You Must Allow Me To Tell You How Ardently I Admire And Love You

Hola Readers!  Time for some more Jane Austen and today I get to ramble about my favorite of her books, Pride and Prejudice.  This was the first Austen book I read and to this day it is still my favorite, especially when I remember the era it was written in.  It is the most retold of all the Austen novels and I'm just gonna jump right in.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

I'm gonna try and keep this brief as there are a zillion sources for really cohesive synopsis...or of course you could just read it.  We open with the news that the Netherfield Manor has been rented by a man of considerable fortune, a Mr. Bingley.  This news allows us to get acquainted with all the Bennet family, who are the main players in the family.  Jane, the eldest daughter is all sweetness and kindness with a beauty to match.  Our girl Elizabeth is smart, fiery and not unattractive.  Mary, moral and scholarly, Kitty a kind of petty and bland follower.  The youngest is Lydia, spoiled, selfish and clueless.  The five girls live with their mother, the over the top, yet very loving Mrs. Bennet, and their father, the calm and detached Mr. Bennet.  The girls are introduced to Mr. Bingley, his two sisters and his friend the soon to be infamous Mr. Darcy at a local ball.  Mr. Bingley is charming and already half in love with Jane, but Mr. Darcy is proud, arrogant and makes the mistake of snubbing Elizabeth, leading the family and the town in general to dislike him.  Jane continues to be a favorite of Mr. Bingley and is invited by his sisters for dinner.  At Netherfield, Jane catches a bad cold and is forced to stay. Elizabeth goes to stay with her and consequently spends time with the family.   Mr. Darcy finds himself intrigued by the spirited Elizabeth, while Mr. Bingley's sisters...especially Caroline...the single one are not as thrilled to find themselves in competition with her fine eyes.  Meanwhile the militia has come to reside in town, bringing with it the dashing and charming Mr. Wickham.  Wickham has the prior acquaintance of Mr. Darcy and regales Elizabeth with the details of his abuse at the hands of said gentleman.  This further colors Elizabeth's bad opinion of Mr. Darcy.  Bingley holds a ball at Netherfield where it is evident that he is very much in love with Jane, and that Jane feels the same.  Unfortunately the rest of the Bennet family (excepting Elizabeth) acts in a very un mannerly way.  A few days later word comes that the family has left Netherfield for London and has no idea when...or if they will come back.  Amidst this chaos, Mr. Collins, a nephew of Mr. Bennet comes to stay with the family. Mr. Collins is ridiculous, simpering and completely unaware.  He is also the fortunate clergyman of the formidable Lady de Bourgh...who takes an undue interest in him and his house.  He comes with the intention of marrying one of the girls, as when Mr. Bennet dies the whole of Longbourn estated (the Bennet family home) will go to him due to an entail.  He chooses Elizabeth, who wisely refuses him based on so many factors.  He does not take the rejection well and ends up at Lucas Lodge, the home of Charlotte Lucas, a friend of Elizabeth's.  He "falls in love" with Charlotte and the two are married.  Jane goes to London to try and recover her spirits at the loss of Mr. Bingley.  Elizabeth travels to visit with Charlotte after her marriage.  While there Elizabeth meets the Lady de Bourgh, who turns out not only to be Mr. Darcy's aunt, but hints that her sickly daughter is intended as his bride.  At some point during her stay, Mr. Darcy and his cousin come to stay with Lady de Bourgh and Elizabeth and he once again are thrown together.  Mr. Darcy comes to Elizabeth and his famous proposal was made.  Elizabeth's equally famous rejection is given.  Mr. Darcy
delivers a letter or Elizabeth addressing her accusations of him separating Mr. Bingley and Jane, and the bad stuff he did to Mr. Wickham.   He cops to separating the couple based on his being convinced that she did not really love him, also on the complete and utter lack of propriety shown by most of her family.  As far as Mr. Wickham goes...well let's just say he was a very bad boy and is lucky that Mr. Darcy didn't do more to utterly destroy him.   Ok moving on (we are only halfway through...)  Elizabeth returns home to the news that the militia....including Mr. Wickham are to be moved to the sea town of Brighton.  Lydia is desperate to go, as they are essentially her whole source of entertainment.  For once Mr. Bennet denies his wife and daughter and staunchly opposes the deal.  Lydia however is given another chance when she is invited specifically by one of the officers wives.  Though Elizabeth begs her father not to let her go, he gives his consent.  Elizabeth's aunt and uncle take her on a trip to visit the county of Derbyshire...which just happens to contain the famous Pemberly, of which Mr. Darcy is master.  After learning that the family is gone for the summer, the trio decide to visit it.  Of course since this is a book....Mr. Darcy comes home early much to the embarrassment of Elizabeth.  Mr. Darcy surprises everybody by acting the perfect gentleman.  He comes and visits Elizabeth, bringing with him his sister and Mr. Bingley.  A couple of visits shows us that Mr. Darcy still has feelings for Elizabeth, and she finds herself warming to this improved Mr. Darcy.  Of course we need some sort of drama so Elizabeth receives a couple of letters from Jane.  They detail the saga of Lydia and her potential elopement with Mr. Wickham...then further news comes that they are somewhere in London most definitely not married.  Elizabeth tells Mr. Darcy the news then goes home with her aunt and uncle to deal with the crisis.  After much ado word comes that Lydia and Wickham are finally married and to be sent up North.  The pair stop by Longbourn on their way North and Lydia lets it slip that Mr. Darcy was the reason for their marriage. This of course just adds to Elizabeth's growing love.  The Bennet family is surprised to receive a visit from the Lady de Bourgh.  She pulls Elizabeth aside with the intent of securing a promise from her to never marry Mr. Darcy...to which Elizabeth pretty much just laughs.  Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley come back to Netherfield.  Mr. Bingley immediately renews his attentions to Jane, resulting in an engagement.  Shortly after, Mr. Darcy feels out Elizabeth and finding her own feelings changed to a much more loving tone also proposes.  The girls get married to their men, continue to take care of their families and live ever after.   Whew...sorry....that was really long.

World Building - This story is set in 17th century England, mostly in the countryside.  It is what most people consider historical fiction...except it wasn't written as historical fiction...so it's just fiction.  Anyways.  Mereton, Longbourn, Kent, Rosing Park, Pemberly, Netherfield, all of these places have been created so well that many people think that they are real.  I find it interesting that the author mixes real places (England, London, various counties) and places of complete and utter fiction (see above).  The seamlessness of these two types of places just adds to the overall completeness off the world.  Not bad for world building.

Story - As always, Ms. Austen likes to have multiple threads of story, usually all culminating together.  I like how at first glance there seems to be several disparate story lines, but by the end of the book we see how they are all connected.  While there are several slightly overly convenient moments, overall the story actually makes some sort of sense.  The various storylines keep it from being to simple or boring and it is markedly different from the authors previous work.  Also...I have just always really loved this story...so yeah...awesome.

Character - Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are by far the most dynamic of characters, with both of them going through legit changes in opinion and belief.  The rest of the characters are a bit one note.  A few of them show some growth or layers, but for the most part any non Elizabeth/Darcy character seems written to illustrate a certain point or characteristic.  The other four sisters embody either a virtue (Jane - beauty and goodness) or a flaw (Lydia wild and reckless).  Mr. Collins is the foolish suck up, Caroline is petty and jealous...so on and so forth.  The two saving graces of characterization for me is a) the two main characters do go through significant change and b) with the plethora of characters in this book the one noteness is not as apparent as we do not spend an inordinate amount of time with anybody but our main duo. So Ok on Character.

