Children's Book of The Week - Max and The Big Fat Lie

Book Title: Max and The Big Fat Lie: A Book About Telling The Truth

Author: Michael P. Waite

Age Level: 4 and up

Summary

Max lies to his mom in order to go see a scary movie. He soon discovers that one little fib can turn into a big fat lie.

My Thoughts

Yay! Children's story of the week is back. The segment was lost but not forgotten. I re-read Max and The Big Fat Lie earlier this week when I was attempting to download some software to my computer. I figured why not make the process go faster by reading a nice children's book. This book was a particular favorite of my mother's though I love it quite a bit as well. It teach the importance of telling the truth without getting too wordy about it. It's actually very humorous and it is written all in rhythm to boot. Like that the book has some elements that are fantastical to prove the point that it's trying to make, but that the situation that Max finds himself in is realistic. This makes the story easy to kids to relate to. Max and The Big Fat Lie made me smile as a child and it still does now.

Short Story of The Week - Rumpelstiltskin

Story Title: Rumpelstiltskin

Authors: The Brothers Grimm

Summary

A miller's daughter makes a trade with an imp in order to become the wife of a king.

My Thoughts

I am particularly interested in Grimm's fairy tales at the moment. I've kind of made in my plan to read as many of the stories as I can. Today I decided to start with Rumpelstiltskin simply because I haven't read it in some time. I actually started off the morning reading it and I have to say it was a fun way to start the day. There really isn't a lot to the story. Fairy tales often get right to the point with out using flowery language or a ton of character developement. However, the benefit of that is that it was a quick read that made me feel like I was using my brain cells. I totally forgot the Rumpelstiltskin gets ripped in half at the end of the tale. Gross! Ha ha! I guess I see why I might have blocked the ending out. Otherwise, it's an interesting story. It is also a fun one to study on Wikipedia. Actually most Grimm's tales are if you are into looking things like that up on the internet. 

An Update

Hello darlings. This is just a short update. Sorry I've been gone for almost a month. Time got away from me. In a nutshell work commitments, various allergies, and back problems have kept me from sitting at the computer. I just decided I should take a break. I realized yesterday that I could have written all this time if I had just used my voice recognition software more, but what can I say, your blog mistress is clueless at times. Since I came to that conclusion I will definitely plan some posts for this week. At least this weeks short story and children's book. I will also work on my reviews for The Girl Who Played With Fire and First Love. I intend to make a post reviewing some film adaptations I've watched recently as well. See guys tomorrow. Thanks for your patience. 

My Epic Reading Adventures - Reading On A Budget

Hello All. Lately I've been trying to budget my funds more effectively. I figure part of that is keeping my book purchasing addiction to a minimum for a little while. At first this was going to be the equivalent of going on a few strict diet, an experience also known as no fun. I started looking in my library of print and e-books and realized I have more than enough reading material already in my possession. A factor I probably would have noticed sooner if I had read some of the unread books in my library more often instead of buying a new book every time I finished reading something. The awesome news is that several of them apply to my current reading challenges. For the next few months I'm going to try not to buy any new books over the price of a dollar. I might make a small exception if I find a short story book that I really like. However, I realized that I had some short story books on my phone already. In addition, the Aldiko application has quite a few free books and short stories. I don't know why didn't think of that before. 

I'm a little behind on my reading schedule for reading 105 books this year. I'm not overly concerned, because I'm taking next week off for spring break. I know I'll have some extra reading time to catch up then. Plus, I finished The Girl Who Played With Fire, First Love, and Neverwhere in the last two weeks. Yay! Right now I'm listening to North and South on audio book. I just started reading Fear Nothing today. I'm making good progress on it already. I'm trying to pick my books to read over spring break early. I'm thinking I'm definitely going to re-read Jacob Have I Loved. I'm not sure what else. I've got way more choices than I thought. 

See you guys later. I'm off to read some more and write some more. Keep it shiny!

Short Story of The Week (64) - Why Mr. Cropper Changed His Mind

Story Title: Why Mr. Cropper Changed His Mind

Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery

Summary

Ester must find a clever way to prove to Mr. Cropper that is capable of being a school teacher for his two ill behaved sons. 

My Thoughts

I had completely forgotten that I had this collection of short stories by Lucy Maud Montgomery on the Kindle App. on my phone. I'm so glad I remembered because this story was both sweet and clever. I loved that it had a lot of snappy dialogue. This story also celebrates girl power in an underlying way. Sometimes we forget until we read something that was written in 1903 that women weren't always considered equal with men. The main character, Ester, really had to cook up a well meaning scheme to prove that she could teach a class of students just as well as anyone. Overall, I generally enjoyed this. It's a very quick read that made me smile. 

