The Courtier's Secret

Genre: Historical Fiction

Age Range: Adult


This is another book from the same author that wrote "The Secret Of The Glass". Actually, this one is her first book, I read them out of order. This one is set at the Palace of Versailles during the reign of King Louis XIV. The main character, Jeanne, sees how pointless life at court is and longs to do something more with her life. She is given this opportunity when she is fencing with her uncle (in secret, of course) and finds herself in the middle of a fight between some Musketeers and men who are trying to murder the Queen. Seeing her incredible skills with a sword, the Musketeers befriend her, thinking she is a he. So, she finds herself a disguise and joins them to protect the Queen and find meaning in her life.

Of course, one of the Musketeers just happens to be incredibly handsome and not only becomes a close friend of her male self, but of her female self as well. She is then left with the task of reconciling the two sides of her life, hopefully bringing them together in a happy ending.

Again, the historical aspects of the book were fascinating. I learned quite a few things I didn't know about The Sun King. I knew a little of his reputation for lavishness and caring only for his own entertainment while his people were starving, but I had no idea just how bad it was. It was fascinating and a little disturbing to read about life at court in this time. It was a hundred years before the French Revolution and I could already see it coming!

Recommendation: This is definitely well worth reading!

The Beekeeper's Apprentice

Genre: Mystery

Age Group; Adult

Sherlock Holmes lovers, this book is for you! It follows a girl named Mary Russell, who literally stumbles across Holmes and ends up as his apprentice. Her mind is every bit a match for his and she eventually becomes his assistant, helping him to solve cases. The main case in the book is quite perplexing, confounding even Holmes. He and Mary cannot figure out who is after them or why. There have been clumsy attempts on both of their lives as well as Watson's, but yet their opponent appears to be quite brilliant, leaving no useful evidence behind. They must figure out who their opponent is and stop them before they get killed trying.

I was extremely impressed at how the author portrayed Holmes. He was the same Holmes that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle knew, and yet he was different. Mary explains several times that Watson tends to romanticize Holmes and that his accounts were often inaccurate, as he didn't really understand what Holmes was up to. It really was like seeing an old friend though new eyes. The book was very much in the spirit of Doyle's great work, without feeling like a copycat.

Recommendation: I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone!

The Secret Of The Glass

Age Range: Definitely adult

This book is set in Venice in the early 1600's. The main character is Sophia Fiolario, the daughter of a Murano glassmaker. As glass making is not my expertise, I had never even heard of Murano Glass. The book was fascinating from a historical point of view, as I learned so much about Italy! In this time, the making of beautiful glass was a closely guarded secret. So closely guarded that several glassmakers are killed at the beginning of the book for trying to leave Venice. By law, all glassmakers live on the island of Murano, are sworn to secrecy and cannot ever leave Venice. Sophia has already broken the law by learning to make glass from her father.

Burden on top of burden is added as she tries to hide her father's failing health, is betrothed to a man who doesn't actually want her and begins to fall in love with a man she can't have.

Not only do you get to learn the history of the glassmakers, but I learned a ton about one of the other characters, Galileo Galilei, who commissions Sophia's father to make glass pieces for his blasphemous experiment (the telescope). It was incredible to get a sense of how dangerous it was for Galileo to do the things he did and the courage it took!

It did take me a little while to get into the book, but once I did I was so glad I read it! It was incredible to learn about all the history and a good story to go along with it!

I should mention that there are a few parts that are a tad...ahem...descriptive. Just be forewarned.

Recommendation: Read it!

The Importance of Being Earnest

Family Appropriate: Most Definitely

Basic Outline: Based on a play by Oscar Wilde set in 1890's England, this movie tells the story of John Worthing and his 'brother' Earnest. Really, Earnest is a brother that he has made up, as an excuse to go into the city and live a little more care-free. It works quite well until he proposes to his love Gwendolyn, and her cousin Algy figures out what's going on. Algy then becomes Earnest, in order to go to John's house and meet his lovely ward, Cecily. Now, he just has to tell Gwendolyn that he's been lying to her, convince her aunt that he is worthy of her and try to keep Algy away from Cecily. Of course, much hilarious confusion ensues.

