Reread: Song of the Wanderer

Today I finished rereading book 2 of the Unicorn Chronicles, Song of the Wanderer (I started it late last night but decided to sleep rather than force my way though it last night).  I've read this book once before, when I first got it.  I honestly didn't remember anything about it (except for the very basic quest).

Song of the Wanderer continues the story of Cara.  This time Cara is tasked by the unicorn queen to go find her grandmother and bring her back to Luster.  So Cara sets off with a small glory of unicorns made up of Belle, a female fighting unicorn, Finder, a large unicorn who is himself a wanderer, and Moonheart, the uncle of Lightfoot, as well as the Squijum and Thomas the Tinker.  Cara must first find the geomancer, a sorceress who is adept with earth magic, who will find Cara a path back to her grandmother.  Unfortunately the path is a dangerous one.  Along the way Cara meets up with friends new and old.

Song of the Wanderer is a good book, but it isn't as good as Into the Land of the Unicorns. For one thing, Song is longer and at times it feels like it takes a lot longer to get to its point.  For another thing, there are a lot of characters (there's something like ten + characters in Cara's party by the end of the book), which also made it harder to give them all enough time at the forefront of the story (I remember writing a story like this years ago where I had such a large party it was unwieldy to write!); Into the Land is a lot better because the party of characters is smaller and so you get to know all of them much better.

As I said though, it is still a good story.  Some crazy things happen which lead staight into book three, Dark Whispers, which I am really looking forward to reading for the first time ever!

Reread: Into the Land of the Unicorns

I first read Into the Land of the Unicorns when it first came out in 1994.  I bought it at a book fair at the time.  I read it and loved it, recommended it to people, and waited patiently for the second book (which finally came out in 1999). I reread it a few times, the last of which was probably when I read the second book whenever I got it (I don't know if I got Song of the Wanderer right when it came out or if I found it sometime later).  I knew there was a third book, but I decided not to bother getting it until the fourth (and I believe final) book was released and in soft cover.  Having waited for quite sometime and the final book is still in hard cover, a few years after being released, I finally picked up the final two and am going to read the entire series.  My original plan was to read them during the week of my birthday but that didn't happen. So here we are, the beginning of July, and I'm going on a unicorn reading spree.

Into the Land of the Unicorns is the story of Cara.  Heading home from the library one day with her grandmother, they are chased into a church.  Desperate to save her granddaughter, Grandmother Morris gives Cara her "special," an amulet she always wears and sends her granddaughter to the magical land of Luster.  Cara meets many strange and wondrous creatures, chief of which is the unicorn Lightfoot.  Together, Cara and her friends must keep the amulet out of the grasp of the man who followed her from Earth.

Into the Land of the Unicorns was one of my favourite books when I was younger.  And having reread it today, it still stands up as one of my favourites.  The writing is fantastic, the story is excellent, I love the characters, and I just really like the land of Luster (especially the history of how the unicorns came to be there instead of on Earth).  I'm glad I reread it and I'm looking forward to reading the remaining three books (especially 3 and 4 which I've never read!)

Library Books: Owly pt. 2

About a week ago I got the remaining three Owly graphic novels from the library.  I read them and forgot to post about them here (sorry!)  Like the first two, the remaining ones are super cute and I loved them (especially the final volume, Tiny Tales). 

Volume 3 is Flying Lessons.  Owly and Wormy discover a flying squirrel and try to befriend it.  Of course owls are the squirrel's natural enemy so the squirrel is terrified of Owly.  Can Wormy convince the squirrel that Owly isn't a mean owl?

A Time to Be Brave is all about Wormy's fears.  After Owly reads him a story with dragons, Wormy sees the shadow of one!  Can Owly and Wormy figure out just what has the scary shadow?

The final graphic novel in the Owly series (thus far!) is Tiny Tales.  I loved this volume.  As the name suggests, it's a whole bunch of super short (generally a couple of pages each) tales of Owly and friends.  This was a great edition that really fleshed out the world of Owly, and also had some really early stories (one even had Owly talking!)  This was a great volume to see the evolution of Owly from early drafts and doodles into the lovable character he is today.

So as I already said above, I loved these graphic novels.and can't wait for volume 6!

Library Book: Superman Brainiac

I don't normally read Superman books (with a couple of exceptions like the Superman Batman series) but I saw Superman Brainiac while at work last night.  I was intrigued by the premise so I took it out.

