Reckless by Cornelia Funke, 2010, Little, Brown, and Company, $19.99, hardbound, 394 pages. Category/Genre: fantasy. Cover: okay. We like the mirror. Where we got it: publisher. Where you can get it: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million.
Since he was 12 years old, Jacob Reckless has been travelling to the Mirrorworld. Now his brother, Will, has come with him -- and a curse has befallen him. Soon Will is going to become a goyl -- a creature made of living stone -- and he will no longer know Jacob or the girl who loves him.
Jacob's shape-shifting friend, Fox, and Will's girlfriend, Clara, are going to help Jacob find a way to break the curse and get him back to his homeland.
But things aren't so easy. Time and again, Jacob's efforts fail, until at last he learns that to break the curse he must destroy the Dark Fairy -- the one who put the curse on Will.
Filled with action, adventure, magic, and romance, this is the first in what promises to be a successful series.
If you like this one, try: Fearless, by Cornelia Funke.
Victorian Domestic Architectural Plans and Details by William T Comstock, 1987, Dover Publications, $8.95, softbound, 80 pages. Category/Genre: reference. Cover: quite nice. Where we got it: bought it. Where you can get it: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million.
Covering the mid- to late Victorian era, this book provides beautiful and detailed engravings drawn to scale. There are country houses and cottages in a number of styles: Eastlake, Colonial, Jacobean, Queen Anne, Californian, Southern, Elizabethan, and more. There are also designs for store and office fronts, which include counters, shelving, and more.
Here we will find drawings of brackets, fireplaces, finials, mantels, balusters, gables, and so forth.
Intended for architectural students, restorers of old houses, preservationists, and admirers of Victoriana.
If you like this one, try: Late Victorian Architectural Plans and Details, by William T Comstock and Daniel D Reiff.
Victorian Gardens by Caroline Holmes, 2005, Schiffer, $29.95, hardbound, 159 pages. Category/Genre: reference. Cover: good. Where we got it: bought it. Where you can get it: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million.
Starting off with an overview of various gardening styles the Victorians employed, this book also covers the restoration of The Plantation Garden in Norwich, the recreation of various gardens, and much more.
Topics include vegetables and fruits, parterres ('by the ground'; these are low patterned box edged gardens), pools, paths and paving, topiary, fernery, and a walk in a Victorian rose garden.
If you like this one, try: Suggestions?
Reckless by Cornelia Funke, 2010, Little, Brown, and Company, $19.99, hardbound, 394 pages. Category/Genre: fantasy. Cover: okay. We like the mirror. Where we got it: publisher. Where you can get it: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million.
