fiction – Page 22 – Kristin Houlihan, Writer

Hooray for used book sales!

On Saturday afternoon I had the great privilege of stepping away by myself for an hour to go to Historic Vienna’s Annual Used Book Sale and shop. Adam, though recovering from the flu, graciously indulged my love of books and watched Cinderella with the girls so I could go ALONE (thank you, thank you, thank you!). The girls acted like I’d been gone for ages when I got home, which is crazy but also really endearing. Who doesn’t enjoy being greeted with kisses and hugs and a chorus of, “Mommy, we missed you!”?

So, the books! I didn’t think their selection of children’s books was as good this year as it was last year, but I did pick up a Berenstain Bears book on strangers and a retelling of the story of King Midas. The kids were happy with that! From the kids section I also got some books for when the kids get older. My oldest is almost 5(!!!!!) and she reads, so I figure (not unlike me) that she’ll be into reading chapter books in the next year or so…SO I decided to prepare for when she’s begging for more books and I picked up three of the books in the Little House on the Prairie series. We already have one of them, so that should keep her busy when she’s about 7, right? I read them all in second grade and I not-so-secretly hope she loves them as much as I did. I wanted to become President one day so I could take us all back to covered wagon times…so we could live just like Laura Ingalls Wilder. HA.

For myself, I got a couple of classics: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Adam thinks I’m nuts, and I might be…We’ll see. I don’t typically read classics but I think I want to. Hopefully I like them as much as I like the idea of liking them. I also got Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. I tend not to pick up random fiction unless it’s been recommended to me or I’ve heard of it before, so I mostly just skimmed that section.

My REAL prize, though, which made the whole trip worth it (aside from the mere act of browsing through tons of old books) came from the “Grandma’s Attic” section of the sale, where they sell “old” or unique items: I got a complete boxed set of the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis! For only $8 🙂 I’ve read two C.S. Lewis books in the last year, and LOVED them, and it made me want to reread The Lion, the Witch, and Wardrobe — but who can just stop there? I’m SO excited to read the whole set!

Adam thinks he’s never going to see me because I’m going to be too busy reading… it’s a slight exaggeration, I think, but I do hope to be reading a lot soon! AND my local library has its used book sale this week! I’ll have to pop in there Friday while the kids are in school 🙂 Yay!

Munchkin Monday (er, Wednesday): Book Review – Zoom Boom Series

Product Details

So I wrote a whole post on this series and then deleted it because it was nonsense. Essentially, while I REALLY wanted to love these books, I just didn’t care for them too much. I usually make an agreement with authors that I won’t review books I think deserve less than three stars (I’m just not interested in writing a bunch of negative stuff in general, but really… we’re talking about PEOPLE here and their work – I don’t like to trash it). In this case, while I received the books from the author for free in exchange for a review, I communicated through Word Slinger Publicity and didn’t make my standard arrangements. So, here’s my review saying I didn’t like the books.

You are, of course, entirely likely to have your own opinion on the matter so here’s a quick bit about the books and why I didn’t like them. You can decide whether or not to read on your own and form your own opinions!

The Zoom Boom series (the first three published stories, out of 16 written by the author, are pictured at the top of this post) is a series of stories for children ages 3-7 centered around Zoom Boom the scarecrow and his friends who live on the same farm. As advertised, the stories aim to tell the adventures of Zoom Boom as he spends his time rescuing his animal friends and the farm’s pesky crows when they get into trouble. Written by a grandfather and school bus driver and published by a small Christian publishing company, the stories are intended to teach children “lessons from everyday life which will help them make wise choices, and be nice to others,” according to Word Slinger Publicity’s marketing material promoting the books.

When I received the books in the mail, they were accompanied by a letter from the author describing his intentions in writing the books. Unfortunately, his letter was more compelling than the stories themselves. Overall, the books do strive to teach valuable lessons such as safety in “Be Careful” and valuing others despite their differences in “Be Tidy, or Not?” However, the biggest drawback is that each individual book really tries to do too much. “Zoom Boom” introduces all the characters that (I presume) we will meet throughout the series, with their strengths and flaws but doesn’t tell us a story. “Be Careful” and “Be Tidy, or Not?” each tell snippets of a story, but include too many unrelated lessons. I also get squirmy about phrases like, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness, I always say,” but that might just be because I am messy and don’t clean my house nearly enough…

In any case, the character is a good idea, but the ideas need to be demonstrated–actually shown through stories–rather than just stated.

Two stars.

…and then I read a pitiful amount in February

So January was a resounding success in the realm of reading, though admittedly not so much in the realm of writing. February was pretty much a failure in both areas. In contrast to January’s eight books, in February I finished one book. Just one, which I had started in January. Oh, and I read three issues of National Geographic after they all arrived on the same day (apparently this happens when you renew a subscription after it has already expired).

The book I finished is The Fever by Thomas Fenske (aka That Crazy Cookbook Guy). I really enjoyed this book – it was perfect bedtime reading for me. For most of the book, I looked forward to happily reading a chapter or two before bed every night and heading off to sleep. Closer to the end, though, I did stay up way too late reading… I’ll leave it at that for now and actually post a real review soon.

In the meantime, sorry for my absence and I’m sorry to all of you authors who are waiting for those promised reviews. They are coming!