Book Review: “The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey”

A little less than half a year since the four children of the Mysterious Benedict Society have seen one another, Mr. Benedict calls them together for a second mission. But while their first mission sought to stop the power-hungry Mr. Curtain, this mission will allow the children to enjoy themselves on an international scavenger hunt set up by Mr. Benedict. That’s the plan, at any rate.

But when Mr. Benedict is kidnapped, the Society begins a more dangerous mission–escaping the many protective (or not so protective) adults around them in order to rescue Mr. Benedict.

The perilous journey will send the children racing through Mr. Benedict’s scavenger hunt, trying to find him before it’s too late.

Like most sequels of truly superlative books, The Perilous Journey is a bit of a letdown. Not because it’s terrible, nor even because it’s mediocre, but because it’s simply “good”. The Perilous Journey is interesting, engaging, and thought-provoking–just not as much so as The Mysterious Benedict Society.

If you read and enjoyed The Mysterious Benedict Society and tend to like young adult fiction, you’ll still enjoy this one. If you’re not generally a fan of young adult fiction, no need to worry about missing this one (but give the first in the series a try!)


Rating: 4 stars
Category: Young Adult General Fiction
Synopsis: The Mysterious Benedict Society reunites for an adventure-filled getaway to save the kidnapped Mr. Benedict.
Recommendation: A good book for all lovers of young adult fiction.


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Book Review: “The Mysterious Benedict Society”

“ARE YOU A GIFTED CHILD LOOKING FOR SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES?” Reynie Muldoon is somewhat surprised when he sees that the newspaper advertisement addresses itself directly to children. But he’s intrigued, and lobbies the orphanage director for a chance to take the tests that might qualify him for “special opportunities”.

After a series of odd tests–with an even odder series of encounters–Reynie finds himself as one of the four privileged (?) children who meet the green plaid clad Mr. Benedict and are invited to join a secret mission to save the world.

The newly minted “Mysterious Benedict Society” goes undercover inside the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened. The four children’s intelligence and trust are immediately put to the test when they discover…well, I won’t tell you what they discover.

I picked up The Mysterious Benedict Society after having heard rave reviews of it from all over the bookie blogosphere. I was not in the least disappointed. The Mysterious Benedict Society is undoubtedly one of the best young adult novels I have read to this point. It has an engaging storyline, fascinating characters, and a truth to it that is altogether remarkable.

Without preaching, this book touches on topics as real and diverse as: trust, interdependence, intelligence, integrity, fear, temptation, control, desire, friendship, and truth. What’s more, Mr. Stewart engages these topics in a style distinctly unlike the moral relativity our day.

This book is a great book on so many different levels. It is a great book because it is truthful. It is a great book because it addresses real life. It is a great book because it makes the reader ask questions. It is a great book because it is READABLE and ENJOYABLE at the same time as it is all of the above. This is truly a FANTASTIC book.


Rating: 5 stars
Category: Young Adult General Fiction
Synopsis: Four children embark on the adventure of their lives as they attempt to save the world from ruthless madman.
Recommendation: Adults and children alike will enjoy reading this book–and will find plenty to think about within it.


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Book Review: “Forever, Erma” by Erma Bombeck

Forever, Erma cover

In a world where humor is euphemism for vulgarity and attacks on traditional morality, Erma Bombeck is sweet relief. Her columns addressed home life with humour and class–without requiring the “potty language” and liberal venom so characteristic of today’s “humor”.

Forever, Erma is a collection of Erma Bombeck’s best columns compiled post-humously. The short columns address everything from teaching your children about the “birds and the bees” via fish, the power of a mother’s saliva for cleaning a child’s face, dealing with a child saying “you don’t love me”, never being able to find a pencil when you need one, and the never ending mystery of the uncoupled sock.

Erma primarily focuses on day-to-day home life–things everyone can identify with, either as a parent, a householder, or as a child within a household. The columns in this collection were written from 1965 to 1996–but they carry timeless appeal. As long as the laundry still needs done and carpools still need managing, Erma Bombeck’s writing will remain current.


