Book Reviews- The Chronicles of Prydain

One of my very favorite fantasy series growing up. This was a re-read of the series for me. My sister and I actually re-read them at the same time so it was fun to compare notes. Since she had more time to read she got done before I did. :(

The Book of Three

Synopsis from Goodreads: Taran wanted to be a hero, and looking after a pig wasn't exactly heroic, even though Hen Wen was an oracular pig. But the day that Hen Wen vanished, Taran was led into an enchanting and perilous world. With his band of followers, he confronted the Horned King and his terrible Cauldron-Born. These were the forces of evil, and only Hen Wen knew the secret of keeping the kingdom of Prydain safe from them. But who would find her first?

This book felt more immature for me this time... maybe because I'm older? It was still quite enjoyable. Taran as the wannabe hero is so adorable... I think we have all been like him at some point in our lives. And I LOVE Eilowny! :) 

The Black Cauldron

Synopsis from Goodreads: Taran, the Assistant Pig-Keeper, and his friends are led into a mortal struggle with Arwn and his deathless warriors. Taran must wrest the black cauldron from them, for it is the cauldron that gives them their evil strength. But can he withstand the three enchantresses, who are determined to turn him and his companions into toads? Taran has not foreseen the awful price he will have to pay in his defence of Prydain.

I wanted to slap Elidyre the whole time I was reading this book! Besides that enjoyable but still feeling slightly immature.

The Castle of Llyr

Synopsis from Goodreads: Princess Eilonwy hates to leave her friend Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper, and her beloved home, Caer Dallben. Why does she have to go to the Isle of Mona to train as a proper lady when she's already a princess? But Eilonwy soon faces much more than the ordeal of becoming a dignified young maiden, for she possesses magical powers sought by the evil enchantress Queen Achren. When Eilonwy is put under a deep spell, Taran and his companions set out on a dangerous quest to rescue her. Yet how can a lowly Assistant Pig-Keeper hope to stand against the most evil enchantress in all of Prydain?

I feel here the characters start maturing more. Taran deciding to watch after Prince Rhun was a mature decision that he stuck to despite the trials it gave him. I liked seeing Prince Rhun mature through the story too. 

Taran Wanderer

Synopsis from Goodreads: Taran is an Assistant Pig-Keeper no longer; her has become a hero. Now he dreams of winning the hand of the Princess Eilonwy. Eager to find his origins, Taran sets off with the faithful Gurgi on a quest across the marvelous land of Prydain. Their journey takes them to the three witches in the Marshes of Morva, through the many realms of Prydain, and finally to the mystical Mirror of Llunet, which may hold a truth about Taran's identity that he cannot bear to face. In the course of his travels, Taran will learn much about his world and the good and bad people in it, but will also discover much about himself. After many hard lessons, Taran learns the secret of the Mirror Llunet and of the past--and finds not an ending but a beginning. 

I'll admit that growing up this was my least favorite but my brother always said it was his favorite. Now this time around reading it I see why. Taran has developed into a man and also has realized that he has developed feelings for Eilowny. He matures so much in this book and I love it! I always felt Taran was a little too childish for me but in this one, and of course as I previously mentioned in the Castle of Llyr he starts to act like a man and not like a boy. The only downside to this one is that Eilowny isn't in it!

The High King

Synopsis from Goodreads: When the sword of Dyrnwyn, the most powerful weapon inthe kingdom of Prydain, falls into the hands of Arawn-Death-Lord, Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper, and Prince Gwydion raise an army to march against Arawn's terrible cohorts. After a winter expedition filled with danger, Taran's army arrives at Mount Dragon, Arawn's stronghold. There, in a thrilling confrontation with Arawn and the evil enchantress Achren, Taran is forced to make the most crucial decision of his life. 

The final novel in the series and the one to win the Newberry award! This is probably the best! Everyone is grown up and the stakes are higher than ever. This is also the saddest. Characters are dying left and right, reminding us in a way that are characters are no longer children and they are facing the harsh realities of life. Naturally Taran and Eilowny get married and live happily after. :) 

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Book (Play) Review- Pygmalion

For the literary movement challenge, the mount TBR challenge, the monthly motif challenge and the Classics Club I read Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion.

Synopsis from Wikipedia: Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a commentary on women's independence.

