PreSchool Gems

PreSchool Gems

I happened to notice Preschool Gems on the New Book shelf at the library and flipped through it quickly and decided to check it out. It's a collection of bon mots from the younger set, and the few that I glimpsed look cute.

"I'm feeling poisonous, baby kitty."

This is a real cute book of the cute-things-kids-say genre. I liked it because it seemed more genuine than a lot of other books of that type: the quotes aren't earth-shatteringly perceptive, or side-splittingly funny. They're the kind of thing that little kids say every day. Some of them have their own brand of childlike logic, and some of them seemingly no logic at all.

"Um, she chopped my hand with a piece of bark because I said her ice cream wasn't real? But also, I want some?

Leslie McCollom, the author, is a preschool teacher. I liked her book particularly because she's not condescending toward the children, and she doesn't go in for all the double entendre stuff that a lot of authors of this type of book do. She also has a Twitter Feed that you might want to sign up for.

It's a good read.

" Know what? I really, really, really...I forgot what I was going to say."

Insurgent

Insurgent

This is technically considered Young Adult fiction, and it's been a lot of years since I was considered a young adult. Still, I really enjoyed the first book in the series, Divergent .



Update:

This series is definitely worth a read, although, I have to say, I didn't like this book quite as well as the first one.

At the end of Divergent , Tris -- our main character -- had successfully transitioned from the family's faction of Abnegation to her new home with the Divergent. And a horrible war had just broken out.

Insurgent continues the story, as the now homeless Divergent population finds temporary refuge with Amity, and then with Candor, giving us a look at both of those factions, too. It's becoming more and more evident that none of the factions is entirely without merit, or blame. (Well, except for the Erudite, but I'm sure we'll get to them in the next book.)

I particularly admire the way the author handles the romance in this series. It seems relatively authentic for a young girl like Tris, and yet it's neither cloying nor exploitative. I'm eager to see what the next book will be like, but I guess I'll have to wait until it gets published. Sigh.

Watch the Book Trailer for Insurgent:

 

 

Dancing with Cats

Dancing with Cats

This falls into the "I think this is a joke" category. It's written by Burton Silver and Heather Busch, who brought us such wonders as Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics, Why Paint Cats: The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics, and The Naughty Victorian Hand Book: The Rediscovered Art of Erotic Hand Manipulation. I never know what to expect from these people. Well, actually, I guess I do.


Update:

"Last year, when we had the feng shui catman in....."

My absolute favorite sentence in this book started out something like that. Dancing With Cats is a fun book, a parody, and a delight for anyone who loves cats or is forced to live with someone who does.

It's full of that special blend of Burton Silver/Heather Busch humor that's so delightful in their other books. Amazon Reviewers can't seem to agree on just how "real" the pictures are. (My personal opinion is that a lot of them are probably authentic photos, but taken when a cat was lying down and stretching, and then made to look as though they were in mid-air. A few of the pictures look as though a leg might have been repositioned courtesy of PhotoShop, but I don't know -- cats do get into some kind of weird positions sometimes.)

Anyway, it's a fun book, and it's currently an Amazon "Bargain Book", so you might be able to get a good buy on it. Christmas gift, anyone?

Hide Me Among the Graves

Hide Me Among the Graves

Oh, my, this was fun!

Hide Me Among the Graves is a new novel by Tim Powers and a distant sequel to his The Stress of Her Regard, which was first published in 1990. The Stress of Her Regard is apparently about Keats, Byron, Shelley -- and vampires! (I say "apparently" because I haven't read it yet, but you can be sure I will.)

Hide Me Among the Graves takes us into another generation of vampire hunting. This time the chief bad guys are the spirits of John Polidori and Boudica. (Polidori was Byron's personal physician and the author of the short story that helped to inspire Dracula. Boudica was 1st century British female warrior who led an uprising against the Romans.) The vampire hunters are veterinarian John Crawford (who is also a main character in The Stress of Her Regard) and former prostitute Adelaide McKee. Other significant characters include Christina and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, and author/adventurer Edward Trelawny. And there's where the fun begins.

