SPEAK SOFTLY, SHE CAN HEAR by Pam Lewis

PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster, 2/2005
GENRE: Fiction
SETTING: Vermont/New York, USA
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: B-

FROM PUBLISHER: New York City, 1965: Two Manhattan prep school students, Carole and Naomi, make a pact to lose their virginity before graduation. Eddie, a slick Upper East Side dropout, is handsome, fatally charming, and more than willing to help the girls accomplish their goal. But on one bitterly cold holiday weekend in an isolated cabin deep in the Vermont woods, a horrifying twist develops in the plan. Before the night is over, a stomach-turning secret is sealed between friends, setting in motion a series of events that will have dire and far-reaching consequences.

Sweeping across decades, moving from New York to Vermont to California and back again, Lewis tells an utterly gripping, psychologically nuanced tale of friendship between two very different women, of the life-changing burden of a secret, the lies we tell others to save ourselves, and the lies we tell ourselves when the truth is too painful to accept.

MY THOUGHTS: Let me start by saying I have no idea what the title means and lots of other reviewers don't either. Something bad goes down in a hotel room and Carole wants to distance herself from it and from the other two people involved. She graduates high school, goes to college, drops out, and starts a new life in Vermont. She lives under the threat of Eddie revealing their secret. She can't escape him and he shows up a few times over the years to harass her and ask for money. Eddie's a terrible character, truly a bad seed, one you want to die off as soon as possible. I'd have liked some background on him.

The story was fairly interesting but I have more questions that comments about the story. Why did Carole leave college and want nothing to do with her parents? Where'd she get money to open a restaurant? Why would she contact Naomi after all these years when she wanted nothing to do with her past? Why did she tell her boyfriend what happened? He didn't need to know.

GNOMES DELUXE COLLECTOR'S EDITION and SECRETS OF THE GNOMES by Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet

PUBLISHER: Abrams, 4/2011
GENRE: Fiction/Fantasy
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: A

FROM PUBLISHER: The delightful classic Gnomes has been repackaged in this exceptional collector's edition to celebrate the 35th anniversary of this magical book.

The beloved Gnomes was first published in 1976 and the world became enchanted with the simple and diligent ways of these special creatures. Based on Rien Poortvliet and Wil Huygen's scientific observation of the local gnome population in Holland, Gnomes covers all areas of gnome culture: architecture, education, courtship, medicine, industry, and relationships with other mythical creatures. Thirty-five years later, this beautifully illustrated book continues to bring joy to readers of all ages.

This revised collector's edition of Gnomes features a new introduction, eight removable prints in a back cover envelope, and an all-new signature of never-before-published gnome sketches by artist Rien Poortvliet on distinctive sketchbook paper.

MY THOUGHTS: This is a precious book. It reads as factual information on the history and lives of gnomes. So many things made me laugh out loud. It has cute full-color illustrations on every single page. Within one year of the original book's release, it stayed at the top of the New York Times best-seller's list for thirty-eight weeks, so that should tell you something.

A few "facts" about gnomes are: They live to be 400 years old. They travel to the Mountain of Death to die. When a gnome is born, an acorn is planted in the ground, or a lime tree is planted. The growth of either is how they keep track of their age. They live in homes underground, beneath trees. They all have cuckoo clocks. A female gnome only ovulates once in her live and if she gets pregnant, it's always with twins. They wet the bed until they're twelve-years-old and live at home until they're 100. Siberian gnomes are the worst of them all; they're victims of crossbreading, are highly offended and vengeful and will kill farm animals or cause bad weather which will kill crops.

Near the back of the book there are nine stories featuring gnomes, of which none have titles. They vary in length from two to five pages. Near the back is a two-page epilogue by the writer, Wil Huygen, talking about how the book came to be, in late 1973 (first published in Dutch in 1976), but I don't know when that was written.

You can view images from inside the book here. You can see the eight removable prints here.

Collector plates were issued based on images from inside the books Gnomes and Secrets of the Gnomes. I can only find 30 online, none of which are from 1984 or 1985, so if you know of more, please let me know. View the plates here.

Below is an image from the book. Rien is the man smoking a pipe and Wil is the other man. They're having a conversation with a gnome about this very book. Rien died in 1995 and Wil, a physician, died in 2009.

SECRETS OF THE GNOMES

PUBLISHER: Harry N. Abrams, 1/1982
GENRE: Fiction/Fantasy
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: C

FROM PUBLISHER: Rien Poortvliet and Wil Huygen, collaborating once again as they did so successfully in Abrams' best-selling GNOMES, now reveal to thousands of eager readers their recent encounters in the mysterious world of those tiny folk. SECRETS OF THE GNOMES is the fascinating account of a long, arduous journey undertaken by the authors at the request of the gnomes. It is overflowing with the authors' on-the-scene sketches and firsthand observations.

Poortvliet and Huygen are not invited as mere observers, however, for after a meal of mushrooms and cream-tasting as if were made of "everything that light, air, sun, moon, and earth could produce"-they find that they have been turned into gnomes themselves! The authors take a penetrating look at their subjects: they learn of the tender emotional life of a gnome; they see and diagram the mechanics of the ingenious gnome technology; they observe how gnomes administer justice in the wild; they are told how fairy tales first began (Little Red Riding Hood was actually a gnome). And, best of all, they are allowed to see parts of the magical Secret Book.

Endowed with gnome characteristics (which include exceptional vision and heightened senses of touch, smell taste, and hearing), complete with peaked gnome caps, Poortvliet and Huygen are led from Lapland across the Siberian wilderness by Nicholas, their gruff by kindly guide who teaches them the secrets of survival in the icy north. Because of the gnomes' rapport with living creatures, the three travel in a troika pulled by lemmings, they are borne on a fox's back and on the head of a moose-they are even carried by the abominable snowman!

Lovers of gnomes will celebrate the arrival of this new volume and will delight in the opportunity to know these elusive creatures better. Scores of enchanting illustrations by Dutch artist Rien Poortvliet record the comings and goings of gnomes and the loving interaction with nature for which they are so famous.

MY THOUGHTS: This book was terrible and definitely not meant for children. It can't hold a candle to Gnomes and hasn't got the charm of Gnomes either. In the book both authors go on a journey all over the place, meeting a few different people and different animals. There's illustrations of gnomes from other countries. They even stay with a family and the men offer to let the men sleep with their wives! Here's a photo of Wil in bed with one of them. There are many topless female gnomes, including one where you can see a bit of pubic hair. WTF?