Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist. Charles Dickens.  1838. 425 pages.

Among other public buildings in a certain town, which for many reasons it will be prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to which I will assign no fictional name, there is one anciently common to most towns, great or small: to wit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse was born; on a day and date which I need not trouble myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader, in this stage of the business at all events; the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter.

While Oliver Twist isn't my new favorite Dickens's novel, I must say that I really really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the characters; I enjoyed the storytelling. The recent movie adaptation may have been slightly more compelling, but for me there was something just right about the book.

Oliver Twist is the hero of this one. This young orphan boy has a few misadventures before finding his happily ever after. But those misadventures make for quite a read, I must admit! He meets a lot of interesting characters, some more villainous than others. There are quite a few sympathetic characters, however.

I found Oliver Twist a great read, a surprisingly quick one! Perhaps because I just did not want to put it down! Generally, Dickens is one of those authors whose books I savor over two to three weeks, but that wasn't the case with Oliver Twist!


© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Love on the Line

Love on the Line. Deeanne Gist. 2011. Bethany House. 365 pages.

"Everybody off the train."

Love on the Line had me hooked from the start. Texas Ranger, Lucius Landrum, is trying his best to catch a gang of train robbers, a gang led by Frank Comer. His quest leads him on an undercover job. He'll be coming to the small Texas town as Luke Palmer, a troubleman for the phone company. He'll be putting up new lines for the company, repairing lines, trying to get new customers, etc. The town has a phone operator, Georgie Gail, who's VERY independent and a bit unsure about Luke--at least in the beginning.

Luke is trying to catch the bad guys, but he's undercover, so he has to go about it in a certain way. He has to become very friendly with all sorts of different people in the town. Including Miss Gail.

Miss Gail is trying to fight injustice in her own way. The milliner in town infuriates her by his use--his over-use--of bird parts on his hats and accessories. She thinks ANY use of a dead bird is over use. And she's appalled that fashion is so out of control that it is threatening the bird populations. She LOVES birds and wants to see a change. So she's out to organize the women and children in the community.

I enjoyed both characters very much. Loved how the story came together.

The novel is set at the turn of the century.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Sunday Salon: Week In Review #41

What I Reviewed At Becky's Book Reviews:

A Year Without Autumn. Liz Kessler. 2011. (October 11, 2011). Candlewick Press. 304 pages.
The Unforgotten Coat. Frank Cottrell Boyce. Photographs by Carl Hunter and Clare Heney. 2011. Candlewick. 112 pages.
The Woman in White. Wilkie Collins. 1860. 672 pages.


© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Library Loot: Second Trip in October

New Loot:

The Doghouse by Jan Thomas
What Will Fat Cat Sit On by Jan Thomas
Ågatha Christie an Autobiography
Just a Little Critter Collection by Mercer Mayer
Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur
The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries by Emily Brightwell
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
Splat the Cat and the Duck with No Quack by Rob Scotton
Little Critter Storybook Collection by Mercer Mayer
Good Night Sleep Tight by Natalie Engel
Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow by James Rollins
Harry and the Lady Next Door by Margaret Bloy Graham
Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream by Jenny Han
Splat the Cat Sings Flat by Chris Strathearn
I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloane
Murder Past Due by Miranda James
Happy Pig Day by Mo Willems

Leftover Loot:

Henderson, the Rain King by Saul Bellow
Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop edited by Otto Penzler
Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
Junonia by Kevin Henkes
All The Things You Are by Courtney Sheinmel
The Wikkeling by Steven Arntson
Lucky for Good by Susan Patron
Sparrow Road by Sheila O'Connor
Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx by James Rollins
Bird in a Box by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Suddenly in the Depths of the Forest by Amos Oz, translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston
Umbrella by Taro Yashima
Is Everyone Ready for Fun by Jan Thomas
A Very Babymouse Christmas by Jennifer and Matthew Holm
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Do I Know God? Finding Certainty in Life's Most Important Relationship by Tullian Tchividjian
Who Stole My Church? by Gordon MacDonald
Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina by Robert Graves
Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke
A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters
One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters
Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories by M.R. James
The Haunted Doll's House and Other Ghost Stories by M.R. James
Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
Betty Crocker Ultimate Bisquick Cookbook: Hundreds of New Recipes plus back-of-the-box favorites

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.  

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

A Year Without Autumn (MG)

A Year Without Autumn. Liz Kessler. 2011. (October 11, 2011). Candlewick Press. 304 pages.

"Stop the car!"
"What?" Dad swivels around in his seat. The car swerves.
"Good grief, Tom!" Mom squeals, gripping her armrest as she pulls a wad of tissues out of her purse.
"Stop the car!" I repeat. It's going to be too late in a minute. I grab the tissues and shove them over Craig's mouth.

