Thursday, October 21, 2010

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

This was the second book in the Little House series and almost just as lovely as the first.

I say 'almost' because there was one thing that really, really bothered me in it. The portrayal of American Indians as scary savages. I was not able to get past it AT ALL and each and every reference made me cringe. The father's attitude wasn't too bad, but the mother and the neighbors were horrible! I did like it when one of the small girls asked about the Indians, saying something like 'but if this is Indian Territory then won't the Indians be mad if we make them move somewhere else?'. Yes, they will.

I hope that this gets better in the next books and that they all realise that we're all people, etc. Otherwise how does one explain such an attitude to a child? I like the series and planned on keeping it for when my son is old enough to read it, but I guess I need to give an explanation for the Indian bashing. Sigh.

(As an aside, has anyone read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown? I read about half of it and had to stop because it was too sad... I'd like to get through the whole thing at some point though.)

The Little House series has loads of good stuff too though - what I like most are the descriptions of their daily life, like of the father building the house. You can actually see him building it, log by log. Most of us don't really make things from scratch ourseelves anymore, so it's nice to read about how you can make things and use things and not produce any waste. That part's great for kids!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan and a Giveaway

Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse is the third book in this very entertaining series. I liked it just as much as the first two - it's light and fluffy with lots of cool adventures and obviously loads of mythological references. Most of which I probably don't get, but ok. Some of the dialogue has been pissing me off for sounding slightly unnatural, but I've been trying not to focus on that. It's totally worth reading for the entertainment value. I have one (or two, can't remember) left in this series, but apparently Rick Riordan has another one based on Egyptian Gods and if that's true then I will definitely be getting that next.

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Darlene from Peeking Between the Pages is giving away Take a Chance On Me by Jill Mansell and it's open worldwide! I am most certainly partial to good chick lit and this books sounds perfect for a cold evening in. Maybe you want to try your luck too? Head on over to Darlene's!

Monday, October 18, 2010

The Mystery of Atlantis by Charles Berlitz

I am so behind on my reviews! It seems that when I have some time to use on blogging I much prefer to see what everyone else has been up to than to post anything myself. I'm so lazy!

Is anyone interested in Atlantis? It's one of those topics that always makes my ears perk right up. Like in cartoons. I love the thought that there was this amazing civilization existed and thrived before us. And I love exploring all the things that the existence of Atlantis would explain. The idea of a sunken continent waiting to be found somewhere in the depths of the Atlantic is just too cool.

This particular book by Charles Berlitz was published in the 1960s so I can't say that I'm up-to-date on Atlantis-related research. But it's been on my shelf for over ten years, I think, I picked it up in a used bookstore when I was still a poor student. Apparently I had more interesting things to do with my time though because the book was still untouched last month.

Anyway.

Berlitz goes through various aspects of the Atlantis theory - references in ancient texts, oral traditions of various cultures, actual deep-sea findings. The oral tradition part interested me most. Why is it that cultures on the west coast of Europe talk about ancestors coming from the West or about a land of plenty to the West and cultures on the east coast of South and Latin America talk about the things to the East? So many mythical stories refer to wise men coming from either East or West, bringing wisdom and knowledge. Some scholars think that these are actually the ancient Gods, that the Greek and Roman Gods were actually memories of the kings of Atlantis. Interesting, eh?

Many cultures also have the story of the flood and only a handful of people (always with animals) escaping to safety. It's possible that this could also refer to the sinking of Atlantis and the rebuilding of life somewhere else, i.e. whichever land mass was closest.

By the way, apparently both the Canary Islands and the Azores could apparently be Atlantis' mountain peaks. Cool eh? Apparently, when the people of the Azores were first discovered (by the Spaniards maybe?) it was remarked upon that they weren't very advanced. They didn't even have the knowledge of boat-building, which was (is) surprising for an island population. But of course if they were Atlantis' mountain people, they didn't need boats, they had a whole continent to run around on.

Oh and Berlitz says that the Basques still now talk about being descendants of the kings of Atlantis. I wonder if this is true, but don't know anyone to ask.

