Book Review of The Bridge of the Golden Wood: A Parable on How to Earn a Living

by Karl Beckstrand, illustrated by Yaniv Cahoua

My rating is 5 out of 5 stars

The Bridge of the Golden Wood: A Parable on How to Earn a Living is a children’s book for ages 5 and up written by Karl Beckstrand and illustrated by Yaniv Cahoua. Set in the Far East, the book is about a boy who chooses to help others and finds treasure as a result. It begins with “There once was a boy who loved to make things,” and the tone of an old parable is maintained throughout the story.

Beckstrand was inspired to write The Bridge of the Golden Wood after visiting several schools and realizing there was no curriculum provided to young people about ways to earn money. The message from The Bridge of the Golden Wood is a positive one: helping others for free gives you experience, a good reputation, and can lead to an idea for ways to make money. The events in the story are sweet and simple. However, the main character’s particular experience is not be something modern children could re-create for themselves. What pushes the book all the way up to five stars for me is the discussion guide at the end.  Children are guided through ways to look for opportunities in everyday problems and provided examples of ways to earn income by serving others and solving problems.

The Bridge of the Golden Wood is recommended for ages 5 and up.  I read this book with a three-year old and she loved the soft, cheerful illustrations. She was especially interested in the animals in the story.   I do think the money-making lesson largely went over her head, though we did talk about the importance of helping others.  She was also fascinated by some of the mysterious aspects of the parable. I read this book with her knowing the story is targeted towards older readers. Overall, The Bridge of the Golden Wood is a very welcome addition to children’s literature.

I received a copy of this book through Rosie's Book Review Team. 

Book Review of Can't Buy Forever by Susan Laffoon

My rating: 3.5 stars

Can’t Buy Forever is a YA paranormal romance set in 1950’s America, with much up the story taking place in the Adirondacks in New York. It is the first book in a planned series. In this story, readers will find a couple with a strong and loyal bond. The male lead (Nicholas Westley) has a dark and mysterious past, and the reader lives vicariously through the female lead (Odessa Drake) to learn more. Despite his traumatic past, Nicholas is a wholesome nice guy, and sometimes nice guys finish first.

The book particularly excels in creating intrigue surrounding Nicholas's past. The desire to learn more had me turning page after page to the end. The relationship between Odessa and Nicholas seemed a bit superficial at first but as their experience with each other went on, the relationship turned into something well founded and beautiful. In the first half of the story, she’s a largely passive actor in her own life. In YA especially, it bothers me when the most interesting thing about a young woman is her boyfriend, as I don't think it sets a good example for your readers. I did appreciate the lack of sexual content. I don't mind it in adult books, but appreciate when it's absent from YA. I greatly enjoyed the character of Elise, Odessa's spunky best friend.

Can’t Buy Forever is a bit derivative of the Twilight formula, but ultimately the book forged its own path into something unique. The synopsis would have done well to more overtly acknowledge there would be fantasy elements in the story. I enjoyed the twists, but as a reader I had to do some mental gymnastics when I realized I'd thought I was in for a purely historical fiction romance and wound up getting a paranormal one.

Can’t Buy Forever deserved a far more thorough editing job than it received. There are typos throughout, grammatical errors and frequent changes in verb tense. This didn’t decrease my rating because typos and errors can happen and I don’t want to judge a book based on how skilled an editor it had, but the errors certainly decreased the professionalism of the book. That said, there was still plenty to love in Laffoon’s writing. I don’t know how far along Susan Laffoon is in her writing career, but she has real talent. She’s a diamond in the rough. Some of her observations and descriptions are utterly exquisite and created an atmosphere I just wanted to *be*, though it's not sustained. The beauty of Laffoon’s writing, and the tone and writing style in general, is inconsistent throughout the book. 

However, with more practice and refinement, I honestly believe Laffoon could be comparable to Marilynne Robinson. Some of her writing is just as beautiful, complete with nods to religion. Ultimately, this was an enjoyable if slightly flawed read. I heartily encourage Laffoon to further cultivate her writing. I received a copy of this book from the author.

Book Review of Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd: The Warrior Princess of Deheubarth by Laurel Rockefeller

Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd: The Warrior Princess of Deheubarth is the sixth installment in Laurel Rockefeller’s The Legendary Women of World History series. It is a brief novelization about the life, legacy and fighting spirit of a Welsh princess (Gwenllian frech Gruffydd) who led her people into battle against the Normans. I have long been an avid reader of historical fiction, and this story is a welcome addition to the genre.