Editing - For as huge (apx 375 pages depending on the edition) as this book is, it flows really well and even the first time through I read it pretty quickly.  This tells me that I did not need to spend time going back and forth or trying to remember who or what was going on.  It also helps that all the story and character threads are being continually tied together to make a tapestry of a book.  Good job.

Love Stories - I love the variety of ways to "fall in love" that are shown in this book. We have "prudent love" in which Charlotte Lucas marries Mr. Collins in a bid to make a comfortable home for herself in a very practical manner.  "Puppy love" in which Lydia throws herself in the arms of Wickham deciding it to be true love in a moment.  Jane and Bingley give us pure and innocent romantic love that just makes us smile.  "Uneven love" in the case of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet is a warning against a mismatched pairing.  Of course we have the piece de resistance in Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.  This is my kind of love story, they start of with a dislike of each other and both form an opinion on very little information.  Over the course of the book they learn to communicate and accept new information about each other.  The biggest part of this developing relationship is the ability of both parties to admit where they are wrong and grow from it without losing who they are.  I think this is why I love this book so much.

Upper Class - This book is most defiantly about the upper class.  I think the militia and maybe Mr. Collins are the lowest "class" of citizens in this book and none of them are suffering.  The vast majority of the characters have no actual occupation other then some vague business having to do with their estates.  The few who do work are intellectuals or sermon givers, and none of them do any real sort of manual labor.  I guess it could be said that the militia could potentially go to war, but the general feeling was of men at leisure for the most part.  This is all and well and works for the story, but probably leaves a dimension out.

Adaptability - One of my favorite things about this book i the adaptability of it.  I have seen and read a bunch of versions of this story and have loved many of them (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies anybody?).  The movies are hit or miss with of course the BBC version being the best (and also 6 hours long), but I have to admit I'm a bit in love with Bride and Prejudice a Bollywood version of the book that just makes me happy.  I love a story that can be set in many times and places and I am open to any suggestions.

Overall Impression - I think it's pretty clear that I very much love this book.  It is one that goes on my favorites shelf and has such great readability I don't think I will ever get tired of it.  I give it 10 out of 10 pianofortes and recommend it to anybody who wants a solid classic story, characters to fall in love and hate with and a world to become completely immersed.  Happy Reading Everybody!

"Know Your Own Happiness"

Finally finished my first Jane Austen book of the great reread!  It took me a while mostly 'cause the weather was being dumb and when the weather would cooperate I was on an ambulance keeping people alive.  Anyways a couple of nice days with some free time and I've finished Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.  Are we ready for my thoughts on this first novel by our famous lady?  But first, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

I'm not gonna go into a ton of detail as full on synopsis are available in a zillion places, but here is the bare bones gist.  Our story centers on the Dashwood women.  We have Mrs. Dashwood, the widowed second wife of a gentleman.  She has three daughters, the sensible Elinor, the passionate Marianne and the young Margaret.  Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters must find a new living under diminished means after the late Mr. Dashwoods son from his first marriage inherits almost all of his assets.  The ladies are fortunate enough to be offered a cottage by a distant relation, Sir John Middleton and his wife.  Though much less the they are used to, the women find a way to get comfortable.  Elinor is stoically nursing a secret attachment to her brother's wife's brother...that makes sense right?  Anyways the gentleman in question is Edward Ferrars, who is even more stoic and controlled then Elinor.  Unfortunately for our stalwart couple, his mother and sister are set against any marriage that does not improve the family fortune.  The family is continually invited to the main house of the Middleton's where they make the acquaintance of Colonel Brandon, a man out of his 20's who very much admires Marianne and her free spirit.  She of course being young and wild does not consider the man a true prospect.  While out exploring her new surroundings, Marianne falls and injures her ankle and is rescued by the dashing young Willoughby.  With what feels to Elinor a lack of propriety the pair begin a very obvious flirtation, spending as much time together as humanly possible.  One day at a party headed by Colonel Brandon, he is suddenly called away on urgent business.  Elinore learns from the effusive Mrs. Jennings (Sir John's mother-in-law) that the Colonel has a tragic past that involved a young free spirited girl that he was not allowed to marry, leading to the young woman landing in very dire straights.  Not much later Willoughby with an apparent sudden change of heart bids farewll to the Dashwoods in a very abrupt and painful manner, leaving Marianne a not so happy creature.  Meanwhile two young lady's by the name of Ann and Lucy Steele have taken up residence with Sir John and his family.  Elinor is taken into the confidence of Lucy and is informed that Lucy has been engaged to Edward for several years.  The engagement has been kept a secret as his mother would not be pleased to see her eldest son wed to such a low person.  Marianne and Elinor are invited to London by Mrs. Jennings and they agree to go.  Upon arrival Marianne promptly does her best to get in touch with Willoughby to no avail.  The Steeles also arrive to plague Elinor with Lucy's continual talk of her engagement.  Marianne eventually gets to see Willoughby, but he is very cold and very formal with her.  This is followed by a letter letting her know in no uncertain terms that there is nothing between them.  Marianne is devastated and succumbs to a crippling emotional melancholy.  Colonel Brandon arrives soon after to tell Elinor that the reason he and Willoughby left was because Willoughby and seduced, impregnated and then abandoned Colonel Brandon's ward.  After much back and forth, it finally comes out to Edward's mother and sister of his engagement to Lucy...and it does not go well.  He is essentially disinherited in favor of his younger brother, but Edward shows his true colors by refusing to break of he engament just for the sake of money (good job Edward).  Elinor is resigned that he should follow his honor instead of his heart and prepares herself to live with the idea of him married to Lucy.  The Dashwood sisters start their journey home, but are stalled when Marianne falls very ill.  She is tended by Elinor, Colonel Brandon and eventually her mother. At some point Willoughby comes to seek if not forgiveness, then at least understanding.  Mariann starts to recover and they head home with Mariann being clamer and wiser for her illness.  Upon arrival they are greeted with the news of Lucy becoming Mrs. Ferrars.  Everybody believes that Edward and Lucy married...until Edward shows up to refute that idea.  Apparently after shifting the inheritance to Edward's brother, Lucy found she preferred him and left Edward.  This has the happy consequence of allowing Edward to follow his heart to Elinor, who agree's to be his wife.  They soon marry.  Marianne eventually grows to love the Colonel who has stayed by her through thick and thin and also finds happiness.  Everybody gets what they deserve, learn to be better people and live mostly happily ever after.

World Building - Set in the late 1700's in various parts of England, this at the time could be considered contemporary.  Of course we all now think of it as historical fiction...but yeah.  Anyways, the author does a good job of setting the various scene's, making us feel like we are in the various locations and really really making me want to visit 18th century England.  I always feel like I could walk the streets or parks or paths of whatever place the characters happen to be.  One of my favorite things about this author.  In this book in particular I am always enamored with Barton Cottage and the surrounding areas.

Story - With the exception of a few overly convenient plot points, the story is very well done.  We have the weaving of several story lines, a bunch of characters and a setting the brings everything together in a fairly believable fashion.  This is one of the more full on romantic of this authors novels, focusing mostly on the love lives of the main characters, but so many other things are also taken into consideration.  The ability of the author to balance romance, everyday living, practicality, humor, pathos and every other literary thing is pretty awesome.  It is even cooler when I remember that this was at the time a contemporary novel so it was written for the time, and yet still resonates now.

