Arg, I had trouble getting through this. I'd read Charles Williams' Many Dimensions before and found it had more action and was more thought-provokingArg, I had trouble getting through this. I'd read Charles Williams' Many Dimensions before and found it had more action and was more thought-provoking than this one. War in Heaven shares some of the same elements in being a tale of a supernatural artifact that some people in England are fighting over, but a lot of it was too slow and too ambiguous to catch my interest.
For one thing, I appreciate Charles Williams' vagueness sometimes when it comes to the war going on around his characters in an unseen world--it suggests things just beyond our own reality that we're ultimately unable to reach in this life. Unfortunately, there was a little too much of that going on with the Holy Grail in this book (or Holy Graal as he spelled it--I guess it is a legitimate alternate spelling, but it took 2/3 of the book for me to get over saying "Gral" in my head). I didn't really understand what the power of the Grail was or how it could be used. This made the book sort of nonsensical as I didn't really understand what the threat was to the protagonists, much less the world.
The same went for the character of Adrian Rackstraw. Gregory Persimmons spoke of him as though he was either going to enjoy turning him evil somehow, or offer him as some sort of sacrifice, although it's never clear what kind.
There were too many other characters in the story too that cluttered things up. Some of them probably could have been combined and the book would have been a lot more interesting and a lot less confusing.
Anyway, I recommend Many Dimensions to those who didn't care for this book. According to another friend, All Hallows' Eve is Williams' best work, but I haven't read that one yet. I will probably still try to read all of his other novels someday since he was an Inklings member and I want to understand them better.
EDIT: I just saw that War in Heaven was Williams' first novel (it shows) and Many Dimensions was his second. All Hallows' Eve was his last. Maybe they get better as they go along? This makes me interested to possibly read them in the order they were published and find out.
Merged review:
Arg, I had trouble getting through this. I'd read Charles Williams' Many Dimensions before and found it had more action and was more thought-provoking than this one. War in Heaven shares some of the same elements in being a tale of a supernatural artifact that some people in England are fighting over, but a lot of it was too slow and too ambiguous to catch my interest.
For one thing, I appreciate Charles Williams' vagueness sometimes when it comes to the war going on around his characters in an unseen world--it suggests things just beyond our own reality that we're ultimately unable to reach in this life. Unfortunately, there was a little too much of that going on with the Holy Grail in this book (or Holy Graal as he spelled it--I guess it is a legitimate alternate spelling, but it took 2/3 of the book for me to get over saying "Gral" in my head). I didn't really understand what the power of the Grail was or how it could be used. This made the book sort of nonsensical as I didn't really understand what the threat was to the protagonists, much less the world.
The same went for the character of Adrian Rackstraw. Gregory Persimmons spoke of him as though he was either going to enjoy turning him evil somehow, or offer him as some sort of sacrifice, although it's never clear what kind.
There were too many other characters in the story too that cluttered things up. Some of them probably could have been combined and the book would have been a lot more interesting and a lot less confusing.
Anyway, I recommend Many Dimensions to those who didn't care for this book. According to another friend, All Hallows' Eve is Williams' best work, but I haven't read that one yet. I will probably still try to read all of his other novels someday since he was an Inklings member and I want to understand them better.
EDIT: I just saw that War in Heaven was Williams' first novel (it shows) and Many Dimensions was his second. All Hallows' Eve was his last. Maybe they get better as they go along? This makes me interested to possibly read them in the order they were published and find out....more
When I bought this for Lily, I hadn't realized that the illustrator was the same as in Hello Lighthouse--I just picked a co2016 Caldecott Medal Winner
When I bought this for Lily, I hadn't realized that the illustrator was the same as in Hello Lighthouse--I just picked a couple of the recent Caldecott Medal winners that looked interesting. So I was pleased to see that the illustrator was the same on the two books. She used the same technique in this one of Chinese ink and watercolor on hot press paper.
Finding Winnie is the true story of Captain Harry Colebourn, who bought a bear cub from a trapper on a train platform while he was shipping out to serve in WWI. He named the bear Winnie after his home of Winnipeg, and she became the mascot of his regiment. Although she came all the way to Europe with them, he decided to re-home her in the London Zoo to avoid bringing her into more dangerous territory. There, she made the acquaintance of one Alan Alexander Milne and his son--Christopher Robin.
