Audible Book Review - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

Pride and Prejudice is one of the most well known stories in the world. Written just over 200 years ago, it still strikes a chord in audiences today. I've read the story (both the original and the one with zombies), seen two period versions of the movie, one contemporary version, and one movie based on it. In fact, just this week my wife and I had a getaway and watched the five hour version while we were gone. While we were watching it, I wondered at the how the story has continued on for so long and been so universally received. When you look at the particulars, I would wager that most modern readers don't understand the significance of the Bennett's position. For instances Lady Catherine de Bourgh rants about Elizabeth's uncles and aunts and other relations, and her lack of "connections." I don't know if even I fully appreciate what that meant when Austin wrote it. The intricate social nuances that were a part of that era's manners and such are not the same as the more causal social norms we have now. With that said, I think that Austin's content, the details of which may be unfamiliar to modern readers, is such that it speaks to universal concepts of love, shame, pride, and, well, prejudice. The other Austin books that I've read and own videos of, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion, are similar in this application of universal themes. Here is a link to the Audible page for the book. It was narrated with great skill by Carolyn Seymour.

Plot: The Bennett sisters (five in all) are varied in their differences. Jane, the eldest, is kind, tender, and very beautiful. Elizabeth is witty, if cynical, but also considered a local beauty. Mary is sever, introverted, and a tad plain. Kitty and Lydia are both impulsive, rather silly and delight in society. Lydia, although being the younger, tends to be the one that directs their paths. Their mother is anxious to get them all married off, particularly since their father's estate will, upon his death, revert to a distant cousin. The action begins when a single young man of independent wealth moves into the neighborhood. He brings with him a friend who is also single and far more wealthy. What's more, Mr. Bennett's cousin seeks to "heal the breach" between himself and his fair cousins from whom he will inherit. To top it off, the militia is in the area and officers make very dashing husbands. With all of the choices available is there any way this can go wrong?

My personal favorites: Mr. Bennett is my favorite character. I can see myself in him a bit - and that is not always a good thing. The character interactions are fantastic and their personalities feel real and unique. While considered the epitome of "chick lit" I know of several men who enjoy the story as the character drama it is.

Considerations: As I mentioned above, some details may not be as significant to modern readers, particularly younger ones, so I would suggest this as a mid young adult read. Beyond that there is nothing promiscuous or of questionable content.

It was a great listen and I'm glad to have it in my audio library. The total length was 11 and half hours.

Book Review - Vatta's War Series by Elizabeth Moon

The last of the first set of borrowed book from Dad. Vatta's War consists of five books: Trading in Danger, Marque and Reprisal, Engaging the Enemy, Command Decision, and Victory Conditions. These are military sci-fi with a good dose of intrigue and character drama. Dad recommend them since I enjoyed Honor Harrington and I'll agree that the two feel similar. I would have to say that a big chunk of that similarity comes from the strong, competent female lead, but there was a lot that was different about them too. For instance Honor Harrinton is a mature, up through the ranks officer while Ky Vatta got never graduated from the academy (not from lack of trying) and is young and impulsive. In short, so as to keep this from being an unnecessary comparison of two excellent worlds, I liked both of them a lot and they are quite different. There are a lot of good things I want to put in the personal favorites section.

Plot: Ky Vatta is the daughter the CEO of widely successful Vatta Enterprises. A family owned and operated shipping company, Vatta is widely respected across interstellar trade routes. Ky, however, is more interested in joining the Spaceforce than in running cargo or sitting behind a desk. That all comes crashing down when she gets kicked out of the Academy. Sent by her family to run an old ship to the scrapyard, Ky is not looking forward to the quite life of a trader. Unfortunately, fate has a way of giving people exactly what they ask for but don't want. Ky's first "milk run" of a trade attempt lands her in the middle of a civil war. While Ky is able to address the challenge and rise above it, fate has much more in store. When her family is attacked and interstellar communications go down Ky decides to put her training to good use. While Vatta started out as the victim Ky intends to make them the avenger.

My personal favorites: There are lots of good characters and great situations that they have to work through. Moon does a good job at keeping the tension going without it feeling overdone. All of the conflicts felt authentic and believable. Ky is a bit of a loose cannon (at first) and grows through her challenges well. The character dramas between the players felt real as well and provided a great context to the over-arching challenges the characters faced. The action was well done and there was some great stand up and cheer moments. I also liked how the characters had their own competencies and weaknesses and how they all played off each other. I was surprised by the direction the story, or elements of the story went at times and wasn't disappointed at all.

