Goose Girl

The Goose Girl
Shannon Hale
5 Stars

I think that Shannon Hale is becoming one of my top authors of all time! She retells a classic Grimm's Fairy tale in this story and it is amazing! I read it so fast I was sad when I finally had to put it down. I can't wait to get my hands on one of the other novels that accompany it, Enna Burning, or River Secrets.

Asi, for short, is a princess that is promised to marry a prince she has never met of a neighboring land. On the way to her new kingdom her lady in waiting over takes her company and Asi becomes a goose girl while hiding out and waiting to return home or take back her title. The Grimm's fairy tale version is very short (one or two pages) and gives a very good synopsis if you want to figure out what the book is about - but if you know Grimm's version, or read it first, be warned that you will have the ending given away!

Hale created such a fun enchanting fantasy world for the story to take place in. There is love, suspense, lessons and friendships. There were points I was literally hanging on word for word! I love it! I recommend any girl from 10-18 read it!

My other favorites of Shannon Hale, A Princess Academy and AustenLand. She has an awesome website you can see by clicking here. She also graduated from my alma mater, the University of Utah - you can't can't go wrong with a Ute!

North by Northanger

North by Northanger
Carrie Bebris
4 Stars

Another Mr. and Mrs. Darcy mystery. I read the last one around Halloween and loved it. I have decided that I am a pansy when it comes to real life mysteries, they scare me too much. These are so easy to read and right up my ally.

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy have just settled in and are expecting their first baby during this book. The advice that Elizabeth endures during these months had me laughing so hard! If you have ever been pregnant, you will relate to some of her feelings. What a cleaver book!

Carrie Bebris has one more mystery novel out that I have on my list - I know they are easy and predicable, but I really enjoy them and think they are so much fun!

Mother Mason

Mother Mason

Bess Streeter Aldrich

5 Stars

This is a very short cute book about the Mason family. It's such a feel good story and it made me smile. Mother Mason finds joy in raising her 4 children. She is 52 during the story and such an inspriation. I hope that someday my little family will be like the Masons. They were a hoot to read!

There is also something charming to me about reading a book that still has an old library card in it with dates older than myself!

Book Swap

I hope everyone enjoyed the book swap. I haven't heard that everyone recieved their books, but here are a few of the fun titles that got passed around! I plan on doing this fun swap 4 times a year so look again for it in late winter/early spring!

Switch by Sandra Brown (love her)

Wolves in Chic clothing by

What you wish for by Fern Michaels

A series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

On the Road by Jack Kerouacand

5 Winnie the Pooh Books (No One's Listening, Someone's Jealous, Someone's Babysitting, Bounce Around Tigger, and The Tigger Movie)

The Sweet Hereafter

Me & Mr. Darcy

The Education of Little Tree

Twilight

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Rachel Ray's 365 cook

A Lantern in Her Hand

A Lantern in Her Hand
Bess Streeter Aldrich
4 1/2 stars

I started this book about a year ago for a book club at my church and although all the members of the club were raving about it, I couldn't get myself to finish it. I finally picked it up this past weekend and was able to finish it in 3 days - and the only thing I can think of is I must have been reading a very fast pace exciting novel before this when I first attempted to read it.

Needless to say I loved it this time around. (I must be in a better mood as well!) The story follows the life of Abbie Mackenzie Deal. She marries the love of her life, Will Deal and they move to settle "out west" in Nebraska. While Abbie has dreams, she is also a mother. After reading this book I couldn't help but appreciate my own mother more. I am also inspired to become a better mother to my little family.

I found myself wanting to highlight or dog-ear some passages in the book. Here are some of my favorite parts:

Abbie has just recovered from losing her infant son. She comes to terms with it and looks around and sees her little family. She has so many dreams for her little children,
"You shall wear them, darling. Some day you shall. We're going to make it come true. We've got to make it come true." She caught Margaret to her. "It takes faith and courage and love and prayer and work and little singing to keep up your spirits, but we're going to do it."

Abbie is speaking to her daughter, who has just informed her that she will forgo motherhood to pursue a singing career,
"But, Isabelle, if people waited to be rich to have children. If we!...Oh, Isabelle! You'd make me laugh if I didn't feel so like crying. Can't afford it? How can you afford to miss it....little children...their soft warm bodies and their little clinging hands...their cunning ways..miss motherhood?"