The frame story is the author, Lindsay Mattick, telling it to her son, Cole. Lindsay is the great granddaughter of Harry Colebourn. She named her son after him.
The final pages of the book include real historic photographs.
I continue to be impressed with the research, storytelling genius, and visual quality that go into a lot of non-fiction picture books (well, particularly award-winning ones, of course). This book was definitely a book for me--it had history, literary deep-diving, and genealogy all in one, and it was a children's book too!
The illustrations are pretty and well thought-out. I especially like the way Blackall showed time passing on the train and Captain Colebourn's decision process when he's thinking about buying the bear.
I cried when Harry left Winnie at the zoo. I wonder if she was actually happy there. They didn't exactly have stellar habitats back then. I also noticed that in the picture of the real card recording her presence at the zoo, she died in 1934. It was an interesting detail discreetly included--not something that pulls down the story itself or makes it sad.
I wasn't sure whether Lily would enjoy this book, but she has sat through the whole thing several times. I don't know whether she understands the interplay between the framing story and the history, but she seems to like it anyway....more
Picked up a used copy of this for Lily. I think I remember having a stuffed Paddington as a kid.
Kind of a cute story--Lily likes the part where PaddinPicked up a used copy of this for Lily. I think I remember having a stuffed Paddington as a kid.
Kind of a cute story--Lily likes the part where Paddington falls asleep at the end. She usually wants me to skip the tirade by the mean taxi driver.
The characters are in England and it has some uncomfortable colonial overtones. Paddington is from "Darkest Peru," which I guess could refer to a part of Peru that is unknown or unpopulated by humans. Unfortunately, though, it's probably meant to either riff off of or echo the phrase "Darkest Africa," which was used in the past to refer to areas of the continent considered savage or uncivilized and used to justify European exploitation.
Not that my 2-year-old would understand any of that, but I don't want her absorbing at this early stage that there may be something "less than" about other cultures. I just read it as "Peru."...more
Received the new edition of this book yesterday--an updated version of a really excellent book about children around the world, their families, how thReceived the new edition of this book yesterday--an updated version of a really excellent book about children around the world, their families, how they live, what they eat, their traditions, etc.
It's still way too advanced for Lily, but she actually seemed interested in many of the pages as I read through it in the evening. The page on Korea especially caught her eye with the Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animal.
...or maybe it's not because of the stuffed animal--it's because we've been listening to BTS....more
Another fun Harry Potter supplement that J. K. Rowling wrote to support Comic Relief and Lumos.
I wasn't as into this one as the others. It's a descripAnother fun Harry Potter supplement that J. K. Rowling wrote to support Comic Relief and Lumos.
I wasn't as into this one as the others. It's a description of the history of the game of Quidditch, changes in rules over time, teams, how it spread across the world, etc.
It's a fun and light read, but since sports are not my favorite thing, even fictional sports, I wasn't as interested....more
A very enjoyable illustrated collection of stories from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter world.
Very meta. Very cool.
Although it didn't totally bowl me oveA very enjoyable illustrated collection of stories from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter world.
Very meta. Very cool.
Although it didn't totally bowl me over with awesomeness, it was fun to read. I liked the illustrations and the comments "by Albus Dumbledore."
It contains:
The Wizard and the Hopping Pot **** A wizard inherits a magical pot from his father, who said that he used it to help all of the people in their community. The wizard doesn't care about helping anybody, but the pot has other ideas...
The Fountain of Fair Fortune ***** My favorite story in the collection. Three witches and a knight have a chance to make it to the fabled Fountain of Fair Fortune, which allegedly grants wishes and makes the one who bathes in it lucky for the rest of their life. However, they don't realize that it may be the journey, not the fountain, that helps them solve their problems.
The Warlock's Hairy Heart *** A warlock decides that love is for fools and never wants anything to do with other people, even after his parents age and die--until one day he realizes others are pitying him for not having a wife. Not being able to stand their pity, he vows to find the very best wife, but the woman he finds wonders why his heart is so cold. He shows her the enchantment he put on his heart and... omg wtf.
Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump **** A king wants to be the most magical person in the world, so he declares that all witches and wizards will be hunted down, following this up by asking for someone who will come teach him magic. Being that the real witches and wizards are rather afraid of him, a charlatan shows up to pretend to teach him magic in exchange for a lot of money. Babbitty, the king's washerwoman, who is a real witch, gets in the way of these plans.
The Tale of the Three Brothers ***** The story that forms the basis of the plot in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. No less cool in this book. Three brothers cheat Death by magicking up a bridge to cross a river. Death is angry, but cleverly offers them their choice of prize. One brother wishes for a wand that could defeat anyone, and receives the Elder Wand. The second wishes for a way to resurrect the dead--Death gives him the Resurrection Stone. The third wishes for a way to leave without Death following him, so Death gives him the ultimate Invisibility Cloak that provides perfect concealment and will never wear out. Needless to say if you're an HP fan, #3 gets the best bargain.
Reading this story again made me re-connect the theme of death and grief to the role of the Invisibility Cloak in the main HP series. The cloak was passed down to Harry by his father and, like his mother's love, protects him from danger and, in a way, the despair that death can bring. Rowling really must have been planning on how that would all tie together from the beginning. Bravo....more
I never read the original version of this book. I'm not sure if the "Foreword by the Author" (Newt Scamander) and some of the other content that ties I never read the original version of this book. I'm not sure if the "Foreword by the Author" (Newt Scamander) and some of the other content that ties into the film were added, or if the film took elements from it when the script was written.
Either way, I think it's an enjoyable companion to the Harry Potter series, and it was written for a good cause.
It's basically an encyclopedia of mythical beasts as they appear in the Harry Potter world, so there's no real story thread going on here, but it is still engaging.
The illustrations in this edition are, true to the book's title, fantastic.
My favorite beast was the puffskein. It's basically like a tribble from Star Trek, only it has two eyes and a long tongue that snakes out every once in a while and eats anything it can find. This includes slipping it up the noses of sleeping wizards and eating their "bogies."
(For that matter, if they didn't translate the British terms in this book, why the need to translate them in the other books? I guess I am a book-Slytherin--I most appreciate pureblood, unadulterated books. Bogies forever!!)...more
2008 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature (for the series)
There's some nitpicky stuff about this book that bugged me:
The first two chapt2008 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature (for the series)
There's some nitpicky stuff about this book that bugged me:
The first two chapters about the Prime Minister and Snape making the Unbreakable Vow felt very out of place. I could be wrong, but I think these are the first chapters in the whole series that were not written from Harry's point of view. The Prime Minister one probably could have been edited out and Scrimgeour introduced later. The Snape one I think is meant to set us up to wonder about Snape and increase the suspense for the whole book, so that one kind of worked for me, but it was still awkward to introduce a new viewpoint other than Harry's third-person limited one.
It's hard for me to buy the Ron-Hermione relationship. Even the Harry-Ginny one seems a little bit forced, although less so. I get why it makes sense plot-wise for Harry and Hermione to both end up attached to the Weasley family--then at least they both have an extended family. I still kind of agree, though, that Harry and Hermione would have made a saner couple. I don't get what Hermione sees in Ron at all--he's jealous, dense, and at times very petty. It almost seems like they just end up together because Ron can't even function without Hermione, which is not a recipe for a healthy relationship. I guess nobody said it had to be healthy, though.
Other than that, I like the way this book again deals with grief, although not really until the end, in which Harry learns that choices in how we deal with life's problems matter maybe especially when we feel like we have no choice.
The theme of love, lust, snogging, etc. is pretty consistent throughout, and I liked how it was tied together with the idea of potions and Snape's character (Voldemort's mother having entrapped his father with a love potion; Harry finding Snape's book that led him to create better potions; Ron swallowing a love potion by accident, then almost being poisoned to death by another potion, etc.)
Looking forward to reading the final book and watching the film version of this one again.
"It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew - and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents - that there was all the difference in the world."...more
**spoiler alert** 2008 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature (for the series)
Yay! The first time I've read past Book 4!
The themes of grie**spoiler alert** 2008 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature (for the series)
Yay! The first time I've read past Book 4!