Short Story of the Week (63) - The Butterfly

Story Title: The Butterfly

Author: Hans Christian Andersen

Summary

A butterfly searches for a flower to be his bride.

My Thoughts

I'm still on the look out for a new short story book, but I figured until then Hans Christian Andersen will suffice. His stories are always at least entertaining. The Butterfly was an alright little tale. I felt like it didn't have much of a point. I thought the butterfly was really quite a silly character. However, the story amused me regardless, and the writing had a lyrical quality that I liked. This story was at least much happier than some of Andersen's works. In fact it's was much more joyful than any of the short stories I've read in the last few weeks. I need to find some funny short stories. 

About Books Blog 57 - The Looking Glass Wars Trilogy

Author: Frank Beddor

Genre: Fantasy/Young Adult

Favorite Lines

“Control and power aren’t everything. Allow yourself to be the agent by which a cause greater than any single individual triumphs.” - Looking Glass Wars

“The most important questions are always answered with yet more questions.” - Seeing Redd

Summary

I don’t usually use book trailers but since this one summarized the books so well I thought why not.

My Thoughts

 The Looking Glass Wars sounded too interesting for me to pass up. Which is why I picked up the book despite my previously stated issues with Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The Looking Glass Wars Trilogy turned out to be awesome. Each book was just as good as the one before it. I literally could not put it down until I had read the whole series.

I loved Frank Beddor’s writing style. It was witty and imaginative. I also appreciated that he wrote his action scenes and descriptions in a way that was very easy for the reader to visualize. I thought it was brilliant that the author choose to combine his vision of Wonderland with historical events and people from Earth. He used real people such as Charles Dodgeson (a.k.a Lewis Carrol), Alice Liddell, and even Prince Leopold as an part of the story. In a very fictionalized way of course, but still it inspired me to want to look up the history of the real people themselves. The first book includes a timeline describing the parallels between what happens in Wonderland and what happened in reality on Earth. I thought it was a clever detail to add.

I absolutely adored the characters. Alyss was such a wonderfully developed protagonist, and she is surrounded by excellent supporting characters. I even enjoyed the villains, Redd and Arch, who kept the story interesting with their ability to scheme and destroy with the help of some very creative minions. What was great about the development of the characters was that the books shared the back-story of so many of them. This made the characters incredibly engaging for me as the reader.

The best thing about Looking Glass Wars, Seeing Redd, and Arch Enemy is that there is something in there for everybody. Action, drama, fantasy, steampunk, and a little romance. I think it is something both girls and guys would like. It is also something a variety of ages would enjoy. You don’t have to read Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass to have fun reading The Looking Glass Wars. However, it is more intriguing to see where Frank Beddor’s ideas come from if you read the source material and some history on Lewis Carrol. I highly suggest that everyone go to the book store and pick up The Looking Glass Wars. It is certainly going on my list of favorite book series. 

Interesting Facts

Frank Beddor claims that the story was inspired when he saw an incomplete set of ancient playing cards at the British Museum with images that resembled Wonderland characters.

There is a spin-off comic book series entitled Hatter M. The series centers around the character Hatter Madigan and his adventures searching for Princess Alyss.

The Movie

I would be overjoyed if this movie makes it to the screen. There is a movie in the works, but it has been on stand still for awhile due to other Alice themed movies that have been released in the past years. Hopefully it will be a fully developed project soon. This book deserves a really great movie. 

Music To Read By

I enjoyed listening to music with ethereal or mechanical type sounds while reading this. I liked listening to Confessionals by Florence and the Machine. I also liked listening to Speak For Yourself and Ellipse by Imogen Heap. In addition, I read a bulk of this series while movies were playing on the TV. It was particularly lovely to read this while Starwars, Van Helsing, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider were on the television. Hence I have included songs from the movie soundtracks on my playlist. I’m thinking this is a playlist I may add on to later, but I like what I have on it so far.

 The Looking Glass Wars Playlist 

Looking Glass Wars - Geek

Red Heart - Vicki Hanson

Heartlines - Florence and the Machine

Burn It Down - Alan Silvestri

Wait It Out - Imogen Heap

Equinox - Skrillex

Duel of The Fates - John Williams

Have You Got It In You? - Imogen Heap

Invincible - Muse

The Clock - Graeme Revell

We Can Make The World Stop - The Glitch Mob

 

 That's it darlings. See you tomorrow with the short story review. I would have posted it today, but the book review won out on the writing table today. Happy reading and keep it shiny!