I recently re-watched this movie and remembered how much I love it. The cast is absolutely fantastic with Colin Firth as John Wirthing and Reese Whitherspoon as Cecily Cardew and, my personal favorite, Judi Dench as the charming Aunt Augusta. Judi Dench just makes me happy. She has some fantastic lines in the movie and her delivery just makes them that much better.

Recommendation: Please, please see this movie! (And then leave me a comment about your favorite part.)

Letters To Juliet

Family Appropriate; Yep!

Really? Do I need to say anything about this one? It's a classic, heart warming love story! It was as good as it looked in the previews...possibly better. Really, I'm just putting this on here so that you know, if you haven't seen it, you better do so!

Recommendation: Hm, that's pretty much all this post was. See it!

Iron Man 2

Family Appropriate: I would stick with the rating on this one, 13 and up. It's a little violent.

Basic Outline: Iron Man is busy saving the world, while still acting in typical Tony Stark fashion. However, he has a few enemies that he didn't know about. One being a competitor who knows nothing, but wants to get ahead and the more dangerous enemy being a Russian, whose father helped develop the technology that went into the Iron Man suit. These villans, of course, team up to try to take Tony Stark down. You also get some nice plot development with Pepper Pots and learn more about the Avenger Initiative, that is briefly introduced in the first movie.

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I thought the first one was decent. I'm not into the huge influx of superhero movies, but the first Iron Man is one that I will sit down and watch with my husband when he turns it on. I had heard that the second movie didn't have a great plot, but I must disagree. I thought it had more plot than the first one did!

Recommendation: I enjoyed it! If you liked the first Iron Man, see this one too!

Date Night

One Word Description: Awkward/Scarring

Family Appropriate: Most definitely not! We sent the 15 year old out of the room and we probably should have sent the 23 year old (me) out as well!

Basic Outline: This movie is about a typical married couple. Their lives are hectic and they are feeling stuck in a rut. They decide to do something special for date night and go to a fancy restaurant. They didn't, however, make reservations. So, when they hear a name being called and no one coming forward, they claim to be the Triplehorns and take their reservation. Unfortunately, they are then taken outside by two men who think they are the Triplehorns and want a flash drive that they have stolen. They get away and set out to find the real Triplehorns so that they can return the flash drive and not have to worry about these guys coming after them. Of course, they have to do all kinds of ridiculous things before all is settled.

My opinion...the first 5 minutes were dirty and it only went downhill from there. I'm pretty sure I am scarred for life.

Recommendation: Do NOT watch this one!

The Help

I have realized recently that I don't write reviews on books I didn't like. This is because if I don't like a book after the first 100 pages, I generally don't finish it. This leaves me feeling like I can't really write a review on it, because I didn't actually read it. I am going to try to do better and at least let you know about books I didn't enjoy.

Age Range: Adult

This book is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's. It follows three characters, Minny and Aibileen who are black maids and Skeeter who is a white girl who has just graduated from college. Skeeter is jobless, single and going crazy at home. Minny and Aibileen are essentially slaves who get to go home at night and are paid just barely enough to keep a roof over their heads. Both of the women they work for are a little crazy and not so bright in their own unique ways.

Skeeter is trying to jump start her career in writing and decides to write a book about the experiences of the maids in Jackson. She realizes that these maids raise the children and as children they all adore their maid. And then they grow up and treat them like dirt.

The book details her experiences in trying to write the book and the effects that it has on her life and the lives of those involved, particularly Minny and Aibileen.

Yes, this is one of those books that I gave up on after 100 pages. However, I was interested enough that I skimmed the rest of the book and read the ending. If you are interested in civil rights, this would probably be a more interesting read. I'm not anti-civil rights or anything, it's just not my favorite time period to read novels about. There were some interesting stories, I just found the book to be really slow and was not satisfied with the ending.

Recommendation: If you're bored, go ahead and read it.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Age Group: Technically this is considered young adult, but I personally think all the Twilight books should be considered adult fiction, even though they're about teenagers.

I must qualify, that you need to have read the Twilight series for this book to make any sense. At least the first three anyway, the fourth isn't necessarily required.

