After a few lame #BookBlogWriMo posts--and that lameness is totally on me, not the event or its creator, of course!--over the last few days, here's one where I can really shine. I read a ton as a kid, and while there are plenty of books that didn't stick out in my memory (some to the point of forgetting their titles to this very day), there are some that still have a really fond place in my memory.

 

First and foremost, if you want to take a glimpse at all the books I read during my childhood years, you can check out my shelves at Goodreads. 1993-2003 covers everything I can recall reading between my birth and the end of elementary school; 2004-2006 covers middle school; and 2007-2011 covers my high school years (plus a few months before and after I turned eighteen).

 

Let's do this in chunks, shall we?

 

A lot of little kids have an animal phase sometime after they learn to empathize with nonhuman creatures. My animal phase was long, intense, and fostered by series like Ben M. Baglio's Animal Ark and Dolphin Diaries, as well as Jeanne Betancourt's Pony Pals.

 

Books like Mummies in the Morning from Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House series and Kristina Gregory's Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile from the Royal Diaries series helped foster my early childhood obsession with ancient Egypt.

 

Series like J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter (of course!), Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness, Emily Rodda's Deltora Quest (and its sequels, Deltora Shadowlands and Dragons of Deltora), and Jackie French Koller's The Keepers helped make fantasy one of my two favorite genres to this very day.

 

My other favorite genre is horror, and spooky stories like Grace Maccarone's The Haunting of Grade Three, Mary Downing Hahn's Wait Till Helen Comes, and R.L. Stine's The First Horror helped solidify my love for all* things frightening. *Well, most. I don't do torture porn.

 

But I also enjoy mysteries, a genre which I was first introduced to through Ron Roy's A to Z Mysteries (with my favorite being the quite-spooky-when-you're-four story, The Haunted Hotel) and continued to explore with series like classic Nancy Drew and Ann M. Martin's The Baby-sitter's Club Mysteries.

 

I discovered manga via Miwa Ueda's Peach Girl, and ventured on with series like Reiko Yoshida and Mia Ikumi's Tokyo Mew Mew and Matsuri Hino's MeruPuri.

 

Carolyn Meyer's Young Royals series helped get me into historical fiction (and I have a particular fondness for historical princess/queen stories thanks to both it and Royal Diaries), and her books Mary, Bloody Mary and Doomed Queen Anne, along with Ann Rinaldi's Nine Days A Queen, got me through a brief period of Tudor fixation.

 

Of course, like a lot of 2000s teens, I had a vampire phase, and the books that got me through that admittedly rough period included romance-y stuff like Ellen Schreiber's Vampire Kisses (perfectly average upon rereading), and R.L. Stine's books, Dangerous Girls (didn't hold up upon rereading) and One Last Kiss (haven't been able to find for rereading!). But I also read horror-focused vampire stories, including Sebastian Rook's Vampire Plagues (still totally loved upon last rereading) and Darren Shan's Cirque du Freak (rereading... someday).

There were other favorites that didn't correspond with trends, of course. Elizabeth George Speare's The Witch of Blackbird Pond was a book that I read thinking there would be actual witches, but totally loved even when it turned out to be about puritanical witch persecution and its victims... though I never actively sought out more books like it. (The time period and subject matter weren't what hooked me with this one--it was the emotional impact of Speare's writing.)

 

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was an awesome series that I got into long after I should have, but totally loved when I finally sat down to read it (and yes, I do like the ending in spite of what almost everyone else seems to think). But while I love that series, I haven't managed to read any similar series yet--with perhaps the exception of the first book in the Templeton Twins series, which uses a "Lemony Narrator".

 

And then there was Nancy Springer's I am Morgan le Fay, which really made me a bit obsessive toward that particular mythological figure for a while (and, to a lesser extent, Arthurian myth), but I never really got around to reading many Arthurian books besides Nancy Springer's other endeavor, I Am Mordred... which unfortunately wasn't as impressive to me.

 

(I'm hoping to reread I Am Morgan le Fay soon, and I really hope it holds up!)

 

Of course, after writing all this out, I have to say I'm fairly interested to realize that most of my favorite stories growing up were written by female authors... except when it came to my vampire phase, which was inexplicably populated by male authors' books! I'm honestly fairly fascinated, and I'd love to someday take the time to break down my author stats to look at sex, race/ethnicity, nationality, etc.

 

So what about you? Have you read any of these books--besides the all-but-obligatory Harry Potter and A Series of Unfortunate Events? And what were your childhood favorites? Feel free to leave a comment below!

I'd love to read more but can't imagine where a third book in this series might go...

