The Star of Kazan - Eva Ibbotson

I started reading The Star of Kazan while on a car trip to Vermont. By the time I'd finished the first chapter, I was so taken with Eva Ibbotson's writing style that I turned the radio off and re-read the first chapter aloud to my husband. We both agreed that this is a book that makes a great family read-aloud or audio book listen. Ibbotson has a bright sense of humor that comes across in her writing voice. She develops her characters by giving them concise, but telling dialogue and through wonderful description of the character's physical features and mannerisms. Of course, it helps, too, that she has a tip-top story to tell!

In the first chapter, Ellie and Sigrid, two Austrian domestic servants, take to the mountains on their day off to get fresh air and a brief escape from the whirl of Vienna. While off on their hike, Ellie's feet tire, so she stops into a wayside chapel to say a prayer for her deceased mother (and rest her feet from the new shoes she's wearing). Ellie nods off in the silence of the church and when she awakes she hears a tiny chirp or is it a mew? No! It's a baby - a foundling that has been left with a note pleading for the child to be taken to the nun's orphanage in Vienna.

Ellie and Sigrid can't possibly leave this little mite of a baby girl, so they take her back to Vienna with them, but alas! the nunnery is smack dab in the middle of an outbreak of typhus and all the residents are quarantined! So ... the child goes 'home' to their place of employment and the moment the little girl opens her eyes and looks at the three professors who employ the two women, the fate of the baby is sealed. She is named Annika and from that day on, she grows more dear to all the adults of the household and the residents of the little square on which the house is situated.

Ibbotson weaves a tale of family, childhood friendships, and neighborly relationships that is heart-warming. Annika grows into a bright, responsible, kind child, but she always wishes she could know her true mother even though Ellie adopts her and acts the part splendidly. And then one day, a tall elegant woman comes to the house on the square and introduces herself. Annika's mother has found her ... and THAT'S when things get really interesting!

Ibbotson's characters all have their own small stories that all come together to make a story that will have kids reading far past bedtime or begging for one more chapter. Her story was extremely well-received when it was published in 2004. It was short-listed for a Carnegie Medal and won the Nestle Children's Book Prize - Silver Award. It has since had two audio versions released and read by Patricia Connelly and Ruth Jones.  So, read it aloud to your favorite children or give them one of the audio versions. It's a funny, fun, magically wonderful story!

Note: In researching for this post, I found that Eva Ibbotson has since passed away - such a shame, as she told a good story! Rest in peace, dear lady!

I'm Off Then: Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino De Santiago - Hape Kerkeling

Hans Peter Kerkeling, an overweight, happy-go-lucky German television comedian, makes his way to France and the last point of The Way of St James in France. His goal is to go on a pilgrimage; he plans to walk the 400 plus mile route of the Camino de Santiago across northern Spain and finish his trip at Santiago de Compostela's cathedral. Of course, he doesn't tell his friends and family that! They'd think he'd gone crazy!

What begins as a 'lark' soon becomes one man's journey of reflection and self-discovery. Hape Kerkeling comes to discover that attitude is what it's all about. His fatigue is conquered by singing at the top of his lungs or giving in to the exhaustion for a bit so that he can sit by the side of the path and enjoy a cigarette and cafe latte at a wayside cafe. Journeying such a long route is about setting aside time and schedules, living in the moment, becoming more forgiving of what his body will/won't stand and what his mind will/won't endure.

Yes, long journeys with uncertain outcomes become more than distances covered. Hape's book, while part travelogue, part memoir, and part 'advice/research' read for anyone contemplating making the pilgrimage along The Way of St James, becomes much more. It becomes a map of the psychological change and philosophical growth that Hape undergoes, as he makes his way from one point along his path to the next. Along the way, he meets and is changed by numerous people. Some help him make strategies for physical survival and comfort. Some challenge his mind with spiritual and philosophical ideas that change him in subtle ways. Some help him to laugh at his foibles and follies. Some enrage him to the point of standing up for others in his world. All of them serve the purpose of begging a question, "Are our paths pre-ordained by some higher power or mere chance ?"

