"The War that Saved my Life" by Kimberly Brudbaker Bradley

My family decided to read this together, and I was excited that for once I finished the book before we met!

Ada is a girl born with a club foot that has been abused by her mother her whole life. Right now it's WWII in London, but Ada doesn't know that because she is kept locked away from society. She crawls for most of her life, because it's less painful than putting weight on that bad foot. But she begins to walk, which is good for her because her younger brother is about to be sent to the country to avoid bombs being dropped on them and she wants to go with him. Her mom says she will never leave this house, even if there are bombs falling on them. But Ada can walk well enough that she escapes with Jamie (her brother). An older boy gives her a piggy back ride to the train that they are boarding. When they get to the countryside, Ada and Jamie are the last people to be picked. In fact, they aren't even picked. The woman in charge of the refugee children hunts down a woman named Susan to watch after them. Initially, she says she doesn't know what to do with children. But she turns it around and they learn a lot together. Ada gets stronger at walking, and begins riding Susan's horse named Butter. Then she makes friends with the daughter of the woman that brought her to Susan. She is a wealthy little girl, and has a lot of horses.

Whenever Susan does something nice for Ada and Jamie, Ada pulls away. She can't let herself get too comfortable, because this won't be permanent and soon she'll be sent back home and treated like less than human. Susan takes the kids to a pediatrician, and they find out that Ada can have surgery to make her club foot more manageable. It will never be totally fixed, but they can make it so she can walk much more easily. She just needs permission from her mother. They then have a big Christmas dinner with some of the soldiers from the air base nearby.

One day, someone comes and digs a bomb shelter for them. They need to put up blackout sheets in the house, and begin to stock up the bomb shelter. Ada sees a man row a boat to the shore and put a briefcase in the sand. Then he pushes the boat away and begins walking to town. She goes to tell the police, and they find the man and arrest him when they see that the hem of his pants are wet.
The Germans begin bombing the coast, and Ada has a panic attack when she needs to go to into the bomb shelter. It reminds her of the cupboard her mom made her go into when she misbehaved. Susan makes the bomb shelter more livable with herbs and candles to make it feel more homey.
One day, Ada comes home to find her mom at Susan's house. her mother takes her home without listening to Ada's protests, and throws away her new shoes and clothes. She tells Ada she can't use the toilet anymore, and that she will never leave her room again.
Her mom leaves, and they hear the bomb raid sirens. Her mom didn't give her any directions on what to do when a bomb raid happens, so she takes Jamie and leaves. They make it to a bomb shelter, but not before a bomb hits nearby. When they emerge from the rubble, they find Susan running toward them. She had realized that she wanted the kids to live with her, and takes them. When they make it back to the coast, they find out a bomb had fallen directly on her house. The air raid sirens hadn't gone off, so if Susan hadn't come to find the children she would have died. Thus, they had saved each other's lives.
THOUGHTS
I had never thought of someone being grateful for the destruction of WWII. Especially when it came to children- children's stories in regards to WWII are heartbreaking. But there may have been people in Europe that were in a bad situation, and the disruption was what they needed.
In Europe back then, people hid their children that had disabilities. It was a source of shame. It is just sad that she didn't need to be disabled, because even back then they had a corrective surgery.

"Scarlet" by Marissa Meyer

This is the second chronological book in the Lunar Chronicles series. It introduces almost all new characters. Scarlet is a play on Red Riding Hood, if you couldn't tell by the picture. Scarlet is a girl who lives on a farm in France, who helps her grandmother deliver groceries. Her grandmother has been missing for a while, and disappeared without her tracking chip. People thought her grandmother was crazy, but Scarlet thinks something happened.
One night when she is delivering at a bar, she hears people talking about the weird cyborg girl and talking about how she deserves what she's getting. Scarlet gets on the bar and defends Cinder. One of the patrons (who caught the eye of Scarlet's friend) follows her out and talks to her. He wants a job, but Scarlet said they didn't need more help on their farm. He said his friends call him "Wolf". He invites her to a fight that he's in later that night, but she declines. When she gets back to her house, she finds her deadbeat dad at her grandmother's house. He has burn marks up and down his arm, and says he was tortured by people. They had the same type of tattoo as Wolf. She tracks him down at the fight. The police come raid the fight, and Scarlet and Wolf escape.
Meanwhile, Cinder is working to escape from jail. She miscalculates how far to tunnel, and drops into the cell of a man named Carswell Thorne. They break out of jail, and escape to his spaceship. She found out where Michelle Benoit (Scarlet's grandmother) lives, and they head out for France. Michelle Benoit is the person who kept Cinder alive for 8 years in a state of suspended animation after she was burned on Luna. The man who brought Cinder down was named Logan Tanner, and is Scarlet's secret grandfather.
Scarlet and Wolf get to Paris via the train. She meets a man named Ran on the train, and have to jump off and escape when there's a leadimosis outbreak on the train.
When they get to Paris, Scarlet finds out that Wolf is actually a Special Operative of Queen Lavana. He has had his DNA melded with that of a wolf, which heightens his senses. They throw Scarlet in jail, and Wolf kisses her one more time in order to pass on a tracking chip. Scarlet finds her grandmother, but Ran (who is also an operative) kills Michelle. Scarlet escapes, and Ran nearly kills her too before Wolf comes and kills him.
They manage to find Cinder and Thorne, who were following the trail to find Michelle. They escape on Thorne's spaceship, and decide what to do next. Cinder still has the chip that connects to Lavana's spy (from the last book), and it ends with her deciding what to do.