Rating: 4 stars
Category: Humour
Synopsis: a gentle look at the humour of everyday life as a homemaker and mother
Recommendation: A great chance for homemakers and mothers (stay-at-home or work-away) to laugh at life without feeling sorry for themselves.


Book Review: “The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Adventure” by Caroline Alexander

The Endurance Cover

I’ve written about Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic adventures before when I reviewed Frank Worsley’s Endurance: An Epic of Polar Adventure. Caroline Alexander’s coverage of the story couldn’t be more different–but is still perfectly satisfactory.

While Worsley’s memoir focuses on the main characters involved in the adventure (from Worsley’s point of view), Alexander’s history gives a clear chronology of the events of the failed Antarctic Expedition. Alexander makes liberal use of the various adventurers’ journals and memoirs to compile a straightforward history of the events the Expedition endured.

Although I’ve read several books and watched several movies and documentaries covering this story, I still learned a good deal as I read The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Adventure. I was able to get a feel for the boredom of being stuck in the ice, for the distress and loss of hope after being stranded on a floating pack for months on end, for the tireless vigor with which several men stepped up to overcome impossible odds.

Worsley’s memoir brought the leaders of the expedition into sharp relief and emphasized the acute attacks of the elements. Alexander’s history helped me understand the less exciting, but certainly no less perilous odds the men had to overcome: the monotony of daily life on a floating pack, the weariness of seeing the same landscape day in and day out, the shock having to kill daily in order to eat, the delirium of seeing land for the first time in a year. This history brought the psychological elements of the Expedition into focus, emphasizing the delicate path Shackleton was forced to trod to maintain morale.

Frank Hurley’s breath-taking photos of the Endurance, its crew, and the Antarctic landscape are sprinkled throughout this book, increasing the depth of its already fantastic coverage of Shackleton’s Expedition.


Rating: 4 Stars
Category:History
Recommendation: A spectacular overview of Shackleton’s Antarctic adventure, this is a must read for lovers of history and adventure.



Book Review: “A Single Thread” by Marie Bostwick

A Single Thread cover

After her husband divorces her, Evelyn Dixon packs her bags and heads across the country to open a quilt shop in a town she’s only visited once. She’s overworked and alone–trying a last ditch promotion to keep her store from going under–when she receives news that could change her life forever.

Abigail Burgess Wynne lives a comfortable life as town patroness, socially active but aloof. That is, until she’s given custody of her delinquent formerly estranged niece Liza. When Liza blackmails her aunt into attending Evelyn Dixon’s quilting event, Abigail’s isolated life changes course.

A Single Thread tells the story of the unlikely community formed when four women are brought together at a quilting event. Each woman’s life is changed by her interactions with the others.

A Single Thread is a well-written book–the plot is interesting, the characters strong–but the beauty of this book is in its depiction of community. Most novels use their characters like game pieces, manipulating them to fit the plot. In A Single Thread, the character’s interactions MAKE the plot as each woman grows through relationship with the others.


Rating: 4 stars
Category:Novel
Recommendation: A novel of the highest quality, I highly recommend it to all lovers of general fiction.


What’s on Your Nightstand?

What's on Your Nightstand?

My “nightstand” is a desk next to my bed–I keep most of my current library books there (if they fit).

Feel free to take a peek:

Picture of Nightstand January 2009

I know, it’s a lot to take in. So I’ll break it down for you:

To Be Read:

Reading Every Book

I’ve written before about my quest to read every book in Eiseley Library–so I won’t go into too much detail here. Suffice to say that once I have read every book by a certain author or in a certain Dewey decimal category, I can “close out” that category and won’t be required to read anything more in that category even if the library acquires more books. If I were smart (hah!) I would work feverishly to close out authors that are still writing prolificly. But alas, I am not smart–and instead work on closing out all sorts of dead authors.

