November's book

Thanks for all the comments. Since no one has read it, we're going with Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas. A lady in my ward loved it, so hopefully it's good!

Book for November??

Yes, once again I have dropped the ball. Given that it's October 21st, I think we should skip October and just pick a book for November. And once again, I am asking for suggestions. Anyone got any? I heard Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas was good... anyone read that one?

Dreamhunter and Dreamquake

I finished Dreamhunter and the sequel to it, Dreamquake, almost two weeks ago. Let's see what I can remember. Not that I ever have anything really insightful to say.

My first impression of Dreamhunter was that it was a little hard to understand. I truly was confused at the beginning because I didn't feel like I knew what the author was talking about. I wanted a glossary of terms to explain everything that I didn't fully grasp on my own. A glossary does appear at the end of Dreamquake, so perhaps I'm not the only one who felt that way! Even so, the story was intriguing enough to keep me reading. It got easier to understand, and I thought that book 2 was even better than the first one. I definitely recommend reading Dreamquake afterwards to fully understand the storyline. (You'll want to anyway, just to see what happens!) It definitely ties up all the loose ends.

I thought the characters were really well-written. You definitely got a sense of their personalities, particularly Laura, Rose, and Chorley. Tziga and Grace seemed to me a bit more mysterious, and perhaps that was the intent, since those two are the most famous dreamhunters. And I thought "the Place" was great. Although I still sometimes wonder about dreams outside of "the Place." It's mentioned that Laura has regular dreams. Do other people as well? I'm assuming they do and that the main difference between regular dreams and those caught in "the Place" is the ability to share them. It must be similar to watching a movie only while you're asleep. So a dream palace or opera would be similar to going to a movie theater only you have a bed to sleep in, and instead of a big screen there's just another person on another bed projecting the "movie." Isn't that a compelling idea? To be able to dream something that originated with someone else? I'm sure almost everyone has had a dream that they tell other people about. What if you could show them the dream? I think that would be pretty neat. On the other hand, I've had a few that I hope no one finds out about too!

I'm not sure that there is much more I can say without spoilers, particularly for Dreamquake. So if you haven't read them, I suggest you stop here.



****Spoiler alert****



You knew that something was up when Tziga was acting so strangely and trying to make sure that Laura remembered the songs he had taught her from her a young age. So when he disappeared and she was left on her own to figure them out, I wondered if she would be able to do it. Laura is more enterprising than I initially thought, so I was a little surprised when she went to Aunt Marta for help learning the songs instead of just trying to make a small living as a dreamhunter. Her tendency to have nightmares probably discouraged that a little bit, though. After realizing how determined a person she was, I wasn't surprised when she found the note from her father and decided to actually try to follow the request he made of her.

The Sandman, Nown, is one of my favorite parts of the book. I love the idea of how he is made and how he can be changed by just a letter - take away the first N and he becomes free, OWN; take away the W and he becomes NON and stops existing. And I liked the idea of how he was tied to her family, that other versions of him had existed to help other members of her family, and how he seems to evolve with each version of himself.

As for Dreamquake, I was surprised that "the Place" was a Nown all on it's own. I was even more surprised that it was created by Laura's son, Lazarus, and that all of the dreams stemmed from him. It had been mentioned in Dreamhunter and throughout Dreamquake that the dreams seemed to be taking place in the future. But in reality, they were taking place in the past. Confusing, huh? How strange it must have been for Laura to meet her yet-to-be-born son when he was an adult and she had, in his experience, already passed away. The magic of "the Place" covered a lot of things!

I really loved the ending of the duet. I thought the author did a great job illustrating how our actions don't just affect us but have a ripple effect in so many directions. Lazarus's choices changed the way his mother's and grandfather's lives turned out (along with everyone else who lived in that world); Laura's choices changed the lives of everyone in her present and, eventually, future when she erased "the Place." We can't change what happened in the past like Lazarus does, but our choices can make a difference in our own futures and in the lives of the people around us. Laura's choice to get rid of the Place even changed Lazarus's life. I thought the ending was really well done. And, while I always had a suspicion that Sandy didn't die and was simply being help captive by Cas Doran and his henchmen, I was relieved when he did turn out to be alive and could be with Laura.

Okay, this was a much longer post than I had anticipated. Hopefully someone else will have read both books. I'd like to know what other people thought!

September's book assingment

Alright we're going with Carly's suggestion. We'll be reading Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox. It's a 2-book series. The second book is Dreamquake. They both come recommended by Stephenie Meyer, so they must be good :)

And thanks everyone for the well-wishes!

September book?

First of all, let me apologize for totally dropping the ball on picking a book for August. Things have been so crazy at our house, I barely have time to recognize that days are flying by on the calendar. Second, I have good news to share... yes, it's what you're all thinking... I'm pregnant! YEA! However, I have been so sick, it's been a nightmare. I haven't read anything in weeks, I'm just too sick, so I never got around to picking a book... and then I realized that August is already more that half gone. My bad.

