Five Fairy Tale (parodies) Worth Reading

Recently I have had the joy of reading the conclusion to a series that I have long enjoyed. True, it took me nearly two years to realize that this particular book had been published, and several months after purchasing the book to actually read it. (Quite simply, that is what happens when your to read list five pages long. Yes, I have a physical list of books to read which is five pages long.) This book, while not exactly a "fairy tale" parody, sparked the topic for today's post.

Since you are all probably chomping at the bit to know what the book I read was, it was "I Shall Wear Midnight" by Terry Pratchett.

I have long been a fan of Mr. Pratchett, and this series introduced me to him. Oddly enough the third book was the one that I read first. What can I say, I got "Wintersmith" for free at the library and on the book list inside the books were listed in the opposite order there meant to be read. That list lead me to believe that "Wintersmith" came first and "The Wee Fee Men" last. The Tiffany Aching books are a great series to get to know Terry Pratchett by. (I'll have you know that that preposition is perfectly legal.) It is also great for anyone who already likes Terry Pratchett. I would highly recommend the series for anyone who likes rollicking books which also bless you with being thoughtful. As I said before, the Tiffany Aching series is not really a parody on fairy tales, but anyone who has ever read Terry Pratchett knows he writes in a satirical tone, and this series is almost a parody on epic fantasies.

This next is a book that is a favorite of my sister Katy. It is "Ella Enchanted"

This book is a parody of the well known fairy tale Cinderella. It is a wonderful rendition and manages to capture the original story while being, well, original. I feel the need to mention the works of the author in their entirety as Gail Carson Levine has written several great books, many of them being other fairy tale parodies.

Mmmm, maybe I should not have used the term fairy tale in the title, as the next book is once again not a parody of a fairy tale, but actually of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet." The book is "Bad Prince Charlie."

I enjoyed "Bad Prince Charlie" but not enough to check out John Moore's other books, a few of which I am fairly certain are actually parodies of fairy tales. I might see to more of his books, one day, when my to read list gets down to a couple pages instead of five. The book "Bad Prince Charlie" is one of the most rollicking kind of parodies that I have read. Every page was chock full of mocking and ridiculous characters. As far as I could tell there wasn't some deep message though that many parodies try to have.

While the next series is aimed at a younger audience, the books are still a good read. "The Frog Princess."

These books simultaneously makes fun of many of the cliches in fairy tales, but embraces the overall idea of magic and greatness one finds in fairy tales. They are great quick read, books for a younger audience, and good read out loud books.

The last and final book is "The Runaway Princess."

And also don't forget to check out the sequel "The Runaway Dragon." Once again this book book targeted at a younger audience, but do you know what? I like books for younger readers, and I don't care who knows it. I might be a bit more inclined to read books for older people, but the only real difference between kid books and books for adults are the ratings they would need to put on them...if you know what I mean. 

Why The Avengers Did Better in Theaters than The Dark Knight Rises

Yes, the epic debate that has been crawling all over the internet for months. Nerds and comic book fanatics arguing over with series is better, which turns out to be remarkably complex and somehow the quality of those two movies includes the over all quality of all Marvel and DC comics. The interesting thing about this argument is that the epic-ness is basically one sided.

I've only really seen arguments as to why The Dark Knight Rises should have done better, and why The Avengers, (and Marvel comics in general) is less awesome than Batman. One almost can't call it a debate since it is so one-sided. There are a few who argue for The Avengers, but all the articles and ranting blog posts I've seen talk about the movies on a more DC vs. Marvel bases. And yet The Avengers made $468,471,111 more than Batman. If there are so many more people talking about why Batman is superior, why do the numbers say other wise.

That's where I come in.

A couple quick disclaimers though. First, I have not actually seen The Dark Knight Rises, though I have seen  The Avengers. I have watched the first two Batman movies though, and have read reviews and epic "debates" about Batman, and I think I have a good enough feel of what the third movie will be like. Second, this isn't really an argument for The Avengers, or against The Dark Knight Rises. In fact, I like the Batman movies better than The Avengers series. I'm simply going to list the reasons why I feel that The Avengers did better. In fact some of the reasons why it did better are reasons Batman fans say the movie The Avengers is inferior to The Dark Knight Rises. 

Reason number 1: The Hype

There was quite the hype for The Dark Knight Rises, but there was probably more hype with The Avengers. The Avengers had more movies preceding it, which would add an epic feeling; every year there was a new Avengers movie, pulling more people into the whole Avengers hype. Plus there were the little clips at the end of each movie, which would get people excited about the next movie. 