Character - The varied and complex characters are for me what really make a Jane Austen novel.  She has the ability to create characters that at first glance seem to be stock or even extreme, but as the novel goes on we notice nuance and growth for almost every single character.  Take the two main characters for example.  Elinor is portrayed as stoic and sensible.  This is mostly a good thing, but we see where her inability to share her feelings with the people she loves leads to miscommunication.  Marianne on the other hand is overly emotional leading people to try and calm her or tame her, yet at the same time she is shown to be able to truly enjoy life in a way most people can't.  We see Mrs. Jennings as portrayed to be a well-meaning gossip, yet by the end of the book both Elinor and Marianne see that she acts with genuine love and care.  I LOVE that everybody has a motive, arc and even in most cases some sort of redeeming quality.

Editing - To me this book makes perfect sense.  Some people have a bit of difficulty with some of the language...not Shakespeare level trouble, but enough to turn some people off.  There are several editions that contain footnotes and blurbs that explain some of the more arcane language or turns of phrase.  I find this both helpful and enlightening and find it a smart editorial choice.

Love - This book is chock full of love.  Family love, sister love, friend love, but most prominently love love.  I like this book because it shows us the many ways a person can fall in and out of love.  We have Elinor and Edward who take there time and fall in love with the whole person.  They also suffer because they are both stoic and honorable and are constantly giving each other up for various noble reasons...I'm just glad they finally got together.  Marianne shows us violent young love that does not wait for true knowledge of the other person, but rather falls in love with idea's and circumstances.  Marianne's later acknowledgement and acceptance of the slower, deeper, yet way less passionate love of Colonel Brandon shows a maturity in here way of thinking.  Lucy Steele shows us a more selfish and catty love as she attaches only to improve her station AND to make people (mostly Elinor) feel bad.  Willoughby's flirtations, seductions, abandonment's and finally marrying for money show us the worst of immature love where one only loves to gratify ones own feelings.  By exploring the various kinds of love and their consequences I feel like every teenager regardless of gender/identity should read this book to get an idea of the craziness that is what we call love.

Humor - When one talks about classics or even more specifically Jane Austen one does not necessarily think of humor.  I will probably address this again, as it is one of my favorite things about Austen's style, but let's start here.  Ms. Austen has a very subtle tongue in cheek style that can catch one of guard if you are not paying attention.  There is more then one occasion when I have laughed out loud at a turn of phrase or a well placed pun.  Also certain characters (the elder Ms. Steele and Charlotte Palmer comes to mind) that seemed to be placed in the book for comic relief.  It is this well roundedness that adds a lot to the overall reading experience.

 Ages - This is just a bit of a personal thing for me.  I know that the era that this was written in was vastly different then ours is now...but still.  In this book in particular, the ages of the girls who are looking to be married are very young, like 17 years old young.  In this book Marianne, who is 17 marries the 36 year old Colonel Brandon...who has a 15 year old female ward...who has a baby of her own...so essentially he married a girl who is the same age as his adopted daughter and made her an instant grandmother...kinda ew...and I like Colonel Brandon...but ew...and apparently lots of ellipses...Anyways.  I know there are probably worse things, and that the age difference still happens today and there are many happy couples who have a significant age difference.  I think it's the idea of a 17 year old grandmother that really gets to me...so...yeah.

Overall Impression - This first novel of my beloved Jane Austen does not disappoint.  I love the complicatedness of it, I love the humaness of it, I love the eloquance of it, I don't love the overly convenient plot fixes...but that is minor compared to the awesomeness of this debut novel.  I give it 8 out of 10 painted screens and recommend it to anybody who wants a great story, loves a classic or is looking for a non vomit inducing romance.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Super Short Classics

Some days you just don't have time to get through a whole book...especially some of the epic tomes that we consider classics.  So here are some shorter versions that I think we all have time for.

I hope you all enjoyed these quick little classics.  Visit this guys site, he is pretty funny.
Happy Reading Everybody!

Second Star To The Right

Hola my favorite readers!  So my firehouse book club strikes again.  This time my a rather unusual version of my favorite Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie was slipped into my locker.  What made this version remarkable...and hence the loaning of it to me, is the very cool and interactive illustrations by MinaLima a British duo who met on the set of Harry Potter and now share their unique vision and love of books with the rest of us.  Ok, who's ready to ramble?  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

I'm sure that most of you know the story of Peter Pan, but if not here we go.  Mr. and Mrs. Darling are the slightly beleaguered parents of Wendy, John and Michael.  The children are looked after by a huge dog referred to as Nana.  One night, after poor Nana is banished from the house in disgrace over an incident with some nasy medicine the children are visited by the infamous Peter Pan.  Peter Pan along with his companion the sassy fairy Tinkerbell have come to the Darling children's window to look for his shadow.  He finds it and tries to put it back on with soap, getting himself a light teasing from Wendy when she wakes up.  She assists him in sewing the shadow back on and after some exchanges of kisses and thimbles agree's to go with him to Neverland and tell the Lost Boys stories.  John and Michael come along and after a bit of pixie dust they are on their way.  The jealous Tink almost gets Wendy killed when she convinces Tootles, the sweetest of the Lost Boys that Peter wanted them to shoot her.  Lucky for all involved it hit a button and bounced off, so instead of a funeral the boys build her a little house.  Many adventures are had involving the Indians, mermaids, Lost Boys, fairies, flying, hunting and all kinds of wondrous things that appeal to the young...and those of us who never really grow up.  Eventually Wendy tires of playing house with Peter and decides to take her brothers home.  Peter Pan is upset, but passes it off and sends them on their way along with the rest of the Lost Boys who want to come home and be adopted by the Darling family.  What the crew doesn't realize is that the notorious Captain Jas. Hook is waiting with his pirates above ground to capture them all. See there has been a great dislike between Captain Hook and Peter Pan ever since Peter cut off Hook's had and fed it to a crocodile...along with a clock that warns Hook when he is near.   Wendy and the boys are captured and the Captain slips poison onto Peter's medicine.  Peter wakes up and changes his mind about Wendy leaving and goes to drink his medicine.  Tink in an effort to save Peter, drinks the poison instead and almost dies.  Lucky for us we can bring back a fairy by clapping our hands.  Peter and Tink set out to rescue the rest of the lot.  There is much bravery, fighting, crocodiles, hooks, baiting, switching and all around mayhem and finally Peter prevails.  The children minus Peter all head home to the distraught and anxious arms of their parents.  After the whole story comes out, the parents agree to adopt the rest of the Lost Boys.  Peter continues to come back on occasion to take Wendy to Neverland for brief amounts of time, but his sense of time is skewed and one time he comes back and she is an adult.  Peter continues to come first for Wendy's daughter and then later her granddaughter.  This continues to this day.

World Building - This is a children's fantasy story set in old school London, and mostly in the amazing Neverland!  The world is built by the author in a way that makes you feel like you are talking to a young child.  The world is both very complete and everchanging according to the whims of the children.  Peter especially can change his little corner of dream land giving us a complete yet ever changing landscape on which the imagination plays out.  Seriously though, Neverland has it all, pirates, mermaids, fairies, natives, a group of Lost Boys, magic, mystery adventure, it is the ultimate fantasy destination.

