BookPikks

Good story, but not as good as Ella Enchanted. Princess Addie is the main character. She is very fearful of everything. he goes on a journey to find a cure for an illness-Gray Death-from which her sister is suffering.

This was a great book–one of my favorites! A Cinderella story in which Ella has an enchantment placed on her at birth. She must always be obedient to everyone. She finally breaks the enchantment herself, and is able to marry her prince of her own free will.

I read this book several years before the movie version of the book came out. My advice: read the book and skip the movie.

If you asked me why I kept reading Karen Kingsbury books, I really couldn’t tell you. I find myself sighing disgustedly and rolling my eyes throughout them, and yet, I have the next book in this series on hold at the library as we speak. One of these years, her books will get so bad, that I will just quit reading them. Until then, I’ll half-heartedly follow the lives of Katy-the children’s theater director with a sorrowful past and a hidden acting talent; Dayne Matthews-the adpoted Hollywood superstar whose deepest desire is to reunited with his lost biological family; and the Baxter family-they lost their mother to cancer, and now are slowly uncovering secrets from the past. Are you hooked yet?

The title is a good description of the book. I listened to the first 53 on CD while I was working out, but I must confess that I didn’t finish. It was due at the library before I could finish listening to it, and I just didn’t like it enough to renew it. I have enjoyed Goldberg’s books in the past (Bias, Arrogance) but this book was more like a big rant that left me feeling fairly discouraged about the state that our country is in. Instead of being able to laugh at the wacky liberals (and a few conservatives too) I was left feeling stressed out.

Hayden is teaching a self-contained EI class. She has 5 students who struggle with various issues ranging from autism to anger. But her neediest student turns out to be a parent helper - Ladbrooke- who struggles with alcoholism and depression. Under Hayden’s guidance, Ladbrooke finds her own niche as a teacher’s aide, and is eventually able to cope with her own problems.

Again, the students that Hayden teaches, and the circumstances under which she works never cease to amaze me