Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas

Eighteen year old Celaena Sardothien has spent the last year toiling in the salt mines of Endovier.  What was her crime?  She was the best assassin in the land, and she was caught and sentenced to a place where most people do not survive more than a month.

But who is she?  She was found another assassin nearly drowned and frozen when she was eight years old.  He raised her and trained her to be Adarlan's assassin, until one day she is escorted from the mines of Endovier.  She doesn't speak much of her past, but it is clear that there is more that the reader doesn't know.

Celaena is offered a deal by the Crown Prince of Adarlan and the captain of the guard, Chaol Westfall.  If she wins the competition, she becomes the royal assassin, and she will eventually win her freedom.

Once the competition begins, some of the participants start turning up dead.  Celaena knows that something doesn't feel right about all of this, and there is something evil about this kingdom and the ruler.

This book kept my attention, and I have just finished the second book.  Hurry up, MCPL readers, I need Book Three!

Great quotes from the book -
"Libraries were full of ideas - perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons."

"No, I can survive on my own - if given the proper reading material.'

"Names are not important.  It's what lies inside of you that matters."

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your A** by Meg Medina

We all have known someone like Yaqui Delgado.  We may never know what we have done to attract her attention.  We might actually have done nothing that merits her attention.  But we have it.  And the attention is something we would rather not have.

Sometimes it happens in elementary school, but most often it occurs in middle school and high school. In middle school, it was because I went to the same bathroom every day between the last period of the day and dismissal so I wouldn't have to use the restroom while I was on the bus ride home.  In high school it was because I shared a birthday with a boy that I had known since I was a small child.

While my experience was not as violent as Piddy's experience, nor was social media a threat, reading Meg Medina's book sent me back to middle and high school and caused me to remember what it was like to be bullied. Taunted.  Threatened. Helpless.  Frightened.

Piddy is new to Daniel Jones High School, and she finds it is difficult to fit in.  She is becoming a woman, and a girl at her new high school decides that she wants to make Piddy's life a misery.

Anyone who has ever been bullied - or has bullied anyone - needs to read this book.  Even though we may be "grown up." it never hurts to be reminded what it is like to be bullied.  It reminds us that we need to stand up to bullies and not let them win.

*This book is a 2015-2016 Rosie book.

The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillipa Gregory

"Henry the VIII, I am, I am.  I got married to the widow next door.  She's been married seven times before. And everyone loves Henry.  Henry the VIII I am."  Herman's Hermits







The time is spring 1521.  The Boleyn girls have just returned from France and are being introduced at the English court of Henry Tudor, King of England.  There is much at stake.  Henry is married to his deceased brother's wife, Katherine, and thus far, she has been unable to provide the King of England with a son and heir.

Thus sets the stage for a revolution of sorts.  Both Boleyn girls, Anne and Mary, are beautiful young ladies.  Anne is dark, and Mary is fair-skinned and light.  Both have been educated in France, but Anne is trilingual, well read, and highly intelligent.  The girls' father and uncle want power, and they believe one way to achieve that power is to place one or both of the Boleyn girls under the nose of the king.  If either girl can entice the king to cast off his wife and marry her, then the Boleyn-Howard family will be the most powerful family in the land.

This book is rich with details of what a life at court would be like in the 16th century.  Women were used as bait for men to get the power and lands they wanted.  Life at court was never dull, but everyone was expected to make the king happy - no matter the cost.

Mary Boleyn takes center stage in the book and tells her story.  As the Boleyn girl who was cast aside, she is able to see what life might be like outside of court as a "nobody."

I know the historical aspects of this story.  I know that a great monarch will come in the late 16th century.  This great monarch will change the course of history forever.  This is part of her story as well.

If you like history and are especially intrigued by the life and wives of Henry the VIII, then you will enjoy this book.  It is not completely historically accurate, but it isn't terribly off course.  Now I am off to play some tennis - a sport that Henry dearly loved.


  Cheerio!

This is for you, Brittany Adkins!  Once you get these done, I will share a new list!

For the rest of you, this is our current list of "Rosie" books.  I invite you to read as many as you'd like.  The blog post for December 26th reviews a few of these books. Happy reading!

The Name of the Star: The Shades of London, Book 1 by Maureen Johnson

Who isn't interested in the story of Jack the Ripper?  All of London was terrified during the time period between August and November 1888.  Five, possibly six, women were brutally murdered near the Whitechapel area in London, and not one person noticed anything out of the ordinary.

