Mae Mobley was born on a early Sunday morning in August, 1960.
The Help of the title refers to the black women domestics who worked all other the southern states, the maids and cleaners who went into the homes of “polite” society and looked after children, cleaned house, cooked, and generally looked after everyone before returning to their own homes to do the same there. Specifically this is about two maids, Aibileen and Minny, who agree to tell the story of their lives to Miss Skeeter, a white woman in her twenties who wants to be a writer.
Ilium opens with Thomas Hockenberry, a twenty-first century professor, observing the Trojan War on behalf of a Muse. He has been reborn into this world of heroes and gods at the whim of a god or goddess and exists purely on their suffering. His job, to watch the happenings in the war and report back on whether or not they follow the path he is familiar with from Homer’s Iliad. The second chapter is from the point of view of Daeman, a youngish man at some point in the future, who is visiting his cousin’s house with the sole purpose of seducing her. The next storyline we are introduced to is that of Mahnmut, a sentient machine of sorts, who has been asked to attend a meeting for some mission, although his mind is more occupied with Shakespeare and his sonnets.
This is the second Book of Bayern so it does help if you have read the first book, The Goose Girl but it is not entirely necessary as the story itself is quite separate. Hale expands on the world she created in the first book, using a secondary character. In The Goose Girl Enna was one of Ani’s “forest friends”, important as friend and helper. In this book Enna is the main character. After the events of the first film she returned home to the forest, her mother died, and she moved back home with her brother. As this book begins he has found a mysterious vellum parchment in the forest and begins to change, becoming hot-headed and rash. At first he begins to argue against the king, saying the forest folk have been too harshly treated and deserve better, but as soon as word comes of a possible war he swings in behind Bayern and becomes a loyal subject, desiring to go to war on his country’s behalf. And then there is the fact that he can control fire.
“I want President Obama to channel some Samuel L. Jackson in Snakes on a Plane in dealing with BP. I want an immediately assembled “think tank” of the world’s underwater engineering experts, wildlife experts, middle school and high school science fair winners and the entire staff of MythBusters to pitch ideas on how to stop the leak.” Continue reading →
Sam Beaver is eleven years old when out exploring a Canadian swamp he comes across a bird’s nest, a Trumpeter Swan’s nest to be specific, and in it are 5 eggs. Sam is delighted; he loves nature and keeps a careful watch being careful not to upset the swans. He even saves the nest from a fox attack. And when the eggs hatch he is even more entranced by the cygnets. But one of them has a problem, Louis has been born without a voice, and so Sam decides to help him out. He takes him to school and helps him learn to read and write, now he can communicate through a slate & chalk. Then his father gets him a trumpet and Louis learns to play it, so he can win the love of Serena. Continue reading →
So Himself has gotten himself a blog, so far he has posted once, a review of Robin Hood, which you may recall I did not enjoy, if you want to find out what he thought you can check it out here. It is called Hoglad’s Dungeon.
by Shannon Hale
One of my favourite fairy tales is the story of The Goose Girl, although before beginning this book I had only the vaguest of memories about the story. I knew it featured a princess who was given gifts from her mother before being sent off to marry a foreign prince, and I could quite clearly recall the maid who betrayed her and took her place as princess, forcing the princess to become a goose girl. And there was no way I wasn’t going to remember the talking horse who was killed for his loyalty and whose head hung over the archway reminding the princess that “If your mother only knew, her heart would surely break in two”. I couldn’t quite recall how it all got sorted in the end, but I knew it ended most unpleasantly for the maid. Continue reading →