Brainiac is an alien who is collecting knowledge.  He shows up to a planet with sentient life, steals a city then destroys the planet.  He did this to Krypton and when one of his probes encounters Superman, he's on his way to Earth to do the same.

But Superman knows he's coming, and rather than wait Superman decides to take the fight to Brainiac.

There isn't a whole lot else going on in this story (well, there's some stuff with Supergirl facing her fears and believing in herself, and some character building stuff that probably goes with the larger overarching story) but it was a really good read.  The art was excellent as well.  So if you're looking for a quick read, particularly something that you can read without knowing a whole lot about Superman, this is definitely for you!

Short Story: After the Third Kiss: A Dragon Story

I found Bruce Coville's "After the Third Kiss: A Dragon Story" in an anthology in Chapters.  I wasn't really interested in the anthology as a whole so rather than buy it I went home and looked to see if it was available by itself on my Kindle.  It was.  So yesterday at the doctor's office I started it, then finished it when I got home.  As a short story it wasn't very long, which made it a perfect fit for my day!

"After the Third Kiss" is the story of May Margaret, a young maiden cursed by her stepmother into the form of a dragon.  Only her brother can break the curse, and only by giving her three kisses on the day he returns home.  Despite his extreme reluctance to kiss her hideous form (and being scarred by her hot breath) he does so.  Together they vanquish their stepmother, turning her into a giant toad.

Normally that's where the story would end, with the brother and sister living happily ever after.  But that's not the case in "After the Third Kiss."  The brother becomes king, but he is convinced that no one would desire him now that he is scarred (although that is not the case).  But more troubling is the fact that he is unable to conceive an heir.  And so he starts looking for a husband for May Margaret.

May Margaret has problems of her own.  Although she is beautiful, she has no suitors because of the whole dragon incident.  But that is the least of her worries, because May Margaret was not left unscarred by the dragon.  There is a fire that remains in her blood, making her yearn to be a dragon once more.

"After the Third Kiss" was an incredible story by Bruce Coville.  If you get the chance, I definitely recommend giving it a read!

Library Books: Owly

When I was at work I discovered Owly.  Owly is a series of graphic novels the library has purchased for children.  They're incredibly simple books with very few words but they are the cutest things I've seen in a long time!  I snagged both volumes 1 and 2 and have read volume 1 twice already!

Owly is an owl who just wants to make friends with the various birds of the forest. Unfortunately he's an owl, and so the little birds are terrified of him.  The Way Home tells the story of how he saved and befriended Wormy; now the two are inseperable.

The Bittersweet Summer, which is also included in volume 1, is the story of Owly and Wormy meeting Tiny and Angel, two hummingbirds who hang out in Owly's garden.  They have a great time until autumn comes and the two hummingbirds must migrate; Owly is devestated to lose his friends!

The second volume, Just a Little Blue was a really touching story.  Owly and Wormy try to befriend a blue bird, but he keeps chasing them off.  They even destroy their cart in an effort to make the bluebird and his family a new home.  This was a kind of sad story (with a happy ending though!) that I really, really liked.

The Owly series is adorable and I absolutely love it (I may even pick it up myself one day, I loved it that much!)  As I said before, there are very few words in these graphic novels, so people of all ages can enjoy them.

Nonfiction: I'm an English Major - Now What?

I've been reading I'm an English Major - Now What? off and on for the last week or two.  I started when I decided it was time to start looking for a job.  I've been out of school for the last year, which has been great.  I've got a good part time job and work with great people, but I think it's time to start looking for what I'd like to do for the next little while.  And the place to start is by looking at the kinds of things I can do with my degree.

I'm an English Major - Now What? is exactly what it sounds like.  It goes through the obvious career choices for people with (undergraduate) English degrees (such as teaching, journalism, pursuing postgraduate education, etc).  It lists the pros and cons of each option, and tells you what kind of person is best suited for that type of work.  What I really liked was the latter half of each chapter where Tim Lemire interviewed English majors who have those jobs.  It was great reading about their experiences.

At the end of the book were a couple of appendices as well.  These had information on the job search itself, such as what to consider including on your resume, and a list of other resources for further reading.  All in all, I'm an English Major - Now What? was an excellent read for someone like me who is trying to figure out my next step now that school is over.

As an aside, I bought I'm an English Major - Now What, along with Great Jobs for English Majors by Julie DeGalan and Stephen Lambert, a few years ago when I first went into English.  I don't know why, but I put them away and only recently pulled them back out.  I'm not really sure if I'm going to read Great Jobs for English Majors; I flipped through it and it didn't really appeal to me as much.