I grew up watching My Fair Lady, the musical adaptation of Pygmalion so I was pretty familiar with the story. I've also seen a black and white film version with Leslie Howard as Henry Higgins that I recall being pretty good. It's actually incredible how close the two are. There were several direct quotes in the film even in the music! One thing I noted that Henry Higgins was (if this is possible) meaner to Eliza than he is in My Fair Lady. Now let me say here I actually find Henry Higgins absolutely hilarious and I love him but I think in real life he would drive me crazy! He treats Eliza like she is a hobby, a pastime, an amusement. Colonel Pickering does that somewhat as well but not as badly as Higgins. I just feel that while they do that in the movie, it's much more obvious in the book.
There's a strong statement in there for Eliza's independence, which is actually well done I think. The Monthly Motif theme for this month is a character who stands up for something they believe in and I think Eliza really stands up for herself in this story.
At the end, she actually ends up marrying Freddy! That disappointed me! I'm not sure she should marry Henry Higgins but I don't think she should marry Freddy! However, from what it tells of their marriage I do think it turned out well and they learned from each other.

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Book Review- Go Set a Watchman

This is a difficult review to write. I love To Kill a Mockingbird and it's one of my favorite books of all time. Going into Go Set a Watchman I had to remind myself that it wasn't going to be as good and thankfully I think that thought stuck so I was able to enjoy it as it was.

Synopsis from Goodreads: Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch--"Scout"--returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past--a journey that can be guided only by one's conscience. 

Spoilers ahead! 
In this review what I'm mostly going to address are the claims that Atticus is racist in Go Set a Watchman. I can kind of see that point but only kind of. Basically, there was a movement for a second reconstruction and knowing how horribly the first one went, Atticus was against it. He wasn't being racist or against black people getting their rights so much as he was against the horrors of what the last reconstruction was and didn't want it to happen again. I don't know if there was a right way to do the reconstruction but what they did the first time didn't work and it looked as if they were trying the same methods for the second one. I'm going to grant here that I'm not the greatest on my War Between the States and reconstruction history but I have striven to learn what I can.
So I agree with Atticus for the most part and I agree with Scout, who's shocked by Atticus's views, for the most part too. I would say that for the reconstruction to be successful it would probably have to be at a much slower rate. It was a very complicated situation. Please understand I'm not racist in the least.
Now characters. The main ones made it back for the most part. Atticus, Scout, her aunt Alexandra and uncle Jack. Jem died a few years ago (ahhhhhh!!!!!!). Dill is only briefly mentioned. :( Scout has a boyfriend Hank that she's been friends with since childhood but I don't honestly remember if he's in TKM or not. The Tom Robinson case is only briefly mentioned and then it's to say that it was a case that Atticus won! So obviously Harper Lee decided to go for a change in TKM and the editors decided not to change the manuscript with GSW. Also, Bo is never mentioned at all. :( Uncle Jack is one of my favorite characters and in GSW when he says the War wasn't about slavery it was about states rights I wanted to cheer! :) Thank you Uncle Jack! There's many sweet flashback scenes with Scout growing up. Some of them made me laugh so hard... especially the one where she thought she was pregnant. :) I'm not sure Scout ever truly did grow up... something that is alluded to at several points in GSW. In so many ways I sympathize with her though. I never did want to grow up and I still find myself at this awkward point of being a "grown up" but not quite wanting to be yet.
I only read this book two days ago so these are kind of my gut reactions. I also read it in just under two hours. I'm kind of proud of that. :) However, because of that I probably missed bits here and there.
So all in all I liked Go Set a Watchman but it was no To Kill a Mockingbird. :)

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Top Ten Characters Who are Fellow Book Nerds

This week's theme for Top Ten Tuesday is Top Ten Characters Who are Fellow Book Nerds. I could only think of five but I'm sure there's some obvious ones I'm missing. :(

1. Elizabeth Bennet 
2. Catherine Morland
3. Anne Shirley 
4. Jo March 
5. Hermione Granger

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Emma- Week 3 (Chapters 11-15)

How's the read-along going for everyone? I hope you are all still enjoying it!
This past week we read chapters 11-15 and they contain some pretty humiliating scenes for Emma! I think we can all agree though that she kind of deserved it. Poor Harriet, though, did not.
What are your thoughts so far?
Did anyone else notice that Elton's interest in Emma is especially obvious when Harriet isn't around?
Here's some discussion questions to ponder on.

1. What kind of man is John Knightley? How wife? What kind of marriage do they have? 
2. Compare and contrast the two Knightley brothers. 
3. Compare and contrast the two Woodhouse sisters. 
4. What is your first impression of Frank Churchill that you get from people's conversation about him.
5. How is Mr. Elton's character revealed through his conversation with Emma? 

Comment with your thoughts! :)

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Emma- Week 2 (Chapters 6-10)

First things first.... I got a few comments from people last week that they were itching to read further. If enough of you are feeling like that I can up the reading from five chapters a week to maybe ten chapters or another number? What do you guys think?

So discussion time! I LOVED the discussion that we got going last week. If you missed out on it be sure to take a look at it HERE.

