Book Review: Winter of the World by Ken Follett

Winter of the World by Ken Follett


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was quite eager to dive into this book having just read the first installment, Fall of Giants. In reading this book I now know much more about the events leading up to WWII than I had ever cared to know; however, I credit this book to having me actually want to learn about these events. (When I was born, Germany was not unified.)
To me it seemed that the American family took a bit of a back seat in this book; a reflection upon the American involvement in the total scheme of the events?
Some of the events were truly heartbreaking, again, a reflection upon the reality.
I'm quite eager to see what events will form the backdrop of the third book. Certainly Cuban Missle Crisis and Reagan's proclamation, "Mr. Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!"




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Book Review: Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


First of all I must confess that I did not know about The Century Trilogy until I read a review of the second book. (Librarian FAIL). So I immediately got my hands on a copy of Fall of Giants, which actually languished in the back seat of my car for a couple of weeks until an audiobook version became available to me. After that I went liberally between the two. Follett is an amazing storyteller and I am ashamed to admit that I have only read one other of his books. His characterizations are masterful, though I must say that had I not become a fan of Downton Abbey, I might have not held so much interest in certain parts of the story. In any case, reading Fall of Giants has made me want to go back to examine the historical events that make up the backdrop of the book.
To anyone who finds the length of the book daunting: don't worry about it. It reads quickly and is not tedious at all. Listening to parts made me slow down and pay attention as well.




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Book Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Insurgent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could, because I'm very reluctant to give something 5 stars. I probably wouldn't give it 5 stars though, because I thought it was a bit drawn out at times, but maybe that's because we needed a bit of a run-up to the action. And yes, there is plenty of action. But also large amounts of introspection, which I appreciated after finishing a reread of the Hunger Games trilogy. In my opinion, I think this series has quite a bit more depth and I'd love to see these books dissected in a high school or even college-level literature or psychology course. Heck, you can even use the books in history or science!

And when you think there's no way these authors can engineer yet another ending that leaves you howling at the last page...yes, one will be waiting with baited breath for the next book.

One small spoiler: Roth has plenty of time to get us invested with these characters. But I have to say that one of the characters that really hooked me wasn't introduced until nearly the ending, it only took a few pages, and I'm sorry we won't see more of him.


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Book Review: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My timing on this book was great, as I was reading it during the London Olympics. Plus I've been on the Jack the Ripper tour, and have had a drink at the Ten Bells, so it was great to have that frame of reference so readily in my mind. Rory as a character is your typical YA character that is a bit annoying (which in my opinion is what makes a good YA character). The school references of "prefect" and "Head Girl" will be familiar to those who've read the Harry Potter series.

There's great tension in the book and a wonderful plot twist, and just as I was beginning to think that this was a great stand-alone book, oh, the ending! Really really loved the ending.




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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I loved the atmosphere that Erin Morgenstern created. The summary on the flap may have been a bit misleading for me, but I enjoyed the book all the same. It was subtle and flowy, and I loved the characters and how you needed to pay attention because each person is important! It was a beautiful book and while I didn't want the story to end, I loved how the story ended.




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Finally, a loaf to be proud of!

For the past couple of months I've been experimenting with recipes from the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. I've made several basic boules, which definitely don't go to waste in our carb-loving household, but I was looking for something more. I wanted to be able to make a good loaf for sandwiches, and the small boules just weren't enough. So I turned to the white sandwich bread recipe in the book, which was good, but my loaves just weren't turning out big enough for sandwiches, or at least they weren't looking like what I used to buy at the store. Now, the dough recipe says it's enough to make 3 loaves. Well, my first attempts to piece the dough into thirds yielded smallish loaves that did not fill my loaf pan more than halfway like the recipe said. So, this last time I decided to take the remaining 2/3 of the dough and bake it all at once. I also finally got myself an oven thermometer, and lo and behold, yes, my oven temp was off too. Had to dial the oven up to 355 to get the thermometer to register 350. The result? Yes, it's good, but not so good that I need the pic to be this big. Darn you dropbox!

2 Weeks In

So, it's been 2 weeks. Among other things, I've completed an accident and incident report, for a patron who fell outside of the building, asked a teenager to leave for the day because of his unacceptable behavior, and set off an alarm for a fire exit. I've also performed 4 storytimes, which I must confess is more than I did at my old branch in the past few months (and Children's Services was my responsiblity!) I'm really enjoying the baby storytimes. It's amazing the wealth of information I've found online in planning. I need to give a huge shoutout to Storytime Katie, whose blog I discovered sometime last year when researching flannel board stories. I never did get a chance to make a collection of flannel stories at my old branch, so I plan to remedy that here. Maybe one day I'll be able to make a contribution to Flannel Fridays! In addition to flannel stories, Storytime Katie is a great gateway to other storytime blogs. Seriously, there's several years-worth of planning in these blogs! We just hired several new Youth Services Librarians and so I will definitely share this wealth of knowledge with them.