Story - The whole story of Peter Pan always feels like an ongoing dream to me.  I like how the story for this book is pretty complete, the way it is told makes you feel like there were tons of stories before this one, and plenty to come.  The story of the Darling children is very fun, and exciting and keeps a readers interest no matter the age.  It is different in style then most modern day books, and has a definite tongue in cheek feel that I adore.  The author is able to both make one feel like he remembers being a child very well, while at the same time able to point out some of the absurdities of both children and adults.

Character - I love the characters in this book, they all play a role and are all special in their own way.  My favorites are of course Peter Pan, Captain Hook and Tinker Bell.  I love the sheer wild abandon of Peter Pan.  While he very much embodies the eternal child, selfish, willful, petulant when he doesn't get his way, he is more then that.  He is a wild spirit that can't bear to be tied down, he is freedom itself for good or bad and I totally identify with his good points and his bad ones as well.
 Captain Hook has always been one of my favorite villains.  To start with the guy is a pirate...which is always a good thing in my book.  He is also apologetically mean and violent towards pretty much everybody, but the author does give him several moments of reflection in the book.  There are multiple places where we see Hook reflect on how and why he got to where he is.  We see him be strong and anti-heroic and we see him hurt and scared, a very well rounded villain.  Tinker Bell is just a sassy ball of energy and she is my role model teeheehee.  I mean the girl has attitude like nobodies business, defends what's hers, flies AND shows bits of bravery and selflessness when really needed..yep my kind of girl.  So yeah, good characters.

Editing - The style of the book is the omniscient narrator who talks directly to the reader.  It works perfectly for this book as the narrator is snarky guy who sets the tone perfectly.  The editing is well done and the book flows perfectly and simply as befitting a children's book.

Quotes - Peter Pan is one my favorite books to quote.  I could fill pages and pages with the most perfect little gems.  "Second star to the right and straight on till morning"  "To die will be an awfully big adventure" "When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”  “Never is an awfully long time.”  “All children, except one, grow up.”  “Oh, the cleverness of me!”  “Pan, who and what art thou?" he cried huskily. "I'm youth, I'm joy," Peter answered at a venture, "I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg.”  I could go on and on, but then I would pretty much just retype the whole book.  I just love the phrasing of so much of this book, it really appeals to me.

The Play - This book actually started out as a play that the author expanded into book form.  As a theatre junkie AND a huge fan of this story one could say that it is a match made in literary heaven.  I have seen the play live many times and my Mamma bought me the Mary Martin version on VHS for me to watch over and over and over again.  This is the definition of pure imagination to me and I love every fairy assisted drop of it.

Illustrations - I have several versions of this book all with different and amazing illustrations.  Since this post was inspired by the MinaLima version that is what will be used to illustrate this particular post...there will probably be other posts with other illustrations.  This book lends itself to so many styles of art and interpretations that I could probably collect a thousand different artistic versions, all with their own amazing takes on the various characters, places and situations.  This particular version not only has some very cool illustrations, but there are also many interactive elements that really add to the atmosphere of the books.

Overall Impressions - This is with out a doubt one of my absolute favorite stories.  It has everything I love about reading, fairies, mermaids, pirates, adventures, quests all of it.  I love the huge scope of imagination, I love the unlimited potential for pretty much anything to happen, I love the mix of children and adults, I love the idea that you never have to grow all the way up.  I just love it!  I give this book 10 out of 10 never birds and will read it over and over again.
Happy Reading Everybody!

Marmee's Girls

Hola, are we all ready to be done with the holiday's and back to our (sort of) regularly scheduled programming?  Great.  To get back into it I'm gonna ramble about one of my favorite old school books.  Little Women by Louisa May Alcott has been a favorite of mine for a long time and I read it as a bit of a counter balance to all the snark and weirdness I was into this year.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

This book is about the March family, a family in the New England region during the Civil War era.  Marmee (the mamma) has four girls.  The oldest is Meg, who is beautiful, practical and longs for the finer things in life.  Next comes Jo, a wild girl who when younger wishes she could have been born a boy, is creative, impetuous and loves her family dearly.  Beth comes next and is as sweet and fragile as they come, she is musically and domestically talented and is beloved by all.  Finally the youngest Amy, a fair and pretty girl with artistic talent, a wee bit of pretension and dreams of being a proper lady.  These girls are the main focus of the story and we watch them grow from teenagers into women and follow their lives, dreams, challenges, heartaches and eventual futures.  The book was origanally two separate books, Little Women and Good Wives, but has been published as one book forever.  Lets start with the first half (There is WAY too much stuff going in to put in every detail, but I'll try and give you the highlights).  The girls and their Marmee are trying their hardest to live their live in a greatly reduced state while their father is off being a chaplain for the North during the Civil War.  The are encouraged by their mother to continually improve themselves for the sake of others.  Each girl is continually featured dealing with their own particular flaws, getting into some sort of scrape because of it and becoming better for learning their lesson.  All of this is enhanced by the presence of the neighbor boy Laurie, who has his own good points and bad as well.  Meg continually struggles with her want of nice things, she wants to be comfortable and often over extends herself to the point of foolishness to obtain them.  She is called on it more than once by Laurie who prefers Meg to just be content with her natural beauty and charm.  Meg is the first to grow up and is won over by a man who while poor is honorable and loving.  Jo is continually either up or down, she is constantly frustrated at trying to constrain herself to the ideals of a female in polite society.  Lucky for Jo, her family understands her and gives her great leeway in finding herself.  She and Laurie are very close and run around getting into all sorts of shenanigans, enjoying themselves immensely.  Unfortunately, Jo's mouth and temper are getting her into all kinds of scrapes, some with significant consequences.  She is the most distraught when her sisters start to grow up and have lives of their own, as she is torn between wanting everything to stay the same, and the urge to turn life on its head.  Beth has very few flaws, other then being incredibly shy.  She is sweet and docile and just wants life to be smooth and happy for her little family.  Her giving nature leads her to fall ill with Scarlet Fever, an illness that she never fully recovers from.  Little Amy tries very hard to be good, and usually succeeds...even if she tells everybody just all about the nice things she has done.  Her burden is her desire to be a little lady and accepted in society, even if it means going against her upbringing.  Of all the girls she probably does the most growing.  The second half of the book deals with the girls as they become women and show how the hard work they put in growing up eventually pays off.  Meg marries, John and has a pair of adorable babies.  She works hard at being a good wife and mother and entertains the reader as as she tries to balance the two and her never far desire for the finer things in life.  After a heart breaking decision regarding her relationship with Laurie (she can only see him as a brother and he wants more) she leaves to New York to work on her career and eventually finds her future in a German professor by the name of Behr and a school she founds for the boys of the town.  Beth continues to serve her family and breaks all of their hearts when she can no longer fight her illness and dies.  Amy goes abroad and learns to be a gentle and devoted lady and is rewarded when she and Laurie fall in love and marry.  At the end everybody returns home, watched over by the spirit of Beth and do their best to try and live the best lives they can.

