Shannon Hale

"Princess Academy" by Shannon Hale Bloomsbury: 2005

I bought this book in the train station in Busan, Korea. I was there trying to find anything I could in English. This book looked interesting and I read young adult fiction. I wanted to love this book, but I ended up not liking it at all. It was a best seller and had on it the seal of the Newberry Prize (honor). It had to be good but not only did I not like it as an adult but I doubt if I would have liked it as a youngster either.

It is the story of a 14 year old girl who lives on a mountain where everyone else works the quarry. There is a separation between those who live in the mountains and those who are in the valley. Then comes the improbable news that it has been foretold that someone from Mount Eskel, where she lives, will become the wife of the crown prince. All of the girls in the area who are of marriageable age must attend a special princess academy and compete to be the princess bride.

This whole story centers around girls trying to find husbands although some other things happen but the basic thrust is getting the prince. Secondary is the protagonist, Mira's, crush on a boy of her own village. This story seemed to be a Harlequin Romance story for girls. Boring, boring, boring. Fourteen years of age is way too young to think seriously of marriage and to have it in a book aimed at girls seems outrageous.

Someone else gets the prince and Mira finds herself the envy of the village when the boy of her dreams finds her attractive too. Sorry if this spoils it for you, but there are lots of wonderful young adult novels that do not encourage young ladies to just opt out for marriage. There has to be something else out there for women. I knew it when I was a young girl and I certainly know it as a senior citizen.

Someone must of loved this book. I would rather have my money back. Still, the book was written well and there is a group of people out there, I suppose, who love romances who might like this one. I love romances too, but again there is more to life than a marriage and children. I think I got bored just writing this.

Additional Note: "The Hero" By W. S. Maugham

Additional Note: "The Hero" by W. Somerset Maugham Google Books: 1908

If you have your own book journal, you can stop the presses, so to speak, and add something to what you published. I wish I could add this to the last post I wrote on this book, but once you put the pictures in a post, the post itself becomes unstable. This additional note will have to do.

I thought about this review all day. I knew I left something out regarding my reactions to this book. I still like the book. There is no question on that, but it addresses a situation that I have argued in my life with friends and family. It is the question of Captain James Parson's reluctance to marry his fiance, Mary. She had been waiting for him for five years. He had asked her to marry him when he left to go to war in South Africa. It is basic to the plot of the book. James no longer wants to marry her and learns to finally detest her and finds he would do anything than marry her.

During the last election, there were two people running for election, Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain. One of the criticisms that some of my friends had was that when McCain came back from Viet Nam he was a POW, he did not want to be married to his wife anymore although she waited for him. She had gained weight from an automobile accident she had. He divorced her and married a wealthy woman who was very beautiful. I agreed with some of the those who said that he did a dishonorable thing.

Then I remembered in my childhood my aunt who was so good to me as a child who raised my mother when they left Harbin, Manchuria to live in Beijing, China. She had met my uncle in Beijing and they fell in love and she came to this country and then sponsored my mother five years later. It was later that I found out that my uncle divorced his wife to marry my aunt. My aunt and uncle were happily married for over 50 years until he died.

I could go on about people I knew who left one spouse to marry others because they were unhappy and went on to live happy lives. I decided that no one should be forced to live with a spouse they don't want to live with. That is like living in the dark ages. In the book, I thought with the present state of things that maybe James could have married Mary and just had affairs on the side, but he was not the sort to do that. His parents were happily married and he wanted the same.

I was a bit of a prig when growing up. Luckily, I grew out of it. I was raised by a church culture who stated that once you are married you are married for life. A man does not have a right to divorce a wife and get a new one. It is hard on the woman, but harder if she has to live with a man who can't stand her. I still hear those so-called rules in Christian churches that the only way a man can get a divorce is for adultery. If a woman's husband is an alcoholic and beating the crap out of her she is out of luck according to their rules. He has to leave her for another woman for her to get a divorce and for her to be able to re-marry.

Maugham was writing that book during a time when honor and those rules were more strict than they were when I was a kid and certainly worst than the 21st century. Maugham was a gay man who could never come out but stayed in the closet for his entire life. James was in an intolerable situation and his way out may have seen a bit extreme but it was in keeping with who James was.

W. Somerset Maugham

"The Hero" By W. Somerset Maugham Google Books: 1908

Captain James Parsons comes home from the Boer War in Africa to a small town in England, injured and a hero with the Victoria Cross. Everyone is so proud of this local son of Colonial Parsons. What they did not count on was the boy they sent off to war is not the same man who comes back. They are not happy with what war and the world has done to him. The same goes for James. He does not like how he and English life has changed either.

I thought I read all of Maugham's novels but was surprised to find it in Google's Books. This is a faulty novel to be sure, but the faults are minor to the really important things that are in this early novel. The character, James Parsons, is well developed and balanced and the reader sees how much he loves his parents but hates the life style that they live in. He also has learned while in Africa how very much he is capable of full blown passion and love although the woman he had fallen in love with was part of the current world and ambitious she is still a woman that sets his blood racing. Still, he tears her letters up because to love her means to hurt too many people he loves in his life.

The people in his home village are set in their ways and so sure they are right. They are Christian and of course God is on their side. When James questions this saying that the Boers were equally convinced that God is on their side and were just like the British people except they could not survive the war they were scandalized. They told him that he had no idea what he was talking about. James was there to fulfill their expectations of the world and not the other way around no matter what his experiences were.

This book could have been set in today's world except for the solemn promise of James' engagement to Mary. James was caught in the wishes and desires of the people he loved. He no longer wanted to marry Mary because he found out what it was to be in love with a woman who could make him desire her. Mary just wanted to do what was expected in her society.

