The Book of Halloween by Ruth Edna Kelly

Title: The Book of Halloween
Author: Ruth Edna Kelley

Read by: Oliver Vale

Publisher: New Paradigm Press Audio

Length: Approximately 2 hours and 31 minutes
Source: Review Copy from Narrator Oliver Vale – Thank-you!

I am a big fan of holidays.  As a child, I used to love to read every book I could get my hands on to find out more about the background of all of the holidays I loved to celebrate.  As an adult I enthusiastically decorate my house for the holidays with my children and still love to read about the holidays.

The Book of Halloween is a vintage book about Halloween from ancient times to the early Twentieth Century.  Oliver Vale bring the book to life as an audiobook narrating all of tales, myths, and legends that make up the background of Halloween across different countries in the world (mostly Great Britain).  This includes that Halloween takes place on the important date that several cultures celebrated.  

I was sad that The Book of Halloween didn’t contain more detail on how Halloween is celebrated in the United States and the history in this country of where all of our traditions came from.  Also a lot of the information seemed very randomly put together with not much transition between ideas.

Overall , I enjoyed this audiobook and learning the background legends from the past that form the basis for Halloween.  It put me in the Holiday spirit!

Do you have a favorite Halloween book or tale?

What’s in a Name? Welcome to Penelope Rose . . .

I had my baby this past Friday, Penelope Rose Gerold. Penelope is Ben and my third child, and our first daughter.

Unlike our sons, Ben and I had a hard time agreeing on a name for a daughter. I discovered that Ben is very picky about girl names. When we went through the social security’s list of the top 1000 girl names, Ben only liked maybe two names on the list. We had named the boys after family members, but Ben vetoed almost every family member name. So where did we get the name Penelope Rose?

A few years ago, I was listening to an audiobook in the kitchen and Ben wandered in. The main character’s best friend was named Penelope, but she was often called Pen or Penny. Ben heard the name Penelope and said, “I like that name.” I instantly took note as it is not often that he likes a girl name.

I’ve liked the name Penelope since I was in middle school and obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology. I loved Penelope in the Odyssey. Although her husband, Odysseus, is gone for twenty years fighting the Trojan War and having quite the adventure trying to return home, Penelope remains a faithful wife. She is a strong and smart female character. After Odysseus fails to return home after the war, Penelope is beset with 108 suitors. Penelope tells her suitors that she cannot remarry until she finishes weaving a burial shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes, and undoes her work every night to delay the time when she will have to pick a suitor. Eventually Odysseus returns and they are happily reunited.

I also admit to loving the name Penelope in more modern entertainment too. Ben and I loved Lost, and I loved the romance between Desmond and Penelope Widmore. In fact, I always wondered if her name was chosen by the series writers as a nod to the faithful Penelope of the Odyssey as Penelope Widmore remains true to Desmond throughout the years and continues her search for him until they are happily reunited. Penelope might have to endure

“Not Penny’s Boat” from us in future years and wonder what the heck we are talking about.

We chose the middle name Rose after Ben’s great-grandmother. We had two names selected as finalists, and we let our son Kile chose the final name. He selected Penelope Rose and is very proud of himself for getting to name his baby sister. He says we cannot call her Penny as her name is Penelope. We’ll see how long that lasts!

The boys are excited to have a new baby sister and Penelope is a very mild baby so far. Three kids four and under is a lot of work; therefore things may be a little slow on this blog for the next few months. Please have patience and know that I am still reading and watching, but it may take a bit longer to post my reviews!

Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed - Book Club Meeting

Something very cool happened last week. The author of Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed, Marc Blatte, found my blog and commented on my review of his book. I emailed him and he agreed to talk with my Kewaunee library book club at our meeting last week.

We had a fantastic time talking with him. He gave us very interesting insights into his book and also asked us questions about how we felt about certain sections of the book. We all agreed that Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed was one of the best book titles we have heard in a long time. Overall it was very entertaining and a great way to experience the book. It also helped our book club to stay on topic and not delve into politics as we are apt to do.

Marc Blatte was a great sport and we really enjoyed talking to him. I think everyone in the Kewaunee library learned about Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed that day as we all had a great time and let everyone know! It was a great book and we all enjoyed it (except for Janice who is still finishing it - but she liked what she had read so far!) We can't wait for his next novel!

We are going to read Marc's pick for us, The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith, for our next meeting in July.

Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed by Marc Blatte

Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed was my May library book club pick. I must admit, I had a hard time getting started on the book as I the entire hip-hop scene was something that did not interest me. But as I got into the book, I found I couldn't put it down. It kept me riveted - wanting to know how it would end. I guess this is the power of book clubs - it put a book in my path that I could normally not read that ended up being quite excellent.

Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed is a murder/mystery tale set in New York at a murder scene where the world of hip-hop, overpivileged youth, and immigrants with a dream collide. Pasko, an eastern European immigrant and body guard at an exclusive club has been murdered, and his cousin Vooko was run down. Detective "Black Sallie Blue Eyes" is on the case and also on the case of Scholar and Proof Positive, a hip-hop manager and group that may have attacked a white R&B producer at the club on the same night. Why was Pasko murdered?

And what is up with the name for this book. It's from this quote by Pasko, “Take care with this little cuz. This place America ain’t like home. No way. Here nobody takes responsibility for anything. They got ‘no fault insurance’, bumper stickers and tee-shirts that say ‘shit happens.’ Come on, man, let’s be real, shit don’t just happen, yo, that’s what I’m talking about – Humpty Dumpty was pushed!” Too true!

I also thought the author's biography on the back flap was great. It sounds like Blatte has led a very interesting life and definitely has the street cred to write this novel. A great first novel and I look forward to reading his next book.

Life Sentences by Laura Lippman

Life Sentences was recommended on one of my favorite writer's (Jennifer Weiner's blog). It sounded like a great novel so I decided to check it out.

Cassandra Fallows is a well-known author that has published two best selling memoirs about her life. Her latest attempt was a fiction novel that has fallen flat. Cassandra happens to see a news story where she recognizes a fellow childhood schoolmate, Callie Jenkins. Callie served seven years in jail after she refused to explain the disappearance of her 1-year old son. Cassandra returns home to Baltimore to investigate this mystery in the hopes of writing a new memoir that centers on her childhood with Callie and Callie's subsequent fall from grace. Cassandra discovers that her old childhood friends are not so pleased that they have been immortalized in her previous memoirs. She also discovers new truths about herself and her family.

This novel was a good mystery, but it was mostly a character study. I thought this was a very good, but not excellent, novel. My only negative was that the "mystery" was a bit of a let down at the end.

Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival by Velma Wallis

This is my April Kewaunee book club pick. Kathy and I liked the title and decided to pick it. It was a very short read (only takes a couple of hours) and I found it to be very interesting.

Velma Wallis wrote down this legend that had been passed down to her through oral traditions by her mother, a Athabascan Native American in the Alaskan Yukon. During hard times and starvation, two old women are left behind in the middle of winter to die as the tribe moves on. The women are inspired to remember how to survive according to the skills they had possessed as youth and decide to fight on instead of accepting death. It was a very interesting and inspiring tale. I highly recommend it!