Half Broke Horses

My new favorite book of the week. This is a True story written as a novel. If you have ever Read the book "Glass Castle" then you will already be familiar with the characters. This is about her grandmother. It is not hard to read like the "glass Castle" is. This is not a story of abuse or neglect. This is a story of an amazing women that lived 100 life times during her life. She started breaking horses at 5. She lived through drought, floods, tornado's, prohibition, womens rights, and the depression. She never lost hope, her story is one of pure inspiration. I could not put it down. This is a wonderful, wonderful book. A must read.

Devoured

This is another play off of a fairy tell. This time it is snow white. It was a very interesting idea, but a darker story than most fairy tale remakes. This starts with a girl in modern day that sees her sisters ghost. She starts working at an Fairy tale amusement park to be with her boyfriend. When her sisters ghost goes crazy. She has to find out what her sister is trying to tell her, while dealing with boy problems. Doesn't sound much like Snow White I know, but if I tell you how it ties in it may spoil the story. I put it on my alright list. Not for kids under 16. Multiple references to sleeping with the boyfriend and 2 F words. Kind of sad they had to put that in there. Also it is a little on the creepy side.

Forgive my fins

This was a cute teenage version of the little mermaid in modern day. It took me a little be to get into it, but once I did I read it pretty quick. It is clean and pretty cute. The high school Drama was a little much for me. But all in all I liked it.

Beastly

So I thought I had added this but it looks like a missed a few books here and there. This is a really cute modern day version of Beauty and the Beast. How do you make this story modern? Well you just turn a punk gorgeous rich kid into a beast. Pretty far fetched but a very cute story. If you are in the mood for a fairy tail I highly recommended it. The weirdest part of the book is the internet chat group it starts with. If you think it is stupid (like I did) skip over the odd text it adds very little to the actual story. Also this book is now a major motion picture. I haven't seen it yet but I plan it.

Hex Hall

So this is a young adult series about a girl who is part demon. She is put in a school (Hex Hall) for witches who are out of control. There she finds out she is different from everyone else and falls in love with the wrong guy. It is a cute story clean language, mystery, a little action and a little romance.


Book two just came out, I finished it in about 1 day. It takes place in England during their summer term. Here Sophie finds out about the war waging on all of her kind. She must make a choice between family and love. She also gets put on the front lines of a war with out of control powers. The most annoying part about this book is the cliff hanger ending. And book three is not yet out.



If you liked this book check out the series "The Awakening" it's on this blog as well. Very similar storied. And "The Awakening has all it's books out.

Snow Flower and the Secret fan

Another China historical fiction. But I loved this book. It takes place in the early 19th century. It follows the lives of two Chinese girls through childhood feet binding. (which made me sick) arranged weddings, child raising and old age. It is so interesting to see their culture and experience it with them. It brings a lot of understanding about foot binding and what was considered beautiful. After reading it and see why they did it in hopes of better lives for their children. Even though they crippled them for life. I pretty much could not put it down. After you read it pot on here what you thought. Would you have bound your children's feet? Do you think with time that you would have been a kinder mother in law? Or do you think that that was their way of avenging themselves in their old age for the way they were treated?

Mao's Last Dancer

This book was our book club book for this month. It is kind of difficult to find at stores (at least here). So you may want to check out Amazon. There are also 2 versions of this story. One is an Adult version, one is a young adult. The Adult one has more history, and is about 200 pages longer. I read the young adult and kind of want the other one just for more info.
This story is a biography of a boy that grew up in China under the reign of Mao. It talks about the cultural revolution in China from the perspective of an 11 year old. He was then trained in ballet, and found a way out of communism. It is very well written. Lots of history. It is also being made into a movie. It is a rare glimpse into that country.