If people stood out and were different, then society would trim him down to fit. They attempted to do this with James with tragic results for James. Over and over again they used the excuse that if he cared for them he would buckle down and do what was was honorable instead of what he wanted to do. Maugham used foreshadowing effectively to show this. It was done well in this book and an indication of the use of it in later works. The author never tells the reader everything to complete the story in the book. They can look for it in the hints and details in the story. Maugham does not enter the story like Hercule Poirot and spell it out for the reader. I like that aspect of his writing.

The writing was excellent although some parts of the book did seem like a play. I never lost interest in the story or in what was to happen to James. Mary was very well developed as well as James parents and Mary's mother. I would like to see this book more read than it is currently. Everyone can read it as it is either free or the cost very nominal.

Haruki Murakami

"Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami translated from the Japanese by Jay Rubin Vintage:2000

There is a fast food restaurant next to the book store all under the big roof of Home Plus in Daejeon, Korea where I go to see people when I want a break from my writing. I still write, but I do it by hand instead of the laptop in my apartment. In the summer, I came to sit in the yellow and orange chairs and tables to escape the oppressive humidity and heat and so did a large number of Koreans.

Before I buy by rice burger, I often make a run into the bookstore and go to the section on the back wall that has the sign, "ESL" and there are several books there in English and I search most of the time in vain. This time, I spotted this book by Haruki Murakami and grabbed it. He is one of my favorite authors and although I had this book sitting on a shelf at home, I had not read this particular book of his although I had read several of his others. I was very pleased to see it there and it was the only one there. I bought it.

When I read it, I was careful not to mark it or spill anything on it as I am going to donate it to the English Library of the University across the street. They do not have any of his books there. Most of the books that they do have are the books one can get for free off Google Books for they are public domain books with some exceptions. One of them are the Harry Potter books which the bookstore also has.

The author is a Japanese citizen born on January 12, 1945 and is a writer, translator, teacher, professor, former jazz club owner and marathon runner. He has lived in Japan and in the United States. Many of his books feature music including "Norwegian Wood". He got the idea to write his first novel when he was 29 years old while sitting at a baseball game and started it when he got home writing between working at the jazz club. He had no training in creative writing. He sent it to a contest and won first prize. His success with this novel, "Hear the Wind Sing", encouraged him to keep writing. He is now considered an important figure in postmodern literature.

I have read several of his books but "Norwegian Wood" is not among my favorite. I am inclined to like such novels as "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" and "Kafka on Shore." I loved his autobiography, "What I talk about When I Talk about Running." I have not read all of his books he has written as of now but plan to keep finding other titles when I get back to the States. "Norwegian Woods" is a novel that is still well worth reading. It was a huge hit with the Japanese especially the youth when it came out in 1987.

"Norwegian Wood"'s title is from a Beatles song of the same name. The novel is a basic coming of age story of a young man, Toru Watanabe told from the perspective of the older Watanabe who is remembering his youth as an university student living in Tokyo in the late 1960's. There are many people in the novel that play a part in Watanabe's life but there are three main people who cast a shadow over the entire novel, one who was his best friend but commits suicide early in the novel. The other two are women who represent sexuality although they are not similar. One of them is his best friend's old girlfriend and the other is the new girlfriend with a complete different set of issues. All of the people Watanabe meets all have a hand in shaping the man he is to become at the end of the novel.

Joseph Campbell said boys need rituals to become men. Women have their first period and presto they are women. It is far more complicated for boys to achieve manhood. Maybe that is why there are so many coming of age stories and books for men than there is for women.

In "Norwegian Wood", the protagonist becomes a man with the help of women. Sometimes men need a male mentor but in this book Watanabe gets his help through women. Maybe this coming of age issue with men left me outside the bubble of understanding here as I am a woman. I don't know. There were so many people willing to help this young man grow into a self-sustaining and independent man. I could not help thinking that much of what was happening here was a little autobiographical. I never had this feeling with this author's books before.

Campbell is right. Girls just become women with our first menses when we become capable of bearing children. At that point, we spend much of our time convincing the young men we don't want to have children until we are ready. Men just want to have sex. Watanabe never spent much time worrying about getting any of the women he slept with pregnant. He just wanted to have sex. Then later when we have husbands or a permanent partner, we are too busy with children and husbands to wonder if we are women or girls. We are mothers and that takes most of our time. Of course, this is a gross generalization, but I think an appropriate one.

As I wrote earlier, this is a book well worth reading for other reasons other than the simple fact that it is a coming of age novel. There are other things here that are worth considering. Murakami is a writer, a great writer for many reasons and it shows in this book. There are levels of meaning that reach down into the reader, male or female that make it well worth the investment of time in reading this novel. For instance, there is a viewpoint that the student movement of that period of the 1960's was largely weak willed and hypocritical and that maybe most student movements are doomed to fall into this category. There is also a great deal about mental illness and about self-healing vs. the mental health field and how effective it really is.

A professor at the university said it was just a Japanese book. I was surprised that he would think that. It may have been popular in Japan, but it is far from being just a Japanese book. Murakami is far from being just a Japanese author. The book has implications that reach far beyond Japanese shores. Murakami has always expressed a fascination with American culture. His books show a worldliness that makes his books not only remarkable but a necessity for all readers to consider.

Anne Perry

"Dark Assassin" By Anne Perry Ballantine: 2006

I have noticed that I have been writing less and less about the author's background and more and more about the work itself on this blog. In this case, however, the author's background is fascinating and may be already known to many readers and that is Perry was convicted of murder as a teenager. She and a friend murdered the mother of her friend because she wanted to separate them. Perry's parents were separating and both girls wanted to live with Perry's father. They were tried and convicted and served five years in prison and neither saw each other again. For more detail, the reader can look up the case on the Internet. A movie was made regarding the case and a documentary is being prepared on it as well. Perry and her friend had a rich fantasy life and created many stories. With that background and the background of being tried for murder and convicted, Perry has turned out to be a very good writer of mystery novels.