In any case, I find this all terribly interesting. To me, it makes sense that Atlantis existed. It would explain a lot of similariities and all that. And Plato did write about it a really long time ago. Although Berlitz did quote a scholar (I can't remember her name) who said that Plato simply used a writing technique when he talked about Atlantis - he used something huge that was clearly false to establish that his writings were fiction. It's like starting a book with 'When Hitler won the war...'. So apparently going off to explore the Atlantic ocean floor is missing the whole point.

I believe in it anyway and I want to read more about it - any recommendations? I think I have a couple more book on Atlantis on my shelf, but let me know if you've read any good ones.

As an interesting aside, to me anyway, Charles Berlitz is the grandson of Maximilian Berlitz, who founded the famous Berlitz language schools. Apparently, when he was growing his grandfather instructed everyone around him, family and staff, to each speak to him in a different language. He grew up speaking something like eight languages fluently, but remembers believing that everyone in the world had their own language and wondering why he was the only one who didn't. Isn't that sad?

Friday, October 15, 2010

I met a book blogger!!!!

A few weeks ago, Alex from The Sleepless Reader mentioned that she too lives in Brussels. I'm excited to now tell you that we managed to meet up and have lunch.

So. much. fun.

Alex is the first book blogger I meet in real life. It was so wonderful to be able to talk about the blogosphere, about the various people who blog, about the books that no one else has heard of. It was slightly strange as well, almost as if my blogging didn't properly exist before and now that whole world belongs to reality. You know?

Aside from being a fabulous lunch companion, Alex has a great blog that you should definitely check out. Head on over there and say hi! :-)

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Read-a-thon - Final Update!

That's it, it's over! I have to admit that I wasn't as productive a reader this morning as I was last night... I woke up with lots of chores in my head and I wasn't able to sit still for any amount of time... Still, I managed to get more of Mockingjay read, I'm on the last part now. I want to finish and know what happens, but I don't want the series to end. Does that make sense?


Title of book(s) read since last update: Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Number of books read since you started: three finished - Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan, A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen, The Borden Tragedy by Rick Geary and two started - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Pages read since last update: 80


Running total of pages read since you started: 562
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 90 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 8 hours 10 minutes
Mini-challenges completed: the Hour 1 memeBack-in-the-Day Children's Book Mini-ChallengeShow me the books, Armchair Traveller Mini-Challenge, Banned Books Mini-Challenge, Favorite Sidekick Challenge
Other participants you’ve visited: none during the last couple hours
Prize you’ve won: none


And the end-of-event meme:


1. Which hour was most daunting for you? I was getting very tired around hour 8 or 9. But I think I'm on the perfect timezone because it was 10pm in Belgium so I could just go to sleep as usual and wake up Sunday morning for more reading!


2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Mockingjay was a fabulous read-a-thon choice, I would think that the entire Hunger Games series would work very well!


3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? None, everything was great!


4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? Everything! :-)


5. How many books did you read? I finished 3 and started 2 more


6. What were the names of the books you read? three finished - Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan, A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen, The Borden Tragedy by Rick Geary and two started - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder


7. Which book did you enjoy most? Mockingjay!!!!


8. Which did you enjoy least? Little House on the Prairie was good in the sense that I need something simple, but it's not like it's riveting :-)


9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? No advice, but if you haven't tried it you should, it's great!10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? If I can get Joe to take Baby away again, I'd love to do this again in April, as both a cheerleader and a reader.

Bring on April! :-)

Read-a-thon Hour 21-22

Title of book(s) read since last update: Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collin
Number of books read since you started: three finished - Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan, A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen, The Borden Tragedy by Rick Geary and two started - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Pages read since last update: 90
Running total of pages read since you started: 482
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 90 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 6 hours 40 minutes
Mini-challenges completed: the Hour 1 memeBack-in-the-Day Children's Book Mini-ChallengeShow me the books, Armchair Traveller Mini-Challenge, Banned Books Mini-Challenge
Other participants you’ve visited:
Prize you’ve won: none (yet!)

Read-a-thon Hour 20 - I'm back!


Here we go again! I got something like 9 hours of sleep so I should be set to start again now - coffee, I need coffee... Off I go to do some more reading then, see you later!