Reason number 2: Multiple Heroes 

In the Batman movies you have Batman. In The Avengers you have Ironman, Captain America, The Hulk, and Thor (plus Black Widow and Hawk Eye, but they don't have their own movies.) If you're not to fond of Batman, you're not exactly going to go and see the third movie. If Ironman is your favorite super hero of all time, even though you weren't fond of any of the other three, you probably went to go see The Avengers. It also helped reason number 1, the hype. Here was the movie were all of the super heroes got together and formed one epic team, making for one epic movie.

Reason number 3: The Villain

The Bane. Psh. Who cares about The Bane? The Joker was awesome, but quite frankly The Bane isn't the most interesting villain in the world. Like I said, I haven't seen The Dark Knight Rises, but other than how people can't understand him, I have heard nothing about the villain quality of The Bane. Now Loki on the other hand, people like Loki almost as much as they like the Joker. (I think, in part, that has to do with Tom Hiddleston playing Loki.)

Reason number 4: Less Darkness, more Laughs

Now, I know people like me enjoyed the Batman movies more than the Avenger ones, but quite frankly I was more "entertained" by The Avengers. The Avenger movies are lighter, easier to digest, more fun to watch. Not everyone can appreciate the dark slant the Batman movies have. In fact, for someone lacking at least a slightly grim sense of humor, the Batman movies would seem simultaneously too serious, and not serious enough. It's so dark and scary, but seriously? It's about a man who dresses up like a giant bat, and he fights crazy people who wear makeup and strange masks. The premise is a little ridiculous, so unless you can appreciate the slightly ridiculous, and laugh at the slightly gruesome, the Batman movies are not for you.

Avengers on the other hand. Well? Those movies don't take themselves seriously at all. It's easier to swallow the more ridiculous aspects. There's at least a couple decent one liners in each fight scene that lighten the mood, laugh at the kind of ridiculous premise, without hurting the intense action.  

Reason number 5: Wider Fan Base 

Yes, despite what I said earlier about The Dark Knight Rises having more crusaders than The Avengers, the latter has a wider fan base, much due to the reasons already stated. This may seem paradoxical, but the simple fact is that Batman has fewer, but more dedicated followers. The type of people who will become obsessed with a single super hero and defend him as if he was a real person are more likely to be attracted to Batman. Casual fans are more likely to enjoy The Avengers. This fact is mostly due to reason number 4. It appeals to more people, even if not people who become as dedicated to it as Batman fans.

Plus, men probably found it a lot easier to drag their wives and girlfriends to see The Avengers than The Dark Knight Rises. 

Reason number 6: Robert Downey Jr./Ironman 

Yes, he does deserve his own reason. No, this isn't just because I'm some man obsessed woman who will enjoy a movie just because I think an actor is attractive. I honestly believe that the super hero of Ironman is what has made a lot of people attracted to The Avengers. You know that saying, "Be yourself, unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman." Honestly, all noble prejudice and righteous aspirations aside, which person would you rather be, Batman or Ironman? Ironman is awesome, and has one heck of a good time being a bad-ass hero. Batman is awesome too, but his life is one hysterical breakdown from being a bad drama.

There are my reasons. You may agree with them, you may not. You may be sitting there in a huff saying to yourself  "But The Dark Knight Rises was better." It may have been so, but The Avengers did better, and there really is no arguing with that. 

Ten Words I'm Surprised are Real

The English language is very rich and diverse, receiving a heritage from many languages.Which is probably why it is such a mess. The grammar is convoluted, the spelling arbitrary at best. Why do we say better instead of gooder? Why is it alright to say faster, but not funner? Why is it i before e, except after c, unless there's an a as in neighbor and weigh? Weird, no? Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who who is obsessive about being correct in her grammar, but unlike most grammar Nazis I understand that one must approach the English language with caution and the understanding of the flexible nature of the language. (Spelling can just rot though.)

That brings me to the topic of this post. There are words in the English language that quite frankly don't make sense. Why would we even have that word? As well as the words that seem like they shouldn't be real, that sound made up. Here is a list of ten words I'm surprised are real. This isn't an official list of the ten most bazaar words, just ten words that made me do a double take. Some are fairly common words, some  are obscure, and others are weird slang. 

Splutter-a confused noise (as of hasty speaking)

Now this may be a surprising word to be in the list, but as embarrassing it is to admit, I only realized it was a real word in the last couple years. For the longest time I merely thought it was a deliberate and comical mispronunciation of the word "sputter."

