Once Upon a Bookshelf

I don’t normally like to read unfinished stories, but as I’m in the process of getting the next Hornblower novel to read, and had been craving some Hornblower in general, I picked this one up. It contains Hornblower and the Crisis, Hornblower and the Widow McCool (or Hornblower’s Temptation) as well as The Last Encounter.

It was strange going from one story to another because they all take place in different periods of Hornblower’s career. Hornblower and the Crisis takes place right where I left off after I finished reading Hornblower and the Hotspur, which actually left me quite saddened because at the beginning of the story, we’re saying goodbye to Bush! Dear Lt Bush!

Hornblower and the Widow McCool takes place before that, when Hornblower’s still a lieutenant on the Renown, and The Last Encounter takes place when Hornblower’s Admiral of the Fleet.

I have to say that The Last Encounter was my favourite as it was just so sweet to see Hornblower when he’s in his mid-seventies and still being the same Hornblower that we’ve all grown to know and love. It was also so good to see how well Hornblower’s life has turned out - “It was so strange that he should be so happy and so secure, he who had known so much unhappiness, so much harassing uncertainty, so much peril, and so much hardship.”

That definitly left the book on a good note. A very good note.

Snow is a retelling of the fairy tale Snow White, where the stepmother attempts to kills Snow because she’s quite insane. The girl escapes her stepmother by running away to London, England, and meeting with a group called the Lonely Ones.

Throughout this book, I had the feeling that it was telling the story of Snow White meets Oliver!’s Fagen and his band of pick-pockets. I half expected them to burst into song about how “you have to pick a pocket or two.”

Nevertheless, with all the retellings of the Snow White story, this one still manages to remain original. The Lonely Ones completely drew me in. Had it been a story only about them, it still would have completely enchanted me. These half-animal half-humans have to deal with not being accepted by the rest of humanity, and I think the way Ms. Lynn described the way they coped with that was completely believable.

The whole “He’s just not that into you” theme from Sex & the City is from one of the few episode of the show that I’ve actually watched. I normally don’t like the show, but enjoyed this episode; however, I had no clue that the book or the show were related until I had actually picked up the book and read the introduction.

I half expected this book to be somewhat depressing, but it was written in a way that was very humorous and, surprisingly, uplifting, if a little repetitive. Written in a format where a female with some sort of relationship problem writes in, where Behrendt responds, every response somehow manages to include the phrase “He’s just not that into you” or a slight variation of it. Behrendt is very sarcastic and smart-assed which makes it not quite so heavy to swallow.

A lot of these problems the women are having are quite familiar, and it sort of makes you wonder how we can be so blind in these situations than when we’re watching it or reading about it.

I haven’t read too many other Relationship books. The only other ones were written by Josh Harris. Surprisingly, the first chapter of the book echoed some sentiments from Harris’ books. From what I remember, Harris mentions something about how men should be the ones who initiate a relationship because they are supposed to be the head of the family, or something along those line. This book expressed it much better when it said that women shouldn’t initiate the relationship, because it’s apparantly more fun for the guys to start it, and if they don’t start something, well then it’s because “he’s just not that into you.” The way it was expressed in this book seemed to be more applicable to my own life than Harris’ books.

I’m not sure I can say whether this book has improved my view on relationships at all, but it was definitly good for a couple of laughs.

It’s no secret that I have a penchant for liking any sort of book that involves vampires - one of the most sensual mythological creatures known to man. Not that I’d actually want to run into one in the middle of a dark alley after night has fallen. I’m no Buffy, so might end up in quite a dangerous situation. But still…

This novel takes place a long, long time in the future (12,090 A.D.), after the human race has gone about practically destroying themselves and the earth with a nuclear war. Vampires have become the ruling class, where surviving humans have gone back to being farmers and such in order to survive. One particular girl has been preyed on by one of the ruling vampires (The Nobles, as they call themselves). Enter Vampire Hunter D.

Vampire Hunter D was written by Hideyuki Kikuchi in the early 80’s, but was only translated into English this year. I had heard of the anime, but had never actually watched it. After starting to read the book, I would’ve been able to tell that this was Japanese even if I hadn’t known previously. There’s just something about the narration that seems to make it so different from what we’re used to; I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but it’s there.

The few illustrations that were included in the book were absolutely beautiful. Some of them gave me complete chills.

I’ve finally found a main character that I can’t decide whether I like or not. He’s… interesting. I think the reason that I can’t decide is that he seems to be so completely devoid of all emotion most of the time; like nothing bothers him or matters to him at all. At first it was rather alluring, but as things went on and he only ever got emotional when he was telling that mysterious voice that follows him to shut up… Well.

All in all, I thought the book worked well standing alone. Very well. Didn’t feel like the first book of a series at all. In that light, I probably won’t end up reading the rest of the series, but will have no problem picking this book up again.

This is the first book I’ve read by John Moore, and had actually stumbled upon it by accident, though am glad to say that I did find it.

It starts out with a young girl kissing frogs in order to find the one that transforms into a handsome prince. Though, as I’m sure you can guess from the title, the prince isn’t exactly what one would call handsome. In fact, he’s what one would call rather geeky. (Not that geeky is a bad thing at all. Not at all.)

I found the narration to be very witty and the characters extremely sarcastic. While it was completely predictable, it didn’t change the fact that the book was exciting and kept me reading. The only real thing that didn’t seem to sit too well with me in regards to the characters in this book was that they were using phrases from modern culture when it was supposed to take place back in the day. (Could you imagine a fairy tale prince’s older brother talking about getting himself a piece of ass? No, I didn’t think so.)

I found the last two chapters to be very rushed, however. It seemed as if Moore had just thrown them together at the last moment instead of taking the time to actually write what was happening. It had the feeling that after the big climax, he just went right to an epilogue and explained what happened in the next few weeks. As well, it left a loose end or two - he mentioned something about how the spell around the prince which caused him to be a frog didn’t have the feel of magic to it, so therefore it couldn’t be magic, but didn’t explain anything further, which I have to admit, am curious to see what the magic going on in the story actually was.

All in all, though, I always really enjoy books that take a number of fairy tales and tell a story revolving around them, and have a feeling I will be looking into Moore’s other books, in the case that they are as enjoyable as this one was.