Jim Henson's The Storyteller, by Anthony Minghella

You can compare this book to J. K. Rowling's fantastic Tales of Beedle the Bard, the small but exciting collection of Wizard fairy tales. The difference is that Rowling's stories were brief, to the point, and completely original. The tales found in Jim Henson's The Storyteller, on the other hand, take quite a few pages to read (maybe half an hour when you're reading out loud), have long and winding (but still exciting and suspenseful!) plot-lines, and were apparently old European folk tales handed down from generations.

I promise you, these stories are absolutely fantastic! Each one is like a mixture of the fairy tales I'm familiar with, like Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, etc. There's magic, clever characters, evil witches and giants, and good triumphing over evil, but hearing them told, they feel somewhat different from the ordinary tales I know. The characters are always portrayed as strong-willed, masters of their own destinies. They aren't stupid like Jack, who climbed the Beanstalk, or helpless damsels in distress like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. Interestingly enough though, the expression "3rd time's the charm" seems to apply very heavily in each story.

I loved reading these stories. The writing style is extremely entertaining. What alliteration! The book is written just as if you were hearing someone tell the tales to you, in the oral tradition. Each story is simply amazing. The best part about it is that you can truly see these tales come to life, by viewing them on YouTube! Jim Henson transformed these amazing tales into mini-movies for television, making fantastic creatures come alive by way of the skilled puppetry (or "muppetry") he was famous for. I can't possibly pick a favorite. Perhaps you'll have better luck? I'll attach a link to each story's respective YouTube video clips, so you can see them for yourself. (Well, it at least shows the first part of them. Seeing the rest is up to you.)

The Three Ravens

Hans My Hedgehog

The Soldier and Death

The Luck Child

The True Bride

Fearnot

The Heartless Giant

Sapsorrow

Unfortunately, I can't find the YouTube link to the tale "A Story Short", which is quite a shame, because that's a story that actually has the storyteller himself in it. Oh well. Enjoy the stories anyway. And please, check out the book too. It's so much fun to read these stories aloud! ^_^

Books I just read in Borders ^,^

After a little shopping yesterday, my mom dropped Annette and me off at Borders so we could hang out. I really like it when we do that. ^__^ So on this particular bookstore visit, I took a good look at 4 awesome books and read a couple chapters or more than 20 pages of each one. Here's my impression of them, in the order they were read:

1: Ring of Fire, by Pierdomenico Baccalario ~ Boy, that's a hard name to pronounce! Sounds Italian, doesn't it? Well, if this series gets famous, maybe the author's name will be easier to remember. Anyway, this is the first volume in his 4-part Century series, and I picked it up in the first place simply because I remembered that it was recommended to me by Dave and his Latiener Gang. I read the first 3 chapters, I think, and even though I heard that the beginning is supposed to be a little slow, I thought it was quite well-written. You meet most of the characters right away, including all 4 kids the book is supposed to center on. I didn't read enough to get very into the story, just enough to get a sample and know that it's pretty much hooked me. I needed to put it down though, because I only had an hour in the store and I wanted to see what else there was to read. Still, I definitely say that this book's a keeper. ^_^ Thanks, Lat Gang!

2: This Book Is Not Good For You, by Pseudonymous Bosch ~ Hey, isn't it a coincidence that this author has the same initials as the Ring of Fire author? Oh well. So this book I just had to read, because this is the 3rd book in this really funny "Secret" series. I think that's what it's called, because Book 1 is called The Name of This Book is Secret, and Book 2 is If You're Reading This, It's Too Late. (Really funny titles, huh? ^_~) As might be apparent by his book titles and his pen name, Bosch's writing style and mysterious personality in the world and the book bears a strong resemblance to Lemony Snicket, who is the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events. You'd have to read the first couple books to appreciate this one, but I think this gets off to a pretty good start. This, too, will go right on my "to-read" pile in the back of my mind.