Whew that was a chunk of synopsis and it does not even got into any real detail, and the detail is where the charm lies.  I have always enjoyed this book starting the first time I read waaaaaay back in the second grade.  I think most of it comes from the fact that, especially when I was younger, I very much identified with the March family.  There were four kids, I come from a family of four kids.  There are lots of sisters in the book, I have two sisters.  Laurie reminds me very much of my own adventurous, mischievous brother.  Mamma and Daddy March tried their best to raise decent, thinking kids, with love and acceptance being the main mode of operation, the same at our house.  All of this combined with all the little episodes and going ons of the girls and Laurie made me feel like I was part of the family as it so closely resembled my own.  Now that I am older I appreciate the struggle of many of the characters to just become better humans,  They all have flaws that most humans have, but instead of glorifying them, or vilifying them, the author used them to create very realistic and constantly growing characters.  Now all that being said, the book can very preachy and moralizing, but never in a judgmental way, but more in a gentle "hey maybe not be so selfish so everybody can be happy" sort of way.  All the girls are realistic, with not any one being better then the other, and even little angel Beth had her moments of self-pity and little rebellions.  I also like how all the characters grew and improved, but still struggled with their own particular problems, none of them magically going away, but constantly being worked on.  Jo was always my favorite, with her boyish and bold personality...and since I have been accused of having a big mouth on more then one occasion understand the struggle.  I have read this book so many times that I rarely read the whole thing cover to cover anymore, perfering to flip to the bits and pieces that best suit my mood and situation at the time.  Overall it is a great read for anybody who likes early American fiction, great characters and/or an overall timeline that can be read in small stories.  I give it 8 out of 10 limes and will probably read it several more times.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Not Quit Haunted House

Alrighty folks, it's gonna be a beast of a week.  Without being held over, or overtime I'm on the ambulance for at least 96 hours this week...so if I miss a few days of posting you know why.  In the meantime, here is the first of my spooky October ramblings to tide you over.  The book is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and I have had my eye on it for quit some time.  It took me a bit to get into it, but it was worth it.  I will try and do my best to get my feelings down...but first as always SPOILERS AHEAD! (seriously if you haven't read the book yet do yourself a favor and read it first 'cause half the coolness of the book is the surprises)

The whole book has a bit of a dreamy feel to it, but I will do my best to get the basic story across.  We start the story with our unnamed narrator (we never learn her first name...or her maiden name) giving us the famous opening line of the book "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again."  This sets the stage for our story.  The narrator takes be to when she first met the older Maxim de Winter when she was no more then a shy poor girl, fresh from school in the 1930's.  She is the paid companion of a loud and brassy American woman who has decided to spend some time in Monte Carlo.  When the lady falls sick, our narrator is left to her own devices and ends up spending time, and falling in love with the quiet and reserved Maxim de Winter.  She finds out that his wife Rebecca died the year before, drowned in a boating accident and that he has left his beloved Manderly to get away from his memories.  He decides to marry her, making her the second Mrs. de Winter and takes her back to Manderly with him.  Once there our narrator spends most of her time just trying to figure out how to fit in to this new high class life.  She is haunted by the memory of Rebecca, constantly comparing herself to dead woman and coming up short.  This is not helped as most of the people in the surrounding area are constantly telling the second Mrs. de Winters how different she is from Rebecca, how Rebecca was beautiful and vibrant and personable and polished and pretty much everything that the narrator feels she is not.  The house itself holds many memories of the late Rebecca, kept alive by the mysterious house keeper Mrs. Danvers who keeps the west wing of the house exactly as it was when Rebecca was alive.  Maxim himself seems to be distant and occasionally angry now that they are back at Manderly and the narrator is concerned that he regrets his impulsive decision to marry her.  This all comes to a dramatic head when at a fancy dress party, Mrs. Danvers convinces the narrator to unknowingly wear the same costume that Rebecca wore to her last party before she died.  Maxim understandably is upset, further convincing the narrator he is not happy with her.  After the party, a boat runs ashore and subsequently a diver finds the boat Rebecca died in...with her body in it.  Maxim admits to his new wife that Rebecca didn't drown in an accident.  Maxim tells her that he shot Rebecca down at the beach after she told him she was pregnant with another mans child.  Maxim reveals that while to the world Rebecca was wonderful, she was actually quit awful and made Maxim miserable.  He shot her, put her body in her boat and sank it.  Instead of being horrified, the narrator is relieved that she no longer has to compare herself to the dead woman.  She is now confident in Maxim's love for her, precisely because she is so very different from his first wife.  The death is ruled a suicide and it seems that the de Winters can live their life in peace.  Unfortunatly, a cousin of Rebecca's declares that Maxim killed her and he has proof in the form of a note from Rebecca asking him to come see her.  He says that she would not have written the note if she planned on killing herself.  Mrs. Danvers is called in and she produces a notebook with all of Rebecca's schedule in it which shows a mysterious doctors appointment.  Maxim and the narrator are sure that when the doctor is interviewed he will tell of the pregnancy, casting doubt on the suicide story.  When the doctor is finally tracked down, it is revealed that Rebecca actually had ovarian cancer, which back in that day was untreatable and motive for suicide.  On their way home the de Winters speculate that it was possible for Rebecca to have goaded Maxim into killing her after hearing her diagnosis...one last bit of revenge before she died.  Maxim gets a call at their hotel informing him that Mrs. Danvers has disappeared after the verdict and is assumed to have moved on to another house.  The narrator has a very bad feeling and encourages Maxim to get back to Manderly.  They arrive just in time to watch it burn down.  The pair then take to the road...taking us back to the beginning of the book.

I initially chose this book because many people who recommended The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson which I adored, said it had a similar feel.  I agree with that assessment to a point.  The book defiantly falls into the atmospheric category, with much of the suspense coming from the environment itself.  Unlike Hill House, which felt mad and haunted, this book felt sad and desperate...in a good way...I'm not making any sense am I?  Ok let's try this again.  I mentioned before that the book was a little hard to get into, and this is really its only salient bad point.  It took me a while to get into the rhythm of the flowey, dreamy language which in my opinion tended to get way to overly descriptive of scenery and such.  Oddly enough once I got into the story just sort of flowed, it was one of those books that even when you put it down for a few minutes, you kept thinking about it, kept wanting to go back to it.  I absolutely LOVE this kind of book, because it feels living and breathing to me.  The author made the choice to never name the main character/narrator, leaving her as only the second Mrs. de Winters if she was named at all.  I think this was brilliant as it gave us even more of a feeling of this poor girls feelings of inadequacy.  In the end I feel that this is what this book is really about.  One girls journey into owning her own life and becoming a woman.  She starts completely powerless and then when given the opportunity to become the mistress of a very important house and family she is constantly made to feel inferior.  Lack of information, communication and encouragement from anybody at all connected with her just keeps her feeling sad and desperate to be happy.  It is not until she finds a way to posses herself and actually force communication to happen does she finally grow up.  The sequence of events in this book, while not necessarily horrifying are definitely suspenseful and surprising.  I will say I did not see most of what happened coming and that made my enjoyment of the book even more complete.  The ending of this book is the kind that I love because it ties right back to the beginning, making it possible to have a real ending without it feeling rushed or contrived.  I call this a loop ending and it is one of my favorite ways to end a book or series.  This book will not be everybodies cup of tea (or coffee), the style of it is very specific and you have to be able to let yourself just kind of get swept into the book to really enjoy it.  While not the spine tingling madness of Hill House, this book did deliver suspense and a few chills and was a great October read.  I give it 8 out of 10 cold lunches and recommend it to anybody who loves an atmospheric book, full of tension and imagery.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Tales Of Old

