Hopping Pots? Hairy Hearts? Cackling Stumps? Sign me Up!

The Tales of Beedle the Bard By: J.K. Rowling

This compilation of tales is a classic from the world of Harry Potter. In the introduction JKR explains that these stories are much like our Muggle childhood fairy tales, but with one main difference, magic. Magic was usually the cause of all of the problems in our childhood favorites, her examples include, the witch that poisoned the apple, or put the princess to a hundred-year’s sleep. However in The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the heroes and heroines can perform magic themselves and still have trouble solving their problems. These tales have helped magical parents all over the world explain to their over eager children that magic can cause as many problems as it can solve to the unworthy witch or wizard.
This book contains 5 tales along with commentary by our own dear Professor Albus Dumbledore. So, if you couldn’t figure out the moral of the story, don’t worry, Dumblydore is always obliged to help. The five stories are: The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, The Fountain of Fair Fortune, The Warlock’s Hairy Heart, Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump, and the Tale of the Three Brothers. My favorite is The Fountain of Fair Fortune.

This tale was about a Fountain that only one person could bathe in one day in one year. Hundreds of people would come from all around to hopefully be picked to be the one person that could dip in this fountain to receive Fair Fortune forevermore. Three sister witches had a plan to get each other in, it works, but on accident Sir Luckless is also dragged in along with the sisters (with a name like that, we all know who needs the fair fortune). Through their travels they all learn life lessons that in the end none of them need the waters of fortune. Through their struggles they learn important lessons about themselves and each other that lasts the rest of their lives. I guess the moral of the story is that your problems are never so big that you can’t find a solution. Personally, I know this is not a Christian story, but I find my absolute peace and all my answers from Jesus Christ. He is my stronghold and my fountain of fair fortune and my constant help in times of trouble. He can heal the symptoms that no doctor can cure, he has treasures laid up in heaven, and he can mend the broken heart.

All of that to say, when my children are growing up, I think I’m going to read them The Tales of Beedle the Bard instead of the fairy tales that I grew up with. Why??? Because I think that would be awesome for them to talk about these tales like we would talk about Hansel and Gretel, etc. When you think about these stories, verses the stories that we heard as children, are they so different? They all have people who need to learn a life lesson.

So, which tale was your favorite? Did you learn anything from these stories?

Secrets Don't Make Friends!

Can You Keep a Secret? By: Sophie Kinsella

That is a good question. Emma Corrigan is just an average girl, petty, smart, funny, but average. She has an average life, a good boyfriend, a good job, a good flat, but nothing spectacular. Until one day she gets on a plane, after having a little too much to drink, hits a little turbulence and here comes every secret of her life. Of course sitting next to her is a silent, handsome stranger that she thinks she will never see again. Boy is she wrong. The fantastic plane ride is on Friday, well on Monday the owner of the huge company that Emma works for comes for a visit to the London office. Jack Harper. Stranger no more. As she tries to keep her distance he is always there, it’s like he’s drawn to her. You’ll have to read the book to find out what happens. I’m not spilling the beans.

When I think about my life and whether I can keep a secret, I rather think I’m a good secret keeper. I think my one problem is that I trust too many people. I tell things about myself and trust that they aren’t a big mouth. I am an open book, you ask me a question about myself, I’m going to tell you. I don’t see the point in secrets. I really don’t have any. Now keeping secrets about other people, it’s a vault, lock down. Most of the time…

So, back to the book, I liked it. It was a cute book about a fun character. Sophie Kinsella’s writing style is a lot like Meg Cabot or vice versa(author of the Queen of Babble series), fun, quick wit, charming. Although, when I started the book, I had to look at the cover and make sure I hadn’t picked up Bridget Jones’ Diary again. The main character’s inner monologue was exactly like Bridget’s. Then when the gut spilling episode happened I thought, OMG, this is just like Queen of Babble. Now, I didn’t do any research, but I’m going to guess that someone is copying each other. One instance is on a train and the other is on a plane, but still it is the almost exact scenario. Also, Kinsella has the “Shopaholic” series and the first three in the series are Confessions of a Shopaholic, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, and Shopaholic ties the knot, while the Queen of Babble series is Queen of Babble, Queen of Babble in the Big City and Queen of Babble gets Hitched…. Um, Really?!?!? Someone is copying.

One other complaint I have is, wow… the F-bomb. I have never read a book with the F-word in it so much in my life. I really am ok with profanity in books if it matches the character, for instance, if there is a man that is a drug addict, beats his girlfriend, and is unemployed, when he stubs his toe, he better not say, “oh darn it” that would just be out of character. But over use gets annoying. I guess let that be a warning to a younger audience, F-Bomb will be blowing up!

Ok, so I do have one more complaint about the book. I know I am an over excited person. When I’m writing I exclaim a lot, but the over use of the exclamation mark in this book was insane. I can understand some use of it in a book, but really? Is everything being screamed in this book? I finally just ignored it, but it did get on my nerves. Settle down, breathe in, breath out.

I know it seems like I’ve only complained about the book, but it was quite cute. British humor is my kind of book. The things I really enjoyed about the book would ruin it for the audience, so please pick it up and let me know what you thought about it.

This book was loaned to me by a dear friend that reads, so if you have any suggestions, leave me a comment and let me know what should be on my list!

