Sara’s blog

Mandie and the Secret Tunnel

2009-01-13T04:50:31Z

Mandie and the Secret Tunnel (Mandie, Book 1)

Lois Gladys, Leppard

#3: Mandie and the Secret Tunnel by Lois Gladys Leppard

I first read this book when I was around 11 or so - Mandie's age in the story. I loved the series then, and I still find it enjoyable now. I happened to spot the books on the shelf at the library and decided to read the series again.
The book begins with the death of Mandie's father and tells of how she deals with her grief in the face of the hardships set before her. By the end of the book, she has made new friends and found a new life for herself in her uncle's house.
As a child, I loved that the series was set in North Carolina (where I lived), and that Mandie had really long hair (which I wanted). It didn't take much back then - I read so fast that it took a lot of books to keep me satisfied. I'm sure my mother was thankful for the library and my all-but-unlimited access to free books!
Now, I appreciate that this is a series of books that is enjoyable to read as well as having a Christian message.

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The Wal-Mart Effect

2009-01-12T16:01:16Z

The Wal-Mart Effect (Unabridged)

Charles Fishman

#2: The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works -- and How It's Transforming the American Economy by Charles Fishman

I'll be honest, I did not expect to like this book. I thought it would be very dry and I honestly expected it to be mostly an attack on Wal-Mart (which I'm personally getting sick of - employee or no, I'm tired of hearing all of the negativity about Wal-Mart, especially when most of the complaints I hear are things that are related to problems at the store level, not anything that the powers that be in Bentonville are doing or not doing).
Instead, it was an interesting description of how Wal-Mart came to be, and how it is able to do the things it does. The book also discussed the fact that everyone is affected by Wal-Mart, even those people who never shop there.

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Eclipse

2009-01-10T20:00:18Z

Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3)

Stephenie Meyer

#1: Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

Eclipse is the third book in the Twilight series. It continues the story of Bella, Edward, and Jacob and how their lives intertwine despite conflicts among them. I liked it better than New Moon, but so far Twilight is still my favorite. I'm now waiting to read Breaking Dawn, the final book in the series.

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QotD: Not Funny

2009-01-08T02:22:22Z

What, if anything, is not okay to joke about?

Someone else's problems, especially those that are medical and/or that they have no control over. If you want to joke about your own issues, be my guest. But don't try to make light of mine.

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My 2008 Reading List

2009-01-04T04:35:17Z

I did it! I read 50 books during 2008. Here is my 2008 list:

1. Days of Infamy (Harry Turtledove)
2. The Magician's Nephew (C. S. Lewis)
3. Speak (Laurie Halse Anderson)
4. End of the Beginning (Harry Turtledove)
5. The Friday Night Knitting Club (Kate Jacobs)
6. Short & Tall Tales: Moose County Legends (Lilian Jackson Braun)
7. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
8. Mount Vernon Love Story (Mary Higgins Clark)
9. Blood Orange (Drusilla Campbell)
10. Mercy (Jodi Picoult)
11. Happiness Sold Separately (Lolly Winston)
12. The Horse and His Boy (C. S. Lewis)
13. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
14. Good In Bed (Jennifer Weiner)
15. Prince Caspian (C. S. Lewis)
16. Before Green Gables (Budge Wilson)
17. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
18. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming (Joshilyn Jackson)
19. The Memory Keeper's Daughter (Kim Edwards)
20. The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
21. Voyage of the Dawn Treader (C. S. Lewis)
22. The Diary of Mattie Spenser (Sandra Dallas)
23. Bad Girls of the Bible (and what we can learn from them) (Liz Curtis Higgs)
24. Chronicles of Chrestomanci, volume 1 (Diane Wynne Jones)
25. Rhett Butler's People (Donald McCaig)
26. Emily of New Moon (L.M. Montgomery)
27. Emily Climbs (L.M. Montgomery)
28. Emily's Quest (L.M. Montgomery)
29. Chronicles of Chrestomani, volume 2 (Diane Wynne Jones)
30. Howl's Moving Castle (Diane Wynne Jones)
31. Stone Heart: A Novel of Sacajawea (Diane Glancy)
32. The Morgue The Merrier (Rosemary Laurey, Karen Kelley, & Dianne Castell)
33. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
34. Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler (Wade Rouse)
35. Those Who Save Us (Jenna Blum)
36. Anne of Avonlea (L.M. Montgomery)
37. Pushing the Bear: a Novel of the Trail of Tears (Diane Glancy)
38. In Her Shoes (Jennifer Weiner)
39. Anne of the Island (L.M. Montgomery)
40. Blood Ties (Pamela Freeman)
41. A Lion Among Men (Gregory Maguire)
42. The Art of Keeping Secrets (Patty Callahan Henry)
43. Twilight (Stephenie Meyer)
44. The Heretic's Daughter (Kathleen Kent)
45. New Moon (Stephenie Meyer)
46. The Shack (Wm. Paul Young)
47. Anne of Windy Poplars (L.M. Montgomery)
48. Nineteen Minutes (Jodi Picoult)
49. The Tsarina's Daughter (Carolly Erickson)
50. The Teahouse Fire (Ellis Avery)

I have set myself a goal of 75 for 2009.

