Reading, Reviews, Young Adult

Wildwood Dancing Review

I read Wildwood Dancing, by Juliet Marillier, because another book blogger (whose blog I can’t find anymore…woops…) said it was one of her favorite books of all time. It was published in 2007, but I had never heard of it before a few weeks ago. I looked it up on goodreads.com and decided it was a good time for a fairy tale style book. And I was right. I devoured this book. Lost sleep over it, in fact. This is the first book I have read by Marillier, and I’m already onto my second.

Wildwood Dancing (Wildwood, #1)Wildwood Dancing is loosely based on the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale, with many changes and additions. Set in Transylvania, in a castle in the fabled Wildwood, the book opens on a family of five daughters saying goodbye to their father for the winter. He must leave for better climates due to health concerns. He leaves Jena, his second eldest daughter, in charge of the family and family merchant business. In a time when women were not considered worthy of much education, Jena’s father goes against the grain in allowing his daughters as many educational opportunities as possible in a small village setting.

Jena and her sisters, Tatiana, Paula, Iulia, and Stela, are saddened by their father’s departure, but they are cheered by a secret they have long shared: they have a portal to the Other Kingdom. What is the Other Kingdom? It’s where the fantasy characters of fairy tales live–dwarves, trolls, fairies, and many other non-human beings. Every full moon, Jena and her sisters are able to access the portal into the Other Kingdom for the dance held at full moon. They do not wear out shoes, but they do have secret stashes of ball gowns. This arrangement seems perfect, but there is a darkness hovering over the family related to the Wildwood. As a little girl, Jena and her two cousins, Costi and Cezar, experience a tragedy that changes the courses of their lives more than they realize. The darkness deepens when the Night People come to the forest. The Night People resemble vampires, but they are not exactly the same. The book is set before Bram Stoker’s Dracula was published, and I really admire Marillier for knowing her history on this one and going back to the original folklore.  Jena’s family becomes entangled with the Night People and disasters in the village make Cezar, Jena’s power hungry and vengeful cousin and neighbor, suspicious and enraged. It’s up to Jena and her sisters to put to rights all that has been upset between the Other Kingdom and the world in which they live.

Unlike some fairy tale re-tellings, Wildwood Dancing becomes an intricate story in the hands of Juliet Marillier.  She makes more lively and lifelike characters, researches thoroughly the area where the novel is set, and teaches readers Romanian words along the way. The additions of a magical pet frog, cunning or charming non-humans as dancing partners for the sisters, and smart and educated “princesses” (really merchant daughters) transform the Twelve Dancing Princesses into a riveting tale. This is a book I stayed up late to finish. It is fanciful and fun. I would add it to my list of Great Books for Teenage Girls, and recommend it to anyone who likes a fun fairy tale story. I’m currently reading the companion novel, Cybele’s Secret, which so far is not quite as good, but still a fun read.

And if you’re wondering if I’ve become a Young Adult fiction or fantasy junkie, rest assured–I have not. My next review will be of the 1927 release Islanders by Helen R. Hull. So stay tuned for a more serious book review in the next few days.

Children's Books, Everyday Life, Parenting, Reading, Reviews

August Reading, Part 1

This is a two-part post because it’s looking like I’ll have to do two August reading posts. August has yielded a bumper crop of good books so far.

I’ll post full reviews of the books I’ve read in the next few days.

Read:

Wildwood Dancing (Wildwood, #1)Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier is a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, but with many additions and twists. I fully enjoyed how Marillier made the fairy tale into a completely developed plot full of lifelike characters, but kept the fanciful and enchanted feel of the story. There is so much more to this story than the original fairy tale. The princesses in the real story are middle class merchant daughters in this story, and there are only five of them. The enchanted place they go to is actually a parallel world. The secrets to their futures is entrenched in one tragic day from the past. The book takes readers into Transylvania of long ago, before Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Marillier uses original folklore and Romanian language to enhance her tale. It’s got a lot going for it! This book is a gem of a novel masquerading as a run of the mill Young Adult book. I’d give it 4.5 stars and recommend it for anyone who likes a fun and imaginative tale.

 

IslandersI finally finished Islanders by Helen Hull this month! There are many themes one could discuss in Islanders; it’s kind of Edith Wharton meets Laura Ingalls meets Kate Chopin. I think I liked it. It certainly is the handiwork of a great author, whose characters are complex and honestly portrayed, so much so that one can’t actually love them whole-heartedly. The book was a survey of womanhood in the 1850s-1920s, told through the life of Ellen Dacey. The major theme is isolation and dependence. I didn’t like it as much as Heat Lightning, but I did enjoy its perspective. More to come in the full review!

