17 Fairy Tales that take a much darker tone, more in keeping with the original cautionary tales that Fairy Tales once were than the Disneyfied versions we tend to be more familiar with. Tales include Alice in Wonderland as a lonely princess with psychological problems, an even darker Snow Queen, the Devil falling in love after a bargain is stuck, and many more. As in any collection of stories by different authors, I enjoyed some more than others and one or two just fell flat for me.
Page count: 360p/20,050p ytd/269,200p lifetime
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Friday, September 16, 2016
73:120 The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
The 2nd book in the Dark is Rising sequence (but apparently the first one is more of a prequel so...)
Will Stanton's 11th birthday is approaching and strange things are happening all around him. He is given strange gifts and is starting to see things that others are not. Finally, on Midwinter Day and his actual birthday day, he discovers that he is the last of the Old Ones, immortals who are dedicated to keeping the Dark at bay. Not only is he to be the last one born but he is The Seeker, the one who will find and unite the Signs that will help to drive the Darkness back in the final battle between Dark and Light.
Interesting take on the standard good vs evil troupe and well done. I like that the Light is more nuanced than the typical "good" side and will do things that they know will hurt others and have longer reaching consequences because it's the only way they can see to get the outcome in the end but even so, one thing they believe strongly in is free will and individual choice. That does seem to be something that is more shadowed rather than stated outloud in the genre and I like that even when it came down to someone's death, they honored that person's decision to embrace death. A powerful message for children of how important choice can be.
Page count: 244p/19,690p ytd/268,840 lifetime
Will Stanton's 11th birthday is approaching and strange things are happening all around him. He is given strange gifts and is starting to see things that others are not. Finally, on Midwinter Day and his actual birthday day, he discovers that he is the last of the Old Ones, immortals who are dedicated to keeping the Dark at bay. Not only is he to be the last one born but he is The Seeker, the one who will find and unite the Signs that will help to drive the Darkness back in the final battle between Dark and Light.
Interesting take on the standard good vs evil troupe and well done. I like that the Light is more nuanced than the typical "good" side and will do things that they know will hurt others and have longer reaching consequences because it's the only way they can see to get the outcome in the end but even so, one thing they believe strongly in is free will and individual choice. That does seem to be something that is more shadowed rather than stated outloud in the genre and I like that even when it came down to someone's death, they honored that person's decision to embrace death. A powerful message for children of how important choice can be.
Page count: 244p/19,690p ytd/268,840 lifetime
Thursday, September 15, 2016
72:120 The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Ok, I'm going with the assumption that if you haven't been shut in a closet your entire life that you know the basic premise of this story. Young girl gets flown to a magical land called Oz via a tornado and spends the rest of the book trying to get back home. On the way she makes new friends: Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion. The Wizard of Oz promises to help her if she brings back the silver cap of the Wicked Witch of the East. She does, he doesn't, she finds out she has had the power to go home the whole time.
So it's a fairly simple tale but the magic is in the world building. The characters aren't particularly deep or complex and you don't see an extraordinary amount of character growth or development. Dorothy is a sweet, simple girl and just happens to have an incredible amount of luck on her side to survive everything that happens to her. The other characters are similarly simple with the only exception being the total contradictory nature of the Tin Woodman who is terrified of stepping on an ant but has no problem using his ax to chop down beasts that he feels may be dangerous before finding out if they actually are. I was reading this to my 10yr old and this hypocritical actions really mad an impact on him. Every time it came up, he commented on it and was upset. Not because of the violence of it but because it wasn't f-a-i-r! It led to some good discussions and he enjoyed the world enough that we have started book 2 so we shall see where this goes.
Page count: 267p/19,446p ytd/268,596p lifetime
So it's a fairly simple tale but the magic is in the world building. The characters aren't particularly deep or complex and you don't see an extraordinary amount of character growth or development. Dorothy is a sweet, simple girl and just happens to have an incredible amount of luck on her side to survive everything that happens to her. The other characters are similarly simple with the only exception being the total contradictory nature of the Tin Woodman who is terrified of stepping on an ant but has no problem using his ax to chop down beasts that he feels may be dangerous before finding out if they actually are. I was reading this to my 10yr old and this hypocritical actions really mad an impact on him. Every time it came up, he commented on it and was upset. Not because of the violence of it but because it wasn't f-a-i-r! It led to some good discussions and he enjoyed the world enough that we have started book 2 so we shall see where this goes.
Page count: 267p/19,446p ytd/268,596p lifetime
Sunday, September 11, 2016
71:120 Full of Briars by Seanan McGuire
A novella told by Toby's squire, Quentin, between Chimes at Midnight and The Winter Long.
Quentin's parents, the High King and Queen of the Westlands, are coming to the Kingdom of the Mists for a visit. Ostensibly it is for the coronation of the new Queen but both Toby and Quentin realize that they are really coming because Quentin has outed himself as their son and invalidated his blind fosterage. What neither of them know is what this will mean. They are within their rights to recall their son home but Quentin doesn't want to leave. San Francisco and the people there have become his home. Now how can he convince them to let him stay..
It has been nice watching Quentin grow through the series and watching him with his parents was wonderful.
Page count: 44p/19,179p ytd/268,329p lifetime
Quentin's parents, the High King and Queen of the Westlands, are coming to the Kingdom of the Mists for a visit. Ostensibly it is for the coronation of the new Queen but both Toby and Quentin realize that they are really coming because Quentin has outed himself as their son and invalidated his blind fosterage. What neither of them know is what this will mean. They are within their rights to recall their son home but Quentin doesn't want to leave. San Francisco and the people there have become his home. Now how can he convince them to let him stay..
