Library Books

So, I've decided that if I get a book at the infamous public library, then I should probably write an account about it, so that I don't forget that I read it. There were three last week that I read. The first was Mutiny's Daughter by Ann Rinaldi. It was different from her other books because it was set in England. It was based on the idea that Fletcher Christian, a man who lead the revolt on The Bounty, which was a British ship, and then went to live on an island with natives. He then had children and he brought his daughter to go live with his family in England. I think Rinaldi has reached the point where she is trying to churn books out as fast as she can. They are not necessarily worse than her earlier works, but they just don't seem as full or rich as books like Cast Two Shadows, and the Last Silk Dress, or such. 3.7 out of 5

The next book I read was Boy Meet Girl by Meg Cabot. This was an adult book, but it was by the author of the Princess Diaries. The plot was told through a series of messages of communication ie. email, journal entries, IM conversations, and such. It was quite an interesting idea. The plot was basic adult fluff. There's this sweet girl who's working for a tyrant boss, who in this case, wants to fire the nice sweet old Hispanic lady whose chocolate chip cookies are to die for. She has just broken up with her rocker boyfriend, whom she has been with for ten years, because he is unwilling to commit. So she is looking for a new boyfriend. Then the nice old Hispanic lady sues the company where the girl works at for discrimination, and so this girl is forced to go talk to a lawyer, Mitch, whom she soon falls in love with. Unfortunately, the whole reason there is a lawsuit is because the Hispanic woman wouldn't serve Mitch's brother a dessert. Mitch's brother also happens to be the recent fiancee of the tyrant boss, who fires the Hispanic woman. Then there is the whole family feud going on in Mitch's family, which is quite hilarious in itself. Then, you have the fact that the main characters ex-boyfriend keeps running into her in all kinds of places where she is with Mitch and keeps embarrassing her- he goes to her office and starts singing his newest song about her, and then he throws chicken and garlic, her favorite food, on Mitch in a restaurant. A light, fluffy read, but entertaining. 4.1 out of 5

Next book I read was Fire by Night by Lynn Austin. It follows the lives of two separate women during the civil war. Julia is a rich man's daughter living in Philadelphia who goes to watch the battle of Bull Run because the man she loves, Nathaneil Greene, is there. She runs away from the battle, and hears Greene say that he would never marry her because she is vain and selfish and can't do anything for herself. So she decides to go out and try to become a nurse, and she soon finds herself working in one of the war hospitals in Washington DC. Then there is the story of Phoebe or "Ike" who gets left in what is now known as West Virginia by her 3 brothers. After one day of taking care of 14 children, she decides to run off and join the Union soldiers. She dresses up as a boy, calls herself "Ike" and joins the Army. It was a very interesting novel and the two stories connect into one, when Phoebe gets injured and Julia is assigned as the one to take care of her. Then Greene proposes to Julia because he finds her a truly changed woman and she gladly accepts, but he forces her to return home to become the perfect ministers wife and stop being a nurse. Phoebe then takes over Julia's role in the hospital, but Julia finds herself unable to stay away, so she comes back against Greene's wishes, meanwhile she has fallen in love with one of the doctors she met at the hospital, and Phoebe has fallen in love with her tent mate, and a southern doctor. It was not only a love story, but also a war story. I found it very intriguing and very similar to what I imagine an adult Ann Rinaldi book would be like. 4.5 out of 5.

I've also read 5-6 books in the last few days, so expect more updates. I still think the library is like the lottery. One out of every 30 books you actually want, do they actually have. Thank God Barnes and Noble finally opened up near my house.

The Life of Johnny Reb

I read this interesting, but old book, about the daily life of the rebel soldier. It was very interesting, and often used first hand accounts, with all the horrendous spelling, to tell the true tale of the average private. It was fairly detailed, talking about such things as gambling, diseases, different nationalities fighting, weapons, hardships, etc.

Some things were left out including prison camps, and how they treated Yankee prisoners. It seemed as if the author, Bell Irvin Wiley, was unwilling to admit for the most part, the failings of the Confederates. He tried to maintain neutrality, and was, for the most part, successful. It just seemed that he was a bit selective in what he chose to share from the soldiers accounts.