When I first heard that Stephanie Meyer was writing this, I must admit that I was a little disturbed. It just didn't sound appealing to me to read a book that I knew was going to end with the main character being ripped to shreds.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised. I found the book to be very interesting. It was kind of fun to read about the world that Stephanie Meyer has created from a completely different point of view. It is a more traditional point of view, where the vampire believes humans to be weaklings, meant for nothing more than food. However, she starts to realize that she has been lied to and questions what she thinks she knows about being a vampire. I felt that Stephanie Meyer handled the sad and gruesome ending rather well. Maybe it was just because I knew it was coming, but I didn't find it to be nearly as depressing as expected!

Recommendation: If you enjoyed the Twilight series, this really is a fun supplement that I would recommend reading.

In The Good Old Summertime

I'm going to start trying to review a few old movies as I watch them! So here goes what will hopefully be the first of many!

Family Appropriate: Most definitely!

Basic Outline: This is a story that everyone knows well, as it has appeared in numerous plays and movies over the years. In movies it appeared first in "The Shop Around The Corner" and most recently in "You've Got Mail".

This particular version stars Judy Garland and Van Johnson. They both work in a music shop and are, of course, rivals from day one. They also happen to be exchanging anonymous letters. They are both fantastic actors and this is a very fun version of a classic story!

Recommendation: If you like romances and old movies, this is a must see.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief

One Word Description: Fun

Family Appropriate: Yeah.This movie is PG, it has some violence and a few swear words.

Basic Outline: This movie is based on a book of the same title by Rick Riordan, which was fantastic. As with so many movies, the book is better simply because they can't fit all the good parts into a movie. I had heard that this movie was nothing like the book, which I found to be untrue. They change some things, mostly for the sake of time and moving the plot forward. I found that most of the changes had been made in order to eliminate lengthy explanations and things unnecessary to the core plot. The book contains a lot of things that are there because they will become important in later books. There are not plans to make another movie, so it doesn't matter all that much that things were left out of the first one. Just remember to not spend too much time comparing and enjoy the movie!

For those who haven't read the books, Percy Jackson finds out at the beginning of the movie and he is the son of Poseidon and thus a demi-god. He also learns that he has been accused of stealing Zeus's Lightning Bolt. He has been given until the summer solstice (2 weeks) to return it in order to save his mother a prevent a war between the gods.

Like I said, the movie is lacking the depth that the book has, but it is a cute movie none the less and I really enjoyed watching it!

By the way, does anyone else think that Zac Efron has a twin he doesn't know about? I swear Percy looked just like him.

Recommendation: As long as you can keep yourself from comparing it to the book, watch it! It makes a great family movie night.

Princess of Glass

Genre: Fantasy

Age Group: Teenager (works for pretty much any age though)

I should warn you before I start, this is a sequel to "Princess of the Midnight Ball". I should really write about the first book, but it's been a while since I read that one and I just barely finished Princess of Glass, so I'm writing about that one instead.

In this book, Princess Poppy, one of the main characters from the first book, is faced with another curse. (Sorry, you will just have to read the first one to find out about her curse.)This time, she begins to suspect that a maid in her cousins house is under some kind of spell. She must find out what is going on and save the girl before something terrible happens to her, and before she steals all the eligible young men.

This book is yet another Cinderella story, but it is very unique and can hardly be compared to the others. The first book in the series focuses on Poppy's older sister Rose, but Poppy is such a fun character that I was thrilled when I found out that Jessica Day George was writing a book about her.

Really, Jessica Day George is a great author on the whole and I would recommend reading anything and everything she has written. I have read all her books and enjoyed every one of them. Most of her books are based on fairy tales, but they are some of the more obscure fairy tales, which makes them fun! She is a great author and creates very engaging characters. I always become very invested in the outcomes of the books because I want her characters to live happily ever after so badly.

Recommendation: Read everything this author has written!

Opinions

Alright, now that I'm starting to get the hang of this. I would like some opinions.

What kinds of reviews would be helpful to you? Do you want to know about movies? new movies? old movies? books? products? Is there any information you would like that I'm not currently including in my reviews. Really, do you have any input at all for me?

