Saturday, June 23, 2012

Last Call!

Last call for entries into our $15 gift card to Amazon.com!!!! Enter fast! 

Small Print: None of the above images are ours, but are courtesy of Pinterest.com

Friday, June 22, 2012

Versatile take on the Versatile Blogger Award



Hello friends!
 The sweet K. Barett, has sweetly awarded us the Versatile Blogger Award. Thanks so much, Maria and I really appreciate it! 
So, along with the award comes a list of seven unusual things. And, since this is a blog dedicated to books, how about we change things up just a little and have 7 unusual things about classic books?  
:)


1. L. M. Montgomery gave Anne red hair in Anne of Green Gables, as an apology to her red haired friends, for all the teasing she had done about their hair. 


2. Jules Verne's novel Paris in the Twentieth Century was not published until 1994, 131 years after he wrote it. In it he predicted things like internet, computers, and a world leaving books and turning to cyber space for entertainment. The reason it was never published? His publisher thought that it was unbelievable and too far-fetched. 


3. Charles Dickens modeled Ebeneezer Scrooge after a real person - Ebeneezer Scroogie, a counselor at Edinburgh. 


4. Dr. Suess used only 50 words to write Green Eggs and Ham, thus winning a $50 bet with a friend who said he couldn't accomplish it. 


5. Jules Verne didn't just write Science Fiction, his book Michael Strogoff is a Historical Fiction novel, considered by many critics to be the best book he wrote.


6. You know the famous Betty Crocker of Betty Crocker Cookbook fame? She never existed, her name and an actresses face were paired together to give the cookbook a more personal feel. 


7. Horatio Alger was the modern creator of the "Rags to Riches" trope, a trope that would become one of the most used tropes in the 19th century, included in everything from books,comics, radio shows, and tv shows. For many children during the depression, the "Rags to Riches" trope was a glimmer of hope, and a dream they longed to reach. 


So there you are 7 unusual things about books. I'm bad about following rules, and I think this blog award could handle some changing, becoming more..versatile. :)


So whoever would like the versatile blogger award here is what you can do. 
1.Write up a post of 7 unusual things about your favorite topic... (Of course unusual book trivia would be great!)
2. Send me a link via email (see our contact me page)
3. Or stick a link in a comment. 


Have fun! :) 


P.S. Don't forget to sign up for the giveaway!!!! I'm extending the sign up time until June 23 at midnight!!! Hurry hurry!




Small Print: None of the above images are ours, but are courtesy of Pinterest.com

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Review: To Have and To Hold By Mary Johnston

Synopsis:
Already repenting of his hasty promise to marry, Captain Ralph Percy goes to meet the ship full of women that came specifically to provide brides for the Virginian settlers.  When he meets a proud and cold, but beautiful, young woman and marries her in less than an hour, he hardly dreams that he has wed the King’s runaway ward, the lovely Lady Jocelyn Leigh.  But the King will not accept Jocelyn’s hurried marriage and neither will the wicked and infatuated Lord Carnal.  When the king wants to annul the marriage and force Jocelyn to marry Lord Carnal, what will happen to Captain Percy and his wife?





One thing I found very sweet in To Have and To Hold is that Captain Percy is a gentleman if there ever was one.  He is courteous and brave, and the way he constantly risks his life for a lady who doesn’t care for him is just so wonderful.  Another sweet thing is that Ralph Percy, narrating the story, continually calls Jocelyn ‘Mistress Percy’ and ‘my wife,’ as if he’s saying to Lord Carnal, “She voluntarily married me, in the sight of God and all honest men, and you will not get her.”  That’s what I like about Captain Percy.  He’s firm, courageous, gentle, and willing to go any lengths to protect his wife’s honour, even though she’s his wife only in name.  

 
Of course it doesn’t hurt to be called Percy (a name that very good heroes happen to have) either.  And this is set in 17th century Virginia, so (Bonus points!) it has quite a few swordfights, in which Captain Percy of course excels. 


But even though he has so many good points, Ralph Percy doesn’t at all come across as a paragon, or unrealistic.  He’s a thoroughly human man whom we can sympathise with.  Even the romance angle of the story (between two nearly-paragons) is passionate, tender and completely sweet.  I tend to get annoyed by mushy romances or foolish infatuations, but true love, between two totally sympathize-with-able people is one of the most beautiful things on earth. 


I’ve already talked a great deal about Captain Percy, but now I’ll try to talk about the book, because this is a review of To Have and To Hold, not a review of Captain Ralph Percy.