This is not the first novel I have read of this author, but I tend to read widely in this area and lean away from period murder mysteries with the possible exception of Sherlock Holmes. In this case although I did not have much choice in the book since I am still in Korea and can only read what is available, I am very glad I purchased this book for it is an excellent book about a period of time in London when the London Sewerage System was created.

The London Sewerage System is part of the water infrastructure system serving the city of London and was developed during the late 19 century at the time of this novel was set. It was made clear that the River Thames was an open sewer with terrible health problems such as cholera epidemics. There was what was called "The Great Stink" of 1858 that was so bad that Parliament finally agreed to fund the creation of a modern sewerage system. It is the construction of this sewer system that is central to the plot of this novel.

Many cities have interesting underground cities such as Edinburgh,Scotland and Portland, Oregon but I had no idea that there was such an underground of rivers and streams and of people who lived underground and many who lived their whole lives under London. I also had no idea that this sewer system was part of other novels and books such as Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" in 1996. The BBC also featured it as one of the "Seven Wonders of the Industrial World".

The book starts with William Monk who has recently been appointed superintendent in the River Police in a boat patrolling the Thames. They look up and see a couple on the Waterloo Bridge in a deep discussion and suddenly both fall into the river, the woman falling backwards. They rush to where they are but the river is so dank and filthy that they are dead before they can fish them out. Is it an accident or suicide and the man simply an accident? Monk starts to investigate and finds more questions than answers.

The investigation and relationships of the people involved is almost second to the building of the sewer and what makes this novel so remarkable is the way Perry handles the descriptions of the underground, the people building the tunnels and the police trying to make sense of what is happening both underground and on top. The reader can feel the muck under the shoes and boots of the people walking the tunnels and can hear the machinery as they dig the deep tunnels where the sewer pipes will go and where the bricks will be laid.

I went to London in 2002 and used the tube or underground subway often to get around London. It was deep and I would take several escalators and stairways to get to the train platforms. It may not have been the sewer, but I could see how London had such a underground. One time before going to my rooms, I ate a small dinner at a restaurant and the place started to shake really hard. I was concerned as I did not think England had earthquakes. I looked around and no one seemed to notice. Everyone was eating. Then I realized that the tube was right beneath me. This sort of shaking was happening when the building of the sewer was occuring and when there was cave-ins.

What happens to people who are injured in the building of the sewer? What was happening to people who lived near the river? How did people ignore the plight of those who got sick on the filth of what was floating in the river? Perry did her homework. She even had a court scene that was well done or seemed plausible.

At the end, things are tied in a believable ending although it seemed a bit drawn out. Still, it was done well. I learned a lot from that period and about London during that time. I also appreciated the richness of the relationships of the characters. It is an evolving book and one that I want to pick up again with another adventure and title.

W. Somerset Maugham

"Rain and Other Stories" by W. Somerset Maugham YBM SI-sa: no publishing date listed

This is one of those books that I bought from Home Plus here in Korea that is half English and half Korean. The stories that is included are the full version of the original stories. I have mentioned before in other posts that I first read short stories by Maugham as a young teenager because I had nothing else to read in the house and it was a book my mother had. Normally, I did not care for short stories until I read this author's stories set in the South Pacific. There are only three short stories in the collection and I remember reading all of them in that particular volume.

The first one is "Rain" and I remember how shocked I was reading that story. Three films were made from this story. One was a silent film in 1928 starring Gloria Swanson called "Sadie Thompson " which was based on a play that was taken from the short story. Another was "Rain" filmed in 1932 starring Joan Crawford and the third was "Miss Sadie Thompson" filmed in 1953 starring Rita Hayworth.

Reading it again this time I had the advantage of my age and the fact that I read "The Summing Up" a book about the author's philosophy about writing. I knew he liked to include himself in the plot of much of his fiction as an interested observer. He got this idea from reading Henry James. In this case, the author appeared as Dr. Macphall. Maugham was a trained physician although he did not work very long in the field. The setting was in Pago Pago in the South Seas.

The main characters was Miss Sadie Thompson who was a prostitute. She was thrown out of one red light district and on her way to another. All of them including a missionary husband and wife and the doctor and his wife were forced to stay at Pago Pago until they were cleared to continue on their journey elsewhere because of a measles outbreak elsewhere. It was when the missionary, Davidson, discovered Thompson's true profession that the real action of the story begins. He is incensed that she is allowed to stay in the same house as they are and entertain men in her room.

In a slow dance, he starts to tighten the rope around her neck until she is without anything to do and then he goes to the governor and convinces him to throw her off the island on the very next ship which would take her to San Francisco. Thompson begs Davidson to let her go on another ship because prison awaits her if she goes back to San Fransisco. Even the doctor cannot convince the missionary to let her go on a later ship that would take her to Australia. Davidson wants her to pay for her sins. Then Davidson tries to convince her to give up her way of life and become a Christian. She begins to do that. Slowly, the noose tightens around Thompson's neck but it begins to tighten around the missionary's neck as well. She walks onto the ship that will take her to San Francisco and prison but with her old ways back saying that all men are pigs and the missionary ends up slitting his own throat.

There is a reason this story has stood up. It is written and paced extremely well. Maugham was a successful playwright but this group of stories showed the public that he could write short fiction. The book was very successful. He never looked back and saw himself as a professional writer.

The story was written in prose that was easy to read and yet showed the place where the travelers were at. Maugham had been there. He had written that he could not use complex prose that was popular at the time. It is no longer in vogue although the way he writes then is now very much still in style. He could control the language and make it say what he wanted it to say and give the mood and image of what was necessary to the story.