 

The Weird SistersMy favorite book of the month was The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. I picked up this book off a random “to be shelved” cart near the children’s section at 2nd & Charles. While my children perused the Thomas and Friends and Curious George selection, I read the first chapter, and then reserved it at the library on my iPhone. It is a quirky story of three sisters. Their father is a somewhat eccentric Shakespeare professor at Barnwell College in Ohio. The sisters are different, but so very alike. The references to the reading culture of the entire family and the insights into a family of three girls sometimes made me smile. I am one of three sisters, and there are definitely similarities between the sisters in this book and my own sisters and I (however, my sisters are way more awesome than the younger two sisters in this book). If you are a hardcore Shakespeare scholar, you probably won’t like this book, but if you are a casual fan of Shakespeare and family life novels, you’ll like this one.

The nonfiction hanging out on my nightstand this month is Francis Schaeffer on the Christian Life: Countercultural Spirituality. I am a painfully slow biography reader, but I thank my book group leader for picking out this book. It has challenged me, for sure.

And…drumroll…I started pre-K homeschooling with my 4-year-old, Ella, this week. We are doing some basic letter sounds and writing, and reading a book together.photo.JPG

Right now we’re reading The Boxcar Children. Any suggestions for chapter books for a little girl with a sharp mind and sensitive heart? I’d love to hear them!

What are you reading this month?

Everyday Life, Reading

There Is No Time To Find: How To Use What You Already Have

I’m an adult, I have two children under five years old, and I read a lot. If you’re an adult and you read a lot, you probably know this scenario:

I’m talking about something I just read (a novel, a parenting book, an article on spider bite treatments), when someone says, “How do you find the time to read?” Or what’s an even more perplexing question: “Where do you find time to read?” People don’t really think I’m pulling off couch cushions, looking for time like lost change? Wandering down the aisle at the supermarket, asking, “Where do you keep the sands of time?”

I usually respond with a shrug and a line like “I don’t watch any TV” (true) or “I spend no time on home decorating” (semi-true) or “I neglect my children” (almost entirely false).

But what I really want to say is “not reading is not an option for me.” I know this to be true because I have felt guilty enough about the time I spend reading to try to give fiction up. I have tried this three times in my adult life and the same things always follow: insomnia, inability to relax, sluggish thought process, irritability, a tendency to over analyze things, and a general loss of will to live. Yes, I’m exaggerating. But I have found it impossible for my brain to thrive without books.

It’s like what Bianca says in The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown when a guy asks her how she finds time to read a few hundred books a year. “[Bianca] narrowed her eyes and considered the array of potential answers in front of her. Because I don’t spend hours flipping through cable complaining there’s nothing on? Because my entire Sunday is not eaten up with pre-game, in-game, and post-game talking heads?… Because when I am waiting in line, at the gym, on the train, eating lunch, I am not complaining about the wait/staring into space/admiring myself in available reflective surfaces? I am reading!” Later, when describing why she broke up with him, she says, “He was not a reader. And that is the sort of nonsense up with which we will not put.”

That ‘s really the answer I want to give. The time is already there. You don’t need to find it, you need to use it. Use it to read, if reading is what you want to do more of! When I became a mom, I didn’t give up reading; I gave up sleep and kept the books.

But I think people who ask me when I fit reading into my schedule would like a different sort of answer. To that end, here are a few ideas:

