The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel
My rating: 0 of 5 stars
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Monday, August 30, 2021
Sunday, August 29, 2021
Sunday, August 22, 2021
Review: Wildfire at Midnight
Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
trying to be a Mary Stewart completist.
***
Nicci French will have to be included on the list of Stewart's literary descendants. Killing Me Softly echoes the mountain-climbing danger of this book. Stewart has also presented a lovely twist on the country house murder mystery. And, oh, man, does she evoke the the Isle of Skye. She even managed to make fly fishing sound good.
***
She doesn't stop to dine, but it's still a very long chase sequence. And I love seeing someone knock themself out with exertion, say climbing mountains, and then stopping for a smoke. I remember that was a thing, but it's a 20th century thing.
Personal copy
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Review: Wildfire at Midnight
Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
trying to be a Mary Stewart completist.
***
Nicci French will have to be included on the list of Stewart's literary descendants. Killing Me Softly echoes the mountain-climbing danger of this book. Stewart has also presented a lovely twist on the country house murder mystery. And, oh, man, does she evoke the the Isle of Skye. She even managed to make fly fishing sound good.
***
She doesn't stop to dine, but it's still a very long chase sequence. And I love seeing someone knock themself out with exertion, say climbing mountains, and then stopping for a smoke. I remember that was a thing, but it's a 20th century thing.
Personal copy
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Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 0 of 5 stars
around page 40 maybe?
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Review: Waluk
Waluk by Emilio Ruiz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Read again for my 365 Kids Book challenge. You can see all the books on their own shelf.
The science of global warming is spot on and the polar bear behavior and biology, and the bears are engaging. On the minus side, I'm not sure where it was supposed to be set (although maybe that doesn't matter*), and there isn't a single female character identifiable in the whole thing. Well, there's reference to Waluk's mother, but she's never shown. Maybe I should start giving all books the Bechdel test and failing where appropriate.
*The names of the bears and the legend seem to be rooted in a specific tradition, possibly even a specific language, but we're never told what that might be. I realize that humans are the antagonists, but if the names aren't just made up there should at least be an end note telling us where they came from, and how to pronounce them.
Library copy.
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Review: There Is a Tribe of Kids
There Is a Tribe of Kids by Lane Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
There Is a Tribe of Kids - Lane Smith Library copy
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Review: Unraveled
Unraveled by Courtney Milan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Social justice, a Pretty Woman plotline, so much win.
Personal copy
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Review: The Girl Who Drew a Phoenix
The Girl Who Drew a Phoenix by Demi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
More Chinese philosophy and art. Pretty, pretty, art.
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Review: Too Many Moose
Too Many Moose by Lisa Bakos
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Demonstrating once again that it is possible to have too much of a good thing, assuming you consider moose to be a good thing. Which they are, apparently: they make charming friends and they prepare delicious treats. Moose walking around on their hind legs doing things, anything, really, is adorable.
Library copy
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Review: This Is the World: A Global Treasury
This Is the World: A Global Treasury by Miroslav Sasek
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
22 August 2021
Read yet again for my 365 Kids Book challenge. You can see all the books on their own shelf. Even as I am trying to catch up on my backlog of reviews in order to clear the TBR shelves for monsters, murder, and suchlike for the two months of All Hallow's Read and Halloween Bingo, I walked out of my libraries yesterday with more books than I could carry into the house in one trip.
Despite the objections I have to it, I do keep coming back. And when I do I usually end up wandering off on a side trip through maps or wikipedia. Today I went down the rabbit hole of biofluorescence because of the platypus. It's funny: I notice that Australia has a lot of that trademark box city from above portraits and a lot of animals and hardly any culture at all.
Now I'm really curious about what got left out of all of them.
***
14 November 2017
Culture: You're soaking in it. What's wrong with this sentence:
Platypus looks as if he were forever unable to decide what he wants to be: he has a beak like a bird, he swims under water like a fish, he has fur like a kangaroo, and he lays eggs but suckles his young.
***
18 March 2016
When I was a child we had a copy of This is London. In the London book there is a picture of a man, in a park, up a tree, and he's sawing off a tree branch: the one that he's sitting on! How quaint that seems now. I'd love to have all the original books, or reprints of same, in theory. I'm worried that the judicious choice of snippets for this book might have some possible basis in the idea of excising images or text that would be broadly offensive now. There is an emphasis here on Anglophone interests, and nothing, I think, on the native people of any location [Actually, there is a reference to Australian Aborigines, who mostly live in cities, "in more remote areas others still live as they may have done in traditional times, with their legends, their dances, their wood carvings and their bark painting." Based on that example, it's probably better not to include anything he might have said about indigenous people anywhere]. Really, it can't deserve the word "world" without anything from South America, Africa, or Asia, excepting Hong Kong which was still British at the time.
Anyway, I loved it. The art is so sixties, and so cool, even now it remains distinctive and attractive. His cities of tiny boxes are still cool. It may be a safe nostalgia, but it was good.
Library copy
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Thursday, August 19, 2021
Review: Out of the Frying Pan
Out of the Frying Pan by Courtney Milan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Back in the days of my youth practically every magazine would run short stories or novels. I read probably ten or twelve magazines a month. Nowadays almost no magazines carry fiction, and it's been so long since I bought one that I was gobsmacked when I looked at the cover price in the grocery store the other day.
I like stories. Not every author enjoys writing at every possible length and fewer still achieve equal skill in both short and long forms, so no judgement. But for those who can and do and have a market to make it worth while, I love this business of publishing interstitial and stand alone stories. Love, love, love.
Just wanted to say that.
Free to read online
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Monday, August 16, 2021
Review: Unveiled
Unveiled by Courtney Milan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
personal copy
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Sunday, August 15, 2021
Saturday, August 14, 2021
Review: Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity
Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
20 December 2007
12 July 2008
Thankfully, Willems seems to be keeping up with the PandaBat's developmental milestones pretty well.
He loves it.
***
June 20, 2014
Everyone still loves it.
***
11 August 2021
After a frustrating day in a terrifyingly long year, it is just such a relief to sit down with a good picture book, particularly one that evokes happy memories, or, really on this case, not actual memories so much as a vague generalized impression of pleasant parent/child togetherness as would also be evoked by a whole slew of objects. Nostalgia being less work if one keeps it vague than say, trying to read the front page of a daily newspaper.
Library copy.
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Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Review: Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion
Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion by Mo Willems
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
My guess is that this is not a true story, although it is based on real people and uses photographed backgrounds of real places. I loved it at least as much as the earlier two books. Ronnie thought the ending was sad, which Tosh and I disagreed with: we thought the ending was perfect, and not sad at all.
Library copy
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Review: Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity
Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
12/20/2007, 7/12/2008 Thankfully, Willems seems to be keeping up with the PandaBat's developmental milestones pretty well.
She loves it.
***
2008 Jul 12 December 20, 2007
July 12, 2008
**
June 20, 2007
Everyone still loves it.
Library copy.
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Review: Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale
Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The PandaBat loves this, even though she's never had a special stuffed animal or blanket or anything.
***
The PandaBat has always loved Knuffle Bunny. Which is not as ominous as it sounds. It's a good thing, really.
2007 Dec 20
She really loves Mo Willems, too. The Elephant and Piggy books, the Pigeon books, all of it, except that one travel book. Which she doesn't get.
***
2008 Jul 12
If there's a baby coming into the life of someone you know, give the Knuffle Bunny and the two sequels. They will love you for it.
4/19/2011
Library copy
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Wednesday, August 04, 2021
Sunday, August 01, 2021
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