Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Anne McCaffrey


My favorite author, who wrote my favorite book, has passed away. I am floored, I am speechless, I am sad. Here are some of my favorite quotes, books, and book covers.

The White Dragon was my FAVORITE book of all time, just look at that cover and tell me you wouldn't want to read it! But some of the best Dragonrider quotes come from the Harper Hall Trilogy, because really who better to quote than Harpers?!

“Don't leave me alone!
A cry in the night,
Of anguish heart-stiking,
Of soul-killing fright.

Live for my living
Or else I must die
Don't leave me alone.
A world heard that cry.”
~ Dragonsinger

"The tears I feel today
I'll wait to shed tomorrow.
Though I'll not sleep this night
Nor find surcease from sorrow.
My eyes must keep their sight:
I dare not be tear-blinded.
I must be free to talk
Not choked with grief, clear-minded.
My mouth cannot betray
The anguish that I know.
Yes, I'll keep my tears til later:
But my grief will never go."
~ Dragonsinger

"Oh, Tongue, give sound to joy and sing
Of hope and promise on dragonwing."
~ Dragonsong

"My nightly craft is winged in white, a dragon of night dark sea.
Swift born, dream bound and rudderless, her captain and crew are me.
We've sailed a hundred sleeping tides where no seaman's ever been
And only my white-winged craft and I know the wonders we have seen."
~ Dragonsong

I love this last quote because it is talking about events that took place in The White Dragon. The Harper Hall Trilogy overlaps with The White Dragon's timeline. I also really enjoyed Nerilka's Story which was a minor and shorter story pulled from Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern. There was a time when I could probably have recited the WHOLE book from memory. I did read more than Anne's dragonrider books, but they were always my favorites. I enjoyed reading the Talent books starting with The Rowan and all the Pegasus books as well.

Anne McCaffrey was an amazing author. She was a pioneer for women in what was largely considered a man's profession: science fiction writing. She was the first woman to win the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award. She lived in Ireland for most of her life. I'm sad that I've missed the opportunity to visit here there. Oh Anne, you will be missed.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Holiday Travel

Right about now I miss the train. It is a highly underrated pleasure to be able to sit contentedly while someone else does the driving. I love being able to sit and read, watch the scenery, play cards, or just take a cat nap while traveling from one place to the next. Moving 4 1/2 hours away from friends and family tends to make you cranky about travel. I'm not saying it's the worst thing ever. I am lucky to not have children when traveling. I can choose my own music and sing along with it at the top of my lungs if I so choose, and lets face it that's what I do. But every now and then I'd like to be able to gawk. So this Thanksgiving don't expect to hear me volunteering to drive. I'll be driving on Wednesday and Sunday. That's it. Thursday's trip to Wisconsin and back will see me in the passenger side seat gawking out the window at absolutely nothing!


Monday, November 21, 2011

FEVER CRUMB!

My Lit Review introduced me to the author Philip Reeve and his Mortal Engines series. The article I found had me so interested in the series I was hoping to be able to read it in my research. However as I narrowed my focus during the selection process I cut out the possibility of reading the books. Part of my criteria was to not read any books in the middle of a series. Another criteria was that the book be written between 2005 and 2009 (or 2010 I can't remember exactly). Every book in the series except the first made it into my pool. I was a bit upset. But when I finally managed to look at my final list Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve was on it. At least I had found a book by the same author. I soon came to realize it was a prequel to the Mortal Engines series.

Reading this book was such fun. The book is set in the far future of London. The main character is the lone female in what is called the Order of Engineers, they tend to believe that women can't think rationally enough for their order. However this girl was raised by one of the members which allowed her to join the order. She is singled out for a job which takes her away from the order for the first time. Right away she runs into trouble and sets several problems into motion. I was intrigued by how many different points of view were shared in this story. I really just enjoyed Reeve's writing style and can't wait to start the original series!
The book had its ups and downs in terms of pace. Some sections seemed to race by and others felt like they took forever to get back to the interesting parts! While the book had a satisfying ending I am pretty sure if I had read the original series first I might not have felt the same way. From my understanding of the Mortal Engines timeline there are things that still need to happen in this book to make way for the future readers already know happens. There is already a second book out and another on the way in the new Fever Crumb series so I hope that these loose ends will get tied up nicely. :-)

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Crazy!

