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