It has been nice watching Quentin grow through the series and watching him with his parents was wonderful.
Page count: 44p/19,179p ytd/268,329p lifetime
Thursday, September 8, 2016
70:120 Unwanted by Jennifer Estep
Novella set in the Elemental Assassin world from Finn's POV right after Bitter Bite.
Finn screwed up royally and a lot of people, good people, are dead now because of it. He wanted to badly to believe that his mother was a good and wonderful person that he was blinded to what she really was and refused to listen to Gin or his other friends as they tried to warn him. Now he is having to live with the guilt and the desire to make amends to people who want nothing to do with him. One of them is the widow of one of the guards his mother killed. His boss is making him attend all the funerals and in the course of things, Finn finds out that that the widow's BIL owes money to a very bad man who will not hesitate to take it out on her and her son. Now that at least is a problem that Finn is capable of dealing with.
It was nice to get a story from Finn as he deals with the aftermath of the last book. Going straight back to another Gin story without dealing with Finn's emotional state would have been a disservice to that character. I will even go so far as to give a slight pass on the constant repetitive inner dialog but only a slight one. I felt like it was more in keeping with what he was going through but even with that, I would have to say that probably 20% of the novella is him rehashing the same thing over and over again and the wording on it is barely changed. I would probably not have been bothered by it at all if it weren't for the fact that this is a consistent problem with Ms. Estep's writing and generally to the detriment of the story's pacing. I gave up one of her series because of it and refuse to try any of her others at this point because of it and only stick with this series because the world is quite intriguing.
Page count: 100p/19,135p ytd/268,285p lifetime
Finn screwed up royally and a lot of people, good people, are dead now because of it. He wanted to badly to believe that his mother was a good and wonderful person that he was blinded to what she really was and refused to listen to Gin or his other friends as they tried to warn him. Now he is having to live with the guilt and the desire to make amends to people who want nothing to do with him. One of them is the widow of one of the guards his mother killed. His boss is making him attend all the funerals and in the course of things, Finn finds out that that the widow's BIL owes money to a very bad man who will not hesitate to take it out on her and her son. Now that at least is a problem that Finn is capable of dealing with.
It was nice to get a story from Finn as he deals with the aftermath of the last book. Going straight back to another Gin story without dealing with Finn's emotional state would have been a disservice to that character. I will even go so far as to give a slight pass on the constant repetitive inner dialog but only a slight one. I felt like it was more in keeping with what he was going through but even with that, I would have to say that probably 20% of the novella is him rehashing the same thing over and over again and the wording on it is barely changed. I would probably not have been bothered by it at all if it weren't for the fact that this is a consistent problem with Ms. Estep's writing and generally to the detriment of the story's pacing. I gave up one of her series because of it and refuse to try any of her others at this point because of it and only stick with this series because the world is quite intriguing.
Page count: 100p/19,135p ytd/268,285p lifetime
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
69:120 Lawful Interception by Cory Doctorow
A short story that serves as a follow-up to Little Brother and Homeland. Marcus and Ange are in Oakland when a huge earthquake hits and devastation follows. They help out and end up falling in with the Occupy Senaca group to help those who are being lost in the system. Of course, powers that be don't like the Occupy group and work with the city government to shut it down. Marcus and his friends are not about to let this happen and get in on the demonstrations and with the help of some new technology he comes up, are able to find a way to outsmart them
In all, this was a good follow-up story that does work as a standalone if needed. It was pretty basic and kept to the same plotlines of the books. I found the description of democracies interesting and the idea of fluid democracy intriguing.
Page count: 51p/19,035p ytd/268,185p lifetime
In all, this was a good follow-up story that does work as a standalone if needed. It was pretty basic and kept to the same plotlines of the books. I found the description of democracies interesting and the idea of fluid democracy intriguing.
Page count: 51p/19,035p ytd/268,185p lifetime
68:120 A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Read for 10th grade English which means I get to read it a total of four times. Here is my review from September 2009:
<i>A story of growing up in a boys school during WWII, we follow Gene and his struggles with his friendship with Finny. We find in Finny, an intense character who seems to have little insight but is long on charisma and energy. His perceptions of the world are shallow but at the end we see that it was only by making things fit in his perception that kept him from fearing the unknown. Gene finds it impossible to have his own will when in the presence of Finny and much of the story is Gene's figuring out how to deal with his relationship with Finny, trying to categorize it and create reasons for Finny's behavior that are mostly only in his own head. When at last he breaks free of Finny, albeit unconsciously, it is with dramatic consequences.
I liked the pace of the book in that it was neither too slow to be plodding nor too quick so that it lost it's believability. An easy read on the surface with a lot of deeper undertones.</i>
Page count: 204p/18,984p ytd/268,134p lifetime
<i>A story of growing up in a boys school during WWII, we follow Gene and his struggles with his friendship with Finny. We find in Finny, an intense character who seems to have little insight but is long on charisma and energy. His perceptions of the world are shallow but at the end we see that it was only by making things fit in his perception that kept him from fearing the unknown. Gene finds it impossible to have his own will when in the presence of Finny and much of the story is Gene's figuring out how to deal with his relationship with Finny, trying to categorize it and create reasons for Finny's behavior that are mostly only in his own head. When at last he breaks free of Finny, albeit unconsciously, it is with dramatic consequences.
I liked the pace of the book in that it was neither too slow to be plodding nor too quick so that it lost it's believability. An easy read on the surface with a lot of deeper undertones.</i>
Page count: 204p/18,984p ytd/268,134p lifetime
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