The Girl With the Pearl Earring

This book, the Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier is not a new publication. In fact, even the movie (2003) based on this title is not new. But of course, sometimes that seldom matters if the topic is timeless. This is the fictionalized account of the famous painting by Johannes Vermeer in about 1665 of "The Girl with the Pearl Earring". And actually, no one really knows the 'story' of this painting, who this girl really is, or how she came to be painted by Vermeer. Was she really his daughter, or some other household member, like a maid as is suggested in this story by Chevalier. No matter, the story is a wonderful glimpse in to life, culture, and customs of the Dutch in the 17th century. Though we don't end up really knowing too much about Johannes Vermeer, we do learn a lot about some of the subjects of his paintings, of the art of, well art. This was a wonderful book, an easy read, and it certainly made me more curious about Vermeer's work and life. You can see some of his paintings here, and if you've read the book or plan to there are many things in each of his paintings that you'll find in this story.

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpugo

I finished this book on Wednesday morning. It's rare that I am surprised by an ending, but this one was somewhat of a surprise. It was also a very powerful book for young adults. It's the story of two Peaceful brothers, Charlie and Tommo who have both gone off to fight the 'Hun' in France in 1914 when Charlie is 18 and Tommo is 14. Each chapter begins with time. Tommo is remembering through one long sleepless night of his life in England with his 2 brothers and his mother and Molly. Ah, Molly. It's such a lovely sad story about family and relationships and becoming. And of course, the horror of war. In particular the horror of the "Great War". This makes warring so personal. I have read Jeff Shaara's book "To the Last Man" about the first World War and that gave quite a bit of perspective on this very personal story about it. An outstanding book. Enjoy it if you can.

Burn by Linda Howard

This was my first and probably last Linda Howard novel and it was red hot alright! I did not know what to expect when I started reading this book, but it fairly reeked with all of the sterotypical aspects of a romance novel. Mind you, it had a little action spy thriller thrown in on top just so we wouldn't get all wrapped up in that hunk of a guy with the odd first name, Cael. Of course the female lead is named Jenner so we are pretty well set in the unusual, this-should-keep-your-attention name department. The story is about the wealthy, albeit 'workingman' Jenner Redwine who has won the lottery and now has a new kind of life because of all that money. She is kidnapped on a cruise for the ultra wealthy and forced to work for her kidnappers in order to save a friend's life. But creeping into the middle of all this she falls in love with that hunk of a kidnapper/good guy while sleeping handcuffed to him. hmmm. I'm not a huge romance novel fan, but it all seemed pretty standard fare for the romance novel. The real writing came in when the sex scenes started appearing. (that's the 'red hot' part) It seemed this was the real reason why she was writing this novel, I thought. Everything else was pretty boring and familiar. Seriously, I could have predicted how this would turn out from the beginning. After all, what could be more sexy than to fall in love with your captor..
So. If you want to read about kidnapping, and intrigue, or a spy thriller about the north Koreans stealing weapons of mass destruction, better pass on this one. But as a sex novel. Well. It's in there.

The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibotsen

Annika is a foundling discovered in a church by two old women who are on holiday in the Swiss mountains and happen by the church. They live in Vienna and take Annika along and end up raising her in a most happy household filled with bachelor professors, and a community of friends and school and even cooking and cleaning. Annika's deepest longing as she grows is that her mother would one day appear and claim her and take her away to a life for just the two of them. Then one day a woman does show up on her doorstep claiming to be her mother and whisks her away to a run down estate in Germany. Annika, unaware, inherits a trunk full of 'fake' jewels from an elderly friend. How does that fit in with her newfound mother and uncle and brother and cousin? How could she end up in a stern school for girls, alone? And her new friend, Zed? How could he have lied to her and then run off with the horse Rocco?
I listened to this story on a 'playaway'. It was great for my morning walks and I thoroughly enjoyed this story. There is plenty of mytery and intrigue and I fell in love with each of the characters that Ibotsen develops so well. A great read (or listen) for students 8 and older.

The White Queen

I have never read any of Philipa Gregory's historical novels before though I once started her popular "The other Boylen Girl" that had been made into a movie! (not enough time) The White Queen was my first one. I listened to it over several days as I drove back and forth from work. If you enjoy English King/Queen history then this book will be a delight for you. You have to keep in mind that this is a work of fiction, however! There was plenty of drama though this was ultimately a love story and a delving into what the English monarchy was like during the15th century.
It is the story of the Plantagent monarchy and the so called 'Cousins' Wars. The White Queen, Elizabeth Gray, marries the usurper King Edward, who with the help of the Duke of Warwick, took the throne by force. Elizabeth and Edward went on to rule England for many years and they had 8 children, 2 of whom were boys, the young princes Edward and Richard. Though this bit of English history was vaguely familiar to me, Gregory's work put a face to what before had been only musty history. I once saw Shakespeare's Richard III as an outdoor stage production and knew about the 2 young prince's that he murdered and of course his loss of the battle to the Henry who was the beginning of today's Tudor Kings. Gregory's book helped fill in some gaps in my understanding of that time and especially of who and what Richard III was along with all the intrigue and politicking that abounded in the royal English court. I enjoyed this story and think anyone who enjoys English history might as well!

Trucktown

I bought 2 of Jon Scieszka's Trucktown books for my grandsons last week. I wanted to save them until I absolutely needed them, but the boys found them before we hit that moment. I could not read them enough they loved them that much! Trucktown is Scieszka's (author of the Time Warp Trio series) newest series and it's aimed right at busy active boys. There are 14 different books in the series- cement mixers, garbage trucks, dump trucks, cranes and even an ice cream truck all with adventures and smashing and crashing of their own. They smash and crash and build and roar all over town.
You know, those kids will now have the perfect reason to be smashing down all those building block towers they have created! They'll be joining the truck town crew. Not only does Scieszka have the right amount of colorful action filled trucks in his books he's created a website where kids can continue the fun of smashing and crashing and dumping and building. It's Jon Scieszka's Trucktown (amazingly enough) and there are lots of fun things for those little computer literate boys can do that are related to these books. Find that here. So before you even go out and buy one of these great books, you can check out what they're all about. Enjoy