Key of Light by Nora Roberts
Key of Knowledge by Nora Roberts
Key of Valor by Nora Roberts I picked this trilogy by the “best-selling women’s author of all time” because it claimed to be based on Celtic mythology and because the second book’s heroine is a librarian. These are romance-adventure books, where the adventure is deftly woven in with the traditional romance structure. The connection to Celtic mythology is, well, a little hazy. They mention some verifiable Celtic names when they’re doing research, but the gods of this book were not based on any actual gods, living or dead. That aside, here’s the basic notion: Three women who’ve never met before but have mysteriously all lost or nearly lost their jobs are invited to a fancy party at the big, possibly haunted house on the hill just outside of town. There they are treated fabulously and told a story of an old Celtic god-king who fell in love with a mortal woman. That was permissible, but taking her back behind the Curtain of Dreams with him to be his queen was not. In revenge, the king’s enemy, Kane, took the souls of his three teen daughters and locked them in a box with three locks. The keys were to be hidden in the mortal world. In every generation, three mortal women with the faces of the three sisters would be given the opportunity to find the keys. If they succeeded, the Box of Souls would be unlocked and the sisters released from their deathless sleep. If not, Kane would have proven that mortals really are worthless.
Malory, an art dealer, searches for the first key in Key of Light. They really mean Key of Beauty, but I guess that didn’t make for such a good book title. Dana, a tall and foulmouthed librarian, searches for the second key in Key of Knowledge, while Zoe, a hairdresser and single mother, searches for the Key of Valor. You might be wondering where the romance and women’s fiction comes into all of this. Wonder no more: finding each key involves each woman acknowledging a) that she is really good at what she does and b) that she can safely let into her life the handsome, wealthy and devoted man who is wooing her. (It’s romance, so we must allow the people to have problems even if they are all heart-stoppingly gorgeous and will have only temporary financial difficulties.) They all have different reasons for feeling they need to be single, of course, so completing the quest involves Personal Growth.
Roberts does a fine job of upping the stakes of the quest in each book, making each successive heroine work harder and be in more danger than the one before. All the characters appear in all of the books. The downside is that you know from book one which girl will end up with which guy, but on the plus side, the couple from book one isn’t just dropped after their book. Finally, there’s a strong element of women pulling together, as the three women are best friends almost immediately (but I’d have to say, if you believe the quest thing, best friends is pretty logical), working together not just on the quest but also helping with the romantic and job issues. I’d quibble with facials and toenail-painting as the most important method of female bonding, and I dislike the occasional use of words like “plunder” and “ravish” for consensual sexual activity. But all in all, this trilogy made for addictive reading.
Bananaphone by Raffi So often when I’m reviewing children’s music, I’ll talk about whether or not it’s solo voice with guitar. After listening to this album, I think what I’m aiming for is avoiding bad Raffi knock-offs. Raffi is basically the king of children’s music. In another artist’s voice, the silliness and seriousness would be insincere and make you gag. From Raffi, you find yourself singing along before you quite realize what’s happened. The title song, Bananaphone, includes all the banana puns you can think of, plus the groaner “It’s a Grandpa phone and a gramophone too.” There are is a nice song about the First Peoples, listing names of numerous Native American Tribes, and songs about organic gardening, silly rhymes and more. I would be the last person on earth to say that children need to listen only to children’s music, but if you want the Platonic ideal of kiddie songs, do put Raffi on your list.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie Life hasn’t been easy for Arnold Spirit Jr. First there was the whole being born with extra water in his brain, which gave him a permanently enlarged head. Then there’s living on an Indian reservation, where poverty, unemployment and alcoholism are rampant. This is the story of Junior’s first step towards hope, which he makes by attending school off the reservation, a high school where graduates actually attend college. At school, he’s regarded as a lazy Indian, while at home on the rez, he’s a traitor. This sounds like the set-up for another depressing teen book, but it’s not. Junior has a wicked sense of humor, both about himself and others, and illustrates the story with equally funny cartoons. Despite some pretty grim happenings, we’re rooting for Arnold and laughing through to the end.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Read by Alan Corduner It is Germany, early in World War II. Our narrator is Death. He introduces us to our heroine, Liesel Memminger, when he first meets her. She is on the train on her way to a foster home with her mother and brother, except that her brother dies on the train. At the graveyard where they stop to bury him, she steals her first book: a gravedigger’s manual that the apprentice gravedigger dropped in the snow. It takes time to make a new home, but Liesel slowly begins to fit into her new family on Himmel Street, the poor section of a small town outside Munich. Her new Mama may call her a Saumensch, but her Papa has kind silver eyes and plays a mean accordion. Rudy, the boy next door, has hair the color of lemons and a developing crush on her. Soon her circle of friends expands to include Max, a young Jewish man that they hide in their basement. Papa, barely literate himself, teaches Liesel to read. She plays soccer on the street and steals food and books with Rudy as food rations get tighter and she runs out of books to read. It is only a side note as Death notes the passing of the years and complains about the increasing number of souls that he is expected to ferry away, as we are so involved with daily life on Himmel Street. 
Montessori: The Science behind the Genius by Angeline Stoll Lillard I have this feeling, which other people might share, that the American educational system is broken and dysfunctional. There are whole books about this, which you could also read. Even though not everyone may be interested in Montessori in particular, this book has the advantage of being somewhat less depressing than a book focused only on mainstream education because it contains a positive solution to the problem. This is a dream nonfiction book for me (and I feel so librarianish talking about a dream nonfiction book) because Lillard is down with her research. The basic structure is looking at an issue in education or parenting, seeing what the research says about it, and comparing the research to standard education and Montessori education. She is quite explicit about pointing out potential flaws in the studies, even when doing so is not in favor of Montessori. Lillard also explains areas where traditional educators often disagree with the Montessori method (which is not quite the same as how the system is broken, as educators often agree that it is.) I’ve put lots of details behind the cut, but I had a hard time putting the book down, and am now sold on a Montessori education. Using the expertise of a highly intelligent woman who spent 50 years observing children and fine-tuning an system of education seems like a fine alternative to either trying to develop one myself by home-schooling, or relying on the aforementioned broken system. 
Stardust Movie adaptations of books… particularly books by favorite authors like Neil Gaiman. It has the potential for either extreme greatness or extreme badness. In this case, and I were charmed. It might have helped that it had been a few years since we’d read the book. Here’s the basic plot: Tristan, our hero is a social outcast bent on winning the heart of the town beauty, Victoria. They live in the little village of Wall, so called because it is bordered by a wall. Faery is supposed to lie on the other side of the wall, although no one has been to check, except, unbeknownst to Tristan, Tristan’s father. When Tristan and Victoria see a falling star together, Tristan vows to bring it back to her by her birthday. Meanwhile, in Faery, the dying king has thrown his ruby necklace and knocked a star out of the sky. His six sons (named Secundus through Septimus, some reduced to watching ghosts) are willing to kill to be the first to find it. And three witches send one to find the falling star, whose living heart will keep them young for centuries. For a star in Faery is a living woman. The story had the perfect blend of adventure, romance and humor to make it feel like a slightly wilder version of The Princess Bride. The actors – Claire Danes as the star, Michelle Pfeiffer as the witch, Robert DeNiro as the sky captain and newcomer Charlie Cox as Tristan (transforming beautifully from nerd to hero) were all phenomenal. This is one we’ll want to watch again.
