Song of the Sparrow Review

Do you love tales about Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table? About the tragic, hopeless love between Gwynivere and Lancelot? Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell highlights on this. Its a medieval tale about Arthur leading troops against the invading Saxons, and the effects of the fights.

Song of the Sparrow is about 16-year-old Elaine, the only girl in an all-men's camp in old-time Britain. She's grown up there with her two brothers and father since witnessing her mother's death. Elaine is anything but lady-like, swimming in the river and racing around the camp. Since she was little she has loved Lancelot, but that love is threatened when Gwynivere, the essence of a true woman, arrives. And despite her rivalry with her, they must prepare for the leaving of the army for their attack on the Saxons.

This isn't your usual little fairy tale about Excalibur, this is a full-bodied novel about the sudden growth as a person, and realizing some love is unrequited. Its touching and engaging, making you feel frustration for Elaine having to mend Tirry's armor, and picking mifoil for her medicine, all the while dealing with a "proper" woman helping her. You see Elaine's love for the camp men, and how far she goes for them because of that love.

Will Elaine's and Gwynivere's childish feuds be put to rest because of the war? Will the men succeed at driving out the Saxons? If you pick up Song of the Sparrow, I'm positive you'll love it as much as I do.

Memoirs of a Geisha Review

Ever thought about the difference between a true “geisha” and someone who dressed like them and sold herself? Ever wondered what lies behind the fragile mask, the work of art that forms a geisha? In Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, now a film directed by Steven Spielberg, all those questions are revealed and answered tenfold. The process in which a young woman becomes a piece of art, the workings and training they go through, and in which a maiko - apprentice geisha - locks away her heart.

Memoirs of a Geisha centers around little Chiyo, who grew up in a minuscule place by the sea, called Yoroido. Chiyo, her mother, father, and older sister Satsu grew up in a shanty which she called a “tipsy house”. When she was seven her mother fell ill from what was probably bone cancer. When she was nine her mother passed, leaving her time-worn father to care for her sister and her. Unable to care for them, Chiyo and Satsu are sold off to a man who takes them to the mistress of an okiya in Kyoto. But fate would divide them, Chiyo being taken into the okiya to eventually become a geisha, and Satsu taken to a less respectable place. After a failed escape attempt, a sobbing Chiyo meets a man on a bridge who buys her a sweet and gives her his handkerchief. She then knows she must lock her heart away for the Chairman, and prays to the gods for her to become a geisha.

This book was so hard to me to put down, the visuals so strong and the narration so clear. It was a journey from start to finish, going with Chiyo from when she becomes known as Sayuri, and through the effects of World War II on the okiyas. Filled with highs and lows, laughs and tears, this novel is a touching roller coaster ride of experiences. It touches on all senses and leaves one breathless, as if the life being painted with words is their own. When I was done, I felt as if I had been a famous geisha in Kyoto around the time of WWII. Arthur Golden truly captures Nitta Sayuri’s life in every color of the rainbow, rapturing those that read the book, showing a more personal touch that eludes the newspaper articles on her life.

As if a river, flow with the ride that is the memoirs of a once-famous geisha captured through her historian friend. Learn every little thing about geishas you wish to know, like what a mizuage is and why that is what makes a maiko a full-fledged geisha, or how having a danna makes everything so much simpler financially. Take the dive and be captured like I was in Memoirs of a Geisha.

The Angel Experiment Review

Have you ever imagined being stronger than 10 grown men combined? Being able to spread your 7-foot long wings and fly? In this book, these adolescents with an authority issue are able to do just that. In The Angel Experiment by James Patterson, its an exciting adrenaline rush that has you on the edge of your seat. It's a teenage version of Patterson's usual creations.

The book is from the viewpoint of 14-year-old girl Maximum Ride. She's the leader of the Flock, which includes Fang, Gazzy, Nudge, Angel, and Iggy. But they're not related, and definitely not normal. They're 98% human, and 2% avian thrown in. Created by mad scientists - called whitecoats - experimental peak, they're not your average run-of-the-mill group. Two years ago, they escaped the labratory they were made in with the help of a "good" whitecoat, now presumed to be deceased. Constantly on the run and in danger, the Flock travels across the US to escape the whitecoat's clutches.

The first of many books in the series Maximum Ride, The Angel Experiment is a sure-fire win to me. Max is how every person wants to be - tough, brave, strong, and outrageously sarcastic. The book starts out fast and gets faster, a rush from cover to cover. Its loads of fun, with a 6-year-old who reads minds, and a 14-year-old blind pyromaniac, who's suprisingly a good cook. The characters are bizarre, walking contradictions, and totally easy to fall in love with.

Can Max keep the Flock out of the grasp of the whitecoats for long? And what happens when she's told to save the world? Pick up The Angel Experiment, and find out!