Tag Archives: book

The Virgin’s Lover by Philippa Gregory

I love both this authors writing style and her stories! In this book Queen Elizabeth finally takes the throne, what follows are the ins and outs of court, her lover, her suitors, war, trouble with the coin, trouble with the church, plots against the throne, backstabbing, double crossing and those inconvenient wives of ambitious husbands.

Would I recommend it? Yes, and if you like the time period check out some of her others too. The books stand alone if you have a particular one you are interested in such as The Other Boleyn Girl (which I have read and is excellent) but you can start at the beginning of the 16th century with The Constant Princess, (which I have not but I have yet to read a bad book by her-now I have, click title to see what I thought of that one) she has other books as well that I haven’t delved into, yet…

Where’s My Mom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

Forget what I said yesterday, this book doesn’t meet that criteria.

In this book  little monkey lost his mom and a butterfly is trying to help him find her and getting it all wrong!

“No, no, no! That’s an elephant”

If you can get passed the fact that it is a rhyming book but “come” and “mom” don’t really rhyme (unless you pick up an accent and call her “mum” instead), and that butterfly has a creepy head (I think it’s the nose that bothers me) it’s a pretty good one!

Would I recommended it? Yes unless you can’t say mum or have a major phobia of butterflies with noses.

Princess Hyacinth the Surprising Tale of a Girl who Floated by Florence Parry Heide

I think in order to be a really great picture book, the book needs to appeal to both kids and adults.  In my perfect picture book world the kids would love hearing the books and the parents would love reading them, at least the first hundred times. Princess Hyacinth the Surprising Tale of a Girl who Floated by Florence Parry Heide illustrated by Lane Smith is just such a book.

In addition to being a fun to read funny book. I love that the words are all over the page.

And the illustrations crack me up! This is the princess weighted down with her heavy princess clothes.

Would I recommend it? Definitely!

Peek-A Who by Nina Laden

I’ll start this post off with a confession. I received this book from a friend, and when I got it I thought it was dumb. There are few words, few pages, I didn’t even think a kid would like it.

I was totally wrong.

At 7 months old Clara loves this book. She laughs at every page, loves the mirror in the last one, and it has the added bonus of being a board book so even after it soaked in a pile of spit-up it’s still readable.

Would I recommend it? Yes. Baby giggles and grins are worth reading a book adults cringe at!

Brimstone by Robert B. Parker

I’m actually still reading this book, it is the third in a series but I can say after reading the first two (Appaloosa and Resolution) that by the time I managed to get this posted I might be done again! Now before you point out all the reading time I have while sitting around nursing a sick baby, and accuse me of reading too fast let me say that these books are populated by gun fighters.  And these guys, they don’t chat much. The book looks big, but here is a typical page:

Notice the lack of wordage?  Not big on descriptions, not big on conversation. But do you really need someone to layout a western scene for you in great detail? The books make me chuckle, the guys contemplate human nature between shooting people, protecting the town whores, drinking whiskey and getting into and out of trouble, what more could you ask for out of a western?

Would I recommend it? Yes!  Start with Appaloosa, and think about getting two at a time from the library, they go quick!