The themes of grief and trauma, yet again, really resonated with me in this book. Now, not only is Harry continuing to grieve the deaths of the parents he never knew, he also finds out that his father may not always have acted like a hero to everyone. Even that piece gave me some perspective--school is hell, but people can and do grow up.
I remember now that one of the reasons why I didn't want to read this book as a teenager was that I'd heard Harry became angry and whiny. Well, now that I've read it as an adult, I can understand why he would be so angry. He's just been re-traumatized by having watched someone die at the end of the last book and having had to face his arch-enemy's horrible return. Not only that, but since he was the only witness, no one believes him, and to top it off, as a consequence he ends up under the thumb of one of the most odious villains in literary history, Professor Dolores Umbridge. The kittens (shiver).
The scene where Fred and George Weasley finally decide to make their exit was totally wicked, as was the image of centaurs carrying Umbridge off into the woods.
The Department of Mysteries was appropriately mysterious and sometimes downright bizarre. Some of that followed the theme of trauma, too--I remember Ron being attacked by a brain with tentacles, and the comment someone made that sometimes thoughts can be more dangerous than physical injuries. What a truth, especially about grief.
The death of Sirius Black was awful for Harry, but it made a lot of sense as a catalyst for Dumbledore to finally spill some details about what's been happening. I guess Rowling could have made Wormtail be part of the raid on the Department of Mysteries, then have had Black be acquitted when Wormtail was seen, but maybe that would have been too much happiness for Harry. Suckage.
I noticed that this book really brings in an overt Judeo-Christian theme in the form of blood.
My church is doing a "read the Bible in a year" plan and we are currently in the book of Numbers. I've been watching videos explaining how the ancient Hebrews thought that blood represented life, so that was why they believed in sacrificing animals in order to restore life (ritual cleanliness) to earthly places affected by death (sin). In the Christian theology that follows from that, the blood of Christ as a final sacrifice cleanses people of sin, freeing them from the power of death because of his love.
So, you can imagine how I could make a connection there with Harry's mother's sacrifice. The shedding of her blood, because of her love, saved him from death. Due to that, the same magic continues to protect him when he lives with her blood relative.
Finally, I cried reading the scene in which Luna Lovegood tells Harry about her own mother's death. Her certainty that she will see her mother again brings Harry some comfort about his most recent loss, and it gave me comfort about my losses too.
The fact that they could both see the thestrals reminded me of the compassionate community we often find in grief.
The companions who came with Harry to the Ministry of Magic may not have been the ones he would have chosen, but they were the right ones to accompany him, especially Luna and Neville who, out of all the people in the school, may be able to understand Harry's grief the best because they have also suffered.
J.K. Rowling knows grief inside and out, and these books continue to pile up truth upon truth upon truth about navigating it....more
2008 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature (for the series)
Wow. I don't think I liked this book as much when I first read it almost twent2008 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature (for the series)
Wow. I don't think I liked this book as much when I first read it almost twenty years ago, but now it is my favorite of the series so far.
As a thirty-five-year-old, there are things that I definitely appreciate about it more than when I was sixteen.
One is that J.K. Rowling deeply understands grief and trauma. The way that Harry and Neville react when "Professor Moody" is demonstrating the unforgivable curses and the descriptions of what Harry goes through emotionally after being attacked by Voldemort are psychologically spot-on. Also, the repeated theme that although friends and family may be taken away from us, they are still with us through the lasting impact of their love.
I think I heard that Rowling was inspired to write Harry Potter after losing her mother. It shows, and after having gone through many losses myself, I appreciate the truths that she writes about so much.
Second, after actually trying to write a couple of novels for National Novel Writing Month over the years, I appreciate much more how well-written this book is. There are many characters woven throughout with all kinds of motivations, back stories, and personalities, and everything that needs to get tied up in this book does get tied up. It's flipping brilliant.
Yes, there are some things that maybe could have been edited down... I didn't think the beginning needed to be quite as long and it felt a little unbalanced not to have the characters reach Hogwarts until a significant way through the book... but everything comes together and makes sense later.
This is the final book in the series that I've actually read before. I think at the time, it was good, but it just didn't hold my attention as well and the issues didn't resonate with me as much as they do now. It also looks like I had to wait about three years for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to come out, and by the time it did, I was busy with college and whatnot.
