And here I go, writing ten thousand years later. But it's here. My first book review of 2014, and it's for another children's/young adult novel.
I've recently finished reading Watership Down (this website is a great resource for pictures of the real places mentioned in the book), a tale of rabbits struggling for their survival. Now, this is a book that many different people will like; if you like rabbits, you'll enjoy this, if you like adventure books, you'll like this, if you like suspense (yes, there are times where this book becomes quite the page turner), you will like this.
The plot revolves around two brother rabbits, after one has a premonition of a disaster. That's all that I can really say without revealing anything really important from the plot. I'm not a person that likes to give spoilers, so that's why this blog post is going to be rather brief. It's all about the different rabbits they encounter, the few human interactions, and the premonitions that have an incredible impact on how the rabbits view their world, and how important it is for them to push the limits to become the best rabbits possible.
Now, if you like young adult books, books like "Wind in the Willows", then this will definitely be something that you want to read. It's a lovely page turner.
This is a short ass review, because the book is very much what it is. It's amazing, and you just need to read it; if it doesn't catch you than it's probably not the book for you, and if it does, enjoy the journey.
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Monday, March 3, 2014
Thursday, October 10, 2013
The Last Unicorn Review
I am on a roll today!
I was going through my Kindle, trying to decide what I should read next, when I came across a very good book that I read, and I hadn't written a review on. That book is The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (his website is currently down). Now, I read this book a few months ago, but I have to say that it has a style that had influenced at least one of my stories. I didn't realize that I was being influenced until just now when I read the title, and put two and two together.
The Last Unicorn is the story about a unicorn who believes that believes she is the last of her kind, and goes on a quest to seek her others. That is the basic gist of the story, and I'm giving it generally, because I don't want to give anything away. This is a fantasy book/ children's chapter book. It is beautifully written, and so tragically sad. I'm cynical and I have a rather icy heart, but the opening page made me "aww" for the character. There are four main characters in the book, and the adventure they go on is one whose path I couldn't predict: something I always enjoy. I'm so tempted to give a summary, but I'm not going to... I refuse to go down that path!
This particular story is good for someone who has a middle school or higher reading level. It's not difficult at all, and even someone that doesn't necessarily like reading, as long as they like a good fantasy story, would enjoy this. I don't remember finding any of the vocabulary challenging, and I do remember seeing everything the characters did clearly in my mind. Beagle is very good at getting an image and idea across. It's the kind of book that you watch, not read. When I read it, I felt the story was complete, and I didn't really wonder what had happened to the characters afterwards; I knew they all had their lives to lead. I just found out there's a sequel to the book, and that the movie was screened in NYC a few weeks ago. This is exciting news, he is also getting ready to publish six short stories about the characters. I can't wait to get my grubby little paws on it.
My copy of the book is a PDF. I'm not sure where I found it, or if I just googled "The Last Unicorn PDF" (it comes up in the google search suggestions). It's rather small, because I think it was actually taken from the book, and scanned, so you either have to not mind fine print, tilt your e-reader to the side, or blow up each page and let it move around a bit (which annoys me to no end). But other than it being kind of finely written, I don't have any complaints about my copy-- no typos or anything like that. It was good money.
I'm so happy that I was going through my Kindle and I saw that I hadn't done a review for this, because this book really deserves it. It is beautiful, and endearing, and the characters are ones taht your heart goes out to, especially the unicorn. I suggest this book to anyone that really enjoys fantasy literature.
I was going through my Kindle, trying to decide what I should read next, when I came across a very good book that I read, and I hadn't written a review on. That book is The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (his website is currently down). Now, I read this book a few months ago, but I have to say that it has a style that had influenced at least one of my stories. I didn't realize that I was being influenced until just now when I read the title, and put two and two together.
The Last Unicorn is the story about a unicorn who believes that believes she is the last of her kind, and goes on a quest to seek her others. That is the basic gist of the story, and I'm giving it generally, because I don't want to give anything away. This is a fantasy book/ children's chapter book. It is beautifully written, and so tragically sad. I'm cynical and I have a rather icy heart, but the opening page made me "aww" for the character. There are four main characters in the book, and the adventure they go on is one whose path I couldn't predict: something I always enjoy. I'm so tempted to give a summary, but I'm not going to... I refuse to go down that path!
This particular story is good for someone who has a middle school or higher reading level. It's not difficult at all, and even someone that doesn't necessarily like reading, as long as they like a good fantasy story, would enjoy this. I don't remember finding any of the vocabulary challenging, and I do remember seeing everything the characters did clearly in my mind. Beagle is very good at getting an image and idea across. It's the kind of book that you watch, not read. When I read it, I felt the story was complete, and I didn't really wonder what had happened to the characters afterwards; I knew they all had their lives to lead. I just found out there's a sequel to the book, and that the movie was screened in NYC a few weeks ago. This is exciting news, he is also getting ready to publish six short stories about the characters. I can't wait to get my grubby little paws on it.
