Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31309 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-18
• Released on: 2007-09-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

About the Author
Shannon Hale is the Newbery Honor–winning author of Princess Academy as well as the highly acclaimed and award-winning Books of Bayern: Goose Girl, Enna Burning, and River Secrets. She has written a novel for adults, Austenland, and is working on a graphic novel, Rapunzel’s Revenge. She lives with her husband and two young children in Salt Lake City, Utah.

From AudioFile
Shannon Hale has created a fascinating mythological Asian world, and Full Cast Audio delivers a believable atmosphere of adventure, mystery, and romance as they bring this world to life. Chelsea Mixon is especially effective as Dashti, the Mucker girl who recorded this tale in her "thought book." At age 14 she becomes an orphan and walks from the steppes to the city, looking for work. Because of her knowledge of the healing songs, she is made Lady Seran's servant and stays with her lady through seven years of exile in a tower, keeping the two of them alive and finding a path to freedom. Instrumental interludes and the singing of the healing songs enhance the atmosphere of this fascinating world. This is a winner. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Ehh....

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. It was a nice little read, but it just seems to be missing something. I love how it is written in a diary format, but the setting seems to be slightly dull and lacking descriptions at times. Having read 'Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World', which the setting was based on, for a world history class, I just can't help but to wish that the book was set more heavily on Mongol culture. I also wish it was longer. I finished the book in one night and once I had finished it, I no longer thought about it. Book of a Thousand Days wasn't a bad read, but I probably won't ever return to it.

Review of a Day
The book called Book of a Thousand Days is a very exciting book that takes place many years ago. There is a princess named Lady Saren and her mucker maid named Dashti. Dashti is a mucker which is kind of like a farmer in our days, and they sing songs to help heal you mentally and physically. Lady Saren refuses to marry a man who her father set her up with because she was in love with someone else. Her father locks her up in a tower for 7 years because of this. Lady Saren becomes extremely depressed in the tower and decides she won't make it out of the tower alive so she gives up hope. Dashti has to do something because otherwise they will run out of food and starve because the rats and Lady Saren are eating it all. Everything is up to Dashti and she must save the day before they both lose their lives.
This book was very exciting and hard to put down. You could never tell what would happen next. Some books are very predictable, but this one wasn't. I liked the whole story. There was always something exciting being said without a whole bunch of extra details. One thing I didn't like about it though was that the character Dashti would do things even though she would say things like, "It's a sin at gruesome play to pretend something you're not..." Even though she thought it was a sin, she did it anyways just because royalty ordered her to. I think she shouldn't have done all the bad things that she did. She was a very nice and caring person who always tried to do the right thing. I really didn't like Lady Saren for most of the story, but I think that's the way you're supposed to feel. Towards the end I began to sort of like her.
Shannon Hale is the author of this book. She has written 7 books total. This book is kind of like a fairy tales/love story. I've now read 2 of her books and love her style of writing. She has 5 award winning books. 2 of them were the New York Times best selling author award, and the Newberry Honor award. This book idea came from the Grimm brothers' tale called Maid Maleen. She thought that was a good story and thought of ways she could revise it and make a new, exciting book. She likes to take other ideas from tales and turn them into a whole new story and change it.
I would recommend this book more to a girl because that is basically what it is all about and the story line seems like it would appease to a girl. This book is one of my favorite books, and I have enjoyed reading it a lot.

Wonderful
I was anxious to pick up this book after having read "The Princess Academy" and "The Goose Girl." I really like Shannon Hale's style of writing, sense of humor, characters, and stories. I wasn't sure if I'd like this one since it is written in a journal format as if I were reading Dashti's personal journal and not witnessing the story myself. However, I found that the story still flowed and soon forgot that it was a journal. Unlike Hale's other stories that slowly build, this story starts off right in the middle of the action, which I loved. Immediately, I was drawn into this story.

I wasn't familiar with this story by the Brother's Grimm, so I can't compare it with the original. In Hale's story, we read the journal of Dashti, a lady's maid and healer. Dashti and her lady are shut in a tower for 7 years because her lady refuses to marry the man her father has chosen. In fact, her lady is quite crazy in the head because she has a secret that will kill her if she reveals it and will slowly kill her soul if she does reveal it. Her lady is quite helpless and relies on Dashti for everything. After several years in their tower prison, they find a way to escape and do their best to survive in a war-torn realm. There is adventure, romance, bravery, conflict, impersonating, and mystery.

I highly recommend this story and look forward to reading it again.