Review - EYES LIKE STARS

Eyes Like Stars - Lisa Mantchev (Theatre Iluminata, #1)
Genre: YA "Speculative" Fiction (maybe fantasy?)
# of pages: 352 (hb)
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends, Macmillan
Amelia's Age Level Recommendation: 13/4+ (8th grade and up, I'd say - perfect for the high school and above crowd)
Quick Take:While reading Eyes Like Stars, here are some words that kept coming to mind:"Creative!" "Fun!" "Original!" "Whimsical!" "Hysterical!" but most importantly: "CLEVER." The world of the Theatre that Mantchev has created is utterly and deliciously clever. Everything about the book was enjoyable for me. I was a little skeptical of the book's premise that all theater characters - not just the Shakespearean ones - live in the same magical theater, but Mantchev handled it superbly.

In regards to the MC, Bertie, I was pleasantly surprised to discover how much I liked her, from page 1 until the very end of the story. She has an excellent, wry sense of humor that I found very refreshing. She was a little on the bossy side, but her good humor and her spirit of determination proved stronger traits. Bertie's four fairy friends - Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed, and Peaseblossom - were adorable all throughout the story, and I loved them all! I wish I had little fairy sidekicks! And this is almost unprecedented, but as to the two "leading men" characters, Ariel from The Tempest and Nate, a pirate from The Little Mermaid, I love both of them. Equally. Well, maybe I like Ariel just a little more. That's so weird. I am notoriously grouchy when it comes to love-triangles, but in ELS, it totally worked. Maybe it's because Lisa Mantchev doesn't beat you over the head with over-the-top drama and forced feelings, and also she doesn't put a lot of focus on this aspect of the story. It just came together very nicely.

One more thing: I really want to mention Lisa Mantchev's writing style a little bit, because in all honesty I think this is a part of storytelling that doesn't get as much recognition as it should. Her writing style is absolutely 100% G/T clever. A lot of times authors can get by on just entertainment alone, and so you have books (and sorry to say, I think this happens in YA way more than adult fiction) that are entertaining and present an interesting/engaging story, but the writing isn't exactly memorable. The narrative voice, the VOCABULARY, the tone...everything was just beautiful and superb. If you haven't read Eyes Like Stars yet, but plan on it in the future, I really want you to pay attention to the quality of Mantchev's writing. You'll be hard-pressed to find anything more exemplary.

Final Rating:Highest rating, highest regards!

Teaser Tuesday: BRIGHTLY WOVEN

As always, Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB @ Should be Reading.Here's how it works: Grab the current book you're reading- Open up to a random page- share a little "teaser" from somewhere on that page.***Make sure your section is spoiler free!!

I just started Brightly Woven last night and am slowly making progress through it. So without further ado, here is my teaser:

"You interrupt my business?" he sputtered. "Do you know what this wench just accused me of being?"
"A filthy pig," North said good-naturedly. "But there's only one filthy pig allowed in her life, and the position's been filled."
- Brightly Woven, pg 44

started a writing blog

This is a really random announcement and I'll probably delete it, but I do have a sister site now, totally devoted to writing!

It's called In Pursuit of Windmills (Man of La Mancha reference!) and it's fairly new, so there are only 2 posts. I'm not going to post my WIPs or anything...I'm notoriously paranoid...but I do plan to blog about the writing process, inspirations, and other fun stuff! Maybe you'll stop by some time :)

DID YOU KNOW?! CONTINUED!

Here we go --- more fun facts!


Charles Dickens

• Dickens' first novel, The Pickwick Papers, was published when he was just 24; after that, he was financially set for life. Lucky.
• He had a little bit of OCD going on: the objects on his desk had to be in exactly the same position each day before he could begin writing. He also touched objects 3 times for luck and liked attending seances.
• He was pretty much the Stephen King of his day: adored by legions of loyal friends, but unloved by critics (and foppish wits like Oscar Wilde)
• Oh, how sweet! Dickens' pet names for his second wife, actress Catherine Hogarth, included "Dearest Pig" and "Donkey"
• Oliver Twist was the first book in the English language with a child as its hero. Huh!

Charlotte & Emily Bronte

• Little geniuses: As children, Charlotte and Emily created an imaginary world called "Glass Town" which they populated with the "descendants" of their brother Branwell's wooden soldiers. Hey, I created a world populated by my Playmobiles!
  
• A lot of death ran in the family: the girls' mother died when they were small children; their older sisters died at boarding school (Jane Eyre inspiration, probably); their brother Branwell got alcohol poisoning and died a while later; at his funeral, Emily caught a cold and never recovered; and Anne died of tuberculosis. Charlotte outlived all her siblings, dying at 38 also of tuberculosis
• Emily based the brooding character Heathcliff on her own brother, Branwell, an alcoholic and womanizer
  

Emily Dickinson

• Emily was never a social butterfly. She once described the dictionary as her "only companion" and books as "the strongest friend."
• In the 55 years she was alive, Emily left her home of Amherst no more than a dozen times
• Emily was so reclusive, she forced doctors to "examine" her from behind a closed door
• Popular legend has it that you can sing almost any Emily Dickinson poem to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas," "Amazing Grace," or the theme from Gilligan's Island. Seriously, try it! It's because she wrote in iambic tetrameter, the same rhythm used in such songs

Louisa May Alcott

• By Louisa's own words, the Alcott family was "as poor as rats." When they had money, they ate vegetables - otherwise, meals generally consisted of apples and bread.
  