The story excels in portraying the world of Wales during the 1100’s. Simple descriptions about the daily life, the surrounding regions and annual celebrations ground the reader in the time period. Rockefeller also keeps the reader grounded in understanding how the shifting politics throughout the region and in London in particular impacted the Welsh. The most shocking part of the story was the betrayal Gwenllian faced.

Rockefeller’s love of the Welsh language is evident throughout the book. The use of the Welsh names and locations added to the authenticity of the story. However, beyond names and locations, the use of the old language caused confusion for me. Gwenllian frech Gruffydd’s native tongue is frequently interspersed throughout conversations. At one point Gwenllian sings a song while playing the harp, and the song is written entirely in her native language. A typical reader will find this incomprehensible.

The story is brief and lingers longest on the battle and events leading up to Gwenllian frech Gruffydd’s death. She was a heroic fighter and through Rockefeller’s portrayal is it easy to see why the Welsh cried her name into battle for centuries to follow. The ending of the story beautifully nods to the lineage that followed Gwenllian frech Gruffydd and muses what her option on it must be. “Surely in some place beyond this physical world, Princess Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd, the warrior princess of Deheubarth watched the coronation of Queen Elizabeth Tudor, a woman born of her blood and legacy, and smiled.”

After the story there is a timeline of Welsh history from 844 to 1282 and an extensive suggested reading bibliography that provides a wealth of information for those looking to research the topic further. The timeline was thorough and interesting. In future installments in this series, I would love to see the selected events spaced along a horizontal line. Images of Wales and any remaining structures from the story, as well as artistic renderings of the individuals discussed would also be a welcome addition to the story.

10 Famous Books That Were Barely Published

Hey guys!
Today we're talking about 10 famous books that almost never were.

The vlog version of this post is available here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5kdCHkaY34&t=151s

1. Harry Potter and the Sourcerer's Stone was rejected 12 times, one of the responses from a publisher told JK Rowling not to quite her day job. She was finally published, and the publisher only made 500 copies and gave most of them away for free to libraries.

2. The Tales of Peter Rabbit, the famous children's books by Beatrix Potter. Beatrix wrote and illustrated the stories herself and sent an early version of them to the bedridden son of her former governess. She then tried to get the book published, but no publishers would accept it so she self-published. The book was a success and a publisher picked it up. Peter Rabbit has been in print since 1902 and has sold over 45 million copies.  Potter had to self-publish.

3. The Martian by Andy Weir. This is a book that I don't think Weir really ever had the intention of publishing. He posted the book chapter by chapter on his blog, and people were really liking it so he made it all into one e-pub file they could download, but some people were having trouble downloading the file.  Literally if people had not complained they couldn't donwload the file, I don't think Wier would have ever self-published on Amazon Kindle. But he did, and the book skyrocketed to Amazon's bestselling science fiction list.

4. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, a philosophical work of nonfiction is often acclaimed as one of the most important books on the late 20th Century. And it was rejected by 121 publishers. It is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most publication rejections of any bestselling book.

5. Animal Farm by George Orwell, a satire on the Russian Revolution and Stalin's rise to power.  British author George Orwell was trying to get this book published during WWII, while the British military was allied with the USSR.  No one would publish it. It was rejected all over Britain because of concerns about being critical of the USSR while they were allied with them in a war. A really small publisher did eventually accept it, but did not actually publish Animal Farm until after the war.

6. Carrie by Stephen King.
Carrie was Stephen King's first big break, and it almost never happened.  Carrie was rejected by 30 publishers and King got so discouraged he threw the manuscript in the garbage.  This was the 70's so it wasn't stored on electronically anywhere.  His wife Tabitha fished the manuscript out of the trash and encouraged her husband to keep sending it around.  Now an image of a girl in a prom dress covered in pig's blood is a part of popular culture.  It is weird to think about books like this that are so ingrained in popular culture are almost not existing. To think about Harry Potter never existing, never having a shot a publication, is weird. To think about Stephen King, one of the most prolific horror writers, giving up on his writing career before it began if his wife hadn't encouraged him to keep submitting Carrie, it's weird to think about.

7. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L'Engle. This was one of my very favorite children's series when I was growing up. L'Engle received 26 rejections before finally getting published.  A Wrinkle in Time went on to win a Newberry Medal the following year.

8. Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Voictor Hansen.
This multimillion dollor series was rejected 140 times by publishers. The authors were told anthologies don't sell and their books were too positive.

9. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Gone With the Wind was rejected 38 times and then it went on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1937

10. And last but not least...
The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer.  The Joy of Cooking is probably the most famous cookbook I can think of. In 1931, the author spent a good chunk of her own life savings to print copies of her own cookbook.  It took five years before her investment paid off and a publisher picked up the book.  The Joy of Cooking has sold over 18 million copies.