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The Teahouse Fire

2008-12-29T05:13:35Z

The Teahouse Fire

Ellis Avery

I finished my 50th book for 2008, and just in time, too!

#50: The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery

What would happen if a little French girl, born in the USA and transported to Japan by an uncle at the age of nine, grew up Japanese? Set the beginning of the story in 1856, and you have The Teahouse Fire.

Aurelia is quick to learn languages, and is taken along to Japan by her Jesuit uncle to help with his slower abilities in learning Japanese. At this time, Japan is just barely being opened to the West, and the Jesuits are there under false pretenses - officially they are there to live and learn among the people of Japan, but in reality they intend to bring Christianity to the country. Their first night in Japan, a fire rages through the city and Aurelia is separated from her uncle. She takes refuge in a teahouse, and is taken in as a servant by the family who lives there. Her name is changed to Urako and she grows up idolizing the woman who orchestrated her acceptance into the house - the Tea Master's daughter, Yukako. Although Aurelia/Urako looks different (her facial features are distinctly un-Japanese), she pretends that she was born in Japan because she is afraid of being shipped back to the United States as an orphan.
As she matures, it becomes more and more apparent that she is NOT Japanese. Though she has the correct coloring (dark hair & eyes and the correct skin tone), her body develops much differently than the Japanese women's bodies, and it becomes harder and harder for Urako to blend in and pretend that she is Japanese.

I have always had an interest in Japan and Japanese customs, and this book was full of amazing information about how things were done. One example: in a very strict class system with merchants being near the bottom, men did not physically handle money if they were above the merchant class. They controlled their household finances and had the final say in how money would be spent, but the day-to-day purchases and the actual handling of money was done by women because money was seen as something dirty and therefore beneath a man's dignity to handle.

My sister, who has also read this book, had this to say about it:

Very good book, and also very full of information about late 19th century Japan and the lives of the people in the teahouses there.

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The Tsarina's Daughter

2008-12-28T04:52:27Z

The Tsarina's Daughter

Carolly Erickson

#49: The Tsarina's Daughter by Carolly Erickson

Once again, we have a book about a woman who says that she is a Romanov daughter who survived the assassination of her parents and siblings. But this time, we have a twist. This woman does not claim to be Anastasia (the daughter most Americans believe to be the survivor), nor does she claim to be Marie (the daughter most Russians believe to have survived). This daughter is Tatiana, the daughter who was closest to their mother, the Tsarina.

I truly loved this book. It gave some insight into the way the Royal family in Russia lived at the time of the Revolution, and what their conditions were like when they were in captivity. The author gives a plausible method of escape for Tatiana (though I won't give it away since it is near the end of the book), yet there is also an epilogue that reminds the reader that this book is a work of fiction and that in reality, Grand Duchess Tatiana was assassinated along with the rest of her family in 1918.

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QotD: Winter/Summer Solstice

2008-12-21T18:53:14Z

Today you will either have the longest day of the year, or the shortest, depending on where you are. What will you do to celebrate the solstice?
Submitted by Jack Yan.

Nothing much on my solstice agenda this year. Shovel some snow, watch some television, work until midnight. Yippee.

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Nineteen Minutes

2008-12-21T18:47:47Z

Nineteen Minutes

Jodi Picoult

#48: Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.

I remember hearing that this book had a controversial topic when it first came out, but by the time I started reading it (more than a year later), I had forgotten. I just knew that I wanted to read it. I have yet to read a book by Jodi Picoult that I did not like, and Nineteen Minutes did not disappoint in that respect.

Nineteen Minutes is about a school shooting in New Hampshire. What makes a high school student decide to take guns to school and kill ten people in the span of nineteen minutes? What would it have taken to stop him? Who is to blame? What will happen afterward? All of these questions are asked throughout the course of the book - though not all are answered.

Naturally, there is a twist near the end. When it comes to a book by Jodi Picoult, there is always a twist.

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Anne of Windy Poplars

2008-12-14T04:30:52Z

Anne of Windy Poplars (Anne of Green Gables)

L.M. Montgomery

#47: Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery

As part of the 50 in 365 challenge, I have been re-reading the Anne series. I enjoyed them when I was a child; I still enjoy them now. I always wanted to be more like Anne - and in many ways I was more like her than I knew.

Anne of Windy Poplars finds Anne as the principal of the high school in Summerside. As always, Anne's adventures are the type that only she could find. This is the last book in which Anne is a single girl; the next book (Anne's House of Dreams) begins with her wedding.

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