  1. Read alongside your children. If you have small children like me, you’re at a perfect time in their lives to instill in them a love of reading. Read to them. Read your own book while they read/look at picture books. Institute a quiet time that encourages reading. This time in our home has become an infusion of peace and rest in our busy bee days. While my 2-year-old naps in the afternoon, my 4-year-old usually sits on her bed and looks through a stack of library books or a thick book of fairy tales, and I lie down on my book and read for a few minutes.
  2. Read on your lunch break. When I worked an office job, I would regularly read while I ate lunch. Several of my co-workers did the same. My husband often does this on lunch breaks. It’s a great way to stay sharp and take a break at the same time.
  3. Read on the treadmill. Or exercise bike or stair climber. If you’re doing light cardio work outs anyway, you already have a perfect opportunity to read. Seriously, it’s not as hard as it sounds. This is how I read for pleasure and stayed (mostly) fit and graduated from college at the same time. I wish I had a treadmill now so I could read more…
  4. Go to bed early. With a book of course. I pretty much can’t fall asleep without reading a novel. I save my nonfiction for early mornings, which leads to…
  5. Get up early. Going to bed early enables me to get up early and read whatever nonfiction I’m focusing on at the time. I’m more energized for the day if my thoughts start going before the dishes and laundry start/continue to pile up.
  6. Read out loud with your spouse. Some of you scratched this one off the list before you finished reading the sentence. But for those of you who find this idea at least slightly appealing, I’d encourage you to give it a try. Our premarital counselor actually suggested this to us. See, it’s legit. Maybe pick something light and adventurous. My husband and I had a lot of fun with the Harry Potter books. We read 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea on our honeymoon. (But beware of something that requires a heavy accent, like Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, that type of thing). Turning your imaginations into images from the same words is an even better experience than watching the same movie. And I’m not trying to sound all existential or anything. Just try it and you’ll see what I mean.
  7. Always keep a book with you. Oil changes, traffic, dentist appointments explained here, carpool lines, waiting for people late to appointments and meetings, waiting for your spouse to come out of the public restroom…these things happen and you just need to have a book along with you. “Waste not the time that could be spent reading!” is the motto of book lovers everywhere.
  8.  Listen to an audiobook. This one is the obvious suggestion that you probably don’t need me to make. I’m sure you can already think of a time when you’re busy with your hands and not your brain–driving, folding clothes, washing dishes, entering data, pounding the pavement, what have you. Give your brain something to do and feel that sense of accomplishment that multitasking and actually finishing a book can bring.

I currently use or have used in the past all these ways to turn regular time into reading time. All of us are busy in one way or another. But I truly believe reading a good book is not a waste of time, but a way to enrich your life. If you’re reading this, you probably already agree. =)

If you need some ideas on what to read, check out the reviews category on the left of the screen! 

Reading, Reviews

Letters That Make Books

Lots of people I talk to about books say they don’t enjoy books made up of letters. Not letters as in the alphabet, but epistles. I try to understand where they’re coming from, but I think they must have just had a bad experience. Think of all the great books made up of letters! For example: The Screwtape Letters. I do understand that books solely or largely made up of letters can be harder to follow. You have to read between the letters, imagine what is happening and realize that each time you read someone’s accounting of an event, it’s already happened and so much can change between one letter to the next. In our world of email and instant messages, maybe it’s become difficult to imagine a dependence on snail mail.

Nonfiction, Reading

Happiness For Dummies (or Geniuses): A Review of Two Books on Being More Joyful

Disclaimer: I’m pretty slow when it comes to reading nonfiction. I have a pile of books on my nightstand at any given time, and the one that stays the longest in that pile is always the nonfiction book. On a side note, it would be more accurate to call my nightstand and the floor space beside it “The Stacks”. Please tell me I’m not alone in this. Well, I know I’m not, because you should see my dad’s bedside table. I don’t even know why we have tables next to our beds. Bookshelves would be so much tidier. Anyway, I am always in the middle of a nonfiction book. This is not  because I’m particularly scholarly, but because I read nonfiction at a snail’s pace (can snails read?). There’s no “scope for the imagination” in it. I like to think it’s because I’m really mulling over all the facts and advice that I’m taking in when I read nonfiction, but usually it’s just because I get bored with it quickly. It’s kind of painful to admit that. But there it is. However, there are some non-fiction books that I find enthralling. I’ll write about two of them today.

In my last post, If I Were A Facebook God, I wrote about how discouraging some Facebook statuses are on Monday morning. I, maybe rather frustratingly, spoke of finding some “joy sugar” to sweeten the hard days. I realize I may have left some of you wondering how in the world one finds that stuff. Well, there’s no way for me to explain all that on a book blog. Already, some of you are probably wondering, “When is she going to talk about actual books?” Enter, some self help books.

I don’t pick up many “how to” books. And any book that has “dummies” in the title is a book I don’t really want to read. Publishers would do better to appeal to my pride with titles like “Knitting for The Moderately Bright.” However, I’ve read a couple of books that have changed my perspective or helped me realize what perspective I need to take on being joyful in life. One of these is based on the Christian perception of joy (that happiness is based on circumstances but abiding in God and His love brings joy in any circumstance) and one is a non-religious book that equates joy and happiness as pretty much the same thing.