So those are my picks for 10 famous books that were almost never published.  Let me know down below if there are any others you're thinking!

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman Book Review

This is a spoiler-free review of Norse Mythology by the famous Neil Gaiman. 

This book came out last month, February 2017.   Norse Mythology is very much what is says on the cover, it's a collection of short stories about Norse mythology.  The best way I can think to describe this book is that it's a lot like when musicians will release a new cover of an old song.  Gaiman adapted fifteen stories from what very little remains of the pre-Christian Scandinavian myths in the Edda that were recorded around the 13th century in Iceland. The Edda includes the prose and poetry records of the original Norse Myths.  I will link the full text for both of them down below if you ware interested.   Gaiman hasn't done a new translation of these myths, he's added some storyteller's flourishes to the existing material. And to be fair, he's really added quite a bit to the material.  Where the original material in the Edda might have 2 or 3 sentences about something, Gaiman turns it into 2 or 3 pages of setup and comedy. He's made the Norse myths quiet a bit funnier, bawdier, and far more relevant for current readers. 

I will say, prior to reading this book I did not have a particular interest in reading Norse Mythology. I was really just reading this book for a good time, and it was a good time.  But Gaiman takes his time setting the stage with this book.  We start of with a list of all the characters in the Norse myths and descriptions of them and a tour of the Norse worlds, the 9 worlds of Yggdrasil and background about what each world is like.  The setup portion of the book reads quite a bit like a Wikipedia article on Norse mythology to me, which, at the very beginning of the book I thought, oh no, if I wanted to read a Wikipedia article on Norse Mythology, I would have just done that on my own. 

But the first short story about the gods kicks off around page 50, and from there on out, I very much enjoyed this book.  I enjoyed the inventive origin stories, including the beginnings of poetry, earthquakes and the shape of salmon. I would say if you have any particular interest in Norse mythology, read the front matter. And there's an introduction about the author and his interest in this topic of Norse myths and some background about the process of him writing the book, so if you have any particular interest in Neil Gaiman as a writer or as a person, read the into.  But if you're just looking for a good time and some entertaining stories about Norse mythology, skip to page 50 where the first story of the gods kicks off. The first story is called the "Treasure of the Gods," and Loki is delightfully mischievous. 

I think Neil Gaiman really did something special with how much personality he brought to the Norse gods.  He took the germ of what was there in the Edda and  fleshed out the Norse gods into characters you feel like you know. It's fascinating to me how flawed and how emotional and fickle the Norse gods were. And mortal and not omnipotent by any means. The story hinges on Odin, the all father, Thor and Loki. Odin, I did not realize, sacrified himself to himself, which gave him great wisdom, not omnipotent, but great wisdom. Neil Gaiman's Thor is rather dense but seems to mostly work around these limitations rather successfully by threatening violence. Loki was the most interesting character of them all.  He's a bit of a gray character. He's a villain, but not entirely. For much of the book, he's more mischievous. Like a practical joker, but he's nowhere near Marvel movies level of cackling supervillain. He does take a dark turn at the end. 

Actually, the book as a whole I would say starts off very light and gradually becomes darker in tone, culminating in the story of Ragnarok, the final destiny of the gods, which is essentially the Norse Apocalypse. It's a reminder that the gods are not immortal. Gaiman’s comedic tone gradually takes a dark turn in the book and follows the darker turn Loki takes, moving from joker to villain. 

Caraval Book Review

Hey guys!
WELCOME, WELCOME TO CARAVAL
I'm Brittany & this is spoiler-free review  😁

The video version of this review is available here: https://youtu.be/3n_Z2ke7MPs
If you read the book already, a spoiler chat is available here https://youtu.be/CztzYIVUD9M

Let's talk about the plot twists, magic, romance and Caraval, a young adult fantasy novel by Stephanie Garber. It is really popular.  It is all book boxes.  It was $27 at Barnes and Nobel and I was like forget that, so I bought an e-book. This review is spoiler-free

This book the first book in a planned series. It's the story of Scarlett Dragna, the daughter to a ruthless  father who is Lord of the Conquered Isles. He's never let Scarlett or he younger sister Donatella ever leave the islands.  He shelters them and he's physically abusive. The book starts off with a series of seven letters Scarlett has written to Legend, the master of Caraval, a fantastic traveling magical game that lasts 5 days every year. Scarlett keeps writing these letters every year around her younger sister's birthday because she knows her younger sister Donatella really wants to go, and Scarlett really, really loves her sister and tries to step in as a missing mother figure. A story of the bond between two sisters: 

Scarlett's father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett is really happy about it, not because she has any particular interest in her fiancee or thinks her life will be happily ever after, but because she she really just wants to get away from her abusive father and take her sister with her once she's married.  However, a few days before her wedding she gets three the very, very, very, very long desired tickets to Caraval. Her sister's really excited about it, but Scarlett is like, I don't want to wreck my wedding and one shot at getting us away from our dad. 