I think I'll enter Midnight Book Girl's Banned Books Mini-Challenge first though, it sounds fun!

Why should Mockingjay be on the banned books list?

The Hunger Games trilogy as a whole should be banned - it promotes violence, it puts too much focus on appearance and on man's evil tendencies. And most importantly, where is God and religion in this future reality?

Ha! :-)

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Read-a-thon Hour 9



Right, it's 10pm here now and I'm going to bed. I want to get all the sleep I need, since Baby's out of the house for the weekend, I need to take advantage! I might read some more in bed, we'll see. Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow morning for some more read-a-thon fun! My timezone is perfect for me, since I'll still have 4 or 5 or 6 reading hours after I wake up! Those of you still staying up - have fun! :-)


Title of book(s) read since last update: Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mockingjay by Suzanne CollinNumber of books read since you started: three finished - Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan, A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen, The Borden Tragedy by Rick Geary and two started - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Pages read since last update: 33
Running total of pages read since you started: 392
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 30 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 5 hours 10 minutes
Mini-challenges completed: the Hour 1 memeBack-in-the-Day Children's Book Mini-ChallengeShow me the books, Armchair Traveller Mini-Challenge (below)
Other participants you’ve visited: none this hour
Prize you’ve won: none (yet!)

Read-a-thon Hour 8 + Armchair Travelling Mini-Challenge



Title of book(s) read since last update: Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Number of books read since you started: three finished - Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan, A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen, The Borden Tragedy by Rick Geary and two started - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Pages read since last update: 38
Running total of pages read since you started: 359
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 20 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 4 hours 40 minutes
Mini-challenges completed: the Hour 1 memeBack-in-the-Day Children's Book Mini-ChallengeShow me the books, Armchair Traveller Mini-Challenge (below)
Other participants you’ve visited: 
Prize you’ve won: none (yet!)

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Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader is hosting this Armchair Travelling mini-challenge and asks if we're ever tempted to go to a place after reading about it. I've been tempted twice in the recent past - I want to see Guernsey after reading The Guernsey LIterary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows and I want to go to Hong Kong after reading The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee. I guess I'm tempted by places I knew nothing about before reading books set in them... 

Read-a-thon Hour 7



Hey, thanks for all the encouragement you guys! I ended up having some dinner (tacos, yum!) and leaving Mockingjay for an hour. I read a graphic novel, The Borden Tragedy by Rick Geary. Creepy. I think I'll pick up something nice and simple and cheerful in the next hour, all these dark topics are getting kinda heavy! But I do feel less tired, having had some food, some coke and some chocolate. :-)


Title of book(s) read since last update: The Borden Tragedy by Rick Geary
Number of books read since you started: three finished - Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan, A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen, The Borden Tragedy by Rick Geary and one started - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Pages read since last update: 60
Running total of pages read since you started: 321
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 40 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 4 hours 20 minutes
Mini-challenges completed: the Hour 1 memeBack-in-the-Day Children's Book Mini-ChallengeShow me the books
Other participants you’ve visited: None this past hour
Prize you’ve won: none (yet!)

Read-a-thon Hour 6



I'm getting tired! It might be time to pick up a graphic novel soon... although Mockingjay is hard to put down... Sigh. What do I do?


Title of book(s) read since last update: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Number of books read since you started: two finished - Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan, A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen and one started - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Pages read since last update: 48
Running total of pages read since you started: 261
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 60 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 3 hours 40 minutes
Mini-challenges completed: the Hour 1 memeBack-in-the-Day Children's Book Mini-Challenge, Show me the books
Other participants you’ve visited: None this past hour
Prize you’ve won: none (yet!)

Show me the books Mini-Challenge

Here are a few of my shelves - I'm not organized enough to separate them into read and un-read so they're all mixed in together on the same shelves!




Read-a-thon Hour 5

Title of book(s) read since last update: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen
Number of books read since you started: two finished - Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan, A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen and one started - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Pages read since last update: 66
Running total of pages read since you started: 213
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 40 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 2 hours 40 minutes
Mini-challenges completed: the Hour 1 memeBack-in-the-Day Children's Book Mini-Challenge
Other participants you’ve visited: Prize you’ve won: none (yet!)