Have you ever wished for a luckdragon?

There are some books that I can re-read over and over again. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende is one of them. Some of you (or most of you who knows) are aware that the 1980's film of the same name was based off of a book. I can say with absolute confidence and conviction that the book is superior in every way. The story is centered around a little boy named Bastian Balthazar Bux (one of the most fantastic names in literature) who is not your typical hero. He's chubby and spends the majority of his time buried in books. He has a strained relationship with his father and he is bullied at school. This character is real. He is tangible. I empathized with this character on a lot of levels. He comes upon a book (I'm definitely leaving a lot out here on purpose) titled The Neverending Story and from this moment on he is changed forever. This isn't a regular book. It's alive. The reader (us) is taken on a journey with the reader (Bastian). We are introduced to the land of Fantastica with characters that range from the Childlike Empress who is the ruler of the land to Atreyu who is on an epic quest. This might be one of the first books that caused me to weep with grief...or maybe it's just the first one that I remember. Whatever the case, I still cry every single time I read this book and I try to read it once a year. It's an adventure story that is layered with magic, friendship, and self-discovery. There's a reason why it's one of my favorite books of all time.

I'm trying my best to stick to a regular posting schedule but I knew that I wasn't going to be finished with The Great Fire by today so I thought I'd try something a little different and write up a review about one of my favorites. Let me know if you think I should do this again sometime by writing a comment below. :-)

And since I won't be posting tomorrow I'll say it today: HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! 

I wanted to make a Time Lord joke but I couldn't think of any :'-(

A lot of people are preoccupied with time: How it should be spent, how it can be saved, and how to make sure it isn't wasted. Have you ever accused someone of stealing your time? Momo is the only person who is able to resist the allure of the grey men who are time thieves. An already unique child, Momo, is abandoned by all of her friends who have fallen prey to these menaces (and they really do sound menacing + the illustrations are delightfully creepy). Much like The Neverending Story, the city that Michael Ende has created feels tangible and real...actually it sounds like Rome. The characters leap off of the page. Fantasy is done right when your imagination is allowed to run rampant and a talking turtle is as ordinary as a gorilla that learns sign language (I still think that's amazing). Momo is all about making the most of your time by spending it with those that you love. I think this is an especially poignant message for adults who are bombarded with deadlines and to-do lists and children who often feel neglected by those same adults. The message is clear but the delivery is what makes Ende's writing so special and why I believe he is an underrated children's author in our country (but not in his home country of Germany!).
I love science and I love space soooo I'm reading The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality by Richard Panek. By this point, most people have heard about dark matter which is the stuff that can't be seen but which we know exists because of its gravitational effects on other objects that we can see. Panek conducted hundreds of interviews with many prominent scientists which shed light on the subject (and the drama in the scientific community). My science senses are tingling with excitement!

Prejudice, Plague, and a Prince + Witches, Oh My!

I am really loving the current trend of turning popular fairy tales on their heads. I thought it was revolutionary to turn Dorothy Gale into an evil sorceress but THIS is extraordinary storytelling. Not only did the story have a dystopian feel but there are cyborgs (!) and the Prince is more than just a pretty face who rescues the damsel (refreshingly, that's flipped around also). Topics such as prejudice, slavery, plague, war, manipulation, and many more are covered in Cinder, the first book of the Lunar Chronicles. I found it intriguing how Meyer envisioned our world after its near annihilation after World War IV. Further proving that young adult novels tackle serious topics, Meyer doesn't shy away from giving the reader a glimpse of the dark underbelly that pervades a war torn society. Cinder is multifaceted and complex which makes it a no-brainer to continue with its sequel, Scarlet. It would be a mistake to dismiss this one, guys.

A few weeks back, I reviewed Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige. I mentioned that she had since written prequels to that novel as well as a sequel. I placed holds on all these books at my local library…along with everyone else apparently. Finally, The Witch Must Burn became available. This novella (just in case you're unfamiliar with the term this is used to describe a short story of a few hundred pages) focuses on Jellia, Dorothy's personal maid. (Readers of Dorothy Must Die will remember this character vividly.) We're also given a bit of a glimpse into Glinda the Good Witch. It's really nothing more than a tantalizing morsel to hold the reader until they can get their hands on the next installment…which might take a while in my case. :-/

So I just checked through my old posts and it seems that I have never mentioned one of my favorite books of all time, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. (It was originally written in German and translated to English so it breaks my streak of Swedish translations.) You may recall the title from the 1984 (!) film of the same name which became somewhat of a cult classic. I try to reread this every year because it never fails to amaze me utterly. With that in mind, I've decided to read Ende's less-known book Momo which actually came out before The Neverending Story. It's a children's story about an orphaned girl, Momo, who has special gifts which she uses to combat the men in grey (I immediately thought of the epsiode Hush from Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I can't wait to let you all know what I think! XD