So I won't tell you HOW Scarlett and her sister get to Caraval but obviously, they do. Scarlett gets there and can't find her sister and starts to realize finding her is part of the game. And then she realizes it's far more than just a game, or is it?? And she's kind of partnered with this guy who she arrives on the Caraval island with, and he seems to be helping her kind of, but she's very conflicted like, should I be trusting you??? 

Let's talk about the marketing campaign for this book.  It was very circus themed.  Caraval was in all the book box subscriptions and everyone's been posting their unboxing videos and there's visual themes of tents and elephants and the flying trapeeze.  So I read Caraval, and I was like... where's the circus?  Caraval is a magical scavenger hunt that takes place in something akin to an Epcot village, which is cool, but it's not a circus. There are no tents, no trapeeze artists, no-one's juggling, there are no animals, there's not even any cracker jack. Which is fine, but I think the marketing campaign for this book has been a rather egregious misdirect. So if you;'re going into this book really excited for a circus, you're going to be letdown. This didn't impact my rating for the book, but I thought I should mention it.

Caraval is very plot driven, something exciting was always happening that held my attention. It's very much a book where the only person you really trust is Scarlett, the main character. And you're completely occupied with trying to figure out who and what is bad news, what's going to be helpful in winning the game, and what's real and what isn't. There are several plot twists, and I found it all to be very entertaining.  I actually think Caraval would make an incredible mini-series, and I really hope a network can make it happen.  Caraval's island is really beautiful and I'd love to see it brought to life.  Because the story is jammed with events, I don't think it would adapt particularly well to film.  I think there's probably several hour-long episodes, maybe 5 or 6 natural breaks im the story that would adapt quite well to a first season of a mini-series.

The character development is fine, it's not a book that's really driven by the characters.  The book is driven by the game of Caravel.  It's not terribly deep character development, but I think at least for the main three characters that the story hinges on, it was good enough, and I thought it worked. I will mention, Scarlett starts out in a very weak position.  She's abused by her  father, and all her hopes hinge on getting a man to marry her so she can get away from her dad.  Men dominate her and she's looking for a man to save her, and I don't mind reading about characters I don't like or who I think are weak, but I hold young a dult to a different standard, but I know young tweens and teens will be reading the book. And if a girl is young and still struggling with the process of forming her own identity and knowing who she is, I think this book would be a bad influence. There are too many young women who always have to ahve a boyfriend and kind of place their self-worth in that, and I think this book would reinforce negative patterns. I read about Scarlett's life and I'm like, wow, that's sad that that's how she's viewing marraige, but I'm concerned because it's for young women, they might not have grown enough to realize that.

So this book starts off strong with a map, which I love books with maps so that's fantastic. It's a map of Legend's island where he hosts Caraval, so it's not a terribly large map in terms of geography , but it's nice, I like it.  The setting is done well, although the world building is not terribly extensive. Except for this area with islands, you don't have a good sense of what the world they live in is like or how it's setup. I was curious to learn and see more of their world, but it wasn't anything that got in the way of enjoying the story for me.

So overall I would have been willing to give this book 4 stars or maybe even 4 and a half, but the descriptions in this book are so terrible, and they jolted me out of the reading experience so frequently, that I dropped this book to a 3.5. The issue is that there's this weird thing going on with the main character where she sees different literal colors based on her emotions, which makes no sense.

The Shack - Book Review & Controversy!

Hi friends! 

The video version of this post is available here: https://youtu.be/ASBlAHa5poY

The Shack is a Christian novel by Canadian author William Young. He wrote the book initially for his children and friends only, with no intention of ever publishing it.  But his friends really encouraged him to publish it.  He gave it the old college try, but The Shack ended up being rejected  by 26 publishing companies, so the author's friends set up a small company to publish the story themselves. The company sold nearly 1.1 million copies out of their friend's garage in just over a year. This self-published book went on to become a USA Today bestseller and was on The New York Times Best Seller list for trade paperbacks from June 2008 to early 2010.
So what is this book about?