I KNEW Wolf had to be bad. It was too good to be true that this mysterious stranger with bright green eyes was going to actually be a help to her. But Wolf's escape from his pack is a big deal, I think he's going to be good in the end.
I love a good cliffhanger. I wish Cinder had been able to meet Michelle, because she kept Cinder alive and it would have been amazing for her to meet her hero. I can't wait for the next one!

"Fairest" by Marissa Meyer

This is a shorter story in the Lunar Chronicles series, an origin story of the villain Lavana. They suggested that you read this as the fourth book in the series, but I wanted to read it now. 

I was surprised at how much I felt for Lavana in the first half of the book. Her sister Princess Channary, who would become Selene's mother, was a horrible and cruel person. Lavana was not the heir to the throne, and she was mocked by Channary. 

Lavana was in love with a royal guard named Everett, and was horrified to find out he was married and about to become a father. His wife died in childbirth, but the daughter survived. Lavana was able to use her Lunar gift (or "Glamor") to cover up scars from a childhood accident, and learned how to control Everett's feelings to make him love her. He knew she was controlling him, because his feelings changed every time she wasn't there. But Lavana convinced him to marry her and to move into the palace with his daughter, who he named Winter.

Queen Channary became pregnant with a baby, even though she didn't know the father. Shortly after baby Selene was born, Channary became ill and died. Lavana became the queen consulate, until Selene was old enough to become queen.  Lavana took her role seriously, more serious than Channary ever had. She brought Luna into a time of plenty. She kept up her Glamor, not only making herself look beautiful to everyone but also putting in everyone's mind the idea that they loved her. She couldn't stand the idea that someone else could be loved more than her. She wanted ALL of her subjects to be 100% loyal to her.

This is where you start to not like Lavana as much. She was so jealous of her niece and stepdaughter's beauty that she did not want to be around them. Eventually, the idea of Selene taking the throne was too much for her. She Glamored the nanny to fall asleep in the nursery with a lit candle under a blanket. She thought that it killed Selene, and knew that her throne was secure.

The last thing was that Everett did not truly love her. He told her one night that he would never love her. The next week she came to his room (he still slept in the guard's quarters, despite having been married to Lavana for 10 years), and that night a Thomiturge (the name of the aides to the queen) came in and killed him. Turns out Lavana had made a deal with him.

Turns out Lavana was severely disfigured when Channary had Glamored Lavana to put her own body in a fire. That's why she has the veil on the book cover. She also banned all cameras and mirrors. They don't show Glamors, and would show Lavana for what she really looked like.

This book makes me more excited to finish the series now! 

"Cinder" by Marissa Meyer

My friend recommended this book to me, it is my first time listening to an audiobook. I like that it's the first book in a series. The books are all based on fairy tales, set in a futuristic world. This story takes place in New Beijing, and has some Asian descriptions so I imagine that it's based in China.

We are first introduced to Cinder (I'm guessing you can imagine what fairy tale she is based on), a cyborg mechanic. She was a human orphan and had an operation to make her part machine, which usually happens when there is an accident or something. She was living in Europe and adopted by a man, who died shortly after. So she was raised by her "legal guardian" and step sisters. Cyborgs are treated at second class citizens, and Cinder hides her real identity.

What I loved about this story is it was predictable (you had a general idea of what would happen knowing the fairy tale), but also had its own twist. You know that Cinder will go to the ball and meet the prince, and run away and leave something behind. But Cinder actually meets the prince early on in the book, and he does not know her secret for a long time.

A big twist in this book is the outbreak of letimosis, a disease that Cinder's nicer step sister catches. They are racing to find the cure throughout the course of the book.

You expect that the worst person in the book will be her stepmother, but you actually meet the evil queen Lavana. She is the queen of Luna (on the Moon), and is based on the queen from Snow White. She even (allegedly) killed her own 3 year old niece because the niece was the heir to the throne.
Prince Kai becomes the emperor when his dad dies of letimosis, and it is after his death that you meet Queen Lavana. She wants to marry Kai to form an alliance with New Beijing and Luna. Cinder finds out that Lavana means to kill Kai afterward, and runs to the ball to warn him. Lavana exposes Cinder as a cyborg, which shocks Kai.
(SPOILER ALERT AHEAD)
After Cinder is arrested, she finds out that she is actually the princess of Luna. She is supposed to be handed over to Lavana to go back to Luna, but the book ends as she cuts out her own ID chip and plans to break out of prison.

Book Club October 2019 Book- "House of Salt and Sorrows" by Erin A. Craig

This book is a YA retelling of the fairy tale "Twelve Princesses Dancing". In the fairy tale, the 12 princesses go dancing all night and have to get new shoes every day. (I've never actually read the original story, so I only know that.)

In this story, the story opens with the funeral of a girl. She is the fourth sister in a family of twelve to die. Her younger sister, Annaleigh, is the narrator. They are the daughter of a duke, who is also a widower. They have a new stepmother, who announces her pregnancy at the funeral luncheon.

 Strange things start happening at the manor. Annaleigh is not sure that Eulalie (her sister who just died) committed suicide. She investigates with the help of her friend Fisher, and finds out Eulalie had a secret lover. But before she can talk to him about the night Eulalie was going to run away, he falls to his death. She also meets this man named Cassius, whom she takes an interest in.

She and her sisters find a secret passageway to different parties that happen around the land every night.

That's all I want to share right now because there are some crazy plot twists that I don't want to give away. We read this in our book club in October because it is slightly creepy and has to do with death and ghosts. There's also a main character named Camille, which was exciting and *spoiler alert* she doesn't die! Yay! If they make this into a movie it will be a good teen movie. Lots of romance, beautiful dresses (which I wish I could wear sometimes!), suspense, and just enough scare factor to keep you super into the book. The plot twist is mind bending, and it makes you wonder what is real and what is fake.

