Review of Book of a Thousand Days

I thought this book was very interesting. It wasn’t at all what I expected I guess. I absolutely loved the Princess Academy and thought River Secrets was good, so I thought that this would be right up there. It was just okay at first for me. I didn’t really get into the story till the Adventure Thereafter. Then I was hooked and wanted to find out how the rest of the story would play out.

So what did you think of Dashti?...I just kept thinking why don’t you just beat up that little–princess-brat already!!! Dashti just kept loving her and making her meals, no matter what the princess did. Now that I am actually thinking about it, I think Dashti was just so selfless and sweet. When she goes to face the evil wolf man Khasar, I was so impressed. Seriously, how do you stand naked in the snow and still have the courage to finish your mission? Her plan was so brilliant. I loved that she was a simple servant girl on the outside, but the more you found out about her character, you realized just how much more there was to her!

What did you think of the princess-Lady Saren?...her character drove me nuts. I just kept thinking she is a psycho. Why wouldn’t she want to try to escape and be with her Khan-Tegus? I did like that at the end, Lady Saren finally learned how to work and that she didn’t try to steal Tegus from Dashti-that would’ve been so selfish!

Did you like Tegus?..I loved him. He was always so sweet, even from the beginning. What man would stand where you throw out your…bodily fluids and have a conversation. I loved when he gave them the cat to help with the rats and was so sad when Khasar killed the poor thing. I love when he gets Dashti from the whole pre-war incident and he says,“You slew Khasar, you healed me, and you have perfect ankles. I really don’t think this is a question we need to debate.” (after saying “You’re going to have to marry me now.”) So sweet.

Did you expect it to end the way it did?...I think I kept hoping Dashti would end up with Tegus, but the way the story kept throwing more twists and turns I wasn’t really sure, but it’s a fairy tale, it HAS to end happily ever after right?

Did you love it, like it or was it a waste of time?...I love the way Shannon Hale writes. I understand that this book was written for a younger audience, but in the end I am glad I read it. At first I just kept thinking really? This is it huh? But now after doing this review, I am remembering how much I loved and hated certain characters-which is why I love her writing. This isn’t my favorite of her books, but I did really like it. (I am so wanting her to do another book for adults. I just loved Austenland.)

Okay, so I want to know how you would’ve answered these questions, or anything else you want to add, that I didn’t focus on.

Book of a Thousand Days

Our next read is Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale. The review will take place on September 24th and the review will be led by Melissa.

Here is a little snippet from Hale's website about the book:

When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years because of Saren’s refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment. As food runs low and the days go from broiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them fed and comfortable. With the arrival outside the tower of Saren’s two suitors—one welcome, the other decidedly less so—the girls are confronted with both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows. With Shannon Hale’s lyrical language, this little-known classic fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm is reimagined and reset in a land inspired by the Asian steppes; it is a completely unique retelling filled with adventure and romance, drama and disguise.

Breaking Dawn Discussion

As usual...Spoiler Alert!

I really enjoyed reading Breaking Dawn, but I am so sad that the series is over!! I felt like there was so much suspense building up to this book and I had so many theories and there was so much speculation as to what would happen, but I NEVER would have guessed anything that actually did happen! (Well, I did guess about the pregnancy part, but I figured that it would be impossible and wouldn't happen).


Here are a few points that I hoped we could discuss because I am interested to hear how you felt...


The honeymoon:
I thought that Stephanie Meyer was very tactful and tasteful in the way that she presented the sex scenes. We all knew that there would be some since they got married and all, but I was curious how she could still keep this a book appropriate for teens but include that in there. I appreciated that she was able to show us their "desires" but just skip over the parts we didn't need to read. I have heard a few people say that it was really inappropriate and that they wouldn't be allowing their daughters to read it. What do you think about that? I feel that what Edward and Bella were doing was completely moral and acceptable within the confines of marriage and that Stephanie Meyer kept it clean enough for me to allow my daughter to read it (well, if I ever have one...but I know that my Young Women at church have read it and I think it's fine).