It took me a while, but I finally finished The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.  It did not take me so long because it was bad, but because of the way it is structured it really lent itself to picking up and putting down, making it the perfect backpack/work/station book.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

This book is a collection of tales told by various travelers on a pilgrimage.  The host proposes that everybody in the group tells a story and it is agreed.  We are introduced to our travelers (which changes depending on which version you read), in this version we have the Host, the Knight, the Miller, The Reeve, the Wife of Bath, the Clerk, the Franklin, the Pardoner, and the Nun's Priest.  Each tells a story in their turn, each adding their own voice to the group. I guess the best way to sum it up is to tell about each player's tale.
The Knight's Tale - This is a story of love, betrayal, friendship and the gods.  It is told in a mix of Greek and classic medieval story telling and is probably the most intense of all the stories.Two friends are taken prisoner and both fall in love with a princess of the land.  They both get free in different ways and pursue the girl.  It comes down to a battle between the two, with all involved beseeching their particular god for intervention.
The Millers Tale - This is probably the most popular of the Canterbury Tales...probably because it is the bawdiest of them all. A woman who is married to the carpenter is none the less wooed by two scholars.  She accepts one, and taunts the other.  Meanwhile she and her scholar lover scheme to keep her not so smart husband out of the house so that they can...you know...do things :-)  This is definitely a story that appeals to the lower brow among us (I loved it).
The Reeve's Tale-Here we have a tale of mistaken identity and revenge.  After people cheating people out of stuff, two men get revenge on a miller by sneaking into the beds of his wife and daughter.  There is also a beating or two.  This is a quick and dirty story to be quickly read.
The Wife of Bath's Tale - In this story, the prologue is much longer then the actual story and involves the story teller telling of her delight in the dominance of her husbands and her love of the marital bed.  She tells how she essentially bully and tortures her husbands into an early grave and moves on to the next one.  Her actual tale is about a knight tasked with finding out what women truly want.
The Clerk's Tale - This story kind of pissed me off.  It's about a king who marries a common woman then proceeds to test her loyalty by telling her he is going to kill their children.  She being the "model" wife accepts this.  He eventually reveals that he did not kill them, but rather sent them away to be raised by other people.  Seriously this is one messed up tale.
The Franklin's Tale - A fairly typical story of a couple in love.  He gets sent to fight in a war and she is wooed by another man.  She remains faithful, but makes a foolish promise to the desperate suitor that he gets through trickery.  When she is willing to give up her life rather then be unfaithful or break her promise the suitor finally relents.  In this story the husband is actually fairly understanding and supportive of his wife.
The Pardoner's Tale - This tale is a it confusing, but essentially three young men indulge in all sorts of vices and then pay the ultimate price.  The best part of this tale is that the teller is almost as bad as the subjects of his own tale.
The Nun's Priest Tale - This story takes the form of a fable involving a rooster, his chicken wives and a fox.  It is the idea of dreams and their interpretations that takes center stage in this story, with many a prophetic dream being recounted.

This is a great read for several reasons.  The first being that every story is interesting in its own way.  There is a huge variety in theme and style and it gives the book lots of interest.  The second is that it gives a glimpse into the way life was during this time period.  Third, the language is just absolutely beautiful.  The version of the book that I have (and there are tons of versions with ton of various combinations of stories) is cool because it has the original old English on the one page and a "translation" on the other.  I like reading it as much as I can in the old English because the rhythm and rhyme is very transporting, sometimes though it is nice to have a definition of some of the more obscure words.  I will say that the attitude towards women in general in this book is pretty bad.  They are expected to be docile, faithful and put up with pretty much anything the husband, father, brother or male guardian can throw at her.  I found it amusing that in the Wife of Bath's tale, she not only does what ever she wants, but tells her tale about how what women really want is the freedom of choice.  Overall I found this book to much more readable then anticipated and really enjoyed the variety and language.  I recommend it to anybody who wants to read a true classic without the daunting million page story.  Almost anyone should be able to find at least one story in this book that they enjoy.  I give this book 8 out of 10 tales and will keep it on my classics shelf.
What is your favorite tale?  How do you feel about how women were treated back in the day?  Why are all the "classics" so full of sex?

Literary Allusions In A Haunted Forest

My birthday weekend rocked.  I have to say I have the best friends and family on planet earth and having a birthday in the middle of fall/near Halloween is just icing on the really yummy molten lava cake they bought me for my birthday.  The weekend started with a two hour Skype with the Mamma, followed by phone calls, video's and cards from all of my nephews.  A quick check in with Daddy and the siblings and I was ready to party.  Baby Sis and her husband came down from PA to party with me, the Hubbin and some very close friends in my favorite Irish pub.  I love the feel of this pub, it is an old in with all these little tables tucked away and you can just imagine your favorite author jotting down his/her story with a glass of Irish whisky in hand.
Saturday started out at my favorite used book store 2nd & Charles and between me and Baby Sis we may have filled up the trunk of the car with books...we may never be allowed to go back.  Dinner with friends and then on to Markoff's Haunted Forest.  The whole event was based on Dante's Inferno with the attractions being named and themed after the seven circles of Hell.  I do not scare easily, but the people I was with do, so I was thoroughly entertained the whole time (all right I admit it, I did my fair share of screaming too!).  We rode the zip-line, which in the middle of the night is the best feeling in the world.  There were bon fires, food, music, and a ton of demons to keep us on our toes.  The best part of the night was the actual trail itself.  You get to wander through the woods, through various vignette's all while clinging tightly to your group.  Six of us ended up going through together and you could tell we were all book geeks by our numerous references to books through out.  One girl got "volunteered" to be tribute (as in Katniss volunteering in The Hunger Games).  There was a swamp that instead of scaring us, led to a five minute discussion on how it reminded us of the Dread Marshes from the Two Towers...until the scary monsters asked us to kindly move along.  One of the sections contained a combination of human and dragon bones that looked like it could have come straight out of Game of Thrones, complete with a GIANT dragon skull that nearly knocked one of our own into the swamp.  Overall the scares were great, the night was perfect and I could not have asked for better people to spend my birthday weekend with.  I hope you all had a great weekend too and can't wait to get some of my ramblings up this week.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Kill The Spare

Ok folks, this has taken a while, but I am finally ready to ramble about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  I know I finished rereading it a while ago, but you know...life and such.  If you need a synopsis go to the HP Lexicon and you will get all the details.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

This is my favorite HP book, it takes us into the wizarding world as a whole, and starts the end game in a most spectacular fashion.  We also get our first glimpse of just how far the author is willing to go for her story.  Let's go through the things that struck me the most.

Quidditch World Cup - So many things to love about this part of the book.  First off, it is the wizard version of the FIFA World Cup, which is a favorite of mine, so right off the bat I'm pretty happy.  I also really liked seeing people live their everyday lives in the wizarding world.  Having Harry stay at the Weasly's as they eat, clean, play and figure out basic things like how to get to the Quidditch World Cup with a bunch of kids takes the magic from the classroom to the everyday.  We also get to see that wizards are from all over the world, each with their own culture, dress, and ways of doing things. The game itself was wonderfully written and a prime example of why I love these books so much.  It could easily get muddled or boring, describing a bunch of people flying around on brooms and hitting balls, but Ms. Rowling shows us the whole thing from Harry's perspective, which is that of a first timer, just like the readers.  I could read this opening over and over and over...oh wait I have.