3: The Magician's Elephant, by Kate DiCamillo ~ The first chapter was quite long, so that's all I read. But I think it's still a worth-while book. Have you ever read a book by Kate DiCamillo? She hasn't written many. Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tiger Rising, The Tale of Despereaux, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Each book is a stand-alone novel, but they're all very sweet stories. The little that I've read so far from her latest release is about a boy who goes to see a fortune teller who tells him his sister is alive, and to find her he has to follow an elephant (?). Which is weird, because elephants aren't common in his village. (Then again, they're not exactly common anywhere else, besides in zoos and in Africa!) Anyway, I think it'll be a good story to get into. I can probably finish it in a wink if I went to the bookstore again and it was all I read.

Last, but certainly not least, 4: Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins!!! ~ I'm sure pretty much everyone has heard of this book, the well awaited sequel to the Hunger Games. This was the last book I was able to read on my wonderful Borders visit, and most probably the best. I also read this for the longest, covering roughly 80 pages/ 3 chapters in one sitting. I couldn't exactly finish Chap. 3 though, because then my mom came back to pick us up and started whistling for me, so I unfortunately lost my place in the book.

On the plus side however, it's an incredibly good thing I was able to reserve this book from my library! I'm practically never able to get the newest, most hyped up books from the library so soon after they come out, but I got Catching Fire! Well, I don't have it now, but I'll patiently be waiting for it to come in, so that's awesome! ^_^

BTW, here's the link to an ultra-cool contest the Latiener's are having to give away a copy of Catching Fire! You can either get the ARC or the hard copy. More details to enter and win are in the post. I also have the link on my sidebar. Just check the Lats out if you have any interest in owning this amazing book!

Books I haven't blogged about

Hi. Sorry I haven't been book blogging an awful lot lately. ~,~ I'm not going to make any excuses here. I haven't read a lot of books lately, and whatever books I do finish, I keep postponing sitting down to write their reviews. It's really a problem. But enough is enough. I've got a lot of books reserved in the library, two of which I've picked up now, so I need to clear my head and get these books out of the way so I can write reviews later. I'll be very brief with each book, promise.

So the first book I finished that I didn't post about, but definitely should have (=P), is In Her Shoes, by Jennifer Weiner. Now, this book is kind of outside my genre preference (fantasy, sci-fi fiction is more my read, and this was more of a chick-flick. No magic, just a story based on real, grown-up life that could possibly happen to actual people), but I'll admit that this was a pretty good book. Of course, it did take me a long time to actually finish it. I read some of it back in Boston, but the beginning really didn't interest me a lot. Then we came home to Florida and we saw the movie version of In Her Shoes (starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley Maclain), and I thought the story after the part I was at got pretty good. So I got back to the book and finished it pretty fast after that.

I'm not sure whether the book was better than the movie, but it did have certain plot elements that didn't make it into the film, so I guess you can say it was better. Okay, brief story synopsis: There are two sisters. One is a stressed out but responsible lawyer, and the other is really attractive but doesn't have a lot of brains. This is Cameron Diaz's character, Maggie, btw. Basically she drinks and has sex and gets into trouble a lot, so her sister has to take her in, and Maggie is a big pain. She steals money and shoes (the sisters share the same size) and doesn't have a job. After Maggie does something totally unforgivable to Rose (her sister), she gets unceremoniously kicked out, and then later moves in with a grandmother neither of them knew about, blah blah blah... so the story jumps between sisters and both of them learn life lessons that make them balance out their personalities and Rose gets married and everyone lives happily ever after. That's all I'll say. If you have any interest in the specifics, read this book yourself.

The next book I finished was a graphic novel I read in a Barnes and Nobles in one sitting, Amulet, Book 2: The Stonekeeper's Curse, by Kazu Kibuishi. That's the guy who drew my favorite comics in the Flight series. A pretty cool story. It seems that it'll become a Bone-like series. I really like Kazu's drawing style! Graphic novels rock. ^_^ If you want to check this series out, you ought to start at the beginning. The first Amulet book is The Stonekeeper. I don't remember when I read that, but it was probably last year, because I would have posted about it if I'd read it this year.