The next story is "Red". It starts out as a captain of a small vessel carrying cargo makes its way to an island. Everyone is described and there is a good reason for it. The captain is portly, not particularly good looking, sloppy and drinks a bit too much. He knows where there is an opening in the reef for the ship to slip in and goes ashore to a small house where a man lives. The man tells him a story about the big tragedy of his life of how he came upon this beautiful spot and fell in love with his beautiful woman who was in love with a young man named Red who was kidnapped by a ship long ago. The young man was as beautiful as the young girl was and they were lovers and lived an ideal life until he was kidnapped. Shortly after he left the girl had a stillborn child. She waited and waited for his return. The man who was sick fell in love with her and wanted to marry her and she refused because she was waiting for Red. He married her anyhow and she burned down the house and he rebuilt it anyhow. Many years have passed and she never loved the sick man who recovered and she just served him. He ended up hating her. Then the woman came in and asked him something. She had gotten old and gray and then left. The captain finally admitted that he was Red. He went back to his ship. The man saw how much he cheated himself and told the woman after she asked who the captain was that he had just told him that his brother was sick at home and he needed to go home. She did not recognize the man sitting there as her lover, Red and the man decided not to tell her.

The last story was "Honolulu" and it started off as if it was a travel essay. The story is in the 1st person by a traveler who listens to a story told by a captain who invited them on his ship. The traveler had been told that the captain although he was a captain of an inferior ship because of a loss of command that resulted in loss of life was a very pleasant man. He had a beautiful woman who was his partner. He told the story that happened a few years before just after he bought a girl from her father that the first mate wanted and started to make him ill by praying him to death. His girlfriend found out what to do and tricked him into gazing into his image and then throwing the image into the sea. His first mate then died and the captain recovered. The traveler was amazed that this beautiful woman would do so much for the captain but he was told she was another girl since the other girlfriend ran off with the cook the year before. He has a new one.

As I said, when I read these stories I stayed with them the first time and being surprised at the ending. Now, I can see how Maugham used women characters to move the plot especially the last two stories. Still, these are good stories and well done. I have read other stories by this author and found them compelling as much as I found his novels fascinating reads. I have read everything by Maugham. Here in Korea, I am limited on what I can get my hands on.

Sometimes in fiction, the plot is more important than the characters. Maugham said that he thought Anton Chekhov did not put enough warmth in his characters and I would have to agree. There is no doubt that Maugham put a great deal of thought in his characters. He said he always started with someone real that he knew in creating his characters and then changed and modified them to fit the story he was working on. I think you have to care about someone in a story for it to work with the reader or with it is with me. If I don't care one way or the other about anyone in a book or short story I usually put the thing down and don't pick it up again.

I am leaving Korea in a month and an half and one of the things I am going to do is hit a book store. I have been dreaming about going to a Barnes and Noble and getting more short stories by Maugham or maybe ordering them if they don't have them. Oh....I can't wait. I really like this author as he writes uncommonly well.

Roald Dahl

"Matilda"by Roald Dahl Puffin Books: 1988 illustrated by Quentin Blake

I love books by Roald Dahl but not all of them equally. This one is my favorite. I read this one in the United States and I saw the movie based on this book in the States too. Then while I was in Home Plus, I saw this book sitting on a shelf and I grabbed it. Ah, I will read it again. Then after I read it, I looked on the Internet for the movie and I found it to my surprise and watched it again. Well, I am ready to put in on my book journal. I opened the cover to put down the details and then I started to read it again. Finally, after finishing it, I found the movie on You Tube and watched it again. Please forgive me reader, I really love this book. The movie is great too, but the book is better but both are wonderful.

I think many girls reading this book identify with Matilda. I grew up in a family that did not really know I was around. When I was missing, no one noticed. When I asked for a book, my mother thought I was a bit odd although we did not have the same television viewing habits as Matilda's parents had. Her parents watched it all of the time. We did not. It was an aunt who taught me to use the public library and I walked several miles to the library alone just to use the library and carried the books home to read them in trees. Note to the reader, no one ever looks up into trees so no one ever saw me. I was not allowed to stay in my room during the day and beside I shared one with my sister.

I wish I could say I was as smart as Matilda is and that I taught myself to read. No, I learned to read in school but once I started there was no stopping me. I just loved looking at Matilda going through all of the books in the public library and the librarian who helped her. I had a librarian who helped me. The illustrations really caught the niceness of Matilda and the way she was so hungry for knowledge.

Finally, she started school and she meets a wonderful teacher, Miss Honey. As smart as Matilda was, she was well liked by her fellow students but not by Miss Trunchbull, the kid-hating headmistress. Dahl makes it all sound so believable. There is magic in the world and the author is the one to record it.

Matilda does get a family that deserves her although I did not. Still, there is enough wonderful magic in the story that it gives the reader the hope that all will turn out well for everyone in the end.

It's hard to believe that Dahl used to be a fighter pilot during World War II and a spy for the British but he led a very exciting life. He must have led an exciting inner life too. I will be reviewing more Dahl books as time goes by.

I had "Jamie and the Magic Peach" but I lost it. Here in Korea, children come up to me and stare and sometimes say hello. We, Americans, are almost always teachers. One very special little boy came up and he was so delightful that I gave him the book. I hope he is able to read it someday.

Martha Grimes

"The Winds of Change: A Richard Jury Novel" By Martha Grimes Signet: 2005


I have not read a Martha Grimes book for sometime and was not going to however as mentioned before I really don't have much choice here in Korea. In this instance, I am glad I did. I really enjoyed this book although some parts made me uncomfortable because the subject matter concerned the sexual exploitation of children and the author wrote about it convincingly.

Jury as a homicide detective is called to investigate the death of a child who was shot in the back. He begins a trail that leads to a cold case of a missing girl in another town. Soon other people are brought into the puzzle which includes Brian Macalvie of the Devon and Cornwall Police and Melrose Plant. Grimes does an excellent job describing the characters including children in a very convincing way. Murder is a terrible crime but the sexual abuse of children is the murder of their souls. Clues pile up but seem random until Jury begins to make sense of the mystery and solves it in the end although he risks everything including his own career to save those who are still alive and suffering.