Tri-Wizard Tournament - There is a ton to love about the tournament, starting with our first glimpse of other schools.  Hermione makes a point that there obviously has to be more then one school of magic out there as their are thousands of wizards and at most Hogwarts graduates apx 40 kids a year, and that is assuming that they all pass.  Seeing the different way's the students are taught, how their enviroment and culture infulence their uniforms and attitudes is pretty neat.  The challanges are pretty cool, being varied in nature and once again showing us a bunch of things we have never seen before.  Each of the contestants comes at each challange in a different way, showing us that critical thinking plays a part in most magical dealings.  I do however feel bad for the rest of the students at all three schools.  Durmstrang and Beuxbatons both left the bulk of their students behind with some substitue headmaster, while the Hogswarts students have nothing to do all year except go to the three challanges spread through out the year...and the second two were not even visible to the audiance.

Hermione and the Boys - I love love love Hermione in this book (ok I love her in all the books, but seriously she is awesome in this one).  She shows everybody that while she may be super smart and practicle, she is also a girl, with feminine feelings and the ability to clean up pretty when she wants to.  This is one of those cases that adds a sense of reality to the books.  Hermione is around Ron and Harry so much, in the role of friend, researcher, homework nag, and awesome spell caster that the fact that she is also a teenage girl is totaly lost on them.  It takes a boy ( a kind of dumb boy) who has some distance and perspective to make them realize that yes in fact Hermione is a potential love intrest...or at least somebody to ask to a dance.  I like that Hermione deals with it partially in a grown-up, roll her eyes at the idocy of boys way, and also in a frustrated, tear filled, teenage girl way.  It is good to show that even our smarty mcsmarty pants has emotions, and that they are valid and in no way make her any less of an awesome person.

Ron and Harry - Ron and Harry have always had an interesting relationship.  They are mostly inseperable, teaming up when Malfoy gets out of hand, Divination homework is due, or Hermione gets a bit high and mighty for their taste.  It has to be hard on Ron though, already being the youngest boy in a very chaotic family, and then the best friend of the kid who everything seems to happen too.  When Harry's name comes out of the Goblet of Fire, I imagine Ron just lost it, I'm sure he was thing "of course Harry is going to be in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, why would he?  Everything happens to him, or is given to him, or is about him."  Of course Harry rarely goes searching for these things, and many times much angst and anguish accompany these "adventures", but I can see where it would be excruciating at times for Ron.  The fight in this book between the two of them is realistic and heartbreaking, and lets the reader explore some of the problems of being the percieved her and sidekick.

The Ending - So much happened in this book, but of course what most people talk about is the end.  Several BIG things happen in the last couple of chapters.  First of all the normal culmination of all the little tidbits that Ms. Rowling has sprinkled through out the book come to the awesome conclusion of Mad-Eye, Barty Crouch Jr.  and of course the return of HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED!  Second, they way that Voldemort came back was just...evil.  If we ever thought that maybe our resident Dark Lord was just misunderstood, these chapter's completely dispelled that notion.  The casual death of a young person, the brutal collecting of flesh and blood, the toying with his followers and then attempting to kill Harry (which would be a second dead kid in a short span) all show us just how bad this bad guy is.  The ending leaves us with a sense of dread and foreboding, knowing that it can only get worse.

The Film - The movie version of this book is a bit dissapointing.  I know it is mostley because the book is stuffed full to bursting with all kinds of awesomeness that just does not translate to the screen...but still.  They cut out a lot of characters, Dobby does not even make an apperance, despite his pivotal role in the second challange.  The movie feels rushed and bit like they were catering to what they thought the audiance wants, rather then what the book was doing.  The change to make the two schools all male and all female seemed odd to me as that was not in the book, skipping the whole Duddly and the Ten-Tounge Toffee bit was sad, Dobby missing is never good and...well there was just a bunch of stuff that made me go blah.  The visuals were stunning as always, and I could watch the under the lake challange several times over.  Danial Radcliff , still does a great look of wonder when encountering new magic that makes me smile every time I see it.  The interaction between the three friends is still wonderful on screen, and the kid who played Victor Krum was quit tasty.  Overall the movie was ok, but the book was much better.

I love rereading this book, there is so much to it and it gets the second half of the series off to a rousing start.  When I think of this series, this is the book that usually comes to mind.  It is the perfect mix of a school age adventure, growing up, and how events in the world will always play a role in a persons life, regardless of their age.  I give this book 9 out of ten Hungarian Horntails.

What was your favorite part of this book?  Were you dissapointed in the movie, or do you undertand that it can't be 10 hours long?  How bad do you wish you had the ability to turn certain people into ferrets?

There Is No Place Like Home

Yay, after much swearing, pounding of the keyboard, and a ton of coffee, I have finally gotten my technology to behave again!  In celebration of this, let's take a look at a short story collection I have recently finished.  The book is Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond, by  John Joseph Adams (Editor), Douglas Cohen (Editor).  I picked it up because I love all things Wizard of Oz, and it had some great authors contributing to it.  Here are some of my favorite stories.

The Great Zeppelin Heist of Oz by Rae Carson and C.C. Finlay - The first story in the collection was a witty little bit of fun.  It puts the witches in the role of smart ladies and the wizard in a more bumbling, conniving role, loved it.

The Lost Girls of Oz by Theodora Goss - This story is all about girl power in its best form, making Oz a haven for abused girls and giving them a way to fight back.  Nell, the reporter and main character in this story is a perfect voice to let us all know what is going on.

The Boy Detective of Oz: An Otherland Story by Tad Williams - This was a strange and cool little story that placed Oz in a virtual world, making it a sort of program.  This scifi take was cool in itself, and makes me want to go pick up the Otherland novels, which is always cool.

Off to See the Emperor by Orson Scott Card - This was a twisty little story about a little boy and a girl and how the story of Oz came to be.  The idea of a snarky 9 year old girl was written to perfection, adding just the right note to this story.

The Cobbler of Oz by Jonathan Maberry - This is probably my favorite story in this collection.  It is a sweet story about a little monkey girl with stunted wings who gets a great reward after a great risk.  It also gives a potential origin for the coveted Silver Slippers.

Over all the collection was a bit meh, but a lot of the stories were really dark and I was not in the mood for dark, so that may have had something to do with it.  In the beginning they say that you do not have to have read the original books to enjoy this collection, but I must say, it definitely helps if you have.  It did make me want to read the originals again and since they are free or cheap on the e-reader you may be seeing some original ramblings pop up. Be warned that this collection is not for children, more for the over 15 crowd.  As much as I liked a few of these stories the over all feeling was a 6 out of 10 silver slippers, but your mileage may vary, depending on your style preferences.
What do you think of short stories based on classics?  Does it feel like professional fanfic?  What type of story would you write about Oz?

