Botticelli's Apprentice: A Graphic Novel by Ursula Murray Husted
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
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Tuesday, August 05, 2025
Review: Botticelli's Apprentice: A Graphic Novel
Review: The Snow Lion
The Snow Lion by Jim Helmore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
So pretty. It captures the delight I took in The Chronicals of Narnia when I read them as stories about kids and a talking lion. Also makes me think of Hilda. As much as I love my cats, I would be tempted to trade them all in for a talking lion. Hell, sometimes I would be tempted to trade in my human family for a talking white lion. And did I mention that it is a pretty book? So lovely.
Library copy
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Monday, August 04, 2025
Sunday, August 03, 2025
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Saturday, June 21, 2025
Review: Graceling
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Expires 3/10
***
August 2, 2009
By an uncanny coincidence I checked this and the Here Lies Arthur book out on the same day. Don't the covers look similar?
***
It's off to a good start. Who doesn't love an assassin with a social conscience? More community organizing, I say! Katsa is maybe a little too idealized and modern, but her manic energy and obtuseness make up for it a bit. Curious to see where the plot goes.
***
That's a satisfying end. Two critical points move along much too quickly, they seem rushed even. I sense at least one sequel to come, and I'll probably read it.
***
June 19, 2015
Re-reading it knowing how the other books unfold made me enjoy it more. Katsa is a cool girl who doesn't like or do anything stereotypically feminine. I'm more tolerant of that trope in a debut when I know that the author will create many more lead women who don't follow that trope.
***
10 January 2023
It's interesting to read Cashore's thoughts on her first published book in the Afterword added a decade on. It must be odd to be both proud of what you've done and also aware of ways you could improve it, knowing what you've learned since then. Everyone of course has the same sorts of thoughts all the time, but most of what most of us have ever done hasn't been so very public.
The Lady Katsa remains an amazing creation. She is so unlikable, so unlike, and so removed from society while within it. She isn't neurotypical, and as an outsider she brings a fresh perspective, one that I find helpful. She's humane, and even quite kind.
Also, given how thoroughly USian culture is steeped in religion, it's remarkable that there is no religion in the book. And interesting that I didn't previously remark that absence. Well, not entirely, because Katsa wouldn't care about religion. There's very little in the way of culture at all, besides the Leonid rings and architecture.
Library copy
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Sunday, June 15, 2025
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