My copy of the book is a PDF. I'm not sure where I found it, or if I just googled "The Last Unicorn PDF" (it comes up in the google search suggestions). It's rather small, because I think it was actually taken from the book, and scanned, so you either have to not mind fine print, tilt your e-reader to the side, or blow up each page and let it move around a bit (which annoys me to no end). But other than it being kind of finely written, I don't have any complaints about my copy-- no typos or anything like that. It was good money.
I'm so happy that I was going through my Kindle and I saw that I hadn't done a review for this, because this book really deserves it. It is beautiful, and endearing, and the characters are ones taht your heart goes out to, especially the unicorn. I suggest this book to anyone that really enjoys fantasy literature.
Black Beauty Review
I don't know if I've mentioned it in previous blog posts, but I love animals. Seriously, I take animals over humans any day of the week. That's probably the reason my review of the book is going to be biased.
Black Beauty is the only published novel by writer Anna Sewell. According to Wikipedia (whose information can only be trusted so much), she originally wrote the book for people that work with horses. It's become most famous as a book for children.
I first came in to contact with the book Black Beauty because of a typing program that was on my computer when I was younger. One of the test passages was when Beauty is describing his appearance, starting with "I was now beginning to grow handsome..." that is the only part I had really read up until downloading it. That's not to say that I didn't see it in my elementary school--I did, and I tried to read it a few times but I just never made it past the first few pages. I'm not quite sure why. Anyway, it was downloadable to my Kindle, and I finally made my way through.
The book is a biography of a finely bred horse named Black Beauty, from when he was a foal, all the way through to old age. His life starts off rather charmed, but there were years when it was very hard. He also meets other horses, and learns of their life stories. I have to tell you, this book will give you a mega dose of the feels. I cried a quite a few parts when the horses were describing some of the hardships that they had went through. There were animals, like a particular mare named Ginger, who had grown up without knowing human kindness. It hurts me to think that any animal can have such a hard life, although I know it still happens today (hello, I live in New York City--we still have carriage rides that can be taken) to a lesser extent.
Apparently when the book came out, it brought a lot of awareness to the plight that cab horses in London were going through. Not only that, it also criticized people that did things to their horses for the sake of fashion, like bearing reins. From the (minimal) research that I've done, there are situations where the rein is still used, but for shows, and not to the extreme of making the horse look "proud" and hold their head tall. Horses lean their heads forward when doing things to help disperse the weight evenly.
Black Beauty is the only published novel by writer Anna Sewell. According to Wikipedia (whose information can only be trusted so much), she originally wrote the book for people that work with horses. It's become most famous as a book for children.
I first came in to contact with the book Black Beauty because of a typing program that was on my computer when I was younger. One of the test passages was when Beauty is describing his appearance, starting with "I was now beginning to grow handsome..." that is the only part I had really read up until downloading it. That's not to say that I didn't see it in my elementary school--I did, and I tried to read it a few times but I just never made it past the first few pages. I'm not quite sure why. Anyway, it was downloadable to my Kindle, and I finally made my way through.
The book is a biography of a finely bred horse named Black Beauty, from when he was a foal, all the way through to old age. His life starts off rather charmed, but there were years when it was very hard. He also meets other horses, and learns of their life stories. I have to tell you, this book will give you a mega dose of the feels. I cried a quite a few parts when the horses were describing some of the hardships that they had went through. There were animals, like a particular mare named Ginger, who had grown up without knowing human kindness. It hurts me to think that any animal can have such a hard life, although I know it still happens today (hello, I live in New York City--we still have carriage rides that can be taken) to a lesser extent.
Apparently when the book came out, it brought a lot of awareness to the plight that cab horses in London were going through. Not only that, it also criticized people that did things to their horses for the sake of fashion, like bearing reins. From the (minimal) research that I've done, there are situations where the rein is still used, but for shows, and not to the extreme of making the horse look "proud" and hold their head tall. Horses lean their heads forward when doing things to help disperse the weight evenly.
 |
"Proudly" unable to move their necks |
That just looks lovely, doesn't it...? The thing that makes Beauty's story so special is that he doesn't just have cushy homes, he changes hands, and owners, experiencing the full spectrum of humanity. And above all else, he does his best to stay a sweet, kind, gentle horse. Even through the bad times, he doesn't allow it to change his disposition, always taking his mother's advice. Once again, a dose of the feels.
The copy that I had was a digital download from Kindle, for free. It doesn't have any pictures, but it is a very nice text copy, and most of the archaic or European words/phrases have a definition in my dictionary, and the ones that I couldn't look up, or needed a visual reference for, were easily found via web search. Whilst on the subject of vocabulary; this is not at all a difficult book. If you're reading it to a younger audience, you will have to define some of the words, and some picture references will be appropriate, but it should be easily digestible, although some parts will get their emotions going. If this is for a younger audience, and you're reading a paper copy, I do suggest having the internet near by, just for some pictures, especially if the young person isn't equine savvy. If they are, it might not be necessary. If you're older, you still might want to do some research, although if you're anything like me, a little research can lead to an hour of reading about diseases of horse hooves.
I suggest this book to anyone that likes animals, nice descriptions, history, and autobiographies. This is a very lovely book, and I'm happy to have read it.
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