Rory Deveaux has decided to study at a school in London called Wexford.  Her parents have been transferred to Bristol. She and her parents are originally from New Orleans, and life in London is quite a change for Rory.  She hasn't been at her new school for very long before a murder occurs.  This murder is almost exactly like the one that happened on the very spot in 1888 - and the victim has the same surname as the first "Ripper" victim.  Even though there are cameras every where near the murder site, why can't the murderer be seen?

All of London now knows the dates and the times that the next murders will occur.  Who will be next?  How can the Ripper be stopped?

Rory notices a strange man around her school's campus.  Why can't other people see him?  What is the strange power that Rory realizes she has? Will this power put her life in danger?

This is the first Rosie book that I have read from the 2015-2016 list.  I can already tell it will be a favorite.  This book will keep you on the edge of your couch -so much so that I believe we had better get the other two in the set ordered.

Go Set the Watchman: A Novel - by Harper Lee

Pre-ordered

Release day delivery: Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Well, I did it.  I just pre-ordered my ebook edition of Harper Lee's upcoming novel Go Set the Watchman."  Why?  You may ask why I would pre-order a book that hasn't been reviewed yet.  Will this book even come close to my favorite book of all time?  (Harry Potter is a close second.)  Why has this manuscript not surfaced before now? There are still many questions surrounding this recently located manuscript.

I preordered this book because of the impact that To Kill A Mockingbird has had on my life. My students and I read this book in countless freshman English classes, and they STILL remember it.  Some have even traveled to Monroeville, Alabama to see where Harper Lee grew up.  They also wanted to compare the fictional Maycomb with this small Alabama town and see the similarities and differences.

We had a lot of class discussions on Boo Radley, his parents, Atticus, Tom, Mayella, Bob, Miss Maudie, Scout, Jem, and the list goes on.  One of the things that I kept telling my students is that we don't know what goes on beyond the walls of our friends' homes. We may think we know some of the things our friends are dealing with, but we certainly can't relate totally until we live it. My students realized that Boo's life, and even Mayella's life, were more difficult that we could sometimes comprehend. We also knew that in that classroom of thirty-two people, there were those who were living their own nightmares.  Atticus says, "First of all," he said, "if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view […] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." (3.85-87)  Wise words to live by, I think.

So, I preordered. I am taking a chance on an author who changed my life.  There are few who will ever fit into my "preorder" category, but Harper Lee, you always will.  

Happy Birthday, Laura Ingalls Wilder!

Today, February 7, 2015, marks the 148th birthday of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  As most people know, Laura Ingalls Wilder was a writer of a series of children's books that chronicled pioneer life in the 1870s - 1880s.

Wilder was born in Pepin, Wisconsin on February 7, 1867.  She is best known as the author of the Little House books.  There are eight original Little House books with The Little House in the Big Woods as the first book in the series.  Little House in the Big Woods starts with four year old Laura's perspective of living in the big woods with her ma, her pa, her sisters Mary and Carrie, and her brindle bulldog, Jack.

There is much to learn about pioneer life within these pages.  You would either grow or kill what you ate.  The threat of wolves, a panther, or becoming lost in a blizzard was always a threat, but these threats teach the reader about the hardships of pioneer life.  Nevertheless, their evenings were filled with warmth from the fireplace and Pa's stories.  After Pa told stories, he would pull out his fiddle and entertain the family until bedtime.

As a child, I was introduced to the Little House books by my second grade teacher, Mrs. Franke.  Every day, she would read a chapter or two during reading time.  I was learning more words as I became a book lover, and I soon started reading the books on my own.  I was entranced by Laura and her family, and as she grew older in her books, I was growing up as well.

I would become incensed at Nellie Olsen and her mean pranks.  I also wanted to know more about those Wilder boys and why they had come to the area.  I wondered what it would be like to live in a sod house.  Why did Mary become blind?  Did Laura really love Almanzo?  How did their real lives compare with the stories of the author?

The books were my friends, and I wanted to be friends with their author.  Sadly, Laura Ingalls Wilder died before I was born.  I have traveled to DeSmet, South Dakota to see where Laura spent part of her life, and I have also been to Mansfield, Missouri.  Someday, I will make a stop near Pepin, Wisconsin to see where it all began.  There have been many books that have made a significant impact on my life, but the Little House books were the start of a lifelong love of reading.

Happy 148th birthday, Laura Ingalls Wilder.  You've changed my life.