January - March 2008

January 2008
Welcome to the World, Baby Girl, by Fannie Flagg
By the author of Fried Green Tomatoes, this book is about a woman who grows up in the country, then moves to the big city and tries to deny her small-town roots. She becomes fairly well-known, but suffers a breakdown and ends up back in her small town, much to her embarrassment. It’s not as good as I was hoping, but it’s okay.

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
You should already know what this book is about, but I’ll give you a brief reminder. Jane grows up sad and lonely, then becomes a governess. She falls in love with her boss and discovers that he has a lunatic wife. The house burns down with the lunatic, and Jane and her new lover live happily ever after. I’m not usually a big fan of the Brontes, Jane Austen, and the like, but I had a reason for reading this, and it wasn’t such a chore.

The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
Thursday Next learns how to read into books, that is, move herself into the story as an observer. She is a literary detective, and she reads herself into Jane Eyre in order to catch a villain. She inadvertently changes the end of the book – it wasn’t originally so happy – which causes some problems among Bronte purists. This book is the first in a series of highly amusing and book-nerdy novels.

The Nanny Diaries, by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus
A college student takes a part-time job as a nanny to a four year-old boy with an obsessive mother and workaholic father. The mother’s demands become more and more outrageous, the father’s lover expects the nanny to arrange their meetings, and the poor child just wants love and stability. A thoroughly amusing, yet sad, book based on some real experiences of the authors.

February 2008
The Lost Prince, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A young boy grows up hearing from his father about the wonderful, but tiny, nation of his birth, and eventually learns that he is the next ruler of said nation. This book is full of hopefulness and national pride, no matter what the circumstances.

Hey, it was a short month, okay? I had school and work and only 29 days to squeeze in one children's book.

March 2008
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, by Roald Dahl
I actually read these in the college library between classes. Apparently March was pretty busy (which is odd since I had to fly to Oregon for a funeral – did I read textbooks on the airplane???). Anyway, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is pretty much just like the Johnny Depp movie (similar to the Gene Wilder version, but Johnny Depp’s is more faithful to the book). Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator is the sequel – the elevator takes the entire family up in space, where they meet some aliens, almost die, and are very grateful to return to Earth.