Even if you have no suggestions, please leave a comment on this post anyway. The second purpose of this post is to find out if anyone is actually reading this blog. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy doing it even if no one else cares, but I would like to know if I'm talking to myself here.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

I know, I saw a movie in the theaters...weird. Don't expect it to happen again for a while.

One Word Description: Exciting

Family Appropriate: I would personally say yes. It is PG-13 for violence and yes, quite a few people die. However, I didn't feel that it was scary or scarring violence, 90% of it is sword fighting.

Basic Outline: (I'm going to try hard to tell you as much as I can, but there's not much I can say without giving things away.) This movie follows Dastan, the youngest son of the king of Persia. He is not a prince by birth, Dastan was a homeless orphan who was adopted by the king because of his bravery. At the beginning of the movie, the three princes, Tus, Garsiv and Dastan, attack the sacred city of Alamut. After they have taken control of the city, the king of Persia is murdered and Dastan appears to be the obvious culprit. He flees and takes the princess of Alamut with him. As they run from his brothers, Dastan discovers that the princess is the guardian of a sacred dagger that holds the sands of time and the power to rewind time. Dastan begins to believe that the attack on Alamut and the death of his father were a plot to get the dagger. He must prove his innocence, protect the dagger and, of course, save the world.

I have to say that the movie was very well made. It's made by Disney, of course it was well made. Jake Gyllenhaal was fantastic and Gemma Arterton, who played the princess was very impressive. I thought the movie had a really good balance of a lot of different elements: danger, action, romance, comedy, adventure. It really had something for everyone.

Recommendation: I would definitely see this one!

Sherlock Holmes

One Word Description: Fun

Family Appropriate: I would say yes. It is PG-13, almost exclusively for violence. There is some hand fighting and a really big explosion, but nothing terribly gross or scary. There is one slightly suggestive scene. It is very short and anyone who understands that it's suggestive won't be bothered by it, in my opinion.

Basic Outline: I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. The previews definitely made it look more violent than it was. The character of Sherlock Holmes was much closer to the character in the books than I expected him to be.

In the movie, Holmes is solving a case that begins with the apparent death of Lord Blackwood, who is hung for practicing black magic and for murder. When Blackwood rises from the grave and starts killing again, Holmes sets out to figure out how he is pulling off his stunts that appear to be magic and what his ultimate plan is.

It's very fun to watch his mind at work and try to keep up with what he's thinking. Of course, you're not given every detail, but I definitely didn't figure out what was going on! The movie is unpredictable and the character of Sherlock Holmes is brilliant, neurotic and hilarious. I am starting to be very impressed with Robert Downey Jr.

Recommendation: I enjoyed it. It makes for a fun movie night!

The Red Pyramid

Genre: Fantasy

Target Age Group: Pre-Teen/Teen

This book is the first in Rick Riordan's new series, "The Kane Chronicles". Rick Riordan is the author of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" (fantastic series, if you'd like me to do a full review of these ones, just leave me a note) and these books are very similar. The Percy Jackson books are about the Greek Gods and these are about the Egyptian Gods. Instead of having children with mortals and creating half-bloods, the Egyptian Gods just posses people. Generally people descended from the Pharaohs, such Carter and Sadie Kane.

In this first book, Carter and Sadie find out who they are and learn all about the Egyptian Gods and their history. Of course, they have to learn all this while trying to stop the god Set from plunging the world into chaos. Maybe I better back up a little...At the beginning of the book, for reasons that I won't reveal, Sadie and Carter's dad accidentally releases 5 gods (Osiris, Isis, Horus, Set and Nephthys) from Maat, where they have been contained for thousands of years. SPOILER ALERT: All the gods but Set, immediately find someone to posses. I'm sure you can figure out who. Set however, immediately heads out to gain power and release chaos into the world. Sadie and Carter are now the only ones powerful enough to stop him.

This book made me realize that my education in the area of Egyptian history is seriously lacking. The Percy Jackson series was very easy for me to follow because I already knew all the Greek Myths. I had never even heard of most of the Egyptian Gods. So reading this book was an extremely educational experience. Like I said, it was a little harder for me to follow, but I'm very glad I put in the effort and I think that the next books in the series will be easier reads, now that I have some basic knowledge.

