Clementine and the Lion by Zoey Abbott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
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Sunday, April 30, 2023
Review: Clementine and the Lion
Review: The Night Lion
The Night Lion by Sanne Dufft
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Lovely art.
Library copy
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Review: A Lion Named Shirley Williamson
A Lion Named Shirley Williamson by Bernard Waber
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Odd. It has rather more text than most picture books, and what starts as a rather whimsical feel turns dark. And then whimsical again. Finally it was just frustrating: so much was thrown in that never went anywhere.
Library copy
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Saturday, April 29, 2023
Review: Lock In
Lock In by John Scalzi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
07 June 2018
What a pity I didn't review this before. It would be interesting to see what I thought the first time.
This time was so entertaining, but also filled with admiration. It's a mystery, first person, near future and it moves at a zippy pace. However it never descends into stupidity or condescension. Ranging through politics, high tech, medical research, and PTSD it is clever, with a little smartass in the tone. And because this is fiction it is able to end on a truly satisfying form of justice.
Sidebar: one of the things Scalzi does so well as a writer is to include a diverse cast of ethnicities, genders, abilities, sexual orientations, and class levels without the feeling that he is just checking boxes, or even worse, doing a poor job. Even the throw-away characters have facets. A mystery requires victims, but Scalzi is sympathetic to the toll violence takes on people, and he never is callous about it.
Re-read before Head On.
Personal copy
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Friday, April 28, 2023
Thursday, April 27, 2023
Review: Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome
Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome by John Scalzi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It's seems I'm a fan of the fictional oral history, having read and really enjoyed the only two examples I've heard of (this andWorld War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War). I'm not surprised that Scalzi has produced a plausible history of an imaginary plague, but I am delighted. It makes for a good introduction and way to pass the time until I get a copy of Locked In.
Personal copy.
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Wednesday, April 26, 2023
Review: The Suffragette Scandal
The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Lots of people avoid Romance as a genre because
1) they don't care about women in ballgowns
2) everything they know about Romance novels is 40 years out of date
3) they assume Romance is a genre for lonely women with too many cats
4) they buy into the idea that a genre by and about women must be inferior
5) they have no idea where to start.
Let me address those concerns.
1) The ballgown on the cover is just to let you know that this is an Historical Romance, and it is available; no actual ball gowns are worn during the story
2) Although there are still stories being written about nurses falling for doctors and innocent young girls being married off to blackguards, those are by no means the most popular themes these days. This book, for instance, is first wave feminism in all its activist glory
3) And I suppose you believe that the average gamer these days is a teenage boy in his parent's basement* killing something in a first person shooter
4) Honestly I can't imagine that anyone professes this belief, even if they have it
5) Courtney Milan, but also Jezebel.com has been covering the topic with lots of good suggestions
This book is pure enjoyment, but it's the end of the series, so if this really is your first Romance in a while (or ever), go check out The Governess Affair (Brothers Sinister short 0.5)at Amazon for 99 cents. Selling shorter interstitial works in the series between novels is a genius move, by the way. You don't have to read the series strictly in order, they aren't that closely tied, but they do share some characters.
***
Since a book can't be both Read and Currently Reading, rereads are harder to keep track of. I try to put in the date I start a new read, but circumstances can move something off the active spot in the kindle carousel. Thus I find myself looking at something else, perhaps the next book to read, when the thought is triggered and I remember there was something. So today I will pick up where I left off two months ago.
Personal copy
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Sunday, April 23, 2023
Review: Passage
Passage by Connie Willis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Passage - Connie Willis 1/1/19966/26/200009/26/2016Four days ago I wrote a really touching and lengthy review of this book, all about how Willis makes me cry, but it feels earned, and how she is brilliant at portraying a busy work day, and the way some part of the hospital is always closed off, and some part is always being worked on, and how getting there from here is always impossible. And not one, but two different places failed to save it. So now I just can't even, I'm so vexed.Library copy because I can't find my personal copy
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Review: Blue Noon
Blue Noon by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In the third book in the series, Westerfeld introduces moral ambiguity, which raises the stakes and the realism. The concept is so cool, of these particular special powers and their role, that it's easy to overlook the other aspects he handles so well: the dynamics of families and school and small towns. I'd have given it five stars, but it seemed a little slow at the beginning.
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Review: Because of Winn-Dixie
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Both the girls and I love this. It's sweet without being cloying, at least in part because the dog is so funny.
We also really like the film, and the dogs who play the title role.
