Elizabeth Dean

This book is FANTASTIC. It is made up of 30 chapters, each about a teacher or kid in the classroom on the 30th floor of Wayside School, a school that was built, by accident, on its side (thirty classrooms, straight up). The chapter on Joe, the kid who cannot count but who somehow always gets the right answer is alone worth the read. The classroom is filled with dead rats who show up in kids' clothing, evil teachers who turn kids into apples, kids who trade names and kids who want to sell their toes. It is bizarre and creepy and hilarious and makes no sense. Perfect humor for early elementary kids.

One of my favorite books ever. There is so much love, compassion and acceptance in it. I love how the orphanage becomes a home and family for those who otherwise don't have a place in the world. Homer Wells is one of my favorite book characters ever. Writing this, I'm convincing myself I want to reread it, and soon!

I loved reading this book. After discussing it with skeptical a skeptical friend, I have to admit that the activity driving the plot is unrealistic. But that doesn't matter to my review - what's compelling about this book is that it tells a unique story about the complicated feelings of love and hate between white families and their black domestic help in the midcentury South.

This book has great reviews and likable, interesting authors/editors. Also, the cover and title are fabulous. I am just not particularly interested in religion in the way these authors present it. The authors are really interested in what it means to believe particular religious tenets. The book contains personal interpretations of the content & meaning of books of the Bible, interspersed with stories from the editors' road trip across the USA to meet/discover spiritually interesting and unusual people and places.

I read this years ago in college. I seem to be one who doesn't love it as passionately as others. I think it's because I read it at about the same time I read The Cider House Rules, and I was so moved and inspired by that book, that Owen Meany could never live up to expectations. Owen stays with me though. I think of his character a lot.

Bridget Jones is the only book character I talk about as if she were one of my friends. Bridget got so much trash in the 90s for being weight-obsessed and man-obsessed but honestly, she is a true hero and role model. The best thing about Bridget Jones is how she keeps making stupid, embarrassing mistakes and just soldiers on. I also admire how she smiles and makes a joke of it when people are obnoxious to her. Me, somebody gives me a look and I say hateful things with my sharp tongue. But Bridget is all kindness. We all should try to be more like her. And plus, the book is freaking hilarious.

OK. I would have given this 3 stars except 1) the stupid, stupid character names (vamps names are Wrath, Tohrment, Rhage, Vishous - omg.) and 2) the really bad dialogue among the “manly” vamps, e.g. “Yo!”, “True.” “I'm feeling you” etc. These 2 things, which appear on every page of the book, make me cringe. But other than that, it's an average quality romance novel featuring vampire royalty and assassins, a mysterious “Omega” character, and a scribe virgin. I am interested to see how the vampire culture and history emerge and what happens with the rest of the characters who were introduced in this book (and especially the 2 vampire marriages) so I will keep reading the series, and hope she tones down the ridiculousness a bit.

Like the previous in the series, it's beautifully evocative of the forests of 11th century Wales. Lawhead places the Robin Hood legend in this place and period because apparently the Welsh were the experts with the longbow. They basically used the longbow to engage in guerilla warfare against the French army.

The characters aren't super strongly drawn, by far the strongest is still Will Scatlocke/Scarlet from book 2. Book 2 was the only book narrated in the first person by its main character, and Scarlet had a strong voice.

I was suprised to read that this whole series was Christian fiction! Especially in this book, about a friar, there is a lot of prayer and reference to Christian teachings, but I would never thought anything of it if I hadn't read that it was published by a Christian imprint of HarperCollins. It seemed appropriate for a medieval setting to have explicit references to Christianity.

Overall I enjoyed the series but I think you have to be pretty interested in either Robin Hood or medieval British history to be motivated to read all 3.