It is definitely an interesting book to read if you are studying American History, and it tells of individual events that happened at major battles, such as, to make up a quote, they captured 20,000 arms at Shiloh. He is very good at showing the progression of problems throughout the war, and the cause and effect associated with these problems.

It was a bit tedious at times, but a good read if you are more interested in day-to-day details then dates and generals. Final Grade: 4.1 stars.

Remiss

I apologize for being remiss in reviewing the books that I've read. I'm just going to list them, and subsequent reviews will appear later.

1)Mary, Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser

2) Candide and like 4 other stories by Voltaire

3) Ripped at the Seams by Nancy Krulik

4) The Au Pairs by Melissa De La Crux.

Reviews will come later, but let me say that Candide was amazingly inspiring in many ways. Definitely a story/satire you should read. Another good satire by him was Zadig (a better version of Arabian Nights, according to the author), which also shed light on a flaw in Harry Potter.

2 Teen Books

I don't feel like writing complete reviews for the books I read yesterday, but I did read 2 teenage books. One, Big Mouth & Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates was an interesting school about Ursula, a straight A student who plays three sports and does art, and about her alter-ego, Ugly Girl who does things that Ursula would never imagine doing. She gets into moods (red= happy, black=sad) When she gets in a black or inky mood she has to distract herself by doing other things. She finds out something about a boy, Matt Donaghy, who is accused of a horrible crime. They become friends and save each other. It wasn't too much like a typical teen book, so Final Grade: 4 stars.

The other book I read was the third in a quartet (the library didn't have the first 2) called The Black Book: Diary of a Teenage Stud, Vol. III: Run, Jonah, Run by Jonah Black. It was supposed to represent an actual journal that just happened to get published. This was interesting because it was written from a guys perspective, as a growing number of teen books are. Apparently the literary community is trying to give girls a glimpse of the other half of the world.

In this book, the main character Jonah has "fallen in love" with a girl he knew at boarding school and because of this, he stops dating his best friend. His younger sister is going to college, Harvard I might add, before him because she skipped a grade and he got held back because he got expelled from his old school, and there's a mystery girl who talks to him online, hwo seems perfect for him. Basically, he's got a lot of problems. This was quick read, and it was a bit redundant because Jonah just keeps saying the same things over and over again. Final Grade: 3.1 stars.

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Alliance

The latest in the series by author, Larry Millett, however the title is a bit misleading because the book is mostly about Shadwell Rafferty and Holmes and Watson don't come along until the mystery is almost solved.

The most annoying part of this book was that, to inform the readers about the activities of Holmes and Watson, the author included "excerpts from Watson's journal." These excerpts were extremely hard to read because it was almost as if Watson was using shorthand, referring to Holmes as H, Rafferty as SR, leaving out words, regarding as re, instead of and, he used &. It was just a bit diffucult to stay focused on what the author was trying to explain. Also, instead of being a first person account, like the other 3 books, this one was in third person which worked nicely.

The mystery in this book begins when Michael O'Donnell is killed and hung in front of Minneapolis mayor's, A. Adams, house, naked, with a sign around his neck saying the murder was committed by the "Secret Alliance," which was well known in Minneapolis as an anti-union group. There is also a rat trap with cheese found beneath the body, left by Sid the Ratman. This tale turns out to be a study of the struggle for unions in Minneapolis at the turn of the century, President McKinley's trip to Minneapolis in 1899, and the corruption rampant in the city during the reign of A. Adams.

It also explains how Minneapolis lost the title to biggest flour producer to Buffalo, New York because Buffalo had better waterways. This was certainly an interesting book, but the journal entries made it hard to follow and there was a typo in the first line of the book. Final Grade: 2.9 stars.

Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery

This is the 3rd in a quartet of books about the North American adventures of the famous Sir Conan Doyle character, Sherlock Holmes. This is probably one of the better done of the non-SCD Holmes, particularly because it is set near to home, in the Midwest.

The major addition to this series is Shadwell Rafferty, a saloon owner in St. Paul, MN, whose deductive skills are as honed as Holmes. It's an interesting series because the author, Larry Millett, is a newspaper writer for one of the papers in MN, and so he includes many interesting facts, and prominent people from there during the turn of the century. For example, on their first journey to the "Icy North", and their subsequent journeys, Holmes and Watson stay at the house of railroad baron, James J. Hill.

