Tracy Chevalier

This post is hereby entitled "Why I love Tracy Chevalier". I should call it with the better title ( I suppose) of "Why I Don't Love Tracy Chevalier", which would be a shorter post and would allow me to get back to my pile of homework, but this defeats the purpose of why I'm even writing the post to begin with. So, here launches my post of why Tracy Chevalier is a FABULOUS author, and why you should like her too.

Tracy Chevalier

Website: www.tchevalier.com
Books Written: Girl with a Pearl Earring, Falling Angels, The Virgin Blue, The Lady and the Unicorn, Burning Bright, Remarkable Creatures (comes out in the US in January 2010)
Notable Awards: Barnes and Noble "Discover Great Authors" Award; plus she's always on the New York Times Bestseller list whenever one of her new books comes out
Books Adapted into Films: Girl with a Pearl Earring starring Scarlett Johansen and Colin Firth, which was nominated for Academy Awards
Her Niche: Historical fiction. She does a great job of throwing you into the time period that she's writing about. I love how real her characters seem to be, and how vivid and earthy her descriptions are. Nothing is lost through Chevalier's tellings.
Why I like her (a lot) and why you should too: You know that you've found a good book when you find yourself flipping pages without even realizing it. You know you've found a good author when you find yourself flipping pages without even knowing it in every book that you've read by said author. Chevalier is such an author. Half the time I'm reading her works, I don't even realize I'm flying through the pages. Her books are just THAT good.
Which of her books I've read: Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Virgin Blue, Falling Angels, Remarkable Creatures, The Lady and the Unicorn
On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being "This book was sent from the gods for us mere mortals to read" and 1 being "This book wouldn't even make good toilet paper") here's how they rate:
Girl with a Pearl Earring: 5
The Virgin Blue: 5
Falling Angels: 5
Remarkable Creatures: 3
The Lady and the Unicorn: 4
Need I say more? The scores speak for themselves. Her writing has never let me down.

The Great Train Robbery

The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton- This was my first Michael Crichton novel, and I must say that I got sucked in pretty quickly. I had to read this for my Victorian lit class- and I know you're thinking, "Chelsey, how could this be for your Victorian lit class when it is CLEARLY written by a well-known contemporary author of pure fiction?" And my answer for you my friends is this: Crichton wrote this historical fiction novel about the Great Train Robbery of 1855 in England. So yes, it does seem odd that I read a Crichton novel for my Vic. lit class, but it also makes sense, no?

I won't go too much into the plot because there are so many subplots and main plot threads that go on that it's hard to explain it in one simple paragraph. But I will say that this is about one of the biggest and greatest robberies of all time- no one thought that it could be done (and as you get farther into the novel you can't believe that it's possible also). Crichton does an excellent job of immersing readers into the Victorian world and mindset- every other chapter is a further description into how the Victorian society is run and what each fact of history means to the story.

I gotta tell you- I was against reading a Crichton novel that was supposedly Victorian when all I've ever thought of Crichton has been contemporary, but he really pulls it off. Definitely read this if you're looking for a glimpse into the past, wanting a good mystery or an adventure novel, or are just looking to be surprised ( in a good way) in the overall subject matter and content. I highly recommend this book. Enjoy!

Harry Potter

Can I just tell you how much I love Harry Potter? I do. Because the 6th movie came out this summer I decided to reread all 0f the books- I'm sad to say that I've only read the 6th and 7th books once, so rereading them was a blast. Though, for obvious reasons (school...and then more school) I haven't been able to update my blog. I've been ridiculously busy, but I have just now finished reading the last chapter of the last book. And I WOULD have cried (I was a little misty) had I not have read the last couple of chapters while I was at work. Ah, Harry Potter. How I love thee.

Summer Reading Reality Check 2009

So I know that summer has been over for roughly 2 1/2 months now, but school and work has pretty much consumed my ENTIRE life, so I'm not cranking out posts as much as I would like to. Anyhoo, here's a list of everything I read this summer:

Practical Magic- Alice Hoffman
Paper Towns- John Green
The Sisters Grimm: The Everafter War- Michael Buckley
The Jane Austen Book Club- Karen Fowler
The Last Olympian- Rick Riordan
Dragon Slippers- Jessica Day George
Lean Mean Thirteen- Janet Evanovich
Prince of Persia- Jordan Mechner
Coraline- Neil Gaiman
Savvy- Ingrid Law
Fearless Fourteen- Janet Evanovich
Wonderland- Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew
The Tale of Desperaux- Kate Dicamillo
Smiles to Go- Jerry Spinelli
Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat- Lynne Jones
Book of a Thousand Days- Shannon Hale
A Kiss in Time- Alex Flinn
The Luxe- Anna Godbersen
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone- J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets- J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban- J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire- J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix- J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince- J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- J.K. Rowling
The Revolution of Sabine- Beth Levine Ain

Of course, not as much as I would have liked to have read this summer, but I think I took a pretty good stab at things. Until next summer (or maybe Christmas break)!

