Title: Frogkisser!
Author: Garth Nix
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
About the Book...
With Princess Anya's evil stepstepfather, Rikard, plotting to gain control of the kingdom and to rid himself of both her and her childish older sister, Princess Anya has a lot on her plate between dealing with him and his habit of turning her sister's suitors into frogs. When she unexpectedly must go on the run to avoid meeting certain doom, she ends up finding herself on a quest she didn't ask for that involves not only trying to save the kingdom, but attempting to find the ingredients for a lip balm to turn her sister's now frog suitor back into a prince. Faithfully accompanied by one of the talking royal dogs, along the way she joins up with an array of creatures and magically changed people that help her have an eyeopening experience in regards to herself and the kingdom where she lives.
What I Think...
Having last read Nix in my teens (I liked The Keys to the Kingdom series), I wasn't expecting much more than a fun light read when I picked this up and, as expected, that's what I got.
His twisting of a lot of the typical fairy tale themes and tropes was often quite funny. I loved the fact that the princess was going on an unexpected quest to get the ingredients for a magical lip balm that would allow her to turn a frog back into a prince without having to be in love him.Other elements such as multiple Gerald the Heralds (think of it as a job title where they're all called Gerald), a wizard who couldn't directly interfere, but could indirectly help, and a flying carpet that rolled everyone up inside in order to take them places were also quite fun.
Some parts do seem to drag on long than they should and other parts get repetitive, but given the length of the book it wasn't enough of an issue to annoy me or make me want to give up on the book.
To Sum it All Up...
Not world's greatest book, but a fun and quick fantasy read with fairy tale themes that I don't have any regrets about having spent time reading.♥️
Well, I guess this month I will only be sharing bookbinding photos and the usual book review post.
This is my last set of books for my book binding class.
First is a sewn board binding book with pics of what it looked like inside after sewing it (linking stitch and kettle knot at end), once the Japanese tissue was put on it, and then the final product once the spine cloth and cover paper were wrapped around everything (three layers inside that cover) and the endsheets were glued down. I'm not confident that I did the spine part right, since it seems to extend past the text block too far, but I followed the measurements in the instructions and once it was glued there was nothing I could do about it.
Next is my final project, which is a tunnel book I have entitled "The Sewing Room". I went way overboard on it, but am pretty happy with the results. All the images, aside from the pattern pictures and fabric swatches, are pictures of my actual sewing supplies and notions. :)
♥️ ♥️ ♥️
Next round of my bookbinding efforts.
First up is my carousel book stretched out rather than in a circle (it's in the mail currently, so maybe in a few weeks I'll picture of it in circular form).
Then we have what has become my favorite book to make, the tunnel book! Technically this was just supposed to serve as a model, but the Walrus and the Carpenter made it in.
And finally, my long stitch book, which took a long time to do and involved some un-stitching, re-stitching, accidentally jabbing myself with an awl and needle, and nearly poking a hole in the cover trying to sew the last page section in. Still somewhat concerned it has some construction issues, but for a first attempt I think I did okay.
Next round you'll be seeing a sewn board book and my final project, a tunnel book that I have decided to describe as what you'd expect if a bulletin board used for planning in a sewing room decided to hold a fashion show!
♥ 🕮 ♥
With Alice day coming up, I thought it was a good time to review a book relating to Lewis Carroll.
Title: Dreaming in Pictures: The Photography of Lewis Carroll
Author: Douglas R. Nickel
Genre: Non-fiction
About the book...
Half text and half images, Nickel delves into the world of Victorian photography and Lewis Carroll's practice of it and interest in it.
What I think...
The text portion of this book is relatively short, falling under 80 pages. I appreciate the manner in which Nickel approaches the way the photographs have been viewed over time and how he deftly moves from one perspective to the next tying in historical viewpoints and the role the Carroll Myth has played. He also goes on to compare Carroll to others practicing photography at the time, such as Julia Margaret Cameron, to provide readers with a better sense of what photography was being used to convey to viewers. Additionally, I liked how he goes over the collodion wet plate process to give readers a better sense of what the hobby of photography entailed.
The last portion of the book presents images of photographs, frequently mentioned in the textual portion, that Carroll took. These are well presented in large size with one per page and look beautiful on the glossy paper used for the book.
To sum it all up...
Great book for fans of Lewis Carroll or those who have an interest of Victorian era photography!
