I got this book as an unexpected gift, from a friend of mine. She started reading it, only to find that the author’s writing style was driving her insane. Frustrated beyond belief, she skipped to the end, and handed to book to me, wondering what I would think of it. Not the most positive way to be introduced to an author whose work was new to me, I admit. My friend told me the book had vampires in it, knowing that this would catch my attention. I do read a lot of books that include vampires. So, I decided to give it a read.

I must admit, I have mixed feelings about this book. The author has a unique writing style that I, like my friend, found to be confusing. It’s kind of hard to explain without directly plagiarizing large sections of the book here. McKinley’s main character, a woman nicknamed “Sunshine”, tends to start a thought, and then go off on tangents that lead in several different directions. By the time she returns to the first thought again, I was lost. I also had a difficult time keeping the many characters introduced in the first few chapters straight. Their descriptions were mere pencil sketches, and there were so darn many of them. Some of McKinley’s sentences use the same word twice, one immediately followed by the other. After tripping over several of them, and having to go back and attempt to sort out the meaning, I found myself getting very frustrated. Nothing about this book can be described as “an easy read”!

What kept me from just giving up on this book was what I could make out of the story line. The universe this story exists in fascinated me. Magic exists, and is not only well accepted, but depended upon. People make money by selling charms of protection, and everyone has several of these magic protections in their homes, embedded in their cars, and, often, tattooed on their bodies as well. They need all this protection from “The Others” : demons, incubuses, vampires, were-beings, and things not yet defined. Vampires are especially hated, because they have taken over the world (especially the finances), and also because, well, they eat humans. Anyone suspected of having any magic or “other” in their blood is someone to be suspicious of. There is an entire police unit that keeps track of these people.
I found this interesting, and wanted to know more about how this all worked.

Nothing in this book is as it seems. Sunshine has a background that she barely remembers, and does not know the full meaning of. She gets kidnapped by a group of vampires, as a temptation for another vampire, whom they have also kidnapped. There is a complex story line involving vampire politics, which somewhat explain what was really going on at that moment. This event takes place early on in the story, so, as a reader, you know that Sunshine survives…. just not how, or as what. This was enough for me to want to read to the end of the book. Sunshine finds her world turned upside down, and ends up having to make some difficult choices. In the process, she discovers who she really is, and what she can do. I realize this description is a bit vague, but, so is the book, in parts.

Overall, if you really enjoy books about vampires, and magic, and all of that sort of thing, then you might want to venture through the tangled writing style, to read this book. The story hidden within is a good one, if you can stick with the book long enough to piece it out. I think most people, however, are going to find themselves as frustrated as my friend was with McKinley’s prose, and giving up on it as well.

The full title of this book is Know It All : The Little Book of Essential Knowledge. It is published by Reader’s Digest, and has Susan Aldridge , Elizabeth King Humphrey, and Julie Whitaker listed on the front as… editors, I’m guessing? The book is hardcover, and in many ways resembles a high school textbook, except smaller in size, and way more interesting.

Were you the kid who found it fun to read through the Children’s Encyclopedias? Or, maybe you enjoy trivia games, and could use a quick, easy, guide to help you remember certain facts and figures. Perhaps you really enjoy doing little quizzes. If so, then this book was designed with you in mind.

There are nine separate chapters, each of a different subject. Inside each chapter you can find two pages devoted to a specific topic. Examples include : “The Amazing Atom: Protons Plus” , “Who’s Who: Great Western Writers” , “DNA and Genetics: The Stuff of Life”, and “The Rise and Fall of European Communism”. Each two page study resembles the column format of high school text books, and most pages include additional little information as well. The “Key Player” segment identifies someone important to whatever the subject on those two pages happens to be. “In Fact…” is a box with a list of additional facts to check out. There are “Conversation Starters” with ideas to bring up at dinner or at a party as a subject to talk about. “In The Know” is a black circle with a little fun factoid. At the end of each chapter is a short quiz for you to take, (or to test your friends and family with), to see how much you remembered about what you just read. Need more quizzes? No Problem! Chapter Ten is entirely made up of quizzes, covering information from each of the previous chapters of the book. It’s like a bonus round!

Check out this little exerpt:

The Religions of the World

The map of world religions reflects the political and social history of humankind. Eternal quests for meaning, along with conquests, migration, trade, and evangelistic fervor have helped to shape the beliefs of nations and peoples alike.

Every human society has had some form of religious belief or practice. In simplest terms, religion is the belief that the world is inspired and directed by a superhuman power of some type.

Christianity, with some 2.1 billion followers, is the largest of the world’s religions. Though it originally began in the Middle East, Christianity is no longer the dominant faith there. It is, however, the predominant religion in much of Europe and in North and South America.

Like some other religions, Christianity is divided into a number of different churches: In Russia, Orthodox Christianity is the leading religion. In South America, most Christians are Roman Catholics, and the same holds true in southern Europe.

Protestantism is more prevalent in both northern Europe and North America. With more than 1.5 billion adherents, Islam is the world’s second most popular faith. Following the faith are most people of
the Middle East and North Africa, a significant number in South and Southeast Asia, and long-standing minorities in the Balkans and eastern Europe. An influx of immigrants from former European colonies has seen the number of Muslims in Western Europe rise in recent decades.

Hinduism, the world’s third largest religion, is prevalent in India, though large populations of Sikhs and Muslims can also be found on the Indian subcontinent.

Although Buddhism originated in India, the countries with the largest Buddhist populations are now China, Japan, and Southeast Asian states such as Vietnam and Thailand. Buddhism also has many followers in the Western world.

A notable exception to the dominance of Islam throughout the Middle East is Israel. Large populations of Jews are also found across Europe and North America, the latter home to more than 40 percent of the world’s Jews. In fact, New York City has the second largest population of Jews of any city in the world, after Tel Aviv.

The United States is unusual for a developed nation in that a greater than usual proportion of its population holds religious beliefs, most commonly Protestant Christianity.

South America is predominantly a Catholic Christian continent. This is a legacy of the Spanish and Portugese Conquistadors, who brought the continent under colonial rule.

Africans retain many traditional religious practices in some regions. Christianity arrived more than two millennia ago, and Islam is the dominant religion of North Africa and West Africa.

India is a country of many religions. Four in every five Indians are Hindu, but there are also significant numbers of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains.

Australia is primarily Christian; however, its indigenous religions, centered around a belief in the ancient “Dreamtime” of creation, are key to its culture.

The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

The above is an excerpt from the book Know It All
A Reader’s Digest book published in association with Quid Publishing. Copyright © Quid Publishing 2008.

Know It All is one of those books that makes learning fun. Most of what was in the book was something I had learned in school, but had forgotten about, or didn’t remember all the details of, (such as The Water Cycle). Other things were new to me, for example, a few pages discuss the planets in our solar system, and why, exactly, Pluto isn’t actually considered to be a planet anymore. This is a book that can be enjoyed by adults as well as children who are at least ten years old, and read very well. If you are home schooling your children, and are not the type of person who has moral issues with things like science, the big bang theory, and evolution, then you will find this book to be very helpful, both to teach your children, and to refresh your own knowledge. I read this book straight through, and decided to skip most of the quizzes, and had fun with it.