Heidi

The Alps - I never would've heard about The Alps if it hadn't been for the story of Heidi. Once again  I read the book "Heidi" by Johanna Spyri a short while back - but grew up watching the animated TV show(the first time being with "A Little Princess" ).

Heidi
Children's book/ Classic
 

     Heidi begins as a story of a 5-year-old young girl, who has been under the care of her aunt Dete who now wishes to put her in the care of the girl's grandfather- so that she can take up a job elsewhere. The Grandfather of interest however lives up a mountain slope-in the Swiss Alps, away from most of his closest neighbours- who live below in the town. He's got a bad reputation- how much of it is true, we aren't told- but for good reason, as it isn't really that important for the main story of Heidi. Despite all of this Heidi is dropped off at the unsuspecting grandfather's house and Dete leaves immediately-lest she be forced to take the girl back with her.
On the long walk to her grandfather's house, Heidi meets Peter who is a goatherd close to her age.
   The story goes on to show us how Heidi (not merely "copes with" but) enjoys life up in the mountain- where she is well taken of by her Grandfather (whose goats she comes to adore), Peter, Peter's mother and Peter's grandmother.
 


 

Heidi with Snowflake
 

The story is Light, refreshing as is Heidi's strong willed nature. We learn as she learns about life. However, a twist in the tale develops when Heidi is whisked away by aunt Dete to Frankfurt where she is made to be a companion to a rich and slightly older girl named Clara - an invalid (not completely physically fit).
Heidi's adventures continue in Frankfurt, however she misses Grandfather, the trees and the animals (that her home in the Alps had plenty of) and begins to grow sick of the tall buildings.
She can't bring herself to say anything about her home-sickness to anybody though, lest she be perceived as an ungrateful little girl - as mentioned by Rottenmeyer (the care taker at Clara's house, as her mother has passed away). Heidi somehow confides her innermost feelings to Clara's grandmother who is an bright woman who notices Heidi's sad stature.

The rest of the story goes on to talk about Heidi's journey back, followed by Clara's visit to the Alps and surprising events that follow.
 The story has been a genuine blessing in my life, although when I was a child I used to wonder if Heidi were not "too perfect" a person. But that was just my baseless envy talking, and now that I've read the book I would definitely recommend to anyone with time and patience.

 Sometimes we underestimate the simple things - and then later regret it. Are we dwelling on the perks of all the things Right Now has to offer us?? :) and if yes are we continuing to be grateful for it and trusting that God who Loves us will somehow take care of the outcome of situations? If not what is stopping us?

 

13 Little Blue Envelopes

"13 Little Blue Envelopes" is the name of a book written by a certain Miss Maureen Johnson. The story is simple. The Protagonist (main character) is Virginia (Ginny for short) a 17 year old "regular" American Teenager-who has never done anything "out of the ordinary", with her life. She considers herself near painfully average - however all of this changes. She is left with a letter from an aunt containing a set of instructions - basically telling her to get packing  and first go to her aunt's place in New York. Upon reaching her destination she receives a package containing 13 Blue Envelopes- each containing a letter written by her Aunt Peg (Who happens to have died a while back)

[ Find a more detailed introduction here.]

Title: 13 Little Blue Envelopes

Author: Maureen Johnson

Publisher: Harper Collins

Genre: Young Adult (fiction)

 

 

I picked out this particular book, purely based on the cover alone- knowing nothing else, but it turned out to be a good choice after all.

 

Ginny is now instructed via letter from her Aunt Peg to travel and see the places that her Aunt Peg had travelled through and seen a while back, with nothing but a large backpack as a companion.

The wonderful thing about this book, (and the thing which keeps me reading it over and over again sometimes) is the ability of the author to transport us (the readers) into this new place, with them. Although it's second hand information, at some points I've felt that I was travelling (first-hand) with Ginny- feeling bored; with her, annoyed; with her, shocked at herself; with her, angry; with her, exhausted; with her, understanding humour; with her and exploring with her.

The pace is beautiful. The mysteries that begin to unfold- is there more to this journey than just giving Ginny one last chance to come out of her shell and live like a crazy person or not?

 

The story takes us through Europe and made me want to travel the world. The way Ginny does - a little randomly but with assistance.

 At the end of the book, I was starting to get a little disappointed before the last chapter, however the Last Chapter came to the rescue and the book proves to be whole on its own, but there's more.

