Deb Nance
Clara Barton was one of my favorite historical figures when I was a girl, and, after reading this picture book biography, I'm happy to see that she holds up as a woman of character and courage.
Barton served as nurse during the Civil War, established the American Red Cross, and worked for civil rights for women and people of color.
What an example of strength and wisdom she shows in this book! The book uses Barton's own words as well as poetry from the author to tell the story of Barton during the Battle of Antietam.
Polly and Digory meet and become friends, and Digory's crazy magician uncle captures the two children and sends them off to another world with some magic rings. Digory and Polly meet an evil witch who tags along with them and they all end up at the very beginnings of Narnia.
This is probably my third favorite Narnia book after The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I enjoyed seeing how Narnia started and I also loved the chapter where the witch follows the children to our planet.
Willie is seven and wants to be a dancer. His sister, Emma, is eleven and she wants to be a lawyer. But the parents of Emma and Willie don't like the children's dreams and they are doing everything they can to force the children to do what the parents want them to do.
How can the children proceed?
Emma tries to research children's rights and soon learns they have none. Then she joins a group that advocates for children but that turns out to be a dead end, too.
Finally Emma comes to a realization that if her family isn't going to change then she must be the one who changes.
A thoughtful book, originally published in 1974, in which children grapple with difficult problems and come to figure out a good way to address them.
Whew. I had no idea. I have been sitting up there, atop the animal hierarchy, where I believed humans justly reign supreme in the universe, looking down (benevolently, I hope) on all the other creatures not blessed with a person-sized brain, self-satisfied, and now, after reading this book, I find that I have been toppled from my position, and I lay here, dazed and a bit confused.
Who knew?
Frans de Waal takes a thorough look at cognition studies that have been done throughout time and across various animal species, and all the myths about animal intelligence that we humans have accumulated through the years are exploded after reading this book.
Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are? I'm not sure we are.
On Quality is a posthumous collection of quotes from Robert M. Pirsig about his concept of Quality. Pirsig published some of his ideas about Quality in two books, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila. This book collects quotes from these books in addition to quotes from letters and interviews and talks over the years.
It is illustrated with photos of Pirsig's tools.
A few spoilers below.
Mary Barton is the story of a young woman living in industrial Manchester. Her mother has died and her brother has starved to death and her father has been laid off and is living in despair over all the things he has lost. Mary herself is learning to be a seamstress and she is loved by two men, one rich and one poor, and she favors the rich one. Until she abruptly does not. And then the rich man is found dead and the poor one accused of his murder.
I found the story deeply melodramatic, with the good very, very good and the bad concerned only with themselves, but I liked how the story highlighted the terrible lives of the working man and woman of the time. The story was compelling though I came to expect that if something could go wrong, it would. The ending felt improbable but satisfying.
Potato rushes to Lance Vance's Fancy Pants Store for a one-day-only sale on Potato Pants! But when he arrives, who does he see but Eggplant, Eggplant who pushed Potato yesterday right into a trash can. Potato certainly does not want that to happen again! But how can he avoid Eggplant and still get a pair of Potato Pants?!
Fantastic illustrations and hilarious text.
Cleo and Mack unexpectedly end up reserving the same Irish island cottage for the same dates. There are no other accommodations on the island and the weather has curtailed the transport off the island. Cleo and Mack are stuck together, and both have issues which sent them to this remote retreat. How can the two figure out a way to share the cottage and work on the problems they face in their personal lives?
Savannah tries to live by her family's focus on greatness and service, but too often she feels that she is a duck out of water amid the achievements of the rest of the Cade clan. Savannah works for a publishing company committed to only the most literary of the most literary, but in her spare time she is writing a romance novel. When she struggles with her novel, she gets unexpected help from a mysterious editor who has also found refuge in Savannah's favorite hideaway, a hidden turret room of the Victorian office. But who is this mysterious editor? And why does Savannah feel so drawn to him?
I easily figured out all the unknown elements in this story, and I knew where the story was going, but my enthusiasm for the characters and the plot and the humor and, of course, the bookish setting, never faltered. Deep meaning? Important message? Poetic writing? No, but if you enjoy the gentlest of rom-coms, you will like this little book.