I found the shenanigans of the Rossettis' totally convincing, given what little I know about them. One of the most well-known acts in Dante Gabriel's life was his romantic burial of the only copies of his poems in the grave of his wife. Some years later, he changed his mind and had her dug up so he could get them back. This book actually presents Rossetti in a more favorable light than history does. And I totally believe that Algernon Swinburne would have sold his soul to write better poetry. Oh, yeah!

Other than that, the book has us wandering through the streets and sewers of Victorian London, and the action gets pretty exciting and scary at times -- I actually found myself biting my fingers. A terrific read that I highly recommend.

(Now I just have to find a copy of The Stress of Her Regard.)

The Kingmaker's Daughter

The Kingmaker's Daughter

The Kingmaker's Daughter is the latest in Phillipa Gregory's "Cousins' War" series -- what most of us probably think of as The War of the Roses. It was the 15th century conflict between the two branches of the Plantagenet family, the houses of York and of Lancaster.

The title character in this book is Anne Neville, daughter of the Earl of Warwick, popularly known as the Kingmaker for his power and political maneuvering. Anne was married, first, to Edward of Lancaster and heir to the throne of England after his father, King Henry VI. After his death she married Richard of Gloucester, who later became Richard III. Thus, Anne was at various times allied with both the House of York and the House of Lancaster.

Gregory's earlier books in this series, The Lady of the Rivers, The White Queen, and The Red Queen are rather interesting in that they treat many of the same events from differing points of view. The books are told in the first person by the title character, which tends to give them all the same voice -- Gregory's -- which is sort of a problem for me. Nevertheless. I find the series fascinating, and will no doubt continue to read it.

Gregory says that her next book will be called The White Princess and will be about the Princess Elizabeth of York, daughter of Henry IV, niece of Richard III, wife of Henry VII, and mother of Henry VIII. I can't wait.

Un-Spell Book

The Un-Spell Book

You can call it Magick, but it's really just about focusing your energy.

As such, I suppose it's valuable to be reminded that in attempting to achieve things it's necessary to be clear in your intention, focused on the result, and always grounded. What is perhaps not quite as valuable is Mya Om's recitation of spell after spell after spell, all dealing with essentially the same elements. She criticizes other books whose "spells read like recipes in a cookbook", but that's essentially what she's given us.

It took me forever to finish this book. A book about Magick should be a lot more fun, don't you think?

Divergent

Divergent

In post-apocalyptic Chicago, citizens are required to join one of 5 "factions", each representing and serving a different virtue. There's Abnegation, Candor, Amity, Erudite, and Dauntless. On one day of the year, all 16-year-olds are required to declare themselves, and join one of the factions. If they choose a different faction than the one they grew up in that means leaving their family forever. There's no turning back.

Divergent is the story of Beatrice (Tris) Prior, a young girl brought up in an Abnegation household. She opts for the Dauntless, and immediately begins a rigorous training program, where success and failure could be literally a matter of life and death. Tris also has a special ability -- one she must keep hidden at all costs.

If you think this sounds a little bit like The Hunger Games , you're not far wrong. There is, however, one important distinction between Divergence and The Hunger Games. I actually liked this book.

I don't remember exactly what I didn't like about The Hunger Games, and I wasn't doing reviews then, so I can't just look it up. I do remember that I decided, after reading the first book in the series, that I wasn't going any further. It seemed an important thing to remember -- I didn't want to read that series again by accident.

I checked Divergent out of the library the other day, read half of it before I went to bed, and then finished it up the next morning. That afternoon I ordered the sequel. It's a quick read, and very absorbing.

There is one little thing about this book that bothers me, however. It's the name of the factions: Abnegation, Candor, Amity, Erudite, Dauntless. They're not even all the same parts of speech. I suppose you could argue that the adjectives can be used as a noun -- the Erudite, the Dauntless -- but then you have 2 factions with names that describe the people, and 3 that describe the quality. The lack of symmetry distresses me. I'd even accept it if four of them referred to the adherents, and only Abnegation the quality, because -- well, you know how those Abnegation people are, never wanting to draw attention to themselves.

Now, if only there was a faction for the anal-rententive.