Now my husband and I are competing to see who can read through each book faster. I spent hours this weekend reading like 500 pages to catch up to him and got totally sucked in. After each book, we're watching the corresponding film to compare them. It's a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to finally reading the rest of the books! Onward!...more
2008 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature (for the series)
Of the books in the series I've read, this one is my favorite because of its c2008 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature (for the series)
Of the books in the series I've read, this one is my favorite because of its central theme.
Rowling explores the theme of fear rooted in trauma and how it can only be overcome by love.
This story is where we also begin to see more of the history of what Harry's parents were like and who his father's friends were while he was at Hogwarts.
I also love the twist at the end as we realize the truth about Sirius Black, plus the time-travel stuff.
I'd actually forgotten about the revelation surrounding Scabbers when I re-read this, but it was interesting knowing other outcomes of the story and seeing how they were more heavily foreshadowed here (I have only read the first four books, but have seen all the films).
Probably the only reason I don't give this five stars is that it does slow down a bit in the second half. I'm not as interested in the quidditch matches....more
First impressions: This book is just over 1,000 pages. I wonder if I'll be able to read it as fast as I read Gone with the Wind... yikes. 0_o
Yeah, nopFirst impressions: This book is just over 1,000 pages. I wonder if I'll be able to read it as fast as I read Gone with the Wind... yikes. 0_o
Yeah, nope.
The City of Bells Review - Four Stars Oddly, when I was looking through my unread books pile for my next book to read, I saw this trilogy book and was again like "Nah. Too long. Not ready for it right now. Maybe later," and I lifted it off the pile to dig for a different book. Then I felt a voice within me say "No. This book." And I was like "...but..." and it was like "No. READ THIS ONE." So I embarked on the journey of reading the first section, A City of Bells. The voice was right.
This story is about a guy named Jocelyn Irvin. First of all, I was surprised that Jocelyn was at one time a dude's name, but I got used to it pretty quickly. It started to make sense in my head. So, Jocelyn's leg is wounded in the Boer War and he's young and privileged and doesn't know what to do with his life next. This is very depressing to him. His family agrees that sending him to the small cathedral town of Torminster to live with his grandparents and recuperate is a good idea. So off he goes. There he meets his grandparents' two young charges Hugh Anthony and Henrietta; Felicity Summers, a peculiar and beautiful young actress; and Gabriel Ferranti, a reclusive poet. When Ferranti disappears, Jocelyn opens a bookshop in his old house (against his family's wishes, for respectable gentlemen do not keep shops), and eventually comes into contact with Ferranti's last surviving manuscript. The only problem is that it's half-finished. Jocelyn sets himself to the task of completing it, and from there unfolds a wonderful mystery. Will Jocelyn find his real purpose? And is Ferranti dead or alive?
This story really spoke to me because I've been in a place lately where I felt stuck, not really knowing what to do next. I identified strongly with Jocelyn--he was me and I him. The way that his friends and the town (and--dare I say--God) conspired to set him on the path he was meant to walk was comforting to me, and once again I benefitted from the way Elizabeth Goudge writes about faith while still preserving the mysteries of the universe and not pushing any pat answers. This was a gorgeous, gorgeous book. Definitely my favorite of her works that I've read so far. The only things I got tired of in it were the constant lists of flowers everywhere (I didn't even know what half of them were), and the character Hugh Anthony, who I think was supposed to be child-like comic relief, but whom I wanted to put in a gunny sack and throw into a river. He was that obnoxious. Maybe the point was to contrast him with Henrietta, but it was way too much. More Jocelyn. Less Hugh Anthony. By the time I finished the trilogy, I realized that Hugh Anthony really knocked a star off of this book for me; he was that awful.
I'll read a couple of books in between the ones in this giant volume, but I think I will continue it. Hopefully the other stories are as good as The City of Bells, but I don't have high hopes, because it was very good.
Towers in the Mist Review - Two Stars Aug. This book was not nearly as good as The City of Bells. I was really confused about why this is considered a trilogy--the only thing the books have in common is that they all take place in cathedral towns.