Here are this week's discussion questions and if you have further thoughts let them flow! Once again I'm stealing questions from Peter Leithart's marvelous book Miniatures and Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen.

1. What kind of man is Mr. Woodhouse?
2. What is the real evil of Emma's condition? What effects has this on her? How is she an egoist?
3. What are the qualities necessary to provide moral guidance? How does Emma show that she lacks these qualities in her dealings with Harriet?
4. How does Mr. Knightley display these qualities?
5. Explain how different characters use or abuse manners?
6. Examine several of Mr. Elton's speeches. How would you characterize his speech? What does this reveal about him?

And a continuation of last week's question.... 

• What's your current opinion of the characters? Emma? Mr. Knightley? Harriet? Mr. Elton? Mr. Woodhouse? Ect.? Has it changed from your initial opinion? 

I know a lot of you are aware of what's going to happen in the next couple chapters but for the sake of those who don't keep spoilers to a minimum. It's times like these that I wish we had read a couple chapters more! 

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Last Ten Books that Came into my Possession

I love getting books from here and there so this will be a fun list to make! :)
Recently I got some more Dickens used off of Amazon as a little present to myself for becoming a nurse. I have almost all of his books now.

1. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
2. Hard Time by Charles Dickens
3. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
4. Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
5. Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
6. Friday the Rabbi Slep Late by Harry Kemelman
7. Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian 
8. Waverley by Sir Walter Scott
9. The Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
10. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier 

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Emma- Week 1 (Chapters 1-5)

The first week of the 200th Anniversary Emma Read-along is over! Hopefully we all made it through five chapters. Personally I was ready to sail through more and get ahead... but I resisted. I'm way too fast of a reader. :(

Here's a few questions to ponder and you can put your answers in the comments below or feel free to post on your blog about it too. I will be stealing some of my questions from Peter Leithart's book Miniatures and Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen, which is my favorite book to read on Austen's novels and I would highly recommend it.

1. What's your first impression of the characters? Emma? Mr. Knightley? Harriet? Etc. 
2. In the fifth chapter Mr. Knightley and Mrs. Weston (aka poor Miss Taylor) have a conversation about Emma and her friendship with Harriet? Do you agree with Mr. Knightley or Mrs. Weston? Does this conversation change your opinion about Emma in any way? 
3. What do you think are Emma's motivations for her friendship with Harriet? 
4. How do the conditions of Highbury contribute to Emma's character? 

Feel free to add any other thoughts you might have to the discussion! Also, not everyone has read this before so try to keep spoilers to a minimum. :)

This next week we are reading chapters 6-10. Don't worry if you fall behind. :)

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Book Review- Big Red

For the Hard Core re-reading challenge, author A-Z challenge and What an Animal challenge I read Jim Kjelgaard's book Big Red.

Synopsis from Goodreads: From the moment Danny sees the beautiful Irish setter, he knows Red is the dog for him.  Fast and smart, strong and noble, Red is the only dog Danny wants by his side.  Soon, neither boy nor dog can stand to be apart.  Together Danny and Red face many dangers in the harsh Wintapi wilderness that they call home.  But the greatest test of their courage and friendship will come from an enemy more cunning than any they've known before--a bear who is the undisputed king of the wilderness, a savage killer called Old Majesty.

This is a classic boy and dog story. It made me want an Irish settler really badly!
I also thought it was a good father and son story. Also there was the father figure of Mr. Haggin, Red's owner, who looked after Red and Danny. Both men look after Danny but in a lot of way he looks after himself. He's mature, kind and determined. Characteristic a lot of men nowadays could learn from.
Overall a great boy and dog story with some exemplary characters and of course a good bear hunt. :)
Recommended!

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3rd Liebster Award!

Hamlette from The Edge of the Precipice and Hamlette's Soliloquy tagged me for my 3rd Liebster Award! Thank's Hamlette!
For this award I have to answer the 11 questions Hamlette posed to me and then give 11 random facts about me. :)