Book Club August 2019 book- "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens

So my friend Susan started a book club here! I'm so happy about it, because it's giving me a chance to really kick up my reading.

The first book was "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens. I have seen the picture on the library website, since it is popular. So I'm glad she picked it out!

The book opens up with a scene of a man's body being found in a swamp. They don't know who killed Chase Andrews, but they had some suspicions. 

The first half of the book were memories about a girl named Kya (born Catherine) who grew up in the swamps outside a tiny town in North Carolina. She is abandoned by her family at a very young age (like ages 6-8), but somehow has the drive to survive. She sells clams to a local store run by an old "colored" man named Jumper, and makes rudimentary food. CPS comes to bring her to school, but she gets made fun of so much that she only goes one day.

Her older brother, Jody, has a friend named Tate that recognizes Kya and helps her. She learns to read and write, and eventually falls in love with Tate (in a way). She has no way of knowing what human emotions are or how someone should act besides the animals that she has seen. Tate prevents anything from happening at the last minute, and eventually goes off to college.

Meanwhile, she meets Chase, who wants to spend time with her. He shows interest, and one day when Kya is in town she sees him with his arm around another girl. He blows her off, but comes back and apologizes. They eventually go on a trip together, where he takes her virginity and she does not like it. He gets engaged to another girl soon after, and Kya writes him off.
She had been documenting the animals that she has seen, and Tate finds a professor who publishes it. This gives her money that allows her to not only survive but begin to thrive for the first time in her life.

Shortly after this is when Chase's body is found, and Chase's mom is sure it was Kya. He wore a shell necklace that she gave him every day, even after he was married. However, Chase was the type of person who had multiple affairs and could have had many enemies. Ultimately, Kya was arrested and thrown in jail.
The next whole part of the book is the courtroom and trial. It was a big shift in narrative, losing all of her descriptions and talking about the nature around her. Instead it's very matter of fact and cold. It's obvious from the get-go that the prosecution was very biased against Kya. There was no real solid evidence against her. There were no fingerprints period, which was suspicious. But nothing to suspect her.
(SPOILERS AHEAD- if you haven't read it don't keep reading!)

Ultimately the jury did not convict her. However, Tate spent so much time and emotion invested in Kya's trial that he didn't notice his dad's failing health. His dad passed away shortly after. Kya and Tate got common-law married, but never were able to have children. They lived in her house in the swamp, and Kya died in her 60's, and while Tate was cleaning out her things he found out that she was also an accomplished poet. One of her poems talks about luring a man to his death, and pushing him off the tower into the swamp.



So, my thoughts on the book.
It showed how judgmental people can be in regards to "other" types of people. The prosecution had suspicions but they had many other people to look into. Why not the wife, since he has had many affairs? Why not the significant other of a woman that he had an affair with? But those were all "our" people in the town. Kya was an outsider and had been marginalized her whole life. She was an easy suspect.
It was fitting that she never got legally married. Why would she try to fit in with the government that had failed her this whole time?
It is sad that she wasn't able to have children. But since she found out her mom had a mental breakdown and left when she was 4, it makes me wonder if she would have handled having a child. Not having a nurturing presence in your life could have made it difficult to know how to raise a child. (I know it is possible, but she had a very feral childhood.)


Overall, a good read! Some of the descriptions are a little mature for younger audiences, but it was definitely engaging.

Book 7- "The Vile Village" by Lemony Snicket

This book was extremely frustrating. The Baudelaires can't find anyone else to watch them, so they are taken to a pilot program of a village taking care of children (after the saying "It takes a village to raise a child"). First of all, where are all the parents' friends? Are they really all dead too? What the heck?

The village is the Village of Fowl Devotees (Oh I forgot to mention in the 5th book, V.F.D. is a secret code that the Baudelaires learned about. However they know nothing about it so they signed up for the village called "V.F.D."Anyway.) because they are obsessed with the crows that roost in their town. EVERYWHERE. The elders in this village have a million rules, including no mechanical tools, no books that talk about breaking any of the rules, and most importantly do NOT hurt a crow. The punishment for breaking a rule is being burnt at the stake. Even though the village signed up for the program, none of the elders wanted to house or feed the children. So they are sent to live with Hector the handyman, who just happens to have all the banned tools and books behind his house. His problem is that he is too skittish around the Elders to speak up to them ever.

When the Baudelaires go to Hector's house, he shows them something that he found by the tree outside his house. It is a couplet, written by Isadora Quagmire! The Baudelaires are convinced that they are in the village, and want to find them. They are in charge of all the chores in the village, so they work with Hector. On their first day, they find out the Elders have kidnapped Count Olaf. Which was SUPER shocking.

However, when they go to the courtroom they see that it is not Count Olaf but another man who happens to look like him and have the same tattoo. His name is Jacques Snicket, and he knew the Baudelaires' parents. They wanted to hear from Jacques, but find out the next morning that he was murdered. The detective for the case was guess who? OLAF. He says that the children were the ones who killed "Olaf", which means they were going to be burned at the stake. They are put in prison, because Hector won't stand up for them against the Elders.

The children somehow figure out that the bread and water they have will act as a sponge and help break down the brick on the wall. They work all night on it, and break out using their bench just before they are supposed to be burned. While they are talking about the poems that they had found from Isadora, they realize the Quagmire triplets are hidden in the new fountain in town. They break them out, and find Hector finishing up his invention. It is a self sustaining hot air balloon. Duncan and Isadora begin climbing, but before the Baudelaires can climb up the rope ladder Esme (who was disguised as the new chief of police) shoots the ladder with a harpoon gun. The Baudelaires fall and run away.

