The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse by Beatrix Potter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
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Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Review: The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes
The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes by Beatrix Potter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is about squirrels and chipmunks saving up nuts for the winter. On one level, the plot about what happens to the squirrel, it feels blandly generic. There is, however, an amusing comment on marriage in the reaction of Timmy and wife, Goody, to the events. Potter's is a very pragmatic view of marriage, is what I'm saying.
I own it.
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Review: The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, or The Roly-Poly Pudding
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, or The Roly-Poly Pudding by Beatrix Potter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
10 January, 2008
Well, if you're making your list of top villains ever, you can't put Samuel Whiskers on the list without Anna Maria. Just because she doesn't appear in the title, is no reason to slight her contribution.
***
17 August, 2025
In July we had catastrophic flooding from a system that poured vast quantities of water down upon us, here in Central NC. In 14 days at the start of July, we received 15 emergency texts: mostly for flash flooding, but there was also a tornado in there. The topsoil was washed away in many places in our plot, in our neighbor's yard, water coming through the culvert washed away everything from the side of his house to the trees and bamboo at the back of his acre. One 40 foot tree, in the lowest point in our yard was uprooted from the sodden soil. The Eno, behind us all, reached a height of 24 feet, higher than in hurricane Fran. The high tide mark on the trees at the footbridge was incomprehensible. I am poor at judging distances, but I'm guessing high tide was more than 80 feet from the normal bank there, just upstream of the wastewater treatment plant that was to be moved to higher ground per a grant awarded under President Biden, and which was canceled under President Trump.
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Tuesday, August 05, 2025
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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