The Goose Girl, A Northern Light

The Goose Girl ~ 383 Pages

"When she mentioned how much time she sat alone; the next day Geric brought her books on Bayern History, and some tales of courtly love, evil, and justice. He was afraid at first that he had erred again and that she had never learned to read, and then he was relieved that she had."


Here's another retelling of (what else) The Goose Girl, by the Brothers Grimm, by Shannon Hale. I have reread this book a bunch of times, and it never gets old. I love this book because it stays so true and close to the original story, and yet it is it's own story. I love Shannon Hale because she makes things like talking to animals and commanding the elements seem like normal, because it all makes sense. I think everyone would enjoy this book, even if you don't like fantasy. I know most people have read this book, because it was really popular about four years ago, but if you haven't, I recommend it.

Some people say it's too gruesome for people to read, to which I say, do you know nothing of the real story? It's a Brothers Grim story. It's not exactly without some gore. But it's not disgusting or over descriptive. I didn't even notice it, but some reviews make is sound awful. It's not.

I don't have much else to say. Shannon Hale actually made this book the first of four in a series, each book about a different character. (Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Forest Born.) I haven't read Forest Born, but I think I'm going to put it on hold today.

The Goose Girl is 383 pages, so when I finished it, I had 7,982 pages left.


A Northern Light ~ 380 Pages


I smiled, thinking that my teacher sure was dramatic.
"Cripes, Miss Wilcox, they're not guns," I said.
"No, they're not, Mattie, they're books. And a hundred times more dangerous."


I actually read this book first, but I wanted to blog it second because don't they say "last the best of all the game"? To say I enjoyed this book would be an gross understatement.

When I put this book on hold because of a recommendation, I thought it was a typical murder mystery. It  has a death, but it's not about that. The murder in the book is a true story. The letters in the book are the real letters. But it's not about solving the murder, it's not about who-done-it. It's about a young woman, and trying to survive and become something in a small town in 1906.

It's about Mattie Gokey, and her dream of going to college. It's about what is acceptable to your society, as opposed to what you think is right. It's about keeping promises that may hurt you. It's about racism. It's about what love really is, and what it really isn't. It's about coming of age. It's about hope. It's about books.

I don't even know what to say. This book reminded me of my favorite book, (The Book Thief) even though the subjects have almost nothing in common. It's just written so well.

I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone. Especially girls at a turning point in their lives. I know I'll reread this book sometime in the future. Long story short; amazingly talented author, awesome book, good read. 7,602 pages to go.


p.s. I'm 205th now for City of Fallen Angels

Read on,

Jamie

Beauty, A Kiss in Time

Beauty ~ 247 Pages

“Most of these books haven’t been written yet.” I looked at him stupidly, Kim still in my hand. “But don’t worry, they will be.” He said.

Both of the books I read this weekend were retellings of fairytales. Beauty is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I’ve read quite a bit of these kinds of books, and while I do enjoy them and the creativity, it’s always kind of uninteresting to me in a way another book wouldn’t be because I know how the story goes. So I don’t only know the ending, I know the whole story.

I read another retelling of Beauty and the Beast about a year and a half ago titled Beastly. I know it was recently released as a movie (which I haven’t seen yet, but heard it’s not very good) but I think anyone who likes the Beauty and the Beast story should read that one too. I’ll tell you why I liked that one more. First, I really liked that Beastly was from the Beast’s point of view instead of the overused Beauty’s. Second, it takes place in our time, so it’s not exactly the same as the fairy tale, and lastly, because there’s more dialogue and interaction between the characters in Beastly.

I love descriptions as much as the next person, but at the end of the book I felt as if I knew more about the castle than the Beast. Not to mention that you don’t even meet the Beast until page 114, and in a book that’s only 247 pages long, that’s a large portion of the book. Now, I don’t think I would have minded this much at all if the ending hadn’t been kinda, well… crappy. Beauty saves Beast from “dying “and the story ends all in 12 pages. It took 15 pages to describe the room she was staying in. (I’m not exaggerating, I counted.) Not to mention, she “saved” him by saying, “Wake up my love.” And that was that.

I’m not saying it was bad. I enjoyed it, I really did. I just wanted something… more climactic. I guess it is supposed to be a children’s book. When I finished Beauty, I had 8,736 pages left.

A Kiss in Time ~ 371 pages

"They’re talking about books. My mother loves to talk about books, but Talia’s so old that she wouldn’t have read most of the books Mom knows. The King James Bible was a new book in Talia’s time!"

A Kiss in Time is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and it’s actually by the same author that wrote Beastly. It tells what would happen if Sleeping Beauty was woken up in our times.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Sleeping Beauty, and since reading Beastly and seeing that the author rewrote SL, I’ve wanted to read this book. I wasn’t let down. I really enjoyed this book, and it kind of reminded me of the movie Enchanted. When the princess (Talia) is woken and (spoiler alert) runs of with the boy who saved her (Jack), she enters our world after being asleep for three hundred years. Naturally, everything is foreign to her. The scenes where she has no idea what’s going on are some of my favorites.

