Eldest

Title: Eldest

Author: Christopher Paolini

Pages: 681

Genre: Fantasy

Grade: A

Synopsis: Eragon doesn't have much time to celebrate the Varden's victory over the Urgals before he must leave to continue his training as a Rider with the Elves in Du Weldenvarden. The Varden are planning to move all of their people to Surda in order to prepare to meet Galbatorix's army in battle. At the same time, the Ra'zac have returned to his hometown of Carvahall to try and take his cousin Roran in order to get more information about Eragon. Eragon must train well enough and hard enough to lead the Varden in battle.

My Review: I last read this book in July of '06, and reread it in order to refresh my mind for the newest book of the series. I think that I liked this book better than the first. I enjoy the multiple storylines and twists of the plot. Much like New Moon (the second book of the twilight series), this book explains a lot of the history of the species of the book.

The Phantom of the Opera

Title: The Phantom of the Opera

Author: Gaston Leroux

Pages: 7 discs

Genre: Classic

Grade: B+

Synopsis: There is a rumor at the Opera House of a ghost that lives in the catacombs below. Mysterious things are happening, culminating with the death of Joseph Buquet. The Opera Ghost seems to be especially enamored with Christine Daae, as is the Viscount Raoul de Chagny. When Christine disappears, Raoul teams up with a mysterious Persian to find her.

My Review: Most people know the basic premise of the story, either from the musical or the movie. As is almost always the case, I was surprised by just how different the adaptations are from the book. I found the book to be quite enjoyable, but a little difficult to follow at times. As for which version of the story I like best (movie, musical or book), I think that I like them all just about equally, with the slight edge going to the live musical version (there's nothing like watching a performance live).

From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow

Title: From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow

Author: Mark Monmonier

Pages: 149

Genre: Non-fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: The book is a deep look into how places are named and what the government is doing (and has done) to remove inflammatory and derogatory place-names from official maps. The book dives into names based on derogatory terms (negro, nigger, chink, etc) and sexual in nature (nipple, tit, teat, etc.). Also explored is how places are named in Antarctica, the ocean floor, the moon and Mars.

My Review: As I expected, this is a fairly in-depth educational book with an eye-catching title. I quite enjoyed it because geography is one of my very favorite hobbies and I learned quite a bit. A few tidbits of my learning: Out of 100 place-names in the US with nipple in the title, 11 places in Utah are named either Mollys Nipple, Mollies Nipple or Molleys Nipple. (With 32 of the 100 total places in the US in Utah. Obviously the pioneers were obsessed with nipples...). A short list of some of the more interesting place-names (Many of these names have since been changed due to their derogatory nature):

○ Squaw Teat Butte (SD)
○ Niggerhead Point (NY)
○ Nigger Bay (NC)
○ Nigger Skull Mountain (NC)
○ Jap Creek (UT)
○ Jap Valley (UT)
○ Jewtown (GA)
○ Chinaman Spring (WY)
○ Nigger Jack Hill (CA)
○ Chinks Point (MD)
○ Polack Lake (MI)
○ Negro Marsh (NY)
○ Intercourse (PA)
○ Blue Ball (PA)
○ Coon Butt (TN)
○ Bloody Dick Creek (MT)
○ Wee Wee Hill (IN)
○ Virgin, Virgins Breasts and Nipple Islands (ME)
○ Brassiere Hills (AK)
○ Squaw Nipple (MT)
○ Squaw Nipple Peak (CA)
○ Whorehouse Meadow (OR)
○ Squaw Tit (AZ)
○ Dildo (Newfoundland)
○ Gayside (Newfoundland)
○ Swastika (Ontario)
○ BS Gap (AZ)
○ S.O.B. Hill (UT)
○ Shitten Creek (OR)
○ Kokshittle Arm (BC)

I'll see you all on the Virgin's Breasts.

From the Book: "(p. 16) The intriguing history of American applied toponymy includes a few notoriously unpopular sweeping decisions a year after President Benjamin Harrison created the Board on Geographic Names in 1890. Harrison acted at the behest of several government agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, which was responsible for mapping the nation's coastline, harbors, and coastal waterways. Troubled by inconsistencies in spelling, board members voted to replace centre with center, drop the ugh from names ending in orough, and shorten the suffix burgh to burg. Overnight, Centreview (in Mississippi) became Centerview, Isleborough (in Maine) became Isleboro, and Pittsburgh (in Pennsylvania) lost its final h and a lot of civic pride. The city was chartered in 1816 as Pittsburg, but the Post Office Department added the extra letter sometime later. Although both spellings were used locally and the shorter version had been the official name, many Pittsburghers complained bitterly about the cost of reprinting stationery and repainting signs. Making the spelling consistent with Harrisburg, they argued, was hardly a good reason for truncating the Iron City's moniker--although Harrisburg was the state capital, it was a smaller and economically less important place. Local officials protested that the board had exceeded its authority. The twenty-year crusade to restore the final h bore fruit in 1911, when the board reversed itself--but only for Pittsburgh. In 1916 the board reaffirmed its blanket change of centre, borough, and burgh as well as its right to make exceptions for Pittsburgh and other places with an entrenched local usage."

