Friday, November 12, 2010

The Little Princesses by Marion Crawford

Don't get deterred by the name; this actually isn't a novel. It was written by a woman who was the governess for seventeen years to the two princesses of England, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose, the former of which is now Queen Elizabeth II. What apparently happened was Marion Crawford didn't get permission to divulge this information and I think they sued her. What I do know is that the royal family refused to have anything more to do with her, even though she was like a mother to the princesses, and didn't even send her family a wreath when she died.
The book itself was written by a ghost writer, but it was an amazing book. I got it for my birthday and read it all in one day. This might have been because Queen Elizabeth II is, to me, a fascinating person, but I think anyone would like it. It includes pictures of the little princesses through the years and has detailed accounts of their personalities. I believe it's out-of-print now, but there are many ways of acquiring it. Definitely a book to be read over and over again.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door by Lynne Truss

I finished this book yesterday morning. It was extremely good, but not quite as good as Eats, Shoots and Leaves by the same author. Maybe because of the subject matter. This book was about how the public has gotten ruder as the years have passed, and how everyone now walks around in their own little bubble and don't pay attention to anybody else. It was quite clever, like her other books, but had less of the little sarcasms and more of her thoughts on the matter, which were interesting. I suppose I'm not as glowing about this one as her other book, but it was quite interesting and it was all very true.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Written in 1855, The Song of Hiawatha is an epic poem about an Indian named Hiawatha who is a great warrior and about his love for Minnehaha. I read it some time ago, and it was quite good. The meter of the poem was magnificent; I love trochaic tetrameter. There wasn't much of a plot that I can remember. It's amazing how a book in poem can be so interesting. I thought it would be a hard read, and in fact, it was rather easy. Hiawatha was immortalized, of course, being less of a character than a hero, but you liked him immensely, anyway. I'd never read an epic poem and this was extremely good. 

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

This was an excellent book. The hero, David Balfour, is a Lowland Scottish lad whose father died and is being cared for by a Campbell priest, who he very much respects. He sets off in the world to find his uncle who lives at the House of Shores (I'm not sure that I spelled that right). When he asks questions about directions, people give him strange looks and act like he's crazy; when he finally knocks on the door of his uncle's mansion -- in the middle of the night -- his uncle appears out of the window and tells him he has a gun and asks gruffly what he wants. David tells him who he is and is invited in. He's surprised that someone who inherited such great fortune lives so poorly. His uncle tells him that his share of the family fortune is at the top of an old tower, and David goes up the stairs in the middle of the night to find the chest of money. He gropes his way up the steps until, when lightning lights up the stairway, he realizes that he has been tricked and the stairs are not finished. If he had not seen that they were unfinished, he would have fallen to his death. He dashes back down and accuses his uncle, who acts innocent all the way through. The next day, his uncle tells him that he's got business down at the shore and that he should come with him. David complies, and is introduced to the captain of a ship. They go aboard, as the captain is apparently his uncle's old friend, and the uncle, unbeknown to David, leaves in a rowboat. He is kidnapped.
The rest of the events of this book are many and quite exciting. They all speak in faint brogue, which is a bit hard to read at first, but you get used to it. David is a wonderful character who is very normal, which is always good for a book, in my opinion. It has a sequel called David Balfour: Part Two, which I started and didn't like because it's all about some girl he starts following around.
Anyway, it was a great book and I hope to read it again someday.