• Louisa was a very daring and spirited individual and she was known for taking dares, like rubbing red peppers into her eyes or jumping off the barn.
  
• Alcott never married, but she did have crushes on nearby literary notables Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Being single didn't bother her, though: "I would rather be a free spinster and paddle my own canoe," she once said.
  
• She died two days after the death of her father - they had a joint funeral.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens ---- err, Mark Twain

• He was a trickster as a child, and notably put snakes in his aunt's sewing basket, hid bats in his pockets for his mother to find, and faked his own death to get out of going to school. Sounds pretty Tom Sawyer-y, doesn't it!
• "Mark Twain" means "safe water--twelve feet deep" and by age 28, he was using this phrase as a pen-name. However, his first appearance in a magazine was as Mike Swain, because the editor couldn't read his handwriting!
  
• As much money as Twain made from his literary career, he would often lose it by investing in the wrong gadgets: he once lost $200,000 on a failed typesetting machine (and that was in the 19th century!)
  
• Twain was a cat-lover and gave his feline friends names like Lazy, Satan, Sin, Cleveland, Pestilence, and Famine

In My Mailbox [10] & Reading Itinerary

Only 1 book this week, and it came from Borders

Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken

I think I'm going to start this one today. Has anyone read this book?






Up next...
Wildwood Dancing, Juliet Marillier

DID YOU KNOW?!

Bet you didn't know that...

Cervantes:

• Was captured by pirates and spent 5 years as their prisoner
• Had a lifelong stutter

Shakespeare:

• Shakespeare went prematurely bald, and this gave him a distinguished stage appearance; it is believed that he starred as the Ghost of Hamlet's Father in one particular performance of Hamlet
  
• Shakespeare was said to "never blot a line," meaning that he rarely made revisions once he had something down on paper (Mozart did this, too)
  
• His theater group was first known as the Chamberlain's Men, then it became known as the King's Men
  

Jane Austen

• Austen liked Pride and Prejudice better than any of her other novels. Of the main character, Elizabeth Bennet, she said, "I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." Very modest, obviously
• When discussing the titular character Emma, Austen said she was a "heroine whom no one but myself will much like." Obviously, that has not proved true.
• The Prince of Wales was such a fan of Austen's that he had her dedicate Emma to him.

Hans Christian Andersen

• You can't pick your family. Hans' family history included crime, illiteracy, insanity, and alcoholism.
• At age eleven, Andersen was sent to work at a tobacco factory. He promptly ran away to Copenhagen, but imparted a good quote to his mother before he left: "First one has to endure terrible adversity, then you become famous." Out of the mouths of babes, eh?
  
• Hans was terribly afraid of death, and especially feared being buried alive. He had a note fastened to his bed that said "I AM NOT REALLY DEAD."
• He was a nature-lover all his life, and he was known to hug trees. For real.
  

Edgar Allan Poe

• When he was 27, Poe married his cousin, Virginia Clemm, age 13. Eww.
• Poe wrote particularly nasty literary reviews, and used words like "sickening" and "worthless" to describe nearly every writer of the day. The only famous author not lambasted by Poe was Charles Dickens.

To be continued...

weekly summary, plus RIDDLE!

Books Read
Anxious Hearts (Tucker Shaw)
Eyes Like Stars (Lisa Mantchev)

Books Reviewed
The Hourglass Door (Lisa Mangum)
Anxious Hearts

My Posts
Teaser Tuesday: Anxious Hearts
Suggestion Box: Standalone / Dystopian
Cover Wars [10]: The Seven Kingdoms books
Through a Lense: Juju ((wow, Juju, you're really popular! That post in particular got a lot of feedback))
WIYW 3: Acadia

And summer is off with a bang! Are all the other college bloggers free at last? High school bloggers, are you almost there? Summer's calling!

In other news, no one answered the Book Riddle that I posted last week. Want another go at it?
I'll tweak it just a little to hopefully make it easier to figure out:

What do Cupid (from mythology), Percy Jackson, Edward Cullen, Jacob Black, Taran from the Chronicles of Prydain, Tamwyn from the Great Tree of Avalon, Tom Ward from The Wardstone Chronicles, Peeta from The Hunger Games, Razo from River Secrets, Bridei from The Bridei Chronicles, and Marius from Les Miserables have in common?

(think about Marius and Edward and Bridei - if you've read Juliet Marillier's Bridei Chronicles - in particular...)

- Jace is definitely a "no." So is Patch from Hush Hush, Damen from The Immortals, Dimitri from Vampire Academy

and I was afraid it would be too obvious!

Have a great week, everyone. Happy reading.