This book is super frustrating because they can't catch a break. Nobody stands up for them, they are just pushed around, and they find their friends AGAIN to have them leave. This time they left with a nice (but spineless) man. So it is a lot of the same as the other books, but for some reason it really bugged me this time.

Book 6- "The Ersatz Elevator" by Lemony Snicket

Out of all the books (possibly in the whole series, but definitely so far), I think this one had the most  shocking plot twist in it.

They get sent to some friends of their parents, although "friends" is a strong word. Jerome, the husband, wanted to adopt the children immediately. But Esme, the wife, is such a slave to what is "in" and what is "out" that she wouldn't entertain the idea until orphans were considered "in". (There's a lot of talk of in and out for the next few books, hold tight.) Fortunately that happened right about the time they were kicked out of boarding school, despite being exonerated from the accusations by Vice Principal Nero. They learn that Jerome is very kind, but kind of spineless because he doesn't like to argue. He allows Esme to determine what he will wear, where they will live (a 71 bedroom penthouse!), where they go to eat, all based on her crazy ideas of what is in and what is out. She is planning to have an auction of "In" things, and GUESS WHO THE AUCTIONEER IS. Olaf. How did he find them again? Then it gets really mysterious when he leaves their penthouse and the doorman is told that they aren't allowed to go back to their apartment until he leave the building. But he doesn't leave it for days. Where could he have gone? (Oh, and the penthouse is on the 66th floor but the elevators are "out" so they were taken out). Klaus realizes there is one more elevator door on the penthouse floor than anywhere else. So they push the button and realize it is just an empty shaft. And the shock of their lives happens when they realize that at the bottom of the shaft are their friends Duncan and Isadora. They were put there in a cage. Violet discovers that they can use welding tools to melt the bars. (How does she do that?) While they are heating up the tools and climbing down with a rope made of neck ties, extension cords, and rope, the Quagmires are taken away from their cage.

Now, here is the part that shocked me the first time I read it. They climb BACK up the rope and tell Esme what they discovered. She talks to them and tells them it will be ok. She is uncharacteristically kind, but it all comes to a head when she opens the phantom elevator doors and pushes them down the shaft. Luckily, someone installed a net halfway down. Turns out Esme was working with Olaf the whole time. They knew each other way back when, and she wanted to help take the children's fortune. When she leaves, Sunny climbs up the elevator shaft using her teeth (yeah that's realistic) and gets the rope. They are able to climb down and find out they are in a passageway. Here is the second shocking plot twist. When the passageway comes to a head, they find a trap door. The trap door leads to THEIR OWN HOUSE.  I had forgotten about that when I was reading it this time, so it caught me off guard.

Somehow they make it to the auction and Count Olaf barely escapes. Again. Jerome won't take them because he doesn't want to argue. So he clearly isn't that good of a guardian if he won't even stand up for them. But this one had enough twists and turns to keep me entertained.

Book 5- "The Austere Academy" by Lemony Snicket

This one was one of my favorites. Not only is "austere" a word I can use more often than a lot of the words I've learned from this book, but there is SO much to hate and love here!

Vice Principal Nero (pictured on the cover) is one of the most irritating people I've ever met (read). In many ways he shadows Count Olaf, but in a non-murderous sort of way. He is arrogant, cruel to the students at his school, and severely underestimates the Baudelaires. When they arrive, he tells them that they cannot live in the dormitories because they didn't have a guardian sign their permission slip. Because they don't have a guardian... but that doesn't matter. So they are sent off to live in the nicknamed "Orphan Shack". It has crabs, mold, and awful wallpaper. If they are late for meals (which are served at breakfasttime, lunchtime and dinnertime), they don't get any cups for their drinks. If they enter the office building, they don't get silverware. And since Sunny is too young for any of the classes, she is employed as Principal Nero's secretary. Which is as ridiculous as it sounds. So she doesn't get silverware for any of her meals. Now, as the parent of a toddler I know she will be just fine.

The part of the book that I love is that they make friends finally! They meet two triplets (the third died in a fire), who just so happen to also be orphans, named Duncan and Isadora. They are the heirs to the Quagmire sapphire fortune. Duncan wants to be a reporter, and Isadora a poet. They both have notebooks that they carry around to take notes in. The Baudelaires trust them and tell them about their troubles. Just then, a new gym teacher shows up. Yep, Olaf. He has the children start running laps all. night. long. For about 10 nights straight. The children are exhausted, but Vice Principal Nero won't do anything about it. They finally have to pass a comprehensive exam (and make their own staples, in Sunny's case) or fail out. Luckily for them, their gym teacher will take them in if they get kicked out. Ohhhhh dear. Duncan and Isadora offer to go in their place, using Violet's hair ribbon and Klaus' glasses. They bring a bag of flour along for Sunny. The Baudelaires are able to prepare all night, and pass their tests. Just as they think everything is going well for once, Coach Genghis (Olaf) shows up announcing that they cheated by having someone else run in their place. They see his accomplices (who were well hidden this time, so I can't blame them for not seeing it) loading Duncan and Isadora into a car, and they chase them just for Olaf and his henchmen to escape. It is so hard for the children to realize they lost the first friends they have made in a long time. Luckily Mr. Poe was there, right? (eye roll)

Book 4- "The Miserable Mill" by Lemony Snicket

This is the fourth book in the series, and not quite as exciting as the first 3. First of all, why would Mr. Poe allow someone who was in charge of a lumber mill take care of 2 teenagers and an infant? The adoption/foster system during the time and in the place of the Baudelaires really leaves something to be desired.