If you notice the bookshelf on the right side of this blog you will see something truly amazing. I am reading 3 books right now (not the amazing part) that are ALL non-fiction (AMAZING!!!!)!!! That's right I need 7 exclamation points to get this point across. I am NOT a fan of non-fiction. If you look through my Shelfari shelves you will notice an abundance of fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, and even some romance titles. But by far non-fiction titles make up the smallest percentage on my shelves. However, a goal at my library is to update and refresh the non-fiction section. So this could be a lot more common in the near future.

Friday, November 11, 2011

The Comet's Curse

I should do the last two books together, but I can't bring myself to do it. Mostly because I was so indifferent to The Comet's Curse and I was beyond in love with Fever Crumb. So, about The Comet's Curse...

The story starts after a comet narrowly misses impact with the Earth. Instead the "tail" of the comet passed through, which turned out to be worse. Slowly people start to get sick and slowly lose touch with reality. The sickness is not responding to any medications that are thrown its way. Eventually it is determined that only adults can contract the disease and at the rate that it is spreading scientists won't be able to cure it before it wipes out Earth's population. That's a lot of back story for such a short book! But it is given partially as flashbacks from the main characters' points of view.
So the idea is that they build a HUGE space ship to send a select group of "children," nobody over age 16, into space on a mission to locate a new planet. This is humanity's last hope. It is one of the most classic space adventures that I have seen in recent years.

The main characters are Triana, the head of the council, and the rest of her council members Bon, Gap, Lita, and Channy. The events of the story are related through their perspectives along with Roc, the main computer aboard ship, and Dr. Zimmer, the man who came up with the plan. One reason I was so indifferent to this story was my lack of connection with any of the characters. I just couldn't get excited about anything that was going on.

This is just the first adventure in a series as the ship travels to its intended destination. So the book was very open ended. I think I would be interested to know how it ends up once they land on their new planet, but the flight to get there holds very little interest for me. Maybe I'll check into the last book in the series, but I might have to skip everything in the middle! I really thought this would be better...more exciting...more anything. Meh. That just about sums it up.

11-11-11 THANK YOU

I must say Happy Birthday Uncle Bruce! Happy St. Martin's Day to anyone celebrating in Germany! I hope everyone has a lovely day.

Thank You to all the brave men and women who have served our country and kept us safe!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

I'm back!

Okay, by now we all know that I am a horrible blogger. But I can't help thinking I could be better. So here I am yet again trying to make a go of it. I STILL have not finished writing the reviews from my research! I've got two left, Fever Crumb and The Comet's Curse. I'll try and get those done one of these days. I've decided to keep a blog for my school library, which brings me back here. The goal is to post something once a week, if all else fails at least once a month! I found that I keep up with this blog a lot better when I've got another blog to write. Who knows, maybe this time it will stick.

I cannot believe that it is November! Where did all this time go? It seems like yesterday was the first week of school and I was just trying to keep my head above water! Now I've made it through two walk through observations with my principal, the elementary book fair/parent teacher conferences, and football season. Bring on the basketball season!

In a couple of weeks I'll be headed home for Thanksgiving! We had our first snow scare this week. The weatherman predicted 2-4 inches...we didn't even get any rain. It was a total bust but it scared me enough to make an unscheduled trip to Carroll to buy a snow shovel. And I went all out buying the funny handled shovel, I was less than thrilled with the plastic options that were available but made do. Well, I think I've rambled enough for now. Hopefully these get better...but I wouldn't hold my breath.