It's Nellie Bly's birthday, so it seems like a perfect day to read and review this beautiful adventure of the true story of a race between two famous women journalists of their day to see who could beat the other in a race around the world. Nellie Bly was the more famous and popular journalist, and Elizabeth Bisland was the more poetic journalist. They both set out in opposite directions to see who could make it all the way around the world first in less time than the character in Jules Verne's beloved novel, Around the World in Eighty Days.
The illustrations are delightful and the text is compelling. The book is full of quotes from newspapers of the day about each woman's trip and from the two women themselves. There is also information about the complete lives of both women.
Oh, Anne Tyler, you get people like no other writer. You see their vulnerabilities. You see their (sometimes hidden) strengths despite their (blatant) weaknesses. And you share these with us, tenderly.
The Garrett family is the central cast in this book. Mom and dad and their kids and their kids. A story that goes through several generations. It starts with a scene between one of the grandkids of the story with her boyfriend. She sees a man she thinks might be her cousin, and her boyfriend is struck by this, finding it odd that she doesn't even recognize her own cousin. And the story draws on this, the connections between family members, their disconnections, their own varying perceptions of their relationships. It's completely fascinating.
Oh, and what does the title have to do with the plot? It was almost at the end before David was having a conversation with his wife about French braids, how his daughter wore them and when she undid the braids, her hair would still be in ripples for hours and hours afterward. “That's how families work, too. You think you're free of them, but you're never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever.” Lovely.
Rémi learns that those he thought were his parents are not, but are instead people who took in a child who was found abandoned. His foster father decides to send Rémi off into the world with a traveling musician Vitalis for money. Rémi finds Vitalis is a good master and he learns much from him.
I can easily see why this is one of the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read. It's a fantastic story of loss and love and learning and life.
I could only take one real book along with me to Paris.
This was the perfect book.
Dear Paris is a collection of illustrated letters Janice MacLeod wrote during the time she lived in Paris over a series of ten years.
I loved reading a few letters a day during the weeks I spent in Paris. Each letter mentions places and people of Paris. It was a delight.
Felicity Cloake takes to the road on a bicycle, traveling around France in search of the best food she can find, especially the best croissants. Her journey takes us all across the country where she samples Tart Tatin, Omelette Soufflée, Crêpes Complètes, Provençal Fish Soup, Croque Monsieur, Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée, Quiche Lorraine...truly, she samples every French dish you have ever wanted to try, and she chooses the best spot in the country to try each.
I loved reading this book as I traveled around the French countryside.
I've been intending to read one of these Aimee Leduc mysteries ever since I first served as an author escort for Cara Black at the Texas Book Festival years and years ago. What better time to read the first book in the series, Murder in the Marais, than just before heading out on a trip to France where I will be staying in the Marais?
I enjoyed reading this mystery. I liked the characters. I especially liked the way Aimee Leduc uses disguises to change her appearance during her investigations.
And I learned a lot about the Marais, especially during the occupation.
I may read more of these.
Julia Child said, “I was born hungry, not a cook.”
It was her husband, Paul Child, who first introduced Julia to the wonders of French eating, and soon Julia began to want to learn to make the magnificent meals that she had learned to love.
This is a fantastic picture book biography of the amazing Julia Child, written by the grandnephew of Julia herself.
A king and a queen long for children, but children do not arrive, and so they ask an engineer and a witch to create children for them. The engineer and the witch create a little wooden robot and a log princess. Each night, the log princess changes back into a log when she falls asleep, and she only awakes to princess form when magic words are said over her. One day, the magic words are not said, and the maid thinks the log in the princess' bed is nothing but a log...and that is the start of a little adventure...
I like this gentle little story very much.
Eustace and a schoolmate, Jill, are off on an adventure in Narnia. Aslan the lion sends the two on a mission to find Prince Rilian, the son of Prince Caspian, who has been missing for many years. The two go underground and discover secrets below the surface and are finally able to resolve the mystery of the lost prince.
Another delightful story in the Narnia book series.
Baron Münchausen travels all around the world righting wrongs and besting bad folks. Each chapter is a separate adventure, and all the adventures have the feel of a tall tale, with humor and wild exaggeration.
This is probably the most imaginative book I think I have ever read. Wild and unexpected twists and meanderings in the plot fill the book, and these delighted me.
This book was great fun, but I can't help feeling like this was a bad translation from the original German, with lots of big words that are strikingly awkward in the story. As often happens with older stories, there are some scenes that feature cultural stereotypes of the time in which the story was written, and, if you aren't keen on your children reading violence, you better not open this book.