The children are put right to work, and don't notice anything suspicious about anyone around them. Which is really too bad. If they were more aware of what the accomplices of Count Olaf looked like then they could have devised a plan. But as it were, they let him push Klaus to the ground twice, breaking his glasses. When he came back, he was a totally different person. They eventually found out that he was hypnotized by the optometrist, who had a brand new receptionist named "Shirley". Yep, Olaf. They don't realize until it's too late that the foreman is one of Olaf's accomplices, as Olaf and his workers are trying to pin crimes on the children to get them kicked out of the mill. The only person who is really nice to them is one of the owners of the mill, Charles. One night, Charles is nearly killed when Klaus is hypnotized. The children manage to escape (with Klaus un-hypnotized), but Dr. Orwell falls in front of the saw and dies.

I'm assuming that by this book the reader knows that Olaf is going to show up, which kind of takes the suspense out of the one big plot twist from the book. It isn't my favorite, because there isn't anything that makes my heart pound or gasp in my head.

Book 3- "The Wide Window" by Lemony Snicket

This book seemed to be longer than the first two, and again Snicket talked about Aunt Josephine's death very early on in the book. It isn't even foreshadowing, because he says things like "Josephine isn't dead... yet". I'm paraphrasing, but you know what I mean.

Aunt Josephine was their third guardian, and I don't know where the inept Mr. Poe keeps finding these people because she was awful. She seemed nice enough, but she was NOT a good person to take care of three children. Being scared of everything, being obsessed with grammar to the point that she focuses on nothing else, and most importantly being willing to give the children up to Captain Sham (AKA Count Olaf again) to save herself doesn't bode well. I'm pretty sure they only lived with her for about 3 days total before she faked her death, and then actually died when Captain Sham pushed her into the lake with the leeches. But I wasn't that sad to see her go, honestly.

But I am sad that the Baudelaires had to leave another place and go to another home. Partially because of crazy Aunt Josephine, but also partly in part to dumb Mr. Poe. He literally sits there and talks to Count Olaf time after time and has the dumbest reasons to not believe the children. It never stops irritating me.

Book 2- "The Reptile Room" by Lemony Snicket

This book is better to read than the first. My favorite part is that the children can actually be happy once in a while. Uncle Monty (or Dr. Montgomery Montgomery) seems like a nice but scatterbrained man. Personally, I would find studying reptiles to be super interesting. But I know Brandon would die. So only one of us would like being in the reptile room.

The way Lemony Snicket writes this book, you find out that Monty dies very soon after it begins. Which is a bummer. BUT, as this is the first time Olaf pops into their lives in a disguise it is a shock. After a while you learn to see the signs. But the children are horrified to find out that Olaf is now Monty's assistant, and don't have a chance to tell him before he is killed. One of my favorite parts of the book is when Sunny releases the Incredibly Deadly Viper (which is a "misnomer", another word I picked up from the books) and pretends like it is about to eat her in order to distract the adults.

One of the biggest paradoxes of the book (I don't know if I'm using that correctly) is that while Mr. Poe is incredibly inept, he also accidentally saves their lives. When he gets into the car accident with Count Olaf and the children, he doesn't even realize that he saved them from being taken to Peru with Olaf to never be found again.

So Book 2 is in many places much less depressing than Book 1, but in other places so so much worse. They had a shot at a normal life with a loving guardian!

Book 1- "The Bad Beginning" by Lemony Snicket

As you may know, they have a "Series of Unfortunate Events" Netflix series that just came out. We just watched the entire first season (hopefully the second season comes out soon), which covers the first 4 books. It stuck PRETTY well to the book series. So I decided to reread the books, since it's probably been 15 years since I've read some of them.

The first episode of the series (2 episodes per book), much like the first book, is incredibly depressing. Obviously. by the title. But you keep watching and reading to make sure the orphans triumph over their awful circumstances.

The three protagonists are Violet, a 14 year old girl with a knack for inventing, Klaus, a 12 year old boy who is incredibly bright due to his reading, and Sunny, a baby who has incredibly sharp teeth and likes to bite things.

The Baudelaire orphans find out that their parents died in a fire that destroyed their house, and they were to live with a distant relative named Count Olaf. Turns out he's an awful person who just wants the enormous fortune that Violet will inherit when she turns 18. He is an actor who has a band of actors that follow him in his dastardly deeds. He is cruel, abusive, and nobody seems to believe him. He concocts a giant plan to steal the fortune by marrying Violet in a play, but the Baudelaires figure it out at the last second. 

This counts for a "Book written by an author with a pseudonym" in my 2017 Reading Challenge. I love how Lemony Snicket writes his books, because it is not only entertaining but unique. (AND, Patrick Warburton does an awesome job as him in the Netflix series.) He defines many of the big words he uses, which is actually how I learned many words like "austere" and "ersatz" (two of the titles of books have these words in them). So his style was a way for me to improve my vocabulary.

Everyone should read these!

Book 25- "Clockwork Princess" by Cassandra Clare

I was sad to finish this trilogy of books. It started out super weird, because I knew nothing about what the Shadowhunters were about. But I got sucked into it, as I figured I would.

So as I called it, Tessa and Will ended up together. I only wish that they had spent a little more time together before the book ended. But I was glad that they were able to realize that they were meant together, because seriously it's been the whole point of these books.
And like I called it, Jem died. BUT, his death was a little more complicated than that. Jem was dying because he didn't have the drug that he needed, and the author's announcing of his death was very anticlimactic. I even mentioned that to Brandon. "After 2 1/2 books just like that, he's gone?" BUT, later on they say that he underwent a transformation to become a Silent Brother, who is an immortal character that helps the Shadowhunters with birth, death, etc. That one took me totally by surprise. He came back to help them in their last battle with the clockwork army and the Magister, and then spoke to Tessa one more time. He asked her to meet him on the Blackfriar's Bridge every year, so they could spend an hour talking. I don't understand how he was able to do that, since the Silent Brothers were supposed to cast aside everything that kept them close to their mortal life.
The amazing thing that happened was when Tessa was able to transform into the angel that possesses her necklace. She was able to destroy the creator of all the robots that way, which destroyed her necklace. But that was the only way that they were able to survive.

