Once upon a Marigold

Once upon a Marigold is a fantastic short read! Clocking in at 266 pages its a pretty short read

What I love most about this book is the fact that it really does keep to the old style of fairy-tales. While at the same time it has a lot of humor in the story that will make you smile and even on occasion, laugh out loud.

The story starts with the character Edric, a forrest troll with two dogs that will walk paths and scavenge all the treasures he finds there.

(before I continue, to break the cliche I'm sure you are thinking of, think of the movie Shrek. If you told someone it was a story about an ogre, they would think man-eating monster. when he isnt't. Same thing with Edric, he is not evil, or man-eating, but a generally nice person)

While he was looking around, he found a 6 year-old boy hiding in a bush. After asking him where he was from he found out that his name was Christain, and he was a runaway. Edric, noticing it was getting dark, took Christain home with him for the night. The next morning Edric told him that he was going to go and try and find Christians parents. Christain (being crafty for a 6 year-old) told Ed that if he turned him in he would tell them that Ed had kidnapped him and planned on ransoming him. So Ed had no choice but to let him stay.

11 years later is when the story really picks up. A wild ride involving princesses, curses, fairys, comedy, evil poisen-making queens, befuddled kind old kings, inventors, p-mail and love.

This story is a must read for anyone that is looking for an overall feel-good story

I rate it 4.9 of 5

March Books

This month has been okay. I hadn't been able to read quite as much as I'd wanted at the beginning of the month, because I had to concentrate on studying for my SAT test. All the same, I probably read a lot faster and more rabidly than the average reader, so my book count is still impressive. I've officially read 7 books this month. If the last book in my row confuses you, that one is called Kenny and the Dragon. I never wrote a review about it because it was too simple and childish for my taste; it was a book meant for Adam to read. At the time, I had nothing else to read, so... Well, Adam said he liked it a lot. And I read the book, so it counts. Oh, and I guess I never wrote about me finishing Bone #9, so that makes 8.

-->This is the very first month in which J.N. published a review for a book he read. Way to go, Jacoby!

I'm pleased to say that I loved all the books I chose to read this month. Well, barring Kenny. The Pendragon: Before the War series is awesome. All the Travelers' back stories are so much fun. I think the 39 Clue series is also quite good. Scat I loved because it was the perfect distraction from my big test, and it was great. In reading Battle of the Labyrinth, I'm semi glad that I finished the last of the available series. I know there's the last book on the horizon, but I think I'm content pretending that it ends there, because I don't really want to read more Percy. Gilbert Grape was alright. Besides Scat, this was a very interesting read that was close to actual life. I won't give an opinion on Kenny. It's not for mature, seasoned readers. It belongs more in the group of books designed to get kids to at least like reading books, and not hate them. The finale for Bone was almost anticlimactic in the very end, but I loved the whole series and do not regret reading it.

I'm not sure what to say about J.N.'s book, So Yesterday, because I'm not sure it's my type of read, but I congratulate Jacoby, once again, on contributing a little to this blog.

Why are these books posted here, you ask? Well, these are books I've started, but didn't really finish in March. Inkdeath and Otherland

were books I was interested in around the time of the SATs, but they were so huge and difficult to really get into that I gave up on them. I don't think I even like the Inkheart series anymore. It shouldn't have been a trilogy. Should have stopped with the first book. The other four books I read on one visit to Borders. A few chapters of each. Except for Eclipse. I actually finished this 3rd Twilight book yesterday, so I'll write a review on it later today, but since it doesn't count as a March book...

So here's where the numbers stand: Bettina, with a score of 32 books read in the 2009; and Jacoby, with only 1 book to report having read. I can't speak for all the books you read this year but didn't mention. I know you're all busy, but you might want to up the ante, so we're at least more even this month. Just a suggestion.

So Yesterday, by Scott Westerfeld

So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld is exactly what the title insists! This book is so yesterday.

My opinions of this book are slightly colored by his other series "Pretties". Honestly, the very first thing I noticed while reading this book was Scott likes to stay one on subject, and one subject only:

What is cool? What isn't?

That is the underlining theme in this whole story. The main character, Hunter, is a 'Cool-hunter'. What he does for a living at 17 years old is looks for 'Innovators', or the people that first make up cool trends. He then tells them to his boss, who will then get it out on the market. in theory, he makes money off of 'cool'.

The actual storyline of this book was more than a little flat, with not much characterization and an extremely short time-line. Hunter meets this girl, Jen, who has totally 'cool' shoelaces. From this meeting, the whole rest of the book takes place till about 2 days after that. In that 2 days, him and her fall in love, blah blah blah. It was really not that interesting to me.

But there were good parts about this book! I liked the 'cool pyramid' idea. At the top of the pyramid are the

-Innovators, the people that make up their own trends. They are usually thought of as weird because the way the dress usually is, well, weird. but then the trend catches on and they are already setting newer trends.

-'Trend-Setters' these are the people that wear the trend at the peak of its coolness, like hunter, so other people go 'wow! that is so cool! I should get it too!'.

-'Early-Adaptors' - the people rich enough to buy it while its still rare

-'Consumers' - all of us that don't have a million dollars that follow the trend when it is really trendy.

-'Laggards' - the people that still wear "tucked-in Kiss t-shirts". the people that still think that kind of thing is still in.

There was also a humerus couple of chapters in the book where they talk about episode 38 of Pokemon. Episode 38 put hundreds of children into the hospital for epilepsy. The episode in question had just the right sequence of flashing blue and red lights that children around the ages of 10 were instantly put into seizures. While the real event in real life was NOT funny, the fact that they took that one episode so seriously in the book was laughable. Their idea of 'a red/blue flashing camera will make you crazy' will never happen. you have to have a still developing mind or brain issues to even be affected by epilepsy! oh, and for the record, I saw episode 38. nothing happened

But in all there was one real problem I had with the book - the original-turned-unoriginal idea. For anyone that has read Pretties, you know that that book also had the major undertone of 'What is cool'. Is being pretty cool? or uncool? is being 'bubbly' cool? is wearing this cool or uncool? what is cool?

I think scott tries to mystify people by making his characters too cool. Its the truth, his characters are always on the cutting-edge of coolness! The never wear the wrong thing, and people always follow their trends. "It's my job to spot where cool comes from, Jen. I can see who's leading and who's following, where the trend starts and how it spreads"

Where is the cut off point? I think he is trying to lift himself up into our own cool pyramid by making his characters totally trendy. But in all honesty, it just made me wonder 'am I cool? can I even be like these people?'

I would give this book a 2.5 out of 5 only because he really tried hard to make up a world where everything cool is questioned. but if you want to read the same idea with better characterization, just go and pick up Pretties from your local library.

"Never give us what we really want. Cut the dream into pieces and scatter them like ashes. Dole out the empty promises. Package out aspirations and sell them to us, cheaply made enough to fall apart."