After that I suppose I didn't read much else, but recently I tackled this huge, literally encyclopedic book that I think I read in just a couple days straight. It's called Iconic America, by Tommy Hilfiger. There are hundreds of colorful and really neat pictures of famous American inventions, sport stars, foods and restaurants, works of art, famous songs and musical groups, dates and events people will always remember, celebrities, brand names, movies, and other things that have reached iconic status today. This book is a seriously educational history lesson that was fascinating and fun to read! It sure makes you feel good to be American. ^_^

Okay, last book. I promise. Last night I finished this really cute picture book that was adapted from the spectacular Stephen Sondheim musical, Into the Woods. The story is very accurate and the artwork is wonderful, but I definitely think the play version is a ton better. The book version can't possibly compete with actually hearing the music, or with the characters singing the songs, or with the comic acting abilities of the actors, or even with the laughter of the audience when there's a funny scene. Also in the book, the characters aren't able to give the narrator over to the Giantess, because how can you take away the story-teller in a book? So the musical was definitely funnier and better in every way. Therefore, my advice if you still would like to read this book is to see the play first, and then appreciate the adaptation later.

There! I am done with my task. And now you are done with your task of reading this post! Congratulations. ^_^

9-29-09 ~ Edit: I'm sorry! It seems I've left a book out! Well, actually I suppose it's not really a book anyway, because it's purely virtual, but I still didn't write about it! It's been a while now, but I've finished reading Midnight Sun, by Stephanie Meyer. A wonderful masterpiece that will sadly never be completed or published. As one can see from my reviews of all the books from the Twilight Saga, I was totally in love with the story and its characters, so to further explore that world was just a must for me. I read it quite sporadically, over a wide period of time, but I eventually finished it. I'm sorry to say that I forget exactly when, but I'm sure it was very soon after we came home from Boston! So here's the scoop: Midnight Sun is the story of Twilight as told by Edward Cullen's point of view, instead of Bella's, so while the story is very much the same, there is a whole other incredible dimension to it. Even though it ends very abruptly and I wished dearly I could continue reading the story, I really enjoyed reading Midnight Sun and I think other Twilight fans will too. It's very easy to check the story out if you're interested. Just click the link above, for Midnight Sun, and you'll go straight to a PDF file that has all 12 chapters. Of course, Stephanie Meyer obviously meant this to be slightly a rough draft, so I can spot some errors, but it's Stephanie Meyer, so I forgive her. ^_^ Really, I don't think you'll be sorry. Thank you for indulging me.

Thin Threads and Sloth

This review is definitely late in posting, so I thought I'd get to it.

Thin Threads: Life Changing Moments, is a book of inspirational stories that was compiled by one of my mom's best friends, Stacy. It's going to be a series, kind of like Chicken Soup for the Soul or something. I read this while on Annette's and my flight to Boston and the first couple days after we arrived. I finished it quickly.

All the stories that are in this book are really great. There's a couple about people who get into big accidents and get stuck in wheelchairs, but they accept it and go on to lead a good life. There are a few tales about how people met their future spouses that were either romantic or pretty funny. (One girl met her husband online, while the internet was still a brand new thing! How wild!) There are lots of stories about how people started the business of their dreams, or got a brand new outlook on life because of a small event, or they ask for something really hard and the next day it's theirs! I think there's a story for everyone, and the great thing is that they're all apparently real stories. I highly recommend it. 'Nuf said.

Now Sloth, on the other hand, is a graphic novel written by Gilbert Hernandez, a guy I know absolutely nothing about. In fact, I took this book off the library shelf without knowing anything about it, except it was a graphic novel and the drawing style looked cool. It was... alright. The story is about teens who are stuck in a small town, and there seems to be alternate universes where one of them goes into a coma for a year. Confusing, I know. See, first the guy goes into a coma, and then comes out of it a year later, to find a few changes. His loving grandparents take care of him and he's got a girlfriend and a best friend that explore a lemon orchard because it's the stuff of urban legends. And then, halfway through the book, the story changes so it's like the girlfriend is the one that had the coma, only things are different in her world. Her grandparents are mean to her, and the guy is only her crush and the best friend is actually a super-famous rock star or something.

As you can see, it was just a really weird story. But I'm glad it was in comic book format, because I don't think I would have understood it or even been interested in this story if it was in normal novel form. Still, I would give it a 1 on a 1-5 scale. I don't recommend it. But at least I read it so I could tell you guys it's not interesting. Thin Threads is a much more fulfilling read.