The Egypt Game, Zilpha Keatley Snyder

 The Egypt Game, Zilpha Keatley Snyder

My daughter bought a box of books and this was accidentally added to it, or maybe added as a bonus. She was not interested in reading it, so she gave it to me.

This is a children's book, and has been given the Newbery Honor. It's about a girl who is obsessed with learning about Egypt, and role plays Ancient Egypt, and her friends join in. There's a murder in the neighborhood, and nobody is sure who did it. Is is the old junk shop owner who owns the property where the kids secretly play their Egypt game, or could it be someone else? The kids are not seeking to solve a mystery, but become involved. 

This book is about role play, pretend play, and having fun while not in front of a screen. It's about interacting with friends, using your imagination, and some hard life situations, and drawing closer to those around you.

It was an okay read, but definitely for a younger audience. It was originally published in 1995 and it kind of felt like it was made in the age before computer and phone screens took over lives of the young. 

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John Martin's Big Book 2

John Martin's Big Book 2

John Martin's Big Book 2 was published in 1934 by Collier. It is a compilation of short stories, poems, games, and coloring pages for children to enjoy. I think I picked this up at an estate sale for a dollar. It reminded me of the bookshelf of children's books in my childhood home. I spent hours reading through many of them, and this book, although I had never heard of this series before, was enjoyable to read as well. It is also full of lovely illustrations with that old fashioned look. 

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Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher

Wishful Drinking, by Carrie Fisher

I grew up with Princess Leia. As a child born in the mid-1970s, I was a Star Wars Kid. I had an older brother and a younger brother and both were obsessed with Star Wars. They had almost all the original figures from the first few years. We had the Star Wars soundtrack on 8 Track. My older brother read the novels. My younger brother had the first movie memorized word for word and would change costumes repeatedly as we watched it on those big laser disc things that were inside a cardtridge---I don't know what they are called. My cousin had the Princess Leia 12" doll and I was so jealous. Yes, I played with my brothers' action figures, but I really liked Princess Leia. She was one of the handful of women in the movie, and she could hold her own with the male leads. She wasn't a princess in need of rescue. She knew how to use a blaster. Princess Leia was an amazing role model.

That's what I knew of Carrie Fisher growing up.  I did not know much about Carrie Fisher other than through Star Wars. I never saw her in many other movies. I knew she had written a couple of books and they had been turned into movies. 

This book is not an in-depth comprehensive autobiography, but was made after an autobiographical show she did. It is meant to be a humorous and snarky look at her life. We read about her super famous mom and dad, and growing up  as the child of celebrities. We learn about some of her love interests, as well as her daughter. We come to understand the strong bond of love she had for both her mother and her daughter, and we learn a bit about her addiction. 

The shocking thing about her drug addiction is that her own mother introduced her to addiction. She thought they would try pot together when Carrie was a young teen. Her mother got over it and forgot about it, but it awakened the monster of substance abuse in Carrie...which eventually took her life.

Boy if you get nothing else out of this meant-to-be-humorous book, it's that a parent has an imporant responsibility to keep their children safe and protected from harm. Trying to drink or do drugs or smoke at home "under your watch" is not safe. You're hurting your kids. Just don't.

So Carrie Fisher wasn't Princess Leia in real life. Such is the way with actors. We know that, yet are disappointed to find that our favorite characters are just fiction. However, despite the rest of the problems she had in life, I would like to say that her choice to portray a strong female lead in a groundbreaking sci-fi saga truly has positively influenced a lot of women in the world today, giving them someone to look up to, encouraging them to be strong, eloquent, feminine, and able to hold their own in a man's world.