Considerations: There is violence, but nothing graphic or gratuitous. And there were some sexual references, but again, nothing overt, graphic, or explicit. There was not any strong language used and the writing was age appropriate for late young adult. In a final comparison with Honor Harrington, these books are lightly more appropriate for a younger audience.

I'm always a little anxious when starting a new series, worried that I'll be able to get into it and will find it enjoyable. The series starts off quickly and just keeps going, ramping up the challenges without leaving you feeling burned out. Trading was just over 300 pages, Marque was about 400, Engaging was just over 400, Command was just under 400, and Victory was just over 400.

Happenings of this last week

This last week had some highlights. Monday the Fire Department had an open house with demonstrations and exhibits of various tools and safety measures. While Kanga and Angel stood in line for the crash simulator Tigger, Roo, and I went and watched the heavy rescue workers turn a pick up truck into a door-less convertible (jaws of life demonstration). Tigger wasn't sure if he wanted to watch the demonstration and kept his ears covered for the majority of it. Whenever he is scared, he covers his ears. His grandmother things that he may be sensitive to loud noises. However, despite having his ears firmly covered he watched with rapped attention and, in the end, told me that he thought it was pretty cool. They also got a tour of an ambulance and a medical lift helicopter. The 'copter was smaller than the one that Tigger rode in when he was born, but it was still pretty neat. They also had some folks from the power company there showing why you don't touch power lines.

Wednesday found Angel, Tigger, and me at Primary Children's Hospital. For various reasons, including his being born early, Tigger was not circumcised when he was born. We've been able to trace some of his potty training difficulties to this and so we decided that it would help him if we did it now. He was a great patient and even woke up form the general anesthetic if a good mood, contrary to what was expected. We spent most of the day there checking him in, waiting for the doctor, waiting for the procedure, and then waiting for his meds. I think we were there for about eight hours when all was said and done. We had dinner at Angel's parent's house and Tigger was back to running around before too long. No, I don't have any pictures from Wednesday.

Saturday I got the lawn mowed - I would like to think for the last time this season. The apples are looking better and I'm thinking I may get some applesauce canned next weekend during General Conference. Angel went over to her mom's for the Women's General Broadcast while I watched the kids. I was just getting ready to start working on dinner when I got a text from some friends inviting the kids and I over for dinner and games. They had a bunch of left overs from a couple of birthday parties and I brought chips. Their kids line up pretty well with ours and so we dads (there were three of us fathers there) didn't have to do much. The kids were well behaved and everyone had fun. Dee came home just after we did and said she enjoyed the broadcast quite a bit.

Yesterday, we saw Angel's grandparents and chatted with them for a while. Her grandfather had a pretty sever stroke a little while ago and while he's recovering well he's starting to show his age a lot more. It was good to see them and Malcom was good for them. He was very content to sit on his great-grandfather's lap and be held. He's a pretty decent kid who goes really quiet when he's not sure what's going on.

Audible Book Review - Dune by Frank Herbert

I'm getting caught up on book reviews, as you can probably tell. I'm also in the middle of a series and am waiting until the end to review it. If I followed my past model (reviewing each book as it comes out) I would have to write two more book reviews. Dune is the second to last Audible review I will do for the present. I have one more book I pre-ordered coming at the end of October so I'll get to that one when I can. Dune is one of my favorite books. Considered one of the outstanding landmarks in the sci-fi genre, my father suggested it to me when I was in high school. There are a lot of books in the series, but I have only read the first book, and I'm okay with that. The book had a full cast, but did not always use it. The chief narrator was Scott Brick, who read the sections that were none dialog and limited dialog. The full cast was utilized for sections that had excessive dialog, particularly those without dialog tags, where two people are talking rapidly back and forth. There were also sound and music cues that were very effective at providing atmosphere and ambiance. I'm not surprised the production won a Audie award in 2008. I liked the different voices cast for the characters. Baron Harkonnen was particularly good.

