The Sparacino Chronicles: Cannonball Read- Books 14-26 and Book 27

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket has been my recent conquest in my Cannonball Read. This is a "tridecology," meaning it is comprised of 13 books, 170 chapters and a LOT of pages! Not every book had 200 pages, but some had quite a bit more, so I added them all up and took an average and it averaged well over 200 pages per book. Normally I wouldn't do that, but since it was a series, I did indeed.

The books in the series, in order, are The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill, The Austere Academy, The Ersatz Elevator, The Vile Village, The Hostile Hospital, The Carniverous Carnival, The Slippery Slope, The Grim Grotto, The Penultimate Peril, and The End.

So, the books follow the lives of the 3 Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny. When we first meet them, they are finding out about the death of their parents. Before this point, their lives had been relatively happy and normal. But after the revelation of this news, everything changes drastically. Book after book, I read thinking that all the mysteries and secrets would be revealed but sady, they were not. The books were good and had a lot of good info for young readers, such as definitions of big or different words and definitions of popular sayings. After reading about the Baudelaire's for so long, you get attached and hope everything will get better and all of the mysteries will be solved. In the end, some mysteries are solved somewhat, but some are just left hanging... V.F.D, a sugar bowl, a question mark, the Quagmire's, the Snicket's, and various other people in and out of the Baudelaire's life.

So, after reading the series, I came upon this book and thought, surely it would hold some answers for me. I was very much mistaken. And I will tell you that because this book was basically a waste of my time. I could have been folding laundry or trimming my toenails and spent better quality time. I learned absolutely nothing and it was just compilation of stupid pictures and letters and exerpts that meant nothing! Whew! I needed to rant about that one!