Synopsis

“The Shack” is the story of Mackenzie Allen Phillips, "Mack" whose youngest daughter is abducted during a family vacation. The police find evidence that she was taken to a remote wooden shack in the Oregon wildreness and was brutally murdered. Mack is completely devastated and doesn't want to go on with life when he receives a letter from God inviting him to spend the weekend at the shack in the Oregon wilderness where evidence of his daughter’s murder was discovered. And the book is about Mack's encounter with the Christian God at the shack where his daughter was murdered. It's about Mack's struggle with forgiveness and struggle with faith in spite of his anger and in spite of injustice. 

Review

This book is emotional, sometimes manipulatively so, but still cathartic. I think does a great job of pacing, it keeps moving the entire time. I was never bored. And the main character, Mack, I was invested in him. I was rooting for him. I wanted to see him work through his pain and anger. And you get a lot of insight and detail into his thoughts and emotions. And, I say this all the time, but I love a story where the main character goes through a significant change, an internal change, throughout the book. As a story, as a concept, I think The Shack holds together quite well. 

However, remember earlier when we discussed that the author was not a professional writer and the book had to be self-published? It shows. The craftsmanship of the writing is not fantastic quality, I don't think that's a matter of taste, the descriptions, the dialogue, really could have benefited from further editing and revision. I think it's such a shame that for so long no publisher was able to recognize the immense appeal of this book.

What's the Controversy?

So, when I first heard there was controvery surrounding this book, I actually thought it was agnostics or atheists or other relgions who were upset about the book. But no, it's infighting.  Much of the controversy comes from within Christian circles, I've also seen some Jewish commentary that was quite critical.  A lot of Christians have embraced the story as a creative depiction of how God's healing and forgiveness can work in a person's life, while others criticized the book as heretical and misrepresting the God of the Bible. 


Where a lot of the controversy surrounding The Shack comes from is related to issues with how the trinity, the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit are portrayed, both individually and relating to one another. God the Father is portrayed as an African American woman. Jesus, obviously, is a Middle Eastern carpenter.  The Holy Spirit is portrayed as an Asian woman. In the shack, Mack and the truine God have a lot of back and forth conversation, helping Mack work through his issues, which include the murder of his daughter and also the abusive father that Mack grew up with.
There was also some backlash at a few sentences that seemed like God was revealing himself to Mack as a universalist.  I must admit, there is one place where that was my understanding as well, that the God in The Shack is a universalist, which is not a mainstream Christian belief.  In an oversimplified nutshell, a universality believes everyone goes to heaven, everyone is reconciled with God regardless of what they believe or how they life their lives. Mainline Christianity says to be reconciled with God, a person must accept the gift God's love for them, and then ought to live in light of that. However, William Young has gone on record saying he is not a universalist. Interview link is here: 
So, what is my take on all of this?

There was some backlash that God the Father was portrayed as a woman.  The Bible uses male pronouns to refer to God the Father, but also describes God as beyond gender or nongendered. The author has explained in interviews that because the main character, Mack, had trauma issues related to his biological father, he was trying to show that God meets people where they are and Mack wouldn't have responded well to a father figure. 



http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/march/love-shack.html?start=3 

In my last tag post, the "get to know ya tag", I talked about why it's so hard to answer the question "what's your favorite book?".  Because people read for a wide variety of reasons.  For example, when I pick up "The Sound and the Fury" by Faulkner I'm looking to expand my mind and my understanding of humanity.  When I pick up Cinder by Marissa Meyer, I'm just looking for a good time.  I have an entirely different set of expectations for each book, and each book fulfills those expectations wonderfully.  And I think something kind of similar can be said for The Shack.  If I'm looking to be uplifted by a heartwarming Christian story, The Shack is a perfectly great reading choice. If I'm looking to do some serious thinking about what I want to believe about the Christian God and why,  The Shack is a terrible reading choice. I've read some great books that provide overviews of different world religions, or straightforward apologetics like The Reason for God by Timothy Keller would be a great choice, or Mere Christianity by CS Lewis, you could go straight to the source and read scripture.

For me, it all comes down to why you're reading the book, and for me, The Shack is a piece of a thought-provoking piece of entertainment, it's not a theological magnum opus, and it shouldn't be treated like one. That said, I think it's okay to read things you don't agree with. Maybe you're not Christian, or maybe you're Christian but disagree with some of The Shack's content. That's okay, I suspect you can still appreciate the story as long as your purpose isn't to agree with everything presented to you.

So that's my take on The Shack, by William Young, the film adaptation is out in theaters now. Have you seen the film or read the book?  I'd love to know what you thought, please share your comments down below.