I loved this book. It approaches the idea of  making the pilgrimage along The Way of St James with humor, pragmatism, and just a bit of mysticism. Hape is a changed man at the end of his pilgrimage. The book he has given us is a great read. He doesn't play down the rigors of the trip. In fact, he is brutally honest about the geography of the the Way, the dangers and annoyances of certain parts of the path, and the specific needs that a pilgrim has. In balance, he also marvels at the beauty of the countryside, the romance of certain villages along the way, the generosity of the Spanish people, and the fun of getting to know fellow pilgrims. The effect leaves us with an idea of how wonderful it just may be for us, should we dare to take up the pilgrim's staff and step out onto the path.

The Witches - Roald Dahl

We always did read-aloud time in our family. All three of the kids were read to right up through elementary school and into middle school, too. Consequently, I miss reading aloud and being read to!

The popularity of books on tape, though, never really caught on with me until I retired and found myself home alone, the kids having grown and flown. Nowadays, you can usually find an audio book on the kitchen table with an accompanying book. I listen to audio books while I cook or putter in the kitchen at dishes and housework. 

The past couple days have been great fun, as I've reacquainted myself with Roald Dahl's fun adventure story called The Witches. This is the perfect read/listen for the Halloween season! I've known the story for ages, as the kids read it when they were young and we used to watch the movie adaptation of the book every Halloween. Anjelica Huston is just so perfect in the character of the Grand High Witch!

When I first joined in on this year's Readers (R) Imbibing (I) Peril (P) reading challenge at Carl Anderson's Stainless Steel Droppings blog (see link here RIP-IX reading event,) I noticed the title of Dahl's kid classic as the number one entry on the link up page. "Oh!, I thought, I haven't thought about that old story in sooo long!"  That's when I knew I'd seek out an audio version of the book to see how it would feel to have it read to me! 

What fun! The version I received from my public library's inter-library loan program is quite old, but the CD's are still in pretty good condition. The story is narrated by the actor, Ron Keith. He does a great job. It was really fun to hear his voice develop 'a smile' in it when he read particularly funny or clever parts of the story. You can hear the delight he is taking in the story and that adds to the charm of the experience.

I found myself cheering on the young protagonist of the story, as he came face to face with the dreaded witches that his dear grandmother warned him of in her many stories and tales of witches that live right among us! Imagine the smarts and derring-do it would take to outsmart a whole convention of withces! Therein lies the fun in Dahl's fast-moving romp of a story! It's a delight and one book that most elementary kids would love to experience! It's the perfect Halloween week read!

The Rathbones - Janice Clark

A tale of a family that lived by the sea - The Rathbones reads like fantasy, mythology, adventure, Gothic romance. How does one categorize this first novel by Janice Clark? Being a child of the television era, I felt a distinct Gothic feel a la Addams Family. Remember that wonderful old television program? Wacky, dark characters, strangely beautiful Gothic Morticia-like female characters, odd ball relatives, dark and sinister locations, comic relief, weird creatures that keep you wondering. This book has it all.

As I made my way deeper into the family history of the Yankee whaling family, I found myself wondering if I would read this book aloud to middle school students. Short of there being some sexual content that could be construed as questionable, I really felt that the story line would capture young adult readers (or listeners) with its fantastical feel.

At any rate, I think Janice Clark has come up with a winner. She has definitely plumbed Homer's saga, The Odyssey and that's okay. After all, one can't go wrong by emulating the classics, right?

So ... I wonder what she'll write next!

Inferno - Dan Brown

I have read Dan Brown a couple other times, but his books always seem a blur to me. Now, that can be looked at as good and bad. On the good side, his stories are always fast-paced page turning novels that are full of references to art and political history. They're very well researched and the famous names and historical events that are enmeshed within the plot are always seamlessly woven into the storyline. The bad side of reading his books so fast is that there is always a lot to absorb and keep straight, and I tend to forget them almost as soon as I've finished them. Sure, I can tell you the basic ghist of the books, but most of the details go by the board; there's just too much stimulus load poured too quickly into my poor brain.