Towers in the Mist is about the Leigh family who live in Oxford in the mid-1560s during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Only at first it seems like it's about Faithful Crocker, an orphan traveling to Oxford and hoping for a miracle to allow him to study there. So we kind of care about Faithful at first, but the problem is that he gets what he wants immediately, followed by convoluted introductions to all of the other characters and lots of focus on TOO MANY FLOWERS and a bunch of Leigh kids who don't do much and whom we don't really care about.
Then one of the Leigh kids, the oldest daughter Joyeuce, who is overly responsible for everyone else, falls in love, presenting her with the conundrum of pursuing her own desires or martyring herself upon the alter of her family. This seemed like the core tension in the book, only there wasn't enough of it in the first two-thirds or so.
There is a simultaneously convoluted and too-obvious story about a gypsy child who was switched with one of the Leigh children soon after birth because his mother wanted him to grow up in better circumstances... but we don't get enough of the original mother, or especially the father, to really care.
Goudge gets distracted throughout the book with side-trips to expostulate on Oxford's scenery and history, hang out with Walter Raleigh and Philip Sidney, and finally build up to a visit from Queen Elizabeth herself.
There were a few things I got out of reading this, but overall it was a disappointment. If you like history for the sake of history in your fiction, or you are passionately interested in Oxford, or even if you like FLOWERS, then this book might be for you. If you like strong plots and clear main characters who are easy to care about, take a pass.
The Dean's Watch Review - Three Stars
And five months later, she finishes the trilogy. Man. Wow. I'm so glad to move on; these books were a quagmire for sure, even though I liked the first one a lot.
I really thought about quitting The Dean's Watch multiple times. The plot was, once again with the majority of Goudge's books, just... so... slow. It's about Isaac Peabody, an old clockmaker who lives with his sister Emma. Both of them are stuck under the shadow of their awful, strict minister father. Isaac is afraid of all religion because of their father, while Emma is ultra-religious, yet utterly lacking joy.
Their maid, Polly, is in love with Job, who's apprenticed to a fishmonger who beats him all the time because he's jealous of how smart and awesome Job is.
Isaac makes friends with the city's Dean, who, as he gets older, begins to better understand what loving others is really about.
The Dean influences all of their lives for the better. There is a lot of beautiful metaphor involving watches and clocks.
There's also an annoying, spoiled little girl in the story, and the author has a curious fixation on her underwear (and also her doll's underwear). By fixation, I mean that she mentions a couple of times that different adults in the story notice the underwear and it holds some kind of specialness or symbolic significance to them. It was a little weird to me, but maybe was more innocent when this was written almost 60 years ago? And what is it with the author needing to include some kind of horribly-behaved child in almost every story? It's not cute. It's just horrible.
Anyway, Goudge captures the mystery of faith in a beautiful... and so very, agonizingly slow... way in this story. Not sure I would recommend it, but again I'm left with that feeling with her work that I did like it and was glad I finished it....more
Ça fait plusieurs années que j'ai lu un livre en français. J'ai voulu pratiquer le français un peu parce que mon mari et moi, nous allons à Québec cetÇa fait plusieurs années que j'ai lu un livre en français. J'ai voulu pratiquer le français un peu parce que mon mari et moi, nous allons à Québec cette année en octobre. Je suis Américaine et j'ai fait une spécialisation en français il y a dix ans. Maintenant, malheureusement, je n'utilise pas le français beaucoup, alors je ne parle pas aussi couramment que quand j'étais à l'université.
Car j'ai lu le premier livre de Harry Potter plusieurs fois, je pensais qu'il serait assez facile de le comprendre en français. Je pense que j'étais correcte... j'ai compris la plupart des mots et car je me suis souvenue de l'histoire, c'était bien. Néanmoins, ce n'est pas mon livre favorite dans le série, et j'ai du utiliser beaucoup d'énergie en lisant en français après n'avoir pas lu dans une langue étrangère depuis longtemps, donc il m'a pris beaucoup de temps pour le finir.