The epilogue of the book made things very confusing. It talks about her life with Will, and how he died while she stayed the same, being immortal. And every year she went to meet up with Jem the Silent Brother, and they were able to talk for an hour. And then over a hundred years later (because being a Silent Brother means you are immortal), she goes to meet up with him. And when he shows up, he is normal Jem again. Not the one she had met up with. Over that last year, he had found out how to break free of his addiction and to become a normal Shadowhunter again. He went to Tessa and asked if they could have a normal life together. She agreed, and that's how it ended. Ok, how did he do it? And his first thought was to see the girl he was supposed to forget about over a hundred years ago? And is he going to grow old and die now too? What about Tessa?
I wish she would have written another book about Tessa and Will's life after they got together, instead of just the epilogue. That would have made the series complete. But I really liked it!

Book 24- "Clockwork Prince" by Cassandra Clare

I loved most of this book, because it explained so many of the unanswered questions in the first book.
Will and Jem are such good friends (which is a mystery because nobody else seems to like Will) because they took part in a ceremony to become "parabatai" with each other, which essentially means blood brothers. They are bound together to always have each others' backs, and to sacrifice themselves for the other person if necessary.
Will is an unpleasant and rude person because of his history. His parents left the Nephilim to lead a normal life. But the Institute can come every 6 years to offer the children of this family the chance to become a Shadowhunter. When Will was 12, he opened a box that contained a demon. The demon cursed him that anyone who loved him would die, and that night his older sister died. So he left his family and went to the Institute and refused to see them, in order to protect them. When he fell in love with Tessa (which I KNEW he did, even though he was so rude to her), he went to a werewolf named Magnus in order to try and find this demon to remove the curse.
There is a family called the Lightwoods who want control of the Institute, and challenge Charlotte for it. They remind me of the Malfoys (crossing universes here), because they are very prideful of their bloodline. They also complain that the Institute is not guarded well enough, and offer their two sons Gideon and Gabriel to train Tessa and Sophie. Gabriel is very much like his dad, but Gideon doesn't seem to approve of his family's ways. Eventually Gideon and Sophie begin seeing each other, and he tells her that his dad is actually in cahoots with the Magister.
In the meantime, they are hunting down the Magister, which leads them to his childhood home in Yorkshire. When they are approaching the house, they see Will's younger sister Cecily. Through the Law he isn't allowed to talk to them, but he tries to chase her down anyway. Then they discover a robot is watching them, and they chase it down and destroy it. They also discover that Jessamine is a (somewhat unwitting) spy for the Magister, and Tessa's brother is killed in the struggle when they blow a robot up. Will almost dies in the process while protecting Tessa.
The one character in the book I can't understand right now is Tessa. There's like 5 days in a row where she kisses Will, then Jem, then Will, then Jem, then Will, then gets engaged to Jem when they think the Institute is closing. Then she has to break Will's heart. She says she loves Jem but I just know that he is going to die by the end.

Book 23- "Clockwork Angel" by Cassandra Clare

I found out about this book series because this author wrote a book series called "the Mortal Instruments", and this is the first of a trilogy of books that comes BEFORE that chronologically. So I decided to check it out. There will be 18 books total when she is done, which I am excited for because I LOVED this first one!

So Tessa Gray is a girl who lives in New York, and receives a letter from her brother in London saying he wants her to come live with him. She comes and is kidnapped by some women who seem to be connected to her brother somehow. She is taught that she has this magical power to "Change", or turn into another person when holding something that is connected to that person. She wants to escape but they said her brother will die, so she continues to do their bidding. Then she is rescued by this handsome boy named Will who has the MOST blue eyes (because you only hear about it 8,000,000 times in that book alone) and is really handsome. She finds out that the women she was with were actually warlocks, or the spawn of a human and a demon. Will is a Shadowhunter, or a Nephilim, which is a race of superhumans who are sent to protect the humans (or "mundanes") from the half breeds in the world (werewolves, warlocks, fairies, etc.).

And so Tessa's journey begins. She learns that the Shadowhunters train at a place called the Institute, where she meets Charlotte who runs the Institute with her husband Henry, the beautiful girl Jessamine, Will's "best friend" named Jem, and the various servants. 

Will, despite his first heroic appearance, is an anomaly. He is rude to everyone, and takes nothing seriously, and looks like he has something to hide. Tessa likes him throughout the book, but can't figure him out. Every time he acts nicely to her, he then finds a way to ruin the moment so perfectly that she can't actually develop feelings for him. He claims he goes out all night drinking and doing other things like that, but Tessa can tell he is never actually drunk. So she isn't sure what exactly he is trying to hide.

Jem is a boy who you discover is half Chinese (which makes sense when you see the next cover), and who has a secret of being addicted to a drug that is made by the demons. He was forced onto it when he was young and will die because he is on it, but will die without it. He is the only one who can stand Will regularly, and he is the perfect gentleman. He OBVIOUSLY likes Tessa, she is just not smart enough to see it apparently. The thing about him that is unique is that his eyes and hair are silver, and his skin is so white it's almost translucent. This is a result of the drugs.

Jessamine is beautiful and vain, and talks about how much she hates the Institute and wants to leave as soon as she turns 18. (Man, that used to seem so old!) She wants nothing more than to live a perfectly "mundane" life without all this witchcraft in it.