Jacob:
For all you Team Jacob fans out there, I am curious how you felt about how everything turned out for him. At first, while I was reading and I flipped to book 2 where Jacob was going to begin narrating, I was really disappointed. I couldn't believe that I was going to be left hanging and not know what was going to happen with the baby!! However, after I read on, I really began enjoying being in Jacobs head. I liked that we could hear more of what the pack was thinking and seeing Bella and Edwards relationship from the outside. I think that it also smoothed things out for me when Jacob ended up imprinting on Renesmee because I probably would have been mad like Bella and Edward were at first if I wasn't rooting more for Jacob at that point. I was excited that Jacob imprinted on Renesmee, I believe that was what was the main thing that helped everything end up so well in the end. What do you think about Jacob's imprinting??? How did you react when you figured it out?



Renesmee:
Where do I start? Can you believe they had a baby?! What is up with the name Renesmee??? Couldn't she have named her after her favorite sister Alice or something? Yuck. Although, the name did end up growing on me more by the end of the book, but I am still with Bella and hate the nickname Nessie. I liked her talent and thought it would be interesting how she would use it when she grew older. Speaking of that...I wish there was another book where we can see her grown up.

Talents:
Did you expect that Bella would have the same talent that she had when she was human? I kind of did, but I always wondered if there would be something more. I loved how at the end she was able to pull back her talent and let Edward read her mind.

Charlie:
Do you think that now that Charlie is dating Sue that Sue will eventually tell him that Bella is a vampire? How do you think that he will react?

Did you like the book?
I read a few reviews where the readers were very disappointed in the book. What about you? Did you like it? Did you hate it? I liked it and I think that it had a happy ending which was what I had hoped for. I am reading it again to my husband right now and it has been just as fun to read the 2nd time around. The only thing I hated was that it was the last book!!!

Breaking Dawn

We know that it has been awhile since we picked a new book for us to all read...if you're like us, this summer has been very busy, so we've let things slide around here a little bit!

However, we don't have to remind you that Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer will be released next weekend (August 2nd), so we will be selecting that as our next read. We will be discussing the book on August 16th (this is only 2 weeks after the release date, but we'll probably already have it finished much before that right?! If you want the date sooner or later than the 16th, let us know!). We hope that you are as excited as we are!!

Go Team Edward!! Ha, Ha...that was for you Natalie!

The Host

Spoiler Alert!! Don't keep reading if you haven't read the book!

I'm sorry that my review is early!! I actually just finished reading The Host last night (we'll technically this morning!) and it was great! I wanted to get everything down before I forgot!!

This book was really hard to get into, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. I couldn't get into the story and by the time I was on page 85, I didn't care to really pick it up again. Boy am I glad I did!

I really enjoy Stephenie Meyer's style of writing and I was really sucked into this book. When I had to put it down to run an errand or something, I actually caught myself thinking, "I wonder what Wanda is doing right now", or "What is going to happen to Jamie", or most common, "How is the heck is this book going to end with me feeling happy about it?" I had no idea how anything was going to go or what was going to happen throughout the book. I liked that it wasn't all that predictable (it could just be that I'm a little slow, too!). At first, I hated Wanderer and everything about the souls who invaded the bodies. Then, throughout the first few chapters, Meyer convinced me that I was on Wanda side and quickly I was rooting for her! I enjoyed learning about the souls through Wanda stories, she was a great story teller.

I also enjoyed that there was just the right amount of a "love story" within the story. I wasn't sure how I felt about Wanda's relationship with Jared or even with Ian. I mostly felt bad for Ian, but I was so glad that Wanda realized her love for him in the end and that they were eventually able to be together.

I am a sucker for happy endings, and I loved how this one ended. I feel like everyone was happy and everything ended up working out. At the very end when they met that group of humans I was excited because it gave hope that the human population would probably survive. I loved that Wanda and Ian were together, that Jamie was happy and that Melanie was able to to be with Jared. I also loved that there was hope for them and that there were others like Wanderer out there.

Here are a few questions...

1. Did you or did you not like the book?

2. What do you think you would have done if you were in Jared's position when Jed brought Wanderer in to their home?

3. If you were Wanda, would you have saved the Seeker?

4. What do you think about Kyle's decision to put Sunny back into Jodi's body after Jodi didn't come back? Would you have done the same thing?