 
Where to begin?  Ah, yes.  This is very well-written.  It seems there are many people who agree with me, because in 1900 (the year it was published) this was the most popular novel in America.  Mary Johnston managed to stuff it full of adventure (runaways, duels, pirates – stuff that would be totally improbable in one of my novels) but somehow you don’t get around to thinking about that.  The amount of intrigue and danger makes for an absorbing and hard to put down read.  The language in To Have and To Hold seems authentically 17th century, but still not hard to understand and, if anything, it enhances the characters. 


Talking about characters, I can’t ignore Jeremy Sparrow.  A humble and dedicated Puritan minister, he still has a very good sense of humour and is a completely kind and faithful friend.  And I was also very pleased to see Master Rolfe (who married Pocahontas) and his brother-in-law Nantauquas in the story.  As to Jocelyn, she is definitely a dynamic character and the best advice I can give you is just to read the book yourself.


Possibly Objectionable Elements:

There is fighting in this book and therefore some amount of violence and killing.  But it is not gory and, while I wouldn’t give this to young children, it would not be a problem for older readers.  There are some archaic (usually minced) oaths, but you probably wouldn’t know unless you looked them up in a dictionary.  There are a few kisses, but the whole falling in love thing is actually between a married couple (and I find that incredibly sweet.. but that might just be me.)


My advice?  If you love history, adventure, or a good romance, you definitely want to find this book.

Oh yes!  And what do I rate it?  This is hard... it certainly deserves an 8, but I'll give it a 9, because it deserves that too.


To Have and To Hold by Mary Johnston is out of copyright and can be downloaded for free in ebook form from Project Gutenberg, as a free audiobook from Librivox, or from here  To Have and to Hold .


Thursday, June 14, 2012

The Grand Giveaway

Welcome to In the Library, we are so glad that you are here!

To kick off this new blog we are doing something big!  A giveaway. But not just any giveaway, the chance to win a $15 gift card to the massive libraries of Amazon.com. Yours to use to buy just as many books as you can. (And at Amazon books $15 goes a long way!)

Here's is how to enter! For each thing you do you get 1 entry into the giveaway.

1. Comment. Just say hi, it's that easy!
 2. Follow us.
3. Use our Blog button.
4. Refer someone: blog about us, talk about us on Facebook, email your best friends, text someone, turn and tell your little sister about us... The more the merrier! :)
5. Refer over 5 people, additional entry!

For every entry please let us know, Don't worry about individual comments just list it all out in a comment and we'll count every entry!

Let's grow our circle of friends! The more people in the Library the better! :)

This giveaway ends June 22 at midnight!



Ready?    Set.... Go!

Small Print: None of the above images are ours, but are courtesy of Pinterest.com

Monday, June 11, 2012

Welcome to the Library!

  As a pronounced book worm I'm always looking for something new to read. But finding new books to read can be a daunting task. What if I purchase a book and dislike it? Are there questionable topics in the book? Things I don't want to read? I always enjoy asking friends what the books are that they enjoy. 


As a young lady who has read voraciously I am also often approached by homeschooling Moms. They all want to know one thing - is this books acceptable for my child? Can I hand it to them knowing that what they will read will not be immoral or out of their range? 


The purpose of this blog is to offer recommendations friend to friend. We will give you rating on books so you know just what you are getting into. We'll also find you the best place to buy the books online. It's like walking into your best friend's library. We can't wait to enjoy this adventure with you! 
~Amanda 

Being a fast reader, I've ran out of books very often in my lifetime, causing me to grab at whatever reading-material comes to hand.  But ever since I started reading I've been troubled with finding which books could be interesting and which are inappropriate.

Granted, this hasn't always bothered me myself, but my very wise Mamma has had quite a trial going through what I should and shouldn't read. (Yes, The Scarlet Pimpernel is a nice book, but you're only nine.  Don't you think you should wait a while?  It'll be a lot more appropriate when you're sixteen.")In the past Mamma has spent quite a while looking through the strange new books I bring home and even now I like to know what kind of book I'm getting into before I read it.

This blog is partly to help the readers who want to know about what they're reading, and especially because, as bookworms, we love talking about our book adventures to fellow-readers.  As Amanda said, it's like walking into your best friend's library, but then also staying for delightful book-chats with a cup of tea.  It will be so much fun. 
Fellow reader, will you join us?
~ Maria Elisabeth

Small Print: None of the above images are ours, but are courtesy of Pinterest.com