Charlotte is only 23, but basically runs the Institute single handedly. She loves all the people there, and even seems to tolerate Will at times. Her husband Henry is an inventor whose head is in the clouds and doesn't seem to be able to focus on the task at hand.

The servant that they focus on the most is Sophie. She is a beautiful girl who has a long scar across her face as the result of her last employers. She is loyal to the Institute and everyone there (except Will, who she hates).
Shadowhunters are able to enhance their abilities by drawing runes on themselves, which can do anything from give more energy to persuasion to directions. They are at war with a man who is only known as "the Magister", that apparently wants Tessa to marry him. He is working on an army of automatons (which I'm assuming are just primitive robots), to be able to overthrow all the Shadowhunters. Tessa changes into a female vampire named Camille (woo woo!) to see if he is at a party Camille was invited to. There she finds her brother and rescues him and brings him back to the Institute. And THIS is where it gets good.

So I won't spoil the whole plot, but there were some twists that I did not see coming. At the end Will is so rude to Tessa that she hates him again, but he goes to a werewolf for help with a mysterious problem.

The only thing I don't like about this book is how many stinking times the author must mention the color of Will's eyes. Yes, now they're the color of the ocean. Now they're the color of the night sky. Yes, now you could swim in them. They are BLUE.

Book 20- "Rilla of Ingleside" by L.M. Montgomery

I finally pulled out of my Rhett Gone with the Wind funk long enough to read another book before I go out of town. I was a little apprehensive since I did not appreciate the previous book as much and I was worried that this one would be similar. But this one was much, much better.

When Rainbow Valley ended the author made a reference to WW1. I didn't think much of it, because life on Prince Edward Island seemed so remote and not close to the real world at all that it didn't seem likely that something real world would affect it.

It was ironic to read this book right after GWTW because Rilla initially reminded me a lot of Scarlett (ugh). She was beautiful and liked having boys fawn over her, and wanted to just have a good time and have her way. She was just 14 when World War 1 broke out. Her brothers enlisted throughout the war (Jem initially, Walter later, and Shirley towards the end of the war), Nan and Di went to be nurses at training camp, and Rilla stayed at home to help the cause from there. The biggest thing that happened was when she was going around the town trying to collect donations. She found a house where the dad was English and had sailed straight to England to fight, leaving the mom home alone when she was about to have a baby. Well, when Rilla showed up the mom had just barely died from a broken heart and left the 2 week old baby. There was a woman there who was watching over them, but not very well and Rilla knew the baby wouldn't make it without some extra help. So she carried him home (in a soup tureen) and raised him herself. She helped to plan a war-wedding (without the father of the bride's permission), began a "Junior Red Cross" movement in their town, and raised many funds for the war. She had a boy who wanted her to wait for him until the end of the war, and she did but was never quite sure what that meant. Sadly, her brother Walter was killed in one of the battles, and that was a devastating blow. Then her brother Jem was reported missing, and her 2 friends Jerry and Carl were both injured. So even when those boys who survived came home, it was obviously never going to be the same.

So as I said initially Rilla reminded me of Scarlett. However, throughout the course of the book she grew in the right way. The war took away her youth similarly to how the Civil War took away Scarlett's youth, but Rilla was a little less dramatic and more realistic about it. She did not pine after Ken (the boy). She didn't allow her losses to make her unkind or hardened. Even when she had to give Jims (the war baby she took) back to his father, she just allowed him to go because she knew she could see him again.

Overall, one of my favorite books of the series! I stayed up too later last night to finish it.

SERIES AS A WHOLE:

Well, I had never read one of those books until August. And I have to say, I am so glad I did. I don't know how much more I will like the movies, but I will give them another shot (without Brandon, of course). I like Anne more and more as she grows up, because she still has her imagination and love of life but she is also much more realistic. And while I wish there were more books told from her perspective I did like seeing how her children were growing up. I am sad about Walter though, he was my favorite boy.

Book 19- "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell

So this was classic number 9, and a part of the Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge! "A book that intimidates you". And really. any book that is 1,000 pages of small print is intimidating. But I got through it pretty quickly! I can tell when I really like a book because when I am done I feel kind of mopey. Like I don't want to start another book right away.
So, just to warn. I didn't know much of the plot when I started the book, so I don't want to give spoilers away. So if you don't know what happens stop reading!