Gift from the Sea

Title: Gift from the Sea

Author: Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Pages: 138

Genre: Essays, Inspirational

Grade: B

Synopsis: The book is basically a collection of essays that focus on Anne Morrow Lindbergh's (Wife of Charles Lindbergh) meditations on the different stages of life. She compares each stage of life to seashells that she found when meditating on a small island.

My Review: It took me a little while to get into this book and to understand what all her ramblings were about. I think that this is the type of book that would become more enjoyable the more that you read it. Probably one of the reasons that it was hard for me to get into the book was because much of the advice from the book didn't really apply to me.

From the Book: "(p. 26) For life today in America is based on the premise of ever-widening circles of contact and communication. It involves not only family demands, but community demands, national demands, international demands on the good citizen, through social and cultural pressures, through newspapers, magazines, radio programs, political drives, charitable appeals, and so on. My mind reels in it, What a circus act we women perform every day of our lives. It puts the trapeze artist to shame. Look at us. We run a tight rope daily, balancing a pile of books on the head. Baby-carriage, parasol, kitchen chair, still under control. Steady now!"

"(p. 83) I am very fond of the oyster shell. It is humble and awkward and ugly. It is slate-colored and unsymmetrical. Its form is not primarily beautiful but functional. I make fun of its knobbiness. Sometimes I resent its burdens and excrescences. But its tireless adaptability and tenacity draw my astonished admiration and sometimes even my tears. And it is comfortable in its familiarity, its homeliness, like old garden gloves when have molded themselves perfectly to the shape of the hand. I do not like to put it down. I will not want to leave it."

The Cry of the Icemark

Title: The Cry of the Icemark

Author: Stuart Hill

Pages: 12 Discs, 496 pages

Genre: Fantasy

Grade: A

Synopsis: 14-year-old Thirrin Freer Strong-in-the-arm Lindenshield must lead her people to battle against the huge invading force of the Polypontian Empire. Her father, the king, is killed in the first battle and it is up to Thirrin to find allies of people or creatures that will help them in her cause.

My Review: I love to go to the library and randomly pick up a book that turns out to be a favorite. This book moved quickly and was easy to follow. There were unexpected twists and turns along with the predictable causes and outcomes. The book really sucked me in and made the book hard to put down (aka, difficult to stop listening to). I was excited to see that there is at least one other book in the series and that a film version of the book is currently in pre-production. Highly recommended!

From the Book: "Pain! Deep, tearing, throbbing, needle-sharp, hammer-blunt pain – ripping through his body and through his mind, twisting deep in his guts and slicing at his skin with razors and broken glass. Oskan wanted to scream, but his vocal cords had burned away. He was desperate for water and he could hear it dripping all around him, but his charred tongue found nothing in his mouth but blisters and scorched flesh. For hours he lay on the ropes of the low bed, unable to move, the pressure of the hemp on his destroyed skin sending new agonies deep into his body."

The Catcher in the Rye

Title: The Catcher in the Rye

Author: J.D. Salinger

Pages: 216

Genre: Classic

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Holden Caulfield seems to get kicked out of every prep school he enrolls in. Most of his stories revolve around his time at Pencey Prep and the days after he was kicked out when he was just bumming around New York City, avoiding telling his parents that he had been kicked out of yet another school. Holden has a great relationship with his much younger sister and cherishes the relationships of many of his former teachers, yet is often bugged by them at the same time. He despises anybody that is "phony" and finds fault with almost everybody that he encounters.

My Review: I quite liked this book, while almost not liking it at the same time. When I finished it, I felt almost depressed and disturbed. The novel has a long history of censorship and has even cost teachers their jobs just for using it in their curriculum. The book flows very smoothly and is easier than many classics to read. It is easy to relate with Holden because the book is written with a type of stream-of-consciousness style and nothing that goes through Holden's mind is left out. The only thing I was convinced of by the end of the book was that Holden Caulfield is a little bit crazy. I don't see myself re-reading the book anytime soon, but even so, it is one that I may think about for a while to come.

Disclaimer: The book has lots of vulgarity and almost every paragraph has cursing.

From the Book: "(p. 35) He stuck around till around dinnertime, talking about all the guys at Pencey that he hated their guts, and squeezing this big pimple on his chin. He didn't even use a handkerchief. I don't even think the bastard had a handkerchief, if you want to know the truth. I never saw him use one, anyway."

"(p. 173) "I thought it was 'If a body catch a body,' " I said. "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff-I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy." "