In society, there exists a class of criminals who feel that they are doing children a service by introducing them to the so-called pleasures of sex and they will pay very handsomely to do so. Then there are those who work hard to defend the innocents from their depraved and sick behaviors. Unfortunately, those with money often win more than those who can protect the young. It is a constant battle to save the children and some will break the law to do it. "The Winds of Change" portrays this conflicts realistically.

I have every intention of reading Grimes again if this book is any indication of the quality and well plotted thoroughness of her writing. I don't remember why I stopped, but this book keep me reading well into the night.

George Gissing

"The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft" by George Gissing

This is another thin red book that is in both English and Korean that I bought at Home Plus in Daejeon, Korea. I never heard of this writer or the book. I just took a chance on it. I have never been so pleasantly surprised as I was with this author. To think, I discovered this English novelist who lived from November 22, 1857 to December 28, 1903 in a country whose primary language is not English. He died at the age of 46 from emphysema from an ill-advised winter walk. He is buried in France.

"The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft" was the most autobiographical work of Gissing and it brought him much acclaim. He had been able to retreat to a more private life to write after receiving a late legacy. This is a story of that new beginning of his writing life.

In the book, the author writes as if he is writing a journal and he writes clearly his love of books, his home, the walks and nature and what he sees on them, his housekeeper and other things in such a way it is warm and comforting to the reader. I can see why Gissing is included in this series of books to help the Korean learn English for the book is easy to read but interesting and well written. The reader can readily see what Ryecroft is experiencing around him.

I looked up Amazon Books to see if any of Gissing books are in print and was happy to see quite a few of them are. I had looked up his name in Google Books and expected to see his novels sitting there forgotten since he had lived so long ago. Not so. He is read now and they are all in print. I can understand it. When I get to the USA in December of this year, I will buy one. I loved this book. What a wonderful mind and eye he must have had to have written the way he did.

J. & W. Grimm Part III

This is a third thin red book that is written in English and Korean on stories by the Brothers Grimm. This book contains the stories of "The Town Musicians of Bremen" and "The Sleeping Beauty". In contrast with the other two red books, there are small drawings in this book that illustrate the stories.

The first story is one that every senior citizen would love. In "The Town Musicians of Bremen" a man had a donkey that served him faithfully by carrying his sacks to the mill, however because the donkey was getting older the donkey's strength began to fail. The man thought that it was time to get rid of it. The donkey was no ass and left one morning before the man got up because he thought his days were numbered. The donkey thought he might become a musician in the town of Bremen or as he thought to himself: it couldn't hurt. After he traveled down the road he met a dog who was in the same position as he was. His master was thinking of killing him because he could not hunt as well as the younger dogs. He joined forces with the donkey to become a musician as he thought he could beat the drums. Then they met a cat who had a mistress who wanted to drown her as she was getting too old to catch mice like she did when she was younger. The donkey and the dog said she could join them and be the singer. Then they walked past a farm and found a cock who was looking at the real possibility of being in the soup that Sunday because he was getting too old to crow in the morning. He joined the group. Off they went to Bremen.

Since they could not reach the town of Bremen in one day, they looked for a place to stay and found a cabin in the middle of the woods that had a bunch of robbers who were sitting down to eat. They decided to sing and the robbers ran from the cabin into the woods. After a while and after the donkey and his friends went in and ate and went to sleep the robbers sneaked back into the house and tried to find out what was going on with the house. The cat scratched them, the dog bit them and the donkey gave them a good sound kick and the cock crowed. The robbers were convinced that the cabin was haunted by a witch and ghosts and left permanently and the musicians found a permanent home and lived there happily ever after.

The second story is "The Sleeping Beauty". Everyone pretty well knows this story of a king and queen who wanted a child and finally got one, a girl. They had only 12 plates of gold so could only invite 12 fairies to the fairy portion of the party following the birth of the princess. The one that was not invited came anyway and said that the princess on her 15th birthday would prick her finger on a spindle and die. Since the last fairy did not get a chance to make her wish, she modified this wish and said that the princess would only fall asleep and the kiss of a prince would awaken her. The king in an effort to make sure this did not happen outlawed all spindles although it was not known what his subjects did for clothes. Maybe they had Walmart Stores. Anyhow, on her 15th birthday, the princess found a spindle in a room that was locked. She had found a key and sure enough it pricked her and everyone fell asleep. This vine with horrible stickers grew all around the castle and another king took over the land for one hundred years. Many other princes heard of the legend of the sleeping beauty but could not get through the stickers and perished. Obviously, there was that darn surplus of princes again. Then one hundred years to the day a prince came by and thought he would try his luck. The vine parted for him and he found the 15 year old princess and kissed her and she woke up. These days he would have been arrested but he got to marry her right away after everyone woke up.
It is unknown whether the king got his kingdom back though.

I think I am more cynical during this re-reading of these fairy tales. In fact, I am sure of it. I see magic being more than some prince marrying someone and they living in some castle forever. I don't think I ever liked that part anyhow. I saw what marriage did to my mother and what it did to the ladies of the neighborhood. It was not such a great job. At least if one lived in a castle one had servants and time to read a book or go to a party ever so often. If one did not like the prince anymore, there were plenty of rooms to move into. That was not possible in a three bedroom ranch house in the suburbs or an apartment in the city. Since men make more money than women and in those days rarely paid child support, times were hard for women if they wanted to live without their princes and that was when I was younger. It is still hard for women now especially men and women running for office wanting to repeal some of women's rights or abolishing the civil rights act. However, these are fairy tales.

Still, we have to be very grateful for the Brothers Grimm for collecting these stories which may have been lost if they did not do this. They inspired others to do it and the tradition is strong and part of our cultural heritage no matter what part of the world each of us are from.

