false 34 661 368 true 5629261 read 2 true 3448688 currently-reading 138 true 3448687 to-read 38 true 5172285 poetry 34 true 4411937 cookbooks 18 true 4831321 homesteading 12 true 3459237 could-not-finish 11 true 4985674 i-will-get-back-to-it-i-promise 11 true 4517426 history-of-the-book 10 true 4798527 king-arthur 7 true 4517387 history-of-libraries 4 true 5183311 quirky-reference-books 3 true 5210810 gardening 3 true 7146530 home-improvement 2 true 5120691 music-books-for-non-musical-people 64 false 7294255 childrens-literature 29 false 3686681 witches-picture-books 27 false 4517574 orthodox-christianity 26 false 4605772 book-discussion-selections 21 false 5121176 biography 21 false 7294341 childrens-picture-books 19 false 4517421 holocaust 16 false 4658817 vampires-that-dont-suck 15 false 6872286 saint-nicholas 12 false 4517534 books-about-books 11 false 6799998 mock-newbery-2010 11 false 8373486 horse-books 6 false 6870551 green-men 0 false 3559201 re-reading <![CDATA[Meredith is reading A Swiftly Tilting Planet ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79061780 Meredith is reading A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Meredith "I'm on disc 2." ]]> <![CDATA[Meredith added 'A Swiftly Tilting Planet']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79061780 A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Time, Book 3) by Madeleine L'Engle
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> <![CDATA[Meredith added 'A Wind in the Door']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77956683 to: A Wind in the Door (Time, Book 2) by Madeleine L'Engle
]]> <![CDATA[Meredith added 'Medieval Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78977326 Medieval Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Hardcover) by Adolfo Salvatore Cavallo
bookshelves: to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Meredith added 'The Unicorn Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78976932 The Unicorn Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications) by Adolfo Salvatore Cavallo
bookshelves: to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Meredith added 'The Hound of Rowan']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78976684 The Hound of Rowan (Book One of The Tapestry) by Henry H. Neff
bookshelves: childrens-literature, to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Meredith is reading A Wind in the Door ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77956683 Meredith is reading A Wind in the Door

Meredith "Disc 4." ]]> <![CDATA[Meredith added 'Here Comes Jack Frost']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78753204 to: Here Comes Jack Frost (Hardcover) by Kazuno Kohara
bookshelves: childrens-picture-books
Beautifully illustrated in whites, blues, and black. ]]> <![CDATA[Meredith added 'The Magician's Elephant']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75588403 to: The Magician's Elephant (Hardcover) by Kate DiCamillo
bookshelves: childrens-literature, mock-newbery-2010

This is an almost book. It is almost a great story, but somehow the elements just didn't together. At times the fairy tale aspect becomes transparent and reveals the glaring morality tale underneath. Details intended to give enough reality to make the story plausible instead raise questions that illuminate its implausibility. The only well developed character is the elephant while all the human characters remain flat.

The entire plot hinges on this idea: "And everyone, each person, had hopes and dreams, wishes for revenge, and desires for love. / They stood together. / They waited. / And secretly, deep within their hearts, even though they knew it could not truly be so, they each expected that the mere sight of the elephant would somehow deliver them, would make their wishes and hopes and desires come true" (p. 113 -- 114).

The Magician's Elephant still is a slow gentle story. The illustrations are beautiful. The language is poetic. It is like a dream told in monotone. There's no swearing and no violence (except for the elephant crashing through the opera house's roof and the hunchback becoming a hunchback by falling off the cathedral). The nuns at the orphanage aren't mean. It's a lovely story with a happy ending but nothing more complex than that. ]]> <![CDATA[Meredith added 'Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78669016 to: Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies (Paperback) by Laura Esquivel
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