I don't know how to attack the whole book, so I will just write based on the main points and characters.
Scarlett. That was a name I really liked for a girl. But after reading this, I'm glad we didn't pick it (it is still a really cute name, don't worry!) because she is so annoying! Through the whole book you wonder when she will get her act together and stop thinking only of herself and dumb Ashley (more on him later). She was a spoiled little girl at the beginning of the book, who couldn't shake her "love" to Ashley just because he was marrying someone else. She managed to alienate herself from everyone who loved and cared about her, and didn't seem to care about it until the last 10 pages of the book or so. But by then it was way too late. The only girl who would defend her died thinking they were friends (when she was just using her because she was Ashley's wife) and Scarlett realized that she did really care about her. Similarly, Rhett was patient and pursued her for years, only to get his heart broken again and again. She didn't care about her children, because they were just nuisances. She only treated people well when she wanted to manipulate them, and it never failed which just fueled her selfish desires.
She did go through a lot in the course of the book. 3 marriages (2 of which were for the wrong reasons), the Civil War, Reconstruction, nearly starving to death, General Sherman's "March to the Sea", keeping her family's plantation alive, and she did learn a lot. But she never lost her selfish stubborn streak where she only looked for what she could get, and ultimately that ruined her.
Rhett. I liked Rhett. He was the only man in the book who didn't care about propriety, and treated people the way they deserved to be treated. He was Scarlett's equal, and as he said in the end "they were meant for each other". He loved her so much, and followed her around for 12 years before leaving her in the end. He was an alluring character, because you knew there was always something under the surface. While he wasn't seen as a "gentleman" because of his bad conduct, he was the man that I could relate to the most. And while he was generally a selfish man and in it for himself he also was very generous with his money. He sponsored people in many ways, and when Scarlett's second husband and Ashley was in trouble with the Klan he stretched his neck to save them and many of the other people in the town.
It was so sad at the end of the book when his spirit was broken. He had hoped that his marriage to Scarlett would improve, but after her miscarriage and the death of their child he realized that it would never happen. He loved his daughter, and her death just about did him in. He ultimately just gave up, and his love for her died. And, when Scarlett asked what she would do with him gone he said his most famous line, "My dear, I don't..." you know how it ends.
These two had something great! Dang it, Scarlett. You're the worst.
Ashley. He is such a ninny. He wouldn't even be that big of a character, if Scarlett hadn't been so obsessed with him. He was ultimately saved by Rhett, even though he knew that would continue Scarlett's obsession. He doesn't even seem like that great of a guy. He is so philosophical and flighty that he should have never lasted in the post-war era. He wouldn't have, if it weren't for Scarlett. But his spirit was broken and he was resigned to the fact that his way of life was dead.
Melanie. She is the unsung hero of "Gone with the Wind". The entire book Scarlett treats her with contempt, and only puts up with her because she wants to stay close to Ashley. But she sees the good in everyone and everything, which makes her so great. She is the epitome of what a Southern lady should be, which is why she was so popular in the end and Scarlett was an outcast. She was frail and having her first baby almost killed her (it doesn't help that it was right when Sherman and his troops came and leveled the city), and having a miscarriage actually did kill her. But she was willing to stand and fight for the people she loved as long as she physically could.
The social culture. When I'm asked "what time period would you want to live in, if you had to choose?" I used to always say antebellum times. The clothes seem so exciting, and life was good in the South then. But I've realized it was only good for the rich white men. The first bit is Scarlett having to conform to the lady's proper "place" in a barbecue, where she couldn't eat. That is NOT something I want to be a part of! And the woman couldn't speak her mind. Women weren't supposed to learn math. They couldn't work in a business, unless they were "white trash" and couldn't be supported by their husband. Marriage was often done for convenience, and never for love. They were supposed to sit there and look pretty, and swoon and faint if something indelicate was discussed. And pregnancy was something to be ashamed of. When you were pregnant, you barely told anyone, and you hid it from the public. I can't imagine having to live like that! I would feel more like Scarlett than the rest of the women. Even after the Civil War was over, they tried so hard to keep their traditions alive that they fought the new trends.
Growing up we learned about the Civil War, but I don't feel like they described the destruction to the South enough to give it justice. Even in the best of circles, Georgia got destroyed. The wealthiest had to keep their dresses and mend them, and many people starved to death because they didn't know how to work. Or they were run out of town. One of the most intense scenes (which starts about 300 pages of intensity) was when Melanie had her baby just as the Yankee soldiers were coming to Atlanta. She was nearly dead from the struggle, and her baby just a few hours old when they had to leave town. Scarlett had to find Rhett to ask him to help them escape. Fortunately Rhett wasn't too much of a gentleman, because he had his horse stolen by the army. But he stole a horse and carriage back to help them get to Scarlett's home. They barely survived the 25 mile drive, and found that almost everyone's plantation was burned to the ground and leveled. Fortunately Tara was not, but it had been used as a Yankee headquarter. Now, when I heard about the Civil War, I don't remember hearing about this. I know that the war was the ultimate downfall of the south, and that it never really recovered to its full glory. But once the war was over it was not just over. There were thousands of people who lost loved ones and friends, and their homes and way of life. They needed to find a way to rebuild, and to do that without the slaves that they no longer had proved to be a great challenge. Essentially the only people who came out ok were people who got their money through illicit activities, like Rhett.
The racial tension. It made me so uncomfortable to read the racial slurs that many times. My 21st century ears (eyes) aren't used to that. And it was interesting to see the different side of what happened after the Emancipation Proclamation. Usually you just hear that the slaves were freed and it was great! AND IT WAS, just so nobody misreads me. I think slavery is completely morally wrong. For many of these people it was a better way of life than with a brutal slave owner. But it must have been difficult to be turned out of the style of life that you were used to, from zero freedom to total freedom. And many people did take advantage of that, which did not ease any tension between them and the white people in the south.


I seriously loved this book. I am just SO frustrated with how it ended. She should have ended up with Rhett. She realized it, but far too little too late. I would like to think that after this book ended, Scarlett did grow up a little bit and Rhett came back. Because 1,024 pages is way too many pages to invest in a relationship without something lasting coming out of it.

Book 16- "Rainbow Valley" by L.M. Montgomery

Out of the whole series, this has been my least favorite book. It just didn't have the same appeal of the rest of them, because Anne was barely in it. I had really grown fond of her, and as funny as her kids are (and they aren't even the main characters), it isn't the same. However, the book focuses on the Blythe children's friends. They are the children of the local pastor, who is a widower. They get into all sorts of hijinks (shockingly enough), and scandalize the town. It is funny to think of what wasconsidered "scandalous" back then, like chewing gum in public. Now we have people taking naked pictures and nobody bats an eye. But in the process of the story, their dad realizes that he needs to find another wife so his children can be raised properly, and their house be taken care of. How romantic!

Book 15- "Quidditch Through the Ages" by Kennilworthy Whisp

This is another silly Harry Potter book, that is referenced quite a bit through the series. It has absolutely no purpose besides explaining the history of the game Quidditch. But still amusing, and worth the 100 pages.