Time travel. Need I really say more?! For me, that was enough--more than enough--to seek out this one! Jenni is best friends with Autumn. These two friends are quite different from one another, but they have a few things in common. They both have little brothers. Jenni is big sister to Craig and Autumn is big sister to Mikey. Though the two don't attend the same school anymore, they've sworn to be best friends forever. And they mean it. Of course they mean it! What could ever come between them?! It does help that the two see each other every year the last week of August. The families vacation together at the same place, each has a time-share condo. The vacation is just getting started when IT happens...
Jenni impatiently decides to take the old elevator up to visit her best friend. She saw the owner fixing the old elevator, so she's relatively sure it's working again. But the truth is this old elevator has been out of order for many decades and it isn't really for guests' use. It takes Jenni a few hours to realize the truth of the matter...she learns it when she arrives back at her place and everyone--including herself--is a year older. Where did the year go?!

A Year Without Autumn is dramatic, very dramatic. For SOMETHING happens in that 'missing' year that changes everything. Jenni will have to put the pieces together herself--for the most part--because asking questions may not be an option. The more she tries to explain about what happened, the crazier she sounds. Can Jenni find the answers to her questions? Can she find a way to go back in time? Can she get her life back?

As I said, A Year Without Autumn is dramatic. It's a very compelling read. I think Jenni is a LOT braver than I would be in that elevator. Especially once she learns the truth of it--what it does. But she's determined and loyal and I can't help liking her for that.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Unforgotten Coat

The Unforgotten Coat. Frank Cottrell Boyce. Photographs by Carl Hunter and Clare Heney. 2011. Candlewick. 112 pages.

I hadn't seen this photograph since the day it was taken, until now. Even so, I can tell you anything you want to know about it. 

Julie, our narrator, remembers two Mongolian boys who joined her class the second week of summer term. The novel has a reflective feel to it. She remembers their strangeness at first. Their coats. Who wears coats in summer?! But there is something fascinating about their strangeness, their newness too. And the two ask Julie to be their good guide.

These two boys act really strange. They do. Julie does try to understand their culture, their country, their beliefs, their customs. But it's a strange new world, in a way. For example, like the time they invite themselves over to her house, and beg Julie's mom to let them do an emergency baking so they can bake a dough boy to trick the demon that is after them. (They want to trick this demon into eating the dough boy instead of one of them.) And that isn't the only unusual incident.

I can't tell you exactly what happens next, if these two "vanish" as they fear they might or not. But I can say that it is a one weird story about (illegal) immigration.

Honestly, this one left me confused. I almost feel silly for being so confused. But if this one was supposed to wow me or charm me, I just didn't get it. The use of photographs was nice, but I'm not sure exactly what story they're telling. How they fit in with the whole story.

I did like the author's note, for the most part. And I wanted to like this one more than I did.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Woman in White

The Woman in White. Wilkie Collins. 1860. 672 pages.

This is the story of what a Woman's patience can endure, and what a Man's resolution can achieve.

I loved this one. I just LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this one by Wilkie Collins. This isn't my first (mystery) novel by Wilkie Collins, and it won't be the last. Each new read makes me want more, more, more. If you're a fan of this bearded Victorian, I'd love to hear from you which of his I should try to read next. (My library has Basil, No Name, and The Dead Secret.)

The first narrator we meet is Walter Hartright. He is a drawing teacher. He is on his way to a new job--new position--in the country when he meets a strange woman on the way to London. It's the middle of the night. The woman appears from nowhere. She's acting a little peculiar. She's dressed all in white. But there is something about her that makes him sympathetic to her cause, even before he knows her story. By pure chance, so it seems, this woman happens to mention the countryside, the house, where he is to begin his new job that autumn. A fact that makes this meeting a little more memorable perhaps. Memorable enough to mention to Miss Marian Halcombe, one of the two young women he'll be teaching. The other young woman is Miss Laura Fairlie. She is oh-so-beautiful. (Miss Marian is not. Though I'd NEVER be as mean about it as Wilkie Collins.) Laura and Walter fall madly in love with another. Though he won't tell her and she won't tell him. Still. Marian sees how these two feel about one another. And she tries her best to tell Walter that that just can't be. Not because Marian is mean and cruel. But because Laura has been engaged for some time to an older man, Sir Percival Glyde. It was one of her father's wishes that the two wed. Before she fell for Walter, Laura was ready to wed without love, without hope of love. But now that she knows what it feels to love someone, she is having some major regrets about her promises. And the doubts will only grow when she's warned anonymously by letter NOT TO MARRY Sir Percival. She's warned that her husband to be is evil and then some. Marian tells Walter of this anonymous letter, and he believes--they both believe--that the woman in white may just be the writer of this one. If only she would say more, give out the reasons why. They want to know the truth, but they have so little to go on. And a gentleman's word that the letter was written by a crazy woman and that of course he's never had an evil thought in his entire life is accepted as gospel truth. Poor Laura!!!

I found it well-written. I found it suspenseful. I loved the details, the descriptions, the characterizations. I loved how the story unfolded. I loved having the story told by so many different people. Some narrators I preferred to others. But. I think they all added a little something to make this one just right.

The Woman in White was one of those books that I just know I will want to reread again and again. It's just that good.

Previous Collins: Man and Wife, Armadale, The Moonstone, Evil Genius.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews