The Blue Caslte by L.M. Montgomery

Book: The Blue Castle

Author: L.M. Montgomery

Rating: 5 out of 5 dust piles

First Paragraph: If it had not rained on a certain May morning Valancy Stirling's whole life would have been entirely different. She would have gone, with the rest of her clan, to Aunt Wellington's engagement picnic and Dr. Trent would have gone to Montreal. But it did rain and you shall hear what happened to her because of it.

Review: I just finished reading this book and am still sniffling. The link to the book takes you to an online version of it. I loved the characters - all of the Stirlings even. I kept thinking about the secrets in this book. Things each character hid, things they did because it was expected (like the Stirlings, whether or not they did it), about fate (dear old Dr. Trent's letter) and doing something real.

Is there such a thing as fate? Was Barney's life fated to him as soon as his father had a dream that changed everything he had known? The possible chance of overhearing one little conversation that sent him off to explore the world until he settled in Valancy's life? Was it fate that mixed up Dr. Trent's letters? Would Valancy have died if she stayed as she was, a lifeless lump, hacked away until there was nothing left? Like forests, animals, and even rose bushes, are we not eternally struggling for life? Or does the frivolousness of life help us twitter away the hours, helping us forget that we too are mortal?

Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire

Book: Mirror Mirror

Author: Gregory Maguire

Rating: 3 out of 5 apples

First Paragraph: From the arable river lands to the south, the approach to Montefiore appears a sequence of relaxed hills. In the late spring, when the puckers of red poppy blossom are scattered against the green of the season, it can look like so much washing, like mounds of Persian silk and Florentine brocade lightly tossed in heaps. Each successive rise takes on a new color, indefinably more fervent, an aspect of distance and time stained by the shadows of clouds, or bleached when the sun takes a certain position.


Review: I enjoyed Maguire's other books, but Mirror Mirror did not fulfill me as the others did. Maybe it was because I felt like his writing of the Borgias was mediocre at best. Maybe my expectations were too great. I felt like I could have gotten the same psyche of the evil family if I had just read a non-fiction book. What disappointed me most was how this book actually did read more like a fairy tale than anything. The cottage suddenly forming in the woods was way too fantasical as well as the men of stone taking place. If you are going to put real people in a book about a fantasy novel then keep the book in the real world. Was the house and its terrain supposed to be believed as so remote from reality that magic existed?

The dumb innocent girl. The protective father. The coniving older beauty queen. The crazy warlord. And then the seven stone men. Or, possibly eight if you count the dog. Why were they of the earth? Are we to believe that the land is so plentiful here that men pop out of the earth? I don't know. It sounds like a fairy tale to me.