The notes at the end of his books are particularly interesting because they describe in detail how it is possible for Holmes to be in MN at the time, and they also explain the historic references. All of the books are "narrated" by Watson, and the language is quite similar to the original books.

In this book, Holmes is quite bored in England, until he reads of a rune stone found on a farm near Alexandria MN. He had had the opportunity to study authentic rune stones in Sweden. (Rune stones being stones which contain writings of the Vikings around and before the 14th century, which were written on stones) This is controversial because if found to be real, it would prove that the Vikings had actually reached North America and managed to make it all the way over to MN.

Holmes receives a messenger from King Oskar of Sweden who wants Holmes to go and find out if the rune stone is real. As soon as they arrive in Alexandria, however, they find out that the owner of the RS was murdered and the rune stone has disappeared. Holmes, along with the help of Rafferty, who coincidentally is also in Alexandria, soon uncovers a plot by one of Holmes' former enemies, Mary Robinson, to defraud a wealthy man in Chicago by selling him the fake rune stone to pay off her dead husband's debts.

This very nicely follows the format of a typical Holmes novel, with Holmes correctly making wild assumptions based on his observations, and Watson following along to record the actions of the immortal Holmes. As I said before, the addition of MN history makes the book very interesting, and it is a quick read, or fairly quick, that will not make you regret reading it. Final Grade: 4.2 stars (I might add that the 2nd book SH and the Ice Palace Murders is a better book)

1st Book Review: The Emperor of Ocean Park

Ok, to start off, this book was INCREDIBLY long. Over 650 pages in fact. It took me almost two days to read this, and for me, that's a long time... very long. It was written by Stephen L. Carter, who ironically happens to be a law professor at Yale University. It's ironic because his main character in this book, Misha/Talcott Garland also happens to be a law professor at a school in a place called Elm Grove, which apparently resembles the lay-out of New Haven. The author actually has a three page disclaimer explaining that despite all the apparent parallels b/w his life and his fictional character, they are in fact NOT one and the same.

Anyways, the book starts out with the death of Misha's father, simply referred to as "Judge" b/c he was a Federal Appeals Court Judge, and was a Supreme Court Nominee. He was forced to decline the nomination because of embarrassing circumstances that came out while he was testifying in front of Congress. Back to the present: The Judge has died, supposedly of a heart attack, and the whole Garland family comes together to bury their father.

Misha's older sister, Mariah, who married extremely well, and is a huge conspiracy theorist;
Addison, his older brother, who was the favored first-born son who has many problems especially with the law;
Misha, who is a law professor that nobody seems to like and his marriage is falling apart despite the denials of both him and his wife;
Kimmer (Kimberly), Misha's wife, who was recently chosen to be a candidate for the Federal Court of Appeals, and worries that her husband's family may ruin her chances of a nomination;
Abby, the baby sister, who was killed in a hit-and-run, from which the Judge never recovered;
Uncle Jack (Jack Ziegler), Abby's god-father, and a well-known criminal who was responsible for destroying the Judge's chances at the bench.

After the funeral, Misha is standing in the cemetery, when Uncle Jack asks him about the "arrangements" that the Judge said Misha would know about, and Mariah believes that her father was murdered and scours every sheet of paper in the Judge's house looking for clues. The "arrangements" cause Misha to go on a modern-day quest in an effort to discover exactly WHO his father is, which is common after the death of a loved one.

During the book, he is constantly followed by suspicious characters, alienates everyone who cares him and comes up with more wild conspiracies than I thought possible. The major flaw of the book was its length only because it was meant to be a thriller, but it was 650 pages, which defeats the purpose. It is almost epic in the sense that it introduces SO many characters and has many different story lines all coming together in the end. It is entertaining in the end though because everything comes together and it is not your typical happy ending.

The underlying theme of the book that gets addressed a few times is that, you can never really know everything about a person, and that many children go on a journey to find out who their parents are, and are often astounded by the results. Final grade: 3.5 stars out of 5.(1 being I stopped it before it was over, 5 being the reason that I read so much)

Why I created yet ANOTHER blog

It's early in the morning. Sleep deprived me again decides that she is going to make this her site for random things, including book reviews so she can remember them!