Water And Wizards

You know those books you know you should read, the ones by the authors you are pretty sure you are gonna love, the ones that you see on the shelves of your local bookstore, reviewed favorably by all your trusted sources and raved about by all your closest reading buddies, the ones that will probably become one of your favorites...if you could just pick it up an read it. So then finally one day you do pick it up and read it and then you beat yourself up for taking so long to pick up one of your new favorite books, WHY WHY WHY you groan to yourself, why did I take so long to read this, I could have read the rest of the series by now, I could have reread this by now, I could have gushed to everybody who would listen to this by now...why why why?!? That folks is how I felt about A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, yep it has taken me more years then I care to admit to finally read this gem and I will tell you why shortly, but first as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

A young boy dwelling in a northern island called Gont is found to have great wizarding potential.  He is taught by the local witch and saves his village from eastern Kargard raiders who have crossed on of the many oceans and seas to raid the boys little village.  He calls down a fog so thick that the villagers can escape and the many of the invaders are killed in the confusion.  The boy (who calls himself Sparrowhawk) is then taken to be taught by the hermit wizard Ogion who gives him his true name which is Ged.  Ged learns quickly and soon chafes under the slow pace that Ogion appears to be teaching him, culminating in him showing off to a local girl by summoning a spirit for the world beyond.  Ogion tells Ged that he has a choice, he can stay and continue to learn from Ogion at a slow pace, but will learn great control along the way, or he can leave and sail for Roke, where wizards are trained under the Archmage and his associates.  As much as Ged loves his master, he is young and hungry for power and chooses to leave.  Ged gets to Roke and is accepted as a pupil, and there he meets two people who will play two very different roles in his life.  The first is Jasper an older boy who seems to always be not quit mocking Ged, always challenging him, making him feel young and stupid, but not in an obvious way.  The other is Vetch, the big man from Iffish who is becomes Ged's

steadfast friend.  Ged learns quickly, always hungry for more knowledge and more power.  This all comes out when Jasper who has been awarded the title of sorcerer challenges Ged, resulting in Ged summoning what he ends up calling the Shadow, a twisted, deformed monster that hungers to take over Ged's body and use his powers for evil and destruction.  Ged is severely wounded and the Archmage dies protecting him.  A new Archmage is chosen, telling the finally recovered Ged that he must stay of Roke as that is the only place the Shadow cannot get to him. Ged stays and returns to his learning, but at a much slower, much more cautious pace.  He eventually earns his wizard staff and goes out into the world to earn his keep.  He ends up being the wizard to a small fishing village in the west of the world, very close to the island of Pendor which houses a dragon and his spawn.  The village is worried that when the dragons spawn get older, they will sate their voracious appetites by eating the villagers.  Ged works and lives among the people, until he starts to sense his Shadow, he knows he cannot stay and endanger the villagers, yet he cannot leave them defenseless against the dragons either. He decides to go to the island of Pendor and take care of the problem head on.  He defeats several of the young dragons and confronts the father dragon with his true name (in this world any who know a person or things true name has mastery over it, this is the real study of wizards).  The dragon tries to bargain with Ged, offering to tell him the Shadows true name, but Ged refuses and instead exacts an oath that the dragon or his offspring will never harm the villagers.  Ged then sails hither and yon, attempting to flee the Shadow.  He ends up in Osskill, a frozen island to the north where he has a run in with the Shadow, who uses Ged's name and saps him of all power.  He ends up in the care of Serret and her old husband the lord of the castle.  Serret shows him a stone that appears to be all powerful and tells him that it can tell him the name of his Shadow.  Ged realizes that the stone is actually a
prison for a malevolent spirit that has already taken in Serret and her husband for its own uses.  Ged refuses the offer of power and flees.  He sails to various islands, learning and processing life, eventually ending up on his old home island of Gont where his old master shows him that he will need to confront his Shadow if he is to ever have any sort of life.  Ged takes this to heart and instead of running starts pursuing his shadow.  After chasing it hither and yon (I love that phrase) Ged ends up on the island of Iffrish and meets up with his old friend Vetch. Together they set sail past the last known island to the south east and into the open ocean. Eventually Ged finds his Shadow and names it using his own name, finally figuring out that the Shadow he called up so long ago is actually part of him, and by naming it his true name he assumes mastery over himself.  The two friends sail home, thus starting the Earthsea Cycle and the adventures of Ged a wizard of Earthsea.

Obviously there is a whole lot of rich detail that has been left out of the synopsis.  This book is actually not all that long, but the story and the words and the imagery are just packed in like a delicious box full of chocolates.  There are a couple of reasons that it took me so long to pick this book up, the first being I had read a couple short stories of hers and while I enjoyed them, they seemed a bit dense and hard to get into and I have read "classics" that are no more then pretty words that do not add up to anything special.  This was not the case for this book.  In this case I think the full novel length of this book is much more suited to the style of prose that Ms. Le Guin employs, it is like the world of Earthsea itself a prose that swells and ebbs just like the ocean, and having enough pages for this full cycle of words to be expressed works much better then in a short story (in my own little opinion).  I will however go back and read some of the short stories now that I have a handle of the rhythem of the authors prose and see if it comes across differently. The second reason it took me a while is that there was no "hook" to get me excited to read it, I knew I should for all the reasons in the opening paragraph, but there was nothing that I had heard about that made me go "oh I have to read that right now!".  Of course now that I have read it, well I still feel the same way.  See this book is very subtle and not a really in your face type of work.  To me it is more of a story, or a piece of a long saga, and less of a book, which I love!  In some ways it reminds me of what Tolkien was trying to do with his Middle Earth saga and that is create a whole mythos for a world.  This wizard Ged we are told right away is a great and mighty epic wizard of fame and awesomeness, but the story we read is his personal journey to become the eventual legend. There is also a taste of C.S. Lewis in her prose, in the
actual traveling and interactions of Ged. This is not in any way to say that she is copying these authors, or that she has no style of her own, quit the opposite Ms. Le Guin has a very unique and beautiful writing style that is all her own, any references I make are just points of good writing that I think any good author needs to hit to be considered a writer worthy of praise. I loved that the struggle of the main character was not an epic violent battle of good vs. evil with a whole war to tear the world of Earthsea apart.  In fact the author purposely did not have her world at war, or any major world wide struggle, which is so prevalent in high fantasy.  The story however did not lag, it was still a battle of sorts, and the out come of the struggle was still as dire as any war, it was just more about a powerful man knowing himself and using that knowledge to defeat the dark parts of himself. This book is one of those where the setting is almost a character itself.  This world of Earthsea is just that, a place that is mostly water, where the land is all of these islands, there are no major landmasses like we think of, just greater and lesser islands. This influences a lot of the story in a very positive way (also keep the map in the front of the book handy to help keep all the places straight).  I also loved that nobody was white (Ok the barbarian invaders where white in a Viking sort of way, but that is it).  The hero's, the women, the men, the children, everybody was some shade of brown or black 'cause that is just how it is and especially in the era these were written, in the hey day of epic fantasy, non-white hero' were not (and sadly still are not) the norm. This point of her world is not pounded into our heads, this is not a "hey look I'm being awesome by writing about brown people" type of book, this is just how it is and I love it.  Ok so this post is getting to be as long as the book so I will attempt to wrap it up.  As I am sure you can tell, I really enjoyed this book.  It is powerful, yet subtle, epic, yet personal, involves a whole world, but is about the individual, there is magic, friendship, oceans, sailing, learning, jealousy, dragons, family, enemies, everything you could want in a book without it feeling crowded or stuffed. It is beautiful and sticks in your head and will go on my favorites shelf along with the rest of the series that I am now on my way to the book store to pick up.  I give it 9 out of 10 islands in an endless sea.

What books do you know you should read that you haven't?  What is stopping you from reading those books? Do I know how to ramble or what?