book reviews
Tuesday’s Thought For The Day!
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Reading Things you Would Really Rather Not…
…I have been doing a lot of this lately. Being about halfway done with my MBA has me reading textbooks, data, statistics, charts and graphs, and the occasional book written on leadership. I am happy with how far I have gotten so far, and that I made the decision to take this journey for myself.
I just always seem to forget how much time I do not have for reading, until I am no longer able to do it. It just took me a month to finish a book I could have read in one day. A month! Anyone who knows me knows that me needing a month to finish the book means one of two things; either the book was absolutely horrible, or I was just too busy.
Luckily I have gained the courage to stop reading horrible books. You know what I mean, right? You start reading a book, and it is terrible, yet you feel terribly guilty for leaving a book unfinished. I have finished my fair share of not-so-great books because I was not brave enough to close it without ever knowing how it ended. Well not anymore. Not for me. I have finally started to realize the value of my time, and it is much too valuable to read some of the garbage I have come across lately. It almost makes me feel sad to think of the number of books I have not been able to finish lately. Did you see my blog post (okay, rant!) on self-publishing? You may want to check it out. It’s right here: https://booksandopinions.com/2014/08/05/do-you-self-publish/
I have a stack of books I want to read, sitting next to my stack of school books. I have a few days break between classes, and am wondering how many books I can get read in that amount of time. I am not a fan of wishing my time away, but I cannot wait until it gets closer to the holiday season, and I have some extended time available to do my favorite thing: sit in a reclining chair with a good book, my cat, and read myself into oblivion.
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Tuesday’s Thought For The Day!
I can gladly say, with 4 daughters who love to read, I have been a success at this!
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Next On My Reading List
I am going to start reading “To Catch a Bad Guy”, by Marie Astor. This is titled as Book 1 in the Janet Maple series. I have never heard of this author, so I am really excited to dig into this book and see how it is. It appears to be another mystery/suspense style that I really enjoy.
Have you heard of Marie or read any of her books? I have to say I am a bit concerned seeing as how the 2nd books title is “Catching the Bad Guy.” Really. Hmmm, seems a bit less than ambitious on finding a title that doesn’t sound exactly like the 1st book. I’ll let you know what I think a I get going!
More to come later 🙂
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Finally Finished!
What-the-Dickens continued on being his troublesome, question asking self. By sheer luck, he manages to encounter another Skibberee, Pepper by name; fireball tooth-fairy on a mission with no time to deal with What-the-Dickens. But deal she does. She has to retrieve a tooth, leave the money, and get back to command center before sun-up. If she fails, she will not become an Agent of Change (AKA a Tooth Fairy).
She gets back at sun-up, with What-the-Dickens in tow. No one is happy to see this rogue Skibberee, so Pepper has one more chance to complete her mission, on time, with instructions to leave What-the-Dickens somewhere out there. He has been instructed to never come back.
With task at hand, Pepper and What-the-Dickens go to their location, the home of none other than Gage, then a 12 year old boy, lonely and bored with parents who had no time for him. Oh. Yeah. Gage is also the owner of McCavity. McCavity gets ahold of Pepper’s wing, and damages her enough that she is captured by Gage. She tells What-the-Dickens to finish her task, so at least her name will be remembered after her death.
Yep. You’re thinking what I was thinking, huh? “How does “What-the-Dickens” mess this up? But that’s just it. He doesn’t. Not this time. It seems he really is useful, and has his own talent; he can communicate with animals, and no other Skibberee can do that.
He completes the mission for Pepper, and returns to the command stump where all the skibberee in that district live. He turns over the teeth, and tells them about Pepper’s fate.
No one seems to care. It is what it is. But What-the-Dickens cares. And when Gage returns her to the stump, What-the-Dickens does everything he can to revive her. He succeeds, and announces that he and Pepper are leaving forever; they can live out in the world on their own.
The adult Gage will not tell his cousins if the story is true or if it isn’t, but he gives the challenge to Dinah to determine how she thinks their story would continue. And ideas abound in her mind of how What-the-Dickens and Pepper would have adventures out in the world.
What do you think they are up to?
this was a great story, not exceptionally long to read, and definitely holds your interest. I certainly wish Mr. Maguire would twist up some other fables and fairy tales, to see what he comes up with next!
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What-The-Dickens: AKA The Tooth Fairy
Are You Familiar With Gregory Maguire? Have you read Wicked? If you have, then you’ve read Gregory Maguire. Being a huge Wizard of Oz fan, I have of course enjoyed all of the books in the Wicked Series (Except the last one, I haven’t read that yet). Gregory Maguire has a way of taking common fairy tales that we are all familiar with, or other stories we think we know, and giving them his own unique twist; taking you on a journey you never expected.
Do you like Cinderella? You want to read “Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister”.
How about Snow White? Then you would love “Mirror, Mirror”.
“What-the-Dickens” is a story about the tooth-fairy. It revolves around Dinah Ormsby, her older brother Zeke, their 2 year old sister Rebecca Ruth, and their just showed up on their doorstep distant cousin Gage. There isn’t a definite time frame, or year that this book seems to be set in. The back story on the family is the parents disappeared, Gage shows up. On page 5 we read that “the Ormsby’s were trying the experiment of living by gospel standards, and they hoped to be surer of their faith tomorrow than they’d been yesterday”. This is also a family who lives with no cable television, internet service, or visits to the mall.
This isn’t your run-of-the-mill tooth-fairy either. He is what would be called a Skibbereen, or Skibberee. “His arm webs were filmy, nearly transparent, and his skin was suggestible, like water. I suppose his circulation worked on a capillary system; his coloring could shift from pale to dark and many shades in between” (pg. 20). He sounds kind of like a dragon fly to me.
So are you interested? Good. Because I have just started this book, and “What-the-Dickens” (yes, that is his name) seems like he has a lot of trouble coming his way. I can’t wait to share it with you!
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