J. & W. Grimm Part II

"Grimm's Fairy Tales" by the Brothers Grimm

This is another one of those thin red books that are written in English and Korean. This book contains the stories "The Elves and the Shoemaker", "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats", "The Frog Prince", Rapunzel" and "Snow-White and Rose-Red".

The first story, "The Elves and the Shoemaker", is about a very poor shoemaker who lived with his wife and was left with just enough leather to make one more pair of shoes. With a sigh, he cut out the shoes at night so he could set to work the next morning and went to bed with his wife. The next morning, he got up and found the shoes were already made and they were excellent and he was able to sell them for a bigger profit than usual. He bought enough leather to make two shoes and cut them up at night to make in the morning and the same thing happened. Again, the quality was so outstanding he made a great profit and he had enough for four pairs and the same thing happened. Soon he found he was making a good living. One night he said to his wife that he wanted to stay up and see who was doing this for him so they both stayed up and found two naked little men coming in at midnight who were making the shoes. The shoemaker and his wife decided to make some clothes for the elves. The shoemaker made small shoes. They stayed up again to see how their gifts would be received and the elves put on the clothes and danced and said they were no longer cobblers and danced out the door. They were never seen again. Ever since then the shoemaker's business prospered as if they left some magic behind.

In "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats", there was a mother goat who had seven little goats who she loved very much. Since she was going to into the wood to fetch some food for them, she warned them to be on the watch for the wolf who had just moved in the neighborhood. Be careful, she warned them because he will try and get inside this house and eat you up, skin, bones and all. You will recognize him by his hoarse voice and black paws. Soon after their mother left, the wolf showed up and was sent from the door. First he disguised his voice with chalk and then he disguised his paws with flour he got from the baker. Well, this wolf really wanted to eat them and finally got in and swallowed them whole except one who was hiding in the clock-case. When the mother goat came home and saw the mess the house was in she was horrified and found the last surviving baby goat. She found the wolf asleep and saw his sides still moving and sniped his sides open and found her kids still alive. Then she put some stones back inside the wolf and sewed him back up. That wolf must have really been asleep. When he woke up, he felt like he had been under some deep spell and was very thirsty. He went to a stream to drink but fell in instead and drowned.

To me, "The Frog Prince" was very dissatisfying. The King's daughter had a favorite ball she lost and this frog promised he would get it if she would make him, the frog, her friend. She thought the frog as a nothing and readily promised just to get her ball back. He got it for her and while she was eating dinner that night he knocked at the door and said that he wanted to be her friend as she promised. The daughter was horrified when the king made her keep her promise. Now, the princess was the most beautiful woman in the land and figured she did not have to keep her promise to this ugly old frog. The king said otherwise. Finally, as she went to sleep and the frog wanted to be lifted into her bed, she flung him against the wall with all of her might. Instead of killing him he turned into a prince. Later with the King's permission they got married. If I was the prince, I would have thanked the princess and said goodbye and searched for a princess that had a heart.

"Rapunzel" was about a man and his wife who lived next door to a witch who had a wonderful garden. The wife wanted some rampion that grew in the witch's garden and the wife begged her husband to sneak in there and steal some for her. He loved her with all of his might and he was able to get some. His wife was happy with the rampion he got and wanted more. Unfortunately he got caught by the witch. She was going to do him in but he said it was for his wife. The witch said he could have all of the rampion he wanted as long as he gave her their first born child. The man thought he was safe because they had not been able to have a child. Well, as luck would have it they had a daughter soon after this and they had to give it to the witch who promised to raise it as well as any mother would. Witches in those days must have had a lot of power. Anyhow, Rapunzel was the most beautiful child in the world and when she was 12 years old the witch shut her up in a tower in the midst of a wood. The only way up was Rapunzel's long hair which shone like gold. A few years later as it often does, the prince of the land heard Rapunzel singing and saw how the witch got in and he got in too. The prince proposed to her and being a man also showed her a few other things. Rapunzel accidentally let the witch know of the prince and witch cut Rapunzel's hair and waited for the prince. She had banished Rapunzel in a waste and desert place where she lived in great misery as she was pregnant. Then when the prince came up to see Rapunzel, the witch told him that his love was gone and he escaped from the tower with his life by jumping from the tower but he became blinded from the thorns. He wandered but heard her voice and followed it. When they were reunited the tears from Rapunzel gave back his sight. He took Rapunzel and their twin children back to his kingdom where they lived happily ever after.

Out t of this book, "Snow-White and Rose-Red" was my favorite story. Snow-White and Rose-Red were the daughters of a poor widow who lived alone in her hut in the forest. They were very poor but pious, good, industrious and amiable children. Everyone got along well and the girls got along with the animals of the forest as well. They were kind to the animals and even a big black bear who came knocking at their door. The bear wanted to stay the night and although they felt nervous they agreed. The bear stayed with them until he had to leave so he could protect his treasure from the dwarfs. The young ladies later met a very rude dwarf but they were nice to him anyhow. They saved his life many times by snipping his beard and he just got mad at them for doing that. Finally, when they were helping him from being taken away from a large bird he gave them a bad time for ruining his coat by holding on to him so the bird would not take him away for a meal. The girls had gotten used to the dwarf not appreciating their efforts that they were getting reading to walk off when a large bear appeared and the dwarf told the bear he should eat the girls instead of him. The bear hit the dwarf and he fell down dead. The girls were afraid until the bear said that he was the bear that stayed in their house. His coat fell off and he told them that he was under a spell from a witch and could not escape until the dwarf that took his jewels was dead and that was the dwarf. He was a prince and married one of the daughters and his brother married the other. Everyone moved to the castle to lived including the entire hut where the mother could live on the palace grounds as she wished.

