http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com A Book Blog Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:10:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/witch-baby/ http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/witch-baby/#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:10:24 +0000 Bitsy http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/?p=1879 Witch Baby Francesca Lia Block really spreads her wings and finds her pace. Witch Baby is the second book in her Dangerous Angels series and is her sophomore novel. You really need to have read Weetzie Bat for Witch Baby to make any sense. Witch Baby is my favorite character in the whole crazy Bat family. She is a black sheep, an outsider, a loner. She doesn't want to stick her head in the sand and forget about the troubles in the world, or pretend they don't exist. She doesn't try and use smoke and mirrors in the guise of drugs, alcohol, parties, etc to hide from the ugly truth of the world. She faces it head on. She puts it on display for everyone to see and forces other people to acknowledge the pain and suffering, the poisons and toxins, the ignorance and fear.]]> http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/witch-baby/feed/ 0 http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/weetzie-bat/ http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/weetzie-bat/#comments Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:59:27 +0000 Bitsy http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/?p=1837 Weetzie Bat was at a very young age, and really too young for the subject matter at hand. The writing might lead you to think otherwise as it is really written at a 6th grade or lower level. Publisher's Weekly says its perfect for 12 and up, the School Library Journal says 10th grade and up. See the disparity? Weetzie Bat was Francesca Lia Block's first novel and the first in her Dangerous Angels series. I wanted to re-read it to capture some of the adventure and sparkle and hope I had gotten the first time around when I read it at the young age of 12. I was an outcast, a loner, a reader and a ridiculously creative dreamer (in the crazy sunshine and rainbows way, though if you are here reading this at my blog you probably already knew that). I still got some of that magic, but now I'm older and not all of it managed to keep its hold. As an adult there were some problems, some hitches, some flaws. Mainly my naivete is gone and with it went a lot of my original enjoyment of the book.]]> http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/weetzie-bat/feed/ 0 http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/rampant/ http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/rampant/#comments Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:00:04 +0000 Bitsy http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/?p=1786 http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/rampant/feed/ 0 http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/the-fellowship-of-the-ring/ http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/the-fellowship-of-the-ring/#comments Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:14:48 +0000 Bitsy http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/?p=1350 The Hobbit occurred and the Ring passed by chance onto a Hobbit named Bilbo. Now years have passed, the Dark Lord Sauron has been slowly regaining power and the fact that the One Ring has fallen into the hands of a Hobbit has become known to him. The Ring passes to Frodo, Bilbo's cousin and heir. With the help of his friends Frodo must flee the Shire and manage to take the Ring to the Cracks of Doom, the only place the Ring can be destroyed, or risk having Sauron rise to power once again. With the help of the elves a Fellowship is formed to help Frodo with his quest to bear the Ring to its destruction. But, can this quest possibly succeed when so much depends on one so very small?]]> http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/the-fellowship-of-the-ring/feed/ 0 http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/ice/ http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/ice/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:43:02 +0000 Bitsy http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/?p=1184 http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/ice/feed/ 0 http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/the-hobbit/ http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/the-hobbit/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:06:21 +0000 Bitsy http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/?p=1083 The Hobbit. You can't help but be awed by the history and literary significance of the books (and I include both The Hobbit and the trilogy that follows when I say this) upon which so much of epic fantasy literature is now based. Everything from the heroes quest to the world building, from the wizards and dragons to the goblins and elves scream fantasy to you and you can't help but realize that this was one of the first, and that definitely gives you pause and something to think about.]]> http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/the-hobbit/feed/ 0 http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/the-cambist-and-lord-iron/ http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/the-cambist-and-lord-iron/#comments Fri, 01 Jan 2010 01:49:00 +0000 Bitsy http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/?p=827 Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories, a collection of stories based on winning words at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. It was also published in The Years Best Fantasy and Horror 2008. "The Cambist and Lord Iron", of course, was based on the word cambist. A cambist is a person that exchanges money from one exchange rate to another (franks to pounds, yen to dollars). In this story the cambist is approached by a rich man (Lord Iron) who wants to make trouble and exchange some very rare and practically unknown type of bills for pounds sterling. By English law the cambist must legally exchange the money in 24 hours. In this both Lord Iron and the reader learn an interesting lesson about economics that begins about money and ends about far greater things than that.]]> http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/the-cambist-and-lord-iron/feed/ 0 http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/ecstasia/ http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/ecstasia/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:52:27 +0000 Bitsy http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/?p=375 http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/ecstasia/feed/ 0 http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/just-ella/ http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/just-ella/#comments Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:35:29 +0000 Bitsy http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/?p=208 Just Ella is a rewritten take on the famous fairy tale Cinderella. Only in this story Ella takes herself to the ball, evading a wicked stepmother and sweeping Prince Charming off his feet without any outside help of the magical or furry little creature kind. Once she gets everything she has ever dreamed of, through hard work, cunning and ingenuity it is just to discover that she is just another naive princess after all. The fairy tale she's worked so hard to achieve is not what it's cracked up to be.]]> http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/just-ella/feed/ 0 http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/an-exchange-of-gifts/ http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/an-exchange-of-gifts/#comments Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:25:58 +0000 Bitsy http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/?p=153 An Exchange of Gifts had all the makings of a really great book, in my opinion: there was a great set-up, interesting plot, a backstory about magical Gifts and traditions, and characters that were engaging and well rounded. Unfortunately this novel was never really finished in my opinion. The book in its current form would have made a great rough first draft of said novel, but to publish it as it is, I think, took away a lot of what this novel could have become if it had been fleshed out a little more. As it is, you can read the whole book in 20 minutes and, while being an interesting diversion, you can't help thinking the author could have done better than this.]]> http://fabula.exlibrisbitsy.com/reviews/an-exchange-of-gifts/feed/ 0