Dying for Someone You Love

My Sister’s Keeper By: Jodi Picoult

Did you know that I have rheumatoid arthritis? It’s really not that big of a deal. Luckily, I’m not going to die from it, it’s just a “debilitating disease,” as my specialist doctor said about 50 times on my first visit. Pretty much, I have quite a bit of pain in most of my joints (from my fingers to my toes and almost all the joints in between including my jaw-who knew eating would be painful for me…). Anyway, this is not a pity party, and if it was I wouldn’t invite any of you. I’m more of the “suffer alone” kind (unless you’re my friend Andi-then I tell her EVERYTHING about how I’m feeling- thanks for listening Andi!) Ok, back on track, the reason I mention this, is because if I’m going to be handed a bad card in my life, this one isn’t so awful. There are so many other things out there that are so much worse than RA! Like, oh, I don’t know… Leukemia! There are deathly diseases out there that like RA there is no cure for, but the worse that’s going to happen to me is that I’m going to have some JACKED up hands and feet when I’m older and pain, but I’ll still be around.

My Sister’s Keeper, is about a family that the middle child has Promyelocytic leukemia. She is diagnosed at age two. Her older brother is not a match to her genetic make up so the family designs a baby to be her sister’s exact genetic match. The story starts when Anna, the designer baby is 13, she is suing her parents for medical emancipation. She no longer wants to be prodded and poked and donate every cell of her body to keep her sister from dying. Kate the middle child was only supposed to live to be 5 and here she is 16 and it isn’t the cancer that’s killing her now, she has kidney failure. The story takes place over 2 weeks during the trial.

I don’t have just a whole lot to say about this book, so I’ll just tell you what I liked and what I didn’t like. First, I like how the book is written. Each chapter is from a different person’s perspective. Picoult even changed the fonts for each character. The audience sees the perspective from inside and outside the family. My favorite character in the book was Anna’s lawyer, Campbell. He to me was the most real and complex character in the book. All of that to say, one thing I didn’t like about the book was it didn’t seem like she changed very much between the characters. There was a difference in how each character thought, but in my opinion it could have been stronger. If she wouldn’t have put the narrators’ name on the beginning of each chapter, I don’t know that a paragraph in, I could tell who was talking.

The next concept I enjoyed is that you didn’t know exactly what was going on during the book. You think you do, but everyone is keeping a secret. Some character’s secrets are big and some are small, therefore I was guessing throughout the entire book. What’s going on? I was looking for the answers. When I was about half way finished I figured most of them out, and I was right. There were some things at the end that took me by surprise, but you’ll have to read the book to know what they are.

All of that to say, this book was enjoyable. I liked it. You should pick it up sometime, read it, then tell me what you think about it! Don’t forget your Kleenex (BYOK!).

boy, oh boy

Boys… better yet, brothers. What can I say about growing up as the only girl with 2 brothers? Ha! One thing is for sure, I was a tom-boy. I would much rather wear a pair of jeans or shorts than a skirt any day. I would have rather played in the woods than played dress up, and I would have definitely rather ran with my brothers and their friends than stay inside alone. My brothers are now two of the most wonderful men I know and I love them dearly. Then? Well that’s another story. Jordan my youngest brother was sometimes my best friend (yes, not all of the time-we would also fight like cats and dogs). He would play Ninja Turtles and Barbies with me, or board games or whatever. Jordan has never been one to be bored, as a small child he could play by himself for hours, I was the one that need to be entertained. So, when I say he would play with me, that was exactly it. Ky on the other hand was too old to play our little games, Jordan and I would play secretly with his toys, and somehow he would always know. I remember two specific times when Ky was gone to a friends and when he got back home, we were in trouble. One time, somehow he could tell we played with his transformer, and he probably knew because we apparently broke it. He was so angry I thought for sure we were goners. The other time was when Ky was gone for a whole weekend. The boys shared a room and for decoration, Ky had a baseball pennant collection. He had so many the entire room was covered in them, and of course each corner had a thumb tack in it. Jordan and I took out all of the thumb tacks and made a tent from the ceiling with bed sheets. We had so much fun playing in our hand made fort, but it was apparently the dumbest idea we’ve ever had in our young lives (and by that time, I’m certain that Jordan and I had burned the families storage building down, ran away to a gas station to buy kit kats, and played with the neighbors hundreds of cats when we weren’t allowed to), because when Ky got home I remember Jordan and I hiding in a closet waiting for our punishment. Now, 20 years later, my brothers are wonderful. Whenever we are all together we have a great time. We talk, we laugh, and we just enjoy each others company. All of that to say, I believe that I know little boys and how they act.

So, whenever I picked up Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, I felt right at home with Tom and Huck (Huckleberry Finn, that is). These two mischievous little guys will forever be marked in history as true American boys. I have two favorite scenes, the first is when we first meet Huck and he and Tom are talking about the dead cat that Huck has bought from another boy. And the other is when these two and another boy named Joe decide to run away and become pirates. The first is because of the boy’s conversation about the cat, for instance, Tom comments that the cat is “mighty stiff” and Huck informs Tom that dead cats can cure warts (of course it has to be in a graveyard at around midnight, and you have to speak an incantation). The second is because I love pirates…arrrr matey!

The dead cat that can cure warts leads me to another fantastic part of the story, which is all of the superstitions. It seemed like Tom had a little incantation for all situations, one of my favorite is when he sees a lady bug he tells it, “Lady bug, lady bug, fly away home, your house is on fire, your children’s alone,’ and she took wing and went off to see about it- which did not surprise the boy, for he knew of old that this insect was credulous about conflagrations, and he had practiced upon its simplicity more than once.”

Tom Sawyer is such a great character because he is mischievous, but he also has a good heart. He saved the girl of his dreams from a beating at school and took the beating himself. He always did the right thing in the end and was often the hero. This childhood classic should be in the homes of all American families. Besides it being one of America’s literary classics, it is a great story with many great lessons that we can all learn from. Samuel Clemens or better known as Mark Twain is of course one of America’s great authors he will forever me remembered for his work.