1. Do you have a favorite mug or teacup? I have a beautiful teacup my friend (and now sister-in-law!) eBeth, a T.A.R.D.I.S. mug she also gave me and then a larger mug that I bought myself. I love using all of those depending on the occasion or my mood. :)
2. Are you an adventurous eater? Yes! I like trying strange things! :)
3. What fandoms are you into? Doctor Who! Pride and Prejudice! Period dramas! Stargate: Atlantis! Firefly! Merlin! And so many more! 
4. What famous book/author do you not really care about? Gulliver's Travels! See why HERE in my review. 
5. What obscure author/book are you nuts about? I'm a classics reader as you all know so I read a lot of obscure stuff. Probably The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.... in fact everything I've read by Wilkie Collins has been great so far. :) I truly think he is an underrated author. 
6. What's the oldest movie you've ever watched? I actually watched the first movie ever made just about a month ago. Okay, technically I don't think it's the first movie ever made but I think it's the only one currently surviving? If you've watched Hugo it's the one referenced in it. The title is A Trip to the Moon. It's actually in color because the maker of the film and his wife went through and painted ever slide! The version I watched had music added to the background which wasn't bad necessarily but it was kind of weird music. 
7. What did you have for breakfast today? My mom's homemade bread! 
8. When did you first see your favorite movie? My favorite movie as you all know is the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice. I don't remember when I first saw it as I basically grew up watching it. It came out only a year after I was born so conceivably I could have started watching it when I was just a year old! 
9. Do you prefer fantasy or sci-fi? How dare you make me chose! I love them both! I'm a huge fan of Tolkien's work when it comes to fantasy but I love other fantasy writers like C.S. Lewis, Lloyd Alexander, L.B. Graham and so many more. When it comes to sci-fi I enjoy Doctor Who, Stargate: Atlantis and Firefly and there's many more sci-fi shows I want to get into. 
10. What did you expect your blog to be like when you first started it? Mostly about tea actually.... obviously that's changed.
11. Has it changed? If so how? Well that's a serendipitous question. ;) I've branched out into movies, books, TV shows, cultural issues and really just about anything and everything. 

And now for some random facts!

1. I love sleeping with a fan on in my room. I'd rather have more blankets and the fan on then no fan and just a sheet. 
2. When I first read Pride and Prejudice I thought it was just okay. I was pretty young though.... nine years old. Now of course it's my favorite! 
3. When I first read The Lord of the Rings when I was 6 or 7 (I had to read it before watching the movies) I don't even remember what I thought about it. When I re-read it later (probably around 12) I thought it was too long and boring. Then when I re-read it for the the third time a few years ago I couldn't get enough of it and I've loved re-reading it ever since. It's funny how some books are like that. 
4. Recently with taking out stitches on a few of my patients at work I've realized the benefit of the couple years with the Entomology (study of insects) project during my 4-H years (I quit the entomology project due to my severe poison ivy allergy). Pinning the insects was a very detailed process taking a lot of precision. Those same skills have come in handy with snipping tiny stitches. 
5. Though, as mentioned above, I've left the Entomology project far behind, I'm still very specific about the fact that it's lady BEETLES not ladyBUGS. Because they're from the order Coleoptra which is the scientific order for BEETLES... NOT bugs! Lady BEETLES is the correct term. I've argued with three year olds over this point. A little overkill? Yeah, probably... but I'm not giving an inch! And neither was the three year old... 
6. I have a new fashion love right now which is the floor length dresses. They're super comfy and hide my fat legs. ;) I keep buying them! I think I have a problem. ;)
7. I recently won a bunch of very cool bookmarks from various blog giveaway but can you believe but I haven't used them once but instead have been using an old movie ticket stub! I have issues! 
8. My two favorite soda pops are Dr. Pepper and Root Beer.... though I rarely drink pop. 
9. To go along with my previous fact, I can't tell the difference between regular and diet pop. A quirk I'm thankful for. 
10. I have a deep seated hatred for Halloween.... it stems mostly from the last two years having issues with traffic and roads being blocked off for trick-or-treaters. Also a little kid in Wal Mart telling his mom he wanted to dress up as the devil for Halloween. Now the traditional Reformation Day I love! 
11. I'm hosting a read-along of Jane Austen's novel Emma right now! If you haven't joined up be sure to HERE.

Thank you so much Hamlette for tagging me! If you haven't checked out Hamlette's blog sbefore be sure to! I love reading them! 

So here are my questions for my nominees! I liked Hamlette's questions so I'm stealing some of them. :) 

1. What's the oldest movie you've ever watched? 
2. What's the oldest book you've ever read (excluding the Bible)?
3. Do you say lady beetle or ladybug? ;)
4. Have you ever re-read a book and changed your opinion on it from the first time you read it? 
5. What are you most excited for this summer? Or something that already happened this summer that you were excited for. 
6. What's your favorite soda pop flavor(s)? 
7. What's the meaning of your name? Do you feel like it goes along with your personality? Why or why not? 
8. Have you ever had an obscure talent come in handy at a time you didn't expect? 
9. What fandoms are you a part of? 
10. Do you sleep with a fan on at night? 
11. What are your feelings Halloween? 

And I'm tagging... Whosoever wants to feel tagged! If you're reading this consider yourself tagged and duly awarded! :) Even if you've already been tagged by someone else and you are just dying to answer my questions (because they're so AWESOME!) then go ahead. I was going to tag people but then I realized Hamlette tagged most of the people I wanted to! 

Have a fun day and God bless! :)

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