It’s a quick easy read and I read it in one day. It’s a fun book if you like retellings. It switches back and forth between Talia’s and Jack’s points of view, making it more interesting to read. It’s also 371 pages, which leaves me with 8,365 pages to go.

I actually read Beauty while I was a Lake Powell for three days. But since I knew I would finish it, (and the books I put on hold at the library weren’t there yet) I took Inkspell. Inkspell is 635 pages, and I read a little over fifty pages while I was there, but I don’t know if I’m going to finish it. I hope to, but if I don’t get to it, I’ll add those pages on later. For now, I have another book while waiting for two at the library. (I’m now in 259^th place for City of Fallen Angels)

Read On,

Jamie

City of Glass, Clockwork Angel

City of Glass ~ 541 Pages

"I'll just have them change the entry in the demonology text book from 'almost extinct' to 'not extinct enough for Alec. He prefers his monsters really, really extinct.' Will that make you happy?”

I started reading the Mortal Instruments Series around the tenth of April. My Aunt Stephanie recommended them to me, and so I put City of Bones (the first book) on hold at the library. City of Glass is the third book of the series that was intended to be a trilogy. Of the three books, (City of Bones, City of Ashes, and City of Glass) this one was my favorite. Cassandra Clare has a wonderful talent for developing characters, and her writing gets better each book she puts out. Now, she has put out another book with the same characters titled City of Fallen Angels. I’m currently 296 on the waiting list for it, so it’ll be blogged later on. From what I could find out on her web site, it’s like another chapter in the character’s lives. Not really in the trilogy, but it is… if that makes any sense.

I can’t really talk too much about the third book without giving away the rest of the series, but it continues to tell the story of Clary, Jace, Simon, Alec, Isabelle, and others.

I would recommend this series to people who like adventure novels; it certainly never really gets boring. And while I can say, I did call a lot of the “surprises” it’s not always predictable. There is a lot of action and romance and suspense, and it keeps you entertained.

City of Glass is the book I began reading on the 27^th, so I won’t count the other books in the series in my page count, but City of Glass was 541 pages. So when I finished that book, I had 9,459 pages to go. And the next book I read was…

Clockwork Angel ~ 476 Pages

“One must always be careful of books,” said Tessa, “and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”

“I’m not sure a book has ever changed me,” said Will. “Well there is one volume that promised to teach one how to turn oneself into an entire flock of sheep-”

“Only the weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry,” said Tessa., determined not to let him run wildly off with the conversation.

“Of course, why one would want to be an entire flock of sheep is another matter entirely, ” Will finished.

I put Clockwork Angel on hold the same time as City of Glass, because Clockwork Angel is a prequel to the Mortal Instruments Series. At first, I didn’t know which one to read first, assuming that Clockwork Angel would be about Luke or Clary’s mother. Luckily I read it after City of Glass so it was easier to understand and therefore more entertaining.

Well, I didn’t get anything like I expected when I read Clockwork Angel. This book actually takes place in the late 1800’s in London. While the same world of Demons and Demon hunters (called shadowhunters) still exists, it’s not like the Mortal Instruments series that takes place in present day New York. But I still loved it. I can’t tell how this series relates to the MI series without giving away a TON of spoilers, so I won’t, and I would recommend reading it AFTER the whole MI series, that way you’re not confused and you get how it connects.

Clockwork Angel is now going to be the first book in the Infernal Devices series. You following me?

Infernal Devices Series (Prequel to MI series, which you read after)

-Clockwork Angel

*-Clockwork Prince

*-Clockwork Princess

Mortal Instruments Series

-City of Bones

-City of Ashes

-City of Glass

(second Trilogy of Mortal Instruments Series)

-City of Fallen Angels

*-City of Lost Souls

*-City of Heavenly Fire

* = Not released yet

Okay, now that that is over…

I loved this book, and I can’t wait for the rest of this series. (Warning!!! This book ends with a serious cliff hanger…) The next book (Clockwork Prince) comes out in December, so obviously it won’t be included in this summer page count. Clockwork Angel was 476 pages, so after this book, I’m left with 8,983 pages to go!

That’s all for today! Thanks for reading. I have 4 books waiting for me at the Library, and two books at my house now, but I would still like to hear your favorite books for ideas. THANK YOU!

Read on,

Jamie

10,000 Page Summer : Chapter 1 - The idea

Summer.

So many wonderful spectacular things happen in the summer. There are more than a page full of reasons summer is my favorite season. But very near the top of that list I can say, is that I get time to read books. I only got to read a handful of books this school year, and it kinda depressed me. So, I came up with an idea. I will read 10,000 pages this summer.

Now you may ask, "Why are you counting pages instead of books?" Simple. Books come is so many different lengths, it would be easy to read the whole magic tree house series (as I did in third grade) and say, "I finished over 50 books this summer!" But since I plan on re-reading Harry Potter 7, (759 pages) and other long novels, it would be more fair to me to count pages.

No worries, if you want to know what I'm reading, and where I am on my goal, check in here. I would love some suggestions of your favorite books to give me ideas.

 Now technically, my summer began a week ago. So I'm counting the books I've read since then in my page count, but nothing before the 27th of April. (I'll blog those books likely tomorrow to get caught up)

Peace out Book Worms!

Jamie