"Hood"

Robin Hood is one of my favorite legends, so I was happy to find this take on his story. Stephen R. Lawhead sets his version of Robin Hood in the 1100's in Wales. (In his comments, Lawhead makes his case for this being a more accurate version of the story than the English Sherwood Forest version we are all familiar with.) I found this book a little slow, but the story of how Bran ap Brychan was driven to the forest by the loss of his kingdom was fascinating. There is a slightly supernatural aspect to how Bran becomes "the Hood," wearing a black cape that resembles a raven.

This is the first book in a trilogy, which is a good thing because Bran barely becomes the Raven King before the book ends. "Scarlet," the second book in the trilogy came out last month, and I will certainly be reading it soon to find out what happens to Bran.

"The Wilde Women"

I debated about whether or not to post a review on this book, but I laughed so hard reading it that I couldn't resist! Paula Wall's "The Wilde Women" is the most enjoyable book I have read in a long time. Living in Depression-era Five Points, Tennessee, Pearl and Kat Wilde are sexy and self-confident but share the family curse of falling for the wrong men. When one day Pearl catches her sister Kat wearing Pearl's favorite pair of shoes and her fiance, Pearl leaves town for three years and then comes back with a vengeance. Her return has an effect on every person in town, and we hear all their stories.

This book is primarily about the relationships between men and women, wives and husbands, lovers and want-to-be lovers. It is also about sex--although there is very little sex that actually happens in the book. The author's slyly insightful comments about male-female relationships are hilarious, as are the colorful characters who reside this southern town. I loved the people of Five Points and couldn't wait to find out more about them.

Usually I don't discuss books with David that I am reading because he just isn't interested. With this book, he kept wanting to know what I was laughing about. Then I would read him lines from the book and get him laughing. This book is not graphic, but it is "racy"--the type of book where you might think, "I can't believe she just said that!" I loved the humor, the twisting plot, and the outrageousness of the characters.

"Grave Sight" & "Grave Surprise"

A Halloween treat for me! I just discovered that Charlaine Harris (author of the Sookie Stackhouse vampire books that I like) has another recent series of books--just strange enough to be fun at this time of year.

Harper Connelley and her step-brother, Tolliver Lang, spend their time traveling around the country looking for bodies--yes, that's Harper's job. When Harper was 15 years old, she was struck by lightening. She is left with a few lingering side effects--one of those being the ability to find the dead. When she knows where the body is, she can sense the cause of death and sometimes the name of the person. Her brother manages her career, and they travel together to earn a living. Strange, I know, but the books remind me of one of my favorite TV shows, "Supernatural."

The mysteries that Harper and Tolliver solve are fairly typical and not particularly gory (thank goodness), but the supernatural aspect is what interests me. I tend to like quirky stories--what can I say?

Ranger's Apprentice books

I just wanted to put a plug in for the Ranger's Apprentice series of books by John Flanagan. We chanced into the first book, The Ruins of Gorlan, when we were searching for some books on CD for a road trip last fall. Everyone in our family enjoyed the book very much. We didn't realize that it was part of a series until months later when we came across The Burning Bridge, the second book in the series. Brian, Erin, and I all read it very quickly.

The books are set in some indefinite Medieval time and center around a teenage boy named Will. On Choosing Day, Will is hoping to be sent to Battleschool to become a knight, but instead he is made the apprentice of an intimidating Ranger named Halt. Although this is a fantasy book (not usually my favorite genre), the emphasis is on the characters rather than mystical creatures and magic. The life of a ranger (predecessor to the modern "spy") is fascinating, and the books emphasize positive values like friendship, loyalty, and integrity.

Flanagan is an Australian writer. Although three of his Ranger's Apprentice books have been released in the United States, I understand that he has already published six in Australia. On Amazon.com the books are labeled for 9-12 year olds and 4th to 8th graders. These books will hold definite appeal for boys, but the female supporting characters add interest for girls as well.

