Ink, a Birthday, and Ireland

As my title ambiguously refers to, I finished reading 3 good books this past week that I had to share with everyone. I guess a positive thing about camping is it allows for lots of reading time! And that's pretty much what I did for 7 days: Read, read, read!

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

After months and months of wanting to read this book, I finally got it from the library and finished it. I love the story line, but, unfortunately, I did go against the rules and saw the movie before reading the book. This made reading it a little less exciting because I always knew what was going to happen, but it didn't make me admire Cornelia Funke's writing any less. She is a very talented writer, and from another writer's stand-point, I kept finding myself in awe at her metaphors and creative details. And I loved that the book was basically about people who love books! Before every chapter, Funke used a quote from another book to help describe the emotions of the chapter. And the main characters, Mo and Meggie, are HUGE book-lovers, so there are constant references to classic novels and such. Plot in a nutshell: When Mo reads out loud, characters from the story come to life, causing adventure, heartache, and a plot full of twists. Read it!

The Birthday Ball by Lois Lowry

I've always been a huge Lois Lowry fan, but this book is probably my absolute favorite! It doesn't have profound insights or mind-blowing thoughts on society like some of her other books; in fact, it's really just the opposite. It's a hilarious, satirical/parody on the fairytale princess stories, and is about how Princess Patricia Priscilla got bored one day and decided to sneak off to a peasant school before her 15th birthday celebration at the end of the week. I'm honestly going to buy it the next time I'm in Barnes & Noble. It's a quick read, and I was laughing the entire time. Five stars for sure! =)

Hush: An Irish Princess' Tale by Donna Jo Napoli

This book was a lot more serious than both of the other two books but, once again, I couldn't put it down. It was way different than I had imagined it, and I was a little disappointed by the ending, but it was extremely well-written. In fact, I was amazed by the amount of research and detail that Donna Jo Napoli probably had to put into it to make it historically accurate. I don't think it was based on a true story, but it was definitely historical fiction because the things that happened to the main character, Mel, definitely happened in 900 AD. A basic plot line would be this: Mel, a fifteen-year-old Irish princess is captured and sold into slavery. The story follows her from the slave ships to actually being sold to a rich man from Iceland. Unfortunately, there were a few scenes in the novel that I had to skim over because they were more graphic than they needed to be, but I enjoyed the rest of the book. The horrors of slavery and the story itself leave you thinking about the book for days afterward.