In the children’s section, I’m working on two picture book authors (Dr. Seuss and Ludwig Bemelmans) and two juvenile fiction series (The Boxcar Children and The Hardy Boys). These are my current selections from each.

  • Hop on Pop
  • Green Eggs and Ham
  • Great Day for UP
  • Madeline’s Christmas by Ludwig Bemelmans
  • The Woodshed Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner
  • The Shore Road Mystery by Franklin W. Dixon

In adult non-fiction, I’m hard at work on 640.43 (Time Management) and 649.122 (Infant and Toddler Care). I’m two books away from completing 640.43 (and those two books are on my nightstand now). 649.122 reproduces too rapidly for me to make any real progress.

  • Managing Workplace Chaos
  • Mom, Inc. by Neale S. Godfrey
  • Growing up Green by Dierdre Imus

Compliments of other Bloggers

My blog reader is always suggesting new books or authors for me to read–so much so that I can’t keep up on reading both at the same time (blogs and books, that is). Several books that are on my nightstand now were recommended to me by other bloggers (or I got interested in the topic because of a blogger.)

The 5 Minutes for Books review of Mistaken Identity convinced me that I had to read it.

When Jolanthe was studying Antarctica with her kids, they studied Shackleton’s adventure on the Endurance. The reminder was enough to re-spark my interest. I’ve been reading up on Shackleton since December.

  • The Endurance by Caroline Alexander
  • Sea of Ice: The Wreck of the Endurance

Anna is a big fan of Grace Livingston Hill–and quotes from her on a semi-regular basis. I haven’t read much Hill since I was a preteen, but I nabbed one of her books from the library a while back. It has, unfortunately, been sitting on my desk for WAY TOO LONG!

I had no clue what to expect when I borrowed The Mysterious Benedict Society from the library–only that I’d heard it’s name favorably on a dozen occasions from my most respected bookie bloggers. It was AMAZING! I was telling my little sister about it and trying to see if the library had another copy she could borrow when the librarian informed me there was a sequel. So–I have book 2.

We weren’t able to find a second copy of The Mysterious Benedict Society for Grace, so she didn’t get it. But I checked out a few of her recommendations:

Just Because/That Looks Interesting

I’m a big fan of randomly browsing the library, picking up whatever looks interesting. These fit the bill.

To Be Reviewed

I’m trying to review the books I read more often on my Book Review page, but I’m always hopelessly behind. Recently read books are piled on my desk/nightstand awaiting review.

Hidden Elsewhere

My bag (and bed itself) acts as a cache for a few more books:

Check out some other nightstands at
5 Minutes for Books.


Two Year Anniversary: The Stats

I have a file named “A Catalogue of all I’ve read since September 5, 2006” on my hard-drive. In it, I have listed every book that I’ve read since, well, September 5, 2006. Two years ago. I don’t remember the precise events surrounding the formation of my goal, but for whatever reason, I decided to attempt to read every book in my local library (Eiseley Branch). In order to track my progress, I created that file.

Periodically, I tabulate the number of books I’ve read and record them at the bottom of the file–just so I can see what I’ve read, where I’ve been. I’ve written about it before, so I won’t bore you with the details. Instead, without further ado, my 2 year numbers:

TOTALS as of 9-5-2008 (729 days-2 YEARS)
Juvenile Picture 86
Juvenile, First Read 24
Juvenile, Chapter 71
Juvenile Fiction 126
Juvenile Nonfiction 49
Young Adult 10
Juvenile CD 4
Juvenile DVD 15
Juvenile Video 1
Fiction 175
Nonfiction 325
Audio Cassette 2
Audio CD 34
DVD 24
Periodicals 30
Total 976books
1.34 books per day

I’m pretty proud of my progress–although bummed that my average has dropped (by almost a tenth of a book per day) and that I fell short of 1000 in my first two years. I mean, seriously, I was 24 books short. I could have easily exceeded that had I finished all the books I started but took back to the library before finishing when I left for Mexico. If I didn’t have the “do one project” rule for craft books, I could have exceeded it on quilting books alone. (And we’re talking read. As in, every word of text. Not just looking at pictures. I have another file that tells which craft books I’ve read and has pictures of potential projects to do out of them.)

