Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Greetings from Sunny California!

Greetings, my few and faithful readers! I am typing from my motel room in the original land of Disney – Anaheim, California, where I’ve been for the past six days.

Let me tell you about the books I finished before the trip.

Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett was fantastic. I plan to read a few other titles in the series. It isn’t too often that a story has me often laughing out loud while reading it…and this one did. The talking amphibian (who thinks he was human once, but can’t remember for sure), the Wee Free Men’s fear of lawyers, Tiffany’s first, second and third thoughts…all had me guffawing.

The other book I finished recently was The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. This book - which was written for adults, but something teens may enjoy as well - has been very popular lately, as it was made into a movie. Now that the wait lists have subsided, I was finally able to get a copy from work.

There were times that the book was slow, but overall I really enjoyed the tale. Although I studied history in college, I concentrated more on the ancients (primarily Greece, Rome, Egypt and before), so there was much I didn’t know about the court of Henry VIII. I knew the basics…His spilt from the Roman Catholic Church…The many wives (and the beheading of a few)…The lack of legitimate sons, etc. But, I hadn’t heard the story of Mary Boleyn.

This is a work of fiction; however, it has a basis in factual history. I enjoyed Gregory’s embellishments, and respect that research she did in preparation for this novel. I plan to read the rest of the books in the “series”.

Before leaving for California, I was listening to book 4 of the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage.

That’s all for now. A good friend Robyn lent me Emma by Jane Austen to read on the plane, so I will probably start on it tonight.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really wanted to read the Septimus Heap series, but there have been so many other books that it slipped my mind. I did read the first one, Magyk, and I really liked it. How do you think the rest of the books stand up to the first?

( I met you at the Liberty library after the Nightengale performance- me and my friend were the leads and we had a good discussion afterwords (: )

Ama said...

Hi, Taylor! Thanks for posting. :)

I'm listening to the 4th book in the Septimus Heap series, and am almost finished with it. It doesn't live up to the previous books. I've been rather annoyed and bored by the characters.