Recommendation: If you like fantasy and mythology, you will like this book! I would definitely recommend it for 6th graders or anyone else that wants to learn about Egyptian History.

The Blind Side

Sorry about the extended absence in posting! Life has been very busy and I haven't had much time to try new things, let alone review them. There are a sad number of movies on my 'need to see' list.

Also, I know that pretty much everyone on the planet has already seen 'The Blind Side', but I wanted to make sure to review it for anyone who is still holding out!



One Word Description: Inspiring

Family Appropriate: Again, I would agree with the rating on this one! The only objectionable parts are some scenes where Michael is back where he grew up, not such a nice area of town. These scenes really help you understand where he's coming from, but might be a little too scary for small children.

Basic Outline: This movie is a true story about the Tuohy family and a young man named Michael Oher. Michael gets into a private school because they assume from his build that he will make a good football player. Leigh Anne Tuohy decides to take him in for one night and discovers a polite, good kid who doesn't have much of a chance in life because of where he comes from and all the things he doesn't have (like a home and a family). She decides to help him and the whole family starts to make Michael one of them. They help him with school, with football and help him with some of his other dreams, like getting a drivers license. He truly becomes a member of their family.

For anyone who thinks this is another sports movie and you don't like sports movies, think again. It is so much more than that and it really will be worth your time to give it a try.

Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for her role in this movie and for once I agree with the Academy's choice! This is not her typical movie at all, but she is absolutely amazing! About a week ago, Leigh Anne Tuohy and Michael Oher were on 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'. After watching that, I am even more impressed. I felt like I already knew Leigh Anne Tuohy because Sandra Bullock really acted exactly like her. Even her stance and tone of voice were accurate, it was incredible.

Recommendation: If you see nothing else this year, see this movie.

Yours, Mine and Ours

One Word Description: Surprising

Family Appropriate: Definitely!

Basic Outline: High school sweethearts, Frank and Helen, meet at a high school reunion. They have both lost their spouses and have very large families. On a whim, they decide to get married. This seems like a great plan, until they try to get their very different families to live together. He's in the Coast Guard and runs his house like the military and she's a free-thinking, almost hippie, artist. Their kids decide this is not going to work out and set out to break their parents up.

I know this one's been out for a while, but I thought I'd review it for anyone like me that didn't bother with seeing it. I was very pleasantly surprised by this movie. I expected something more along the lines of "Cheaper By The Dozen", which was not my favorite. It was surprisingly funny and had a good solid plot line!

I have also heard that the original version of the movie, starring Lucille Ball is excellent. I have not seen it yet, but hope to do so soon. If you've seen both, please leave a comment and tell me which one you like best and why!

Recommendation: Watch it!

Wheat bread that feels like white

One word description: Fluffier. Yummier!

Here's the best trick I have found to getting kids to eat homemade whole wheat bread. I add one TB of dough enhancer to each cup of wheat flour. It improves the texture, taste and strength of the wheat bread. It makes it light and fluffy. One can is about $6 at a health food store and lasts quite a while in the fridge. I noticed you can even buy it online now.

Allergy note: it does contain whey and gluten.

Another trick is to buy white wheat kernels. White wheat is less bitter than red wheat and makes a whiter flour. It is more money than red wheat and does not store as long. I often mix white and red wheat 50/50.

Recommendation: Use the enhancer in any bakery item: cakes, quick breads, cookies, etc to improve the flavor and texture.

Gilligan's Island DVD

One word description: CLASSIC

Family appropriateness: Yes! Ginger's saucy personality and being chased by head hunters are as bad as it gets.

Summary: 7 castaways clever adventures. My kids pick Gilligan over every Disney DVD we own, every time. DVD price is under $15 a season now (avg 32 episodes/811 min). 25-minute episode length is perfect when the kids want to "watch a movie" right before bed.

Recommendation: Get it while you still can.

Did You Hear About The Morgans?