With all of these stories of witches, I could see why they were burned at the stake or women who lived by themselves and did not want to get married. As for princes, well they all sound like there were a surplus in those days and they were all looking for brides. If Princess Diana were alive today, she would not be so positive in her remarks about princes. Prince Charles was one stinker. In history, they were not so hot, but these are fairy tales except many women believe them and I have to admit I did to some extent many years ago. I loved this picture of Snow White I found on the Internet. (If you are a prince reading this blog, don't bother to contact me please.)

J. and W. Grimm Part I

"Little Snow White and Other Stories" by the Brothers Grimm

Just a note about the authors because there are several films about them that have no basis in truth. Jacab Ludwig Grimm (Also Carl) was born on January 4, 1785 and died September 20, 1863. Wilhelm Karl Grimm was born February 24, 1786 and died on December 16, 1859. They were both born in Hanau, Germany. They lost their father and grandfather at an early age and their mother had to struggle to support her children.

Both brothers graduated from the university and became collectors of tales but not the authors. Their tales were immensely popular at the time but were essentially a by-product of the linguistic research which was the brothers' primary goal.

The Brothers Grimm held several academic positions among them professors, librarians, court librarians, head librarians while doing linguistic research. They got along very well together even when one of them married and all lived in one house.

Their research in linguistics is well known. For instance, the relationships between words became known as Grimm's Law. Their last years were spent writing a definitive dictionary , The Deutsches Worterbuch, the first volume being published in 1854. The work was carried out by future generations. (Source Wikipedia)

"Little Snow White and Other Stories", a thin red book, has both Korean and English in it. I bought it from Home Plus and it is not the stories one associates with Walt Disney. The vocabulary is in Korean and the story is taken directly from the Brothers Grimm although there is no mention in English who translated it from German.

The stories in this book are "Little Snow-White", "The Twelve Dancing Princesses", "Little Red Cap", and "Hansel and Gretel". When I was a child, I was allowed to go to the library unaccompanied as often as I wanted. My Aunt Sonia taught me how to use the library and when my own children were growing up, I took them to the library as often as they wanted which was not as often as I wanted. I still marvel at the long distance I was allowed to walk alone along a busy street. Still, I remember reading all of the fairy tales that were in that library and many of them were of the Brothers Grimm. It was a pleasure to read them in this book.

I have other red books that I will report on but this one is of the Brothers Grimm and the stories in it are well known to me. I mentioned that this book is not the version that Walt Disney filmed in movie. It is different.

Snow White was a young child when she was taken to the woods by the woodsman. She stayed with the seven dwarfs for a while before her step-mother found her. After she was poisoned by a deadly apple and placed in a glass coffin above ground, a passing prince fell in love with her and did not wake her up with a kiss but convinced the dwarfs to let him have the glass enclosed Snow White to take back to his castle but he dropped her and the glass broke and the poisoned apple fell out of her mouth. Heavens knows what he was going to do with her once he got her back to the castle so I could see why the Disney people changed that part of the story. The queen is just as evil in both stories but she goes to the wedding of the prince and finds out that the new bride is her own step-daughter. Bummer. I am glad they kept the magic mirror. Good touch.

"The Twelve Dancing Princesses" is a story about a king who had 12 daughters who went somewhere at night and would not tell him where. They wore out their slippers and he was very frustrated. He let it be known that if any prince would find out where they went, then they could have any of the princesses for a bride and his kingdom after his death. However, if they failed in three days, off with the prince's head. Well, I guess there was a surplus of princes and not enough kingdoms so a bunch tried and none of them mysteriously could not stay awake and lost their heads. It came to be that a soldier, enlisted not an officer, was very kind and tired, decided that he would give it a try since he was unable to get a job doing anything else; so up to the castle he went but an old lady, they are very kind and trusting to soldiers, told him not to swallow the wine he is given and gave him a cloak like Harry Potter's that would make him invisible. He was very grateful and went to the castle and did as instructed. He was astonished to see that the princess's beds opened up and they all went below and danced all night. He grabbed some proof and did it for three nights. The princesses all thought he was sleeping and that he would lose his head, but they did not think about his being a peasant with common sense. He went to the king and told them what they were up to. Since the soldier was no longer young, he chose the oldest princess and married her and became king after the old one died. I wondered how he could marry a woman who was perfectly willing to see him separated from his head, but he did get a kingdom and that is a very good job.

"The Little Red Cap" is in reality "Little Red Riding Hood" and I am sorry to say both her grandmother and her got eaten by the wolf but the story teller did offer an alternative ending in which the grandmother and girl outwitted the fox. No one listening to this tale is fooled. The fox got a tasty meal. What is ironic here is that the girl who told the Brothers Grimm ended up marrying one of them. The other Grimm never married. Maybe she told him the alternative ending so his feelings would not get hurt.

"Hansel and Gretel" is about two loving brother and sister who live with their father and step-mother. Step-mothers do not do well in fairy tales and many people would complain about the Brothers Grimm that they hated women. They just collected the stories and recorded them faithfully. They did not change them. In the stories of domestic bliss in today's world, step-fathers do not do well in the police courts. In the stories of fairy tales, it was the step-mothers who wanted to get rid of the children of the dead first wife. This one wanted Hansel and Gretel to be taken into the forest where they would be eaten by wild animals and they would not have to feed them anymore. The brother and sister got lost and came to a witch's house and of course another subspecies of villain ,the witch. This witch was a cannibal. She lived in an eatable house which drew in children. While this pedophile serial killer witch was waiting for the boy to get fat, the girl gave him a bone to give to the witch since she could not see worth a damn. Then when the witch asked the girl to get in the oven, the girl tricked the witch to show her how and shoved her in and locked the oven door. They found some jewels in the witch's house and got home and everyone now had enough money to buy some food.

I loved fairy tales because women won. I didn't like what they won, but at least they won. They were the heroines in their own tales. When everyone was out to get them, they endured. I also liked magic because I was in a childhood that was full of dysfunctional adults. I wanted to believe that somehow I was going to survive. That there were some magic beans or some magical castle that would be real and would be a safe place for me. I could draw up the draw bridge and there would be enough food and clothes for me.