Mais bien, c'était une bonne expérience. Peut-être la prochaine fois, j'essayerai de lire quelque chose avec laquelle je ne suis pas assez connaissante. Après je l'ai fini, j'avais une rêve en français où j'ai parlé beaucoup et j'ai compris ce que les autres personnes m'a dite, donc je pense que même la lecture est bon pour pratiquer une autre langue....more
Black Beauty, a book that has sold millions of copies since it was first published in 1877, has gained somewhat curious status as a children's classicBlack Beauty, a book that has sold millions of copies since it was first published in 1877, has gained somewhat curious status as a children's classic. The author originally wrote it as a work for adults to promote awareness of cruelty to horses. She succeeded in this when it became very popular soon after publication. It's the story of a horse who starts out his life well taken care of, but through circumstances beyond his control goes through a series of masters both kind and terrible.
Adults may find the author's message heavy-handed, but there are definitely a few gems, such as “...if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt,” and “...we have no right to distress any of God's creatures without a very good reason; we call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.”
For many children this is their first horse book and they want their parents to read it to them over and over again. Other children, however, might be upset by the scenes of animal cruelty on the way to the happy ending. You know your child best, so adult guidance is suggested....more
This is my second foray into the novels of Elizabeth Goudge, returning to the historical period that she wrote about in The White Witch--the English CThis is my second foray into the novels of Elizabeth Goudge, returning to the historical period that she wrote about in The White Witch--the English Civil War in the 17th century. This time, she focuses on the life of Lucy Walter, the first love of King Charles II and a woman about whom few historical facts are known.
From what I could tell doing a little bit of cursory research, Goudge did an excellent job in this novel weaving whatever facts have become available over time into her tale. Although she could have cut probably a couple of hundred pages from the first half of the book and been fine, I still found myself enchanted by her writing style no matter how long it took me to get into the book and actually finish it. Her style is "romantic" in the literal and literary senses of the word, full of intense emotion and the glorification of the natural world.
As for the story itself, she somehow manages to portray the tragedy of Lucy Walter with a pure, eternal hope shining through the cracks, and her skill as a writer is such that I can't quite bring myself to hate Charles even though by modern standards he was a huge jackass to Lucy in this version of events. I'm not sure how Goudge managed to make Charles come across as another victim of the tragedy to me when I am also so irritated at the double-standard toward women at the time--Charles was allowed to have as many mistresses as he wanted, but when it came down to Lucy slipping up one time, her "disloyalty" broke *his* heart? Give me a break. As if a man's loyalty is in the spirit of standing by the side of a friend whereas a woman's loyalty (and in some sense, value) only goes as far as what's between her legs. Ick. At the same time, I get that Charles was surrounded by enemies on all sides and incredibly paranoid. By the end, I felt sorry for how he had been deceived by the people trying to bring Lucy down. Of course, I felt more sorry for poor Lucy whose entire life had been selflessly devoted to Charles only to be destroyed just as her father had feared. The abuse that she suffered because of the path that she chose was only really redeemed in her love for her maid, Anne, and her Christ-like forgiveness of Anne's betrayal.
I do wonder now if Lucy was the glorious almost Mary-Sue-like misunderstood character whom Goudge portrays or if she was in fact the power-grabbing "strumpet" that Charles' brother James and his cronies made her out to be after her death in order to avoid her son, the Duke of Monmouth, being seen as a legitimate heir to the throne. We might never know, but Elizabeth Goudge puts forth an absorbing theory in this book--that in her youth, Lucy Walter either was married to Charles, or at least believed that she was, and that Charles' friends and enemies alike destroyed her reputation with their lies and drove her into a sad and early grave....more
I love Herriot's writing, but this one was another slow one. I felt like the stories were more varied than in All Creatures Great and Small, but it stI love Herriot's writing, but this one was another slow one. I felt like the stories were more varied than in All Creatures Great and Small, but it still took me a long time to get through since there wasn't much of an overarching narrative other than some thinly stitched-together experiences in the RAF during WWII. Most of his veterinary stories are framed by his war experiences and written as reminiscences of life before (and sometimes after(?)) the war.
The story that stayed with me the most was the one about Paul Cotterell and his dog Theo. James thinks that Paul is sort of a carefree person without many attachments in life, including to Theo. He compares himself to Paul and wonders why he has to be so emotional. Later, he finds himself to have been a poor judge of Paul's character when he finds out how Paul reacts to Theo's death. It made me reflect a lot on how meaningless it is to compare ourselves to others when we have no idea what it's like to walk in their shoes. Even people whom we think are amazing usually have struggles that we can't know. It's better not to dwell on our own faults and compare people to one another, because we're all just doing the best we can.
