Another Week in the Books

by Carol5 Comments
First, I've got a couple of winners to announce. Congrats to the winners of The Knight Life: "Chivalry Ain't Dead" by Keith Knight. michelle Ryan I hope it gives you a laugh or two. David's team won their softball game on Friday. I think that makes their record 4-2. Amber and I have decided that if David's going to get in shape, we need to too, so she started going to a kid's class at a local gym three times a week. I figure I can workout while she's in class. So far, we're really enjoying it. And our pool's open now. Amber can actually touch the bottom this year. She and David were swimming Saturday and Sunday, but the water's still a little cold for me. I ended up weeding the garden, a major task right now. We kind of let it get a little overgrown. I imagine the two little bunnies that are living in the backyard are going to love the garden,...
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Game Night – Steampunk theme

by Carol4 Comments
As you may know, vvB32 Reads has been hosting a SteamPink week. Since board games so often have themes very similar to books, genre-wise, I though I'd go on a search for steampunk games. Now, remember, I haven't played any of these yet, but they look cool. Edison & Co. Designer: Gunter Burkhardt Manufacturers: Rio Grande Games, Goldsieber Artist: Franz Vohwinkel Year: 1998 Players: 2 - 4 Time: 30 - 60 minutes Ages: 12 and up The players are inventors at the Edison Company where they work in teams of two to influence the outcome of driving tests for new vehicles. Players try to get their favorite vehicles to the high scoring spaces on the track at scoring time--so it's not a race, but more a question of timing since players must evaluate where they should be at a specific point in the game. With a unique movement system, each player controls only...
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The Shepherd’s Boy and the Wolf by Aesop

by Carol4 Comments
"The Shepherd's Boy and the Wolf" by Aesop I always knew this fable by the name "The Boy who Cried Wolf." It's a well-known story about a shepherd boy who calls "wolf, wolf!" but just laughs at his neighbors when they come to help him. Eventually, as we know, the wolf truly does come, but no one believes the boy when he calls, so all the sheep are killed. There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth. Aesop's fable are so short and to the point that I tend to like the books based on them more. The stories add a little to the original and the illustrations in picture books catch kids' attention while keeping the lesson. So I stopped at the library yesterday to find a version of The Boy who Cried Wolf, but our library didn't have any that weren't checked out. They did have The Wolf Who Cried Boy however. The Wolf Who Cried Boy by...
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Ouch! by Natalie Babbitt

by Carol2 Comments
Ouch! by Natalie Babbitt, illustrated by Fred Marcellino (Suggested reading level: Preschool - Grade 3) This is a delightful retelling of Grimms' "The Devil and the Three Golden Hairs," a fairy tale that was unfamiliar to me. This version does leave out some of the original, possibly to make it a shorter story. A baby boy, born to a peasant family, has a birthmark in the shape of a crown, a sign that his destiny is to marry a princess. The King, when he hears this, tries to kill the baby, but his plan fails and the baby is rescued. The child grows up to be a pleasant, hard-working young man named Marco. When the King finds him , he tries again to have the youth killed. The plan backfires and Marco marries the princess. Once again, it was lucky that Marco was so full of confidence because he was going to need it now more than ever. The King came home in the...
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Soulless by Gail Carriger

by Carol13 Comments
Soulless by Gail Carriger This is my first foray into light steampunk, in this case an alternate Victorian England overlayed with advanced mechanicals and technology. Werewolves and vampires are an accepted part of society, at least in Britain, and the science and technological advances are thanks in part to the vampires, who are interested in the sciences for reasons of their own. Actually, for me it read more like a paranormal romance with some steampunk elements. I would also consider the book a comedy of manners, reminiscent of Austen's stories, with  vampires and others included in high society. Alexia Tarabotti is a soulless spinster who would rather sit in the library having tea than attend the fancy ball. Unfortunately, in the first scene of the book, that's where she is rudely attacked by a vampire, and she of course has no choice but to kill him. Luckily her soullessness gives her the ability to negate the magic in others - vampires lose...
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