One Word Description: Good

Family Appropriate: If all your family members are over 13. This one hold pretty true to what the rating says. There is talk of infidelity that has occurred in the past and a few swear words, but nothing else objectionable.

Basic Outline: Meryl and Paul Morgan are separated, he's trying to earn her love back and she's not interested. They happen to be walking together and witness a murder and are, unfortunately, seen by the murderer. For their safety, they are put into witness protection, together. As you can imagine, funny situations occur when a couple who have lived in New York their whole lives and aren't particularly happy together are relocated to Ray, Wyoming. One of my personal favorite lines:"This is Ray." (two seconds later) "That was it." All in all, it was funny, fairly well done and made an enjoyable evening.

Recommendation: Don't rush out right now, but watch it when you get a chance!

Fablehaven

FAN-TAS-TIC

Genre: Fantasy

Target Age group: 9-15(ish), but great for adults too!

If you have not yet read the Fablehaven series, do it now. If you started the series and have not finished, start again. It's worth it.

The books center around two siblings, Kendra and Seth Sorenson. In the first book, they discover that their grandparents are caretakers of a preserve for magical creatures, called Fablehaven. The first book deals with demons and uprisings within Fablehaven. This is all kind of preliminary and sets up the real story that starts in book two.

Starting in book two, Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star, they learn of two warring societies, The Society of the Evening Star and the Knights of the Dawn. The Society of the Evening Star is trying to open a demon prison called Zzyzx and The Knights of the Dawn are trying to stop them at all costs.

In order to open the prison, The Society of the Evening Star must collect 5 artifacts that act as keys to open the prison. These artifacts are hidden at preserves around the world. Since preserves are falling right and left, The Knights of the Dawn decide to find the artifacts themselves, in order to better protect them. Most of the series details the adventures of Seth and Kendra as they help find and guard the artifacts.

I just finished the final book, Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison. I can't tell you much about what happens here without giving away what happens in other books. Just know, that this is Brandon Mull's best work by far! He ends the series with a few nice twists and turns, some great new characters and just good writing in general. I thought he worked everything out quite nicely in the end. This book has a little bit of everything: lots of fantasy (obviously), action, romance (just a little), mystery, it's all there.

The first book in the series was also Brandon Mull's first book. It's a good start, not the best thing I've ever read, but a good start. You can definitely watch his writing style mature and solidify and the series progresses. So, I say again, if you stopped after book one, start again!

Recommendation: READ THEM!

Bandslam

One Word Description: Cute

Family Appropriate: Yes!

Basic Outline: Will Burton moves to New Jersey, hoping to get a fresh start on life. He meets some new friends right off the bat, Charlotte and Sa5m (the 5 is silent). In New Jersey, there's a competition every year called Bandslam and, as Sa5m puts it, it's Texas high school football big. Will ends up managing Charlotte's band, bringing together a bunch of kids who never would have been friends. There are, of course, a few rocky spots in all these friendships, but the movie is essentially about all of these kids finding friends and finding a place in life. Is it cheesy? Absolutely. Is the acting stellar? Not really. Will is played by Gaelan Connell, who has never been in a movie before, so all things considered, I thought he was pretty good. If you are ok with cheesy teenager movies like I am, then you will enjoy this one!

Recommendation: Watch it!

The Invention of Lying

One Word Description: Strange

Family Appropriate: Not so much....pretty good message, mixed with too much information

Basic Outline: Here's the plot in a nutshell: No one is capable of lying, the main character discovers that he can lie and spends the entire movie trying to figure out how to use his new power. Should he use it for his own benefit? Should he use it to help people? Should he use it to win the heart of the girl he loves? He does good things with it, like stops his neighbor from committing suicide, convinces the world of the existence of God and helps a lot of homeless people. (And he doesn't use it to get the girl.)

However, for the rest of the world, it's not only that they can't lie, they tell you everything they're thinking...always. It's a little awkward. Even surrounded by good people, I don't want or need to know what everyone is thinking all the time. It's very bizarre. The movie had it's funny moments though, and like I said, the underlying message was a good one.

Recommendation: If you're really bored and have a free redbox code, go for it. It's not on my wishlist though.