5. If you were in Wanda's place would you have wanted to die or be placed in another host?

I'm excited to hear what everyone else thought about this book!!

Hattie and The Host

We've selected the next two books that we will be reading...Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson and The Host by Stephenie Meyer.

Hattie Big Sky:

For most of her life, sixteen-year-old Hattie Brooks has been shuttled from one distant relative to another. Tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, she summons the courage to leave Iowa and move all by herself to Vida, Montana, to prove up on her late uncle's homestead claim. Under the big sky, Hattie braves hard weather, hard times, a cantankerous cow, and her own hopeless hand at the cookstove on her quest to discover the true meaning of home.

Natalie will be reviewing this book on June 5th.

The Host:

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed.Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves-Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.

Jennifer will be reviewing this book on June 30th.

We had a poll about which book to read next and the only votes we got were for Fever 1793. Would anyone like to do the review on this book? It's a great book and a pretty quick read. Please let us know if you would like to be the next reviewer!!

Once Upon a Marigold

Whew!! I didn't think I would be able to get this review posted in time since the library just got my copy of Marigolds in the day before yesterday!! BUT this book was a very easy read and kept me interested enough that I finished it really fast.

I really enjoyed this book. It really was "part everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" and I thought that Ferris had a great imagination. Although the ending was kind of predictable (who didn't know from the very beginning that Christian was probably a prince?), it was how Ferris got us to the 'happily ever after' part that was so much fun.

I also enjoyed the characters and their development. Even though this was a fairy tale, and even though the characters were portrayed in a silly way, they still had me hating or loving each one of them in the end. The only characters that surprised me were Meg, who after not too long proved to be a little skanky (I wanted to kick her when she kissed Christian and then Rollo came in), and the triplets. In my mind, the triplets were like the evil step-sisters until we met them just before the wedding and I loved them.

Another thing that for some reason surprised me was that Olympia was drugging Swithbert, but after we learned that she was drugging him, it made sense all along. We're you surprised to learn that all of the girls were adopted? I was! You can probably guess that my favorite part of the book was when Swithbert explained to the girls that because he loved them from the first moment he laid eyes on them, and because he walked the floor with them when they were sick and taught them things like riding and cheating on cards, he was their real father. Yes, it brought a little tear to my eye, and no, I'm not afraid to admit it!!

Overall, I loved this book. I would recommend it to anyone...especially because it's clean and fun. Ferris did make a sequel...I think I am going to have to check out Twice Upon a Marigold!!

I've enjoyed the reviews with questions for us to answer, so I am going to add a few in on this review...

1. Did you like the book? Why or why not?

2. What if Christian had been found by one of the other magical inhabitants of the forest as a little boy? It could have been Tooth Fairy Mag, Hayes Centaur, etc. How would that have changed the story?

3. If you could have a birth gift like some of the characters in the book, what would it be?

Marigolds and Midnighters

It's that time again! Time to select our next books that we will be reading!!

This time, we will be posting the next 2 books that we will discuss so that everyone will have enough time to get the books!

First, we will be reading Once Upon A Marigold by Jean Ferris. This story is part comedy, part love story, part everything-but-the-kitchen-sink. It is "Happily-ever-after turned upside down, inside out, and completely over the top!" Jennifer will lead the discussion for Once Upon a Marigold on April 24th.

Then, we will be reading Midnighters by Scott Westerfield (you'll probably remember him from Uglies). Here is an excerpt from the book:

"Jessica paused at the front door. This had to be a dream: Millions of diamonds filled the air, floating over the wet, shiny asphalt. Only a few inches apart, they stretched as far as Jessica could see, down the street and up into the sky. Little blue gems no bigger than tears. Jessica raised a hand to touch one of the blue gems. The little diamond wobbled, than ran into her finger, cold and wet, and disappeared. Then Jessica realized what the diamond had been. The floating diamonds were the rain, somehow hanging motionless in the air. Nothing moved on the street or sky. Time was frozen around her."

Natalie will hold the discussion for Midnighters on May 15th.