On "The Marzipan Pig": A Book Review

Title: The Marzipan Pig
Author: Russell Hoban
Genre: Fiction, Children’s

About the book…
It all begins with a wistful marzipan pig behind a sofa who gets eaten by a mouse, who befriends a clock, and so it continues moving from one character to the next each who affects the other in turn.

What I think… 
I vaguely remembered having read this book when I was in elementary school and being a fan of Hoban (the Frances the Badger books have always been favorites), as well having never been disappointed with anything The New York Review: Children’s Collection has published, I decided it was time to reread it. I loved it. 

It’s as equally bittersweet as it is beautiful. The story is a fluid one, moving from one character to another seamlessly. In doing this Hoban delicately captures the nature of how life goes on and the effect we all have on one another. 

My favorite portions of the book are the parts about the owl in love with a taxi and the final mouse who makes a dress out of flower petals thinking that it could be more beautiful than the flower who shed them. 

The illustrations by Blake (yet another favorite of mine) are a charming companion to the story. 

To sum it all up…  
A lovely and unique book on life that adults can enjoy just as much as children. ♥

On Some Vintage Valentines

Happy Valentine's day, everyone! 

Today I am happily sharing a very small handful of valentines that I bought at the antique store in September. The particular bunch I bought (all 80 or so of them) mostly belonged to someone named Carla who must have kept them some place safe as most look like they just came out of the box.

It would be quite hard to forget this girl considering the bird on her head!

This one was to someone named Joey from Geraldine. He apparently felt the need to add to it.

❤ ❤ ❤

On "Kingfisher": A Book Review

Title: Kingfisher

Author: Patricia McKillip 

Genre: Fantasy

About the book…  

Pierce Oliver longs for more than the small fishing town he’s grown up in and when his mother, a sorceress, finally reveals to him that the father he has never known is a knight, he knows he has to go to the city to find him. Headed there, he comes across a small town with an inn where they hold an unusual weekly ritual and upon stealing a knife used in that ritual begins an unexpected journey that leads him to family and a quest for a missing artifact.

What I think...

Okay, so I actually have a negative review for once. McKillip tends to be a hit or miss author for me and this book was a definite miss. 

She chooses to look at the grail/king fisher king myth in a contemporary setting. Having read a number of her other books, which do not take place in a contemporary setting, I found it jarring when sunglasses or limos came up in the story. In later portions of the book this is not quite as bad as cars, motor bikes, and phones are mentioned more frequently. This is not to say I did not find reading about a basilisk sitting on a fire engine to create an interesting image, it just wasn’t expected for what she usually writes about and it wasn’t well integrated. 

Certain parts dragged out and were seemingly more for the purpose of filling space than for the benefit of the story. Similarly, there were a considerable amount of intentional misleads as to where the plot was going which got annoying. The ending is somewhat rushed, though there’s a semi-second ending following to wrap things up in some ways.

I’d forget who certain characters were, as there seemed to be a lot with little purpose other than to fill space.  

To sum it all up…

Not one of my favorite McKillip books, especially having read other better ones to compare it with. Overall, I wish I would have re-read The Bell at Sealey Head or Ombria in Shadow instead (both which I highly recommend). ♥

On a View From the Back Porch at Work: A Photo Post

Poor tree couldn't handle the recent storms we've been having and fell over.

☂ ♥ ☂