Tag Archives: books

Book Review: St. George, Rusty Knight and Monster Tamer by John Powell

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When I requested John Powell’s Saint George: Rusty Knight and Monster Tamer from NetGalley sometime last year, I confess I totally thought it was going to be a story of the legend of St. George, who is often portrayed as a slayer of dragons. That, of course, wasn’t the case at all (ha, oops!), but it was a really enjoyable read. Part of the novelty for my daughter was reading together on my Kindle (ooohhh! exciting!), but she really did enjoy the book and so did I.

The Goodreads synopsis is super short:

Humorous tales about an impoverished knight in old England who discovers a way to tame the great variety of monsters that roam the land in the days of Good King Freddie the Umteenth and his prime minister Merlin the Whirlin.

“Humorous” is the perfect word to describe the story. If I remember correctly, Powell says in the beginning of the book that he originally came up with these stories as bedtime stories for his kids – and you can tell! They’re just funny and perfectly geared toward little kids. They follow a predictable structure (all of them start with “Now it was in the days of Good King Freddie…”) and in each story Saint George has to take on some ridiculous monster problem or another – which usually can be solved by providing the monsters with the magical, monster-taming marmorguglehupf cake (my daughter thought that word was hilarious).

The stories are full of all sorts of absurdities with names just as outlandish as marmorguglehupf cake, ideas like George’s “armor-on week” and “armor-off week” (during which he sleeps – for the whole week!), and other silly, non-sensical things (like a king who can’t read!). The crazy names and nonsense action reminded me a good deal of Roald Dahl, and prompted the same kind of laughter from my daughter as did The BFG. There were only two drawbacks for me with the books: 1) each story was a little too long to be a bedtime read-aloud but it didn’t work to break them up so we just pushed through a whole story in each sitting; and 2) there was one entire story that REALLY is not suited for American kids – or their parents! We just couldn’t follow the thread on playing cricket (our loss, though – I’m sure to a British kid the story would’ve been as hilarious as the rest).

All in all, I’d give it 4 stars and definitely recommend it! I think it’ll be another year or two before my next daughter is ready for it, but I’ll look forward to rereading the silliness with her when she’s ready!

Attention: Awesome Book-themed goodies!

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Before I started blogging I was always amazed at how bloggers had these cool posts with giveaways and promocodes and the like, and I was like…. eh I’ll never get there but that would be SO COOL. Well, just this past week I was contacted by Melissa of Literary Book Gifts and asked if I’d be willing to share a review of her products or a promocode with my readers. You guys, I’m SO EXCITED.

I checked out Melissa’s website and, as I told her in our email exchange, these are the kinds of things I ogle and hope someone buys me but I can never justify purchasing for myself… especially right now, being super pregnant and couch-bound! What I decided to do in the meantime is highlight some of the products and designs–most exclusive to Literary Book Gifts and done by Melissa herself–that I find most appealing to give you an example of what her shop has to offer.

First, a “Bookend t-shirt” – I put a picture here of my favorite color but there is an impressive variety of colors available.

Next, because I love a nice comfy sweatshirt, this Moby Dick Hoodie is one of my favorite designs. I couldn’t wear it, though, because I’ve never actually finished the book (I tried – in seventh grade – and kids stole the book, wrote ” ‘s ” after “Moby” and passed it around the room laughing… sigh. The life of a book nerd in middle school.)

Finally, because I’m Mom and these are beautiful, this Peter Rabbit Tote Bag. It could replace the silly Frozen bag I (or my husband, more accurately at the moment) use for our library runs with the kids.

The shop includes women’s, men’s, and unisex t-shirts, tanks, and hoodies, as well as backpacks and totes. The designs are all based off classics — think Moby Dick, Jane Austen, Plato, Homer, Les Miserables — and would be SUCH fun to wear!

Melissa has generously offered 20% off for readers of The Edifying Word if you use the promocode THEEDIFYINGWORD20. The code is good for anything in the store, no minimum purchase, and can be used unlimited times. So, thank you, Melissa, and happy shopping to my readers!

Is editing ruining my pleasure reading?

Sometimes I wonder if editing is ruining my ability to read for fun. There are some books I struggle to get through because I notice so many errors, or so many ways to just make it better. But then I read an awesome book (most recently, The Martian – SO GOOD) and realize – no, editing is NOT ruining my pleasure reading, I am just sometimes choosing books that aren’t particularly well done.

I have two thoughts/feelings about that.

  • One: sadness! I read one book recently in particular that had a great storyline and some really relatable characters. I was invested – but it suffered from a lack of adequate copy editing and proofreading. I just can’t read the rest of the books in the series now, nor can I recommend the book to others. Sad – because there’s so much potential.
  • Two: awe! The more I edit and beta read, the more I appreciate the effort that goes into writing a good book. The author needs to have ideas and a talent for storytelling, yes. But what sets the really good books apart, I think, probably comes down to the crazy amount of tedious effort it takes for authors and editors to work together and thoroughly edit — and then proofread — the text. ESPECIALLY for super long books.

Anyways, these are some of my random musings. I have a lot more, of course, but this is enough for today.

I’d love to hear what others think about this! Please, chime in via comments!