Mississippi Jack by L.A. Meyer
Jacky finds herself on the Mississippi River, headed south and encountering plenty of unique individuals, such as a hairy mountain man, an escaped slave, and a rather dashing soldier named Richard Allen who may be a challenge for Jacky's star-crossed lover, Jaimy Fletcher.
While I love this series and I will always find myself attached to L.A. Meyer's delightful characters, this book is where the series goes down in quality, in my opinion. A few of the new characters, such as Fink, come across as two-dimensional and over-ridiculous. The language is often unnecessarily crude, and when all else fails in the plot, Jacky can sing a tune and everything will be fine again. There are a few ridiculous rabbit trails that took away from the main storyline, such as Jacky being welcomed as a member of a Native American tribe after a couple of days (because that's what has to happen if your hero travels west) and eventually being carried away by a tornado but otherwise unharmed. Some new characters were a joy, and I really did like reading more from Jacky, but compared to the first few in this series, Mississippi Jack disappointed me. Three stars.
My Bonny Light Horseman by L.A. Meyer
After fleeing from the British government for months, Jacky has finally been caught and is sent on an undercover mission to France: first as a risque dancer and then as a messenger in the French army, under Napoleon himself. All Jacky wants is to go back to her small schooner and rejoin her beloved friends, but war is coming.
Again, this book simply does not match up to the first few in the series. Jacky is a maiden throughout these books, but she's constantly put into scrapes that test her purity. Can she manage to make it through without getting into too much trouble? Sometimes she's forced into close scrapes, like having to entertain the gentlemen after dancing, but sometimes she enters into awkward relationships entirely of her own volition (making out for hours in a tent with a fellow spy), even though she truly believes she is in love with Jaimy from her ship's boy days. I liked the natural feeling of adventure in this story (although it seemed a little rushed at times) much more than in Mississippi Jack, but I didn't love Jacky's increasingly declining morals and how ridiculous it seems that she actually loves anyone at all. Three stars.
Surely everyone knows the story of young Alice following the white rabbit and tumbling into a rabbit hole that takes her to a bizarre and fantastical land called Wonderland, so I will not bother to summarize it more than that. I read this book for the first time several years ago and loved it. Ever since I read one of George MacDonald's books last month and discovered that he was close friends with Lewis Carroll, I have wanted to re-read this precious book. I'll be honest and say that sometimes I found myself lost (in a good way) in the fantasy of it all... and sometimes I found myself just lost, but that's clearly what Carroll meant it to be. Five stars.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
I had actually never read The Jungle Book before (aside from Rikki-Tikki-Tavi), so I greatly enjoyed reading this for my Children's Literature class. I can see why Rudyard Kipling was such a celebrated author in his day and why his writings are still such classics. Mowgli's coming-of-age adventures into manhood are fascinating lessons. I wish I would have read The Jungle Book when I was growing up. Five stars.
Bod is like any other kid growing up with happily-married parents, quirky old neighbors, and a best friend (and guardian) named Silas. The only difference is that Bod lives in a graveyard and everyone he knows is dead (except for him).
This is another book I read for my Children's Literature class. I had heard of Neil Gaiman, but I did not know of The Graveyard Book... and I wasn't clever enough until about halfway through to realize that this was heavily inspired by The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. The stories each carry a nostalgic feel of: "Hey, I remember this" as I recall tales of Mowgli's life, but each of them is unique enough to give Gaiman's characters their own weight and significance. I am not one for reading about ghouls and ghosts and the paranormal, but I very much enjoyed The Graveyard Book. Four stars.
Kidnapped from an airport and taken to live in a ranch in the middle of nowhere, Australia, 16-year-old Gemma is confused. On one hand, she misses her family and friends and the life she had before she was taken. On the other hand, her captor (an older, but not too much older man named Ty) is dreamy, troubled, and madly in love with her.
I usually like the excitement of "kidnapped" kind of novels, but I hated this one. Truly, I hated it. The reader was expected to almost root for the steamy and uncertain romance brooding between Gemma and her kidnapper. Ty is portrayed as a sexy, lonely, and tormented soul. Gemma is shallow and angsty, and her confusion about her feelings for Ty are never portrayed as indicators of abuse but rather misunderstood young love that her parents will never understand. Stolen is a mockery for anyone who has ever been in any kind of similar situation of abuse or force by a sexual predator. One star.
This novel takes place in a dystopian world where an over-bearing government runs everything, even their emotions and dreams. At age twelve, children are given assignment to work where they fit best. Jonas is given the rarest job of all: The Receiver. He must spend time each day with an old man who now calls himself The Giver, who gives Jonas memories from a time before the dreary world where they live in forced harmony. Now Jonas sees everything differently.
My roommate, Kelsey, read The Giver on a whim and then dropped the book in my lap, saying, "Read this right now." I did so reluctantly at first, unsure about what I would think of a book of twelve-year-old children. I was pleasantly surprised. Lois Lowry paints a world far more fascinating than most dystopian novels I've read. I love how the use of simplification to help the reader see the underlying cruelty of the city's government more than if it was described in great detail. This is a book I will recommend older children for a long time. Five stars.
I had to read Little Women for my university class (and since it is a classic, I won't try to summarize it). I read an abridged version of this book when I was younger and remember several of Alcott's works with great fondness. However, and I am being completely honest with you, Little Women drug on and on for me. This is not my kind of book and it is not a classic I plan to pass on to my own future daughters. Three stars. (Yes, I just gave a classic three stars...)
The average of my readings for the month of February are 3.6 stars. Not the best month of reading, but there were a few memorable stories.
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Have you read Matched by Ally Condie? I've never read The Giver, but what you say of it reminds me a lot of Matched- I'm currently trying to find the others in the series!
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Matched, but I will look it up! I definitely recommend The Giver.
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