After her daughter Grace has just told her she is narrow for not having traveled, Abbie answers her,
"You know, Grace, it's queer, but I don't feel narrow. I feel broad. How can I explain it t you, so you would understand? I've sen everything...and I've hardly been away from this yard. I've seen cathedrals in the snow on the Lombardy poplars. I've seen the sun set behind the Alps over there when the clouds have been piled up on the edge of the prairie. I've seen the ocean billows in the rise and fall of the prairie grass. I've seen history in the making...three ugly wars flair up and die down. I've sent a lover and two brothers to one, a son and son-in-law to another, and two grandsons to the other. I've seen feeble beginnings of a raw state and the civilization that developed there, and I've been part of the beginning and part of the growth. I've married...and borne children and looked into the face of death. Is childbirth narrow, Grace? Or marriage? Or death? When you've experience all those things, Grace, the spirit has traveled although the body has been confined. I think travel is a rare privilege and I'm glad you can have it. But not every one who stays at home is narrow and not every one who travels is broad. I think if you can understand humanity...can sympathize with every creature..can put yourself into the personality of every one...you're not narrow...you're broad."

Miss Bishop

Miss Bishop
Bess Streeter Aldrich
5 Stars

If we could only have more people in this world like Miss Bishop. The story begins with Ella Bishop's first days at Midwestern College. Ella is a lively, spunky girl and the book is her journey through life. She cares for her mother, is a devoted friend and a constant. She is a teacher, and therefore a mother to so many.

Ella Bishop's life is not an easy one, but she never complains. She never takes the easy way out and she always does the right thing. The book has ups and downs. At some points I was so sad I was brought to tears for Miss Ella Bishop and at other points I was literally laughing out loud.

I started Bess Streeter Aldrich's more famous book, A Lantern in Her Hand, for a book club last year and I never could finish it. Miss Bishop was such a touching book that A Lantern in Her Hand is up next on my list.

Pride and Prescience

Pride and Prescience

Carrie Brebis

3 Stars

It was Miss White, with the rope, in the ballroom. This book reminded me of a game of clue. It is a mystery and I picked it to read this week in honor of Halloween. I'm not much of a horror fan, and real life mysteries tend to really freak me out, so this was perfect. It was a fun read, but I must say pretty predictable.

The story starts where Pride and Prejudice ends. Mr. and Mrs. Darcy have just wed when Caroline Bingley announces her engagement and marries an American, when within the same week strange things start to occur. Fires, sleep walking, carriage accidents, even an attempted suicide. I have never been fond of Caroline (who is?!) but I found myself feeling very sorry for her in this book.

The author has a whole line of books based on Jane Austen books that I will be keeping in mind for the future. It's under 300 pages, so if you are looking for a good one-nighter or weekend book this would be something I would suggest.

Wish You Well

Wish You Well

David Baldacci

4 1/2 stars

After suffering through a car crash and losing their father, Lou and Oz are forced to move to the Virgina mountains to live with their Great-Grandmother and invalid mother. The year is 1940 and times in on the mountain and in the small mining communities are struggling. Lou and Oz are struggling to find where they fit in as well.

I loved this story. It's about finding ones self. Finding out what really matters and learning how to love and forgive. I cried and I laughed. I just wonder why I haven't read this before, every person I suggest it to has already read it. Where have I been?

The day I finished the book I was driving home from grocery shopping and I saw an old boarded up farm house and a huge commercial for sale sign in front of it. I wanted to cry. I was sad because with every bit of expansion I'm sure there is a piece of history we are missing. We live in a world where ever one is keeping up with the Jones and trying so hard to be the the biggest and the best. Aren't we forgetting what is really important? Our families. Hard work. Honest living.

I loved this book and I hope to re-read it often. It is a very good reminder of what is important in life.

P & P

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen

5 Stars

How could I give Jane Austen anything but 5 stars? What more can be said about Pride and Prejudice?

The first section was hard for me to get through this time. Perhaps because I read while two little ones are running/crawling around. I prefer the last 1/3 of the book. I love the long BBC version of the movie much more than the shorter newer version. For some reason I have also been sparked into reading all sorts of Jane Austen spin offs this season. It's such fun! Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves.l They are my old friends. I have heard you metion them with consideration these twenty years at least."

"Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance."

"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment."

"Those who do not complain are never pitied."

"Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing, after all."

"I was never more annoyed!"

"Handsome men must have something to live on, as well as the plain."

"I am the happiest creature in the world."

Weekly goal

Wow! This month as entirely gotten away from me. I started out very strong and then came to the realization that my baby boy would be turning one soon (less than 2 weeks!) and I had made a goal to have his scrapbook caught up by his birthday.

I only scrapbook my boys first year and include everything else in a separate family album so this shouldn't be a hard tasks, but it has significantly decreased my reading time. The holidays are also approaching. There are so many books I want to finish and ideas I want to post. My goal is to be more consistent, so perhaps a weekly post for now might be a goal I can accomplish.

Today is Monday. Here is to weekly (or more) posting.