North and South

If Elizabeth Gaskell's novel is anywhere near as good as the recent BBC miniseries, then this book is going to be awesome.  I've never posted about a book that I have not read, but the miniseries was. so. good.  You can read the first page of the novel on amazon (you have to go to a different edition though, as the link above doesn't have a "look inside" feature). 
I rented the 4 part miniseries recently because it was recommended on Meg Cabot's blog - even though I have to admit that the cover of the DVD set looked a little.... boring.   It is set in northern England, around I believe the 1830's or so.  The characters are all very well played and very sympathetic.  

I also might be a little bit in love with Richard Armitage's character at the moment...  

Things I Wish My Mother Had Told Me

Lucia Van Der Post has been writing for decades and I'm so glad I got to see her work in print - since I'm not much a peruser of The Financial Times  or  The Times of London. Her writing is glib and informative and never ever pushy. This is seriously my kind of book!

"Things I Wish My Mother Had Told Me; A Guide To Living With Impeccable Grace and Style".  Has all kinds of advice from what kinds of clothes to wear to which skin products work to where you can find nice stuff for cheap prices (oh yes, she mentions Target more than once) and where you can find outrageous stuff for outrageous prices ($40,000 for a made-for-you perfume, anyone?).  It's like having 368 pages of a girly magazine that you'll never want to throw away. 

She goes into love and marriage (I appreciated her views) and keeping a home as well as the style section (I've only gotten through part 1 and a bit of part 2 - couldn't wait to blog about it!) and I've started picking it up each evening with a highlighter to mark favorite quotes and passages.  It's so much fun!

Pendragon Books by D. J. MacHale

I've always seen these books at the library and thought, "I'm not in the mood for another retelling of King Arthur". I thought this since Uther Pendragon is Arthur's father.

Anyway. These books are NOT about King Arthur. They actually remind me of Stargate. It is a story about a 14 year old boy named Bobby Pendragon, who discovers he is a Traveler. He travels to these different worlds via wormholes and it is a fight between good and evil. Some of the cultures are primative and some are quite technologically advanced. All in all, they are fun. There are 10 books in the series and I'm on the sixth one right now. The last book is due to be released in May 2009. The first one is not as strong as later ones in the series. They get progressively better.

Okay I just finished "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart. I really liked it. It's about this boy, Reynie, who responds to an ad for "special and talented kids", which is a series of obscure tests. He ends up with three other orphans and they become spys and enroll in a mysterious school.

It's a great one to read with your kids. It's been described as Lemony Snickett and Harry Potter. It is a lot like Lemony Snickett, but not nearly as dark and dreary.

The best part of the book is that it's one that you can put down and come back to again.

There is a sequel called "The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey." I've ordered the book and will let you know when I've finished it.

Fortune and Fate

I know I'm the major Sharon Shinn fan here, but once again I'm going to tout the awesomeness of her Twelfth House series. This is the latest book, the first one is Mystic and Rider and all of them are better than her Angels series.  I think this latest one is my favorite so far (though book one was really good)

They are fantasy in the candles&carriages sense, and there is some magic in them, but no strange creatures. It's an all human cast for those of you who are species-ist.  :)  (well, besides the horses. and a big cat in one of them. but they're just regular animals. so it's okay.)

Homesick: My Own Story

by Jean Fritz

I finished this last night.  It's autobiographical juvenile fiction about an American girl growing up in China as the communist movement takes hold.  And don't worry.  It ends happy.  I liked the story and the level it was written at--the age when you start to lose your childish innocence, but it's not gone yet.

Peter and the Starcatchers

Do you want to know how Peter Pan go the magical power to fly? Or where the mermaids or the Lost Boys originated from? This is a children's novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson written as a prequel to the original Peter Pan story by J.M. Barrie. It is well written and I really enjoyed it.

Dave Barry is a humor columnist for the Miami Herald and writes articles that are hillarious! If you want a good laugh, I'd recommend reading some of his material. This book, however, departs from his outrageously crazy stuff and actually presents a great children's story. There are two others so far in the series, but I haven't finished them. I'll keep you posted on how I liked them too.