Harry Potter...Again

(Warning: spoilers ahead!)

I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the second time--this time out loud to my youngest daughter--and I must say (again) that J.K. Rowling did a fantastic job in bringing this series to a close. I can't help but think that she could have just skated through this book, writing a predictable conclusion without too many twists, just tying up some of the loose ends, and the book would have sold just as many copies. Instead she wrote a new story (the deathly hallows) and brought the previous stories to a very satisfying end.

The last hundred pages or so of this story, once Harry reaches Hogwarts and the battle begins, are masterful. She draws upon aspects of her previous books to help bring the entire series a complete ending. My favorite scene, by far, is when Harry walks through the forest to face Voldemort for what he thinks will be the last time, and he is accompanied by his parents, Sirius, and Lupin. I cried as I read this scene out loud, and my children thought I was funny. I realized that they don't understand what it is like to love someone so much that you are willing to sacrifice your life for them. I later read that this is also Rowling's favorite scene in any of her books. Thanks again to Rowling for such an incredible book.

"The Book Thief"

All I could say when I finished this book was, "Wow." It isn't that this is the best book that I have ever read--I've enjoyed other books much more. It isn't that this is the most thrilling book I ever read--in fact, I put it down and then read and finished another book while I was in the middle of this book. However, The Book Thief might be the most beautifully written book I have ever read.

This is the story of a World-War-II-era orphaned child named Liesel Meminger who is taken to live with a working class family in Southern Germany. She brings with her The Gravedigger's Handbook, a book she stole at her younger brother's funeral. Her foster father helps her learn to read with this book, and soon she gathers other books from unlikely locations. These books become her friends and her anchors during difficult times. She makes other odd friends in her town, particularly Rudy, a boy who paints himself black and pretends to be Jesse Owens.

The most fascinating character in the book is the narrator--Death. He is a reluctant observer who, much to his regret, is spending a lot of time in Germany due to the war. His thoughtful and dispassionate observations give the reader pause and cause the reader to look at situations in a different way than usual. Death is truly a master of words and speaks with wisdom that comes with experience.

This book is being marketed to young adults, but I think it would take a very mature or sophisticated teenager to truly appreciate it. Death, violence, racism, and hunger are some of the main elements, but so are survival and finding beauty in the mundane. If you can get past the confusing first 10 pages or so, you will find this to be a powerful and moving novel. The beauty of this book brings tears to my eyes as I think about it. There are very few books that I would enjoy reading a second time, but I must say that my understanding and appreciation of this book would be sure to increase with a second reading. I look forward to it.

A Girl Named Zippy

A few years ago, I put this book on my list of books to read because I was interested in the subtitle, "Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana." Having worked in the Admissions Office of Purdue University, I prided myself on having heard of every small town in Indiana and was curious about the book. This memoir by Haven Kimmel is fantastically funny, and I enjoyed every word of it!

Because he says it better than I could, let me quote a reviewer, Lawrence Naumoff, from the back cover of the book: "The prose in this book is lovely and wise and witty and sings as beautifully as 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow,' but it seems to have been written by Dorothy's wild and irreverent sister, the one you never saw in the movie, the one who locked Dorothy outside when the tornado was coming, sold Toto, set fire to the Scarecrow, ate the flying monkeys for lunch, and painted all the blacktop roads in Mooreland, Indiana, the colors of the rainbow, the colors of imagination and heart and laughter." (Corny--but perfect!)

Haven Kimmel is a couple of years older than me, and while I didn't grow up lower class or with a chain-smoking father, so much of what she writes about is familiar--the freedom to ride your bike anywhere, miniature Avon lipsticks, interviewing your family with a portable tape recorder, and listening to Shaun Cassidy songs. I wasn't much like "Zippy" as a child, but she's the girl I always wanted as a friend--daring and fun! This is a funny and nostalgic memoir of growing up in a small town in the 1970s told from a refreshingly innocent child's point of view. I laughed all the way through it!