Plot: Arrakis, Dune, is a planet of sands and Spice. The chemical Melange, known as Spice, is critical for interstellar travel. It is beyond important. It is essential to the present and future of the empire. But any Spice mining draws the justifiably feared Makers, sand worms so large they can eat factories whole. What's more, Dune is so dry that water of all kinds is richly cherished, so much so that when someone dies the water is reclaimed from their bodies prior to burial. Paul Atredies, the son and heir of Duke Leto, comes to Dune as a young man when the emperor grants his family the fiefdom of Dune. The previous rulers, House Harkonnen, House Atredies' rival, nemesis, and greatest threat, sought to subjugate the natives through force and violence. But Leto seeks to alley himself with the natives - the Fremen. These desert nomads grow up in the most harsh conditions in the galaxy. If he is successful, he will have the finest worriers imaginable - more fierce than the Emperor's terror troops. So it is no surprise that there is a trap waiting for Paul and his family, set to wipe them out. However, Paul and his father know that the first step of defeating a trap is knowing that it's there...

My personal favorites: Dune has got all the hallmarks of sci-fi, inventive technologies, strange cultures, intriguing alien creatures, new societies, and then it throws in a chunk of political and religious intrigue. One of Dune's motto's is "plans within plans, within plans, and it's important to remember than as you listen to it. The character's are great and the depth of the conflicts is captivating. The book is over 20 hours long, but it didn't feel like it. There are moments of reflection as well as moments of action. And let's face it, the idea of riding a sand worm is just awesome.

Considerations: In terms of descriptions there is nothing that I would object to a young teen reading. There is nothing graphic or gratuitous in the writing. The only consideration is the steep learning curve and the more adult level intrigue and themes. As I stated at the beginning, I was in high school when I read the book.

I try to re-read this book every couple of years, but because it's a great story with good intrigue and characters that I love. I'm glad to have it as part of my audio library now as well, particularly since the production is very good. The total length was just over 20 hours.

Catching up

It's been a while since I posted. School has started and Kanga and Tigger are going to the same school know. For Peach Days they had a float with the school kids for the kid parade and Kanga hadn't had a chance to do it in previous years. I drove in to work so I could be home sooner and we got them loaded on the tractor trailer and they had fun. We gave Kanga a two-way radio so we could keep track of her and she had a little too much fun with it. They're behind the American flag.

We also celebrated Roo's and Angel's birthdays. He hasn't started walking yet, but he's getting bolder.  He is a delight most of the time, but he has gotten particular about how he sleeps. People talk about having a routine with your kids and he is so insistent on his that he won't go to bed any other way. He can be very funny when he is tired though.

 As per the tradition, I handed out the Lion House Cakes and Cupcakes book and Angel choose what I was going to make. Roo couldn't communicate what he wanted (and he might have shredded the book) so when Angel couldn't make up her mind between a couple, I just made one of her options into cupcakes. A co-worker asked if the the recipes in the Lion House book were difficult or complex. Not really. A lot of them call for a cake mix - Seriously. So Roo got devil's food cake cup cakes with whipped cream topping (I was also supposed to put toffee pieces on it, but figured he wouldn't notice if they weren't there). Angel, on the other hand got a chocolate cheesecake with Oreo cookie crust. That wasn't a mix and I was right proud of it. No picture of the cheese cake, I was too busy eating it every time it came out.

This Saturday, I was very domestic. I made pear honey - an equal mix of pear, pineapple, and sugar cooked until golden (in color) and bottled. The pears were from our own tree. I'm pretty bad at getting them when they are all ripe but the process softens up any of the harder ones. I worked on them all day, listening to an audio version of Pride and Prejudice, It was a good production and made the time go by a little quicker. After I ran the first batch I realized that I didn't have enough pint jars to process it all. I called a few people who we've swapped jars with in the past and even had Angel, while she was running errands pick up an extra dozen. In the end I had more jars then I needed, but I had it all done. I went through twelve pounds of sugar and about about about the same number of cans of pineapple in order to process my box of pairs. But we ended up with over 42 pints of pear honey.

This is just when when I had started and realized that I was going to need more bottles. My own mother used to bottle green beans, pears, peaches, cherries, salsa, and applesauce. A lot of times she would do it while we were at school, so I don't remember helping out very much. There is one year when she made it abundantly clear that we were going to help her bottle pears, no arguing. I wasn't prone to argue about helping her, but was surprised at her insistence. That's because pears are a lot of work. you have to peal and core them before you can do anything with them and they are a funny shape with makes things interesting. This year I felt like I got into a groove and think I found the best way to go about it. Wash the outside and cut it in half. using a vegetable peeler work right to left (I'm right handed) pulling the peeler towards you. Using the pear corer, which you can find in your local art/craft supply store under the tile of "clay molding tool" (shown below), remove the stem, core, and any pits or blemishes. Repeat on the other half. And repeat for the next pear, and the next, and the next, and the next..... You get the idea.