The Revolution of Sabine

The Revolution of Sabine by Beth Ain was stunning. Not only is the cover beautiful, but the writing is beautiful and engaging as well. Though this book is shorter and smaller, the content within packs a powerful punch.

Sabine Durand is the daughter of one of the upper aristocratic families in Paris (though her mother tries just a little too hard to be "cool"). Sabine is 16 and so fittingly, only ever thinks of wearing pretty dresses and attending parties, hoping that her mother will eventually stop making a fool of herself. When her mother throws a party for the upper class of Paris welcoming Benjamin Franklin to their shining city, Sabine begins to realize that there may be more to life than pretty ball gowns, being born into money, and marrying the man her parents have set for her.

After radical thoughts begin to stir in Sabine's mind, she winds up following Michael, her long lost childhood friend, to a salon where she meets Franklin. With their heated discussion of politics, Sabine learns to think for herself and contemplates getting out of her predetermined status quo. But what will her parents say when they find out that she has rekindled her "dangerous" relationship with the rakish Michael? And what will happen to Sabine's fiance, once he's realized that Sabine does not intend to be a doting wife? (Well, if you read the book, you'll find out!)

A fun historical fiction read that left me wanting more. This is definitely a little gem of a book.

Authors live among us? Who knew?

So I just met Carol Lynch Williams! She came into the library and asked for help with her daughter's holds, and as I was checking items out to her, I realized that she is THE Carol Lynch Williams. I told her that I haven't read any of her books (yet), but that I can't wait for The Chosen One to come out. The only thing I forgot to tell her was that I HAVE read one of her books: My Angelica, which was very funny and entertaining. She told me that I had just made her day by recognizing her, and that she was going to write about me in her journal. The only problem is is that she's probably going to spell my name with an "a" and not a "y". Sad. But, who knew that I would make someone's journal entry today? AND, who knew that there were authors all around us? *Sheila, I already knew about you!*

Catching Fire

So I actually read Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins a couple weeks ago, but have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to blog about it, or anything that I've been reading lately. And yes, I got to read it before it even hit the bookstores. I was super pumped to read this book because if you didn't know it's the sequel to The Hunger Games (which you should go out and buy ASAP!), and who wouldn't be excited to read the sequel to a book that freaking blows your mind? I'm sad to say though that Catching Fire was disappointing for me- there I've said it. I can't believe that I said it, but it sucked compared to Hunger Games. I know you can't really compare the two, but this was definitely a letdown. And here's why:

1. Katniss is being her stupid self and trying to "decide" whether she likes Gale as just a friend or considers him MORE than a friend- though she SPECIFICALLY said in Hunger Games that she's NEVER thought of Gale as more than a friend and that she considers him like a BROTHER (see page 10 if you don't believe me). And I quote:
"There's never been anything romantic between Gale and me...You can tell by the way the girls whisper about him when he walks by in school that they want him. It makes me jealous but not for the reason people would think. Good hunting partners are hard to find."
*Take that Lyndi!*

2. Katniss is trying to decide whether she actually likes Peeta or not- more so than what she pretends at for the public. Seriously- make up your mind! If she doesn't take him soon, I will!

3. The story's great and I can see how it would be captivating, but it doesn't move as well as The Hunger Games- it took me roughly 2/3 or the book or so to get into the story, and even then the pages didn't pull me in. The storyline was great and I can see how others thought it was good, but I just couldn't get sucked in. And it didn't help that Katniss kept whining about whether she loved Gale or whether she loved Peeta, blah blah blah. Stop being indecisive!

Those were my main grievances with the novel- you can definitely tell that this book was more of a setup for the third, which may have been why it bombed. It was definitely an intermediary book that had to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time and make connections between the first and third books. Hopefully when I read it again I can get over Katniss' angst and whining and get wrapped up in the story. I hope? Please?