As of 2019, I've begun using Goodreads. (To view my profile, click here.) Looking back on some of the reviews I gave books on this blog I realize that I have changed slightly how I rate books. Therefore, there may be differences in the star rating I give on the blog and what I give on Goodreads. With my current viewpoint, this will likely mean that some books I originally gave a 5/5 rating now have a 4/5 and those I gave a 4/5 now have a 3/5.
This change is due to my view that a 3/5 is not a bad rating for a book. In general, most books probably should get a 3/5 as that would be average. Anything above or below a 3 should be exceptional in some way. Ratings are always subjective, so my conclusions may/will differ than yours. And I'm still human, so my ratings may not always seem to align. I'm not going to take the time to review and alter everything or reread books most books. It just isn't a priority.
Projects & Prose
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Book Review: The Chosen
Star Rating: 5/5
The Chosen
By Chaim Potok
Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders were part of two different
worlds until a baseball accident brought them together. Though they have lived
their whole lives only a few blocks away, they’d never met and possibly never
would have if it wasn’t for the accident. Reuven is an Orthodox Jew whose
father teaches at his school, helps him study Talmud using the scientific
method, and writes scholarly articles. Danny is a Hasidic Jew whose father is
raising him in silence to become the next tzaddik of his synagogue like his
father and his grandfather before him. Unlike Reuven who could do anything he
wants to do, Danny feels trapped—he can’t even talk to his father about his
dream of being a psychologist. Instead he sneaks off to the library to study
Freud, Darwin, Hemingway, and whatever else he can get his hands on. Now with a
friend—one who isn’t a Hasid—he doesn’t have to keep everything a secret
anymore. Danny can tell Reuven; but Danny isn’t the only one who has chosen
Reuven, Danny’s father has, too.
The Chosen is an
intricate and beautifully written coming-of-age novel. Far from simple or flat,
Danny, Reuven, and the boys’ fathers are dynamic and full of life. Their
relationships ebb and flow mirroring real life and showing the effects and
interaction of our choices, the choices of others, and local and world events.
Rather than being islands unto themselves or driven utterly by forces and
events outside of their control, the characters show how their lives are an interplay
of choice—theirs and others. Chaim Potok shows through his characters how
previous choices create circumstances. Our choices and circumstances along with
the choices of others limit our control and choices later. Potok also shows how
choices and circumstances do not always result in the intended consequence, but
that this unanticipated result is not necessarily undesirable. This interplay
that Potok creates allows the reader to better understand the characters as
well as prompt the reader consider the relationship between choice and
circumstance in his own life.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Book Review: A Great and Terrible Beauty
Star Rating: 4/5
A Great and Terrible
Beauty
By Libba Bray
All Gemma Doyle wanted was to leave India , go to London , and enjoy the parties her grandmother
described in her letters. What Gemma did not
want was to go because her mother was murdered or, as her brother would have
her tell her new classmates at Spence
Academy , because her
mother died of cholera. Gemma knows the truth; at least she thinks she does.
The day her mother died, Gemma had her first vision. She had just run angrily
away from her mother when the vision opened—a vision of her mother being attacked
by a creature that came out of the shadows. The vision and her mother are gone
now, and Gemma is to become a suitable wife along with the other Spence girls. Except
there is another option, one involving her visions. Gemma’s first vision was
just a taste of what is inside her. After falling into another vision, Gemma is
confronted by a stranger who demands she stop having them. How can she stop
though when she realizes she could control the visions and change her fate?
When she could have power, beauty, even her mother again?
Libba Bray’s A Great
and Terrible Beauty draws the reader in right from the beginning and keeps her
wondering throughout the book. Bray does an excellent job blending the past and
the future. She teases you with tidbits of the past, making you question and
consider what you know and think you know, without revealing the mystery and
adventure of the future. The reader may notice more than Gemma if she pays
careful attention to the tidbits and begins to make guesses on her own but
never so much so that Gemma starts to seem oblivious. The mystery is enhanced
by the other characters, particularly her classmates Felicity, Pippa, and Ann.
Each at first seems fairly flat and stereotypical, but the reader discovers
with Gemma that they are not as they seem. The girls are easily relatable with
their varied personalities, dreams, and sometimes surprising and always
enlightening secrets. These secrets and the others throughout the book are what
tantalize the reader, begging her to question what she knows compared to what
she perceives and assumes.
Note: I am a sensitive reader and don’t enjoy reading things
that make me mentally or physically uncomfortable in certain ways. There is a
short scene involving sexual content in this book, which may to you seem tame.
