The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall

by Carol4 Comments
The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall (Suggested reading level: Grades 4-6) This is one of the few books I have clear memories of from when I first read it. My copy has the cover on the right, but the newer versions just don't have the same feel to me. I loved reading this out loud with Amber (10), seeing her get excited over the characters I fondly remember. The Minnipins are a small people, sedate, somber and conforming. Today Minnipins of all ages were scurrying about the market place, green cloaks flying in the breeze. Round, rosy housewives, their brown-weave dresses tucked up, were scrubbing their doorstones or polishing the silver doorknobs on their watercress-green doors, while children were watering the flowers that grew around the family trees. (pg. 19) They live securely in an isolated mountain valley and never question the authority of the Periods, the leading families. There are a few rebels, though, referred to as "Them" - Curley Green a painter, Walter...
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The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

by Carol13 Comments
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett I love the Queen. In this delightful novella, the Queen of England discovers a love of reading. It begins when her corgis lead her to the mobile library. Once she enters to apologize for the barking, she can't leave without borrowing a book, and there the joy in reading begins. Reading takes over every spare second of the Queen's life. She would rather read than attend opening, reads in her carriage, in her gardens, everywhere she can. Unfortunately her advisers, from her personal secretary to the Prime Minister, are not pleased, but the Queen does not let that deter her. What she was finding also was how one book led to another, doors kept opening wherever she turned and the days weren't long enough for the reading she wanted to do. I actually listened the audio version of this, narrated by the author. Somehow looking back, it seems odd to have listened to a book that...
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More Space Pirates

by Carol3 Comments
Passing O'Malley's throne, Morgan turned left into the corridor, finding it vacant but for two women standing at the far end, apparently guarding the quarters where Lady Brit had been taken after her branding. Morgan approached silently along the corridor's wall, her bare feet making not the slightest sounds, until finally she spied the large doorway on her right that led to Colleen O'Malley's quarters. (pg. 220, Captain Bonny Morgan: The Cassandra Prophesy by Robert "Doc" Gowdy) Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Play along. The rules are easy. Grab your current read, open to a random page, and give us two teaser sentences. Remember, no spoilers. My copy was sent by Pump Up Your Book! for a blog tour and the above is my honest opinion. I am an Amazon associate....
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Death by Scrabble by Charlie Fish

by Carol7 Comments
"Death by Scrabble" by Charlie Fish I love boardgames, that's no secret. So when I ran across this short story over at East of the Web, I had to read it. I'm not going to say it's a work of literary genius but it definitely made me laugh. I do love a quirky sense of humor. A couple is playing Scrabble on a hot, sticky day. The man is miserable. He hates his wife. He's sure that if she were dead he would be doing something better than playing a stupid game of scrabble, a game he's pretty sure he's not even going to win. If she wasn't around, I'd be doing something interesting right now. I'd be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. I'd be starring in the latest Hollywood blockbuster. I'd be sailing the Vendee Globe on a 60-foot clipper called the New Horizons - I don't know, but I'd be doing something. He begins thinking of words like murder, kill,...
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Another Week in the Books

by Carol7 Comments
Even though it was a pretty quiet week, I didn't actually read much. I'm not sure what I was doing, though. The house and yard still need work; I'm not caught up on laundry or dishes;  I didn't go anywhere aside from shopping on Saturday. Oh well. I did post a couple of reviews though. I thought Green Like God by Jonathan Merritt was really worthwhile, at least for me. I was disappointed with The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux, though. It just didn't grab me the way I thought it would. I didn't do anything interesting but on Thursday David and Amber went mushroom hunting. They went to a friend's tree farm and picked morels. The next evening, David cut them up, coated them in flour and then fried them up in butter. Delicious! I remember the first year we did it. I was a little leery, because everyone knows you don't eat mushrooms you find in the...
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