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Review: Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women
Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women by Nora Ephron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Crazy Salad - Nora Ephron Ephron amuses me, even if I don't always agree with her.
***
It’s been a long time since I read this, which I’ve wanted to do ever since the recent Ephron buddy binge with Veronica. But I couldn’t find our copy. And then I did! It was a housekeeping miracle.
These essays originally appeared in the early seventies for Esquire. So in turn, that ties back into the women’s college tour, and the Steinem emphasis of this spring.
I say “our copy”, but it isn’t: it’s the Spouse’s copy that he brought to the marriage. That makes this one of the reasons why I married him. The books and the feminist cred. Personal copy
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Review: Oh, the Things I Know!: A Guide to Success, or, Failing That, Happiness
Oh, the Things I Know!: A Guide to Success, or, Failing That, Happiness by Al Franken
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Franken does know many things, but mostly his send-up of other people's advice is just plain funny.
2002, January 1
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Review: Mommy?
Mommy? by Maurice Sendak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
brilliant engineering, fun monsters
***
10 30 2006
Makes a great Halloween gift.
***
11/02/2006
Beloved by fierce five and six-year-olds
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Review: Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren't as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures From the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We [...]
![Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren't as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures From the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We [...]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348520680l/15591._SX98_.jpg)
Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren't as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures From the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We [...] by Eli Horowitz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A great collection, chock full of some of my favorite writers.
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Thursday, April 20, 2023
Review: Gorgeous
Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I've been a Rudnick fan since, let's say 1989 when his last novel, I'll Take It, was published (in the meantime I've been forced to keep up with his script writing). I love this guy. I have no idea how he manages to come out of nowhere with a Cinderella story featuring a dull teenaged trailer girl from Missouri and make it so perfect. Seriously: how did he get poverty so well? And middle America? Sure, I'm not at all surprised that he nails movie-making, and the empire of a Calvin Klein/Ralph Lauren-type mogul. But I never expected him to move me with a visit by royalty to a military base Afghanistan. Or with Becky's grief for her mother. Or with her abiding love for her best-friend Rocher.
So, the Disney fantasy is all over the place: there are amazing dresses, and vast hotel suites, and jetting around the world, and jewelry, and glamor galore. But that half of the book is just an introduction for Becky into the world of the 1%. She knows she doesn't belong there, even though she's inhabiting the body of the most beautiful woman in the world. And even though Becky doesn't have the courage to really embrace the life she's be given, she is paying attention: she learns, she grows, and she becomes stronger.
Recommended to fans of Beauty Queens. Like Bray, Rudnick is able to acknowledge the privileges of beauty and wealth, without losing sight of how those privileges can blind people to the suffering of others. And also, there is righteous ass-kicking. Oh, and bonus stars for writing a princess story without pink or a tiara.
Special bonus shout-out for the best depiction of the Queen since An Uncommon Reader. Yeah, my real rating is nine out of five stars. If I give it more I'll have to steal them from some other book, and that seems way harsh.
Library copy.
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Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Monday, April 17, 2023
Saturday, April 15, 2023
Review: A Kiss for Midwinter
A Kiss for Midwinter by Courtney Milan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
15 April 2023
Along with thermal dysregulation, I have emotional dysregulation. The ear worm, the most recent news story, the weather, a bit of undercooked potato: anything, really can give me a mood so I have a host of counterproductive. "Solsbury Hill" is one of the most happy tunes I've ever heard, cute animal photos are a popular, thus ubiquitous, anti-anxiety resource, and I reread books that are guaranteed positive mood inducers. Milan's work is reliably comforting and this series is particularly good for reminding me that this, too, shall pass.
At the moment I am struggling with the shortage of ADHD meds. The effort to hunt down a pharmacy which might have a supply is rather a lot for someone tending toward inattention. And the anxiety of not knowing when a supply of a drug I need to perform activities of daily life might be available, let alone whether it will continue to be available, is overwhelming.
Stupid bodies, always needing things. It's terribly annoying.
Personal copy
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Friday, April 14, 2023
Review: The Duchess War
The Duchess War by Courtney Milan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
9 April 2023
I love this series.
Well, actually, I love everything Milan has published so far. Seems likely that everything yet to be written and published will also be something I will love, too, because she keeps writing ever better books.
So, yay! Something to look forward to. If I am lucky, many things to look forward to.
