A fun summer of reading

Hi! It's me, Allison -- finally. I have been wanting to jot down my thoughts about the books I've been reading lately, but it's been so busy here at the Goose Girls house that I've not managed it yet. But now here I am.

Well, just as an introduction, I love to read! I've always loved to read as long as I can remember. I love lots of different kinds of books... I read a lot of the same books as my daughter Abby does (Shannon Hale, The Penderwicks, anything by Deborah Wiles or Kate DiCamillo, Tuck Everlasting, The Secret Garden, Harry Potter, etc.) and I love classics (Dickens, Eliot, Hardy, all the Brontes, Austen, Anna Karenina -- one of my favorites! etc.) and history (mainly David McCullough, but I've dabbled in Nathaniel Philbrick, Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin). And there are many wonderful contemporary books that I've loved -- Peace Like a River, Cry, the Beloved Country, I Capture the Castle, and lots of others.

I think my favorite book that I have read lately is Brave Companions by McCullough. It's really a series of essays about many different people and topics and I found it to be fascinating. He is such an insightful historian and has a wonderful way of painting beautiful pictures with words about people. He discusses very interesting people such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Conrad Richter, men involved with the Panama Canal and the Brooklyn Bridge, and several others in all different occupations and times. There is also a wonderful chapter on the city of Washington D.C. I highly recommend it, even if you usually don't like to read history. He uses stories that are more compelling than fiction because they are true!

While I was on vacation I re-read My Antonia and O Pioneers by Willa Cather. This was inspired by Brave Companions, because he talks about the woman who inspired the character of Antonia. We were travelling across Nebraska and it was so poetic to be reading these rich stories about the strong women who first settled there.

I just finished Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White and truly enjoyed it. It was the first novel reported to be a suspense and it is certainly suspenseful! Collins was friends with Dickens (whose writing I adore!!) and his style is somewhat similar.

Well, that's it for today. I'm currently reading a book a friend gave me called My Life in France by Julia Child. It is charming! Bon Appetit!

...

First off, I just read Dewey The Library Cat and loved it! It was so charming! If you like it, you would also probably enjoy Marley: A dog like no other. I found them rather similar. Both of those that I have read are the versions of the book that have been adapted for kids. Dewey the Library Cat for adults is just called Dewey, I think...but whatever. Anyway, I would highly recommend it. Now I am going to read The Hobbit.

I discovered that the Ramona books are being made into a movie that comes out July 23rd. Judging by what I have seen from the previews, it looks like there are a few scenes that never happened in any of the books (I should know, I have read all the Ramona books multiple times--love them!) which makes me nervous. Why ruin such a marvelous book? Plus, the girl playing Beezus (Ramona's sister, in case you didn't know) is Selena Gomez, which in my opinion doesn't seem to fit. (P.S.--Did you know Selena Gomez was on Barney when she was little? I think that is hilarious.) But oh well. The world is not perfect.

Also, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie comes out around Christmas time I think. I'm terrified because Prince Caspian was absolutely horrible. It didn't follow the book at all. Kind of fun to watch, but it took important stuff out and added pointless stuff that never happened in.

Plus, the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out sometime in November!

:)

Another Birthday!

So, it was my birthday yesterday, and a few of the most exciting gifts I got were:

-A $30 gift card to BORDERS from my friend! I've spent $13 of that already!

-A $35 gift card to BORDERS from my grandparents! Awesome!

-A $10 gift card to BARNES & NOBLE from my fourth-grade teacher. Yea!!

(You see all of those are bookstores, and I am very excited)

-I also got this boxed set of "Classics for LDS Homes" from Deseret Book. I had seen it in the catalog a long time ago and thought it was awesome, so I was excited that my parents had bought it for me. It has in it:

Jane Eyre
Emma
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Secret Garden
Anne of Green Gables

and...

Little Women

They are all in hardback, and have a little ribbon marker. They have sort of the same format, but then every book has a different color spine and a different design on the cover. They're so cool! The main thing I was excited about was that they are MINE. Before, when I read Pride and Prejudice or whatever, it was Mom's book. Those books that I end up loving a lot, I like to have for myself. It's just kinda cool, because you can read them again and again without worrying the other person wants to read it, and you can leave bookmarks in it or whatever...you can just make it your own. I love owning books! Nothing against libraries, (I love libraries in fact,) but the books I really like, I don't want to have checked out from a library. Books I kind of like, I'm okay with getting from a library. That's the beauty of libraries. But ones that I love, I want to own for myself. Is that selfish?

Anyway, I had a pretty awesome birthday.

Ummm...

I'd just like to copy and paste what I read the other day on Shannon Hale's website.
She sort of has a blog type of thing, and posts new stuff all the time. So this is what she said the other day...I didn't read the whole post, but I just skimmed to the bottom...anyway...

"Thanks a bunch. I wish I could give you all a great big hug. Or make you a pie. Which is basically the same thing."

I guess she was thanking we readers, or something, but I didn't read it all so I'm not sure...

Anyway I just thought that was funny.

I'm reading a book called Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. This is my second time reading it. Overall I would recommend it, but it's historical fiction about African-American slavery and is kind of depressing. Also it just...ends, at the end, like almost mid-paragraph, and then says the author is going to write a sequel. I find that irritating. But yes, I would recommend it. It's really interesting.

I love Book Signings!

A while ago, I don't know exactly when, my mom, my friend McKenna, and I went to a Shannon Hale book signing!

And here we are:

(This is big news because I just figured out how to put pictures on a blog!)

Anyway, it was really fun.

Also speaking of book signings, the very same McKenna in the picture went to a Brandon Mull book signing. If you've read all the Fablehavens, you'll know there is a place called Zzyzx. McKenna told me that Brandon Mull pronounces that Z-ee-zix. I always said Z-ih-zix, but I don't know about you.
Thought that was interesting!