I used to think I was the only one reading the fairy tales. Now, as I read the stories that the kids read, I realize that other children were just like me and sneaking into the library and reading them as well. The stories that the Brothers Grimm collected were popular then and certainly still popular now.

Katherine Mansfield

Short Stories by Katherine Mansfield in an edition that is half Korean and half English. The short stories are:
" Bliss","The Garden Party", "The Stranger", "An Ideal Family", "A Cup of Tea", "The Fly", "Honeymoon" and "the Doll's House".

The first four short stories are taken from "The Garden Party" published in 1922 and the last four are taken from "The Dove's Nest" published in 1923.

I had tried to read Mansfield many years ago and had difficulty for reasons that escapes me. She was well thought of as a writer by D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Wolfe. I saw this book in Home Plus and decided to give her another try. For a woman who lived only 34 years, she wrote many short stories and I enjoyed the ones that were included in this book.

The stories seem to come onto the senses in one way but stay in another for they do stay long after they are read. The one story that has impressed me the most is "The Garden Party" which on its surface is about a pretty young thing that seems very impressible but the story is about life itself and how death can come unexpectedly to teach those of us still living how precious life is. Even that sense is a bit trite in describing this wonderful story. I don't think I would like the protagonist in the story but I like what she sees in life.

That is what all of these stories are. They sneak up on the reader and take one by surprise as being one kind of story but really are something else entirely. At least that is how I viewed them. I can see how I would not have liked them when I was younger and expected my fiction to be one way and not to change in midstream so to speak. I wanted more certainty in my life then and now I don't mind uncertainty at all. Some of the stories do not spell out what is happening and some do.

It is really quite sad that her life ended so soon. It would have been really interesting to have seen how her fiction would have changed through the years. It is really possible she was a genius in that she was just learning her trade when TB cut her life short.

Agatha Christie

"Agatha Christie's Short Stories" by Agatha Christie

This is a book of short stories featuring Miss Marple that I would title "The Tuesday Night Club". I bought this book at Home Plus for very little and it contains six stories. Unfortunately, this slim book is half English and half Korean; but when in Korea you take what you can get. Still, I enjoyed reading this book, some of the stories were ones I had read before and some were new to me. None of the stories were only partial but the entire ones which is a joy for I love reading Christie.

There is a reason, to my mind, that Christie wears so well after so many years. It is because she wrote uncommonly well. She wears well. The prose is crisp and clean and easily understood. The descriptions are clear and concise. Many of the older mystery writers tend to be wordy when read today but not Christie. Her books and short stories are virtual time capsules that today's reader can view the world that Christie was writing about without any difficulty. It is more than describing the people and the British times, it was the atmosphere and a period of time that no longer exists.

Everyone at the Tuesday Night Club assumes that the little old lady sitting in with them would not know about the things and events the rest of them were talking about let along come up with the solutions to the mysteries they were discussing; but Miss Marple does time after time. Even her own nephew does not think much about his dotty old aunt. Those who tell the stories all find out that Miss Marple is one great criminologist. There is no sleigh of hand by the author. The mysteries are solved and the reader can see how the crime was done and Miss Marple illustrates how easily the events in the world is very much like the events in a small British village.

Diana Wynne Jones

"Howl's Moving Castle " by Diana Wynne Jones Greenwillow: 1986

This is a wonderful book for young adults that I picked up at Home Plus. I had no idea, again, that it was for young adults. Oh, good books are sometimes wasted on the young because I found this book to be a terrific read. The main character, Sophia, is convinced she is destined for failure because she is the eldest of three daughters. Her mother died when she was young and then her father after marrying again dies too. Her step-mother is not what one would expect in these stories and tries to find a way of providing for both her own daughter and her step-daughters after it was found out that the father had not left very much money to provide for all of them.

Sophia and her family lived in the town of Market Chipping which was in Ingary which is not where the rest of us live. They have a king and a prince. There is magic everywhere. There is the Witch of the Waste who for some reason walks into the hat shop where Sophia works and upon seeing her turns her into an old lady.

Everyone in the book are having adventures including Sophia and of course there is Howl who has the moving castle and his ever-moving castle and mysterious blue fire-demon in his fireplace. There is one mystery layered upon another and the author skillfully solves them all in very satisfactory ways. As with real victims, Sophia has to find out her own part in the making herself into an old lady by the witch before she can break the spell.

There is a movie that was made from this book, but I have not been able to find it. It was premiered in Korea which would explain why the book was in a book store in Daejeon. The author of this delightful book creates a wonderful and complex plot of living and breathing characters and resolves all of the questions such a plot raises in a very satisfying way. If I get a chance to read more of this author, I will certainly do so no matter what the age group the particular book is intended for.

e.l. konigsburg

"The View from Saturday" by e.l. konigsburg Atheneum: 1996

I have written before that I read young adult books and in Korea I read any books in English I can get my hands on. I honestly did not know this book was a young adult book. It had a picture of four cups of tea on it and thought it was a murder mystery. All of the books in the Home Plus Book Store are tightly sealed with plastic and thumbing through a book before buying is not possible.

What I did encounter was a warm and wonderful book about a teacher returning to teaching after being paralyzed in an automobile accident and four of her sixth-grade students who had banded together calling themselves "The Souls."

I love the way the book was written. It was a series of short stories that were inter-connected by the fact that each story was about each of the member of the Souls and of course the teacher. On the back cover, the writer stated she had written some of the stories earlier and just edited them so that they were about the same group of students in one classroom.

One of the threads was a academic bowl and how the Souls became the unlikely state championship winners. Everyone learns something important and there is enough of a plot to keep the reader going until the end. The book may be for the younger reader, but I learned a lot about life and had a good time reading it. I picked it up and never put it down.