Personal copy
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Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Review: The Red Market: On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers
The Red Market: On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers by Scott Carney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I wouldn't call it a fun read, not like Mary Roach's Stiff, but it is significant. Someone has to think about where bodies and their parts come from, and how best to limit coercion. And really, as long as there is money to be made, from selling blood, from international adoption fees, from skeletons to hang in classrooms, from kidney transplants, etc., then there is the possibility of things going very badly wrong. Sunshine, says Carney, and transparency, these are the keys to having a system which functions without abuse. I'm not convinced that they will do anything much without an international effort to respect and defend human rights, but they won't hurt in the meantime.
Updated 12/8/14: China to End Organ Harvesting From Executed Inmates
Library copy.
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Monday, April 10, 2023
Sunday, April 09, 2023
Review: The Governess Affair
The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
March 20, 2015
This is what I love about Milan's historical work: she's created characters who are subject to the specific mores of their time and place but who rebel. We get to see people fighting the strictures of their lives using the tools of their times. Here, a governess who has been let go without a reference seeks justice. The modern reader knows the vulnerable position women of the time were in, unable to resist anything from seduction to rape because they had no rights or protections. Most of them ended up in the crowded London sex trade, succumbing early to poverty and disease. It's enormously gratifying to read a story where the heroine isn't saved at the last minute and still manages to have a happy ending.
Personal copy
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Saturday, April 08, 2023
Review: I Shudder and Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey
I Shudder and Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey by Paul Rudnick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
8 May 2021
Rudnick is wickedly funny, but also kind. "Sisters," the opening piece, is a memoir of his mother and aunts. He sees their quirks but he so obviously loves them, and somehow manages to convey his love for them and for John the doctor, without restraint or cliche. This is a person who really believes it is the thought that counts, and knows exactly what the giver's thought is. It's a rare quality this affectionate insight, so you understand the absurdity of meetings with Disney execs on the script of Sister Act, or Allen Carr's entourage, or Martha Stewart's "barely disguised inpatient sneer," but also what it takes to create popular hits like The Little Mermaid and Grease, or dinner party with Snoop Dogg.
And honestly, my adoration is great in part because I want to be that fond while still clear-eyed.
***
The only piece I didn't adore was [some of] Enter Trembling about Scott Rudin. There's a riff on how horrible he is, played for laughs because Rudnick is funny, contrasted with what a generous and thoughtful guy Rudin could be. The past is problematical.
***
8 April, 2023
Finishing up my admittedly languid re-read with the essay "Good Enogh to Eat." It is my favorite in a personal way: sugar is my favorite food group, followed by salt. As a child I was taken to a creperie that had pairs of sugar cubes custom-packaged. Was anything else ever so adult and so elegant? Certainly not adulthood.
My normal breakfast for most of my life has been the chocolate poptart with creme filling: so convenient and efficient! My husband believes in a food hierarchy in which processed foods containing few ingredients except sugar are anathema and unacceptable in a household with impressionable children. Not a problem since they are so easily kept in a drawer and since breakfast is better after at least one cup of coffee.
Halloween is in some ways a disappointment: there aren't any special treats, just the usual ones partitioned out into individually wrapped bites. But Easter, with the chocolate bunnies, Peeps, robin eggs, and Cadbury creme eggs with that amusing golden sugary yolk: that is a sacred occasion. The soul is a construct I find it impossible to believe in, let alone sell. But no greater love exists than for someone to give me a basket filled with my favorite seasonal treats.
That artificial "grass" is weird though.
Library copy
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Review: I Shudder and Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey
I Shudder and Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey by Paul Rudnick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
8 May 2021
Rudnick is wickedly funny, but also kind. "Sisters," the opening piece, is a memoir of his mother and aunts. He sees their quirks but he so obviously loves them, and somehow manages to convey his love for them and for John the doctor, without restraint or cliche. This is a person who really believes it is the thought that counts, and knows exactly what the giver's thought is. It's a rare quality this affectionate insight, so you understand the absurdity of meetings with Disney execs on the script of Sister Act, or Allen Carr's entourage, or Martha Stewart's "barely disguised inpatient sneer," but also what it takes to create popular hits like The Little Mermaid and Grease, or dinner party with Snoop Dogg.
And honestly, my adoration is great in part because I want to be that fond while still clear-eyed.
***
The only piece I didn't adore was [some of] Enter Trembling about Scott Rudin. There's a riff on how horrible he is, played for laughs because Rudnick is funny, contrasted with what a generous and thoughtful guy Rudin could be. The past is problematical.
Library copy
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Friday, April 07, 2023
Tuesday, April 04, 2023
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