Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

Let me give you a little tidbit about myself, if an author has an intriguing plot – I’m in, no question.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister falls firmly into this category. Gregory Maguire seems to have taken hold of my interest. I love the premise, the story behind the fable. The unfortunate part of this (and in my opinion many of his books) is that getting to that good premise and story requires wading through minutiae equaling the mental equivalent of trying to run through a mud bog as deep as your upper thigh!

Cinderella as told from the point of the Ugly Stepsister is an engaging and interesting story. I actually enjoyed this book more than the famous book Wicked by the same author. Confessions wouldn’t be the first recommendation I would make to a friend looking for a book to read but I wouldn’t discourage anyone from seeking it out either. There is nothing unseemly in the subject matter; in fact, the childish make-believe is whimsical and fun. Appropriate for older teens despite the fact that is is not listed as Young Adult literature.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

I won’t hide the fact that I love Stephen King. But this is by far one of my favorite of his books. I have read this one five times and carry it with me if I am not in the middle of another book just so I can spend some time with Trisha. If you haven't read Stephen King before, this is a good place to start. Scary, but you (probably) won't be up all night unable to sleep, not the case with some of his other books to be discussed later.

Little Trisha McFarland who is 9 but big for her age is going through a lot of stuff. Trisha’s parents are divorced and her brother Pete is hitting that stupid teen phase that dictates you can’t like much of anything, especially your family and he tends to suck all of their parent’s attention and energy.

While Trisha and her brother are out on one of Quilla’s ‘outings’ she leaves the trail to escape the never ending conflict between Quilla and Pete. Being lost in the woods is probably one of the scariest things that could happen to anyone and reading about a lost 9 year old was slightly disturbing but not only is she big for her age, she is pretty mature (possibly attributable to being a product of divorce but also what else do you expect when you have an adult male writing from the perspective of a little girl).

I did let my boys read this book. The oldest (14 at the time) did seem to enjoy it, especially the slightly off color humor. Youngest (12 at the time) was a little less than impressed, sorry Steve, he is just finding his reading niche and it is focused in the fantasy genre right now.

Introductions

I have a husband who is really one of the nicest guys in the world and who is (yes cliche) my best friend. Two of the most handsome young men to walk the earth are my sons and we have a pretty funny dog named Cooper.

I feel I can safely say I will never review or recommend a Nicholas Sparks book. I read and sort of liked A Walk to Remember and saw and tolerated the movie ‘The Notebook.’ But, if ever there was a class to teach authors how to derive satisfaction and joy from reworking the same tired storyline Sparks took advanced classes in that perverse joy and went professional. Yeah, yeah, I am sure he’s a nice guy I just don’t like his work. Don’t get all defensive, I am sure there is someone out there in the world who doesn’t actually like Stephen King’s work. So here we go with that – I read a quote attributed to a critic of Mr. King that said something to the effect that if he published his grocery lists they would end up on the bestseller list (indicating that this particular critic didn’t like his work, see I told you there was someone). I might buy it – who knows? I bet he buys all sorts of weird crap! But I would think he also has code words or nicknames for his favorite items. I must say I will be tremendously disappointed to find that he shops for:

Milk
Eggs
Toilet paper
Beer

Instead of:

Moo Juice
Chicken poo (he may say the other word, but I won’t)
Butt wipe
Horse pee

I’m just sayin…………..