Six Degrees of Separation - From Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to the Twilight Series

This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best, and I came across it on The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog last summer.  I thought this would be a great thing to do for my blog ahead challenge.  Also, this is supposed to be the first Saturday of the month thing, but I fit it into a little later in my month. Still thought it would be fun to do.

Anyway:  Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.

This month we start with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll:

So, I think at some point in my childhood I read part if not all of this book, but I of course know the story well either way, having seen the cartoon that I think Disney made when I was younger.  And of course, the very first book I thought of to jump to from this was:

Splintered by A.G. Howard is the first in one of my all time favorite series that is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, and actually made me want to go back and make sure I had read the original. Not that I ever found the time to do that.  The book that I jumped to next was:

Now The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde is not a retelling per se, but it did make me go back and read a book I'd never read because of how it featured in the story.  I'd never read Jane Eyre, until after this book.  This is also the time when I decided I needed to try to go back and start reading the classics that I felt I probably should have read when I was in school.  So of course, what book will I jump to next:

 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is one that I'd always heard a lot about, but had no idea exactly what the story was until the book above, and then I read it.  It was okay I guess, nothing that I got overly excited about.  Now, when we're talking about the classics I decided to read, I chose one that I'd heard was one of the greatest romances of all time:

I can honestly tell you that I pretty much HATED Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.  They all deserved the way things ended for them because they did it to themselves!  But of course this book really inspired so many other books, and one of those is the book that inspired me with my second tattoo:

The characters in this book, After by Anna Todd, love, hate, re-read the book Wuthering Heights over and over.  I can forgive them that, since the relationship is so similar in a way of how they keep messing it up.  But I couldn't put this book down, this whole series really. Even though I knew it was a totally toxic relationship, I liked how the author ended up getting them together in the end, with some realistic things to be done.  And of course that book will lead into the book that inspired me to get my first tattoo.

Say what you will about Twilight and the whole series, but I loved it.  It sucked me in and I couldn't put it down.  It connected me and my 11 year younger sister in such a wonderful way that we both got tattoos based on the covers of the books.  It got so many of my middle school students at the time hooked on reading, and that to me is more of what makes it so awesome!  Now I guess there is a lot

So that was fun!  Interesting to see what I think of as each new book in the chain.  Have you read these?  Honestly, other than two of them, I read and reviewed these so long before I started blogging I can't share my review. 

If you want to participate, the link above will take you to the host's site and you should totally join in!

Review: Stone Field by Christy Lenzi

First, thanks to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an egalley of this book.  I was first intrigued by it because it was set in the state of Missouri, where I live.  Second it takes place during the Civil War, a time period that I always find fascinating to read about.  There was only one thing that made me a bit hesitant, the comparison to Wuthering Heights.  However I don't know why that would be a problem, just because I don't like that book, so many other more recent books seem to be kind of based on it that I do like.  I have to say it was a very original story, and I really got into it.

The main character is Catrina. She lives with her father and older brother on a farm.  Catrina is a tomboy basically, she prefers to wear boy's clothing, pants and such.  She wants to be out in the woods creating her wild things, basically art.  Her father is not quite the same since their mother's death.  And her older brother has become very religious and seems to want to be in charge of the family, including determining what Catrina should do with her life.  And he feels she needs to begin acting like a lady and find a husband.  One day when Catrina is out in one of her favorite spots, she notices a pattern has been made in their crops.  And then she sees the person that must have done it.  A boy about her age, who is naked.  She goes to help him and bring him back to her house with her father's help.  But there is something about the boy that draws her to him, like a very strong magnet.  The two of them even seem to be able to hear each other speak in their minds. 

The boy can't seem to remember anything about his life or who he is.  So Catrina names him Stonefield.  Now he was found while her brother was out of town.  And when he gets back, well he is vehement that it is inappropriate for Catrina to be alone with Stonefield.  Not only inappropriate, but the color of Stonefield's skin leads everyone to believe he is either a Native American, or  Mexican, neither of which will be accepted by the people in their town.  Along this same time, a new preacher has come to town.  And he takes a liking to Catrina, saying that he can help her family rid her of whatever has possessed her to become so wild and unladylike. 

And during all of this, the state of Missouri is dealing with whether they will be a slave state or not. The people are deciding whether they will be siding with the North or the South.  And Catrina's brother will have to make a decision whether he should join the army, and which side.

I really enjoyed the historical bits in the story.  While I knew a lot about Missouri's history in the Civil War, I still learned a few things from this story.  I like reading about history put on a personal level with a story like this.  And I really felt for Catrina and Stonefield, and it was a really good story.  While there wasn't much of a way for everything for everyone to work out, it was still something I had to know what would happen next and who, if anyone, would end up with a happy ending.

Definitely a book I'll recommend for historical fiction during the Civil War, a good read, more than just the history, a great story as well.

Review: Worlds of Ink and Shadow by Lena Coakley

First I'd like to thank Netgalley and Abrams Kids for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  I'm always intrigued with stories that are going to be historical fiction about authors.  I don't know a lot about the Brontes, although I have read both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.  At first I wasn't really pulled in, it didn't feel like there was that much about their lives in it.  But as I got reading, I did begin to see things that gave some hint into why their stories were the way they were.

The story is about Anne, Charlotte, Emily, and their brother Branwell.  The two oldest, Charlotte and Branwell, are the writers.  And when they write, somehow they are able to open up and go into the worlds they are writing.  In the past they would allow Anne and Emily to go with them.  But lately they have been more closed off about it.  Only Emily wants to go in, she kind of has a bit of a crush on one of their characters.  Charlotte is wanting to stop as she she keeps seeing that what she writes isn't actually ending up the way she wants it to be.  And, what they've given in order to go into the worlds, well she doesn't want to keep giving it up.  But their father, a clergy man, doesn't approve of her writing, so she sees a life of just being a governess ahead.  And it is not something she looks forward to.  When Anne and Emily convince Charlotte and Branwell to take them back in, it seems things may be getting out of hand.  Some of the characters, especially Rogue, the bad guy that Branwell has written, are beginning to do things on their own, not written for them. 

It turns out who they've made the deal with to go into the stories, doesn't want to let them stop.  And the characters in the story don't seem to want to let their authors end the story.  So all of it comes to a head when both Emily and Anne end up making a deal for something that they know will get their brother and sister to finally stop going.  Of course it won't be easy, and they must fight their way back out of the make-believe world of Verdopolis, and find their way back to the real world. 

Like I said at the beginning, I liked the connections that gave kind of reasons for why their stories may have been the way they were.  From the way the author of this book wrote the stories and the personalities, you definitely saw what could have led to the depressing parts of both of the stories I mentioned above.  And there was some look  into their personal lives, even if not as much as I'd have liked.  It was an okay read for someone wanting to read about the Brontes, and for a story about being able to go into the worlds of the books you read and interact with your favorite characters.