Earlier this year I read and thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series, Lily of the Nile and I've been wiggling with anticipation for this book. I'm thrilled to say that everything I loved in the first book -- Selene, the historical setting, the magical elements, the compelling detail -- is in this one as well, only amped up more. This is a darker novel that doesn't shy away from the grim reality of ancient Roman life (around 25BC-ish or so). Selene, Cleopatra's daughter, has been married and sent to Mauritania, but from the start of this book, our heroine isn't a passive pawn. As with the first novel, Dray mixes history with magic, but the fantastical elements don't dampen or soften the historical aspects, which I so appreciate. Dray doesn't age up Selene, for example, who is 14 at the start of this novel, nor does she whitewash what imperial life was like.As with the first novel, this book features a teenaged heroine but isn't a YA story; it is decidedly mature and probably not something all readers will like. I hesitate to say I enjoyed it, because some of what transpired made me feel ill, but Dray makes all the characters quite human and quite real, to the point that I loved, hated, empathized with and dismissed everyone at some point, even Selene. It's a maddening, wonderful feeling, and for me, it felt like an accurate representation of what life would have been like for Cleopatra's daughter. You want royal intrigue, this is your book! I was sad when the book ended -- I could have used another 300 pages -- and I'm not sure if there's another book coming or not, but I'm desperate for more of Selene and her world. I loved Mists of Avalon but found rest of Bradley's series to be very thin. In this case, Dray's books get better and better; her world-building and character-development is nuanced and compelling. This is tawdry hist fic with a little more steel in the spine, and I mean that in the best way. Get Lily of the Nile first then grab this one!

It's always such a joy when I come across books like Song of the Nile, books that bring together my two favorite genres which are fantasy and historical fiction. I'd looked forward to this novel ever since I finished reading its predecessor Lily of the Nile, and it did not disappoint.

Song of the Nile continues the story of Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony. When we last left her, she was growing up as a ward/hostage in the household of the Roman emperor Augustus. This book focuses on the next chapter of her life -- her marriage to King Juba II and her journey to become queen of Mauretania. All the while, however, Selene cannot leave behind the memories of the loved ones she has lost, and continues to fight for her beloved Egypt and to claim her birthright to her mother's throne.

In this sequel I felt a shift in style from the first book. While Lily of the Nile was very subtle in its themes and symbols, Song of the Nile takes a more head-on approach at tackling the story. This might have something to do with the fact that the subject matters in this book are a lot darker. Selene has grown from a child to an adult so it makes sense that the themes in this novel would be more mature, but I was surprised to see that they were also more controversial. This and other factors made this book feel very different and Selene is no longer the Selene we knew from Lily of the Nile, but all this is good in a way. The character shows depth and growth, and the author makes the reader feel that we are with Selene every step of the way

As Selene becomes a woman, her quest for her own identity continues. At times her narrative makes her seem like she is confused with who she is, or that she is everywhere at once. For example, one moment she would identify with her mother, and in another she would identify with Augustus, or she would think highly of her own abilities in one paragraph, then despair of her helplessness in the next. There was also her single-minded goal to become Queen of Egypt, and the disturbing lengths she would be willing to go to in order to achieve it. This made the book frustrating to read at times, but also hard not to sympathize when I knew this was simply Selene struggling to find herself and come out from under the emperor's thumb as well as her mother's shadow. She's not perfect, and that's okay.

After reading both books, I think I still like Lily of the Nile more, which is why I rated this book the way I did, but by no means does this indicate I think that the second book fails to live up to the standards of the first. On the contrary, I thought this was an excellent follow up, but the first time you meet a character is just always so much more powerful.

As before, I am impressed with the amount of work that must have gone into the researching for this novel. Ms. Dray covered much of what is known about Selene's life, but also added her own flair to the story to fill in the many gaps we don't know. What makes this series even more unique is that there is also a heavy dose of fantastical elements, such as Selene's and her siblings' abilities to work magic. I know some people don't like fantasy in their historical fiction, but I'm personally okay with it as long as it's done well and done tastefully, and I feel the author strikes a good balance in these novels. This is why I love reading historical fiction, for the creative elements that fuel our imaginations and make what we know more alive and interesting.

Song of the Nile is part two in Stephanie Dray's historical fiction series about Selene, Cleopatra's daughter. I read part one, Lily of the Nile, recently (review) and Song of the Nile picks up the story with Selene's marriage to Juba, which leads to her becoming Queen of Mauritania. But her ultimate ambition is still to become Queen of Egypt and Selene must plot harder than ever if she is to have any chance of achieving it.Having Lily of the Nile fresh in my mind meant that it was easy for me to make comparisons between the two. I felt that both the writing and the characterisations were much stronger in Song of the Nile. Selene goes through some quite unpleasant experiences during the course of this book, and I thought Dray did a good job of capturing the emotions that would arise. The court politics and intrigue were dealt with realistically.I also very much enjoyed Selene's characterisation. Too often I read historical fiction novels in which the royal characters are depressingly normal and humble. But Selene was a proper Queen; she was haughty, spoilt, ambitious, demanding and not afraid to show it. It was refreshing because that's probably how she was in real life.Despite the good writing and characterisations, I did have some issues with the story. Dray states in her introduction that this is more a work of fiction than a fictional biography, but I found some of the events unbelievable. And I'm not talking about the supernatural devices, but the remarkable coincidences to bring some of the main characters together at the right time. I just don't believe that Helios would have always been able to find Selene. When I feel that way about a book, it's hard for me to get over it and enjoy the other elements.So this is a bit of a mixed review. I thought the book started off strong but soon become a bit over the top. I do think Dray is a good writer with a talent for characters, but ultimately this wasn't the book for me.