6 years after the release of this book, Maureen Johnson has released it's sequel (The 13th little blue envelope) and I've been meaning to read it, if ever I get the opportunity to.

 

Unfortunately I haven't read any other books by Maureen Johnson - which I hope will change shortly.

 

Love

Jeff

Book Review #1- The shining (written by Stephen King)

        This is a story, quite simply put, of what happens to a little 5 year old boy(Danny Torrance) who has psychic abilities ( or has "the Shining" as Mr.Hallorann from the story puts it), his father (Jack a.k.a John Torrance- with an abusive past) and mother (Wendy Torrance) when they move into 'The Overlook Hotel' which sits on top of an icy mountain in Colorado, for the winter. Jack lands the job of a Caretaker at the Overlook hotel-which Danny realizes (on premonition) is haunted.                                           

Cover Design by Keenan
Title : The Shining
Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
No. of Pages: 512
Price: Rs. 350/- (M.R.P-India)
Language: English
Publication Date: 31 May 2007
Genre: Horror

 (Here's the not so simple version):
 Jack Torrance's character, is depicted in the beginning as a normal american husband/father who is out looking for a job to support his wife and child. Once the plot moves further along, a few flashbacks-in the form of stray pieces of conversations and thoughts- reveal that there is more to this man, who was once a raging alcoholic and had broken his son's arm in a fit of anger. Wendy Torrance, is almost constantly torn between her desires, of wanting to run away from her husband and wanting to stay because of her love for him-which is growing thinner by the day.
Mr.Ullman, Manager of "The Overlook" is unwilling to hire Jack Torrance because he came with a family, just like the previous Caretaker, Mr.Grady, who had ended up murdering his wife and kids before shooting himself due to "cabin fever"- a slang for the reaction that resulted from Claustrophobia.-irrespective of which Jack takes the job.

I am ze OVERLOOK HOTEL and I plan on TERRORIZING YOU , until you lose your mind. 

Danny Torrance is warned several times, by his "imaginary friend"-Tony- of the dangers that lie ahead if his father takes this job. But, not wanting to disturb the peace that had come upon the family after a long time, he says and does nothing about these premonitions. The family drives up to The Overlook as it is closing up for the winter on the last day and catch glimpses of it's last visitors. Here, they meet Mr. Hallorann (who also "shines" i.e. has the ability to know and feel certain things that not everybody does.), staff at the Overlook. He, privately, mentions to Danny that he has the biggest 'Shine' out of all the people that he'd ever come across. Also, that if anything went wrong, to call for him ( telepathically) and to stay clear of room. 217 and the playground.
Everybody soon leaves, and the first few "snow-less" months go on pretty smoothly, apart from the time when  the animal-shaped-hedges out in the lawn by the playground, try to attack Jack Torrance (which he brushes off as hallucinations) and Danny's nightmares and general uneasiness because of the things he begins to come across as well.
Once they are snowed-in, and have no where else to go, the hotel seems to be teeming with monsters of all kinds.
The worst of the lot being the Ghosts of Jack's past that were beginning to catch up with him-and making him relive them all over again.

Just found out that they made a movie out of the book.

Being the first Stephen King book that I've ever read, I didn't really know what to look out for- and it was definitely nothing that I could have imagined. I admit there were some parts that were boring, especially in the beginning when the plot was just warming up.The middle, was when I was starting to get creeped-out and truly getting to know Jack Torrance. Towards the last hundred pages, however, things were quite the opposite to how they were in the beginning, and the suspense of what exactly happens to Jack, Wendy and Danny Torrance is (quite amazingly) kept up to the absolute end. Definitely worth a read, if your looking to read up some good horror or just to try out something new. Not for the faint-hearted.

I haven't actually seen the movie, yet, but what I get from some of the clips that I've seen on YouTube  is that the book was waaayyy scarier.
I could be wrong though. Perhaps sometime I'll actually watch it, and add an update :)

This video, I did actually find pretty cool:



(I take absolutely no credit for it)
Have a great day you guys!  Have you read "The Shining" and/or watched the movie?Would you recommend it? ALSO, are there any other Stephen King books/ Horror books that you'd recommend? (although I don't think I'll be reading horror for a while...) Thanks! :D
love
     jeff

hello, HELLO!

P.s. It's 12:30am. I just felt the need for that to be told. kbye.