John of The Book Mine Sethosts this wonderful challenge and you do not have to be Canadian to join. It is my favorite book challenge out there and I have been participating every year from the beginning. I’m not about to quit now. The challenge started on July first, so I a lttle late signing up.Also, I never got a chance to do a wrap up post for round 4. I read and reviewed 14 Canadian books total.
The challenge is the same as before, to read and review 13 Canadian books. Each participant gets to decide if a book qualifies for the challenge or not but basically if it’s by a Canadian author, is about a place in Canada, or takes place somewhere in Canada, it qualifies.
I will keep track of the books I read fro the challenge below:
Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.
Earlier this year I reviewed volumes 1 and 2 of the Sweet Tooth series, Out of the Deep Woods andIn Captivity. Volume 3, Animal Armies is out now and I was the first person at my library to check it out.
Gus is being held captive at a compound where the are experimenting on hybrid children such as himself, to try to come up with a cure that is killing the non-hybrids. Now the man who brought him there, Jepperd has a plan to get Gus back out. He had originally brought Gus there in exchange for his wife’s remains. She died trying to deliver their baby. Jepperd was glad to be able to give his wife a proper burial but felt guilty for what he was forced to do to get her back.
I didn’t think it was possible for this series to get any darker but it has. It is written in Lemire fashion, keeping the pages turning until the end. The graphics were still in color but darker, which captures the mood of the story well. There were new turns and twists that had me finish the book in one big gulp. The end leaves the reader hanging again, so that must mean that there will be a fourth volume.
4/5
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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.
I’m reviewing something a little different this week. A book blogger that some of you may know, Brian of Walk the Walk posted his own short story that he wrote Good Night, Mrs. Moreheadduring a writing exercise. He also submitted it to the Norman Mailer Writing Contest for High School Teachers.
“Norman didn’t just duck his head or stoop his shoulders through doorways, each joint in his bodyparticipated out of necessity—an unfortunate circumstance for a plumber who by the nature of the job often accessed low and cramped spaces. When engaged in work, Norman often resembled a preying mantis—all knees and elbows and Adam’s apple.”
He sat in his truck outside the house of a client while he decided if he was going to call in sick or not. Finally the decision was made for him when a neighbor spotted him and told him “good morning” and Mrs. Agnes Morehead yelled to him that her door was open.
“On the dining room table, set directly in front of her plate of one fried egg and one slice of toast, was Mrs. Agnes Moorehead’s beloved cockatoo Baby. He winced as wings obstructed his sight during some moments; otherwise, the wings marred his hearing.”
Baby really liked Norman and got up on his shoulder right before he got to work. Once in the bathroom and out of hearing distance from Mrs. Morehead, he told Baby to “beat it”. Baby didn’t but when Norman had to scrunch in behind the toilet Baby left his shoulder and perched herself in the bathroom to watch.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Morehead let Norman know that she was going to make herself some breakfast of a friend egg and toast. “I like to dip toast into the yolk!” She actually repeated this several times during the story.
This story started out very funny with the descriptions a very tall plumber and a bird that wouldn’t leave him alone. However, as it progressed, into turned into a story about dementia in an elderly woman. Before Brian started the story he stated, “The story completely evolved and shifted from a comedy about a cockatoo flapping around the head of a very tall plumber to a story about caring for a mother with the onset of dementia.”
I didn’t really get that Norman was Mrs. Morehead’s son. She did call him “son” one time in the story when she asked him to close the door. However, elderly people have been known to call unrelated men, son. Perhaps I missed something there. That said, I really liked this story and want to encourage Brain to keep on writing. This is certainly a story worth checking out. I would love to know your opinion of it! Go on, go read it here.
Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.