When was the last time you checked up on a goal? Take a little time to assess your progress. Celebrate how far you’ve come. And grab another book (or pick up your quilt or take a walk or whatever that goal might be) and keep going!


Without Consulting Me

Lincoln City Libraries recently had the audacity to do this without consulting me. Yes, they changed their hours–and didn’t even notify one of their most dedicated users.

Yes, I’d been gone for a month and only visited once since I’ve been back–but I still don’t think that’s sufficient cause for giving me the cold shoulder. I worry that perhaps they misunderstood my absence, that thinking I’d forsaken them, they decided to forsake me. I can see how my actions could be misconstrued. I return all my books–for the first time in years, I have nothing checked out. Then they don’t see me for another month? To the uninformed, those actions certainly look suspect.

Maybe I should have let them know I’d be gone, or sent them some e-mails from Mexico. It was just that I didn’t have much access to the internet–and when I did, it wasn’t free like it is at our libraries here in town. I had to pay for the service in Mexico–and so I failed to keep in touch with my good friend Eiseley.

So today, when I got done with classes at 8:20, I dropped by Eiseley for a chat–only to discover that he was closed. Without the least bit of warning, he changed his hours to close an hour earlier. Which means that there will be no more leisurely night-time rambles through the stacks, no more catching just a few more paragraphs before the lights turn out. I rarely get done with my evening activities before 8, so the night library visits have ended.

If we are to continue our relationship, we must redefine our terms. Tuesday and Thursday mornings before classes? I suppose we can sneak a few hours between other appointments every now and then. But I worry that the inconvenience will mean an unavoidable shift in our relationship. You never come and visit me–I always have to visit you. And now you’ve rearranged your visiting hours so that they rarely coincide with the hours I’m free to visit.

I know you’ve introduced some new features–free holds and the like. It’ll make it more convenient. I can just run in and pick up my titles and leave. But I’ll miss our conversation, the long-standing relationship we’ve had. I really wish you would have thought to consult me. ‘Cause this change makes me really sad.


The Power of a good book

Perhaps you’ve been watching the news and noticed the huge storm system traveling through the Midwest–it stretches from Mid-Kansas up to Minnesota.
weather map from weather.com
Now generally when you think of a storm system like that, you think of a system moving perpendicular to its line. You imagine it working like a squeegie, traveling across the nation. But that’s not what this system’s like–instead its like a string of beads being pulled along a table by one end. Which means that every point along the line experiences one storm after another after another.

I was just coming back from my final break at work when the tornado warning was issued for our area. I immediately started gathering co-workers and moving everyone downstairs. The tornado warning was scheduled to expire at 8:00–45 minutes later (when I was supposed to be clocking out).

Thankfully, I had been reading Pride and Prejudice on my break and still had it in my hand. After we learned how long we would be stuck in the basement, I offered to read out loud. Five women took me up on the offer. So I started, “It is a truth universally acknowledged…”

The warning was extended to 8:15. I read “Within a short walk of Longbourn lived a family with whom the Bennets were particularly intimate.” I had just finished “The boy protested that she should not; she continued to declare that she would, and the argument ending only with the visit.” when the announcement came that the warning had been extended to 8:45. I went for a drink, then returned to begin the sixth chapter. We were a page from finishing the sixth chapter when the warning was finally allowed to expire.

My coworkers said I need to come read to their children–they want their children to learn to read and learn to love reading, but they cannot help them. Three of the women listening were from Sudan, one was from Vietnam. None of them feel that they read well enough in English to adequately train their children. But they loved the book. And they want their children to learn to love such books too. So I have a standing invitation to come and read to their children.

I might just have to do so before too long.