So... anyone have any suggestions for September? I'm hoping that by the time September rolls around, I will feel well enough to start reading again and I can participate. I'm eagerly anticipating some books that will be released in September - Forest Born, Catching Fire, just to name a few, so I really need to get feeling better so I can read them :)

Put any suggestions in the comments, then we can pick one.

The Zoo Keeper's Wife; A review by a little guy

To begin with I am Miriam and this is my first review and first time reading the book in the correct month. I love reading non-fiction, fiction, textbooks and well most things. I am glad I read this book but it took me a long 2 1/2 weeks to do it.

I don’t know if anyone else experienced this but I found the flow of the story rather choppy. I think it was a great idea to write about Antonina Zabinskis her story is amazing and her courage was everlasting, but it could have been written better. (Less choppy and jumping around to so many different people) I obviously did not like the author’s style of writing and think she did a bit too much name dropping. The people she kept bringing up in the story seemed to have some connection with fame. This annoyed me because it made it sound like the Zabinskis were only saving famous people. I know many like to hear about the rich, famous and well known in history but I like to hear the history of the little people too. I realize that these famous people did randomly pop up in the Zabinskis lives I just don’t think she needed to elaborate (for an entire chapter) on why these people they were saving were famous and well known in the world. It took away from the flow of the story and made me put the book down quite a bit. I think she should have focused more on Antonina, Jan and Rys, the book is after all named for Antonina. However I did love the research the author did.

Diane Ackerman obviously did a lot of research. You see it everywhere in the book. This made me respect her knowledge and continue reading. I loved the tidbit from Herodotus (the first historian ever) on page 81 where he was quoted about the Tarpan horses. This put the significance of the extinct horses into perspective for me. It showed me that these horses had been around for a LONG time and now they were not. This showed the connection with the high ranking Nazi who allowed the continuation of the zoo specifically because of these horses which in turn allowed the zoo to save the people. While I loved this information I think it took away from the story telling aspect. I think books should be stories. I know there is a need for reference books but they are so much easier to read and understand when told as a story.

I felt the first ¾ of the book was choppy but her last section which I like to consider her conclusion finally started to flow. Those last 80 pages go by quickly because you can see she is finally getting somewhere with the Sabinskis. I loved that she finally started to actually analyze what she was writing about Antonina. She had previously been throwing facts out there that she had read from Antonina and others. It felt like reading a textbook but she finally started to show us Antonina. A part I loved was on page 209 it said:

“…Antonina [believed] in living as joyously as possible given the circumstances, while staying Vigilante.”

I definitely saw this. She went through so much but she never stopped saving people. She risked her life so many times for others. It was amazing. After reading so many WWII stories I have never seen anyone remain so joyous and positive. I started to ponder this statement. I feel it was rather profound and the conclusion I came up with was that she was doing everything in her power to save everyone! She never held back never said no never questioned her husband’s motives. She could remain joyous with a happy conscious because she gave everything she had. She never sat back and let people die. So many sat back during this war and let others die and felt guilty about it because they knew it wasn’t right. She had no need for quilt because she gave her all. I loved that about Antonina. Some might feel it was horrible of her to feel joy and be happy during this depressing time but she earned the right to feel some joy by saving so many.

All in all I way so glad I read this book. Yes it could have been written better but this was one story that really needed to be told and read. Thanks for reading this and feel free to disagree and write about it. All thoughts on this book would be great!

Miriam


P.S there are obviously a million things to be said about this book so feel free ok! There were other things I liked and disliked but I tried to keep it small so others could write too. Oh and I previously wrote rather negative review of this book on my blog but wrote a more mild one here because reviews should be mild right?

Some recent readings...

I just stumbled upon a fun series that I thought I'd share. The series is called Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I've only read the first book (there are 5), but I really liked it. I used to love learning about mythology in school, so this was right up my alley! I know we all mentioned how we didn't like the mythology element in Ever, but this is good mythology!
In a way the series is similar to Harry Potter, in that it's a young boy who finds out he's not who he thought he was. There's a whole other world hidden in our world. I just really thought the writing was well done, funny, and clever.
Also, I read the new Shannon Hale book, The Actor and the Housewife. Did anyone else read it? I thought it was good, but different than what I was expecting. I definitily was not expecting to be sobbing through a good portion of the book! I think overall I liked it, but it probably isn't my favorite Shannon Hale book.
Otherwise I've been chugging along through The Zookeeper's Wife. I think I need to renew it again at the library come to think of it....
Oh, and I saw the new Harry Potter last night!!!!!!!!!!! I loved it! I know that's not a book, but, oh well!
So, that's all, I just had some book related thoughts I'd share! Hope you all have a great weekend!