Mique Reads

Format: Hardcover Category: A book in the backlist of a favorite author- #mmdchallenge ( Modern Mrs Darcy ) "I once had a book on the stars but now I don't. My memory serves but not stellar, ha. So I made up constellations. I made a Bear and a Goat but maybe not where they are supposed to be, I made some for the animals that once were, the ones I know about."       I read Peter Heller's newest novel, The River, for the #mmdchallenge (a book by an author who is new to you), and it was so good that I named Heller a new favorite author of mine. I had great expectations for The Dog Stars, and it did not disappoint. This is a post-apocalyptic novel with an elegeic tone. The reading experience, for me, was much like swimming in an ocean. The terse writing style with it's fragmented sentences and lack of quotation marks threw me off at first, but I quickly adjusted, and began to appreciate these choppy waves and how they are indicative of the broken and an

http://shonnaslayton.com/grimm-read-2019-challenge/ I had to skip my blog post last week due to illness and then travel. This week's stories don't have much in common with each other, unlike last week's stories, but they each contain examples of wish-fulfillment. Requests/wishes, whether of a magical nature, or not, are unpredictable things which are fulfilled with varying results. The Gold-Children- A very poor fisherman catches a golden fish. The Golden fish makes a request of the fisherman. If he let's him go, he will grant the fisherman a castle with a magical food cabinet. The fisherman agrees. They both benefit from the Golden fish's wish. The fish gains his freedom, and the fisherman is no longer poor, but the fisherman is forbidden to tell anyone the secret of his success. If he does, he will lose everything. Well, his wife harasses him about it, and he finally tells her his secret, and he loses everything. This happens a second time. Upon being caught

Format: eBook Category: A book by an author who is new to you- #mmdchallenge ( Modern Mrs Darcy) "On this side were only low hisses, a ticking and chirping, a simmering crackle like a million crickets, hellfire crickets, singing of apocalypse and char." Wow! I could not put this book down. It's a short novel, but it's intense! I expected to book to be a man vs nature story, but it's so much more than that. There is literary quality to this book that I did not expect. The character development, setting, and themes are incredibly well done. I don't want to give anything away. This novel had some twists that I did not expect, which is saying something, because I tend to figure out how these kinds of stories play out fairly quickly. I cried too, which was unexpected. I loved the descriptions, but I could have done with less description of the camping gear. I particularly loved the complex character development and how the friendship between Jack and Wynn

Format: eBook Category: a book outside of your (genre) comfort zone #mmdchallenge 2019 "Also, I have duct tape. Ordinary duct tape, like you buy at a hardware store. Turns out even NASA can’t improve on duct tape. "      I never would have picked up this book on my own. I do enjoy some sci-fi, but the kind that is more fantasy-based, and I won't turn down a good space opera. Star Wars , anyone? The Martian is outside of my comfort zone for two reasons. Firstly, it's about space travel, and not the fantasy kind. I tend to get bored with this subject because of how lifeless space is. I mean, I think it's interesting, but I don't want to spend hours reading about it. I remember, when I was a kid, I was the only person I knew that was bored with the movie, Apollo 13 . I did like Gravity , though. Secondly, it's heavily based on physics/chemistry, which are just different names for math. Don't give me beef on this, it's math. I was good at mat

https://karensbooksandchocolate.blogspot.com/2018/12/back-to-classics-2019_9.html?m=1

http://shonnaslayton.com/grimm-read-2019-challenge/ Clever Grethel- For once clever is not used ironically to describe a character in the Grimm's stories. In this story, Grethel, a cook, is very clever. She is also a glutton and a lush, and I was waiting for her to get her comeuppance, but I was quite surprised when her efforts ultimately succeeded. I kind of felt bad for the master and his guest, but Grethel's tricks had me laughing as well. Still, I think Grethel needs to learn a lesson. Just a thought: What if Clever Grethel is the same Grethel from Hansel and Grethel? The Old Man and his Grandson- Out of the mouths of babes...An old man is terribly neglected by his son and daughter-in-law. He's put in a corner and given little to eat, etc, while they feast in front of him. One day the little grandson is playing by making a trough for his parents to eat out of when they get older. This is a wake up call for his parents, who then begin to treat the old man with d

https://modernmrsdarcy.com/reading-challenge-2019/

http://shonnaslayton.com/grimm-read-2019-challenge/      Foxes abound in this week's stories ("The Wolf and the Fox", "The Fox and his Cousin", "The Fox and the Cat"). As usual, foxes are foxy. "The Pink" stands apart from the others. For one thing, instead of a fox, it has a fire-breathing poodle! (That totally threw me. I did not expect it.) Elemental canines aside, this tale still has me thinking. It's one of the more unique tales we've read so far.      An alternate title for "The Pink" is "The Carnation", so I did a little research for this. I wanted to discover the symbolism of carnations, particularly pink ones. https://www.flowermeaning.com has some intriguing information, that made me look at this story from a different angle. Firstly, carnations in general stand for love, fascination, and distinction. This makes sense in relation to the story. The prince temporarily turns his lady love, who was w

    http://shonnaslayton.com/grimm-read-2019-challenge/      My favorite story this week is "Jorinda and Joringel". I've seen the title of this one before, probably when flipping through my copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales, but I had not read it, and it isn't one of the popular tales, so I knew absolutely nothing about it. I found this strange tale to be eerie and captivating. I particularly like the rich imagery. It's definitely got some creepy parts to it, but it really isn't that violent, especially when compared to some of the other tales, and it has a happy ending.      The story opens with an exposition on the witch. She lives in an old castle in the middle of the forest. She can lure wild animals and birds to her, which she kills, boils, and roasts. During the day she shape-shifts into an owl or a cat, and at night she takes on her human form. Anyone that steps to close to her castle is paralyzed like a stone, and the maidens are turned into exot