Amazingly my hand and back didn't ache like they have in past years. I made an effort to alternate sitting and standing at the sink and I was moving between the sink, stove and bath canner, which was on the deck on the propane stove. As I was in the the middle of it I told Angel that I thought that canning is one of the most rewarding work efforts you can do. It's also really cool when what your canning is your own produce. I gave away a total of nine pints to those that I borrowed jars from and still came out with over thirty-three pints. My dad, who introduced us to pear honey and gave us the recipe, said that it looked just like the way his mother's and grandmother's did which made me happy.

Book Review - Farmer in the Sky by Robert A Heinlein

When I was a boy scout I was told that I should read Farmer in the Sky by Robert Heinlein. I was told that it was published, in an abridged format, in the Boys Life magazine. The inside cover conveys this as well, mentioning that it was titled, "The Satellite Scout." As the more hard core sci-fi was not my usual cup of cocoa, all I knew about the book was that the main character was an Eagle Scout. As I was borrowing books from Dad and exploring more sci-fi, I figured that it was time to finally sit down and read Farmer in the Sky. While it takes me a while, I try to read the books my parents recommend. As per the usual, I was not disappointed. Heinlein is one of the grandfathers of sci-fi, and as I recently pre-ordered a sci-fi book,Her Brother's Keeper by Mike Kupari, I figured that I ought to establish some roots. Especially since Kupari pointed out that the space ships in his book, "land on their tails as Heinlein intended." Farmer in the Sky was published sixty-five years ago and while dated (no references to calculators but several to slide rules) I would say it still holds up.

Plot: Bill and George are headed to Ganymede, emigrants headed for the small colony on Jupiter's largest moon. The trip will take two months and they're not sure exactly what will happen when they get there, but they know that they are going. This means some big changes for the father and son team. Bill suddenly finds out that he's getting a step-mother and step-sister. He won't be going to school in the near future. And he will be leaving his scout troop. But the changes continue when they reach the Jovian moon and find out that the planners back on Earth hadn't listened to the colony's demands for less people and more equipment. Now Bill has to decide how he, George, and their new family are going to survive in this outer world wilderness.

My favorite parts: The narrative was great. Bill was a solid narrator that felt natural and had his imperfections. I liked the characters and even though I didn't feel myself getting sucked into the book, I realized halfway through that Heinlein had enticed me deep enough that I really cared for the characters, and was invested in the story. The book did a great job of balancing sci-fi's traditional tech heavy dialog with good story telling. You learn how they are able to do everything but I didn't get bogged down in the descriptions.

Considerations: There's a reason this book was released in a middle grade level publications. There wasn't anything that was questionable and it would read well for many ages. It's clear to me why my parents recommended it to me as a young boy scout (age 11-12).

If I were to introduce my children to sci-fi, I would probably start with this book. It's clean, it's a traditional sci-fi story format, and it's not too long. I'm sure that's what my parents were trying to do. The total length was 224 pages. 

Book Review - Thursday with the Crown: Castle Glower book three, by Jessica Day George

It's been awhile, but I finished the most recent book in the Castle Glower series. I wish I hadn't waited so long, but I figured that I would get it from my mom. In the end, I checked it out from the library. When were were at the check out desk the librarian asked if Kanga was the one checking it out. I didn't have any problems saying that I had selected it. I would like to read the series with Kanga, but she hasn't expressed an interest... yet. The series does a good job of keeping you on your toes. It continued to feel like a children's book but certainly deals with grown up challenges.

Plot: Celie, Rolf, Lilith, Probst, and Lulath, along with Rufus the griffin, have been taken by the castle to where the rest of it is. Arriving at the ancestral home of the castle places them all in great danger and not just from starvation or exposure to the elements. It turns out that there is a poisoned lake, wild griffins, and an ancient vendetta between two peoples who both claim the castle. Cast into the middle of the remains of this feud Celie and the others must figure out what is going on and how they are going to get back.

My personal favorites: Jessica Day George is great at writing children's stories that expose their readers to serious questions. Thursdays with the Crown is no exception. I also like Lulath. A lot. I love how Lulath, correctly, had an accent when speaking his non-native language, but when they talked in his language he didn't. George justifiably hangs a lantern on the first time it happens and I thought it was great.

Considerations: This book is very age appropriate and I don't have any reservations with this book.

I thought there were only going to be three books in the series, but, after speaking to my mother, learned that there should be a Friday and a Saturday forthcoming. The total length was 224 pages.