I felt the scene was unnecessarily descriptive. I feel that it could have been
removed from the novel, taking nothing from the characterization or plot. For
these reasons, I have deducted a star from my rating. I would still recommend
this book to mature readers who could recognize the passage, skip over it if
they wish, and still enjoy the story. Obviously, this is strictly my opinion
and you are free to think, feel, and do as you please.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Book Review: The Book Thief
Star Rating 5/5
The Book Thief
By Markus Zusak
Words have power. They both build and destroy. They show
love. They breed hatred. Words bring about change. Liesel begins to learn this
early in life when mother sends her and her brother to a foster home because
her father is associated with the word “communist.” However, it takes her years
to more fully recognize and understand their meaning and potential. Growing up
outside Munich
starting in 1939, Liesel learns more about words from her foster parents, particularly
from her foster father Hans and a little black book she snatched out of the
snow. As Hans teaches Leisel how to write and read, words bind them together.
Books and words continue to shape Liesel’s life even as she deals with
circumstances beyond her control. She matures as she weathers hardships and
finds opportunities for growth.
Markus Zusak’s The
Book Thief is a beautifully written book. As the novel follows Liesel’s
life, the reader begins to see with Liesel how words connect us with each other
and how they can change relationships and lives. Liesel’s story, which is
already profound and extraordinary, takes on greater and deeper meanings
through its narration by Death. Death frequently interrupts Liesel’s story to
highlight words and conversations and to share important facts. These facts are
often about important events and various characters’ past experience that allow
the reader to more fully understand the attitudes and actions of the characters
as well as the impact or magnitude of words and circumstances. Death’s
commentary and Liesel’s story create a more complete illustration of the way
lives intersect and how the past affects the present for both good and ill.
Book Review: These is my Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine
Star Rating 5/5
These is my Words: The
Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine
By Nancy E. Turner
Raised on a horse ranch with her three brothers in the rough
Arizona Territories , Sarah Agnes Prine knows how
to work. She learned to shoot a rifle before she could manage to hold it on her
own, and she can break a horse that’s never been ridden. She may have calloused
hands, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. When her family sets out to Texas , Sarah starts to keep
a diary. Her story is full of the hardships, excitement, and horror of frontier
living as they are raided by Indians, struggle through bad weather conditions
and unknown terrain, are threatened by bandits and murderers, and suffer
through sickness and sudden loss. As she weathers all the challenges and heartache
that come her way, Sarah grows into a remarkable woman.
These is my Words
tells the story of the growth and development of a young frontier woman. The
diary format allows the reader to establish an intimate relationship with
Sarah. Through each entry, the reader can enjoy attempting to understand the
mind and heart of this complicated and realistic heroine. Sarah is well-written
and bound to captivate, frustrate, and charm readers. Full of spunk and fire,
she desires to be a genteel lady but can not seem to manage it. She struggles
as she questions the nature of love; her role in her home and in business; and
her own abilities, aspirations, and character. Sarah proves to be a strong role
model as she pushes herself to be independent and self-sufficient while still
loving and lifting those around her. She kept me reading and will stay with me
even now that the book is over.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Book Review: Scarlet
Star Rating 4/5
Scarlet
By A.C. Gaughen
Will Scarlet’s a thief—the best in the Hood’s gang. Robin,
John, and Much all know it. All the townspeople in Nottingham
benefit from it. But Scarlet’s full of secrets. The boys know that he’s
actually a she, but she keeps most other things to herself. She avoids sharing
any part of her past with any of them, including her real name. Instead she
goes by the nickname Robin gave her when he found her—Scarlet or Scar because
of her red-ribboned knives and scarred cheek. Unfortunately, Scarlet’s past
continues to haunt her or, in reality, hunt her. Her thieving in Sherwood Forest has led to the hiring of thief taker Guy
Gisbourne. Scarlet wants to run—Gisbourne gave her that scar, after all—but she
can’t leave the boys now. Perhaps she can lie low, help the boys get enough
money to cover the townspeople’s taxes, and get lost without attracting
Gisbourne’s attention. Scarlet doesn’t hold much hope, but she’s got to help
Robin. She owes it to him.
A creative twist on the Robin Hood legends, Scarlet gives young women a heroine
worthy of the respect and love of the beloved people’s hero. Scarlet struggles
with guilt and grief and with questions of honor, justice, and loyalty. She is
troubled by a past she can not change; one she was at first too innocent to
realize and later too powerless to alter. She desperately wishes she could
change the decisions she made that led to consequences to which she was
oblivious and naïve. Though she tries, Scarlet can’t escape her past or live life
in seclusion. While Scarlet’s circumstances are extraordinary, her emotions and
desires resonant with ordinary life. She, like each of us, must reconcile
herself with her choices and the choices of others. She must move on even when
she does not know what will happen next. With these struggles she helps bridge
the distance between reality and legend, human frailty and ideal.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Monochromatic Animal Prints
I finally finished! After sketching my designs on the canvases with pencil, I painted each animal using acrylic paints. I used two shades of each color and mixed the two for the third color (or for the third and fourth color since the dog has four shades). I used the lightest shade for the backdrop and the darkest shade for the outline and features. I tried to be light on the paint so that it would give the look of some texture. It turned out the best on the dog. I love how they turned out!
Here are some close-ups:
I think that maybe I'll do different animals for each child we have...or maybe I'll do something completely different. I do like the idea of Owen being able to have these when he and his future wife have their first baby.
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