Hooliganism-rowdy, violent, or destructive behavior. 

I knew hooligan was a word, but hooliganism sounds like someone was too lazy to find a different word, so they just slapped an ism at the end of the word hooligan.

Chillax-to calm down

I totally thought I made up this word. I don't remember having ever heard it, and when I first used it, it was after I thought I was being clever for combining the words chill and relax together. I was surprised (and slightly embarrassed) when I finally learned it had been a common slang since the late 90's.

Defenestration-the act of throwing someone or something out a window

Do we really need a word for this? I mean, in what context would you use this word, or even want to? It's like using antidisestablishmentarianism in a sentence. The few times you could use it, there is probably an easier way to say the same thing. 

Finnimbrun-a nick knack* 

An entirely superfluous word, but fun to say. 

Wallah-a person who is associated with a particular work or who performs a specific duty or service. 

It is a common enough word that I have known the meaning of a long time, but I can never take it seriously. 

Nocular-a word which can substitute any word.^ 

Now this word is basically slang, you can't even find it in any reputable dictionaries. The only place I could find  it was the Urban Dictionary There is a weird story behind this word being among the chosen. Many of you will recall a strange ice-cream (sort of) treat called dip an' dots. The containers they came in were roughly shaped like binoculars, and I said as much. Katy, my older sister, misheard me and thought I said the containers were nocular. From then on it became a thing in my family to call something nocular if we weren't sure how else to describe it, more as a joke than anything else. One day I actually looked it up, curious to see if it was a real word. It may only be found in the urban dictionary, but I was surprised to see that the way we had been using the word was a way that others had been using it as well. 

Tyrotoxism-to be poisoned with cheese*

I feel this word speaks for itself. 

Inimitable-not capable of being imitated

This was actually the word of the day at Marriam Webster and when I saw the definition it seemed to break every single assumption I had made about the word. I guess I just though that it should mean the opposite of what it actually does. In is a very strange prefix, at times it mean in the positive, such as the word inflammable  and invaluable. But apparently it can also negate the meaning of something as well. 

She'd've-she would have

Seriously? I admit, I use contractions, but a double contraction seems a little excessive. Unless you're using 'tisn't, but only because it sound Shakespearean.

Even though not everyone will be surprised at this collection of words, it can not be doubted that at least of few of them are truly weird, 

* Definition reworded from my own brain. ``

^Definition from Urban Dictionary ``

``All other definitions from Marriam Webster.  

The Shield, Sword, and Crown

If any of you can recall, or care to go to the columns this is a book review. The problem is, I read a lot of books, at least one a week, sometimes more, and quite frankly I did not feel like writing that many book reviews. Luckily, I came up with a clever solution. 

I read a lot of series, and I could cut the number of reviews I would have to write if I lumped in all the books in the same series into the same book review. Look at this as more of a place of recommended books really. If a book is terrible I probably won't bother posting about it, unless of course it is to warn others. 

The series I want to talk about today is a trilogy called, The Shield, Sword, and Crown by Hilari Bell. 

The story is told from the perspective of three people. Weasel, an ex-pick pocket who is now a clerk of the law, Arisa, the daughter of the rebel bandit the Falcon, and Edoran the young prince of Deorthas. The shield of stars, the sword of waters, and the crown of earth are items of legend, and all three must be found to return balance to the politically unstable kingdom of Deorthas. 

The series is fantasy, and could probably even be classified as epic fantasy, but it doesn't have that over-the-top thing that many fantasy stories have. No sweeping epic battles where the forces of evil and good battle in an unbelievable power match where the action is explained in overly flowery language. There is magic present, but it feels almost natural and believable. The villains in the story is realistic; regular people. The characters are well-drawn with good development, and are just as realistic as the villains. I personally liked how the series handled the idea of religion. Technically none of the religions on the books were actual religions, but the series still did a good job and presenting religions in a real light, whether you are religious yourself or not. 

There is some mild language and violence, but other than that the books were very clean, which I also enjoyed. For future reference, I plan on using the rating scale from Fiction Ratings, and I would give this book a K+. 

And for the other form of rating I give this series 4 out of 5 stars. While this series was written with a younger audience in mind, the author doesn't dumb down the ideas of evil, or right and wrong. In fact a saw a depth that is lacking in many books written with adults in mind. I think the series is a good read for anyone who likes fantasy.