Anyway, I always love Herriot's stories for their combination of sadness, humor, and insight on life, and will probably read the rest of them at some point. I hadn't realized that All Things Bright and Beautiful comes before this one, but it doesn't seem like I missed too much by reading them out of order....more
Maria Foley, a young Irish woman, loses her chance to go to a prestigious clothing design school when her father gets in an accident and her mother loMaria Foley, a young Irish woman, loses her chance to go to a prestigious clothing design school when her father gets in an accident and her mother loses her mind. Through another awful circumstance, she loses Greg Hopkins, the man she loves, and ends up marrying the disreputable Barney MacPhearson.
Although this seems classifiable as a romance novel, I felt like the focus was on Maria's relationships with her family and the drama between her and her brutal husband. It started out slowly, but became a fairly complex and suspenseful story with a lot of well-drawn characters whose motivations made sense. The ending was a little bit unbelievably happy, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I really liked it that there were a lot of realistic and sad events in the story, but the tone of the book was hopeful rather than depressing. Since I'm interested in the WWII era during which the book is set, that also was a selling point for me.
The main things that bugged me about it were the slow start, and the author's tendency to accidentally use Maria's name instead of another female character's when Maria was having a conversation with them. This happened three or four times, and each time it made the scene pretty confusing....more
This was a quick read--good pacing. It seemed to have a good amount of historical detail, although I'm not at all familiar wi2003 Newbery Medal Winner
This was a quick read--good pacing. It seemed to have a good amount of historical detail, although I'm not at all familiar with that period in history, so I'm not sure.
(view spoiler)[Totally obvious that Crispin was that dude's son, but I didn't predict what he would ultimately do with that information. (hide spoiler)]
Overall it kept me turning pages, even if the story was pretty simplistic.
Also also... I read some other reviews and I noticed that someone mentioned this book has references to atheism that had to be explained to her child. I didn't really notice that--I just noticed that Crispin was taught to question his beliefs. Which, in my opinion, is always a good thing. It also seemed like Crispin held onto his faith even in the face of violence, turmoil, etc.--he just learned not to believe that people in authority were necessarily put there by God. Also a good thing....more
Robin, a well-off boy in medieval England, loses the use of his legs due to an illness. He learns to move around on crutches 1950 Newbery Medal Winner
Robin, a well-off boy in medieval England, loses the use of his legs due to an illness. He learns to move around on crutches with the help of a monk and ends up acting as a messenger to save a town from a siege.
I agree with some other reviewers that the characters felt a bit too wooden and message-y... there also wasn't a lot of sensory detail to draw the reader into the setting. The book description gives away the very simple plot.
Despite these things, I liked the message, so I liked the book. It's too often in fiction that the main character has to become a hero in some prescribed way, so it refreshed me to read a book in which the main character has physical limitations, but accomplishes something nonetheless.
Since I lost the use of one of my legs for a while earlier this year due to a spinal injury (*and* helped fix it with swimming!), I could connect with Robin on a very real level. It is a huge loss of control, with all the emotions that go along with that. I got better, but in the book, it didn't seem like Robin was going to, making me admire his perseverance all the more.
There are certainly other "walls" in life aside from physical injuries that we all experience... it's good to be reminded that sometimes we just have to keep doing what we can and wait for the "door."
"Each of us has his place in the world " he said. "If we cannot serve in one way there is always another. If we do what we are able a door always opens to something else."
As far as the audio quality in listening to this book, I had mixed feelings about the sound effects. It included bells ringing, a harp, and various other effects throughout the story that were fine in themselves, but the balance wasn't great. They often were louder than the narrator and characters which made it hard to focus on some parts.
The narrator, Roger Rees, was good, but not remarkable. His character voices were fine, but I felt a little more like a British dude was reading me a book than that I was experiencing the book.
Finally, on a random note, I wondered why there was a horse in this story named Bayard just like there was in Adam of the Road, another Newbery winner that focuses on medieval Europe. It turns out that it's the name of a legendary horse from medieval times that had the "supernatural ability to adjust his size to his riders," although the Bayards in both of these books are normal horses....more
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