Inferno is no exception. Once again, Robert Langdon finds himself deep in the middle of intrigue and running for his life, as he fights the clock to solve a mystery involving a strange attack that puts him in the hospital with a bullet wound to the head, a bizarre hidden capsule that he has 'muled' in some weird way, a memory loss that is disorienting, strange dreams that are prophetic and somehow tied to what has happened to him during a 'lost couple of days'.  Once again, Langdon hooks himself up with a young female cohort that helps him navigate dangers and sticky situations. Once again, Langdon uses his encyclopedic knowledge of history, art, and literature to put the pieces of his life in order and come up with a solution to a potentially horrific international catastrophe.

No spoilers here ... this book will familiarize you with Dante's Divine Comedy, Italian Renaissance art, and the city of Florence. You'll enjoy padding around after Robert Langdon. He's a likeable protagonist. I can see Mr. Brown making a long series of stories with Langdon as the central character. Detective stories for art and history geeks ... there's a real niche there.

A word of advice --- read the book when you have a couple days to stay up late turning the pages. Sleep deprivation is a drag when you've read half the night away and then, you have to get up and produce.

An aside ---- betting on a movie production ... it can't be too far behind the book. The question is ... will Tom Hanks keep it up as RL or will we see a new face in the role?

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

Once Upon a Time there was a magical island with a strange mysterious portal to the past ...

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children got a lot of press back when it was first published in 2011. A new spine-tingling young adult read, it relies on an old equation - misunderstood young man with unusual ability is drawn to an isolated haven for children with equally unusual abilities that is looked over by a matronly and well-meaning mother figure. Yes, the Harry Potter syndrome strikes again. Once again, age-old themes work with a new author's imagination to give us a whiz-bang adventure fantasy that promises to be ripe for subsequent novels.

The Lost City of Z - David Grann

This book was a stretch for me, as it covered multiple ventures into Amazonia by the British surveyor, cartographer, explorer, and legendary adventurer Lt. Colonel Percy H. Fawcett, in search of a lost center of ancient civilization. The book jumps back and forth between modern explorations of the Amazon River and some of it tributaries, the history of the Spanish explorers of the 1500's and their high jinks in the conquer and massacre of the native populations of Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, the more modern rape of the rainforests by the rubber barons, and finally the various political endeavors to become familiar with and tame the indigenous peoples of subtropical Brazil. All these interesting back stories serve to make a tapestry on which the various explorations of Fawcett and his multiple teams of adventurers traipse. Their time of exploration ranged from 1907 until 1925. Since then, they have piqued the interest of numerous other adventurers who have followed them and either become sick and disappointed or have met the same fate as the Fawcett expedition - 'disappeared'.

Who can resist a story of adventure, exciting tanglings with snakes and insects, extreme climate challenges, hostile and mysterious natives, infighting and suspicion between different explorers, and the mystery of uncharted regions deep in the jungles of Amazonia ? I couldn't, but the book was too detailed for me. After reading five or six chapters, I started to bog down, so I got the unabridged audio version of the book at the local library. That was a much better experience.  Listening to the narrator reading quickly and with great expression helped me stay interested in the story of Fawcett's obsessive search for a mysterious lost civilization in the center of the South American jungle and a modern day reporter's research into his mysterious disappearance.

David Grann became involved with the story when he was investigating an Arthur Conan Doyle novel called 'The Lost World'. He came across the name of Percy Harrison Fawcett and became intrigued by this man, considered the last of the great territorial cartographers and explorers and Doyle's inspiration for his novel.   In his investigation of the Royal Geographic Society and Fawcett's biography, he became even more intrigued with Fawcett's drive to become the man to conquer the South American jungle and the unknown depths of the Amazon River. It's an amazing story and a continuing mystery ... is there a Lost City of Z ? Grann's investigation became somewhat of an obsession as he researched Fawcett's private papers, records of the exploration voyages into South America, and made his own Amazon exploration of Fawcett's last expedition - the one on which he was lost with his son and another family friend.

This is an intriguing story that heralds back to Conrad's novel The Heart of Darkness . Stranger than fiction, though, it's a true story of the British will to expand the empire and map the world and a man that tested his physical and psychological limits as he searched one of the last great uncharted frontiers of the world. Amazing stuff ...