The Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale

So I finally got around to finishing The Books of Bayern. I have mixed feelings on whether I liked them or not. The first book, The Goose Girl I did a review on earlier. The next three books are Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Forest Born. I really did not like Enna Burning. Enna was Isi's friend in The Goose Girl. In this book she learns fire-speaking and struggles to learn how to harness this power without killing herself or others. I personally just don't like Enna and her personality. She's very selfish and a little too pushy and arrogant. In River Secrets you follow Razo, another boy from The Goose Girl. He and Enna travel to Tiran, the country that attacked Bayern, in order to try to make peace and start trading with them. Razo meets Dasha who can control water. I actually enjoyed reading this book since it had more suspense and danger to it. Someone is burning bodies and leaving them by the Bayern representatives trying to blame them for the burnings and start war again. It actually took me a while to figure out who the fire-burner was. Forest Born was a very slow moving story that follows Razo's sister Rin. She is struggling to find herself and handle her ability to tree-speak and people-speak. She, along with Isi, Enna, and Dasha set out to find a fire burner who is attacking settlements. It was definately a surprise to see who was behind everything throughout all the books. I must admit that you need to read all these books because if you space them out too much like I did you don't remember half the people that show up in the books. Anyway, you'll have to decide how much you like these. I'm not going to say this is a definant read that everyone would enjoy because it's not, but there are some like my in-laws that really enjoyed them and wanted me to read them.

Dust by Joan Frances Turner

I participate with a website called BzzAgent that allows me to get free samples of products, coupons, and sneak peaks. One campaign I am currently in is the release of the new novel Dust. I only got the 25 pages, but it has been an interesting read that I will probably have to rent from the library to finish since I started it. I have never read any gruesome, zombie type books before so this was definately a change and I found myself grossed out but unable to stop reading. Unfortunately, with only having the first 25 pages I pretty much was just introduced to the characters and how they got to where they are as zombies. I didn't even get into the ploto the book, hence the reason I will have to rent it. Anyway, if you are interested below is the official review on it and a link to Joan Frances Turners website for more info.

After she was buried, Jessie awoke and tore through the earth to arise, reborn, as a zombie. Jessie’s gang is the Fly-by-Nights. She loves the ancient, skeletal Florian and his memories of time gone by. She’s in love with Joe, a maggot-infested corpse. They fight, hunt, dance together as one — something humans can never understand. There are dark places humans have learned to avoid, lest they run into the zombie gangs.

But now, Jessie and the Fly-by-Nights have seen new creatures in the woods —things not human and not zombie. A strange new illness has flamed up out of nowhere, causing the undeads to become more alive and the living to exist on the brink of death. As bits and pieces of the truth fall around Jessie, like the flesh off her bones, she’ll have to choose between looking away or staring down the madness — and hanging onto everything she has come to know as life.

Visit dustthenovel.com

Visit dustthenovel.com to learn more about the book and check out author Joan Frances Turner’s blog and other cool Dustcontent.

Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue

So I have not actually read this book, but I saw a review for it in the paper and am incredibly intrigued by it. Room just came out on Sept 13, 2009 and unfortunately the library has denied my request for them to buy it at this time so it looks like I may actually have to buy this book before actually reading it. I hate buying books before reading them since I may not ever want to reread them, but seeing as how I want to read it and the library will not invest in a book that seems very good I will have to get around to making it to the store or ordering it online.

So pretty much this book is written from the point of view of a 5-year-old. Seems like it may not be well written or annoying with the simple vocabulary and thoughts of a young child, but the article in the paper said that this was not the case and you don't really notice that it is written by a very young child. This kid has grown up in a small room, never having seen anything else, with his mother. She tries to raise him best she can considering the circumstances. She gives him an education, teaches him manners and games, and even teaches him a game where they spend time yelling for help. At night she is taken away and the boy is left alone.

It gives caution that mothers will feel like horrible mothers when reading about all that this mother does and goes through. I'm mostly curious about the overall story line and how this 5-year-old sees the situation since he does not know anything else. It reminds me of other real life people who are kidnapped and end up having children with their captors. What is it like for them as children not knowing that what they are going through is not normal?

Deeanne Gist

I've been reading a few more romance novels by Deeanne Gist. The nice thing about these books is that Gist bases all her novels off of real historical events and experiences. I read A Bride in the Bargain, Deep in the Heart of Trouble and The Measure of a Lady. I definately liked A Bride in the Bargain better.

The young lady in The Measure of a Lady drove me crazy as she worked out he hypocritical issues and prejudice against those that do not follow lady-like, christain lifestyles. She gets stranded in San Francisco with her younger brother and sister during the gold rush and find themselves the only 'respectable' people around. Her sister ends up being a paid girl for a guy and her brother becomes a dealer. Rachel ends up havig to pretty much ignore her siblings acquantances and kick them out of her cafe since they do not follow what a good christain example should be doing. Kinda annoying.

A Bride in the Bargain is set right after the civil war when Asa Mercer came up with his scheme to bring war widows/orphans from the east to Washington under the pretense that they are being hired as cooks, nannies, and schoolteachers. Instead, they were purchased as brides by the men in Washington. Joe finds himself losing his land that was granted by the state because he no longers has a wife and so only qualifies for the bachelor portion of land and so desperate to keep his land he purchases a wife. Of course Anna thinks she is being hired as a cook. Of course they fall in love, but the book does have quite a few twists so that you arent' anticipating the entire story.

Deep in the Heart of Trouble has been my least favorite of Deeanne Gists books. You have a young man whose father dies and is disinherited and forced to leave pennyless. He gets hired as an oil worker for another wealthy oil company run by Essie Sprecklemeyer and her father. Essie is very feminist which drives me crazy. I don't mind people wanting female power, but they go to extremes and try to hard to force all their ideas/morals on others and take offense so easy. Yeah, I'm not too much for such opinionated people. I'm a little curious about another one of her books called Courting Trouble that I just read an excert from since it seems she has the same name again, Essie Sprecklemeyer for her character. She must really like this extreme name.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

The final book of The Hunger Games. I'm not sure how I feel about how this book turned out. Katniss is crazy as ever and dealing with some serious mental issues the entire time, but I guess all the tributes pretty much are dealing with trauma and it is nice to see that Suzanne Collins portrays them in a way that is pretty realistic for what they all have gone through. It still bugs me how selfish Katniss is most of the time. I guess not selfish, but self-centered may be the better word to use. Gale even summed it up when he and Peeta where talking. "she'll choose who she can't live without." Everything is centered around what she needs or wants and is rarely about the overall need of everyone. It takes her a long time to realize this about herself. How she gets away with everything she does is amazing and lucky on her part and unfortunately she doens't seem to really appreciate or understand this. Even at the end she has to be convinced to have kids by her husband. You'll have to read the book to see if she chooses Gale or Peeta. In the end it makes sense who she chooses and is a good choice for her. This series was a good series to read and probably one of the more educational series I have read in the sense that it makes you think about government and people. It's not just about reading for enjoyment, but also about thinking about how things are run and how people react and handle stressful situations. When I read these books I think of how these would be good books to discuss in a classroom.